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Saturday, December 15, 2007

Jayhawks excited for Sprint debut

Self hopes new arena as kind as Kemper

By Gary Bedore

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KU to make Sprint Center debut

For many of us, including the Kansas men's basketball team, Saturday will be our first look at Kansas City's new Sprint Center.

photo

Nick Wass/AP Photo

Forward James Gist, center, tries to get away from Ohio's Justin Orr (25) and Michael Allen (3) during the first half of Ohio's shocking victory over Maryland on Wednesday in College Park, Md.

Kansas City, Mo. — Bill Self, who directed Kansas University's basketball team to five victories in six games in run-down Kemper Arena, definitely is looking forward to his coaching debut in shiny new Sprint Center.

"It (Kansas City's downtown arena) has more atmosphere than Kemper had last year. I think it has running water," Self cracked, taking a lighthearted pot-shot at the old arena known for potholes in its parking lots.

"We had good experiences at Kemper," Self added. "But Kemper was a tired building, as you know. This is a big step up for our fans. I think all our fans should be excited about it."

Self - his last game in Kemper was a methodical 68-58 victory over Toledo last Dec. 9 - today coaches his first game in the 18,500-seat downtown K.C. arena.

Tipoff for a nonconference clash between the No. 3-ranked Jayhawks (9-0) and unranked Ohio University (6-2) - a team that won, 61-55, at Maryland four days ago - is 4 p.m., with a live telecast on ESPN2.

"I think it looks a lot like American Airlines Arena (in Dallas), which is as nice as any place in the country," said Self, whose Jayhawks practiced at Sprint Center on Friday several hours before a major snowstorm was expected to hit Lawrence and the K.C. metro area. The Jayhawks spent the evening at a K.C. hotel.

"I hadn't seen it with the court down yet. It looks cool," Self added as he eyed the Sprint Center stands. "They obviously did a great job. Kansas City should be very proud."

Self said if the weather isn't too adverse today, he could envision adult fans bringing their children to tour the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame and College Basketball Experience, which has interactive games.

"I would think it'd be nice for a fan to go to Kansas City for the day and enjoy the Plaza and shop a bit, then enjoy the Sprint Center," Self said.

The Jayhawks, who had a great deal of success in Kemper Arena (80-24 record), are enthused about debuting in the Sprint Center.

"It's a home game. We need to treat it just like a home court," Self said of the game included on KU's season ticket package. "From what I understand it's sold out. I'd think a majority would be pretty rowdy and KU backers.

"We need to be dominant in a place we have a majority of fans, just like Vegas last year. We should have won in Vegas (over Ball State and Florida) because of our fan support. We hope Sprint Center can be that for us.

"It's not Allen Fieldhouse, and it never will be. It can be a place we have a definite advantage. Winning games in the Sprint Center this point forward will be more important than ever, maybe moreso than Kemper, because from this point forward we will have more important games to play in Sprint Center."

The Big 12 tournament will be held in Sprint Center this season. Today's game gives the Jayhawks a sneak peek at the surroundings.

"It may be a little bit of advantage for us, I don't know if much more. We didn't play in American Airlines or Ford Center (in Oklahoma City) before we won it there the last two years," Self said.

The Jayhawks are ready to try a place in K.C. besides Kemper, where KU went 26-4 since the 1997 season. Included in that run were Big 12 tournament titles in 1997, '98 and '99. KU hasn't dropped a regular-season game in K.C. since a 64-61 decision to Ohio State on Jan. 2, 1983 in Kemper.

"I can't wait to play in there. It's big. It's amazing," K.C. native Brandon Rush said, noting he'll have a batch of family members at the game. "We'll try to start off well in there, try to get a big win."

Noted guard Sherron Collins: "I heard it's a sellout crowd. It's a home game for us. If we played Missouri it'd be a little different, but this is our territory, a big home game for us."

For KU is the talk of the town today ... if not all days.

"Definitely," Rush said, asked if K.C. is a KU town. "Look what happened with the football team. We had more people there than Missouri did," he said of KU fans at the KU-MU contest at Arrowhead, which actually was split with KU and MU supporters. "It's a big KU thing down there (KC). A whole bunch of Jayhawk fans are there."

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Comments

actorman (anonymous) says...

"Winning games in the Sprint Center this point forward will be more important than ever, maybe moreso than Kemper, because from this point forward we will have more important games to play in Sprint Center."

I'm not sure I totally get that comment, given that KU won the '88 championship in Kemper, played several Midwest Regionals there, and had a whole bunch of Big 8 and Big 12 tournaments there.

December 15, 2007 at 6:18 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

lyon3 (anonymous) says...

Today is the big day Jayhawk nation, today is the big game at the Sprint Arean. I am exited and scared to go for the first time in my life. I have been to many KU games but non like this. For it is not the game that is scaring me, because we will beat this team but i have been building up for this day. So here is why, Today at the game on my birthday i am going to ask my girl friend of 5 years to marry me. We are both huge KU fans and will be forever, so i can think of no better place on no better day. Now i hope that on my birthday that i can get a KU win and have a new wife. I am about 99.9% sure she will say yes but you never know thill it happens. So wish me good luck and good luck to the team. Even though i will need it a little more then they will. This has to be the most scared, happy, exsited, and nervous i have ever been in my life. So go and win the game boys and i will try and take care of my end. This for me will be a day to remeber forever

rock chalk jayhawk go ku

December 15, 2007 at 7:07 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

klineisanazi (anonymous) says...

