Kansas City, Mo. — There’s just something about the color orange on the back end of a three-game tournament that doesn’t quite sit well with Kansas.
Already having suffered a lopsided loss to Tennessee (64-50) in the title game of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas four months ago, the Jayhawks dropped a similar contest to Texas on Saturday, falling 76-56 at T-Mobile Center in the championship game of the Big 12 tournament.
“I think fatigue kind of took over,” said acting KU coach Norm Roberts, who finished 6-1 in his seven games as Self’s replacement this season. “We got tired in the second half.”
Roberts said after the loss he expected Self to be coaching again next week.
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Box score: Texas 76, Kansas 56
Photo Gallery: Kansas basketball vs. Texas
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KU point guard Dajuan Harris Jr., who finished with six points, four assists and four turnovers in 35 minutes, said the Jayhawks were looking forward to getting some rest and regrouping in the days ahead.
“The key is to get some rest,” he said. “I just have to continue to fight, keep doing what I do best and hopefully make a great run again. It’s our third season, so you’ve got to brush this off. Texas was the better team tonight.”
Saturday’s stats, scenes and celebration all favored Texas, which defeated KU for the second time in an eight-day span. It was KU’s worst loss in the history of the Big 12 tournament, surpassing a 19-point defeat to Oklahoma State in the second round in 2000.
And it wasn’t anything anyone in the Kansas locker room was even the slightest bit worried about following the final horn.
“We’ve already moved on,” said Harris. “We’ve got to forget about this one. We won the regular season so they can have this.”
Added junior forward Jalen Wilson, who scored 24, marking his sixth straight game in double figures: “We just got to move on quickly and regroup. It’s basketball. You can’t really harp on anything too much besides just getting better, watching film and stuff like that.”
Kansas played Saturday’s game without starting guard Kevin McCullar Jr., who sat out with back spasms. The Jayhawks (27-7) said they found out well in advance of tipoff that McCullar would not play, and Yesufu started in his place.
Although Yesufu (11 points in 29 minutes) contributed to KU’s scoring early, the Jayhawks struggled to stop Texas all afternoon, particularly in the second half, when the Longhorns shot 53.3% and pulled away early.
The Longhorns (26-8) jumped out to early leads of 8-5 and 10-7 thanks to eight of their first 10 points coming in the paint. Four of those were uncontested baskets right at the rim by Dylan Disu and Sir’Jabari Rice.
“What separated us was the easy points they got,” Wilson said. “The easy points they got early kind of got them off to a good start, and when you give a good team confidence, it will kind of project them in a good way.”
A 6-0 Kansas run, which featured a 30-foot skip pass through the lane from Harris to Yesufu for a transition layup temporarily put the Jayhawks in front 13-10. But UT quickly went back to the paint for four more points and built a 17-13 lead midway through the first half. Texas outscored Kansas 38-28 in points in the paint on the night.
Kansas did a fair job of hanging close while juggling its rotation throughout much of the first half. Not only were the Jayhawks without McCullar, but KJ Adams picked up his second foul of the game at the 8:41 mark of the first half.
Texas guard Tyrese Hunter hit a pair of free throws after Adams’ second foul, and the Longhorns led 23-22. Adams took a seat and stayed there for the next 6:18 before checking back in to help KU close out the final 2:23 of the first half.
While Adams was on the bench, Texas responded to a 3-point make by Wilson with a 10-0 run to take a 35-28 lead. That run was by far the biggest by either team in the first half, which was full of mini-runs and each team trying to get a feel for what the other team was doing.
There was little doubt that both teams showed up ready to fight to win.
Bodies in both white and orange hit the floor multiple times in the first half. A scrum near mid-court with two minutes to play in the half led to Wilson spinning out of a crowd with the ball and heading the other way for a tough, and-one basket. That pulled the Jayhawks back within four before UT scored the final four points of the half to take a 39-33 lead into the locker room.
UT guard Marcus Carr (17 points) beat the buzzer just before halftime and he opened the scoring in the second half, as well. In fact, Carr scored three of Texas’ first six baskets of the second half and the Longhorns made six of their first eight shots in that stretch to keep any hopes of a Kansas comeback at bay.
The Jayhawks shot just 41.4% for the game and failed to make a 3-pointer (0-for-7) in the second half. The Jayhawks finished just 4-of-17 from downtown on the night — freshman shooter Gradey Dick, who had broken out in the last two games was 3-of-11 overall and 0-for-5 from 3-point range — and were outscored 20-3 by the Texas bench, which got eight points from veteran forward Brock Cunningham and eight points from freshman guard A
While UT got whatever it wanted on offense, the Longhorns also made the Jayhawks work for every inch of daylight they got on the offensive end, and Wilson did not get enough help from his supporting cast throughout most of the game.
“They were tough on defense,” Harris said. “They got us out of our offense a little bit.”
Roberts and the Kansas players said Texas deserved all the credit in the world for using its athleticism to its advantage. The Jayhawks also said they deserved plenty of blame for not rising to the challenge of matching the Longhorns’ effort with their defense, regardless of who was out there or how many games KU had played in a row during an emotionally draining week.
“We’re at Kansas,” Roberts said. “We don’t make an excuse. You just keep on playing. We just didn’t guard the way we needed to. We’re not going to make any excuses. They played the same amount of games we played. No excuses.”
Now, KU turns its attention to Sunday’s NCAA Tournament selection show, where the Jayhawks will watch to see if they, as expected, earn a No. 1 seed for the 10th time in 19 tournaments under Self.
The show is slated for 5 p.m. on CBS.
