Thursday, January 31, 2008

Pullen catches KU by surprise

By Ryan Greene

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Who do you now consider to be the favorite in the Big 12 men's basketball race?

  • Kansas 76% 3911 votes
  • Kansas State 22% 1146 votes
  • Texas 0% 12 votes
  • Texas A&M 0% 5 votes
  • Baylor 0% 32 votes
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5118 total votes.

24 years coming: Jayhawks fall to K-State

Until tonight, KU had taken a bite out of the Little Apple and defeated Kansas State in Manhattan every season for 24 years.

KU fan Jayhawks' lucky charm?

One Lawrence resident has been to every match-up between KU and K-State in Manhattan since the Jayhawks' winning streak began 24 years ago.

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KU vs. KSU

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2007-08 Jan. 30 KU-KSU men's hoops

Manhattan — Mario Chalmers doesn't anticipate being caught off-guard by Jacob Pullen when Kansas University entertains Kansas State on March 1 in Allen Fieldhouse.

Chalmers and the rest of the KU guards came to that resolution the hard way in Wednesday's 84-75 loss to KSU in Bramlage Coliseum.

"Yeah, he definitely surprised us tonight," Chalmers said. "We really didn't expect him to do that much tonight. We knew he was an OK player and that he could get to the paint anytime he wanted to. Tonight he just had a good night."

A 'good night' was probably a somber understatement from the KU junior.

In the biggest game to date in his collegiate career, the K-State freshman point guard used the stage to have a coming-out party. Pullen finished with a career-high 20 points, highlighted by a calm-yet-deadly 10-of-10 showing at the charity stripe. He entered the game with averages of 9.6 points and 3.4 assists a night.

"It was our fault," KU sophomore guard Sherron Collins said. "He just did stuff that we couldn't guard or couldn't deal with. We just made stupid plays. We fouled him, put him on the line, and he went 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. And that's a good percentage there. Just making bad reach-ins, just making bad plays."

Pullen was viewed by many as the X-factor coming in. He had gone relatively unnoticed much of the year as the team's No. 3 scorer, being overshadowed by probable future NBA first-rounders Mike Beasley and Bill Walker.

The 6-foot-1 Proviso East (Ill.) High product was deadly across the stat sheet. On top of the freebies, he hit two of K-State's 12 three-pointers and recorded four assists to just one turnover.

He nearly had a perfect highlight to cap the night - which would have gone as a fifth assist, too. When bringing the ball upcourt at full speed late in the game, he applied a crossover which faked out both Chalmers and KU senior Russell Robinson simultaneously. The nifty pass went to Blake Young, who missed a layup. That miss was followed by a deuce from Walker.

Still, the four dishes to just one giveaway gave Pullen 19 total assists in five Big 12 games compared to just four turnovers.

By the time the two teams meet again to kick off the month of March, Pullen may be a bit more publicized in both Big 12 country and around the nation.

But Chalmers get fooled twice? He's not counting on it.

"That meeting will be a totally different meeting," he said defiantly. "When we meet them at our place, we've played them once already, we know what to expect, and we know how to take care of them."

KU vs. KSU

Comments

DSommersby (anonymous) says...

Props to Pullen as he had an excellent night. Our guards seemed "sped up" as Self likes to say. Credit the Cats for that. We need to play in better control out there. Just focus and lock in better at what are initiatives are. I felt like often our defenders were playing too far off of Pullen and letting him survey things on offense and not "heating" him up with defensive pressure.

I think Sherron still looks as if he is not 100% back from his ankle injuries. He especially played way off Pullen where he might have been on him tighter if he was at his full speed. I think we learned some lessons and will pick it up going forward.

January 31, 2008 at 6:32 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JNgohawks (anonymous) says...

