ANSAN
Volume 125 Issue 95
kansan.com
Monday, April 1, 2013
IGH LEE/KANSAN
ER ROSTE/KANSAN
--could hear the Michigan players screaming in pure joy. When the doors were open, I saw college kids, just like you, me and our very own Jayhawk basketball team celebrating the greatest achievements of their lives.
COMMENTARY
Two teams, one result: bittersweet defeat
Heartbreak, upsets all a part of a fan's March Madness experience
ARLINGTON, Texas — As a journalist, it's a cardinal sin to write with any bias toward a team. As a journalist, it's also a cardinal sin to lie.
As a student of the University of Kansas, I must break that first rule.
I won't lie to you. Sitting in front of my computer in Cowboys Stadium watching the jayhaws collapse hurt me. It hurt because it didn't seem like the right way for this team to lose. It hurt because it just wasn't supposed to be this way.
It hurt because Kansas was the team to always come back. To always be trailing at half-time, and then to take the other team by storm.
And on top of that, I was fortunate enough to write about Michigan's miracle comeback and Trey Burke's heroic 3-pointer that would put Tony Romo to shame. As a journalist, this was a great story to write. As a Jayhawk, it stung.
So I scrambled to write my story, threw my laptop in my backpack, and hustled into the bowels of the titanic stadium. From there, I waited outside the Michigan locker room.
These Michigan players aren't to be bated. They just wear different colored clothes to play the game we all love. These are kids aged 18-22 that have worked their whole lives to get to this moment, just like Kansas' kids.
Behind the closed doors I
They aren't the enemy. Don't hate the players, and don't hate the game, either.
Yes, this was a great regular season for Kansas that didn't get justice in the NCAA Tournament. It happens.
I had never been on the other side, in the visitors locker room
After all, this is part of March. This is why we love March. You sometimes end up on the wrong side of it.
after the big come-from-behind win.
Trey Burke was still shaking almost 20 minutes after he had made the shot that crushed every Jayhawk's hopes and dreams for another trip to the Elite Eight.
I know what you're feeling in the pit of your stomach right now. I know what it's like to stare blankly at your friends wondering how it can ever get better. Wondering how you'll ever recover.
But you'll respond the same way you do every year. You'll chat in the summer about the new recruits, the new team, the new starting lineup. Come October you'll go to Late Night and overanalyze every meaningless minute. Then November hits and the fun returns.
This is the life of a fan. You just have to take the good and the bad that comes with it.
You'll smile again, and it will be because of Kansas basketball. You'll make Allen Fieldhouse shake and you'll count down the days in a week until game day.
Otherwise, this wouldn't be any fun, would it?
Edited by Brian Sisk
Jayhawks' drive gets them past expectation and among the best
NORFOLK, Va. – Skylar Diggins beat Kansas.
She scored 27 of the 30 points that cost Kansas the game,
and she's responsible for at least 18 more of Notre Dame's points from her nine assists.
Without Diggins, I think Notre Dame and Kansas would have been evenly matched, and Kansas might even be better than a Notre Dame without Diggins.
But the same could be said for a Kansas without Angel Goodrich. In the same way that Diggins directs the Fighting Irish, Goodrich directs the jayhawks. Before Kansas' practice on Saturday, Monica Engelman said "Angel makes me look good."
Diggins did more than Goodrich in Sunday's game, though. Goodrich, Kansas' all-time assist leader — and that's for the men and women — scored seven points to accompany her 13 assists. Where Goodrich slacked on the scoring, Diggins didn't, and she still had almost as many assists as Goodrich.
Goodrich didn't have the whole package, and Diggins did, and that decided the game.
What got the layhawks so far in this tournament was their drive. It was the same drive that got them to the Sweet Sixteen last season. With Carolyn Davis out last year, the layhawks had to step up their game and fill Davis' gap in the
starting lineup. The Jayhaws lost another start this year, and the team played the rest of this season for Natalie Knight.
Unfortunately for Kansas, Notre Dame and its seniors — Diggins and Kalla Turner — also came to the tournament with a lot of drive.
Notre Dame has played in the past two national championship games, but has yet to walk away with a trophy. This is Diggins' last tournament and she's determined to top off her record-breaking career at Notre Dame with a championship.
The Jayhawks had the numbers and Diggins "sense of urgency" — the buzzword of this tournament
— stacked against them when they stepped on the court at the Ted Constant Convocation Center on Sunday.
Kansas has been the underdog throughout the tournament because the team wasn't supposed to win.
The Jayhawks weren't supposed to beat the Colorado
So, while I say that a Notre Dame team without Diggins may have been an even matchup for Kansas, the matchup shouldn't really be questioned. Notre Dame should have beaten Colorado or South Carolina on Sunday because Kansas was never ready for a team of Notre Dame's caliber.
Buffaloes at home, but they did. They weren't supposed to beat the higher-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks, and yet they did. And they didn't beat the Fighting Irish on Sunday. They lost just like they were supposed to.
Unlike the controversial No.1-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs in the men's tournament, no one has doubted Notre Dame's No.1 seed.
The Fighting Irish are 34-1, their one loss being to the Baylor Bears, the defending national champions and the No.1 overall seed in the women's tournament for the second year in a row.
Kansas never had a chance against Notre Dame. Kansas basketball fans, and maybe even the Kansas players and coaches, are jaded because of Kansas basketball's history of success. We're spoiled and don't always know better when we're outmatched.
Skylar Diggins and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat the Kansas Jayhawks fair and square, just like they were supposed to do.
Index
Edited by Brian Sisk
CLASSIFIEDS 7
CROSSWORD 5
CRYPTOQUIPS 5
OPINION 4
SPORTS 10
SUDOKU 5
All contents, unless stated otherwise. © 2013 The University Daily Kansan
Don't forget
Today is April Fool's Day. Watch your back.
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