2B
Wednesday, March 12, 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sanford grabs defensive role for NCAA Tournament
By Tommy Gallagher
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas center Nakia Sanford would like nothing more than to dominate her opponent on defense and grab every rebound when it bounces off the rim.
The way Sanford sees it, that is her role with the No. 3-seeded Jayhawk women's basketball team if it is to travel far in the NCAA Tournament.
"We each need to remember what our roles are, and those are my roles." Sanford said.
"I am a physical player, and I love the contact that comes with playing in the post. Don't ask me why, but I do."
Sanford has been one of the Jayhawk's most physical players during the season.
In a Feb. 22 game at Kansas State, Sanford was involved in an altercation with Wildcat guard Brit Jacobson shortly after the opening tip. She and Jacobson exchanged words for the rest of the game.
Sanford heard the taunts of more than 10,000 Wildcat fans for the rest of the game.
She said there were numerous encounters during the game that took her attention away from basketball.
"There were a lot of things that just didn't set right with me in that game," Sanford said.
"Unfortunately, I lost focus about what was important, and that was the game. I think next time I'll be able to handle that situation better."
Sanford finished the game with
Nakia Sanford's KU Career Statistics
Season Pts-Avg Rbs-Avg
1995-96 209-6.5 211-6.6
1996-97 216-7.4 199-6.9
four points and nine rebounds. She is averaging 7.4 points and a team-high 6.9 rebounds per game.
In a 73-58 loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals, Sanford was held scoreless in 31 minutes of play. She was 0-for-1 from the floor and had just two rebounds.
"My offensive game has a lot to be desired," Sanford said. "I've never been an offensively-aggressive person because I have always prided myself in my defense. I think I've really stepped up from last year, but the team really doesn't need someone to score because we have Tamecka (Dixon)."
Dixon said that Sanford and the team's other frontcourt players had to contribute more points in each game if Kansas expected to go far in the NCAA Tournament.
"If we're going to go anywhere in the tournament, Nakia has to score eight to 10 points. The whole inside game has to be more aggressive," Dixon said.
"While one might be more effective than another," Dixon said, "I think there has to be some balance between the perimeter and the post for a team to advance to the Elite Eight or the Final Four."
Geoff Krleger / KANSAN
Kansas center Nakia Sanford blocks a Kansas State player during the game in Manhattan on Feb. 22. Sanford says that she is more concerned with her role as a defensive player than a scorer.
No surprises in this season KU will win over Kentucky
Normally, the NCAA Tournament is difficult to predict. There are upsets, Cinderellas and factors that contribute to making the whole thing unpredictable. Not this year.
This year,
destiny, tradition
and fate
will combine to make the tournament easy to predict. It is only right that the tournament will play out as follows.
See if you can follow me through this. North Carolina will be playing Fairfield in the first round of the tournament. The last time Fairfield was in the Big Dance was 1987. It lost, 92-58 to eventual champion Indiana.
North Carolina will beat Fairfield, and its second round opponent will be Indiana. When North Carolina wins that game, it will be head coach Dean Smith's 877th victory, which will break the all-time record set by former Kentucky coach, Adolph Rupp.
Two games later, North Carolina will play against South Carolina, whose head coach is Eddie Fogler, a former assistant coach under Smith.
Next on the schedule for the Tarheels will be Kansas.
Let's jump back and see how Kansas got to this point. First the Jayhawks beat Jackson State, one of two teams in the tournament with a losing record.
Next will come Purdue. Purdue and Kansas last met in the Southeast Regional of the NCAA Tournament in 1994. Purdue was the number one seed that year and beat Kansas, 83-78.
Purdue is the alma mater of John Wooden, former coach of all the great UCLA teams. Wooden helped build KU's Memorial Stadium on his way out West after he graduated from college.
Two games later, Kansas will match up against Duke. The last time the Jayhawks made it to the National Championship, the Jayhawks lost to Duke, 72-65. The Blue Devils had three players who at one time or another earned All-American honors - Christian Laetner, Bobby Hurley, and Grant Hill.
This year, it's Kansas with those three All-Americans. Jacque Vaughn was a first team Wooden All-American last year, Raef LaFrentz is first team All-American this year, and Paul Pierce will be a first team All-American next year.
This brings us to the Kansas - North Carolina match-up.
We all know that Dean Smith is a Kansas alumnus. We all know that Roy Williams was an assistant under Dean Smith and that the reason Roy is here is because Dean recommended him for the job.
These two coaches have faced each other twice before, both times in the Final Four. In 1993, North Carolina beat Kansas, 78-68. North Carolina went on to win the National Championship by beating Michigan in the Superdome in New Orleans.
Two years earlier, Kansas beat North Carolina, 79-73. That game was played at the same site this year's game will be played, the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
It was billed as the passing of the torch from Dean to Roy. Dean was ejected for the second time in his long, illustrious career, and Roy led his team to the championship game.
The Jayhawks came up short, however, losing to Duke.
Perhaps Roy wasn't ready to grab the torch yet.
He'll be ready this time. The Jay hawks will win.
And they will win two days later when they face Kentucky, last year's National Champion and whose former coach, Adolph Rupp, will then have the second most wins of all-time. Rupp, of course, is a graduate of the University of Kansas.
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