It ended with Kansas coach Bill Self meeting North Carolina’s Roy Williams to give him a friendly handshake, and then he chortled and smiled with his players near mid-court. It ended with Williams walking out of the tunnel, long after his players and assistants, long after a Kansas party erupted in the Sprint Center. It wasn’t bad, couldn’t have been to hear from a fan base that still appreciates Williams, who can tell us plenty of stories about his Kansas days.
Much to Williams’ chagrin, who is 0-3 lifetime against Self and Kansas since taking the UNC coaching job in 2003, the Tar Heels lost a comfortable lead by the second half. All around him, fans kindly stood and praised the former Jayhawks coach. But an emotional Williams, as usual whenever UNC can’t beat the Jayhawks in the NCAA tournament, sits at the podium during news conferences and congratulates Kansas, while he talks about a disappointing end of another season.
It started with sloppy plays for the top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks on both ends of the floor. Early on, things were bad enough and couldn’t get any worse for Kansas, a team many national experts picked to make the Final Four. The game was boring and slow, uneventful and uninteresting in the first half. The coach’s stare was edgy. Self was hysterical and uneasy, and he nervously walked back and forth on the sidelines, without even sitting and having a drink to settle down.
With Kansas struggling early, Self was gesturing to his players and encouraged them to loosen up and find a rhythm. The gutsy 70-58 win late Sunday afternoon against eighth-seeded North Carolina was followed by the ballsy victory over No. 16 Western Kentucky in the first round. And like most successful teams, resilience just makes the Jayhawks stronger as a team. The depth and talent has been working to Kansas’ advantage, a senior-laden team pursuing the ultimate goal, which is to win a national title. If they win a trophy and cut down the nets, it would be Self’s second national title.
Kansas, however, might be the most dangerous team in this tournament and certainly is up for the task, realizing that another trip to the Final Four is at stake, along with potentially another back-to-back national title appearance. The rulers of basketball are the Jayhawks — a perennial national power of college basketball, winning five of the last seven Big 12 tournaments, despite falling victim to the biggest upsets in tournament history to both Northern Iowa and VCU.
Great teams overcome adversity. Great teams grind out victories and endure to the end. Great teams find ways to rally and show that resilience is the result of success and building late momentum. That’s exactly what Kansas was able to do against the Tar Heels. With each victory, the Jayhawks have become stronger and more efficient. It was not Kansas’ best game, I assure you, but it was enough to survive and beat North Carolina for the second straight year, and the Jayhawks will advance to the Sweet 16 and will face No. 4 Michigan in Arlington, Texas, on Friday.
It wasn’t pretty that seven-foot center Jeff Withey, the nation’s best shot-blocker, was not intimidating and a factor inside the paint to start. There were simply too many turnovers and missed shots. They were lucky to be within striking distance and not trailing by many by the end of the first half. They couldn’t make a jump shot in the opening 20 minutes against North Carolina. It took them about 22 minutes to snap out of a shooting drought, and Kansas had the worst shooting percentage in a half, only shooting a staggering 25 percent.
By assuming that the slow start scared thousands of panic-stricken fans, though fans were confident and hopeful the Jayhawks would turn it around in the second half, one could only wonder whether or not Kansas was on the verge of a disappointing ending. The Jayhawks were sluggish, torpid and clumsy, turning over the ball 17 times, barely settling for put backs and a couple of dunks. Surely, you saw the Jayhawks’ best player Ben McLemore finish 2 for 14 from the field in two tournament games. He’s one of Kansas’ top scorers, but he wasn’t playing like it, scoring like it, and mostly, he was missing shots by taking ill-advised ones. And surely, you saw Kansas guard Elijah Johnson shoot 2 for 12. There was a universal sense, both for national experts and Kansas’ fans — that Johnson was not a five-star player — that he’d oftentimes struggle and receive unwarranted criticism from thousands of critics.
Self wasn’t too happy and pleased with what he saw in the first half. So then he followed his team into the locker room and, without a doubt, delivered a message to his players. His team’s lack of effort and poor ball execution had been formidable, but whatever he said to his players during the half, it was enough to wake up everyone. By that, he gave them one of his halftime speeches, a coaching strategy Self exercised, especially when Kansas failed to play effectively in the first half of a contest. At halftime, Kansas trailed by nine points and the night was so nerve-racking, so excruciating and then it was so tantalizing.
