KU Flashback: Jayhawks post first-ever win over Kentucky in 1973

With Kentucky’s victory over Kansas in the national championship game on April 2, the Wildcats now hold a 21-6 all-time series lead. However, before UK's last two wins over KU (the Wildcats also beat KU early this season in November), Kansas had won three straight with five of its six wins coming in the last eight meetings.

In the aftermath of the national title game, I began thinking of KU’s six wins over Kentucky, the players that made the plays and the specifics of each game. In this blog entry, I travel back in time to Dec. 3, 1973 when KU beat the mighty Wildcats for the first time in school history.

***

With KU still winless in the overall series to Kentucky (0-5), the Jayhawks looked to get their first victory over the Wildcats in Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 3, 1973, three days after crushing Murray State, 103-79, in the season opener. KU hit its first 12 shots after halftime in that game and finished the contest with 49 field goals, a school and fieldhouse record.

Now, KU was looking to keep the hot shooting cooking against the Wildcats, who won their opening game against Miami of Ohio, 81-68.

Even though it was just the second game this season, after going just 8-18 last year, this was a game KU needed to win to get its confidence boosted for the long season ahead.

And they did.

Behind 20 points from junior college transfer Roger Morningstar and strong inside play (KU’s frontline scored 62 points), the Jayhawks notched their first-ever win against UK, 72-61. Kentucky forward Kevin Grevey was game-high scorer with 23 points, though the Lawrence Journal-World reported that Morningstar “did a sticky first-half defensive job” on the Wildcats’ star player.

KU led just 31-28 at halftime, but hit 19 of 31 shots in the second half to build its lead. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks held the Wildcats to just 39 percent shooting for the game.

Morningstar was the star — “This is the biggest game I’ve ever played in my life,” he told the Lawrence Journal-World — but he had help this night from post players Danny Knight (17 points) and Rick Suttle (12 points), who hit shots and also put the clamps on Kentucky’s 6-8 big man Bob Guyotte (1 of 7 shots for just four points), UK’s sixth man last year who was pressed into pivot duty this season.

Coach Ted Owens’ game plan was to get the ball inside to test Guyotte.

“Inside was the place we felt we could hurt them,” Owens said.

KU was now 2-0 and riding high after beating the nationally ranked and defending SEC champs.

"I think we beat a good team Saturday in Murray State, but I think it was important for us to beat a ranked basketball team,” Owens said. “I’m very pleased. We were doing the things necessary to win. This team is more and more beginning to understand the things necessary to succeed. Some of the guys have had all the losing they need. We don’t have to lose anymore to learn lessons. They’ve worked awfully hard to become a team so they don’t want to let it slip away.”

KU marched to the Final Four that season with a 23-7 record, the best turnaround in school history and one of the best comebacks in NCAA history after finishing just 8-18 in 1972-73.

Calipari's Roots at KU

Love him or hate him, Kentucky coach John Calipari was once a Jayhawk. He got his coaching start at KU as a volunteer assistant in 1982 under head coach Ted Owens. He then served as a part-time assistant the next two years under Larry Brown before leaving KU and eventually making his coaching mark, culminating in winning his first national championship recently on April 2. This is a piece I wrote on Calipari on April 7, 2008, the day of the national title game before his Memphis Tigers battled KU. The Jayhawks, of course, won that game with Mario Chalmers hitting the biggest shot in Kansas basketball history. In this article, Calipari reflects on his KU days back in the 80s, calling them the “best time of my life.”

By David Garfield

Phog.net Senior Writer

Posted Apr 7, 2008

SAN ANTONIO — John Calipari remains forever grateful that his coaching career began at the University of Kansas.

Of course, the Memphis head coach would love to beat KU in the national championship game tonight. However, win or lose, he won’t ever forget his three seasons as a KU assistant (1982-85) under Ted Owens and Larry Brown.

On the day before his first national championship game, John Calipari fondly recalled how it all started.

“Bob Hill (then-KU assistant coach) and I were working at Camp Five Star,” Calipari said. “(He) said, ‘Why don’t you come out and work our camp?’ I said, ‘Okay.’ I worked his camp. Ted Owens watched me do a station. He said, ‘Why don’t you stay here. I can’t pay you. If you want to help out and be in the office and stuff envelopes, and learn about college basketball, I’d love to have you here.’”

After just receiving a business marketing degree from Clarion State College in Pennsylvania, the bright-eyed Calipari jumped at the opportunity.

“I went, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Calipari said. “So I went out there with two pair of shoes, three pairs of slacks, a blue blazer, three shirts, and two ties, happy as hell.”

Calipari was a volunteer his first year under Owens, and then a part-time assistant for two years under new head coach Larry Brown.

Calipari had a ball, even though he was financially challenged.

“To eat, I worked at the training meal,” he said. “The Sinclairs ran the training table. I would serve peas or corn. (I’d ask people), ‘What would you like, peas or corn?’ I (said), ‘I’ll be there early for practice if you want to do some extra shooting.’

