BASEBALL: Kansas sophomore still sparkling. SEE PAGE 7A. BASKETBALL: Washington courting Missouri's Quin Snyde. SEE PAGE 7A.
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10A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2002
COMMENTARY
Jeff Denton jdenton@kansan.com
Freshmen wise beyond their years
It's not uncommon for a late-season funk to saddle freshmen athletes.
For Kansas basketball's jazzy triumvirate — Aaron Miles, Wayne Simien and Keith Langford — the freshmen fatigue appeared to have peaked when Kansas fell to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game.
Point guard Miles collapsed under the Sooners' defensive schemes. He hesitated on open jumpers and forced passes that were not there. Spooked by the big-time stage in 27 minutes and slowed with rubbery legs, Miles finished with six turnovers.
Power forward Simien, a Leavenworth man-child with a vicious scowl and a penchant for physical play, snared one rebound in 10 minutes. One board. At 6-foot-9 and 255 pounds, he was the beefiest ghost in Kemper Arena.
Swingman Langford did not clam up like Miles or disappear like Simien, but he folded at times he usually scored, especially in transition. Blessed with body control of a ballerina, the 6-4 Texan had trouble going right when Oklahoma would not let him go left.
The three freshmen floundered. And the team fell down with them. After that Sunday, talk swirled that Kansas lacked the 'toughness' to battle in March. Then four days later, with 16th-seeded Holy Cross minutes away from staging an unprecedented Cinderella story, the baby layhawks grew their wings.
Miles nailed a short jumper to stretch Kansas' lead, Langford rejected a breakaway lay-up to protect Kansas' lead, and Simien muscled and rebounded to cement Kansas' lead.
The freshmen flourished, and with them the Jayhawks escaped to the next round.
In his last 65 minutes, Aaron Miles has turned the ball over just six times, a nice statistic considering how often the ball is in his hands. He pushed it against Stanford and Oregon and controlled the clock against Illinois. In all cases, he catered his game to what he was given, the signature of a savvy point man. This is why today's Aaron Miles is far better than the one who started against Ball State in his first-ever college game.
Three months ago, it was as if Keith Langford treated the player he was guarding like a letter laced with anthrax — the farther away the better. Yet in the past three games, he has emerged as the team's defensive stopper, always flying into passing lanes and hounding the basketball. And there is no freshman in the country more unflappable than Langford. Nothing rattles him. He has sunk 20 of 26 from the free-throw line. And he doesn't get tired. Most players drip with sweat throughout the game. Keith Langford mists.
Wayne Simien dazzled an ESPN audience in early December in his first game back from knee surgery. The McDonald's All-American went for 10 points and 11 rebounds in 15 minutes against Wake Forest, an NCAA tournament team. The performance had fans buzzing. Although the hype has calmed in the past few months — playing time in the post is shared with Drew Gooden and Nick Collison — there is no doubting his strength and steadiness. Simien has no qualms bruising his body for claim of the basketball. In Final Four play, that sort of knack is priceless.
Kansas fans expected their team to make it to Atlanta. They just didn't expect to depend on the heroes of three players who are too young to understand this tournament's magnitude. Miles, Langford and Simien have a good shot at coming home National Champions.
Just don't tell them they're freshmen
Dougherty takes Texas Christian job
Kansas assistant will remain with Jayhawks through the Final Four
By Brent Wasko
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas basketball fans screamed "one more year" as assistant coach Neil Dougherty cut down a piece of the net after the Jayhawks clobbered Oregon 104-86 and earned their first trip to the Final Four since 1993.
Denton is a Dallas senior in journalism Contact him at jdenton@kansan.com.
They wanted him to stay at Kansas for an eighth season with the team, but those hopes were dashed just hours after the postgame celebration subsided.
Dougherty accepted the position as head basketball coach at Texas Christian University after Kansas returned home from its Midwest Region Final in Madison, Wis., on Sunday.
He talked about the Jayhawks' recent victory at a formal announcement on the TCU campus yesterday in front of media and fans.
"This little piece of net, it looks so insignificant as I'm
Neil Dougherty
nolding it, but you would have to fight me to pry it out of my hand," Dougherty said. "That's what we want to get to here. I want student-athletes who come here to have the feeling, that sense of accomplishment those young men had. That can be done."
Dougherty returned to Kansas yesterday to resume preparation for Saturday's national semifinal matchup against Maryland. He will remain a Jayhawk assistant until the season concludes.
TCU athletics director Eric Hyman said he welcomes Dougherty's arrival.
"It is truly a privilege to recruit a person of Neil's caliber." Hyman said. "He brings to us a wealth of experience, not only on the court, but off of the court. He has a tremendous basketball background."
