KANSAS
vs UK
by
Nick Nicholas
What a difference one season can make.
Dec. 9, 1989: Kansas 150, Kentucky 95.
Dec. 8, 1990: Kentucky 88, Kansas 71.
UK had to wait 365 days, but it countered with a 72-point swing. Did this 17-point conquest make up for last year's 55-point setback?
"Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah," Sean Woods, the game's offensive hero, said. "Without a doubt."
More importantly last Saturday, before a spine-tingling atmosphere at Rupp Arena, what a difference 7:32 proved to make.
With 10:42 left in the game: UK 63, Kansas 62.
With 3:08 remaining: UK 82, Kansas still spinning its wheels at 62.
Rick Pitino's 4-0 Wildcats used a 19-0 spree to help ease the pain of last year's loss in Lawrence, Kan., with an 88-71 victory.
Pitino called a timeout after Mike Mad-dox's picked and rolled his way to a layup bringing Kansas to within one, erasing an eight-point halftime lead by the hosts.
"I told them to relax at that point," Pitino, who had just watched his team commit three straight turnovers to fuel a 6-0 KU run, said. "I was pretty hard on 'em at halftime because (he told his players) 'You've got a lot of spectacular individual performances but you can't count on that. You've got to start playing better.' The one thing you're going to have is you're always going to have your defense no matter what you do on offense.
"I told them at halftime that Kansas will have their run. I said,'Defuse their run and create your run.' We wanted to make this a ping-pong matchup up and down the floor. We did a good job in transition of finding the open people on the ballwhich is the best post defenderand the movement and the changing positions of our interior people. They kept changing, playing high, playing low, fronting. They bought time in the low post while we had great pressure on the ball."
While Reggie Hanson and Jamal Mashburn were shutting down Mark Randall (12 points) and Kansas' inside attack, along with an effective Wildcat press, Woods took charge on the offensive end in the second half.
Woods scored a career-high 25 points (11 of 15 from the field), mainly penetrating through KU's defensive pressure. Woods was the "ping" in Pitino's 19-0 "ping-pong" scheme.
"Things are just coming to me because I'm playing loose," Woods said afterward. "I'm doing what Sean Woods is capable of doing instead of playing tight."
Following the Wildcat timeout, Mashburn served two field goals to UK's cause. Next, Woods each time increased the roar generated from the 24,175 fans with a fast-break layup, a six-foot running banker and another penetrating score inside. As quick as Woods can drive to the hoop, Kentucky had moved in front, 73-62.
Walking violations on Randall and Terry Brown continued to shut down the KU offensive surge. Mashburn added a free throw and a nice fake that resulted in 15-footer, making the count to 76-62.
Randall then missed two shots inside. And on Kentucky's end, John Pelphrey glided to the hoop from the left baseline for a layup and was fouled by Maddox. The junior's three-point play increased the margin to 17 (79-62) as well as the crowd's enthusiasm.
Deron Feldhaus capped off the run with a
FAST BREAKS
by TCP ASSOCIATE EDITOR MIKE ESTEP
THREE THREES? PLEASE!
Believe it or not, UK took just 16 three-pointers for the game, and made only three, the low-water mark for the Rick Pitino era. That was because Kansas coach Roy Williams' defensive strategy revolved around stopping UK's perimeter game. Take away the perimeter. Williams' reasoning went, and make point guard Sean Woods beat you on the offensive end. Of course, that's just about what happened. While KU was stopping the threes. Woods was working his magic among the trees. The junior jolted the Jayhawks with his ceaseless drives to the basket, hitting II of 15 shots for a career-high 25 points, dishing out a game-high eight assists.
"I grabbed him there at the end and told him we made a decision that he would be the one who would have to beat us." Williams said. "By golly, he did."
"You feel like no one can stop you," said Woods, who also had six rebounds and a game-high three steals. "You just keep on going."
IS THIS REALLY KANSAS, TOTO?
Yes, Dorothy, for most of the game it was Kansas. The Kansas that was 3-1 entering the game. The Kansas that was shooting 50.8 percent from the field, 47.5 percent from three-point range. And it was that Kansas that took an early first-half lead, then roared back to cut a 14-point deficit to just one, at 63-62, with 10:42 left.
After Pitino called timeout at the 10:38 mark, however, it was a different Kansas. One that would not score for the next 7:34. One that would follow the Yellow Brick Road (missing 11 consecutive shots) and commit a cornfield full of turnovers during that stretch. It was the Kansas that succumbed to a 19-0 UK run, and the one that ultimately fell to 3-2 on the year.
What caused the turnaround? "Two things." Williams said. "One was that we lost our poise. But I'm also one of those guys who thinks you have to give credit to the other team. too. Their pressure, they really picked it up a notch?
