THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15,2012
PAGE 7C
APRIL 5.1988
Jayhawks win championship
ELAINE SUNG
editor@kansan.com
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In 1980, when the U.S. hockey team defeated the Soviets at Lake Pacid, N.Y., in the Winter Olympics, sports commentator Al Michaels uttered his now-famous question, "Do you believe in miracles?"
The layhawks did. They defied all logic, beat the odds and conquered the previously unstoppable Okalahoma Sooners last night 83-79 in Kempa Arena and took the 1988 NCAA national championship, the first national title for Kansas and the Big Eight Conference since 1952.
But the situation did not look good for the Jayhawks when they fell behind five points with more than 13 minutes left in the game. The Jayhawks looked grim as they huddled during their timeout, and the Sooners did some preliminary dancing, thinking the championship was all theirs.
The Sooners, though, overlooked two things: substitution and experience. Oklahoma coach Billy Tubbs substituted only 12 times the entire game compared to Kansas' 42. In addition, forward Dave Singer, who hit six of eight three-point shots in the first half, faltered at the three-point line and eventually gave up long-range shooting and passed it inside to center Stacey King.
The Sooners also thought that their full-court press would carry them through. It had intimidated other teams, but not the layhawks, who had seen it twice before and were no longer afraid.
"We know what they do in the game," said Kansas forward Milt Newton. "With other teams, they're in shock with the press. But were accustomed to that. We didn't think we could beat a third time. This third time was for the national championship."
The Sooners tried to speed up the tempo as they had in the first half, but several times the Jayhawks deliberately held the ball at the top of the circle to rest and throw Oklahoma off its game.
Oklahoma called a timeout with 1:39 remaining. The score was
77-73, and Grace had just completed two free throws. After the timeout, guard Terrence Mullins fouled Kansas guard Clint Normore, and Normore missed the front end of his one and one.
Kansas coach Larry Brown sent in guard Scooter Barry, one of the team's top free throw shooters. Sieger fouled Newton, who made the front end of his one and one. He missed the second shot.
With less than a minute in the game, Grace hit a jump shot for a 78-75 score, and Oklahoma called a time-out. With 41 seconds left, guard Mookie Blaylock hit a jump shot and made the score 78-77. Tubbs called for another time-out.
Okiahoma applied pressure as the Jayhawks passed the ball around the perimeter. Blaylock fouled Barry,
but Barry completed only the first of his free throws with 16 seconds left in the game.
Okla homa called its last timeout. On the in-bounds pass, Piper was stuck
"This feeling is great to be able to close out my career like this in Kansas City."
and could not find anyone open. He called a time-out, and on the second try he passed it to Manning.
"This is for all the people who said it couldn't be done, that we wouldn't make it. This is from the national champions, the No. 1 team in the country. How do you like us now?"
"That was about as nervous as I was in the game," Piper said. "They switched a coupled of guys on us. I didn't have a clear pass, and I wasn't going to take a chance. I told Danny out of the huddle that the ball was coming to him. The other guys were so quick, we needed to use Danny's size."
When the final buzzer sounded, the players rushed onto the center of the court and became one tangled mass, surrounded by cheerleaders, security officers and cameramen desperately trying to capture the moment.
With five seconds left, Grant fouled Manning. And Manning sealed the victory once more completing both his free throws to make the final score 83-79.
"This feeling is great to be able close out my career like this in Kansas City, in front of people that have supported me for four years," Manning said. "It's something well deserved for them, but it wasn't a gift. Some people said we got lucky, but what's luck? Luck presents opportunity, and we took that opportunity."
The crowd was screaming in the stands, and Kansas students who were lucky enough to get tickets for the game were dancing on the press tables that lined the court. The Kansas basketball band played "Goin' to Kansas City." The CBS cameras were pushing to get to Manning, who finished
DANNY MANNING Forward
with 31 points, 18 rebounds and was voted the tournament's most outstanding player.
