Kansas Jayhawks, after dropping out of poll, beat No. 23 Oklahoma State on Big Monday
Cade Cunningham, the No. 1-ranked player in the recruiting Class of 2020 and the likely No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, heard chants of “overrated” from the bleachers as he stepped to the free throw line with his Oklahoma State Cowboys down by nine points with three minutes left in Monday’s game against Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.
“I love our student body. I think we have a ridiculously bright student body — the average ACT score may be 31, I don’t know. But that’s one area I don’t think they probably scored well because that kid is not overrated. That kid is good,” KU coach Bill Self said after the Jayhawks survived a 26-point, nine-rebound onslaught from the freshman point guard and defeated the No. 23-ranked Cowboys, 78-66.
“It’s just kids being kids,” Self added of the student section hecklers. “He makes others better and makes the game easier for everybody else,” Self added of Cunningham, the 6-foot-8, 220-pound native of Arlington, Texas.
The Jayhawks’ defense forced Cunningham into seven turnovers. The KU offense had more than enough firepower after a slow start to avenge a five-point loss to OSU on Jan. 12 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
David McCormack scored 23 points (21 the second half) and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Marcus Garrett added 17 points (12 the first half) with six boards and four assists, plus five turnovers. Like McCormack, Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson had double-doubles. Braun went for 15 points and 10 boards and Wilson 11 points and 11 boards.
“That’s big,” Garrett said of beating a ranked team on the day KU dropped out of the AP rankings for the first time in 12 years. “Everybody has pride. Nobody on this team wants to lose. Coming into every game we want to win. Once we saw that, it just gives us extra fire,” Garrett added of the squad’s reacting to not being ranked.
Self said he “didn’t say one thing about not being ranked” to his players on Monday. He did put the situation in perspective in a postgame Zoom call with media. The Jayhawks (13-7, 7-5 Big 12) had been ranked an NCAA-record 231 straight weeks before finally falling out after losing five of their past seven games heading into Monday’s game.
“We don’t deserve to be ranked,” Self said. “Now we would deserve to be ranked if we play well from this point forward. Of our seven losses, all were against ranked (teams). It has been a hard schedule without question. It was good to get a Tier One win (Monday).”
He then added exhibiting some pride in his program: “When you stop and think about it though, when you think about all the great programs out there that have had great runs … to think that nobody in the history of basketball has ever been as consistent or done what our guys have done over a course of 11 years, it’s unbelievable. It’s a credit to all the players. The fact it is a big deal that we are not ranked is something I don’t like, but it’s also pretty cool because there’s nobody else. No school has ever done what we’ve done from a consistency standpoint as far as being in the game year and out like this program has.”
One reason KU was able to upend ranked-team OSU (12-6, 5-6) on Monday was the stellar second-half performance of McCormack. KU’s junior power forward had two points on 1-of-7 shooting the first half and 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting the final half. He finished 9 of 12 from the line.
“You have to have short-term memory as an athlete, honestly,” McCormack said. “Take what you can from the first half and apply it to the second half. I had nothing but encouragement and positivity from my teammates and coaching staff. I just applied all that forward. It turned out great.”
McCormack described what it’s like to have such a productive final half.
“In a sense it’s kind of effortless,” the 6-10 native of Norfolk, Virginia said. “As with everything, you get in a groove, everything else is second nature. You no longer need to think, it becomes instinctive.”
KU, which led, 28-25, at halftime, might have been buried had Garrett not scored 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting the initial 20 minutes.
“I told the guys, where would be be without Marcus the first half? I told the guys we didn’t have any individuals play well except him the first half,” Self said.
Self noted that he was “proud” of McCormack. “As poor as we were to start the game he was great to start the second half,” Self said. “I thought he did great. We do have to figure a way to make uncontested baskets early in the game. We guarded the first half. The second half the lid came off (in scoring 50 points to OSU’s 41).”
KU, which improved to 33-0 in ESPN Big Monday games played in Allen Fieldhouse during the 18-year Self era, will next meet Iowa State at 6 p.m. Thursday at Allen; the two schools announced a time change for that contest Monday, moving tipoff up an hour so it can be broadcast on ESPN.
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 10:31 PM with the headline "Kansas Jayhawks, after dropping out of poll, beat No. 23 Oklahoma State on Big Monday."
