Thomas Robinson's rebounding earns him top spot in Davidson loss

Posted by Tom Keegan December 20, 2011 at 12:34 a.m.

1. Thomas Robinson: Struggled mightily with relentless double-teams and was late with help defense on more than one occasion, had three turnovers, shot 39 percent from the field and 58 percent from the line, but also had three times as many rebounds (18) as anybody else in the game and shared game-high scoring honors (21 points) with Davidson guard Nik Cochran.

2. Travis Releford: Was team’s best defender and he totaled eight points, six rebounds and four steals.

3. Elijah Johnson: Threw a few perfect passes for lob dunks, scored 15 points, had six assists and just one turnover. Didn’t play particularly well defensively and made just 3 of 10 three-point field goals.

4. Tyshawn Taylor: Didn’t miss any games because of a torn meniscus, playing 69 minutes in two games before surgery and 33 minutes in Monday’s game. Played eight days after surgery. Give him bonus points for toughness, but also note the operation did not reduce his penchant for turnovers. Had five of them to go with seven assists, three steals and 15 points. Made just 1 of 5 three-pointers and 6 of 11 free throws and had a rough night defensively, perhaps in part because of the knee.

5. Jeff Withey: Had a difficult time keeping up with Davidson’s quicker post players. Totaled nine points, four rebounds and two blocked shots in 16 minutes.

6. Conner Teahan: Couldn’t cash in on numerous open looks and made just 2 of 8 three-pointers. Fouled out after contributing six points, five rebounds and two turnovers in 26 minutes.

7. Justin Wesley: Had three rebounds and a turnover in eight foul-free minutes.

8. Kevin Young: Scoreless in 10 minutes. Had two offensive rebounds and two personal fouls.

9. Naadir Tharpe: Caught out of position on defense and gave up an easy bucket on an inbound play. Had an assist and a turnover in three minutes.

The Keegan Ratings: Season Standings
1. Thomas Robinson (94 points)
2. Tyshawn Taylor (78 points)
T3. Jeff Withey (66 points)
T3. Travis Releford (66 points)
5. Elijah Johnson (65 points)
6. Conner Teahan (54 points)
T7. Justin Wesley (44 points)
8. Kevin Young (43 points)
9. Naadir Tharpe (25 points)
10. Merv Lindsay (4 points)

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johnsont1 1 year, 5 months ago

Tyshawn's offense will improve as he gets more confident on his knee. My biggest problem with him was that he gave up at least 3 open threes because he kept going under the picks!

Kberth2011 1 year, 5 months ago

Um, no way Withey was below Tyshawn. He was mismatched in the game, but that is not his fault. He played great in the minutes he played. Tyshawn was the dreck of the team

AsadZ 1 year, 5 months ago

I don't understand why Teahan continues to get so much PT instead of Nadir. Yeah he is a red shirt 5th year senior but he is not a very good defender, he only brings outside shooting, and on a cold night he is a liability. It appears to me that he is a streaky shooter, only good within friendly atmosphere of AFH. He made so many mistakes but coach continued to play him while Nadir was put on bench after one mistake.

This is one area I have a beef with HCBS. He needs to give more PT to Nadir and KY and let them play through their mistakes so they are better prepared for Feb/March. At least they will be more confident.

Coach has acknowledged that depth is a problem so why not develop it. Playing Teahan is not going to solve the problem.

AzHawk97 1 year, 5 months ago

I agree. Conner is not Brady or Tyrel. He needs to keep Jordan company on the bench and come in and jack threes during "Rock Chalk" time at AFH.

swavity 1 year, 5 months ago

Actually, I was thinking Teahan is this year's Reed or Morningstar. They were better, obviously, but so was that year's bench. Self puts them in because he has determined before the season even started that those are his shooters even though none of them can hit worth a damn under pressure, and then you get a combined 2-16 in an Elite 8 loss to VCU.

