In the final minute of a one-point game earlier this month against Missouri, senior guard Tyshawn Taylor stood at the free-throw line with a chance to tie the game at 72 or possibly give the Kansas Jayhawks a one-point lead.
Both shots clanked off the rim and Kansas eventually lost 74-71.
Shortly after, one of Taylor’s friends told him he would face a similar situation when the Tigers traveled to Lawrence.
Taylor finished with 24 points while playing 44 out of a possible 45 minutes and committed just one turnover. But his final two points stole the show.
Kansas came back from a 19-point deficit in the second half and forced overtime. Missouri senior guard Marcus Denmon hit a floater along the baseline to give the Tigers an 86-85 lead with 12 seconds left.
Kansas almost never had a final chance to score.
Junior guard Elijah Johnson inbounded the ball while Taylor was peering up at the video board for a quick check of the time. The ball bounced a few feet past Taylor, leaving the nearly 16,300 fans in attendance momentarily gasping for breath.
“I’m sure I did,” Taylor chucked when asked if his near-fatal slip-up scared the Jayhawk faithful.
There was plenty of time to smile about the play at that point.
In the timeout moments before Denmon’s score, coach Bill Self told his team to “go flat” on offense if Missouri scored, meaning he wanted everyone to spread out along the baseline to create space for Taylor.
With just 12 seconds on the clock, there wasn’t much time to think.
“We have to go score and get a good shot, but get it as fast as possible,” Taylor said of his thought process as he received the pass. “I just put my head down and saw a little seam and attacked.”
He was fouled on a layup attempt, not unlike the final seconds in the first game against Missouri. But with the crowd holding its arms in the air in silent support of the four-year starter, Taylor cooly knocked down both attempts to give the Jayhawks the lead, 87-86.
“He got fouled,” Self said. “And for him to make the two free throws in the same scenario that he missed them in Columbia, I thought that was good for him.”
“He was absolutely right,” Taylor said of his friend’s prediction. “It was the same team again, but not the same circumstances and I came through this time. I’m actually glad I got to shoot those free-throws. Words can’t describe how I feel.”