Dougherty, a Leavenworth native, played one year for coach Mike Krzzyzewski at the U.S. Military Academy before transferring to Cameron. He eventually ended up as the head coach at Cameron from 1985-1988
In the next seven years, Dougherty was an assistant coach at Drake, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. He came to Kansas in 1995. His main duties with the Jayhawks included recruiting, where he helped Kansas sign eight McDonald's All-Americans. He was also was responsible for scouting coordination and supervising players' academic progress.
Kansas averaged nearly 30 victories per season during Dougherty's tenure, including four conference championships.
"I'm very happy for Neil Dougherty and even happier for TCU because they are really getting the best end of this deal," Williams said. "Neil is a fantastic person. He's going to be a great head coach. He's been extremely important to our success here the seven years that he's been here."
Williams said Dougherty's recruiting efforts for the Jayhawks will be missed.
"He's the kind of guy that parents will love because he's the kind of guy they will trust their sons with," Williams said. "He's the kind of guy that's going to give TCU a basketball program and move it to an even higher level."
Contact Wasko at bwasko@kansan.com.
This story was edited by Eve Lamborn.
'Hawk freezes tourney
Team leans on freshman in post-season play
When Keith Langford was a prep basketball star at North Crowley (Texas) High, his teammates dubbed him "Keith Freeze."
"It's kinda like I'm cold," the freshman swinger said, "that you can't freeze me because I've already got ice in my veins."
By Doug Pacey Kansan sportswriter
Freshman guard Keith Langford drives to the basket against Illinois in last Friday's game at the Kohl Center. Langord scored 15 against the Illini before scoring a career-high 20 points against Oregon in Sunday's win.
After Langford's jaw-dropping performances against Illinois and Oregon last weekend, it's obvious to the rest of the world how he got that nickname.
Langford earned All-Midwest Region team honors, along with teammates Nick Collison and Drew Gooden, after the Fort Worth, Texas, native averaged 17.5 points, hit 11 of 14 shots and made 13 of 15 free throws in two games.
"I really didn't expect that honor," Langford said. "I think being on there with Drew and Nick is great. It's a real big honor. I can't let it get to my head, I can't have any let-downs the rest of the way."
LAURIE SISK/KANSAN
Against the No. 4 seed Illini on Friday, the freshman scored 15 points in 27 minutes, but it was his last two points that proved Langford really might be cold-blooded. With No. 1 seed Kansas (33-3 overall, 16-0 Big 12 Conference) leading 71-69 with six seconds left in the game, Illinois guard Frank Williams missed a baseline jumper, and Langford swooped in for the rebound and was fouled. "Keith Freeze" stepped to the free throw line for a one-and-one opportunity with 2.8 seconds remaining and Illini coach Bill Self called a timeout in an attempt to freeze Langford. Self's timeout simply delayed the inevitable.
Langford drilled both of his shots and iced the game for the Jayhawks.
"It's hard to freeze someone when they've already got ice water running through their veins," he said of Self's strategy.
Langford played even better against the No. 2 seed Ducks Sunday. Wearing his lucky Texas Rangers socks, the freshman poured in a career-high 20 points and grabbed a career-high eight rebounds in only 22 minutes. But it was his slashing-though-the-lane, two-handed, hanging-on-the-rim-put-back dunk off a Gooden miss that gave Kansas a double-digit lead, 83-72, with 6:33 left that freshman point guard Aaron Miles thought was the game's defining play.
"Aww, man, that was incredible," Miles said. "That was awesome, but Keith has been big for us all year."
Langford, the first player off Kansas' bench, swished a game-winning three-point with 36 seconds remaining against Nebraska and kept the Jayhawks unblemished Big 12 record intact. When Honorable Mention All-America junior guard Kirk Hinrich went down with a sprained left ankle against No. 16 seed Holy Cross in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Langford stepped in and played a career-high 31 minutes.
The Jayhawks didn't know if Hinrich would be able to play against No. 8 seed Stanford in the next round, but Gooden said he didn't doubt Langford's ability.
"I believe Keith Langford will play in the NBA," Gooden said with a straight face. "He's got to have a coming-out party, and now is as good a time as any."
Starting his first game as a Jayhawk, the freshman didn't exactly take to the spotlight like his First Team All-America teammate predicted he would. In fact, Langford was downright invisible. In 28 minutes he scored just two
points and missed all three of his free thrown attempts.
But after Langford's performances against the Illini and Ducks last weekend, it's apparent that the freshman just wanted to be fashionably late to his own coming-out party.
"I thought he was going to be pretty doggone good," Roy Williams said. "I think he may have surpassed what I thought he was going to be able to do."
Note
Those going to the Final Four without tickets can still watch Kansas, Maryland, Oklahoma and Indiana play. The teams will have open practices Friday at the Georgia Dome with the Jayhawks taking the court at 1 p.m.
Contact Doug Pacey at dpacey@kansan.com. This story was edited by Kyle Ramsey.
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