🏀 KuBuckets Archive

My most important plays in the epic game, not in any particular order.

Mason steal on inbounds play during 3rd (?) OT.

Jamari blocks, particularly on sure thing layup in middle of 2nd half.

Devonte steal and drive, got fouled, made 1 of 2 I think.

Selden 4 point play (I think he made the FT)

Landon foul. I believe he fouled very foolishly. If we lost on FT at end of regulation we'd all be talking about why he fouled with 2 seconds costing us a chance to win in OT.

OU's missed FT at the end of regulation. Obviously.

Hield's missed 3 at the end of 3rd OT

Franks FT's in 3rd OT.

Ellis 3 during...... uh I know he made a big one late.

Ref sees through OU player to see Frank foul, Bill doesn't need to see through OU player because he has a much better view of the clean strip. I would have been disappointed if Bill hadn't got T'd up. HUGE moment in that game.

I know there were many others. What were yours?

@wissoxfan83 Frank getting tomahawked in the face by Litten, and they call a foul on LL.

Lattin missing the free throw after Lucas's foul at the end of regulation was the biggest/luckiest moment. He makes one or both of those, and KU had only 2.1 seconds to get a shot off to tie or win.

Selden missed the free throw in OT3, so no four-point play. Big shot, although OU ended up going ahead after that.

Mason's steal with 12 seconds left in OT3 was the biggest play, IMO. We were up 107-106, but that was the only point where I thought we might possibly be doomed. I figured the last team to have the ball would win.

@wissoxfan83 Selden missed the FT that would have converted the 4pt play.

My Keys/Questions/Analysis:

1. Mason's Defense - he was playing like a mad man against Hield once he started defending him and it was the biggest difference in the game. He was able to slow him down in the second half and OTs. The most amazing part was that he was able to keep on defending him throughout those overtimes while having 4 fouls. That was huge.

2. Who was Self smiling and winking at when he sat down after he got his Technical foul at the end of the first half? Did you guys see that?

3. This game showed the incredible strong will of the team with how they were able to overcome so many things stacked against them. It was a perfect storm with the refs, hot shooting by the opponent, and Self's rotation at the 5 making this one of the toughest games for us to win and despite all of that, they still pulled it off somehow. Incredible.

@RockkChalkk Agree on Frank's defense. Although HIeld got his point, ultimately, Frank slowed him down during several stretches.

Team leadership. From Selden and Frank taking big shots. To Perry who kept going up time after time in the paint against their bigs.

Perry doesn't complain a lot about fouls but he looked at the officials a lot as to why there was no whistle.

Let's not forget leadership by Jamari and LL. Hitting the floor time after time, even though Vitale gave the credit to the OU player for keeping the ball alive when in all reality he got more of Lamdons head than ball.

A side note about Jamari. He was in the bench in the second half and he was standing up and he was pointing out to Bragg where to go on D. He was coaching the you gets from the bench. That's leadership that isn't quantifiable by stats.

Bruised team doesn't need to lean on just one guy to be its leader. Devonte leads in when Frank can't and so on. There are 5 or 6 guys who could be leaders for this team on any given night. They take ownership in this team.

I was impressed overall with the fortitude of this team as a team than just one guys performance.

@RockkChalkk

Refs were bad last night in regulation, but they were bad both ways. Jamari had two goaltends on potential and-one plays that were not called. One of them was particularly bad as he reached through the bottom of the net to knock the ball away. There were calls that went against KU (Mason strip the worst of that group), but OU has a decent gripe on more than a few calls as well.

I did like that in the OT's the officials got out of the way and let the game happen. The action really picked up once that happened.

Selden missed the FT for the four point play, I forgot that!

Not sure how I missed that it appeared Frank got fouled on his game winning attempt at the end of regulation. I see lots of fouls that should have been called and vice versa. I'll have to watch it again.

Another key moment and it sounds sarcastic but after Heild took the final shot almost all the Jayhawks in the floor went after the rebound.

Not allowing another attempt if there would have been any chance of one.

