All of the ingredients seemed to be there for the 1985-86 season.  Calvin Thompson, Ron Kellogg and Greg Dreiling returned as seniors, and Danny Manning and Cedric Hunter were back with even more NCAA experience, in addition to reserves Chris Piper and Mark Turgeon.  And the combination worked.  All five starters – Dreiling, Thompson, Manning, Kellogg and Hunter – started every game during the regular season as the teamrolled to a 28-3 overall record and a Big Eight title with a 13-1 mark.  KU then won the Big Eight Tournament and advanced to the Final Four, where the Jayhawks fell to Duke 71-67.  They finished the season 35-4, the most wins for a KU team in one season.

KU beat Pepperdine and Washington to open the season with wins in the first two rounds of the Big Apple NIT preseason tournament, earning a trip to New York for the semifinals.  Once there, the No. 5 Jayhawks beat No. 9 Louisville 83-78 as Calvin Thompson scored 25 points.  Next up was Duke, and Mark Alarie and David Henderson combined for 51 points as the No. 6 Blue Devils won 92-86 to take the NIT title.  Duke was 22 of 25 from the free-throw line, compared with KU’s 6 of 9.

KU recorded its 1,300^th win on Dec. 3, 1985, but Brown was unimpressed with the milestone victory.  After a sluggish home performance in which Kansas committed 20 turnovers and made only 12 of 23 free throws in beating Southern Illinois – Edwardsville 86-71, Brown sent the team back on the floor for a 45-minute postgame practice.

After seeing his North Carolina State team crushed at home 71-56 by the Jayhawks, Coach Jim Valvano predicted big things for KU: “Kansas will be in the Final Four,” he said.  Ron Kellogg hit 9 of 11 long-range bombs in the second half against N.C. State on his way to 23 points.  It was one of several stunning performances for Kellogg that season during Saturday-afternoon games on national television.  Fred Mann, a columnist for the Wichita Eagle, said Kellogg’s “idea of shot selection was waiting until he found a spot in the same time zone.”  The long bombs (worth only two points at the time, remember) drove Brown crazy, but Kellogg said he had figured his coach out: “If I miss it from long range, he says it’s a bad shot.  If I make it, it’s a good shot.”

Kansas met eventual champion Louisville twice during the regular season, winning both games.  On Nov, 29, the Jayhawks defeated the Cardinals in the semifinals of the Big Apple NIT, and on Jan. 25, KU won 71-69 in Lawrence.  In the second game, Greg Dreiling hit two free throws with a little more than a minute remaining to provide the final margin as KU won its 28^th straight game at Allen Fieldhouse, tying the record set from 1969 to 1972.

Andre Turner, Memphis State’s standout point guard, had a score to settle with the fifth-ranked Jayhawks when they visited Memphis on Jan. 4, 1986.  He had missed the game between the two teams in Lawrence the season before because ofhis father’s death.  KU had won that game by four points.  But in Memphis, Turner had nine assists, seven steals and scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half to bring the Tigers back from an 11-point deficit to an 83-80 overtime win.

When KU traveled to Norman on Feb. 24, 1986, the Jayhawks found a way to get back at the Oklahoma Sooners for cutting down the KU nets the year before.  The Jayhawks won OU 87-80, ending the Sooners’ 48-game home winning streak in the Lloyd Noble Center.  After the game, Brown said, “Winning here was a good a road victory as I’ve ever been involved with.”

When KU won its final home game March 1, 1986, against Iowa State, the Jayhawks did a little celebrating.  They had clinched KU’s first Big Eight title since 1978 the week before, and Brown had warned his team to leave the nets intact because the Jayhawks had higher goals to reach.  But when seniors Ron Kellogg, Calvin Thompson and Greg Dreiling arrived at the fieldhouse in tuxedos. Fans could tell it might be a special day.  (Dreiling had to go all the way to Salina, Kan., to find a tux that was big enough.)  “We came here in style,” Kellogg said, “and we wanted to go out in style.”

KU avenged its earlier loss in Ames by beating Iowa State 90-70, and the seniors decided to claim the nets.  Dreiling and Thompson hoisted Kellogg up to sit astride the rim, and he whacked away at the cords with dull scissors.  “I thought for sure we were going to lose a left-handed, 6-5 forward,” Brown said.  “We’re going to have to learn how to do a better job of cutting down nets.”

KU met Kansas State in the first round of the Big Eight Tournament for what would prove to be Jack hartman’s final game as K-State’s head coach.  KU won 74-51.  Dreiling had 19 points and Manning added 16 to send KU to the semifinal for a third meeting with Oklahoma.  KU fans had long been talking about the Jayhawks going to the Final Four, and after KU beat K-State to open the Big Eight Tournament, even Brown gave in: “I want the players to think about Dallas,” he said in a Wichita Eagle story.  “The way they’ve conducted themselves and how hard they’ve tried, I don’t want them thinking of anything but the opportunity of going to Dallas.  I’ll be disappointed if we don’t get there.  We are playing so well right now.”

