Like '71 team, Jayhawks strive for perfection

Sunday, March 3, 2002

Think it's easy to go undefeated in Big 12 Conference play?

Think it's simple to night in and out lace up the Nikes and humble one's league brethren — two meetings with all five Northern teams and one game against all six Southern foes?

Think again.

"It is a whale of an achievement," former Kansas coach Ted Owens said.

"There are no laydowns. In league play every game is a tough game."

Now in the investment business in Tulsa, Okla., Owens was head coach of the 1970-71 Jayhawks, who went 14-0 in the Big Eight and were the last KU team to complete a perfect conference season.

Of course, the 2001-02 Jayhawks are flirting with perfection, taking a 15-0 record into today's 1:05 p.m. finale at Missouri.

"We didn't always win pretty, but we did win," Owens said of the '70-71 squad. "We had a lot of close games.

"That's why they called 'em the 'Cardiac Kids.'''

The Cardiac Jayhawks, who reached the Final Four with a one-point win over Houston and two-point victory over Drake at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Wichita, had some major scares in their perfect conference campaign. They finished 27-3 overall.

Kansas — the squad's only regular-season loss was an 87-75 decision at Louisville in Game Seven — won in overtime at Missouri, by one point at Colorado, three at Oklahoma and five points at Kansas State. What's more, KU needed overtime to tame Oklahoma in Allen Fieldhouse, and won its final four league games — versus Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska — by a total of 10 points.

"To go undefeated is an amazing feat. You have got to have a little luck along the way," said Dave Robisch, a 6-foot-10 forward/center who averaged a team-leading 19.2 points a game for the 27-3 Jayhawks, who lost to UCLA, 68-60, in the Final Four semifinals at Houston and Western Kentucky, 77-75, in the consolation game.

"It was a really special season, much like the one these guys are having. I couldn't be more proud of them," noted Robisch, an employee of the state of Illinois who watches on TV from his home in the state capital of Springfield.

"This team has a special chemistry. This team has an opportunity to do some special things — going undefeated in the Big 12 and going a long way in the NCAA Tournament. It's a great opportunity. I'm loving every minute of it."

Just as he enjoyed his perfect senior season.

"I think one of the reasons going undefeated was so special is the university really got behind us because of what happened in the years before with Vietnam and all the things going on campuses — what happened at Kent State (campus rioting and resulting loss of lives) and at Kansas (Student Union burning Robisch's junior year). The university community picked us up as something everybody could get behind and really enjoy."

Yes, the Vietnam War was still raging during Robisch's senior year — the year the Beatles decided to disband and a new controversial sitcom, "All in the Family" debuted on network TV. It's also the year of the Manson trial in California.

"It was an interesting time on campus," Owens recalled. "All the social revolution ... the chancellor (Laurence Chalmers) at the time told me that the team brought everyone on campus together with a common interest that helped us through a very difficult time.

"We helped heal the campus. I remember quite early in the season, people started passing out buttons saying, 'Houston in March.' The goal was to play in the Astrodome. They had buttons for all the players: 'Better Buy a Bud (for Bud Stallworth)' and 'Rebound With (Roger) Brown' things like that."

The roster consisted of starters Robisch (19.2 ppg), Stallworth (16.9), Brown (11.2), the late Pierre Russell (10.3) and Aubrey Nash (6.6), plus Bob Kivisto, Greg Douglas, Randy Canfield, Neal Mask, Mark Mathews, Jerry House and Mark Williams. Assistant coaches were Sam Miranda and Gale Catlett.

Here are some more memories from participants on the '70-71 Jayhawks:

Ted Owens, KU coach from 1964 to '83, now investment business adviser for First Capital Management in Tulsa, Okla.

"How I'd describe that team is to use a line of Jerry Tarkanian," Owens said of the current Fresno State coach. "At that time, Jerry was at Long Beach State. We'd beaten them at Allen (69-52 in season opener) and later they lost by one to UCLA. Somebody before the Final Four asked Jerry how to compare Kansas and UCLA. He said, 'If it's a basketball game, UCLA will win. If it's an alley fight, Kansas will win.' I took it as a real compliment. That's what our guys were ... fighters."

KU showed promise early, routing Iowa State and Oklahoma State by 26 and 35 points respectively at Allen Fieldhouse; Iowa State by 23 in Ames and Kansas State by five in Lawrence.

Conference clash No. 5 was at Nebraska.

"I remember thinking we had a chance to win them all after we went to Nebraska and beat one of Joe's tough teams," Owens said of an 81-67 victory over coach Joe Cipriano's Cornhuskers. "I remember the determination of our players. They sort of stayed on a bus for a while when we arrived in Lincoln. When they got off the bus they were determined, really ready to play.

