Clock strikes 12 on Cinderella
Jayhawks advance to Final Four after 59-57 victory
Monday, March 31, 2008 10:54 AM PDT
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| Davidson’s Boris Meno (left) and teammate William Archambault sit in the locker room after losing to Kansas, 59-57, in the NCAA Midwest Regional basketball final Sunday in Detroit. |
DETROIT (AP) — Bill Self’s hair was sopping wet. And that snazzy gray suit he’d been wearing was gone, replaced by boring — but dry — warmups.
‘‘I apologize for my attire, but our team thought we just won a football bowl game in the locker room,’’ the Kansas coach said. ‘‘They got me pretty good with the water jug. But needless to say, I’m proud, happy, relieved.’’
On so many different levels.
Sweet-shooting Stephen Curry was covered so tightly he couldn’t get a shot off in the closing seconds, leaving him no choice but to dish to Jason Richards, Davidson’s next-best option. But Richards’ 25-footer from the top of the key thudded off the backboard, allowing Kansas to escape with a 59-57 victory Sunday that put all four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four for the first time.
And after coming oh, so close, so many other times, Self is finally on his way to the Final Four.
‘‘It feels good just for him,’’ Brandon Rush said. ‘‘He’s been stuck in the Elite Eight for the last few years. This feels good just to make that push into the Final Four for him.’’
Self had taken three different schools to the regional finals only to come up short four different times, including last year with the Jayhawks. He’d been saddled with the dreaded ‘‘best coach never to make a Final Four tag,’’ and he acknowledged Saturday that the failing crossed his mind at least once a day.
Well, no more.
These Jayhawks (35-3) were too talented, too powerful, too experienced to be denied, and they simply wore lovable, little Davidson down at the end.
‘‘We had an opportunity to win,’’ Curry said. ‘‘So fatigue is a factor, but we fought through to the best of our abilities and still had a shot to win it at the end.’’
Curry, the son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, turned the NCAA tournament into his own little party, scoring at will with his silky-smooth shot and carrying Davidson to one improbable victory after another.
And he looked as if he might do it again in the Midwest Regional final.
After looking exhausted for much of the second half, he drilled a 3-pointer from NBA range to cut Kansas’ lead to 59-57 with 54 seconds left. When Kansas’ Sherron Collins missed with 21 seconds left, the 10th-seeded Wildcats got one last chance and of course they gave the ball to Curry.
‘‘Kansas had four guards out there and they just switched. It kind of defeated the purpose of the play,’’ he said. ‘‘I gave them a pump fake to try to get a look, but I was off-balance when he fell down.’’
As the bright red numbers on the clock got dangerously close to zero, all he could do was the pass the ball and watch Richards’ desperation try thudded off the backboard.
‘‘I kind of had a feeling in my heart that it wasn’t going in because the way he shot it. It looked like he was leaning to the left a little bit,’’ Kansas guard Mario Chalmers said. ‘‘When I turned back, I saw it hit the backboard. I was just relieved.’’
Richards dropped to his back at midcourt while the Jayhawks exhaled and began celebrating.
‘‘Trust me, I was on both knees,’’ Self said. ‘‘You picture the way you win a big game like that, it would be you make a shot, you celebrate or something happens and you’re able to go congratulate all your coaches and players. This was not one of those deals. I just wanted to make sure that I hurried up and shook hands and the officials left the court so they couldn’t put any time back on the clock.’’
Curry, who became just the fourth player to hit the 30-point mark in his first four NCAA tournament games, finished with 25 on 9-for-25 shooting and was picked Most Outstanding Player of the Midwest Regional.
The loss snapped Davidson’s 25-game winning streak.
Chalmers and Sasha Kaun each scored 13 for Kansas and Rush added 12.
