NCAA men’s basketball tournament notebook. :
Kansas University basketball fans with long memories weren’t shocked Sunday when Roy Williams’ No. 3-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels fell to No. 11-seeded George Mason, 65-60, in a second round NCAA Tournament contest in Dayton, Ohio.
Crimson-and-Blue backers never will forget 1992, when Williams’ top-seeded Jayhawks fell to No. 9-seed UTEP, 66-60, in the second round in – you guessed it – Dayton Arena.
KU had two successful trips to the Ohio venue during the Williams era. As a No. 1 seed in 1995, the Jayhawks upended No. 16-seeded Colgate and No. 8 Western Kentucky before falling to No. 4 Virginia in a Sweet 16 battle in Kansas City, Mo.
As a No. 4 seed in 2001, Kansas slugged No. 13-seed Cal State-Northridge and No. 5 Syracuse in Dayton, then lost to Bill Self’s No. 1-seeded Illinois squad in the Sweet 16 in San Antonio.
¢ Roy, Mark meeting averted: George Mason’s victory over North Carolina prevented an interesting Sweet 16 battle between pupil (Mark Turgeon) and mentor (Roy Williams).
“I’ve had this superstition I wasn’t going to call coach Williams because they’ve been on a roll, and we’ve been on a roll,” Wichita State coach Turgeon told the Wichita Eagle on Saturday.
Turgeon, 41, played for Larry Brown for four years and coached one year on Brown’s Jayhawk staff. He then worked four years for Williams before leaving for Oregon with Williams’ right-hand man, Jerry Green.
¢ Did he root for KU?: Turgeon, who was busy preparing a game plan for Tennessee, was unable to watch the KU-Bradley game Friday night, but he received updates concerning the score.
“I was indifferent,” Turgeon told the Eagle, careful to not admit rooting against a Missouri Valley Conference team. “I just kept thinking that KU was going to pull it out. If you put a gun to my head, I’m a Jayhawk. I grew up around that.”
¢ Payback?: WSU has the revenge motive on its side in its upcoming Sweet 16 game versus George Mason on Friday in Washington, D.C. George Mason beat WSU, 70-67, on Feb. 18, in an ESPN “Bracket Buster” game in Wichita.
¢ Just say no, except to Rome: Turgeon said during his days at KU he learned how to say no to interview requests. He told the Eagle there was only one person he’d adjust his schedule for this week – national radio talk-show host Jim Rome.
“There’s one guy I won’t say no to – Jim Rome,” Turgeon said. “I hope he calls me. I love that guy.”
¢ More on Turg: Turgeon will be a hot coaching commodity after this season. It’s believed he will be a candidate at Indiana if the Hoosiers don’t offer former Indiana great and current Iowa coach Steve Alford the job.
“I don’t see him going to Iowa State,” ESPN’s Andy Katz told the Wichita Eagle. Katz said a “big-time job out of the area” may entice ‘Turg.’
“The only thing I’ll comment about is that it’s amazing how perception changes if you get to the NCAA Tournament and you win a game,” Turgeon said. “When I was on the other end – coaching NIT teams and winning – it made me mad. I just think I’m the same coach I was last year, but just because you’re in the NCAA Tournament and you win a game, people are going to talk about you.”
¢ Historic season for Braves: Bradley coach Jim Les, on the No. 13-seeded Braves making the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1954, when Forddy Anderson led the Peoria, Ill., squad to the national title game.
“In the MVC, we don’t have the budget or resources that Pitt or Kansas has,” Les told ESPN.com. “But we have awfully good players and great coaches and communities that love basketball.”
“Here’s a rhetorical question,” Missouri Valley commissioner Doug Elgin told ESPN.com. “What does it say about a league whose fifth-place team beat Kansas, then beat Pitt? A team that controlled the tempo and beat two heavyweights? It says there must be quality, it says it must be deep.”
¢ Hansbrough to turn pro?: Brandon Rush says he’s staying at KU another season. What about Tyler Hansbrough, Carolina’s sensational freshmen center from Missouri?
“We’ll look into it. I’ll give him my advice. I expect all my guys will be coming back, but I will look into it and give him some information,” UNC coach Williams said after Sunday’s season-ending loss.
¢ Good line: From Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune: ‘”BRAD and PITT,’ were the abbreviations on the overhead scoreboard at the Palace of Auburn Hills basketball arena and also in the lower corner of your TV screen on Sunday. Whose palace was this, anyway, Angelina Jolie’s?”
¢ And one recruiting note: The Lexington Herald-Leader indicates Kentucky and Georgia Tech are trying to get involved in the recruitment of Darrell Arthur, a 6-9 prep senior from Dallas who is considering KU, Baylor, SMU and Texas. Those close to Arthur insist the blue-chipper has not expanded his list of schools. Arizona and UConn last week reportedly were the latest to become involved with the McDonald’s All-American.
