No. 3 Kansas beats Iowa St 71-58, moves to Big 12 title game
Associated Press— Kansas coach Bill Self spoke to his team remotely during breakfast Friday, while the Hall of Famer continued his recovery from an emergency medical procedure earlier this week, and told the Jayhawks that he was proud of their quarterfinal performance in the Big 12 Tournament. Jalen Wilson had 25 points and 10 rebounds, Gradey Dick made a couple of crucial baskets during a second-half run to help Kansas regain control, and the third-ranked Jayhawks cruised past Iowa State 71-58 on Friday night to move within one more win of defending their tournament title. “He was super proud of how we did last game and I’m sure he’ll be proud of us this game.” Dick finished with 15 points for the top-seeded Jayhawks, who fell behind early in the second half before the defending champs rallied to reach Saturday night’s title game against No. “Our guys were fired up to play, excited to play today,” Roberts said, “and we really did a good job defenisvely of kind of taking them out of what they wanted to do in a lot of ways.” MISSING MCCULLAR Kevin McCullar Jr., the Jayhawks’ defensive stopper who has been dealing with some back spasms, pulled himself from the game in the second half. Make a play,’” Roberts said, “and our guys did that.” THE TAKEAWAY Iowa State has adjusted to life without 3-point specialist Caleb Grill, who was dismissed from the team last week.