Epic Comeback vs. West Virginia Shows Kansas Isn't Your Typical Title Contender
LAWRENCE, Kan. — In the early stages of the comeback that could not conceivably happen Monday night at Allen Fieldhouse, "biggest home court advantage" flashed on the videoboard, and KU students started bouncing in their seats.
But the scoreboard read West Virginia 64, Kansas 55, with two minutes and 15 seconds left on the clock.
It felt forced.
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Fans had already started to pour out of the Fieldhouse. First with 5:30 left on the clock and KU down 13. Then with 4:55 left and KU trailing by 12. When KU senior Frank Mason went to the free-throw line with 2:43 left and KU trailing by 14, more folks filed out. By this time, hundreds had left their seats.
They did not believe. They had no idea they were about to miss an 84-80 overtime win for their No. 3 Jayhawks. They could not fathom they were going to miss a comeback so bizarre and so exhausting that there was no celebration in the home team's locker room.
"Sometimes when we win a big game, guys will get up and dance," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "Everybody sat there. … Nobody got up out of their chair. We were just very thankful."
In the first 17 minutes and 40 seconds of the second half Monday night, the Jayhawks made just three field goals.
At that moment, they had missed 14 of 17 layups. They'd go on to miss two more.
Some of those were uncontested. Some were forced—KU's guards repeatedly drove into a set defense without moving the ball. One after another took turns trying to play hero.
"We played tight," Self said. "They sped us up. Our shot selection was horrible. We made it harder than it was."
Then Frank Mason hit a three-pointer, breaking a field-goal drought of seven minutes and 38 seconds, and the video that reeked of desperation played.
That's about the time when the ghosts in the old building came out to play.
Twenty-seven seconds later, Devonte' Graham hit another three. And as KU pressed, the Mountaineers could not get the ball in and were called for a five-second violation.
Kansas ball. Down six.
Could it be? Was this Mario's Miracle all over again? Or a replay of the final Border War, when Kansas rallied from a 19-point deficit against Missouri and Thomas Robinson blocked a layup at the buzzer that had the old barn shaking so much that my laptop froze?
But then…it wasn't.
With a chance to cut the lead to four, Graham drove toward the basket and forgot the ball.
Then, with the deficit at seven and 1:15 on the clock, Svi Mykhailiuk barreled into the lane right into Jevon Carter. Charge.
"When we won it in '08 … it seemed like everything went right down the stretch," Self said of his team's national title win over Memphis. "In this situation, we had a lot of things not go right."
Just when the comeback seemed like it would fizzle, Graham buried two free throws with 52.4 seconds left. WVU inbounded the ball to Tarik Phillip, and the West Virginia guard passed it right into the hands of KU's Mason in stride, running toward the rim. Mason missed the layup, but of course, senior big man Landen Lucas was there to dunk the miss.
At some point during all this chaos, Self tried to yell at his team that they no longer needed to foul. Only they could not hear him over the roars of Allen Fieldhouse. After Lucas cut the lead to three, there was enough time for KU to play out the clock without fouling and get the ball back with a chance to tie, but freshman Mitch Lightfoot fouled Esa Ahmad.
Two more points. Mountaineers back up five.
The Jayhawks came back down the floor and didn't seem to have any kind of plan. Mason dribbled into the corner and picked up the ball. After a couple precious ticks of the clock, he found Graham near the right elbow. Graham pump-faked, dribbled backward in a circle, doing his best Curly Neal impression, and buried a fadeaway 3.
Two-point game. 33.1 seconds on the clock.
After a timeout, KU again set up its press, something Self estimates his team last practiced a month ago, and it delivered one more gift. The Mountaineers inbounded the ball to Phillip in the corner of the floor, where he was immediately trapped. With a timeout left in his pocket, Phillip flipped a wild one-handed pass that went sailing over the head of Mason and into the hands of WVU's James Bolden, who tried to call a timeout falling out of bounds. It was correctly not rewarded. KU's ball with 26.5 seconds left.
The Jayhawks then went to Mason, who drove, got fouled and completed the 14-point comeback in less than three minutes by burying two free throws to tie the game.
West Virginia would finally use that timeout and went with an isolation for Phillip on the right wing against KU star freshman Josh Jackson. His three at the buzzer missed.
Overtime.
