Kansas botches chance at Big 12 Tournament underdog role as Arizona cruises past Jayhawks in quarterfinals

The same issues that plagued Bill Self's team all season were on display Thursday night against the Wildcats

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Big 12 Tournament needed a dark horse -- a cuddly, lovable underdog for the masses. 

Kansas missed its big chance to fill that role -- along with a lot of rims Thursday. 

Then it got worse, if that's possible this season. Kansas not only lost to Arizona, missing the Big 12 Tournament semifinals in consecutive years for the first time ever, but it got run out of the building late against the Wildcats. 

The dark horse, if you will, was put down before it ever got out of the gate. The numbers showed that Arizona pulled away late 88-77.

How Kansas got to this point is becoming repetitive. Arizona's hostile takeover of the paint Thursday night was evidenced by a 46-20 advantage. 

Kansas has a problem being complete. It doesn't play defense particularly well. Its bench is thin, while Arizona's bench outscored KU 45-13. The Jayhawks don't have an edge on the road. A team that has beaten Duke and Michigan State is also 9-9 since mid-January. It is drafting on months-old accomplishments and about to get its lowest NCAA seed in years. 

"I'd say we're one of the volatile teams in the country," center Hunter Dickinson said. "When you look at it, we've played the best in the country and been neck-and-neck with them. We've been neck-and-neck with a lot of average teams. It depends on which Kansas team shows up."

Hang your hopes on that assessment. 

"I thought tonight we tried hard," Self said.

Which is important. 

Thursday was a symptom, not a diagnosis. These Jayhawks just never seemed to fit together consistently this season. This year's transfer class brought in by Self wasn't good enough.

Zeke Mayo -- the Lawrence, Kansas native who arrived from South Dakota State -- had a tough time developing into the consistent scorer he was expected to be. In a March 1 loss at home to Texas Tech, Mayo went 1-for-7, including 0-5 from the arc. Mayo said he was harassed online to the point Self had to put out a statement of condemnation. 

No matter who it came from -- disgruntled gambler or disgruntled fan -- it was another ugly chapter in a down season. Mayo then rebounded with consecutive 5-for-7 games from 3 before Thursday night. 

"It's not gonna get any better," Dickinson said. "Those type of people, they're not going to go away -- especially if they bet on you, they're going to let you know if you lose."

To Mayo's credit, he has rebounded nicely. It was only because of his 3-point shooting -- 5-for-12, 20 points total -- that KU hung in Thursday. It was only because the Jayhawks got into an overtime shootout win with UCF on Wednesday that the excuses about being worn out were ready made. 

Dickinson, bless him, didn't go there. 

"I don't think you can blame fatigue," he said. "In this NIL era, we're paid to play so we have to be professionals out there."

"Scoring 77 points should be enough," Self admitted. 

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The Jayhawks, now a pedestrian 21-12, were going to hold that underdog designation a) only if they won Thursday in the Big 12 quarterfinals against Wildcats and b) because they had backed into their current plight to begin with.

As a whole, Thursday was entertaining. There were 85 total 3s in the four tournament games, an average of 10.6 per team. The day was inspirational with all the new meat, but it was also foreign to the T-Mobile Center. All local support has been stripped. The day's results assured that there will be a first-time tournament winner. The two biggest winners were BYU and Arizona, which won their first Big 12 Tournament games. 

Celebrity corner featured the owner of the Utah Hockey Club, BYU grad Ryan Smith, seated next to Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, a former BYU offensive lineman. 

That sort of thing seems odd when Kansas and Iowa State have combined to win nine of the last 11 Big 12 Tournaments. Just don't ask any of the local pubs who make a living off Kansas, Iowa State and Kansas State being good this week. 

While the NCAA Tournament fate of Kansas and Iowa State is still to be determined -- Kansas State is out -- let's just say plenty of tickets will be available for the tournament's final four: Houston vs. Baylor and Texas Tech vs. Arizona. 

Kansas, the tournament's No. 6 seed, now has lost its most conference games since Self was a sophomore at Oklahoma State 42 years ago. 

"We need a couple of days of rest," Self said. "We've got a tired team."

Actually, he has an average team. Underachieving, too? Absolutely. Cuddly? Nah, not heading into an NCAA Tournament full of uncertainty. 

Five days after Kansas rallied late in the teams' first meeting as conference rivals in Lawrence, Arizona flipped the ending. It outscored KU 18-8 down the stretch. 

Kansas was pushed around in a place it used to rule -- the paint. Now it must push ahead to an NCAA Tournament that looks a bit like the edge of a cliff unless things change quickly. 

"The blessing and the curse about these next couple of games is that you only have to be great for 40 minutes," Dickinson said.

That has been a challenge for KU all season.