New Orleans ? There was never really a need for Roy Williams to give North Carolina his resume last week, but if the Tar Heels wanted one, Kansas University’s 94-61 win Saturday against Marquette should do nicely.
Williams’ Kansas team played one of the most magnificent halves in Final Four history Saturday, jumping to a 59-30 lead after 20 minutes. We forgive you if you tuned out until the start of the Texas-Syracuse game after that — the second half was just a glorified practice for Kansas in preparation for Monday’s national-title game.
“I hope we have something left,” joked Williams, now one win away from his first national championship as a head coach.
The Jayhawks should. Standouts Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich played only 26 and 25 minutes, and Kansas led by as many as 43 points in the second half.
At the least, Williams postponed North Carolina’s coaching search for a couple of days. With his promise not to talk or think about the North Carolina job until the Final Four ended, Williams now has slightly less than 48 hours to concentrate solely on Kansas. Then he will have to do the “Should I stay or should I go?” routine again, with most North Carolina boosters hoping he makes a different decision than he did three years ago.
If you polled everyone who mattered at the rumor mill/coaching convention that is the Final Four, it would probably be 60-40 that Williams would leave for Chapel Hill. The prevailing sentiment among other coaches and media seems to be that a national title would actually make Williams more likely to go, because he at least could offer Kansas the ultimate going-away present.
No one knows for sure. The only vote that really counts in this one is the one Williams holds, and while he certainly hasn’t said “No” — not even close — there hasn’t been a “Yes,” either.
What is certain is the way Kansas dismantled Marquette. The poor Golden Eagles had already squandered all their timeouts with 13 minutes, 15 seconds left, but the breaks only lengthened the agony.
Kansas shot 60 percent in that amazing first half. Kansas outran and outquicked Marquette so completely that if the Jayhawks weren’t scoring immediately in transition, they’d score on the secondary break. They hardly ever ran a set play — it wasn’t necessary. Kansas scored an amazing 56 points in the paint, with overlooked forward Keith Langford (23 points on 11-for-14 shooting) getting many of those.
Marquette ran out of its magic all at once. Point guard Travis Diener was awful, shooting 1-for-11 and committing eight turnovers. Even when the Golden Eagles scored, Collison caught the ball when it had barely cleared the net, fired it upcourt and set the Jayhawks off on another successful fast break.
After a tense week, Kansas got a laugher. Williams didn’t even have to face a single North Carolina-related question in his postgame news conference.
For the Jayhawks, it was a perfect evening.
