JAYHAWK
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Basketball
Inside Sports today
The Kansas baseball team picked up its first conference win of the season yesterday against Iowa State.
SEE PAGE 4B
Yesterday's game - Kansas vs. Kentucky
SECTION B, PAGE 1
KANSAS 88
23-10
NKFD NO.22
WWW.JHAWKBBALL.COM
KENTUCKY 92
27-8
RANKED NO.8
MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1999
Commentary
KU students' journey fun, if not fruitful
NEW ORLEANS — Before I am a sports columnist, I am a Kansas basketball fan. That's why when my friend Dave Harris asked me on Tuesday evening if we were going to see the Jayhawks in New Orleans I said, "Why not?"
So this is the story of three college students driving 976 miles one-way to go to the Big Easy to see the Hawks play two.
Thursday 9:00 a.m.; Pick up Dave and Marc. We begin our trek.
11:30 a.m. Arrive in Columbia, Mo., stop for lunch. See former Mizzou point guard Jason Sutherland at Wendy's. He asked me if I wanted my combo meal biggie-sized. I say sure. (That's a loke.)
6:00 p.m.: Stop at Graceland, take pictures. Figure Elvis could bring good luck to the Jayhawks.
Friday 12:30 a.m.: Arrive in New Orleans. Dave has us set up in the downtown Marriott for only $40 an evening. He says it's because he "knows someone." I make a note to myself to look into Dave possibly being friends with Master P.
10:30 a.m.: Leave hotel for Superdome
4:30 p.m. First session's done. See Miami
o' the Wally Snyder.
of Ohio's Wally Szczerbiak score 43 points.
6:30 p.m.: Walk back to the Superdome. Run into Kansas-chartered bus full of fans. See the Robertson family. Dave asks Troy Robertson, Ryan's brother, if it hurts to wear a Jayhawk. He replies, "Not when you've already beat them."
Jones is a Mulvane junior in journalism.
6:31 p.m.: Dave wonders aloud if Troy has good seats for the tour.
Seth Jones
sports@kansan.com
nament — since it's the only way he'll be involved with it.
6:59 p.m.: Lester Earl checks into the game to a chorus of boos. They really don't like him here.
7:15 p.m.: Evansville is making all its shots. Dave and I are the only vocal Kansas fans in the entire stadium. The alumni section looks at the cheerleaders with blank stares.
7:00 p.m.: Always with a marker and a blank side of posterboard handy, I make an emergency "Lester Rules" sign. The guy sitting behind me tells me not to hold it up. "You'll get shot at in here," he says. I tell him that he should move then, because he's in the line of fire.
8:30 p.m. I walk over and check the pulse of the Kansas alumni section. They're alive, but very mellow. Evansville, a school with only 2,600 students, has much better fans in attendance.
8:45 p.m.. The 'Hawks win .
11:00 p.m.: Hit Bourbon street and celebrate "Hawks victory."
11:45 p.m.: See Lester Earl walking down Bourbon Street alone. I shake his hand and say hi. No sign of Master P.
4:45 a.m.: I buy my last beer of the evening. The bars here must never stop selling beer.
Saturday: No Kansas basketball. See New Orleans, more of Bourbon street later. Many LSU fans harass me for wearing Kansas garb.
6:35 p.m. : Gregory misses game-winning shot at end of regulation. Our hearts break.
6:45 p.m. : Cold shooting in overtime costs us the game. Many fans stop by to shake our hands and wish us good luck on the way home. Dave and I agree that it was a worthwhile trip.
Sunday 11:15 a.m. : Go to Kansas pep rally.
Trying to get hyped about something with alumni is like trying to get excited watching a chess match.
5:00 p.m. Kansas has a better showing of fans for the Kentucky game.
5:05 p.m.: Obnoxious Kentucky girls in front of us complain of our confetti throwing during the starting lineups. We ignore them.
5:20 p.m.: The spirit squad and Dave and I have a mutual respect for each other. We cheer hard for the "Hawks. The band really appreciates the "Stand Up, Alumni" sign we made.
6:15 p.m.: Kenny Gregory gets mugged by Heshimu Evans on what would have been a dunk. Dave and I go belligerent. Some jerk throws water on us. Dave yells that the faceless person is weak.
Bourbon Street defeat
Jayhawks fall to Kentucky in overtime
By Kevin C. Wilson
kwilson@kansan.com
Kansas sportwriter
For the second year in a row, the Kansas Jayhawks' dreams of a national championship evaporated in the second round of the NCAA tournament, as Kentucky squeaked out a 92-88 overtime victory.
The Jayhawks played perhaps their best game of the year and got a career-high 31 points from senior Ryan Robertson, but it wasn't enough to send the Jayhawks to the Sweet 16 for the sixth time in seven seasons.
For once, the game lived up to its billing as two of the winning teams in college basketball history played a game for the ages.
"It was one of those games that Kansas and Kentucky fans will talk about for a long time." Robertson said.
Kansas jumped out to a 10-4 lead and held a 21-15 lead with 11:33 remaining in the first half. Kentucky then went on a 13-5 run and took its first lead of the game at 28-26 with 8:11 remaining in the half. The teams exchanged baskets the rest of the half, and Kentucky took a 40-36 lead into the break.
Kansas forward Nick Bradford went three for three to start the second half, and Kansas pulled even at 48-48 with 15:16 remaining. After Kentucky took its biggest
lead of the game at 57-50, Robertson scored nine straight points and gave Kansas a 59-57 lead.
Kentucky forward Scott Padgett responded by scoring 11 of Kentucky's next 15 points as the Wildcats seized a 71-67 lead with 3:38 to play. In the next 22 seconds both T.J. Pugh and Bradford fouled out and the Jayhawks were left with few options for guarding Padgett.
