Why Kansas Jayhawks basketball lost to Texas Longhorns — with a ‘crap’ play standing out

Tre Mitchell smiled when fans surrounded him a few steps outside the Texas locker room, shrugging about a half-hour after Monday’s game when asked about his all-important shot.Show more

“I’ll take it,” he said with a laugh.
Not the way he planned, but three critical points all the same.

Mitchell’s shot should be the lasting image from Kansas’ 79-76 road loss to Texas on Monday night at Erwin Center.

The Jayhawks had the game won with a minute left and up four. All they needed was to force one more Longhorns miss.

And they seemed to get it from Mitchell. Texas guard Marcus Carr flung a behind-the-back pass to him, and Mitchell squared up from just beyond the three-point line on the right wing.

His brick on the previous possession was ugly. Mitchell had set his feet from straight on with that one, clanging it off the backboard and side rim before Ochai Agbaji cleared the board with KU leading by two.

This one — after a timeout — appeared on the same trajectory with the Longhorns now down four. It was at least three feet strong, but this time after hitting the glass, it caromed toward the rim, rattling in for three points that changed the game’s entire course.

It was silly. It was ridiculous. Mitchell knew it after the game and also after he hit it, clapping his hands on the court and laughing toward the sky.

KU coach Bill Self, meanwhile — a few steps away on KU’s sideline — collapsed his shoulders in toward his chest, his entire body crumpling in disbelief as he saw a near-certain Big 12 win become suddenly complicated following the luckiest of bounces.

“I don’t know that Chris (Beard) drew up a play to bank in a three,” Self deadpanned afterward. “If he did, he’s a helluva basketball coach.”

Self was clear from that point in his interview, though: that shot did not beat KU on Monday. “Crap like that happens,” he said of the make.

But KU cost KU, he said, both with its play in the final minute of the first and second halves.

It was enough to sink the Jayhawks in a game that could’ve easily been theirs. “A lot of things,” Self said, “that we could have done different late.”
Self’s mind probably flashed a few places.

Like late first half, when KU had possession while tied with 38 seconds left. At worst, the Jayhawks should’ve traded two final possessions with the Longhorns.

After two careless turnovers, though, KU went into halftime down five, with Self flinging his arms toward his players in frustration before heading to the locker room.

“That had as much to do with us losing the game as anything,” Self said later. KU also couldn’t make the one more play it needed after Mitchell’s fortunate bounce pulled Texas within one at the end.

Agbaji got a driving lane and saw David McCormack open for an alley-oop ... but his pass caromed off the rim. The loose ball plopped in the middle of an open area, but KU’s Christian Braun was a half-step late.

Then, Texas was able to get the shot it wanted to take the lead. Carr drove against KU’s Dajuan Harris to force help, leaving KU’s defenders scrambling to help each other.

One of them was Braun, who sunk to the lane to discourage an inside pass while letting Texas’ leading scorer Timmy Allen free himself at the elbow.

Allen didn’t miss his opportunity, putting his shot straight through to give Texas the lead.

“The fact that we didn’t contest that one possession,” Self said, “was the biggest play of the game.”

KU’s attempted call after that didn’t go as planned either.

Texas had been face-guarding national-player-of-the-year candidate Agbaji all game, looking to make his teammates win the game on offense. For the most part, they had, scoring 76 points on a Texas defense that had surrendered 51, 51 and 41 in its previous three home games.

In essence, Agbaji taking his defender out of the way was allowing KU to play 4-on-4, with teammates succeeding most of the night with the favorable matchup.

Self said he hoped to play to that again after a timeout. He pulled Agbaji out of the lane knowing that Texas would give him extra attention, then wanted to get the ball to McCormack, who had been KU’s best player all night. Harris didn’t go that direction, though, believing he had a crease on a drive. He lost the ball on the way up for a shot to turn it over.

“Obviously we didn’t execute very good coming out of that timeout,” Self said. “So that’s on me.”

Self usually wins more than his fair share of close games. Heck, it’s why KU had built up the Big 12 lead it had going into Monday night, with the Jayhawks entering 4-0 in league contests decided by five points or fewer.

Winning “most” does not mean “all,” though. And while Agbaji appeared like he might have the game-clinching move with just over a minute left — sprinting from outside the lane to corral an offensive rebound and stick it back in to put KU up four — it instead placed the Jayhawks in a spot where they needed to make one more play over the final 1:12.

They didn’t. But that’s not a fatal flaw either.

KU was a one-point Vegas favorite, meaning any number of random-chance events could potentially be the deciding factor to swing the outcome. It’s essential to see the other side of this too, as right after Agbaji put in his stick-back, Texas’ Courtney Ramey raised his hands to his head in disbelief.

He knew, in that moment, that his missed blockout was likely to be the difference between winning and losing. Texas was down four with a minute left. Things looked bleak.

The Longhorns needed something spectacular to get back in it.
And a half-hour after the game was over, Mitchell remained shocked by what happened next.

“In the right moment,” he told the Texas fans encircling him, “I hit it.”

Self certainly will bemoan other sequences, and film sessions later this week likely will reveal more instances where KU’s focus could’ve been better.

The narrative, nonetheless, shouldn’t get too twisted. Yes, Texas won, and Kansas lost.

But it still took some divine-like intervention for the Longhorns to get there.

And a silly, ridiculous shot falling perfectly their way.

Source: kansascity
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