Longhorns crush Jayhawks (again) to win Big 12 tournament title, automatic bid to March Madness

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KXAN) — The Texas Longhorns sewed up the Big 12 Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a blowout 76-56 win over the Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12 tournament title game Saturday at T-Mobile Center.

It's the second time in a week that the Longhorns have hammered the Jayhawks. Texas won 75-59 on March 4 at Moody Center to finish the regular season, and then the squads met again to settle the tournament title with essentially the same result. Texas won its second Big 12 tournament title in program history, the first coming in 2021 under Shaka Smart.

In a postgame interview with ESPN, Longhorns interim head coach Rodney Terry said Texas had to do a good job defending against Kansas' "supporting cast," and they did exactly that. Big 12 player of the year Jalen Wilson scored a game-high 24 points, but the only other Jayhawk to score in double figures was Joseph Yesufu with 11.

"This has been a resilient group all year, I'm so proud of the guys and they've worked their tails off. They've been awesome all year long, I'm so happy for them," Terry said.

Dylan Disu led the charge for the Longhorns with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting, followed by Marcus Carr and Jabari Rice with 17 points each. Arterio Morris and Brock Cunningham each chipped in eight points while Cunningham pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. Texas outrebounded Kansas 37-31 and shot 50% (31-for-62) from the field.

Disu's entire Big 12 tournament was tremendous and he was named the Most Outstanding Player. In three games, Disu shot 74% from the field en route to 44 points and he grabbed 25 rebounds. He almost doubled his points per game output when compared to his season average, averaging 14.6 points per game during the tournament. He averaged eight points per game during the season.

"It goes back to my teammates," Disu said. "They told me to be aggressive when I got the ball inside. I couldn't have got that award without my teammates. It's a team award, in my opinion."

When Cunningham nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game at 28-28 with 4:53 left in the first half, it sparked a 10-0 Longhorns run that gave them a lead they held the rest of the game. Texas led by six at halftime, 39-33, and then poured it on the second half.

The Longhorns capped an 8-0 run to put the game away with the prettiest play of the night. Cunningham knocked the ball away from Yesufu trying to drive to the hoop, then Rice grabbed it and raced up the floor to start a fastbreak. Rice lobbed a perfect pass near the rim for Morris, who was streaking in from the right side behind Kansas guard Dajuan Harris. Morris caught the alley-oop pass one-handed and brought the crowd to its collective feet with a mighty slam dunk to put Texas up 70-50 with 4:36 left.

Texas held Kansas to 0-for-7 from 3-point range in the second half and 11-for-27 shooting. The Longhorns shot 16-for-30 in the second half and grabbed 20 rebounds. Texas played without Timmy Allen who was sitting out with a leg injury and Kansas didn't have Kevin McCullar Jr. who was out with back spasms. The Jayhawks also didn't have head coach Bill Self who missed the entire tournament recovering from a "medical procedure." Assistant coach Norm Roberts was the acting head coach for the tournament, and Roberts said Self should be back in time to coach in the NCAA tournament.

Texas scored 17 points off 15 Kansas turnovers and had 38 points in the paint to the Jayhawks' 28. The Longhorns racked up 16 assists to Kansas' eight and the Longhorns had 20 bench points to just three for the Jayhawks.

Both teams now wait to see where the selection committee will put them on Sunday when the field of 68 is built for March Madness. The win gave Texas its 14th Quadrant 1 win of the season, second-most in the country to Kansas with 17. Going into the Big 12 tournament, ESPN's Joe Lunardi projected the Jayhawks as a No. 1 seed and Texas as a No. 2 seed. When the committee released a draft of who it thought the top 16 teams were on Feb. 17, Kansas was the No. 4 overall seed and Texas was No. 5.