"Rick called timeout (prior to the run). I'm sure he'd like to bottle up that speech. They came out and looked more intense. They smelled blood there a couple of times and knocked in some big shots. At the same time, we were not doing a good job of taking care of the basketball and were not getting good shots ourselves."
Rick Pitino bottling up that speech? Let's see: Rick Pitino Car Washes. Bravo Pitino (restaurant). Rick Pitino souvenir basketballs. Rick Pitino golf clubs. Those are working out pretty well.
Rick Pitino timeout speeches? You never know.
BYE-BYE, BIRDIES With the 88-71 victory in the books, the UK-KU series is now
officially over. The series, which stands at 17-3 in UK's favor, will not be renewed, primarily because UK would benefit much more from playing a team from a large metropolitan areapreferrably from the Eastthat would help in recruiting.
Still, Williams hates to see the rivalry die. "I would like this series to continue but I understand Rick's reasons," he said.
"If we would have played this game Aug. 1 there would have been 24,000 people here. And if we would have played it Aug. 1 in Lawrence, Kan., there would be 15,800 there. The tradition the two schools have and the interest, it's hard to find somebody to match that. And I've been at a pretty good place, too."
That place, of course, was as an assistant to Dean Smith at North Carolina. By the way, UK's series with UNC is scheduled to end this season as well, for the same reasons.
FREE SHOTS
UK, undefeated on the season (prior to last Monday's game at UNC) and sure to move up from their No. 25 spot in the Associated Press poll, went to 4-0 for the first time since Eddie Sutton's top-ranked 'Cats reeled off 10 straight wins to open the 1987-88 season...
Speaking of Carolina, the Kansas win brought UK even with the Tar Heels once again on the all-time college basketball win list. Prior to the contest in Chapel Hill, both clubs had 1,483 wins. UK. of course, continues to lead over UNC in winning percentage by a wide margin...
The crowd of 24,175 was the seventh-largest to see UK play in Rupp Arena. One of those fans. Somerset's Charles Stephenson, was the 5 millionth person to see UK play in Rupp...
Also in attendance were eight members of coach Joe B. Hall's 1976-77 team, the first to play in Rupp. Honored prior to tipoff were Tim Stephens, Kyle Macy, Dwane Casey, Merion Haskins. James Lee, Jay Shidler, LaVon Williams and Rick Robey...
DATE: DEC. 8, 1990
VISTORS (Last name first)
SITE: LEXINGTON
KANSAS (3-2)
Randall, Mark Madoox. Mike Jordan. Adonis Jamison. Alonzo Brov,n, Terry Woodberry, Steve Wagner. Kirk Richey, Patrick
Team Rebounds Totals
	3-pt	Ft	Reb.	Pf	TP	A	To	Blk S	Mln
4-9	0-0	4-9	3-6 9	2	12	1	S	0 0	29:12
2-6	0-0	0-0	0-5 5	3	4	3	4	0 2	27:56
30	1-4	0-0	0-2 2	3	7	3..	2	0 0	29.26
6-9	0-0	2-3	1-3 4	5	14	0	3	0 2	23:20
4-14	34	OO	0-5 5	1	11	1	3	0 2	27:41
1-1	0-0	0-0	1-1 2	1	2	1	2	1 1	14:38
3-5	0-0	OO	1-1 2	0	6	0	0	0 0	9:01
1-6	OO	0-0	1-1 2	1	2	1	0	0 0	11.43
? 5	rui	2-2	,.2 3	2	fi	2	1	1 2	20:19
29-66	4-13	9-15	3-1-4 13-28 41	19	71	12	21	3 9	200
1
Total FG%: 29-66. 433% 1st halt: 14-31, 45.2%2nd half: 15-35, 425% Total 3-pt FG%: 4-13. 303% 1st half: 1-4. 25.0% 2nd half: 3-9. 333% Total FT%: 9-15, 600%    1st half: 50. 833%    2nd half: 4-9. 44.4%
HOME (Last name first)
Deadball Rebounds: 3
GIVE KENTUCKY CREDIT
a three-pointer.
"Give Kentucky credit," Kansas coach Roy Williams said. "I think for what they did from the 10-minute mark down to the three-minute mark, they didn't shut us out but we didn't score many. Their defensive intensity picked up, and at the same time we got a little more careless with the basketball. We ran just about every offensive set we could run trying to find something to slow the tide down and we couldn't."
Williams indicated his game plan was to let Woods try and clip the 'Hawks. The Kansas staff noticed in Kentucky's earlier games that Woods liked to penetrate and dish the ball to UK's three-point shooters.