Not sure if I've ever seen this before, but I should have gone to bed, but I was too wound up anyway so I watched Sportscenter where they interviewed Buddy. There was a crowd of about 100 KU and OU fans sitting behind him and Dicky V. When Buddy walked away the KU fans gave him a standing ovation as he left the floor. Now I know fans in other arenas would have done the same, but it was cool to see.

@wissoxfan83 yes in other areanas those fans probably would have been waving and acting the fool in the background.

These fans sat there and listened to him answer the questions. I respected his game, and after hearing him take the blame for the loss on his TOs and giving credit to Kansas and his own teammates I respect Heild even more so.

I usually don't say anything about it, because I don't like to be a whiner.... however...

The officiating stunk. They couldn't keep their eyes on the frenetic pace of the game, so they guessed on many, many calls.

The call which blew up Self and created the technical was outrageously horrible. If I was in charge of refs, they would all be investigated on how they blew that call.

There were many calls that stunk. We received a few breaks our ways, but I thought, as a whole, we had to beat the refs last night, too. There has been a lot of recent talk about the "AFH ref advantage" and I feel 100% sure the refs were feeling that so they came in with the intent of making sure people would stop saying it.

The call where Latten jacked Frank on the head on his drive and then Landen getting the over-the-back was nuts. Yes... Landen did foul him. But if a ref could see that, how could he miss seeing Frank's head almost being ripped from his neck?

In the end, the refs didn't change the outcome, because we all know... Kansas only loses a tiny percent of home games... but the refs definitely made us work a lot harder than we had to for the victory.

@justanotherfan Good point on the refs missing Jamari reaching through the basket.

What was the discussion about after Selden made his 2 handed jam between 2 OU players?

And at what point in the game did Mari stick his hand up through the net?

I have tried, but I can't pick a key moment for me. It was like the game evolved into epic match of counter punchers and both teams had answers and counters to everything the other coach and team did until one time, 55 minutes in the score was not tied!!!

Incredible game.

Best epic game I ever saw, where neither team could shoot a good FG percentage, but could make treys!!!!! That is one weird combination.

Iba, Eddie and Jack were up in heaven loving D so tough no one could score inside efficiently and nodding that if guys can make treys like THAT, well, the long ball has its place!!!!

@brooksmd a couple of us thought Selden was fouled on that jam.

@brooksmd

The Mari goaltend sticking his hand through the net was with 12:42 left in the first half. Hield backcut Svi and caught a lob. Svi fouled him as he went back up. The basket was waved off, but should have counted on the goaltend and would have resulted in a three point play as Hield made the first FT, but missed the second. OU would have gotten 3 on the possession, but only got 1.

How about the Mari block where he just went up and grabbed the ball instead of blocking it. He was undercut and fell 6 ' to a flat splat. I thought he was dead.

One other key moment was Latten traveling after his defensive rebound on Mason's miss in the lane with about 47 seconds left in OT3.

OU was up 106-104 and had the ball (briefly) at that point.

Hunter's steal and a fast break to the three line and with no Jayhawk anywhere near to rebound - SWISH.

@drgnslayr The call against Frank for stripping the ball was horrendous. It could have been made by one of the other officials on the floor and it would be just a blown call. To make the call when you can't even see the play is what frosted me. There is no excuse for the call.

@brooksmd it sure looked like a foul! Could it have been clock? Refs sucked!

@wissoxfan83

"Ref sees through OU player to see Frank foul, Bill doesn’t need to see through OU player because he has a much better view of the clean strip. I would have been disappointed if Bill hadn’t got T’d up. HUGE moment in that game."

