‘We’re crushed right now’: Bill Self on 2OT loss to Houston ... and how KU will respond

The agony of defeat gripped Kansas’ basketball players in a somber Allen Fieldhouse locker room Saturday night after the No. 12-ranked Jayhawks squandered a six-point lead with 1:31 left in regulation and another six-point lead with 18 seconds left in overtime in a 92-86 double-overtime loss to No. 7 Houston.

“That’s like a gut punch,” KU senior forward Hunter Dickinson said after the Jayhawks dropped to 5-3 overall in the Big 12 Conference and 14-5 overall. Houston improved to 8-0 in the league and 16-3 overall.

“Up six with 16 seconds left, it’s a crushing loss. It feels terrible, like we went to a battle for however many minutes we were out there and did everything we were supposed to do to win but at the end didn’t make the right plays to finish it out. I think our character will be tested a lot in these next couple days,” Dickinson added, “because obviously it’s heartbreaking and that’s what the mood in the locker room was, shock of what happened.”

Junior guard Rylan Griffen, who would have been one of the main heroes for KU had the Jayhawks closed the game out right — he hit one 3 the first half, two 3s the second half and two in the first OT for 17 points — couldn’t escape the feeling KU gave one away, at home nonetheless.

KU also lost to West Virginia at Allen Fieldhouse this season.

“I’m just upset we didn’t come out with the win. We had the game won,” Griffen said. “We felt we should have won or deserved to win until the very end. It’s a learning experience for later. I’d rather make the mistake now than March. It’s good to see we have a lot to work on.”

Griffen had 17 points, seven rebounds in 31 minutes.

KU coach Bill Self acknowledged it’d be difficult for his team to recover mentally in time for Tuesday’s 7 p.m. home game against UCF.

“Obviously we’re crushed right now,” Self said. “We played a team that could win a national championship and we actually controlled the game for the most part. We had our best free throw shooters at the line.”

That included Dajuan Harris, who missed two critical free throws with 18 seconds left in overtime with KU up 79-73 and ready for the fans to begin the “Rock Chalk” chant if he had hit one of them.”

“After one like this … we’re not going to move on from this,” Self added. “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.”

He continued: “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 when we had that game in hand, and they went to the Hack-a-Shaq on us and we (KU big men) ended up missing free throws. So that’s the only one that I can remember — a home game in which probably we left out of here probably hurting as much as we did today.

“That being said, those were two pretty good teams playing and there wasn’t a nickel’s worth of difference between us, and we didn’t have K.J. (Adams, who missed his third game with a shoulder separation). So there was some good to it too.”

The other heartbreaker Self was referring to was a 69-66 loss in regulation to a 19-3 Texas A&M team on Feb. 3, 2007 at Allen. KU blew a six-point lead in the final 2:50. Law made a 3 with 0:25 left to give the Aggies a one-point lead.

On Saturday, KU lost a two-overtime game in Allen for for the second time in the building’s history. The other 2OT loss inside Allen came against No. 3-ranked Kansas State on Feb. 3, 1958 (79-75). The last 2OT loss for Kansas came at Texas Tech on Feb. 14, 2005 (80-79).

“This was a big game obviously, that everybody was turned up for, but there’s been a lot of big games in February that aren’t very big in March, but we need to bounce back and show some toughness and all that stuff,” Self said. “And our guys will. The crowd was great today. Everything about it was terrific except we didn’t get it done and we’ve got to correct some things when we’re in that situation. Again, we will, but it was a good college basketball game.”

There were a few key moments to point to.

First, senior guard Zeke Mayo (16 points, nine rebounds) went up for a 3 and may have drawn contact (with no foul) with under a minute left in regulation and KU up 66-62. Had he been sent to the line and made three free throws, KU might have iced the game.

“Zeke (who was 1-of-8 from 3) lifted the guy (defender) on the corner 3 and I’ll have to watch it, but game’s over if that’s called and it wasn’t,” Self said. “And it may have been a good no call, but I haven’t seen it yet.”

Mayo committed two vital turnovers on inbounds passes off Houston’s full-court press. KU was up two points with 16.6 left in regulation when he was called for a five-second inbounds violation. Two free throws by J’Wan Robert tied it at 66 with 13.9 seconds left. KU turned it over on the Jayhawks’ final possession of regulation.

Also, Mayo had an inbounds pass stolen with seven seconds left in the first overtime, with Mylik Wilson burying a 3 to force a second OT with two seconds to play.

“We didn’t execute, put it on me,” Self said of being unable to get the ball inbounded twice. “We’ve got a way to get it in that we practice every day and obviously maybe not having KJ 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 (call time). 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. The kids fought their (butt) off and obviously just didn’t make plays when it counted the most and (Houston) made every one.”

Of the victory, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said: “I know the significance of winning here for anybody. There’s far better coaches than I am that haven’t won here for different reasons. To win the way we won in double overtime speaks for this program’s culture — how tough our kids are, our ability to hang in there. Their size will be a factor for whoever they play. Our maturity showed tonight. We had some guys not play very well, but they played hard. They played tough. Sometimes that is enough.”