Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991 TAG: 9103240153
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Long
The Jayhawks followed what is usually a brick road for them and reached the ninth NCAA Final Four in their history by making their free throws.
Kansas pulled its second straight shocker in the Southeast Regional championship game at the packed Charlotte Coliseum, eliminating second-ranked Arkansas 93-81.
The Jayhawks trailed by 12 at halftime, and the Razorbacks seemed headed for their second straight Final Four trip. Instead, Kansas will play the winner of today's North Carolina-Temple East Region final on Saturday at the Indianapolis Hoosier Dome.
"I admit I was vocal at halftime," said Kansas third-year coach Roy Williams, who could coach in his first Final Four against his mentor, North Carolina's Dean Smith. "I was very agitated.
"I talked about being strong with the ball. Arkansas was driving it to the hole, getting second shots, and we were too casual with the ball.
"I told the players, `Do what we ask you to do. We don't have to play over our heads to win. We just have to play the way we're capable of playing."
Arkansas' pressure play, labeled "40 minutes of hell" by coach Nolan Richardson, was unraveled by the Razorbacks' hacking and Kansas' attacking, primarily the product of poise from forward Alonzo Jamison, voted the regional's outstanding player.
Kansas entered the NCAA Tournament ranked last among the 64 teams in free-throw percentage. The Jayhawks were shooting 61.9 percent entering the regional final.
In the decisive second half, Arkansas put the Jayhawks into the bonus in fewer than four minutes, and Kansas responded by making 18 of its last 20 and 24 of 27 free throws after it got into the bonus.
When Arkansas (34-5) needed its legs, they were gone. The Razorbacks couldn't score from the perimeter, and their frustration grew with their fouling. Their star guards, Lee Mayberry and Todd Day, are nicknamed "MayDay" - and that's what they produced with 3-of-15 shooting in the final 20 minutes.
"Those first five minutes of the second half, I think they were the worst five minutes we played all season," Richardson said.
Day, who had 21 points at halftime but was 2-of-11 after halftime, said, "I don't think Kansas did anything differently on defense in the second half. The shots just weren't falling. In the first half, everything we threw up went in. It was just one of those days."
Kansas (26-7) learned it could win in the first half by staying close. Then Arkansas made a run of 15 unanswered points in a 3 1/2-minute span and led 47-35 at halftime.
The Jayhawks came out with the first eight points of the second half, bringing a Razorbacks timeout with 17:47 left. By then, Williams' team realized what it wasn't doing earlier, and Arkansas, frustrated at its inability to ruin Kansas with pressure, was fouling on virtually every possession.
Arkansas already had committed its 10th foul - making every subsequent foul a two-shot try for the Jayhawks - with 12:33 to go. At that juncture, Kansas made another 8-0 run and took the lead for good on playmaker Adonis Jordan's scooping layup with 9:10 left.
Richardson's team was trapping, but Williams was running a 2-1-2 offense with Jamison, a 6-foot-6 forward, in the middle, in the key. When Jamison wasn't forcing the ball toward the basket, the Jayhawks were killing the clock with their variation on the four-corners delay Williams saw Smith employ when he was alongside the Tar Heels' dean as an assistant.
"I really thought they'd try to foul me more," said Jamison, a 50-percent free-throw shooter who finished with a career-high 26 points to go with nine rebounds. "But they didn't do that. I'd go up and double pump, and they didn't foul, so I shot it."
Arkansas' offense was little more than dump-ins by 290-pound pivotman Oliver Miller, the nation's top field-goal shooter at 70 percent.
A Miller follow cut Kansas' edge to 69-68 with 5:55 left, but Kansas responded with another run of eight straight points.
Williams' 12th-ranked team made 12 consecutive free throws to build an 83-71 lead with 3:32 to play.
Miller was 6-of-8 in the second half. His teammates were a combined 9-of-29. Kansas, which committed 10 first-half turnovers, had only two in the last 11 minutes.
The Jayhawks not only survived, but prospered, with their top seniors and top two scorers - center Mark Randall and shooting guard Terry Brown - on the bench with four personal fouls each.
"I didn't worry about them having four fouls because it says `Kansas' on our uniforms, not Brown and Randall," Williams said. "They weren't playing their best anyway. We're not afraid to go to our bench."
Miller said he knew the Razorbacks were in for a difficult day when he saw Williams substituting in tandem with Richardson.
"That's the first time this year we played a team that plays the same amount of players we play," the Razorbacks' pivotman said.
In their locker room, the Jayhawks donned Final Four T-shirts that had "ARKANSAS" across the front. Only the `A' and `R' were covered by one of those circles with a diagonal line, like those on "No U-Turn" signs.
The Jayhawks also were wearing something else.
"Seeing the look and the smiles on our players' faces after the game, that's as good as it gets," Williams said.
see microfilm for box score
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB