March Sadness for Jayhawks Fans
April 1, 2004
by Chelan David

The NCAA basketball tournament is like Christmas to me. I take time off from work, gain five pounds and correspond with friends I haven’t kept in touch with for the past year hoping to will Kansas, my alma mater, to victory. The only difference is at Christmas I get presents and March Madness gives me heartbreaks. This year the Jayhawks' dream season was shattered by Georgia Tech in an overtime loss, one win shy of the Final Four.

A group of my friends visit Vegas during the opening rounds of the tournament each year. I’ve always opted out, but next year I’m in; while bleeding crimson and blue I might as well also be cheering for the underdogs and making some dough in the process – or at the very least, drowning my sorrows in booze.

The Jayhawks despite all of their tradition and success have not fared well in the tournament, especially when compared to the truly elite teams. The numbers do not lie. Over the past 50 years all of the blue chip programs have won at least three championships: Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, North Carolina and UCLA. Even Cincinnati, San Francisco, North Carolina State, Louisville and Michigan State have won two titles. Kansas has only one, in 1988.

Other teams with one championship over the past half-century include: Arkansas, Marquette, Georgetown, California, Villanova and Michigan. Fine basketball programs certainly, but Kansas should be listed among the first group of teams, not the second.

The Jayhawks own the third most victories in the history of college basketball (behind Kentucky and North Carolina). The program has produced one of the greatest players ever, Wilt Chamberlain, and such coaches as Adolph Rupp class of ‘23 and Dean Smith class of ‘53. The only losing coach has been the first one, James Naismith, who just happened to invent the game.

Lawrence, KS, is the heart and soul of college hoops. Most people would find it hard to comprehend how important college basketball is in Lawrence; it’s a way of life. How else to explain venerable Allen Fieldhouse filled to the rafters, 16,300 strong for the first practice of the year? Students don’t just camp out overnight for big games, they show up a week in advance. Roy Williams’ decision to stay at Kansas in 2001 rather than bolt to North Carolina was so momentous – the press conference was staged at the football stadium and the television stations in Kansas City cut into regularly scheduled programming to carry the event live.

When Williams finally decided to accept the Tar Heel position following the 2002-03 season, some Kansas fans predicted doom. I remained ambivalent. Williams is a stand-up person who ran a clean program, won a lot of games and the majority of his players graduated. However, he was a program coach rather than a big game tactician, having a tendency to stick with the system regardless of the situation which resulted in some painful losses.

Following the heartbreaking 1992 loss to UTEP in the tournament, when the top-seeded Jayhawks succumbed to the ninth-seeded Miners, my father, who never knew much about basketball, took it upon himself to write a letter to the editor of the local paper chastising Williams. He likened Williams, in his third year at Kansas, to a general leading his troops to battle with no strategy.

At the time everyone thought he was crazy because Williams, who after inheriting a team on probation his first season, had led Kansas to a surprising championship game berth in his second season. Unfortunately, ‘92 was just the first in a long string of disappointing season ending losses.

The tournament is not fair to teams like Kansas although its egalitarianism admittedly makes it such an exciting sporting event. Unlike college football's BCS system, everyone has a chance to dethrone Goliath. We’ll never see a Rhode Island or a UTEP battling it out on the gridiron on New Year’s Day but each of these teams have sent the Jayhawks home in March.

When Bill Self accepted the job at Kansas I was excited to have a coach who has taken two different schools, neither known as basketball powerhouses, to the Elite Eight in the last several years. Although his first season ended short of the title, Self is quickly proving that Kansas basketball is more than Roy Williams. So far, Williams has yet to prove that North Carolina is more than Dean Smith although I do hope he wins a championship some day – just not before the Jayhawks do.

(Chelan David is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine)