A
few hours later, Taylor’s little sister Tatianya held the sign in her
possession as his family walked out of Bramlage Coliseum following a
59-53 Kansas win.
Taylor quieted a rowdy Kansas State crowd
with two huge 3-pointers in the second half and finished with a
team-high 20 points, leading the fourth-ranked Jayhawks to a gutsy road
win that kept them on the inside track for an eighth straight Big 12
regular season title.
When the final buzzer sounded, Taylor
faced the student section, used his hands to show them the “KANSAS” on
his jersey and began yelling in their direction. As the crowd screamed
obscenities and motioned inappropriate gestures back at him, Taylor
smiled and soaked in the moment.
“They had their time to talk to
me when I was warming up and during the game, so I figured that I had
my time to talk to them a little bit after the game,” Taylor said.
Taylor
did plenty of talking on the court as well, continuing to make it a
mystery as to why he is not one of the 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy
Award, given annually to the top point guard in college basketball.
With
a smothering Kansas State defense keeping big man Thomas Robinson under
wraps, Taylor took over in the second half. After a furious rally by
the Wildcats eliminated a 10-point halftime Kansas lead, Taylor hit
arguably the two biggest shots of the season on back-to-back
possessions.
Trailing 37-36 and with the shot clock running out
midway through the second half, Taylor went into the backcourt to get a
deflected ball and raced up the court. As K-State guard Angel Rodriguez
flopped back in hopes of getting a charge call, Taylor pulled up and
drilled a long 3 as the shot-clock buzzer sounded.
After a
missed shot by Kansas State, Taylor drove but had his shot blocked. The
ball came back to Taylor, who dribbled out and again hit a long
3-pointer for a 42-37 lead.
Taylor capped the 11-0 Kansas run with a jumper for a commanding 47-37 lead with just over six minutes remaining.
“We
were scrambling, we didn’t have anything going for the most part,”
Kansas coach Bill Self said. “They had totally out-whooped us for the
first 10 minutes of the second half. That gave us a little bit of a
cushion and we got it back to 10 pretty quick.
“Ty made some great plays, he made some plays that weren’t so great, but certainly those were huge at that moment.”
Taylor
added five assists and five rebounds in 37 minutes, but showed late in
the game why some have yet to anoint him as one of the elite point
guards in the country. He missed the front end of consecutive
one-and-one attempts that would have sealed the game late and also was
whistled for traveling with 39 seconds remaining and Kansas clinging to a
55-51 lead.
“He made a couple bonehead plays and bad decision
plays, but the guy is playing 37 minutes and he’s just dead tired,” Self
said. “And he holds his guy scoreless. He’s doing a lot of good things
out there.
“He made some unbelievable plays. … Tyshawn has been
unbelievable in conference play. Unbelievable. Arguably as good a player
as there is in our league in conference play.”
Despite some
costly turnovers and ill-advised shots, Taylor arguably has emerged as
one of the elite point guards the past few weeks. He’s had at least 15
points in 10 of his past 11 games and had at least six assists in six of
those games. And Kansas hopes his recent play doesn’t go unnoticed.
They’ve contacted the folks who hand out the Cousy Award to see if it’s
possible to get him added to the list of finalists before the vote is
held.
“I talked with the people, yeah, but they were going to
review that anyway,” Self said. “There’s (11) guys on that list and he’s
not one of them?”
Self said one of the things holding Taylor
back might be his performance late in games. After missing two key free
throws and committing a turnover in a stunning collapse at Missouri two
weeks ago, Taylor again struggled to finish Monday. But Self noted
fatigue as a possible reason, with Taylor playing at least 37 minutes in
four straight games.
“It’s not fair to him,” Self said. “His
body is dead tired. He’s worn out. He told me yesterday he was as tired
as he’s ever been, and all we did was play him 37 minutes.”
But
Self can’t afford to sit Taylor, not even for a minute. He’s too
important to the Jayhawks’ success, and everyone who watches Kansas
knows it.
While Robinson may end up winning the National Player
of the Year, Taylor likely will be the key to the Jayhawks’ tournament
run. When he plays well, Kansas is tough to beat. And one of his best
traits is that he wants the ball in his hands. He thrives under
pressure. And when it means silencing the opposing team’s crowd, he
enjoys it even more.
“After we get a win, it’s my time to talk a little bit,” Taylor said. “I did that.”
Self and the Jayhawks hope he has a lot of talking still left to do.
