Ho hum, the Kansas University men’s basketball team on Saturday clinched at least a share of its 12th straight Big 12 regular season title with a hard-fought yet comfortable 67-58 victory over Texas Tech at Allen Fieldhouse.
With a victory in either of its final two games or a loss by West Virginia in either of its final two games, Kansas will clinch the league title outright.
By now you’ve surely read all of the different takes from all across the country about just how amazing this streak is and has been and you’re not going to read anything here that you haven’t already thought of or read about the streak yourself, mostly because there are very few words that truly do justice to describing just how amazing it is.
Both Bill Self and Saturday’s victim Tubby Smith recently said that this year’s title was all the more impressive because of the strength of the Big 12 this season, and that certainly is a huge reason that this one was celebrated just like it was the first one. The trophies were trotted out, the celebratory video played, fans roared and photos and videos captured Saturday’s entire celebration.
Like I said, another ho hum Saturday in late February at Allen Fieldhouse.
Quick takeaway
————–
Year after year, there is so much emphasis put on KU’s quest to win the Big 12 title that once it’s accomplished, you can’t help but wonder if the Jayhawks, subconsciously of course, feel so good about the achievement that they let up a little bit heading into the Big 12 tournament and Big Dance. That, of course, is never the goal and the coaches and players each year have talked about not being satisfied and wanting more. This year’s bunch said the same thing after Saturday’s win but there definitely seemed to be something different in the words and the ways that they were delivered. Maybe it’s the fact that the Jayhawks have not made it out of the first weekend during the past two years and this bunch is hungry to change that in the coming weeks.
Three reasons to smile
———————-
**1 – Self talked about it, Tom Keegan wrote about it and every one of you saw it. Still, it has to be mentioned here because the Saturday play of Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk was outstanding.** He hit all five three-pointers he attempted and led the team in scoring, with 17 points, in 24 minutes off the bench. Svi looks so much more comfortable than ever before right now and he appears to be playing with a free mind and gunslinger’s mentality. If he can continue to play at this level and Brannen Greene can match it, that opens up an incredible number of possibilities for Self and what this team can do offensively.
**2 – KU’s defense has really taken a turn for the better of late** and head coach Bill Self said recently that he still thought it could get better. Wow. For the eighth game in a row, KU held its opponent to worse than 42 percent shooting from the floor. The Red Raiders, who entered the game shooting 45 percent on the year, shot just 18-of-57 for 31.6 percent during Saturday’s loss. If that’s a trend that continues into March, KU is going to have a great shot at making a memorable run.
**3 – His stat line was a little light, but in case you didn’t notice, Cheick Diallo has really started to turn a corner lately.** He still played just 13 minutes and made just one of two shots, but he snagged six boards (two offensive) and blocked two shots. More importantly, he was one of the first players to enter the game off the bench and appears to be earning more trust from Self, something that, again, will give the KU coach options and weapons heading into money time in the next few weeks. One of the most impressive things about Diallo’s day was how fired up he appeared to get for his teammates. Clearly, this is a kid who is not just about himself, much like most of the rest of the Jayhawks on this year’s roster.
Three reasons to sigh
———————
**1 – It definitely makes sense in terms of minutes on the floor, but it’s a little bit disappointing in the bigger picture — when Svi plays well Brannen Greene appears to go in the tank.** It happened again on Saturday, when Greene played just eight minutes and missed the only shot he attempted. I’m not in any way suggesting that Greene is pouting or not happy for Svi, but Greene not being sharp and on top of his game on the nights when Svi is on top of his definitely seems to be a trend. As mentioned above, if these two can be locked in on the same night in the same lineup, it can open up all kinds of opportunities for Perry Ellis, Frank Mason, Devonte’ Graham and Wayne Selden to move and operate in the middle of the floor because opposing defenders have to extend to the deep wings and corners on these two shooters to avoid giving up easy looks.
**2 – This one would’ve probably been a much more comfortable Kansas victory had the Jayhawks not turned it over 14 times, 10 of those coming via Texas Tech steals.** Four Red Raiders had two or more steals and nine of the 10 Jayhawks who played turned it over at least once, with only Jamari Traylor (13 minutes) avoiding the give-away gaffe.
**3 – The Jayhawks were not only rebounded 38-34 but also gave up 14 offensive rebounds and grabbed just nine.** For the most part, this was more a product of Texas Tech’s relentless effort and unending desire to stay in the game and less about a lack of effort on KU’s part. But KU gave up five rebounds or more to four different Red Raiders.
One for the road
—————-
KU’s late-season win over Texas Tech on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse…
• Clinched at least a share of the Jayhawks’ 12th-consecutive Big 12 Conference regular-season championship and added to KU’s 16th overall Big 12 crown and NCAA-leading 59th conference regular-season title.
• Made Kansas 25-4 overall, giving the Jayhawks 25 victories for the 11th-straight season (beginning in 2005-06).
• Bumped KU’s record to 13-3 in Big 12 play, also marking the 11th-consecutive season that the Jayhawks recorded 13 league wins, beginning in 2005-06.
• Provided head coach Bill Self a three-game cushion on consecutive conference titles (12) to home losses in Allen Fieldhouse (nine) in his 13th season at the helm.
• Extended Kansas’ nation-leading home floor win streak to 41-straight games, which includes 39 in a row in Allen Fieldhouse. Overall, the Jayhawks are 743-109 all-time inside their storied venue and 205-9 at home under Self.
• Prolonged KU’s NCAA third-best winning streak to nine games in a row. Kansas’ victory also snapped Texas Tech’s five-game winning streak which was tied for 12th nationally.
• Improved Self to 377-82 while at Kansas, 18-6 against Texas Tech (17-3) at Kansas and 584-187 overall.
• Made KU 2,178-835 all-time.
Next up
——-
The Jayhawks will close out the road portion of their 2015-16 Big 12 schedule on Big Monday at Texas. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m. on ESPN.
— See what people were saying about Kansas vs. Texas Tech during KUsports.com’s live coverage
