Print edition: 
LAHAINA, Hawaii — With 14 minutes, 21 seconds left, Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor left his feet to contest a shot by Georgetown’s Hollis Thompson and suddenly couldn’t move the lower half of his body.
Timeout was called, and KU’s medical staff attended to Taylor, who had suffered cramps in both of his legs. Taylor’s legs felt like they were locked in place, and, as he was helped off the floor of the Lahaina Civic Center, looking more like Pinocchio than one of the best guards in the Big 12, it appeared the Jayhawks were in major trouble of losing their second straight game.
No. 14 KU was winning most of the important statistical battles in its Maui Invitational opener and had inflicted its will with a wave of rim-rocking dunks. But the game was tied, and now Taylor, who had 14 points, was heading to the locker room to get some fluids.
Later, after the Jayhawks survived with a 67-63 victory over Georgetown, Taylor would be asked if he should be considered a hero because he came back into the game five minutes after going down.
“I don’t think it’s that,” Taylor said. “Coming back was the easy part. Getting an IV was the hard part. That needle hurt.”
Taylor knew this wasn’t his personal victory to claim. It was a team effort, led by Taylor, Thomas Robinson, Elijah Johnson and Travis Releford – upperclassmen who were unquestionably the right four guys in the mind of KU coach Bill Self.
Once Taylor had left the floor, the Hoyas took a 48-47 lead, but Robinson immediately answered back with six straight points. He hit a baseline jumper, dunked off a lob from Naadir Tharpe and then made two free throws. The Hoyas (2-1) never led again.
Credit for KU’s strong finish in the final three minutes goes to juniors Releford and Johnson, who have been looking for confidence-building moments early this season. With KU leading 61-58, Releford put back a Robinson miss. Georgetown answered, and, with the lead now 63-60, Johnson had the ball at the top of the key with the shot clock winding down. He made a strong move to the basket and finished a layup to give the Jayhawks a 65-60 lead with 1:05 left.
Georgetown wouldn’t go away, as Jason Clark drilled a three with 30 seconds left. On the other end, the Hoyas fouled Releford with 15 seconds left, putting the entire game on the shoulders of the small forward from Kansas City, Mo., who has waited three years for this kind of pressure. Releford stepped to the line and knocked down both free throws, giving Kansas its winning margin.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” Self said. “Our guys didn’t lose their poise down the stretch. Travis made about three great plays for us to really ice the win. Overall, it was a pretty good team effort.”
The reward is a trip to the Maui Invitational semifinals Tuesday against UCLA at 8:30 p.m. Central time. The winner will play the winner of No. 6 Duke and No. 15 Michigan.
Whoever KU plays from here on out will have their hands full with Robinson, who played like an All-American on Monday night with a double-double 20 points and 12 rebounds.
“He played very well,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. “We did not execute our plan. We wanted him to take 15-foot jump shots, and their guards did a very good job of getting into the meat of our defense. Our bigs probably stepped up a little too much, and he ended up with what feels like 14 dunks.”
Robinson actually dunked five times, but maybe the ferocity with which he attacked the rim made it feel like 14. It would be an exaggeration – given that the game tipped off at midnight on the East Coast – that Robinson took the nation by storm against the Hoyas. But by the end of the game, “Thomas Robinson” and “T-Rob” were trending worldwide on Twitter, so his performance was surely a hit with the small subset of the population that was awake at the late hour.
“I thought he played who he was, as opposed to sometimes maybe floating on the perimeter,” Self said. “He knew where his bread was buttered tonight.”
The Jayhawks (2-1) played in front of a crowd of 2,400 – about 75 percent of which were KU fans who had traveled thousands of miles to be here. The most amazing thing about Allen Fieldhouse Pacific? Kansas’ players have come to expect that kind of support.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Johnson said. “It felt good to see a lot of blue in the crowd like that. It makes you feel comfortable on the floor.”
