I got your motor right here...

Kansas defeats Oklahoma!

Coach Bill Self. Master mechanic.

KUAD: Postgame box score, recap, stats, photos, videos


KUAD Photos


KC Star Photos


TCJ Photos


UDK Photos


ESPN Photos


ESPN Videos


AUDIO: KU-OU highlights with Bob Davis and Greg Gurley

1/19/15, 3:37 PM
The student camping groups prepare to host Big Monday. Camping group Name of the Week: 50 Shades of Oubre.
@JMarchiony


Oh how I miss playing in that ku uniform #BeatOklahoma
@SHERRONCOLLINS4


1/19/15, 8:30 PM
Its Lit in the Field House right now!
@Ntharpe1


1/19/15, 9:56 PM
Feels like we’re restarting the game in here. Insane amount of noise.
@Schustee


1/19/15, 10:01 PM
Rock chalk. That's the way to take over at the end. Now finish them
@mchalmers15


1/19/15, 10:05 PM
Rcjh baby
@SHERRONCOLLINS4


1/19/15, 10:14 PM
The POWER of the PHOG.
Kansas' two freshmen --- Kelly Oubre and Cliff Alexander --- have become major producers. Combined for 32 and 22 in win over Oklahoma.
@JonRothstein


The moral of this story is 20-point deficits make things harder. Oklahoma has been down 20 to Washington, West Virginia, Kansas. All losses.
@MedcalfByESPN


1/19/15, 11:10 PM
The Fieldhouse tonight oh my goodness..
Best fans anywhere no matter what sport
@T_Self11


1/19/15, 11:33 PM
Mannnn... If that's not home court advantage, I don't know what is!
@b_greene14



1/20/15, 12:03 AM
Way to PROTECT HOME! Rock Chalk! #kubball
@Next718star


Over the past 5 seasons, Kansas is 13-1 at home against ranked Big 12 teams, outscoring opponents by more than 12 points per game
@ESPNStatsInfo

TCJ image

The sun came up in the East, set in the West, Allen Fieldhouse didn’t have an empty seat and the player singled out by Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self with a second-half benching two nights earlier bounced back with a terrific effort.

Those four Monday events were equally predictable.

Self knew the only shot Kansas had to win an 11th consecutive Big 12 title was for freshman center Cliff Alexander to play the entire game gushing sweat. So he limited him to two-second half minutes in a loss to Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, and Alexander responded with 13 points and 13 rebounds in Monday night’s tension-packed, 85-78, thriller of a victory over Oklahoma.
LJW Keegan

TCJ image

Cliff Alexander nodded his head and cracked a sly smile. Allen Fieldhouse was exploding in a cloud of noise. Kansas was surviving the night after a wild ride.

It was late Monday night, and moments earlier, Alexander, the Jayhawks’ burly freshman big man, had scrambled for an offensive rebound and kept a play alive. Then, he drew a offensive foul and finished things off with a dunk on the other end.

“I think my motor was real good,” Alexander said.

…“Cliff has been a struggle,” Self said. “He’s the most coachable kid in the world and we all love him, but he’s been a struggle because hasn’t brought the same energy level consistently. And when he doesn’t play with the same energy level and bounce, he just becomes average.”

“Let’s be honest,” Self said. Perry (Ellis) and Jamari (Traylor) are great, but they don’t give us the physical presence like Cliff potentially does. We need that. It changes our team.”

“He hasn’t been playing with that free mind,” Self said. “We just need to say: ‘Screw up. That’s fine. Screw up. Just make sure you do it 100 miles an hour.’ ”
KC Star

Bill Self slammed the LCD screen on the front of the scorer’s table, and it’s almost like he knew what was coming.

There was still 17:40 left in the second half, and his team was still leading by 15, but he’d seen this kind of poor energy from his team in the past.

Though the first 16 minutes of the second half played out like his worst nightmare, his Kansas team — like it always seems to do — ended up having enough to recover.

The 11th-ranked Jayhawks, after needing just nine second-half minutes to surrender a 19-point halftime lead, followed with clutch plays down the stretch in an 85-78 victory over No. 19 Oklahoma on Monday night at Allen Fieldhouse.

