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2008 KANSAS BASKETBALL
KANSAS 72 V 57 VILLANOVA
MARCH 28, 2008
Kansas defeats Villanova to advance
Jayhawks restrain opposition's star point guard with Robinson key to Elite Eight
Junior guard Mario Chalmers pokes the ball away from Villanova star guard Scottie Reynolds during Kansas' Sweet Sixteen game at Ford Field in Detroit. Kansas held Reynolds to just 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting. He also turned the ball over four times and recorded no assists.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
BY MARK DENT
mdent@kansan.com
DETROIT - A KU fan clad in a denim shirt and orange hat left his courtside seat with about five minutes remaining in the Sweet Sixteen game. He had seen enough of the blowout.
But before he walked up to the exit, he stopped to say a few words to Brennan Bechard, Chase Buford, Brad Witherspoon and three team managers who were sitting a few rows behind the KU bench.
"Have fun at the Riverwalk," he said.
Not so fast, sir. The man was referring to a tourist attraction in San Antonio, the spot of the Final Four. Kansas wasn't there yet, but the Jayhawks were one game away after beating 12-seed Villanova 72-57 on March 28 at Ford Field. They faced Davidson in the Elite Eight on March 30.
"We ready for it," Darrell Arthur said. "This is where we want to be."
Maybe the man had a reason to be excited. At that point Kansas had blistered three straight overmatched opponents in the NCAA Tournament. A team that fans had been calling Final Four or bust since October got the opportunity against Davidson to make the season a special one.
Kansas was in the Elite Eight for the second season in a row and for the third time in coach Bill Self's five-year tenure. And as anyone who follows college basketball knew, Self had yet taken a team into the Final Four.
"We've been to this game many times," Self said. "We feel this is our time, our turn."
To get to the Elite Eight, the Jayhawks needed Russell Robinson. Tenth-seeded Davidson bounced the favored Wisconsin Badgers 30 minutes before Kansas took the floor to earn its spot in the regional final. Robinson didn't want to see his career end with a similar upset, and he made sure it wouldn't.
Inspired by playing against an East coast school and several New Yorkers, he scored on two defended three-pointers and directed an alley-oop to Rush off the backboard early in the game. By the 11:42 mark,
Robinson had 13 points, and the Jayhawks led 24-10.
"Russell was the key to the game for us," Self said.
He also rendered Scottie Reynolds ineffective. Reynolds, Villanova's star point guard, didn't score until the midway point
of the first half, long after Kansas built a double-digit lead. A play by Darrell Arthur symbolized the Jayhawks' dominance over the supposed-to-be-spectacular Reynolds. On an inbounds play, Arthur caught an alley-oop and dunked on Reynolds, causing him to fall to the ground. Oh, Arthur did
that to him in the second half, too.
Reynolds got back up both times. He probably should have just stayed on the ground. Not he or anyone on Villanova could touch Kansas, although the Jayhawks frustrated Self with their at times lax effort in the second half.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN