Volume 124 Issue 125
kansan.com
Monday, April 2, 2012
COMMENTARY
Kansas ready for rematch
How quickly do people forget that Kansas is a two seed in the NCAA Tournament? How quickly do they forget that Kansas has a unanimous first team All-American big man, along with a third team All-American senior point guard? How quickly do they forget that this team has been counted out before?
Forty minutes separate Kansas and Kentucky from glory. The contrast between the two basketball titans is sharp.
"On paper, their record is better, on paper their stats look better," Tyshawn tails said of Kentucky. "But it's only forty minutes and none of that matters anymore. There's forty minutes left."
The Wildcats have this bad boy attitude about them. Even though they don't run their mouths during the games and, they're robotic in their motions. They say they don't overlook anyone, but they carry a certain superior attitude with them.
And then there's the Jayhawks.
Edited by Tanvi Nimkar
On Monday, the two best teams in the country will fight for a championship. If Kansas can take that fight to the final round, the final few minutes, they'll be the team celebrating.
"Their best five have to play against our best five. I think we're right in the ball game. We're right there," Taylor said.
Kansas has been hit hard and hit often. They've felt the sting of the most painful losses. And they've been able to dig deeper than they thought possible to make sure they never feel that pain again.
This Final Four week has been filled with talk from the media that Kansas was never supposed to get to New Orleans. After Kansas beat Ohio State Saturday night, national stories read that the Kentucky Wildcats will end the Jayhawks' magic ride.
"That's the only thing that would concern me personally," Jones said.
Kansas knows Kentucky has more talent than them. Bill Self said it himself. But like Taylor said, in those 40 minutes, anything can happen. Nobody knows that better than Kansas. Nobody.
NEW ORLEANS - I don't believe that this Kansas team is the almighty underdog of this NCAA Tournament. I don't believe that this Kansas team shouldn't be here. And I don't believe that this Kansas team isn't good enough to beat Kentucky.
And then there's the lajwahys.
They smile. They show their personality. They do it while they're playing and when they're being interviewed. They're honest and they know the odds are against them, but that doesn't keep them from believing.
When Kentucky forward Terrence Jones was asked if he had any concerns about Kansas, his response was no. He said Kansas likes to drive and post up, which could get Kentucky in foul trouble.
NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Kansas center Jeff Withey grabs a rebound at Madison Square Garden where the Jayhawks were outrebounded by one. Kentucky beat Kansas 75-65 on November 15, 2011
FORTY MINUTES LEFT
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
But coach Bill Self isn't buying it.
NEW ORLEANS — Here we are again. The Kentucky Wildcats and coach John Calipari again. The Kansas Jayhakws are the underdogs if you ask every non-Kansas fan in the country and their mother again.
"I've never known a game to be played on paper," he said.
November in New York City was a glitzy nonconference test. April in the Big Easy is for a national championship.
Calipari, the face under slicked-back hair that operates the one-and-done machine,
made a statement the day before Monday night's title game against Kansas.
"Every game we play," he said,
"it's someone's Super Bowl."
The Wildcats — bigger than fried chicken even in their state — have been ranked No.1 for the majority of the season. They boast a slew of freshman superstars; most notably forward Anthony Davis, the unibrowed player of the year who routinely rejects jump shots and upset bids from his opposition. There's also forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, the freak athlete who makes everyone around him play their best. Sophomore guard Doron Lamb can heat up from deep and sophomore forward Terrence Jones, for
all his mental errors, possesses a premier array of skills. All are advised by senior Darius Miller, the calm, soft-spoken guard who has a knack for making teams pay for leaving him open.
Self said that all the praise for Kentucky is just. But he believes his team, one that has grown into itself, has its own positives. Assistant coach Barry Hinson doesn't believe in Calipari's Super Bowl statement. Not with this school.
"Let's get one thing straight, we're Kansas," Hinson said. "We know we're underdogs, but hey, we're Kansas. We're coming to play. There are no David and Goliath speeches going on right now."
