Originally published January 19, 2008 at 10:47 p.m., updated January 19, 2008 at 10:48 p.m.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Before Kansas got ready to take the floor in a 76-70 victory at Missouri on Saturday, Bill Self told his team about a “crazy day in college basketball.”
He’d seen North Carolina fall to Maryland, K-State surprise Texas A&M and USC win the battle of Los Angeles over UCLA.
A dejected Missouri bench watches the final seconds of the game against Kansas Saturday night at Mizzou Arena. The Jayhawks beat the Tigers, 76-70.
The players didn’t want to add to the craziness.
“You’d think Missouri would get their eyes wide open and think, ‘That could be us,’” said senior guard Russell Robinson. “So, it put a little more pressure on us, but we were able to handle business like we were supposed to.”
The Jayhawks hardly played perfect, though. They missed free throws. They picked up stupid fouls. They shot below their average. They played like a team that was ripe for an upset.
And for a while, an upset looked like a possibility.
Missouri, a team of maddening inconsistency, gave the Jayhawks its best shot early in the game, leading for most of the first half. Late in the game, Mizzou pulled within three as Daniel Horton made some clutch shots. But for the rest of the time, Kansas showed it still owns its rival even when giving a sub-par performance. The Jayhawks also showed the ability to win even when not playing their best. It's a feeling that satisfies junior guard Brandon Rush.
“We didn’t play good at all,” Rush said. “We had a lot of mental breakdowns, so it felt good to just get a win.”
Darnell Jackson, senior forward, yells in celebration as the clock runs out sealing a 76-70 victory for the Jayhawks over Missouri Saturday in Columbia, Mo. The Jayhawks improved to 18-0 with the win while the Tigers fell to 11-6.
The Jayhawks hadn’t played a close game in more than a month. Since a close victory at Georgia Tech, Kansas had been rolling all-comers, including Boston College, Oklahoma and Nebraska on the road. Each game was a display of crisp passing, tight defense and sharp shooting. The Jayhawks looked unbeatable at times.
That team was gone on Saturday night. Kansas made just 40 percent of its shots. It bricked free throws down the stretch. Players who’d been golden before turned into pewter. Rush missed 12 of 14 shots, and he, Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur all got into foul trouble.
Self gave Missouri’s constantly changing defenses credit for causing all the problems. He said Chalmers and Robinson were more sped up on offense than they had been all season.
Still, Kansas held on. After some Horton heroics brought Missouri to within five with the ball with about three minutes left in the game, Chalmers came up with a steal and found Rush in transition. He was intentionally fouled by Matt Lawrence, basically ending the game.
Photo Gallery
Kansas Basketball vs. Missouri
A photo gallery of the Kansas men's basketball game against Missouri Saturday night in Mizzou Arena.
The finish was similar to earlier games this season at Georgia Tech and Southern California and at home against Arizona. The Jayhawks didn’t look pretty in any of those, but they still won. Add this Missouri victory to that category, and Kansas is starting to develop a penchant for winning ugly. It’s a characteristic Self wants his team to have.
“The key to having a great season is winning games when you don’t play like yourself,” Self said. “That’s going to happen nine or 10 times a year and you have to figure out a way to go 7-2 or 8-2 in those to have a great season.”
Kansas is 4-0 so far in those games. The Jayhawks appear to be a great team, but are they the No. 1 team? Now that North Carolina has lost its first game, it will no longer hold the top spot. No. 2 Memphis blew out Southern Mississippi on Saturday. Voters will likely have a tough choice to make on Monday.
Self doesn’t care what happens. Robinson, on the other hand, thinks Kansas deserves some special recognition after it just beat its rival in a game where it could have easily lost but held on despite not giving its best performance.
“I think we’re the best team in the nation,” Robinson said, “but until you get out there and play that game you don’t know who’s best.”
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