Life of the party: Jeff Withey's blocks highlight KU's win over OU

Kansas center Jeff Withey stretches to defend against a shot from Oklahoma guard Buddy Heild during the second half on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013 at Allen Fieldhouse.

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KU coach Bill Self talks after win over Oklahoma

Kansas coach Bill Self talks after his team's 67-54 win over Oklahoma on Jan. 26, 2013.

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• KU-OU

“Withey Block Party” made its debut on the Allen Fieldhouse scoreboard Saturday afternoon, to the delight of 16,300 fans, including Mark Randall.

Randall, a former Kansas University power forward and first-round NBA Draft pick who works in community relations for the Denver Nuggets, peered at the big board during a second-half timeout as Jeff Withey was shown not only blocking four of Oklahoma’s shots in a 67-54 Jayhawk men’s basketball victory, but also dancing in disco attire.

“It’s been great watching him grow over the time he’s been here,” the 6-foot-9 Randall said of 7-footer Withey, whose productive first half (four blocks, seven rebounds, nine points) helped set the tone as KU led, 29-21, at the break.

“One thing about Oklahoma that surprised me is, they were unbelievably athletic, and their big guys were extremely athletic. The guards were doing a good job of getting inside, but guess what? Jeff’s back there cleaning everything up,” Randall added of Withey, who finished with 13 points and nine rebounds to go with the four rejections.

“I’m not in personnel any more, but if you are tall and have the kind of skill level he’s got, he’s going to find a niche in the NBA. He’s a shot-blocker. He’s developing his game in the low post. The biggest thing he has to do is learn to use his butt more, so he can hold his position down there. It comes with time. He has a series of moves he’s obviously learned. He’s working on it.”

Withey — who was coming off his only game of the season in which he failed to block a shot, Tuesday at Kansas State — will have to look for “Withey Block Party” on Youtube.com. He was too busy listening to coach Bill Self during a second-half stoppage to catch the video that had the fans’ full attention.

“Some people told me about it (video). I mean, I block shots. If that’s what they remember me as, that’s fine with me.” Withey said after moving into sole possession of third place on KU’s all-time block list (247). He’s six blocks away from tying Cole Aldrich for second and 11 from tying Greg Ostertag as top shot-blocker in school history.

“ I thought I did pretty well. They didn’t come inside too often. I think I affected him a little bit,” he added of OU’s Romero Osby, who scored 12 points off 4-of-16 shooting. “I think he was a little hesitant to shoot the ball. I might have blocked him in the first half pretty early, so that might have gotten in his head. I’m not sure. He’s a good player, and he is definitely physical. He tried taking it right at me.”

Withey’s performance helped the Jayhawks improve to 18-1 overall and 6-0 in the Big 12. Oklahoma fell to 13-5, 4-2.

“Jeff played great. He made some plays that I think would rival some of the better plays that he’s made this entire year,” Self said.

“Defensively, we make some mistakes, and he covers up the floor behind us and rebounded the ball pretty well. Osby ... that’s a tough matchup,” Self added. “Their bigs play well away from the basket. I thought he did some good things, but we didn’t play with a lot of energy. We didn’t pressure. We didn’t play the way I feel like the way we needed to play to be our best.”

Withey had one assist. He stole the ball, showed dribbling skills, then passed ahead to Travis Releford (10 points, five assists, five rebounds), who scored to give KU a 46-35 lead with 9:52 left.

“I can think of better options than him leading the break, but the way we played today, he may have been as good as our guards out there leading the break,” Self said. “He has done that several times. He made a bad pass to Ben (McLemore, 18 points, 5-for-10 shooting) the first half. He bounced it, and we got nothing out of it. The second half he made an air pass, but led Travis too much. Travis made an unbelievable play with one hand. Jeff is doing really well.”

Withey joked about his point-guard skills.

“I don’t want to dribble too much usually,” he said. “After that, coach kind of told me because I never do it. He said, ‘Never give a bounce pass in transition if you are leading the break.’ I don’t know. I kind of liked it. It might happen more often.”

Perhaps his dribbling will be featured on the next Withey Block Party scoreboard show.

“That was a big game for him tonight,” Randall assessed. “It’s been fun to watch him develop over the years and become the inside presence for this team.”

KU will meet West Virginia at 8 p.m. Monday in Morgantown, W.Va.

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NavyHawk 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Jeff's good, but he's no Danny Manning.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19860227&id=xuBLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nYsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6214,4798531

dougmd 3 months, 3 weeks ago

He's also no John Glenn or George Washington and you are no Albert Einstein. Congratulations on the Non-sequitur of the Year Award. They don't/didnt play the same position and their team make up was completely different, so their roles were/are not comparable in any form.

TexasRockChalk 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Excellent use of the word non-sequitur :) Nice to see some scholars on this site!

flyingfinn 3 months, 3 weeks ago

+1000

NavyHawk 3 months, 3 weeks ago

You read more into my comment than I intended and, if you had read the article above and tha article I referenced, you might (but likely wouldn't) realize I meant Jeff's ability to play the guard position. Very few seven footer's ( I know... Danny was only 6' 11") have the ability to dribble/drive the length of the court without either having their pocket picked or losing control of the ball.