It's this confidence, which
resonates throughout the team, that has meshed so smoothly with Kansas' trust in one another. Past all the hurdles of Missouri, Baylor, Purdue, North Carolina and the rest, the Jayhawks know their accomplishments and what it takes to compete against the nation's best teams.
"I don't think we got here by wings," junior guard Elijah Johnson said. "I don't think we flew here."
All that's left is one game. The Jayhawks don't view the game as finding a way to defeat the almighty beast that is Kentucky. They're not daunted by network projections or highlight reels from November.
"None of that matters any
more," senior guard Tyshawn Taylor said. "There's 40 minutes left."
Kentucky vs. Kansas; blue bloods in the truest form. Young, skilled acrobats vs. tough, developed upperclassmen; two distinctly different routes to reach the final game.
And now it's here — 40 minutes to crown a champion.
"The appreciation of this moment will come weeks, months and years from now," Hinson said. "These moments, the pictures that they get to see, the newspaper articles, they'll be able to relish this with their grandchildren."
Edited by Max Lush
NCAA
Roots lead back to Lawrence
KORY CARPENTER
kcarpenter@kansan.com
NEW ORLEANS- Bill Self's start in coaching is probably well known by now. A guard on the Oklahoma State basketball team, he worked at a Kansas basketball camp one summer led by then-coach Larry Brown. He suffered an injury in a counselor's scrimmage and feeling bad, Brown told Self to ask him if he ever needed anything.
Self wanted to coach, and there was an opening on Brown's staff. A young coach by the name of John Vincent Calipari just left to become an assistant at Pittsburgh.
A few years prior, Kansas coach Ted Owens offered Calipari the chance to volunteer with the team. He lived with an assistant coach, served food to campers at lahwack-
er Towers and survived on those meals after the campers had made their rounds. He even met his wife at Kansas and says he has great memories of Lawrence.
Self methodically climbed up the college coaching ladder while Calipari sandwiched a stint in the NBA between head coaching jobs at mid-majors. He recruited well at Memphis and has gotten even better at Kentucky. Self called him the best salesman in the sport.
Both coaches can trace their humble beginnings back to 1651 Naismith Drive, but the roads taken since then have seemed so different.
Now their paths cross in the National Championship again, fours years after one of the greatest championship games of all time.
"I said after they beat us in 2008.
He hasn't seen the tape of that game, though. Its shattered remains were left on the side of the road after being hurled out of the Memphis bus on the way to the San Antonio airport. Self, on the other hand, once watched the game 50 straight days while working out.
if there was going to be any coach or school that was going to beat us in that venue," Calipari said Sunday. "I would have said, let it be Kansas."
Four seasons later, Calipari's Wildcats are the best team in the land. Self leads a squad that wasn't supposed to be playing in April this season and Kentucky is favored by more than a few buckets.
"If we play like we did last night in the first hall," Self said Sunday of his semifinal victory over Ohio State. "It probably won't be a good
The Jayhawks have lived on the edge the last month with a rotation of seven upperclassmen.
Kentucky has dominated college basketball since November with some of the best underclassmen in years. Some have thought they could compete with an NBA team and the Kentucky players said they believed they were this good since the beginning of the season.
deal for us."
Self and Calipari's roads from Lawrence to New Orleans were anything but similar. But here they are, two completely different storylines playing out at the two winningest schools of all time.
"I think it's going to be special," Self said. "The bluest of blue bloods."
- Edited by Pat Strathman
NAISMITH AWARD
Kansas men's basketball coach Bill Self was named the Naismith Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year on the eve of his second NCAA championship game in four years,
Self third Kansas coach to earn honor
Self, already the Sporting News Coach of the Year, joins Larry Brown (1988) and Roy Williams (1997) among Kansas coaches to receive the honor from the Atlanta Tipoff Club.
The Naismith Award is voted on by a nationwide panel of journalists, coaches and administrators across the country. Other coaches receiving votes were Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Missouri's Frank Haith and the coach of Kansas' opponent in tonight's championship game. Kentucky's John Calipari.
Matt Galloway