6B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY BABY KANSAN
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2007
BASKETBALL
Arizona game reminds players, fans of sting of Sweet 16 defeat
1997 loss marked the beginning of 10-year rivalry between college powerhouses
Kansas faces Arizona on Sunday for the first time since its 2005 loss. In 1997, when Kansas was No. 1 in the nation, Arizona defeated the Jayhawks 85-82.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
BY RUSTIN DODD dodd@kansan.com
More than 10 years later, Jerod Haase still thinks about Kansas' loss to Arizona in the 1997 Sweet 16. Sitting on the bench in the second half with a wrist injury, Haase could only watch as his Jayhawks — the No. 1 team in the nation — went down to Mike Bibby, Miles Simon and the eventual NCAA-champion Arizona Wildcats.
"I'm just as frustrated and just as discouraged as I was then," Haase said. "It's something that has stuck with me for 10 years."
The loss has stuck with most Kansas basketball fans, too. With a senior-laden squad led by Haase, Jacque Vaughn and Scot Pollard, No. 1 Kansas also had future NBA lottery picks Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz as well as second-round pick Ryan Roberston. Kansas, with only one loss going in, was the unanimous favorite to win the NCAA tournament. But Kansas' loss to Arizona did more than tarnish the legacy of the 1997 team. It also instigated an unlikely rivalry between two college basketball powerhouses. On Sunday, Kansas will play Arizona for the eighth time since 1996. And although Kansas defeated Arizona in the 1996 Sweet 16 to advance to the Elite Eight, the 1997 game was the true beginning of the rivalry.
"You're taking one of the premier programs on the West Coast and one of the premier programs in the Midwest and matching them up against each other," said Haase, who is now an assistant coach at North Carolina. "It was without a question two heavyweights going at it."
Haase's college roommate, former Kansas guard C.B. McGrath, was around for six of the Jayhawk-Wildcat battles, with three as a player and three as a coach. McGrath said a sense of mutual respect between the programs started with the coaches. Former Kansas coach Roy Williams and Arizona coach Lute Olson are still good friends to this day.
Kansas has inflicted some heartbreak on Arizona as well. In 2003, No. 2 seed Kansas, led by seniors Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison, defeated No. 1 seed Arizona in Anaheim, Calif., to go to the Final Four.
Arizona won the most recent game of the series; a 61-49 victory at the Maui Invitational in 2005. That game is probably one that junior
guards Mario Chalmers and Brandon Rush would like to forget. Playing the first game of their careers, Chalmers had seven turnovers and Rush had four. Chalmers said that game was "back in the day".
"I think I've grown a lot" Chalmer's said. "That was my freshman year, not knowing a lot, still trying to play high school ball. I don't think I was prepared like I am now."
So on Sunday, Kansas and Arizona will hook up once again. For Kansas fans, a victory by Chalmers, Rush and senior guard Russell Robinson might just take a little of the sting out of that painful 1997 memory.
But for players like McGrath and Haase, that sting is not going away. One year after Kansas lost to Arizona in 1997, Kansas faced off against Arizona in a regular season game in the Great Eight in Chicago. McGrath's Jayhawks beat the Wildcats 90-87.
"I remember having a good time in the locker room, and it did feel good to beat them," McGrath said. "But nothing is going to ever erase the memory of '97 when we had the best team in the country."
Kansas vs. Arizona since 1996
March 22,1996
Edited by Rachel Bock
Kansas 83, Arizona 80
Kansas defeated Arizona in the Sweet 16 in Denver, Colo., before bowing out to Syracuse in the Elite Eight.
March 21, 1997
Arizona 85, Kansas 82
Arizona returned the favor in
1997, ending top-ranked Kansa'
1997 season in the Sweet
16, with an 85-82 victory in
Birmingham, Ala.
Dec.2,1997
Kansas 90 Arizona 87 Kansas and Arizona hooked up for the third time in three years, and the Jayhawks enacted revenge on the Wildcats in the Great Eight in Chicago.
Kansas 105, Arizona 97
Drew Gooden, Nick Collison
and Kirk Hinrich hit Arizona
Dec.1, 2001
in Tucson, Ariz., in a year Kansas would advance to the Final Four and lose to Maryland.
Jan.25,2003
Arizona 91, Kansas 74
Arizona rolled into Allen
Fieldhouse the next season,
overcame a large first-half
deficit and blew Kansas away
in the second half.
