Samford’s Fight on Full Display in Kansas Loss
Samford’s magical season ended in a 93-89 loss in the NCAA Tournament against Kansas. We might need to change the Pete Hanna WiFi to “AJsBlockWasClean”. More on that later, but Samford scrapped and battled their way back to make it an exciting finish.
Samford was down 22 points early in the second half and the team could have folded, they did not. With 16:21 left in the second half, Kansas led 63-41. This team spent the next eight minutes cutting the Kansas lead all the way down to two with 5:15 left in the game.
Achor Achor was playing extremely tough fighting calf cramps. Rylan Jones hit some big time shots to help Samford come back. Freshman Riley Allenspach played his best game of the entire season with a perfect 4-4 from behind the three-point line. Allenspach had made six threes all year.
All in all, Samford had trouble with the size of Kansas, especially in the first half. Per KenPom, Kansas ranked sixth in the country in average height, Samford ranked in the 340s. Hunter Dickinson had a big night with 19 points and 20 rebounds.
Maybe in the first half, Samford was playing a little tight. Some threes went in and out, then Kansas was just making everything in sight. Kansas finished the first half shooting 60% from the field compared to Samford’s 35%. The Jayhawks were doing everything well except having trouble with turnovers. Samford forced 12 first half turnovers and Kansas still led by 10.
Samford assistant Danny Young even got a technical called on him. Just as every other Samford coach did not like when Johnny Furphy was not called for an over the back foul. The momentum was definitely in Kansas’s favor.
Coming out of halftime, it felt like Kansas would just run away with it. However, Riley Allenspach said not on my watch. He had eight straight points which got the crowd back into it. You could hear through the TV that it was a pro-Bulldog crowd, shout out to the Gonzaga faithful. As CBS’s Jon Rothstein put it, “Nobody roots for Goliath.”
Allenspach had to step up when Jermaine Marshall had four fouls. Bucky McMIllan played the majority of the second half with he and Achor together on the floor. McMillan was asked about that decision by our own State of the Bulldogs host Jeb Gebhart.
“We could not combat their size,” said McMillan. “So we played them both together for better matchups. Riley played unbelievable. We knew we could do it on the offensive end but they had not played a ton together defensively. Their (Kansas) fours and fives are not shooters. So it allowed us to play those guys and use our size to combat their size. It was a major reason we were able to close the game.”
That is exactly right and that is when you could feel the game change. Again, what big minutes from Allenspach when his team needed him the most. Per CBB Analytics, Achor and Allenspach played exactly six possessions together on the floor. What a call by McMillan to make that move in this setting.
Achor Achor was awesome, no other way to put it. He finished with 23 points and eight rebounds. Hunter Dickinson does not like to go on the perimeter and defend. Achor used that to his advantage especially with this monster dunk blowing past Dickinson.
Achor mentioned post game that nothing was going to keep him out of the game with his cramping issue.
“I was cramping, I felt like I could not quit on my team. These are my brothers right here, left and right, and the guys back in the locker room. I felt like I could not give up on them.”
Achor and this team never gave up. That is what we will remember the most from this special group. They fought through the doubters and they fought through the multiple injuries. That next man up mentality will define this team.
Playing back in his home state, Rylan Jones finished with nine points and nine assists. His shot was not falling in the first half so he impacted the game in other ways. Jones did make some big shots as Samford was crawling their way back in the second half. He talked about what playing back home meant to him as his college career comes to a close.
“I can’t describe that feeling. I grew up here, 22 years. I chose to go to Birmingham, Alabama and trust in Coach Bucky and these guys. We had an historic year for Samford. I could feel the whole stadium behind us. I had a lot of family and friends. Utah family, Utah State family, Logan High, Olympus, everybody supporting. I just wish we could have gotten it done.”
The Samford community is forever grateful for Rylan Jones to make that decision to come to Samford.
Jaden Campbell also gave his all finishing with 18 points on five made threes. In our pregame discussions, we knew that Campbell would have to show up big for Samford to succeed and he did. After the game he perfectly described what Bucky Ball means to this group.
“It is all about trusting each other. We knew that if we continued to play hard, we would eventually make some shots. We wanted to keep up the pace to try to give us the best opportunity to come back. We fell short unfortunately but I was glad to be able to do it with the guys next to me.”
Campbell made a huge three to cut the Kansas lead down to one with 19.9 seconds left. This was offf of this incredible BLOB play from Bucky McMillan. This was beautiful.
Now we can get to what you have been waiting for, the foul call on AJ Staton-McCray. Some would call it controversial or if you were on Twitter, all of America (minus those in Jayhawk red and blue), knew it was a clean block. Everyone in the arena knew it was clean as well.
It was an outstanding, incredible play by AJ Staton-McCray. Even as the play happened color commentator Brendan Haywood immediately said, “That’s a block!” He was shocked that a foul was called. Looking at the replay, it does not get much cleaner than that.
Here was some of the best reactions from Twitter.
If that was a correct no-call, Samford is running down to the other end with a five-on-four ready to take the lead. Just an absolutely bad call that cannot happen in that moment. Referees love to anticipate fouls before seeing the play unfold. Haywood and Twitter were all over it. Sigh. Bucky McMillan gave a great answer postgame about the block and how hard his team fought back.
Back to what Campbell said about Bucky Ball, that is what symbolizes this team and Achor said the same, they play for each other. We talked about all year, how much of a team that this group was. They had great camaraderie, they enjoyed being around each other and it showed on the court. This team was unselfish and played hard each night out.
Kansas head coach Bill Self said after the game that even he wanted a break from Bucky Ball.
"That's my first experience with Bucky Ball and I would just as soon not play against it again for a while."
The togetherness of this group is what people will remember the most about this historic team. This team never gave up and they never wavered. Even being down 22 points in this game, they did not go away.
Jermaine Marshall will forever be a legend for what he gave to this program also. He transferred from Akron and by his own admission, was not happy there. He came back home, believed in what Bucky McMillan was selling him, and delivered.
What a year for this program and for this university. If people did not know about Samford before this season, you better believe that they know now. It’s a movement and it is only going to keep growing. Bucky Ball is here to stay.
Photo Courtesy of Gabriel Mayberry-USA TODAY Sports
