Advertisement
Advertisement
UNLV guard talks about Jayhawks
UNLV guard Wink Adams talks about facing the Kansas Jayhawks in round two of the NCAA Tournament.
Photo Gallery
UNLV vs. Kent St.
Audio clips
2007-08 March 20 KU NCAA Day 1
- Bill Self talks about his team again advancing from the tourney's first round
- Brandon Rush talks about staying in his recent offensive groove against PSU
- Darnell Jackson talks about a triumph over a 16-seed for the second straight year
- Darrell Arthur talks about how well KU adjusted to the early tip time Thursday
- Mario Chalmers talks about his three-point stroke and the recent offensive surge from Brandon Rush
- Sherron Collins talks about stopping a smaller guard in Jeremiah Dominguez
- UNLV's Curtis Terry talks about what to expect Saturday against KU
- UNLV's Wink Adams talks about the motivation that comes with facing a KU team the Rebels have watched all year
Omaha, Neb. — Kansas University's basketball players filed out of the Qwest Center at halftime of Nevada-Las Vegas' 71-58 victory over Kent State on Thursday.
They had seen enough. Everyone had.
It was obvious just 20 minutes into the game that the Runnin' Rebels were ready for a second-round NCAA Tournament showdown with Kansas. Eighth-seeded UNLV (27-7) led, 31-10, at the break and looked super against No. 9 Kent State.
Sensational. Superior. Suffocating. Pick your adjective.
"That's a great start," UNLV's Curtis Terry said, "to the tournament."
And if it's any indication, it could mean that the Jayhawks (32-3) will get their first true test Saturday, when the teams meet approximately 5:50 p.m.
Defensively, UNLV did plenty in making Kent State match the lowest first-half point total in the NCAA Tournament's modern era.
The Golden Eagles (28-7) shot 21 percent from the field in the first half and committed 17 turnovers. They scored 48 points after the break, but still were never in the game.
"There was no possible way," Kent State's Haminn Quaintance said, "that we could've played worse."
UNLV took advantage and was able to thanks to some talented players that Kansas fans will need to learn about quickly:
¢ Wink Adams, an all-conference guard who's averaging 16.6 points per game. Adams is a Keith Langford-type slasher who scored 17 points against Kent State.
¢ Terry, a former walk-on who's the half-brother of NBA standout Jason Terry. Curtis had just six points Thursday but had scored 20 or more in three of his previous four games.
¢ Joe Darger, a 6-foot-7 forward, hit four three-pointers and led the Rebels with 18 points Thursday. He was in such a groove that he flung up a strongly guarded three in the second half and watched as it banked in.
When you're hot, you're hot.
Of course, singling out those three will mean that Rene Rougeau or Corey Bailey might step up next. Much like Kansas, there isn't an obvious go-to guy for UNLV.
"That's the great thing about this team," Darger said. "Every night, someone different is showing up."
The Rebels' potential downfall is height, or lack of it. Darger likely will guard one of KU's big men. UNLV's tallest player is 6-8 Matt Shaw, meaning all of KU's post players will have a size advantage Saturday.
It's a broken record to the Rebels, who won plenty of games as the smaller squad this season.
"I've been playing against bigger guys all year. It's not anything new to me," Darger said. "You've got to get out there and try to fight harder and get great starting position and compete and do my part in keeping the big guys off the boards."
Several of the UNLV players know plenty about Kansas, with Rougeau claiming "they're on TV every other day."
That will cut down on the surprises the Runnin' Rebels will face on Saturday at the Qwest Center.
The question is, will it matter against such a strong KU team?
"They are a real good team," Rougeau said. "We know we're definitely going to have to come with it."
KU Basketball
- Early to rise: KU wide awake for rout (03-21-08)
- Keegan: Rush comes to play (03-21-08)
- Kansas basketball notebook (03-21-08)
- PSU's gamble costly (03-21-08)
- Robinson's D dandy (03-21-08)
- Vikings sent packing; UNLV next (03-21-08)
- NCAA frenzy enlivens workday (03-21-08)
- Extra Minutes: Kansas 85, Portland State 61 (03-21-08)
- The Keegan Ratings: Rush's run continues (03-21-08)
- KU-Portland St. Box Score
- 2007-08 Roster
- Full 2008 NCAA Tournament coverage
UPDATED: 2008-09 Kansas Men's Basketball: Past, Present and Future March 11, 2009
Sherron Collins: One-on-One November 3, 2008
KU trumpets its triumphs with new I-70 turnpike signs July 2, 2008
Jayhawks up for ESPY honors July 1, 2008
Bill Self at the White House June 3, 2008
Comments
okjhok (anonymous) says…
Sensational. Superior. Suffocating. Pick your adjective.
I wouldn't use any of those to describe UNLV. I didn't think they played all that well. Kent St. may have played the worst half of bball in the history of the tournament. Some of the credit goes to UNLV, but not much. UNLV is a decent team, nothing more, nothing less. If KU brings the intensity, handles UNLV's half-court ball pressure, and hits better than 45% of its shots, this is a 15-pt win. I don't see any reason why those three conditions won't be met.
lance1jhawk (anonymous) says…
I can't wait to watch UNLV try to half court trap our guys. Crisp passing equals alot of dunking!
We are to quick and have way to much B-ball smarts to get caught in their lame half court pressure.
1 down and 5 to go.
Speakeasy (anonymous) says…
"Defensively, UNLV did plenty in making Kent State match the lowest first-half point total in the NCAA Tournament's modern era."
The CBS broadcast informed us that the 10 points Kent State scored matched the total put up by Villanova in the first year of the tournament, 1939, for the lowest ever. Thus, according to the sentence quoted above from this article, the first year of the tournament is part of "the NCAA Tournament's modern era." What I want to know is, what is the non-modern or previous era of the NCAA tournament? Is there some ancient history of the NCAA that we do not know about?
thetagger (anonymous) says…
Actually, regarding the 1939 tourney (I saw this yesterday and I'm pretty sure I'm remembering right- I'm too lazy to look it up again!), that the record was set that year by a team scoring 7 points in a half, not 10. The modern record is 10, which has now happened three times, with the first two happening on the same day a number of years back.
kushaw (Chris Shaw) says…
I don't know about you guys, but I am pretty worried about that this game against UNLV. They are a guard oriented team and that scares me because anybody can get hot at the right time, and UNLV is hot right now. I do not like the fact that Lon Kruger is the opposing coach because he is going to X and O us to death in order to prevail agaisnt the Jayhawks and get the "W". I think it's going to be an ugly game and I also think it's going to be close. This game scares me the most out of all the games that I forsee in the future. The Terry kid and Wink kid are good and I hope our guards are able to contain them. We will see.
TtownHawk (anonymous) says…
i'm nervous too. but if we play our game we should be fine. Lon is a great coach, its a good thing he's only got a day to focus on us and come up with a gameplan
rawkhawk (anonymous) says…
I'm a mix of optimistic and cautious. We've got a team that has had first-hand experience this year (OSU) and in previous NCAA tourneys (seniors still remember Bucknell and Bradley) in knowing what can happen if we come out in lackluster fashion and/or take teams for granted. I hope we stay focused, intense, and relentless. Rock Chalk!
Strikewso (anonymous) says…
I'm nervous about any game to get into the Sweet 16. I was there when KU lost in '90 to UCLA, '92 to UTEP (ouch!!), '98 to RI. '99 to Duke, '00 to UK. You get the picture...
The Hawks will have their entire lives to wonder what they could have done differently, the time to fix it is now! We HAVE to come out with our A-game or we'll end up like those cautionary tales above.
Strikewso (anonymous) says…
Bad news guys: I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but Curtis Terry being Jason Terry's brother is a horrible omen. Jason Terry beat us in '97 when he played for Arizona.
nanuq (anonymous) says…
Kruger has been thinking about how to beat KU since the seedings were announced. Expect a tough game.
havoc4prez (anonymous) says…
curtis is only jason's half-brother. so by that omen reasoning he will only be half as effective as his brother...scoring only half his bro's points, playing half his bro's minutes, defense only half the time, hearing only half the plays called etc...
jross1972 (Joe Ross) says…
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page...
jakejayhawk (anonymous) says…
Thanks jross!! Your link to the Omaha newspaper article was fun. This is one of the things I like most about KUSports.com. A truly great community. Rock the Rebels!
actorman (anonymous) says…
"Bad news guys: I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but Curtis Terry being Jason Terry's brother is a horrible omen. Jason Terry beat us in '97 when he played for Arizona."
I think a better omen is that both the 4 and 5 seed lost. That's very similar to '88. If everything else continues as planned, we will beat KSU in Detroit to go to the Final Four. There's just no way we can't win the title if all of that comes to fruition.