Southwest Regional
East Regional
Friday at San Antonio Kansas 77, Richmond 57 Virginia Commonwealth 72, Florida State 71, OT
Friday at Newark, N.J. North Carolina 81, Marquette 63 Kentucky 62, Ohio State 60
NCAA SCOREBOARD
Southeast Regional
West Regional
today at New Orleans Florida (29-7) vs. Butler (26-9), 3:30 p.m.
today at Anaheim, Calif. Connecticut (29-9) vs. Arizona (30-7), 6:05 p.m.
SWEET 16 EDITION
L A W R E N C E
JOURNAL-WORLD
®
75 CENTS
SATURDAY • MARCH 26 • 2011
Vol.153/No.85 30 pages
LJWorld.com
KANSAS 77, RICHMOND 57
Last one standing
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
KANSAS FORWARD MARCUS MORRIS (22) HANGS ON THE RIM after a dunk against Richmond in the first half. KU — the final remaining No. 1 seed — slammed the Spiders, 77-57, Friday in San Antonio to advance to the Elite Eight.
Top-seeded KU scraps past Spiders
Kansas defense reinvents itself
We felt a little disrespected,” Markieff said. He was referring to introducSAN ANTONIO — An animated tions in which one player from Markieff Morris took control of each team was to be introduced, Kansas University’s five-player with the two opposing players huddle before the openmeeting at halfcourt for ing tip of Friday’s emofist bumps. tional NCAA Tourna“They probably didn’t ment Sweet 16 game mean it, but we still ● For much between KU and Richnoticed it. It definitely more from mond. fueled the fire. That defSan Antonio, “I saw Kieff screaminitely got me riled up. including ing and yelling. He was They made us mad. I audio, video, fired up. It got us hyped, really think we’ll play a photo man,” KU junior mad from here on out,” Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo gallery, mesTyshawn Taylor said Morris added. sage boards, KU COACH BILL SELF SHOWS HIS FRUSTRATION after the Jayhawks’ 77-57 The handshake situaThe Keegan as KU defends late in the first half. runaway victory over tion came moments after Ratings and the Spiders at the Alamcameras caught the Jaymore, go to odome. hawks and Spiders barkKUsports.com Morris, who scored ing at each other in a five points and grabbed crowded Alamodome Kansas University will meet Virginia Comsix rebounds in 17 foul-plagued tunnel leading out to the court. monwealth at 1:20 p.m. Sunday in the Alamodminutes on a night Brady MornThe No. 12-seeded Spiders (29ome for the right to advance to the Final Four. ingstar exploded for 18 points, 8) were jumping up and down in A member of the Colonial Athletic Associasaid he wasn’t trying to rid the the hallway and blocking the No. tion, No. 11-seed VCU beat Florida State, 72-71 team of any pregame jitters with 1-seeded Jayhawks’ path. in overtime, on Friday. his vocal display. KU’s players waited awhile, then “They are the biggest, baddest team we He was simply mad as heck finally made their way through the played yet,” VCU coach Shaka Smart said of and wanted to convey that senti- Spiders’ web. KU’s Thomas RobinKU. “We'll have to play really well to beat ment to his teammates, who son, Mario Little, one of the Morthem.” raced to an insurmountable 31-9 ris twins and Royce Woolridge VCU has a 27-11 record. lead. were caught on tape yapping with “Them not trying to shake our some equally vocal Spiders. ● Story on page 8A hands at halfcourt was the main Please see KANSAS, page 6A thing that fueled us to start out. By Gary Bedore
gbedore@ljworld.com
ONLINE
KU to meet VCU in Elite Eight
SAN ANTONIO — The edict from Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self to his players in preparation for Friday night’s Southwest regional semifinal game against Richmond was twofold: 1. No layups off backdoor cuts; 2. No three-pointers. Then Self and assistant coach Joe Dooley spent three days changing their players’ basketball brains, altering where they stood in relation to the player they were guarding. Basically, instead of playing between the ball and your man, players were told to play between their man and the basket. Had a quick guard adept at driving to the hoop and finishing, a Tyshawn Taylor-type player, driven against that defense, he might have scored 40 points because he would have blown by his defender and nobody would be there to help onto him. Instead of playing “down the line” in a position to help on drives to the hoop, the KU defenders blocked the cutters’ path to the hoop by staying in front of them. It frustrated the life out of the slower Spiders, who couldn’t compete and lost, 77-57, in the Alamodome, where Kansas feels right at home.
Tom Keegan tkeegan@ljworld.com
The Spiders didn’t have that Taylor type of guard, and they don’t take that approach to getting the ball inside. They get it there with back-door cuts, a door slammed shut by Kansas players who in three days of practice changed their minds so completely they allowed just one bucket on a back-door cut the entire game, and that was late, after the outcome had been decided and Tyrel Reed surrendered it. Three-pointers? Richmond shot 26, most of them rushed, even desperate. The Spiders made just four of them. That’s a .154 three-point percentage for a team that brought a .414 mark into the game. Other than Michigan, Kansas didn’t play a team all year that Please see KEEGAN, page 7A