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Long shot should be a layup
DETROIT | The pain would be unimaginable, a Kansas Jayhawk loss before reaching the Final Four.
The path to San Antonio has been cleared of seemingly all obstacles except for a tiny guard with Larry Bird’s feathery touch, Tiger Woods’ calm in the clutch, Magic Johnson’s charisma and an aura of destiny.
Davidson’s Stephen Curry may in fact own the Midwest Regional, but there’s little doubt about the best team.
Bill Self’s Jayhawks followed Curry’s latest solo masterpiece — a 33-point outburst in a drubbing of Big Ten champion Wisconsin — with an overwhelming shock-and-awe trampling of Villanova, 72-57, setting up a David vs. Goliath showdown inside coliseumlike Ford Field on Sunday.
Every bit of the pressure is on the top-seeded Jayhawks. A defeat at the hands of a spunky midmajor would be a colossal tragedy for Self and his players. Their road to the Final Four has been too easy for Kansas fans to accept a setback now.
The whole country might have fallen in love with Stephen Curry, his smooth shot and 13-year-old frame, but Kansas fans want him buried on Sunday.
The cute, little story must end, and it’s time for the Jayhawks to take advantage of a bracket that has fed them a 16 seed (Portland State), a terrible 8 seed (UNLV), a lucky-to-get-in 12 seed (Villanova) and now a one-man-band 10 seed (Davidson).
There’s so much cake to KU’s walk to San Antonio that Bill Snyder called CBS complaining about KU’s easy nonconference schedule.
“We played a team that I think you guys would agree wasn’t a 12 seed,” Self said. “They were a 12 seed because the Big East is a monster. But they’re better than that. And certainly I think Davidson can play with anybody.”
I disagree. Villanova might have been the worst team KU’s played during the postseason. The Wildcats, 22-13, were so overmatched that Self felt comfortable playing Jeremy Case, Rodrick Stewart and Tyrel Reed in the first half.
Have those three played together in the first half of any game this year?
A three-pointer by Case staked Kansas to a 41-22 halftime lead. The Hawks could have named their score. They got pretty much any shot they wanted outside of 10 feet. Villanova concentrated on slowing Darrell Arthur and Darnell Jackson in the paint. That plan actually worked quite well.
But Russell Robinson, Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers combined to score 32 first-half points. They hit six of 12 three-point attempts. They also keyed a defensive effort that limited Villanova to 26-percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes.
This was never a game.
And Sunday’s shouldn’t be competitive, either. Curry isn’t enough. Yeah, he’s averaging 34 points in the tournament. But no one, especially not the Badgers, has been creative about defending Curry. Opponents seem to size him up and assume he’ll wilt against major-college talent.
“Curry is unbelievable,” Kansas center Sasha Kaun said. “He’s on a run right now. I know he’s scoring 30 points a game and stuff. We just have to kind of contain, play D, do kind of what we did (Friday). Play as a team, you know, play good D.”
I can’t imagine Self not rotating Robinson, Chalmers and Rush on Curry. Rush, at 6 feet 6, might really be a problem for Curry. It will take some effort for Rush to move with Curry and fight through all of Davidson’s screens, but Rush will only have to do it for short bursts. His teammates can relieve him.
Look, I’m a believer in Curry. He’s about the only compelling story line in a tournament filled with blowouts and stinkers. I hope Curry scores 40 and Kansas wins by a point.
I don’t think it’ll be that close. And I don’t even want to consider the option of an upset. Self might not make it back to Lawrence. A loss would be unforgivable in the minds of many Kansas fans.
Bill Self put together his best team, drove them to 34 victories and then flamed out in the tournament the year the bracket opened perfectly for the Jayhawks?
No way. You can’t lose to a team that started the year 4-6. You can’t lose to the champions of the Southern Conference in the Elite Eight. You can’t lose to one kid, even a kid who was schooled by a longtime NBA veteran.
The Jayhawks have to take advantage of their good fortune. None of the other tournament favorites caught the kind of breaks Kansas has this March. No. 1 North Carolina has to beat No. 3 Louisville to reach the Final Four. No. 1 Memphis has to get by No. 2 Texas. No. 1 UCLA faces No. 3 Xavier.
If Roy Williams, John Calipari and Ben Howland take care of business and Bill Self doesn’t, Kansas fans just might give Oklahoma State billionaire Boone Pickens cell and home numbers for Self. He might want to take the call, too.