Back to Men's Basketball coverage

Men's Basketball

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Big Monday games to be tougher

Jayhawks to play three of four away from home

By Gary Bedore

Sherron Collins

Sherron Collins

Advertisement

KU Basketball

ESPN and the Big 12 Conference made life a bit tougher on Kansas University's young basketball team last week.

The 2008-09 Jayhawks, who lose all five starters off last year's national title team, were assigned three ESPN Big Monday games on the road, just one at home.

KU will play host to Texas A&M on Monday, Jan. 19, then travel to Baylor on Feb. 2, Missouri on Feb. 9 and Oklahoma on Feb. 23.

"I'm not going to complain. Last year three of our Big Monday games were at home," said KU coach Bill Self. His Jayhawks defeated Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas Tech at home and lost at Texas last season on Big Monday.

"Although that's the first thing I looked at when I saw the schedule," added Self, who received the slate last week. "Getting one day of preparation (after a Saturday game) with a young team and going on the road ... that's difficult. But, going to Baylor, Missouri and Oklahoma ... winning at those places would be tough no matter when you play them."

Under Self, the Jayhawks are 12-6 in Big Monday games - 7-0 at home and 5-6 on the road.

After the '08-09 season, KU will have played eight Big Monday games at home and 14 on the road.

"If you play Kansas on the road, more times than not, it's a big game no matter what. It's good for other teams in the league to get exposure," said Self, whose Jayhawks have lost just 16 league games in his five seasons - six of those road Big Monday contests.

Networks are well aware KU games on the road tend to be more competitive than ones in Allen Fieldhouse, where the Jayhawks have dominated the opposition throughout the years.

"Certainly I understand why that is the case (home-road discrepancy). I think it's tougher to play on the road with one-day preparation than multiple days, but it also will be great preparation to make your team more prepared and tougher for the postseason," Self said.

He likes being on TV no matter when or where the games are played.

"One of the great things about being at Kansas and playing at Kansas is you get many national exposures," Self said.

¢ Duke, KU one, two: ESPN has ranked Duke No. 1, Kansas No. 2 and North Carolina No. 3 in its Prestige Rankings - a numerical method of ranking the best NCAA Division I programs since the 1984-85 season, when the NCAA Tournament was expanded to 64 teams.

On Friday, the network tapped North Carolina ahead of KU.

The rankings were amended Saturday, however, after ESPN learned it had incorrectly tabulated the correct numbers for KU's conference titles and UNC's number of All-Americans.

Duke finished atop the Prestige Rankings with 538 points, followed by KU (455), UNC (448), Kentucky (378), Arizona (338), Connecticut (292), UCLA (272), UNLV (239), Syracuse (238) and Georgetown (230).

Of KU, ESPN commented: "The Jayhawks had eight 30-win seasons in the time span, tied for the most with Duke. A big part of KU's undoing was the failed tournament runs in the mid-1990s when they were 1 or 2 seeds. Others will point to the back-to-back first-round losses to Bucknell and Bradley in 2005 and 2006."

KU's national titles in 2008 and 1988 definitely helped the Jayhawks' cause. Rankings are explained at http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3501739.

¢ Recruiting: KU coach Bill Self was in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend watching Oklahoma Athletes First players Xavier Henry and Daniel Orton and others compete at the Super Showcase AAU Tournament.

Henry, a 6-foot-6 guard from Putnam City (Okla.) High, is considering KU, Memphis, UCLA and Texas. It's long been believed Rivals.com's No. 2-rated player will choose either KU or Memphis.

Orton, 6-10 from Oklahoma City Bishop McGuiness High who is rated No. 10 by Rivals.com, is considering KU, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M and others.

Self also spent time last week in Las Vegas watching No. 1 rated John Wall, No. 34-rated Elijah Johnson and others at the Reebok Summer Championships and two other tourneys.

