Extra Minutes: Kansas 83, Iowa State 59

Posted Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Reader poll

It's pretty clear KU is the class of the Big 12 in men's hoops this year. Who do you consider to be the second-best squad in the league?

Response	Percent
Kansas State		34%
Baylor		32%
Texas		27%
Texas A&M		3%
Someone else		0%
Oklahoma		0%
Total	4064
Note: This is not a scientific poll. This poll is closed.

Average game leads Hawks to win

The numbers are downright ridiculous. On the season, the undefeated Kansas men have the best scoring margin average in the nation at plus 24 points a game. Break it down, and the Jayhawks average 83 points while giving out just 59. Watch video »

Cyclones hope to knock off unbeaten Jayhawks

Just ten days into the 2008 Big 12 conference men's basketball season, and only three unbeatens remain. This evening 2-1 Iowa State hopes to become the first team to knock off the Jayhawks. Watch video »

Photo Gallery

KU vs. ISU

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Audio clips

2007-08 Jan. 23 KU-ISU men's basketball

Some thoughts...from Allen Fieldhouse

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

“Darnell Jackson had a great game as KU’s inside players dominated. Obviously they accepted the challenge of facing a tall Iowa State team. Iowa State is actually pretty good. KU better be ready for the rematch in Ames. Brackins is a good player as is Johnson. Rush was an assist whiz tonight and Robinson played well.”

Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor

“Don’t ask me. Ask the guys who make the lines in Las Vegas. Kansas was a seven-point favorite in Missouri and won the game by six points. The Jayhawks were favored by 23.5 points against Iowa State. Rodrick Stewart’s buzzer-beating inside shot trickled in to give Kansas a 24-point victory. The moral of the story: Don’t gamble. In the end, Vegas always wins.”

Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor

“I still can’t wait until next Wednesday. But I guess that thought has to be on the shelf at the moment. KU simply proved it can win a slowed down game as well as one of the sped-up variety. Nothing surprises me with this team anymore. Gary’s right in that ISU is pretty good. If they had an above-average point guard, they’re an NCAA Tournament team.”

Inside the numbers

11: Darnell Jackson’s teammates were even reminding him on this night that he was one rebound shy of his first double-double of the season. He pulled it down, then grabbed another, finishing with 21 points and 11 boards, adding yet another memorable night to an already-memorable senior season. And it’s only about halfway done.

16: Darrell Arthur deserves some credit, even though he had just one rebound tonight. The sophomore big man, who in the opening minutes had an air ball from pointblank range, a turnover and a foul, came back after a short stint on the bench and went nuts offensively. Arthur finished with 16 points in just 19 minutes of play. After the game it was revealed he played with a tweaked calf muscle, suffered in Tuesday’s practice.

6: Brandon Rush tied his career high with six assists, including five dimes in the first half. Bill Self talked about how ISU defended the perimeter and chose to take away three-point looks, holding KU to just 10 of them. Rush recognized that, and though he stroked three trifectas of his own, he found other ways to get involved, finishing with five rebounds as well. That said, KU outscored ISU in the paint 42-16.

7: KU was held to just seven fast break points, giving the Jayhawks a grand total of nine now in their last two games. Self said afterwards that teams are beginning to recognize KU’s penchant for scoring in transition and are sending more guys back sooner, thus some inflated rebounding numbers. The Jayhawks again won the battle on the boards, 46-33.

21: Iowa State ain’t bad, not by a long shot. Sophomore Wesley Johnson scored 21 points, and said afterwards in a light manner that he hopes the Jayhawks are still undefeated when they visit Ames on Feb. 27 (They’d be 27-0 at that point if that happened to be the case). ISU lacks solid point guard play, but they have bodies to throw at you. Hilton will be no welcome mat this year.

Just in case you missed it...

KU rebounded from a 28-of-45 free throw performance Saturday at Mizzou by going 14-of-18 Wednesday night. Free throws have been talked about a ton - maybe too much - lately, but they’re always important, especially if KU wants to be considered a truly complete team.

Hopefully you didn’t miss it...

Darnell Jackson’s showing Wednesday night was a prime example of how the senior big man has played with a free mind this year. Things didn’t go well for the Jayhawks right off the bat, and ISU was able to keep it close for about half of the opening stanza. Jackson didn’t get disturbed, simply went to work consistently and didn’t really show a weakness in his final stat line (21 points, 9-14 FG, 3-4 FT, 11 rebounds, two assists, zero turnovers, one blocked shot). His funniest moment came after scoring on a third straight possession at one point with a jumper atop the key. He held his three fingers up on each hand over his head, then looked at the ref who called it a two and shrugged his shoulders. The man’s simply in a zone right now.

They said it...

