Tuesday night marked one of the wildest in recent history for the No.14 Kansas Jayhawks.
With the door wide open for a chance at securing a precious double bye heading into the Big 12 Tournament, if the Jayhawks were to take down the Arizona State Sun Devils, then they would be one massive step closer.
Instead, Kansas now finds itself with a 2-4 record over its last six games, with a win against Kansas State this Saturday an absolute necessity, following a 70-60 loss to Arizona State.
One thing must be made clear, by no means was the game lost just because head coach Bill Self with 6:07 to play in the first half. At that point, the Jayhawks were down 23-16 and had already given up six turnovers.
"I thought we were awful,” quoted Self after the game, when reviewing the team's performance when he was on the court.
“I thought that they were good. A lot of times when coaches say their team was awful, it doesn't give credit to the other team being good; they were good.”
Two technical fouls flipped the momentum away from the Jayhawks
To make matters worse, with 43.4 seconds to play, acting head coach Jacque Vaughn was assigned a technical, which ensured KU went into the half down 40-20.
“Jacque is a relatively mild-mannered guy,” quoted Self.
“I'm not saying he didn't deserve it, but I think it was a situation in which we all could have handled some situations better. But it was a pretty temperamental crew tonight.”
Kansas nearly pulled off the impossible
While in the second half, Kansas did turn up the heat, eventually narrowing the Arizona State lead to just two at 57-55 with 4:04 to play. Bobby Hurley’s squad ended the game on a 13-5 run to win beat ranked opposition for the second time this season.
Senior guard Maurice Odum and freshman center Massamba Diop combined for 42 of the Sun Devils’ 70 points.
Up next for the Jayhawks is the final home game of the season, as Kansas will be set to host the Kansas State Wildcats in the reverse fixture of the Sunflower Showdown. In the first meeting, KU stomped the Wildcats, winning 86-62.
Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. CT with streaming available on CBS.
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