March 4, 2006: KU shares Big 12 crown for second straight season

The best news, Kansas freshman Julian Wright said, is that no one was injured.

The Jayhawks were pushed, pulled, slapped and shoved at Kansas State’s Bramlage Coliseum on Saturday. Even coach Bill Self involved himself in the ruckus — which, thankfully, happened in a jubilant KU locker room after a 66-52 victory over the Wildcats.

“Everyone was jumping around and hugging and celebrating,” Wright said. “It was the most fun we’ve had all year. You wouldn’t have thought we’d have that much energy after a game.”

Wright paused and smiled.

“Obviously, though, we have a lot of reasons to be excited.”

In what was initially pegged as a “rebuilding” season, the Kansas Jayhawks have somehow emerged as Big 12 champions.

Saturday’s victory, which came in the regular-season finale for both teams, gave KU a 22-7 overall record and a 13-3 Big 12 mark.

No. 18 Kansas — which won for the 23rd straight time in Manhattan — shared the title with Texas after the Longhorns beat Oklahoma the next day in Austin.

“We did all we can do,” KU guard Jeff Hawkins said. “We handled our business. As far as we’re concerned, we’re going to get a ring regardless.”

This year’s title is the sixth for Kansas in the 10-year history of the Big 12. It’s also the sixth conference championship in the last eight years for Self, who won two crowns at both Tulsa and Illinois before claiming his first as a Jayhawk last season, when KU shared the honor with Oklahoma.

“This is sweeter than any of the others we’ve had,” Self said, “because we started out 1-2 (in Big 12 play). We were not very good. I take more pride in a team that is not expected to win than a team that is.”

Indeed, this wasn’t supposed to happen.

The feeling before the season was that Kansas had one of the most talented teams in the league, but also one of the most inexperienced.

For the first time in 33 years, the Jayhawks opened the season with losses in four of their first seven games - and things really looked bleak after consecutive defeats against K-State and Missouri.

“It pumps energy into your blood when people doubt you,” KU freshman Brandon Rush said. “We knew we’d get things turned around. We always believed in ourselves.”

Apparently so.

Kansas ended the season with victories in 12 of its final 13 games, the last of which came Saturday. Rush scored a game-high 24 points and Mario Chalmers added 14, but the victory came mainly because of a suffocating defense that held the Wildcats to 37.5 percent shooting.

Kansas State went the final 10 minutes, 55 seconds without making a field goal.

“They’ve got a great defense,” K-State forward Cartier Martin said. “But a lot of the mistakes we made were on our own. We didn’t take care of the ball.”

Chalmers and Hawkins both had three steals for KU while Wright, a forward, had four.

Kansas looked to be on its way toward an easy victory after Rush’s buzzer-beating three-pointer gave KU a 39-24 cushion at intermission.

The Wildcats — who drew a sellout crowd of 13,340 — fought back and pulled within three at 49-46 on Martin’s three-pointer midway through the second half. But Rush countered with a three that ignited a 10-1 scoring run that sealed the fate of a Wildcats squad that didn’t make another field goal.

Wright came up huge during the scoring march. His tip-in of a C.J. Giles miss made it 54-47. Less than a minute later he deflected a pass, dived for the loose ball and slung it ahead to Rush, who broke free for an uncontested dunk.

Wright, who scored just four points, hadn’t played well before his late-game surge.

“The intensity of the game got to me at first,” Wright said. “I finally calmed down and started doing all the little things necessary to help us win.”

The Jayhawks’ achievement began settling in as the final seconds ticked away Saturday. Hawkins and Chalmers were smiling and high-fiving at midcourt before the final horn sounded.

“It felt good, just knowing the struggles we’ve been through and how much we’ve accomplished,” said Hawkins, who scored seven points. “We had a lot of doubters saying that we weren’t going to go far and that we’d finish sixth in the Big 12. We worked hard to overcome that, and it paid off today.

“We can’t be content with this. We’ve got to keep going and keep looking forward.”

Self will give the Jayhawks the afternoon off before resuming team activities Monday. In the meantime he said he’s looking forward to watching today’s game between the Sooners and Longhorns.

Not that the outcome matters.

“If OU wins, great,” Self said. “We’d love for that to happen. But if they don’t it’s not like anyone can take this away from us. No matter what, they’re still going to put ‘2006’ on the championship banner at Allen Fieldhouse.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2006 at 12:00 AM with the headline "March 4, 2006: KU shares Big 12 crown for second straight season."