Kelly Oubre carries Kansas past TCU in Big 12 quarterfinal

Kelly Oubre sat in the back corner of a crowded locker room on Thursday, his stall surrounded by cameras, the sort of college basketball image that becomes commonplace — maybe even cliché — during the month of March.

Oubre, a 6-foot-7 small forward, had never sat in one of these crowded locker rooms before. He is a freshman. Kansas’ locker room is closed to reporters during the regular season. This was a baptism of sorts.

So you could forgive Oubre if he was a little nervous or uncomfortable in this moment, even after scoring a career-high 25 points in No. 9 Kansas’ 64-59 victory over TCU in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals. He was the player of the moment. Everybody wanted to hear from him. And Oubre? Well, he wanted to talk about a baseline dunk that had helped stretch Kansas’ lead to 61-57 with just more than a minute to play.

It had been so wide open, like a six-lane highway to the basket. Oubre caught the ball on the wing, the Jayhawks protecting a two-point lead. He drove hard along the baseline, and just one TCU player appeared in the picture. The defender did not make a play on the ball.

“I kind of wanted him to step over so I could dunk on him,” Oubre said. “But I was going to dunk it regardless.”

This, perhaps more than anything, was the defining Kansas moment from an otherwise ugly, plodding, sloppy and gritty victory in front of an announced crowd of 18,972 at the Sprint Center. For Kansas, there wasn’t much to savor about Thursday’s victory — other than the fact it was a win. The top-seeded Jayhawks advanced to play No. 4 Baylor at 6 p.m. on Friday in the Big 12 tournament semifinals.

“We did enough to win,” said forward Landen Lucas, who finished with 13 points and seven rebounds.

Let’s start with the ugly. The afternoon featured 46 fouls. The Jayhawks recorded 17 turnovers. They missed all eight attempts from three-point range — and have now made just 8 of their last 59 shots from long distance. Kansas coach Bill Self expressed a bit of mild disgust at his team’s energy level.

“That’s as quiet a building as you’ll ever have Kansas play in,” Self said, “and in large part, it’s because we made it that way.”

But if there was something good for Self to cling to, some treasure amid the rubble, it came in the lanky, crafty frame of Oubre, who carried the Jayhawks’ offense with a simple game plan: Just drive it.

“We wanted to show them that we can handle their punches,” said Oubre, who finished 15 of 19 from the free-throw line and grabbed six rebounds.

By the end, the Jayhawks needed all of Oubre’s offensive outburst. Leading scorer Perry Ellis was sidelined again because of a right knee sprain. Forward Hunter Mickelson picked up two quick fouls, and Self turned to a four-guard lineup in the first half, with Oubre playing possessions at the four. The origins of the lineup, Oubre said, began last week, after Ellis suffered a right knee sprain against West Virginia. With freshman forward Cliff Alexander out indefinitely while the NCAA investigates his eligibility, the Jayhawks needed a Plan B.

The answer: Go small.

“It creates a lot of mismatches,” Traylor said. “It pretty much helped us win the game.”

It also helped Oubre have a career afternoon in a college career that could be winding down this month. Oubre is a potential first-round pick in this summer’s NBA Draft, and while he has remained mum on his future, this could be his only March in a Kansas uniform.

Consider this a solid start to the postseason. After Thursday’s victory, Oubre is averaging 15.6 points and seven rebounds in his last five games.

“I didn’t try to force anything,” Oubre said. “I just got to the line.”

Earlier in the day, at the Kansas team hotel, freshman guard Devonte’ Graham had found Oubre and offered a prediction of sorts. In the Jayhawks’ first two games against TCU, Oubre had gone scoreless. On this day, Graham said, Oubre was about to go off.

“I told him he was going to go for 30,” Graham said.

By early Thursday evening, as Oubre sat in a crowded locker room, he would settle for 25. After all, he said, March is just beginning.

“I have more to give,” Oubre said, “and we have more wins to get.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Kelly Oubre carries Kansas past TCU in Big 12 quarterfinal."