OKLAHOMA CITY ? Stew Morrill was in good spirits following Utah State’s pseudo practice Wednesday night at the Ford Center.
When asked what he thought of the recently built, 18,462-seat arena, USU’s head coach looked up to the rafters and cracked, “It kind of reminds me of Titan Gym.”
Well, maybe the attendance. At the time, there were only a dozen or so people in the stands, which is just a few less than normally show up for basketball games at Cal State Fullerton. And it was a far smaller crowd than had showed up to watch the Jayhawks in “action” a couple hours earlier.
During their allotted 50 minutes, the Aggies did little more than work on jump shots and free throws. They held a real practice earlier in the day at a local high school, out of the view of fans and Kansas coaches like Jayhawk assistant Steve Robinson, who hung out on the sidelines during USU’s workout at the Ford Center.
“You can’t come here and run all your stuff and work on your game plan,” Morrill noted. “But you have to come to this, and we needed to shoot here so that’s all we did.”
As for the Ford Center, which is hosting its first major sporting event?
“It’s awesome,” Morrill declared. “And it will be even better with butts in the seats, which it will be tomorrow night. It’s been sold out since six weeks after they announced they were having the first and second rounds here.
“It’s gorgeous. It will be a great memory for our team and our players to come here and compete.”
The Jayhawks received a hearty round of applause when they took the court for their practice session. A couple thousand fans — most dressed in the colors of one Big 12 school or another — took in the brief workout.
Kansas spent a little time on its press break, but primarily concentrated on shooting drills.
“Graves, you got to hit that shot, buddy!” one fan yelled after KU forward Jeff Graves misfired on a jumper. “You’re gonna screw my bracket up!”
Obviously used to the spotlight, the Jayhawks spent very little time soaking in the atmosphere. However, head coach Roy Williams was distracted when a local sports personality, who was trying to film a promo from the stands of the Ford Center, continually bungled his delivery to the delight of the crowd.
“This guy needs some help, Roy!” a spectator bellowed.
Smiling, Williams responded by shaking his right hand in the international sign of: so-so.
The Jayhawks then closed out the session with an impromptu dunk contest that got the fans all riled up.
“There at the end, I said, ‘Let’s just dunk a few for these people that have been sitting there watching us clown around for a while,'” Williams explained. “I started to try and dunk myself then decided to hold off.”
During Wednesday’s press conference, the amiable Williams continued to say complimentary things of the Aggies and Morrill.
“I’ve known Stew for a long time — now I’m not trying to act like we’re bosom buddies — but I really do know him and laugh at him, uh, with him and at each other,” Williams said. “And I tried to run him over today coming into the arena and couldn’t get it done.
“But I think the first thing is my respect for him. He’s a very, very solid, sound and fundamental basketball coach.”
For his part, Morrill said he does know Williams, “But it’s not like we’re tight or we’re boys, or anything.”
Morrill explained that he and Williams used to bump into each other when both were coaches at schools with Converse shoe contracts (they’re now both with Nike), and that his good friend, Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery, is friends with Williams.
“He has been really exceptionally warm and nice, and I don’t think he’ll be warm and nice tomorrow night,” Morrill said of Williams. “But he’s a good guy — that’s always been my impression of him.
“And that’s what coaching should be about, and that’s what it used to be about before it became so cutthroat.”
Although NCAA President Myles Brand made the decision on Tuesday night to proceed with the NCAA Tournament games as scheduled regardless of the initiation of hostilities with Iraq, the war was a big topic of conversation during Wednesday’s press conferences.
“Our country is definitely in a difficult situation,” KU forward Nick Collison said. “There’s a lot of people with huge concerns in terms of the safety of family members and loved ones. If we’re going to play, then we can play hard, enjoy ourselves and have fun, but our thoughts are still with those people over there.
“We recognize what they’re doing for us.”
Williams said he’s been discussing with his team the possibility of the United States going to war for about the last six weeks.
“When they step on the court, I want them to be completely focused on what they’re doing,” he said. “… But I also want them to understand that there are guys the same age as them over there putting on masks, carrying guns, flying planes and dropping bombs.”