Obviously, Coach Self was referring to his tenure at KU, actorman.

December 15, 2007 at 8:24 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KEITHMILES05 (anonymous) says...

Self has an uncanny way of making lots of statements which are somewhat farfetched. That's just who he is.

December 15, 2007 at 9:06 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

tippy (anonymous) says...

He says we have more important games at the Sprint Center from "this point forward" meaning from today on which is true.

December 15, 2007 at 9:41 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

Statement is ambiguous. Hard to tell what he means exactly.

December 15, 2007 at 9:45 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

dnvrhawk (anonymous) says...

I think Self wants to start a winning tradition in the Sprint Center, starting with today's game. If the team can create an expectation of having a home court advantage in this arena, it will pay dividends for years.

December 15, 2007 at 9:57 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

milehighhawk (anonymous) says...

Well the KC Star had this (slightly better) article posted yesterday which clarifies Self's comments a bit:

"Winning games in the Sprint Center from this point forward will be more important than ever," KU coach Bill Self said. "Maybe more so than Kemper because of the venue. We're going to have more important games to play in the Sprint Center than we played in Kemper the last five to 10 years."

Only one time in the last 12 seasons did the Jayhawks play an NCAA Tournament game in Kemper. That was in Self's first season when KU easily advanced to the Sweet 16 out of Kansas City. Because of the deteriorating conditions of the arena, the odds of Kansas playing games of major importance in KC deteriorated along with it. Now, with Sprint Center, it's conceivable KU could have the same kind of home-court advantage that UCLA used to beat the Jayhawks last year in San Jose, Calif.

December 15, 2007 at 10:28 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

beebe1 (anonymous) says...

Hey == good luck to lyon3! Don't want you ignored. Hope for the best for all of you!

December 15, 2007 at 10:28 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

lyon....

good luck bro. i hope your intended is not reading these boards....hope the two of you are affianced against the backdrop of an ou throttling.

rock chalk lyon

December 15, 2007 at 10:35 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

cstevenday (anonymous) says...

She may be late to the game LYON. Don't propose till she gets there. She said she will meet you there as soon as I'm done plowing her like an Iowa cornfield. Good Luck .

December 15, 2007 at 11:07 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

He means that from now on a lot of big time teams will agree to play KU at Kemper rather than AFH, because the gate will be big enough to pay them to come instead of going to some bigger crib. They will say it is because playing at Sprint eliminates the bus ride to Larrytown, but it will actually be the extra bucks Sprint will generate from serveral thousand more seats and a ton of luxury boxes. Capice?

He also means that Sprint has Luxury Boxes and corporate fat cats, as a quid pro quo for supporting KU basketball, want first a few, and then several games a year that they can wine and dine clients in their boxes, rather than have to schlep over to Lawrence to sit unseparated from the masses.

Sprint is the price KU paid for holding onto AFH the way it has always been--no boxes, nor knocking it down and building a new, larger campus arena.

Sprint is required for participating in tournaments like the B12/Pac10 tourney. Sprint can generate the revenues and has the transportation and hotel linkages.

Down the road, I hope KU will begin hosting some big early season tournament of its own. One amazing possibility for a really big KU invitational tournament held in pre or early season, would be the Cradle of College Basketball Tournament--sort of a midwestern pre or early season Alaska Shoot Out. It could be staged in BOTH Sprint and AFH to accomodate a bunch of teams hotelled in KC. It would be awesome.

December 15, 2007 at 11:25 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

Good analysis Jaybate. But why do we play in KC anyway? Is it a recruiting tool? Hard to imagine prospects in the KC vicinity couldnt drive the extra half hour to Lawrence. Besides, the sanctuary of Allen and the environment there would be more effectual a recruiting tool than what Kemper was, and yet we played the December game there for years.

Any ideas?

December 15, 2007 at 11:52 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

tis4tim (anonymous) says...

cstevenday,

Totally uncalled for, man. Wise up.

December 15, 2007 at 12:24 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

I second that tis...

not the spirit of a real hawk fan to be sure.

December 15, 2007 at 12:39 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

86finalfour (anonymous) says...

Does anyone think this could be a trap game for KU? I'm not taking a victory for granted today. I'm also curious to see how their offense produces now that Collins has returned. I think he makes their offense click.

On a realistic note ( some of you will respond nastily to this), I still feel this team is not final four caliber until they score more points and scorch the nets, on a consistent level (a 3-4 game stretch of 80+ points against quality opponents). We know they have maybe the best defense in the nation. But more balance on both sides, I think,would bring this team more success come March.

Can't wait to see how the season unfolds. Rock Chalk!

December 15, 2007 at 12:50 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

txrockchalk (anonymous) says...