And perhaps most incredibly, Kansas finally drilled jump shots. The first three-pointer of the tournament, after 13 consecutive misses over two games, was buried by Travis Releford and it was a game-changing shot and might have given the Jayhawks momentum in what turned out to be dramatic. Had it not been for Releford the Jayhawks could have been eliminated in the Round of 32, but he made the team’s first three-pointer after Kansas had gone without a three for the first time in 201 games against Western Kentucky. As it happened Withey, whose toughness and confidence soon became contagious, grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds.
This kind of thing happens in March and that’s excitement and thrills, such was Kansas running the Tar Heels out of the building by scoring 31 points in nine and half minutes. It came down to who had the most energy and who was the strongest and hungriest. Turns out it was Kansas. With a Sweet 16 berth at stake, Kansas shot the ball efficiently, limited turnovers and played smart, perpetuating a 35-12 run and turned the game into a pep rally for the crowd.
The Kansas seniors, including the rest of the team, are well coached, to be sure, and don’t want to go home empty-handed. At the right time, Releford, who is a defensive specialist, was on fire, scorching the nets and finishing with 22 points. It’s time for all of us to realize that Kansas is a tough out. Before we discount KU, realize they have size with Withey, who blocked five shots and had a double-double, giving him a total of 43 swatted shots in his NCAA career, second all-time behind Tim Duncan in the postseason.
Holy smokes.
Now that the top-seeded Kansas has shown it can overcome obstacles, Self’s team is definitely a dangerous out.
Showing posts with label Jeff Withey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeff Withey. Show all posts
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Kentucky Has Slight Edge, but Don’t Rule Out Kansas
Bluegrass State vs. Sunflower State!
The road ends here, a chance for one of these schools to celebrate in bliss, climb the ladder and cut down the nets and raise the trophy. The winner is awarded — rightfully so — with a gold-plated trophy made of wood as it embodies everything college athletics signifies, as much as it pays homage to the best basketball team in college hoops. That honor might go to Kentucky, considered as one the greatest modern-era teams we’ve seen ever. Or Kansas just might travel to Lawrence as winners, once it’s all said and done.
Kentucky, meet Kansas.
Kansas, meet Kentucky.
In the ultimate debate of Kentucky likely being one of the best college basketball teams ever seen, it’s not an overstatement to turn one’s attention to the Wildcats and flatter UK for such a dominant run throughout an unpredictable, suspenseful three-week competition. This time around, surely, the Final Four featured not one underdog, an unusual scene for a tournament where a sleeper normally wears the glass slipper to attract attention as a Cinderella. For those of you who filled out elusive brackets, which were busted no later than the first round, they were smart to fill in their brackets by choosing chalk. There is no one more unstoppable, uncontainable, unbeatable and scarier than Kentucky and, if Kansas is still unsatisfied over heartbreaking losses and is hankering for a national championship, they’ll have to beat considerably the most talented team in college basketball.
It was too often during a month of chancy basketball that, time and time again, Kansas relied on comebacks, rallying from behind in another late-game run to survive and beat the Ohio State Buckeyes 64-62, and advance to the national championship for a test in a tough meeting against Kentucky Monday night. They won’t beat the Wildcats playing stagnant and sluggish early on. They won’t because the ‘Cats cause trouble for opponents, with plenty of athleticism, ferocity and a winning mentality, coming from an inexperienced and raw group of impending NBA stars. It’s becoming a usual standard, the Calipari Way to recruit the best players, a method he utilizes beautifully to his liking with almost full confidence in one-and-done, NBA-caliber players.
This is nothing new for Kentucky head coach John Calipari, whose philosophy is a simple pattern to figure out. The Wildcats, again next season, will reload and rebuild a talented Kentucky roster because Calipari has mastered the art of recruiting. This is not to say Kansas loses to the Wildcats, but the Jayhawks must score early and maintain leads or either keep a close deficit and cannot rely on an unbelievable comeback. By realizing Calipari has mustered the most talented team ever, the Wildcats are indeed the slight favorites, while Kansas make people have panic attacks with its customary come-from-behind wins. The real concern is whether KU can match UK’s intensity and its level of focus, against a dangerous group of superstars who have played consistently and productively, a well-balanced and staunch Kentucky team.
If not for Kansas’ late-game swagger, luck charms and resilience, the Jayhawks wouldn’t have scored six unanswered points in the final minutes of the game versus Purdue in the second round to take a 63-60 win, and wouldn’t have surged on a 12-0 run that resulted in an 80-67 win. If the Jayhawks somehow sustains satisfaction — if they beat the Wildcats – then it would truly be special for Kansas and Bill Self, who will take a 2-0 lead over Calipari in the overexposed duel to remain perfect against Kentucky’s coach.
