KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas coach Bill Self appeared almost as drained as his players following Friday night’s 90-83 victory over fifth-seeded Colorado.
Free-wheeling in the open court, Colorado raced to an early 12-point lead on the second-ranked Jayhawks, the top seed in the Big 12 Tournament. Then, when Kansas appeared to have the game locked up, the Buffaloes stormed back late to make it entertaining in the Big 12 semifinal.
Count Self among those who believe Colorado will be included in the NCAA 68-team field when the bracket is announced Sunday at 4 p.m.
“Tad (Boyle) has done a great job,” Self said of CU’s first-year coach. “And they’ve got two terrific offensive players (Alec Burks and Cory Higgins), and a third (super-sub Levi Knutson) that can just shoot lights out.
“They could be very dangerous (in the NCAA) because if those guys are hot, they can play with anybody and beat anybody.”
Burks, a Kansas City native, scored a game-high 23 points, but Higgins had his worst game of the season. Hounded by gritty KU senior Tyrel Reed and possibly out of gas after keying an emotional victory over No. 19 Kansas State on Thursday, the 6-foot-5 senior made just one of 11 shots and finished with six points — a season low.
Knutson provided a late lift, scoring 11 of his 17 points in the second half. But Kansas, a likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, has enough firepower to match anybody’s scoring runs.
The Morris twins, 6-9, 235-pound Marcus and Markieff (6-10, 252), combined for 40 points and 21 rebounds. Colorado had no answer for their power in the paint. The junior forwards each scored 20 points, providing balance that makes it doubly difficult on a defense.
“Definitely we want to play through our bigs,” Reed said.
The Jayhawks (30-2, 14-2 Big 12) advanced to today’s championship game against Texas, hoping to claim their eighth Big 12 Tournament title in the league’s 15 years.
Scoring the game’s first six points, CU’s opening volley caused Self to turn red in the face as he signaled for a timeout. And Colorado kept it going — for a while, at least.
The Buffs quieted the Sprint Center’s sellout crowd of 18,910 and forced another KU timeout when a 17-footer by Burks completed a 9-0 run to make it 22-10.
Kansas then began to look to the Morris brothers for answers, and they willingly grabbed the reins. During a span of a bit less than six minutes the duo combined for 17 consecutive KU points, with Marcus, an All-American candidate, starting it going with seven points before Markieff took over.
Suddenly it was Kansas 31, Colorado 29.
Timeout, Buffs.
“(After) we woke up,” Self said, “we actually played some of our best ball of the year. Then we kind of faltered. We’ll take it.”
It’s widely believed that Colorado had already secured a bid to the NCAA Tournament bid Thursday with the 87-75 victory over Kansas State, so perhaps CU conserving some energy for next week will be a blessing in disguise.
Colorado kept grinding to the end, however, and an incredible flip lay-in by Burks with 1:32 left cut Kansas’ lead to 82-74. Kansas then committed a turnover, giving Colorado a chance to draw closer. But Colorado missed.
“I’m very, very proud with our resiliency and our toughness to come back in the second half, the way we did that against a good team,” Boyle said. “We just didn’t have enough juice left in our tanks.”
An adrenaline rush should be forthcoming late Sunday afternoon.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
