One to go!

By Mark Fagan     Apr 6, 2003

? David Wescoe heard it all week at work: Marquette’s too strong, too fast, too destined to defeat the Kansas Jayhawks in the Final Four.

Not anymore.

“I’ll be real understated,” said Wescoe, president of Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual, after his Jayhawks pasted the hometown Golden Eagles, 94-61. “I’m making a presentation to our management committee next week, and right in the middle of the presentation I’m going to put the final score up there — real low key.”

At the table will be Northwestern Mutual’s seven top officers. Three are Marquette graduates, including Deb Beck, executive vice president.

“My career may be over, but I don’t care,” the son of former KU Chancellor Clarke Wescoe screamed from the Superdome stands as the final seconds ticked away. “This is too good to be true.”

Saturday night’s victory left thousands of KU fans eager to get on with the next matter of business: a Monday night meeting with Syracuse in the NCAA championship game at the Superdome.

Tipoff is set for 8:22 p.m., and Jason Teske will be there — no matter what’s at stake back home in Topeka.

No sale

Sure, he still needs $1,300 for the down payment on his family’s soon-to-be $60,000 home. But he wouldn’t dream of selling his prime seat six rows behind the Kansas pep band — a seat he drove, alone, for 15 hours to occupy.

“My boss at Hertz gave me the ticket,” said Teske, a rental car agent who made the trip from Topeka in one of the agency’s brand-new Tauruses. “It could pay for my down payment, but there’s no way I’m selling. I’ll find a way. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be at the Final Four.”

Bob Frederick, a former KU athletic director who’s seen plenty of Final Fours, said he’d never observed as much domination as KU displayed during the first 20 minutes of Saturday’s Jayhawk victory. KU shot 60 percent from the field, drained six of 12 three-point shots and raced to a 59-30 lead.

“That’s the most amazing half, at this level, I’ve ever seen,” Frederick said. “I don’t think they were prepared for our quickness and the way we attacked the basket. Our perimeter defense was great.”

He hopes that such success is a sign of good things to come.

“I like our chances,” Frederick said. “I think our team is really focused, and I just think they’re really on a roll right now. Roy (Williams) has been amazing in how he’s kept this team focused.”

Deja vu?

Mike Maddox, community bank president of Peoples Bank in Lawrence and a forward on KU’s last national championship team, saw similarities between Saturday’s game and the 1988 national semifinal against Duke.

KU jumped out to a big lead early and held on to win, before moving on to an 83-79 triumph over Oklahoma in the ’88 final.

“There are a few similarities,” Maddox said. “I hope the result’s the same, too.”

Ben Draper — a felt Jayhawk on his head and a semifinal victory under his belt — is confident the Jayhawks will win their first national title since that 1988 team, and the first in Williams’ 15 years on Mount Oread.

“Can you believe it?” Draper said. “Roy’s done a great job. This is his year. It was a Williams that won last year and it’ll be another Williams this year.”

Like Gary Williams’ Maryland team a year ago — a team that bounced KU from the Final Four in Atlanta — the Jayhawks are riding a wave of senior leadership with an infusion of team support. Junior Keith Langford scored 32 points and Aaron Miles 18 to propel KU into Monday’s final.

Emotional Moody

Saturday’s never-in-doubt rout brought tears to some fans, immense pride to others. Mary Moody, mother of KU reserve freshman Christian Moody, cheered from the stands until her son peeled off his warmups at the end of the KU bench to check in for Michael Lee.

Then her heart jumped. KU led by 36, a scene she hopes to see the Jayhawks replicate.

“It’s an unbelievable dream come true,” Mary Moody said, surrounded by her husband, Mark, and children Patrick, 16; John, 12; and Lauren, 6. They made the trip with friends from Asheville, N.C. “On Monday I’d be standing on my chair, waving my arms, screaming ‘MOO-DY! MOO-DY!’ I can’t even imagine.”

Fans waved the wheat as the KU players, coaches and staffers ran off the court, through the tunnel and into a jubilant locker room. Among the cheering throng was Beth Goldblatt, whose $7 crimson-and-blue boa bought on Bourbon Street had shed a few feathers with all the jumping up and down during the game.

She’ll have it on again Monday, and she is certain the investment will pay off.

“I think we’ll win it all,” she said. “We’ve got the momentum, and the team wants it real bad. I’ve never seen the kids play harder in all my life.”

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