Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Self: Canada good for KU

By Gary Bedore

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Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self returned to work Tuesday with pleasant thoughts of his team's Labor Day-weekend trip to Canada.

"As long as NCAA legislation stays the same, absolutely we'll do it again. I don't know if it'd be Ottawa (again), but it's certainly something that's been good for us. It's so easy," Self said of making the short trip north of the border.

His Jayhawks are 6-0 all-time in Canada, winning three games over the 2004 Labor Day weekend in Vancouver and three more in Ontario this year. The NCAA allows trips to foreign countries once every four years.

"The lowlight (of the trip) was Brady tweaking his ankle. He needs the minutes, the competition," Self said of sophomore guard Brady Morningstar, who sprained his right ankle after hitting a 15-foot jump shot to close the first half of Saturday's 84-83 victory over Carleton. Morningstar didn't play the rest of that game or Game Three against Ottawa on Sunday.

"The highlight was, our three leading scorers were all newcomers. The biggest concern to me going in was, 'Can we score?' We'll do it by committee again, but if the three leading scorers on the trip were all newcomers, that's a positive."

Freshman guard/forward Travis Releford led the Jayhawks with a 14.3 scoring average off 69.6 percent shooting. Freshman point guard Tyshawn Taylor averaged 13.7 points off 59.3 percent shooting, and juco transfer Mario Little averaged 12.7 points off 65.2 percent marksmanship.

"We'll play through Cole (Aldrich, 12.0 ppg) and Sherron (Collins, 10 points in one game). But from my vantage point, getting points out of the newcomers was great," Self said.

Both Morningstar and Little (stress fracture, lower-left leg) will sit out a week to two weeks.

"Brady's (sprain) is not major. Mario will also take some time off to complete the healing process. He was not as explosive as he'll be," Self said of the Chicago junior.

Self said the Jayhawks responded well in beating McGill, 72-67; Carleton, 84-83; and Ottawa, 95-60.

"I was pleased with the overall attitude of the team," Self said. "The guys tried hard. I got on them early (in first game), and they responded.

Notes: There was no word from the NCAA Clearinghouse on Tuesday concerning the eligibility of the Marcus and Markieff Morris ... Michael Snaer, a 6-4 senior guard from Moreno Valley, Calif., tells Rivals.com he'll visit Missouri, Florida State and Marquette. KU, UCLA and Stanford complete his list.

Kansas basketball Canadian statistics

Here are statistics from Kansas University's basketball players on their just-completed trip to Canada. Listed are points per game, rebounds per game, field goals made and attempted, free throws made and attempted.

Travis Releford 14.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 16-23 shooting (69.6 percent), 8-17 free throwing (47.1 percent).

Tyshawn Taylor 13.7 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 16-27 shooting (59.3 percent), 9-12 free throwing (75 percent).

Mario Little 12.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 15-23 shooting (65.2 percent), 8-9 free throwing (88.9 percent).

Cole Aldrich 12.0 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 12-20 shooting (60.0 percent), 12-13 free throwing (92.3 percent).

Sherron Collins 10.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 5-12 shooting (41.7 percent), 0-2 free throwing.

Tyrel Reed 8.7 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 8-16 shooting (50 percent), 7-7 free throwing.

Quintrell Thomas 7.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 7-14 shooting (50 percent), 8-15 free throwing (53.3 percent).

Conner Teahan 4.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 4-13 shooting (30.8 percent), 1-2 free throwing (50 percent).

Brady Morningstar 3.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 3-10 shooting (30 percent), no free throws.

Brennan Bechard 2.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 2-4 shooting (50 percent), no free throws.

Matt Kleinmann 2.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 3-4 shooting (75 percent), no free throws.

Tyrone Appleton 1.3 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 2-8 shooting (25 percent, 0-2 free throwing.

Chase Buford 1.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 1-3 shooting (33.3 percent), no free throws.

Totals 83.7 ppg to opponents' 70.0 ppg; 39.3 rpg to opponents' 26.3 rpg.

Three-pointers: Releford 3-5, Reed 3-9, Teahan 3-10, Bechard 1-2, Collins 0-1, Buford 0-1, Morningstar 0-2, Taylor 0-5. Total 10 of 35 (28.6 percent) to opponents' 28 of 70 (40 percent).

Assist leaders: Little 8, Reed 7, Taylor 6, Morningstar 4.

Turnovers leaders: Aldrich 10, Taylor 8, Little 7, Reed 6, Teahan 5.

Blocks leaders: Aldrich 9.

Steals leaders: Aldrich 5, Reed 5, Thomas 4.

Fouls leaders: Thomas 12, Taylor 9, Little 8, Aldrich 8, Teahan 8.

Comments

KEITHMILES05 (anonymous) says...

If the twins know by mid September I'll be surprised.

September 3, 2008 at 6:32 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Chicago_JHawk (anonymous) says...

