Pitfalls traditionally litter a team’s way through the NCAA tournament, but Kansas has encountered no such danger.
The Jayhawks defeated Illinois-Chicago by 25 in an opening-round game and two days later whacked Pacific by 15. They then routed Alabama-Birmingham by 26 Friday night to continue their merry romp into the final of the St. Louis regional.
But a 13th seed, a 12th seed and a No. 9 seed are what the Jayhawks defeated en route to their Sunday date in the Edward Jones Dome, where their stroll through spring is sure to end. Awaiting them is third-seeded Georgia Tech, and its pedigree is far different from those opponents Kansas has faced so far.
“We’ve played tough games before,” Yellow Jackets senior guard Marvin Lewis said. “Winning at Wake Forest, winning at Maryland, winning at Duke. Those kinds of games helped us and give us confidence going into [Sunday].”
Junior forward Anthony McHenry said: “They have players who’ve been to the Final Four and they’re going to have a nice crowd being so close to home. But we’ve played in front of hostile crowds all year long. It’s like second nature to us.”
That was the attitude emanating from Georgia Tech on Saturday, dampened not even by the questionable status of B.J. Elder, their leading scorer (16.1 points per game). The junior guard sprained his right ankle Friday in the first 90 seconds of its win over Nevada and, a day later, was walking around in an air cast.
“It’s sore,” coach Paul Hewitt said. “But there’s no swelling, and we anticipate he’ll play. How much will be a game-time decision.”
How would his team adjust if it doesn’t have him?
“[Friday] night we played with a sense of purpose on the offensive end,” Hewitt said. “Without our leading scoring, we concentrated better on running our half-court offense. That’s something we’ve been preaching all year long.”
That also reveals the flexibility of these Yellow Jackets, who are deep, athletic and adept at any number of styles.
They have a pair of accomplished point guards in Jarrett Jack and Will Bynum, the Crane High alumnus. They have a bevy of skilled wing players in Elder, Lewis, 6-foot-7-inch McHenry, 6-6 Ismai’il Muhammad and 6-5 Clarence Moore. They have an interior defender in 7-1 center Luke Schenscher plus a commitment to defense, which is the reason they are in this regional final.
Georgia Tech has not looked pretty getting to this point, certainly not as pretty as the Jayhawks. But it held Northern Iowa to 38.9-percent shooting while winning by six, held Boston College to 54 points while winning by three and held Nevada to 31.9-percent shooting while winning by five.
“The thing about it is they’re so athletic,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of the Tech defense. “They have the big guy to block shots in the middle and on the perimeter, they’re interchangable. They have depth and they play tough. You have to be tough to go into [Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium] and win. That team doesn’t believe in letting a team get into a comfort zone.”
His Jayhawks’ comfort zone is getting the ball into the hands of forward Wayne Simien, the dexterous, 6-9 junior who torched UAB with 30 points. He is the focal point of the offense, which works inside out. It is his skill down low that opens the outside for his team’s guards.
That, in turn, guarantees he will be the focal point of the Yellow Jackets’ defense, where Simien will be matched against Schenscher.
“But we’ve played against some pretty good big guys and Luke does a pretty good job when he gets proper help,” Hewitt said. “He’s not going to guard Simien by himself.”
Kansas’ home-crowd advantage. Kansas’ tournament experience. Kansas’ impressive run to Sunday. All those are story lines entering the regional final, but all are distractions. The game will be settled down low, on the blocks, where Georgia Tech must control Simien if it hopes to advance.
“But one of the strengths of our team is we can play different styles of defense,” Hewitt said. “If something’s not working, we have the ability to tinker until we find something that does.”
