KU basketball can clinch share of Big 12 on senior night: ‘To me that’s pretty special’

The defending national champion Kansas Jayhawks, who during the dog days of January and early February dropped four of five in the rugged Big 12 Conference, can clinch at least a tie for the program’s 17th regular-season league title in the 20-year Bill Self era with a win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.

That fact had Self beaming with pride, following a somewhat shaky, yet hard-earned 76-74 victory over the eighth-place West Virginia Mountaineers Saturday afternoon before 16,300 fans in KU’s tradition-rich building.

“I heard Dick Vitale say today this was the best league in NCAA college basketball in the last 20 years,” Self said. “He said it. Now, I don’t always agree with what Dick says, but I actually agree with that.”

The Jayhawks forced a turnover on West Virginia’s final possession Saturday, assuring a victory that upped No. 3-ranked KU’s record to 24-5 overall, 12-4 in the Big 12.

Second-place Texas, which lost Saturday at Baylor, fell to 11-5 in the league race, also with two games remaining.

“That is a pretty bold statement, and to think after losing what we lost (players such as the NBA’s Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun) you could come in here and have a chance to control your own destiny and win a league championship at home Tuesday — at least clinch a tie — to me that’s pretty special,” Self added.

Of Tuesday’s 8 p.m. contest against the Red Raiders, one that will be followed by Senior Night speeches from two players this year (Jalen Wilson and Kevin McCullar), Self said: “I certainly hope we prepare in a way and the fans appreciate how hard this has been on our guys and what a good level and high level they’ve played at for the most part all year long.”

Happy at what’s happening big picture regarding the league race and a possible No. 1 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, Self was not pleased with what transpired on the court Saturday.

West Virginia (16-13, 5-11) gave KU all it could handle.

Guard Erik Stevenson scored 23 points, forward Tre Mitchell 20 and Kedrian Johnson 15 for the Mountaineers, who fell to 0-11 in games played at Allen Fieldhouse throughout history, all of those games coached by Hall of Famer Bob Huggins.

“I told our guys after the game I’m happy we won, but if that was a second-round NCAA Tournament game our season would be over, that we’d be going home,” Self said. “Hopefully we can learn from that.

“That’s gonna be an 8-9 game (in tournament) against someone comparable to West Virginia, and we’d be going home. Hopefully we can learn from that. I thought Juan (Harris, 17 points, six assists, six steals in 36 minutes) was great and Kevin (McCullar, 16 points, four rebounds, two steals) was great. Everybody else kind of pieced it together.”

An injury to Harris almost cost KU the game. A WVU player stepped on the point guard’s foot with 1 minute, 16 seconds left and KU up, 75-70. He was unable to return to the game.

So with Harris out, first Johnson hit two free throws at 41 seconds to cut the deficit to 75-72. Then after Gradey Dick (five threes, 16 points) turned it over against the press, Emmitt Matthews dunked at 37 seconds, slicing the gap to one.

Wilson (11 points, six boards) hit one of two free throws with 24.2 seconds left and KU led by two, 76-74.

KU then came up with a game-saving stop. Wilson closely guarded the Mountaineers’ Joe Toussaint, who was called for traveling just a few steps from the hoop with 1 second left. KU inbounded successfully and the game was over. The Mountaineers didn’t get a shot on that final possession.

“It’s always great when you can win a game on defense. In my situation, I kind of let one go at the end, but (I) just wanted to make it a little exciting,” Dick joked. “I did that. Winning from defense is a lot sweeter for sure,” he added in a serious tone, pleased at Wilson’s rugged defense on Toussaint.

Wilson gave his version of one of the biggest stops of his career: “The ending was so quick. I was just trying to keep him in front of me. He was doing so many dribbles I was just trying to contest his shot,” Wilson said.

“Being up by two,” he noted, “you’ve got to keep them off the (three-point) line a little bit. They were feeling themselves. They were hot. It was important to make them at least take a contested shot wherever it was. Fortunately they got to the paint and got scrambled a little bit, and we got a good call,” Wilson added.

He is really happy West Virginia did not attempt a three.

“If they hit a three in that moment it would be tough for us to get a (final) shot,” Wilson said. “If we did it wouldn’t be a good shot. We were saying, ‘No fouls, no threes and contest the two-pointer.”

Self was pleased with KU’s defense on the play.

“What I saw was five guys really guarding,” Self said. “I saw Jalen doing a great job on that possession which makes me wonder, ‘Why don’t we do great jobs in other possessions?’’’

Self in calling West Virginia an NCAA Tournament team, was pleased his squad wound up with a ‘W.’

“We got some help today (from Baylor beating Texas). I am not going to leave out of here being negative. I’m leaving out of here thinking we’re fortunate we won and we can be humbled enough that we can get better from it,” Self said.

Injury front

Harris suffered a foot injury that will require treatment the next few days.

“He said could probably play (return) if it was overtime. I said, ‘Three minutes is a huge difference? If you could play in overtime why couldn’t you play now?’’’ Self said smiling after the game.

“They fell on his foot. Juan is tough. For him to say he can’t go back in that’s obviously a big deal. We’ll give him a couple days off and hope he’s able to go Tuesday,” Self added.

Joseph Yesufu (three points, 10 minutes) and Bobby Pettiford (three turnovers, four minutes) have been suffering from stomach flu.

“We’re lucky they played today,” Self said.

KJ Adams left the game briefly with a leg cramp. He scored 13 points with six rebounds, five assists and two steals.