A bountiful day of hoops

When you’re giving thanks tomorrow, give a nod to the basketball gods for what we’ve gotten during Feast Week. It’s been a wild two days. Oh, and give thanks for good refs, too.

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1. Kansas outlasts Duke, even without Dickinson

Cooper Flagg was the headliner for Tuesday night’s showdown between No. 1 Kansas and No. 11 Duke, but Hunter Dickinson stole the show.

Or rather, a controversial call that involved Dickinson stole the show.

A wildly entertaining game got even more wild with 10:26 remaining in the second half when Duke forward Maliq Brown fouled Hunter Dickinson on a loose ball. The 7-2 Kansas center, who was leading his team with 11 points and 6 rebounds, kicked Brown in the face as the two were on the ground, and was ejected from the game for a flagrant-2 foul.

That opened the door for Duke and Flagg, who turned a 57-55 deficit into a two-point lead five minutes later after a series of traded buckets and a Flagg dunk. But Kansas made enough plays down the stretch — including two well-defended plays on Flagg and then freshman Kon Knueppel — to earn a 75-72 win.

Afterward, Kansas coach Bill Self said he didn’t think Dickinson’s foul warranted an ejected, but did call it a “coin flip” call and said the overall experience should help Kansas as the season wears on.

“In the end if it was probably a positive. Because now Flory (Bidunga) has confidence and Flory knows he can play in that level of game be effective,” Self said. "I think we can maybe take some pride in saying we have more of an identity now because we kind of won ugly down the stretch."

As the After Dark crew noted, the experience from Kansas (6-0) was the difference. It features four senior starters, including multi-positional defender KJ Adams, who hounded Flagg all night and limited the future lottery pick to 13 points and 4 turnovers.

Late turnovers down the stretch vs Kentucky and Kansas doomed Duke (4-2), which is still trying to figure out who its point guard is. Sophomore Caleb Foster played just 15 minutes and Tyrese Proctor (15 points on 5-of-7 3s) mostly played off the ball. The Devils used Sion James at times, and ended up with Knueppel initiating offense down the stretch.

Compare that to Kansas, which got 36 minutes from Dajuan Harris. He finished with 14 points on 10 shots, plus 9 assists and just 2 turnovers.

Not that Kansas is putting too much into the result. It was a festive atmosphere in Las Vegas, but it’s still November.

2. Alabama’s tougher than Houston at Players Era Festival

Few teams can say they out-toughed Houston. Turns out the SEC has two of them.

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