Darnell Jackson on the joyous rid that’s been his senior season so far: “It hasn’t sunk in at all. I always tell my mom, I always say ‘Can you believe it?’ And she’ll be like ‘No, I can’t believe it.’ Because it’s just happening out of the blue. I don’t know why it’s happening. Because you never know. I’m just out there, just out there in the routine...I’m free, I don’t feel like anything’s holding me down. My family’s doing great, I’m on track to graduate in May, and just everything is coming true. I’m just trying to stay focused and give everything I have.”

Darnell Jackson on if there’s any added pressure having an undefeated record: “No pressure at all. We don’t even talk about our record in the locker room.”

Darnell Jackson on whether he knew how close he was to a double-double with one rebound to go in the second half: “I knew. A couple of the guys over there kept yelling to me ‘You need one more! One more!’ I wanted to make sure that if I got a chance to get the rebound, I was gonna go up and get it.”

Darrell Arthur on knowing Darnell Jackson would have a special year before it even started: “This summer, I knew he was going to be real special for us. He was doing a lot of working out. Every day, just working out, working out real hard. When I was hurt, I was just watching him work out and I knew he was going to have a big impact for us this year...He just gets the team motivated everyday, makes sure we focus for practice, makes sure we focus for games, and we just follow him out there. We just follow our senior leader.”

Darrell Arthur on his offensive showing: “I was just trying to get more aggressive offensively, I started out real bad with a turnover and an air ball. I just tried to come out stronger than that. Coach Manning just worked me through some things, through some moves during the game and just told me what to do out there. I think that helped me a lot.”

Darrell Arthur on his South Oak Cliff High team from his senior season being stripped of its state title Wednesday due to the use of an ineligible player: “I am mad about it, but I’d have to talk to my coaches and things about it, because I don’t even know what’s going on with that.”

Bill Self on Darnell Jackson’s performance: “He was great. He’s been like that most every game. You’re not gonna always get 20 in a game, but he’s been a 14 (point) and 8 (rebound) guy probably the last month, and tonight offensively he was just tremendous.”

Bill Self on finding something wrong with Wednesday’s performance: “I think our energy level was average at best. That wasn’t the same team defensively that was jacked up to play OU the other day. Now we were pretty efficient defensively, but we didn’t have that same energy level that we had then. So I would say that we could certainly improve in that area. And our guys know it. I mean, if you ask ‘em on a scale of 1-to-10 where our energy level was, with 10 being like it was against OU, it was a 6 or a 7, so we’ve got to do better there. But we were still pretty efficient.”

Bill Self on Brandon Rush’s performance: “I thought Brandon played a good floor game...We’ve got two really efficient guards in Brandon and Mario, and they combined for 13 shots. But the way that they played us, I think that we just took what they gave us.”

Bill Self on Darnell Jackson’s free mind this year: “I got a kick out of him yesterday in practice, because I went nuts on our guys for a few minutes because I hadn’t gone nuts on them in a long time, and he just looked at me and started smiling like he knew exactly what I was doing. He’s just kinda enjoying everything. I can’t get under his skin right now even if I tried, and I’ve tried several times. And I think that’s a good thing. It needs to be water off your back whenever a coach does that, and you can just see the development, where two years ago he’d be saying’ That man’s crazy.’ Now he’s just like ‘Come on, guys, can’t you figure it out?’”

Comments

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Posted by BannerforKirk (anonymous) on January 23, 2008 at 10:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Really Keegan? All you have to talk about is Vegas? This is why you're a sports editor? Nothing to say about the game? About Darnell's awesome effort? About any weaknesses? Compliments for ISU? Nothing besides the spread? Unbelievable.

Posted by wi_jayhawk (anonymous) on January 23, 2008 at 10:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I love Bill's last quote! It's great to see him smiling and having fun this season too! He even smiled and laughed when he called Teahan to go in at the end of this game, knowing that the crowd was chanting for it.
It's a good year to be a Jayhawk fan!

Posted by Sigmund (anonymous) on January 23, 2008 at 11:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I'm pretty practical kind of guy, no magic crystals, dream catchers, or lucky rabbits foots. I don't read aura's, believe in tarot cards, or even read the daily horoscope. But watching Kansas play this year I have to believe they are JFM!

Go HAWKS Go!

Posted by jayhawker_97 (anonymous) on January 23, 2008 at 11:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Danny Boy, can you please challenge the other big guys (ie. Arthur and Sasha) to have double-double this season?
your trick against Sir Jackson seemed to work!!

Posted by dagger108 (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 1:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)

That was an amazing game to watch. In part it was amazing because the crowd seemed so out of it, which is all the more bizarre because of the way the 'Hawks were playing. Obviously, there were bad shots, turnovers, fouls, etc, but the ball movement, movement without the ball, shots, steals, defense, hustle, ... was amazing to watch. Quite the testament to a group of unselfish guys playing together for a long time.

