Keegan: Danny working miracles
Posted Wednesday, November 7, 2007
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Audio clips
2007-08 Nov. 6 KU-FHSU Basketball
- Bill Self talks about what his team learned from its 2007-08 exhibition slate following Tuesday's game against FHSU
- Darrell Arthur talks about his acrobatic display via the lob pass Tuesday night
- Russell Robinson talks about what he's liked from the three-guard lineup featuring himself, Sherron Collins and Mario Chalmers
Don’t study Danny Manning’s personality, which can be on the introverted side, to determine whether he will impact recruiting in a positive way for his alma mater. Study the way the big men improve under his tutelage.
So far, so impressive. Sophomore Darrell Arthur, senior Darnell Jackson and freshman Cole Aldrich all look better each time they take the floor. Manning works with them daily, and it shows.
In his old role, Manning was restricted from coaching on the floor and was in effect an artist without a brush.
Bill Self promoted Manning to replace Tim Jankovich, in his first year as head coach at Illinois State. Even if Manning never becomes as adept as Jankovich at selling high school basketball superstars on coming to Kansas, his presence gives Self one more thing to sell about Kansas. He can tell players they will work every day with one of the best big men in college basketball history.
“I think Tim’s a great coach, but he never played the position,” Self said of Jankovich. “I never played the position.”
Manning blended the attributes of a center, a power forward, a small forward, even a point guard, but he was a big man first.
“Danny was obviously a fabulous player,” Self said. “But one thing about most NBA players or ex-great players, the game came so easy to them that sometimes it seems like it was harder for them to be able to translate how to play the game because the people they’re teaching couldn’t do it the way they did. Danny was not a high flyer. He was a technique guy. He was one of those guys who was a great athlete, certainly, but through three ACLs (knee surgeries), he lost some bounce and some quickness. He had to learn shortcuts. He had to really understand how to play.”
Manning will help Arthur, so explosive and so fast, become a more efficient player by improving his footwork. Aldrich, who has displayed such a soft touch off the glass in the two exhibition victories, gets better by getting slammed around every day by Sasha Kaun, Jackson, and Arthur. They all have a strength advantage on him. They’ll make him tougher. Manning will make him smarter.
The big men all shared at least one trait that was enjoyable to watch in Tuesday night’s mismatch, a 93-56 Kansas victory against Fort Hays State, a game that in general didn’t captivate the crowd. The big men all had triggering the fast break on the brain, seemingly trying to fire outlet passes before they landed. The other end of successful fast breaks, the end where the ball is dunked, is what excites crowds. That wasn’t always the case. Dunking wasn’t allowed when Bill Walton played for UCLA. Many of his highlights shown now are of him soaring for rebounds, turning his head up court while in the air and firing the outlet pass, one of basketball’s prettiest plays.
KU clearly is determined to play faster, and having such fleet big men in Arthur, Jackson and Kaun, will make it work going in both directions.
“We try to get it out so we can get it down the court,” Arthur said. “We’re trying to play faster this year than we did last year.”
Cranking up the tempo will be one of the many areas where Manning’s fingerprints can be found on the scene.
- Darrell Arthur : F, Memphis Grizzlies
- Mario Chalmers : G, Miami Heat
- Nick Collison : C-F, Oklahoma City Thunder
- Drew Gooden : F-C, Chicago Bulls
- Kirk Hinrich : G, Chicago Bulls
- Darnell Jackson : F, Cleveland Caveliers
- Raef LaFrentz : F, Portland Trailblazers
- Paul Pierce : G-F, Boston Celtics
- Scot Pollard : C-F, Boston Celtics
- Brandon Rush : G, Indiana Pacers
- Billy Thomas : G, Cleveland Cavaliers
- Jacque Vaughn : G, San Antonio Spurs Julian Wright : F, New Orleans Hornets
- All-time list of 'Hawks in the NBA
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Comments
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Posted by KU (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 7:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If Danny proves he can coach the Bigs as well as he could school them, KU will become THE program for elite frontline players. I imagine his presence was a big factor for the Morris twins and Thomas committing to KU.
Posted by justanotherfan (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 8:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree KU. Once we start putting highly productive bigs into the NBA, more bigs will flock to Lawrence. Unfortunately, injuries and circumstance has kept our three most productive college bigs (Collison, Simien and Gooden) from really excelling, but hopefully that will change as time goes on.
Posted by KU (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 8:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Collison and Simien were great college Bigs, but aren't really cut out to be top-notch NBA players due to sheer athleticism. Gooden is just Gooden......He gets by on his athletic ability because he doesn't give maximum effort all the time. I guess you could say he's just not "hungry" enough to be an all-star.
Posted by Kirk (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 11:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I love Danny, but I'm not sure it's up to him to work miracles in this role. I haven't seen any.
Our big men were much better basketball players (though not athletes, necessarily) under Roy, who was very much a big man coach.
Post play has been our weakness in the Self era, and last year was no exception.
Posted by jhawk52 (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 12:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Let's give Danny a year of actual coaching the bigs before commenting on what the results will be.
He has an excellent pupil in Cole, coming in as a freshman, and working with Danny for possibly 4 years. Cole will be the litmus we can use to see how well Danny develops bigs. I think the results will be outstanding.
Posted by KFoz (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 1:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yea, Greg Ostertage, Eric Chenowith, etc. Roy worked miracles. Self has a long way to go to match that production.
Posted by Lebowski (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 3:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Geez, KFoz, you expect every single marginal prospect to come through? Etc isn't an actual player... you should be more specific. For every "dud" under Roy, there were more successes.
KU> LaFrentz, Collison, Simien, Pollard, Randall.
UNC> Hansbrough, BWright, May (sp? Not a huge UNC fan here!) You might say he didn't "teach" them all, but they sure did play better when he took over.
What I believe Kirk is saying is that these guys were much more polished and skilled at the game. Few of the bigs Roy had at KU were as good of athletes as CJ Giles, Darrell Arthur, and maybe even Sasha and Darnell. The difference is they were great because they were taught by one of the best. So even in your sarcasm, yeah, you're right, Roy did work miracles and Self does have a ways to go to match it.
Posted by Kirk (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 3:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
KFoz, we've had some other big men. Mark Randall, Alonzo Jamison, Richard Scott, Scot Pollard, Raef Lafrentz, and Nick Collison among them.
Put Lafrentz or Collison on last year's team and I bet we make the final four. Or better. Actually any of those guys.
Posted by Jayhawk86 (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 4:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We have no idea how Lafrentz or Collison would have done on last years team, or how far they would have gone. After all, Lafrentz and Pollard played on what many considered to be the most talented teams that KU has ever put on the floor, and they went how far?
Posted by kerbyd (anonymous) on November 7, 2007 at 4:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The problem is if you are talking about Danny, he hasn't even coached in a real game yet. The "etc." would be Carey, Padgett, Axtell, Niang, Graves and even Gooden never became "polished". I think the "miracle" thing is a little overstated but give the guy a chance. By the way, in 15 years Roy never pulled of any miracles.
Posted by jcepp (anonymous) on November 8, 2007 at noon (Suggest removal)
Marvin Barnes, Eric Pauly and my personal favorite, Pekka.
Posted by KEITHMILES05 (anonymous) on November 9, 2007 at 6:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Manning needs to spend ALOT of time with Kaun. Enough said.