Southwest Regional At Tulsa, Okla. Kansas 72, Boston University 53 Illinois 73, UNLV 62
at Chicago Notre Dame 69, Akron 56 Florida State 57, Texas A&M 50 Purdue 65, St. Peter’s 43 Virginia Commonwealth 74, Georgetown 56
NCAA TOURNAMENT SCOREBOARD
West Regional
East Regional
at Tulsa, Okla. Texas 85, Oakland, Mich. 81 Arizona 77, Memphis 75
at Charlotte, N.C. North Carolina 102, Long Island U. 87 Washington 68, Georgia 65
at Charlotte, N.C. Michigan 75, Tennessee 45 Duke 87, Hampton 43
at Cleveland George Mason 61, Villanova 57 Ohio State 75, Texas-San Antonio 46 Marquette 66, Xavier 55 Syracuse 77, Indiana State 58
NCAA TOURNAMENT EDITION
L A W R E N C E
JOURNAL-WORLD
®
75 CENTS
SATURDAY • MARCH 19 • 2011
Vol.153/No.78 26 pages
LJWorld.com
KANSAS 72, BOSTON 53
At loose ends
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
KANSAS GUARD TYREL REED (14) HOISTS A THREE FROM THE CORNER against Boston University. The Jayhawks gradually pulled away from the Terriers, 72-53, in the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Tulsa, Okla.
‘Tight’ early, KU rolls past Terriers By Gary Bedore gbedore@ljworld.com
TULSA, OKLA. — Bill Self swung open the BOK Center locker room doors at halftime Friday night and immediately lit into his top-seeded, yet extremely tentative, Kansas University basketball team. “He said, ‘I thought you guys said you were loose. You guys are tight as a drum,’’’ KU junior Tyshawn Taylor said of Self ’s assessment of the Jayhawks, who led No. 16-seeded Boston University by just four points at halftime. “We wanted to be loose, but we
KANSAS VS. ILLINOIS
MORE ONLINE ■ For more from Tulsa, including
audio, video, a photo gallery, message boards, The Keegan Ratings and more, go to KUsports.com
had the first-game jitters,” Taylor added after a strong second half propelled KU to a resounding 7253 victory and spot in Sunday’s Round of 32 game against Illi- KANSAS PLAYERS, FROM LEFT, TRAVIS nois. “You want to be loose, but RELEFORD, Mario Little, Elijah Johnson and Tyrel Reed erupt off the bench after a threePlease see KANSAS, page 4A pointer from teammate Markieff Morris.
TULSA, OKLA. — Afterward, theories abounded as to why Kansas University opened its NCAA Tournament Friday night in the BOK Center looking Don Knotts-nervous in the first half. One that seemed to have a little credence was that all the emphasis placed on the Northern Iowa loss of a year ago, with a story and pictures from Sports Illustrated about it taped to the players’ lockers, backfired. It was a harmless backfire because Kansas won the game, 72-53, but it makes coach Bill Self’s ambivalence when
Tom Keegan tkeegan@ljworld.com
approached by one of his assistant’s about the SI motivational ploy understandable. Last week, Self spoke to the risk in doing Please see KEEGAN, page 5A
Jayhawks get familiar foe in next round: Illinois By Matt Tait mtait@ljworld.com
When: 7:40 p.m. Sunday Where: BOK Center, Tulsa, Okla. TV: TNT (cable channels 45, 245)
Jitters obvious, but Reed immune
TULSA, OKLA. — One of the first times University of Illinois men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber talked publicly about Kansas University coach Bill Self was during a mock funeral in Champaign, Ill., in 2003, after Self had
left UI for Kansas, making room for Weber to take over. Tired of hearing about the coach that got away, Weber attended an early-season practice dressed in all black and told his players Self was gone and that it was time to stop the mourning. Sunday, when the two match up in the third round of the
NCAA Tournament at 7:40 p.m., the game will be a funeral of sorts for one team’s season. For Weber, Sunday’s showdown won’t be about the coaches. None of his current players was recruited to Illinois by Self. And Weber has no real ties to the KU program, either. “It’s been such a long time,”
said Weber, now in his eighth year at Illinois. “Bill did a tremendous job at Illinois. Everywhere (he’s) been (he’s) been (a) very good coach. I’m just worried about Kansas, their players and seeing if we can match up with them.” The Illini enter Sunday’s game at 20-13 overall and on the heels of
a 73-62 rout of UNLV — and another former UI coach, Lon Kruger — Friday at the BOK Center. In that one, Illinois shot 60 percent from the floor and was led by 22 points from senior forward Mike Davis and 17 points from senior guard Demetri McCamey. ● Box score on page 7A