It was an unforgettable night for Bill Self and the University of Kansas men’s basketball team against Houston on Saturday night and for all of the wrong reasons.
Leading by six points with 1:31 left in regulation, No. 12 Kansas lost to No. 7 Houston, 92-86 in double overtime. It was the second home loss for Self’s squad this season.
Still, Kansas had a chance to close out Houston late in the first overtime session and looked poised to do just that with 18 seconds left on the clock.
Leading by six points, Kansas guard Dajuan Harris stepped to the free-throw hoping to increase KU’s lead to eight points.
Instead, Harris missed both free throws and the Cougars took full advantage. After the second miss by Harris, Emanuel Sharp pulled Houston to within three points when his three-point attempt splashed through the net.
After a brief 30-second timeout, Kansas, up by three points, turned the ball over, which resulted in a game-tying three by Mylik Wilson.
Houston, in outscoring Kansas, 13-7 in the second overtime, never trailed during that final overtime session.
With 58 seconds left in double overtime, Kansas pulled to within two points but would get no closer in the final 58 seconds of the second overtime.
A number of factors played a role in Saturday night’s home loss to Houston. Missed free throws certainly hurt, but so did KU’s inability to inbound the basketball late in regulation and overtime.
“We didn’t execute, put it on me,” said Bill Self on Saturday night. “We got a way to get it in that we practice every day and, obviously, maybe not having KJ (Adams), who’s our best athlete that can get open, but we didn’t make a great effort to get open and didn’t call the timeout when we had one.
“When the count got to four, I should have done that,” he added. “And then the second one, we didn’t make a great effort, and then when they threw it in, I didn’t tell them to foul immediately. If something went bad, I thought that was sending the wrong message. So, obviously, something did go bad, and then they make the shot. So yeah, we had numerous opportunities. We played really well. Kids fought their asses off and obviously just didn’t make plays when it counted the most, and they made everyone.”
Kansas, leading 66-64 with 16.7 seconds left in the second half, turned the ball over (called for a five-second violation), right under the Houston basket.
With 14 seconds left, Shakeel Moore fouled J’Wan Roberts, who converted both free throws to tie the game.
Self, after the game, was asked if bouncing back from a loss like the one suffered against Houston is easier said than done.
We’re not going to move on from this,” said Self. “Hopefully, we won’t tomorrow. Hopefully, we will Monday, and put it behind us, but it’s a tough one. It’s a tough one. I think the only one that I can remember that would be comparable, and it wasn’t as bad, but was when Acie Law made the shot against us with Texas A&M and we had that game in hand and they went to the Hack-a-Shaq on us and we ended up missing free throws.
“So that’s the only one that I can remember, a home game, in which it probably, we left out of here probably hurting as much as we did today. But with that being said, guys, two pretty good teams playing, and there wasn’t a nickel’s worth of difference between us, and we didn’t have KJ (Adams), so there was some good to it, too.”
In moving to 14-5 overall and 5-3 in conference play, Kansas, in losing to Houston, was led by Flory Bidunga (19), Hunter Dickinson (17), Rylan Griffen (17), and Zeke Mayo (16).
Dajuan Harris added eight points, five rebounds, 12 assists to just one turnover and two steals, while Shakeel Moore added seven points, and David Coit chipped in two points.
Aside from scoring a career-high 19 points, Bidunga also pulled down seven rebounds, dished out two assists, and was credited with one steal.
Self, late on Saturday night, was asked about the performance of Flory Bidunga.
“I thought Flory did well,” he said. “He just gets tired, but I thought he did well, and he made his free throws at a pretty good clip for Flo. But our five guys that started, I thought, and when Rylan (Griffen) came in, even though Rylan didn’t do a lot of things, but if he’s open, he just shot it and made it today, which was great, which was the equivalent of what Wilson did for them. But when Flo or Hunt came out of the game, we had no offense.
“The ball just stops,” he added. “I mean, it just stops, and that’s when you got to rely on others, and you got to move it and everything. And so that was very disappointing that we didn’t help or cover for Flory and Hunt when they weren’t in the game because we became very stale and stagnant. But Flow was good. He was good. He got some touches around the rim, but you got to understand something. The reason why he got a lot of those points is because Hunter drew a lot of attention.”