The players donned national championship T-shirts. Guard Kevin Pritchard searched for his
parents and saw that they were still in the stands waving. He demanded that the security officers let his parents on the floor, and together they celebrated the victory.
Somewhere in the middle of the mess was Brown, who has taken two different schools to three different Final Four appearances in the last seven years. Brown, at age 47, had succeeded in leading the jayhawks to his first national championship.
Just two months ago, Kansas was 12-8, and people wondered whether the Jayhawks would receive a berth in the NCAA tournament.
Last night they shook off the skeptics, played the game of their lives and sent Manning and fellow senior forwards Piper and Archie Marshall off with the greatest farewell present possible.
The stepladders were set up under the baskets at each end, and Marshall, as he did in Pontiac, Mich., was the first to mount the
ladder and cut the net.
The crowd had its eyes fastened on the Kansas team as each player received his chance to cut the net. The Sooners slinked off to their dressing room, heads down. There would be no victorious dancing on the basketball rims this night.
"It's a bitter defeat, because we felt we could win it all, but we didn't and we have to accept that," said Tubbs.
The Sooners, playing the part of the bad guys, with their red-on-white home uniforms, already had done their dancing during the pregame warmups. They exuded the same cockiness that had been their trademark all season, with their index fingers pointed in the air.
The Jayhawks came out solemn and underrated, but determined. They had the same spark of revenge in their eyes as they did against Kansas State in the Midwest Regional at Pontiac and against Duke in the National Semifinal two nights ago in Kemper.
The Sooners had come out smiling, too. The tip-off went to Oklahoma, and Blaylock hit a jump shot for the first basket of the game. As Piper stood on the baseline to inbound the ball, King looked around and grinned wickedly.
For his final collegiate appearance, Marshall came out with the team. He injured his knee in December playing against St. John's and came out for the second time after his injury, dressed in warmup suit and uniform.
Manning hit his jump shot at the other end of the court, Kind was called for traveling as he headed the other way, and when he faced Piper this time for the inbounds pass, the confident grin was replaced by a
Fans in the second level hung a banner that read, "This one is for 23". Marshall glanced around the arena briefly before the game started and saw the sign. He smiled and waved. For the rest of the night, when Kansas was down on the scoreboard, the crowd would break into chant, "Archie.Archie". It was a reminder that the Jayhawks weren't playing just for a national championship.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Danny Manning passes over Harvey Grant after rebounding the ball during the second half of the Jawahras win over Oklahoma.
look of frustration.
The teams played close, exchanging baskets and three-point shots all evening.
Kansas forward Milt Newton did much of the rescue work, making diving saves several times to keep the ball in bounds for Kansas. More importantly, when Sieger threatened at three-point range, Newton helped the Jayhawks recover at key times with three-point shots of his own.
"They had a great first half. You couldn't shoot any better," Tubbs said. "They not only got inside but also got the three-pointers. We never really had firm control of the game, but neither team could really tuck it away."
The pace was still too fast for Kansas. With 8:52 left in the first half, Newton hit a 16-foot jump shot, making the score 33-30, but Brown started screaming on the sidelines for the team to slow down.
The game stood at 50-50 at
half-time. By that time, the crowd had realized the caliber of game it was seeing, something Brown had already recognized.
"I looked at the refs a couple of times, and they were shaking their heads and grinning." Brown said. "It was a great game. Obviously it had all the drama, it was a close ball game, and we had some phenomenal individual performances."
Oklahoma had gone in and out of its press after realizing that it had no effect on Kansas. The Jayhawks shot an incredible 71 percent from the field in the first half and 63.6 percent overall while holding the Sooners to 48.7 percent in the first half and an even more dismal 35.5 percent in the second half.
"In the first half, we ran pretty well, but we knew we needed to go to our own game plan," Newton said. "Coach said if we ran with Oklahoma, we should try to make them pay for it."
—Edited by Brittney Haynes