Bill Self's Kansas Jayhawks advanced to the Final Four with a relatively unimpressive (at least among the four #1 seeds who are going to San Antonio) win over Davidson, 59-57.
Why unimpressive?
The refs effectively stopped calling fouls early in the second half, which was a huge boon to Kansas' athleticism. Several blocks on the baseline could have easily been called, and Curry was hit on a couple of shots, to no effect. (The only calls that were made were obvious fouls, especially reaches on the ball, like Andrew Lovedale's reach after a block with 2:47 left (for his fourth foul.))
Davidson was on the ropes (43-38) with about 12 minutes left, and only Bryant Barr's ability to take some pressure off of Stephen Curry by draining two threes in three trips.
But the real question Coach Self has to be asking himself is how he allowed his career -- and a loss to this Davidson team and another failure in the Elite Eight probably would have brought an end to the Self Show in Lawrence -- to be hanging in the balance on a relatively open Jason Richards three-pointer with 4 seconds left.
While Richards was 24-25 feet away from the the basket, it was an open look, and he had made at least one similar shot during the course of the tournament.
One more, and Davidson would be the new George Mason.
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