CHAMPS!
University Daily Kansan/April 8, 1988
5B
Manning no stranger to being Mr. Clutch
Joe Wilkins/KAN
Danny Manning sets his sights on a rebound. Manning is the probable first pick in the NBA draft.
By Elaine Sung Kansan sportswriter
Kansas forward Danny Manning had been in tight spots before. He had been the hero on more than one occasion, and he was at the University of Kansas in 1884.
But no situation was bigger than Monday night's game against Oklahoma for the NCAA championship. With 52 seconds remaining in the game, Manning was fouled by Sooner forward Harvey Grant.
Manning missed the front end of a one-and-one. Kansas led 78-75, but 10 seconds later, guard Mookie Blaylock hit a jump shot from the left side, cutting the lead to 78-77.
With 14 seconds left, center Stacey King fouled Manning. In the northwest corner of Kemper Arena, Danny's mother, Darnelle, was standing with the rest of the crowd. Like KU coach Larry Brown, she held in her left hand a rolled-up program. She tapped her right hand with it lightly.
Darnelle looked up at the scoreboard, where the screens showed her son walking to the free-throw line. Her face was calm and impassive, showing neither excitement nor apprehension.
Danny hit both shots. Darnelle smiled.
She looked at the screen, watched
Danny settle into position at the line,
and glanced at the screen once more.
She turned to the court and she
sighed at her son.
The score was 81-77. Oklahoma made another basket, but Manning was fouled again by Grant, and Manning made both shots and sealed the victory.
"There aren't any players like Danny Manning, Danny Manning is Danny Manning," said Duke coach Mike Kryzewski. "You're not going to stop him completely. If you try to do that with some system you haven't used before, you might be successful for a while. But I think what happens is you neutralize your own team because they're doing something they haven't done before.
"Manning is unique . . . he's terrific. The thing about him that impresses me more than anything else is his demeanor on the court."
But Manning was bothered in the 1986 Final Four against Duke, when he scored only four points. Manning said after the game Saturday that
beating the Blue Devils in the semifinals this season had not entirely erased the memories from that 71-67 loss in 1986.
Brown said, "I appreciate the way he's addressed the game and taken blame and said he played poorly. I remember that game, when he played only 23 minutes and never was truly allowed to play. He was in such severe foul problems early, and I don't think many players in that situation would have performed well."
Brown doesn't pick out specific incidents in Manning's career, but guard Kevin Pritchard said the moment he remembered most about Manning occurred after the 72-61 loss
"He came into the lockroom and showed his true character," Pritchard said. "He came in, we were all really down, and he gave us an emotional lift, telling us this game is over with and we need to go on to the next. That's the kind of player Danny and that's the kind of person he is."
to Kansas State in January, when the Wildcats broke Kansas' 55-game homecourt winning streak.
Manning, who had won several postseason honors, added the 1988 Wooden Award to his list Wednesday. He will also throw the first pitch at the Kansas City Royals-Detroit Tigers game this Sunday at Royals Stadium.
Joe Wilkins III/KANSAN
Danny Manning drives past Oklahoma guard Ricky Grace.
Manning leaves college ranks as 'finished product'
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A year ago, Kansas All-American Danny Manning had a choice to make. He would take the NBA's offer of instant wealth, or he would take another year of listening to Larry Brown, the coach he once called "a little man with a big mouth."
Manning chose the mouth instead of the money. because he did, Brown and Kansas are national champions.
The 6-foot-10 senior carried the Jayhawks to the 83-79 victory over Oklahoma on Monday night in a virtuoso Most Valuable Player performance that was a microcosm of his four years at the school.
His line in the box score tells the story: 31 points, 18 rebounds, five steals, two assists, two blocks.
Well, as a matter of fact, there was one. Twice in the last few minutes, he threw up low-percentage shots that missed badly and kept Oklahoma alive. On the bench, Brown and assistant coach Ed Manning cringed.
We told him during a timeout that's not the kind of
shots we wanted at that time." Ed Manning said. "At that time, we wanted to take time off the clock."
The younger Manning said, "I was excited, and maybe I tried to do too much at that point."
It was the only smudge on an otherwise spotless performance by Manning, who punctuated his night by converting four free throws in the final 14 seconds that sealed the victory.
What was he thinking as he stepped to the foul line?
It's over, he said.
It was before he shot the free throws.
"I knew Danny wanted it bad." Oklahoma's Stacey King said. "He came out and proved."
And then the man who
As a matter of fact, it was over. And after Manning
converted the shots, he made completely sure by
grabbing one last rebound.
King and Harvey Grant, who worked against Manning underneath, made sure he worked for his points. Grant said Manning turned the game Kansas' way. "Whenever they need a big basket, they go to the big man," he said.
A second-half stretch of seven straight points took
Kansas from a three-point deficit into a lead they would not surrender.
And this was after Manning drew his third personal foul only 25 seconds into the half. But he never got a fourth.
"This wasn't a gift," Manning said of Kansas' first national championship since 1952. "We weren't lucky. We prepared for the opportunities and capitalized on all of them to get this far."
Injuries and academic problems stripped Kansas' starting lineup during the regular season and left Manning working with a group of replacement parts.
"If I had left after last year and seen all that happened, I would have felt terrible about walking out," Manning said.
His father said that last year's edition of this All-American still wasn't a finished product. "I knew he was not ready to step out," he said. "There was plenty of time to do that."
So Manning stayed, and on Monday night he displayed the finished product. His father glowed.
"I'm proud of the way he he's played, the way he he's grown up and learned to be a leader," he said. "He's ready to play when the ball is thrown up, and that's very important.
"A year ago, he was not strong enough. I didn't think his head was into it. It was not time to go. He had a lot to still work on. This year was a chance to do that."
It also was a chance to redeem one of the few bad moments of his career. Two years ago, when theayhawks reached the top four, the lost in the paint was as big as Manning scored four points and fouled out after playing only 23 minutes.
This year, again against Duke in the semifinals,
Manning was a different player, scoring 25 points,
grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking six shots.
I had out to be only a warmup for Monday night.
"This feels great," Manning said after the victory. "To be able to close it out in Kansas, before the people who supported me for four years."
The pros can have him now. He's a finished product.
CONGRATULATIONS! TO THE 1988 National Champions