Syracuse holds off Kansas
By By Richard Dark / EMG staff writer
April 8, 2003
NEW ORLEANS Put simply, poor free throw shooting cost Kansas coach Roy Williams his one shining moment. Tenacious defense allowed Jim Boeheim to finally grasp his.
Either that, or, basketball big-play purists could just point to the heroics of Hakim Warrick.
Warrick's block of a wide-open 3-point attempt by Jayhawk guard Michael Lee, allowed the Syracuse Orangemen (30-5) to capture their first-ever NCAA National Championship, winning 81-78 Monday night in the Louisiana Superdome.
After Kansas inbounded the ball with 1.5 seconds left, Kirk Hinrich's long-range try missed badly and the young Orangemen, who many said were too inexperienced to win it all, flooded the court in exultation, as the 2003 college basketball national champs.
Warrick, who missed two free throws that would have given him an eight-point total and sealed the game with 13.5 seconds left, atoned for the latter with the swat. Boeheim had been on the losing end in similar fashion the last time he was here for a title try.
Freshman Carmelo Anthony, the Final Four MVP, led all scorers with 20 points, to go with 10 rebounds and seven assists, but it was outside shooting from SU guard Gerry McNamara, that might be most telling. He tallied 18 on 6-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc.
Kansas (30-8), which shot a dismal 12-of-30 from the charity stripe, was paced by Nick Collison and Keith Langford, who each poured in 19. Collison, who fouled out with a minute left, added a game-high 21 boards. Langford fouled out with 5:36 remaining and his team trailing by 10.
The Orangemen threatened to run away with it in the first half. After a tight opening six minutes of play, Syracuse began to assert its heralded 2-3 zone. The ensuing turnovers and missed KU shots led to runouts and easy points as the Orangemen methodically built a double-digit lead.
An Anthony steal followed teammate Billy Edelin's basket and a Josh Pace layup gave SU it's largest lead, at 18, in the first stanza.
Free throws, or the lack thereof, kept Kansas from taking over the contest. During the stretch that bridged the two halves, the Jayhawks missed 10 alone.
But showing the same tenacity they have all year long, the Jayhawks came back time after time, finally taking advantage of youthful mistakes by the Orangemen to whittle what was an 11-point lead at the 4:23 mark of the game, to just a deuce, on a front end of a two-shot opportunity by center Jeff Graves.
Fittingly enough, he missed the second free throw with 39 seconds left, finishing with 16, as did Hinrich. KU outrebounded Syracuse, 52-36, but only shot 43 percent on the night, including just 4-of-20 from beyond the arc. Graves also managed to pull down 16 boards in the midst of an incessant tangle of SU arms down low.
For a coach that may be gone to North Carolina next season and has a reputation for not being able to win the big one, Williams nearly was that luckiest man.
Langford dug in and Kansas chopped seven points off the 18-point rut going in at the half. Then, they came back out and promptly began the second frame with a 10-0 run, punctuated by big buckets from Lee, Collison and Langdon, which pulled the Jayhawks to within 55-52 at the 17:08 mark of the game.
But Anthony showed why he might well head for the NBA, by sinking clutch foul shots, grabbing key rebounds, hitting big jumpers otherwise being the teeth of the vaunted 2-3 zone, which gave the Jayhawks fits inside all night long.
Edelin also made his presence felt by scoring six of his 12 to help Syracuse rebuild the lead back to 76-64 with 5:36 to go.
After tonight, no other player at the collegiate level may have to experience that agony. Anthony, rumored to be headed to the pros this year, was serenaded by chants of "One More Year!" from the sea of orange during the postgame net cutting ceremony.
