It’s off to the Sweet 16 for Kansas University’s men’s basketball team.
The No. 4-seeded Jayhawks, who will meet No. 1-seed Illinois on Friday night in San Antonio for a spot in Sunday’s NCAA Midwest Regional final, advanced by winning a pair of games in Dayton, Ohio, last weekend.
Here’s a look back at KU’s weekend in Dayton, which resulted in victories over Cal State Northridge and Syracuse.
Kansas 99,
Cal State Northridge 75
There’s no way No. 4-seeded Kansas was going to overlook No. 13-seed Cal State Northridge in a first-round clash, not after the underdog Matadors provided some pre-game bulletin-board material, which incited KU’s inside players.
“(Brian) Heinle said he felt sorry for whoever had to play them in the first round. That was motivation right there. He gave us ammunition for our gun,” KU forward Drew Gooden said after scoring 20 points in the rout.
Fellow soph forward Nick Collison contributed 23 points with 11 rebounds, while senior guard/forward Kenny Gregory had 18 points and 11 boards as the Jayhawks outplayed senior pivot Heinle, who had 13 points on 4-of-17 shooting.
Jeff Boschee also contributed 19 points off four threes, while Kirk Hinrich had nine assists in 23-foul plagued minutes and Brett Ballard two threes, eight points and five assists in 18 super-sub minutes for KU.
“I’m happy we won. I’m really excited we advanced. All the top teams, all the high seeds have been losing,” Hinrich said.
Indeed, two of the other four No. 4 seeds Oklahoma and Indiana had fallen prior to KU’s game while the other No. 4, UCLA, struggled in a win over Hofstra.
What’s more, Big 12 members Iowa State, Texas, Oklahoma and Okie State all lost first-round games.
“We didn’t win the conference so we don’t really care. We want ours, now,” said Gooden, whose three-pointer opened a first-half ending 17-0 run that gave the Jayhawks a 52-37 lead at intermission.
The Jayhawks kept running and gunning the second half and scored 99 points, the same total KU had in a win over UCLA earlier this season a team Cal State Northridge defeated.
“It looked more like an ACC game, going up and down, high scoring,” Gooden said. “Big 12 is always halfcourt. We can run with the best of them.”
The Jayhawks can score with the best when they get the big men involved. Collison opened the game with six straight points.
“The big guys were making themselves available,” said Hinrich, who picked up two quick fouls, then a third off a technical foul with 8:42 left in the first.
He and Northridge’s Marco McCain went down chasing the basketball near halfcourt. McCain yelled something at Hinrich. Hinrich yelled back, said a cuss word, and Hinrich was tooted for the ‘T.’
Ballard was able to step in and “do some really nice things,” Williams said of the junior guard who subbed for Hinrich.
Indeed, Ballard not only hit a three the first half, but also had four assists including a lob to Gregory for a slam and nice feed to Gooden for a layup on the fast break which KU ran to perfection.
“They love the fast tempo. We love the fast tempo,” Williams said.
Gooden and Gregory had five points apiece in that half-ending 17-0 surge. Northridge didn’t go down without a second-half fight.
Thanks to work of Jeff Parris (18 points), John Burrell (16), McCain (13) and Carl Holmes (12), the Matadors lagged just 77-69 with 7:59 left.
KU rolled, 9-0, to put it away.
“We want to enjoy the heck out of this a few hours,” Williams said. “One thing I wrote on the board before the game was I wanted the kids to have fun. It’s important they think in those terms. All the joy you can have this time of year.
“The best way to have fun is to lose yourself in the game. I was pleased with the way the kids did that tonight.”
The Jayhawks dominated the stat sheet, hitting 60.7 percent of their shots to the Matadors’ 39.1 percent. KU had a 46-25 rebound advantage.
“It’s a lot of fun to play like that,” Gooden said.
KU 87, Syracuse 58
Thanks to Kansas’ basketball players, the monkey is off coach Roy Williams’ back.
Literally … figuratively every which way you want to look at it.
The monkey was caged in a second-round victory, KU’s first second-round win in four years.
“We took great pleasure in knocking that monkey off coach’s back. I threw it on the ground and did an ‘Andre the Giant stomp’ on it,” KU senior center Eric Chenowith said after the Jayhawks’ rout of Syracuse.
“That monkey is in bad shape about now. It’s taken a licking but keeps on ticking,” Chenowith added after scoring 12 points with five rebounds.
Williams, who at a recent team meeting showed his Jayhawks tapes of KU’s 1991 and ’93 runs to the Final Four so they’d see how much fun could be had in the postseason, last Saturday needed another idea to relax KU’s players.
So Williams sent wife Wanda out to buy a stuffed toy monkey at a store called Natural Wonders on Saturday night.
Williams brought the monkey to KU’s team meeting at 10:30 p.m. Saturday at KU’s team hotel. The coach sat in a chair, put the monkey (named Stank ‘Em by KU’s three female managers) on his back and had each player take turns abusing the furry toy critter.
“He’s a clever coach. It was a great idea. We were so stressed about this game, not getting to the Sweet 16 the last three years,” Chenowith said.
He was one of five Jayhawks in double figures Drew Gooden, Jeff Boschee, Kenny Gregory and Kirk Hinrich scoring 17, 16, 15 and 10 respectively.
“Jeff Carey did a Ted DiBiase elbow drop on it (monkey) and Kirk Hinrich did a suplex,” Chenowith grinned after helping KU out-rebound Syracuse 56-23 the 33 rebound margin fifth widest in NCAA Tourney history.
Williams was so pleased with KU’s play in advancing to a Sweet 16 meeting against Illinois, he brought the monkey to his post-game press conference.
The Jayhawks (26-6) had no problem in beating Syracuse’s much-publicized 2-3 zone defense. KU hit 55.8 percent of its shots, including seven of 14 threes.
Syracuse wound up having major problems with KU’s point zone defense, hitting 30.4 percent and just five of 27 threes.
“We didn’t let that zone bother us,” said Boschee. He hit four of nine threes on a day the Jayhawks listened to their coach and fed the ball inside first, dishing outside second.
“The game plan always was to get the ball in the middle,” said Collison, who tied a career high with 13 boards. Gooden set a career high with 15 rebounds. “We weakened the zone by doing that.”
As far as KU’s zone defense which held Preston Shumpert to 3-of-11 three-point shooting and Damone Brown to 2-of-9 overall shooting KU coach Williams said: “Shumpert and Brown are two guys who can get their own shots. It was a bad (man-to-man) matchup for us. They are so good on the ball. Also our depth is not as good. .”
There was just one first-half blip. KU led 39-29 with 47 seconds left, the Orange scoring the final five points.
DeShaun Williams (20 points) hit a layup at :33, KU calling time a few seconds later to set up a final play.
Hinrich was stripped of the ball near midcourt by Allen Griffin, who hit a layup and was fouled intentionally by Brett Ballard.
Griffin cashed a free throw. Syracuse, however, did fail to score on its final possession after being awarded the ball in bounds.
KU coach Roy Williams, “challenged the guys at halftime to play the best 20 minutes we’ve played all year,” Williams said.
The Jayhawks responded.
Up 41-36 with 18:59 left, KU went on a 20-6 surge that opened an insurmountable 61-42 gap.
The Jayhawks did everything well … perhaps because they were so relaxed.
Thanks to the coach and his wife, Wanda, who bought the monkey.
“I think it’s important to have fun,” said Williams. “That was the theme of the whole weekend, to make sure the guys gave every ounce of energy they had, yet having fun.”
