Senior night at the University of Kansas' Allen Fieldhouse Tuesday was everything a Jayhawks fan or player could hope for.

Kansas went into halftime down 14 and they trailed by as many as 18 during their game against West Virginia. But they managed huge rally to force overtime, where they outscored West Virginia 17-10 in a comeback win to clinch the team's 11th consecutive Big 12 title.

Kansas lost starting forward Perry Ellis, who is also the team's leading scorer, to a knee injury and as a team they shot 0-15 from three-point territory. But on the team's final home game of the season, Frank Mason III and Jamari Traylor were not going to allow the Jayhawks to lose.

"We haven't had a better win here for higher stakes than what that was," Kansas coach Bill Self said in his postgame press conference, according to ESPN. "As a coach, when you have good players and you play well, you should win. But it always means a little more when you can't get anything going and somehow the kids figure out a way to do it. It was pretty special for me to sit there and watch those guys pull it off.

"We played tough, we played hard, but playing without Perry [Ellis] obviously is not good," he said. "He had the flu and got off to a bad start anyway, then he gets hurt. We don't know the extent of it, but the good news is we think he can be back in a week or so."


Since the Big 12 does not have a tournament, the conference champ is determined by the best record and Kansas had clinched at least a share of it heading into the game. Self has coached the Kansas men's basketball team since 2003 to the tune of a 339-72 record.

In the wake of Kentucky's historic season, Kansas has flown relatively under the radar en route to potentially earning a high seed in the NCAA Tournament, despite losing two major stars to the NBA. The win also clinched an undefeated 16-0 home record for the Jayhawks.

"Guys were stepping up, and we fought back," Traylor said in his postgame presser. "We don't get scared. We always know it's a possibility that we can come back."