Southeast Regional
West Regional
Saturday at New Orleans Butler 74, Florida 71, OT
Saturday at Anaheim, Calif. Connecticut 65, Arizona 63
NCAA SCOREBOARD
Southwest Regional
East Regional
today at San Antonio Kansas (35-2) vs. Virginia Commonwealth (27-11), 1:20 p.m.
today at Newark, N.J. North Carolina (29-7) vs. Kentucky (28-8), 4:05 p.m.
ELITE EIGHT EDITION
L A W R E N C E
JOURNAL-WORLD
Vol.153/No.86 54 pages
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$1.25
SUNDAY • MARCH 27 • 2011
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KANSAS VS. VCU
Elite-est attitude
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
KANSAS HEAD COACH BILL SELF IS SEEN ON THE VIDEO MONITORS of production equipment during a news conference Saturday in San Antonio. The Jayhawks will face VCU in an Elite Eight game today at the Alamodome.
Jayhawks unapologetic about role as favorites By Gary Bedore gbedore@ljworld.com
KANSAS’ BRADY MORNINGSTAR, LEFT, kicks back as teammates Tyshawn Taylor and Tyrel Reed, right, ride in carts to media obligations at the Alamodome.
KANSAS VS. VCU Records: Kansas is 35-2; Virginia Commonwealth is 27-11 When: 1:20 p.m. today Where: Alamodome, San Antonio TV: CBS (cable channels 5, 13, 205).
SAN ANTONIO — Media members pursuing the David-andGoliath angle ran into a major roadblock in Kansas University’s Marcus Morris on Saturday afternoon in the Alamodome. The 6-foot-9, 235-pound junior reminded the masses in a marathon interview session that the top-seeded Jayhawks, who meet No. 11-seed Virginia Commonwealth in an Elite Eight game at 1:20 p.m. today, have been in the position of giant many, many, many times before. “We’re Kansas. Growing up and watching Kansas, do you
remember them ever being an underdog? Ever?” an animated Morris said. “We have always been Goliath — all the time. We just have to embrace the role. The David and Goliath stuff is nothing. Teams are being beat,” he added, noting KU (35-2) is the last No. 1 seed still standing in the 2011 NCAAs. “Whatever team is hot that day and whatever team is playing hard that day is going to win the game. It’s not about who is better and who’s bigger. Guys nowadays can play at any school. They have guys that could probably play at Kansas.” As to Morris’ main point, it’s true KU for, oh, the last 28 years
or so, has been favored in a vast majority of its games. And today, Vegas oddsmakers list the Jayhawks as a whopping 11-point favorite against a Colonial Athletic Association VCU (27-11) squad that, in this tourney, already has knocked out BCS schools USC, Georgetown, Purdue and Florida State. “I enjoy being the Goliath,” Morris said. We’ve been a No. 1 seed two years running, and we’ve been Goliath two years running. When have we ever been Cinderella? I don’t think ever in the history of Kansas we’ve been Cinderella. It’s a (favorite’s) role we’ve always embraced.”
Of course, to win as many games as KU has throughout the years, the Jayhawks have ignored the David-Goliath and Cinderella angles many times and merely come out and played ball. “They are exciting teams,” KU junior center Markieff Morris said, when asked of Cinderellas. “That’s it. I don’t remember the movie too much.” Big 12 power KU has never played VCU before. Overall, the Jayhawks are 2-0 versus the CAA, clobbering Hofstra, 101-65, in November of 2009 and Towson, 87-61, in November of 2006, both in Allen Fieldhouse. Please see KANSAS, page 4A
Kansas reflects coach’s in-your-face personality Late, great Marquette basketball coach Al McGuire was the king of basketball one-liners packed with street-wise wit. One of Al’s best: “A team should be an extension of a coach’s personality. My teams are arrogant and obnoxious.” Most of the players on this Kansas University basketball team gunning today for the school’s second Final Four trip in four years didn’t arrive in
Lawrence with the same relentless intensity as their coach, Bill Self. Now there is no disputing this team has taken on its coach’s in-your-face personality, the one he shows his players during practice with the doors closed. For athletes participating in the NCAA Tournament, no doors are closed in a world where everybody is a reporter,
even spectators carrying iPhones that shoot videos of pregame scuffles between teams, videos that end up on YouTube. Self minimized the harmless incident, and part of him had to like that his players were so keyed up, storming through Richmond’s huddle in the hallway leading to the court. “Coach Self likes tough dudes who like to play hard,” maturing
junior point guard Tyshawn Taylor said. “I don’t think he likes that we’re pushing around in the huddle. I think he’d like us to show it with our play, but I don’t think he frowns upon it or gets mad at us.” Self fosters a combativeness in his players, who are younger, less mature than he is and make mistakes of youth, but at least Please see KEEGAN, page 5A
Tom Keegan tkeegan@ljworld.com