Malik Newman's metamorphosis has transformed Kansas, and has Jayhawks in Final Four

George Schroeder | USA TODAY

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OMAHA — Late Sunday morning, Malik Newman and his father got together by FaceTime. They chat every day, sometimes three or four times, and Horatio Webster always has plenty of advice. This time, before the most important game of his son’s young college basketball career, the father’s words took on added urgency.

Don’t overthink, Webster told him. Just relax and be yourself. Oh, and watch out, because you know Grayson Allen is going to pump-fake you on every pla– but right about there, Newman interrupted.

“Dad,” he said. “Calm down. I got it.”

Kansas edged Duke 85-81 in an overtime thriller, and reached the Final Four for the first time since 2012 – and while we’re at it, might win its first national title since 2008 – largely because of a sophomore guard who suddenly gets it.

Newman scored 32 points, including all 13 of the Jayhawks’ points in overtime. He hit big shots, including the go-ahead three-pointer with under two minutes left in overtime. He closed out the victory with free throws. And – hey dad, calm down – he also smothered Allen for most of the game, forcing Duke’s senior star into an off-balance shot that just missed at the end of regulation.

“That’s the player everybody envisioned right there,” said Webster, who insisted he always knew Newman’s best was coming, all through an uneven journey.

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It began at Mississippi State, with a top recruit who was expected to be “one and done.” Despite an injury-plagued, inconsistent freshman season, he declared for the NBA draft, but withdrew his name when the feedback wasn’t good and instead transferred to Kansas.

After sitting out last season because of NCAA transfer rules, Newman moved instantly into the starting lineup, but not into stardom. He averaged 12 points during the regular season. By his own account, he struggled with “overthinking,” with trying to play mistake-free basketball, with defensive intensity – all while being asked to help Kansas maintain its ultra-high standards.

But beginning with the Big 12 tournament, he is averaging 22 points, and he has surpassed senior guard Devonte' Graham as the Jayhawks’ best player – or at least, he has morphed into the guy most likely to take the big shot and make the big play.

“It’s the guy I knew I was,” Newman said. “I just had to find myself. Had to do some soul-searching. Things, they just clicked at the right time.”

Kansas’ transformation began earlier. The Jayhawks’ last two seasons ended with losses in the Elite Eight, and at midseason no one would have picked them to get another shot. At that point, they were losing home games – at Kansas, this is unthinkable – and flirting with the end of that Big 12 regular-season championship streak.

“We had some hard lessons to learn,” coach Bill Self said. “… We were winning, but I didn’t think we were a very good team.”

They coalesced into the Big 12’s best, as usual (the title streak is now 14 in a row, and counting), and entered the NCAA tournament having won eight of nine. But even as a No. 1 seed, and even after they’d advanced to the Midwest Region final, the Jayhawks’ limitations seemed glaring. They were too small and they didn’t have enough talent or depth – certainly that would be true when matching up with Duke, which might have had the most talented roster in college basketball.

“We’re going to the Final Four,” junior guard Lagerald Vick said. “People kept saying we can’t do it. It was Duke is this, Duke is that. Well, what about Kansas?”

It’s a good question. And Newman provided the answer.

“He’s been their hottest player,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He basically continued to do what he does.”

He’s only been doing it for seven games, but it’s clearly more than a hot streak or even a trend. His metamorphosis has taken a good team to great.

“I had all the confidence in the world we could pull it off,” Newman said. “Going to the Riverwalk in San Antonio was the plan all along.”

For this Duke team, meanwhile, Sunday goes down as a missed opportunity – and not just because of Allen’s miss at the end of regulation, a 12-footer that hit the backboard, rolled around the rim, hit the backboard again and rolled along the rim again, flirting with victory but then dropping away as the buzzer sounded.

GOODNESS GRACIOUS. Grayson Allen was a slight roll away from becoming a Duke Icon. pic.twitter.com/NxLqC3465s — CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 25, 2018

That’s how close the Blue Devils came to notching Krzyzewski’s 13th Final Four. Once there, they’d probably have been the favorite. But for Duke, like Kansas, anything less than the Final Four means a season can only good, not great. Loaded with future NBA players, the Blue Devils were ranked No. 1 in the preseason. But a lineup of Allen and four freshmen, no matter how precocious they were (and they were), took a while to jell.

In February, frustrated by their inability to defend, Krzyzewski was compelled to switch from his aggressive man-to-man to a zone. It worked well enough to propel Duke to the Elite Eight. But it wasn’t enough against Kansas.

The smaller Jayhawks outrebounded Duke by 15, and had 17 offensive rebounds. They worked the soft middle of the Blue Devils’ zone for points or passes for open perimeter shots – they took 36 three-point attempts versus only 33 from inside the arc.

Newman hit five of them. But his defense was as important. In the locker room afterward, someone handed Newman a final box score. He looked, not at his glorious line but at Allen’s. The Duke senior scored 12 points, but hit only 3 of 13 shots. And of course, there was that critical miss.

“Tsk,” Newman said. “Tsk. Tsk – they say I can’t play defense.”

On that final play, the design was for either Allen or freshman forward Marvin Bagley to get the last opportunity. Allen feinted left, drove right, spun back to the left – hounded the entire way by Newman – and then jumped back and fired.

In the stands, Webster held his breath, thinking: “Pop out! Pop out! Pop out!”

When it did, overtime was Newman’s time, when his star grew very bright. He hit a three-pointer, and then some free throws, and then he stole a pass. And with the score tied and the clock ticking under two minutes, he put Kansas on top for good.

Vick took a pass just below the free-throw line, in the soft middle of Duke’s zone, and immediately found Newman open in the corner. The three-pointer gave Kansas an 81-78 lead. Four more free throws, and it was over.

“This is why you come to Kansas,” Newman said. “To be in these games. To be in these moments.”

Moments like this last one, after the final buzzer, when the confetti and chaos rained down. Newman, who was named the Midwest Region’s most outstanding player, was the last Jayhawk to ascend the ladder, which was fitting. And when he’d finished – snip, snip, snip – and returned to the floor, the net was nestled very nicely around his neck, too. And then, Newman bounced off the floor with his teammates, headed for the locker room and a more private party.

But he stopped, pivoted and bolted to the front row of the stands, where a surprised Kansas fan did a double-take, then yelled, “Hello, Newman!” – and yeah, he appeared to be riffing on the line from the old Seinfeld TV series. Newman just smiled at the fan, and then he wrapped his father in a long embrace.

“I love you,” Newman told Webster, adding:

“I told you so.”