Kansas Downs Sooners, Captures NCAA Crown

It turned into the ultimate trivia question.

Question: which college made both the football and basketball championship games during the same season, only to come up empty?

Answer: the Oklahoma Sooners.

Last night at Kansas City's Kemper Arena, the Kansas Jayhawks hurricaned through the Sooners, 83-79, in the NCAA Championship game.

Senior Danny Manning, the NCAA Player of the Year, ended his brilliant career with a 31-point, 18-rebound and five-steal performance. He sunk his last two points at the foul line to to give the Jayhawks a four-point lead with five seconds left in the game.

Maninng's key free throws had Kansas (27-11) and Coach Larry Brown basking in Kemper's lights. The Jayhawks had the most losses by any championship team ever.

Oklahoma (35-4) and Coach Billy Tubbs got on the next plane to Norman to accompany football Coach Barry Switzer at the nation's newest second-place breeding ground.

The Sooners collapsed in the closing minutes of the game, as Manning and Co. (Chris Piper and Milt Newton) took a 78-73 lead with 58 seconds left to play.

Ricky Grace's layup closed it to within three points. Grace couldn't connect on a three-point shot five seconds later. Manning got the board, but was fouled by Harvey Grant.

The Jayhawk superstar couldn't hit the front end of a one-and-one, and Blaylock banged a jumper to cut the Kansas lead to 78-77 with 41 seconds left.

Kansas got three points from the line from Scooter Barry and Manning to extend the lead to 81-77. Grace's layup with seven seconds left closed the gap to within two. But Manning was fouled with five seconds left and the senior hit both shots.

The Jayhawks not only did the unexpected by capturing the title, but did it playing Oklahoma's fast-paced style of game. Only in the closing minutes of the game did the Jayhawks begin to slow down the tempo.

In the first half, Sooner Dave Sieger's sixth three-point shot of the game gave the Sooners a 48-45 lead with close to a minute left.

Newton came right back with a triple-dip. Manning then stole the ball, went one-on-one with Stacey King, drew the foul and still managed to get off a beautiful two-handed layup.

Grace's fall-away jumper knotted the score at 50 with 22 seconds left. The 50-50 score in the NCAA's 50th championship game set a new record for most haltime points.

In the half, Kansas swished 71 percent of its shots, bringing back memories of the 1985 Villanova Wildcats, who defeated Georgetown in the title game with a torrid 78.6 mark.

The Jayhawks ended their season by winning 15 out of their last 18 games.