Wall, a 6-4 point guard from Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, N.C., has listed KU, Baylor, Oregon, Memphis, Oklahoma State and others. Johnson, a 6-2 guard from Cheyenne High in Vegas, has listed KU, UNLV, USC, UCLA, Oklahoma and others.

Comments

JJHAWK (anonymous) says...

The nicest thing in these articles about Coach Self looking at top ranked recruits is that they are looking back.

Go Hawks!

July 27, 2008 at 1:58 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

100 (anonymous) says...

Wall, the number one recruit out of North Carolina, listed KU, and no Carolina schools. Perhaps Roy wearing the Jayhawk was a gift in more ways than one.

July 27, 2008 at 2:20 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Jhawk04 (anonymous) says...

Only problem is that Henry is about to commit to Memphis, Wall to OSU and Orton is a longshot

July 27, 2008 at 2:22 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

100 (anonymous) says...

Henry is a very smart, highly intelligent kid.

More than likely he'll attend late night and get the true hero's welcome. He'll tour the place, see Naismith's 8 foot painting, holding the stitched ball he created the game with.... Later he'll see the 2008 championship banner unfurl next to the others, then meet the #1 recruiting class in the nation (who he would play with for a year or two).

After getting to know these competent, humble, classy, non-trash talking individuals, who also, strangely, like him also have a high likelihood of making the NBA, he decides he wants to see more...

Later he'll see the dozen or so KU-graduate pro jerseys hanging in the locker room and take a look at a few clippings:

First he'll take a look at clippings of Jayhawks being the MVP of BOTH.. the 2008 NCAA championship game and... the 2008 NBA championship series, then he'll take a quick look at the 2005 NBA championship ring donated by a Jayhawk Legend, and then take a look at a picture of Jacque Vaughn with an NBA championship ring, read articles about 2 of the 5 Celtic championship NBA MVPs being Jayhawks...

and then he'll look at the spot on the right-front side of Allen Fieldhouse where a seven foot one inch statue of Wilt Chamberlain (#13) will be built in the next few years...

and then, he turns around, and can't resist: He heads back into the building where his dad hit so many great shots and became a legend...

he'll look up at the 51 conference championship banners... And then he'll take a moment and wipe his brow... and then wipe a tear... and pull out his cell phone...

And call John Calipari. And then he'll call his dad, otherwise known to Lawrence as "the non-SEVEN-foot number 13". And then he'll wipe his brow again, and call his mom. And he'll say, "Mom... Dad... Now, I finally know WHY you guys came here. This is really hard to say... I love Memphis, and wanted it to be my home, and I will forever be friends with John, and he respects me for being strong with my decision. Mom, Dad... I've found my new home. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!"

July 27, 2008 at 2:53 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bbeauchaine34 (anonymous) says...

I know I have never posted on this site before, but that doesnt discount how much I love the hawks. I've tried to set up an account on this site before but I was not able. Anyways, all of that is beside the point.

I wouldn't be so sure that
xavier is going to Memphis because a few of my good friends were at the legends shopping center for a strong man competition and they visited the nike outlet. There, they ran into a woman who was looking at buying very large shoes and one of them jokingly asked if her son was in the NBA. Her response was maybe, as she stated that her son is xavier henry and that he will be going to play basketball at ku.
Like most of the people likely reading this I was skeptical, but the more I thought about it, I realized that there aren't many average basketball fans that know who xavier is so there deffinately needs to be some consideration in these allegations.

July 27, 2008 at 4:40 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

rockchalk80 (anonymous) says...

I watched Athletes First last game last night on ESPNU ---it was their third game of the day (they lost to the IL team)... Henry is powerfully built ---has range (shoots "and" hits the three with ease)... nice moves to the hoop... he stood out among all the players I saw (including the first game on ESPNU (Boo Williams v. BAMC)... if the rules were different, he should be going straight to the NBA... he is ready (just as Beasley was ready). I know Brandon had planned to go straight to the NBA... but this kid would be a top 5 pick... he is a definite "one and done". Orton on the other hand ---didn't impress as much... could have been an off game for him (after all, it was their third game of the day)... he is very strong, but his bunnies didn't fall...not quite as polished. Was disappointed that ESPiN didn't show Self --the camera was focused on Roy W., Jeff Capel (OU) (who also was interviewed by ESPN Katz)... as well as other coaches (VT, OR State, Alabama were a few).

