Moments That Popped: Houston 69, Kansas 47

Kansas City, Missouri — There were so many things that went wrong for the 3rd-seeded Kansas basketball team in the Big 12 tourney semifinals on Friday night.

One of them was simply playing Houston.

The Cougars, who lost to this same Kansas team in lopsided fashion in Allen Fieldhouse during the regular season, was better than KU from start to finish and in pretty much every imaginable way on their way to a 69-47 win at T-Mobile Center.

No. 2 Houston advances to the Big 12 title game, where they'll face top-seeded Arizona on Saturday in what promises to be a thriller. Friday's game followed a thriller, as Arizona topped Iowa State at the buzzer on a jumper by Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley.

Truth be told, both Houston and Kansas were hard pressed to follow up the night's first semifinal, one of the best games of the college basketball season. But, as time later told us, only Houston was up for the challenge.

The stats hardly mattered in this one, but there were a couple that just could not be ignored.

• Kansas shot just 25% from the floor (14-for-52) and, at one point in the 2nd half, was even worse than that, with just 9 makes through 32 minutes. KU made just 7 two pointers and 7 3-pointers all night.

• Houston led for 38:44 of the 40-minute game, racing out to an early lead and never looking back. Kansas, meanwhile, never led.

• The Jayhawks' second-leading scorer on Friday night was freshman guard Kohl Rosario, who scored 8 points in just 11 minutes, second only to Darryn Peterson's 14 points in 28 minutes.

All things considered, Kansas was in decent shape at the half, riding a little momentum, no doubt feeling better about its play and down just eight, 33-25.

But then the second half began and KU went back to major struggles on both ends, missing shots and giving up quick points to allow Houston to build its lead back to 13 just 1:22 into the second half.

From there, the KU struggles continued, the Cougars cruised and the game was over

Next up, KU (23-10) will await its NCAA Tournament fate on Selection Sunday. The Jayhawks seem headed toward a 4 seed in the Big Dance, which would match them up against a No. 13 seed in Round 1 next Thursday or Friday at a time and site to be determined on Sunday.

Here's a look back at some Friday night's action from T-Mobile Center in KCMO.

LIKES

• Kohl Rosario finds the basket - It was the most meaningless consolation prize imaginable in a game that went south right away and never fully found the right track. But given how much people have talked about Rosario and his shot this season, it qualified as good news — in a relative sense — that the young guard finally got a couple to go down in the second half of Friday's loss. He finished with 8 points on 3-of-5 shooting, to go with 4 rebounds in 11 minutes. The game was a mess, but Rosario didn't let the score of the frustration of a rough night impact how hard he played.

• DP competes - Peterson was pretty good but far from great in this one, but he continued to bring it. And what a task that was. Houston clearly made him the focal point of its defense and Peterson struggled to find much room to get going. Early on, he kept Kansas in it by hitting a couple of shots and getting to the free throw line. But keeping the Jayhawks in it was relative, too, and the star freshman did what he could to keep battling — you could see he cared and see the frustration in his face all night — but it just didn't matter to the bottom line.

• Defensive improvement helps them hang - One of the true and rare highlights for KU came late in the first half, when DP snagged a big time steal and helped pull Kansas within 4 at 29-25. At the time, it looked like a huge close to the first half and the Jayhawks were on the brink of capturing a little momentum. Most of that came from their improved defensive effort and intensity and a lot of it came with Elmarko Jackson on the floor in place of freshman forward Bryson Tiller. The Jayhawks surrendered four late points to Houston, though, and that took a little of the wind out of their sails entering the locker room. That was the last sign of high-level defense played by KU in this one.

DISLIKES

• Stand around and watch/wait for DP - There was way too much of this happening in the first half of the game, with KU essentially giving in to Houston's pressure and not taking advantage of the numbers game behind it. Part of that came from the fact that no one else could create a shot for themselves and they kept getting the ball back to Peterson hoping he would go Superman with it and save the day. As we mentioned above, he tried. But it was a daunting task and he was not able to go it alone. KU's offense was stagnant all night and never found a way to use ball and body movement to move the Cougars' defense the way the Jayhawks did in their win at Allen Fieldhouse.

• Council in his own head - After Thursday's hard-fought win over TCU, KU point guard Melvin Council Jr. said he was in his own head a little bit about his off shooting night and missed shots. The misses continued to come on Friday and Council struggled to push past it. After the game, he said he wasn't actually in his head still, downplaying the fact that sometimes guys just miss shots. But his facial expressions, body language and production certainly showed a tough night. He never quit. He doesn't do that. But he had a second straight rough outing and this one came in a loss. Now, is win-or-go-home time for the beloved KU guard.

• Flory can't sniff the rim - KU big man Flory Bidunga mustered just four shots all night and finished with one of his worst offensive outings of the season. The closest Bidunga came to catching the ball in the post was late in the first half, when the KU guards finally got an angle to enter it into him — Self said they simply didn't throw it to him when they had him for a layup on the game's first possession and that set the tone for the KU offense for the night — and Bidunga caught it and faced up 4-5 feet outside of the paint. Bidunga finally scored in close midway through the second half, but even that was a challenge. After catching a pass over the top from Council, Bidunga went to dunk the ball and needed every bounce he could get from the rim for the ball to fall through. That field goal improved — yes, improved — KU's shooting to 9-for-43 on the night at that point. Flory finished with 5 points and 12 rebounds in 32 minutes, with just that 1 make on the stat sheet.

• It seems the stars can't sit - It's obvious that Self can't play Bidunga and Peterson all 40 minutes in every game, but it also seems that KU probably needs one of them on the floor at all times. At one point in the first half, after KU had put together a little run and cut a double-digit Houston lead to 6, Self brought both players to the bench for a rest with 8:27 to play in the game's opening half. By the time they went back in, with 4:42 to play in the first half, KU trailed by a dozen again, with the guys on the floor in their place not able to hold things together.

WHAT THE?

• Tough call, smart play - Late in the first half, with KU having a couple of fouls to give and Houston seemingly holding for a last shot, KU coach Bill Self instructed sophomore guard Elmarko Jackson to go ahead and foul Houston freshman Kingston Flemings before he could get Houston into its offense. One problem: Flemings heard the instructions, too, and he smartly tried to hoist a deep 3-pointer when he saw Jackson rush in to foul him. Whether the foul should have been called or not is a matter of opinion. Clearly, Self did not agree. But it was a heady play by Flemings, who made 2 of the 3 free throws to give the Cougars the 33-25 halftime lead. Plenty of coaches elect to do this late in games and halves when they have fouls to give. Suppose Self might come up with a hand signal for it next time instead of saying it audibly so the opposing player can hear him, as well. Flukey play. Kind of sums up the whole night.