The pace of the college basketball season, particularly once the calendar flips to January, is so fast that many of its important moments can get lost to time.
Kansas fans will certainly recall the defining performances of the year — Dajuan Harris Jr.’s offensive explosion in the Champions Classic against Kentucky, Kevin McCullar Jr.’s late 3-pointers and KJ Adams’ clutch free throws to lift KU over UConn, Hunter Dickinson’s sell job on a flagrant foul and eventual game-winning layup against TCU, and so on.
On the flip side, crimson-and-blue faithful will have a hard time forgetting more ignominious moments like Keshon Gilbert’s dagger 3 at Hilton Coliseum, Tylor Perry’s acrobatic late-clock layup for Kansas State past a flat-footed defense or Bill Self’s first-ever KU ejection against Texas Tech.
But in 1,245 minutes of basketball played in the regular season alone, some things were bound to slip through the cracks.
Here are a few plays worth remembering that — even if it might not have felt that way at the time — shaped the course of the KU basketball season.
Nov. 14 vs. Kentucky: Jamari McDowell draws on “cookie jar” to seal KU win
Harris helped KU erase the Wildcats’ lead as he shot 5-for-6 from beyond the arc and scored eight points in 58 seconds to tie the game with 2:35 to go. But it was McDowell who had to lock down Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves, and McDowell who got fouled after rebounding a potential game-tying 3 by Reed Sheppard.
The freshman calmly stepped to the free throw line and made both attempts, relying on a strategy he learned from his father of drawing on a cache of positive memories (the “cookie jar”), and in this case the memory of winning his seventh-grade district championship, to build confidence.
It was an unlikely moment for a player Self admitted to only putting on the floor because he “didn’t know who else to put in,” and it led to a season-high 27 minutes for McDowell later that month against Tennessee in the Maui Invitational.
Kansas guard Dajuan Harris Jr. (3) tips a ball from Eastern Illinois forward Kooper Jacobi (40) with about a minute to play during the second half on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug
Nov. 28 vs. Eastern Illinois: Dajuan Harris Jr. knocks away a post entry pass by Sincere Malone to finally put away the Panthers
In what could have gone down as the letdown of all letdowns, KU returned from Honolulu and struggled against an Eastern Illinois team that had never beaten a ranked team in its history and entered Allen Fieldhouse as a 38.5-point underdog.
The Panthers made run after run to keep up with the Jayhawks and got as close as 59-58 with five minutes to go before a three-point play by Dickinson.
But EIU remained within two possessions until a tremendous individual effort by Harris with just under two minutes to go. While defending a post player 5 inches taller, Kooper Jacobi, Harris was able to leap and deflect a pass by Sincere Malone that could have resulted in an easy bucket.
Adams corralled the deflection and tossed a pass downcourt for McCullar, who finished a transition dunk and consigned the game to the dustbin of history, preventing it from becoming one of the worst losses of Self’s tenure.
Kansas coach Bill Self, left, reacts during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against West Virginia, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, in Morgantown, W.Va.
Jan. 20 at West Virginia: Elmarko Jackson gets called for foul on backcourt swipe
Big 12 Conference tournament seeding was decided by the narrowest of margins and when KU ultimately fell short of the top four it was easy to look back on some of the Jayhawks’ more preventable losses early in the new year.
KU had already lost at UCF by the time it went to Morgantown, West Virginia, and found itself on the receiving end of WVU’s improbable 16-for-27 (9-for-14 from deep) first-half shooting performance. The Jayhawks actually kept pace with some highly efficient offense of their own but conceded late offensive rebounds that allowed the Mountaineers to claim a 91-85 upset win.
Except the Jayhawks still might have won if not for one memorable foul call.
Elmarko Jackson and Johnny Furphy had WVU’s Noah Farrakhan and Kerr Kriisa blanketed in the backcourt with KU down 85-83 and the shot clock turned off. Both players charged over to Farrakhan as Adams came back from midcourt to help on Kriisa, with the Jayhawks about three seconds from forcing a 10-second violation. As Kriisa wound up to fling a pass across the time line, Jackson reached with two hands to poke the ball away from behind and Kriisa tumbled to the ground.
Jackson was assessed a foul, the KU bench was enraged, Kriisa made both free throws and the Jayhawks lost. After the game, Self said he didn’t think it was a foul but that KU should never have been in that position to begin with.
Feb. 3 vs. Houston: Parker Braun, of all people, hits a key 3-pointer
After his team lost to KU in Lawrence, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson expressed disbelief that any team could be favored over the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse.
KU played a near-perfect game, particularly in terms of its shooting, to take down the Cougars. But there was one point in the second half when it looked like UH might have a slim chance of proving the oddsmakers right.
LJ Cryer scored 13 points in a span of less than six minutes as the Cougars cut their 20-point deficit nearly in half.
“In the second half we had it to 10, needed a stop, we’re still fighting, still some hope,” Sampson said postgame. “The cynics are usually outside the huddle, not in the huddle, so in the huddle, we said we’d get it down to … and then good old Parker Braun steps up and knocks down a 3, and next thing you know …”
Braun, the backup center, was 2-for-6 from beyond the arc on the season. That was before Harris got Emanuel Sharp leaping with a shot fake, dribbled to the edge of the key and then dished the ball back out to Braun, who without hesitation drained the 3-pointer that pushed KU’s lead back to 15.
A few minutes later, his brother Christian posted on X just his name: “Parker Braun.”
It was a memorable moment for a player whose role has been largely to blend in.
Kansas guard Kevin McCullar Jr. (15) is comforted by Kansas guard Johnny Furphy (10) after McCullar missed the front end of a one-and-one and Kansas State recovered the rebound late in overtime on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024 at Bramlage Coliseum. Photo by Nick Krug
Feb. 5 at Kansas State: McCullar misses free throw in overtime
Much like Jackson’s non-steal at WVU, this was a moment that had a chance to make up for all of KU’s previous struggles on the night.
Two nights after routing Houston, KU found itself on the ropes on the road at rival K-State. The exhausted Jayhawks had to battle just to reach overtime on a game-tying dunk by Adams. In the extra period, after a pair of heroic shots by Perry, the Jayhawks trailed 72-68 but forced a turnover to set up a pair of free throws by Harris. Then Cam Carter missed a stepback jumper and McCullar snagged a rebound but was immediately fouled by Arthur Kaluma.
KU was in the bonus, which allowed the Jayhawks to skip setting up an offensive possession altogether and sent McCullar to the line with a chance to tie, but the graduate senior — who had entered the game shooting 83.9% on free throws — missed the front end of a one-and-one to cap off a 1-for-5 night. He jumped up and down in frustration as Adams was called for an inadvertent, immediate foul on Kaluma, who sealed the game with free throws of his own.
Also like at WVU, there was an officiating quibble, as Self thought the Wildcats should have gotten called for a lane violation on McCullar’s miss.
“I thought it was so obvious that they stepped in a full second early at least,” he said on his postgame radio interview. “… They acted like I was from Mars, on another planet. They didn’t even respond to me.”
2024 NCAA Tournament Preview
A look at the rest of the Midwest Region
Why KU men’s basketball could or could not win the NCAA title
Forgotten regular-season moments
Venues, seeding could make for atypical postseason run
KU progresses toward milestones affected by IARP
Can Johnny Furphy come of age in the tournament?
AP Photo/Erin Hooley
AP Photo/Kathleen Batten
