MANICMONDAY
Kansas escaped from Oklahoma with a 67-65 victory against the Sooners. Check out the Rewind spread for complete coverage of the Jayhawk's victory.
4&5B
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2007
WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
PAGE 1B
KANSAS 67, OKLAHOMA 65
QUITE A SCARE
Chalmers, Wright score 18 points each in victory
BY MICHAEL PHILLIPS
NORMAN, Okla. — March arrived a little early this year.
The layhawks held strong on the road, resisting the Sooners' barrage of pressure defense and three-point shooting to escape with a 67-65 victory.
"We were very fortunate to win tonight," coach Bill Said
After building a 17-point lead in the first half, Kansas watched it vanish in a mix of bad shooting and self-imposed doubt.
"We were a little frustrated we weren't making shots, then they turned up their defensive pressure," sophomore forward Julian Wright said.
Self said the team played "timid" at the start of the second half. The Jayhawks made only one of its seven three-point attempts in the first half and didn't shoot any after halftime.
In the game's final minutes, it was able to advance the ball through Oklahoma's pressure defense and get to the free-throw line enough times to win.
Freshman guard Sherron Collins played a majority of the crunch-time minutes, but credited his teammates for helping him survive the Sooner defense.
"We've got good ball handlers, but you can't dribble against two or three people," he said. "Your teammates have to make the right cuts."
Those teammates remained mostly constant at the end, as Self gave four players — Collins, Wright, Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers — at least 33 minutes of playing time.
Rush, sophomore forward, said
Wright had the best shooting day, finishing 8-for-12 and counteracting a weak performance from Rush on the perimeter.
Anna Faltermieer/KANSAN
Mario Chalmers, sophomore guard, attempts a jumpshot over Oklahoma's David Godbold. Chalmers went 4-for-10 from the field and contributed 18 points in the victory over the Spooners.
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 5B
Jayhawks look to rebound at Oral Roberts
The Jayhawks are in Tulsa today for a match with Oral Robers. This will be the fourth game the Jayhawks have played in five days.
BY ALISSA BAUER
After getting back to town in the wee hours of Monday morning from a winless and seemingly long trip to Palo Alto, Calif., coach Ritch Price said he was looking forward to another round of traveling before leaving for Oral Roberts (3-5) on Monday evening.
Price and his Jayhawks (7-4) hopped a bus for Tulsa last night to avoid the five hour drive immediately before today's 3 p.m. game. Getting into town a few hours earlier may boost the Jayhawks into snapping out of their losing woes.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
"When you've just lost three in a row, you've got to find a way to win," Price said.
After an 11 day hiatus from game play because of the weather and poor field conditions. Price and his team will have played four games in five days. The intense schedule may be difficult and travel-heavy, but at least games are being played.
During Friday night's loss, Price said he watched his players swing at nearly 25 balls in the dirt. Those were the same pitches the layhawes were avoiding on Sunday after working back into game mode towards the end of weekend.
"We don't make excuses," Price said. "But I'm confident in how hard we played that if we didn't have those two weeks off and had played the weekend before — we could've won the series."
That extended full between games caused the team to step backwards,
Price said last week. Without the layoff, last weekend's results against Stanford (7-5) may have turned out differently.
Playing in the Mid-Continent Conference, Oral Roberts will take on No. 13 Texas (9-6) this weekend and is slated to face No. 5 Arkansas (9-3) in two weeks.
serious opponent, but snapping their losing streak against Big 12 Conference powerhouse Baylor on Sunday proved their worth.
"They play in probably the weakest conference in America," Price said. "But their non-conference season is one of the toughest in the country."
"That's why we went though," Price said, explaining that the only way to get his team game-ready is by playing games, and it's all the more helpful if those games are against quality teams capable of sweeping the series.
The Golden Eagles look as if they will provide that caliber of competition that Price deems necessary. On the surface, their 3-5 start disagrees with the Golden Eagles' threat as a
Playing in rough waters, Oral Roberts was swept by Texas Christian University two weekends ago and Baylor took the first two games last weekend, pushing the Golden Eagles' losing streak to five games.
Oral Roberts refused to buckle. Using a strong offensive stand and a record-breaking pitching performance, the Golden Eagles prevented the sweep. In fact, Kansas and Oral Roberts were in the same boat this weekend as the Golden Eagles dropped a tough one, 3-2.
in 10 innings on Friday, much like the 6-5 loss the lajhayes suffered on Friday after batting back from a 5-0 deficit.
Junior lefty Michael Iarman struck out 14 batters in his team's
victory on Sunday, setting a new record for strikeouts in Baylor Ballpark. Although the possibility of the Jayhawks facing him
SEE BASEBALL ON PAGE 3B
THE RANT
Big Dance matchups could spell trouble
BY RYAN COLAIANNI
BY RYAN COLAIANI
KANSAN SPORTS COLUMNIST
RCOLAIANI@KANSAN.COM
with selection Sunday tess than two weeks away, it is not to early to look ahead
to who Kansas does NOT want to play in March.
I understand that if Kansas wants to make the Final Four, it is going to have to play and beat tough teams, but there are a select few teams that would pose matchup problems, and potentially may even be more talented than Kansas.
The first team that Kansas should hope it does not see is North Carolina. Sure, the Tar Heels have lost some games to average teams, but if there is a team that is more talented than Kansas, it is North Carolina. But I am still not sold on Tyler Hansbrough. Maybe that is because I think he has yet to learn how to master the task of running and closing your mouth at the same time. Watch him sometime. He plays the entire game with his mouth open.
Back to serious thoughts. CBS would love this matchup and so would many KU fans. But, if you go down the UNC roster, it is filled with talented player after talented player. Much like Kansas, it is a young team, with three freshmen and one sophomore who average more than 10 points a game.
Kansas does not want to play Florida again, even though it has played poorly for the past two weeks. Everyone hates Joakim Noah, and I think he is my most hated college player since I hated Ray Allen when he played at Connecticut in the mid-1990s. Problem is, he is pretty good, even though he thinks he can do what ever he wants, like try to steal the ball from Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings Sure, Kansas squeaked by Florida in Las Vegas, but noAh loves being hated and he seems to use it to his advantage. He would use it that November loss as motivation. Remember the UCLA cheerleaders that called him ugly throughout the Final Four? Well, he certainly shut them up by destroying the Bruins in Indianapolis last year.
Florida will be the most experienced team come March. Taurean Green is one of the best guards and Lee Humphrey can hit three from anywhere on the floor.
Finally, Kansas does not want to play Georgetown. It is the hottest team in the country, winners of 11 straight going into last night's contest against rival Syracuse. The Hoyas provide more matchup problems than any team in America. It runs the Princeton offense. You know, the one with all the cuts.
Except Georgetown runs the offense with athletes, not just some disciplined smart kids in New Jersey. Someone once called it the "Princeton offense on steroids."
Jeff Green, Georgetown's star 6-foot-9 forward may be the most versatile player in the country. He can rebound, block shots, and hit threes. If he is not Big East player of the year it is because fellow Hoya Roy Hilbert got the award. Hilbert is the 7-foot 2 center who makes 70 percent of his shots and alters anyone who tries to take the ball to the lane on the defensive side. Coach John Thompson III has turned the program around much
SEE COLAIANNI ON PAGE 3B