KU can’t clip nets this year

By Staff     Mar 5, 2003

The Big 12 Conference men’s basketball schedule-maker was a party pooper this season.

The slate has Kansas University on the road for its final two conference games, meaning the Jayhawks, who are guaranteed a share of the Big 12 title entering Sunday’s 1 p.m. contest at Missouri, won’t have a chance to cut down the nets this season.

KU, which grabbed a share of its second straight crown Monday by beating Texas Tech, 65-56, in Lubbock, Texas, can claim the title outright by winning at Missouri.

“It is one of my real pleasures in coaching to be able to sit over there on the sideline and watch the guys cut down the nets and act a fool,” KU coach Roy Williams said Tuesday on his Hawk Talk radio show.

“That truly is a moment I enjoy watching. Regretfully, we are not going to have any of those opportunities. We don’t have any more home games this year.

“Unless we just do it behind closed doors one night at midnight or something like that … but we haven’t decided to do anything like that.”

The Jayhawks, 23-6 overall and 13-2 in the league, will be in a mood for celebrating if they beat Missouri for the second time this season and win the title outright.

“We do not want to share it with anybody,” sophomore point guard Aaron Miles said. “We definitely do not want to share it.”

KU went undefeated in the league last year and wrapped up the title with more than a week to go in the regular season.

This crown might be considered as special, considering the Jayhawks won it shorthanded.

Sophomore power forward Wayne Simien was able to play in just three league games and 40 seconds of a fourth because of his dislocated right shoulder.

“This is mentally as tough a team as I’ve been on,” senior Kirk Hinrich said. “Not having Wayne and still taking care of business is a great feeling.”

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Padgett OK: David Padgett, KU’s 6-foot-11, 240-pound senior forward from Reno (Nev.) High, is recovering nicely from a strained right patella injury that forced him to miss the state playoffs.

Padgett, who averaged 27.5 points, 14 rebounds and 8.9 blocks a game for 16-9 Reno High, is not sure he’ll play in the McDonald’s All-America game March 26 in Cleveland.

Padgett — he scored over 30 points in playing eight of 10 conference games — has been rehabbing the last 2 1/2 weeks, his dad and high school coach, Pete Padgett said.

“The only way he’d play (in McDonald’s game) is if he felt he was 100 percent and his conditioning and timing were there,” Pete Padgett said. “You sit out that long and those things come into question.”

An MRI showed “no structural damage, no cartilage or ligament damage,” Pete Padgett said.

There is a chance doctors will scope the right knee, but that procedure wouldn’t occur until late spring.

“The goal is for him to be at KU for summer school and be 100 percent at that time,” Pete Padgett said.

Pete and David attended KU’s Senior Day contest last Saturday.

“It was an unbelievable time. I’d heard so much about it. It was more than we expected,” Pete said.

Meanwhile, KU signee J.R. Giddens has been picked to play in the Capital Classic, set for April 17 at the MCI Center in Washington. The 6-5 Oklahoma City senior also will play in the McDonald’s game.

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Doherty under fire: Third-year North Carolina coach and former KU assistant Matt Doherty is taking more Internet heat this season.

Carolina is 15-13 overall and 5-9 in the ACC, and some fans are calling for his job.

“Matt has the youngest team in America,” Williams said on Hawk Talk. “He’s trying to win in that league with the youngest team in America. They had a great win Saturday against Georgia Tech. I am still very confident in Matt and very hopeful things will be turned around. They (opponents) better get ’em now. They won’t get ’em down the road when those kids grow up. If they want to get the Tar Heels, they better get ’em now.”

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