Nick KrugDespite walking out of Allen Fieldhouse proud to have fought with the fifth-ranked team in the country and overjoyed by the experience of playing in one of college basketball’s most historic arenas, the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos probably will first remember Friday night as the night they struggled to shoot the ball.
During a 69-59 loss to Kansas University, UCSB shot 53 percent in the second half, much to the dismay of KU coach Bill Self, but just 27 percent in the first half and 41 percent for the game. Add to that the fact that KU made nine more free throws than the Gauchos attempted, and UCSB coach Bob Williams had a very blunt summary.
“When you don’t shoot the ball well and you put a team at the free-throw line 18 more times than you, those two things are a recipe for getting your rear end handed to you by about 25,” Williams said. “So the fact that we played them to 10, in some realms, is pretty good.”
It was apparent early that Santa Barbara came to Lawrence to win Friday’s season opener. There’s a difference between appreciating the chance to play in a special environment and being intimidated by it, and the Gauchos (0-1) showed no signs of the latter.
UCSB stayed within a bucket or two for much of the first half — even led a few times — and forced the Jayhawks into a rough and tough style that left Kansas with a 31-23 lead at the break.
KU Athletics Santa Barbara big man Alan Williams, who led the Gauchos with 22 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks while impressing Self and a dozen or so NBA scouts on hand to watch him, said his squad uncharacteristically missed jumpers it normally makes.
“When you go in front of 16,000, it’s a different atmosphere,” he said. “It’s probably something we’ll never get to experience again. It didn’t change the way we played. We just didn’t make shots.”
That was not the case in the second half, when UCSB drained 16 of 30 attempts, but those free throws — Kansas made 16 of 20 charity shots in the second half — negated a better shooting half from the visitors. Even the shots UCSB made were tough to come by, and coach Williams said that was because of the variety of looks Kansas (1-0) could put on the floor.
“They have a chance to be really, really special,” the UCSB coach said. “They’re athletic, (they have) length, they defend, they’re physical. There’s not a whole lot of weakness there. They’re really, really good.”
That came as no surprise to the Gauchos, and after the game coach Williams said he was proud of the way his team showed.
“I watched (ESPN analyst) Seth Greenberg today talk about the fact that he picks them in the Final Four,” coach Williams said of the Jayhawks. “So a team that’s picked in the Final Four, and we’re playing at their house … I thought our guys found a way to scrap and stay in the game.”
