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Not Gooden enough Posted: Sunday March 31, 2002 1:05 AMUpdated: Sunday March 31, 2002 3:06 AM
ATLANTA (AP) -- Drew Gooden challenged his Kansas teammates to make big plays in the Final Four. They did, almost pulling off a stunning comeback. He didn't -- not enough of them, anyway. That put an end to Gooden's All-American season -- and to Kansas' hopes of its first NCAA title since 1988. Instead, the Jayhawks dropped to 1-3 in three Final Fours, yet another disappointment for coach Roy Williams. "You know, it always hurts," Williams said. "It makes no difference -- Final Four, second round, whatever." The Jayhawks (33-4) cut a 20-point deficit to four points late in the second half, but Maryland held on to win 97-88 Saturday night in the Jayhawks' first NCAA semifinal since 1993. The Jayhawks lost 72-65 to Duke in the 1991 title game and 78-68 to North Carolina in the 1993 semifinals. "I was as about as proud of my team as I've ever been in my entire life," Williams said. "They kept believing that they could get it done, made a fantastic comeback ... but we couldn't quite get it over the hump."
Kansas got double-doubles from forward Nick Collison (21 points, 10 rebounds) and freshman point guard Aaron Miles (12 points, 10 assists) and 17 points from guard Jeff Boschee. Gooden, a 6-foot-10 junior forward who was the Jayhawks' leading scorer and rebounder and the MVP of the Midwest Regional, scored 15 points -- five under his season average -- and didn't break into double figures until late in the second half. But his second 3-pointer with 19.8 seconds left could get the Jayhawks no closer than 92-88. "I didn't play good at all. I didn't get my shot off," Gooden said. "I got in foul trouble and struggled from there. Things didn't go my way tonight." The memory of Saturday night's loss might even be enough to keep him out of the NBA draft this summer. "It will be a tough decision," Gooden said. "No one wants their college career to end like this. I will have to look at it and deal with it and make a decision later." Gooden's struggles started early, and not even his late surge could put the Jayhawks in the title game after they lost an early 13-2 lead. "Early on, we were up 13-2, so I'd say we were in sync," Collison said. "After that, it seemed like we just weren't moving the ball well enough. After we made the run, the rest of the first half we weren't really in sync." In the first half, Gooden had as many goaltending calls against him as field goals (1-for-5, four points). His first two shots didn't even get a chance to fall through -- they were swatted away by the Terrapins' Chris Wilcox. "I knew what we had to do," said Wilcox, who had three blocks against Gooden in the first half. "I knew if I didn't come and play well, then we were going to lose this game. I think I'm a big part of this team." Wilcox's play changed the game, Williams said, by taking the Jayhawks' inside attack away in the first half. "When it was 13-2, we made three 3s during that time," he said. "We got nothing inside except Nick Collison's opening drive." His subpar performance closed an otherwise stellar season for Gooden, who averaged 20 points and 11.5 rebounds as the Jayhawks went 16-0 in the Big 12 -- the first team to go unbeaten in the conference's six-year history -- and reached their first Final Four in nine years. In four Midwest Regional games, he averaged 16.8 points and 13 rebounds. On Saturday, though, Gooden didn't score until he hit a hook shot with 10:39 left in the first half. He didn't break into double figures until a 3-pointer with 3:53 left gave him 12 points.
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The hot hand and cool calm of senior guard Juan Dixon helped Maryland hold off a late Kansas rally.
