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Kansas forward Marcus Morris delivers a dunk on Lehigh defenders Gabe Knutson, left, and Zahir Carrington during the second half Thursday, March 18, 2010 at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.
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Marcus Morris sat in the Thomas and Mack Center stands on Saturday night on the outskirts of UNLV’s campus in Las Vegas.
The 6-foot-8 Kansas University junior forward was a spellbound spectator at the USA Basketball Showcase, a glorified intrasquad scrimmage between members of the U.S. National team.
Morris and 19 other members of the U.S. Collegiate Select Squad spent the past week in Glitter City practicing against the U.S. squad, which is made up of top NBA players.
“It’s been fun to be around all these guys,” Morris told lasvegassun.com at halftime of the Showcase, which was televised on ESPN2. “To get to know them as people instead of players and have them as teammates has been great.”
His Select squad teammates included Jacob Pullen (Kansas State) and LaceDarius Dunn (Baylor), as well as Lavoy Allen (Temple), William Buford (Ohio State), Jimmer Fredette (BYU), Scotty Hopson (Tennessee), Scoop Jardine (Syracuse), JaJuan Johnson (Purdue), Jon Leuer (Wisconsin), Shelvin Mack (Butler), John Shurna (Northwestern), Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith (Duke), Chris Singleton (Florida State), Howard Thompkins (Georgia), Mike Tisdale (Illinois), Kemba Walker (UConn), Chris Wright (Dayton) and Tyler Zeller (North Carolina).
“I’ll remember being around the pros,” Morris said of the week’s highlight. “Being around the pros is different. To see how they act and their lifestyles makes me want to work hard and get what they’ve got.”
Morris scrimmaged daily against members of the national team: Chauncey Billups, Tyson Chandler, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Tyreke Evans, Rudy Gay, Eric Gordon, Danny Granger, Jeff Green, Andre Iguodala, David Lee, Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez, Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, Lamar Odom, Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose, Gerald Wallace and Russell Westbrook.
“Rudy Gay is about my height and plays the same style, so it’s been nice to guard him,” Morris said of the Memphis Grizzlies standout. “I’ve talked to him, and he’s a cool guy, real down-to-earth. He’s around my same age, and he’s funny and from Baltimore, so it’s not too far from Philly.”
Morris — he competed earlier this summer at the Amar’e Stoudemire camp in Chicago and LeBron James camp in Ohio — won’t soon forget his week in Vegas.
“I’m ready to go back (to KU) and get to work. I’m tired, but I want to work out and get ready for the season to start,” said Morris, recently named to Dick Vitale’s second-team preseason All-America squad.
The U.S. National team is headed to the world championships next month in Turkey. In Saturday’s scrimmage, the White team beat the Blue, 114-96. Durant was the MVP with 28 points.
— KU graduate Case Keefer of lasvegassun.com contributed to this report.
Former Jayhawk Henry still unsigned August 25, 2010
Gameday returning to Allen Fieldhouse August 25, 2010
C.J. Henry, Chase Buford leave KU basketball team August 18, 2010
Julian Wright headed to Toronto August 11, 2010
Selby not yet cleared by NCAA August 5, 2010
Comments
KULA (anonymous) says…
Tired. Did you hear that, coach? Don't burn him out so he's got nothing left in March, like you did with Sherron last year.
Funhawk (anonymous) replies…
Good point. Recall years that we got upset in the Big Dance, when we won practically every game prior to that NCAA game that ended our season. Its like we run out of gas by the time we get to March. Always wondered if the coach pushed them too hard through the months, since wins equal job security. This tendancy goes back to Roy. Never-the-less, Marcus Morris is fun!
BigHawkBill (anonymous) replies…
This reasoning does not make sense. Sherron had some big games last year, but he had less on his shoulders in 09 than he did in 10. Personally, I don't think that Sherron is a big game player. (Tournament wise). Yes he made the steal and hit the shot, but he also nearly lost the game on an ill advised 1 on 3 fast break and got his layup swatted.
Sherron collapsed against Mich St. and at the time I made excuses like he was tired from the regular season. But, after the collapse against UNI 4-15 FG 0-6 3pt and 5 TOs, I don't think it was conditioning. If anything, a player could be in better shape from working out that much.
Sherron simply put too much on his own shoulders. He always wanted to be THE guy. It worked against Cal last year and Cornell, and K State with that crazy layup (remember his turnovers that nearly cost KU the game?) during the regular season but Sherron failed to deliver on the biggest stage each of the last two years.
This was not simply fatigue. This was, like it or not, Sherron. It's time to stop seeing Sherron as Superman and see him for what he is; a good player at times, a wild out of control player at other times. Sometimes his style worked while other times it failed miserably.
