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Monday, November 24, 2008

Self treating CBE Classic as learning experience

By Gary Bedore

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Kansas City, Mo. — Bill Self remembers the last time he took a young, inexperienced basketball team to a pre-Thanksgiving holiday tournament.

“I was thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if this young group of kids wins this thing?’ The next thing you know, we were hoping we’d beat Chaminade,” Self, Kansas University’s sixth-year coach, said of a trip to the Maui Invitational in late November 2005.

Freshmen Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Julian Wright received a harsh indoctrination into big-time college hoops, losing to Arizona and Arkansas before salvaging a ‘W’ against the NCAA Div. II host school from Hawaii.

“I should have said, ‘This is a great learning experience. Let’s go get better.’ I approached it, ‘We’ve got to play this way to win it.’ I’m approaching this as a matter-of-fact, let’s-see-where-we-are type deal,” he added of today’s CBE Classic semifinal against Washington (9 p.m. Sprint Center, Kansas City, Mo.) and Tuesday’s title or consolation game against Florida or Syracuse.

“Of course, the competitive juices will flow as much as they ever do, but I don’t want to put too much emphasis on this tournament. I should have never done that in Maui.”

If the young Jayhawks (2-0) are to top the Huskies (2-1) today, they’ll have to slow a veteran — 6-foot-7, 255-pound senior forward Jon Brockman, the NCAA’s leading returning rebounder who averages 11.3 rebounds as well as 20.3 points per game.

“He is a stud,” Self said of the two-time Pac-10 rebounding leader and Pac-10’s active career scoring leader. “He’s an All-America candidate. He plays big like Blake Griffin plays at Oklahoma.

“I don’t know if anybody is ready to guard him in our camp,” Self added. “Cole (Aldrich, 12.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg) finds a way to foul without even having Jon in the game. I don’t know if any of our freshmen are ready to guard him yet.”

Aldrich respects today’s opponent.

“He’s good,” Aldrich said. “They’ve had some real good big guys at Washington, like Spencer Hawes coming out of there. It’s going to be a tough game.”

Brockman, who has 44 career double-doubles, has one weakness: free throwing. He shot 51.9 percent from the line last year and is 11 of 22 this season (victories over Cleveland State and Florida International and a loss to Portland).

“I went on a free-throw mission (last summer),” the Snohomish, Wash. native Brockman told the Everett (Wash.) Herald. “I think I made over 11,400 or something like that. I'm shooting it a lot better. I cleaned up my mechanics and got to where I was shooting the same way every single time. I’m still working on it, but it’ll be better this year.”

Quick Washington guards Justin Dentmon and Isaiah Thomas are averaging 15.0 and 12.3 points respectively.

“I’ve played against Isaiah Thomas a couple times. He’s really good,” KU freshman Tyshawn Taylor said of the Tacoma, Wash., native. “I think I kind of know what to expect from the guard spot. They’re good.”

Florida and Syracuse will play in tonight’s first semifinal at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday’s consolation will be at 6:45 p.m., with the final at 9:15.

“I’m not sure where we are yet. I think I know, but I’ve not had somebody show me yet. Hopefully we won’t show too many of our weaknesses. I think this is going to be good for us,” Self said.

Just like Maui in ‘05 ... even though it didn’t seem like it at the time.

Comments

oljhwk (anonymous) says...

Hey Cole, if your reading this, don't sell yourself short. Your'e "good" too, remember the final 4 last seson? You will hold your own. FYI, anybody watch the Memphis game last night? :)

November 24, 2008 at 7:56 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KU (anonymous) says...

Washington doesn't seem to value the ball very highly. If we can play strong perimeter defense, we should be able to create a lot of turnovers.

While this may be similar to the Maui tournament 3 or 4 years ago in terms of the youth, the fact remains that the games are in our backyard, so there is no distraction for 18 and 19 yr old freshmen travelling to Hawai'i for the first time.

November 24, 2008 at 8:06 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jchief40 (anonymous) says...

oljhwk - hehe I did see that Memphis game yesterday and had a flashback lol. Missed free throws, Memphis folds! Memphis folds!

November 24, 2008 at 8:11 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Brock (anonymous) says...

Yo, Cole! Ease up on the early cheap fouls and stay in the game. No Cole...no win.

November 24, 2008 at 9:13 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Timmay97 (anonymous) says...

Aldrich is 6'11" with extremely long arms. First thing he needs to remember is just his mere presence (as an intimidator) is defense alone. Just stand under the basket with your hands straight up and you will ALTER shots. Maybe it's just me being over-critical, but I notice that Cole seems to swat at balls too much when all he needs to do is play straight up. That's where the fouls come into play.

And puhleeeeeeze don't take any fouls on the perimeter. Those constitute "stupid" fouls.

I feel good about tonights game. I think you're going to see a TON of Sherron Collins, a lot more of Aldrich and Taylor and I have this feeling that Releford is going to come out tonight. I feel he's too athletic to be on the bench.

If we hit the 3 ball tonight......we win.

November 24, 2008 at 11:54 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jazzhawk (anonymous) says...

Can anyone help? Have I just been in a coma for a few weeks? What is the deal with Tyrone Appleton? NOBODY ever talks about him and he only played 6 minutes against FGC. Did I miss something? Is he in the doghouse or just not producing?

November 24, 2008 at 12:45 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

chalmers2wright (anonymous) says...

He was hurt at the beginning of the season so hes a little behind some of the other guards. He's also got a lot of competition for those two remaining guard spots. Tyrel, Brady, Tyshawn, Travis, and even Connor want those spots too. I will say that I'd like to see him get some more minutes. I don't feel like I know anything about how he plays because he's been playing scrub minutes. I'll trust that Self knows what he's doing though.

November 24, 2008 at 12:55 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jazzhawk (anonymous) says...

OK, I knew that Mario Little was injured but I did not know about Appleton. It seemed that for someone who was so highly rated as a JC player that he would be making more of an impact, even with the other players vying for that time.

November 24, 2008 at 1:23 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KUFan90 (anonymous) says...

He shot 51.9 percent from the line last year and is 11 of 22 this season.

"I'm shooting it a lot better."

Might want to check your math there Mr. Brockman...

November 24, 2008 at 1:32 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

This is exciting. Its like Coach Self is starting a second career right here with us. Not just the team. He's being humble and honest. Coach, if Brockman is too tough, maybe have Kieff sit on the bench and shoot bee-bees at him.

Rock it Hawks!

November 24, 2008 at 8:27 p.m. ( | suggest removal )