Previous post from cstevenday:

I'm an HHS grad and former college hoops player at the D2 level. Great work ethic from that little town of Humboldt. Great choice KU.............good luck My HHS Cub Brother!!
----------------------------

I am sure if Brad Witherspoon were to see your remarks today, he would be ashamed you attended the same high school as him, and certainly wouldn't count you as a brother. Grow up or stay off the boards.

December 15, 2007 at 1:15 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

rockchalkAZ (anonymous) says...

you're a d bag cstevenday, straight up

December 15, 2007 at 1:31 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

somebody who went to the game...tell me if she accepted or not...

December 15, 2007 at 5:17 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

jross1972,

My recollection is that the KC games started way back in the dark ages of the Dawn of Kemper (a remarkaable piece of modern architecture squandered by Kansas City, Mo. politics by the way) for several reasons (things always happen for several reasons in the real world).

1. KU didn't used to sell out every game at AFH and needed to curry favor with its Kansas City fan base. Playing games in KC created some good will. It used to be a long, somewhat trecherous drive to Lawrence from Johnson County and games at Kemper were a way of stimulating fan interest to make the drive.

2. Certain KU alumni were huge in the Kansas City banking establishment and when KC lost its pro basketball team, KC's Kemper arena and hospitality industry financed by that banking community were desparate for gate attractions and so probably "encouraged" scheduling KU in there for some economic stimulation of their White Elephant in the stigmatized former stock yards and former 1951 flood zone. When you're scrambling to keep a hospitality industry and an arena sucking air from dragging all your buddies down the drain, when the NBA team bolts and the Big 8 XMAS tourney is no more, even one measly KU game helps.

3. KU often played an important opponent at Kemper that in the middle years might get televised and generate PR for Kemper and KC. Again, KC was in those days sucking air as the airline industry by passed KC and its industrial base began to rust. Any kind of PR on TV was important in those days, even a KU game. KU alums in the banking industry again?

4. When the Kemper family needed a hand in those days with one of its civic projects (i.e., Kemper arena), and you were a university constantly currying favor for future endowments (universities are basically gov. revenue, endowment and grant hunting entities that do a little teaching on the side), you did things that might ingratiate the university with the Kempers.

5. In those days, KU's program (the end of the Owen's regime I reckon) was not the new Mercedes it is today. It was more a late 60s Cadillac. North Carolina wouldn't come and play KU, if I recall correctly. UCLA wouldn't either. Indiana announced they wouldn't come anymore, because Knight got sick of my student section throwing cups full of ice on him and the IU bench (yes, we really did that sort of thing, sometime several times a game). KU fans at one time had a horrible reputation. Agreeing to games in Kemper meant opponents didn't have to contend with a student section that was, however much I loved those days, significantly out of control much of the time.

6. Agreeing to games in Kemper ended the excuse of other teams legitimate complaints about having to fly for hours to get to KC and then having to bus for an hour and half (counting transitions at either end) even in good weather to play in Lawrence. Lawrence's hotels in those days were not exactly first rate and so teams usually had to bus back to KC for a motel.

December 15, 2007 at 7:37 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

7. My guess is that a full house at Kemper also allowed a bigger payout to the opponent than did AFH.

KU has often had a tough time getting the bigs to come to Larrytown. And in the age of TV its frankly gotten harder in some ways. TV exposure is hugely about gaining recruiting exposure in places that produce a lot of potential recruits. What drives KU's scheduling of away games? Recruiting and TV exposure in recruiting hotbeds mostly. KU can make plenty of money for itself playing at home with TV checks added in and not having to service a major mortgage on the crib. They play teams like Depaul to get the product under the noses of the local AAU and highschool coachers, and secondarily to expose the kids in these recruiting markets. Kids don't remember TV games for more than a year. AAU and highschool coaches are the ones that are being marketed to most with brand promotion. UCLA just doesn't gain much in recruiting coming to Lawrence. And frankly it doesn't gain that much coming to KC, but it gains something. KC produces a few players in spurts. But to make the calculus work, in such a small recruiting market, you've got to have a big pay out. Kemper didn't have the kind of luxury boxes or the kind of urban location to attract the kind of luxury boxes, that was necessary to generate the kind of big pay outs that are neccessary today. Sprint has them...hopefully.

Everything I have said above was said more briefly in a movie.

"Show me the money."--Jerry Maguire.

Disclaimer: All of the above is opinion and speculation. No assertion of fact about actual motives intended or implied. One has to make such things clear in this day and age.

December 15, 2007 at 7:38 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

Great thoughts, jaybate. Very impressive! If your analysis is true then there are some PR geniuses pulling strings somewhere in the wings. It would be fair to say that the Hawks have taken painstaking efforts to market their most valuable commodity--its basketball team--in the City. I like the annual game away from AFH for some reason. I just hope that the Sprint Center is as hospitable to the Hawks as Kemper was. No matter what the reason we play there, I think its good to take the show on the road and yet retain the home atmosphere.

December 16, 2007 at 1:32 a.m. ( | suggest removal )