Instead, Woods fouled up Kansas (defender Adonis Jordan picked up three fouls) by driving the distance. "We tried some other people on him," Williams added. "One time he just blew right by us and laid it in. We wanted to make sure and keep him out at 10 or 12 feet. Sean is a good kid and really likes to get the ball to those other guys. Tonight he was able to take it himself."
Besides Woods' 25, four other Wildcats scored 10 or more points. Hanson and Mashburn combined for 12 of 20 from the field, scoring 15 points apiece. Pelphrey and Feldhaus added 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Alonzo Jamison led the Jayhawks, 3-2, with 14 points. Brown scored 11 points but was limited to a three-ofnine showing from the three-point arc. He came into the contest hitting 51 percent from beyond 19*9" (19 of 37). He did. however, continue his streak of
three or more treys, now at five games.
An emotional UK squad opened the contest. Maybe a little too emotional.
The 'Cats found themselves trailing 9-2 when Jamison got free for a slam with 14:34 left in the first half.
UK eased the hometown faithful
with an 8-2 run. Kentucky's four field goals all came inside, with the longest coming on a Richie Farmer six-footer.
A Farmer-to-Jeff Brassow-to-Feldhaus fast-break dunk gave Kentucky its first lead, 14-13.
Kansas last led 15-14 when guard Sean Tunstall drilled a 17-foot baseline jumper.
A 21-6 UK run, triggered by Pelphrey's 23-foot trey, put the 'Cats ahead, 35-21 with 4:45 left. In that stretch, Woods scored the last seven points. "I just went out there and played to the best of my ability. I was just loose and things were happening for me."
SCORE ONE FOR HANSON'S D
After its win over Notre Dame, Kentucky had a week to prepare for Kansas. Notwithstanding the revenge factor which had surfaced all week, the Wildcat staff obviously had enough hours to diagram X's and O's to counter Jayhawk tendencies.
Then again, Pitino didn't sleep too well.
"You have no idea how difficult it was,"
KENTUCKY (4-0)	Fg	3-pt	Ft	Reb.	Pf	TP	A	To	Blk	S	Mln
Pelphrey, John	4-10	1-4	3-3	2-2 4	3	12	2	2	0	2	30:17
Mashburn, Jamal	7-10	OG	1-3	3-5 8	2	15	0	1	1	1	27:20
Hanson, Reggie	5-10	0-1	5-6	2-4 6	3	15	1	6	5	1	36:17
Woods, Sean	11-15	00	3-5	00 6	2	25	8	3	0	3	35:17
Brassow, Jeff	3-7	1-4	00	1-5 6	0	7	1	1	0	3	25:38
Farmer, Richie	1-8	0-4	00	0-2 2	2	2	0	3	0	0	24:56
Feldhaus, Deron	4-7	1-3	1-1	1-1 2	1	10	0	n	0	0	14:54
Martinez, Gimel	1-1	0-0	00	OO 0	2	2	0	1	0	0	3:43
Toomer, Carlos	0-1	00	oo	20 2	0	0	1	0	it	0	1:07
Thompson, Jody	OO	oo	oo	OO 0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0:31
Team Rebounds				0-3 3							
Totals	36-69	3-16	13-18	11-28 39	15	88	13	18	7	la	200
Total rG%: 36-69. 52.2%1st halt: 18-39. 46.2%2nd half: 18-30, 60.0% Deadball
Total 3-pt FG%: 3-16, 18B% 1st half: 1-9, 11.1% 2nd half: 2-7. 28.6% Rebounds: 0 Total FT%: 13-18, 72.2%   1st half: 9-13, 69.2%  2nd half: 4-5. 80.0%
Officials: Don Shea, David Dodge, Gary Marcum Technical fouls: none Attendance: 24,175
Scores by halves
KANSAS
KENTUCKY
1st 2nd
34 37 46 42
Final
71 88
Pitino said about guarding the husky Randall. "I've watched films and I haven't slept. I've had nightmares watching Randall post up."
But Hanson and Mashburn, with their respective backs against the proverbial baseline, slowed down KU's motion offense.
Pitino said Hanson's performance was the best individual defense he's ever coached.
"Even Vegas last year in the Dodge NIT could not guard that young man (Randall) in the low post," Pitino said. "And I think they (UNLV) are the best defensive team in the country."
The senior's defense also contributed to UK being able to claim 28 defensive rebounds. Overall, UK was only outrebounded 41-39. Mashburn led Kentucky with eight boards and Hanson, Woods and Brassow each had six. Randall had a game-high nine rebounds.
It had been a year, but Kentucky finally got the date it had been waiting for. Said Brassow: "It's one of the best feelings I've ever felt in my life."
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