4B
Friday, April 2, 1993
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
A season of ups and downs
By David Dorsey
Kansan sportswriter
After finishing second to Duke in 1991 and winning the Big Eight Conference three years in a row, Jajhawk fans have had recent tastes of success.
But they want more.
They want sophomore center Greg Ostertag to play like a senior. They want junior forward Darrin Hancock to start nailing shots from non-dunk range. They want senior guard Rex Walters to never miss a three-pointer.
And, like Coach Roy Williams and the rest of the Jayhawks, they want Kansas to win every game.
But as senior guard Adonis Jordan said after losing to Kansas State in the Big Eight Conference Tournament, "We're 25-6. That's really not too bad."
Not bad at all.
The Jayhawks finished the regular season 24-5 and won a third consecutive conference title. And that was during what Williams called his "toughest coaching year" at Kansas. Now they're going to the Final Four.
November
COMMENTARY
The biggest problem for Williams started in
the preseaon, when Kansas was ranked No. 2. in the first Associated Press poll.
Being ranked second wasn't a problem. Losing sophomore forward Ben Davis was.
Davis publicly announced on Nov. 18 that he had decided to transfer. That was less than two weeks before the season opener. Davis transferred to Florida, where he will be eligible to play next January.
"We're talking about a player that might have been our best reboucher," Williams said. "Other members of the squad will have to step forward to make up for the loss of a young man who was going to be very important to us."
A nearly empty bench in its first exhibition game didn't keep Kansas from routing the Marathon Otters 121.54. Junior forward Patrick Richel sat out with an ankle injury, while newcomer guards Sean Pearson and Calvin Rayford did not play because of an NCAA rule violation.
The following week, Richey and Pearson joined the lineup as Australia Gold Coast fell 113-48 in yet another "glorified practice" for the Jayhawks.
After defeating Nebraska and clinching the Big Eight Conference Championship, Sophomore center Greg Ostertag takes his piece of the net. At 7-foot-2, he did not need the ladder when the Jayhawks cut down the nets March 3.
Junior forward Steve Woodberry, the Jayhawks' most versatile player, scored 18 points, had nine assists and seven rebounds while playing four positions against the Gold Coast Rollers. Things were looking up just three days before the season opener against Georgia.
December
Dec. I marked the end of a rough November, and the first of 24 regular-season games. Players finally would have a chance to have some fun.
Relief!
As former Kansas All-American Danny Mann watched from behind the Kansas bench, the Jayhawks shot just 30 percent in the second half but defeated Georgia 76-65. Senior guard Rex Walters made just 2 of 10 shots. Long after fans had vacated Allen Field House, Walters stuck around. He nailed as many shots as he could for about an hour after the game. Walters knew that Indiana loomed around the corner.
Walters' extra hour of practice didn't exactly pay off. He gunned from three-point range throughout the game against the Hoosiers and finished making only 2 of 11.
The best way to get out of a shooting slump, however, is to have the confidence to shoot your way out of it. Walters' perseverance would pay off later in the season.
Walters and Jordan each finished with 16 points, and Jordan made two crucial free throws in the final minute as Kansas knocked off Indiana 74-60 in the Hoosier Dome.
Dick Vitale, ESPN's color commentator,
said that every good team needed some "cupcake" opponents. The Jayhawks had just that in mid-December.
Emperor State fell 91-56. The carriage continued in the Kansas City Golden Harvest Classic, where Kansas crushed Mississippi Valley State 94-46 andUMKC 108-62. Woodberry was named the tournament MVP.
East Tennessee State nearly knocked off Kansas in Allen Field House by making 11 of 24 three-point shots. And that was after the Jayhawks jumped to a 22-2 lead. The Jayhawks held for the 86-83 victory and also defeated N.C. State B-844 the following week.
In Hawaii at the Rambow Classic, Jackson State's Lindsay Hunter made 17 of 43 shots that included 11 three-pointers as he scorched the Jayhawks for 48 points in a losing effort. Kansas defeated Jackson State 93-85 then followed up with a 94-66 victory against Hawaii.
January
Michigan outsized Kansas and won the title game 86-74. Osterrag missed his seventh game of the season with a stress fracture in his leg. He would rejoin the lineup in January, just in time for some of his team's best games.
Senior center Eric Pauley, who shot a dismal 2 for 19 last January, decided he didn't want to go through that again. He made 42 of 63 shots this January.
I was pretty low last year," Pauley said.
"Now I can go home and be happy with my play and the team's play."
Kansas defeated Wichita State 103-54 and opened conference play with a 78-71 victory against Iowa State.
vocationa led by nine points at halftime in Norman, Okla., but then Jordan erupted in the second half, scoring 17 points. Junior forward Richard Scott scored 19 in the 96-85 victory.
On Jan. 14, Oral Roberts visited the field house, and after a deactivated 140-72 rout in which three Jayhawks — Richey, Ostertag and sophonore guard Greg Murray — scored career highs. Richie had 23, Ostertag 21 and Gurley 16 as seven Jayhawks scored in double figures.
Akansas earned all-time victory No. 1,500 with style — a 98-77 romp at Louisville that vaulted the Jayhawks from No.4 to No.1 in the AP poll. Walters and Jordan each made 4 of 5 three-pointers as the Jayhawks shot 65 percent from the floor during their best game of the regular season.
