kansan.com
Volume 125 Issue 80
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY GANSAN
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
COMMENTARY A team can't win without stepping on a few toes
No coach in America likes his team to be "nice."
They may not admit it, but there's no way a successful college basketball coach thinks to himself, "Gee, I wish we could have a nice group of guys."
This Kansas team, for the most part, is naturally a group of nice guys. It just so happens that they appear to be a kind team. That's not to say there aren't outliers, but in general, lahvayhs are a nice group.
A group that hasn't been playing nice lately.
Behind the heightened focus and energy Kansas has found in its last three games is a level of meanness that has turned the smooth edges of this team into a rigid bunch.
The Jayhawks developed into a mean team.
On Monday evening against Iowa State, after a career-best 37 points and the game sealed, Johnson wasn't finished. Not yet.
With 2.5 seconds left, Johnson capped off a wide-open, meaningless one-handed dunk. He followed it by chest bumping his teammate, Travis Releford, while, you know, there was still 2.5 seconds on the clock.
No, it's not the classiest move, but after Johnson's sluggish senior stretch, the man should be allowed to celebrate. To punctuate. He took the pen and wrote the last note of his symphony.
Good for Johnson to apologize like he did. And good for Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg, who had every right to be upset.
Somehow and someway, Bill Self had his Patches O'Houlihan moment, the coach from "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story," that pleaded for his team to get mean and angry. While I highly doubt Self resorted to O'Houlihan's slightly unethical methods, I don't doubt he found a way to get the message across to his team.
O'Houlihan threw wrenches at his players. Self had practice, and a choice for his team to make.
It was either falter or fight.
Sink or succeed. Wimper or win.
In all instances, the Jayhawks have picked the latter.
On the road against Oklahoma State, the most important game of Kansas' season (at that time), Kevin Young leaned into Marcus Smart. It wasn't anything blatantly flagrant or outlandish, it was a bump that sent Smart to the floor and a memo to both teams — the Jayhawks weren't going down without a fight.
Those days are done.
The three game losing streak allowed the Jayhawks' ears and eyes to be opened, and they got the message.
You don't win nine consecutive Big 12 titles without being a bully.
— Edited by Pat Strathman
Senior forward Kevin Young talks his past and his present
RYAN MCCARTHY
After a put back slam in the first half on Saturday against TCU, senior forward Kevin Young did something that he will probably never do again while at Kansas.
rmccarthy@kansan.com
He flashed one of his infectious smiles to the Allen Fieldhouse crowd and pointed his finger at someone specific in the stands and then touched his signature Afro.
"Just did it, but probably something I won't do again though," Young said on Saturday, "One time thing."
He pointed to his Afro for one
person only: his brother.
When standing in the autograph line after a game, Donovan Young is usually pacing around waiting to talk to his brother.
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Fans often ask for Donovan's autograph and pictures because of the striking resemblance to Kevin.
But the moments in the autograph line will be there as Young, a senior from Perris, Calif, finishes up his last few games at Allen Fieldhouse over the next week.
Moments, lifelong memories that he had with his brother, are running out.
Moments that the two of them
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Senior forward Kevin Young looks around before shooting a layup during the second half of the match against Kansas State at Bramall Coliseum Tuesday, Jan 22. Young had six rebounds and two assists for the match. Kansas defeated Kansas State 59-55.
will remember long after the cameras stop flashing and the lights go out in the Fieldhouse.
For Kevin Young, having his younger brother and mother, Alicia Morales, in Lawrence during his final semester playing college basketball means the world to him.
Although Young's father, Kevin Young, Sr., is not a part of his daily life, he helped him get started in basketball. One of Young's first great memories is hopping a fence at the age of 4 with his father.
"It gets a lot of stress of my hands and I don't have to worry about them too much," Young said. "I get to see them and I'm really close to my mother and my brother."
Hopping that fence was the first of many hurdles in a career that has seen him become the starting power forward at the University of Kansas.
"It's just an obstacle that's there," Young said. "Not knowing if you're going to be able to make it over or not. The next thing you know, over the fence and into the gym."
Spending time in the gym early on led Young to a promising career. It allowed him to make his first dunk in the eighth grade.
He transitioned to the Perris High School basketball team, quickly snagging a spot on the varsity bench as a freshman.
