KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2011 / SPORTS
7A
A COMMONWEALTH 71
TBALLREWIND
Jerry Wanq/KANSAN
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Junior center Markieff Morris puts up a jumper underneath the basket during the first half. Morris finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds in the 71-61 loss against VCU at the Alamodome Sunday afternoon.
Se Eight.
From left to right, Kansas players Mario Little, Marcus Morris, Markiye Morris and Thomas Robinson sit in the locker room after losing to Virginia Commonwealth at the Southwest regional final game in the NCAA college basketball tournament on Sunday, March 27, 2011, in San Antonio.
Eric Gay/AP PHOTO
Skeen was unstoppable, even for the NBA- ready frontcourt of the Jayhawks. He finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds, hit 4-of-7 three and forced two of Markieff Morris' eight turnovers. The performance was enough to earn him Southwest Regional most outstanding player honors. Marcus Morris was the only Jayhawk named to the all-region team.
Game to remember
Jamie Skeen
Skeen
Game to forget
Brady Morningstar, Tyrel Reed
The Jayhawks' two senior starters were, to put it bluntly, pretty terrible Sunday afternoon. Morningstar was 1-of-7 from the field for two points, and failed to get much of anything going on the
Morningstar
Reed
defensive end. Reed, meanwhile, was 1-of-9 from the floor, 1-of-
7 from outside, and was also part of the defensive effort that let
the Rams hit 52.9 percent of their threes in the first half.
Quote of the night
-Bill Self
Self
"Their players could play for us any day. If we played shirts and skins today you wouldn't have much of a difference on players or how they look. They've got some good-looking kids. They got what they deserved today. They certainly outplayed us."
Prime plays
FIRST HALF (SCORE AFTER PLAY)
18:03 — Kansas swings the ball around and Tyshawn Taylor finds Marcus Morris on an entry ball that leaves Marcus Morris with an open layup. (4-0)
8:41 — Markieff Morris knocks down Kansas' first field goal from outside of the lane, a three pointer from the top of the key. (15-23)
16:15 — It's been the Morris twins early and Marcus comes up with a steal and a dunk at the other end. (8-5)
SECOND HALF
16:52 — Marcus Morris with his signature up-and-under cuts the VCU lead to nine. (34-43)
13:11 — Tyshawn Taylor makes a traditional three-point play to cut it to two. That was as close as Kansas would get. (46-44)
16:27 — Brady Morningstar steals the ball from Ed Nixon and pushes the ball up to a wide open Tyshawn Taylor, who flushes it at the other end. (36-43)
1:53 — VCU's Bradford Burgess puts the nail in the coffin with a layup. (57-65)
Notes
- Bill Self is 1-5 in Elite Eight games
- The loss was Kansas' first at a neutral site (10-1)
- Kansas is now 27-9 all-time as a No.1 seed in the NCAA tournament, including 4-2 against the No.11 seed.
Key stats
2-21 Kansas shot 2-of-21 from three-point range, by far its worst performance of the season.
10-14 Kansas had a 10-to-14 assist-to-turnover ratio
I'll be there.
Markieff Morris had eight of the team's 14 turnovers.
16 The Jayhawks' two senior starters, Brady Morningstar and Tyrel Reed, shot 2-for-16 from the field.
22-3 VCU's bench outscored Kansas' 22-3
Tim Dwyer
Mike Lavieri