Kansas missed 19 consecutive field goal attempts during a horrifying bad beat
Kansas needed just seven more points in nine minutes to cover. It got none.
Truth be told, I don’t want to write this post. I’m still wildly upset about this bad beat. And make no mistake, this is about as bad as it gets in college basketball.
I woke up today still angry about Kansas blowing two first half bets and I’m not sure the pain will go away until my next crushing loss. Let me explain.
The Jayhawks arrived in Stillwater for its Big 12 opener with Oklahoma State as -3.5 1H favorites on Tuesday. KU’s 1H Over/Under was also set at 35.5 points—a number the Jayhawks have surpassed in every opening half this season with the exception of one game when they got stuck on 35 points.
It seemed inevitable Kansas would cash the spread and the over as the No. 6 Jayhawks led 29-15 with 9:29 remaining in the first frame. But then the damnedest thing happened! Kansas didn’t score a single point for the remainder of the half. It missed 19 consecutive field goal attempts—not an exaggeration!—and went into the break tied at 29, killing both the spread and the over.
The game flow chart on ESPN makes it look like one team died and the other just kept playing.
(via ESPN)
The reality was much worse. Kansas fell out of rhythm as the Cowboys half-court pressure slowed down a KU team finding success in transition. Struggles to set up the offense led to ill-fated attempts like an 18-foot jumper from big man Dave McCormack, a depressing amount of missed layups and three-point looks that never got close to the rim.
It was nine and a half minutes of pure agony as I went from extreme confidence that Kansas could score at least one point per minute to wondering if KU would ever score again at all.
“Our shot selection wasn’t great,” head coach Bill Self said afterwards. “It’s one thing, we played so well early but we made shots. Then you miss the same shots you make. And you don’t ever throw the ball inside or get yourself in the bonus. And that’s a formula for disaster on the road. And second half. I thought we did a better job. We didn’t get to the free throw line, but we did a better job at least driving some second half.”
Kansas came back out in the second half and found success from the floor again en route to a 74-63 victory that covered the -6.5 spread. But the pit in my stomach remains thanks to the first half.
And it was made even worse by the fact my misfortune became one of the most unreal covers of the year for someone else.
I’m sick all over again.