Jayhawks

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) &mdash; Dajuan Harris Jr. was willing to acknowledge that Kansas was facing something rare when fifth-ranked and Big 12-leading Texas arrived at Allen Fieldhouse on Monday night: a must-win game.
The defending national champs played like it.
Gradey Dick scored 21 points, Harris had 17 points, six rebounds and five assists, and the ninth-ranked Jayhawks held on after blowing a 14-point first-half lead to beat the Longhorns 88-80 and tighten the league race.
Kevin McCullar Jr. added 16 points, Joseph Yesufu scored 14 off the bench and KJ Adams finished with 10, helping the Jayhawks (19-5, 7-4) overcome an off night from Jalen Wilson. The league&rsquo;s leading scorer at 21.5 points per game battled foul trouble and was held to just two, ending his streak of 25 straight double-figure games.
&ldquo;We knew we had to come in here and get a win,&rdquo; said Dick, who had the Jayhawks&rsquo; only two 3-pointers. &ldquo;The big thing, just in preparation for the week, was coming out with energy. When we do that, we&rsquo;re a scary team.&rdquo;
The Jayhawks needed everyone&rsquo;s help holding off the Longhorns&rsquo; Marcus Carr.
The Minnesota transfer, who had a game-high 29 points, kept answering Kansas baskets down the stretch. His 3-pointer got the Longhorns within 77-68 with 2:25 left, three free throws made it 78-71 with 1:31 to go, and his three-point play got the Longhorns (19-5, 8-3) within 86-80 with 23.5 seconds remaining.
Texas quickly fouled Dick at the other end, and his free throw with 18 seconds left helped to put the game away.
&ldquo;It was as close to a must-win as you could have this early in the season to win the league,&rdquo; Kansas coach Bill Self said. &ldquo;You go down three games with seven left, you&rsquo;d have to win out and get a lot of help from others. Now, we still have as hard a schedule as everybody, but we can kind of control our own destiny where if we play well, we have a shot.&rdquo;
Timmy Allen finished with 18 points for the Longhorns. Sir&rsquo;Jabari Rice had 12 before fouling out.
&ldquo;It was their night tonight in terms of what they got done,&rdquo; Texas interim coach Rodney Terry said.
The Longhorns have made a habit of overcoming double-digit deficits: 18 down to beat TCU, 12 down to beat Texas Tech and 14 down to beat No. 12 Kansas State last Saturday in a game played just down the road.
So it wasn&rsquo;t that surprising when Texas dug another 14-point hole Monday night.
Just like the Longhorns did in Manhattan, though, they began to rally. Texas shook off 10 first-half turnovers to get within 42-35 by the break, then kept coming in the second half. Hunter hit a 3-pointer, Carr added a couple of buckets and it was 43-all when Self called a timeout to slow Texas&rsquo; momentum.
Unlike the Horned Frogs, Red Raiders and Wildcats, the Jayhawks rose to the challenge.
McCullar&rsquo;s three-point play while they were clinging to a 49-48 lead gave them a boost, and Dick added a couple of free throws. But it was back-to-back buckets by Harris, who is known more as a distributor than as a scorer, that pushed the lead to 58-50 with about 12 minutes to go.
Texas closed within 66-60 but, after the Jayhawks pulled down two offensive boards, Dick hit another 3-pointer. And when Yesufu bookended a couple of free throws by Harris, the lead had stretched to 75-62 with 3 minutes to go.
The Jayhawks were able to fend off Carr and the Longhorns from there.
&ldquo;Give those guys credit. They came in and played at a very high level,&rdquo; Terry said, &ldquo;and we knew that would be the case.&rdquo;
BANGED-UP BIRDS
The Jayhawks were missing several backups. Zack Clemence has a hurt knee, Bobby Pettiford Jr. is dealing with a hamstring injury and Zuby Ejiofor a foot injury. Kyle Cuffe Jr. (knee) and Cam Martin (shoulder) also were out.
&ldquo;I thought the bench was great. As good as they&rsquo;ve been all year,&rdquo; Self said. &ldquo;We had nine guys we could put in the game.&rdquo;
BIG PICTURE
Texas has struggled to get off to good starts this season, and it seemed the energy the Longhorns expended climbing back into Monday night&rsquo;s game was missing by the end. Carr tried to carry them but he needed more help.
Kansas got the production it needed from the bench. Yesufu provided the scoring pop but big man Ernest Udeh Jr. and guard MJ Rice, both seldom-used freshmen, also provided important minutes for the Jayhawks.
UP NEXT
Texas heads home after its Sunflower State swing to play West Virginia on Saturday.
Kansas has a two-game trip next with Oklahoma on Saturday and Oklahoma State on Tuesday.

