Volume 125 Issue 95
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY & ANSWER
Monday, April 1, 2013
kansan.com
KANSAN e Fight-
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/KANSAN guard Malk. Va. ng record
us disap
e effort
Julie Etzler
GOING FOR THE WIN
A RISK UNREWARDED
BLAKE SCHUSTER
bschuster@kansan.com
Arlington, Texas — When it came down to it, when the Jayhawks had their last shot to perform a miracle and send Cowboys Stuart into a comeback and blue
frenzy, Kansas coach Bill Self put it to a vote.
The jayhaws had been in this situation plenty of times before: late in the game, clock winding down and a decision to make. The routine wasn't going to change.
It was time to move past the fact that Michigan erased a 12-point deficit with just over six
minutes left. There was nothing more Kansas could do about Trey Burke's 28-foot 3-pointer that tied the game with a handful of ticks remaining.
With Kansas down 87-85, pure democracy was the only option.
So Self gathered
his four seniors and posed the question:
Do you want to go for the tie or the win?
The ballots were unanimous.
"Whenever your season comes down to one possession," Jeff Withey said. "Why tie and go into another overtime?"
As 9.4 seconds remained on the clock, Elijah Johnson started up the left side and set the final play into action as he stepped past
half court
Jeff Withey ran up top to provide a fake screen while Johnson cut to his right, looking to drive into the lane.
There was no pressure from Michigan on Johnson. He was coasting around like the gym was empty, seemingly on pure muscle memory. And at that point it really was.
"It's a play we run all the time," Kevin Young said. "Almost every time we ran it it's worked."
"Whenever your season comes down to one possession, why tie and go into another overtime?"
The moment didn't appear to faze the layhawks either.
Three times this season, Kansas had fought through an extra
JEFF WITHEY
senior forward
B een m McLemore's bank shot against Iowa State, Withey dominance down low
And Johnson was attacking
against Oklahoma State and Johnson's unconscious shooting in a rematch with the Cyclones.
If anything, it was a moment Kansas had been primed for. If anything, you would think the Wolverines didn't want to go another five minutes with this Kansas team.
"We weren't shook," Young said. "We've played in close games before. We just tried to stay confident and keep attacking."
He had blown by every Michigan defender that had come his way as he glided into the lane and suddenly all that separated Kansas from defeat was a poorly contested layup.
Although the Jayhawks will admit they did let up towards the end of regulation. Kansas had been up my as many as 14 points in the second half.
Even with Michigan's Burke starting to heat up, the Jayhawks had been able to control him all game. Keeping him silent for a few more minutes didn't seem to be an impossible task until it was.
After holding Burke to 0-4 shooting and five assists in the first half, he exploded in the final minutes and finished with 23 points.
"It was crunch time and he showed up," Withey said. "That's what great players do."
Still Kansas didn't have to worry about Burke's shooting at the moment; Johnson was floating up to the rim with a second overtime in sight.
Travis Releford was the only help down below if there was a rebound, but he had been boxed out. This had to be the shot, like it or not, and it had to go down.
That just wasn't how Johnson saw it.
As the ball was ready to roll off his fingertips and carom on the backboard Johnson contorted his body and fired a crosscourt pass toward an open, albeit far away, Naadir Tharpe.
"I wasn't expecting to get it," Tharpe said, "I guess he didn't feel like he had an angle to shoot it."
As erratic of a pass as it was, Tharpe reached back and grabbed it with one hand, and was open enough to move closer to the 3-point line.
At most there were four steps, but the clock was only counting milliseconds and defenders were closing all around him.
Tharpe never had an opportunity to set himself for the shot. He had to shoot the ball.
Yet the off-balance heave still had a chance as it clanked off the backboard high and hit the rim.
It just wasn't the right part of the iron, which became evident as the ball fell back down to earth with the weight of a fan base on top of it.
"The call was just let Elijah make a play." Withey said.
But it wasn't the one the
But it wasn't the one the Kansas fans wanted. As Johnson hung in the moment just long enough
to think about it, it was clear he was never going to play for double overtime.
The team had decided they were going for the win, and this was the way they chose to go out.
"I could have taken the shot," Johnson admitted. "I passed up a shot to try and get a better one."
Edited by Brian Sisk
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Seniors end college career with 30-point loss
MAX GOODWIN
mgoodwin@kansan.com
In the final minute of the 93-63 loss by Kansas to No. 2 Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen, senior point guard Angel Goodrich sat on the bench staring down at the ground.
To the right of Goodrich, senior teammate Monica Engelman gazed straight ahead with a look of disappointment. Senior forward Carolyn Davis covered her face with her jersey before collapsing into her chair.
All three knew that they had just left the court for the final time of their college careers.
Their dreams had just been halted by a 5-foot-9 senior point guard with a deadly offensive game and an unmatched determination to win.
Skylar Diggins unleashed her shooting ability with 22 points in the first half against Kansas. In the second, she assisted her teammates and showed just how solid this Notre Dame team is from the backcourt, to the post, to the bench.
Diggins and the Irish believe they are on their way to raising a national championship trophy after falling one win short the past two seasons. Carolyn Davis and the Jayhawks were convinced that they had the ability to stun the Irish, but Diggins was too much.
Davis caught pass after pass from Goodrich in the post, laying most of those passes into the hoop for 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting. But it wasn't enough to match what Notre Dame was doing at the other end in scoring 93 points.
Goodrich ended her career with 12 assists, the most she has had in a game all season. She struggled shooting the ball, going 3-for-11 from the field. She also turned the ball over six times.
Kansas showed an ability to score with the Irish for the first five minutes of the game, but from there Notre Dame showed a shooting consistency that Kansas didn't have. As Kansas went the next five minutes without a bucket, Notre Dame continued to score at will.
Engelman struggled to shoot the ball in her final game as a Jayhawk, going 4-for-16 with 10 points, after scoring a career-high 27 against South Carolina in the second round.
In the second half, Diggins' mentality went from that of a scorer to that of a facilitator. She balanced the 22 first half points with seven second-half assists.
With all of the national media attention adding hype to the Diggins-Goodrich matchup, Diggins proved why many consider her the best point guard in the game, but she could not have done it without the support of her teammates.
As a team, the Jayhawks shot 38 percent from the field. Goodrich drove to the basket and kicked the ball out for three-point shots, but Kansas went just 2-for-10 from behind the arc.
For the second straight season, the Jayhawks' run at March Madness ends in the Sweet Sixteen.
Diggins used screens from her teammates and took advantage when the Kansas post players didn't immediately cut off her path. She created shots for her teammates and they drained them.
— Edited byJ Julie Etzler
TARA BRYANT/KANSAN
Senior forward Carolyn Davis wipes off her face as she watches the final minute of Sunday's Sweet Sixteen game in Norfolk, Va. The Jayhawks lost to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 93-63.
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