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2008 Insight Bowl

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Appleton feeling more comfortable

By Gary Bedore

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KU rebounds from loss with big win over Albany

The Jayhawks slammed Albany, 79-43.

Tyrone Appleton wore a big smile on his face as he signed autographs for 100 or so Kansas University basketball fans who were in no hurry to head home after Tuesday’s 79-43 rout of Albany in Allen Fieldhouse.

“I love it here. KU is the best place ever. It’s a pleasure to be here,” Appleton, KU’s 6-foot-2 transfer from Midland (Texas) College said before digging into a latenight snack — a footlong Subway sandwich.

He was feeling chipper after converting a breakaway layup off his own steal — and also hitting another inside shot — while running the point during the final three mopup minutes versus the Great Danes.

“I felt pretty good. I’m starting to get more in the flow of the game,” Appleton said.

He’s been spending a lot of time in the gym since visiting his hometown of Gary, Ind., on the Jayhawks’ three-day Christmas break.

“I’ve been working on my shot a lot,” said Appleton, who also had a six-footer rim in and out versus the Great Danes. “I’ve been shooting a lot, getting more shots up. Hopefully it (shot) will get better soon.”

For the year, he’s made five of eight shots and two of four free throws in limited action. He’s not down in the dumps about failing to break into the rotation his first year at KU.

“I always have a positive attitude. The coaches have commented on that, too,” Appleton said. “I come to practice working hard.”

His New Year’s resolution?

“Hopefully we’ll start to win more games. Hopefully we’ll win the Big 12 championship,” Appleton said of the Jayhawks, who will take a 9-3 record into Saturday’s 1 p.m. home game against 9-2 Tennessee.

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Chism OK: Tennessee junior center Wayne Chism practiced full speed on Wednesday, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

It was a quick recovery for the 6-foot-9, 242-pound Chism, who suffered elbow and spine contusions after a scary fall against Louisiana-Lafayette on Monday. He was carried off the court on a stretcher and hospitalized after banging his head and back on the court after going up for a block.

“He has been dominant,” coach Bruce Pearl said of Chism. “He’s our best rebounder, one of our best defenders and he’s starting to feel comfortable offensively.”

The Jackson, Tenn., native averages 11.8 points and 8.5 rebounds a game.

“I’m not worried about Wayne missing a game,” junior guard J.P. Prince told the News Sentinel. “He bumped his head a little bit, but he’ll fight through it. It scares you more than anything when you fall from that high up. You’re dazed, but he’ll probably be fine. He’ll be back for Kansas. I know he’s not going to miss that.”

“He’s one of our best players,” freshman forward Emmanuel Negedu told the Nashville Tennessean. Negedu, a 6-7 freshman from Nigeria, would likely have logged more than his average of 9.4 minutes a game if Chism would have been unable to go.

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Home dominance: Saturday’s game matches two teams that have been tough to beat at home. Tennessee has a 37-game homecourt win streak. KU has won 31 in a row. BYU has the country’s longest home win streak at 53 games. Notre Dame is second at 43.

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Comments

AsadZ (anonymous) says...

Appleton needs to work on taking care of the ball. If he does that I am sure his playing time will go up.

January 1, 2009 at 6:44 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

mikehawk (anonymous) says...

I love this kid. Visually, he looks like he has a great attitude and is trying to learn, and the article verifies.. I hope he gets a chance and more time. He looks bigger than 6'2".

January 1, 2009 at 8:13 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

appleton looks like he's got it to me, but Rod Stewart looked like he had it, too. Fortunately, Tyrone knows that the difference between his getting 2-3 minutes at the end of the game and 6-10 minutes intermittently is a three point shot. And an injury to any of the perimeter guys could turn him into a 15-20 minute man. The speed and fouling likely in the UTenn game makes me suspect that Appleton is going to get a look against Tennessee. Teahan has to have moved down the depth chart. And I've got a feeling Sherron and Tyshawn are both battling minor injuries Self is not talking about.speaking of injuries, i suspect Sherron got injured on that nightmarish fall and impact with the backboard standard. I don't think many other guys would have gotten up from that. He is one tough son of a gun. Hope I'm wrong about the injury, but UTenn's perimeter speed will reveal whether he's injured quickly.chism looks like a load at 6'9" and 242. As the football coaches say, buckle your chin strap Cole.

January 1, 2009 at 10:25 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

versus albany, Self inserted some three quarter 1-2-1-1 zone press that in effect worked essentially like UAs 1-1-3. Its implementation seemed an aknowledgement that the coaching staff got caught without a counter-move to Dunlap's 1-1-3 zone press in the UA game. In selfdefense, the opponent can never be allowed an arrow in its defensive quiver that KU's defense cannot counter. The basic strategy on zone presses is kind of like Mutually Assured Destruction in nuclear weapons: If you use nukes we will too and no one wins. In basketball, the logic is slightly different however. It goes: if you zone press, then we will too and your advantage will zero out and the game will devolve to a helter skelter test of athleticism and depth. And since we have more athleticism and depth than most teams, the bet is an opponent will wear down before we do. Had KU countered with a zone press, KU almost certainly would have increased its chances of winning that UA game, because KU appeared to have more depth than UA. However, UA had at least two players in the paint that were more athletic than our guys, so it still could have gone either way. But either would way would have been better odds than certainly their way the way KU played without the press.the morris twins face the most interesting test in the UTenn game. They are going to see some serious speed all over the floor that is really going to reveal whether the Twins can play help defense yet. You have to figure UTenn is studying the UA tapes. Therefore, UA with Chism is going to go at Cole. And they've got to have at least two guys as strong and good as Horne. And they've probably got a perimeter guy at the 3 spot who is a slasher rather than a big gunner like Budinger. This means there is going to be enormous pressure put on the twins to help Cole, and handle their own man, AND deal with the attacks of UTenn's 3 man testing to see if he can take Morningstar to the rim. The Twins, like most frosh have proven quite good when they just have to do their own jobs, but have tended to struggle when having to give Cole help, and have disappeared when they have to worry about anyone else, too. If the Twins play hard, I suspect they are going to be ready to have a good outing. What Horne did to them in the UA game, and the fact that UTenn probably has two guys as good as Horne, probably has their attentions. Still, if they are forced into giving a lot of help, it could be a long night for the Hawks.

January 1, 2009 at 10:25 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

doug_lemoine (anonymous) says...

The way to beat a zone press is to punish the team playing it. Beating it takes speed and poise above all else -- you've got to move the ball quickly up-court, dribble as little as possible, avoid traps, attack the basket. Do that a couple of times, and no team is going to keep pressing. Remember Roy's destruction of the vaunted 40 Minutes of Hell in the 1991 Elite Eight? He repeatedly punished the Hogs for spreading their defense over 94 feet. He also implemented a zone press of his own, but that was a riverboat gambler's way of telling Arkansas that Kansas wasn't believing the hype about their speed and stamina (while giving them little respite from a frenzied pace). So I disagree with jaybate's notion that a press against Arizona would have made much of a difference. If our young guys can't attack a press with poise, and if they can't exploit the opportunities presented by a press, then teams will continue to press, no matter what defense Kansas plays on them.

January 1, 2009 at 6:37 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

OakvilleJHawk (anonymous) says...

All good comments...Tennessee in the middle of February...... YES. Tennessee in two days.....NO. As much as it pains me to say this but the home streak ends Saturday.I agree with Jaybate, it's just about time for Collins to be fighting some sort of injury, the Twins and Appleton are still not ready, Cole will more than have his hands full, no Little and Tennessee is a big-time team, well-equipped to minimze "The Phogg".I will be the happiest person east of Columbia if I am proved wrong!!!!

