GOLF: Women's team heads to Texas A&M today. SEE PAGE 2B. BASKETBALL: No.6 Alabama falls hard to Ole Miss. SEE PAGE 2B.
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SPORTS
1B
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2002
Kansas' 2002 Big 12 Schedule
Jan. 5 — Kansas 97, at Colorado 85.
Kansas highlights — Drew Gooden scores 27 points and grabs 14 rebounds, and Jeff Boschee adds 20. Kirk Hinrich scores 19 points and grabs 12 rebounds.
Jan. 9 — at Kansas 96, Nebraska 57.
Kansas highlights — Aaron Miles dishes a career-high 12 assists. Nick Collison scores 20.
Jan. 15 — Kansas 79, at Oklahoma State 61. Kansas highlights — Jayhawks rebound from defeat to UCLA with a big road victory. Gooden scores 17 and Hinrich adds 15.
Jan. 19 — at Kansas 74, Oklahoma 67.
Kansas highlights — Keith Langford scores 12 points and grabs a career-high seven boards.
Jan. 23 — Kansas 88, at Iowa State 81
Kansas highlights — Boschee's late
three-point shot helps Jayhawks end 0-5
streak against Cyclones.
SWEET16-0
Jayhawks become first in Big 12 to go undefeated
suck against cyclones
Jan. 26 — Kansas 86, at Texas A&M 74.
Kansas highlights — Gooden scores 22 points and grabs 13 rebounds. Miles adds 10 points and seven assists. Bryant Nash hits his first career three-pointer.
Jan. 28 — at Kansas 105, Missouri 73.
Kansas highlights — Jayhawks shoot 62 percent from the field and 91 percent from the free throw line in blowout victory. Kansas' 105 points is second most ever against Missouri.
Feb. 2 — at Kansas 100, Colorado 73.
Kansas highlights — Boschee, Collison and Gooden each score 20 points, the first time three Kansas players scored 20 or more points in a game since Dec. 10, 1988.
Feb. 4 — Kansas 98, at Kansas State 71.
Kansas highlights — Jayhawks win 23rd straight against Wildcats and 19th straight in Manhattan to run record to 14-0 in Bramble Coliseum.
in Bramage Consult.
Feb. 9 — at Kansas 108, Texas Tech 81.
Kansas highlights — Jayhawks ruin
Bobby Knight's trip to Lawrence behind
Hirnich's career-high 28 points. Jayhawks
set record for points against the Red
Raiders.
Feb. 11 — Kansas 110, at Texas 103, OT.
Kansas highlights — Jayhawks go five of five from the field in overtime, including two three-pointers by Boschee.
Feb. 16 — at Kansas 87, Baylor 72.
Kansas highlights — Jayhawks avenge last year's 85-77 defeat to Bears.
Goodenin's 19th double-double of the year ties him with Raef LaFrentz for second on Kansas' season double-doubles list.
Feb. 18 — at Kansas 102, Iowa State 66.
Kansas highlights — Victory gives Jayhawks share of Big 12 title, the 46th conference championship in school history. Kansas scores 100 or more points for a record ninth time in a season.
Feb. 24 — Kansas 88, at Nebraska 87.
Kansas highlights — Keith Langford has a three-pointer with 33 seconds left, putting the Jayhawks up for good and clinching sole possession of the Big 12 title.
Feb. 27 — at Kansas 103, Kansas State 68. Kansas highlights — Victory is Kansas' 19th straight on Senior Day.
Miles (186 assists) breaks Jacque Vaughn's Kansas record for most assists by a freshman in a single season (181) set in 1994
March 3 — Kansas 95, at Missouri 92.
Kansas highlights — Jayhawks win close game on the road to finish conference season 16-0 for the first time since the 1922-23 season and win the season series against the Tigers for the first time in seven years.
Kansas junior forward Nick Collison works around Missouri forward Justin Gage. Collison set a career record with 28 points. With yesterday's win, Kansas became the first team to go undefeated in league play in the history of the Big 12 Conference.
CHBISTINA NEFF/KANSAN
By Doug Pacey Kansan sportswriter
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Squeezed tightly into the cramped visitor's locker room in the Hearnes Center, Kansas' post-game celebration must've been like moshing with 15 of your tallest and lakiest friends in a walk-in closet.
Jumping around and hootin' and hollerin' like the Jayhawks do after every win, the nation's No. 1 team had more than a simple victory to revel in yesterday afternoon.
Kansas had beaten Missouri 95-92 and became the first school in the Big 12 Conference to finish conference play an unblemished 16-0.
"It's so hard to go out in our league and win every night," said junior forward Nick Collison, who scored a career-high 28 points on 9-for-12 shooting. "I wouldn't ever believe we could've done it if you asked me before the season just because our league's so tough. We won a lot of games, like tonight, when we didn't play our best, but pulled it out in the end."
Kansas (27-2 overall) led the entire second-half until Missouri center Arthur Johnson converted a three-point play, which gave the Tigers (20-10 overall, 9-7 Big 12) a 92-9 advantage with less than two minutes to go. The Jayhawks took their time on the ensuing possession and Collison found himself all alone with the ball just beyond the free throw line. He buried the game-winning open shot and Kansas took a lead it would not relinquish.