"We played Missouri in one of the last games in old Brewer Fieldhouse. They had all their former players back and it was a huge, huge game. We were able to win in overtime (71-69).

"I remember we were down two at Colorado (in 66-65 win) with a few seconds to go. We got it to Dave Robisch down low. He hit it, was fouled, hit the foul shot and we win. Some nights we'd shoot it, some we wouldn't. But we held our opponents to 37 percent shooting and got 60 percent of all the rebounds.

"We were an interesting team in we had David and Roger Brown, two 6-10 guys, Pierre Russell about 6-4, Bud 6-5, Aubrey Nash and Bob Kivisto. Those six were our rotation. They were tough kids."

Dave Robisch, 6-foot-10 forward/center, now working in Department of Human Services, Springfield, Ill.:

"It was a little different when we played. We had the preseason (Big Eight) holiday tournament in Kansas City and ran the table there (winning three games). Then we went undefeated in the conference, so I look at it as 17-0. We ran the field twice," Robisch said.

Indeed, the Jayhawks beat Missouri, Iowa State and Nebraska in the holiday tournament in Kansas City, to go with their 14-0 regular-season run.

"Down the stretch we had a lot of close games. It prepared us for the NCAA tournament," Robisch said. "Of all the things I remember, we were 27-1 going into the Final Four. If we would have won the national title it would have spoken for itself. I remember playing UCLA in the Astrodome and in the second half we had a chance to go ahead. I took a jump shot off a fastbreak, a jump shot I took hundreds of times and they called me for traveling. We had a chance to get ahead of them and take the lead. It would have meant a lot."

Bud Stallworth, 6-5, forward, now assistant director of budget and support services of design and construction management at KU:

"The main thing is we were just good. You have to be good because it is such a grind," Stallworth said of the league race.

"This current KU team is like our '71 team in that we all got along so well with each other. We trusted each other. Sometimes you build that chemistry where you have great trust in each other. We had it. This KU team has it.

"You know we could have gone undefeated," Stallworth added. "Louisville had a really good team and we went there right before the Big 12 holiday tournament. They had some All-Americans. We had guys who were going to need to find jobs someday.

"In the Final Four, against UCLA, the game before us was Western Kentucky versus Villanova. We were walking out of the side door of the dressing room. There was a last second shot and that game went into overtime. We didn't get our energy back after that it seemed. UCLA handled it better down the stretch and beat us.

"The consolation game, that's like kissing your sister. What is the relevance in it? I think that's why they discarded it."

Stallworth desperately wants KU to win today.

"As long as it's not Missouri," he said with a laugh. MU was the last Big Eight team to go undefeated, with a 14-0 record in 1993-94.

"Kansas is one of the better teams in college basketball I've ever seen because of their versatility, transition. The other team has to have its A-game working and they (Jayhawks) have got to be on their C-game to lose.

"It's tough to play at Missouri. We used to play in that box down there called Brewer Fieldhouse. The only person that ever gave me a hard time there was Norm Stewart. The players on the court I didn't hear from. Whatever I heard in the stands I just took out on the guys on the floor. I blocked most of that out."

Sam Miranda, assistant coach, now retired after working 16 years with Lawrence Maupintour:

"I believe that team in 1971 was one of the top five teams in the history of Kansas basketball," Miranda said, noting the fact the team took a 27-1 mark into the Final Four and four players — Robisch, Brown, Stallworth and Russell — played professional basketball.

It sounds like a cliché, but the team did indeed take it one game at a time, Miranda noted.

"Well, you know we didn't look at the total picture. We just played game to game," he said. "You are so wrapped up in winning the next game. I can't remember even talking about going 14-0. That team had great size and was strong defensively and rebounding. We were not a great shooting team outside of Stallworth and Robisch."

Miranda is a big fan of the 2001-02 Jayhawks.

"Their transition is so great they can get the defensive team back on its heels," Miranda said.

Of playing at Missouri, he recalled: "That was always an obnoxious situation. It was always a tough crowd. You always had that feeling you disliked Missouri as a basketball environment. Our players definitely disliked them."

Roger Brown, 6-10 center, now working for Chicago Board of Education: "To go undefeated in itself involves mental preparation," Brown said, "because when you are winning other people are trying desperately to beat you. It becomes the important game on their schedule. To be perfect ... you have to win tough games. You have to win some games on the road."

The 70-71 Jayhawks were so tough, some have deemed them one of the top teams in school history.

"That always can be debated," Brown said. "When we get together, of course our group believes we were the best. It's always a big argument, but I'll take my group of course.

"I am rooting for them. It would be a nice accomplish for this team to go undefeated. A couple years ago Missouri did it and that took the air out of what we did. Since Missouri did it, I want KU to do it," he added with a laugh.