How Kansas coach Bill Self — and players — reacted to season-ending loss to Gonzaga

As Kansas freshman Jamari McDowell sat in the locker room following KU’s season-ending loss to Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, his face was covered by a towel.

His freshman season was over, and McDowell took it all in while wiping away tears.

He describes himself as his own harshest critic, so he took the loss particularly hard. He scored three points in seven minutes.

“I’ve just got to be better, to be honest,” he told The Star. “Improve upon a lot of different things.”

For the Jayhawks, the game was the perfect encapsulation of Kansas’ season. The game went back and forth in the first half, and the Jayhawks actually led 44-43.

Then, a disastrous second half.

Gonzaga went on an 18-2 run to completely take control the game.

And just like that, the season was over — with Kansas never looking consistently good since the start of conference play in January.

It was undoubtedly a different ending than the Jayhawks had hoped for.

“We all envisioned it ending in getting a win and getting a trophy, maybe making a deeper run,” KU forward Parker Braun said. “It is what it is. You have to give props to Gonzaga. They gave it to us, and we didn’t really put ourselves in the position to execute down the stretch.”

Kansas freshman Johnny Furphy scored nine points on 3-for-12 shooting and described the second half as “hitting a wall.”

After shooting 50% from the floor in the first half, Kansas shot 27.8% in the second.

Perhaps the most frustrating part for Kansas? A Jayhawks team that prides itself on defense allowed the Zags to shoot 60.3% for the game.

“It’s disappointing today that there was absolutely no sign of being able to slow them down,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.

For the Jayhawks, the game illustrated most every problem that has plagued Kansas this season. All season, Kansas struggled to make and take 3-pointers. So, Saturday’s hot start from deep was surprising, but not surprising was KU shooting 18.2% from 3 in the second half.

KU’s lack of depth was also evident. The Jayhawks only scored 24 second-half points to Gonzaga’s 46. And KU’s short rotation certainly didn’t help matters.

“We played — we had eight guys on scholarship ... that were healthy there late,” Self said. “Injuries are part of the game. That’s not an excuse. But we could have done a much better job as a staff of putting more guys out there that we could play. And so that’s something that I’ve thought about for a long time.”

As Self and his coaching staff examine what went wrong this season and make decisions about next year’s team, the message is clear: Things must change for Kansas to return to its gold standard.

“Our program, over time, has taken great pride in being able to defend and rebound and doing things that are important to any team winning,” Self said, “but has probably been stuff that we’ve probably excelled in over time as much as just about anybody.”

He continued.

“They were great,” Self said. “Whenever we made mistakes, which we made many, they made us pay.”