LINCOLN, Neb. – Seems there’s a reason Nebraska’s fans rooted for Kansas on Friday night at Devaney Center.
“We were at a restaurant last night and several people came up to us and said they were on our side all the way,” said Kansas forward Milt Newton, who scored 21 points in the Jayhawks 85-72 first-round NCAA Midwest Regional win over Xavier.
“Xavier said, ‘Nebraska, what kind of place is that to play basketball?’ I’d think they would have shown Nebraskans more courtesy.
“The crowd wasn’t like at home, but I think they were fantastic. They adopted us and wanted to see a Big Eight team do well.”
Xavier’s players, who entered with a 26-3 record without having played a Top Twenty team all season, were widely quoted this past week, along with outspoken coach Pete Gillen.
The Musketeers were not only upset at having been shipped to Lincoln, in lieu of hometown Cincinnati, but also miffed KU drew the regional’s No. 6 seed compared to the Musketeers’ No. 11 slot.
In addition, sophomore center Derek Strong, who scored 14 points, was quoted in the Cincinnati Enquirer as saying, “I’m guarding Manning. No problem.”
KU’s Danny Manning totaled 24 on 8-of-14 shooting.
“I think they were really cocky, the guy saying that about Danny,” said Newton. “Some teams do that to see what they can get out of you. We just go out and play.”
“That kind of gave us incentive to play ’em, but being in the tournament is incentive enough,” said senior forward Chris Piper, who scored nine points. “We wanted to show Xavier we had a good team.
“It helped when we came out on the floor. I didn’t expect to have that much of the crowd cheering us on in Lincoln.”
The fired-up Jayhawks, playing before the partisan folks, mugged the Musketeers early. Playing furious man-to-man defense, KU raced to a 16-7 lead just five minutes into the game. The Jayhawks, who hit 18 of 36 shots to Xavier’s eight of 25 (32 percent) stretched the lead to a resounding 48-29 by halftime.
That lead would reach 25 early in the second half, before Xavier staged a comeback that sliced the margin to eight.
“I think the emotion of having Kevin back was the big thing,” said Manning. He was referring to guard Kevin Pritchard, whose status was in question all week. Pritchard, who scored eight points and dished three assists in 33 minutes, sprained his right knee last Friday against Oklahoma State.
“We’ve lost some guys. Seeing Kevin on the court made us come out and play hard.”
Pritchard said his knee felt fine.
“I didn’t practice all week, so I kind of got tired,” he said, grinning. “It was fine. I came down on it wrong once and felt a twinge. Coach took me out for a minute, but it was nothing
“There were a couple of sharp pains but I expected that.”
Pritchard said he simply had to play Friday.
“I was gonna play no matter what,” he said. “It felt so good to be part of the team again. I’m a little sore now, but that’s to be expected.”
Pritchard did commit three turnovers. KU, in all, made 30 bobbles – 19 in the second half – to Xavier’s 16.
“We were not as strong with the ball the second half,” Pritchard said. “We didn’t’ have the same feel of things as the first half. They’re a great team. That’s why they won 15 in a row.”
“We played great defense the first half and controlled the boards,” said Piper. KU had 47 rebounds to Xavier’s 27. “We were running, playing loose. We were a little tight at the end but we kept our poise pretty well.”
KU made 26 of 34 free throws, icing many down the stretch.
Now the Jayhawks face Murray State – a surprise 78-75 winner over North Carolina State – on Sunday. Winner advances to next weekend’s Sweet 16 in Pontiac, Mich.
“The first win is the most difficult. It’s nice to get that out of the way,” said Newton. “Hopefully the others will be easier in terms of confidence. We now know what to expect.
“We’ll play hard every night even if it’s Pomona-Pitzer. We respect every team.”
“To beat North Carolina State shows us something,” said Pritchard. “I didn’t see ’em play, but I heard Murray State has a great team.”
