Kansas Rates No. 1 In More Ways Than One

Too good to be true.

Talk for any length of time about the Kansas basketball team and that phrase will come up.

Talk about the Jayhawks on the court.

That would be a team that has been ranked No. 1 the last 12 weeks. That would be a team that won its first 10 games without starting point guard Jacque Vaughn, who had wrist surgery following a preseason injury. That would be a team that has won seven of eight since starting center Scot Pollard developed a stress fracture in his foot. That would be a team that is 26-1.

Talk about Kansas off the court.

That would be a group of young men who are having the time of their lives, yet have avoided anything even close to negative publicity. That would be a group of young men that includes a starting backcourt of academic All-Americans. That would be a group of young men who talk about their coach like a family member and really mean it.

Spend any time around the Kansas Jayhawks and it’s hard not to think they are too good to be true.

“Even I think they’re too good to be true in some ways and I see them every day,” said Roy Williams, the man who put the team together and who has managed to put together a 239-57 record in his eight-plus seasons at Kansas.

It starts with Williams, a Dean Smith disciple whose only head coaching job has been at Kansas, which he has twice taken to the Final Four. His presence is impressive, not from the exposure of commercial endorsements, but from genuine relationships with the campus and community.

It continues with Vaughn, the poetry-quoting point guard, and Jerod Haase, the shooting guard who will finish the season with a broken right wrist rather than have the surgery that would sideline him. They were both academic All-Americans last season, both with a perfect grade-point average in the second semester.

It keeps on with Pollard, the nail polish-wearing loose cannon of the group who proposed to his girlfriend in front of 16,000 people at Midnight Madness and who tools around in a Cadillac convertible much more suitable to his native California than the roads of Lawrence.

“Whenever you say it’s too good to be true everyone looks at me and says, ‘See, that’s reality. It’s not too good to be true. That guy’s a freaking clown,”’ Pollard said in one of his self-deprecating monologues.

“It’s everything it’s cracked up to be playing for Coach Williams. Honesty. Integrity. All the words they use to describe him are him to a ‘T.’

When Vaughn was asked about Williams, he gave an answer far from the basketball norm.

“He is a person I know will be at my wedding whenever I get married,” Vaughn said, “and the man who I want in the room with me when my first child is born.”

When comments like those make it seem too good to be true about this team, it’s time to turn to the court.

Raef LaFrentz has stepped up in Pollard’s absence beyond anything expected of him. The junior has scored at least 20 points in each of the eight games Pollard has missed, a streak that is all the more impressive when research revealed no player under Williams’ system had ever gone more than three straight games over 20.

LaFrentz has averaged 35 minutes in the streak and his improved rebounding has been overshadowed by his defense. His best game of the season may have been Monday night’s 79-67 victory over Missouri when he had 31 points and 10 rebounds.

When Vaughn was out, sophomore Ryan Robertson stepped in and kept the Jayhawks running through a tough non-conference schedule that included California, Virginia, Cincinnati and UCLA.

“With Jacque we had a lot of time to adjust,” Williams said. “Scot’s was different because four of the next five games were on the road and we played two days later.

“I was talking to the guy who was best man at my wedding and he said he thought I was doing my best coaching job. I said why in the world would you say that, and he said because of losing the kids, the distractions, the changes in the lineups. I said I’d rather be a bad coach. I like last year where we started five guys the first game and every game the rest of the season.”

That season ended with a bitter loss to Syracuse in the West Regional final. It meant Pollard, Vaughn and Haase would go into their senior years without having been to a Final Four.

Williams’ puzzle was complete with the three seniors, LaFrentz and sophomore small forward Paul Pierce. Their last chance to bring Kansas its third national title and the first since 1988, the season before Williams took over the program.

Williams has this team for three more regular-season games, the Big 12 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. The seniors’ last home game will be Saturday against Kansas State.

“I don’t know if I’ll stay out there this year (when the seniors address the crowd after the game) because this one will be so special,” Williams said, his eyes starting fill with tears.

“(Texas Christian coach) Billy Tubbs tells his players and coaches the first thought when they get up in the morning should be what can they do that day to make Coach Tubbs happy, and I thought that was hilarious. I can’t go that way so I tell my staff every day when we get up we should look up and thank the Lord for the kids we have. And that sounds as corny as it can possibly be, but that’s exactly how I feel.”