Bill Self addresses his technical foul in Iowa State loss

Kansas suffered its second loss in three games over the weekend against Iowa State, falling 79-75 on the road. One of the key possessions of the game came at the end of the first half when a flagrant foul by Parker Braun and technical foul on Bill Self led to a five-point possession for the Cyclones.

Kansas had the ball and a one-point lead with less than a minute left in the first half, before a turnover led to a breakaway for Cyclones guard Tamin Lipsey.

As Lipsey went up for a layup, he was hit in the back of the head by Braun. The regular foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 upon review, a call that Bill Self disagreed with. After voicing his displeasure, Self received a technical.

Lipsey was rewarded four free throws, going 2-4 at the line, and Iowa State maintained possession. Milan Momcilovic then drained a 3-pointer as Iowa State turned a one-point deficit into a four-point lead in the final 35 seconds of the first half. After the game, Self broke down the sequence.

“Well, I wish I wouldn’t have gotten a technical and cost us one point, you know, because they got the ball back anyway. But still, that was a big… and I haven’t seen it. It may have been a good call. I know that it wasn’t anything malicious or anything like that, but it may have been a good call,” Bill Self said.

“But certainly it was a [five]-point play, because they made one out of two on the technical, then they got the ball back. Whether it be a technical or flagrant 1, they still get the ball back. And then they made a 3 at the end.”

Iowa State carried over the momentum from a strong ending to the first half to lead by as many as 12 points in the second half.

Kansas battled back to pull within 3 in the final two minutes, but Iowa State held on. With the win, the Cyclones improved to 16-4 (5-2). Kansas fell to 16-4 (4-3) with the loss.

Still, Self liked what he saw from his team overall.

“I was actually encouraged,” Self said. “This is the best offense we’ve run and you score 75 points against Iowa State in their building, it should be enough. We did some good things. We did make shots. They outscored us, you know, 21 points from beyond the arc. But I thought we hung in there and did some good things offensively. Defensively we weren’t good but we rebounded the ball better in the second half. 

“We did some good stuff. They were just better. And certainly they made us pay. I don’t know how many shots they made, you know, in the last five seconds of the shot clock but you know, they made us pay.”