Well, it is certainly March.
While most of Thursday and Friday’s first-round games went to plan, with no teams seeded 1-4 losing, the No. 4 Kansas Jayhawks had anything but a convincing first-round 68-60 win against the No. 13 Cal Baptist Lancers on Friday night.
A grueling first half
The first 8:19 saw the score sitting at just 10-5 in favor of the Jayhawks as neither side could buy a bucket. The two teams combined for an astounding 21 missed field goals through that stretch.
Eventually, the Jayhawks woke up and finished the half on a 28-13 run, which settled the nerves and saw freshman phenom Darryn Peterson notch 15 points and ensure a 38-18 halftime lead, which looked unshakeable.
A tale of the halves to absolute extremes
Through the first 20 minutes, the Lancers totaled a beyond-paltry 21.9% field goal rate. X-Factor Dominique Daniels Jr. was marked out of the game, not being able to get an inch of space with a 1/10 mark from the field, and it looked as if Kansas was going to cruise to a round of 32 clash against Rick Pitino’s St John’s.
However, despite pushing the lead up to a sky-high 26 points, Cal Baptist found a once-in-a-lifetime form that dropped the KU lead to just six points at 66-60, with just 1:20 to play.
Daniels’ second half comprised of a remarkable 20 points on 6/13 from the field, and 11 points from fellow guard Martel Williams put a stalling Jayhawks’ offense under unbelievable pressure.
As a whole, the Lancers connected on 50% of their second-half attempts.
Meanwhile, Bill Self’s offense hit just 40% of its shots, with Peterson being the only player for Kansas to score double-digit points.
A record no one will ever want to break
As Martel Williams’ driving layup to draw the Cal Baptist deficit to just six points rang in, the Jayhawks came that close to dropping what would have been the biggest lead in tournament history, surpassing BYU’s 2012 Final Four 25-point comeback against Iona by one.
Ultimately, two Daniels missed shots led to transfer guard Tre White icing the game and preventing the calamity. Yet, every Kansas fan is going to bed with more questions than answers.
The Jayhawks are set to take on the Red Storm Sunday evening, with tipoff set for 5:15 p.m. CT with streaming available on CBS.
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