BASEBALL: The team falls at home to Oral Roberts. SEE PAGE 2B. Basketball: Maryland tops Connecticut, will play Kansas. SEE PAGE 4B.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2002
Roasted Duck
Kansas burns Oregon, earns a trip to Final Four in Atlanta
LAUREN SISK/KANSAN
Freshman guard Aaron Miles drives through Oregon's Robert Johnson and Anthony Lever for a layup. Miles had six points and eight assists in yesterday's game.
By Doug Pacey
Kansan sportswriter
MADISON, Wis. — When Kansas' players opened their lockers on the first day of practice in October they found a picture taped to the inside. Coach Roy Williams had posted a photo of the Georgia Dome, site of this season's Final Four, in each locker with the question. "What did you do to get Kansas to Atlanta?"
After the No. 1-seed Jayhawks pasted No.2-seed Oregon 104-86 in the NCAA Tournament's Midwest Region Final at the Kohl Center, the Jayhawks will get a chance to see—and play in—the structure that they've stared at daily for nearly six months.
"We're not going down there for a picnic," freshman forward Wayne Simien
If No. 2-ranked Kansas plays in Atlanta the way the Jayhawks did Sunday afternoon, a national championship is well within their grasp. Kansas (33-3 overall, 16-0 Big 12 Conference) outrebounded the Pac-10 Conference Champion Ducks (26-9) an eye-popping 63-34 in the game and 39-14 in the second-half.
said. "We're going down there to win the title. We've come this far so we might as well do it."
Kansas will face East Region No. 1 seed Maryland Saturday in the National Semifinals.
Junior forwards Drew Gooden, the Midwest Region's Most Outstanding Player, grabbed 20 rebounds and Nick Collison, an All-Midwest Region team member, pulled down 15. Junior guard Kirk Hinrich added nine and freshman
"I told Nick and Drew to get on the backboard," Williams said. "I got on them a little bit in the first half and at halftime because I felt they were trying to be perimeter players. I told them, 'We're going to win this basketball game inside. We're going to win this game on the backboards. I don't need you guys to be perimeter players.'
swingman Keith Langford, the third Kansas player to be named to the All-Midwest Region team, snagged a careerhigh eight.
"Drew took all that as constructive criticism. Twenty rebounds, what more can you say? Nick Collison battled his rear end off."
Five Jayhawks scored in double-figures, led by Collison's 25 points. Langford made 6-of-7 attempts for 20 points in 22 minutes and had a spectacular
dunk on a put-back late in the game that teammate Aaron Miles said broke the Ducks' spirit. Gooden added 18 and Hinrich contributed 14. When senior guard Jeff Boschee, who netted 10 points, hit a three-pointer from the right baseline at the 15:02 mark in the first-half, he became the Big 12's all-time leading three-point shooter.
Oregon's senior Fred Jones, First Team All-Pac-10, led all players with 32 points, but Kansas was able hold the Ducks' high-flying and fast-paced offense in check.
SEE ATLANTA ON PAGE 6B
"You can't see right now, but I've got my shoes off," Gooden said as he sat behind a table and answered questions after the game. "My dogs are hurting me. I told coach Igotmytoenailsclipped and
COMMENTARY
Chris Wristen
cwrisien@kansan.com
Basketball fans should make tournament trip
SOMEWHERE IN IOWA—In case you were living under a rock yesterday, Kansas advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 1993 by pounding Oregon at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.
Perhaps you watched it at a bar, or in the comfort of your home, but thousands of local road warriors saw it firsthand and had remarkable experiences. If you weren't there, you really missed out.
All basketball fans should take a road trip to the tournament at least once during their college days. If you haven't yet, you've got another chance when the Jayhawks play Maryland Saturday in Atlanta at the Final Four.
This year's journey has been magical so far. It was capped off with Kansas' 104-86 plucking of Oregon, but it was made better by thousands of Jayhawks who traveled to the Big Dance and the other adventures along the way.
My five-member road crew rolled through the back-country roads of Iowa and Wisconsin and stopped to spit in the Mississippi River for good luck. Weran into other Kansas fans along the way who shared similar stories while trekking to Madison for the games.
Tensions were high in Madison because it seemed like nobody wanted any blue-clad Kansans to be there.
Most Wisconsin natives gave a cold shoulder and rooted against the Jayhawks. The Oregonians, Texans and even the Kohl Center ushers were against Kansas and its fans. The Jayhawks were as welcome in Madison as Missouri Tigersians in Allen Fieldhouse.
Still, the crimson-and-blue faithful couldn't be stopped. Kansans took over Madison. We took over their streets. We took over their restaurants. We took over their bars. We altered their way of life for three days and forced them to tolerate it.
Kansans were everywhere, from the Wisconsin state capital to the State Street Brats Bar and Grille. Kansans gathered on the corner of State Street at 2:50 a.m. every night and belted out the Rock Chalk Chant at the top of their lungs. Strangers became instant friends simply for wearing Jayhawk apparel.
Everyone there shared the same goal as those watching on TV at home — to see the 'Hawks get to the Final Four — but the desire seemed to burn hotter where you were there and had traveled 10 or more hours to see it in person with a few thousand other people.
Perhaps that's the real beauty of taking a road-trip to the NCAA tournament — the experience of just being there. Regardless, I recommend you try it now while you have the best team in the nation to follow.
I'm not one for apologizing, but I'm sorry if this column is a little bit choppy. It's being written and sent from the back of a van on the way home from the game. There's no other way to write from the road.
Wristen is a Leawood senior in journalism.
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