But the Jayhawks did not fold. Robertson and freshman point guard Jeff Boscheme combined to hit three, three-pointers in a row and gave Kansas a 79-74 lead with 1:29 to play.
"When those two guys fouled on back-to-back plays, it really hurt us," Kansas coach Roy Williams said.
Kentucky point guard Wayne Turner made two free throws with 1:08 left and pulled Kentucky to within three. After Turner missed a running shot in the lane, Kentucky grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked it out to Padgett at the top of the key, who hit the three-pointer and sent the game into overtime.
The Jayhawks had a chance to win it in regulation, but Kenny Gregory's off-balance baseline jumper didn't even draw
See FINAL on page 3B
Commentary
Lester Earl's homecoming: spicy, turbulent, disappointing
NEW ORLEANS — A weekend trip home for any college junior should be a good time. Barring a funeral or family emergency, the experience is usually positive. A chance to visit friends and family, to see familiar sights and to eat some home cooking sure did put a smile on Lester Earl's face.
But Earl had a bad weekend. Yesterday, less than an hour before boarding the plane to return to Kansas, Earl sat with his face in his hands, tears running down his cheeks.
He was easily the happiest Jayhawk when he found out last Sunday that his team would compete in New Orleans in the NCAA tournament. Earl is from Baton Rouge, La., an hour drive from New Orleans.
The food was excellent and the friends and family showed up 25 strong, but the people intent on ruing Earl's weekend stay also came to his homecoming — Louisiana natives and the Kentucky Wildcats.
Earl spent much of the weekend trying to ignore shouted insults and even threats.
See FANS on page 3B
Kansas forward Kenny Gregory launches a jump shot over Kentucky's Tayshaun Prince, left, and Jamaal Magloire. Gregory scored 11 points for the Jayhawks. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
Kansas women shoot down Golden Eagles
By Matt James
By Matt James
mjames@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
The Jayhawks have earned a shot at the best.
Kansas women's basketball coach Marian Washington has a chuckle with the media after the Jayhawks' victory against Marquette Saturday. The team faces its next opponent, the Purdue Boilermakers, tonight at 6:30. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
Plagued by foul trouble, junior Lynn Pride played only 23 minutes Saturday, but soared to the basket on the receiving end of two ally-oop passes on consecutive possessions. The 'Hawks play secured a second-round game against the top-ranked Boilermakers of Purdue tonight.
Kansas, the No.9 seed, trailed No.8 seed Marquette by eight points with 10 minutes remaining in the Midwest Sub-Regional's opening game of the NCAA women's basketball tournament in West Lafayette, Ind.
"The lob pass was just something during a timeout that coach said we should go after, and we executed it very well," Pride said.
The first of the two ally-oops — a play utilized much more frequently in men's basketball — resulted in a layup, the second in two Pride free-throws, and both seemed to energize the entire team.
The timing of the set plays turned out to be crucial for Washington's team.
"We definitely wanted to go inside more," she said. "We called that play in the huddle and it worked. It was just an instinctive call. It turned out to be the play that turned the game around. We've used it before, but we figured since we hadn't gone to it all game long that maybe Marquette would be surprised."
The Golden Eagles finished the season 21-8, but have lost in the first round of the tournament three consecutive years. The Jayhawks, on the other hand, have won in four straight first-round matchups.
Kansas will try to shed its slow-starting woes when it faces the No. 1 seeded, and topranked, Purdue Boilermakers tonight at
6:30. The Jayhawks have trailed at the half in all three of their post-season games, including a 64-79 loss to Iowa State, a team Washington said closely resembles her team's next opponent.
"We feel we're going to be facing a team that is very perimeter-oriented," she said. "They certainly have one of the best three-somes in the country. We have faced a team similar to Purdue in terms of a very strong-shooting ball club."
That threesome is made up of guards Katie Douglas and Ukari Figgs, each of whom averages more than 14 points per game, and
Stephanie White-McCarty, a first-team All-American forward. White-McCarty was named Big 10 player of the year after averaging 20.8 points and 5.7 rebounds a game.
The women's NCAA Tournament, which allows the top four seeds in each bracket to host a sub-regional, has proven to be a tough place for underdoses to win.
"We need to take our time and not allow ourselves to get flustered," Washington said. "We'll be facing a huge crowd and all those intangibles are going to effect us one way or the other."
Kansas was one of only five teams in the
The Starting Lineup
KANSAS
JAYHAWKS
23-9 overall
G JENNIFER JACKSON 5-10 So.
G LYNN PRIDE 6-2 Jr.
F BROOKE REVES 6-0 So.
F JACLYN JOHNSON 6-1 So.
C NAKIA SANFORD 6-3 Sr.
PURDUE
BOILERMAKERS
29-1 overall
G KATIE DOUGLAS So.
G UHARI FIGGS So.
F STEPHANE WHITE-MCARTY Sr.
F MICHELLE DUHART Jr.
C CAMILLE COOPER Sr.
Mackey Arena • West Lafayette
TV: ESPN2
TIME: 6:30
entire tournament to defeat a higher-seeded team in the first round, and more than 9,000 fans cheered the home-court Boilermakers to a 68-48 first-round victory against Oral Roberts. The Jayhawks expect an even larger and more hostile crowd tonight, but said it would not effect their play.
most of the people on our team get up for a game where there's going to be a big crowd whether they're yelling for you or not, Sanford said. "We've faced all kinds of hecklers and crowds in the Big 12, so I don't think it'll be anything we haven't seen before."
Edited by Julie Sachs