TCU struggling with travel calls but KU caught a recent break

Upon further review, even Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self acknowledged Thursday that his team caught a break when game officials missed a traveling call on Jayhawks’ guard Svi Mykhailiuk as he drove for a buzzer-beating basket in Tuesday’s 90-88 victory over Kansas State in Lawrence, Kan.

“It looked like he took extra steps. There’s no question about that,” Self said during Thursday’s conference call with Big 12 basketball coaches. “I don’t disagree with anyone with a Kansas State perspective that might be upset about that.”

The non-call prevented the game from going into overtime and comes during a season with game officials have been asked to crack down on travelling violations in college basketball. TCU coach Jamie Dixon has seen his team struggle in that department in Big 12 play, including six travels in last week’s 86-80 loss to the Jayhawks in Fort Worth.

“We got called for six travels in that game,” Dixon said. “We cut them down in our next game (against Oklahoma) but we’ve still got to improve. It’s a point of emphasis this year, the travels. You just hope there’s not a big differential because you can call that on nearly every play. As coaches, we knew they would be calling it stricter this year on travels.”

This story was originally published January 5, 2017 at 12:55 PM with the headline "TCU struggling with travel calls but KU caught a recent break."