Another memorable Kansas season ends short of Final Four

LAWRENCE, KAN. » Frank Mason III and Landen Lucas will be lost to graduation, Josh Jackson is likely headed to the NBA, and very little about Kansas next season will look remotely the same. That only makes things harder. After a frustrating loss to Oregon in the Midwest Regional semifinals ended the Jayhawks’ season a week earlier than they had hoped, the only thing they want to do is look to the future.

Yet that gaze is met with so much uncertainty.

“I don’t really know. It’s my first time being in this position,” Jackson said in a morose locker room shortly after the Ducks punched their ticket to the Final Four with a 74-60 victory at the Sprint Center on Saturday night.

“The feeling right now, it really hurts. It hurts more to see guys around me. Just seeing the seniors. We really wanted to send them out the right way. It just hurts we couldn’t do that.”

The reality is this: Kansas won 31 games and its 13th consecutive Big 12 championship, Mason put up the kind of numbers that will one day get his jersey hung from the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse, and Jackson left an indelible mark on the program even if his stay lasts just one season.

But the perception among many will be this: The Jayhawks’ season was a failure because they lost in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament, and then blew a chance to make it back to the Final Four on a night where their offense suddenly cooled off and their defense never showed up.

“We shouldn’t hold our heads down about nothing,” said junior guard Devonte Graham, who was 0 for 7 from the field. “Had a terrific season. Hate it to end.”

Graham slouched in his chair as he answered questions with his jersey sitting atop his head. His eyes were full, but there were no tears. His typically exuberant, child-like demeanor had been replaced by a mixture of shock, sadness and an inability to comprehend what just happened.

He took slow pauses between words and tried his hardest to not let the tears fall.

Asked what coach Bill Self told the team afterward, he replied: “Just that he was proud of us.”