Columbia, Mo. ? Roy Williams used the word “lucky” at least four times. Come to think of it, Williams might have used the word five or six times, but the Kansas University men’s basketball coach talks pretty fast, and I might have missed one or two.
Regardless of how many times Williams used the L-word, he made his point. Kansas was fortunate to defeat a Missouri team that hadn’t lost at home all season.
Or were the Jayhawks lucky to win, 79-74? Sure, they tied the game on Aaron Miles’ frozen rope to right-center field — the ugliest basketball shot you’ll ever see go in the basket — and they won it on Kirk Hinrich’s 25-foot three-pointer.
Check that … Hinrich’s trey was more the culmination of playmakers making plays when plays needed to be made. You can’t be lucky if you’re not in a position where luck matters.
For example, even freshman Moulaye Niang, who has logged about as much floor time lately as Max Falkenstien, came off the bench with Jeff Graves in foul trouble — isn’t Graves always in foul trouble? — and contributed a late turnaround jumper, plus a couple of rebounds in his first appearance in a meaningful game this semester.
And how about Michael Lee? Who would have thought Lee, the former high school teammate of the highly recruited Miles, would be named the CBS Player of the Game?
Certainly not Lee.
“Today I think I was more nervous than I’ve been all season,” Lee confessed after scoring 11 points off the bench to tie his career high. “But I guess it was good nervousness.”
Lee also contributed three rebounds in his 16-minute stint, and one of those boards was arguably the most important of the afternoon. With the score knotted at 74, Nick Collison launched a baseline jumper that drew nothing but air and appeared headed into the mitts of Missouri’s 6-foot-9 Travon Bryant.
Suddenly Lee, who gave away six inches to Bryant, leaped, tipped the ball, recovered it and immediately flung it out to Hinrich in the backcourt, and Hinrich launched the clincher just before the shot-clock buzzer sounded.
“I thought they would call over-the-back on me,” Lee said about the critical rebound. “I kind of hit him with my chest. I was lucky.” (Oops, there’s the L-word again).
Once Lee had survived the zebras’ scrutiny, Lee rifled the ball from the left frontcourt out to Hinrich, who was at least five feet beyond the arc.
“Hinrich was calling for the ball, so I got it to him,” Lee said. “I didn’t know how much time was left.”
Enough time — about one second on the shot clock — for Hinrich’s parabolic artillery round — as pretty as Miles’ shot was ugly — to drop through the net with only :23 showing on the game clock.
Moments earlier, Lee had watched in stunned disbelief as Miles’ trolley wire had somehow crashed through the basket. It, too, just beat the shot clock.
“Somebody else wanted us to win,” Lee said, smiling. “I’m referring to God. I’ve never seen a shot like that. Line drive. No rim. I never saw him make one like that in high school. The closest, I guess, was last year against Illinois, when he threw up a shot off his hip.”
Lee made a couple of threes himself. In fact, he made both shots he attempted. But he also had some down moments, too — a couple of turnovers and a silly foul that caused teammate Nick Collison to get on his case.
“Nick told me to get my head in the game about four times,” Lee said, grinning. “And I said, ‘I’m OK, Nick, I’m OK.”
And so he was.
“Michael played great,” Collison said. “He was huge. His four-point play was really big.”
Oh, yes, in addition to tying his career high for points and retrieving the biggest rebound of the day, Lee converted a four-point play in the first half after drilling a three-pointer and being fouled by MU’s Josh Kroenke.
Maybe it was luck that enabled Kansas to win the Big 12 Conference championship outright for the second year in a row. Or maybe it was just good players making plays when they had to.
If the latter is indeed the case, then it officially is time to label Lee, a sophomore who has played in 56 KU games without starting a single one, a good player.