When I saw Jeff start the breakaway it reminded me of Danny's ability to do that consistently. I meant no disrespect to Jeff, only that he does not have the same skill-set that Danny Manning did. I was pleased to see Jeff pass the ball, as I really didn't believe he was going to be able to drive to the basket without being stripped of the ball or turning it over.

My comment only involved the individual abilities of both and had nothing to do with their position or teammates.

mejayhawk 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Thanks so much for the link. Really enjoyed this read.

GoHawkYourself 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Made this little gem from the game tonight after Elijah made a 3:

http://i.minus.com/i85mySMKMx9wQ.gif

Boouk 3 months, 3 weeks ago

That's embarrassing.

GoHawkYourself 3 months, 3 weeks ago

If he's got the skill and embarrassment of Tyshawn and his Twitter page, I'll keep him.

CaliHawk33 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Gotta love Rio. Love seein the reaction to that too.

ralster 3 months, 3 weeks ago

If you see Rio's hands, he is doing the 3-sign, and I interpreted his character-rich "dance" as 'praying to the 3-gods', or 'bowing down/respecting to his senior PG'. Less likely, but possible is 'respecting/bowing down to perfect execution and ball movement', as that play was a perfectly executed Selfball play. Nice that Rio gets this, as recognizing and learning such is exactly the only thing limiting his own mpg. RCRioHawk!

akgjenkintown 3 months, 3 weeks ago

You gotta love Rio. It is important to have great team chemistry to get through a long season and he seems to be the one who brings a bit of levity on and off the court. Keep it up. Also his play was key yesterday when both Elijah and Naadir struggled. Way to go Rio!!

jayhawkdon 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Nobody said he was.

Boouk 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Zeller and Plumlee get all the hype, but Withey's every bit as good as they are. If Elijah gets back to the level he was at in last years NCAA tournament this is the best team in the country.

BigManU 3 months, 3 weeks ago

EJ may not get to the level he was last year because he mostly played SG last year. EJ is not a "Focal Point" type player. TT took enormous pressure off of EJ last year. EJ is essentially in a catch 22 this year because of the roster makeup this year.

globaljaybird 3 months, 3 weeks ago

IMO correct. Have seen somewhat of the same comfort level for EJ when Tharpe is on the floor at the same time. He moves much more relaxed & comes off screens great. As Nadir's exp increases I already believe we are the same type of matchup problem going forward as this team has so many interchangeable pieces. Self is a master at utilizing his players' talents. Was also glad to see Adams getting valuable minutes yesterday along with Perry. Is Adams a natural 1G or 2?

ralster 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Love this discussion: To my view, Anrio Adams is a high-athleticism, high-swagger "combo" guard. Yes, YetAnotherBillSelfComboGuard! Defend, run the offense, and be capable of double-digit scoring, and have all the upps and hops and speed to do all the things we do. Lets put it another way: Anrio likely arrives with better handles than BMac (my point is that starting out, BMac is a classic 2guard/SG, possibly even a college3wing like Releford, who he plays interchangeably with...while Rio arrives as more of an all-around type, shorter guard...and all-around means 'combo' to Self's fans). BMac is getting better and better by the week, and Self wanting him to drive it. BMac only 19yrs old also, so he very well could become a more trusty ballhandler compared to his more pureSG role he is in now. To me, Anrio Adams = 50% Tyshawn + 50% Russell Robinson. And that is ALL good! I've seen Adams with some crazy, no-look assists (he's distributed before...), along with knowing he had several 30+, 40+, and a 50+point game outings in high-school which onlys says that such a 6'3 player knows how to score (he's scored alot before, and with regularity). Good things coming...

ralster 3 months, 3 weeks ago

OK, CliffNotes version: Scoring guard+ball-handling guard=combo guard. Y'all should be able to tell by now in Self's 9th year. People stop being distracted by their heights: Sherron was a scorer+ball-handler=5'10 combo guard. Tharpe scores+handles= 5'11 combo. Anrio = another combo guard. Self's philosophy: opponents cant defensively cut the PG "head" off our team if we are dangerous from all 2 or 3 guard positions--they can all handle, beat presses and double teams (ahem...note to EJ...), and score. Very hard to gameplan against. Especially when we have our hi-post big throw a lob-dunk to either of the 2 combo guards on the floor, as we had last year with EJ + TT. That's just plain crazy stuff that opponents cannot copy. Notice how OhioSt tries to be "us" with all their perimeter passing, etc...but they wont be throwing lob dunks to Aaron Craft. And Craft couldnt contain our guards. Recent SIllustrated article on Craft simply omitted the 3 losses in 12mos to KU, as Self's combo guard concept simply was tooooooo much for Aaron Craft. Learn to love what Self does with our guardplay. And I havent even mentioned the toughness factor thing...

BayHawkaholic 3 months, 3 weeks ago

throwing lob dunks to Aaron Craft." That visual made me LOL.

akgjenkintown 3 months, 3 weeks ago