Kansas players took lessons from crazy Texas A&M comeback (+video)

Like most college basketball fans, the Kansas Jayhawks watched Texas A&M’s historic comeback against Northern Iowa on Sunday in the NCAA Tournament. Like most everyone else, they felt the same mix of disbelief, admiration and exhilaration as Texas A&M erased a 12-point deficit in the final 35 seconds and went on to win in double overtime.

Unlike everyone else, however, there’s a real-world application for these Jayhawks, who take the NCAA Tournament’s top seed into a showdown with No. 5-seed Maryland on Thursday night in the South Regional semifinals.

The players talked about the crazy comeback with a sense of bewilderment — and empathy — on Wednesday afternoon as it remained stuck in the minds of sports fans. Even LeBron James addressed it in an afternoon news conference, saying he would “quit basketball” if he played for Northern Iowa.

“I’ve never been a part of that, but it was fun to watch that type of amazing comeback,” Kansas guard Frank Mason said. “We try not to ever put ourselves in a position where we’re down that much. We try to take advantage of every opportunity throughout a game ... to not be able to execute on offense or defense in that key stretch would be a nightmare.”

A nightmare none of the Jayhawks have ever had to live through — in fact, most of them got to experience something akin to the opposite last season when Kansas rallied from 18 points down in the second half of a 71-65 win over Florida last season at Allen Fieldhouse.

“Florida was the closest anybody in this locker room has come to playing in a game like that,” Kansas guard Brannen Greene said. “That’s just got to be devastating for Northern Iowa because you know they just knew they were headed to the Sweet 16 and to turn around and have your season be over just like that would be awful.”

As players, they can feel for both sides — the exhilaration experienced by the Aggies and what the Panthers felt left in A&M’s wake. Texas A&M’s win represented the biggest comeback in the final minute of a game in Division I history.

“They’re saying it’s the greatest comeback in college basketball history, not just the NCAA Tournament,” Kansas guard Wayne Selden said. “To be part of that would be great. To be on the other side of it would be not-so-great.”

Kansas needs only to look into its not-so-distant past to find a comeback for the ages in the NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks trailed Memphis by nine points with 2:12 left in the 2008 championship game before rallying to tie the score on a three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left in regulation and went on to win 75-68 in overtime.

“You see something like the comeback a couple of days ago and it’s just disbelief, it’s hard to describe,” Kansas forward Perry Ellis said. “But that just goes to show how crazy this month can be.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Kansas players took lessons from crazy Texas A&M comeback (+video)."