Playing shorthanded made for a long night for the Kansas basketball team.
The Jayhawks were hoping to win back-to-back Big 12 tournament titles and secure the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament next week, but the Jayhawks fell apart in the second half and lost 76-56 to Texas on Saturday at T-Mobile Center.
The Jayhawks trailed 39-33 at the half, but with Kevin McCullar out with back spasms, the Jayhawks (27-7) had no answers defensively for the Longhorns (26-8).
“Kevin makes a big impact with our team, and he does so many things defensively,” said KU assistant coach Norm Roberts, who filled in for Bill Self. “When you got him and Dajuan (Harris) out there you can do many different things as far as traps go. But we got beat too easy on back cuts and we got hurt on the last 10-12 seconds on shot clock.”
With McCullar out, Joe Yesufu stated and scored 11 points, but the Longhorns picked apart the KU defense. Dylan Disu scored 18 points while Marcus Carr and Sir’Jabari Rice added 17 points each.
“We got to defend better, and we’ve got to get ready for the (NCAA) tournament,” Yesufu said.
Jalen Wilson kept KU in it in the first when he scored 17 of his 24 points, but the Jayhawks scored just 23 points in the final 20 minutes.
“That’s a good team,” said Wilson, who along with Harris was named to the All-Tournament team. “We’ve played them a few times, and they gave us some trouble. What separated them and us today was the easy points they got. They got a lot of those today, and when you give a good team like that those points, it’s hard.”
KU will likely begin postseason play in Des Moines, Iowa, next week, but now the question is whether the Jayhawks have done enough to still get the top overall seed.
“It’s all win or go home now,” Wilson said. “You can’t really stay on one game too long. Even if you do win, you’ve got another game coming up soon. We’ve just got to get better, and this is the most important basketball that we need to play, the best basketball that we need to play. Today obviously wasn’t the best, but the overall goal is still here.”
