1 for the first time since the final regular season AP poll of the 1990 season (March 6, 1990). However, on a missed Oklahoma jumper, the game seemed to swing as Ryan Spangler was called for a foul on the rebound that gave Landen Lucas his third and fourth free throws of the period-he knocked down both. Most of it with Kansas point guard Frank Mason III glued to his torso. The rules explicitly state that defenders can not cross the boundary line, and photos show Mason doing just that.
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Graham hit two free throws to give KU a 107-106 lead.
Fortunately, the players covered over a multitude of sins by the officials. Cal had won the previous 17 games between the two teams.
“When we had a margin, they’d make a shot or two to get back in it. When they had a margin, we did the same thing”, OU coach Lon Kruger said. And then there was Hield. Graham matched his season high of 15 points in the rout but has been doing a bit of everything for the Jayhawks lately, tallying 21 assists, 11 steals and only three turnovers over his last six games. He played 54 out of 55 minutes.
Brice Johnson scored 28 of his career-high 39 points in the second half and grabbed 23 rebounds as the Tar Heels – playing their third ACC game in six days – survived a stiff road test from the Seminoles in Tallahassee, Fla. “When you have a passionate fan base like we have [at Kansas, and at Maryland], it helps you win games you’re not supposed to win”.
More awesome than his raw stats are his tempo-free numbers.
Villanova Wildcats (12-2): Their only two losses came to top 10 teams and they destroyed Xavier by 31 points, shooting 63.2 percent from the field and 52 percent from deep.
It is way too soon to call the player of the year race, especially with Denzel Valentine on the sidelines for another week or so, but Hield has to be in the favorite position right now.
Oklahoma hasn’t won in Allen Fieldhouse since 1993.
Hield maybe hasn’t gotten as much pub as LSU’s Ben Simmons or Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine. The first two came after coach Bill Self bolted off the Kansas bench to protest a foul and was hit with a technical foul with 3.9 seconds remaining. It’s the first loss of the season for Oklahoma (12-1), while Kansas improves to 13-1.
Kansas’s era of dominance in the conference is one of the greatest all-time streaks in college basketball, and it’ll get plenty of attention in the coming months if his Jayhawks win their 12 Big 12 title in a row. I took a step closer and went all out to deny. Self was a young assistant at Oklahoma State at the time, and the Jayhawks would go on to lose to the Sooners in that other 1-2 matchup a few weeks later.
Oklahoma was 16/33 (48.5) from behind the arc (which includes the desperation shot at the end of the game).
“He’s an awesome player”, Kansas star Perry Ellis said on ESPN following the game.
“He (Hield) just kept grinding in the face of a very good KU team that does very good offensively”.
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Nearly two hours before tip-off, he Tweeted that he was locked in – ready for a game that he had been waiting nearly his entire career to play.
