Mike YoderNorman, Oklahoma ? Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self was asked after Saturday’s 75-73 loss at Oklahoma if he thought that this year’s Jayhawks, which won the Big 12 for an 11th consecutive season but did so with five conference losses, was his worst team in 12 seasons at Kansas.
Self didn’t blink.
“I don’t agree, because I don’t think we’ve had a worst team,” he said with the grin of someone who had just been asked to identify their least favorite child.
Worst? Probably not. Hardest to figure out? Yep. Most inconsistent? You bet. Toughest to predict? Absolutely.
Saturday’s loss to the Sooners was all the proof you needed of that.
The signs all pointed to the ninth-ranked Jayhawks not having enough horses to topple No. 15 OU on its home floor. Leading scorer Perry Ellis was out with a knee injury. Cliff Alexander, who scored 13 points and grabbed 13 boards in the first meeting with OU, was not even in the state because of concerns by the NCAA about his eligibility. And Brannen Greene, who made the trip and figured to get a lot of minutes and a lot of shots, did not suit up because of a suspension handed down Saturday morning.
That’s three regulars — two starters — from a rotation that barely goes eight deep to begin with sitting in street clothes or not in attendance. At that point, the only sane question that could be asked about Saturday’s match-up was not if Oklahoma would win but by how many.
That is unless you were asking the Jayhawks. Just when all arrows flashed toward an easy game to figure out from a team that has been tougher to solve than a Rubik’s Cube, some of KU’s role players played the games of their lives and nearly helped Kansas (24-7 overall, 13-5 Big 12) steal one.
Meaningless game? Not to anyone who played in it.
“No, it’s not meaningless,” said KU point guard Frank Mason III, who led the Jayhawks with 21 points and played 33 minutes on a day when Self would’ve been justified to sit him for that many. “We play every game to win (and move) forward in March. Just because we won the league, that doesn’t mean we came down here to lose. We came in focused and we wanted to get the win.”
There really is no such thing as a meaningless game. Every game at every level always means something to somebody. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 7-year-old who’s been looking forward to his or her Saturday morning soccer game all week or an NBA all-star in need of a confidence boost or dying to keep a hot streak rolling.
There’s always something that can be gained. And that something can mean the world to someone like Kelly Oubre Jr., who may only have two guaranteed games remaining in his college career. Or to a guy like Hunter Mickelson, who may not get a chance to play those kind of minutes (20) again in his career.
Both played big roles in keeping Kansas close on Saturday afternoon, and others joined them. There was no standing around waiting for someone else to make a play. The eight guys who checked into Saturday’s game knew it was up to them to get the job done and then almost did it.
It forever will go down as a loss for Kansas. But it could wind up being one of the best things to happen to this group. Had Self’s squad — all of them — played with that kind of fight and tenacity throughout the season, Kansas probably would have three fewer losses.
As the Jayhawks prepare to enter the win-or-go-home portion of their schedule, they do so with that knowledge — and a spectacular case study of just how valuable it is — fresh in their minds.
Maybe that will make all the difference and this team will click at the perfect time. Maybe the lessons learned will slip their minds by Monday and the guessing game will continue.
Tough team to figure.
