1997 game against Arizona. The Jayhawks were 34-0, and se..."/> 1997 game against Arizona. The Jayhawks were 34-0, and se..."/>
Through the Phog
Fansided

Same strategy, different results

By Editorial Staff

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Many of us remember the March 21, 1997 game against Arizona. The Jayhawks were 34-0, and seemingly unbeatable. With a slew of future NBA players, including Jacque Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce, the Jayhawks had steamrolled almost every opponent that year. The team had a deep bench, and could run like no other team. The formula to victory for that team was simple: outrun and outshoot anyone that dared step onto the court with them.  It was a finesse team, that, until last week, held the distinction of having the longest home court winning streak in school history.

Arizona employed a different kind of strategy in the ’97 NCAA Sweet Sixteen Tournament game than any other the Jayhawks had faced all season. They played rough. Really rough. They didn’t try to run with the ‘Hawks, they just tried to get in the way and trip, push and bully their way through the game… and it worked. Kansas was knocked off their game, and after going through the regular season, through the preliminary rounds of the tourney, and into the game with a perfect record, the Jayhawks ended up losing their first game of the year.

Last night, Arizona tried the same thing. Derrick Williams led the way for Arizona, and played like he was a member of the ’97 Arizona thug team. He did his best to intimidate inside, throwing elbows and playing an aggressive post. He got as much help from the officiating staff as he got from many of his teammates, I personally counted nine obvious fouls that he got away with, before finally fouling out last in the second half.

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What was different this time around, is that while this years’ version has the bench to run with the ’97 Jayhawks, they are more flexible in the way that they play the game.  They are not a precise finesse team.  They don’t even pretend to be.  Jacque Vaughn was the perfect point guard, dishing assists left and right, directing an offense centered on ball movement, and having almost no turnovers.  Tyshawn Taylor is not the perfect point guard.  He plays wild and aggressive most of te time.  He is often careless with the ball.  But he brings excitement and enthusiasm to the court.  He can score from three, he can drive the lane, and he has the safety blanket of being able to kick the ball out to Tyrel Reed for a three if the defense collapses on the lane.  While Tyshawn shot nothing from three point range last night, he still scored ten points with seven assists.  Whereas defending against Jacque Vaughn was merely a matter of trying to keep up with him enough to cut off his passing lanes, Tyshawn’s strength is in his unpredictability; will he shoot? will he drive the lane? will he play high-low with Morris? …which Morris?  It’s got to be a nightmare for defenders, that will only become worse when Selby joins the team.

The other big difference form the ’97 team is at the shooting guard position.  Jacque had to rely mostly on Jerod Haase for defense and hustle and Ryan Robertson for three point shooting.  Tyshawn has Brady Morningstar as a comparable defender, and Tyrel Reed is a much better shooter than Ryan ever was.  While Brady seemed to not have his head in the game offensively at times last night, he did have two assist and managed to grab three boards.  Tyrel made some great plays despite being 0-5 from 3point range, and was perfect from the charity stripe, making all five attempts to end the game with 13 points.  While the ’97 team had CB McGrath and Nick Bradford to pick up minutes at guard, this year’s Jayhawks are much, much deeper.  Travis Releford played his best game of the season last night, shooting 4 for 6 (2-3 3pt) for ten points with two steals and an assist.

Possibly the biggest takeaway from both games in Vegas, is the maturity of the twins.  Arizona was not the only team that played rough against Kansas- Ohio must have watched the game film from that ’97 game also.  Bobcats’ coach John Groce actually apologized for the game getting “chippy” Friday night.  In the past two seasons, if a team had played this way against the Jayhawks, you could pretty much bank on one or both of the twins fouling out.  That has been their Achilles heel.  The maturity shown by both Marcus and Markieff this weekend was nothing short of amazing.  While they both had some foul trouble, it was due more to the uneven officiating than the realities of the game, but they both kept it together and neither fouled out.  Their foul trouble gave Thomas Robinson some extra minutes, which TRob took advantage of scoring fourteen points and having two monster dunks in the second half.  In fact, the only players who fouled out were Arizona’s two big men.

Regardless of what Dick Vitale thinks, this team is already better than our team with a 34-1 season record, and adding Selby to the mix in a couple of weeks only makes us better.  Pomeroy, who uses a more scientific method than either the coaches or the AP, already ranks us at #1, and Duke at #2- and that is with the current roster.

Hang on folks… this could be our best team ever.

Opinions on best-ever team…. throw them in the comments section!

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