"Guys made plays, and our young kids came through," Self said. "It was a great, great basketball game, and an unbelievable win."

…"We played as well as we’ve played — maybe as well as we can play the first half," Self said. "Not just because we made shots, but because the ball moved, we guarded, we were active. We did just about everything right."

…Oubre led KU with 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting. Ellis added 16, while Cliff Alexander contributed 13 points and 13 rebounds two days after being benched the final 15 minutes against Iowa State for a lack of defensive effort.

"It’s just an energy thing," Alexander said. "Me and (coach) both think I need to play with a high motor. I agree with it."
TCJ

@Amie_Just image

Sometimes there is more flow than ebb to the Kansas basketball team.

Like the first half Monday when the Jayhawks loosely, and accurately, jacked 3-pointers. They made eight straight to begin the game, and led by as many as 20 against Oklahoma in Allen Fieldhouse.

Then, on that same south goal, the Sooners thawed out. A comeback the Seattle Seahawks might have scripted turned the gym deathly silent.

No. 11 Kansas had begun to ebb. Memories of a defeat it was handed two nights earlier at Iowa State suddenly resurfaced. But over the last three-plus minutes, following the biggest trey of the night — the only bonus bomb KU hit in the second half — by Brannen Greene, the Jayhawks found their flow and held off the Sooners, 85-78.

This happens. Particularly with this Kansas team.

It can move the ball with crisp precision, perplex opponents with assertive defense and make shots both in transition and behind the arc. Just never for the bulk of a ballgame.

…“They’re really good, and that was a great home crowd and we were lucky to win. Or fortunate,’’ Self said. “I don’t think we go back down there until the end of the season (March 7), and hopefully that will be for high stakes.

“I hate to say this, and fans won’t like hearing this, but you can play well and lose. We didn’t play well Saturday (at Iowa State), but even if we did that wouldn’t have guaranteed anything for us up in Ames. It will be the same moving forward. There are seven or eight teams that will be difficult to beat, where ever you play.’’
TCJ

Big No. 2 needs to start. Period. Or if that's a bridge too far, given his inexperience and the aforementioned "off" moments, he needs to be getting most of the minutes at the 5, or Power 4, or however it's designated on the dry-erase board. The Chicago native started the week converting 64.8 percent of his shots at the rim, according to Hoops-Math.com, and a putback percentage of 77.8. This for a group that went into Monday night ranked 269th nationally in field-goal percentage at the tin (55.2), a roster that we've seen whiff on more bunnies than Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam combined.

Alexander is numero uno in Self's stable in terms of blocks (25), field-goal percentage (.573) and rims bent (we've lost count), a natural closer, having drained five of six free-throw attempts in the final five minutes of regulation or overtime.  After Alexander's retrieval of that free-throw miss, the Jayhawks closed the tilt on a 15-7 run.

…After the game, Alexander was even spotted giving Self a playful pat on the backside, probably out of relief as much as anything else. Because if Monday night drove home any point -- other than the fact the Big 12 is going to be Looney Tunes down the stretch -- it's that, whether at the rim or on the scoreboard, it's not about how you start. It's how you finish.

"I love Coach," Alexander said. "He coaches me every day, wants me to go harder, so that's what I try to do for him."
Fox Sports Keeler

KC Star image

Before the game was four minutes old, Oubre had knocked in three-pointers on successive possessions and had come with two steals. One was the type of play that pleases Self as much as any basketball play.

Oubre knocked the ball from Isaiah Cousins, but Cousins had a lead on the retrieval. Oubre dived and got his long arms on the ball, knocking it well into the backcourt. Again, Cousins had a lead on Oubre, and again, Oubre dived and smacked the ball out of bounds off Cousins.

The cork came off the building, and the Jayhawks fed off the frenzy. Seventeen straight points later, the Jayhawks had a 20-point lead.
KC Star


"Coach Self is definitely one of the best coaches in America," Oubre said. "He knows what he's doing and he's going to teach us a lesson someway somehow, and he's been doing that. He's been molding us to be the best players we can be.

