Sometimes the basket looks like a hula hoop. Other times it looks like a doughnut.
That, in a thimble, is why Kansas University’s 16-0 Big 12 Conference season the first (and perhaps last) in the league’s history is worth hollering about from the highest mount on Mount Oread.
To go 16-0, you have to win eight games when fans treat you like you’re pond scum. You have to overcome deafening noise, scurrilous signs and degrading chants, no more so than at Missouri, so it is only fitting Kansas made history in an arena where even MU alumnus Ken Lay, he of the Enron debacle, would be more welcome.
Worst sign I saw being held by an MU student: “For a good time, call Roy’s mom.” KU coach Roy Williams’ mother died nearly 10 years ago.
But back to the hula hoops and doughnuts.
Who would have believed Kansas could have won at Missouri with Drew Gooden, the impending conference player of the year, tossing errant shots all over the Hearnes Center? Gooden missed 12 of 17 shots and settled for 15 points while playing all but six minutes. Well, Kansas proved once and for all on Sunday afternoon that the whole is equal to the sum of its parts, and that somebody will be shooting at hula hoops.
On Sunday, it was Nick Collison, a 6-foot-9 junior who had virtually disappeared in the Jayhawks’ last loss way back on Jan. 12 at UCLA and had been, inexplicably, Nick the Brick at the free throw line.
Missouri coaches and players were astonished that Collison, a 56-percent free-throw shooter and the worst charity shooter among KU’s starters, would make 10 of 12 free throws on the way to a career-high 28-point performance.
“He made his free throws and what was he a 50-percent free-throw shooter? and he stuck his foul-line jump shot, too,” Missouri coach Quin Snyder said of Collison. “He played terrific.”
Added Mizzou junior Kareem Rush: “We did a good job on Drew, but Collison stepped it up. He was hot and they found him.”
Of course, we can’t forget Kirk Hinrich, who erupted for 25 points, either. In fact, the Jayhawks’ two Iowans Hinrich and Collison combined for 25 points and 15 rebounds. I’d say the basket looked like a hula hoop to Hinrich, too, but he missed 10 of 19 shots.
OK, now I’m taking votes for the Big 12 Conference’s best sixth man.
Anyone want to cast a ballot for KU freshman Keith Langford? Why not? Langford came off the bench and hit the winning three-pointer in last Sunday’s 88-87 squeaker at Nebraska, and he produced 14 points on this Sunday, subbing mainly for starter Jeff Boschee, who will be seeing zebras in his dreams.
Saddled with three fouls in the first half, Boschee went all of seven seconds into the second half before being tooted for the fourth time and earning an embarrassing slow walk back to the bench.
“I played stupid today,” Boschee said.
If Boschee had played stupid last season, the Jayhawks wouldn’t have come close to winning at Missouri, or going 16-0 in the league race, for that matter. Williams did not have a Keith Langford to come in off the bench and produce offense last season.
You think MU’s Snyder doesn’t wish he had a Langford. Look at the box score and see how many points Missouri had off the bench. I’ll save you the trouble. It was one whole point, a free throw by Justin Gage.
Gage does deserve some credit for contributing to Gooden’s poor shooting. Gage has the athleticism to stay with Gooden as KU football fans know only too well. While playing tight end for the Tigers last fall, the 6-foot-4 junior caught pass after pass against the Jayhawks in a come-from-behind MU triumph that did Terry Allen no good.
And so Kansas did what it had to do to win in a place that had been over the years Williams’ House of Horrors. Some of the KU coach’s best teams couldn’t win in the Hearnes Center while winning everywhere else in the league.
Regardless of how this KU club fares the rest of this month, no one can ever take 16-0 away from them. Still, you don’t receive an automatic invitation to the NCAA Final Four by sweeping your league. Just ask Missouri. The Tigers were the last team to go unbeaten in the conference back in the ’90s, and Missouri has been to as many Final Fours as KU had league defeats this season.