Kansas continued the hot streak with a 71-65 victory at Kansas State and an 82-51 victory at Colorado. Scott manhandled the Buffalooes by outscores them 19-in the second half.
"Right now I'm going to enjoy this one," Williams said after the victory. "I'll be a challenge for us to come back home because a lot of people are saying we will have a let down."
Williams was right. On Jan. 25, Long Beach State shocked the Jayhawks 64-59 in the field house. And while Louisville stands out as the team's best game of the regular season, the Long Beach State game clearly was the ...
Uh-Oh.
No matter how hard it tried, Kansas could not take control. Lucied Harris, a former high school teammate of Jordan's, scored 24 points. Only Hancock, who scored a career高16 points and had13 rebounds, would stand out for the Jawhayes, who shot 42percent from the field and had only five assists on 22 field goals.
"Everything that could go wrong did go wrong." Williams said. "I'm sorry I can't analyze it any more, but we got our butts kicked."
The final game of the month, against Rolls, boosted the team's confidence as it shot 60 percent during the 103-56 victory. Kansas ended non-conference play with a 1-7 overall record and a 4-0 conference record as it prepared for Missouri.
February
Hancock missed his second consecutive game Feb. 1 after injuring his eye the week before, but his absence didn't keep Kansas from the 86-69 victory.
The Jayhawks and Hancock then returned to the road, this time to Lincoln, Neb.
Throughout a close game, Walters had a tough time dealing with the size of Nebraska's interior defense. During the final minute, with Nebraska ahead 64-62 he missed a 10-foot pull-up jumper.
Nebraska junior forward Terrance Badgett grabbed the board and was fouled. Badgett missed both free throws, and as Walters led the fast break, he saw the basket with only 6-foot-10, 260-pound Derrick Chandler in the way. The vision of the imposing Chandler must have gotten to Walters. instead of taking the ball to the hoop, as he should have, he turned the ball over. Badgett picked off the pass and punctured the aim with a slam.
"At the time I should have made the move to the basket," Walters said. "Instead of being aggressive, I didn't do it. It's that simple."
If Walters lost that game for Kansas that's fine. Keep in mind that without him, the Jayhawks would be watching the Final Four on TV.
An 84-72 victory against Oklahoma State and a 67-63 road victory at Missouri put Kansas on track again before an 80-77 loss at home to Oklahoma. It was Kansas' only loss to an opponent that did not make the NCAA Tournament.
Scott made 7 of 8 field goals and scored 19 points as Kansas defeated K-State for the second time this season.
Two days after the K-State victory on Big Monday, Pauley came down wrong after a layup and aggravated his left knee. He would sit on the bench and watch in frustration as Richelou out before Iowa State defeated Kansas 75-11 at Ames, Iowa.
Five days later, Kansas returned home and defeated Colorado 72-68.
March
Nebraska was next — on senior night. Walters, Pauley and Jordan scored 19, 18 and 10 points respectively during the 94-83 victory. Woodberry tried to steal the show with 26 points, but the night belonged to the seniors.
"It's been a great four years," Jordan told the fans after the game. "I have no regrets." In the final regular season game, Bryant "Big Country" Reeves and company couldn't overcome Walters' then-career high 27 points in Kansas '74-73 victory.
The Jayhawks finished the regular season with a 24-5 overall record. They won their third consecutive conference championship by three games with an 11-3 record.
The postseason began with the Big Eight Conference Tournament, which gave Kansas a much needed wakeup call. Kansas beat Colorado 82-65. K-State, however, defeated Kansas 74-67 and advanced to the final.
March Madness
Although the Jayhawks had been playing well, a loss heading into the NCAA tournament motivated them to play their best basketball of the season. It also threw them into the role of an underdog, despite being the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Regional.
On his way to the basket, Adonis Jordan flies past Colorado's Ted Allen in the first round of the Big Eight Tournament at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.
Since the Georgia game three months ago, Walters has spent many late nights at the field house working on his shot. His dedication paid off throughout the season, but never more until at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Ill. He made all six of this three-point attempts against Ball State while leading Kansas to a 94-72 victory.
In the second round game. Brigham Young University led Kansas with eight minutes remaining.
The Jayhawks pulled together for the 90-76 victory.
"We decided we didn't want what happened last year to happen again," Pauley said. "It was more of a mental battle than a physical one." The Jayhawks pulled together for the 90-76.
Last weekend at the St. Louis Arena, a combined defensive effort sent fresh sensation Jason Kidd and California back to Berkeley with a 93-76 defeat. A second meeting with top-seeded Indiana loomed.
The day before the game, Indiana coach Bobby Kight gaved into a glass he joked was crystal and said he saw an image of his junior guard Damon Boiles improving Knight failed, however, to see the image of Hancock sweeping past the Indiana defense for a highlight-film slam. Scott led the Jayhawks with 16 points in the 83-77 Kansas victory, which advanced the Jayhawks to the Final Four — the 10th in Kansas' history and the second in three years.
Senior guard Rex Walters attempts to steal the ball from Nebraska's Bruce Chubick. Walters scored 19 points March 6 against the Corn huskers in his final home game
Daron J. Bernett / KANSAN
coach Roy Williams glared onto the court at a game in Allen Field House.
Kup Chin / KANSAN
J. Bennett / KANSAN
Steve Woodberry kept the ball from East Tennessee State's Jason Niblet during the 'Hawks victory Dec. 19.