THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 10, 2000
MU 62, KU 60
5B
'BALL REWIND
Coach Billy Self shows his frustration after sophonore enterler Alfisch is called for a foul after pulling down a rebound during the second half Monday against Missouri.
After sloppy ball handling and fouls defense failed to prevent Kansas' fall
BY TAYLOR BERN tbern@kansan.com
COLUMBIA, Mo. — As Tyrel Reed scuffled through the depths of Mizzou Arena in the wake of Monday night's 62-60 defeat, he was left with only one thought: The scouting report was right.
On Missouri's final possession, Reed's assignment was to guard the Tigers' Zaire Taylor. Leo Lyons ran the clock down 30 feet from the basket before passing to J.T. Tiller, who then dished it to Taylor just inside the right wing.
"I closed out on him way too hard and he shot-faked me and went around me," Reed said. "I should have known that he's more of a driver than a shooter, so I take that responsibility on that last play."
Reed forgot to obey his pregame notes, but for a second it didn't look like his slip-up would doom the lahwakes.
Taylor's shot caromed off the right side of the rim and bounced straight up into the air.
"I was hoping it came off because I was right there to grab the rebound," sophomore center Cole Aldrich said.
Standing near the free-throw line, junior guard Sherron Collins had a perfect view of the rim.
"I thought it was going to overtime." Collins said.
The ball hung up long enough for all 15,061 in attendance to gasp in anticipation.
"It seemed like the ball was up there forever," Collins said, "but then it dropped in"
Taylor's shot dropped with 1.3 seconds remaining. With no timeouts, Brady Morningstar took the in-bounds pass and heaved it three-quarters of the court in the
That includes a pair of free throws Collins missed with less than two minutes to play.
There were a number of things to blame for Kansas' first Big 1.2 defeat: too many fouls, a season-high 27 turnovers and poor three-point shootings, among others. But Collins said none of those would matter if Kansas had just played defense.
"It was just kind of try to grab, see where the rim was at and try to get it up there if I could." Aldrich said. "I didn't even know if I was going to be able to grab the ball out of the air. It wasn't the most pretty shot."
general direction of Aldrich. In traffic, Aldrich snatched the pass with enough time to shoot for a miracle.
Aldrich's desperation shot clanked off the backboard and the student section stormed the court before the ball could even bounce a second time.
"If we would have guarded, then we wouldn't have been in position
where we would have had to make free throws," he said.
Kansas coach Bill Self called out his defense for failing to finish on the last play. He also pointed out that Collins failed his assignment on the possession before that when Tiller put Missouri ahead 60-58.
"Sherron's ball watching so Tiller back cuts him and he gets an eight-footer," Self said. "We did not defend the last two possessions very well."
With 243 remaining, Missouri's DeMarre Carroll fired up a threepointer. Like Taylor's shot, it caught the rim and hung in midair for just a second before slipping through the net.
Sometimes a perfect plan is ruined by poor execution, like Reed's blown assignment. Other times, a bouncy sphere decides when it's going to play ball.
"We didn't get those same bounces on our end," Self said, "but that's basketball."
- Edited by Justin Leverett
rivalry — well, an actual rivalry again.
DODD (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
All those people in those damn yellow T-shirts. It all added up. Kansas and Missouri were both ranked for the first time since 2003.
And by some twist of the divine they couldn't be any closer. Kansas was ranked 16th, Missouri was 17th.
This used to happen all the time, of course. We used to have a lot of these colossal midseason battles.
Remember the improbable 1989-90 season, when Kansas and Missouri matched up twice as the top two teams in America? Of course, Missouri won both of those games.
Freshman guard Tyshawn Taylor jokes for a slam to give the Jahavaka a 2-1 lead at the start of the game Monday night at Nikeu Arena. Kauai can't say victory, though fall 62-60.
And remember the epic border clash in 1997, when Kansas had the nation's best team?
That Kansas team walked into the older Hearnes Center 22-0. Fifty minutes later, Roy Williams' most talented team walked out beaten, taken out in a double-overtime classic.
And every year, it seemed like
the same thing. Another Kansas team would enter the old Hearnes Center and get knocked out by an inferior Missouri team. Can you
belleve that from 1994 to 2001, Kansas lost in Columbia six times?
You measured those games in elbows and scratches and expletives that rained down from the student sections.
Those old games were dirty, griny, slugfest - and they were beautiful.
A little of that old magic returned on Monday night. The Jayhawks and Tigers exchanged body blows and you could feel the bitterness, you could feel the passion.
And then when all those kids in their damn yellow T-shirts finally cleared off the floor, and Mizzou Arena was nearly empty, the scoreboard still read: Missouri 62, Kansas 60.
And that old feeling returned. We've felt it before. But it still hunts.
"It couldn't have been scripted better for us!" Sell said, before the long bus ride back to Lawrence, "if we had finished the game like I thought we should have."