July 27, 2008 at 7:13 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Brock (anonymous) says...

Athletes First didn't look good in that game (which was a meaningless pool game by the way). Somehow Athletes First failed to put a good point guard on the team and it shows. As for Orton - his ankle problem is killing him. They have to use him, otherwise the team would plummet. When Orton is healthy (and focused) he can really be intimidating.

July 27, 2008 at 7:47 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KGphoto (anonymous) says...

Put Xavier at the swing, with Collins at the point ,and Aldrich in the paint, and we're right back in it. That's a pretty fearsome threesome.

July 27, 2008 at 9:14 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

afilmer (anonymous) says...

Hey 100 -
i'm ready to commit. where do i sign? great words.

i have a good feeling about landing both wall and henry, and i'm not an optimistic person. henry's got strong connections to the school, it's close to home, oh, we won a national championship, and head coach bill self loves him some guards.

i don't think that there is a better school in the country right now to play at if you are a guard. HCBS runs his show through the 1's and 2's. smart high school guards will drool over a chance to highlight their game in a system that rewards fast, defensive, team oriented leaders.

July 27, 2008 at 9:25 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

LAJayhawk5 (anonymous) says...

I saw DJKC28 hammered at a strip club (Shady Lady) last night. Not kidding.

July 27, 2008 at 9:26 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jayhawkinatl (anonymous) says...

Much props to those who realized pretty quickly that ESPN had f-ed up with our ranking, and more so if you contacted them to let them know. Now they have it right!!!!!

July 27, 2008 at 9:38 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

djkc28,

I will put this in language a Fizzou lurker posing as a fundamentalist will understand.

First, you are going to go to purgatory for your attempts to denigrate a recruit's alleged Catholicism. In purgatory, you will have to repeat the Rock Chalk chant again and again until you have reached a number equal to the total number of KU basketball victories--a number you will never reach because KU will just keep on winning. In this way you will combine the punishment of hell and the pagan myth of the Sysyphus.

Next, for never reaching the endlessly growing number of KU wins and NCAA titles, and for trying to make religion a litmus test of recruiting KU basketball players, you will go to the burning fires of Hades.

Once hell bound and duly baptized in the acid waters of the River Styxx, you will spend eternity with Don Faurot, Dan Devine, Norm Stewart, and Gary Pinkel watching reruns of great KU victories.

Finally, from the depths of this Misery in the nether regions of absolute darkness, you will look upwards at heaven and see two great Missourians at the Pearly Gates--Phog Allen and Mark Twain.

Phog Allen, wearing a KU sweat shirt and whistle, will say repeatedly that he was forgiven for being from Missouri and raised to heaven by making KU so good at basketball that it would be eternally better than MU.

Mark Twain, in his usual white suit, will say that he was forgiven and raised to heaven for deserting from the Confederate Army, fleeing the slave state of Missouri and writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to help abolish slavery.

Both Phog Allen and Mark Twain will thus add to your woeful plague of agony and golden calf-mounting Fizzouianism.

Finally, St. Xavier Henry will come to play at the sacred Allen Field House and during an inconsequential away game, break Bud Stallworth's single game scoring record playing only one half against MU in MU's alta Arkansas Walmart basketball arena.

So it was. So it ever shall be.

Praise god!

July 27, 2008 at 11:39 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KEITHMILES05 (anonymous) says...

Henry being Catholic is important? Good grief.

Elijah Johnson of Las Vegas is a must get.

July 27, 2008 at 11:44 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

imnotpaulpierce (anonymous) says...

Heretic!

