KU Forces Ball, Game From Curry

Kansas 59, Davidson 57

DETROIT, March 30 -- The moment seemed tailor-made for Stephen Curry, the Davidson sophomore who had become the star of the NCAA tournament with his sweet shooting and clutch playmaking. With 16.8 seconds left in the Midwest Region final against top-seeded Kansas on Sunday afternoon, he had the ball in his hands, and the 10th-seeded Wildcats, who trailed by two, had a chance to either tie the score or win the game.

Curry dribbled off two screens in an attempt to get free, but the Jayhawks kept a defender stuck to his side. With the clock winding down, Curry passed to his trusted back-court mate, and senior Jason Richards took the final shot, a long three-point attempt that bounced wide left. Richards fell to the floor, as the Kansas players charged onto the court to celebrate their 59-57 victory.

The win, which came in front of a record crowd of 57,563 at Ford Field, put the Jayhawks into the Final Four for the 13th time, their first appearance since 2003. It also ensured that for the first time, four No. 1 seeds are in the national semifinals. Kansas (35-3) will face North Carolina in the second semifinal on Saturday in San Antonio.

Kansas Coach Bill Self entered the postgame news conference wearing a gray Kansas sweat suit, and sheepishly explained that his players doused him with water because they "thought we just won a football bowl game." But those players were clearly thrilled to help Self get to the Final Four for the first time in his coaching career, after making four previous trips to the region finals.

"I'm proud, happy, relieved," said Self, who also took Tulsa and Illinois to the region final. "There's a lot of adjectives to describe it. I'm most happy for our players that have played so hard, won so many games. Really felt like without a win today, you know, their careers would be incomplete. Now we have a chance to go play for the highest of stakes."

"Everybody's got a smile on their face," said senior forward Darnell Jackson, who had nine points and seven rebounds. "It's been so long since we've been to a Final Four. There are a lot of guys on this team that kept fighting and making unbelievable plays."

The 6-foot-3 Curry became the star of the tournament by repeatedly making those kind of plays. He scored a game-high 25 points on 9-of-25 shooting and was named the region's most outstanding player -- becoming the first player from a losing team to be so honored since Michigan's Juwan Howard in 1994 -- but he labored at times against a Kansas team that rotated four defenders, including 6-6 Brandon Rush, on him.

Curry missed his first five shots -- 10 minutes into the game, forward Thomas Sander (eight points) had accounted for more three-pointers (one) than Curry (none) -- and missed seven consecutive three-point attempts during the second half. He scored five straight points after halftime to give the Wildcats (29-7) a three-point lead with 18 minutes 32 seconds remaining, and at that point, he had accounted for 20 of Davidson's 33 points.

"They had a lot of bodies and a lot of athletic guys who could chase me the whole game," said Curry, who was held under 30 points for the first time in five career tournament games. "Towards the end there, I got some good looks. They just didn't fall like they were the whole tournament. I mean, credit to them. They did make me work hard and make me just fight off screens, get the shot up quicker than normal because they had great length."

Led by Rush, the Jayhawks scored eight straight points to open up their biggest lead of the game, 43-37, with 12:11 to play. But Davidson fought its way back into the game behind the outside shooting of sophomore guard Bryant Barr, whose first shot of the game didn't even hit the rim (it bounced high off the backboard). Barr made three three-pointers in a 2 1/2 -minute span, and after Curry scored on a pull-up jumper, the Wildcats led 51-47 with 8:54 left.

Kansas regained the lead following a steal and layup by Mario Chalmers (13 points) and a three-pointer from Sherron Collins. The Jayhawks led 59-54 entering the final 55 seconds, but Curry hit a three-pointer from the left side to set up the final two possessions. Collins missed a three-point shot as the shot clock was running down, and the ball went out of bounds to Davidson with 16.8 seconds.

The Jayhawks sent four guards into the game to defend the final seconds, with Rush on Curry. The Wildcats wanted to run Curry off a screen at the top of the key, and once he realized he had no space, he passed the ball to Richards, a career 34.5 percent three-point shooter.

"You dream about that type of stuff when you're a little kid, having the opportunity to win the game, take your team to the Final Four," said Richards, who finished with seven points and nine assists. "I had a great look. . . . Maybe you could say we could have got a better shot. At that point it seemed the best shot for us. I felt comfortable taking the shot."

Richards's shot was "probably the longest shot I've seen in my life, just being in the air for so long," said Kansas senior Sasha Kaun, who had 13 points. "Just relieved when I saw it hit the backboard. Just happy after that."