2008-2009 KANSAS BASKETBALL
19
MARCH 4,2009
Jayhawks 'whipped' and routed in Lubbock
BY CASE KEEFER ckeefer@kansan.com
LUBBOCK, Texas — Kansas clinched a share of the Big 12 Conference regular season championship Wednesday. No one seemed to notice.
The Jayhawks received no trophy. They didn't celebrate. They didn't feel like the top team in the Big 12. How could they? Kansas suffered an embarrassing 84-65 defeat to Texas Tech, the 11th place team in the Big 12, at United Spirit Arena.
"Yeah, I'm ecstatic," Kansas coach Bill Self said sarcastically. "I told our guys, 'Yeah, congratulations, we win our league and get beat by 19."
But by virtue of Missouri's 73-64 victory against Oklahoma at Mizzou Arena, Kansas is assured the No.1 seed in the Big 12 Conference tournament next week in Oklahoma City. Kansas (25-5, 13-2) can also win the Big 12 outright with a victory against Texas Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks were not interested in discussing that. Why would they be? A disastrous effort from the entire team enabled Texas Tech to win only its third Big 12 game of the season.
"Everybody was just kind off of their mark tonight," sophomore center Cole Aldrich said.
Junior guard Sherron Collins, who averaged 25.5 points in two games last week, went 3-for-19 from the field for 11 points. Aldrich, who averaged 14 rebounds per game in the last four games, recorded only three rebounds to go with eight points against the Red Raiders.
Sophomore guard Brady Morningstar failed in his assignment of guarding Texas Tech's Alan Voskul, who had a career-high 35 points and nine three-point shots on his senior night. Self and freshman forward Marcus Morris ruined Jayhawk comeback attempts in the second half with technical fouls.
It was Kansas' third straight defeat at United Spirit Arena. A building Self has never won in with the Jayhawks. But their defeats in 2005 and 2007 came down to the final possessions.
In addition to Voskui's 9-for-15 performance from beyond the arc, Texas Tech went
15-for-27 as a team. Kansas was only able to limit the long-range onslaught for a nine-minute stretch from the end of the first half to the middle of the second.
Not coincidentally, that's when Kansas got back in the game. The Jayhawks trimmed the lead to 43-41 when Collins converted on a layup in traffic. They got an opportunity to tie the game for the first time on the next possession.
But Aldrich missed a layup and Morningstar, who went 1-for-7 from the field for three points, bricked a three-point attempt. From there, the Jayhawks' chances spiraled away.
Kansas cut it to a two-possession game at 60-54 with eight minutes remaining. That's when Marcus disagreed with a personal foul call on him and got a technical. Texas Tech made all four free throws resulting from Marcus' personal and technical fouls.
"We had no post presence inside. We had nobody else making shots. Our whole team, collectively, played very, very poor all around," Self said. "Coaching, execution, everything was poor. They whipped us in every capacity."
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Sophomore guard Brady Morningstar struggles for a two-point basket during the first half against Texas Tech. The Red Raiders won 84-65, handing the Jayhawks their first loss in almost a month.
MARCH 7,2009
Kansas takes fifth-straight conference crown
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN Senior center Matt Kleinmann collects himself for a moment before joining his teammates after defeating Texas 83-73 and winning the conference title Saturday. Kleinmann was a member of five-straight Big 12 titles.
BY CASE KEEFER ckeefer@kansan.com
Excuse Big 12 Conference Commissioner Dan Beebe for not making Kansas' Big 12 regular season championship sound monumental.
It's just that Kansas has now won five straight and seven of the last eightBig 12 titles. So it seems the situation Beebe was in Saturday had become inevitable -awarding Kansas with a conference crown.
"I'm proud to present to you yet another Big 12 Conference championship trophy." Beebe said after Kansas defeated Texas 83-73 to win the championship outright.
The conference championship was Kansas' 52nd in its 111 years of basketball. But this one was different. After losing its entire starting five and seven of its eight top players from last year's national championship team, this one was the most improbable of the bunch
Even Kansas coach Bill Self, who stressed
all year that expectations would not change because of a young roster, shared a secret about this season after the victory.
"I will tell you this: The other times I've been here, it would be a poor year if we didn't win the league," Self said. "This one, I wouldn't have thought that."
But junior guard Sherron Collins and sophomore center Cole Aldrich would have. Collins and Aldrich led the Jayhawks to a 14-2 Big 12 record, a game better than last year's national championship team, and topped it off by starring against Texas on Saturday.
Collins scored 21 points and had seven assists. Aldrich recorded his 18th doubledouble of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Still, Self said his player of the game was Brady Morningstar.
The victory put Kansas alone at the top of the Big 12 standings, finishing one game ahead of Oklahoma (13-3) and two in front of Missouri (12-4).
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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APRIL 27, 2009