Bill Self, Kansas Jayhawks Didn't Choke: Oregon Ducks Earned Final Four Bid

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The hot take out of Kansas City on Saturday night is Bill Self did it again.

Choked. In another Elite Eight. The seventh time in his career his team has crashed one step from the Final Four.

The Oregon Ducks were heavy road dogs—yes, road—in an arena 42 miles from KU's campus with a juggernaut that had blitzed its last two opponents by as many points as any tourney team in the last decade. By the time the Ducks took the stage to celebrate their Final Four, the arena was mostly empty. 

The Jayhawks were considered the best team left in the bracket and the most talented group Self has had since he won his title in 2008.

But this was classic Self, right? His team playing tight and bricking its way to a 74-60 loss.

Now stop.

Back to reality.

Bill Self did not choke. He lost.

"It's hard to admit, the best team did win today," Self said.

You may dismiss that quote as coach-speak. And in some ways it is just that.

But, on this night, it was the absolute truth. The Ducks had Jordan Bell, the best defensive weapon in all of college basketball who blocked eight shots and left the Jayhawks spooked, a performance that brought to mind the impact Anthony Davis had in Kentucky's 2012 title run.

"He got a couple of blocks early and I thought it really put a thought in their mind," Oregon coach Dana Altman said.

The Ducks had Tyler Dorsey, the hottest shooter in this NCAA tournament, who put three daggers in Kansas that will haunt Self like former Northern Iowa guard Ali Farokhmanesh.

With KU creeping back into the game before halftime, Dorsey quickly ran into a pull-up three with 43 seconds left to set up a two-for-one scenario entering halftime. The ball bounced nearly three feet above the rim before eventually falling in.

After a KU turnover, Dorsey again pulled up, this time from 26 feet out, and banked in a three-pointer before the buzzer to push the Ducks' lead from five to 11.

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

And the Ducks also had Dillon Brooks, Pac-12 Player of the Year and a small-ball 4 who was the answer to Josh Jackson. Brooks scored 17 points, but more important than any bucket, he put KU's star freshman on the bench 157 seconds into the game with two fouls in one possession.

"I feel like my first foul, yeah, I fouled him," Jackson said. "My second foul, no, I don't feel like I fouled him at all. It's just an opinion. Refs, they're all just people out there, and they make mistakes, too."

The NCAA tournament is a fickle beast, and Ted Valentine's whistle did not care that the Jayhawks, who had lost in this same building (to TCU!) 16 days earlier without Jackson, were vulnerable without him.

Jackson may go to the grave believing that was not a foul, and some officials may have let it go. But Brooks got Jackson off balance, started to drive past him and Jackson stuck out his hand and connected with Brooks' shoulder.

"We never got in rhythm after that," Self said. "When he got back in, he was pressing a little bit, as a majority of our guys were."

The Jayhawks had some kind of rhythm coming in, too, the first team to score 90-plus points in the first three rounds since Connecticut in 1995.

The key to KU's success all season had been the ability of its guards to get into the lane whenever they wanted and score when they got there or put defenses in rotations that led to open threes.

Oregon coach Dana Altman took a calculated risk by playing a zone defense that planted Bell in front of the basket in an effort to negate the driving abilities of KU's guards.

Doing so meant the Jayhawks were going to get plenty of three-point looks, but it also meant a lower possession game. KU had averaged 71.4 possessions in the tournament through three rounds, and this game featured just 64 possessions, per KenPom.com.

It was a brilliant tactical move that looks even better because Devonte' Graham, the first player since Stephen Curry to hit four threes in four consecutive tourney games, would miss all six threes he attempted.

"I felt like every time the ball left my hands, I felt like it was going in," Graham said. "It just kept rattling in and out."

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Kansas, a team that came in shooting 41.1 percent from deep and 53.6 percent its last time out, made just five of 25 threes. 

Self tried to speed up the game with pressure and urged his guards to push the pace. It almost worked, as KU cut the Oregon lead to six with 2:50 left and on the ensuing possessions was a split second away from forcing a shot-clock violation.

Dorsey threw the ball at the rim to avoid it, and the ball caromed off the iron toward the free-throw line where Frank Mason III awaited its arrival. But before Mason could grab it, Jackson got a fingertip on the ball, and it slid right past Mason back to the Ducks.

"If I had never touched the ball, we probably would have had the possession," Jackson said.

Oregon milked the clock again, and Dorsey crossed over Lagerald Vick and left a majority of the 18,643 inside the arena stunned when his three-pointer splashed through the net.

"That was basically the ballgame," Self said.

In a single-elimination tournament, those are the plays that can end a season. Had Mason grabbed that rebound and KU pulled off a miraculous comeback—and this team pulled off a few this year, including down 14 with less than three minutes left against West Virginia—it would have added to Self's legend.

The guy who ran the play to set up Mario's Miracle in 2008 had again pulled the strings on another miraculous win.

But instead, Self is out in the Elite Eight again, and his defenders will point to two Final Fours, a national title and 13 straight Big 12 titles.

His critics will say he should have more than two Final Fours, and that his teams do not meet expectations in the NCAA tournament.

Self does not have to defend his resume. Nor should Arizona's Sean Miller, a great coach who has yet to reach a Final Four.

Gonzaga's Mark Few punched his ticket Saturday night, and he's no better of a coach than he was Friday.

Fair or not, the NCAA tournament is how seasons are remembered and how coaches are judged.

"In order to have special years, you have to perform well in the NCAA tournament," Self said. "And we performed about as well as we ever have for three games. Final Four would have made it feel special, but we obviously fell short."

Kansas fell short against a team that is 33-5, won a share of the Pac-12 and limped its way through the first month of the season with its star, Brooks, recovering from a foot injury.

If there was an Elite Eight loss that seemed inexcusable in Self's career, that would have been in 2011 to 11th-seeded VCU.

But this one? A choke? Nah.

That diminishes what the Ducks just pulled off, and that is not fair.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball and football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @CJMooreBR. Odds provided by OddsShark.