Kansas basketball notebook

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Mar 29, 2008

Collins sick - or not

Maybe the Rodrick Stewart quarantine didn't completely work. Or maybe it did.

A week after Stewart missed KU's second-round win against UNLV with tonsillitis, rumors abounded that Sherron Collins was sick and wouldn't play Friday in Detroit.

He did, of course, subbing in as he customarily does at the first media timeout.

"I'm all right," he said. "I was a little congested. It wasn't the flu or anything like that."

Self said it was the dreaded tonsilitis.

"He's got what Rod had," Self said.

Collins didn't have a good night, going 2-for-5 from the field with three turnovers in 21 minutes.

"Sherron wasn't himself at all," Self said. "That was obvious."

Collins said he had gotten sick early in the week, but Wednesday told reporters he was feeling better.

Stewart watched the UNLV game from his hotel room and rode from Omaha to Lawrence in the parents' bus, quarantined from the rest of the Jayhawks. He and Collins both practiced during the week and played Friday with no apparent impairment.

Case study

It took a little bit if foul trouble to make it happen, but Jeremy Case had his moment, hitting an off-balance 3-pointer just before halftime to give KU a 19-point lead.

"He's waited five years for that one possession," Self said. "That was a big possession. I was happy for him."

Case played nine minutes and finished with three points, a rebounds and a turnover.

"I don't think that was the plan, but some guys got in foul trouble and I gotta always stay ready," Case said.

Case also commented on the unusual background at Ford Field, the background which had some people concerned it would throw off shooters.

"I kinda liked the stadium," Case said. "It was a good shooting gym in my opinion."

Williams talks KU

Try to remain calm, Kansas fans, but Roy Williams talked about KU on Friday.

Williams was asked at his press conference about how his return to North Carolina had lived up to his expectations.

"That was not a huge thing with me at all, when I made the decision to leave Kansas and come back," Williams said. "It was just things didn't feel as smooth and comfortable at Kansas as they had been before, and I had another opportunity on the horizon at the same time. And I even told my wife the week before I said, 'Heck, North Carolina is the only place I would leave this place for.'\u2009"

Williams, after mentioning all the NBA teams he turned down in order to stay at Kansas, went on to say he was happy at UNC, but was happy at Kansas, too.

"It's been special. North Carolina was my school for 15 years," Williams said. "Kansas was my school and I loved it. There is no question about that, but North Carolina was home. And whenever I stopped coaching I was going to be in North Carolina because the North Carolina mountains and the North Carolina coast, it's pretty hard to beat both of those. But it's probably been even more appealing than I realized it was going to be when I made the decision."

Williams said the KU and UNC jobs weren't much different.

"You get the same kind of scrutiny at Kansas as you do at North Carolina, it really is," Williams said. "The toughest thing is I've got more cousins and friends that want tickets than I ever imagined, is probably the only negative.

Tip-ins

n LeBron James attended Friday's early game at the Ford Center. He sat in seats that normally would be considered courtside, except that in Ford Field, they're actually about 35 feet from the floor. James' Cleveland Cavaliers play the Pistons in Auburn Hills tonight. James was booed, for whatever reason, when he walked out of the arena.

n Kansas, Texas and Duke are the only three teams in the nation to have played in the Sweet 16 in five of the last seven years. Kansas also has 17 wins in that span, the most in the country. Texas has 14 and is tied for third, behind Connecticut's 15. The Big 12 also has five Final Four appearances since 2002, the most in the nation during that span.

n Entering Friday's game, Villanova was 13-11 as the lower- seeded team in the NCAA Tournament. The 13 wins are an NCAA record. However, the Wildcats entered the game 2-7 against No. 1 seeds, both of those wins coming in 1985 when the eighth-seeded Wildcats won the national championship.

n NCAA president Myles Brand also was in attendance.

n On KU's last possession of the first half, senior Jeremy Case made a 3-pointer to give the Jayhawks a 19-point halftime lead. It made Case 5-for-10 from 3-point range in the NCAA Tournament.

n The announced attendance for the KU-Villanova game was 57,028, an NCAA Tournament record for a preliminary round game.

n The Big 12 is the only conference with more than one team (Kansas, Texas) in the Elite Eight. It is the fifth time in since the league's inception in 1997 it's placed two teams into the Elite Eight.

Atmosphere sketchy

Despite the huge throng at Ford Field, the football stadium was never loud. It was even difficult for KU's normally vocal fans to stir much noise because many were sitting so far from the court.

"The fans are so far away, and I mean away," said KU coach Bill Self. "It seemed like our fans were even further away. I don't think we had the rows right behind our bench."