This is the same date 3 years ago that Rush was given the OK. I am surprised it takes this long to process something that seems like it should be routine. It's important to get these guys in class, especially now, when they can focus on school only for a month or so before practice gears up again.

If it goes many more weeks, then I imagine they'll wait until spring to enroll, and miss the first dozen games or so.

September 3, 2008 at 7:38 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

ChicagoJHawk (anonymous) says...

I agree with you guys about the Twins' elligibility. What doesn't make sense to me is that these guys are "student athletes"; can't they just take out loans for now & attend class, and if & when they become elligible later use their scholarship money to pay for school & cancel out the loans?? I'm not for sure about this but I was told that Rush did that when he was a freshman. If they can't attend class either then they're just going to fall even more behind than they already are.

September 3, 2008 at 8:55 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

5DecadeHawk (anonymous) says...

This is a serious problem with the NCAA rules.

Holding athletes out of practices and games is appropriate.

Holding STUDENTS out of classes is absolutely counterproductive.

This rule needs to be modified to find a way to get students into classrooms. There needs to be some kind of temporary clearance just to allow them to start class.

The NCAA is forcing these students to fall behind in class. It's wrong.

September 3, 2008 at 11:43 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

OutlawJHawk (anonymous) says...

Bedore--Thank you for the stats. Let the analysis begin.

Regarding the twins eligibility, the NCAA is an omnipotent, autocratic entity. I have little respect for this money hungry organization, who long ago lost interest in the "student" athlete. Their concern and focus is usually on the next big TV contract; money. If they REALLY cared about the student, this kind of delay regarding eligibility would be more expeditiously handled, and the twins would at the very least be able to attend class, as students. Further, student athletes should receive a stipend, based on the profitability of their sport, instead of some equal token amount. Afterall, that is how a free market, including college sports, SHOULD work. Title IX bites, as well.

September 3, 2008 at 11:56 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

OutlawJHawk (anonymous) says...

Sorry all, I had to ramble in my succint feelings on pay for college athletes and Title IX. As it does not relate to this article, please disregard.

September 3, 2008 at noon ( | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

The statististic of that whole trip that jumps out at me is

Cole Aldrich... 12/13 free throws

Relaford's and Thomas' were more concerning... but if the offense is going to go through Cole, then he's going to be the one we need to knock em down the most.

September 3, 2008 at 12:51 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

dagger108 (anonymous) says...

Maybe MC or RR would have some free time in the next month and could come back to lead TR & QT thru the same FT program they went thru last semester break. I seem to recall the FT shooting of the whole team, and at least those two in particular being a concern pre-BigXII. Fortunately, it was totaly turned around and a huge strength by NCAA time. (Sorry that I'm not quite geeked enuf to have specific stats.) There was a striking similarity to the improvement in DJ's FT when he had to sit out the 9 games a couple years ago.

September 3, 2008 at 1:41 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

***BREAKING NEWS by okjhok***

Chalmers and Arthur caught with weed at rookie orientation. Beat you to it, LJW.

September 3, 2008 at 1:47 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

frompekka2sasha (anonymous) says...

Chalmers & Arthur were caught with pot and sent home from the NBA's Rookie Transition program. More negative press :-(

September 3, 2008 at 1:48 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

dagger108 (anonymous) says...

Chicago - If I'm remembering correctly, Coach Self has commented a few times that it takes this long to process the twins' case because it was not routine.

Also, it is good to remember that the twins weren't finished with the class work until at least July, and were still getting paperwork to the clearinghouse in August when they also have a few hundred thousand other incoming freshman to process.

I agree that it sucks for them not to be able to start school with the rest of their class, and take advantage of the extra practice/games, but to blame the clearinghouse because these 2 (out of all the other hundreds of thousands of student-athletes, .001%?) aren't eligible yet sounds like a frustation induced stretch to me.

They haven't made a special rule for these cases, but they have stressed over and over again to HS athletes to get things in order well in advance or you don't get to play. And playing, in this case is what is paying for school.

No one is keeping them from attending classes, just like all of the other thousands at KU and elsewhere. There are just rules to be followed for how big time athletics funds their programs. There are already to many scandals about players and coaches cheating their way to success. I think it sends a great and profound message to HS students. Take care of buisness early. It's too easy for late to become too late.

September 3, 2008 at 2 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Chicago_JHawk (anonymous) says...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/st...

Link to story about Chalmers and Arthur - dumbasses. Lucky for Chalmers, he'd already signed his guaranteed contract!

September 3, 2008 at 2:26 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

Good news: Releford's line reads 3 of 5 from Trinityville, which means he at least can have a three-game, warm streak from outside; and this means he might one day make the Josh Shipp category of streaky outside shooters this season.

Bad news: KU shot a paltry 28 percent overall from Trinityville against pygmies AND Teahan was 3 of 10.

Cold hand, or the real hand?

September 3, 2008 at 3:48 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jacqueshock (anonymous) says...

"We'll play through Cole and Sherron."

The pick and the roll.

September 4, 2008 at 9:46 a.m. ( | suggest removal )