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KANSAN.COM
CHAMPIONSHIPS BY THE DOZEN
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STARTING FIVE
B11
NAADIR THARPE junior guard
Tharpe's ability to generate assists was his main strength, but Tharpe never managed to solidify his role on the team. Tharpe led the team with 5 assists per game, but only scored 8.5 points per game as a starter.
WAYNE SELDEN JR.
freshman guard
One of three-star freshmen to make his debut this season.
Selden was the third or fourth scoring option his freshman year. He finished the year with 9.7 points per game, including a 24-point game against Oklahoma.
ANDREW WIGGINS freshman forward He might not have lived up to the unreal expectations surrounding his recruitment, but Wiggins did leave Kansas as the highest-scoring freshman in school history. Before going first overall in the 2014 NBA draft, Wiggins averaged 17.1 points per game and also lead the team in steals per game on his way to first-team Big 12.
ANDREW WIGGINS
PERRY ELLIS
sophomore forward Ellis largely slipped under the radar this season because of Wiggins and Embiid, but still managed to finish second on the team in scoring with a 13.5 point-per-game average. Ellis had a huge breakout game against TCU with 32 points and eight rebounds.
JOEL EMBIID
freshman forward Embiid didn't start to begin the season, but once he did, Kansas became an elite defensive team. Embiid led the team with 2.6 blocks and 8.1 rebounds per game before getting injured towards the end of the season.
SEASON AT A GLANCE
Kansas entered the year ranked No. 5, but an early win against Duke saw the team jump to No.2. The lack of experience in the starting lineup led to a 23-8 regular season and saw Kansas exit the NCAA Tournament in the third round with a 60-57 loss to 10th-seeded Stanford.
597 - Andrew Wiggins' 592 points in a season isn't just the record for any Kansas freshman, it's the 22nd highest season total in Kansas history.
BY THE NUMBERS
File Photo/KANSAN
19 -- Wiggins set the record for the most in-game rebounds by a Kansas player. Wiggins grabbed 19 boards against No. 8 ranked Iowa State.
72 Joel Embid set the freshman blocked shots record with 72 blocks.
NEWS
The NFL investigates Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for domestic violence after initial two-game suspension.
Bashar al-Assad is reelected as president of Syria in June 2014.
POP CULTURE
"12 Years a Slave" wins the Academy Award for Best Picture. "Happy" by Pharrell finishes the year atop the Billboard top songs.
NOTABLE DEATHS s
Maya Angelou
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Schuster: Fans celebrate 10 straight
▶ BLAKE SCHUSTER
BLAKE SCHUSTER originally published in 2014
Sitting high enough in the corner of Allen Fieldhouse to reach the rafters, John and Suzanne Cole couldn't help but smile as the Jayhawks took the floor.
Sure, the couple had been here before - John went to just about every game as a student before graduating in 1966 but rare are the games when you wish the clock would just run a little faster.
Monday was one of those games, and despite the fact it would likely be the only time the Coles visited Allen Fieldhouse all year, even they waited patiently for the game's end.
That's when the real
festivities began, when Kansas was crowned Big 12 champion for a 10th straight season after defeating Oklahoma 83-75 and wrapped up a decade that started with disappointment and ended in disbelief.
"When Roy [Williams] left I thought it was the end of the world, but Bill certainly changed our minds," Cole said. "It just shows you what kind of a coach he is. This was his toughest test."
Self, of course, passed with an "A" and nine pluses. And even though he wouldn't let
his team celebrate, he couldn't stop the student body.
Echoes of "10 Straight!" filled the Fieldhouse while the band belted "Hey Jude" and DJ Khaled.
It's the type of environment that starts with someone like Ellen Waters, a freshman from Cimarron, who anxiously ripped up her newspaper in the student section while the Jayhawks went through their pregame routine.
Waters was in junior high school when her parents took her on a five-hour journey to Allen Fieldhouse for the first time. Before the game even started, Waters was hooked.
"I just remember when that first video
came on it made my heart race and I had goose bumps," Waters said. "That was it."
Sometimes it's kind of expected."
Ellen Waters Freshman
She never bothered touring or applying to other schools. Now she waited as the clock wound down again and her Jayhawks would stand on top of the league
it's hard for her to remember if that was never the case
"Sometimes
It's expected for someone like 9-year-old Pearse Long - named after Paul Pierce, of the phonetically same last name - who was accompanied by his father Eric. They counted down the minutes with everyone else.
it's kind of expected," Waters said.
"To be here to see the game they clinch it in would be pretty neat," Eric Long said. "For my son it's just another day in his life. That's all he knows."
Winning the Big 12 is only a birthright if you're under the age of 11.
It's Ellen Waters watching games on TV with her parents in southwest Kansas. It's the Coles sitting high above Naismith court and screaming like it's 1966. It's way past bedtime for Pearse Long.
And for a few in attendance on Monday night it's the only game they'll see in Allen Fieldhouse. For most it's the only game they'll need.
The truth is,it's a victory that will mean a million different things to a million different people, and yet it's all the same.
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