January 1, 2009 at 10:51 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Yahweh (anonymous) says...

I hate Bruce Pearl more than almost any other coach in any sport. It would be soooooo cool to whup 'em good.

January 2, 2009 at 12:13 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

doug_lemoine,not trying to be contrary here, but I feel you made my case without intending to better than I did.Roy did two things: a) he had the guys break the zone with passing; and b) he played some zone press.Against UA, Self had the guys breaking the press repeatedly with passing. UA forced few KU TOs with their 1-1-3 press. The problem was that with a 1-1-3 zone press, which was a different animal than the man and zone presses Richardson ran at Arkansas, they were able to pressure KU's young perimeter players into initiating offence too far from the basket for KU's offense to be effective. You can't punish a 1-1-3 zone press that refuses to over extend itself the same way that you can punish 40 minutes of hell pressing the court baseline to baseline. The only way to play the 1-1-3 press on offense is to make few TOs getting the ball past mid court, which KU more or less did, and then make a few screens and extra passes to initiate play as close to the top of the circle as possible, which KU did not do.

January 2, 2009 at 12:52 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

Why did KU fail to make those screens and passes? Because they were not prepared for the 1-1-3 zone in the first place, and then they were repeatedly confused by UA masking the defense that they fell back into. Mostly they played zone. KU had handled other half court zone defenses pretty well up to that time, but attack a 2-3 or 1-3-1 zone takes a lot of deliberation. KU's concentration seemed to be sapped by the time they had gone through the repeated challenge of getting the ball up court without TOs. When KU finally got to its half court offense, it was too far from the basket and too impatient to work it in.On offense, what KU needed to do was lift a page from Jack Hartman's old Okie ball play book that he developed for Walt Frazier at SIU, and then used every year after at KSU. The real point guard--the Walt Frazier--did not bring the ball up the court. The real point guard ran ahead, came off a screen and posted up at the top of the circle to receive the ball an ideal distance from the basket to initiate the half court offense. And he did this against M2M and against zones, too. If KU had run the Hartman wrinkle, that would have solved the problem of the offense repeatedly starting too far from the hoop.But even that would probably not have been enough, because KU would still have been stuck with the disadvantage of trying to grind it up court, while UA didn't have to, and stuck with the disadvantage of struggling to recognize what kind of defenses UA was falling into and masking in the half court. Not forcing UA to contend with the same problematic defensive schemes KU had to contend with, meant that UA had an unfair advantage--a structural edge so to speak.

January 2, 2009 at 12:53 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

So the logical strategic/tactical counter move was to begin to do what the opponent is doing right back to them, and gamble that their lack of depth would make playing this way a eventual advantage to KU. But KU didn't and lost badly, because they didn't. KU might have lost even if they had done what I am suggesting, because KU shot poorly. But it almost certainly would have been a MUCH closer game and KU might well have won had fouling and fatigue worked in KU's favor.If you are still doubtful, remember that Ben Howland's hack'n'slap defense overwhelmed us in the Madness a couple years ago. KU tried to get stops and play manly defense, but you just can't bring a knife to a gunfight and expect to win. So: the next season, Self immediately instituted the hack'n'slap. The UA game revealed KU was bringing a knife to a gunfight again. It tried to get stops and play manly defense, but UA's 1-1-3 zone press was a gun. The very next game, Self showed some zone press to send a message via game tapes that if you pull this sort of stuff on us in the future, we're going to respond in kind.

January 2, 2009 at 12:54 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

PAHAWK1 (anonymous) says...

jaybate, as usual, great posts. imo hcbs introduced 1-2-1-1 zone press to help set up our half court defense. UA's 4 and 5 were getting to many points inside (and quickly) before Cole and/or Twins were getting in to the picture. Like UA, we are going to face faster 4 and 5 of Tennessee. HCBS wanted to practice 1-2-1-1 against Albany. Get ready to see it more often to help our 4 and 5 on defense.

