Roy Williams enjoys late heroics in KU Jayhawks’ basketball win: ‘A big-time shot’
Roy Williams watched intently from his court level seat as Dajuan Harris accepted a pass outside the three-point line, darted through the lane and converted a driving, game-winning layup with 7.1 seconds left in No. 9-ranked Kansas’ 62-61 victory over No. 15 Iowa State on Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Harris made a big-time shot,” former KU coach Williams told The Star as he headed toward the exits with his wife, Wanda, longtime buddy Randy Towner and other friends after viewing his first game in the fieldhouse since the 2002-03 season.
“That point of the game you don’t want to pull up and shoot a jump shot. He did the right thing by taking it to the basket. You always want to attack,” Williams added, impressed with the decision making of the sophomore point guard, who scored 12 points with three assists, four turnovers and a steal in 37 minutes. Harris was 6-for-6 from the free throw line on a night every point was needed.
Of course the game was not iced after Harris’ bucket.
Williams, who was happy to accept an invitation from former Jayhawks players Greg Gurley, Wayne Simien and Terry Nooner to attend his first KU home game in 19 years, fidgeted in his seat as Iowa State’s Gabe Kalscheur, who had hit four of his first eight three-point attempts put up a buzzer beater three that hit the front of the rim and bounced away.
Asked if it was “luck” that Kalscheur misfired right before the buzzer, Williams smiled and said, “That’s always part of it.”
The participants, like Williams, were more than willing to discuss the final moments of the game. The late heroics of Ochai Agbaji, who hit two free throws with 25 seconds left to give KU a 60-59 lead, and Harris, prevented what would have been KU’s second straight defeat. KU fell to Texas Tech on Saturday in Lubbock.
“I think I haven’t hit a game winner in so long,” said Harris. He shared point guard duties with Bobby Pettiford (no points, no assists, two turnovers in eight minutes), who returned after missing seven games because of an abdominal strain. Senior Remy Martin missed the game because of a lingering right knee injury that coach Bill Self says has Martin listed day to day.
“Ochai gave me the ball. I thought he was going to take the last shot. I heard Coach say, ‘Get in the lane,’ so I just drove it. There were five seconds left. I had to do something with it,” Harris added, “He opened a little crease for me so I had to make a play.”
Agbaji, who brought the ball down the court after ISU’s Izaiah Brockington put the Cyclones on top, 61-60, via a stepback jumper with 16 seconds left, initially was going to take KU’s final shot.
“My intentions were to go left, then his (Harris’) man helped for a second. That’s when I pitched back to him and he came around,” Agbaji said of the driving Harris.
Self said: “I would have called time but Ochai had the ball. You call time out, they probably go zone after the time out. I was still going to call time out. Ochai drove enough to force a crease for Juan. That’s about as good as you can do in that situation. Juan made a great shot.”
As far as Iowa State missing its final attempt on a night the Cyclones (13-3, 1-3 Big 12) hit 6 of 18 threes to KU’s 6 of 20, Self said: “We didn’t do a great job of getting back (after Harris bucket). He got off a good look, just missed it. He played great tonight.
“We missed Remy, that speed,” Self added. “When you negate your own speed and play against guards like that (Brockington finished with 17 points and eight boards and Tyrese Hunter 12 points and five assists with five steals and five turnovers) that’s hard to go against. We looked like a slow team because Juan is the only ballhandler we had. We need Remy to get healthy.”
KU junior Christian Braun was philosophical about Kalscheur’s miss at the buzzer.
“He made a good play,” he said of Hunter, who dished to Kalscheur in the corner. “They got a good look. It felt like they hit every shot down the stretch. They had to miss one.”
Kansas (13-2, 2-1) was led by Agbaji’s 22 points and seven rebounds. Braun had 13 points and seven boards. Jalen Coleman-Lands had three points and three boards for KU in 15 minutes. He suffered a cut on his nose with 11:02 left in what was called a flagrant one foul on Robert Jones. Coleman-Lands did not return to the game but Self said he was OK.
KU will meet West Virginia at 1 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 9:21 PM with the headline "Roy Williams enjoys late heroics in KU Jayhawks’ basketball win: ‘A big-time shot’."
