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News and notes from the NCAA championship game
By BRETT MARTEL
AP Sports Writer
Reporting from New Orleans
DIALING IN FROM LONG DISTANCE:
Guard Gerry McNamara needed only the first half of Monday night's NCAA
championship to set a single-game, season high for 3-pointers by a Syracuse
player.
McNamara, coming off a 19-point performance � including
three 3-pointers � in the Orangemen's semifinal victory over Texas � hit six
from long range in the first half against Kansas.
The first-half total gave McNamara 18 threes for the
tournament, which set a tournament mark for Syracuse and tied a single-game
tournament record for the Orangemen, set by Lucious Jackson against Southern
Illinois in 1995.
Coming into the NCAA tournament, the most 3-pointers in a
game by a Syracuse player all season was five. Carmelo Anthony hit that mark
against Michigan State and Albany. McNamara also had five 3-pointers when
the Orangemen played Georgia Tech.
FALLEN TEAMMATE: Kansas guard
Keith Langford had a bandage on his arm to start the game, but not because
he was hurt. It carried a black ''23'' mark on it in honor of Wayne Simien,
who started at forward for the Jayhawks this season until dislocating his
right shoulder in February. The injury ended Simien's season.
Langford and Simien joined the team last year as freshmen.
This season, Simien was averaging nearly 15 points and more than eight
rebounds before he got hurt.
The fleet-footed, slashing Langford also was one of Kansas'
top scoring threats this season, averaging nearly 16 points.
KARMA: One of the first big
cheers of the night came when the Kansas band played ``When The Saints Go
Marching In,'' as the Jayhawks ended their pregame warmup. The band has been
playing the tune since Kansas won its regional final in Anaheim, Calif.
The song is enormously popular in New Orleans and commonly
played in the Superdome for Saints football games. Before the NBA's Jazz
moved to Utah in 1979, their games would open with a brass band playing the
tune while leading a small second line parade around the court.
COURAGE: Among those attending
the championship was former Virginia Tech women's player Rayna DuBose, whose
limbs were amputated last year after she nearly died of meningitis.
Earlier Monday, the 19-year-old DuBose received the Most
Courageous Award from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. She was
fitted with prosthetic arms and legs last October and said she has been
walking since November.
She smiled broadly and giggled a bit as she thanked the
writers for the award and her parents, Andrea and Willie, for their support.
DuBose played only in her freshman year, the 2001-2002
season. She became ill in April and was in a coma for three weeks.
This season she spent time with her team again, acting as a
de facto assistant coach.
``She's prepared to be a coach, I'm telling you,'' Tech
coach Bonnie Henrickson said. ``She'll probably get my job here
eventually.''
DuBose said she intends to return to college this summer and
just wants life to be as normal as possible.
``People look at me and say you're an inspiration and you're
so courageous,'' she said. ``I just see myself as the same teenager. I don't
want anyone to treat me any differently than they did before.''
BRAGGING RIGHTS: Kansas Gov.
Kathleen Sebelius and New York Gov. George Pataki had a lot riding on the
championship game.
Sebelius wagered 10 Kansas City strip steaks, a dozen
buffalo burgers and chocolate-covered sunflower kernels � about $185 total �
against Pataki's five large tubs of orange sherbet and a case of vintage
Finger Lakes wine.
Copyright 2003
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:47:07 AM
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