Marcus Morris steps into the role as leader for this next year but he will not assume the role as THE guy. That is not how he operates. KU will be much better off without ONE guy to take over a game at the end. Just look back to 08 for the evidence. No team that played KU that year could ever figure out who was taking the shot at the end of the shot clock. Arthur, Rush, Chalmers, Collins? Hopefully, KU can get back to that style in 2011.
huggybearhawk (anonymous) replies…
Belligerent flawed logic LA
Rock_Chalk_25 (anonymous) says…
My predictions...
Marcus Morris will put together one of the most efficient seasons ever by a Jayhawk next year. I'm thinking somewhere in the 15-16ppg and 8rpg, which most people will agree isn't all that extroadinary. However, if he can pull of those numbers while putting together a 55/40/80 season, this team will be an offensive juggernaut. That stat breaks down the three different ways to score---55% on 2pt attempts, 40% on 3pt attempts, and 80% from the free-throw line. All he needs to do is keep up his pace last year and improve his free-throw shooting (his 65% free-throw percentage will no doubt improve). If our guards (with the addition of Selby and improved PT of Elijah) can limit guard penetration then two notable things will happen...
1) Cole won't be missed on defense nearly as much as we think. He saved us countless times last year...but if we play the defense Self desires we won't be exposed as a team without a rim protector.
2) Our guards will wreak havoc in the open court. Too many times last year we let guards go completely bonkers on us. Honestly, of all the times we got burned last year by a single player it was usually a PG or SG---Bobby Maze, Dunn, Pullen, Clemente, Sloan, and He Who Must Not Be Named. Try and name guards that killed us in 08'...a lot harder, right? My guess is Coach Self puts a bigger emphasis on perimeter containment this year now that he has all the tools.
On a similar side note...I think Kevin the "Durantula" will be the greatest scorer to ever play basketball. He will break Kareem's record one day barring any injuries.
areyouserious (anonymous) replies…
lmao...................about 90% of this is a joke right? Cole wont be missed? 6-11 dominance in the paint defensively will be replaced by who? We now have all the tools? So what extra tools do we have this year that we didnt have last year? We had 3 pros on the squad last year.......We had depth and experience......I agree that we have depth, but not much experience outside of marcus, tyrel, and brady.
and on the last note, it wont be Kareem's record that will need to be broken.......It will be Kobe's..........aint happenin buddy
stravinsky (anonymous) replies…
"about 90% of this is a joke right? Cole wont be missed? 6-11 dominance in the paint defensively will be replaced by who?"
I expect 10-11 Withey to look a lot like 08-09 Aldrich. Highly touted post players that played very small amounts of minutes their freshman years and really showed up their sophomore seasons. Withey had gotten hype from other KU players over the past year about being possibly the best shot blocker on the team. And that's while single-season record holder Cole was still here. Markieff will also be more developed and experienced -- I thought Markieff looked better than Cole at times this last season (especially when cole was showing signs of not having recovered from his bronchitis). For comparisons sake, I'd expect Markieff to look much like 07-08 Darnell Jackson. So I think we'll be pretty okay at the "5".
We did have three pros last year, but Sherron both was burning out by the end of the year and was trying to do too much, and X was drafted more for his potential than for his late-season play. X never was able to beat people off the dribble like we needed him to in order to really be successful down the stretch last season. He did most of his work as a catch-and-shoot three baller, and although having a lottery pick version of Tyrel Reed is nice and all, I think Mario Little will be a better all-around player for us next year.
Statistically, in order to be a champion, we need most of our plays to go through the SF/PF (especially PF) spots (see my blog on this website, "statistical analysis and predictions..." for more on that) rather than through the PG. I think with Junior Marcus and Super-Senior Mario Little, we are well poised to have the right mix.
BigHawkBill (anonymous) replies…
First of all... Faroukmanesh! Faroukmanesh! Faroukmanesh!
See, nothing happened.
Secondly, 08 guards that went off- Curry, Augustin, A. J. Abrams, Bayless, Pullen, Dunn, Just to name a few.
Shall I go on?
stravinsky (anonymous) replies…
Against KU in 2008, Curry shot 36% (9-25) from the field, Augustin shot 26% (2 games combined, 8-31), Abrams went 39% in two games (12-31), Pullen was 38% in two games (5-13), Bayless shot 56% (5-9) [Budinger was the one that lit us up that Arizona game, shooting 43%, 10-23 for 27 points] and Dunn shot 7-14.
Of those that averaged over 15 shots against us per contest, Abrams and Budinger were the only ones particularly near 40% from the field.
