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Thursday, February 8, 2007

Extra Minutes: Kansas 97, Kansas State 70

By Ryan Greene

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Some thoughts...from Allen Fieldhouse

Gary Bedore, Journal-World KU men's basketball beat writer

"It was a nice bounceback victory for the Jayhawks, who pounded KSU in Huggins' first game in Allen Fieldhouse.

Brandon Rush was great the first half and KU did a nice job not letting Cartier Martin get started.

It was a perfect night for the Jayhawks, and classy move by Self not letting somebody jack up a late three to try to score 100 on the 'Cats.

Darnell Jackson was great, as was Darrell Arthur, and Sherron Collins was amazing again.

It was a very nice victory for the Jayhawks, who now are off to Missouri."

Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor

"Kansas State has made great strides under new coach Bob Huggins, but the Wildcats are a year away from cracking into the Big 12 elite, which at the moment is a two-team club, with a third, Texas, knocking on the door.

What separates Kansas and Texas A&M from Texas is that the two elite teams play serious defense and Texas, as it showed in a homecourt loss to K-State, plays defense the way most really young teams play it, which is to say not very well at all."

Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor

"Isn't it amazing how much smoother an entire offense seems to flow when the big men can score consistently?

Between Sasha Kaun, Julian Wright, Darrell Arthur and Darnell Jackson, the KU bigs went 19-of-29 from the field (20-of-30 if you include Matt Kleinmann's little baby hook, though Kaun still ended the night by clanking three straight free throws).

What made the forwards so effective was the continued excellent penetration from the guards, namely Sherron Collins, who had a game-high seven assists. He's developing in front of everyone's eyes and is proving that come postseason time, he could very well be the glue that holds this team together."

Inside the numbers

0: That's how many points K-State's leading scorer, senior Cartier Martin, scored in the first half. By the time he scored the first of his 11 second half points, the game's outcome was hardly in question. Therefore, the Wildcats' top producer didn't score a single meaningful point. KU should hang one of its hats on that.

16.8: That's the difference in percentage points between the 39.1 percent K-State shot and the 55.9 percent clip KU fired at from the field. Again, plenty of that was from stellar penetration into the paint by the Jayhawk guards.

3: K-State freshman 7-foot-3 behemoth Jason Bennett had three blocked shots, but those were the only stats he registered in 11 scoreless minutes before fouling out with 8:20 left in the game. Taking him out of the game was big in KU's quest to assert itself offensively around the hoop.

15: That's how many first half points Brandon Rush had for KU, finishing the game with 18. That second half doesn't mean much, though, as Rush proved again that when he's hitting right off the bat, the Jayhawks are able to mount impressive starts. That was the case again Wednesday.

26: You've got to give some credit to K-State senior Jermaine Maybank, who hardly averages a dent in the point column for the Wildcats. He scored a career-high 26 points, besting his previous top total by 19.

In case you missed it...

The Jayhawks, true to form, once again started the game on an absolute tear coming off of a loss. Bill Self pointed out in the post game press session that his team was aching to play anybody after Saturday. K-State's mere presence must have added quite a bit of fuel to that fire, as the Jayhawks opened up a 15-2 lead to start the game, including seven points from Brandon Rush. KU never let up, either, tying its season-high point total of 97.

Hopefully you didn't miss it...

The slimmer, more confident Sherron Collins continues to be KU's motor off the bench. Anyone calling for him to start ahead of Russell Robinson or Mario Chalmers is obviously not noticing that the three play nearly identical minutes (On Wednesday: Collins 28, Chalmers 30, Robinson 28). Starting or not, he's been KU's most important piece during conference season, and he probably wanted a win more than anyone after his coming-of-age performance Saturday wound up coming up short in the final product.

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Comments

kellen813 (anonymous) says...

go hawks! Now that is how you have to play every game. We shouldn't have to wait until we are beaten by another team to get some fire started. Come on hawks lets finish out the season like we did last night!

February 8, 2007 at 6:26 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

kujayhawk (anonymous) says...

Coming of age performance on Saturday? Where have you been?

February 8, 2007 at 7:45 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

speedy (anonymous) says...

out coached again! only this time self was smarter than huggins. maybe hes learning too.

February 8, 2007 at 9:16 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

janeyb (anonymous) says...

Had Huggins ever been in Allen before? He seemed a little overwhelmed. Hope the Hawks play as well in Allen West.

February 8, 2007 at 9:31 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

I doubt that Huggins is overwhelmed by a building. He's a big time coach who's been in a big time game.

Speedy... you touched on a very, very good point. Coaching is always a learning process, too. As long as Self has coached, he's never had a team this deep with this much balance. It's easy when you have no depth to tell some individuals "you have to do it, it's on you". But when you have depth like you do at KU, who do you put that on? I believe he's starting to really learn about a month ago how to get them playing inspired basketball. They've been maintaining their focus and intensity longer and longer into each game. It's not just Self, every coach starts somewhere, and has to grow to become the best coach they can be.

