By Steve Habel/Senior Editor
AUSTIN, Texas — The top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks were not in a sharing mood Monday. After having clinched at least a part of Big 12 Conference title on Saturday, they craved more and satiated their hunger with an 86-56 win over No. 23 Texas that assured that the league’s regular-season title would not be piecemealed.
“This obviously meant something to our guys,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “For about 28 minutes, we played about as well as we can play. We made the extra pass and made our open shots. The team played like it was having fun tonight. Our focus was just to play good against Texas, and we did.”
Forward Perry Ellis poured in [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]20 points, including 15 in the first half, to lead a balanced attack as Kansas dominated from the opening tip.
Kansas took the sellout crowd of 16,540 at the Frank Erwin Center out of the game before the UT fans even could find their seats by bursting out to a 15-0 lead. The Jayhawks (26-4 overall, 14-3 in Big 12 play) bullied Texas (19-11, 10-7 in Big 12) and forced bad shots.
Even when the Longhorns had easy looks at close range, they couldn’t convert, missing their first 14 field goals.
“We played like veterans,” Self said. “We were skilled tonight, we made a lot of good basketball plays. We were fortunate that when Texas had open shots they missed them. If we play Texas again, it’s likely a coin-flip game.”
Point guard Frank Mason III added 14 points for Kansas and guard Devonte’ Graham scored 13 for the Jayhawks, who hit 11 of 16 (69 percent) of their three-point shots after going 6-for-8 in the first half from long distance. Kansas shot 64 percent from the field for the game, while Texas managed just 30 percent.
Ellis was nearly flawless in the first half, going 7-of-8 from the floor, as the Jayhawks outshot Texas, 63 percent to 27 percent, and kept on the accelerator.
“We just wanted to go out and show how great a team we are,” Ellis said. “We hit a lot of shots early on and moved the ball well. We didn’t take many bad three-point shots and when we were making them it was just contiguous. We’ve defended better the past few games, and that has made a big difference.”
After Texas cut the Kansas advantage to 18 points on a steal and layup by point guard Isaiah Taylor with 1:25 to play in the half, Kansas ended the period with back-to-back three-pointers by guards Wayne Selden Jr. and Brannen Greene to grant the Jayhawks a 47-23 lead at halftime.
“We didn’t come out and guard tonight — it was plain and simple,” Texas guard Javan Felix said. “It was a lot like our game against Baylor (a 78-64 loss Feb. 20) — we didn’t defend then, either, and we got beat. We were aggressive tonight on offense, but we didn’t make our shots.”
The Jayhawks built their advantage to as many as 33 points, at 72-39, with 10:27 to play and cruised home. Kansas has won five straight games against Texas, 10 of the past 11 meetings, and 13 of the last 15 matchups,
Texas was never close to competitive in this game, which was surprising after the Longhorns’s 76-63 Saturday over No. 3 Oklahoma. It was especially disappointing for the Longhorns’ five seniors — guards Felix and Demarcus Holland, forward Connor Lammert and centers Prince Ibeh and Cameron Ridley — each of whom played his final home game Monday.
“One of our biggest issues is that we didn’t handle the aftermath of our big win against Oklahoma well,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “We addressed that — I was concerned about the human nature element of that win — but I didn’t do a good job of getting the guys back to where we need to be.
“Kansas was terrific and played well. They were free and loose and aggressive, but a part of that was that our energy, toughness and fight were nowhere near they needed to be.”
Ibeh said that while losing on Senior Night was understandably disappointing, Monday’s defeat should not be viewed as an indication that the Longhorns should alter their goals for the season.
“It’s tough,” he said. “The most important thing for me is to not dwell on it. It’s not the end of the season. All the goals that we set at the beginning of the season are still available to us and that’s the most important thing.”
Felix led the Longhorns with 13 points while Ibeh gathered a game- and career-high 12 rebounds. Taylor, the Longhorns’ leading scorer for the year with a 15.5 points-per-game average, tallied only five points and hit just one of 10 attempted field goals.
Taylor has been bothered by bad right heel. He didn’t practice Sunday and had been in a walking boot for the two days before the Kansas game.
The Longhorns must find a way to collect themselves before heading to Stillwater for the regular-season finale Friday versus Oklahoma State.
“Our team tonight bore no resemblance to the team we’ve been when we’ve played at a high level, and that’s disconcerting,” Smart said. “We have stressed and emphasized moving on to the next thing — be it within a game or a practice or in a segment of a game — and we need to do that now.
“Where we want to go from here is a choice for the key guys on our team — they have to make a decision. Remember that we are just two days removed from playing the best five minutes we have all year — we have to play all the time the way we played against Oklahoma if we are going to beat the high-level teams we will see in the coming weeks.”
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.