KANSAS CITY – Who was that Missouri basketball fan sitting on the Kansas bench Saturday afternoon?
That dark-haired fellow, wearing a bright yellow shirt and black pants, was no Tiger supporter – merely Kevin Pritchard, the injured Jayhawk, who, on Saturday, missed his first contest since arriving at KU two years ago.
“I can’t explain how tough it was to sit out. I wanted to be out there so bad,” said Pritchard, following the Jayhawks’ 69-54 Big Eight tournament semifinal loss to Kansas State at Kemper Arena.
“I didn’t’ feel I could do anything to help the team except to be a cheerleader. I tried to talk to the players and give ’em encouragement. There’s nothing else I could do.”
Pritchard, who wore MU school colors merely because those were the ones he tossed in his duffel bag for the weekend trip to KC, suffered a right knee strain of the medial collateral ligament on Friday night against Oklahoma State.
“We iced it down for hours after the game, until I went to bed,” said Pritchard. “That was to keep the swelling down. It was too tender today. It’s real loose when they move my knee. With strained ligaments, you don’t want to push it.”
Pritchard will likely return to practice on Tuesday, following electricity and ultrasound treatments, according to head trainer Mark Cairns.
“I’m playing,” said Pritchard. “I can’t wait to get back. I will as soon as the doctor says it’s OK. I’m ready to get back now.”
He had played in 67 straight games.
“I’ve been hurt before, but not enough to keep me out of a game,” said Pritchard, who bumped knees with Okie State’s John Starks, causing the injury. “I sat next to Archie (Marshall, out with severe knee injury) today. He told me now I know what it feels like, and I only have a fraction of what he has.”
Kansas certainly struggled without Pritchard. K-State coasted to 10-0 and 17-4 leads and never looked back. KSU’s lead never dipped below 11 the rest of the way.
“Definitely playing without Kevin was a big adjustment,” said guard Scooter Barry, who had two points and two assists in 28 minutes. “Kevin looked to score his freshman year and has again this year. Without his scoring, we need to find people to shoot it with confidence. Jeff, Milt and I could not buy a shot.”
Milt Newton hit two of seven shots, Jeff Gueldner none of four and Barry one of two. Was the poor effort the result of playing two games in two days, the shock of the loss of Pritchard or KSU’s 3-2 zone? Maybe all of the above?
“We’re almost numb to that right now,” said Barry, referring to losing players. “We’ve been losing ’em left and right all season. It’s almost like we expect it.
“I don’t think we were tired, we just didn’t shoot well. Theirs is a good zone as far as zones go.
“I thought the difference was they shot so well today,” Barry continued. “It’s disheartening to have ’em score off our pressure defense. They’d hit jumpers with three seconds left on the shot clock.
“It’s hard psychologically when you play good defense for 42, 43 seconds, then they get a shot and second shots.”
Kansas State cashed 13 of 25 first-half shots and led 34-23 at halftime. KU, meanwhile, went 9-27 the first half.
‘We’re shooting 33 percent at halftime, 0-7 in three-pointers and we’re only down by 11 playing terribly,” said Barry. “We kept saying the shots would fall but they never did really.’
KSU made 56.1 percent of its shots to KU’s 41.5 percent.
“Coach said we need to put this behind us,” Barry said. “We have to get ready for the (NCAA) tournament. We played real well during a stretch at the end of the season. Coach said we can’t let this get our hopes down. We have to enter the tournament with confidence.”
KU, 21-11, has won nine of its last 12 – giving the NCAA tournament committee something to think about as it seeds KU for the postseason meet. Pairings were to be announced today.
“We’ll watch it on TV and then talk about arrangements,” said Barry. “Wherever we go will be fine with me.”
