One of the biggest concerns coming into Kansas’ matchup with Houston was the fact that Houston collects over 40 rebounds per game, with nearly 15 of them being offensive.

“What concerns you probably the most is their offensive rebounding,” head coach Bill Self said on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s game. “Keeping balls alive they're an unbelievable back tap team. They're great at jumping and using length and because they have some length up front and to be able to elevate bodies like this, elevate and then tip the ball back out is something that you know back tapping is they're great at and then they score points off of that.

After the game, Self was relieved to be able to say that their presence on the offensive glass did not have much of an impact on them, even though they still gave up 13 offensive rebounds.

“They still made plenty of plays off the offensive rebound,” Self said. “But I don't think today they got one offensive rebound where they tipped it or threw it out for a quick three and that was a big strategy for us is when they do back tap or get to spread and get to shooters, and we actually did a pretty good job with that.”

Houston only scored eight second chance points on the night, which matched what the Jayhawks did.

The category that kept Houston in the game was the turnovers, as they turned it over just three times while Kansas gave it away 18 times. The Cougars managed to get 20 points off of turnovers, including six straight when LJ Cryer made two threes off of two Elmarko Jackson turnovers to bring them within 12.

All in all, it seemed every Kansas possession ended with either a made shot or a turnover, meaning Houston was not in position to grab rebounds. Self was quick to recognize that, but is still happy with the way that the Jayhawks went after the boards that were available.

“First of all, that's a misleading stat because when you make your shots they don't get a chance to rebound,” Self said. “But we were at least as good on the glass as they were, and that was a big deal.”

Hunter Dickinson, who was tied with Johnny Furphy for a team-leading eight rebounds, knew that it would be a tall task to limit the Cougars on the glass. He said that some box out drills took place at practice leading up to the big game, and that set the tone for how they needed to approach the rebounding battle.

“It was definitely challenging,” Dickinson said. “They go after the ball like no other. There's a reason why they're so good, but they just got a lot of bigs who are really active and just pursue the ball relentlessly. We did a couple of box out drills as a team and so I think that got us pretty ready, but we were very prepared. We felt like we needed to match their intensity and I think we did.”