The University Daily Kansan
Monday, March 9, 1998
Upsets blessed 'Hawks in 1988, but cursed in 1990s
UTEP, Virginia shockers ended Jayhawk seasons before expected
By Brad Hallier Special to the Kansan
Upsets are what make the NCAA Tournament such a special event every March.
There are usually two kinds of upsets: the one-game wonder and the miracle run through the tournament.
Kansas has been on both ends of upsets at the tournaments in the past 10 years.
practice
In 1988, behind the performance of All-American Danny Manning, the Jayhawks made a remarkable run to the national championship
Kevin Pritchard, a Kansas guard from 1986-1990, said that the 1988 team also benefited from a little luck.
Thanks to several upsets elsewhere in the region, the Jayhawks were able to avoid Purdue, Pittsburgh and North Carolina State, the top three seeds in the Midwest region.
Milwaukee region.
"We were gelling and playing great defense," Pritchard said. "All the combinations came together, and I know this is a cliché, but we felt fortunate just to be in the Final Four. Nobody thought we could win, but we had confidence in each other."
confidence in this season. Kansas finished the 1987-88 season 27-11, making the Jayhawks the team with the most losses in a season to win a championship.
Kansas returned to the tournament in 1990 seeded second in the East. But the Jayhawks saw their tournament hopes end when seventh-seeded UCLA pulled off the upset, 71-70.
"We just caught a hot team, and in a best-of-five series I would have bet on us," Pritchard said.
Kansas returned as the underdog in the 1991 tournament.
Seeded third in the Southeast,
RECENT UPSETS
1986—Louisiana State became the lowest seeded team to reach the Final Four, but the 11th-seeded Tigers bowed out in the semifinals to eventual champion Louisville.
1990 — Little-known Northern Iowa, seeded 14th in the Southeast, knocked off the third-seeded Missouri Tigers 74-71, 1
1990 — After the death of their star forward Hank Gathers, the 11th-seeded Loyola Marymount Lions averaged 105.7 points in four games in the tournament, including a remarkable 149 in a second round win against defending champion Michigan.
1991 — The Richmond Spiders became the first No. 15 seed to win in the tournament, knocking off second and seeded Syracuse 73-69 in an East regional first round game.
1993 —Midwest top seed Michigan was in heaven when 12th seeded George Washington topped fifth-seeded New Mexico, 13th-seeded Southern defeated fourth-seeded Georgia Tech, and 15th-seeded Santa Clara defeated second seed Arizona in the first round. Michigan advanced to the Final Four.
1994—Two teams seeded 14th, Old Dominion and Weber State, survive the first round.
LEFT: Kansas forward Alonzo Jamison and guard Rex Walters trap a UTEP player in Kansas' 1992 loss in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. ABOVE: Kansas guard Adonis Jordan drives against an Arkansas in the Jayhawks' 1991 victory to advance to the Final Four. Kansas defeated North Carolina, but lost 72-65 to Duke in the championship game. Photos courtesy University Archives
wive the first brown
1996 — 13th-seeded Princeton
shocks the defending champion
UCLA Bruins 43-41 in the first round.
1997—Coppin State defeats No. 2 seed, South Carolina, and Tennessee-Chattanooga makes it to the Sweet Sixteen with wins against Georgia and Illinois.
Kansas struggled to beat New Orleans in the first round and Pittsburgh in the second round.
The Jayhawks, however, put together one the best three-game NCAA performances in recent memory.
The Jayhawks followed the Indiana game by silencing a mouthy, top-seeded Arkansas squad. Kansas advanced to the Final Four by putting the Razorbacks away 93-81
First, Kansas crushed second seeded and No. 4 ranked Indiana 83-65.
Kansas finished the streak by topping a loaded North Carolina squad in the Final Four, 79-72. The win would be the Jayhawks' final tournament victory that year.
The path to the Final Four seemed simple.
Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner were too much in the championship game as Duke sent the Jayhawks home 72-65.
12-65 Heavy favorites in 1992. Midwest top seed Kansas found itself on the other end of the upset bug.
If the Jayhawks could win their
two sub-regional games in Dayton, they would play the Midwest regional at Kemper Arena.
After smashing Howard 100-67 in the first round, Kansas was stunned by University of Texas-El Paso 66-60 in the second. The Miners used a slow-down approach and handcuffed the Jayhaws' backcourt combo of Adonis Jordan and Rex Walters.
Kansas coach Roy Williams blamed himself after the game, saying that he let some of his players watch UTEP's first round win against Evansville — something he had never done before.
"Dumb old Roy said, 'They can handle it.' If you ask our players, they looked at the game and figured they could beat those guys," Williams said. "They looked past UTEP in some ways, and we've never done that here."
Kansas also has been hit with minor upsets the last three tournaments.
The toughest could have been a 67-58 loss to Virginia in the Sweet 16 — a game that was played at Kemper Arena.
Kemper Academy Kansas came close to the Final Four in 1996, but Syracuse, led by John Wallace, knocked off the
Jayhawks in the Midwest regional final 60-57.
Last year, eventual champion Arizona held off a furious late rally by the Hawjacks to win 85-82. It was a heart-wrenching end to the most successful season in Kansas history.
Upsets likely will happen in this year's tournament, and Pritchard knows about them all too well.
"That's the bittersweet thing about the tournament," Pritchard said. "The potential that you can lose any game."
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