After back-to-back turnovers by both teams, Missouri's Clarence Gilbert was whistled for a double-dribble and Gooden's put-back of a miss by junior guard Kirk Hinrich with 27 seconds remaining gave Kansas a three-point cushion.
remaining gave Kansas a three point win. When Jeff Boschee intercepted a Kareem Rush pass on the Tigers' next possession, it seemed that he would ensure a victory for the Jayhawks, but Rush ran the senior guard down and blocked his shot, giving the Tigers a chance to tie the game.
Gilbert, who scored 27 points and is second to Boschee as the Big 12's all-time leading three-point shooter, missed on a try from
SEE JAYHAWKS ON PAGE 6B
Collison's 28 points clinch Kansas win
By Brent Wasko
Kansan sportswriter
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Kansas junior forward Nick Collison wasn't about to watch the Jayhawks lose again in the Hearnes Center against Missouri.
With junior forward Drew Gooden struggling to make a shot and senior guard Jeff Boschee sitting on the bench with foul trouble, Collison stepped up and had his best game in a Jayhawk uniform. He poured in a career-high 28 points and helped Kansas sneak past Missouri, 95-92.
Yesterday's victory was the first for Kansas in Columbia, Mo., since Jan. 11, 1999, when Collison was still a senior in high school.
"It feels pretty good to have a game like this, especially on the road against Missouri," Collison said. "It's definitely the best I've played in a big game. I've put together very good halves before, but I think today I played well in both the first and second half."
Collison's offensive explosion against Missouri was somewhat
SEE COLLISON ON PAGE 6B
As Gooden as gone? Why coming back makes sense
Drew Gooden raced down the sidelines last Wednesday against Kansas State, dove for the loose basketball and crashed his 6-foot-10 body into the scorer's table.
Coach Roy Williams, moved by his star player's grit and hustle, uncharacteristically jumped from his seat, scampered toward Gooden and slapped him on his backside as he lay face-forward on the court.
Gooden strutted to his defensive position, planted his feet and leaned forward to grab his shorts. A familiar chant started to erupt behind the north and south baskets at Allen Fieldhouse.
Soon, the sounds resounded from all directions.
Before the game, Kansas fans showered six seniors with thank yous as they stood at center court before their last game in Lawrence. But at this moment the spotlight, as it has for most of the season, shone
"One more year. One more year. One more year."
on Kansas' junior power forward. The reverberations were deafening, but the unbridled appreciation cannot overcome the fame and the millions.
Jeff Denton
jdenton@kansan.com
Like his six teammates, Gooden played his final home game in a Kansas uniform.
Speculation that he will bolt after this season has increased as much as his stock has sizzled. Mock draft sites and college basketball experts all pencil Drew in as a top-5 pick. He hinted at leaving on Jim Rome's syndicated talk show last month and mimicked this desire on Jason Whitlock's morning show Feb.22.
A lottery-ticket trip to the next level is more enticing for Gooden than a fourth year on the Hill.
The NBA temptation will seduce him.
He finally squelched the NBA talk after the Kansas State thrashing, saying he was sick and tired of answering the same question.
But anyone who understands the trend of bailing early for the NBA should have
foreseen the inevitable when Gooden announced in late April that he would return for his junior season. It would be his last. All Gooden thought he needed was one more season.
The question now is not whether Gooden is ready for the NBA. A slew of rookies riding the bench at NBA arenas have far less talent and potential. The question should be is Gooden ready to be a star?
At times, his athleticism and feel for the game are mind-boggling — the shots he sends flying in the stands, his ability to spin
and unleash a jumphook before the defender can put up his hands, the jaw-dropping jams and the whip-like passes he zips to his teammates through traffic.
The NBA covets this type of ability.
But at times, his selfishness and decision-making woes tarnish his development.
Take the back-to-back threes he clanked against UCLA in January, or consistently missing shots outside of 15 feet and forcing things out of frustration as he did yesterday in the first half against Missouri. Packing on more muscle to his slender frame could also only add to his arsenal and help absorb the pounding at the power forward slot.
A fourth year could tweak these imperfections, bridging really good from really great.
After a sloppy Sunday in Columbia, it was evident Gooden could benefit from a final year to hone his skills and cement his role as the best college player on the planet.
There would be no Jason Williams hogging the hype.
Gooden would be college basketball's focal point.
There would be one more winter of the high-low post magic with Nick Collision, the thunderous slams from Kirk Hinrich feeds and a march to perhaps back-toback National Championships.
When Kansas fans argue about who was the best basketball player to play here, they will gab about Wilt Chamberlain. They will reminisce how Danny Manning powered the 1988 team that won it all. They will shake their heads at Raef LaFrentz's inside-outside brilliance and how Paul Pierce could dominate a game as if he was going up against no one. And then they will come to Drew Gooden — how he played, how he competed and how he won.
But with a fourth year, there will be no argument.
Denton is a Dallas senior in journalism.
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