It was doubly disappointing, but Monday night’s 80-79, double-overtime loss to Texas Tech also proved a lot of fun for Kansas University’s men’s basketball players and coaches.
“It was just a unique evening,” KU coach Bill Self reflected Tuesday night on his Hawk Talk radio show. “I think our players thoroughly enjoyed it. I know I did. Unfortunately for us, the wrong team came out on top.”
Self, who gave his Jayhawks (20-2 overall, 10-1 Big 12 Conference) the day off Tuesday after a game in which Wayne Simien, Keith Langford, Aaron Miles and J.R. Giddens each logged 45 or more minutes, had time to watch tape and re-live all the critical plays.
Here, a day after completion of the ESPN Instant Classic, are Self’s takes on …
“I think Aaron did what he should have done,” Self said of Miles trying to move with the basketball while getting bumped by three Red Raiders.
“They had alternating possession on the jump ball. If he stands there, and they tie it up, they get the same thing as the traveling call.
“When you’ve got three guys on you like that, it’s not the easiest thing to find receivers. Certainly in that situation they were trying to foul, but the officials felt that Aaron walked, I guess, before the foul actually occurred.”
Had Miles been given minutes instead of nanoseconds to make up his mind about what to do with the rebound, the senior might have considered other options.
“Late in the game, you get the ball, chin it, be strong,” Self said. “The worst thing you can do is throw it away, because it leads to an easy basket or numbers. If he can get possession, throwing it to the other end of the court would have been something, and he did that earlier in the game.
“If it would have been our jump ball, the smart thing to do would be to get a tie-up. Something else you could do is get the rebound and call timeout. But now, if you can’t get the ball in bounds, you only have one (stoppage) left. What Aaron did was the percentage play. It just didn’t work out.”
“I thought it was a hard game to call. There were a lot of 50-50 calls,” Self said. “I thought they did a good job for the most part.
“We are not going to use this as an alibi at all. You don’t want to give players excuses. Certainly coaches don’t want excuses. We had chances to make free throws, to not turn the ball over. It’s a valuable lesson for all of us to learn … you’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity you can so it doesn’t come down to one play. It was disheartening but something we’ve got to move on from. I’m not going to get hung up on one call.”
“Watching the tape, it would have been a hard one to wave off because (Devonne) Giles hit the ball, too,” Self said. “There were so many bang-bang plays like that. That I think was the right call, a 55-45 (percentage) call that went our way.”
“Statistically their fifth option (on the floor) makes a 23-footer, guarded — and Sasha was right there,” Self said. “On the replay their hands actually touch — not a foul but actually touch after he let it go.
“I don’t think we defended it poorly. If he misses the shot, you’d say, ‘Why didn’t they attack the hole? Why would your fifth-leading scorer be shooting the three?’ But if he makes the shot it’s, ‘Man, that’s unbelievable how smart that was.’ If he makes it he’s a hero. It’s one of those deals he made a 23-footer with a hand in his face. Give him credit for a big shot.”
“The zone was great for us,” Self said. “We screwed it up couple times. We went man the last seven seconds. They had a timeout. Naturally, I’m sure he (Knight) drew something up against the zone. We would have gone zone no matter what.
“Guys playing 47, 47, 45, 45 minutes … of course you won’t sub in overtime very often,” he said. “It was a great basketball game, certainly one we felt we let slip away, also none of us left there thinking we gave it to them.”
Notes: Miles became the 12th player in NCAA history to record 900 career assists. Miles, who had nine assists versus Tech, now has 901. … On some schedules the time for Saturday’s home game against Iowa State is listed as 12:30 p.m. Correct tip time is noon.