Thursday, March 28. 2013
Volume 125 Issue 93
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
kansan.com
COMMENTARY Time for Kansas fans to forgive
Three hundred wins later, it's time to forgive Roy Williams. How long does it take to get over a breakup?
Six months? One year? Five years?
For some Kansas fans, not even 10 years has been enough.
When current North Carolina coach Roy Williams left the Kansas program in 2003, the heart got ripped out of Jayhawk Nation. The breakup was public, and it was nasty. If Kansas was Justin Timberlake, then Roy Williams was Britney Spears.
However, keeping with the Justin Timberlake metaphor (a phrase I never thought I'd write in a sports column), Timberlake has since risen to unexpected heights. He has multiple Emmys for hosting Saturday Night Live, a clothing line, multiple platinum records and a decently successful acting career. To top things off, he married Jessica Biel.
Meanwhile, Kansas found Bill Self, Kansas, for lack of a better phrase, "Justin Timberlaked." It was only after a messy breakup that the Jayhawks truly began to take flight.
When Self arrived in 2003, the proud program seemed shaken. Senior stalwarts Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich just graduated. The future stars of the program were disgruntled. Speaking about Williams, Wayne Simien notably said, "I literally gave my right arm for that man," referencing playing through a shoulder injury. The locker room had no interest in a new coach. That is, until the players began to understand Bill Self and his philosophy.
However, what Williams has done for North Carolina's program since leaving Kansas is moot. It is what Bill Self has done that is important.
That's not to say that Roy Williams has remained faithful to his Britney Spears role. Instead of shaving his head and marrying a back-up dancer, Williams has won two championships and made an additional Final Four. The added boost Williams gets from recruiting to the East Coast has obviously helped him. And the fact that he has experienced the kind of success he was never able to bring to Kansas is a notable cause of some of the vitial.
Kansas is better off with Bill Self Winning cures all ills. Williams' Kansas teams were always in contention, but often lacked the toughness, defense and high basketball IQ of Self's teams. These weaknesses prevented the Jayhawks from ever winning a title.
Ten years is enough to heal the wounds. Kansas basketball has moved on.
It's time for all fans to do the same.
Self quickly began to transfer his toughness and moxie to his players on the court. He recruited hard-nosed players without promising them immediate playing time. Rather, he promised development as a player and a person.
Despite Kansas' current success, Kansas fans still find it difficult to forgive Williams for his transgressions. The boos directed at him in Kansas City were not as overpowering as the ones LeBron James withstood during his first visit back to Cleveland, but they were still indicative of a fan base that has not completely moved on.
In the meantime, Self has won 300 games and counting in 10 years, including the national championship in 2008. In that same time span, Kentucky has 262 wins, Duke has 293, and Williams' North Carolina has 282.
Edited by Hayley Jozwiak
TARA RRYANT/KANSAN
SENIOR SUCCESS
EFFICIENT ENGELMAN
Senior guard provides a spark for women's basketball team
Senior guard Monica Engelman dribbles past a Prairie View A&M opponent on her way to the basket in Sunday's game at Allen Fieldhouse.
MAX GOODWIN
mgoodwin@kansan.com
Monica Engelman sat at the press conference inside Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday afternoon flanked by her two fellow senior teammates, 5-foot-4 guard Angel Goodrich on her right and 6-foot-3 forward Carolyn Davis on her left.
About 17 hours earlier in Boulder, Colo., Engelman dropped a career-high 27 points on the No. 4-seed South Carolina Gamecocks, leading the way to a 74-69 Kansas victory that earned them its second straight trip to the sweet 16.
"I was just trying to play and stay aggressive," Engelman said the night before. "And do what I needed to do to get us the win."
It's been no secret that Henrickson wants Engelman to be aggressive and look to score. There was no hesitation from Engelman when she caught the ball against South Carolina.
She was 2-for-3 from behind the arc. She scored at the rim. She drained mid-range shots and did everything else her coach wanted to see from her.
"Huge, huge, huge," Henrickson said of Engelman's contribution. "She's got a little good bounce to her right now."
Engelman realizes how important her scoring can be to the team, and how much it influenced the way her teammates play.
"I needed to be aggressive," Engelman said after the game. "And it gets contagious, and when my teammates are aggressive, and we're doing what we need to do as a team then it makes me feel better as a basketball player and do what I need to do."
Of the 27 points scored by Engelman, 18 of them were scored in the first half to ignite a 42-point
second half against one of the top defensive teams in women's college basketball.
It's clear that Engelman is an important piece in the Kansas scoring attack, but Henrickson pointed out that it's more than just her scoring ability that helped the Jayhawks reach the sweet 16.
"Other than making shots the other night she's guarded better," Henrickson said. "She's been able to keep people in front of her. We switch everything, we've switched matchups for her to guard some of
the better guys. I think for Moni, this has been her best year on the defensive end."