I was impressed with Walker as well. He looks like a punk but he sure can play. What stinks about the whole situation is that most agree a better KSU program would only make us better, but this looks like a one year thing. Coach Martin looks like some kind of psycopath! He has wife beater written all over him. Beasly and Walker leave next season and that is it. Too bad we couldn't have taken that record from UCLA, but 24 years is amazing. The rematch in KU now becomes way bigger. KSU has a good lead in big12 and have already beat A&M, and Texas I think, we still play both on the road!

January 31, 2008 at 7:09 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bennettcl (anonymous) says...

K-State played a great game. They hit a season high in 3's and they simply out-hustled us. I was getting so pissed because every single loose ball ended up in the Cat's hands. Oh well we got out played and Beasley and Walker are the real deal. Oh well we had to lose one sooner or later.

Also they have beat us, A&M, and Oklahoma. They haven't played Texas yet. I don't think anyone is going to beat K-State in the Big 12 besides us on March 1st and in the Big 12 tourney. I can't see them beating us again.

January 31, 2008 at 8:28 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bswen (anonymous) says...

K-State definitely played well. I was disappointed with the way the Jayhawks played, especially in the second half and especially during the stretch from 10 minutes to about 7 minutes to play in the game. We stooped them on four consecutive possessions on the defensive end, came down the floor missed two quick threes, one with no rebounding at all and two quick drives to the basket where the only hope was to draw a foul. That sequence should have been the game tying run but we simply did not keep our heads on the offensive end under a lot of pressure tonight.

The whole second half was shades and shadows of the UCLA game.

January 31, 2008 at 8:31 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

klineisanazi (anonymous) says...

Pullen did play his best game to date, and made up for the disaster against Xavier. He was the difference. KSU has some players, folks. This isn't like losing to a bottom-feeder. Or even Texas Tech last year. KSU will make noise the rest of the season. To me they are better than UT last year. UT was all about Durant. I think Martin has done a better job of trying to build a team. Beasley did not have a great first half, and Walker was on the bench through most of it. Yet KSU led at halftime. Their other players are learning their roles.
That being said, losing is one thing, it's quite another how you lose. And the way they lost looked familiar. Take away the dunks and the running game, and although good, they aren't great. For a team that likes to run, our guys don't really like to rebound..or get on the floor after a ball. To me it is about hustling and desire. KSU had all of that. KU needs to get it. They did last year in the post season. Now that KSU has thrown down the guantlet for the conference championship, the Jayhawks need to get mad and take it up.

January 31, 2008 at 9:19 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

d_prowess (anonymous) says...

I don't like this comment by Chalmers, "When we meet them at our place, we've played them once already, we know what to expect, and we know how to take care of them."
The NCAA tournament is all about getting one chance to take care of business and advance. This team needs to learn how to bring their top game, every game, and make in-game adjustments when things are not working.

January 31, 2008 at 9:51 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

not_important (anonymous) says...

d_ you said it EXACTLY. I don't think we'll get a second chance against Drake or whoever is the 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th seeded team in our bracket. We didn't appear like we were ready for Collison of UCLA or any of Bradley's guys two years ago.

How about figuring out NOW that when Robinson is trailing Pullen for 50 feet, you might not want to stay on your guy at the three point line as he drives right to the basket for a layup. Or how about figuring out NOW that when we're down by 10 with 3 minutes left and you have an open three, you should probably shoot it instead of driving to the basket where all of the defenders are.

Three years in and we're still ignorant as to how to punch a team back after we've gotten punched. I thought we had gotten over this last year when Texas punched us in the mouth twice and we came back both times. But obviously, we are only an elite squad when we deliver the first blow and knock a team out early. Even then we seem to let a team back in it on the road. But when we get punched first away from home, we never seem to find an answer.

The fellas better toughen up or we can stop looking for Riverwalk Cruises right now.

January 31, 2008 at 11:26 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

kellermi25 (anonymous) says...