March 29. 2003
Kansas 78, Arizona 75 Two months later, Kansas won the rematch as Kirk Hinrich scored 28 points and Kansas advanced to the Final Four for the second year in a row.
Nov.21,2005
Arizona 61, Kansas 49
Kansas fell 61-49 in the first collegiate game for Brandon Rush, Julian Wright and Marion Chalmers.
The Kansas baseball team released its 2008 schedule Monday and it offers the Jayhawks very little margin for error if it's to reach the postseason for the second time in three years. Kansas will play 26 games against 12 schools that reached the NCAA tournament in 2007. Of Kansas' 61 regular-season games, 34 will be on the road, as the Jayhawks will travel as far west as Kona, Hawai, and as far east as Bradenton, Fla.
The 2006 Jayhawks traveled the most of any of Price's teams and earned a spot in the NCAA tournament. Price hopes that same approach will net the same results in 2008.
"It's a challenge," Price said. "Not only with the opposition that we're going to play, but obviously with the various places that we're going, as well."
After its traditional season-opening series at Hawai'i-Hilo, Feb. 22-24, Kansas will face its first competition from last year's NCAA tournament. Kansas will play a midweek game at Arkansas on Feb. 27, and continue east to play three games in the Music City Classic in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 29-March 2, including one against Vanderbilt, which was the No.1 overall seed in last year's NCAA tournament.
"It's a great test," Price said. "We're trying to play some of the best teams in America on the road and help our RPI early in the season and, on top of that, when you play Arkansas and Vanderbilt, it gives you a chance to prepare for the type of pitching you'll see in the Big 12 Conference. If we can survive the nonconference schedule, we'll be completely prepared to play in the Big 12."
COMMENTARY
Kansas' home opener is slated for March 5 against the LeMoyne College Dolphins of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, who went 34-19 last season and reached the NCAA tournament.
Serious contenders fill team's schedule
BY SHAWN SHROYER
Kansas baseball coach Ritch Price has never shied away from taking his Kansas baseball team on the road to play top-notch competition.
shroyer@kansan.com
"We've broke almost every other streak there is since I've been here, so we've got to get out of the gate early and have a chance to be at the top of the standings, rather than trying to fight our way all the way up through it again. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they're the preseason No. 1 in the country, too," Price said of Texas.
Kansas' conference slate opens the fourth weekend of the season at Texas, March 14-16, where Kansas hasn't won since 2002. Price admitted he'd rather play Texas later in the season, but a series victory would give Kansas a significant advantage over the rest of the Big 12 from the outset.
Price said hed contemplated playing in the tournament the last five years because he wanted to play Big Ten competition. He said a bonus of playing in the tournament was that it wouldn't cost his players any class time.
Of course, Price found out last season just how tentative schedules can be when weather forced 15 of Kansas' games to be rescheduled or cancelled. This season he's prepared for the worst again.
"I already have a bunch of calendar dates circled with 'TBA' and I've already talked to guys about makeup dates," Price said.
Following that tournament, Kansas will focus its efforts on Big 12 competition, playing at home against Texas A&M, at Baylor and at home against Texas Tech the next three weekends.
- Edited by Luke Morris
In May, though, the Jayhawks won't have to play outside of Kansas until the Big 12 Championship. Kansas will play host to Oklahoma. May 2-4, Oral Roberts, May 7, Missouri, May 9-11, and then play the first game of its three-game series with Kansas State, May 16-18, at home before playing the next two games in Manhattan.
Perhaps the toughest stretch in Kansas' schedule will come at the end of April, when it travels to Nebraska, April 18-20, Wichita State, April 22, Oklahoma State, April 25-27, and plays Missouri at Kauffman Stadium, April 29. All four opponents made the NCAA tournament last season and will likely be ranked at some point this season.
"I like the fact that we get to finish the season with Kansas State. I think that's really special," Price said. "Right now the Missouri-Kansas baseball rivalry might be as good as any in our league and certainly it's only going to be heightened by what happens this weekend. When the football game's over, it'll put even more at stake when we play in May."
"That might be the toughest eightgame stretch anybody in America's going to play," Price said. "Hopefully we'll be clicking on all cylinders by then."
tournament-tested
Here are Kansas' 2008 opponents who made last season's NCAA postseason tournament.
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Arkansas
Baylor
LeMoyne College
Missouri
Nebraska
Ohio State
Oklahoma State
Oral Roberts
Texas
Texas A&M
Vanderbilt
Wichita State
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