“I remember the first time in Allen Fieldhouse, the old locker room, I went in and it was old. I’m thinking Phog Allen showered (here). I said, ‘This has been her since the building, right?’ They said, ‘Yeah.’ The storied history of Kansas. The environment to live, to raise a family. It was tough for a 25-year-old because you’re not going to hang around the students. You didn't’ have any money to go to the country club. But what it made me do, I just got into basketball. I was in the office all the time doing stuff. It was a great time, and I met my wife in Kansas. She was poor, I was poor.”

Calipari certainly isn’t poor anymore. He’s become one of the best coaches in college basketball and led both UMass (1996) and Memphis to the Final Four. After leaving Kansas, Calipari served as an assistant at Pittsburgh for three years before taking the UMass head coaching job in 1988. He coached there until 1996, taking the Minutemen to five straight NCAA tournaments (1992-96).

He left UMass in June of 1996 to become executive vice president of basketball operations and head coach of the New Jersey Nets. After leading the Nets to a second-place finish in the Atlantic Division and the playoffs in 1998, Calipari was eventually fired the following year.

That’s when he got a call from Brown, the Philadelphia 76ers head coach, asking if Calipari would like to rejoin him as an assistant.

“I’m so appreciative of Larry Brown as a mentor and friend,” Calipari said. “I walked with him this morning on the Riverwalk. None of the things that have happened for me or my family would have happened (if it wasn’t for him).  ... He didn’t have to (hire me as an assistant). He didn’t need me. The guy is a Hall of Famer.”

“I had three calls when I got fired,” Calipari added. “Larry Brown, my father, and Howard Garfinkel (who Calipari knew when he worked Garfinkel’s Five-Star Camp). That’s why Larry Brown reaching out and saying, ‘Come on down here and join me,’ what it did for me, one, it starts to bring you back. Men, their livelihood, how they make a living, is how they think they are. That’s their life. So you kind of die. And so he helps there (and) also confirmed how I felt about the game and how to teach it because I was with him.”

After a year with Philly, Calipari was hired as the University of Memphis’ 16th head basketball coach on March 11, 2000. He has since left an indelible mark with the program. In fact, his 104 victories since 2005-06 tie Memphis for the No. 1 spot on the all-time NCAA Division I  list for most wins (104) in three years.

KU coach Bill Self has great respect for Calipari. Self actually became a graduate assistant at KU in 1985 three weeks after Calipari left KU for Pittsburgh.

“I’ve known Cal forever,” Self said. “Going to UMass and then coming to Memphis and getting both places to the Final Four is a remarkable, remarkable accomplishment.”

Calipari gives Self props as well.

“Through that connection (with Brown), we’ve been friends,” Calipari said. “I am so happy for him and what he’s been able to do in his career. He’s a good man. He’s a great coach. We probably recruit the same type of kids and the same players. (We) recruit more against Kansas than I recruit against anybody else.

“We’re two competitive coaches. It’s easier for me when I like somebody than it is if I really want to beat somebody, because that gets me off point. I tell (my players), ‘You get inspired when you’re mad.’ I can’t do it. I’d rather have a guy that I really respect and like. Let me go coach against that guy, have fun doing it.”

Calipari hopes to have a lot of fun Monday night coaching against Self in the national championship game. But even if he wins it all, that moment can never replace the three years he spent at Kansas.

"It was the best time of my life," Calipari said.

http://kansas.scout.com/2/744264.html 

College basketball blue bloods Kansas and Kentucky collide tonight in national championship game

I wrote this piece before the national championship game between KU and UK on April 2.


By David Garfield

As Kansas marches into the national championship game tonight against Kentucky — the two winningest teams in college basketball history (UK is No. 1 and KU No. 2) — my mind races back to a recurring dream I had as a teenager growing up in Lawrence and attending South Junior High.

The picture and dream is indelibly etched in my mind. It’s the NCAA championship — Kansas vs. Kentucky. KU is down by one point with 20 seconds left in the game. Darnell Valentine, the Jayhawk point guard sensation with the tree-trunk thighs, dribbles the ball upcourt as KU fans around the country watch with bated breath. With seven seconds remaining, Valentine deftly penetrates the lane and then dishes the ball to Tony Guy. Guy takes one dribble and lets fly a 20-foot jumper at the buzzer that all KU faithful pray hits nothing but net.

Swish. KU wins the national championship.

I’d get mad chills thinking about that perfect scenario. Unfortunately, that dream never became reality as Guy and Valentine’s national title hopes fell short in 1981 with a loss to Wichita State in the Sweet 16.

But now, 31 years later, KU (32-6) — those tough, gritty, comeback kids — will go toe to toe with the Kentucky Wildcats (37-2) at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans in what could be a classic championship game.

It seems so fitting that two of the most tradition-rich and storied schools should finally meet for the first time in the national title game. These programs are intrinsically tied together with Adolph Rupp, the late, legendary Kentucky coach, actually playing for Phog Allen at KU and winning the Helms Foundation National Championship (retroactively) in 1922 and 1923.

