Rush The Court

Last night, Oklahoma and Kansas treated us to the best game of the season — an epic triple-overtime thriller won by the Jayhawks, 109-106. It won’t be a surprise at all if that description holds until the nets come down in Houston three months from now. This game had pretty much everything: An NPOY candidate going off for 46 points, clutch moments everywhere and huge calls (and non-calls) shifting the tides of key possessions all the way to the final buzzer. At the end of the night, though, the Jayhawks protected home court as they so often do in conference play. There’s so much to cover from such an outstanding game, so we’ll have more to come a later today, but here are the three biggest takeaways from Monday night’s basketball masterpiece.

• Buddy Hield scored 46 points, but Kansas actually did a decent job defending him! Normally, there would be no way those two notions could coexist, but very little about last night’s game was normal. Hield put together an outstanding 22-point first half reminiscent of Kevin Durant’s lone appearance at Allen Fieldhouse, but Frank Mason stuck to the All-American like glue after the intermission. Hield didn’t even take another shot until 11:45 remained in regulation, but once he got going again, he hit tough shot after tough shot, sometimes right in Mason’s face. In a cruel twist of fate, the star senior turned the ball over with 8.6 seconds left in the third overtime and missed a game-tying three-pointer on the next possession to seal Kansas’ win. In spite of those late miscues, though, he came away with the biggest statement any National Player of the Year candidate has made to this point in the season. Hield’s performance is unlikely to be topped — his 46 points came in 54 minutes of action and included an 8-of-15 effort from three-point range; just for good measure, he also added eight rebounds and seven assists, but it was an outing you had to see to believe.

• The Big 12 title goes through Lawrence, Part XII. Given the way Kansas protects its home court, it’s tough to determine a realistic scenario where any team ends The Streak (TM) without beating the Jayhawks in Lawrence. Teams like Oklahoma or Iowa State have such slim margins for error that if they don’t win at Allen Fieldhouse, they have no other choice but to clean up at home, win the road games against the Big 12’s dregs and notch at least a few upsets against the league’s most competitive teams just to have a chance entering the stretch run. In more practical terms, if winning the Big 12 is the goal, the Sooners can’t get swept by a team like Kansas State like they did last year. If you’re Iowa State, you can’t get swept by Baylor and lose to a bad team like Texas Tech like you did last year. I’m nowhere close to calling an end to the conference race just 72 hours into it, but if Oklahoma wants to make history by being the team to finally vanquish Kansas, they likely need to win the return game against Kansas plus at least 12 more conference games while hoping that the Jayhawks hit a wall at some point. While it’s not impossible, it’s a tall order even if you have the best player in the country.
• Perry Ellis comes through. Kansas fans have had an odd relationship with Perry Ellis during his four-year career. His typical output of 14 or so points and five or so rebounds per game would often result in one of two reactions: 1) There wouldn’t be a reaction because his contributions have become so steady that they are virtually assumed; or 2) like Bill Self so often laments, they’d be left wanting more. In any case, everyone is now getting what they wanted. Since Kansas’ win over Oregon State in mid-December, a game after which Self criticized Ellis for not playing up to his potential, the senior has averaged 19.2 points per game on 47.1 percent shooting to go along with 8.0 rebounds per contest. His full offensive arsenal was on display last night with 27 points in 53 minutes coming from an array of post moves and range out to the three-point line, and his effort on the glass resulted in a team-high 13 boards. It wasn’t particularly efficient, but if Ellis continues to be a pain for opponents and ultimately leads Kansas to a national title, he’ll be a lock to have his name and number in the Allen Fieldhouse rafters.