Eliminate the negative: Kansas will turn every perceived flaw into a reason the JAYHAWKS are going to win an NCAA championship

Sporting News, The, Nov 11, 2002 by Mike Decourcy

Back when we all survived without the WB network, luggage on wheels and TiVo, there were plenty, of analysis and fans who considered Lute Olson and Jim Calhoun to be detriments to their teams' NCAA championship chances and Roy Williams' reputation was intact as an overall asset to the Kansas Jayhawks.

Now that Williams has coached a whole 14 seasons without winning a title, the world has changed.

Williams has come to be viewed widely as an NCAA Tournament failure.

Widely--and wrongly.

In part because Williams has had five teams seeded No. 1 that did not win championships--including last year, when the Jayhawks lost to Maryland in the Final Four--the notion of Williams as an obstacle to Kansas' title pursuit has developed an urban-legend quality. Fans have heard this repeated so many times by so many people, they've begun to accept it as fact.

In fact, Williams' coaching is the top reason Kansas will claim the 2003 NCAA championship on the evening of April 7 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Reason No. (1) Williams' coaching

For every morsel of evidence that suggests his teams struggle in tournament play, there is a mountain to refute that contention.

During the past four years, Williams is the only coach whose team was placed in the top half of the bracket and avoided an upset each time, including last year's No. 1 Midwest seed, which reached the Final Four.

Williams always has been a very good tournament coach. His third team reached the NCAA championship game. With one more Final Four appearance, Williams will be one of 14 coaches with four. His 29 tournament wins rank him fifth among active coaches; the four ahead of him have an average of 12 years more experience. His 13 consecutive NCAA appearances ranks fifth all-time; the four men with longer streaks are in the Hall of Fame.

To reach his three Final Fours, Williams had to coach his Jayhawks past teams led by Nolan Richardson, Bob Knight and Ernie Kent, and Kansas heat a team coached by Dean Smith in the national semifinals. The program's reputation for choking is as overhyped as American Idol.

The KU system still has a hint of its mechanical foundation, but Williams lately has provided his athletes with the freedom to make plays. The Jayhawks defeated learns as stylistically diverse as Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Oregon last season and averaged 90.9 points, 11 more than the closest Big 12 team. In the hands of the right players, that degree of trust can yield substantial rewards.

Reason No. (2) The right players

If Kansas had just two proven reserves, the imposing talent of its starting five point guard Aaron Miles, shooting guard Kirk Hinrich, small forward Keith Langford, power forward Wayne Simien and center Nick Cullison--would have created a rush of preseason rankings listing the Jayhawks No. 1.

Kansas has size, muscle, creativity and quickness. The Jayhawks even worked in the offseason to develop chemistry when four of them served as counselors at the Nike All-American Camp. Seniors Collison and Hinrich are among the top 15 players in the nation and have played in KU's last 104 games. Every starter has the potential to average double-figure scoring. Excepting Miles, each established his 2001-02 season scoring high against a team that reached the NCAA Tournament.

Now that they are sophomores, KU can expect Simien, Langford and Miles to have made significant progress.

"Typically, if you were to go back and look at 100 cases, 75 to 80 of them are going to have huge jumps between their freshman and sophomore years," Williams says. "So I hope our guys can get in that percentage."

Miles, for instance, hit only 13 3-pointers in 37 games last season. "Last year, if I passed it in the post, relocated and they kicked it out, I would hold the ball and try to kick it back down to the big man," he says. "I'm going to take that shot now."

Much of the enthusiasm regarding KU's potential to repeat as a Final Four team waned as the result of star junior forward Drew Gooden's departure for the NBA. But that wit mean more minutes, shots and responsibility for a group that can handle it.

Reason No. (3) Drew Gooden's departure

Ask a college coach, and he'll tell you how important it is that his best player be a team leader. The kind of leader a team needs to win a title wouldn't be susceptible to being punked as Gooden was by Maryland's Chris Wilcox in the national semifinals. He would discover some counter to the gang tacking defense Oklahoma presented in the Big 12 title game. Gooden shot a combined 12 of-29 in those defeats.

When the Jayhawks visited Missouri last season for what might have been the regular season's most daunting challenge, Collison scored 28 points and Hinrich scored 25. This was not coincidental. Collison is effective as a low-post scorer and has continued to improve his perimeter shooting, which will force defenses to be more flexible in guarding him. Hinrich is one of the most complete college guards. He averaged 14.8 points and 5.0 assists last season. He also established a reputation as one of the nation's top defenders; in two wins over Missouri, Hinrich held Tigers star Kareem Rush to 13-of-41 shooting.