KU basketball faces Syracuse Tuesday. Series history includes national title game
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas and Syracuse split NCAA tournament meetings 2-1; series tied 3-3.
- Syracuse won 2003 national title over Kansas 81-78 in New Orleans; Carmelo Anthony MVP.
- Kansas routed Syracuse 87-58 in 2001 NCAA second round; KU dominated rebounds.
Kansas basketball’s first two opponents in the Players Era tournament have fared well against the Jayhawks through the years.
Winners of just three of 12 games against Notre Dame, KU improved to 4-9 against the Irish courtesy of a 71-61 victory Monday at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Now … awaiting KU in Tuesday’s 2:30 p.m. Central second-round game is Syracuse, which has a 3-3 record against KU — a 2-1 mark in NCAA Tournament play.
The Orange defeated KU 60-57 in an Elite Eight contest on March 24, 1998, in Denver. Five years later, with stakes even greater, Syracuse topped the Jayhawks 81-78 in the NCAA championship game on April 7, 2003, in New Orleans.
Roy Williams’ one victory over Jim Boeheim’s Orange in the postseason came in a second-round game on March 18, 2001, in Dayton, Ohio. The Jayhawks cruised 87-58.
Here’s a look at those three NCAA tourney games between the Orange (4-1 so far this season) and Jayhawks (4-2). Syracuse lost to Big 12 power Houston 78-74 in overtime in Monday’s first round.
Syracuse 81, KU 78, April 7, 2003, New Orleans: This national title game featured some of college basketball’s finest players: Carmelo Anthony, Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara of Syracuse and Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich, Aaron Miles and Keith Langford of Kansas.
McNamara hit six 3s the first half as Syracuse opened an 11-point lead at intermission. He did not score the final half.
Anthony, a freshman who was named MVP of the Final Four, scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Collison, who fouled out in the final minute with KU down three, scored 19 points and secured 21 rebounds. Langford scored 19 points while Jeff Graves finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds.
KU went 4-of-20 from 3 and 12-of-30 from the free throw line.
Collison misfired on 7 of 10 free throw attempts, while Graves was 2-of-7 from the foul line.
“I’ve learned to deal with that game, but for a long time, it was just so hard to deal with,” Collison told 247Sports. “I felt like on the one hand I was proud of myself and how I played. I could play so hard back then.
“Physically, I gave everything I had. But there’s no doubt the free throws … I was 3-for-10, and in college free throws were the weakest part of my game.”
It came down to the final seconds.
KU’s Hinrich fed Michael Lee in the corner with four seconds to play and KU down by three points. Lee’s shot, which left his hand with 2.3 seconds remaining, was forcibly rejected by Warrick.
With 1.5 seconds on the clock, KU inbounded to Hinrich, who misfired on a hurried 3-point try.
“I was wide open. That’s what took me so long to get the shot off,” Lee told Syracuse.com. “Kirk got doubled. Two guys ran to him and I was on the periphery. I think Warrick had a foot on the other side of the lane. He got a good jump on the ball. By the time it was in my hand, he had already made two big steps coming at me. But my thing was, I had time on the shot clock and I knew I had time to get it off. I didn’t think he could get there.
“I didn’t even look at Warrick. All I knew is that the ball was coming, I had time and I was relaxed. I’m thinking, ‘Now, go on. Just shoot it.’
“When he blocked it, I didn’t know it was blocked,” Lee added. “All I was doing was looking at the rim. Then I heard the crowd go, ‘Whoa!’ And I looked up and saw the ball was coming back in from the third row. I have no idea how Warrick got a hand on that shot. He made a perfect play.”
Lee called the play “devastating.”
“Everybody was saying, ‘It’s not your fault. We missed all those free throws (18 of them). Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,’” Lee said. “All I know is that at the end of the day I had the chance to be the hero, so to speak, and I didn’t do it. Outside of my family and my teammates, I tried to avoid people as much as I could. You know, we went into that game saying, ‘Let’s make history.’ Now I joke with people that I’m on the wrong side of history. For not making a shot. I’m famous in Syracuse for all the wrong reasons.”
