Through the Phog
Fansided

Kansas Jayhawks: An Ugly Win is Still a Win

By Mike Norris

facebooktwitterreddit

Unless we are talking about Texas Tech or one of the lower, Mid-Major schools on the schedule, it hasn’t been pretty for the Kansas Jayhawks.

Despite winning their 11th conference game in 14 tries Saturday, with an 81-72 home victory against TCU, the Jayhawks gave the home fans a little uneasiness once again.

More from Kansas Jayhawks Basketball

They let a late 14-point lead dwindle to six, before finally finishing off the season sweep of the Horned Frogs.

And you know what, it’s ok, because a win, is a win, is a win.

This just seems to be the nature of this squad, and this deep in to the season there is no reason to think the Jayhawks are going to change.

If you take away the two, 20-plus point victories against the Red Raiders, the rest of their conference results look rather pedestrian.

  • three losses
  • five, double-digit victories
  • two, 5-9-point victories
  • one, 3-point victory
  • one, 1-point victory

If you break it down a little further, it looks worse.

In three of those five double-digit victories, the opposing team was within single-digits in the final ten minutes. K-State cut a 16-point halftime lead to 10 in the second half.

Going against their norm, the one double-digit victory win they controlled the most was against Iowa St. Despite being the second-best team in the conference, the Cyclones were never in the game against KU in the final 10 minutes.

In the 5-9-point victories, they blew a 19-point halftime lead to Oklahoma, and let the Horned Frogs (3-11 in the Big 12) back in the aforementioned game.

The three-point win was at TCU, and the one-point Baylor victory came only after the Bears missed a layup and a putback on the same possession, followed by not being able to get a shot off before the final buzzer, all in the last minute of the game.

Most of these hard-fought games can be attributed to the fact the Big 12 will put seven of its 10 teams in the tournament, and there really isn’t too much of an off night save for Texas Tech (unless you are Iowa St.), and TCU at home.

At the same time, it happened in the non-conference schedule as well.

KU blew a 21-point lead in Kansas City against Utah before finally pulling out a three-point victory, and had to come from 15-down at half to beat Florida — in Allen Fieldhouse

The Jayhawks are king of the conference, and it would be nice if they act that way sometimes. But, if they play with this same kind of sometimes sluggish, sometimes dramatic style, all the way to the Final Four, who cares?

It happened in 2012 as they trailed in all five games they eventually won en route to the championship game. If it does again, all of the suspense will be worth it.

Next: Kansas Jayhawks: Naming the All-Bill Self KU Teams

More from Through the Phog

Home/Kansas Jayhawks Basketball