If you guys recall, we had been chirping on the chat that it was high time for Bill to get "T'd" up-& bless his heart shazamm ! This was it for me until Jamari started his remarkable defensive ascension in the 2nd half. He simply does the dirty work for this team that none of the other paint players has balls enough to do. Sometimes it's almost like an in your damn face HEM performance It's a flippin miracle he even got up after that flat assed pancake fall, let alone kept up with the tempo of the game. Then unbelievably by the time our little Bulldoggie Frank pilfered his final steal wit da seal at the line, there was so damn much lingerie left on the court I couldn't begin to put a finger on a single play other than the very last one...And go figure how the refs let it play out after they got too friggin tired to help OU determine the outcome. I mean, Frank was so deep in Buddy's jock on that last in bounds play I was flabbergasted they let it slide. Had to be they were just wanting it over & fatigued too badly to blow the whistle, but the 15 OU FT's to 1 KU in the first half was so blatantly obvious even Ray Charles could've written home about it. I know there are many others I've forgotten through the decades, butI have agree with @Crimsonorblue22 - It was the greatest heavy weight brawl I can remember seeing at AFH other than the phenomenal final scalding of the Hell hated misery alley cats a few years ago. One article I read this morning called it the best college basketball game of the decade & that's tough to argue unless you hate misery as bad as we do in Lawrence... So hey @wissoxfan83 - is that enough preaching for ya bud ?! We always got more when ya need it. Thanks for asking & rest easy knowing we're always happy to oblige...

@globaljaybird I thought I heard on my way home today that it was the highest rated big mon. ever.

Perry Ellis poking the ball away from Spangler as he was lining up for a three from straight away.

Sure the ball went towards Heild and made me hold my collective breath.

But no easy ones!

Perry came up big on that play.

Gotta give a shout out to guys on bench. They were all backing their teammates! No pouting!!image.jpg ↗

@JRyman Yesss, good one. Also, what did you guys think about Self not fouling there? It worked out but he didn't play to the odds on that one.

For added enjoyment, 💃 in the corner!

@RockkChalkk I have mixed feeling on it. If you foul and the guy with ball takes a heave at the rim who knows?

Do they get 3 FTs?

Does the Hail Mary go in plus one?

Probably would have put a little more pressure on the ball to eat up clock and make them work to get up court. Just can't get burned. No one can leave their guy to help though either.

If you foul away from the ball is it called flagrant? Two FTs and the ball back at half court and who knows how much time is left to get that shot off?

If it's a two shot foul you have to make sure to block out on the second ft and not get sucked in by the rim. A rebound and quick put back tied the game too, what happens if they call a foul on the put back or rebound?

There are too many variables Ryan just yes or no on this one. I think that's a reason a lot of older coaches play it straight up a lot of the time.

@RockkChalkk I like not fouling intentionally with that much time left (8 seconds). No need to get into a free throw shooting contest. Keep them on their heels with the clock ticking and it's over.

Good board by Traylor at the end to seal it too.

I like he had the 🏀🏀 to have them play D. Does playing w/free mind work for D too? Shows me he has a lot of faith in those guys!

In case anyone missed it, in the Buddy Hield interview after the game he said he assumed that KU was going to foul him because thats basically what everybody does in that scenario these days and he threw up the shot when he saw Mason coming at him. One might think it was a fake out move by Self to not foul but from what I've seen, thats typical of how he handles this situation. Better scouting/coaching by OU may have pointed that out to the OU players at the end of the game and might have resulted in a better shot. Glad it worked out the way it did.

@wissoxfan83
My Keys/Questions/Analysis:
3. This game showed the incredible strong will of the team with how they were able to overcome so many things stacked against them. It was a perfect storm with the refs

Thank you for bringing this up. I think I called it during the live chat that after Self's T, if KU had any call go their way from that point on (which a few did), and managed to win the game, the only thing that would be talked about on national social media would be "home cooking" for the Jayhawks. And sure enough, that's exactly what I am witnessing. It's why I'm glad y'all made this site so I have a place to discuss hoops without having to submit to the Great Satan of Facebook, and then having to sift through all the noise.

@JRyman KMHOF!! (key moment hall of fame)

That was enough of a disruption on the play that it prevented Hield from squaring up with a good look. Good key moment in a game with too many to really count.

@globaljaybird PHOF!!

@JRyman that's also why we have our vets in.

@RockkChalkk He said on his radio show tonite that he asked em if they wanted to foul them or play "D" & they all responded "play D"...

Davis said yeah coach right answer & Bill responded "Yes it was, unless we woulda got beat with a 3 at the end." (chuckle)

@wissoxfan83 Im gonna have to go re watch that game again to pick more out. And, hell, it was probly the best game of the season.