Syracuse celebrated the school’s only NCAA title in school history. Boeheim coached teams had reached the finals two other times (1987 and 1996).
Needless to say it was an extremely disappointing loss for the Jayhawks, who had defeated Marquette by 33 points (94-61) in the semifinals.
After the title game loss, KU coach Williams delivered an infamous line when asked by CBS reporter Bonnie Bernstein about the North Carolina coaching vacancy, which he’d fill in a week.
“I could give a (bleep) about North Carolina right now. I’ve got 13 kids in that locker room I love,” Williams said.
Syracuse 60, KU 57, March 24, 1996 in Denver: This loss prevented KU from advancing to the Final Four.
The Jayhawks had trouble attacking Boeheim’s 2-3 defense, putting up 25 3s and making just four.
KU opened the second half on an 18-5 run and trailed by five points when Jacque Vaughn, a current member of KU’s coaching staff, drilled a 3 with 13.3 seconds left.
Syracuse’s John Wallace (15 points) inbounded a pass to Jason Cipolla, who was immediately fouled by Vaughn.
Cipolla missed the first free throw but then made the second.
Vaughn scored 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting with four assists and four turnovers. Paul Pierce scored 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting with seven rebounds, while Raef LaFrentz had six points on 3-of-8 shooting and nine rebounds. Scot Pollard added 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting with seven rebounds.
Jerod Haase went 0-for-8 from 3, finishing with just three points.
Kansas (29-5) hit 34.4% of its shots.
“They outplayed us. They outcoached us. They won the game,” Kansas coach Williams said of the Orange (28-8).
“This game was a tribute to their defense,” LaFrentz said. “Every opportunity to score was a tough one for us.”
Syracuse lost to Kentucky in the national title game 76-67.
KU 87, Syracuse 58, March 18, 2001, Dayton, Ohio: Five KU players scored in double figures as KU advanced to the Sweet 16.
Drew Gooden scored 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and grabbed 15 rebounds. Jeff Boschee had 16 points off 4-of-9 3-point shooting, Kenny Gregory 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting (with nine rebounds), Eric Chenowith 12 points and five rebounds and Hinrich 10 points and six assists.
Preston Shumpert and Deshaun Williams had 20 apiece for the Orange (25-9). KU (26-7) lost to Bill Self’s Illinois Fighting Illini in the Sweet 16, 80-64. Illinois lost to Arizona in the Elite Eight, 87-81.
KU, which hit 56% of its shots to Syracuse’s 44.7%, outrebounded Syracuse 56-23. Syracuse missed 22 of its 27 3-point attempts.
“We’ve got to play well on offense to beat Kansas, that’s the bottom line,” Boeheim said. “We live or die shooting the ball against the zone because we don’t have a strong inside game. We got good looks the whole game.”
The Jayhawks entered the game determined to end a stretch of three straight second-round defeats covering three postseasons.
So right before Kansas took the court, Williams removed a stuffed toy monkey out of a paper bag in the locker room and invited his players to strike the doll.
The Jayhawks indeed pulled the monkey off their coach’s back with the resounding victory.
“I told the guys I was tired of answering daggum questions about second-round losses,” Williams said. “So me and the monkey and some great young men had a great time today.”
“Just to finally get past the second round to the Sweet 16 is something,” said senior guard Gregory, who had 15 points. “It seems like every year in college I’ve gotten a spring break. This is the first year I won’t.”
In the three other non-NCAA Tourney games between the teams … KU prevailed 71-41 on Dec. 14, 1968, at Allen Fieldhouse and also won 76-60 on Dec. 2, 2017, in the Hoophall Miami Invitational in Florida. KU lost to Syracuse 89-81 in overtime on Nov. 25, 2008, in Kansas City.
