Moments That Popped: Kansas 71, Colorado 64

Boulder, Colorado — It wasn’t always pretty, it was fairly gritty, and, in the end, the Kansas men’s basketball team moved to 2-0 in its so-called “new season” with a 71-64 road win over Colorado at CU Events Center on Monday night.

Playing in the late Big Monday game for a change — it tipped off after 10 p.m. central time and didn’t go final until the calendar flipped to Tuesday — the Jayhawks led for 37:38 of the 40-minute game.

CU led for just 20 seconds.

But that’s not to say that the Buffs didn’t make it interesting. They certainly did, tying the game on multiple occasions in the second half and trailing by just two (62-60) with 3:29.

From that point on, though, the Jayhawks executed to near perfection on both ends and closed out the game in ways that they hadn’t always been able to do this season.

KU coach Bill Self said he wouldn’t go as far as to call Kansas the tougher team down the stretch because he thought that would be disrespectful to Colorado. But he was willing to tip his cap to his team for finishing the game strong and executing in areas that have plagued them this season.

Next up, KU (19-9 overall, 10-7 Big 12) will return home for the start of a three-game sprint to the finish, with No. 10 Texas Tech at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

After that, the Jayhawks will head to No. 4 Houston on March 3 before hosting No. 22 Arizona in the regular season finale on March 8.  

Here’s a look back at some of the highlights from Monday night’s late tipoff, 5,345 feet above sea level.  

LIKES

• Dickinson’s offense – It wasn’t a great shooting night for the Jayhawks, especially from the outside. And there weren’t a lot of places or people KU could rely on for offense. Dickinson was one of them though. Even while facing double and triple teams and extra bodies running at him. He crossed the 20-point barrier on a three-point play 5 minutes in the second half and finished the night with 32 points (a new KU career-high) on 13-of-18 shooting. He wasn’t perfect. And he missed a few free throws and gave up some easy points on the defensive end. But if he didn’t bring his game on offense, KU might not have reached 40. Dickinson played incredibly hard and through a lot of contact and attention all night.

• Stellar start – The Jayhawks opened the game with about as good of a first 4 or 5 minutes as any team could ask for. They were turned up, connected, poised and damn near perfect on both ends of the floor. That showed up on the stat sheet on offense, where the Jayhawks hit their first six shots while racing out to a 14-4 lead. That start inspired CU coach Tad Boyle to call timeout. And as the teams headed to the bench, the Jayhawks received a huge ovation from the large KU contingent in the building on Monday night. KU didn’t stay perfect, but the start was really, really good, and they carried that 10-point cushion with them throughout much of the rest of the first half.

• KJ poster – Late in the second half with KU clinging to a small lead KJ Adams caught a pass on a streak to the rim and elevated like he came off of a trampoline to throw down a dunk over CU big man Bangot Dak. There was an audible groan of “Oooooh” throughout the building and Adams ran back on defense with a bit of a scowl on his face. That wasn’t the first time in the 2^nd half that Adams attacked the rim off of two feet with big time intentions. But it was the most memorable.

DISLIKES

• Long defensive possessions – It’s one thing for Colorado to use the entire shot clock and make Kansas guard for that long. That can be a sign of really good defense by the Jayhawks. But it’s another to have to play long defensive possessions because you can’t clean up the defensive glass and your opponent gets another crack or two on a number of different possessions. This issue lead to KU getting out-rebounded 46-31 overall and 18-5 on the offensive glass. KU coach Bill Self noted after the game that the Jayhawks got killed on the boards and would’ve been annihilated if not for the 13 rebounds by Dickinson.

• 1^st half close, 2^nd half start – You’ve seen it plenty of times this season, especially on the road, and you saw it again on Monday night. After taking complete control of the game in the first 12-15 minutes, the Jayhawks slipped in the final 5 minutes of the first half and led by just 5 at the break. Gassed as they walked to the locker room, the Jayhawks then came out with a 2^nd-half start that was the polar opposite of how they opened the game. No points in almost 4 minutes. No subs in that stretch either. And some ugly basketball, while CU tied it up with a 5-0 run and then took its first lead at 39-38 a little less than 5 minutes into the half.

• Defensive breakdown repeats itself – For a little over 10 minutes, the Jayhawks got whatever they wanted, played turned up and connected and looked great in doing it while building a 10-point lead midway through the first half with relative ease. But then, on back to back possessions after back-to-back KU turnovers (one was a missed shot that never got to the rim and never should’ve been taken), the Buffs got hammer dunks from big man Bangot Dak after defensive breakdowns by the Jayhawks. Before the ball even hit the ground after falling through the hoop following the second dunk, KU coach Bill Self was calling timeout in the midst of a furious rage on the sideline. His anger didn’t subside after getting the timeout. He laid into several guys who were on the court during the sequence. Hunter Dickinson first. Then Dajuan Harris. And others after that. No one was safe. And, all of a sudden, neither was KU’s lead any longer.

WHAT THE?

• Hunter the thief – For the second game in a row, KU big man Hunter Dickinson forced a turnover on the perimeter and went coast to coast for the basket after picking up the steal. Good thing, too, because, after last Saturday’s win over Oklahoma State, in which Dickinson jumped a passing lane to get the steal, KU guard Rylan Griffen told reporters that Self told Dickinson he had messed up because now he expects to see him do that more often. One game later, the big fella did just that. This time, he finished the breakaway with a layup while getting fouled and then drained the free throw for the old-fashioned three-point play. One of the most overlooked elements of this play was the fact that it came on the very next possession after Dickinson thought he was fouled (he was) while attempting a turn-around jumper on the baseline but did not get the call. Good to see him move on to the next play and go make something happen. 

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