January 2, 2009 at 9:38 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

cre017 (anonymous) says...

How much deep dark tanning oil does Bruce Pearl really lap all over himself? He is so tan his teeth could glow in the dark. I hope we can hang with their speed. It's up to Bill to let the colts loose on Saturday! Run em, run em hard!

January 2, 2009 at 9:47 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

pahawk1,Thank you.cre017,jaybate checked with deep sources at the University of Tennessee athletic department's supply office. Reputedly, and off the record, Bruce Pearl goes through approximately three quarts of tanning oil a week. Deep sources indicate he uses a personal blend made of two parts Coppertone and one part Tongue Oil. He also reputedly bleaches his teeth with Comet. And deep sources confirm he wears custom-colored Armani suits (the famed Orange suit was reputedly hand sewn by Giorgio himself). The oil, the teeth bleaching and the suits are what converge to make him look so tan. Without them, Bruce, who suffers from a rare form of albinoism, is pale as a ghost. Another thing a lot people do not know about Bruce Pearl, again from jaybate's deep sources, is that Pearl, before getting into college basketball coaching, was for a time in the early 90s tanning trainer to several stars. Pearl reputedly ran a tanning spa in Portofino, Italy, where movie stars and jet setters went frequently to work on a process Pearl patented called "Hyper Tanning." Deep sources indicate that for several years in the early 90s, Pearl reputedly was the personal tanning trainer for George Hamilton and Elizabeth Taylor. jaybate's efforts to confirm this story ended when Hamilton's and Taylor's reputed publicists asked for prohibitively large sums of money just to speak off the record. This story is enveloping...

January 2, 2009 at 11:30 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sportdan30 (anonymous) says...

Read the following Bruce Pearl article and tell me you still despise him. I've got a lot of respect for the man. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/column...

January 2, 2009 at 12:57 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

doug_lemoine (anonymous) says...

pahawk1: Your explanation makes a lot of sense to me. Pressing can buy a few more seconds for the bigs to get into place, and if there's one thing that HCBS believes in, it's solid halfcourt defense. I just don't buy the notion a team gets a "structural advantage" merely because they're implementing a zone press. A coach takes a calculated risk when pressing, and a disciplined offensive team is going to exploit a press's opportunities every time. Should HCBS have a press in his back pocket? Of course. This isn't the rec league, after all, and a press is a great tactical way to force a momentum shift. To jaybate's point, there's every reason why KU (at this point) should NOT turn around and press any team that's pressing us. This team is young (and somewhat slow, compared to previous year's teams); if they throw up a press against teams like Tennesse, Oklahoma, even Missouri, they're going to get burned more often than they're going to make something happen.

January 2, 2009 at 3:54 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

kuwillkillit (anonymous) says...

I thought i heard in an interview with HCBS that Little was going to play this week. Or was that Siena? Anyway it would be great just to see him play anytime any place, as a Jayhawk of course.

January 2, 2009 at 7:25 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

doug_lemoine,No, no, by your logic, Self should not ask this team to play the usual aggressive M2M either, because they are just too young to keep from getting burned.On offense, you do not ask young teams to do certain things until they mature.On defense, you demand young teams do it all on defense, especially if you're a defensive minded coach. Defense does not take years of experience. Intense defense, either half or full court and regardless of the kind of defense you play, requires maximum effort, not maximum experience. Again, even if you're young, never bring a knife to a gun fight. In fact, it is probably even more important to bring a gun to a gun fight when you're young.

January 2, 2009 at 8:15 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

kuwillkillit (anonymous) says...

Hate to say it but i think we lose. Realistically were not ready for the Vols nor will we be ready for MSU. I hope im wrong and we bring the 155 mm howitzer, to Jaybates so called gun fight. Hell they might bring a spoon to a fork fight who knows. Tyshawn better bring the bacon or were F'ed.

January 2, 2009 at 11:02 p.m. ( | suggest removal )