No. 7 Texas rolls past No. 3 Kansas 76-56 for Big 12 title

KANSAS CITY,Mo. (AP) — The players flooded off the Texas bench, right pastinterim coach Rodney Terry and to the middle of the court insideT-Mobile Center, where they couldn’t wait to get their hands on thetrophy crowning them Big 12 champions.

After theseason they had, who could blame them?

It beganunder the darkest of clouds with their high-profile coach, ChrisBeard, fired following a domestic incident. Terry was given the joband the tall task of guiding the Longhorns through a gruelingschedule, and what many have called one of the toughest conferencesin college basketball history.

But afterfinishing second to Kansas in the regular season, theseventh-ranked Longhorns proved Saturday night they were champs intheir own right, blowing out the third-ranked Jayhawks 76-56 in theBig 12 finals.

Dylan Disuovercame early foul trouble to score 18 points and was tournamentMVP. Marcus Carr and Sir’Jabari Rice, who also landed on theall-tournament team, had 17 apiece. And just about everyone wearingburnt orange had a hand in shutting down the Jayhawks, who weretrying to win a second straight tournament title.

“Thereprobably hasn’t been a team challenged as much in terms ofadversity or staying the course,” Terry said, his voice long gonehoarse. “There was no nights off. This tournament, we knew, wasgoing to be tough as well, but we were excited about it, and theseguys’ approach and their attitudes — they wanted to be champions,and they made it happen.”

After goingmore than two decades without a Big 12 tourney title, the Longhorns(26-8) have won two of the past three, and likely wrapped up a No.2 seed in next week’s NCAA Tournament with their performance inKansas City.

“You onlytake this win for one night,” said Brock Cunningham, who was onthat 2021 title team that was then bounced in the first round ofthe NCAA tourney. “We’ll have this win tonight and then we’ll getback to work.”

The Jayhawksplayed once again without Hall of Fame coach Bill Self, who went tothe emergency room on the eve of their quarterfinal for anundisclosed medical procedure. Self’s longtime assistant and actingcoach, Norm Roberts, said afterward that he hopes to have Self backwhen they begin defense of their NCAA title next week.

Jalen Wilsonscored 24 points and Joseph Yesufu, pressed into the startinglineup due to injuries, finished with 11 for the Jayhawks (27-7),who had won 13 of their previous 16 trips to the Big 12 finals.

The questionnow is whether the defending national champs did enough beforeSaturday night to earn the overall No. 1 seed for the NCAATournament, and with it a favorable road through Kansas City in theregional round.

“Give Texas alot of credit. They played really well,” Roberts said. “They’revery athletic; we knew that. Fast. They have some really goodoffensive players. I thought we did a good job early in the game,but then we missed a bunch of bunnies, easy shots and putbacks thatcould have kept us in the game, and then I think fatigue tookover.”

Both teamswere missing starters Saturday night due to injuries — KevinMcCullar Jr. for the Jayhawks, Timmy Allen for the Longhorns — yetthere was still plenty of star power on display inside T-MobileCenter.

Wilson, theleague’s player of the year, kept the Jayhawks afloat during ascattershot first half. He scored 17 points, more than half theirtotal, while pounding the glass and even picking up a steal.

Texas,meanwhile, relied on depth and balance in forging a 39-33 halftimelead. It had to after losing Disu, a revelation in the previous tworounds, to a pair of fouls less than eight minutes into thegame.

“Everybody onthe court was doing their part,” Carr said later, “cutting, moving,knocking down shots.”

When Disureturned, the big man went right to work. He had a couple ofbaskets in the opening minutes, and a nearly five-minute drought byKansas allowed the Longhorns to extend their lead to 53-41 with 12minutes to go.

By thatpoint, about 500 Texas fans sounded like 15,000. And about 15,000Kansas fans were dead silent.

The knockoutblow came moments later, when Disu’s baskets bookended one by Rice,and Arterio Morris added an ally-oop dunk. That pushed theLonghorns’ lead to 70-50 with 4 1/2 minutes to go, and whileRoberts finally called a timeout to slow the onslaught, it came fartoo late to make a difference.

“I don’tthink we really thought about the game was over at any point,” Ricesaid. “We just kept playing, and whatever the outcome was going tobe when the buzzer sounded, that’s what we cared about.”

MISSING STARTERS

McCullar, theJayhawks’ defensive dynamo, has been dealing with back spasms thatflared up again during a semifinal win over Iowa State; he watchedfrom the bench in sweats.

The Longhornswere without Allen all tournament while the veteran leader rested alower leg injury ahead of the NCAA Tournament.

THETAKEAWAY

Texas shot50% from the field but was especially good inside the arc — theLonghorns were just 4 of 17 on 3s. And rarely did they go more thana couple of minutes without a basket, preventing Kansas fromgetting its crowd into the game.

Kansas wasforced to use some different lineups with McCullar out, playingfreshman MJ Rice extra minutes. The Jayhawks rarely seemed in sync,and that was evident in Dajuan Harris Jr. turning the ball over anuncharacteristic four times.

UPNEXT

The Longhornsand Jayhawks are headed to the NCAA Tournament. They’ll learnSunday night who, when and where they will play in the firstround.