NCAA Tournament: Jayhawks’ amazing defeat
Since Syracuse defeated Kansas in the 2003 NCAA championship game, here are the teams that have taken out the Jayhawks in the NCAAs:
Georgia Tech, Bucknell, Bradley, UCLA, Michigan State, Northern Iowa and Virginia Commonwealth.
Kansas has become a launching pad for dreams. The Jayhawks lost to Virginia Commonwealth 71-61 Sunday in the Southwest Regional championship game. VCU is headed for the Final Four, while Bill Self is left to figure out how his talented program keeps losing to inferior teams in March.
Kansas' Thomas Robinson leaves the floor after his team lost the Southwest regional final game against Virginia Commonwealth in the NCAA college basketball tournament on Sunday, March 27, 2011, in San Antonio. Virginia Commonwealth won 71-61. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
It’s hard to find anything bad to say about KU basketball, other than Kansas keeps getting eliminated by teams it has no business losing to. I mean, Virgina Commonwealth doesn’t even start with a B (Bucknell, Bradley), and the game wasn’t played in Oklahoma City, where in the last 13 years KU has lost NCAA Tournament games to Rhode Island, Bucknell and Northern Iowa.
It’s crazy. KU has not taken advantage of all kinds of bracket help. These top-seeded Jayhawks didn’t play a team seeded better than eighth. In the previous two NCAA Tournaments, KU played just one foe from a power conference, Michigan State, which beat the Jayhawks in the 2009 Sweet 16.
KU reached the 2008 Final Four by beating Davidson in the regional final, and Davidson missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won the game. KU played mid-majors in the Sweet 16 in both 2007 (Southern Illinois) and 2004 (Alabama-Birmingham).
Few teams have been given such cushy brackets over the years. Yet the Jayhawks have just the one Final Four to show for Self’s eight seasons. Give Kansas credit for taking advantage and winning that 2008 NCAA title.
But this has got to be exasperating if you’re a KU fan. Roy Williams kept losing to big-time programs: Carmelo and Syracuse in 2003, Maryland in 2002, Illinois and Self in 2001, Duke in 2000, Kentucky in 1999, Arizona in 1997, Syracuse in 1996, Virginia (work with me, here) in 1995, Purdue in 1994, North Carolina in 1993, Duke in the 1991 title game, UCLA in 1990.
In 14 NCAA Tournaments, Williams lost to mid-majors UTEP in 1992 and Rhode Island in 1998. Now Kansas is making it a regular occurence, and it’s hurting the Big 12.
Texas has become an annual March disappointment. OSU and OU have slipped from their national perches of earlier in the 2000s. Missouri is Missouri.
Kansas carries the Big 12 banner, and if the Jayhawks don’t stand tall, the conference withers.
The new-look Big 12, with 10 schools, appears to be a big-time basketball force, but there’s not a lot of NCAA Tournament evidence to support that. Eddie Sutton and Kelvin Sampson are gone. Rick Barnes can’t seem to get it together in the post-season. And now Kansas can’t beat the little guy.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
can you say overrated…..sorry, but Kansas was simply not as good as everyone made them out to be, O-State nearly beat…what good teams did they beat in the Big12 this year? NOBODY, there were no good teams in the Big12, because a poll says Texas and Kansas were good doesn’t make it so
Let’s talk replacement OU coaches for a bit. Does anyone know if Dave Rose is a Mormon? I mean, is he really Mormon or just Mormon while he’s at BYU? I never hear about him being a candidate for other jobs despite his success, so it makes me wonder. But I think he’d be a great addition at any school.
Some other names that I’d like to throw out there (and these are current head coaches, who knows what out-of-work coaches or assistants are already on the radar): Steve Donahue, of Boston College; Lorenzo Romar, of Washington; Paul Hewitt, of Georgia Tech; and Scott Drew, of Baylor. I just don’t think that OU is going to get the coach from Colorado, or even approach him, as he just got to Boulder.
Other than Drew (who is just a great coach, in my opinion), Donahue, Romar and Hewitt have something in common (something they also share with Rose, but the Mormon thing could be too much to get him out of BYU): they have been successful at what have largely been known as football schools. I think that’s a factor that hasn’t been given enough consideration. In a perfect world, Rick Barnes would be the coach at OU. Not only is he a terrific coach and dynamite recruiter, he’s also functioning well in the shadow of a giant football program.
I think Romar would be the best fit in Norman, of the coaches I bring up, and maybe the most likely to be wooed to Oklahoma. But if I had to make a priority list (the Mormon thing not being a factor), it would be: 1. Rose; 2. Drew; 2A. Romar; 4. Hewitt; 5. Donahue.
