Langford vows to play tonight
Senior says he will be on floor for opener
OKLAHOMA CITY ? If there’s any way humanly possible he can play, Kansas University’s Keith Langford will play in tonight’s first-round NCAA Tournament game against Bucknell.
“Me being a senior, in this position, there would have to be a lot going on for me to not be out there. This could be the last go-around of my career. I want to be out there playing,” a defiant Langford said Thursday night.
“For this team to have the best chance to win, I feel me out there at 75, 80 percent is better than not at all.”
Langford’s recent stomach and ankle problems took dramatic turns for the better Thursday and allowed him to participate in a full, hour-and-a-half practice at Oklahoma City University and a 40-minute shootaround at Ford Center.
He felt so strong, he proclaimed himself fit for tonight’s 8:50 p.m. tip against the 22-9 Bison at the Center.
“In my heart, I’m playing. You ask me I say 100 percent I’ll play,” said Langford, who coach Bill Self said definitely would not start tonight but could see significant minutes.
“The doctors and trainers say I’m questionable, but if you ask me, I’m playing. They are still going through last minute what-ifs and will see how I’m doing during the day.
“I just hope I can go to sleep without waking in the middle of the night feeling terrible,” he added.
He’s pretty sure the left ankle he bruised March 3 and again in the March 6 loss at Missouri and again tweaked at practice Monday, wouldn’t give him any major problems tonight.
Kansas senior Keith Langford stretches out during practice. He said he would be ready to play tonight against Bucknell.
“I can tape it up. I can play with pain. I’ve done it before,” he said.
His ankle hasn’t provided him as much anguish as his current bout with the stomach flu, which he’s struggled with for about a week and a half.
He thought he had shaken the affects of the bug until he was hit hard Wednesday, spending most of the day in bed before garnering enough strength for the early evening bus ride to Topeka and charter flight to OKC.
“I was praying, basically,” Langford said of the key to his feeling better Thursday. “There’s nothing to take that works magically to get better. It’s been frustrating because I never heard of relapses with the flu until it happened to me.
“The answer about how I’m feeling has changed so much over two weeks. I give a different answer every time which becomes old, but the general answer is, ‘I’m starting to feel better, and believe I will be playing.'”
He put to rest rampant rumors that he had kidney stones.
“I wish it was kidney stones. If it was kidney stones I could (push) it out and be done and go to work,” he said. “I understand how painful kidney stones are, being around people who have had them. It wasn’t a kidney stone.”
What has hit him is a lot of vomiting that has drained him of energy.
J.R. Giddens (15) reaches up to shake hands with a young fan as the Kansas University basketball team takes the floor before practice. The Jayhawks had a shootaround Thursday in Oklahoma City as a final tune-up for tonight's NCAA Tournament first-round game against Bucknell at Ford Center.
“Maybe it’s a worm or something,” Langford said. “To be honest, I don’t know what it is. Sometimes doctors can’t tell you exactly what’s going on. That’s the frustrating part about it. What makes me so angry is there’s nothing I can do about it except take medicine and drink Gatorade and rest.”
He didn’t feel well at all Thursday morning when he received phone calls from friends and relatives who had read injury reports in Thursday’s papers that said he was highly doubtful for tonight’s game. Also, CBS opened its NCAA coverage with an item on Langford being doubtful for Bucknell.
“I was upset about that. I don’t know how our media people are handling telling people if I’ll be out there or not,” Langford said.
Reporters have been running daily updates provided by Self, who said tracking Langford’s ailments have been trying for everybody.
“Nobody is misleading anybody,” Self said. “He’s gone through a bunch of stuff the last 10 days. They are not the only ones confused; the coach is confused, too. His ankle was bad, getting better, then he tweaked it. Then he’s battling the flu, they had to do a battery of tests to make sure he had no kidney problems, they all turned out negative. It was the flu, but a severe case.
“If he’s 100 percent today, he was zero percent yesterday. That’s a miraculous turnaround.”
Self said he likely would start Michael Lee and J.R. Giddens to go with Wayne Simien, Aaron Miles and Christian Moody.
But don’t be surprised if Langford — who said his “chest might be burning at the first TV time out” because of his lack of conditioning of late — enters the game early and often.
“It’ll be up to him to determine if he can go and up to us to determine how to use him,” Self said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he was able to go and be effective.
Added Simien, “We’re still not sure if he’ll play. It’ll probably be a game-time decision, but we’d love to have him.”
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Langford vows to play tonight
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| ¢ This is the first meeting between the schools. Bucknell never has played a game in Oklahoma.¢ This is KU’s 34th overall NCAA Tournament appearance and third trip to Oklahoma City for the event. Its last trip to OKC was the start of KU’s run to the NCAA Tournament championship game in 2003.¢ The Jayhawks’ 34 NCAA Tournament appearances rank fourth nationally behind only Kentucky (47), UCLA (39) and North Carolina (37).¢ Kansas sports an all-time NCAA Tournament record of 73-33, and the Jayhawks’ 73 wins rank fifth in the nation.¢ KU will play its 107th NCAA Tournament game today, which ranks fourth all-time in NCAA history. KU’s NCAA Tournament winning percentage (.689) ranks seventh all-time.¢ Kansas’ 16 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances ranks second among active streaks.¢ The Bison, who are making their third NCAA appearance in history and first in 16 years, have won four straight and seven of their last nine games.¢ Bucknell’s last three victories came in the Patriot League Tournament, where the Bison allowed 126 points (42.0 per game) in triumphs over Lafayette, American and Holy Cross.¢ The No. 14 seed is Bucknell’s highest in three NCAA appearances. It was seeded 16th when it lost to Georgetown, 75-53, in 1987 and 15th in a 104-81 loss to Syracuse in 1989.¢ Bucknell is trying to become the 14th No. 14 seed to win a first-round game, and the first since 1999. |