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| Rylan Jones (photo courtesy of Samford Athletics) |
With the win, the Jayhawks improve to 23-10 overall and move on to face No. 5 seed Gonzaga Saturday in the Round of 32, while Samford sees its magical, breakthrough season come to an abrupt end with a school-record 29-6 record. The Southern Conference champions were making their third NCAA Tournament appearance, including their first in 24 years. With the loss, the SoCon fell to 33-81 all-time in NCAA Tournament play.
In addition to winning the Southern Conference Tournament, with a 76-69 win over East Tennessee State in the championship, the Bulldogs were outright Southern Conference regular-season champions, having posted a 15-3 league mark.
The 89 points scored by the Bulldogs were the most points scored by a team in a loss in an NCAA Tournament game since 2017. The Jayhawks improved to 18-2 in the NCAA Tournament in first round matchups under the direction of Bill Self.
Second-Team All-America selection Hunter Dickinson led the way for Kansas, posting his 17th double-double of the season, as he finished with 19 points and ripped down 20 rebounds, leading five Jayhawks in double figures in the win. Dickinson finished the night connecting on 9-of-14 shots from the field, while dishing out four assists, recording four blocks and a pair of steals.
The Jayhawks were led by KJ Adams Jr., who was just two points shy of matching both his career and seasonal high of 22 points, which he established last time out in KU's opening round loss to Cincinnati in the Big 12 Tournament, as he finished with a team-best 20 points.
Adams Jr. finished his night by connecting on 10-of-13 shots from the field, dished out six assists, ripped down four rebounds and blocked a shot. All told, the two front court players for Kansas finished the night a combined 19-of-27 from the field for 39 points, with 24 rebounds and 10 assists.
Much of the news all week centered around how Kansas was going to perform in the NCAA Tournament without the services of leading scorer Kevin McCullar Jr., who topped the Big 12 in points per game (18.3) this season. Kansas had limped into the NCAA Tournament, having dropped its final two games of the season to both Houston () and Cincinnati (L, 52-72) by a combined 50 points. It was part of a tailspin that started when the health of McCullar and Dickinson began to waiver, as the Jayhawks came into the 2024 NCAA Tournament losers of four of their last five games.
Rounding out the double-figure scorers for Kansas were Nicolas Timberlake (19 pts), Johnny Furphy (16 pts), and Dajuan Harris Jr. (13 pts). Timberlake's 19 points were a season-high since transferring into Kansas as a graduate transfer from Towson during the off-season, as his 19 against the Bulldogs topped his previous high of 18 points established just last month in a win over Kansas State.
Timberlake finished the night connecting on 5-of-8 shots from the field, which included going 3-for-6 from long-range. Timberlake also went 6-for-7 from the line and added three assists and a couple of rebounds.
Samford finished the contest with three players in double figures, with All-SoCon performer and 2024 SoCon Tournament Most Outstanding Player Achor Achor finished with a game-high 23 points, as he finished the evening going 9-for-22 from the field, which included a 2-for-6 effort from three-point range and was 3-for-5 from the charity stripe in the loss. The 6-9 junior forward from Melbourne, Australia also finished with eight rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Achor would be joined in double figures in the contest by senior guard Jaden Campbell (18 pts) and freshman center Riley Allenspach (15 pts).
Campbell finished his night being one of the key spark plugs in Samford's second-half rally, finishing with his 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field, including going 5-for-9 from three-point land and was 3-for-6 from the charity stripe. He also added three rebounds, two assists and a steal.
Allenspach provided quality minutes off the bench, finishing with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field, including an impressive 4-for-4 effort from three-point range. He also added four rebounds in his 17 minutes of quality work off the Samford bench.
Graduate transfer Rylan Jones finished out his Samford career in strong fashion, adding nine points and matched a career-high nine assists, while also adding four steals in returning to his home state of Utah. The native of Logan finished out his final game with the Bulldogs going 3-for-11 from the field and finished 2-for-7 from long range in 32 minutes of action for the Bulldogs.
All-SoCon forward Jermaine Marshall finished out his Samford career with four points and four rebounds in 13 minutes of action, having been saddled with foul trouble for much of the night.
As a team, Kansas finished the contest connecting on a blistering 60.3% (35-of-58) from the field, which included a 33.3% (6-for-18) effort from three-point range and posted a 63.0% (17-of-27) from the charity stripe. The Jayhawks posted assists on 25 of their 35 made field goals in the contest. Kansas shot 69.2% (18-of-26) in the opening half of play, which helped the Jayhawks build a 48-38 halftime lead.
Samford finished the contest connecting on 41.1% (30-of-73) from the field, which included 43.2% (16-of-37) effort from three-point range, as the Bulldogs knocked down 10 triples in the second half, connecting on 50% (10-for-20) from long-range in the second half as part of a 47.2% (17-of-36) shooting effort in the second half. The Bulldogs also finished the game connecting on just 56.5% (13-of-23) from the charity stripe, as both teams left much to be desired in the way of their foul shooting.
The Bulldogs, which had 15 more shot attempts than the Jayhawks (73-58), posted an impressive 23 assists on 30 made field goals.
