4B
KANSAS 69, COLORADO 45
MEN'S BASKETBALL WRAP-UP
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2008
Jayhawks honor tradition of greatness
BY RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
If Kansas needed any more motivation coming off Monday's loss to Texas, all it had to do was look 20 feet behind at the short, gray-haired man with the familiar looking glasses.
Larry Brown, the coach and architect of Kansas' last NCAA championship in 1988, was at Allen Fieldhouse Saturday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that title, and 110 years of Kansas basketball.
"Now it's our chance to be a part of something great," senior forward Darnell Jackson said after admitting the Jayhawks didn't want to disappoint Brown and the rest of the
1988 team in attendance. "As long as we just keep doing what we're doing, everything will be fine and the tradition will continue"
Kansas' basketball tradition was on full display Saturday
old coach, Williams, to reminisce.
"When he started talking about the individual guys and the teams he kind of got a little emotional," Robertson said.
— at times overshadowing a some-what run-of-the-mill victory against Colorado.
Another former Jayhawk, Wayne Simien, walked into Allen Fieldhouse Saturday 10 minutes before the game, carrying one of Kansas' newest fans — his daughter Selah Renae.
Simien, who's rehabbing an injury and gearing up for NBA free agency, said he'd been impressed by Kansas this season.
"She's only 4 months" Simien said. "I'm trying to teach her the Rock Chalk Chant before the ABCs. My wife doesn't like that."
"It reminds be a lot of the last two
"Now it's our chance to be a part of something great. As long as we just keep doing what we're doing everything will be fine and the tradition will continue."
"You look around the room, and you see the '50s teams and '60s teams and '70s teams getting together hugging each other", said Ryan Robertson, who played at Kansas from 1996-2000.
With the players and cheerleaders decked out in retro uniforms, the game played second billing and seemed to simply be a reason for more than 200 former Kansas players to return to Lawrence to celebrate 110 years of Kansas basketball. Players representing the coaching eras of Phog Allen, Dick Harp, Ted Owens, Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self lined the court at halftime and were introduced individually. Brown and his group of NCAA champions were introduced last.
Robertson watched the game next to old teammate and college roommate T.J. Pugh. He said he spent the week reflecting on Kansas basketball, and he even called his
DARNELL JACKSON Senior forward
Florida teams," Simien said. "In the point production and the top-to-bottom depth of the team, I'm definitely pulling for them and watching every game."
Junior guard Mario Chalmers, Kansas' leading
scorer Saturday, said the Jayhawks embraced playing in front of the old players.
"There's a lot of tradition here, and now we have a chance to be a part of something great," Chalmers said. "Hopefully, we can add to that tradition as a team."
Minutes after Kansas' victory, coach Bill Self reflected on Brown, the coach who gave Self a job as a graduate assistant at Kansas in 1985-86. He said the basketball program was easy to fall in love with.
"There's something different about this place," Self said. "Whoever we recruit is never going to be the best player to ever play here. Wilt (Chamberlain) played here. Who ever coaches here is never going to be the best coach — with all due respect to coach Brown — we have the father of basketball coaching (Phog Allen) that was our coach here. To me, it's being a caretaker for everybody else's hard work."
—Edited by Sasha Roe
Mindy Ricketts/KANSAN
Sophomore forward Darrell Arthur hangs on the rim for a moment after making a reverse dunk in the second half. Arthur scored eight points and had two assists.
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Prime Plays
FIRST HALF
8:57
15:10
Brandon Rush throws an alley-oop to Darrell Arthur, who throws it down with a reverse slam. This game didn't have much running, but Kansas still had its fair share of dunks.
Levi Knutson makes a threepointer to pull Colorado within five at 21-16. The Buffaloes stayed close for a little while.
6:16
Sasha Kaun ends a nearly four-minute field goal drought for the Jayhawks with a basket in the paint. This dry spell shows that Kansas played ugly on Saturday, too.
0:00
Halftime. More than 200 former players, coaches and managers get honored on the court. Saturday wasn't about the Colorado game. It was about the past 110 years of KU basketball.
SECOND HALF
18:2
16:26
Finally another highlight. Russell Robinson finds Darnell Jackson for an alley-oop. Kansas leads 34-20.
Robinson takes a charge from Colorado's Dwight Thorne II. Defense like this made the game easy for the Jayhawks.
12:40
Prettiest play of the game. Arthur gets another alley-oop, this time from Sherron Collins. He has to stretch his arms out really far to catch this one.
2:22
Tyrel Reed finally gets some serious playing time and makes good use of it. He takes a charge and hits a three-pointer.
Jon Goerina/KANSAN
Junior guard Mario Chalmers draws a foul on Colorado guard Richard Roby during the first half of Saturday's game in Allen Fieldhouse. Chalmers led Kansas with 13 points, shooting 3-for-5 from three-point range and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.
Bill Self said that the best part of the 110-year reunion was that Jayhawk greats like Bud Stallworth, Dave Robisch, Darnell Valentine and Wayne Simien stood shoulder to shoulder with walk-ons like T.J. Whatley, Scott Novosel and Chris Zerbe. Self said fans understood the contributions of every player.
HIGHS
HALFTIME REUNION
the HIGH low
THE FUTURE
With 8:51 to play in the second half, freshman guard Tyrel Reed entered the game. Reed, who hadn't played since picking up one minute of court time against Missouri on Feb. 4, shared the court with freshman Cole Aldrich and sophomores Darrell Arthur and Sherron Collins. The Burlington native finished with six points on two three-pointers. Self said that Kansas needed a fifth guard to contribute, and Reed —
BLOCK PARTY
The Jayhawks finished with eight blocked shots, but the most impressive block of the day was called a foul. Darrell Arthur almost took out a computer on press row with a vicious swat in the second half. Freshman Cole Aldrich led Kansas with three blocks, and Sasha Kaun
— who had one block — tied Paul Mokeski for 10th on the all-time blocks list with 163 career blocks.
whose been dealing with nagging ankle injuries — might see more minutes.
RICHARD ROBY
One fan displayed a sign that endorsed Senator Barack Obama. The high/low has no problem with Obama, but let's try to keep partisan politics outside of Allen Fieldhouse. The sign wasn't even the best Rock Chalk pun of the day. That award goes to the people behind Chipotle's "Rock Guac Jayhawk" advertising slogan.
LOWS
Every day, it's becoming clearer and clearer that Roby should have declared for the NBA draft after his freshman or sophomore season. After his pedestrian two-point performance on Saturday, Roby's NBA dreams might be on life support.
BARACK CHALK JAYHAWK