Lucas vows perplexing Jayhawks will be a 'different team' in NCAA tournament
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The party went on -- and on and on and on and on -- just past the closed door, and Landen Lucas wasn't invited.
CYCLONE! POWER!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
LET'S! GO! STATE!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
"That's something that helps us right now," Lucas said as he sat in one corner of the Kansas locker room inside Sprint Center early Saturday night, celebrations ringing in the distance. "Because we know that if we do what we're supposed to do, this will be long forgotten."
This ... this ... was not good. This was Iowa State 70, Kansas 66, the Jayhawks' second straight loss at this event at the hands of their rivals from the north and the Cyclones' second straight Big 12 tournament championship. And the crowing continued long into the evening, thousands of grousing KU fans pointing to their 11 straight regular-season conference titles, glowing Iowa State faithful pointing at back-to-back tourney crowns, a first in program history, plus three wins in their last four games against the Jayhawks, the beasts of the league, the bar, the Big 12's gold standard.
CYCLONE! POWER!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
LET'S! GO! STATE!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
And Lucas slumped farther down in his chair. Suddenly, Selection Sunday couldn't get here soon enough.
"I'm looking more that it's a fresh start, no pressure moving forward," the sophomore center continued. "Just got to go out there and play hard. And know that the next time, we can't let the same things happen. And they'll forget this, as long as we just go on and win games."
So the page turns, the title at the top more or less the same after Saturday's league title game as it was before. The ninth-ranked Jayhawks (26-8) are probably bound for Omaha late next week to start the NCAA tourney segment of the journey, almost certainly as a 2 seed; the Cyclones (25-8) are probably bound for parts unknown as the bestest of the bestest of the 3s.
"You've got to play it (out), wherever you are," KU forward Jamari Traylor noted. "But I feel like it would be better if we were the highest seed available. And then we'd get probably a better chance to just stay closer to home, get a couple more fans in the stands. But if we don't (get that), we've still got to play it out."
Even if it means the same region as Kentucky?
"Got to play (whoever), regardless. It (doesn't) really matter. We've got to play whomever is in front of us."
"What's funny, though, if everybody plays well, you know you're going to end up playing each other eventually anyhow," center Hunter Mickelson said. "There is a science to it -- someone wants to be seeded to avoid this or to do that or play them. I don't really think it matters, as long as we play how we'll need to play. As long as we're seeded wherever we deserve to be seeded, there shouldn't be any problems."
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"Deserve" is a relative term, as KU is counting on its resume -- the toughest schedule played in the country, a regular-season championship in the No. 1 Ratings Percentage Index league -- to pull it across the line. It's about a body of work, after all, not a bad weekend.
And it wasn't a bad weekend, all told; it just wasn't a good one. And the Fighting Selfs somehow saved the worst for last, looking outclassed and gassed at a building they consider a second home. The 13th-ranked 'Clones outboarded KU by a margin of 10 in the second period, 21-11, won on second-chance points in the second half, 8-2, and on points in the paint by a bat-guano margin of 30-4. Iowa State delighted in faking out small (and tired) KU guards such as Frank Mason and Devonte' Graham, or pulling bigs such as Lucas out to the wings and then zipping past them to the dish.
"Yeah, (that's) bad," sighed Lucas, who wound up with six points and five boards in 24 minutes. "And that comes back to myself and the bigs. And it's something I need to do better and adjust to. They were (leading) us away from the hoop a lot, but we've still got to go in and crash the glass. And that's on me. And moving forward in the (NCAA) tournament, I've got to do a better job with that."
The story had actually started very differently: A contested Mason trey at the left elbow put the Jayhawks up by double digits for the first time, 32-20, with 2:11 to go before the half. Graham's triple from the top of the arc pushed the cushion to 37-23 with 45 seconds left in the period. Over the first 20 minutes, the Cyclones missed a ton of first shots, especially from deep (one of 11 on treys) and were allowed precious few second ones (just two offensive boards).
In other words, Iowa State had the Jayhawks right where they wanted 'em.
"We knew they were a comeback team," Kansas guard Wayne Selden, who kept the counterpunches going with a game-high 25 points, said of the Cyclones, which had rallied back from double-digit deficits to knock off Texas in the quarterfinals and Oklahoma in the semis. "The past few games, they have been coming back and we discussed (that) we wanted to keep the attack mode on and keep the lead and keep them from getting the easy baskets."
Which they didn't, didn't and didn't, and out came the Cardiac Cyclones. Fred Hoiberg's crew opened the half by fouling Mason on a 3-pointer, then roared to an 8-0 run, with forward Georges Niang (19 points, five boards) doing his Boris Diaw bit all over the floor, silky inside and out.
Naz Long's layup with 14:47 left in the contest capped a 17-2 Iowa State run that cut the KU lead to 42-40. Some two-and-a-half minutes later, the second-half scoring tally was Cyclones 19, Mason seven, The Rest Of KU's Roster two. Self switched to a 3-2 zone in the final five minutes to muddy up the driving lanes, but the tweak came too late to really stop the bleeding. Down two with 34 seconds to go, the Jayhawks even had a chance to play for a tie, but Graham's attempted lob to Lucas was picked off by Niang.
"That's on me," Lucas said. "(Graham is) feeling kind of hurt about that. That one's on me. I put that on me, personally. I should have just shifted momentum and gone after (it).
"But we can't dwell on plays. We've got to move on past it. But I've got to make sure that doesn't happen in the (NCAA) tournament, because that could send us home."
CYCLONE! POWER!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
LET'S! GO! STATE!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Outside, the party continued, one more scar on the pile. And a wound driven deeper into the flesh by a cardinal swarm that seemed even more prevalent than usual around downtown Kansas City, a sea of red that resembled those usually spotted around the lots at Arrowhead Stadium.
"I obviously applaud Iowa State's people," Self said. "Because I don't know how in the world they can get 10,000 people in this building and have 5,000 waiting to get in that can't get in. It's unbelievable how they took over downtown. And our fans were good today, too, but their fans certainly ... I guess it's a destination, Kansas City is, for their fans, because they packed 'em in here. I think the crowd obviously helped them, but it wasn't a factor in the game. But I think it gave them energy the second half."
The Jayhawks, meanwhile, appeared to be sucking on fumes. Ellis, making just his second start since missing more than a week with right knee problems, isn't close to 100 percent, and Self admitted afterward that he didn't expect that his forward would be. Lucas is battling a bum hip, among other nicks.
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"By six o'clock (Sunday) nobody is going to be thinking about this game," Self said, "and Iowa State won't be thinking about it either by six o'clock (Sunday). It's the quickest turn on an emotional game that we have all year long."
Fun fact: It's the first time a Self KU team has dropped a Big 12 title game, and only the second time KU has lost a crack at the league tourney championship since the circuit started keeping records in 1997. Fun fact No. 2: Those first title-game losers, in 2002, circled the wagons and rolled all the way to the national semifinals, where they lost to eventual champion Maryland.
Dare to dream?
Or dream on?
"As soon as tournament play comes around," Lucas promised, "we'll be a different team."
You'd think. At this point, you'd hope.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
