Tennessee forward Grant Williams, on court, passes to teammate Lamonte Turner, right, as Kansas forward Dedric Lawson, left, and guard Devon Dotson go after the ball during the first half of the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament title game Friday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.NEW YORK - Kansas men's basketball coach Bill Self wanted to see his young team play in - and win - a tough, grind-it-out game. The Jayhawks did just that against a program Self thinks can compete for a national championship in March.
Dedric Lawson had 24 points, 13 rebounds and five assists as No. 2 Kansas rallied to beat No. 5 Tennessee 87-81 in overtime early Saturday morning in the championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
"It's OK to win ugly. Winning ugly is actually pretty at the end of the day, and we won a game today that artistically wasn't very good," the longtime Kansas coach said. "But we've won a lot of games over the years where we didn't look very good but we just kind of hung around and found a way, so I think it gave our guys some confidence."
LaGerald Vick scored 15 points, including eight straight during a crucial stretch for the Jayhawks' comeback, and the senior guard from Memphis assisted on an alley-oop to Lawson that made it 78-73 with 2:39 left in overtime. Lawson was named the tournament MVP.
"In overtime, I just wanted to be aggressive. I came out and knew that the score was 0-0 and it was a new game," Lawson said. "Originally, I wanted to win. I wanted to win very badly, and I tried to do everything I could to seal the deal."
Tennessee's Admiral Schofield had 21 points and six rebounds while Grant Williams had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists before fouling out with 1:24 left in regulation. Jordan Bone added 16 points for the Volunteers (4-1).
Bone skipped back to the bench after hitting a 3-pointer to end the first half and put Tennessee up 33-31. The Vols led by as many as nine points in the second half before Kansas (5-0) stormed back.
Vick stuck out his tongue when he nailed a 3-pointer with 7:30 remaining to tie the game at 56. He hit another 3-pointer and a jumper to put the Jayhawks ahead 61-56 with 6:03 left.
Jayhawks big man Udoka Azubuike fouled out with 4:26 left, and Tennessee retook the lead at 62-61.
Kansas guard Charlie Moore tied the game at 69 on a pair of free throws with 1:24 remaining, and it went to overtime that way after a couple defensive stands by Tennessee in the waning seconds.
"They know exactly what they're looking for, and we haven't gotten there yet. And that's the next step that we can take," said fourth-year Tennessee coach Rick Barnes, who returned the bulk of last season's team that shared the Southeastern Conference's regular-season championship, earned a No. 3 seed for the NCAA tournament and lost in the second round to Loyola-Chicago, the No. 11 seed that made a Cinderella run to the Final Four.
Joining the Ramblers in that national semifinal quartet were Michigan, eventual champion Villanova and Kansas, which has reached the Final Four 15 times and won three NCAA championships.
Tennessee's deepest postseason run was to the Elite Eight in 2010.
"We're not going to win them all. I don't think Kansas is going to win them all either," Barnes said. "You learn from it. It's disappointing but you'll learn from it. This time of year - that's why you play these games. You play them because you want to go up against the best teams. I know we can play better."
The Vols return to competition at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday as Eastern Kentucky (3-3) visits Thompson-Boling Arena.