"My dad called me on a Saturday," Young said. "Hey get up I to pick you up." And I was like what are you talking about? Freshman don't practice right now. And he was like 'nah,' they moved you up to varisity.
"My dad actually went through the boxes of jerseys and picked up the number 40," he said.
Right before the practice, his dad even found the number Young wears to this day.
Young excelled the rest of his high school career and even received an invitation to the Reebok All-American camp, where he went toe-to-toe with former Baylor forward Quincy Acy.
"I think he got the MVP in the all-star game because he dunked everything," Young said. "He was a monster down there blocking shots."
After that it did not take long for Bill Bayon, then coach at Loyola Marymount, to offer Young a scholarship.
At first Young hesitated to sign
he knew little about, but once he walked onto campus he realized the type of history the Lions held, especially in developing fast pace basketball.
Young idolized Hank Gathers in particular. Ir
But it wasn't just Gathers' play on the court that impressed
"My freshman year I actually wore the wristbands on my forearms for Hank Gathers," Young said. "I think it meant a lot to me to go out there and play basketball knowing something he wanted to do for his whole life."
the 1988-89 season, Gathers became the second player in NCAA Division 1 history to lead the nation in scoring and rebounding in the same season. He tragically collapsed on the court and died on March 4, 1990 on the basketball court. Autopsy later revealed he had the heart-muscle disorder hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
He was also featured in the recent ESPN 30 for 30 "Guru of Go."
Gathers' sense of style on the court also appealed to Young.
Young; it was his interaction with the community around it.
"They would take that opportunity to better themselves and better their lives. I thought Kansas was the opportunity that I could to make a better life for myself."
"I sat there and watched all kinds of film even before the '30 for 30. I remember watching one game and at halftime I thought it was just going to fast forward to the next half and all of the sudden it's his halftime show and it says 'Welcome to Hank's halftime show'"
KEVIN YOUNG Senior forward
"I thought it was pretty unique that a player, because his major was communications, that the
actual player was the actual halftime show" Young said. "He interviewed other players from the conference. He interviewed coaches and refs."
Due to some struggles in the classroom Young enrolled at Barstow Community College, about an hour away from his home.
attest, Young cares about people the same way Gathers showed on screen.
Young does not have interest in doing the same anytime soon, but as his former teammate LaRon Armstead can
"Kevin has a really good heart"
Armsteed said. "He cares about people. I was instantly drawn to that. He was just fun and cool to be around. He loved hanging around people."
At that time he was lined up to go to Fresno State after improving his grades, but he ended up not going to play for the Bulldogs in
Though Young enjoyed his time with the Lions, which included a 3-28 season and a coaching change, he wanted to find a better fit for himself.
BLAKE SCHUSTER
bschuster@kansan.com
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Tempers flare amid Kansas victory in Ames
Elijah Johnson, who scored 39 points in the victory, played a large role in tiing the game. Yet things began to spiral out of control for the ISU faithful as the Jayhawks' senior point guard seemingly found his groove.
There were plenty of reasons to be upset with the Jayhawks. Despite knocking down 17 3-pointers — three more than the Cyclones made in Lawrence — Iowa State still found itself tied with Kansas after 40 minutes of play.
SEE YOUNG PAGE 7
After an emphatic, albeit unnecessary, dunk and celebration from Johnson with 2.5 seconds remaining, the Cyclones' fans had seen enough.
As the Jayhawks left the floor, they were reportedly pelleted with plastic megaphones and cups. That wasn't enough for one Iowa State supporter.
Kansas coach Bill Self, who had just recorded his 500th ca-
KUsports.com photographer Nick Krug was still on the court at the time and later tweeted that the fan closed on Self and begasn哼着 at him. Police grabbed the fan and escorted him away from the court.
reeer victory, had finished a post game interview with ESPN's Holly Rowe and was headed off the court when an angry Cyclones' fan got lost in the moment and attempted to confront him.
There were false reports of the fan attempting to hit Self, but the officer intervened before the fan had a chance to get physical.
After the incident Self spoke with Gary Bedore of the Lawrence-Journal World.
"I have no problem with what went on after the game," said Self told Bedore. Self also said he wasn't aware of fans throwing objects at his team as it left the floor.
Edited by Trevor Graff
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas head coach Bill Seff, right, receives a technical tour early in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Iowa State Monday in Ames, Iowa.
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