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Friday, April 2, 1993
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Underdog Jayhawks prove everyone wrong
Rock Chalk Jayhawks! Go KU!
Despite doubts, the Kansas men's basketball team has made it to the Final Four. Yet, for diehard Jayhawk fans, it was no surprise. The fans never gave up hope. The Jayhawks have definitely earned their golden ticket to the Superdome in New Orleans.
Nationally, however, Kansas basketball has not received the respect it deserves since the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship began. For every game played by the Jayhawks in this tournament, the team was generally viewed as the underdog. Few people thought that Kansas would conquer the No.15 seed Ball State.
Some thought that this game would be the greatest upset of the season if the Jayhawks lost. Opposition was proved wrong swiftly as Kansas prematurely ended the seasons of Ball State and Brigham Young with victories over both. But, Kansas wasn't finished. The Jayhawks terminated California and overcame their final Midwest Regional opponent, the No.1 seed Indiana.
All vanquished teams should try again next season.
So what has made the Jayhawks' wins so exciting? Was it Eric Pauley's aggressive rebounds or Adonis Jordan executing exciting assists for Rex Walter's three point shots? Who knows? As long as Roy Williams coaches the team, the Jayhawks will win.
It seems that few people paid attention when Williams stated repeatedly during the season that defense was the key to Kansas basketball winning games. From the beginning of the Jayhawks' road to the Final Four, the team was put on the defensive by most of the nation. They had to defend their Big Eight championship and their No. 2 seeding in the Midwest Regional. Each defensive Kansas win has distorted the perceptions of anti-Jayhawkers.
Every win has increased the well-deserved fame of Roy Williams and his team. Obviously, the best team will be representing the Midwest Regional and the Big Eight Conference in the Final Four.
Now, as Jayhawk fans gear up to cheer on their favorite team,they must remember to display their excitement without mutilating our beautiful campus or harming other people.
Be safe and have fun. But most importantly — Go Hawks!
T. M. KNIGHT FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Deficit reduction is easy; cutting spending is not
Communities' struggle to save their military bases from closure shows the plight of communities dependent on government dollars for economic sustenance, which is to say, all communities.
In sum, communities stand ready to move heaven and earth to keep their military bases.
It also underscores the plight of Bill Clinton and everyone who shares his struggle to balance the federal budget. There is always a constituency prepared to oppose federal spending cuts and rarely one prepared to fight for them. Not when it comes to specifics, anyway.
The point, however, is that Defense Secretary Les Aspin's job is to determine how much defense the United States needs, how much it can afford, and how best
to deploy it — not how to save domestic jobs or strengthen local economies.
The irony, of course, is that among those willing to tax or publicly in debt themselves to ensure that the government keeps funding a local installation are probably a good many people who also want Clinton to balance the federal budget.
Many probably agree that among the ways Clinton should do that is by closing unneeded government facilities, and many probably would prefer federal spending cuts to federal tax increases.
Doubtless there's such a project in every congressional district in America.
We can't help wondering, however, how anyone in Washington could ever end deficit spending so long as the people who send them there keep asking them to perpetuate it.
Hattiesburg American Hattiesburg, Miss.
KANSAN STAFF
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Strong teams take Cinderella's glass slipper on way to Final Four
Finally, the Final Four.
Finally, the French had And what a battle it should be. The best one in New Orleans since the close of the War of 1812.
Normally, the Final Four showcases an unknown or surprising team that has beaten the odds and upset stronger teams. But for Cinderella this year, midnight came before the Final Four.
This weekend is for the heavyweights.
GUEST COLUMNIST
For the first time since the tournament committee began seeding teams in 1979, more than two top seeds have made it to the final Four in the same year. The only team not seeded was one is second-seeded Kansas.
We all know about KU's run, fueled by the perception of the national media's lack of respect for the Jaya-hawks. It is well-documented that the team picked KU to lose to their first round opponent, the Ball State Cardinals.
After the Jayhawks late thrashing of the Redbirds from Muncie, Ind., and seeing Francesca's pre-tour win second round to Western Kentucky, we know
Actually, the Jayhawks have won because of their aggressiveness on both ends of the floor. Offensively, the "Hawks have blazed the nets, shooting 55.7 percent for the first time that has continued its relentless pressure, wearing down their opponents in the final minutes.
that he has made as many bad choices in the tournament as he has at Dunkin' Doughnuts.
Also crucial in the Jayhawks' tourney success has been their poise in halting threatening runs.
