Commentary: Niagara humiliated by Jayhawks

By Jerry Sullivan - Buffalo (N.Y.) News Columnist     Mar 17, 2007

? On the day before the game, Joe Mihalich had been brutally honest about the challenge in store. Mihalich said he and his staff had been studying videotape of Kansas for 36 hours and still hadn’t found the slightest sign of weakness.

I’m guessing they still haven’t found one. Niagara’s worst fears came to pass here Friday night, as a supremely talented and highly motivated Kansas team embarrassed the Purple Eagles, 107-67, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in the United Center.

There’s no point in sugar-coating it. It was an utter humiliation, even by the low standards of a 16 seed. Somewhere, I imagine, members of the NCAA selection committee were smiling in their lounge chairs, feeling smug and justified in their controversial decision to put Niagara in the play-in game.

I still say the Purple Eagles deserved better from the committee, but they don’t have much to say after Friday’s debacle. They didn’t belong on the same floor with Kansas, which has a good chance to be cutting down the nets in the Georgia Dome 16 days from now.

My apologies to Florida, Ohio State and North Carolina, but the Jayhawks are the most talented team in America. They’re quick, they’re big, they have great guards and they’re loaded with good outside shooters. They’re a terrific passing team, too. They had 29 assists and only 12 turnovers against Niagara.

Defensively, they’re sharks. Every time the Purple Eagles put the ball on the floor, Kansas seemed to get a hand on it. They had 14 steals and were in the passing lanes all night, deflecting balls and causing havoc for the Eagles’ beleaguered guards.

Have I left anything out? Oh, yeah. Kansas is well-coached, too. Bill Self is one of the nation’s top coaches. He’s 103-28 at Kansas. Over the past nine years (at Tulsa, Illinois and KU), he’s won 236 games : better than 26 a season. But because Kansas had been upset the previous two years in the first round, there were mutterings of him being some kind of NCAA choker.

“We didn’t approach this as a No. 1 vs. 16 after what’s happened to us the last two years,” Self said. “We spent a lot of time on the scouting report and really emphasized this game.”

It showed. From the start, it was clear Niagara was in over its head. The Purple Eagles hung around for a spell, but the telltale signs of a blowout were evident. Self knew the Eagles relied on three-pointers, so he extended his defense to turn their customary 21-foot shots into 24-footers.

Kansas made it difficult to execute the most fundamental basketball skill. Every offensive possession was a labor, every dribble a potential crisis.

Self also turned Niagara’s one-dimensional, attacking style to his advantage. Kansas ran at every opportunity, and the Eagles were slow getting back in transition. At times, the game resembled a glorified fast-break drill.

“They were playing our style,” said Niagara’s Lorenzo Miles. “That’s the way we want to play. We like to get out in transition. But somehow tonight, we weren’t getting back. Their big guys were leaking out and getting a lot of easy points.”

Mihalich had no answers. Like his team, he appeared mesmerized at times by the Jayhawks’ withering parade of gifted athletes. He stood there with his arms folded as Kansas ran out to a 25-point halftime lead, without calling a timeout.

But really, what would he have told his team in the huddle, to grow a few inches? To start tackling people?

Beating Kansas was simply too much to ask. But that doesn’t mean it was easy to swallow.

Miles, to the end, felt Kansas could have been beaten.

“They’re a good team and everything,” Miles said. “But I mean, they lace their shoes up and put their jerseys on the same way we do.”

Are you sure of that, ‘Zo?

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