Kansas comes back on Purdue,
OMAHA — Four Big Ten teams were already a part of the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16, and Kansas was finding out why.
For 40 minutes Sunday, Purdue gave the Midwest Regional’s second seed fits. The Boilermakers bottled up national player of the year co-favorite Thomas Robinson. They led by as many as 10 points in the second half.
But the Jayhawks showed moxie, scram-
Omaha games
bling back and scoring the game’s final six points to defeat the Boilermakers 63-60 and move back into the tournament’s Sweet 16.
Elijah Johnson scored 18 points for Kansas, the last two being the biggest. Down by one, he stripped the ball from Purdue senior Lewis Jackson, drove down the floor and hit a layup that put Kansas up 61-60 with 23.5 seconds left.
The Jayhawks had two more bullets to dodge. Purdue’s Robbie Hummel, who wrapped up a standout career with 26 points, got off a three-pointer with 8.5 seconds left. It missed. KU’S Tyshawn Taylor scored on a breakaway slam at the other end, then a crowd of almost 17,000 in Omaha’s Centurylink Center gasped as the Boilermakers’ Ryne Smith threw up a long, desperate three-point attempt that nearly banked in — but didn’t — at the buzzer.
Coach Bill Self leaped from the Kansas bench, fist pumping and finally exhaling.
Kansas (29-6) remained on a collision course with top-seeded North Carolina and former KU coach Roy Williams in the Midwest Regional in St. Louis — though the Jayhawks are very much a part of the tournament’s history of unpredictability.
They’ll meet 11th-seeded North Carolina State on Friday. Three of Kansas’ last six losses in the tournament have been to double-digit seeds: Virginia Commonwealth (11th) a year ago, Bradley (13th) in 2006 and Bucknell (14th) in 2005. They nearly absorbed another Sunday. “I’m basically in shock,” said Hummel, a fifth-year senior who twice came back from surgery to repair anterior cruciate ligament tears in his right knee. He was magnificent against Kansas, hitting five of nine threepoint attempts, scoring 22 of his points in a near-perfect Purdue first half and pulling down nine rebounds.
He fed teammate Terone Johnson for a layup with two minutes left that put Purdue up 60-57 and momentarily in control. But it merely set up the final theatrics.
Taylor slammed home a perfect lob pass from Johnson to pull the Jayhawks within a point. A little more than a half-minute later, Johnson came up with his big steal.
Purdue went scoreless in those final couple of minutes.
Taylor finished with 10 points for Kansas. Robinson, despite his struggles, turned in a double-double: 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Florida 84, Norfolk State 50
One bracket-rattling upset. The toast of the NCAA tournament for a couple of days.
That’s as far as Florida would let it get for Norfolk State.
The seventh-seeded Gators took control from the start Sunday night, burying Norfolk with a run of 25 consecutive points and coasting to an 84-50 victory.
Florida reached the NCAA’S Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year and will meet No. 3-seeded Marquette in Phoenix on Thursday.
Norfolk will settle for a single shining moment.
The Spartans (26-10) delivered the centerpiece of an early round of upsets in the tournament, stunning Missouri and becoming the fifth 15th-seeded team to take out a No. 2. Hours later, Lehigh joined them.
Following up had been impossible. None of the previous 15th-seeded insurgents won the next game.
Norfolk’s bid against Florida went awry from its first shot from the field 20 seconds into the game: an off-target three-point attempt by 6-10, 240-pound center Kyle O’quinn.
The Spartans missed all but two of their first 17 field goal attempts. O’quinn had two early blocked shots on defense but was blocked, in turn, by the Gators’ Casey Prather, who was giving up 4 inches.
“I wish I had the answer. I’d go back and fix it,” O’quinn said. “The ball didn’t go in the hoop. There’s not too much to be said about that.”
Triggered at the other end by guard Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton, the Gators connected on five treys in a little less than five minutes amid the 25-0 breakaway that gave them full control, 29-6, in the game’s first 10½ minutes.
Two nights earlier, Norfolk hadn’t let Missouri move ahead by more than four.
By halftime, Florida led by 28.