Kansas freshman forward Silvio De Sousa, who didn’t join the team until late December, scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Jayhawks in the Big 12 tournament championship game against West Virginia.

Following his career evening and an 81-70 KU win, De Sousa said he made sure to keep plugging away, even while most of his first couple of months with KU involved watching from the bench.

“When I came here out of high school I knew it was going to be hard,” De Sousa said. “And I just believed in myself and just tried hard during practices. Now, months later, I’ve actually got my confidence up. Today I finally could play a lot better than I used to.”

Against WVU in particular, De Sousa said his early work on the glass set him up for a productive outing.

“When I got my first five rebounds, that’s when I said, ‘Oh, I’m gonna play hard tonight and make sure we win the game,'” the freshman backup said.