For comparison, Curry had shot 51% and averaged 34 ppg in the 2008 NCAA tournament until facing Kansas where he shot 15% and 9 ppg below his tournament average.
TenaciousD (anonymous) replies…
Awesome throw-down on the stats, stravinsky. Good stuff. Robinson, Chalmers and Rush were great perimeter defenders. Robinson with his chest bump denial of penetration, Chalmers taking some chances and disrupting the passing lanes, and Rush always staying in front of his man and using his length.
I agree with Rock Chalk 25 that this year we should be better than last, defensively. Even without Cole.
BigHawkBill (anonymous) replies…
I was talking about Augustin in the Big 12 tourney from that year. He couldn't miss in the first half.
And even though Dunn shot 7-14 he still had 23 points. He wasn't even the highest scorer on the team that night. Curtis Jerrells had 30 on 11-21 shooting.
Don't forget Byron Eaton, who got to the paint at will and scored 26 points on only 10 shots (16-18 FT).
Pullen, in the 84-75 win, shot 4-9 FG, 2-5 3PT, and 10-10 FT for 20 pts. I consider that a good game.
Then there is guard/forward CDR and Derrick Rose...
hawkinator (anonymous) says…
totally off topic, but its summer so not much is going on anyway;
who would you take first for your nba team.... blake griffin or john wall?
(i like griffin)
Funhawk (anonymous) replies…
John Wall. Plus, he's a good dancer.
SaltyJayhawk (anonymous) replies…
I would personally choose Griffin. I know John Wall is a super athlete but at least Griffin managed to get into college fair and square.
jlvlawrence (anonymous) replies…
pg- Chris Paul
sg- Dwayne Wade
sf- Kevin Durant
pf- King James
c- Dwight Howard
jlvlawrence (anonymous) replies…
whoops, misread your post hawk. Mos def John Wall
jaybate (anonymous) says…
"Sunday Basketball Brunch"
~Regarding Durantula breaking Jabbar's point total in the NBA: someone surely should, if they only spend 3 seasons in college. At Durantula's 25ppg career average so far for 82 game seasons, that's about a 6,000 point head start on Jabbar.
~ Marcus barely survived as a frosh. He flourished as a soph with everyone DTing Cole. It is a big, big step up when he starts getting the DTing. Cole really wasn't up to it, offensively. He had to make do doing other things. Dominant offenders can even score throught the DTs. I really don't know, if Marcus can do that, but all signs indicate Self will give him the chance by playing through him heavily, unless Selby is an absolute monster out of the crate. Durantula makes the formula for offensive dominance clear. You have to be able to shoot 47% from the field overall, 37% from trey, and in the 80% range from FT stripe. This means you have to be a threat from trey, and a threat to pull up anywhere inside the trey and make 50%, and you have to be able to get to the rim, and make'em pay at the stripe 80% of the time. Do this, and even the best defender and/or the DTs can only slow you down. Marcus shot 57% without DTs, and 37.5% from trey, and he got to the rim on slashing drives, so he has 3 pieces of the puzzle needed to become the Morrantula you expect. DTs should cut his FG% to around 45-50%. His trey shooting puts him on the bubble. He has to improve it some, because the DTs will wear his legs out and his trey percentage will fall in relative terms. Essentially, he has to improve his trey to about 40% accuracy, so that tired legs from DTs pulls him back down to about 37-38%. But the big chink in the would-be Morrantula armor is FT percentage. Marcus shot only 67% from the stripe; this is plenty good for ordinary bigs, but not for would-be Morrantulas. Marcus has talked about working on his trey, but not about the FT shooting. Without the 80% FT shooting, he will be the guy to foul late, and he will cost us several crucial games. Go-to guys with 67% FT accuracy are painful late in games. They are just good enough FT shooters to win quite a few games, but sooner or later they getcha, when you put the ball in their hands at crunch time. The Durantula relies on his FT shooting, not his great moves, to keep the opponents from fouling him completely out of his rhythm. Marcus has proven himself adept at learning almost anything he needed to, when it was put directly in front of him. He learned to be a garbage 4 as a frosh. He learned to be a second option 4 as a soph. Can he learn to shoot FTs? Its a big challenge, but he's already answered big challenges. Maybe he can.
soobawls (anonymous) replies…
This - "Marcus barely survived as a frosh. He flourished as a soph with everyone DTing Cole. It is a big, big step up when he starts getting the DTing"
.
waywardJay (anonymous) replies…
it was a big step from surviving to being the most consistant player on our team last year.... he's got long legs, they can make huge strides quickly, and it's not like he doesn't have the greatest big man coach backing him.
montereyjay (anonymous) says…
I agree with a lot of comments but the twins stood out in the last ten min. of Niu game and Withey should not slow the team down. Collins laid an egg in that game and the team should have defended like they did in the last 10 min. I think Withey will have different abilities but will be a pleasant surprise . Also if ML and C J can remain healthy then we have the trey shooters to help T Reed.
