Some thoughts…from Allen Fieldhouse
Gary Bedore, Journal-World KU men’s basketball beat writer
“A good day and night ended horribly with A&M stealing the game from the Jayhawks late.
You’ve got to make free throws to win close games, and Sasha missed a couple. Rush had an off day offensively and was burned on the game-winning three by Law in the corner.
Tough loss for the Jayhawks, who will have to keep scrapping and clawing if they want to win or place high in the league and snare a high NCAA Tournament seed.
Losing at home puts the pressure on a team and KU finally lost to a South team in Allen.
All in all, a bummer for the Jayhawks.”
Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor
“Digger Philps sat Friday evening in a rented trailer that served as the GameDay crew’s office space, and he talked about what Kansas University did poorly in its losses.
He pointed out the Jayhawks’ tendnency to commit the key turnover and to miss the key free throw at crunch time.
Sherron Collins, who played a magnificent game, threw an ill-advised pass for a turnover and Sasha Kaun, a 52 percent free throw shooter, clanked one off the rim late, and those were the two biggest plays in Texas A&M’s come-from-behind victory to take sole possession of first place.”
Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor
“KU’s two biggest opponents so far this season – Florida and Texas A&M
Against Florida, Darrell Arthur makes the free throws late in the game to help the Jayhawks keep the Gators at arm’s length. Against Texas A&M, Sasha Kaun misses the front ends of two one-and-one situations to keep the Aggies alive with a faint pulse.
That faint pulse turned into a gush of offense in a hurry.
If one player truly deserved to win tonight for KU, it was Sherron Collins. While Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers had tough times offensively, he continued to be KU’s most valuable player of late with a great offensive showing. But Tom pointed out the late freshman mistake, which Sherron fessed up to afterwards.
This makes Wednesday’s game with Kansas State awfully interesting, considering what Huggins’ crew did down in Austin Saturday…and not to mention what the ‘Cats did in Allen a year ago.”
Ryan Wood, Journal-World sports writer
“Everyone should’ve known this was going to be a good basketball game. Kansas isn’t invincible at home, though we mistakenly think that’s the case sometimes.
This came down to the last two minutes just working out in every way imaginable for Texas A&M. Despite insisting that “Hack-a-Sasha” wasn’t the plan with 1:30 to go, Kaun clanking the front end of that one-and-one after getting fouled away from the ball cracked the door open for the Aggies. With Acie Law leading the way, Texas A&M proceeded to knock the thing down with the whole nation watching. What a huge win for Texas A&M.”
Inside the numbers
6: That’s how many fast break points the two teams combined for Saturday night, with KU being responsible for two-thirds of them. Even with the advantage there, the game was played at Texas A&M’s slow-it-down, grind-it-out pace, rather than to KU’s uptempo liking.
4: Remember that point about midway through the second half when Joseph Jones got his fourth foul? Apparently it didn’t bother him, as he was re-inserted into the game with just over eight minutes to play, and didn’t commit a penalty the rest of the way, and he along with Antanas Kaviluaskas, who also finished with four fouls, was integral in helping A&M continue to slug back in the closing minutes.
2: That’s how many free throws Sasha Kaun missed, and both were front ends of bonus one-and-one trips. The second of which came off of what looked like an intentional foul on Kaun away from the ball by Marlon Pompey with KU already in the bonus – a very bright coaching move by Billy Gillespie.
31: The A&M win ends a 31-game home winning streak KU had over Big 12 South opponents that stretch’s back to the league’s inception a decade ago.
3: KU did a phenomenal job of keeping A&M off the glass – most of the night. KU finished with a 40-29 advantage in the category, and held a 17-0 advantage in second-chance points, until Kavilauskas’ put-back in the closing minutes off of Jones’ missed three off of nothing but glass was coupled with a foul on Julian Wright, tying the game, 64-64.
In case you missed it…
Even though it’s already been talked about here a couple times, why not go back to it again. Billy Gillespie, out of a timeout, had Marlon Pompey intentionally foul Sasha Kaun late with A&M trying to claw back bit by bit. It was a genius move in the end, as Kaun stoned the free throw off the back iron, and helped the Aggies close the door on a comeback. It could have been called an intentional foul on Pompey the first time it happened, before the ball was inbounded. With the ball still out of bounds, Pompey and Kaun crashed together to the floor, but nothing was whistled. Pompey later pulled a sly foul away from the ball.
Hopefully you didn’t miss it…
Probably lost in the mix of frustration afterwards was Sherron Collins again stepping up in Big 12 play, this time in front of a primetime, national television audience. Collins was KU’s only consistent cog on the offensive end, scoring 18 points, including three huge shots from beyond the arc. He had a couple of tough turnovers late, but it can’t completely sour a great night for the freshman, who is also now consistent in finishing around the rack in acrobatic fashion.
They said it…
Sherron Collins on KU’s late collapse: “I think we relaxed…Yeah, I’m pretty upset. I mean, you’re up 11 points, and all you’ve got to do is take care of the ball and, you know, just make stops, and that’s something we didn’t do and they executed it late in the game.”
Sherron Collins on Acie Law’s emergence – again – in the clutch: “We knew he was coming. We just had to control him and we didn’t do a good job of doing that in the end.”
Russell Robinson on Sherron Collins’ game: “Even with that turnover, we had a chance to win. Came down to one stop and we couldnt get it, but Sherron’s gotta not let that get him down, continue to play hard and I think he’ll be fine.”
Bill Self on Acie Law: “He’s a clutch player, you know, we’ve said this all along he’s the best clutch player in our league. He was really good tonight. I mean he controlled the game for the vast majority of it, and certainly the last 10 minutes, he was fabulous.”
Bill Self on Sasha Kaun’s late free throw miss and the team’s late loss of control: “Well, you know, the whole thing is, you know those were big misses, OK, but also, he’s going to be in that situation again. He’s got to have the confidence to go up there and make them, and we believe he will. He probably hasn’t been in that situation very many times in his career. And it’s a little different shooting them in the games than in practice. The thing about it is it was unfortunate for us that it happened, but still, you probably need your best players, or what you feel to be your most experienced, on the court late. And Billy made a good play, and we missed (the free throw). But still, that’s not what cost us. We had chances to get stops, and we still had a two-point lead after that, and after Julian made the layup, so we just didn’t get stops when we had to.”
