Kansas’ basketball teeam used the old, yet effective no-respect battle cry to its advantage during last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Think back and you’ll recall the Jayhawks complained about lack of TV and print coverage in first- and second-round sites in Louisvile, Ky., and Charlotte, N.C. They dedicated themselves to proving they were as worthy as the Arkansases and Indianas of the world.
“It gets us fired up,” Mike Maddox said last year in Charlotte, prior to KU’s riveting win against Arkansas — a victory that vaulted the underdog Jayhawks into the Final Four.
Reaching the NCAA title game appears to have done wonders for Kansas’ national image.
Proof is the respect accorded KU during this week’s trip to Milwaukee for a non-conference game against Marquette. Writers and broadcasters were almost reverent in discussing KU’s players and coach Roy Williams.
“Marquette could play its best game in a decade and that still might not be enough to ground the Jayhaws,” one writer penned prior to KU’s 85-61 rout of the 11-7 Warriors.
“Marquette faces the NCAA champions tonight,” bellowed a TV type, hyping the day-of-the-game sports broadcast on the 5 o’clock news.
NCAA champs?
Last time I checked, trainer Mark Cairns was the only remnant from KU’s 1988 NCAA title team.
The Milwaukee Sentinel gushed praise on its sports pages following KU’s lopsided win at the Bradley Center.
“The Warriors were leveled by five blitzing linebackers or was it 50?” columnist Dale Hofmann penned. “When the Jayhawks decide to put on a half-court trap there’s no ttime to count them (players) let alone avoid them. Adonis Jordan alone is three guys and a fun-house mirror.
“Any time Jordan moved in on a double team, the Warrior ball handler’s main concern was not to embarass himself. Officially, Jordan was credited with one steal to go with eight assists, but basketball statisticians don’t keep track of ‘hurries.'”
All that praise, despite the fact Williams insisted he wasn’t all that impressed with his club’s trapping defense in the first half.
Respect the Jayhawks wanted. Respect they’ve attained.