There’s another obstacle standing in Kansas’ way, and focus now shifts to Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist, who is the second-best freshman even after having an awful game by spending much of the first-half on the bench in early foul trouble. And overall, it wasn’t Kentucky’s finest game. For much of the contest, the ‘Cats were outplayed, outhustled and outrebounded but shot the ball perfectly, shooting 57.1 percent from the field. With the game tied 49-49 late in the second half, Kentucky was a bit uncomfortable and was hindered from driving the lane as Louisville tightened on defense and disrupted the Wildcats’ dribble penetration, forcing them to launch thoughtless, midrange jumpers.
It took Calipari’s guys out of their comfort zone briefly, only to regain poise and confidence with their flair for penetrating to the basket, creating plays and finding the open man. Sitting on the bench for a while, Kidd-Gilchrist played only 23 minutes total and had not one offensive rebound and went scoreless for much of the first half, finishing with nine points. It’s been an unbelievable season for Kidd-Gilchrist, a breakthrough year for the true freshman, and while he had a bad game, he still had a couple of flashy, fast break dunks in the final minutes.
So now, the two winningest programs in college basketball are set to meet on center stage. No. 2 Kansas vs. No. 1 Kentucky. It’s clear Self will have another shot at Calipari, who will be trying to get even with Kansas’ coach in a rematch from the 2008 national championship game when Calipari, after Memphis had a nine-point lead, was defeated by Self’s Jayhawks. That was the game where Mario Chalmers buried an indelible three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left to send the game to overtime and an eventual national championship. The Jayhawks are entering Monday night’s game as heavy underdogs after Kentucky overwhelmed Kansas in the second half back in November.
“This is my stage!”
Yes, this is Davis’ stage.
But for now, and until Kansas is beaten, we can’t rule the Jayhawks out. Who cares if theory has it that Kentucky can’t be stopped or beaten? There’s still one game to be played, and with lethargy, arrogance and a few costly mistakes, the Wildcats could be just as vulnerable as are the Jayhawks. At the start, Kansas was trailing by 13 early in the first half, but as they’ve done so well throughout the tournament, they stormed back in the second half by being awarded trips to the charity strike where they made free throws down the stretch. The matchup everyone talked about heavily was no match for Ohio State star Jared Sullinger in which Robinson outdueled him on a collision course.
It will be a battle for Kansas, just as it will be tough for Kentucky. It’s fairly known these two teams are evenly matched in a sense, which gives us a better understanding why these two teams have advanced to the biggest stage in college basketball and will play for a title. Nothing is certain. That’s for sure. The Wildcats, as they were anticipated, beat their rivals Louisville. Following the loss, Rick Pitino spoke nicely of the Wildcats and handled it with grace and class.
But now, it’s vital the ‘Cats realize they aren’t playing a team on a lesser scale but against one of the top programs. It’s hard to argue that Kentucky can’t beat the Jayhawks, when Kansas barely hung on against low-seeded teams and almost experienced a major upset against N.C. State in the Sweet 16.
It’s fitting to see these two teams, two storied school, two great coaches with talented players.
Only the strong survives.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Bill Self Built Kansas into Winner
He isn’t such a bad coach, after all. He shook the hand of North Carolina’s Roy Williams and, with a smile, celebrated on the floor with his players. For once, Kansas head coach Bill Self had something to be proud of — overjoyed with his team’s accomplishments amid all the adversity and scares.
So ecstatic, and deservingly so, he climbed the ladder to cut the final three strands of the net, following an impressive 80-67 win over North Carolina on Sunday. He was thrilled, grinning, exactly what he needed, and when it ended, the victory sent Self to a second Final Four in nine years with Kansas. The emotions were tangible, the victory cured souls and Self’s players jumped around like fidgety kids at the end, erasing the horrifying memories of tough losses, battling through hard times and overcoming so many bad breaks to make amends. It was a moment of redemption, and more importantly, a real test for Self and the Jayhawks.
Given the program’s history, while the winner is on its way to college basketball’s biggest stage, Self can easily be considered the most decorated coach with eight consecutive Big 12 titles, the 2008 national title and the craft to beat Williams twice in the NCAA tournament at Kansas. So now, it’s all right to make an assumption he’ll win it again someday, if not this year. But he’s only two wins away from the reward, joining the big dance in the Big Easy with eyes on the trophy.
