For a half on Saturday, the fifth-ranked Kansas men’s basketball team looked like anything but a team in the thick of the title race in the toughest conference in the country.
“Our energy level stunk and theirs was great,” KU coach Bill Self said of the difference between the Jayhawks and visiting Baylor Bears.
But things changed dramatically from there — energy, effort and defensive intensity chief among them — and, in the second half, the Jayhawks looked like a team capable of winning another national championship.
That was the wild swing that unfolded during Saturday’s College GameDay clash with No. 9 Baylor at Allen Fieldhouse, where Kansas erased a 13-point first-half deficit to win 87-71.
The Jayhawks (22-5 overall, 10-4 Big 12) outscored the Bears 55-26 in the second half and in doing so moved a game up on BU in the Big 12 standings and remained tied with Texas at the top.
It all started with the simplest things — effort and energy — and snowballed into a performance that Self compared to the second half of last season’s Elite Eight win over Miami.
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PHOTO GALLERY: Kansas basketball vs. Baylor
Box score: Kansas 87, Baylor 71
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They did not score a single point on Saturday, but this latest KU win was witnessed, in person, by several players from that KU-Miami game, as Ochai Agbaji, Christian Braun, Remy Martin, Mitch Lightfoot and Chris Teahan all were on hand for Saturday’s fun.
What those guys did down the stretch a season ago, in winning the 2022 national title, this team has made routine. It’s not always pretty. It rarely feels all that comfortable for the fans. But the results have often been the same.
Asked after the game if he learned anything about his team on Saturday, Self smiled and said simply, “I would answer no.”
“I’ve known this about this team all year long,” he added. “It’s happened too many times.”
“From a competitive standpoint, this team is on par with that team,” Self added. “The pride (factor today) was, ‘Well, if they can’t score then we’ll come back.'”
The Jayhawks, who trailed by 13 at halftime, opened the second half with a 10-0 run and eventually stretched that to 18-4 to take their first lead since 9-7 on a 3-pointer by freshman guard Gradey Dick with 14:29 to play .
From there, the Kansas lead ballooned to a dozen (66-54) on an and-one bucket by Jalen Wilson, who must’ve popped at least three or four blood vessels while yelling toward the crowd after the ball went through, and the KU run grew to 34-9.
From down 13 at halftime to up 12 in barely 10 minutes.
“When you’re behind like that, you need something good to happen early and it (went) from 13 to seven in a minute and a half and then it was anybody’s game and we took advantage of it,” Self said.
More specifically, KU’s leaders took advantage.
Wilson led with pure determination, rebounding everything in sight and attacking in transition and downhill in half-court sets to reset the tone, putting the momentum firmly on the Kansas side and watching the Bears (20-7, 9-5) wilt in the face of the Jayhawks’ pressure.
“That whole second half, my mindset was just to get stops and rebound,” Wilson said.
That led to plenty of scoring, too. The Big 12’s leading scorer finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds in 38 minutes, willing the Jayhawks to a home victory devoid of drama. It turned into more of a party than anything.
Dajuan Harris Jr., who attempted just one shot in the entire first half, made the first shot of the second half and then went on to hit five of the next six he took while finishing with 14 points, nine assists and one turnover in 37 minutes.
His play, especially on the defensive end, prompted Self to call him “the player of the game,” and ability to drive to rim and open things up for his teammates allowed Kansas to get pretty much whatever it wanted on offense in the final 20 minutes of the game.
“He’s the floor general out there,” Wilson said of Harris. “But he can also get by guys and score. And that’s exactly what we need. For him to give that effort on defense and continue to do that on offense, I mean, that’s just an all-around game that you want to have controlling the game as a point guard.”
By game’s end, that point guard was on teammate Ernest Udeh Jr.’s back — literally — catching a ride to the locker room for the postgame celebration.
For the longest time on Saturday, it did not look like that type of celebration was in the cards for Kansas. Behind the strength of 42 first-half points from the trio of guards that Self called the best offensive bunch in America, Baylor roared out to leads of 33-21, 42-27 and eventually 45-32 at halftime.
Adam Flagler, LJ Cryer and Keyonte George scored all 42 Baylor points through the first 19:22 of the first half. And the streak was broken only when Jalen Bridges picked up a loose ball in the final minute of the half and threw in a 3-pointer to give the Bears a 45-29 lead.
Flashing a dose of foreshadowing for what was to come, though, Wilson drove hard to the rim for a 3-point play in the final 30 seconds of the half and Kansas, though in a big hole, went to the locker room with a glimmer of hope.
The bulk of the halftime talk was about defense, not offense, and Self and Wilson both pointed out that, for this team to play at its peak potential, that’s the mindset it has to have.
So Kansas dug in. Harris and Kevin McCullar Jr., were instructed to stay connected to Cryer and Flagler and their individual effort on those two, along with strong help defense and frantic play in the passing lanes, as well, created a wall that Baylor’s offense could not get over, through or around.
“It’s not going to start by making shots, it’s going to start by getting stops,” Wilson said of the comeback effort. “I feel like when you have your mind on the right things, the offensive end comes so much easier. It was just flipping (our) mindset and realizing this game was going to be won on the defensive end.”
Added Self, when asked to identify the difference defensively between the first and second half: “Energy,” he said. “We were turned up.”
KU’s five starters all played 30 minutes or more, with just three Jayhawks entering the game off the bench — Bobby Pettiford for 15 minutes, Udeh for seven minutes and Joe Yesufu for a shade over five. So much of the burden for Saturday’s comeback fell on the guys who allowed Baylor to put them in the hole.
“It may seem like a lot in the moment,” Wilson said of the double-digit first-half deficits KU faced. “But if you can just win every single four minutes, you put yourself in a better situation. And I’ll never think that we’re counted out. Especially in the Fieldhouse. In a place like this, I feel like anything is possible. We’re never going to quit.”
Dick, who was not a part of last season’s team that established that standard — with Wilson and Harris being a big part of it — said the current KU leaders have done a great job of making the younger guys understand how to play and compete at the level that’s required at Kansas.
“Just seeing what they were doing and how they come out at halftime and don’t quit, that was what was so exciting when I decided to commit,” said Dick, who finished with 16 points in 37 minutes. “I knew I was coming to a team that never gave up and, no matter what’s going on, we’re always going to keep pushing and that’s what we did tonight.”
Next up: KU plays at TCU at 8 p.m. Monday night in Fort Worth, Texas.
