KU notebook: Frank Mason plays through ailments

Guard Frank Mason was dealing with a pair of injuries during Kansas’ 81-71 Big 12 Tournament championship victory over West Virginia on Saturday night at the Sprint Center.

For one, the junior was favoring his right hip in a physical game.

“It’s pretty sore right now. I fell on it a couple times,” Mason said. “At one point in time in the game, I wanted to tell Coach to take me out, because it was hurting, but the moment was too big at the time. I had to kind of tough it out and stay in there.”

KU coach Bill Self also revealed afterwards that Mason had injured his foot in Friday’s semifinals against Baylor.

“(Taurean) Prince fell on it or stepped on it yesterday, and he bruised it,” Self said. “But X-rays were negative this morning, so, you know, he’s fine.”

Making him mad

Forward Landen Lucas felt good about himself after pulling down 16 rebounds in KU’s previous victory over West Virginia.

That might have made West Virginia’s Devin Williams upset, as he scored a career-high 31 against the Jayhawks on Saturday.

“He was making tough shots,” Lucas said. “He’s a great player, so credit to him.”

Lucas admitted to talking trash last game. Some of that was returning his way from Williams on Saturday.

“We’ll talk to each other. It’s all fun,” Lucas said. “We enjoy that competitive stuff. Those are the kind of guys I like going against for sure.”

Graham beat

Guard Devonte’ Graham’s 34 minutes Saturday gave him a total of 106 for the three-game tournament.

“Dead today, man. I felt good yesterday. Dead today, cramping and stuff,” Graham said. “That press wears you down. That’s one of the reasons why they do it, because it wears guards down after a while. I’m pretty dead.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2016 at 11:00 PM with the headline "KU notebook: Frank Mason plays through ailments."