SAN ANTONIO ? Now that it’s over, I can’t help but think back to even before the men’s basketball season when we heard all that talk about how the basketball rules committee spearheaded by Roy Williams of Kansas had vowed to clean things up in the paint.
Williams and the other rules committee members wanted finesse to return to the inside game, and they succeeded in implementing a stricter approach to calling fouls around the basket.
Now we know in the wake of the Jayhawks’ 80-64 loss to Illinois in the NCAA Midwest Regional semifinals late Friday night that a team can flout the finesse rules and still win. We know it because the Fighting Illini mugged the Jayhawks and got away with it for two reasons 1) they had the depth to overcome foul woes and 2) Kansas flubbed too many free-throw opportunities.
“Yes, we fouled too much,” Illinois coach Bill Self said. “We made some silly fouls, but a lot of the fouls we can live with because I thought we were being aggressive.”
Brian Cook and Marcus Griffin, the Fighting Illini’s two tallest starters, both fouled out. So did reserve big man Damir Krupalija. And 6-foot-11 Robert Archibald wound up with four fouls.
How can a team win by 16 points when its four inside players are plagued by foul trouble?
It’s easy if the other team’s big men fail to take advantage of being fouled like the Jayhawks’ inside players did. Nick Collison, Drew Gooden and Eric Chenowith were a combined 9 of 22 from the free-throw line. Collison, although leading the Jayhawks with 23 points, inexplicably missed eight of 14 charities.
KU coach Roy Williams was baffled by the Jayhawks’ ineffectiveness at the stripe overall KU missed 17 of 35 charities as was everyone else.
“I really don’t have an explanation,” Williams said. “Even as ugly as we played that would have helped us, to say the least.”
You really had to feel for Collison. The 6-9 sophomore missed five straight free throws during one horrifying stretch.
“Yeah, I was frustrated,” Collison said. “You want to make them. I tried to make them all. It just wasn’t falling through.”
| Kansas | 29 | 35 | 64 |
| Illinois | 41 | 39 | 80 |
For 12 straight years now, Kansas University’s men’s basketball season has ended with a loss in the NCAA Tournament. Some have been shockers, but almost all have been single-digit defeats. Friday’s loss was the worst in the last dozen years. Previously, the biggest gap had been a 10-point loss to North Carolina in the 1993 NCAA Final Four semifinals.
Over the last 12 years, Williams has had teams that played like Illinois did on Friday night. Many Williams clubs have played aggressively because, like Illinois, they weren’t concerned about foul trouble. As the 2000-2001 wore on, Williams had to be more and more concerned about foul trouble.
In fact, during the tournament portion of this season, Williams had the shallowest bench he’s ever had. Yes, this team had even less depth than his first team, the one prohibited from playing in the NCAA Tournament in 1989.
“A year ago, I thought this would be the deepest team I’d had,” Williams reflected red-eyed after midnight this morning, “but it didn’t work out that way.”
With more depth and better free-throw shooting, Kansas almost certainly would have spilled the Illini on Friday night because Illinois was grasping for straws on offense. Guard Cory Bradford was dreadful, missing 12 of his 13 shots and the Illini big men, as mentioned, were useless offensively.
I doubt if Frank Williams could have defeated the Jayhawks single-handedly. Williams scored 30 points, but that wouldn’t have been enough if only Kansas could have played Illinois’ game the way Kansas teams of the not-to-distant past have.
Fortunately, help is on the way where the Jayhawks need it the most in the backcourt. Williams’ group of signees is top-heavy with guards.
Friday night was typical of what probably should have happened more than it did to the Jayhawks late in the season. Point guard Kirk Hinrich played only 28 minutes because of foul trouble and shooting guard Jeff Boschee had difficulty even launching a shot against a team that played real defense. Boschee played all 40 minutes Friday night and managed to take just seven shots. He missed six.
Another Jayhawk who had trouble against real defense throughout his career was Eric Chenowith. Thus the 7-1 senior ended his career with a 22-minute goose egg point total.
In a nutshell, if the Jayhawks hope to advance to the next level in the NCAA Tournament, they’ll need to be a little quicker, a little stronger and a whole lot deeper.
Three-point goals: 4-17 (Collison 1-1, Hinrich 1-1, Gregory 1-5, Boschee 1-7, Gooden 0-3). Assists: 10 (Gregory 2, Hinrich 2, Boschee 2, Chenowith 2, Gooden, Ballard). Turnovers: 20 (Hinrich 5, Gooden 4, Gregory 3, Ballard 3, Collison 2, Boschee 2, team). Blocked shots: 2 (Gooden 2). Steals: 8 (Gregory 3, Hinrich 2, Collison, Ballard, Harrison). |
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Three-point goals: 6-26 (Williams 3-7, Johnson 2-3, Cory Bradford 1-9, Cook 0-1, Harrington 0-1, Krupalija 0-2, McClain 0-3). Assists: 10 (Williams 3, Johnson 3, Cook 2, McClain, Bradford). Turnovers: 17 (McClain 3, Bradford 3, Archibald 3, Johnson 3, Griffin 2, Cook, Harrington, team). Blocked shots: 1 (Archibald). Steals: 11 (Williams 3, Cook 2, McClain 2, Bradford 2, Harrington, Krupalija). |
