There’s a certain magic to Kansas’ Phog Allen Fieldhouse, a building in which seemingly inexplicable things routinely happen late in games to doom visiting teams.
On Saturday night, whatever supernatural forces there might be inside the 80-year-old arena worked against the Jayhawks.
Coach Bill Self’s team squandered a six-point lead over Houston with fewer than 10 seconds remaining before ultimately falling 92-86 in double overtime in a matchup of top-15 teams.
How does a squad as talented and experienced as Kansas manage to blow a multi-possession advantage in such a short period of time, with all of that unfolding in front of what’s arguably the best home-court advantage in the sport?
It took a special, difficult-to-replicate sequence of events.
The Jayhawks led by six, 79-73, in overtime after a pair of Rylan Griffen free throws with 28 seconds remaining. Looking to get his team within a basket, Houston’s LJ Cryer misfired on a 3-pointer, which was collected by Kansas’ Dajuan Harris Jr.
He was quickly fouled, sending the 71.9% free-throw shooter to the line with 18.5 seconds remaining. In that moment, with one made free throw extending their lead to three possessions and effectively icing the game, the Jayhawks had a 99% chance of winning, according to ESPN analytics.
Harris, however, missed both free throws and Houston responded on the other end, with Emauel Sharp draining a contested 3 to cut the Cougars’ deficit in half with 7.5 seconds to play.
On the ensuing inbounds pass, Kansas’ Zeke Mayo threw the ball well short of his intended target, Hunter Dickinson. The ball was deflected back to Houston’s Mylik Wilson, who had the presence of mind to take a step back to get behind the arc and calmly sink the game-tying 3 with 4.3 seconds remaining.
Houston extended the game to a second overtime, where coach Kelvin Sampson’s team used a 6-0 run to turn what was an 86-84 lead with 1:16 remaining into six-point victory.
It wasn’t the first time Saturday that Kansas had given away a late lead. The Jayhawks were up 66-60 with 1:10 remaining in regulation, but allowed a jumper to Houston and then had turnovers on back-to-back possessions, opening the door for the Cougars to tie the game with a pair of J’Wan Roberts free throws with 14 seconds left.
Roberts had a game-high 24 points and nine rebounds for Houston while Wilson added 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
The win improved the No. 5 Cougars’ record to 16-3 while dropping the No. 11 Jayhawks to 14-5. For either team, no win or loss this season came under more improbable circumstances.