There are a lot of reasons why none of these guys would leave their current jobs, but I can also see some reasons why they would – so who knows? Just my opinion and thought it would be fun to discuss.
I played enough roundball to know that on any given day, anybody can lose. I don’t care who the team is. That’s why they actually lace up and play. But the observation about the Big 12 is valid, and it makes me wonder just exactly how it is that Sooners fans — and a lot of The Oklahoman sportswriters — think OU is going to lure a big-time hoops coach. For example, why would someone like a Buzz Williams be at all interested in leaving a program rich is basketball tradition, and which frequently makes it deep into the NCAA tournament, to come to a school where basketball is little more than a filler sport for football off-season? Someone of Williams caliber might lust for, say, a UNC or Syracuse or Georgetown, or even a struggling UCLA… but Oklahoma? Sorry, just don’t see it. But, hey, I’ve been wrong before.
I guess this could also be said about ou’s football program since they have choked on Boise State, West Virginia, LSU, Ole Miss, BYU, etc, etc……
Stu: [cough] Troy [/cough]
Mike: You may want to look up Marquette’s basketball pedigree. It’s not at all that superior to OU’s.
Regarding the article: What a load of BS. Kansas losing to another school out side of the conference doesn’t make the the conference look bad to anybody who’s ever actually played a sport at a high level. Any team can suffer from a lack of focus or get caught overlooking an opponent. KU losing to VCU doesn’t make Iowa State any worse of a team than they already were.
“Since Syracuse defeated Kansas in the 2003 NCAA championship game, here are the teams that have taken out the Jayhawks in the NCAAs”
LET’S GO ‘CUSE… Warrick swats Hinrich for to wrap up the Natl title.
… sorry Nick Collison
A quick and simple analysis of the KU let down…..
1. KU got let down by their guard play in a big way.
2. On several occasions the twins looked like they had 2 left feet in the low post. Never seen so many missed opportunities inside 5 ft. Seemed like lazy footwork.
3. Even their “shooters” were clanging free throws.
4. Seemed like in 1st half VCU hit every 3 they put up. This is receipe for any 1 seed to get beat.
The big twelve has “BIG GAME BOB” in football, and “BIG GAME BILL” in basketball. Only differance is I don’t see Tramel writing negative stories about “BIG GAME BOB” at OU.
Robert nailed it – OU has just as many disappointing performances in postseason football. KU has been to the round of eight four times under Bill Self. How many programs would be happy about that alone?
some of you guys need to really get out and release some of your frustrations. Trammel just writes what sells. But, he does have a point. the Big 12 is losing face each time this happens to any team in this league. It jsut so happens that kansas is the only team worth a darn these days. but since the league is so weak, we don’t find out how over-rated they are until about now each year.
On our coach search, I agree with you that Buzz Williams was a pipedream – better program, better history, better money, better hoops conference, etc. What were we thinking? (Although, at this point, I also wouldn’t say that Syracuse or Georgetown are better coaching jobs than Marquette.) We need someone like Evans to fill the void before this program has its plug pulled.
Some of you guys are ridiculous, saying that the Big 12 is a weak conference. That’s absurd. Texas and KU were very good teams. K-State was pretty good, capable of coming out of the Southeast regional. Mizzou was hot for a good portion of the season. There’s also no reason Colorado wasn’t in this tournament. Baylor was certainly talented enough.
I can’t say I disagree with Tram’s points here. Kansas has underperformed. However, for anyone to try and say that KU was overrated is ludicrous. We’re talking about a team that won 35 games. Sure, they didn’t play in the BIG EAST but they played some pretty damn good teams on many different occasions this season.
You don’t win 35 games in the Big 12 with the non-conference schedule KU usually lines up and then call that team overrated or allude to the notion that they weren’t a bona-fide 1 seed.
As someone who grew up in Kansas, March letdowns are unfortunately very familiar. But most of the people here in Oklahoma don’t really have the same kind of experiences with the NCAA tournament.
The best teams don’t usually win. It’s one and done. I’m sure that if the Blake Griffin squad had lost to a mid-major school in the Elite Eight it might make more sense.
Instead, they played North Carolina and lost. It certainly plays to the “little guys” advantage in those one and done type scenarios. They get to come out extremely loose. No one expects them to win, everyone expects Kansas or OU or North Carolina to win.
The bottom line is KU has underachieved and Tram’s right. At this point, they do carry the Big 12 banner. But let’s not get crazy here and say that KU wasn’t one of the five best teams all season long.
The only word that can describe that team is soft. How many lose balls did they not try hard enough for…how many balls got ripped away from their arms by smaller guys..sorry looking squad.