Kansas
Dan Skillings Jr. scores 25, Cincinnati beats short-handed No. 16 Kansas 72-52 in Big 12 Tournament
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cincinnati coach Wes Miller admitted he was up late preparing to face No. 16 Kansas in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, and a big reason why was he didn’t know how the Jayhawks would play without Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr.
The conference’s two leading scorers were out with injuries Wednesday night.
“It was hard. You take out two guys who have done so much all year, both ends of the floor, you don’t know how they’re going to adjust. That part is difficult,” Miller said. “I thought our guys did a nice job with the game plan.”
So nice, in fact, the Bearcats were able to empty their bench in the final minute.
Dan Skillings Jr. poured in 25 points, John Newman III added 12 and the No. 11 seed Bearcats rolled to a 72-52 victory, picking up another important win for their resume as they try to elbow their way into the NCAA Tournament.
Up next for Cincinnati (20-14) is No. 14 Baylor — the third seed in the league tourney — in the quarterfinals Thursday.
“We didn’t start the year to say, ‘Hey, the goal is to get to 20 wins.’ We’re not popping champagne or anything like that,” Miller said. “You do recognize things that have value, and getting 20 wins is something.”
Dickinson missed the game after dislocating his shoulder in a 30-point loss to Houston last weekend, while McCullar has been dealing with a knee injury. Coach Bill Self expects both to practice Monday ahead of the NCAA Tournament, but that didn’t help the 12-time Big 12 Tournament champions when they stepped on the floor against the Bearcats.
In fact, the situation grew more dire for the Jayhawks when, trailing 43-38 with just over 10 minutes left, they watched Elmarko Jackson come up hobbling, then saw KJ Adams Jr. crash to the floor defending a fast break and briefly leave the game.
Adams returned to lead No. 6 seed Kansas (22-10) with 22 points. Jackson also was able to finish and scored five.
“Obviously we were bad offensively and didn’t make shots — didn’t make any shots,” Self said, “and today was a night that things had to go a lot better for us shooting the basketball to have a chance.”
The fact that the Jayhawks were close at all in the second half was noteworthy.
Day Day Thomas, who hit seven 3s and scored 29 points in Cincinnati’s opening win over West Virginia, remained hot from behind the arc in the first half. Simas Lukosius, who also had seven 3s and scored 31 a day earlier, did some damage at the rim. And by the time the Jayhawks came up empty on a final possession of the first half, they were facing a 38-25 hole.
Kansas dug out by holding the Bearcats to a 1-for-13 start from the field in the second half, and they were helped by a heavily pro-Jayhawks crowd inside T-Mobile Center that roared when their team closed within 40-38 with 13:30 to go.
But Kansas kept missing open looks, and that gave the Bearcats an opportunity to rebuild their lead.
“That start of the second half, we just got really stagnant. We had some good looks early, they didn’t go, and we got a little tight and stopped playing aggressively,” Miller said. “I thought our guys looked around and said, ‘We’re going to go do it,’ and we got aggressive again, and then we had some good things happen.”
SILVER LINING
Self was back on the sideline after missing last year’s Big 12 tourney when he was hospitalized with a heart issue. Kansas went to the finals without him, losing there to Texas, before playing without the Hall of Fame coach in the NCAA Tournament.
“Yeah, a year ago today I was messed up,” Self said. “So yeah, from that standpoint, I feel a heck of a lot better than a year ago, and today I’m not exactly happy or feeling great.”
UP NEXT
Cincinnati lost 62-59 at Baylor on Jan. 13 when Lukosius missed two 3s in the closing seconds. The rematch will be even tougher with the Bears rested and the Bearcats playing for the third time in three days.
Kansas was once considered a potential No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Now, it could be looking at the No. 4 or 5 line on Selection Sunday. The big question is how much the selection committee will weigh the Jayhawks’ injuries.
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In the last four years, the University of Arkansas has gotten the better of the Kansas Jayhawks in postseason play.
In 2022, the Razorbacks defeated KU football 55-53 in a triple-overtime thriller in Memphis during the Liberty Bowl. A year later, No. 8 seed Arkansas upset No. 1 seed KU (and reigning college basketball champions) in the NCAA Tournament by a single point (72-71) to end Kansas basketball’s chances of a repeat. In 2025, Arkansas pulled off another upset in the Big Dance when the No. 10 seed Razorbacks defeated No. 7 KU 79-72 to advance to the Sweet 16.
