Moments That Popped: 10th-seeded Arkansas 79, 7th-seeded KU 72

Providence, Rhode Island — Kansas-Memphis in the 2008 national title game it was not, but Bill Self and John Calipari’s teams put on one hell of a show in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament at Amica Mutual Pavilion on Thursday night.

Unfortunately for 7th-seeded Kansas, the Jayhawks ended up on the wrong end of this one, falling to Arkansas, 79-72, to end their season at 21-13.

It was the first first-round loss by a Bill Self-coached KU team since the Jayhawks fell to Bucknell and Bradley in back-to-back seasons in 2005 and 2006.

Unlike those losses, which were major upsets, this one was not one that anybody will clown Kansas for.

It was, however, one that was a fitting ending for a team that was bitten by the things that cost them all season long.

After trailing at halftime and falling behind by as many as 11 early in the second half, the 7th-seeded Jayhawks took control of the game midway through the second half and appeared to have a clear path toward victory.

But things went south in the final three minutes, with turnovers and issues with execution crushing KU’s hopes at the end.

So Arkansas moves on to the second round to take the St. John’s-Omaha winner on Saturday. And Kansas goes home for good.

The loss marked the end of the college and KU careers of several Jayhawks, the most notable of which are KJ Adams, Dajuan Harris Jr., Hunter Dickinson and Zeke Mayo.

As you can imagine, the emotion from those four, and others, in the locker room after the loss was one of sadness and devastation.

For the loss. For the end. For the missed opportunities and moments they would’ve loved to have back.

They won’t get them, though, and the season that started with a preseason No. 1 ranking ends with a whimper and one of the most disappointing exits of the Bill Self era.

Most of the players on this roster, including all of the guys mentioned above, will be gone next year and Kansas will usher in the start of the Darryn Peterson era.

He’s a phenomenal prospect and a can’t-miss impact freshman. But he’ll need players around him, too. So, the coaches, as they’ve done in the past two offseasons, will have to go back to work in the transfer portal to find the pieces that fit.

They weren’t quite able to do that this year, and a promising start was met by frustration and heartbreak in the end.

LIKES

• Zone, yes zone, almost saves Kansas – KU coach Bill Self said after the loss that the idea to go to a 2-3 zone to get back into the game in the second half was actually born as soon as he saw the Jayhawks’ draw on Selection Sunday. They practiced it, used it, and it worked. Very, very well. After hanging 47 on the Jayhawks in the first half, the Razorbacks struggled to score for much of the second half and did not find their rhythm again until the final few minutes. KU trailed by 11 early in the second half but the zone, and KU’s activity in it, brought them all the way back. For a guy who is known for his severe dislike of zone defense, it was a brilliant strategy and it almost got his team to the second round.

• Zeke stays red hot – In his final game as a Jayhawk, Zeke Mayo did what he was brought to Kansas to do — shot the hell out of the ball from the outside. Mayo hit 4 of 5 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 18 points on 5-8 shooting overall. He made 19 3-pointers in his final four games as a Jayhawk and finished with 89 for the season, giving him one of the most productive 3-point shooting years in the Self era.

• All gas, no brakes for Dajuan – Harris was pretty bad in the first half, but he turned it up and on in the second half, particularly when the Jayhawks went to that zone. He was a meance at the top of the zone and scored in transition on his way 8 points and 7 assists in the final game of his career. Harris was not above criticism in this one. He shot just 4-of-11 from the floor and turned it over twice, at least one of which came at a key time. But without his work in the second half, the Jayhawks would’ve lost by double digits and probably not been in the game at the end.

• AJ’s monster block – Forget for a second that AJ Storr looked so much in the first half like the guy everyone thought KU was getting, knocking in a couple of 3-pointers, getting to the rim and free throw line and playing with poise, confidence and feel. Those things were great. And if the Jayhawks would’ve had that AJ all year, they’d have been a 2 or 3 seed. He and Rylan Griffen split the first-half minutes 12:23 to 7:13, with Storr making by far the bigger impact. The one area that stood out the most, though, came late in the first half, when he sprinted back to challenge a dunk attempt by Boogie Fland and got the ball while knocking Fland to the ground. It was a violent play, but no foul was called, just Arkansas ball out of bounds after Storr was the last to touch it. You’ll see that highlight for a while.

• Shak takes an epic charge – At the end of a track meet stretch midway through the first half, KU guard Shak Moore, who checked in for Zeke Mayo a few minutes earlier, hustled back in front of the charging Arkansas guard Karter Knox and found a way to pick up a momentum-type charge. Sprinting ahead of the play with Knox running at full speed, Moore stopped on a dime between the free throw line and the circle under the basket, took the hit and was rewarded by the officials instantly. It came right before a timeout and Moore, who has missed most of the season with a nagging injury, received all kinds love from his teammates and coaches when he got to the bench.

DISLIKES

• KJ Adams leg injury – With just over 3 minutes to play and Kansas leading by three, senior forward KJ Adams went down after grabbing a rebound and never returned. Self said after the loss that Adams suffered an injury to his Achilles tendon, the severity of which was not immediately known. But Self painted a grim picture of the outlook after the game, saying, “I’m not sure it’s going to be great news.” While Adams had flaws and was criticized throughout the season for those flaws, no one can deny how hard he played and how much Kansas meant to him. For his season and career to end in such heartbreaking fashion merely added to the emotions of the night, with KU big man Hunter Dickinson calling the injury to his friend “salt in the wound.”

• Second-half start – Down just 3 at the break after an absolute track meet of a first half, the Jayhawks were on their heels to start the second half and paid for it. Arkansas’ 7-0 run to open the second half pushed the Razorbacks’ lead to 10 in just a couple of minutes. It grew to 11 at one point and forced Kansas to play catch up for much of the rest of the night. The sluggish second-half start has been a constant theme with this team. So, it only seemed fitting that they’d pay for it on the biggest stage, too. But there was plenty of belief and hope within the program that the do-or-die nature of these NCAA Tournament games would bring a different focus and greater sense of urgency to the veteran Kansas team.

• Early defense – As was the fear when the matchup came out, the Arkansas guards attacked the paint and delivered the Razorbacks’ first 8 points right at the rim. This one was always going to be about defense for Kansas, and the defense to start the game was a point of frustration for the KU coaching staff, which kept pleading with its players to guard. While the Jayhawks were giving up easy buckets to Arkansas — 5-of-7 from the floor to open the game, including two dunks — the KU offense started cold, hitting just 2 of its first 9 shots, both coming from Hunter Dickinson outside the paint.

WHAT THE?

• Late-game execution – The Jayhawks struggled all season to execute when it mattered most, and that certainly cost them all the way to the end. KU turned it over five times in the final 3:14 on Thursday night, watching a late lead disappear and the end of their season come crashing down upon them. Four different Jayhawks turned the ball over in that stretch, with three of them being classified officially as “badpass turnovers.” Had they executed on just one or two of those possessions, they might’ve found a way to save their season. Had Adams been out there for the final 3 minutes, that might’ve helped, too. But it didn’t. He wasn’t. And the season ended in sad but also fitting manner.