Jayhawks bond while stuck in hotel elevator on Wednesday

By Gary Bedore     Nov 27, 2014

KANSAS 76, RHODE ISLAND 60

Box score

? Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self has said his squads “need to go through some stuff” before they can actually become a cohesive team.

A number of players getting stuck on the elevator at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center on Wednesday night just might prove to be the team-bonding ticket during the 2014-15 campaign.

“Oh man, it was a little scary, like some movie scene. We were stuck in the elevator about 10 minutes,” freshman Devonté Graham said after Thursday’s 76-60 first-round Orlando Classic victory over Rhode Island in HP Field House.

“I was a little nervous. Nobody was really panicking. It was starting to get a little hot. A little worry came to me,” Graham added, noting eventually “people came and clawed it open for us (on first floor).”

KU freshman center Cliff Alexander set the scene: “It was me, Jamari (Traylor), Evan (Manning), Landen (Lucas), Tyler (Self), Devonté and a couple other guys,” Alexander said. “Some of the guys were panicking a little bit.”

Like whom?

“Jamari,” Alexander said, laughing.

“I guess so,” Alexander added, asked if it proved to be a team-bonding experience. “Everybody was telling each other their favorite colors and stuff.”

Blue, red, yellow . Now that had to be interesting ….

“At the ceremony (before tourney) they talked about you have to take this time away from school and bond with the team,” Graham said. “We tried to figure out what our favorite color was. It was a joke, a good bonding moment I guess.”

Sore shoulder: Graham scored 10 points off 2-of-2 shooting (1-1 from three, 5-6 free throws) while playing with a pad on his sprained right shoulder blade. He had the shoulder “pulled” in the second half and left the game for several minutes.

“I’ve got a sprained shoulder,” Graham said. “It’s really not that bad anymore. “It’s when certain things happen it hurts a bit. It got pulled and aggravated a little bit.”

Cliff a beast again: Alexander had nine points and eight boards in 21 minutes. He had seven points and four boards the final half.

“I come in and do my job, get every rebound possible and score at will. That’s what I try to do,” the 6-8 Chicagoan said.

“I’m feeling a lot more comfortable. My game is coming to me. I’m playing like I played in high school. My game is coming back to me I feel.”

He was energized with family in Kissimmee.

“My mom, dad, grandmother and four brothers,” Alexander said. “They came to the game so it was a real blessing.”

Food on the holiday: The Jayhawks’ players, coaches and some staff and family of players attended Thanksgiving dinner in a banquet room at the Gaylord on Thursday after the game.

Next up, Tennessee: KU today will meet Tennessee at 11 a.m. in HP Field House. The Volunteers defeated Santa Clara, 64-57, Thursday to improve to 2-1 on the season. Tennessee has lost to VCU (85-69) on the road and beaten Texas Southern (70-58) at home.

“I watched them today and have seen Donnie’s teams play in the past,” Self said of coach Donnie Tyndall. “They are very, very quick, quick as any team we’ll play this year. They are not huge. They have interchangeable parts. They try to force you into turnovers, play a funky zone we haven’t had a chance to practice against. They’ve got a nice team.”

Armani Moore, a 6-5 junior forward, scored 18 points with six boards in 35 minute against Santa Clara. Josh Richardson, a 6-6 senior guard, had 18 points and one assist with four turnovers.

“From watching the game, I saw they have good athletes. They like to get up and down the floor and are aggressive on defense,” KU’s Graham said.

Noted Alexander: They’ve got a big guy down there who is strong. I’ve got to come out ready to play.”

The big guy is Dominic Woodson, a 6-10 sophomore who had five points in 11 minutes.

This, that: Frank Mason III had 12 points, five assists, no turnovers in 30 minutes. … The game attracted 3,915 fans in a building that seats 5,000. KU’s large contingent of fans rocked the building with the Rock Chalk chant with 30 seconds left … KU started the first and second halves by hitting just one of five shots. KU went 14 of 27 the first half and 9-of-16 the second. … Fifteen of KU’s first 20 points were three-pointers. By halftime, KU was 7-for-14 from three, the most threes in a half since draining seven against Texas Tech (3/14/13). KU finished 8-17 from three. … While holding the Rams to a single point over a five-minute stretch in the first half, KU went on a 14-1 run to give the Jayhawks their first 20-point lead (31-11). … From 12:01 to 1:52, KU did not allow a two-point field goal. Rhode Island made just two field goals in that span, a pair of three-pointers. … KU’s defense for the first time this season held a team to under 40 percent shooting (36.5 percent). KU had a season-high seven blocks and eight steals. … After being held scoreless for the first time in his career against Rider, Wayne Selden, Jr. hit KU’s first field goal, a three-pointer, and went on to tie his season-high with 10 points. Selden had down a career-best seven rebounds. His previous best was six, which he tied three different times. … Landen Lucas made his second-consecutive start, which he used for four points, four rebounds and tied his career-high with two steals.

Troubled Vols: Two members of Tyndall’s UT staff have resigned since a Nov. 6 announcement that the NCAA was conducting a review of Southern Mississippi, where Tyndall worked the past two seasons. Tyndall told ESPN: “It’s just been one of those weeks that you get through some adversity, you face the distractions, hit it right between the eyes,” Tyndall told the Associated Press in Knoxville. “Our team, I think, is a mature team for even our lack of experience and not (having) a lot of veterans, so I think we’re fine.” Former UT head coach Cuonzo Martin left for California this season.


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