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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) – Minutes before Kansas took the court, Roy
Williams pulled a red stuffed monkey out of a paper bag in the
locker room and invited his players to abuse the plush animal.
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Sunday, March 18
The Jayhawks were absolutely brilliant Sunday dominating Jim Boeheim's Orange on the glass. Kansas outrebounded Syracuse 56-23 and put an embarrassing beating on the Big East entry.
Preston Shumpert and DeShaun Williams combined for 14-for-39 shooting and Syracuse's 2-3 zone was taken apart by the great balance of the Kansas starting five. Drew Gooden was dominant on the inside with 17 points and Kansas got good perimeter play as well, with 16 points from Jeff Boschee and 15 from Kenny Gregory. Every phase of the game was A+ for Kansas as it has been brilliant in the first two rounds of this tournament.
Kansas has now returned to the Sweet 16 for the first time in four years. This year's edition is playing their best basketball at the right moment. They have balance, toughness inside and can rebound. They will be a very tough out in the next round.
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Then the Jayhawks went out and pulled the monkey off their
coach's back, ending a string of three second-round defeats by
routing Syracuse 87-58 Sunday.
"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, great young men had a great time today."
Fourth-seeded Kansas will face top-seeded Illinois on Friday in
San Antonio in the Midwest Regional semifinals. Illinois beat
Charlotte 79-61.
The fourth-seeded Jayhawks didn't take long to dismantle
fifth-seeded Syracuse, grabbing 15 of the first 17 rebounds to build
a double-figure lead.
Kansas had averaged 27 wins in each of the past three seasons – but never reached the second round of the tournament. Even though
Williams turned down the job last July at his alma mater, North
Carolina, there still was grumbling in Kansas about the Jayhawks'
uneven play in March.
"Just to finally get past the second round to the Sweet 16 is
something," said Kansas senior Kenny 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."
With Kansas limited to seven scholarship players because of
injury, just about every Jayhawks player stood out.
Drew Gooden orchestrated the victory with the help of Kansas'
guards, finishing with 17 points and a career-best 15 rebounds.
Jeff Boschee had 16 points, backup center Eric Chenowith had 12
points on 8-for-8 foul shooting and Kirk Hinrich had 10 points and
six assists. Nick Collison matched his season best with 13 rebounds
to go with nine points.
There was no secret to Kansas' domination. Kansas manhandled the
Orangemen on the boards 56-23 – the fewest rebounds this season for
Syracuse, which came in averaging 36.1 a game.
|  | | Drew Gooden, left, fouled by Syracuse's Billy Celuck under the basket, scored a team-high 17 points as Kansas made its way back to the Sweet 16. |
It also was the fifth-biggest rebounding difference ever in an
NCAA Tournament game.
"We've struggled with size all year. There's no denying that,"
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "But you can't get outrebounded
by 30."
The Orangemen's Damone Brown said, "We knew rebounding would be
an issue. We had to compete in other ways, but we didn't knock down
shots."
Syracuse (25-9) had beaten Hawaii 79-69 for Boeheim's 600th
career win in the opening round. The Orangemen hadn't lost by more
than 14 points this season.
The Jayhawks (26-6) never trailed. They controlled the lane and
solved Syracuse's 2-3 zone, building leads of 6-0, 19-7 and 30-13.
Syracuse hit only five of its first 23 shots.
"They weren't falling," point guard Allen Griffin said. "What
can you say after that?"
Meanwhile, everything was going Kansas' way. At one point,
Gooden flipped in a reverse shot over his shoulder while hitting
the floor, the ball floating over the outstretched arm of
Syracuse's 7-foot Billy Celuck and through the net.
Despite being outrebounded 30-9, Syracuse somehow trailed just
39-34 at the half, closing with a 21-9 run. That surge was just a
blip on the screen to Kansas.
Gooden had more rebounds by himself (11-10) than the Syracuse
team until 13½ minutes remained.
"The game plan was to attack their zone inside and beat them on
the backboards," Gooden said. "Which we did."
To make matters worse for the Orangemen, their first- and
second-string centers, Jeremy McNeil and Celuck, each had four
fouls with 16 minutes left.
Kansas reverted to its power game to start the half and forced
the ball inside to Gooden and Collison – both played for Boeheim on
a U.S. national team last summer.
Even though DeShaun Williams hit six straight shots during one
stretch to keep Syracuse in contention, Kansas went on a 16-4 tear
with most of the points coming from its big men.
Ahead 61-42, the Jayhawks' lead never fell below 16 points
again.
Syracuse ended up shooting 30 percent to Kansas' 56 percent.
"Everybody knows that Syracuse can shoot better than they did
today," Roy Williams said. "We caught them when they didn't shoot
as well and didn't play as well."
Preston Shumpert and DeShaun Williams each scored 20 for the
Orangemen. But Shumpert, who hit only 6-of-18 shots from the field,
and Brown, averaging 16.8 points a game, never got untracked. Brown
finished with five points on 2-for-9 shooting.
Williams said he had shown his team tapes of his 1991 and '93
teams playing their way into the Final Four. When he ran out of
tapes, he had his wife buy the monkey.
"I wanted to have some fun," he said.
Then, he added, "And don't say that it looks like me, either."
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
Syracuse Clubhouse
Kansas Clubhouse
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Roy Williams and the Jayhawks finally get the monkey off their back (Courtesy: NCAA Productions).
avi: 1610 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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