July 27, 2008 at 11:48 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KanedaMGM (anonymous) says...

hey djkc28,

I think you need to learn about our TRUE Lord and Savior...

http://www.venganza.org/about

July 27, 2008 at 12:28 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

hawkitup (anonymous) says...

Where is everybody getting this information about Henry going to Memphis and Wall heading to Okie State? Somebody posted the same thing on a CBS message board. I want to know if there is any truth to this.

July 27, 2008 at 1:36 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmkjayhawk (anonymous) says...

Why would Wall go to OSU?

Was Elijah Johnson in Lawrence for the Jayhawk Invitational? I swear someone said he was and that he and all of his teammates had horrible attitudes and behavior that paralleled. Just wondering.

July 27, 2008 at 3:32 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KU (anonymous) says...

Jaybate........Amen!

July 27, 2008 at 4:13 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jayhawker85 (anonymous) says...

Since when has Fred Phelps (djkc28) been following Kansas recruiting. WTF?!

July 27, 2008 at 5:22 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Nutflush21 (anonymous) says...

KeithMiles- I used to think Elijah Johnson was a must get too. Then I saw Tyshawn Taylor play live and realized that he is our point guard of the future.

July 27, 2008 at 5:48 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jhwkfan162515 (anonymous) says...

And I suppose that Duke's losses to the likes of VCU and West Viriginia and the near-embarrassment against Belmont don't hurt their resume? Why do we always get measured by a different standard than the eastern powers? Just another example of the bias and corruption that is rampant in eastern basketball.

And is djkc28 really Fred Phelps????? To think I was dumb enough to say that he was a refreshing voice on this message board! Ugh...

July 27, 2008 at 10:18 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

at 9.30 shouldn't djkc28 be IN church instead of ON a message board ...

lemme say this one more time:

he lives in or near Hutchinson, and I'm sure this is all some sort of "study" for a psychology class there at HCC

July 27, 2008 at 10:51 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmkjayhawk (anonymous) says...

I was really pulling for Belmont because the last "really big" upset in the first round in the nation's eyes (at least to me) was Bradley over Kansas. I know there has been at least one 13 over 4 win since then, but it wasn't Kansas going down.

Also what is the deal with this djkc28 individual? He's a Hutch guy?

July 28, 2008 at 12:37 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

irish2255 (anonymous) says...

Don't blame djkc28. He was homeschooled.

July 28, 2008 at 12:46 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jhwkfan162515 (anonymous) says...

Excuse me, irish, but I was homeschooled too. And do you see me going off the deep end day after day like djkc28? MOST homeschoolers are more well-adjusted people than popular culture likes to give them credit for.

July 28, 2008 at 7:17 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

Yeah, Tim Tebow was homeschooled, and look how well he turned out. I mean, he won the Heisman while playing at UF, and how did he celebrate over Spring Break? He went to the third world and circumcized babies. No, I don't think the homeschooled are brainwashed.

July 28, 2008 at 8:06 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

http://www2.kusports.com/users/djkc28...

July 28, 2008 at 8:15 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

Lol.. Jared Allen on his Monday Night Football introduction. (not verbatim)

"Tamba Hali, Penn State"
"Tank Tyler, NC State"
"Alfonso Boone, (whereever)"
"Jared Allen, homeschooled!"

He was just joking, but yes, irish, that was probably not a well-placed slam on djkc... ended up being some innocent bystanders hit in the crossfire.

If you raise your kids right, it doesn't matter what environment they are educated in. As long as you don't shelter them from reality, homeschooling strikes me as a better option if a parent is qualified and has the time to do so.

July 28, 2008 at 8:54 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Timmay97 (anonymous) says...

One thing I have determined for our recruits for the '09 season is that we are basically going up against Memphis for the top ones. According to Seth Davis from Si.com, when he asked John Wall what schools he was thinking of, he immediately mentioned three.......Kansas, Memphis and Kentucky.

Obviously, this holds true for Xavier Henry too. Obviously, this has to do with the coaches and not with the school and tradition. How the hell could you choose Memphis over Kansas? you can't!

i think we will end up with at least one of them, and I think it will be Xavier. Hopefully, Lance Stephenson will hop aboard as well.