KULA (anonymous) says…
jaybate- Marcus barely survived as a frosh? What are you talking about? Didn't he average 8/5 as a freshman? I'll take that from any freshman. And why are you comparing Marcus to Kevin Durant? Are you nuts? That's like comparing Tyshawn Taylor to Michael Jordan. Get a grip, dude.
jaybate (anonymous) says…
KULA,
I was responding to Rock_Chalk_25's hope/expectation that Marcus might be the next Durantula.
Marcus is a long way from Durant so far, but I thought looking at what made/makes Durant special, illuminated what Marcus would need to develop to take a next big step, or two, up.
Regarding Marcus as a freshman, even Marcus would say he hung on by the skin of his teeth.
Freshmen contributing 8/5 and having to be pulled to mask them about half the time is not the stuff of legend.
Regarding grip, it may be time for you to squeeze some Temper Pedic. :-)
yovoy (anonymous) says…
we had 3 "borderline" pros last year. we'll see how much p.t. they get, and what they do with it.
face it, we had the talent on paper to win it all last year and we failed to do it. if you watch the 08 team, in any game they won, there was something different about them. they had "it". they really seemed to love playing together. they seemed happy. i only felt that this last group had it in spurts, and mostly when sherron was out and tyshawn was in. weird for me to say that because i LOVE (frosh/soph/partial jr.) sherron, and i haven't been able to deal w/ tyshawns sulkiness, and his flashes of brilliance and idiocy. they all-too-often were followed one after the other. i WILL say that we were a much better TEAM with ty running it. our team was predictable with Daddy running it. it's amounted everyone standing around waiting for sherron to do something. it's only one person's fault that we did that last year: if you tell the world that sherron's the man before his junior year, and he comes out and proves time and time again that he is (you cannont bag on his overall performance in 09 - he carried us), he's going to have trouble giving up the rock his senior year. we didn't need him to go off like he did at ou. we had upgraded everywhere: cole played as well as he could when he actually got touches other than rebounds, both morris twins were upgrades during the second year, tyshawn had some international experience and success, we added x, reed has always done his job, sleeves has always done his, we had a couple of other bigs on the bench that weren't slouches, and we had cj. if you have a pg that can't/won't/doesn't distribute alllll your weapons are going to be much less effective, and we really did have some weapons. the lack of distribution caught up with us. it had threatened to a few times last year, but we always seemed to overcome it. we had lots of strengths that were never explored because the ball would get "stuck".
yovoy (anonymous) says…
as for marcus and his brother, think about how many times in the last couple of years we've gotten big games out of them when we needed them. i know that as frosh at ksu one of them started the spurt that let us get back into it, and they might have hit the go ahead basket. one of them seems to have gone off on ou and one of them went off on tex. what i'm trying to say is that i'm not worried about them wilting. they seem like they step up fairly well when the heat is on. as for marcus wilting when he draws a double, that just means that someone else is going to get a good shot, and that he's going to get an assist. we'll be a better TEAM next year because the ball won't stick, we've got a bunch of guys with another year of experience, we've upgraded and added depth versatility everywhere. the things we lost aren't irreplaceable, and i think we gained athleticism by losing what we did. if someone will unleash the horses (like they should have against uni), we will have a good run.
race form:
ty can score, distribute, and push the ball - he was impressive the last few games
reed and sleeves will be consistent on both ends of the floor
releford - i don't know why he wasn't relied upon more as a frosh. i really didn't think he was going to be as good as advertised, but he was better. he had trouble being allowed into the mix (doghouse?), but the kid puts his body on the line. he might be the most physical player we've had for awhile at that position. he's always around the ball, and he's got pretty good size
little - brings lots of experience. hopefully he's healed and can now go back to his position. he wasn't a slouch even when he was being asked to play out of position in 09. he seems to be a great team guy - AND he's talented.
uh...selby??? versatility and talent (upgrade from any of our guards last year)
i think withey will surprise some people, but we'll miss cole. then again we missed cole last year because he couldn't get the ball like he should've (i know he drew lots of doubles, but when he had some fire he was unstoppable)
mcmorris - high-level experience this summer, and seems pretty driven
mkmorris - same drive as brother, one more year of experience than he already had
mr. robinson - all motor, all the time. he could end up being d arthur w/ a snarl instead of a smirk.