Gradey Dick scored 21, Dajuan Harris Jr. added 17 and the Jayhawks held on after blowing a 14-point first-half lead.

No. 9 Kansas blows lead, then holds off No. 5 Texas, 88-80

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) &mdash; Kansas had a reputation in some corners of college basketball as being a great regular-season team, one that would dominate the Big 12 and win high-profile non-conference games, only to struggle in the postseason.
The Jayhawks squelched all that talk in April.
Leaning on one of the most experienced lineups in the country, Bill Self guided the Jayhawks to the Final Four in New Orleans, where a historic comeback against North Carolina in the championship game allowed them to raise a banner in Allen Fieldhouse for the first time since 2008.
&ldquo;We talk about this all the time, you know, it&rsquo;s much easier to have a great team than a great program,&rdquo; Self said this week, &ldquo;because it&rsquo;s just a snippet of time and things could fall just right for one year, and you want to do it where there&rsquo;s a foundation of consistency that you can, you know, be in the game. And I think we&rsquo;ve done that. But still, though, in order to validate the first one you have to get a second one.&rdquo;
Self paused, smiled, then added: &ldquo;Then maybe to validate a second, you got to get a third one. I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
Whether Self needs another on a resume that has already landed him in the Hall of Fame is up for debate. But regardless, that&rsquo;s exactly what the fifth-ranked Jayhawks are chasing when they open the season in a couple of weeks as defending champs.
&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t remember the first-round losses if you win titles,&rdquo; Self said, &ldquo;so we needed to do that to validate the success that we&rsquo;ve had throughout the course of many, many seasons. ... It certainly felt like a burden was lifted after we won.&rdquo;
The Jayhawks look a whole lot different, and younger, than they did a year ago.
Gone are veterans Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun, both of them first-round NBA draft picks, along with space-eating big man David McCormack, ballhandler Remy Martin and veteran sharpshooter Jalen Coleman-Lands.
In their place are a bunch of youngsters surrounding Texas Tech transfer Kevin McCullar Jr. and returning starters Dajuan Harris Jr. and Jalen Wilson, making the Jayhawks one of the youngest teams in the country.
As the saying goes at Kansas, though, names and faces may change but the expectations are always the same.
&ldquo;All I want to do is reach that moment again,&rdquo; Wilson said of the title game. &ldquo;Coach talked about how fun it will be, you know, but you don&rsquo;t really understand until you get there. But once you get there, it&rsquo;s like, man, it&rsquo;s the greatest moment of your life. And so I have an opportunity to do it again. Motivates me every single day.&rdquo;
MORE ON MCCULLAR
A handful of players transferred within the Big 12 this past offseason, but perhaps nobody&rsquo;s decision made a bigger impact on two programs than McCullar. The defensive dynamo left a big void at Texas Tech by filling one at Kansas.
&ldquo;This is just the best fit for me, you know? I knew it was time for me (to move on),&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to grow as a player. The next step in my journey was to compete for Coach Self. It was the best decision for me.&rdquo;
FRESH FACES
The Jayhawks brought in two forwards and two posts in a four-man recruiting class, and Self said all of them will play. The highest profile belongs to Gradey Dick, a 6-foot-7 shooter, while MJ Rice will remind Kansas fans of Wayne Selden. Six-foot-10 center Ernest Udeh Jr. and 6-8 big man Zuby Ejiofor will provide size in the paint.
HEY, I KNOW YOU
Because of their experience last season, the Jayhawks didn&rsquo;t need to rely on their talented 2021 recruiting class. But all four are back after a year in the program. Point guard Bobby Pettiford Jr. and forwards Zach Clemence and K.J. Adams Jr. played sparingly last season while Kyle Cuffe Jr. spent the year as a redshirt.
HEADS UP
The Jayhawks often played through McCormack in the paint last season, but without an established post presence, there&rsquo;s a good chance they will be hoisting up a lot of 3s this season. Even forwards such as Dick and Clemence that have size to guard a center almost prefer to shoot from the outside, and they have the touch to do it consistently.
SCHEDULE SITUATION
Kansas opens Nov. 7 against Omaha and faces North Dakota State before an early showdown with No. 7 Duke in the Champions Classic. The Jayhawks also have nonconference games against No. 13 Indiana and Seton Hall, their first trip in more than a decade to bitter rival Missouri and a trip to No. 4 Kentucky for the Big 12-SEC Challenge.

The Jayhawks look a whole lot different, and younger, than they did a year ago.