THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MARCH 5,2007
SPECIALEDITION
Decades of dominance Saturday's pivotal victory continues basketball legacy
during the same game. the Kansas Jayhawks earned sole possession of their
50th conference title and their 1,900 program victory. Only two other schools have surpassed 1,900 victories — Kentucky and North Carolina — but Kansas is the only school to claim 50 career conference titles.
The lahawks are the epitome of dominance. They are one of the few programs that all other programs are measured against. If Kansas State beats Kansas, its season is considered a successful one. If Texas A&M would have taken sole possession of the conference title, it would have been monumental.
The feeling after Kansas's 50th championship wasn't success or the notion that it was monumental. It was simply a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that for another year the conference brought out the big guns against the lahawks nearly every game, yet Kansas still managed to maintain the Big 12 crown.
On March 3, Kansas secured another season of satisfaction and furthered the lore of Kansas basketball by reaching those huge milestones. Those of us who were lucky enough to see it in person witnessed something truly special. Not only did we see the 50th conference championship and the 1900th program victory, but we saw the historic cumulation of one of the most historic sports programs in the world.
Wrapped up in all those victories and championships is basketball history, not just Kansas basketball history. The game's creator, James Naismith, was the school's first coach. The father of coaching, Forrest "Phog" Allen, spawned a new generation of coaches. Adolf Rupp and Dean Smith, both former layhawks, took Allen's knowledge and led other programs to dominance.
It's ironic that the two schools those two led to success were Kentucky and North Carolina. I guess Kansas should say "You're welcome" to those schools. It took Allen's pupils to take those programs to the next level.
If you follow the coaching tree even further and take a look at all the coaches that learned the Phog Allen method of coaching just through Smith, it's amazing. Roy Williams, Larry Brown and George Karl, to name a few, all learned under Smith.
Wilt Chamberlain, the player responsible for more changes in basketball than any other, became a star while in a jayhawk uniform. Brown coached a Danny Manning-led team in
1988 to one of the most famous championship runs in all of sports. Brown later became the only coach in history to win an NCAA championship and an NBA championship, with the Detroit Pistons.
It all comes to a head with this year's layhawk team. This is possibly the most talented Kansas team ever. Think of this layhawk fans have been stressed, frustrated and furious at the team this year, all because we expect so much more. We expect so much more from a 27-4, No. 3-ranked team in the nation. That's the kind of expectations created by decades of winning.
One thing Kansas basketball history lacks is a lot of national championships. Kansas has four, although it only truly has two. The back-to-back championships in the 1920s were awarded years later as there were no championships in that era.
In what has been a historic year, the exclamation point would be the first national championship in 19 years, and the first as a favorite since 1952.
Regardless if this team wins a championship,it's still Kansas
— the definition of consistency and dominance — and this season has been a testament of this great program.
Jorgensen is a Baldwin City senior in journalism.
— Edited by Ashley Thompson
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Season titles overlooked
BY MICHAEL PHILLIPS
There is something much faire about a regular-season championship.
You can't win one with a buzzer-beating shot or a week-long hot streak. Winners have proven their excellence through the course of 16 games, at least one against every team.
That lack of theatrics is why they've been overlooked for the glitzier March Madness, but winning a regular-season title remains the best way to measure a team's greatness. And nobody does it better than Kansas.
A 90-86 victory against Texas meant an explosion of big, round numbers. It was the teams 1,900th victory, which was third most in the country. It was also its 50th conference title, more than any other school in the U.S.
"It felt pretty good to be in our own home and cut down the nets," sophomore guard Brandon Rush said. "The crowd was going crazy. Everybody else was going crazy. It was a special day."
It's a record that doesn't get much play, probably because conference championships are given out at a very inconvenient time.
For the players it was also the completion of a goal they set the 6 a.m. fall practices. After a loss to Texas A&M meant they would need help to accomplish that goal, they
started watching for it. In the final weeks, they followed the Big 12 race wherever they went, keeping tabs with TV, Internet and cell phones.
Ultimately it came down to Saturday's match up against Texas, which proved to be a championship-caliber game.
The Longhorns scored 54 first-half points, almost half of those by freshman phenom Kevin Durant. When Durant leaned back and made a scrape-the-ceiling three over sophomore forward Julian Wright, it didn't silence the crowd. Instead, 16,300 people reacted with a collective groan. They were watching greatness, but it was wearing the wrong uniform.
The fans kept yelling at an ear-splitting volume, though, and were given plenty to yell about in the second half as the layhawks pushed, prodded and elbowed their way to a Big 12 title.
"This was a big one for us," sophomore guard Mario Chalmers said. "We wanted to win the regular season outright."
Attention spans are short in March, and before the last bits of newspaper confetti could hit the ground attention was already turning to this week's Big 12 tournament and next week's NCAA tournament. At Kansas, there's not a lot of time to enjoy the achievement that other schools spend years chasing.
Even without the victory, Kansas was still guaranteed to set the record for most conference championships by a school, Kentucky has 49, but this year the Wildcats are stuck in
fourth place in the Southeastern Conference East division.
Sure, he said he was happy. He smiled while waving the nets to the crowd. But he couldn't bring himself to fully enjoy a conference title. Not on March 3, at least.
"That's just not how it is with me," Self said. "Now the real work begins."
That's why while Lew Perkins was chewing on a cigar and the players were watching the commemorative video, coach Bill Self sat behind them with something else on his mind.
Kansan senior sportswriter Michael Phillips can be contacted at mphillips@kansan.com.
Edited by James Pinick