KANSAS 94, MARQUETTE 61: In one of the most lopsided wins in semifinal history, the Jayhawks cruise.
By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published April 6, 2003
NEW ORLEANS - Kansas coach Roy Williams isn't one to steal a peek at the scoreboard during a game. But after just a few moments against Marquette in Saturday night's national semifinal, he did.
"It was 7-7 and I made up my mind I wasn't going to look at the score the rest of the half and I didn't," he said. "Running off at the end of the half, I had a hard time finding the scoreboard, but I thought we were in pretty good shape."
Pretty good? Pretty good?
Try 29 points ahead en route to a 94-61 win.
"I looked up," he said, "and to see that margin just emphasized how well we had played."
His Jayhawks, beating Marquette badly in transition for easy baskets, poured it on to start the second half before an announced 54,432 at the Superdome.
The 33-point win is the fourth largest in Final Four history and second largest in a semifinal, quite a statement for the Jayhawks (30-7) as they advanced to the title game for the second time under Williams, the first since 1991. They will look for their first championship since 1988 on Monday night.
"They played a great, great basketball game in every facet," Marquette coach Tom Crean said.
Though seemingly a bit nervous on this grand of stage, the Golden Eagles (27-6), in the Final Four for the first time since legendary coach Al McGuire's 1977 team won the title, managed to stay close and tied it at 12 on a pair of Dwyane Wade free throws with 13:57 left in the half.
But then the Jayhawks, in the Final Four for a second straight year, showed their experience and poise with their breath-takingly decisive run. Sophomore guard Keith Langford began it with a driving layup, senior guard Kirk Hinrich hit a pull-up 3-pointer from the key, sophomore guard Michael Lee added a 3-pointer and Hinrich followed with another 3-pointer and a fastbreak layup for a 25-14 lead.
All that took was 2:46.
Rock, chalk, shock.
After freshman forward Terry Sanders' tap-in ended that run, the Jayhawks were off and running again. Collison scored twice, his first points of the game, Langford had two more surprisingly easy baskets, a layup and a dunk, and Hinrich had two free throws in a 10-0 run for a 35-16 lead with 7:44 remaining. Kansas then closed the half with another impressive spurt, 13-4, for a 59-30 lead.
"We've been focused the last few games," said Langford, who finished with a game-high 23 points on 11-of-14 shooting. "I just felt there was a certain determination from everybody. Everybody was so confident."
Turnovers made that easier, but even after several made baskets, the Jayhawks inbounded the ball quickly and raced down the court for easy layups or open jumpers.
"As hard as we tried to simulate that in practice, I've learned what so many other teams have learned in the past playing Kansas, you can not prepare for how good that break is," Crean said.
Kansas shot a blistering 60 percent in the half (24-of-40). Meanwhile, its defense held the Golden Eagles to a mere 25.6 percent (11-of-43). Remember folks.
The Golden Eagles had shot 52.3 percent from the floor in their first four tournament games, which included wins against two of the nation's stingiest defenses, Pittsburgh and Kentucky.
But on this night, those performances seemed like ancient history.
At the half, Williams reminded his team comebacks do happen. He had only to mention his team's regular-season game against visiting Arizona in which it blew a 20-point lead and lost by 17. But the Jayhawks opened the second half with a 14-2 run.
It was Marquette's worst loss since falling 108-70 at Kansas on Dec. 1, 1990.
"This will be in our minds forever," Marquette sophomore point guard Travis Diener said. "But also, making it to the Final Four will be with us forever."
[Last modified April 6, 2003, 01:16:49]
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