Hope he wakes up pulls Teahan unless he can show some consistency and maybe, perhaps, play a little defense.

cuellarku 1 year, 5 months ago

Oh my god, I said the same thing a few weeks ago and all these homers wanted to crucify me for it. You can tell within the first 10 minutes whether or not he's going to be worth playing (see: hit 3-pointers), but he's just AWFUL on defense, and can't hit anything in the second half. He can't drive, yet he tried to last night (charge called, which I don't agree with, but he had nowhere to go with it anyway), and he had a layup blocked because he's got a 17 inch vertical.

Tharpe needs to play more because EJ and Tyshawn are tired by the end of games, and KY and Wesley would've given us SOMETHING in the post, instead of giving our guards the green light to shoot threes on a night when we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn...plus might've gotten more of their guys to foul out.

Lulufulu85 1 year, 5 months ago

This is a tough loss to swallow for sure. But to bash our head coach and call for his dismissal after our less than stellar season so far? See previous Keegan article's comments, its just rediculous. Did you all forget how badly KU beat UNC and Memphis in 08? Its only been 3 years guys. This season we will see alot of what just happened. True fans will realize this and stick with them no matter what. There is a better than average chance our guys wont win the conference this year if they continue playing like they are. Shrug Oh well, Ive accepted it. Every single one of the nation's top programs ( UNC, DUKE, UK, UCLA, UCONN) every single one has gone through less than stellar seasons and rebounded in the next one in a major way. Didnt UNC and UK out right miss the NCAA tourney in '10? When was the last time KU has missed the big dance? If Im not mistaken, they have the record for consecutive appearances.
My point is, if youve missed it, KU will have "bad seasons" by our higher than normal standards but, they will always not be very far from turning it around the next season.

Bangkok_Jayhawk 1 year, 5 months ago

Again... Thomas Robinson WILL be a First Team All American. Not sure if there is enough around him. If this team becomes a serious contender it will be because Tyshawn and Elijah start playing at a high level. Hope that happens.

Lulufulu85 1 year, 5 months ago

I do have to bash one thing I saw. To put it lightly, in the last 2 min of the game, there was a defensive break down where ALL 5 KU players were grouped together up at the top of the key and the ball got tossed to the left side for a WIDE OPEN 3 which pretty much iced the game. This team is not that good. That is a fact. BUT, I firmly believe they will get better, even if we have to wait until next year.

KGphoto 1 year, 5 months ago

I don't care if it was "difficult" for Withey to keep up with their post players, he was on pace for 18 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks if he had played 32 minutes. I wish he would've at least played 25, especially on a night we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from three. 16 minutes almost seems like punishment.

Ah well. We'll take our lumps and hopefully learn from them. You know I'm kind of hoping this is a good omen for our tournament play. Lose to the mid-major during the regular season and collect the win back in March. Maybe we can get VCU in our bracket and put a hurt on 'em.

drgnslayr 1 year, 5 months ago

I didn't get it, either.

But we aren't there for practices... so maybe Jeff was in the dog house. Even though he struggled with the style of play we need Jeff out there to figure it out. More minutes would have been an added schooling for Jeff.

I think we all have come to know that Jeff is a big key to the success of this team.

It seems we could have taken advantage of our size by running offense through a high-low triangle with Jeff and TRob. I miss those low post patterns we used to see with the M-twins. Especially when the one factor that stayed constant in this game (that favored us) was Davidson's foul troubles!

REHawk 1 year, 5 months ago

We got exposed by a good coach and our own continuously poor 3 pt. defense. On any occasion when our shooting is cold, this squad will really have to scramble to attain leads. Early on, the matchup seemed to bother Withey, but once D'Mon got in foul trouble, it seemed as though Withey should have played every possible minute. Davidson ran some terrific double screens for their outside shooters. What they developed for Seth Curry a few years ago is still very much alive to pester and defeat top contenders on a night when their shooters get hot. Though they did a good job early on of defending our bigs, it cost them dearly with fouling. We didn't seem to make a concerted effort to work the ball inside to foul them out.

konkeyDong 1 year, 5 months ago

Actually, our 3pt defense has been anything but poor. Even last night, we held them to 33%. It was an ugly combination of our inability to run offense, or inability to hit free throws (we had 31 opportunities and only hit 18!!!), and the fact that our biggest D lapses would always occur right when we would get back withing striking distance.

