Jayhawk Talk: An Allen Classic

It is funny how my relationship with sports in general and Kansas basketball in particular has changed in recent years. As I get older, I’m less fired up than I used to be. Or, better stated, less fired up as often. I can still work up some intensity, but it doesn’t last as long, good or bad. My family might argue, as there are still plenty of times when I’m either cussing in anger or roaring when a big play happens. Those moments just don’t happen as often, aren’t quite as intense, and pass quicker than they used to.

Then along comes a game like last night’s win over #1 Arizona.

There was 48 hours of buildup for it, including all the stats I dropped yesterday that made it seem even bigger. I was genuinely excited for it all day Monday.

Then, five minutes before tip, came news that Darryn Peterson was out with “flu-like symptoms.” There was much eye rolling and angst amongst the Jayhawk faithful as this news spread. His illness was probably totally legit, but when a player has missed as many games as he has this year, they tend to lose sympathy from fans. “Take some Tamiflu and get on the court,” was the general sentiment in my circle of KU fans.

So when I turned the game on at 9:00,[1] my expectations were low. I turned to a tried-and-true deflection technique of keeping a bunch of tabs open on the laptop searching for info on a few projects I am working on. I can’t get too annoyed by the presumed loss if I’m not totally focused on it! Hell, I might get to go to bed at a decent time.

(Narrator’s voice: he did not get to bed at a decent time.)

Flory Bidunga and Melvin Council Jr. and Bryson Tiller and Jamari McDowell all flipped me the bird, played their asses off, and created one of the great nights in Allen Fieldhouse history.

Arizona is so good, and so tough. KU was working so hard to get points through the first 25–30 minutes, and UA would come down and casually hit a shot without much visible effort. KU would seemingly spend all their energy to go on a 5–0 run to cut the lead, then the Wildcats would make three passes and find a wide-open shooter who would splash the shot. So demoralizing.

The Arizona lead was 11 three minutes into the second half and it really felt like KU had ridden the wave as far as they could. The predictable blowout was coming.

Then Council drained a 3 and brought some life to the building. It was slow and uncertain at first, but eventually it was the comeback that felt inevitable, not the loss. That was an all-time Fieldhouse crowd. Even through the TV you could feel them picking the KU players up. Arizona never seemed super rattled, the way some teams fall apart in Allen. Rather, the intensity of the crowd and KU’s defense just had them making a serious of small, poor choices that added up.

When Bidunga hit a layup with nine minutes left, KU took a lead they never relinquished. KU led by six twice, once with just 50 seconds left, but just had to make it interesting, with a couple bad shots here, a missed free throw there, and a horrific turnover on an inbounds pass to top it off.

This was their night, though, and they held on.

The undefeated had been defeated. KU finally beat a #1 ranked team in Allen. Bill Self still hasn’t lost at home on Big Monday. His reaction after was incredible. There was the pumping of fists, which has only happened a few times. There was the bear hug for Bidunga. There was the walking around the acknowledge the crowd, which I don’t recall him ever doing. This year has certainly been trying on him, both because of his health and because of the whole DP situation. A moment that, temporarily, eased all that pressure played out on national TV.

I never got too down when UA was ahead, or too up when KU was rallying. Until those last five minutes. Then I was all-in and totally engaged. I stayed up another hour to watch all the press conferences as they hit YouTube.[2] I figured this was a terrible time to have a late beer and risk triggering my Afib, so I had a second NA beer. Which, shockingly, didn’t do much to calm me. I tried to go to bed at 12:30 but tossed and turned for over an hour until I went downstairs to read a little more about the game and do some other stuff to try to turn my brain off. Back to bed at 2:30, thankfully finally to sleep shortly after. My schedule is obviously wide open, so I could have slept in. But I always hear S getting ready, and L likes to bang around down the hall while she’s prepping for school, so I was up at my normal time. A little more caffeine than normal, perhaps a quick nap in the afternoon. I’ll be fine. And it was totally worth it.

Another difference about me at 54½: I’m not going to crank out a list of my top games at Allen Fieldhouse to put last night in context. Not only was this a big game, it was a great game. It would slide in right up there with the West Virginia comebacks, multiple Kentucky games, the OU triple OT game, the UCLA game, the 1993 IU game, and so on. In the moment it feels as big as all of those. How this team does the next six weeks will determine whether it was a blip in time or part of something greater.