KU’s mission vs. ISU: limit Brackins

Iowa State’s Craig Brackins (21) fights for a rebound with Kansas University’s Cole Aldrich in this Jan. 24, 2009, file photo in Ames, Iowa.

Jayhawks prepare for Brackins, ISU

The Morris twins, Mario Little, Quintrell Thomas and Cole Aldrich took turns guarding 6-foot-10 Iowa State sophomore forward Craig Brackins on Jan. 24 in Ames, Iowa.

Craig Brackins at a glance

ISU’s sophomore power forward ...

has 859 points. He’s trying to become the fifth Cyclone to score 1,000 points in two years. The others: Zaid Abdul-Aziz, Jeff Grayer, Dedric Willoughby and Curtis Stinson.
has scored 20 or more points in 13 of ISU’s 25 games and six of 10 league games.
has led ISU in scoring in 14 of the last 16 games and led ISU in rebounding in 11 straight games.
is tied for 15th in school history in career blocks with 56.
is 27-of-51 shooting in the last three games.
has averaged 20.3 points and 7.3 rebounds in three career games against KU.
is the Big 12’s second-leading scorer (19.7 ppg), third leading rebounder (9.1 rpg) and sixth-best shooter (49.0).

The Morris twins, Mario Little, Quintrell Thomas and Cole Aldrich took turns guarding 6-foot-10 Iowa State sophomore forward Craig Brackins on Jan. 24 in Ames, Iowa.

KU’s Fab Five tried, but failed to slow the first-team all-Big 12 candidate, who exploded for a career-high 42 points off 11-of-19 shooting and 17-of-21 free throwing in the Cyclones’ 82-67 loss to the Jayhawks.

Brackins scored both inside and out in netting the seventh-most points ever scored against KU — most since Oklahoma State’s Randy Rutherford tallied 45 on March 5, 1995.

“We can put together a Brackins highlight tape on what he did against Kansas and not even include anybody else,” KU coach Bill Self said.

“At halftime I challenged our guys to not have him get 22 the second half. They responded brilliantly by only allowing 20. I may have to set the standard higher,” Self cracked.

It’s not yet known which Jayhawk will open defensively on the versatile Palmdale, Calif., native when the teams meet again at 7 tonight in Allen Fieldhouse.

“I don’t know. Maybe all of us,” KU junior guard Sherron Collins said. “It’ll have to be a team effort. We don’t want him to get 42 again.

“I think we’ll have the same assignments,” added Collins, who burned ISU for a career-high 26 points the first meeting.

“He was hitting tough shots. Hopefully we’ll get him out of his comfort zone in the fieldhouse. We’ll not try to stop him but contain him a little bit better than before.”

Since the KU game, Brackins has averaged 21.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per contest.

The Big 12’s second-leading scorer (19.7 ppg) scored 27 points in Saturday’s 86-67 setback at Oklahoma State and 26 points in a victory over Colorado on Feb. 11 in Ames.

He also scored 24 in a loss at Colorado, 19 in a home loss to Oklahoma, 16 in a home loss to Missouri and 14 (off 6-of-20 shooting) in a loss at Kansas State.

“K-State probably did as good a job of guarding him as anybody,” said Self, whose Jayhawks enter tonight’s game 20-5 overall and 9-1 in the league. ISU enters 13-12, 2-8.

“They switched some ball screens, fronted him in the post and did a good job of that. K-State’s defense is good in putting so much pressure on you,” Self said.

“What pressure does is keeps you from throwing the ball where it needs to go because you are so worried about surviving. They did a good job against Iowa State.

“We will try to come up with some ways to try to limit his good touches. He’ll probably score some points,” Self added. “Last time he made some hard shots and got to the free throw line.”

Brackins, who attempted 21 free throws versus KU, has averaged just 4.7 trips to the line in ISU’s other nine conference clashes.

“Make sure he doesn’t score 42,” center Cole Aldrich said, asked to identify one of KU’s challenges. “It’ll be tough. He’s such a good player. He has an outside/inside game. We know we have to get help on Brackins. He’s such a good offensive player. He’ll get his. We’ll try to limit him as much as we can, play all around good defense.

“I know last time we did a good enough job on the others. We didn’t let their shooters get comfortable. They have some good shooters,” Aldrich added.

Brackins was the only Cyclone to hurt the Jayhawks in Ames. Jamie Vanderbeken was next in line in scoring with eight points.

On the season, ISU has just one double-digit scorer. Diante Garrett averages 9.9 points per contest.

Perhaps Self will use his box and one defense on Brackins tonight.

A triangle-and-two helped KU upend Kansas State, 85-74, on Saturday in Manhattan.

Or maybe KU’s defensive stopper, 6-3 Brady Morningstar, will be the secret weapon.

“I don’t know. He just might be a little too tall (to guard),” the 6-foot-3 Morningstar said. “He had a heck of a game against us. Hopefully this game we can contain him better, get a hand up in his face, not give him open looks.”