It’s been nine years ago since Williams fled Kansas, and by the time Self accepted one of the hardest jobs in America, he was right away in the shadows of one of the finest coaches ever in Kansas’ basketball program. By any measure, beyond all the doubts that he is extremely overrated after only winning one championship in his nine-year period at Kansas, Self is almost in the company of basketball’s elite coaches, especially if and when the Jayhawks dreams of another championship becomes a reality.
And, in a sense, Self has fueled and shaped the Jayhawks into fierce competitors overnight, and Self-motivated his players to have Self-assurance, Self-belief and Self-discipline. That’s sure to draw much attention, with all the heavy talk surrounding Kansas and Self. For now on, he probably won’t have to answer questions about Williams during press conferences, and could strictly focus on his team’s improvement.
This is the most battled-test team to ride to the Final Four, and again, will be relentlessly challenged by Ohio State next Saturday, even if Kansas is not within realm of possibility as exposed to danger as the Jayhawks have been in the past, relying on comebacks and luck to avoid potential letdowns. It is, however, no matter if the Jayhawks struggled and teetered constantly in the tourney, Self’s most remarkable season at KU. In light of the well-accomplished run with Kansas, close to capturing his second championship, Self’s Jayhawks beat a No. 1 seed for the school’s 14th Final Four appearance.
In short, he’s made Kansas even more relevant and has reestablished a storied program with his stubborn, soft attitude. Self’s mighty Jayhawks, now considered the most dangerous program behind Kentucky of course, is finding a basketball identity. Prior to this year’s extraordinary run, each year ended ever so miserably — early exits to low-seeded teams before abruptly leaving for home empty handed and with teardrops slowly draining down the faces of saddened Kansas’ players.
But now, there is reason for hope — and even Self knows that — nurturing and breeding the boys for a chance at a title. It was one of those games that Kansas’ defense stifled and trapped North Carolina, holding the Tar Heels to 22.6 percent shooting in the second half, the lowest percentage in a half for a school in an NCAA tournament game. That’s impressive, given that Self’s players play the most deadly and relentless brand of defense. And simply, it’s what defines a team with some of the best talent in the nation.
They are winners — rightfully so — by playing solidly on offense, for once, and dominating as aggressors defensively. It’s all enough to manipulate every opponent it face, enough to hinder the opposing team from turning into tenacious scorers. The star in the middle of it all is Kansas’ All-American Thomas Robinson, yes, the 6-foot-9 junior forward whose dream turned into a reality on D.C. playgrounds before arising into a physical athlete to be one of the top five picks in this year’s NBA draft.
Two years ago, Robinson wasn’t nearly as proficient as he is now and possibly is the national player of the year, dealing with disheartening tragedies and family issues that have truly been inspirational. So it’s amazing what Kansas has accomplished, and with all the joy and confidence, Self told his players that he’s enjoyed coaching this team more than anyone he’s ever directed. And with that said, this Kansas team has exceeded all expectations. The story of this contest was the reemergence of Tyshawn Taylor, who had 22 points in an eye-opening spectacle, helping Kansas to a 12-0 run in the closing minutes.
He developed into the kind of scoring guard that had been missing in this tournament, ending a scoring drought, such as thoughts of any struggles. Midway in the second half, it was a one-point game and the pressure was on for Kansas — with a chance at the Final Four. Along the way, they gained momentum and it brought fans to their feet as the crowd roared louder and louder in a neutral site that felt as if it was a homecoming for the Jayhawks, with the vast majority of their supporters in the stands.
It took exactly a second half for Kansas to realize it could outperform, outsmart and outplay North Carolina. And on the court, Taylor was the man who couldn’t be stopped, the player the Tar Heels couldn’t close in on -- stealing the ball from John Henson, one of North Carolina’s superstars, and racing down the floor for a dunk.
It was all Jayhawks from there, and so Jeff Withey, who was the blocking machine at the basket, tipped in a shot, off Taylor’s ill-advised three-point attempt. Within that span, the Tar Heels just had six points during eight minutes. The rest of the night Taylor forced turnovers and the highlight play came on Elijah Johnson’s three-point shot.
But the bigger story here is Self, of course, in search of a second championship. And yet that’s exactly why he chose to coach Kansas, hoping to be crowned. With Self’s incredible feats as opposed to his recent achievements in March, he can move into the company of top college basketball coaches.
By now, Self is more proud of a team than he’s ever been.
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