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Williams or Boheim? Which will finally reach pinnacle?
By HAL BOCK
AP Sports Writer
It's Kansas vs. Syracuse for NCAA
championship
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Kansas now becomes Syracuse's problem,
and Carmelo Anthony becomes the Jayhawks' headache.
Kansas routed Marquette 94-61 with a jaw-dropping display of
flawless basketball in the NCAA tournament semifinals Saturday night before
Anthony's 33 points carried Syracuse past Texas 95-84 in the other
semifinal.
That set up a Monday night championship game between Roy
Williams of Kansas and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, two of college basketball's
most successful coaches, each seeking his first national title.
Boeheim has coached Syracuse to 652 victories in 27 seasons,
but lost title games to Indiana in 1987 and Kentucky in 1996. Williams is in
his 15th season at Kansas and lost the 1991 championship game to Duke.
The two coaches talked recently about the possibility of
facing each other in the title game.
``We both just said if we get there Monday night, one of us
won't have to listen anymore'' to criticism, he said. ``And whoever wins,
we'll give about seven or eight (golf) shots a side to the other guy.''
For Syracuse, Kansas will be the third straight Big 12
opponent, following Oklahoma and Texas, both No. 1 seeds in the tournament
and both distracted by the Orangemen's tenacious 2-3 zone defense.
The defense forced Texas to shoot from outside, and for a
while, the Longhorns made that work. They hit 10 3-pointers, five by Brandon
Mouton and three by Brian Boddicker.
But Anthony was impossible to contain. He made 12 of 19
shots from the field, grabbed 14 rebounds and had three steals. And when he
wasn't hounding Texas, freshman sidekick Gerry McNamara was pestering the
Longhorns with 19 points, four steals and four straight foul shots down the
stretch that kept Syracuse comfortably in front.
Anthony (22.0) and McNamara (13.0) were the top freshmen
scoring duo in the country this season, accounting for 44 percent of
Syracuse's points.
Boeheim admires his team, which has just one senior on the
roster.
``They're young enough to think they can do anything,'' he
said. ``I'm not going to tell them differently. They're unusual freshmen. I
felt that from the beginning.''
Anthony said the team's confidence is high as it looks to
cap the season with the ultimate prize.
``That's what players come to college for, to try and be in
a situation like this, to play in a championship game,'' he said.
Kansas turned the first game into a rout early, scoring 59
first-half points, the second most in Final Four history. The 33-point
margin made it the fourth-most lopsided game ever in the event.
Kirk Hinrich scored 18 points, and he insisted Kansas would
try to play even better in the title game.
``You always try to play the perfect game although that
never happens,'' he said.
The Jayhawks came awfully close, though.
``Some people could say we reached the pinnacle of our game
today,'' Williams said. ``I hope there's still something left in us. You're
still dealing with 19, 20, 21-year-old kids. Who knows what the mood will
be. Our focus is to practice hard, and hope we play our best game of the
season Monday night.''
Kansas put its whole game on display against Marquette. The
Jayhawks ran and dunked and left the Golden Eagles with very few options.
``They played a great, great basketball game in every facet
of the game,'' Marquette coach Tom Crean said. ``Offensively, they moved the
ball extremely well, defensively they made it tough for us to score and they
rebounded the ball at a high rate.
``They are very, very, very good. I would put them with as
good as anybody we've faced.''
Aaron Miles, who had 18 points, tried to play down Kansas'
dominating performance.
``A win is a win,'' he said. ``Whether you win by one point
or 100 points, it doesn't matter. All it did was guarantee us a spot in the
national championship.''
Copyright 2003
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:47:06 AM
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