Keegan: Moxie shows through

By Tom Keegan     Mar 12, 2007

? Get ready. Every time you turn on your TV, you’ll hear about how “talented” Kansas University’s basketball team is. It’s not necessarily meant as a slight, but somehow it’s beginning to enter the ears as such.

It often seems as if the emphasis on talent has an unspoken “but” attached.

Think of Kansas as tough first, talented second, after it won the Big 12 Conference tourney title bout Sunday against Texas, 88-84, in overtime inside the Ford Center.

Coming back from deficits of 32-10, 12 minutes into the game, and 78-74 with 1:06 left in regulation requires toughness.

“That takes heart to come back from a 22-point deficit and then win the game in overtime,” freshman guard Sherron Collins agreed.

Collins was too wild late in regulation, but he was huge earlier. He applied pressure to the Texas ballhandlers and put even more pressure on the Longhorns’ defense by penetrating so boldly.

Collins scored 20 points and is looking forward to heading home to Chicago for the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney. It didn’t go so well for Collins and the Jayhawks when last they were in Chicago. Collins played just 14 minutes in KU’s loss to DePaul.

“I was nervous, and I was 20 pounds heavier,” Collins said, looking back at that seven-point loss in early December. “Right now, I’m moving faster, and I’m playing pretty confident, so I think I’ll be all right.”

Fellow Chicagoan Julian Wright had a huge game as well in the Big 12 title game with 19 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots, but nobody played a bigger role than Brandon Rush. He contributed 19 points and seven rebounds. His most memorable plays were three blocked shots.

Kansas blocked the first three shots of the game put up by Texas. Rush got a piece of a Justin Mason driving shot. Wright blocked a Damion James shot. After Kevin Durant blew by Wright, Rush stepped up, timed his jump perfectly and swatted Durant’s first shot emphatically.

That didn’t stop Texas from plowing forward. By halftime, Durant had 22 points. He hit a pair of free throws with 1:42 left in regulation to give him a career-high 37 points for the fourth time this season. He didn’t score again.

Of all the Kansas defenders to take turns on Durant, Rush clearly did the best job in both games. Rush played him physically and, as always, did a remarkable job of sliding his quick feet. You don’t slow down Durant without being a tough player. Rush is so smooth he doesn’t get enough credit for his toughness, part of which manifests itself in exceptional endurance. Rush’s biggest block came on a potential game-tying A.J. Abrams three-pointer from the right corner with 59 seconds left in regulation, a play soon to be overmatched by Darnell Jackson picking D.J. Augustin’s driving shot out of the air and cupping it with one hand with 14 seconds left.

It’s going to take toughness for Kansas to get out of the second round. Kentucky and Villanova have played more like No. 6 seeds than teams playing in an 8/9 game.

A little motivational help for KU’s Final Four quest was supplied Sunday by ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb, who picked UCLA to come out of the West bracket in a “virtual walk.” Tough words to say about a bracket that has such a tough No. 1 seed.

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