Depleted KU Jayhawks averted collapse vs. Samford with breaks, breakout contributions

Pardon Bill Self if he looked glum or subdued leaving the Delta Center court late Thursday night after his Kansas team epitomized the “survive and advance” mantra Jim Valvano popularized by fending off Samford 93-89 in its NCAA Tournament opener.

“If it appeared that way, then I was wrong; I’m thrilled,” Self said in a hallway after his fourth-seeded Jayhawks advanced to the Round of 32 to take on No. 5 seed Gonzaga on Saturday afternoon.

Just the same …

“I’m really tired, OK?” he said, smiling. “So I want to go crash.”

Small wonder after his Jayhawks were virtually taken to the limit by the ceaselessly nagging 13th-seeded Bulldogs, who with a berserk flurry of 3-pointers cut Kansas’ 22-point second-half lead to one in the final 22 seconds.

“I don’t think I ever played in a game — ever, ever — where there was never a break in the action,” Self said. “There was always something going on.”

So much so that Samford might well have taken a lead that could have punctured KU’s hold on the game if not for a phantom foul call assessed on Samford’s A.J. Staton-McCray with 14 seconds left.

Crushed as he was after the game, Samford coach Bucky McMillan handled that aspect with admirable perspective.

“I’m not faulting the call. Some people can see it different ways,” he said. “But I was really proud of our guys’ ability to go make a play.”

And with no whistle there, he added, “We’re going to have a numbers advantage to go the other way to advance to Round 2. That’s how close the game was. … It is what it is.”

And, well, that it is. Those calls, alas, happen, and Kansas was fortunate to have that go its way.

But that wasn’t the essence of this game.

Nor was the story only about how narrow the victory was.

Or just about how vulnerable KU remains to the 3 ... as it was once again outscored by a whopping margin beyond the arc via 16 Samford treys to its six. Or merely how it almost imploded from another frequent liability in the form of 18 turnovers.

And simply how precarious any game for them is with such depleted depth that Self basically used a six-man rotation — three of whom had four fouls by game’s end.

“I wanted (to use) eight,” Self said, “but I wasn’t real pleased with a couple situations. So we had to play six guys, and that’s hard to do.”

All of those are true. And, really, lurk as their downfall.

But beyond those familiar issues, something different happened.

“We needed some guys to do some things that they haven’t done yet in order to get the win,” said Self, tacitly acknowledging the absence of star guard Kevin McCullar due to the bone bruise in his knee that will keep him out the rest of the season.

Beyond Hunter Dickinson’s monster return with 19 points, 20 rebounds and four blocked shots, KJ Adams’ 20 points and Dajuan Harris’ 13 points and seven assists, those things included freshman Johnny Furphy’s best game in a month (16 points) and, most notably of all, Timberlake’s KU-best 19 points in his NCAA Tournament debut.

Not only did Timberlake, a senior transfer from Towson, hit the two free throws with 14 seconds left to make it 92-89, but he also hit a key 3 in the final minutes.

“He was as good a player as we had today,” Self said.

The victory also was sealed by freshman Elmarko Jackson nabbing a rebound off a Samford miss and throwing it off a Bulldog out of bounds.

None of which is to say KU is fixed. Going any further at all will be a steep order, and Gonzaga poses infinitely more athletic challenges to the Jayhawks’ issues than did Samford.

Self knows that, knows this game could easily have gone the other way for a variety of reasons — including what he called “some really non-basketball IQ plays.”

But … they won.

Despite all kinds of distractions and flaws, and because guys stepped up and they got some breaks and simply found a way amid the increasingly underdog-rooting crowd chanting, “Let’s go, Samford.”

When it was suggested to Adams and Timberlake that it almost seemed like a road game, Self interrupted and said, “Seemed like? God almighty, it doesn’t get this loud in our league.”

Reckoning those were Gonzaga fans mostly, Kansas can expect that to be ratcheted up a notch on Saturday — just like the competition itself.

But you can’t win if you don’t play.

And upset averted, KU’s strange season — from preseason No. 1 to a late-season funk — lives on.

After the game, Adams was asked about withstanding Samford’s comeback but gave an answer also apt for what’s ahead.

“We’re in March Madness now,” he said. “A lot of crazy stuff happens.”

Draining as it was thrilling for Self on Thursday.