There was very little pretty basketball involved in Thursday’s 64-59 victory by top-seeded Kansas over No. 9 seed TCU in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City, Missouri.
But even as hard as it was to watch the game through all of the whistles and mistakes, it was exactly the kind of game that makes March great.
A loss to the Horned Frogs would have been a bad sign for the Jayhawks — Perry Ellis or no Perry Ellis — and would’ve sent the Jayhawk Nation into the weekend searching for answers.
Instead, freshman Kelly Oubre stepped up and played like a veteran and sent the Jayhawks into the Big 12 semis with a career-high 25 points, including 15-of-19 shooting from the free throw line.
Aside from the long stretches of bad basketball from both teams, the game came with all of those feelings that normally accompany games at this time of year — clutch makes and crucial misses, anxious coaches, uneasy fans in the building and the general feeling that things could change completely at just about any minute.
While we wait to do it all over again tonight, when the Jayhawks take on No. 4 seed Baylor in the semifinals at 6 p.m., let’s look back at some more of the highs and lows from Thursday.
Quick takeaway
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KU won yet again despite not hitting a single three-pointer. That marks the second time in the past three outings that Kansas finished 0-for from behind the arc, yet the Jayhawks won both of those games. For all the talk earlier this season about this team’s incredible three-point shooting and how it might need to consider shooting more three-pointers per game, these guys are absolutely desperate for one to fall. Three guys (Oubre, Brannen Greene and Svi) missed multiple three-point looks on Thursday and Selden missed the only one he attempted. One triple did go through for Kansas against TCU — a wing shot by Svi — but it came on a dead ball after a whistle. Kansas has proven that it can win games without the three ball, but doing so makes things much more difficult. And these guys don’t want to see how long that luck can last.
Three reasons to smile
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**1 – It wasn’t pretty — not by a long shot — but it also wasn’t full of panic, like these March games between high seeds and low seeds tend to be.** Kansas can thank Kelly Oubre for that. Every time TCU closed, tied or threatened to make it very interesting, Oubre put the ball on the deck and made his way to the free throw line. That not only led to easy points but also kept the pace calm and less frantic.
**2 – Kansas blocked nine shots in this game,** with Jamari Traylor and Landen Lucas each recording three and Hunter Mickelson adding one. Considering those were the only big guys Self had to work with, the high number of blocks is pretty impressive. Clearly, having a short bench did not take away their defensive tenacity.
**3 – Despite not doing or playing much in weeks, freshman Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk proved he might still be able to help this team before this season is finished.** The Svi that took the floor against the Frogs on Thursday was the most aggressive and confident Svi I’ve seen in a while. Self liked what he gave the Jayhawks so much that he started him the second half. Even if the guy only plays a few minutes here and there the rest of the way — however long that winds up being — he should do so with a ton of confidence.
Three reasons to sigh
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**1 – The numbers just don’t paint a five point victory over the ninth-seeded team in the Big 12.** KU out-rebounded TCU by six, out-shot TCU 49 percent to 41 percent and only turned it over two more times. What’s more, TCU made just 1-of-6 three-pointers on a day when KU missed all eight threes it attempted. There’s no question that the Frogs came to fight, but just going off the numbers — although several other metrics would also work — the final score’s a bit of a head scratcher.
**2 – Yes, KU won this game without Ellis, but, no, it wasn’t easy. The Jayhawks desperately need Ellis back,** not only because of the numbers he brings to the floor, but also because he changes the way this team runs offense and the way opposing teams defend. All that said, imagine what a lift it will be when Ellis does return, even if he’s not 100 percent when he does. These guys, who have been grinding for everything they’ve gotten the past few games without him, will probably be so relieved they’ll finally relax and light up the scoreboard.
**3 – The bottom line with this team — still — is that you, me and especially Bill Self still just do not know what it is going to give.** On any given night they could be locked in or spaced out, fired up or barely breathing, offensively efficient or offensively challenged, defensively dominant or a defensive doormat. That’s not a good recipe for a team hoping to make some noise in March. And even though the talent and potential is still there for any kind of run imaginable, I think we’ll know/learn all we need to about what lies ahead for this team based off of what kind of effort it puts forward in the semifinal game vs. Baylor. Self said after the loss that “it gets old” waiting for his guys to bring energy. If they don’t respond to that — with a berth in the conference championship game on the line — by doing it in over-the-top fashion, I think you’ll know what’s coming in the next week or so.
One for the road
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KU’s Big 12 tournament victory over TCU:
• Made Kansas 25-7 on the season, marking the 10th-straight season that the Jayhawks have tallied 25 wins, beginning in 2005-06.
• Improved KU to 10-7 in games away from Allen Fieldhouse (5-6 in true road games and 5-1 on neutral floors).
• Pushed the Jayhawks’ record in the Big 12 tourney to 18-2 in opening games (1-0 in first round and 17-2 in quarterfinals).
• Advanced Kansas to the conference tourney semifinals for the 17th time in Big 12 history and 35th time overall.
• Improved KU’s record in 67-25 in conference tournament play and 37-9 in the Big 12 tournament.
• Made KU 26-5 all-time at Sprint Center, including a 2-0 mark this season.
• Moved Self to 350-76 while at Kansas, 32-10 in conference tournament action (23-5 while at KU in the Big 12 Championship) and 557-181 overall.
• Made KU 2,151-829 all-time.
Next up
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The win moved the Jayhawks into today’s 6 p.m. semifinal, where they’ll play Baylor, which knocked off West Virginia by 10 in Thursday’s first game at Sprint Center. The Jayhawks swept the Bears during the regular season, winning a one-point dog fight in Waco and holding off a strong Baylor push in Lawrence in mid-February.
