Grade ‘A’ Jayhawks travel to Austin for regular-season finale versus Longhorns
Winning the Big 12 regular-season men’s basketball championship outright makes this a successful campaign in Kansas coach Bill Self’s eyes.
“I’d probably go A-minus,” Self, now in his 20th year at KU, said Thursday, asked by a reporter to deliver an early course grade on the Jayhawks’ 2022-23 season.
“I think the guys have done well, so hopefully our best ball is still in front of us,” added Self, well aware this season’s final mark could rise to an A-plus or dip to B or lower depending on the squad’s success or failure in the 2023 Big 12 and NCAA tournaments.
Junior point guard Dajuan Harris has seen enough to confidently rate KU’s body of work (including a nation’s best 15 Quad 1 wins) a solid “A” entering Saturday’s regular-season finale at Texas.
Tipoff for the contest between the No. 3 Jayhawks (25-5, 13-4) and No. 9 Longhorns (22-8, 11-6) is 3 p.m. with a live broadcast on ESPN, with Dick Vitale in the analyst role perhaps ready to offer his own grade of the Jayhawks’ campaign.
“I’m not going to say A-plus,” said Harris, a starter on last year’s Big 12 title and NCAA title teams. “We’re still learning. We’ve still got some guys learning too. We’ve been getting better defensively the last couple weeks too. If we keep building on defense we know the offense will come with it. If we keep defending we’ll be in great shape.”
KU, which at one point was 6-4 in the Big 12, has won seven conference contests in a row since a 68-53 loss to Iowa State on Feb. 4 in Ames.
The first victory in the winning streak was 88-80 versus Texas on Feb. 6 at Allen Fieldhouse. Texas is 3-3 since that game.
“I thought we played pretty well against Texas,” Self said. “What did Jalen (Wilson) have that game: two (points)? And so that was a game where the bench kind of came through and Joe (Yesufu) had a huge game. I think he had 14 (points), and I thought we played really, really well against Texas. It was a pretty smooth game, and they still scored 80 points on us, so we’ve got to do a better job defensively.
“I know they beat us on the glass multiple times (KU won the rebounding battle 38-33) and we did a lot of good things and we win by eight, in a really turned up building. And going down there, I know it’ll be just as turned up.”
KU junior forward Jalen Wilson, a native of Denton, Texas, had two points on 1-of-7 shooting, picking up four fouls in 27 minutes in the first meeting versus Texas. Yet KU had five players score in double figures on a day the Jayhawks went 2-for-10 from three to UT’s 6-of-19.
Gradey Dick scored 21 points, while Harris added 17 with five assists and four steals. San Antonio native Kevin McCullar scored 16 points, Yesufu had 14 and Austin, Texas native KJ Adams added 10 (with eight rebounds).
Marcus Carr scored 29 points on 10-of-21 shooting; Timmy Allen added 18 points and Sir’Jabari Rice scored 12 off the bench for UT.
“When you talk about rosters, I don’t know that anybody from a roster standpoint matches up with Texas in our league one through eight,” Self said. “They’ve got eight or nine guys that they can put out there and basically claim that all eight could be starters.
“Allen is one of the best competitors in our league and has been great against us, and Rice is probably the best sixth man in the country. And Dylan Disu is playing his best ball of the year. Everybody is more than capable of having a big night. They’re really talented and athletic.”
A victory would cap a highly successful regular-season league slate for the Jayhawks — one that so far has included eight wins in nine games at home and a 5-3 mark on the road. KU is 5-3 on the road, while Baylor is 5-4, Texas 4-5 (7-1 at home), Kansas State and TCU 3-5, Iowa State and Oklahoma State (2-6) and West Virginia, Texas Tech and Oklahoma (2-7).
“Keep staying together, keep trusting each other … try to go out with another win because it’s the last game of the year,” Harris said of KU’s motivation entering the league finale.
‘J-Will’ really wants to win down there (he is 0-2 as a player at UT; KU won during his redshirt season). I have not won down there (0-2) since I’ve been here. KJ wants to go (win), so we just want to play hard for him, too.”
Harris said one key will be to be energized from the start. It’s KU’s first trip to the new Moody Center, which seats 10,000.
“I feel like since we already clinched the title we’ve got to come out with a lot of energy,” Harris said. “We have something to play for, but we don’t, but we do. If we come out with a lot of energy and play like it’s our last game — it’s ‘J-Will’s’ last (Big 12 regular season) game and Kevin’s too. We have to come out with a lot of energy and play well.”
No matter the result Saturday, KU as the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 postseason tourney, will play approximately 2 p.m. Thursday in a quarterfinal against the winner of Wednesday’s 8-9 game.
This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Grade ‘A’ Jayhawks travel to Austin for regular-season finale versus Longhorns."