I would like to contribute some of this loss to Self. He for one switched to a zone when the were hitting threes left and right and guess what happens? they hit a three. He made us play their game not just play our game thats what Self does he plays the other teams game in big games. He should of just let Beasley get his points and focus on shutting down the others thats why pullen had such a big game cuz our gaurds were worried about Beasley the whole night and whether to double him or not. We played bad and even when we would get on any kind of run the refs would shut that down with a stupid call. Just a bad night over all.

January 31, 2008 at 1:16 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Johann Ross) says...

THE FOLLOWING IS A POST BY JBURTIN. I WAS KIND OF UPSET READING IT BUT WITH SOME REFLECTION HAD TO ADMIT IT'S ENTIRELY TRUE. INCIDENTALLY, ILL PROBABLY PLASTER THIS IN SEVERAL PLACES, SO IF YOU DONT LIKE IT MOVE ON.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE'S THE WISDOM:

"People talk about getting revenge in Allen Fieldhouse. Sure, our players might win the game, maybe even win it big, but I hope it burns in their minds that they were supposedly one of the best KU teams in the past 24 years, yet they were also the only KU team in 24 years to go to Manhattan and get owned by an 18 year old punk kid with a big mouth.

We have guys that are the same size and speed as Beasley. He just works hard at his game instead of expecting the name on his jersey to win the game for him. Maybe our basketball players need to watch a few reruns of our football games this year and figure out what really makes a champion.

We've played some decent basketball this year, and won some good games, but this is one Jayhawk that is sick and tired of hearing about over-hyped KU teams that never back up their talk with wins when it matters the most.

It either time to bring home a banner, or quit patting ourselves on the back for how great we are. 20 years since our last championship is not the elite level basketball we claim to play."

-JBurtin

January 31, 2008 at 2:42 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JNgohawks (anonymous) says...

I agree we should have maybe one or two national championships in there, but other than that we have won most of the big games. We are a great program. It was Walker that got me a little bumbed last night. His hustle was amazing! He is like a Brandon Rush with Jerod Hass mentality.
Regardless, we have an excellent program to be proud of!

January 31, 2008 at 3:01 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jayhawker_97 (anonymous) says...

jross, jburtin, you're a bunch of losers, grumpy complainers - be more creative with your wisdom, i'm tired of seeing your cut & paste in every KU vs KSU article at kusports.com!! go somewhere else, it stinks!!!!!
rock chalk, go Jayhawks!!

January 31, 2008 at 4:36 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

wats211 (anonymous) says...

PULLEN IS A WINNER..NO DOUBT ABOUT...HE REMINDS ME OF A PLAYERS ON MIAMIS' OLD FOOTBALL TEAM DURING THE JOHNSON AND ERICKSON ERAS...I LIKE THAT KID..I THINK K-STATE HAS FOUND A REAL GOOD POINT MAN

January 31, 2008 at 4:39 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

CasperCorps (anonymous) says...

Pullen caught them by surprise? They said the kid was shooting seventy percent foul shots for the season. Keep sending him to the line and of course he's gonna make them. We were rattled from the get go, and were exposed by freshmen.. Winning the conference isn't looking good unless Texas can somehow beat the Wildcats.

January 31, 2008 at 5:37 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

chalmers2wright (anonymous) says...

um we can still win the conference by beating kstate at home. they'll slip up I'm sure of it. they aren't gonna hit 12 3's in another game this year. They were hot and we didn't answer and that's it. I don't blame self just like I didn't blame him for the ucla game. in the ucla game we got everything we wanted...we had very easy shots in the lane and just missed them. the game plan was fine and had we made easy shots we go to the final four. blaming self for that is like blaming roy for missed fts in the finals against syracuse. and u definitly can't blame self for a 30% 3 point shooter being 4-4. all in all they did outplay us but had they shot just a little worse or us a little better and we win that game. it will definitly be a different game in lawrence. oh and as for the tourney...as long as we don't have to play ucla in california like last year, there will be no team with a homecourt advantage like last night.

January 31, 2008 at 6:44 p.m. ( | suggest removal )