Perhaps the best example of KU's poise came against the Indiana
Hoosiers in the regional final. With the score tied at 50 with 12,06 left in the second half and the momentum on the Hoosiers side, Steve Woodberry cashed in a three-pointer. After an IU turnover, Rex Walters did the same. Finally, a clean steal and layup by Calvin Rayford, and the Jayhawks led by eight.
Ballgame.
Even though Indiana remained within reach, the game was the Jayhawks' to lose. KU had answered the challenges, something they have done throughout the tournament. It was clear that they wanted be vindicated from last year's shocking loss to UTEP.
But the Jayhawks are not the only team on a mission.
Kentucky has shown its desire to make his first bid for a national title in 16 years. Last year, Christian Laettner and the Duke Blue Devils ended the Wildcats' season with a desperation buzzer-beater in overtime in Michigan before beginning their play. Blown out each of their opponents by more than 20 points a game. Wildcat faithful must be proud. Three years ago, the program was at an alltime low, tainted by an NCAA probation
A cloud of doubt has hovered all season over the Michigan Wolverines, 31-4. People have questioned the team's ability to win games. Fisker is incredible array of talent.
The Fab Five have played worse than the other three Final Four teams, yet they have shown the character to win this tournament. Just ask UCLA head coach Jim Harrick, who blew a 19-point advantage against the Wolverines in the West regional second round.
Finally, North Carolina, KU's opponent, has been a model of consistency all season. Amid talk that Dean Smith has won only one national championship despite seven previous trips to the Final Four, the Tar Heels won't celebrate unless they win it all. The team refused to cut down the nets—a basketball ritual — following their East regional championship.
Throw out the records, the tradition, and the lore. The team that wins this Battle of New Orleans is truly one with determination.
Darby Ritter is a Pebble Beach, Calif., senior matoring in journalism.
Fans cry foul for persecuted players
So, you're fighting mad about the disrespect the Kansas men's basketball team receives and you're not going to take it anymore.
Get in line. If a chip on the shoulder was a declarable item and New Orleans a foreign destination, the lines in customs would stretch all the way to the backwood bogs of the Bayou.
Every fan that will descend on New Orleans this weekend will have a chance to pick with the media about how their respective teams are portrayed.
Crying about no respect has become the great battlecry of athletics in the 1990s. The beauty of this year's tournament is that none of the four teams is getting the respect they deserve—if you ask the teams or the fans.
SENIOR REPORTER
Kansas fans think the media doubt the Jayhawks can win the NCAA championship. Michigan fans think the media has tabbed the Fab Five, the ultra-talented, underachieving group of sophomores, for not playing
JAY WILLIAMS
well against lower-seeded teams in the NCAA tournament. North Carolina fans think their Dean of higher basketball education has received a bad rap for winning just one NCAA title in all his years at Chapel Hill. Other fans that visited NCAA games received an unfair rap for committing NCAA violations.
Let's look at the regional w(h)inners one-by-one:
Kentucky should not be playing basketball. It should have received
the death penalty if for nothing else besides sending an illegal cash payment through parcel service. My mama taught me always, always use a check or a money order. But that was a couple of coaching regimen failures, but now double-wrap their payments have somewhat of a legitimate grudge.
"Michigan, despite its sleep-inducting performances against Temple and George Washington, is still playing. So what if they have twice as much talent as anybody else and half of the hustle, they win. In a single-elimination tournament, winning is the single most important thing. Maybe it's their warm-ups that have hurt, and the sky-walking Wolverines. They just wear the T-shirts, so they might have the money to afford proper practice facilities. Could it be that financial woes have struck the Maize and blue?
North Carolina is and was one of the great college programs of all time. So why do its fans worry about Dean
In case you need to look up the answers, record books list champions, not predictions.
Smith not getting the respect he deserves? He will probably win more games than any coach in history, so the acute paranoia that seems to grip Tobacco Road is as unfounded as the tobacco companies saying that smoking really is not harmful to health.
Jay Williams is a Carlton, Ore., senior majoring in Journalism.
■ Kansas is the least respected team in the history of modern civilization, if you live in Kansas. Never mind that the Jayhawks were several people's choice for preseason No. 1 in the nation and earned that ranking after the start of the year. They should have been ranked higher.
Nobody will remember in May whichteam Dick Vitale picked to win. People remember who walks away with the trophy. Who did the experts pick to win in 1952 and 1988? Who won?
1906FM
By Moses Smith