Check out these stories for more insight before KU’s game against Lehigh:
Sunflower showdown catches eyes
Counting the Big 12 tournament championship game, the Kansas Jayhawks and Kansas State Wildcats met three times this season, with the Jayhawks winning all three games.
That fact was not lost on Lehigh guard Marquis Hall, who explained that he had seen KU play several times this season simply because the Jayhawks were on national television so often.
“As a fan of the game, we watched what everybody was doing the whole year,” Hall said. “And obviously Kansas was one of the best teams in the country all year so we know what they’re capable of.”
All three meetings were on national television, but Hall said the first meeting — an 81-79, overtime victory on Jan. 30 in Manhattan — stood out the most.
“That was a great game,” Hall said.
Equal opportunity university
Although the Lehigh University men’s basketball team’s inclusion in this year’s NCAA Tournament made the most noise around town, coach Brett Reed’s squad was not alone in having success on the hardwood in Bethlehem, Pa., this season.
The Lehigh women’s basketball team — which tied for the regular season Patriot League crown with a 13-1 league record — also won its conference tournament via a 58-42 pounding of American University in the championship game last Saturday. The victory came one night after the Lehigh men defeated Lafayette, 74-59, in their tourney title game.
“It’s been an exhilarating 48 hours,” Reed said Sunday night. “Winning the league championship, playing against our rivals, seeing the expression of our players and enjoying these moments with our basketball family has been a wonderful experience. And to share in the success of our women’s basketball program also winning the championship just capped an exciting weekend of Lehigh University hoops.”
Lehigh is one of seven schools whose men’s and women’s basketball programs earned automatic bids to the 2010 NCAA Tournament. The other six are: Duke, East Tennessee State, Northern Iowa, Ohio State, San Diego State and Vermont.
The Lehigh women also will play a Big 12 school in Round 1, as the 13th-seeded Mountain Hawks will take on No. 4 Iowa State on Sunday.
Business as usual for Mountain Hawks
Though their 2009-10 schedule featured just one NCAA Tournament team, the Mountain Hawks believe they understand what is required to take down a team like Kansas.
Lehigh opened the season with a 12-point loss at Richmond, and, according to Hall, learned a lot from the loss.
“To beat a team like (KU) you just have to come together as a team,” he said. “We’ll try to approach it like any other game, except it’s amplified, you know. You lose and you go home. That’s why you play the games. It’s March Madness and anything can happen.”
Richmond (26-8, 13-3) is a No. 7 seed in the South region and will face St. Mary’s in the first round.
By contrast, Kansas played 11 NCAA Tournament teams this season.
OKC is OK with Lehigh
Just minutes after the 2010 NCAA Tournament pairings were released Sunday night, a handful of Mountain Hawks said they were well aware of Oklahoma City’s proximity to Lawrence. They also said they weren’t too worried about the potential home-court advantage the Ford Center might afford the Jayhawks.
“I’m sure they travel well,” Hall said. “But they’re a bigger school than we are so we’d probably be outnumbered anyway.”
Mountain Hawks milestones from 2010
Lehigh’s 22 victories this season were an all-time high…. The team’s 15 victories inside Stabler Arena also were a school record for home wins… Freshman guard C.J. McCollum, 6-foot-3, 165 pounds, is the first Lehigh player to score 500 points in a single season since Jose Olivero recorded 508 in 2006-07…. McCollum also became the first player in Patriot League history to be named the conference freshman and player of the year…. After becoming the first player in school history to earn the Patriot League’s Men’s Basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year Award in 2009, Hall repeated the feat by winning the award in 2010… Thursday’s meeting with Kansas will be the first in school history for Lehigh.