These Jayhawks do not do things the way an elite college basketball team typically goes about its business.
Consider the overtime that no one could have fathomed was coming: The Jayhawks cruised, in large part, thanks to a pair of fortuitous threes from Graham.
The first was set up when Mason did what you learn not to do in grade school, dribbling right past the half-court line into a trap and picking up his dribble. Only he somehow sailed a perfect cross-court pass over the arms of 6'9" West Virginia forward Nathan Adrian right to Graham for a three on the left wing.
Graham got the ball in the same spot again two minutes later, but this time he was trapped. He threw the ball behind his back to Carlton Bragg in the corner, who skipped it to Jackson near midcourt, who then slipped onto his butt and, with Ahmad closing in, whipped a bounce pass from his backside with his left hand around Ahmad to Bragg, who then passed to Graham.
"Everything that could go wrong went wrong," Self said.
Right up until Graham got the ball.
As the shot clock wound down, the confident guard must have figured he was capable of anything at that point. He dribbled behind his back from his left hand to his right and then back to his left and into his shooting motion. With one second left on the shot clock, Graham's dagger three went through the net to put Kansas ahead by eight.
The Jayhawks had a few more mistakes left in them, which made the final score a bit closer than it ever was in overtime. But hey, they had to give those who stayed something to see, right?
"The ones who left missed out," Graham said. "Definitely missed out."
Lucky No. 13
The rest of the Big 12 desperately wants to end this conference title streak for Kansas, but the legend of Bill Self grows with each ring.
This team, like its crazy comeback Monday night, defies explanation.
The Jayhawks are 11-2 in conference play—two games ahead of Baylor, who lost at Texas Tech hours before "The Night of Mountainerrors"—and it's safe to tally up a 13th straight Big 12 title as a foregone conclusion.
That means KU is likely in line for a No. 1 seed. The league, after all, is considered the best in America by most metrics. Add a win at Kentucky and the neutral-court victory over Duke, and KU has a no-brainer No. 1-seed resume.
But the numbers don't add up.
Over the last seven games, the Jayhawks have a score differential of zero. They're 5-2 in those games.
They are only outscoring Big 12 opponents by 5.6 points per 100 possessions, per KenPom.com. Since Ken Pomeroy started tracking in-conference efficiency in 2002, no team has ever grabbed a No. 1 seed with that small a margin in conference play.
| Villanova (2005-06) | 110.2 | 101.9 | +8.3 | 3 |
| Oregon (2015-16) | 113.3 | 103.3 | +10.0 | 3 |
| North Carolina (2015-16) | 112.7 | 100.5 | +12.2 | 5 |
| Oklahoma (2002-03) | 106.9 | 94.6 | +12.3 | 3 |
| Virginia (2015-16) | 111.3 | 98.8 | +12.5 | 3 |
| Kansas (2015-16) | 112.8 | 100.3 | +12.5 | 3 |
| Duke (2004-05) | 112.7 | 99.8 | +12.9 | 2 |
KU's in-conference defense, allowing 106.9 points per 100 possessions, would also be the worst number for a No. 1 seed since 2002.
The Jayhawks still have time to lower that number and widen the efficiency-margin gap, but they'll probably keep winning how they've been winning for months: by the hair on Frank Mason's chinny chin chin.
At this point, it's fair to raise the question: Is Kansas lucky or just clutch?
And whatever they are, can the Jayhawks win a title like this?
"I don't know what the formula is," Self said. "I've had coaches tell me the less contested games you have, the fresher your guys are late.
"If I'm not mistaken, didn't Connecticut win five games in the Big East tournament and go on to win the national championship [in 2011]? I'm not sure there's a formula that's right or wrong. Since all our games are close, I'll take it that it's really good for us."
Self is right. Looking at in-conference data, there are outliers among recent champs that give hope.
| UConn (2010-11) | 106.6 | 101.4 | +0.8 |
| Syracuse (2002-03) | 106.4 | 98.2 | +8.2 |
| Florida (2005-06) | 110.4 | 100.5 | +9.9 |
| UConn (2013-14) | 106.6 | 95.8 | +10.8 |
In a season when nothing makes sense, the Jayhawks might as well embrace the chaos.
And be thankful.
C.J. Moore covers college basketball and football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @CJMooreBR.
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