DES MOINES, Iowa — Perry Ellis and Wayne Selden Jr. never forgot what the pain𝔉 felt like, they never forgot the disappointment that stained two great seasons.
A 12tജh straight Big 12 title this season was nice, but Kansas🅘 fans don’t tell their grandkids about conference-championship teams. To be a legend in Lawrence, Kan., requires much more.
Following two straight years being upset in the second round of the NCAA Tournam🔥ent, Kansas’ standout upperclassmen ensured the school would reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in three years after combining for 43 points in Saturday’s 73-61 South Region win over ninth-seeded Connecticut at Wells Fargo Arena.
Kansas (32-4), which is in the midst of a 🌱16-game winning streak, next plays Thursday in Louisville against the winner of Sunday’s game between No. 5 Maryland and No. 13 Hawaii꧑.
“The last couple years have been motivation for us to get past [the first weekend],” El🍎lis said. “It’s a great feeling knowing that you are mo🐭ving on.”
The Huskies (25-11) led for 27 seconds at the game’s start, but soon were mauled by the bigger, stronger and deeper Jayhawks, who went on separate 16-0 and 19-0 runs in the first half. Showing off the entire arsenal of the Tournament’s top overall seed, Kansas owned the g🐻lass — outrebounding the Huskies by 20 — and shot more than 55 percent from the field. The Jayhawks led by as man𒐪y as 24 points while holding UConn to 26 percent shooting, its lowest first half total of the season.
Kansas led 44-24 at halftime.
“Guys were ready to play,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “♎Everybody was on point. … We were really, really good in the first half. Then the second half, we didn’t do very many of the same things that we accomplished in the first half. We became very passive.”
UConn clawed back behind a strong defensive effort and 10-of-22 from 3-point range — led by Sterling Gibbs (20 points) and Rodney Purvis (17 points) — to cut itജs deficit to 52-43 following a Purvis floater with 8:47 remaining.
“We never stopped thinking we were gonna win the gaꦫme,” said Gibbs, who soon sobbed uncontrollably after being asked about the final game of his career. “We though🧸t we were going to win the game, for sure, even when we were down 20.
But the flicker of hope and the reminder of Kansas’ past chokes were quickly♐ swatted aside by Selden (22 points) and Ellis (21 points), who shot a combined 17-of-27. They settled the team down with baskets on three straight possessions, awaking the heavy pro-Jayhawks crowd.
“I thought we played our best basketball in t💎he second half, but you can’t get down by 20 against the No. 1 seed and the talent that Kansas has,” said UConn coach Kevin Ollie, who suffered his first loss as coach in th🐻e tournament (7-1). “Hopefully we can use this pain and not waste this pain.”
That lesson may be꧅ the key to another Kansasܫ championship run.