Last Call for Atlanta

Now this is a Kansas team John Wooden can get behind. These Jayhawks don’t mistake activity for accomplishment.

The Jayhawks ran and ran Sunday against Oregon. Roy Williams’ teams always run. But these Jayhawks also rebounded relentlessly and left bruises, physical and psychological. They played bumper-car defense. No Jayhawk was afraid to take a dent or leave one.

And for the third time under Williams, and the first time since 1993, Kansas is going to the Final Four. The No. 1-seeded Jayhawks beat No. 2-seeded Oregon, 104-86, in the finals of the NCAA Midwest Regional. Kansas, looking for its first national title since 1988 and its first under Williams, will play Maryland in the national semifinals Saturday in Atlanta.

Recent Kansas teams have always loved the fast break, excelled at the pretty layups and thrived on making open jump shots. But when the tournament came and officials’ whistles sounded less often and games slogged into torturous half-court battles, the Jayhawks would always smash into a team either bigger, stronger or meaner. While the Jayhawks would be running around and shooting jump shots, some Illinois or Texas El Paso would push their way to layups and rebounds and wins.

But in this Kansas team, Williams has developed a group whose frantic activity is matched with a strong blend of athleticism and aggressiveness. These aren’t the lanky Jayhawks who are the pushees when NCAA push play comes to shove. These Jayhawks run and shoot and jump, and they also crash and bump and pummel.

Kansas (33-3) outrebounded Oregon, 63-34. Drew Gooden (20) and Nick Collison (15) combined outrebounded the Ducks. This was the first team to reach 100 points in an NCAA regional final since UCLA in 1995.

“We were a little bigger and more mobile inside,” Williams said. This was an understatement. Collison, a 6-foot-9, 250-pound junior, and Gooden, a 6-10, 230-pound junior, were mobile enough to take turns stifling Oregon’s 6-7 Luke Jackson, holding Jackson to 10 points and forcing Jackson into four-of-16 shooting. And then they were strong enough to score big--Collison had 25 points with his 15 rebounds and Gooden had 18 points to go with his 20 rebounds.

“It was tough,” Oregon forward Robert Johnson said, “because if you blocked out one, the other would come out of nowhere. Collison and Gooden were a great one-two punch and we couldn’t fend them off.”

Twice the Ducks (26-9) made a run at Kansas.

The Jayhawks had opened a 40-28 lead with 5:39 left in the first half. Less than three minutes later, Oregon tied the score with the help of three-point baskets by Luke Ridnour and Freddie Jones (32 points) and three turnovers by Kansas. But the Jayhawks scored eight of the final 10 points of the half. Collison turned an offensive rebound into a reverse layup for the final basket with 3.6 seconds left and the Jayhawks led, 48-42.

Midway through the second half, Kansas led, 73-59, and seemed on the verge of busting the game open when Oregon had one, last frantic push. Anthony Lever, a senior backup guard, scored three three-pointers, Jones converted a layup off a turnover and suddenly the Kansas lead was down to five, 77-72, with 8:05 left.

But by the time the Ducks scored again, Kansas was ahead, 87-72, and six of those 10 points came after the Jayhawks had grabbed an offensive rebound.

Finally, the Ducks couldn’t run anymore. The Jayhawks didn’t stop.

Gooden walked into the postgame news conference barefoot. “I’ve got my shoes off,” he said, “because my feet are hurtin’ me. My dogs are hurtin’ man. It was a fun game to play in, a really fun game. It hurt my feet but it was a fun game.”

“Kansas was relentless today,” Oregon Coach Ernie Kent said. “I told my players Kansas had two future NBA players [Gooden and Collison] in the paint and that was going to be the key, how we handled the inside game. It was frustrating. Their system outlasted our system.

“And I think, if Kansas plays the way it did today, that Kansas has a great chance to win this thing. I’ll be one of the guys rooting for Roy in Atlanta.”

The only time the Kansas players quit grinning was when the topic of Williams’ failure to win a national title was brought up.

“There are a lot of doubters out there about Coach Williams,” Gooden said. “Coach has taken a lot of heat about not reaching certain goals. Coach Williams is a great coach. You can’t take anything away from Coach Williams.

“Just stop giving him heat for not winning the championship. That’s not the only thing that matters.”

Especially not on this day. What mattered was running and rebounding, pushing and shoving, scoring and winning and laughing and moving on to Atlanta.