Appalachian State stunned Kansas’ offense for 30 minutes Monday before giving way to a 73-62 Jayhawk win at Allen Fieldhouse.
And they weren’t even using the defense of coach Tom Apke’s choice.
“We played a matching defense a lot of the time,” Apke said. “It’s kind of half man-to-man and half zone, kind of like a knuckleball. I didn’t necessarily want to go to it, but we had guys starting to get into foul trouble. We had to try to play back and get them more help.”
Kansas’ Danny Manning could have used some help – from, say, Mike Tyson – in dealing with some of the people collapsing around him.
“In our conference there’s not too much finesse,” said ASU center Jerry Holmes. “We just go out and beat on each other. That’s all it is.”
Apke said Monday night’s loss was just that – a loss.
“I don’t believe in moral victories,” Apke said. “We’ve got to become able to contend in our own league before we can contend with nationally ranked teams.
“I think it shows the dramatic progress we’ve made to be able to play with them like that. Even though it was a loss and it dropped us to 3-2, it was important that our players, as young as they are, get confidence.
“But I’ve always admired coach Brown, I’ve always admired the Jayhawks. I admire this team. So to hang in this long is wonderful.”
The Mountaineers, he said, took coaching well.
“We knew that if we played Kansas seven times we might not be able to win five of them,” he said. “But I know the favored team is going to feel the pressure in a close gagme, where the underdog will feel adrenaline from it.
“I told them at halftime that I thought the most crucial point of the game would be the first five minutes of the second half. KU could have blown us out. It was interesting that when the radio timeout came five minutes into the half the guys reminded me of it in the huddle.”
Appalachian State and Kansas scored nine points each during that span.
And forward Ronnie Christian, for one, was proud.
“To be honest, I thought we played pretty good,” he said. “We knew Danny was the nucleus of their team, so we tried to shut him down. Coach Apke told us we’d have to box out hard and play pretty aggressive on the boards.”
Ben Miller, ASU’s other starting forward, said the Mountaineers stayed close by playing well as a team.
“I thought we played together,” Miller said, “because we knew if we didn’t play as a team we were going to get blown out. We stayed together because we wanted to play. We’re a young team. This is the first time a lot of us have played in a place like this.”
Still, Miller said he thought errors, not the Allen Fieldhouse crowd, which crescendoed in the last six minutes as KU took command, helped KU turn the tide.
“You just have to pretend they’re cheering for you,” he said. “You hear the noise and let it get you pumped up. It was the little fouls and the little mistakes we made trying to do the right thing and keep it close that did it.”
Apke said he, too, thought little breaks gave the Jayhawks their last advantage.
“They got two loose balls that rolled into Danny’s hands for easy baskets,” he said. “That put them up, and they were good enough to hold the momentum.”
