Tom Keegan: Ellis, Jenkins ‘mismatch nightmares’

By Tom Keegan     Mar 26, 2016

Nick Krug
Kansas forward Perry Ellis laughs as Kansas head coach Bill Self talks about what it was like recruiting him on Friday, March 25, 2016 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

? He is a highly skilled power forward in the midst of the hottest scoring streak of his career, defending much better than in younger years and coming off a monster Thursday night game that launched his school into an Elite Eight game today.

His name is Perry Ellis.

His name is Kris Jenkins.

Kansas University’s Ellis, a 6-foot-8 senior from Wichita, and Villanova’s Jenkins, a 6-6 junior from Upper Marlboro, Md., square off in what makes for the most intriguing matchup of today’s South Regional final that sends the loser home and the winner to the Final Four.

Jenkins made five of six three-pointers and produced 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists in a 92-69 rout of Miami.

Kansas rode Ellis (27 points) to a 79-63 victory against Maryland.

“They’re both mismatch nightmares,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “Both of them. They are. For everybody. I don’t mean just each other. If you get a small guy on Perry Ellis, he’s posting him up. You get a bigger guy on him, and he’s shooting if he has space. If he comes up on him, he’s driving by him. Kris does the same thing.”

This might be a nice time to share that the lack of self-importance on the stages from which the coaches conducted their news conferences was quite refreshing.

Listen to Wright and KU’s Bill Self field questions and it’s easy to determine why they rank among the most successful coaches in college basketball. They communicate masterfully, command the attention of a room, make everyone on hand feel as if they are being treated to a one-on-one conversation. They take their answers a level or two beyond the obvious.

For example, when Wright was asked what led to Jenkins’ recent torrid stretch, his answer was as counter-intuitive as it was thought-provoking.

“He had always played as an overweight player, out-of-shape player,” Wright said. “And last year he cut weight, but he still didn’t know how to play like a finely conditioned player. About halfway through this year, he found his stamina. He found his stride. And he played defense consistently, rebounded consistently.”

Consequently, his minutes went up and so did his scoring average. Jenkins averaged 10.9 points in Villanova’s first 26 games, 19.6 points in the past 11, shooting 50 percent from three down the stretch.

Jenkins said he lugged 280 pounds with him to Villanova and has shed about 40 pounds.

“Both of them are going to have to chase each other, and both of them can post up,” Wright said of the matchup. “Now, Perry can post up deeper and use his size on Kris. Kris has got like a mid-range post-up game. I think Kris might have a little bit better range that would extend Perry. I think Perry’s better driving off the dribble.”

Self also called it “a key matchup. I do think they’ll guard each other a good portion of the time when they’re in there together.”

Stars guarding each other isn’t that common in college basketball, but both teams have so many scorers that it makes sense just to match up based on position and size.

“One of the challenges for us would be Perry getting to shooters,” Self said. “Even though he can guard a perimeter player, he’s not used to guarding somebody that has the freedom and the ability to make hard, distant threes.”

Ellis has scored at least 20 points in seven of eight games. No other remaining player in the tournament can say the same. So far, opposing coaches haven’t used junk defenses to try to slow him down, and Wright did a nice job of explaining why.

“Perry Ellis, for his position, one on one, is an outstanding player,” Wright said. “But it’s not like there’s a large amount of distance between him and his teammates for their positions. So you just can’t do it. You’ve got to try to play him straight up.

“And if you give him too much attention, they have a way of getting (Wayne) Selden going. (Devonté) Graham gets going. I mean, Graham was the MVP of the Big 12 tournament, right? So if you give (Ellis) too much attention, these guys, every one of these guys can kill you.”

The same can be said of the other four Wildcats should KU attempt to pay special attention to Jenkins. The better two-way power forward tonight has a very good shot at playing in his first Final Four.




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