Griner and Mulkey give Baylor sweep of AP Awards
“It’s an honor,’’ said Griner, who became the first Baylor player to win the award. “We have a great year going and for it to be the perfect season for me, we’ve got to win the national championship.’’
The two-time All-American got 36 of the votes from the 40-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne received two votes while Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins and Stanford’s Nnemkadi Ogwumike got the other ones.
Mulkey, who won the award for the first time, received 19 votes. Tina Martin of Delaware was second with 14. Jim Crowley of St. Bonaventure got three votes and Kim Barnes-Arico of St. John’s, Matt Bollant, who coached Wisconsin-Green Bay this season before recently taking the Illinois job, Muffet McGraw of Notre Dame and Katie Meier of Miami each got one vote.
“I’m honored, but truthfully, I’m only as good as the kids I get to coach,’’ Mulkey said. “I’m blessed they are on my team, they make you look good.’’
Mark Humphrey/AP
NEW ORLEANS - Niko Roberts was ecstatic when talking about the fun and achievement of being a part of a Final Four team. To those who watch on television, he is one of the nameless players on the bench. He locks arms with comrades in a shot, while one of his stellar teammates takes a crucial free throw at the end of the game. Roberts, a sophomore guard out of St. Anthony’s High (L.I.) and the son of former St. John’s coach Norm Roberts, is as much a part of the Kansas Jayhawks as star forward Thomas Robinson or starting point guard Tyshawn Taylor. “I love being here at the Final Four: it’s the reason I came to Kansas,” Roberts said. “When you’re the 10th or 11th player on the team, you’re not here to be a big name. You come because you love the school and the program. You come to make the team better. This is the reward.: Norm Roberts spent 10 seasons as a top assistant coach to Kansas coach Bill Self, with him at Tulsa, Illinois and then Kansas, before St. John’s gave him his first Division I coaching opportunity. He made a reputation there and, though he did not win enough with the Johnnies, his reputation as a character person remains as he moved on to become an assistant to Billy Donovan at Florida. Had the Gators beaten Louisville in the West Region final, the Roberts family would have been an undeniable story here. “We talked afterward and all he wanted to say was how happy he was about us reaching the Final Four,” Niko Roberts said. “I told him I was sorry and that they’d had a great year. He didn’t want to talk about that. All he wanted to talk about was the positive things that had happened for us and our family with Kansas getting here.” Niko Roberts knows that his future doesn’t lie in playing basketball, but that doesn’t make him any less part of Kansas’ success. “Everybody talks about your so-called rotation guys or your main guys that have something to do with production or play the majority of the minutes, but everybody has a role,” Self said Friday after practice. “Guys that don’t get an opportunity to play much, their role is to make sure that those guys play better. Their role is to make sure that they’re good in the locker room. Their role is to be a great teammate. Their role is to hold guys accountable. Their role is to make sure they lighten the mood, a lot of things. “We have a great team of a couple of guys, a great team of guys like that, and one of them is Niko. Niko, he wanted to come to school at Kansas. I’ve known him since he was a year old probably, maybe two . . . He wanted to be at KU. He’s a little different because he’s a coach's son. Sometimes they add extra value because they are a coach in the locker room, which I think he's done a great job with.” Roberts is a communications major. He hopes that one day he can stay in basketball by working with the networks that cover college ball and show him on the screen during those tense moments of the Jayhawks games. “Sports has been a big part of my life and I’d like to continue that, maybe at a place like ESPN,” he said. “I care about the game.” He’s spent two years helping to sustain Kansas as one of the elite teams. He helps the younger players grasp the concepts that Self is trying to teach while refining his own understanding, as taught by his father. He reviews what upcoming opponents will do to attack the Jayhawks and then replicates it in practices, so they will be ready. He is a good teammate, every part of what Kansas is doing. “I feel every bit a part of this team, no matter whether I’ve scored in a game or gotten as assist,” said Roberts, who netted two points as a freshman and none with three assists as a sophomore. “Thomas (Robinson) is going to play in the NBA, but he and I will always be in touch. We both know I am part of the team and it doesn't matter if the public does or not. That’s all I care about.”
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