Austin, Texas ? The shots came a little quickly too often for Kansas University in the second half of a huge Big 12 showdown Monday night in the Erwin Center.
Instead of tossing it back outside when nothing was there for him, Darrell Arthur forced up an ill-advised hook shot from outside his range. Russell Robinson jacked a wayward three-point shot when there was no urgency to do so, and Mario Chalmers did the same once as well.
But on the biggest play of the game, a quick trigger wasn’t the issue. Just the opposite. Had Brandon Rush released a three-point shot just a shade quicker, maybe he ties the score with 58 seconds remaining.
As it was, Texas guard A.J. Abrams, all 5-foot-11 of him, jetted to the corner quickly enough to get a piece of the shot by Rush, for his second blocked shot of the season, and the Longhorns went on to win, 72-69, in front of 16,755 loud spectators.
Texas rebounded Rush’s miss and had a 23-12 advantage on the boards in the final 20 minutes.
“I think they just outmanned us in the second half,” KU coach Bill Self said, uttering words that pained him.
Kansas fell out of first place in a Big 12 race now led by freshman-dominated Kansas State. It’s not supposed to work that way, but college basketball always is full of surprises, as evidenced by Abrams blocking the shot of a player who had a seven-inch height advantage on him.
How loaded is the Big 12 this season? Three of the nation’s top six teams – Kansas, Tennessee and UCLA – all have lost to Texas, and the Longhorns are in third place in the conference, one-half game behind second-place Kansas.
The Jayhawks again shot poorly, pushing their two-game accuracy rate from three-point range to 15 percent.
The cold shooting and weak second-half rebounding prevented KU from getting what it still doesn’t have this season, namely a signature victory.
For a team with as much experience as Kansas has, composure in hostile environments has been an issue too often. USC and Georgia Tech made late comebacks that fell short, and K-State rattled KU.
Monday night, on the final possession, Self acknowledged the called play died when the ball was taken to the wrong side of the floor.
Nationally, when the topic of where Kansas ranks among teams that will be considered for a No. 1 seed, one statistic will be brought up repeatedly until it changes: No KU victory has come against a team now ranked in the Top 25.
One outcome such as Monday’s, even against a team that already had defeated No. 4 Tennessee and No. 6 UCLA, can change the perception of a team that quickly.
The fashionable pick by many as the nation’s best team going into the game now will be known as the school that doesn’t yet have a huge victory.
Opportunities remain to get a couple of them before the Big 12 tournament. Kansas State visits Allen Fieldhouse on March 1, and the Jayhawks visit Texas A&M on March 8.
Losing to Texas on the road is nothing to be ashamed of, but the way Kansas lost was nothing to be proud of. Longhorns star D.J. Augustin made one of 13 shots, creating a rare opportunity – in this case a lost opportunity.
For Kansas, it wasn’t only Big Monday, it was a big loss.
