Kansas deflection stays inbounds off ref, leads to breakaway alley-oop (Video)
The Kansas Jayhawks are hard to beat regardless, but it’s even harder when they’re catching breaks like getting deflections off of a referee
If you were to say that Kansas was the best remaining team in the 2017 NCAA Tournament at the start of the Sweet 16, it’d be hard to give a real point of contention. Bill Self’s group is loaded with talent all throughout the roster and can beat anyone on any night with their version of small-ball, made possible by super-freshman Josh Jackson. As they played Purdue on Thursday night, though, they found a tough matchup for them.
Purdue and Kansas are essentially antitheses of one another. While the Jayhawks love their small-ball in this current iteration of the team, the Boilermakers thrive off of their big men—even if the likes of Caleb Swanigan can still stretch the floor. However, Purdue was always going to have a hard time dealing with the Kansas guards.
Though the Boilermakers were keeping things close with the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, the guards were coming up big for Kansas and keeping them out front. Then they started getting ridiculous breaks and strokes of luck to indicate it might just be their night.
RELATED: Updated 2017 NCAA Tournament bracket
With Kansas pushing their lead a bit further at the end of the first half, Purdue was looking to try and close the gap with a last shot. Instead, a bad pass got deflected/tipped by Lagerald Vick. Instead of going out-of-bounds, though, it bounced off the referee and right back to Vick. The guard then uncorked a nasty behind-the-back dribble, a quick dish to Devonte’ Graham, and then rose up to accept the return pass on an alley-oop—which he threw down:
Next: 28 Most Memorable Buzzer Beaters in March Madness History
Vick has long been a sparkplug for the Jayhawks this season coming off of the bench. With that said, even he can’t say that the fortune of putting that deflection off the ref to keep the ball inbounds on his skill. Sometimes it’s just your night—and those nights just tend to happen more often for Kansas than for many other schools.