Needless to say, there were plenty of Jayhawk fans hoping for revenge this weekend when Arkansas was announced as the No. 2 seed in the Lawrence Regional – and KU baseball delivered in a big way with a sweep over the Razorbacks to reach the program’s first-ever Super Regionals appearance.
KU came from behind in both games to earn a 5-3 victory on Saturday and a 13-10 win on Sunday night at Hoglund Ballpark.
On Saturday, Arkansas took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second before a Tyson LeBlanc RBI tied things up in the bottom of the third. Each team scored two in the fifth and remained deadlocked until KU pulled away late with a Dairel Osoria run in the seventh and a solo home run by Augusto Mungarrieta in the eighth to seal the win.
After Arkansas beat Northeastern in a narrow 10-9 contest on Sunday afternoon, KU and Arkansas met again on Sunday evening in a highly anticipated matchup that saw a lot of offensive firepower on display.
The Razorbacks jumped out to a 5-0 lead through three innings before KU had a monster performance in the top of the fourth. Osoria led things off with a solo home run before Brady Ballinger hit an RBI single to score Jordan Bach and Max Soliz Jr. had an RBI single to score Dylan Schlotterback. Then LeBlanc showed his All-American talents once again in a big moment by hitting a three-run home run to deep center field to put the Jayhawks ahead 6-5.
From there, KU would never relinquish the lead after scoring two runs in the fifth inning and three in the sixth. The Jayhawks tacked on two more in the top of the eighth to give the team its 13th score of the game.
The Jayhawks are now 45-16 on the season – tied for the most wins in a season in program history with the 1993 team that reached the College World Series.
KU will now move on to the Super Regionals which start Friday, June 5. If Oklahoma beats Georgia Tech tomorrow, KU will get the chance to host as they did this week. If Georgia Tech wins, the Jayhawks will head to Atlanta with a spot in the College World Series on the line.
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KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas, including Olathe and Lenexa. Share your story idea with Olivia.
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If the motto to live by is to get 1 hour of movement a day, the Parkinson’s community in Kansas City is exceeding it.
Bob Zipse has been fighting Parkinson’s for 10 years. He said the diagnosis hit him hard.
Leawood’s Parkinson’s Exercise and Wellness Center expands services as diagnoses climb
“I was super depressed. I mean, I was in a chair. Did you want to move? Look around, just horrible. Because there’s no resources. Where do I go with the time?”
Zipse said the disease can be an isolating experience.
KSHB
“Parkinson’s, I say, is a very lonely, lonely disease. Either people don’t want to deal with you, or you’re embarrassing.”
He found the Parkinson’s Exercise and Wellness Center at his lowest point. Now, he sees people around him pushing past their limits.
“You see people out here, they’re in the mid-70s, they’re doing push-ups, sit-ups, lifting weights. I mean, it’s amazing, really,” Zipse said. “In here, we’re all the same.”
Sarissa Curry founded the center after seeing the power of healing through exercise and recognizing that diagnosis rates were increasing. An aging population and younger diagnoses are among the biggest factors driving that trend.
Kansas consistently ranks as having one of the highest Parkinson’s disease diagnoses and mortality rates in the United States, second only to Nebraska. According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, an estimated 20,000 people in the Kansas City metro alone are living with the disease.
“You see your neurologist once every six months to a year, and you see a physical therapist maybe a couple of months out of the year. Community-based programs are here every day to support this community,” Curry said.
Curry said the warning signs of rising Parkinson’s rates have been visible for years.
“They have been predicting this increase in Parkinson’s for many years. They were able to see the writing on the wall, they were able to see how the population was aging, and they knew that this was coming. We paid attention.”
She expanded the center to serve as an all-encompassing resource for people like Zipse.
KSHB
“I’d hate to wager what I would have been like. Life would have stopped for me, I think. This at least gives me hope, gives me some work towards and see some benefit of it,” Zipse said.
The PEWC will host a ribbon cutting on Wednesday, June 3, at 3:30 p.m. The community is invited to attend to learn more about the center’s services and the disease as incidence rates continue to rise each year.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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