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KUPROUD 4 years, 3 months ago

Brackins played way over his head in game 1, hitting several long-range off-balance shots. I don't think he'll do that again. I predict he'll get 15 to 20 points and the Hawks win by 14. Case closed.

zissou 4 years, 3 months ago

Can anyone provide some insight as to how this kid ended up at Iowa State? That's not so much a knock on them, but wondering what his recruitment was like. Was he just overlooked by other schools?

KGphoto 4 years, 3 months ago

I doubt he goes off again. He was pumped up at home. The crowd was helping. You got your hometown calls helping. He won't get the close calls here, and KU is going to be pumped to shut these clowns down.

Best case scenario against Iowa St. The Jayhawks score 250 points and break every record in the book. Then ESPN will have to show something other than that jackass A. Rod. faking remorse.

dagger108 4 years, 3 months ago

We happened to have the TV muted when SportsCenter came on, and my wife still beat me to the "Not Him again?" groan.

Best case or not - Brackens can score all he wants in my book as long as we have more points at the end of the evening. It is still a team game. This is survive and advance week. Good mental prep for the newbies as we approach the tournies.

soswalt4 4 years, 3 months ago

If we shut down Brackins, the game is ours. KU by 17.

truefan 4 years, 3 months ago

Brackins will be the best player on the court tonight, but our starting five will take up 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th best players followed by our bench with the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th best players on the court. Needless to say, after Brackins, I would take any player on KU's bench over the starters of Iowa State.

tis4tim 4 years, 3 months ago

While Brackins indeed had the hot hand in our last meeting, his scoring output was, I think, out of necessity as the rest of the team couldn't hit anything. At one point, I think Brackins had all but 18 of the 55 or 56 points ISU owned at the time.

I'd rather have one guy on fire and shut down everyone else, rather than allow balanced scoring where any guy could hit a big shot at any time to sink us.

Either way, we're the better team playing at home with the din of MU's footsteps growing louder behind. (at least for now) KU by 15.

Rodney Stice 4 years, 3 months ago

Brackins is a fun player to watch. I did enjoy watching him light our hawk up for 30+ the last game. I guess this game will just like the last time. Jayhawks by 15.

jhawkr 4 years, 3 months ago

Not sure if Brackins is as good as he looked against us last time, or our defense just didn't have to show up that game in order for us to win.

We need to treat this game just like our upcoming OU game. You shut down the stud and they have nothing else. Sure OU has some other decent starters, but young Griffin is the engine that makes the train run.

Against KState we finally decided to play some defense on Clemente after he torched us the first 10 minutes. I got tired of him getting the ball wide open or taking an uncontested jump shot off of a screen. That second half was a joy to watch !

We have to use these next two games to fix the little things that keep bothering us. Short of that we have no chance at OU. I liked that he played Releford, Thomas, and Appleton off the bench last Saturday. It seemed to wake up the first 7-8 players ahead of them and they needed a wake up call.

Hawks by 18 tonight !

oljhwk 4 years, 3 months ago

KU will play like they did at Iowa state, let brackins have his and limit the other 4 to as few points as possible, I don't see one player beating another team by himself. espesially ISU.

JGfromPK 4 years, 3 months ago

Kinda like we did against Durant... if you can stop him from scoring, great, but if you can't, then stop everyone else from scoring instead.

OakvilleJHawk 4 years, 3 months ago

Side note: just read where the Celtics are trying to trade first round draft pick, J.R. Giddens to anyone in the NBA...so far no takers. Gee, I'll bet passing on Mario Chalmers is causing some Maalox Moments in the Celtic front office.

ALL NBA GMs: Attention, Attention...always draft a Bill Self Jayhawk. they know how to play BOTH ends of the court!!!

omng392 4 years, 3 months ago

This kid was the 5th best PF in 2007 rankings by Rivals and the 20th ranked player overall... Only Clemson, Pitt, Indiana and IL recruited him... Why Iowa St over Pitt or Cemson?

UncleMiltyN 4 years, 3 months ago

Brackins is a good player, but the best on the floor tonight? I really hope Collins and Aldrich have something to say about that.

I seem to remember him getting to the line alot in the first game. He also was really hot from outside. If he scores 40 again tonight in Allen, I'll concede that he's the best big guy on the offensive end of the court tonight.

Go Hawks. Get the ball to Aldrich early, find some way to keep Collins from turning the da%n ball over so much, hope that one of the twins has his head screwed on straight, and I don't think we have to worry about ISU even if Brackins scores 60.

BP2U 4 years, 3 months ago

“I don’t know. He just might be a little too tall (to guard),” the 6-foot-3 Morningstar said.

Too tall to guard - of course. As opposed to "too tall (to borrow my pants)"??

jayhawker_97 4 years, 3 months ago

salute to Brackins, he's a heckuva bball player. i wish him good luck in NBA. he's one of respected players in the NCAA, besides KU team. but there's no way the Hawks will let Brackins humiliate our defense this time. KU by at least 10pts.

go Jayhawks!!

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