Kansas finished the night holding statistical advantages in the following categories: points in the paint (54-24), fast-break points (24-13), total rebounds (44-35), total assists (25-23), free throws attempted (27-23) and free throws made (17-13).
Samford completed the contest holding statistical advantages in the following categories: second-chance points (12-10), bench scoring (30-6), and points from turnovers (15-7).
A commentary on the stretch run of the game:
Samford's second-half performance was nothing short of brilliant, and it was one of the more inspirational performances we saw in the opening night of the 2024 NCAA Tournament unfortunately, however, after whittled the Jayhawks' lead all the way from 22 points to just one, the Bulldogs had the opportunity to tie the game snatched from their collective grasp late in the game due to a call that simply speaks for itself.
While the call couldn't have come at a worse time for Samford, to be fair there were others that were questionable in the contest, like the un-awarded timeout to Kansas on the play before, which allowed Samford to get possession from a jump ball and connect on a crucial three-pointer that had the timeout been awarded, wouldn't have allowed for such an opportunity.
However, that miss wasn't as apparent to the national viewing audience, and when most of the nation is rooting for the underdog against the blueblood a majority of the time, it's never going to hit with the same equality.
While the call was shameful and given how Samford seemingly deserved to win, given how it was outplaying Kansas nearly the entire second half, it was not the reason Samford lost the game. Samford lost the game because it didn't do enough defensively in the first half and opening minutes of the second half to slow Kansas offensively.
With that said, how do you miss that call? What an outstanding play by AJ Staton-McCray. As a fan of SoCon Hoops and mid-major basketball as a whole, the missed call was disgusting because of how it stole an opportunity and a chance for a national audience to see if Samford could complete the comeback job it had so furiously worked to put itself in position for.
As for me, I'll say I was too hard on Samford at times this season, and that's not because I didn't think they were a great basketball team, but more because I didn't think that style would translate in a tournament setting in Asheville, and as any journalist should do, I own that and I was wrong about that. They finally won me over by winning in Asheville and showing that it could indeed be done.
However, because I was wrong about that, I never once thought that this wasn't a great basketball team capable of great things. I've simply just not seen someone be able to maintain such a pace and expend so much energy and be able to run through the gauntlet of the SoCon. So let me say that was an outstanding job by coach Bucky McMillan and his staff to build such depth.
It will be particularly interesting to see how this off-season, which has already been pretty crazy around the league, plays out with the transfer portal--both in terms of losing talent, as well as gaining talent.
I think Samford will be considered one of the favorites in the league again next season, if not the primary favorite if they can retain Achor Achor and AJ Staton-McCray. The losses include Rylan Jones and Jermaine Marshall, who were a big part of why the Bulldogs won a school-record 29 games in 2023-24.
Maybe the biggest call to action for Director of Athletics Martin Newton will be to try and keep others from so easily luring McMillan away when a bigger job comes open.
Samford fans, as well as its athletic brass now will have a nervy month-and-a-half to wait out both the transfer portal window, as well as those throwing around McMillan's name as a potential candidate for various head coaching jobs to come open in the next month or so.
How It Happened:
The first few minutes of the game saw Samford play toe-to-toe with the Jayhawks, as the two teams got going quickly.
With Kansas holding a narrow 8-7 lead following a jumper from Achor Achor with 17:12 left, the Jayhawks assumed control of the game with an 8-0 run to push the lead to 16-7 and the Jayhawks were eventually able to build their lead to as much as 16 (38-22) following a pair of free throws by Dejuan Harris, however, a quick 6-0 spurt by Samford would get the Bulldogs back to within 10 following a dunk by Achor Achor with 4:40 left. The Bulldogs eventually settled by that same margin at the half, as Kansas went to the locker room leading 48-38.
In the second half, the Jayhawks appeared as if they would be able to coast to a big opening round win, utilizing a 15-3 run out of the locker room to build what was a 63-41 lead with 16:55 remaining following a two-handed stuff by KJ Adams Jr.
Samford began to chip away at the Kansas lead from that point forward, however, getting to within 13 after a three-pointer from Riley Allenspach, which made it a 67-54 contest with 13:25 left.
The Bulldogs continued to zero in on Kansas as the game approached the final 10 minutes, and for the first time all night, the affect of Samford's relentless pressure began to visibly wear on Kansas, especially with its lack of depth by comparison to Samford's.
The Bulldogs got to within single digits for the first time in the second half with just over nine minutes remaining following a layup by AJ Staton-McCray, which made it a 75-67 game. The Bulldogs continued to charge forward, eventually cutting it to a single point, at 79-78, with just over five minutes remaining following a layup by Rylan Jones.
Kansas pushed the lead to seven twice inside the final three minutes, but Samford simply wouldn't go away. With the Jayhawks leading 88-81 following a pair of Harris free throws with 2:16 remaining, the Bulldogs ripped off an 8-2 run to get within a single point, at 90-89, following a Jaden Campbell three with 20 seconds remaining.
It set the stage for the controversial call on the ensuing inbounds play, which saw AJ Staton-McCray chase down Nicolas Timberlake and make what was an apparent clean block, which went off Timberlake out of bounds and should have been Samford's ball with a chance to do unthinkable with 14 seconds left.
However, it wasn't to be and Kansas made its free throws down the stretch to close out a four-point, 93-89 win.
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