"It's not going to be given to us, and he's teaching us that lesson. He's making us come out and play harder and learning how to really play hard. Just be the best players that we can be. However he does that, I respect, because I respect the process."
Bleacher Report CJ Moore

Getty image

The Jayhawks abandoned the three ball for a large portion of the second half and relied on their free-throw shooting to keep them in the game after a strong Sooner run saw the game tied with 3:45 to play.

Just as all hope from beyond the arc seemed lost, arguably Kansas’ best deep ball shooter sent a bolt of energy through the Kansas crowd — Greene hit a wide-open three to put Kansas back on top by two.

“I thought it was good,” Greene said. “It was a good rotation in rhythm, it felt good. That’s up there as one of the best shots I’ve made here.

This time, Kansas took the lead for good.

“Brannen played very, very well,” Self said. “He made shots all night that helped us win a great game.”
UDK


“I thought it was good. Yeah it definitely felt good,” said Greene, who hit three threes (KU was 10 of 19 to OU’s eight of 25) and scored 12 points in 15 minutes. He played just eight minutes combined the past two games.


“Good rotation and rhythm. It was a good shot. I felt it was good. I was fine. I knew what I needed to do. I had to improve on the defensive end,” added Greene, who said, “of course,” when asked if he’d had some conversations about his play with Self of late. 

“I have to improve on the defensive end. I’m working on that. I’m not a great defensive player. It’s all about improvement and it’s what I’m trying to do. The important thing is we’re on the same page,” he added.

“We knew we wouldn’t shoot like that the second half,” Greene said. KU hit 57.6 percent the first half and was nine of 13 from three. The nine threes tied for most treys in a half in school history. KU hit nine in the first half in 2010 at Nebraska; nine in the second half against Hofstra in 2009 and nine in the first half in 1994 at North Carolina State. KU hit its first eight threes for the first time in the Self era. The school record is nine without a miss, in 1994 at N.C. State.

“We were hot at the beginning. Oklahoma got hot the second half. (48.4 percent second half after 32.4 the first). We got back into a rhythm. The crowd got into it. Everybody’s back to school. It was fun,” Greene stated.

Of the keys to victory, Self said: “B.G. had kind of been out of it and not playing as much. He helped us win that game. He did make the biggest shot of the game,” Self said. “Two freshmen played pretty well, Cliff and Kelly. Everybody else was solid. It was a fun game to be part of. Our crowd was great. We really needed this one tonight.”
LJW

KC Star image

TCJ image

Self said that junior forward Jamari Traylor was bothered by a hip flexor issue during Monday’s victory.

“He hurt his hip about a week ago,” Self said. “It’s been bothering him, but we had no idea it was bothering him tonight until the end of the game. He kind of hid it from us, and I think that was the reason why he wasn’t near as effective.”
KC Star


Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self said after the Jayhawks’ 85-78 win over Oklahoma on Big Monday he hoped to meet President Obama during his visit on Thursday.

“We’re trying to get that worked out,” Self said. “I’ve been in contact with somebody out of his staff or office. It would mean a lot to everybody in our program, certainly our players. We understand his schedule is tight,” Self added, noting the fact Obama is a huge basketball fan should help the Jayhawks’ chances of meeting him.

…KU athletics on Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) honored former student-athletes who were instrumental in the desegregation of Lawrence during the late 1950s.

Homer Floyd (football) and Ernie Shelby (track), who in 1957 expressed their intention to leave KU if some issues regarding discrimination in Lawrence were not addressed, were introduced during the first half of Monday’s KU-Oklahoma game. Before the game, the two participated in a candlelight vigil at the Strong Hall Rotunda and walked with students from Strong Hall to the Kansas Union for a special social justice celebration. 
LJW

TCJ image

NBC Sports: You Make the Call - Was this a charge on TaShawn Thomas?


VOTE for Coach Self: Infinite Coaches’ Charity Challenge 

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:12197367


“Pay Heed. The game you love began here. Respect those who came before you. Make their legacy your own. Because destiny favors the dedicated. And rings don’t replace work. In this game you don’t get what you want. You get what you earn. We are Kansas. Together we rise. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!