Houston’s Sampson baffled KU Jayhawks were underdogs at Allen Fieldhouse: ‘Sacrilege’

Kelvin Sampson finds it hard to believe his No 4-ranked Houston Cougars entered Saturday’s game against No. 8 Kansas as 1 1/2 point favorites.

“That’s sacrilege. How is Kansas not favored in any game, especially here?” Sampson, UH’s 10th-year coach, said after the Jayhawks (18-4, 6-3) clobbered the Cougars (19-3, 6-3) 78-65 before 16,300 fans at Allen Fieldhouse.

KU coach Bill Self called Saturday’s atmosphere “the best crowd we’ve had this year, and we’ve had some good ones.”

“They don’t need this crowd to be good,” Sampson stated. “This thing was set up for this kind of environment today. You challenge the Jayhawk pride by telling them they are not favored. We are not some super-team. But the day was all about Kansas’ program, the tradition here, Bill getting his team ready to play in this gym.”

He continued.

“The way they shot the ball (68% the first half and 70% the second) you’d have thought we lost by 30,” Sampson said. “We lost by 13. Our kids hung in there, To lose that game by 13, that’s a game a lesser team would have probably lost by 35 or 40.”

KU coach Self, whose Jayhawks have been underdogs in just two home games in his 21 years in Lawrence (KU also beat Baylor as underdogs in 2020-21 at Allen), said he was unaware of the point spread and that he never checks such things.

Senior center Hunter Dickinson, who scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds with three assists in 33 minutes, did know the oddsmakers chose UH over KU.

“I was pretty aware of it. I saw it on Twitter,” said Dickinson, who helped KU outrebound Houston 40-24. “I mean I was a little surprised, yeah. You’ve got to play the game for a reason.”

Dickinson noted the crowd, which took delight in KU racing to a 43-28 halftime lead, provided an “awesome atmosphere. People were very hyped for this game. I think it lived up to it, a battle between two great teams. Fortunately we came up with the victory.”

Self said the fact a team as talented as Houston was in town added to the electric atmosphere in Allen.

“Connecticut (crowd) was good, but it wasn’t as good as this was today,” Self said of the crowd noise. KU defeated the Huskies 69-65 on Dec. 1 before a loud throng at Allen.

“They were turned up for it,” Self continued. “I do think it adds something to the intensity when the fan base and everybody knows this could go wrong if we don’t play well. It adds to intensity of the fans. I think our fans were turned up today because we were playing a team we know if we didn’t’ play well they could leave here happy.”

The Jayhawks hit nine of their first 10 shots and led by 10 points just 7 1/2 minutes into the game. KU led by as many as 20 points with 12:23 to play.

Kansas shot 68.9% (31-of-45) from the field. That is KU’s highest percentage in a game since shooting 72.1% (44-of-61) vs. Niagara on Jan. 9, 1997. It is the highest percentage in a conference game since KU shot 69.6% versus Missouri on Jan. 19, 1991 (32-of-46). The last team to shoot better than Kansas did Saturday against a top-five ranked opponent was Xavier on March 11, 2004, vs. No. 1 St. Joseph’s (71.1%).

“I never thought we’d start by making every shot. I thought we would play well today; I knew we were ready to play,” Self said, adding, “I don’t know if I’ve had a team execute better against a great defensive team offensively in the first 10 minutes. We were pretty much on point.”

KU’s shooting efficiency and work on the boards overcame occasional sloppy play. KU, which had four starters score in double figures, committed 18 turnovers to Houston’s three. The Cougars hit 36.2% of their shots, going 9-of-29 from 3 to KU’s 6-of-13.

Kevin McCullar, who missed the last game because of a knee bruise, scored 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting (1-of-2 from 3) with five turnovers, three assists and a steal. Johnny Furphy had 17 points, 14 the first half, on 6-of-7 shooting. He was 3-of-4 from 3 and secured eight rebounds.

KJ Adams had 10 points, seven assists, four rebounds and four turnovers. Dajuan Harris had seven points, two assists and a turnover.

Parker Braun came off the bench to score five points. He hit a 3 with 6:10 left to give KU a 68-53 lead.

“We played blindfolded. A blind person could do better than we did, right?” Sampson said.

Self noted: “We thought the best way to attack them was use all 50 feet wide and 47 feet long and hopefully be able to play behind their aggressiveness. To start the game, we did that perfectly.”

The Jayhawks this season have now defeated the likes of Houston, Kentucky, Tennessee, UConn and Indiana.

Self was asked about this team’s penchant for winning “big games.”

“You look at our five starters, they are pretty good,” Self said. ”The thing about it is I don’t know if it is big games as much. Maybe it is. Maybe those five guys, primarily those five, can get up for something sporadically that it’s hard for them to do consistently. We’ve shown when we play well we can play with anybody, and we’ve also shown when we are not very good we obviously can be had.

“There’s been way much too inconsistency with that margin. (But) it gives the guys confidence to know at our peak, if we play well, we are pretty hard to deal with.”

KU will next meet Kansas State at 8 p.m., Monday at Bramlage Coliseum.