What Coach K is going through at Duke is still a learning process. And how long has he coached? Duke's lost 3 straight games. Has he lost his skills? No way. But with coaching, you still sometimes have to experience things sometimes and learn from them. You can't just compare coaches by their teams immediate success. You can't say "look at what Gillespie did in for A&M in the same time period as Self". If you think like that, then how amazing is it that Self took KU to the great 8 (and narrowly missed a final four) the year after KU lost two all-americans? They lost 3 solid NBA players in two years, and he still takes them far in the tourney. That's amazing.

Why does he get no credit for that? But all the blame for any losses.

I got off track for a moment, sorry bout that!

Coach Self is already a great coach, and he's still learning. I think you are right on track with your thinking, speedy. That's my point. :)

February 8, 2007 at 10:49 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

kickazzkurtz (anonymous) says...

Coach K isn't learning right now. He is waiting for his Sophmores to become Juniors and Seniors and to add recruits. His players is his problem right now. He lost how many NBA players the last 2 years? How much scoring?

coach k will rebound when the players get older and he adds some talent.

February 8, 2007 at 11:55 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Studogg (anonymous) says...

The Jayhawks did the things I said yesterday they needed to do to win the game. They got physical and beat the kitties at their own game. It was hilarious to watch Bennett after he fouled out. What a crybaby! Did you see Bill Walker laughing at him on the bench as he slowly moved away from Bennett? That made me laugh. But on the other hand, I do have to hand it to K-State; when they got to the foul line, they converted. Man, I wish we could shoot free throws like that. That was the only thing that impressed me about Hugs Thugs last night; they hit the foul shots. No matter, we took 'em behind the woodshed and gave them a nice reminder about who's #1 in the state, the rivalry, and on the scoreboard!
Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!

February 8, 2007 at 12:15 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

janeyb (anonymous) says...

Maybe Huggins has been in big time games, but he certainly wasn't in one last night. Other than the free throw shooting mentioned above, he and Cats didn't contribute much to making it big time. The Cats looked really good at A&M and Missouri, so I still think he was caught off guard by the rivalry, especially after last year, and the atmosphere.

February 8, 2007 at 1:02 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

Kickazz... i hear what you're saying.

Coach K is playing with a team loaded with Fr and So, and one of his leaders is a Jr.

How is that so enormously different that Self's situation?

Two of our juniors Jackson and Kaun have much less lifetime basketball experience (started playing much later)than most college sophomores. So all things considered, KU doesn't have much more experience than Duke right now. Every coach has to learn EVERY year. They have to learn how to make their team mesh. They have to learn what makes certain individuals go. They have to learn strengths and weaknesses, how people have improved from the off-season, and they have to learn the best way to incorporate that into game-planning. They have to learn what are the negative areas of peoples games that need more work. They have to learn the positive areas that need reinforced. If you call any coach in America and ask them, "Do you know everything there is to know about coaching?", do you think that one coach is going to say "Yes. Absolutely. I have it all figured out."?

No way. As Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods and every other great champion has ever said, the day you stop trying to improve is the day your reign is over. Coaching is no different. You have to constantly have to try to improve or the game will pass you by.

Janeyb. I agree, it wasn't a game. That is a tribute to KU and their ability to force turnovers, contest shots and get to loose balls, like they did so well. Teams sometimes don't look good because they're flat. Sometimes they are intimidated. Sometimes it's because they get beat into submission. I think last night was one of those times that it didn't matter what KSU showed up. When a more talented team plays to its potential, the results are inevitable.

February 8, 2007 at 1:52 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

beatmastermatt (anonymous) says...

Duke and North Carolina played last night? I don't think I really care.

February 8, 2007 at 5:29 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

CasperCorps (anonymous) says...

Anybody else hoping Collins would get a double double? Oh so close... Rush looked good.. and this team will dominate if we can just get one player to score twenty a game..... and play D too... Rockem Hawks...

February 8, 2007 at 10:51 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

Agree Casper. I think we are really blessed to have two, maybe even 3 guys now who have stepped up and said "I'm going to score when we need it"

Collins' is more of a "I'm going to make something happen".... all of the time. First guard they had really playing like that since Kirk.

Rush is, for the first time I've seen, shooting with confidence and absolutely NO hesitation.

Chalmers now is maybe struggling to find a way to fit in with Collins and Rush making more plays. But I still believe he's a real go-to guy that can get 20 repeatedly if they try to shut down someone else.

I think we might be able to soon throw Arthur into the mix if he can just avoid foul trouble. He's looking more confident when he's in there, but he's averaging over 4 fouls, and only 6 FG attempts, 1 FT attempt and 17 minutes per game over his last 5 games.

February 9, 2007 at 8:48 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

actorman (anonymous) says...

Well said, Lebowski, and I think that's a good comparison, Sherron to Kirk.

I thought the most encouraging sign was the play of the big men. It was especially nice to see Sasha being more aggressive around the basket again. But man, I wish he could shoot free throws! If he could even improve to around 60% (which, as I recall, he used to be at in previous seasons), and Darrell could get into a little less foul trouble, those two things could make the difference in close games.

February 10, 2007 at 2:19 a.m. ( | suggest removal )