Allen, the Father of Basketball Coaching, retired in 1956 as the winningest coach in college basketball history with 746 victories to just 264 losses in his 50-year coaching career. Eleven years later on Feb. 18, 1967, Rupp — the “Baron of Basketball” — broke his mentor’s record with a 103-74 win over Mississippi State. Rupp, who retired in 1972, amassed 876 career wins in his 42-year coaching tenure in Lexington, currently the fourth winningest mark just behind KU graduate Dean Smith.

The rich storyline between the two schools is even more intriguing considering that on Dec. 10, 1977, Rupp died at age 76 on the night Kentucky beat Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse during a game billed as “Adolph Rupp Night.”

I’m a history buff and always lived for those Kentucky and KU games during my wonder years growing up just five minutes from Allen Fieldhouse and watching most of the home contests live as the teams embarked on a 15-year series from 1971 to 1985. While KU won just twice during that span (in 1973 and 1985 — both in the fieldhouse), those games were full of intense excitement and energy in the Phog, giving me goosebumps each time.

The chills were never greater than on Dec. 12, 1981 at Allen Fieldhouse when my hero Guy swished a shot from the top of the key in overtime against Kentucky. I immediately jumped out of my seat (Section 2, Row 4, Seat 3) and hugged my dad out of sheer delight, wanting to hold on to that moment forever. Despite KU losing the game, the resounding cheers from the crowd after Guy hit that thrilling shot still echo in my mind three decades later.

While KU and UK met again after 1985 in a two-year series in 1989-90 (and in 1998 for a made-for-TV Great Eight Game and a 1999 NCAA tournament game), and then another home-and-home series from 2005-06, the series was again discontinued.

I’ve always felt KU and Kentucky should play on a regular basis. And so do fans of the two schools, including former Jayhawk standout and huge KU booster Tom Kivisto. Just before the Jayhawks and Wildcats tipped off in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Chicago in 2007, Kivisto told me he was working at the time to promote and renew a regular-season series between the two schools.

“You look at the history of these two teams, it’s unbelievable,” Kivisto said. “What’s great about that story is that a lot of modern day people who just get caught up on the road to the Final Four the last 20 years wouldn’t know that richness. So it’s a great new story that’s an old story to bring out as new. It would be a fabulous revival, one that would probably rival the Duke-North Carolina (series) that gets a lot of publicity. This one’s got a lot richer (history).

“They need to play every year, and we’re not far from each other. It ought to happen.”

While KU and UK haven’t played a home-and-home series since I talked to Kivisto in 2007, they now meet on the grandest stage of college basketball on Monday night in New Orleans, a rematch of their earlier battle this season on Nov. 15 in Madison Square Garden in New York, which Kentucky won, 75-65.

For basketball purists, this was meant to be since James Naismith — KU’s first basketball coach — invented the game and hung up the the first peach basket in 1891 at Springfield College in Massachusetts.

KU vs. Kentucky for college basketball biggest prize. It doesn’t get much better with both teams so steeped in hoops history.

After all, Kentucky has been to 15 Final Fours (tied for No. 3 all time); KU has earned 14 Final Four berths (No. 5 all time). UK has 52 NCAA tournament appearances (No. 1 all time); KU has been to the Big Dance 41 times (No. 4). The Wildcats have won seven NCAA championships (No. 2 all time); KU has won three NCAA titles (tied for No. 6 all time). And KU has boasted 28 consensus first-team All-Americans (No. 1 all time) to Kentucky's 24 (tied for No. 4).

While UK will be the overwhelming favorite to win the game, just like Oklahoma was in 1988 against KU in the national title game (KU upset the Sooners, 83-79), Kansas knows it can top the talent-laden Wildcats, especially if they “muddy” up the game and not let UK get in rhythm.

“I truly believe in my heart we can beat anybody,” KU coach Bill Self said. “We may not be favored in a series if we're playing four out of seven, but in my heart I believe we can beat anybody.”

KU showed its toughness against Kentucky early in its second game this season on Nov. 15 with the Jayhawks up by seven points twice in the first half before the Wildcats pulled away after halftime with a 75-65 victory.

Over four months later, the two best players in college basketball will battle again in Kentucky's Anthony Davis and KU’s Thomas Robinson. And two of the best coaches in college hoops will match wits in Kentucky’s John Calipari and KU's Self — two men who were on opposite sidelines in the 2008 national title game when Self’s Jayhawks beat Calipari’s Memphis Tigers. Calipari, as many know, once sat on the KU bench as an assistant to Ted Owens and Larry Brown in the 1980s.

While former Jayhawks Darnell Valentine and Tony Guy never had the opportunity to meet and beat Kentucky for the national championship, the dream lives on. Now, Tyshawn Taylor is the silver quick point guard who could be penetrating the lane tonight with seven seconds left with KU down one point to Kentucky and dishing to Elijah Johnson for the biggest 20-foot jumper of his life.

I can close my eyes and see Johnson — Mr. Big Shot — with his feet set and confidence high, effortlessly releasing the ball, the orange leather spinning upwards towards the goal.

Nothing but net at the buzzer.

KU wins the national championship ... and my childhood dream finally becomes reality.