— Edited by Carly Halvorson
VIEW FROM PRESS ROW
IT WAS OVER WHEN ...
Missouri guard Zaire Taylor hit a game-winning jumper with 1.3 seconds remaining. And not a minute before. Missouri hadn't led since eight minutes into the game and as the second half wound down, it became clear the game wouldn't be decided until its final moments. After Taylor's jumper, Kansas had time to get an in-bounds pass to the other end, but Cole Aldrich's last-second heave had little chance of actually going in. Taylor will forever be remembered as a Missouri hero.
GAME TO REMEMBER ...
Freshman guard Travis Releford
Releford
When Kansas played its last road game - at Baylor last Monday — Releford didn't enter the game. Not only did Releford play against Missouri, but he played a lot. And he played well. Releford finished with a career-high nine points and two rebounds. He scored in a number of ways. Releford went 3-for-3 from the free-throw line and added two layups in transition. Expect Releford to continue receiving more playing time as the season goes on as a result of Monday night.
GAME TO FORGET ...
Freshman forward Marcus Morris
It might not have ended up costing the Jayhawks, but Marcus Morris' technical foul in the first half was shameful. That's one thing a team cannot do in a conference game on the road. It happened near the end of the first half. The referee called a loose ball foul on Morris that he didn't agree with and he argued as he walked off the court. Morris finished with two points and three turnovers. Those are not the kind of statistics Self expects out of Morris, who also air-balled a three-pointer.
STAT OF THE NIGHT ...
4-for-29. That's what the two teams combined to shoot from three point range. Kansas went 2-for-15. That didn't lose the game for the Jayhawks, but it certainly didn't help their cause.
Case Keefer
PRIME PLAYS
FIRST HALF
14:46 — Immediately following a Zaire Taylor three-pointer, Kim English hustled back on defense to block Sherron Collins' shot.
16:37 — The teams combined to start the game 0-of-10 from the floor. That ended when Kansas' Tyshawn Taylor hauled in a pass from Marcus Morris and punctured it with a dunk.
8:01 — Tyrel Reed spurred Kansas' impressive first half with a hustle play to save a possession. Reed bounced the ball out of bounds off a Missouri defender. On the subsequent play he drilled a deep three-pointer to put the Jayhawks up 22-13.
0:01 — Another game, another first-half buzzer-beater. With less than nine seconds to play, Cole Aldrich dribbed up the court and dumped a pass to Taylor under the basket. Off-balance, Taylor threw up a shot to beat the clock and cap Kansas' 20-5 run.
19:21 — Marcus Morris' quick technical foul spawned a rash of second-half Kansas fouls. Missouri took two free throws with every foul for the last 10 minutes of the game.
SECOND HALF
5:34 — DeMarre Carroll played like a man possessed in the second half. For his 20th point, Caroll dropped a three-pointer that bounced off then rim then rattled home. It was just Missouri's second made three of the game.
0:29 Collins' pass to Morningstar nearly soared out of bounds. The only thing Morningstar could do with it was dump a pass to Mario Little, who then nailed an 18-foot jumper to tie the game at 60.
0:01:3 — Zaire Taylor's jump shot looked like a clanger at first, but the ball dropped back down through the net. Cole Aldrich tried a desperation turnaround jumper but it missed the rim, and Kansas suffered its first Big 12 defeat of the season.
Taylor Bern
POLLS RELEASED
GAME NOTES
The game turned into a matchup pitting ranked opponents against each other Monday afternoon.
Before the new Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches' polls were released, Missouri was not ranked. But the AP rewarded the Tigers with a No.17 ranking, and the coaches slotted them at No.19.
Kansas moved up eight spots in both polls — from No. 24 to No.16. Oklahoma was the only other Big 12 Conference team ranked, at No.2 in both polls.
TIGERS, JAYHAWKS DOMINATE BIG 12 AWARDS
The Big 12 gave three players honors Monday. All of them played in the Big Monday game.
Junior guard Mario Little took
Missouri forward DeMarre Carroll garnered Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week honors after scoring a career-high 31 points at Iowa State Saturday.
his first Phillips 66 Big 12 Rookie of the Week award after averaging 12.5 points and four rebounds in two Jayhawk victories last week.
The downside? Little shared the award with Missouri junior Zaire Taylor for his career-high 17-point performance in a victory at Texas on Wednesday.
REUNION FOR RELEFORD
For freshman guard Travis Rei-
eford, it's all hard to believe.
A year ago, he was one of the most heralded high school players out of the Kansas City area at Bishop Miege high school. It's a similar story for Missouri freshman Marcus Denmon, who went to Hogan Prep.
Releford and Denmon grew up playing against each other. They had another meeting Monday — albeit on a bigger stage.
"We played summer ball," Releford said. "We never really hung out, but I know he's a good guy and a good player."
Case Keefer