Hawkins torments TCU

By Chuck Woodling     Dec 2, 2003

Scott McClurg/Journal World Photo
TCU head coach and former KU assistant coach Neil Dougherty yells to his players in the first half.

? Neil Dougherty met Jeff Hawkins in the tunnel after the final buzzer and said, “Why us, Jeff. Why us?”

Hawkins had just scored a career-high 19 points, drilling five of seven three-point attempts, helping Kansas University’s men’s basketball squad knock off Texas Christian, 85-66, Monday night at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

Dougherty, who spent seven years on Roy Williams’ staff at KU before taking over the TCU program two years ago, helped recruit Hawkins out of Kansas City (Kan.) Sumner Academy.

“We liked him as a shooter when he was in high school,” Dougherty said, “and he’s still a good shooter. With Michael Lee injured, he’s going to get a lot of confidence. Unfortunately, we gave him too much confidence.”

TCU senior guard Nucleus Smith admitted he felt helpless every time Hawkins launched a shot.

“You could put a hand up, but he was hitting from every where,” Smith said. “When you’re on, you’re on.”

As much as Hawkins hurt the Horned Frogs, Dougherty was even more complimentary of homeboy Keith Langford, who scored 24 points in 24 minutes for the Jayhawks.

Langford, a Fort Worth native, had to sit out 14 minutes of the first half after picking up two fouls.

“We really tried to deny their post players,” Dougherty said, “and it’s a little easier to do that when Langford isn’t on the floor.”

With Wayne Simien, David Padgett and Jeff Graves neutralized inside, Kansas had to shoot from the outside, and nailed 10-of-21 three-pointers.

That’s one more try than KU had in its first two games combined. KU had been 9-of-39 (23.1 percent) from beyond the arc.

“They aren’t the poor-shooting team everybody wants to criticize,” Dougherty said.

Even Langford, not known as a three-point shooter, made two of three treys and was 9-of-10 overall from the field, using his patented array of slashing moves to the basket.

“Those were big-time, talented plays,” Dougherty said of Langford’s one-on-one baskets. “We don’t really have anyone to defend that with.”

Although off to a 1-2 start, Dougherty felt the Frogs learned something about themselves Monday night.

“We grew up in warmups,” he said, “when they realized they could stand on the floor with Kansas. Then when they got pushed down and got back up, they learned they could play with them.”

Junior Corey Santee, who led TCU with 19 points, mentioned he and his teammates went out with the idea they had everything to gain and nothing to lose.

“We just had to stand and fight,” the 6-foot-2 guard said. “It was like David against Goliath. We just had to fight.”

For about 25 minutes, the Frogs gave the Jayhawks all they wanted.

“We need to play the whole 40 minutes,” said Smith, the only other TCU player in double figures with 14. “We can build on this. We just need to work hard.”

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