And I love the fact that Brandon has figured out that being aggressive doesn't mean being a ball hog as much as it means working hard to get your teammates good shots. I think he has had really solid assist games everytime since "the talk", though I don't think his scoring has changed a whole lot.

Posted by Purposive (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 2:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)

You said it, wi_jayhawk. These guys are playing so loose and naturally right now. The fact that they're (esp. Jackson) busting their asses in practice and still smiling about it is incredible.

I'm not going to kid myself into thinking that we will go undefeated all year long. Texas is looking dangerous again this year, and (god forbid) K-State always steps it up against us. The key for us will be maintaining the laid-back mindset if/when we do lose.

All in all, I don't think I've ever seen a team play this well together. Any minor weaknesses we might have on the court are completely outweighed by attitude and team chemistry.

Posted by JayCeph (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 11:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)

You can never talk enough about free throws. You need to hit them (and hit them consistently) if you plan on going deep into the NCAA tourney.

Very nice showing from the stripe this game. I'm getting pretty encouraged by their work in almost every facet of the game. This season could be something special... well, it already is but you know what I mean.

Posted by Lebowski (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 11:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)

What makes the prospect of going undefeated so improbable is the same thing that makes breaking Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak so impossible. This group of players has been great about just showing up to play and executing. But eventually, all the attention they are getting now will change. Instead of Darnell being asked about how much fun he is having, Arthur being asked about his HS team forfeiting their championship, Collins being asked about his foot, Rush his knee, Robinson and Chalmers about each other's defense, anyone about the upcoming opponent or anything else under the sun..... every last question will be about their record and whether they can go undefeated. There will be little else. Friends, family, students, professors, media... everyone... they'll hear it all day every day. I don't care how grounded you are, that becomes a distraction.

I remember Paul Molitor had his hitting streak in the 40's.. still a good 12-15 games away from DiMaggio's record. All baseball matters were officially closed.... in sports, you had the NBA, NFL, NHL, and Paul Molitor's hitting streak. When his ended, his basic sentiment was that he couldn't be happier it was over. And that was just something that the real media rush lasted a couple weeks. KU would face over a month of it if they get through the middle of February without a loss.

What being undefeated in basketball does is it really gives the other team a "nothing-to-lose" mindset. Honestly, I don't want KU to go into the tourney undefeated. If they "must"... then the only alternative that would make me feel more optomistic is that Memphis was also undefeated. That way they have a little of the "McGwire/Sosa HR chase" situation going on... they share the spotlight so it's not so bright.

Here I am talking about it! Oops.

Posted by okjhok (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 11:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I don't know, Lebowski. I'm all for the undefeated season, if only because the last time it was done in a "BCS" conference was '76. I agree with your points, but I'm greedy and would love to see it (undefeated) happen. The way I see it, once you reach the postseason, records don't matter. Yes, there is pressure, but it is applied to all teams evenly, since, if they lose, the season is over. Little emphasis is placed on record.

People say a loss can make you better and expose weaknesses that need corrected. Well, if you already are better, you don't lose. Coach Self is good enough to recognize his team's weaknesses. He doesn't need to lose to highlight them. If KU loses because they just had an off-night shooting, that's one thing. If they lose because of a weakness, then the team isn't as good as everyone thinks, and that would be a problem.

I know I'm all over the place here...lot's of ideas swirling. You mentioned a team playing with "nothing to lose." Well, I think KU plays this way every game. The only "type" of game that scares me is a grind-it-out type, when the other team is shooting a high percentage. KU will always win in a shootout because of its defense. Nobody in the country can match KU's defensive intensity and offensive explosiveness. But when a team is hitting 45-50% of its shots, is limiting number of possessions, and is not turning the ball over, they have a chance to beat KU. I simply can't see them losing any other way.

Posted by ralsterKUMed95 (anonymous) on January 25, 2008 at 8:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Good points/counterpoints lebo & okjhok. It would be truly rare, okjhok, for an opposing team to shoot 45-50% against our defense, which is even better this year compared to last year. Also these cocky athletes (good thing) do get 'up' for the big games, and can match ANY intensity (recall TX x 2 games last year). I think it would be a major feather to go undefeated thru the conference season AND tourney! THIS particular team was all here last year (minus the freshmen) and Im sure vividly recall the midmajor losses, the AcieLaw buzzer beater game winner in AFH, grind-it-out win over SIU, and the UCLA loss. ALL THAT, I think, IS the motivation this year, plus the fact some key guys have improved and our depth is better. Ive felt for several weeks now that this team is "not the same" as last year, eventhough most of the players are the same. Once the NCAA tourney starts, its lose-and-go-home, so the undefeated record would stand on its own, if achieved--but how sweet would it be to actually win every game all the way to the National Champ game. This team would then become historically immortal in collegiate athletics...I hope that is what we are witnessing now.