July 28, 2008 at 10:47 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

hawkman1031 (anonymous) says...

djkc28 you exhibit true stupidity. I have my own problems with some Catholic issues, for lack of a better phrase, but won't go into it in a sports setting. How absurd. Let's get in-laws and politics in too, huh? People are usually what they were born. You better worry about some foreign terrorists of other religions, because they would like to kill you. I haven't heard of any Christians wanting to kill others on that basis here. Really brain spasmed of the lifelong variety. Based on your discrimination, I should drop all of my Catholic friends and they should probably drop me too. All on the basis of how you worship? There are many beliefs that it is hard to see where they came from and that do not make sense. These have nothing to do with college basketball or any other sport, save possibly... if you play the Lions in the coliseum?
Whatever...
The son(s) of Henry are welcome at KU.
Carl Henry was a pure shooter and Jayhawk royalty. We have been waiting for more sons of the Hawk, especially potentially great ones.
I invite you to return to Missouri where you came from, and quit pretending... or back to a country where religious tolerance is not one of the foundational tiers. Yeah, dud... it's in the Constitution.

July 28, 2008 at 2:08 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

LAJayhawk (anonymous) says...

So is freedom of speech.

In fact it's the same amendment......

Still haven't quite figured out why people keep responding to djkc28, but the outrage to the obvious trolling is really quite amusing.

And jaybate, creative post. Nice job.

July 28, 2008 at 6:53 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

Muchisimas gracias, LAJayhawk.

July 28, 2008 at 11:06 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

GoBadgers (anonymous) says...

Please everybody, for your safety, watch this YouTube video. Badgers are not to be messed with. I'm just trying to get the word out. Since you kU fans support a team with a fictional bird as a mascot, I feel you don't fully appreciate the danger of a real live tearing-sh*t-apart machine like the badger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVzfcp...

July 29, 2008 at 12:17 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

justanotherfan (anonymous) says...

162515,

The espn.com thing said that only first round losses as a top 5 seed count against you. Duke's losses were both when they were seeded lower, or later in the tournament. The biggest things that set Duke apart from us was 1 more national title (worth 25 points), 11 top 10 picks vs our 5 (6 points), 12 first team AA's, (we had 13 AA's total, first teamers were worth more), and the two upsets. They also have more #1 seeds and more Final Fours. Basically, the difference comes down to the fact that Duke typically plays to their seed, or within a game of their seed in the tournament (with the exception of recently). We had #1's in 92, 94, 98 and never made it past the Sweet 16. Deeper runs in those years (especially the two years we lost in the second round) would have put us up there with Duke. I'm not knocking our program, because we have been strong, but the fact is, over the last 25 years (which is what they were measuring) we haven't done as much as Duke. Nobody has. Duke hasn't done as much recently, but in the late 80s and early 90s, they did more damage than anyone.

As for recruiting, I'm figuring right now that we sign three. One of them almost has to be a big guy just in case, since there are more good guards than good bigs, hence why we are probably going to turn up the pressure to get Orton.

We also need either a true point and a dynamic scorer (read Johnson and Henry) or a more dynamic point in case we don't land another perimeter scorer (Hello John Wall). I figure we sign three guys either way, so I'm hoping for Orton, Henry and Johnson. I think Wall goes somewhere else if we land Henry, given the current situation in our backcourt (unless Sherron leaves early, although that won't be announced until it is probably too late to affect recruiting).

July 29, 2008 at 10:47 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

kupark (anonymous) says...

people are stupid for responding to djkc...their responses are a bigger joke than djkc's comments. and thank you hawkman1031 for discriminating and generalizing "other religions". You are the last one to give any advice on religious harmony to anyone. The irony in hawkman's comment is too rich. What a stupid. You need to be self reflective before you teach others about maturity.

July 30, 2008 at 12:37 a.m. ( | suggest removal )