JAYHAWKS’ TOUGH ‘D’ JAMS HEELS
Finer than shorthanded Carolina
ST. LOUIS — Bill Self loves to chide these Kansas Jayhawks for not being tough enough, loves to tell everyone that this Kansas team isn’t quite as good defensively as the 2008 team that won a national title.
These Jayhawks spent the final eight minutes of Sunday’s Midwest Region final at the Edward Jones Dome doing their very best to prove their coach wrong. They faced a potent North Carolina squad, but in the waning moments of Kansas’ 80-67 win, the top-seeded Heels could barely squeeze a shot off.
Second-seeded Kansas will now face East Region champ Ohio State in the NCAA semifinals at the New Orleans Superdome on Saturday.
“It was anyone’s game for the first 32 minutes,” Self said after his Jayhawks (31-6) had won in a game that featured at least a half-dozen future NBA players. “These guys did an unbelievable job of staying the course. These guys obviously played at a very high level.”
Thomas Robinson scored 18 points to earn Region Most Outstanding Player honors, but the Jayhawks broke open a close game with a furious defensive finish. North Carolina’s final field goal came an eternity before that, when Tyler Zeller scored on a tip-in with 5:43 left. The Heels’ final point came on a Harrison Barnes free throw with 3:58 to play. They trailed, 68-67, then, but after that, it was all Kansas.
A wild layup by Tyshawn Taylor with 1:59 to play served as the exclamation point. Center Jeff Withey had just swatted a John Henson shot, and he tipped the ball to Taylor. The Hoboken, N.J., product immediately raced downcourt. As Taylor went up for a layup, North Carolina point guard Stilman White fouled him, but Taylor somehow maintained control of the ball and tapped the score in with his right hand. The ensuing free throw gave the Jayhawks a 7467 lead, and it helped seal Kansas’ second win over Williams since 2003, when the coach stepped down at Kansas to take over at UNC. “It was a huge play for us,” said Taylor, who finished with a game-high 22 points and five steals.
The late-game defensive surge made Self proud. Throughout the first half, the coach had been antsy as he watched his Jayhawks land in a track meet. The Heels (32-6), playing without injured point guard Kendall Marshall (wrist) for the second straight game, scored 47 first-half points and shot 63.6% behind a steady effort from fill-in White. At halftime, the score was tied, 47-47. “It was a horse contest, and they’re not the type of team you want to get in a horse contest with,” Self said.
But things changed late in the second half. The Heels had shaken off a scoreless first three minutes of the period, clawing back from a 5447 deficit to grab a 61-60 lead on a pair of James Michael Mcadoo free throws with about 11 minutes to play. Two minutes later, Self traded his man-to-man defense for an unconventional triangle-and-two setup.
“Me and (Zeller) couldn’t figure it out,” said Henson. “And that’s why we’re (the losing team) right now.”
The Jayhawks left Carolina “panicked,” Williams said, holding the Heels to 22.6% shooting in the second half. And now, Kansas is finally headed back to the Final Four, after three straight years of embarrassing upset losses. They’ve made it this far with that defense.
But the Jayhawks still haven’t satisfied their coach just yet.
“I still don’t know if this is national championship year defensive good,” he said, referring to that 2008 team again. “What we have become is a team that can get stops at the most opportune times.”
On Sunday, it was good enough to get them back to the Final Four.