The Jayhawks beat the Sooners 72-70 when Danning Manning hit two free throws with six seconds remaining.  But the Iowa State-KU game for the tournament title was even closer.  With KU leading 73-71, Iowa State’s Jeff Hornacek picked off a KU pass and drove the length of the court.  He dished off to Sam Hill, who slipped past Greg Dreiling.  Two whistles were heard, one for traveling on Hill and one for a foul on Dreiling.  The buzzer had already sounded and the officials decided since the traveling infraction happened first, the fouled didn’t count.  KU had the Big Eight Tournament title and a No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Tournament in Dayton, Ohio.

The Jayhawks coasted past North Carolina A&T 71-46 in the first round.  Four Jayhawks scored in double figures as KU moved to 32-3: Manning with 15 points, Thompson 14, Dreiling 12 and Marshall 10.  Ron Kellogg sat out the game with a strained foot.  In the second-round game against Temple, KU held the Owls to a season-low 43 points in winning 65-43.  Dreiling was hampered by foul trouble.  But Manning, Thompson and Kellogg each had 14 points as KU went on the Midwest Regional in Kansas City’s Kemper Arena, 38 miles from Lawrence.

KU’s 1986 regional semifinal victory over Michigan State will always be remembered for the 11 seconds that the clock failed to tick off in regulation.  Many argue that the mistake cost the Spartans the game, but that might be stretching things a bit.  With 2:20 left in the game, Michigan State led by two points and the timer could not get the clock started as the Spartans brought the ball upcourt.  MSU coach Judd heathcote left the coach’s box to complain to officials, and Brown argued that Heathcote should get a technical for leaving the box.  During the haggling, Brown’s ever-present, rolled-up program caught the referee’s whistle.  A technical was assissed on Brown, and the Spartens made both free throws, then added a basket to lead 80-74 with 1:08 to play.  Michigan State didn’t score again in regulation, and when Archie Marshall tipped in a Calvin Thompson miss with none seconds left, the game was headed to overtime.

Danny Manning and Ron Kellogg had fouled out, and Thompson took control in overtime, scoring eight of his 26 points as KU won 96-86.  MSU argued that marshall’s tip with nine seconds remaining would not have come in time if the clock had been running earlier.  But Brown was also quick to point out that he would not have received a technical, which gave the Spartans two easy points, if the argument about the clock had not happened.

Kansas earned its first trip to the Final Four in 12 years by beating North Carolina State 75-67 in the regional final at their other home court, Kemper Arena.  Ku trailed 57-52 in the second half when Danny Manning went on a tear, scoring 10 straight points.  Then Greg Dreiling made nine in a row and KU led 71-63 with less than a minute to play.  “There were 17,00 people chanting ‘Rock chalk Jayhawks!”’ N.C. State coach Jimmy Valvano said.  “I don’t know what the hell that means.”

Larry Brown broke out the red uniforms for the 1985-86 season, hoping that they might bring KU good luck.  The Jayhawks had worn red in 1962 while winning the national championship and in 1957 when they finished second.  Heading into Dallas, Brown’s Jayhawks were 2-0 when wearing red.  Perhaps Brown hould have stuck with the blue uniforms.  Heading into the 1986 Final Four, blue had been worn by more NCAA champions than any other color.

KU’s shot at a national title ended on March 29 at Dallas’ Reunion Arena when KU lost to Duke 71-67 in what was undoubtedly the most frustrating game of Danny Manning’s college career.  He scored only four points, and his two baskets came 34 minutes and 17 seconds apart. Manning and Dreiling got into early foul trouble, and Cedric Hunter joined them on the bench late in the game after all three had fouled out.  Top reserve Archie Marshall also was lost with eight minutes to go in the game when he injured his knee.

Despite all that, KU was still in the game.  With the score tied 67-67, Duke’s Mark Alarie clanked a shot off the rim and Duke’s Danny Ferry squeezed between two KU players to grab the rebound and lay it in for a 69-67 lead with 22 seconds remaining.  Eleven seconds later, Kellogg drove the baseline and ran into Ferry.  A charge was called on Kellogg, but Ferry missed the free throw, and Ku still had a chance.  With four seconds remaining, Kellogg launched a 20-footer that banged off the front of the rim.  Duke’s Tommy Amaker was fouled on the rebound and sank both shots for the final margin.

Duke’s Johnny Dawkins had 24 points, and Kellogg led the Jayhawks with 22.  But KU reserves Mark Turgeon, Archie Marshall and Chris Piper had come up big for the Jayhawks to keep then in the game.  Marshall had 13 points when he went down.  Turgeon was the only KU player seen crying in the locker room after the game.  “I’ve been a KU fan all my life,” he said in the Wichita Eagle.  “I guess I took it like a fan would.”