i'd imagine that we'll rebound better as a team. we didn't board like we could've.
oh, and we still have coach manning to work with all these bigs. his importance should not be overlooked - at all. he can do with robinson what he's done with the morris twins. hudy can too; even if he's already shredded like a frosted mini-wheat.
we're almost as good as or better at all positions than we were going last year. we don't lose much, and we improve in the most important place, imo, at pg. i hate saying that because sherronatron has really been one of my favorite players.
yovoy (anonymous) says…
phooey, i forgot elijah. don't know how. i love this kid. we saw a few flashes of brilliance from him last year, and he flashes his smile all the time. it's nice to see someone play AND look happy to be where they are. hope he gets to see the floor this year. would we "shirt" him, or does he get to sit again while losing a year of eligibility?
waywardJay (anonymous) replies…
Bravo. Darrell Arthur with a snarl. Julian Wright without a beast mode switch. Darnell Jackson with more mobility.
I agree with you totally on tyshawn running this team from the PG, everything about it will suggest to SOME posters we are going to be dismal next year. to me, it's how we become Elite Again. Ty gets his job back, a Job that netted him a High School championship. We'll see about the College Championship.
As for Plain and Peanut, They will no doubt be the difference for us next year. Markieff will provide the defensive center, and Marcus the Offensive motor. Too bad we couldn't combined them and make the prototype NBA superstar Power forward.
BPSkelly (anonymous) says…
While one would think that Marcus Morris would improve from the experience of USA Basketball and the Camps he's been involved with, I'd simply point out that most teams best big man last year had to cover Cole Aldrich. That wont be the case this year, they'll be covering him.
I for one think he'll progress as a player, but I dont know that he'll "blow up" like a lot of people tend to think he will. In reality he HAS to become a leader on the floor for next years team to have post-season success.
His face-the-basket abilities is what will set him apart if he really progresses. He still makes a lot of poor decisions, but one would hope that fades some with experience.
Im excited about next years team, but I think we need to not get to carried away with where and what we think Marcus Morris will become --- or where 'he' will carry this team.
kennethst (anonymous) says…
Jaybate always gets it right......how wonderful it is to see him ....day in-day out.......doing justice to our KU nation.
Said it before....will say it again....you are a Kansas Nation Treasure, sir.
Enjoying an Irish whiskey tonight.....friend. And listening to some John Denver. Is that a combination???
Well done, sir!
ralster (anonymous) says…
Nice analysis above by those suggesting we will have better balance and a more team-oriented game. Not a knock on Sherron, but you "run with the horses that got you there", even if there are some shortcomings in those "horses". Fast-forward to this season, where we should be a faster, more explosive team with all the guards, and certainly better chemistry with all the returnees. Im thinking of attending Late Night in Oct., as I have never been to one...this could be a special season. We need to play with something to prove...
yovoy (anonymous) says…
i agree that the other team's biggest big had to guard cole. seems like that sort of changed as mcmorris became a real threat. imo, he's a little undersized to play as "inside" as he does, but the physicality of the twins is the first thing that struck me when they played as frosh. they would rebound balls they shouldn't have even been able to touch.
if you want to put your best big on mcmorris, go ahead. he's just going to drift that guy out and knock down a couple of 8-10 footers. you want your big to come out there on him? he's past them on the bounce and likely with an "and one" situation. you want your big to give him some space, and just make sure you keep him off the board in case of a miss? your weak side guys better box out, or there are going to be lots of stick-backs for withey/morris/robinson/releford. you want to switch a guard to him? okay, your guard is about to see what it's like down low, or he's going to give up 6-8 points on 6-8 foot jumpers that he can't defend. do you just want your guy to just grind on him before you bring that big, inexperienced sub into the game? sure, but remember that mcmorris has been schooling with COACH d. manning, and that the big sub is going to have to come right back to the bench. he'll either be fatigued or he'll be hemorrhaging points on d, and not doing much on offense. you get that i think the kid is tough and versatile and well-coached, right? i don't know that i'm thinking he'll "blow up". he kind of did that last year. if we can get similar production from him this year, and if we can bring another big along to do the same, our guards should have an easier time doing the things they can do.
we shouldn't have to be in the half-court all the time either, and that will keep the other team from getting a chance to put any of the plans above into action, and it will also allow us to not have to depend on his "blowing up".
i wouldn't bet FOR nor against his being able to "carry" us. it's my hope that we aren't in a position where he has to. i wouldn't be mad if he "paced" us pretty often. in '09 sherron had to carry us, and it got everyone (Coach included) into the habit of taking it for granted, which i believe led to our demise last year.