On Saturday night, Kansas (14-5; 5-3) was on the verge of handing No. 7 Houston its first conference loss of the season. Bill Self’s squad has several opportunities to knockoff the Cougars, including a six-point lead with 1:31 left in regulation.
Leading by six points, once again, in overtime, Kansas looked poised to finish the job they had failed to do in regulation. Dajuan Harris stepped to the free throw line looking to give the Jayhawks an eight-point lead over the Cougars.
Instead, Harris missed both free throws, and Houston full advantage. After the second miss by Harris, Emanuel Sharp pulled Houston to within three points when his three-point attempt splashed through the net.
After a brief 30-second timeout, Kansas, up by three points, turned the ball over, which resulted in a game-tying three by Mylik Wilson.
Houston, in outscoring Kansas, 13-7 in the second overtime, never trailed during that final overtime session.
With 58 seconds left in double overtime, Kansas pulled to within two points but would get no closer in the final 58 seconds of the second overtime.
“We didn't execute, put it on me,” said Bill Self on Saturday night. “We got a way to get it in that we practice every day and, obviously, maybe not having KJ (Adams), who's our best athlete that can get open, but we didn't make a great effort to get open and didn't call the timeout when we had one.
“When the count got to four, I should have done that,” he added. “And then the second one, we didn't make a great effort, and then when they threw it in, I didn't tell them to foul immediately. If something went bad, I thought that was sending the wrong message. So, obviously, something did go bad, and then they make the shot. So yeah, we had numerous opportunities. We played really well. Kids fought their asses off and obviously just didn't make plays when it counted the most, and they made everyone.”
Kansas, leading 66-64 with 16.7 seconds left in the second half, turned the ball over (called for a five-second violation), right under the Houston basket.
With 14 seconds left, Shakeel Moore fouled J’Wan Roberts, who converted both free throws to tie the game.
Self, after the game, was asked if bouncing back from a loss like the one suffered against Houston is easier said than done.
“We're not going to move on from this,” said Self. “Hopefully, we won't tomorrow. Hopefully, we will Monday, and put it behind us, but it's a tough one. It's a tough one. I think the only one that I can remember that would be comparable, and it wasn't as bad, but was when Acie Law made the shot against us with Texas A&M and we had that game in hand and they went to the Hack-a-Shaq on us and we ended up missing free throws.
“So that's the only one that I can remember, a home game, in which it probably, we left out of here probably hurting as much as we did today. But with that being said, guys, two pretty good teams playing, and there wasn't a nickel's worth of difference between us, and we didn't have KJ (Adams), so there was some good to it, too.”
Days removed from the loss to Houston, Kansas will look to bounce back at home against UCF on Tuesday night. When the two teams first met back on January 5, the Jayhawks crushed the Knights, 99-48.
Hunter Dickinson led the way with 27 points and nine rebounds, while Rylan Griffen (14), Flory Bidunga (12), AJ Storr (11), and Dajuan Harris (11) also scored in double figures.
Kansas, in leading UCF, 44-25 at the half, outscored the Knights, 55-23 in the second half. Defensively, Self’s squad limited to Knights to just 14-of-68 (20.6%0 shooting from the field and 7-of-30 (23.3%) shooting from behind the arc.
Kansas dominated the glass, 63-32, dished out 30 assists to just 10 turnovers, blocked 10 shots, and finished with six steals.
A bright spot for Kansas in Saturday's loss to Houston was the impressive outing by freshman big man Flory Bidunga. In 36 minutes of action, Bidunga scored a career-high 19 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
Self, late on Saturday night, was asked about the performance of Flory Bidunga.
“I thought Flory did well,” he said. “He just gets tired, but I thought he did well, and he made his free throws at a pretty good clip for Flo. But our five guys that started, I thought, and when Rylan (Griffen) came in, even though Rylan didn't do a lot of things, but if he's open, he just shot it and made it today, which was great, which was the equivalent of what Wilson did for them. But when Flo or Hunt came out of the game, we had no offense.
“The ball just stops,” he added. “I mean, it just stops, and that's when you got to rely on others, and you got to move it and everything. And so that was very disappointing that we didn't help or cover for Flory and Hunt when they weren't in the game because we became very stale and stagnant. But Flow was good. He was good. He got some touches around the rim, but you got to understand something. The reason why he got a lot of those points is because Hunter drew a lot of attention.”
For the second straight season, Kansas entered the year with the highest of expectations. Self’s squad was voted preseason No. 1 and a legitimate National Championship contender.
With UCF coming to Lawrence on Tuesday night, Kansas will enter the game with an overall record of 14-5 and 5-3 in conference play.
Dickinson, after the loss to Houston, was asked about the mood in the locker and what needs to happen moving forward.
“Yeah, that's kind of what Coach (Self) said. I think our character will be tested a lot in these next couple of days after this loss because, obviously, it's heartbreaking, and that's kind of what the mood in the locker room was just kind of shock of what just happened up six with I think, 16 seconds left or something like that,” said Dickinson. “It's a crushing loss, and you got to find a way to get it out of your mind.
“We’ve got a hungry UCF team coming in here on Tuesday that is going to try to take advantage of us being down, but it's in the past now,” he added. “Can't focus too much on it. You can't get it back.”
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