BOULDER, Colo. – Colorado’s Brian Robinson may become the answer to a trivia question someday.
Who’s the only opponent Danny Manning ever punched in a college basketball game?
Talk about the totally unexpected. So shocking was Manning’s outburst that it was the major topic of conversation after Kansas crushed Colorado, 85-64, on Wednesday night at the CU Events Center.
“Young children are out watching and I really apologize for it,” Manning said about the fist-flinging incident that erupted with 3:54 remaining and Kansas leading by 14 points.
“I regret it, but I don’t regret it,” Manning continued. “We don’t try to pick fights every game, but we’re not gonna back down. I just saw people pushing and shoving and I just went over there.”
And he threw a couple of punches at the head of Robinson, a 6-5 junior forward who had tangled with Milt Newton.
“I was setting a screen and he chucked me in the throat with his elbow,” Newton recalled.
Momentarily, Newton and Robinson squared off, but official Ed Schumer jumped in, grabbed Newton and pushed him away while Robinson staggered backward under the basket where, seemingly from out of left field, came a pugilistic-minded Manning.
“I’ve never seen him go after someone like that,” KU coach Larry Brown said.
Indeed, it was the first time in 138 collegiate games that Manning had thrown even one punch. Yet none of his teammates were surprised by what he did.
“They (Colorado) deserved it,” said Chris Piper. “Brian Robinson had it coming the whole game, and we’ve always looked out for our own.”
Echoed Newton: “We talk about that. Anything that happens is all for one. I’m not gonna let my teammates get hurt, and they’re not gonna let me get hurt. We’re gonna protect each other.”
Kevin Pritchard, who took over in the final four minutes after Newton and Manning were ejected, also stressed he wasn’t surprised by Manning’s retaliation.
“No, not really,” the sophomore guard said afterward. “That’s part of being a team…protecting each other.”
Brown had a few words with counterpart Tom Miller in front of the scorers table while the officials were sorting out the technical fouls.
“That’s over,” Brown said, adding he had no complaints about the officials’ handling of the situation.
“Brian threw a punch and Milt retaliated and Danny retaliated,” Brown noted. “The officials had to do that (eject the three players). The fortunate thing is no one left the benches. Fortunately, nothing else happened.”
Fortunately, too, Kansas made 12 of 16 free throws in those last four Manning-less minutes while the Buffs panicked a little bit, firing five bricks in a row during one desperate stretch.
Anyway, without Manning, Kansas expanded its lead from 14 to 21 at the horn.
Pritchard had seven of his 16 points during that span.
“I just love what he’s doing,” Brown remarked. “He’s becoming a great player. He’s still hyper sometimes, but…”
After the game, Pritchard was far from hyper, describing the Kansas game plan for the homestretch.
“As the point guard you have to be somewhat of a leader,” he said. “We just wanted to take time off the clock. That was the big thing. We lost two of our top scorers, but we were already up by 14.”
Kansas was up by 14 because its defense, ranked fourth nationally, finally stifled the Buffs in the second half. Colorado shot 54 percent in the first half (15 of 28), but only 25 percent (8 of 32) in the second.
“The second half defensively we were pretty darned good,” Brown said, smiling. “The big thing I’m thrilled with is we competed. The bottom line is we’re competing.”
Hard to believe looking at the final score, but the Jayhawks came into this one dragging.
“Our kids were tired,” Brown noted. “Danny was exhausted in warmups. That was obvious to me.”
Piper agreed. “We were dead,” he said. “I don’t know exactly why, the altitude or whatever.”
In truth they did look tired during the last 5 1/2 minutes of the first half when Colorado chopped Kansas’ 11-point lead and made the Jayhawks settle for a 37-34 intermission edge.
And KU didn’t look any fresher at the outset of the second half when Colorado grabbed the lead, first at 39-38 then at 44-42 on Steve Wise’s three-point jumper.
But the last 15 1/2 minutes belonged to Kansas. Colorado had just six field goals and finished at 38.3 percent – the 11th straight KU opponent to shoot under 50 percent.
Kansas is 8-5 in the Big Eight and 19-10 overall.
Box Score
KU3748-85
CU3430-64
Kansas: Milt Newton 7-8 2-2 18, Chris Piper 3-6 1-2 7, Danny Manning 11-20 3-3 25, Kevin Pritchard 5-10 6-8 16, Jeff Gueldner 1-3 5-6 7, Scooter Barry 2-3 2-2 6, Mike Maddox 2-3 0-0 4, Clint Normore 0-2 0-0 0, Keith Harris 0-1 0-0 0, Otis Livingston 0-0 2-3 3, Marvin Mattox 0-1 0-0 0, Lincoln Minor 0-3 0-0 0, Team 31-60 21-26 84.
Three-point goals: 2-5 (Newton 2-3, Pritchard 0-1, Normore 0-1). Assists: 17 (Gueldner 5, Barry 3, Pritchard 3, Newton 2, Piper, Manning, Harris, Livingston). Turnovers: 15 (Newton 4, Piper 4, Manning 4, Pritchard, Barry, Minor). Blocked shots: 5 (Manning 3, Newton, Normore). Steals: 3 (Manning, Pritchard Barry).
Colorado: Brian Robinson 5-9 1-2 11, Brent Vaughan 1-2 0-0 2, Scott Wilke 7-17 3-4 17, Steve Wise 5-10 5-5 16, Michael Lee 1-7 4-4 6, T. Chapmon 0-0 0-0 0, Dan Becker 3-7 3-6 10, Brian Molis 0-2 0-0 0, Rhodell Guest 0-0 0-0 0, David Kuosman 1-3 0-0 2, Jeff Penix 0-2 0-0 0, Kerry Nash 0-1 0-0 0, Team 23-60 16-21 65.
Three-point goals: 2-10 (Becker 1-1, Wise 1-3, Kuosman 0-2, Penix 0-2, Wilke 0-1). Assists: 14 (Lee 6, Robinson, Wilke, Wise, Chapmon, Becker, Molis, Guest, Kuosman). Turnovers: 11 (Lee 3, Wilke 2, Wise 2, Vaughan, Becker). Blocked shots: 2 (Lee, Becker). Steals: 6 (Wise 3, Vaughan, Wilke, Penix).