This year for Engelman has been one of growth and maturity.
Her game has grown, but so have her attitude on the court and her role on the team as a leader. Her teammates and coaches have noticed.
that role and we're proud of her."
"She's done a lot for us this year." Goodrich said of Engelman. "Her role has changed. She's embraced that a lot this year. Being a leader, being a senior, she really taken on
Engelman gave credit to Goodrich for her scoring, immediately following the game and at the press conference the following day in Lawrence. Without Goodrich, Engelman said she couldn't have done it.
"For me, [senior guard] Angel (Goodrich] made it easy," Engelman said. "She's a great point guard, and she can push the ball, so it makes everyone else run and spread the floor. and we were able to get easy buckets in transition."
Engelman and the Jayhawks understand the challenge that lies ahead of them with No. 2 ranked Notre Dame. The Irish have only lost once in 34 games this season, and that was to Big 12 champion and defending national champion Baylor, who also defeated Notre Dame in last season's national championship game.
Engelman says she tries not to put too much pressure on herself, and with the Jayhawks making another surprise run to the sweat 16 she says her teammates and her are having fun with their role as the Cinderella team in March once again.
"I'ts more fun," Engelman said. "Not a lot of people expect you to win or don't have high expectations for you, so to prove them wrong makes a win all that much sweeter."
Engelman scored just eight points over the three game tournament run for the Jayhawks last season.
Davis and Goodrich have been on the All-Big 12 teams, they have been recognized for their individual talents as candidates for the Wade award.
There may have been times when Engelman has been overlooked during her four year career at Kansas, but this is not one of them and coach Henrickson made sure of it.
"I don't overlook her," Henrickson said. "I think there is room for three great players in a program. The thing for her, from a confidence stand point, she's worked to get herself back. It's been well documented that she struggled last year, but we're all so proud of her to be able to pull herself up by the boot straps and get it right. She's a big reason we are where we are right now."
- Edited by Tyler Conover
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Determination keeps team dancing
NATHAN FORDYCE
nfordyce@kansan.com
The women's basketball team returned victorious to Lawrence after an improbable weekend of upsets.
On Saturday, the No. 12 seeded Kansas Jayhawks knocked off the No. 5 Colorado Buffaloes on their home court in Boulder, Colo. Then on Monday, the team continued to make noise as they knocked off No. 4 seeded South Carolina as the Jayhawks became the second 12-seed to advance to the Sweet 16.
The Jayhawks have been led by a senior trio of Angel Goodrich, Monica Engelman and Carolyn Davis, and they all love playing as the underdogs because “it's more fun.”
"Not a lot of people expect you to win or don't have high expectations for you," Engelman said, after dropping a career-high 27 points in Monday's upset. "So to prove them wrong, makes a win all that much sweeter."
How does a team that was one of the last four to enter the tournament and lost seven of 11 games, manage to pull off not one, but two upsets in a span of 48 hours?
Quite simply. The Jayhawks treated the tournament like a 'new season', taking the experience
from previous struggles and turning them into positives.
"We took good things that we did and bad things and made some adjustments to those, and we've been working really hard so we make sure we nipped those things in the butt," Engelman said.
"Anything can happen," Engelman said. "For us, we tried to separate. This is a completely different season. We weren't going to let how we played in the Big 12 determine how we play here. I think having to play in the Big 12 and having the ups and downs that we did, I think it's prepared us for what we need, what we have to do, to be successful in this tournament."
Engelman said the NCAA tournament was a time to get to business and not worry about what happened in Big 12 play.
Even with the struggles from the end of the Big 12 season, the goal for the team never once changed.
"I think we've always had the goal of going back," said Davis, who is playing in her first Sweet 16 after being injured last season. "Especially after experiencing it. The years before, it was our goal, but we never got there so it was like a far out goal. We knew we could make the NIT, but could we really make the tournament? But
after last year and making it and doing it, it gave us more motivation to keep trying."
With the back-to-back games last weekend, sleep deficiency became a issue. Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson said she didn't sleep much on the bus because of how excited she was after defeating two higher seeded teams.
Henrickson said it finally sunk in that her Jayhawks were going back to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year.
The way they accomplished the feat makes it feel like déjà vu, but even with that, Goodrich said it's still great to be a part of.
"It was exciting then and it's exciting now. With Carolyn back and everything, it's fun. To advance and survive. Some teams aren't still playing so for us to continue to keep playing, it's really breathtaking."
"I mean we're excited we got to the next game, but we aren't content," Engelman said. "We're still hungry and want to push forward."
Edited by Elise Reuter
Even with all the excitement of getting to the Sweet 16 for consecutive years, the trio of seniors aren't content with just being there. They're still in it for the fight.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTH CAROLINA forward Ashley Bruner (21) shoots around Kansas forward Chelsea Gardner (15) during the second half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament on Monday, March 25, 2013, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)