Kansas City, Mo. ? Wake me when it’s over . . .
“This has been a dream season,” smiled Danny Manning. “Hopefully, the dream will last a little bit longer.”
One game . . . that’s how close Kansas – remember when the Jayhawks were wondering if they’d receive an NIT bid? – is to its first NCAA basketball championship since 1952.
Still another Manningesque performance and a sizzling supporting role by Milt Newton carried the Jayhawks to a 66-59 victory over Duke in the NCAA semifinals on Saturday evening at Kemper Arena.
Manning scored 25 points, collected 10 rebounds and had an NCAA tourney-record six blocks.
Newton, the guy who didn’t start a game until Archie Marshall went down on Dec. 30, chipped in with 20 points and seven boards.
Individual stats don’t tell the story of this one, however.
“It was really important to get off to a good start,” Kansas coach Larry Brown said, “and we did.”
Good start? How about great start?
Kansas exploded to a 14-0 lead – Newton scored eight of those points – as the Blue Devils wasted their first nine trips down the floor (five missed shots; four tunrovers). Duke’s first basket came after 4:48 had elapsed.
KU’s run didn’t end then, either. At 13:44. the Jayhawks led 18-2 and at 10:54 ot was 24-6.
“I don’t know what really happened,” Brown said when asked to describe the early bursts. “Milt came out on fire, and we caused some turnovers and got some easy shots.”
Brown must have experienced a strange sensation of deja vu when the scoredboard reached 24-8 because when the two teams played on Feb. 20 in Lawrence, Kansas had bolded to a 23-8 lead only to lose, 74-70, in overtime.
There was one difference, though. In that first meeting, Kansas’ lead had shriveled to one point at halftime (28-27) while it was 38-27 this time.
Those 11 points, as it turned out, were precious.
Everyone more or less expected Duke to come out of the chute at the outset of the second half. The Devils didn’t. It was a replay. They wasted another 4 1/2 minutes, although they did have the consolation of one free throw in that span.
Newton’s three-point play at 14:06 appeared to be the last straw. It put Kansas up 49-33, and it was obvious Duke, thje No. 2 seed out of the East Regional, would need a miracle comeback.
The comeback came; the miracle didn’t.
No one incident signaled the beinning of Duke’s charge, but at 4:17, after Danny Ferry’s steal and jam, Kansas’ lead was three. That’s right…just three, 55-52.
With 2:27 showing, KU’s lead was also three, but the play of the game – at least in Brown’s mind – was upcoming.
Kevin Pritchard drove the baseline and horsed up a shot that flicked off the rim. Suddenly, there was Manning, whirling underneath and sticking it back in.
“I thought the biggest play of the game was when Danny tipped in Kevin’s missed layup,” Brown said afterward. ” I don’t know where he came from.”
Those were Manning’s 24th and 25th points. THey came at 2:11. He wouldn’t score again. But he didn’t disappear, either.
Manning played defense down the stretch, blocking shots, rebounding, you name it. Uncharacteristically, the 6-10 All-American missed the front end of a bonus free throw opportunity at :21, but by then it mattered not.
Kansas was ahead 64-56 at that point, thanks to bonus charity conversion by Chris Pipere and Scooter Barry. KU made 7 of 9 free throws in the final 1:43.
Meanwhile, Duke was desperate, shooting mostly from three-point range and missin gseven shots in a row as teh Jayhawks held on.
In the end, it was a war of attrition with both teams sucking for air as the clock inexorably wound down.
“I think a lot of shots didn’t go down ,” Brown allowed, “because the kids on both teams had no legs. Danny commented after the game that that’s the most tired he’s been all year.”
Brown was talking about Danny Manning, not Danny Ferry, but the Blue Devils’ best player was clearly tired, too. Ferry made only 7 of 22 shots, missing 4 of 5 three-pointers.
“I was one of those nights,” Brown said about Ferry’s pooer shooting. “He didn’t have a great shooting night.”
At the same time, Brown wasn’t going to downplay the defensive job Manning and Piper did on Ferry.
“Pipe does as good a job of playing post defense as anybody we have,” Brown mentioned.
Piper – he and Manning are the only seniors on th active roster – fashioned a strong complementary offensive game, too, with 10 points and six boards.
Curiously, only five KU players scored. Pritchard had six and Barry came off the bench for five. After Manning, Newton and Piper, that was it.
Now Kansas, 26-11. is in the NCAA championship game for the first time in 31 years while Brown is in his second in eight years. He took UCLA to the final in ’80.
Both Kansas and Brown have a common denominator. They lost in their last title shots – KU to North Carolina in three overtimes in KC’s old Municipal Auditorium in 1957; Brown to Louisville.
In addition, in Monday’s 8:12 p.m. showdown, Brown and the Jayhawks will be facing Oklahoma, a team that defeated them twice during the regular season.
Box Score
KANSAS 38 28 – 66
DUKE 27 32 – 59
Kansas: Milt Newton 8-14 2-3 20, Chris Piper 3-4 4-4 7, Danny Manning 12-21 1-2 25, Kevin Pritchard 2-6 2-2 6, Jeff Gueldner 0-1 0-0 0, Scooter Barry 1-2 3-4 5, Clint Normore 0-0 0-0 0, Keith Harris 0-4 0-0 0, Mike Maddox 0-0 0-0 0, Lincoln Minor 0-0 0-0 0, Marvin Mattox 0-0 0-0 0, Team 26-52 12-15 66.
Three-point goals: 2-4 (Newton 2-3, Pritchard 0-1). Assists: 16 (Pritchard 5, Newton 3, Piper 3, Manning 2, Gueldner, Barry, Normore). Turnovers: 21 (Manning 7, Barry 3, Newton 2, Piper 2, Pritchard 2, Gueldner 2, Normore 2, Harris). Blocked shots: 9 (Manning 6, Newton, Piper, Pritchard). Steals: 9 (Manning 4, Pritchard 2, Newton, Piper, Normore).
Duke: Danny Ferry 7-22 4-4 19, Billy King 1-4 1-2 3, Robert Brickey 2-9 2-5 6, Quin Snyder 4-10 1-2 9, Kevin Strickland 5-13 0-0 10, John Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Phil Henderson 0-2 0-0 0, Alaa Abdelnaby 1-2 2-4 4, Greg Koubek 3-5 0-0 8, Team 23-67 10-17 59.
Three-point goals: 3-14 (Koubek 2-3, Ferry 1-5, Snyder 0-3, Strickland 0-3). Assists: 13 (Snyder 5, Ferry 4, King 2, Strickland, Henderson). Turnovers: 16 (Snyder 5, King 3, Brickey 3, Ferry 2, Henderson 2, Koubek). Blocked shots: 5 (Strickland 2, King, Brickey, Abdelnaby). Steals: 7 (Ferry 3, Snyder 2, Brickey, Strickland).
