LAWRENCE, Kan. — After leading his team past No. 7 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday night, BYU coach Mark Pope said the 76-68 victory was memorable in part because of where it happened. .
“I think the guys agree that everyone who grows up knows what this place is, and besides, this was the first time I went into a game and I had never seen an atmosphere like this,” Pope said after finishing the 19th. of the Jayhawks. -Winning streak at home. “It's actually pretty special. This is a great team. We're grateful to have had the opportunity to come and compete here. It's one of the meccas of college basketball.”
However, at the end of the second half, Pope wondered if he had disrupted his team's rhythm and cost them the chance to pull off an upset. With 7:50 left, he received a technical foul after a lively conversation with the officiating crew during a timeout.
But instead of encouraging his team with the technique, Pope said it forced the Cougars to reorient themselves.
“I was frustrated at the time,” Pope said. “I wish I was such a genius coach that I said, 'I'm going to get a coach right now and rally the troops.' That would be a little disingenuous. In fact, I was surprised that they called the coach with the conversation we were having… I ended up giving [two points] to the other team and my boys' composure remained perfect. And in this environment, in this atmosphere, that's really difficult to do. “It's a credit to these guys and how together they are and how much trust they have in each other, so I think that was the best part of Tech for me.”
BYU erased a double-digit second-half lead with a barrage of 3-pointers (7 of 15 after halftime). And Kansas struggled to get offense out of its half-court sets, missing key free throws down the stretch and failing to defend the perimeter as BYU turned the game in its favor after the break.
It was just the 18th home loss since Bill Self took over at Kansas in 2003. And it snapped a handful of the Jayhawks' other notable streaks, including an 82-game winning streak at home when they led at halftime and a streak of 67 consecutive wins at home against unranked players. opponents.
Self said he anticipated a lackluster performance before the game even began.
“You could feel this today at shootaround,” he said. “We had a terrible shootaround. The concentration wasn't very good. The energy level wasn't very good. It's nothing from an attitude standpoint. It happens over the course of a season where you have days like this “.
With Kevin McCullar Jr. out for his fifth game due to a knee contusion, Kansas couldn't find the offensive spark to match BYU's energy in the final minutes. Self recently said McCullar, a potential All-American and a projected first-round pick in this summer's NBA draft, will not return this season unless he is healthy and ready to help the Jayhawks in the postseason.
After Tuesday's loss, Self seemed to suggest that the team is moving forward with the idea that McCullar will not return.
“We are preparing as if he didn't. [return]” Self said. “This is who we are. When we're good, we're pretty good, and when we're not, we're not. Tonight we played unfortunately. …It would be helpful if we had [McCullar] back. But we've been dealing with this for about five weeks now where he hasn't been himself from a health standpoint. Even when he played, he wasn't himself. We do not have [his return]. “We hope it can happen, but we certainly don't trust it.”
But Self noted that his team's personal challenges should not diminish the victory for BYU, which has now won four games against AP-ranked opponents this season, its second-most in a season in the polling era (since 1948-49 ).
Pope said the Cougars, who were making their first trip to the Phog since 1971, entered the Big 12 “humbly” and understood the challenge they would face in America's toughest league, according to KenPom and other metrics. But Tuesday's road win in BYU's first season in the conference was the result of a unified team that stayed strong until the end, he said.
“A lot of people don't beat them at home, so this is really special for us,” said BYU guard Jaxson Robinson, who along with teammate Dallin Hall scored a game-high 18 points. “We know we're not done, so we have a lot more to accomplish.”
Information from ESPN Stats & Information was used in this report.