To Davidson's credit, they hit some big shots, especially the last long 3 that TRob was all over. That wasn't a defensive miss, that was just a kid making a really difficult shot.

Honestly, though, what the game really came down to was our inability to hit free throws. I know at this level coaches seldom practice them, but I'd hope that each and every kid on the team goes in to the gym on their own a couple hours each day between now an Thursday and practices free-throws. We've so much better this season on them, especially Jeff and TRob. This is the kind of team that needs to be consistent from the stripe to have any hope. We only needed to hit another 3 or 4 to walk away with the narrow W (once you subtract our intentional fouling), and even that is an underwhelming percentage.

rwhawk 1 year, 5 months ago

Minor Correction: Justin Wesley has a firm grasp on 7th place with 44 points. Give the man his due and remove the big T7 and let him enjoy this shining moment.

The_Big_B 1 year, 5 months ago

KU turns good shooters into bad shooters. How? Why? Too much weight-lifting?

Bubba cain't shoot.

focojayhawk 1 year, 5 months ago

I am not disagreeing with your statement. Just curious who the good shooters are this season turned bad. I have always felt none of these guys were good shooters on this year's squad, maybe decent. Teahan seems to shoot well either when we are blowing someone out or playing a much lesser opponent. I do remember, however, that being the case with ol Roy. When Vaughn and Miles first came in, they could really shoot, when they left, it seemed like they were afraid to.

ralster 1 year, 5 months ago

Vaughn was told not to shoot. Just like Raef was. Miles just wasnt that good at the 3ball. Self has obviously told TRob to "quit" the 3ball experimentation in close games...But you can bet Teahan, Johnson, Taylor, Releford have the greenlight to shoot. If we cant hit, we are in for a long night (anytime, anywhere...including in AFH). No Marcus to save us. We should have intensely focused our efforts thru TRob+Withey...is my pure armchair QB comment...

focojayhawk 1 year, 5 months ago

As far as Tyshawn goes, it's pretty 50/50. Everyone is either on his side, or totally against him. Self claims we can't win without him, and he is right. But is that because he is that great? Or because there is no one to replace him so we HAVE to have him?

ralster 1 year, 5 months ago

Regarding Tyshawn: He has his own style of penetrating and getting a shot up-->but you cannot deny he can penetrate as well as any Kentucky/Memphis clone. Some guards are really nifty at dropping off a nifty assist as they hang time around the rim, and others less so. I'm fine with what Taylor does, as other than the 11-t.o. outing, he is almost always a net positive. If you microanalyze and say "if he had 3 less t.o.'s, then we coulda/shoulda/woulda _", then you would have to say that for most of the roster that had more than 2-3 t.o.'s.

I would like to see Johnson drive more--very smooth, and physically bigger than Tyshawn. Make them (TT+EJ) more of a 2-headed threat for the opposition. I have waited and waited to see these 2 on the floor at the same time, but so far have been underwhelmed??? Where are the lob dunks between Withey, TRob, TT & EJ, and KYoung?? Saw more of that last year than this year...

focojayhawk 1 year, 5 months ago

Ralster- Well, I'll be darned. I just got replies from, in my opinion, one of the more logical posters on here. Thanks for the views, I agree with every single word. Not that it matters anymore.....but why would Vaughn not have been able to shoot? He was a great shooter at first. If I remember right he hit that big game winner his freshman year against Indiana....that turned into a long night of celebration. Too many other good shooters? I do remember when he used to run out of time at the free throw line, hilarious. Almost as great as when Lester Earl shot his throw and the ball never left his hand. The look of bewilderment on ol Roy's face. Priceless!

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