THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
The University Daily Kansan
vol. 136 // iss. 17 Mon., Mar. 12, 2018
INDISPUTABLE Earning both the Big 12 tournament and regular season titles, the Jayhawks solidified themselves as the undeniable conference champs on Saturday
Missy Minear/KANSAN The Jayhawks celebrate their Big 12 Tournament title after defeating West Virginia 81-70 on Saturday, March 10. MICHAEL SWAIN @mswain97 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI — Wearing a blue shirt drenched with sweat that read “Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament Champions,” senior guard Devonte’ Graham reflected on the long season Kansas had endured. “I think a lot of what we went through early in the season kind of built us up for this,” Graham said. “Losing early, losing at home and all of that kind of stuff built us up so we know we have to be tougher.” In his final Big 12 game, Graham put on a show, setting a new careerhigh in assists with 13 as Kansas claimed its 11th Big 12 Tournament title in an 81-70 victory over West Virginia. Kansas did not start the championship game well — Sagaba Konate put sophomore forward Mitch Lightfoot on a poster for the second points of the contest. Konate then stared and bumped into Graham and began beating his chest — sending an emphatic message to start the game. That message was heard, and answered, by freshman forward Silvio De Sousa. “Once he dunked that ball, I said it wasn’t going to happen again, and it just didn’t happen,” De Sousa said.
Missy Minear/KANSAN Freshman forward Silvio De Sousa dunks the ball against West Virginia on Saturday, March 10. The Jayhawks defeated the Mountaineers 81-70.
Missy Minear/KANSAN Redshirt sophomore guard Malik Newman puts up a jumper against West Virginia on Saturday, March 10. The Jayhawks defeated the Mountaineers 81-70. As Lightfoot struggled with Konate’s huge size, Kansas coach Bill Self turned to De Sousa for help. In his first five minutes on the court, De Sousa snagged four rebounds, two of those offensive, and scored four points. By the end of the night, he finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds and one steal in 26 minutes of play. Graham and De Sousa were two huge reasons as to why Kansas
improved its record in Big 12 tournament championship games to 11-2. The most impressive of Graham’s six first-half assists and De Sousa’s 10 first-half points came right before the buzzer. Graham found himself in the open court with only one West Virginia player to beat. Seeing De Sousa trailing to his left, Graham threw a high lob to De Sousa who came down with the ball
“He was aggressive. I think offensively, he only had five bad possessions the whole weekend.” Bill Self Kansas coach
for a dunk over Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Jevon Carter. “We found one, we found a shiny one,” Self said of finding a diamond in the rough in De Sousa over the course of the Big 12 Tournament. “Silvio was fabulous.” In the second half, with De Sousa finding his niche, the game opened up for Kansas’ guards, especially Graham and redshirt sophomore Malik Newman.
Newman added to his already incredible tournament with 11 points in the second half, only missing one shot. Graham assisted two of Newman’s three made field goals in the second half. “He was aggressive. I think offensively, he only had five bad possessions the whole weekend,” Self said of Newman. “To go back-to-back-to-back like that was big, that was big for us.”
Newman’s incredible weekend led him to be named the Most Outstanding Player of the Big 12 Tournament. The last Kansas player to win that award was the man with his locker to the left of Newman’s — then-sophomore Devonte’ Graham in 2018. Newman finished the game with a teamhigh 20 points. In total, Newman finished the Big 12 tournament with 72 points on 25-for-40 shooting from the field, good for 62.5 percent. No. 1 seed Kansas (277) will open its NCAA tournament against No. 16 seed Penn (24-8) on Thursday, March 15.