Kansas Jayhawks fade late in loss at Texas: ‘It felt like we gave this one away’
Ochai Agbaji didn’t try to mask the disappointment he and his No. 8-ranked Kansas Jayhawks teammates felt after squandering a four-point lead in the final minute and losing 79-76 to No. 20-ranked Texas on Monday night before a near sellout crowd of 14,688 fans at the Erwin Center.
“This one sucks,” Agbaji, KU’s first-team All-America candidate, said after scoring just 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting with three turnovers and no assists. “It definitely felt like we gave this one away. Everyone knows that feeling, too. Coach knows that feeling. It’s going to suck going home with that in the back of our mind
“We just have to be mature and move on.”
Texas (18-6, 7-4) became the first Big 12 team to defeat Kansas three consecutive times during the 19-year Bill Self era. The Longhorns won twice during former coach Shaka Smart’s final season in Austin a year ago. Former Texas Tech coach Chris Beard is in his first season as head coach at his alma mater, Texas.
Agbaji wasn’t shaken by the loss because Texas’ Courtney Ramey and others swarmed him on defense. He was frustrated by KU’s own play. The Jayhawks failed to score after his tip of a Jalen Wilson miss gave KU a 76-72 lead with 1:09 left. KU (19-4, 8-2) didn’t muster another point.
First, Texas’ Tre Mitchell (17 points, 4-of-12 shooting) banked in a three-pointer with 55 seconds left.
“That’s stuff that goes their way and not our way. That’s basketball, a great shot. It gave them momentum,” Agbaji said of the bank shot.
The bucket stunned the Jayhawks, who got 18 points and 11 rebounds from Wilson and 16 points and seven rebounds from David McCormack. Mitchell shot 1-of-6 from three on a night Texas hit 3 of 20 threes to KU’s 5 of 13.
“I don’t know that Chris drew up a play to bank in a three. If he did he’s a helluva basketball coach,” KU’s Self said. “He was open. I do think he drew it up to get Mitchell a shot because Dave was guarding him.”
On KU’s next possession, Agbaji committed a turnover off a failed lob play to McCormack.
“It wasn’t anywhere near where I was trying throw it. It wasn’t on target. I should have made a good pass there,” Agbaji said.
Self noted of that play: “David was wide open off the lob. Och throws it off the rim. That was poor execution but it was there.”
Texas grabbed a 77-76 lead with 20.9 seconds left on a mid-range jumper by Timmy Allen, who finished with 24 points on 11-of-17 shooting and nine rebounds.
“He basically had an uncontested free throw to put them up one. That was the biggest play,” Self said. “It wasn’t the banked in three. (Stuff) like that happens. The fact we didn’t contest the one possession was the biggest play of the game.”
Down just one, KU sputtered on its next possession. Dajuan Harris (eight points, six assists, three rebounds) lost the ball inside as he was driving in for what appeared to be a short floater shot. After losing the ball on a turnover, Harris fouled Marcus Carr with 6.8 seconds left. Carr made two free throws.
“We were trying to get the ball to David,” Self said of what was going to be a Harris feed to McCormack. “I drew something up. It obviously wasn’t very good. He (Harris) saw a crease, went in the other direction. The ball just slipped out of his hands. We shouldn’t have been in that position. We didn’t execute very good coming out of the time out. That’s on me.”
After Carr hit the free throws, KU’s Wilson was fouled by Christian Bishop with 2.2 seconds to play and KU down three. It looked as if Wilson possibly could have fired up a three before getting fouled.
Instead, he missed the first of his two free throws. Then he missed the second on purpose in hopes KU could corral the rebound, but Ramey secured it instead. The game was over and fans stormed the court.
“We’ll learn what not to do,” Self said of lessons to be learned moving forward. “Even the last possession. You know they are going to foul and J-Will had a wide open three from 25 feet on a pitchback play. He took a dribble and they fouled him, things like that. Granted it’s not anyone’s fault. It’s more my fault. We need to work on situations more. Things like that. There’s a lot of things we could have done different late. If we make free throws it’s a different story too. They go 20 of 23. We miss three in a row (second half and hit 15 of 23 overall).”
Of KU’s play late, sophomore forward Wilson, who hit 6 of 10 shots, said: “We’ve got to execute the plays. We had the game. We made the mistakes when you’ve got to tighten up.”
Wilson was disappointed Agbaji’s teammates didn’t score more with Agbaji faceguarded.
“It’s on us,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to step up when teams are playing him like that. It’s not fair to him (Agbaji). When that happens we have to step up.”
The Jayhawk saw their seven-game win streak in league play snapped. KU’s only other loss in Big 12 play had been to Texas Tech on Jan. 8 in Lubbock.
The last conference team to beat KU three straight times was Iowa State, which won five straight from KU from 1999-2001.
KU will next meet Oklahoma at noon Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 10:37 PM with the headline "Kansas Jayhawks fade late in loss at Texas: ‘It felt like we gave this one away’."
