Vahe Gregorian: Entering NCAA Tournament, this Kansas team remains a confounding proposition

Vahe Gregorian, The Kansas City Star on Mar 14, 2026

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two minutes, 17 seconds into 14th-ranked Kansas’ Big 12 Tournament semifinal game against No. 5 Houston on Friday night at T-Mobile Center, an incensed Bill Self called a timeout.

Prompted by Bryson Tiller surrendering an offensive rebound, Self unleashed a scathing message to Tiller ... and a torrent at the broader team.

It was vintage Self, who typically has an uncanny feel for how to reboot his team.

This time around, though, it didn’t take.

Not with Tiller, whom the head coach benched for the entire second half as a way of reiterating his message to … rebound: “It’s been the message,” Self noted, “for a long time.”

And not with the team much, either, which was on its way to a 69-47 humbling that felt a lot worse than the score indicated because of an utterly slapstick night of shooting.

It was nearly five minutes into the game before the Jayhawks made their first basket, a harbinger of later missing 17 straight field-goal attempts and failing on 40 of their first 50.

The Jayhawks were so literally and figuratively aimless and lethargic that they even managed to subdue the ever-active Self by early in the second half.

To reset, Kansas had whittled down Houston’s 12-point lead to 29-25 on a Darryn Peterson steal and dunk with 1:08 left in the half.

A Kansas-heavy crowd that largely had been muted finally got stoked. On a more customary night, it was the sort of play that could change the complexion and trajectory of this kind of game.

Certainly, Self could feel it then.

“When we got it to 29-25, I’m actually thinking what we need to do is finish (the half) decent and we’re going to go in with a little bit of momentum,” he said.

And thinking, “ ‘We’re going to be fine.’ ”

Instead, that moment was the epitome of one of Self’s favorite terms: fool’s gold.

Because KU then cued up those pesky 17 straight misses — including the first 16 of the second half. And that set up perhaps the most striking spectacle of all.

When Houston’s Kingston Flemings hit a 3-pointer to make it 45-27 with 16:11 left, Self’s demeanor went flat. He didn’t so much as get out of his seat for several minutes of game clock, a rarity for a man whose style is to be deeply engaged and vocal.

The sequence, Self said afterward, was “deflating.”

As was the overall result for a confounding team (23-10) that essentially has been equal parts exhilarating and exasperating.

Only weeks ago, KU beat Houston, 69-56, for its third victory of the season over a top-five team. That was an encore to beating then-No. 2 Iowa State in January and then-No. 1 Arizona in February.

All part of the second-toughest schedule in the nation as of Thursday.

But all of those top-five victories were at Allen Fieldhouse, it has to be noted. And as KU awaits its NCAA Tournament seeding on Sunday, no doubt the tournament committee also will be cognizant of the fact KU went 5-6 on the road and 5-2 at neutral sites.

That’s why KU likely figures to be a No. 4 seed ... ish.

The real twist here is that Kansas’ third loss in its last five games came after a major corner had been turned. The team had gone from months of drama concerning the status of Peterson, the freshman expected to be one of the top picks in the NBA draft, to his seemingly being healthy now after missing 11 games with a variety of health issues.

Instead of peaking with Peterson playing between 27 and 37 minutes (37 Thursday against TCU) in their last seven games — and starting the last nine — the Jayhawks are just 4-5 in that span.

Instead of surging into the NCAA Tournament, KU is left trying to sort itself out … and left lots of room for doubt.

Especially since Self’s teams are just 2-3 in NCAA tourney play since winning the 2022 national title.

On the flip side, as Self also likes to say, he was entirely right when he said that as of Sunday “nobody’s going to remember this tournament.”

Probably. But then comes the real question: How will this team be remembered? Because right now it’s one win from a revival but equally perched for a fall.