The Kansas basketball Senior Day streak of 42 consecutive wins in their final home game of the regular season is still in tact, thanks to a tough, grind-it-out, 83-76 win over No. 24 Arizona on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
And, in fitting fashion, it was the KU seniors who delivered it.
• PHOTO GALLERY FROM KU-ARIZONA
KJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris Jr. and Zeke Mayo all played well at the same time for the first time in a fair amount of time to give the Jayhawks a huge win that they’re hoping could give them some momentum heading into the postseason.
Dickinson tied a career-high with 33 points and recorded yet another double-double with 10 rebounds, and the three other KU seniors combined 41 points, 16 rebounds and 18 assists, making clutch play after clutch play throughout the day.
The Jayhawks led by 14 points at one point late in the first half and actually fell behind in the second half. But they went back in front quickly after each time they fell behind and controlled the game most of the way, leading for more than 33 minutes of the regular season finale.
The win gave KU 20 victories in a season for the 36th consecutive year.
Next up, the Jayhawks (20-11 overall, 11-9 Big 12) will head to Kansas City, Missouri for next week’s Big 12 tournament at T-Mobile Center.
The seeding will be finalized later today, but the Jayhawks are looking at the 6 or 7 seed and will play in the second session on Wednesday, either at 6 p.m. if they’re the 6 seed or 8 p.m. if they’re the 7.
Here’s a look back at some of the highlights from Saturday’s Senior Day battle with Arizona.
LIKES
• A perfect Hunter Dickinson day – He’s had plenty of critics and there’ve been all kinds of times when he looked like less than one of the best big men in the country. But he also always seemed to find a way to put up numbers. I wrote about this a week or so ago, but nothing illustrated it better than his final game inside of Allen Fieldhouse, when, warts and all, the big fella put up a monster game, controlling things in the paint and making life much easier for the entire Kansas offense.
• KJ’s start – You can’t draw it up any better for a start to Senior Day for one of KU’s key seniors. Not only did Adams deliver three vicious dunks in the first few minutes of Saturday’s game, but those dunks — off of assists from 3 different teammates — sparked an 11-4 run by the home team to open the game, and Kansas held onto that lead for most of the way. Adams has always been one to fire up the home crowd with those types of plays. But to get three of them so quickly on such a memorable day for him personally took the place to one of its highest levels of the season in terms of juice, energy and fan & team engagement.
• Zeke finds it – It wasn’t just the fact that Mayo knocked in a bunch of shots on Saturday, although that didn’t hurt a bit. But more that he looked like his old self doing it. He was poised and confident. He played just as well off the ball as he did when it was in his hands. And he flashed a couple of killer’s gestures after some of his makes, showing that he was in fact all the way back. KU needs that — his confidence and his outside shot — to be alive and well heading into the postseason.
• Senior Day love – There was all kinds of love before and after Saturday’s game for the 7 seniors who were honored by the program. But by far the best was the ovation for both KJ Adams and Dajuan Harris Jr., when they were introduced during the pregame ceremony as they walked onto the floor with their family and friends. It was a much-deserved ovation for two diehard Jayhawks, who have given everything they have to the KU program and handled themselves with class, poise and professionalism the entire way. Seniors Adams, Harris, Dickinson, Mayo, Shak Moore, Dillon Wilhite and Patrick Cassidy were all honored before and after Saturday’s win, with Cassidy, Wilhite, Mayo, Harris and Adams giving the traditional senior speeches to a half-full Allen Fieldhouse after the win.
DISLIKES
• Free throw woes – Look, free throw struggles can be annoying because often times there’s not a whole lot that can be done about them. Players practice them. Coaches emphasize their importance. But it’s not like missing a bunch in one game means they’re going to shoot 5,000 at the next practice. Most coaches just don’t want to use their limited practice time that way. So, this may be something that the Jayhawks and Jayhawk fans just have to hope gets corrected the next time out. KU didn’t — and normally doesn’t — get to the free throw line a lot in this one. And that, in many ways, magnifies their struggles when they do get there. The Jayhawks missed 4 of their first 6 trips to the free throw line and finished the game 9-for-14, with Mayo making 5 of 6 after the rough start for the team at the stripe.
• Griffen slow to pull – After knocking in his first triple of the day in the opening minutes — a sign that usually projects a pretty good day for the Alabama transfer — Griffen was way too hesitant to shoot the ball after that. It’s not that he should’ve forced anything. No need to do that. But there were a couple of good looks that he could’ve stepped into and didn’t, electing instead to pass or drive it. He’s had success attacking close-outs and driving to create plays for himself or others. But this wasn’t that. This was he had a shot a couple of times, should’ve taken it and didn’t. It didn’t hurt the Jayhawks in the big picture, but you’d much rather see him feeling loose and ready to let it fly heading into the postseason.
• Not getting back after makes – Arizona plays fast and can be a handful to keep up with. But there’s very little excuse for not getting back after made baskets, when the Wildcats have to take the ball out of bounds. The Jayhawks were burned by that a couple of times on Saturday, the most notable one coming after KU took a 58-57 lead and quickly gave up a dunk just seconds later after Arizona’s Tobe Awaka beat everybody down the floor for the uncontested two.
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