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Posted
by Tom Keegan
January 17, 2012 at 12:44 a.m.
Thomas Robinson outclasses Baylor's bigs
1. Thomas Robinson: Baylor’s big men, especially Perry Jones III, are good. They’re not even in Robinson’s class. Is it time to consider that at season’s end Robinson could be looked upon as KU’s best player since Danny Manning? Robinson had 27 points, 14 rebounds and three dunks. He made five of his six free throws.
2. Tyshawn Taylor: In the 13-0 run to end the first half, Taylor had 11 points and an assist. He has scored a career-high 28 points two games in a row and is playing with an enormous amount of confidence. Made 10 of 14 field goals, 4 of 6 three-pointers, and had six assists. Not to be overlooked, Taylor had six floor burns.
3. Jeff Withey: Established himself as a force in the paint right off the bat and never backed down. Produced 10 points and 10 rebounds, giving him four double-doubles, including two in a row.
4. Elijah Johnson: Quietly, his confidence is on the come and he’s using his agility and great leaping ability to help the team in a variety of ways. Produced 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and a steal in 29 minutes and played tough defense.
5. Travis Releford: Led the team with seven floor burns. The glue guy of the starting five, Releford quietly did everything right, made 5 of 7 shots and had four assists and two steals. Most glue guys aren’t so long, quick and explosive.
6. Conner Teahan: Hit a three from the right corner to give his team a 13-point lead and the spread steadily grew from there.
7. Naadir Tharpe: Showed confidence driving into the lane and scooping in a bucket.
8. Justin Wesley: His defense came in handy for nine minutes.
9. Kevin Young: Baylor’s not the sort of team that brings out the best in Young, so he played just four minutes.
10. Merv Lindsay: Played most of the final minute.
The Keegan Ratings: Season Standings
1. Thomas Robinson (164 points)
2. Tyshawn Taylor (146 points)
3. Jeff Withey (124 points)
4. Travis Releford (122 points)
5. Elijah Johnson (119 points)
6. Conner Teahan (96 points)
7. Kevin Young (78 points)
8. Justin Wesley (67 points)
9. Naadir Tharpe (49 points)
10. Merv Lindsay (9 points)
Comments
VancouverHawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Wow!
Jhawk59 1 year, 4 months ago
Juenneman got robbed, at least he had a rebound.
jesusisajhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
How did the not ranking walk-ons rule not get changed during the Christian Moody era? Would have been crazy not to have him in the rankings during his time.
Lulufulu85 1 year, 4 months ago
YAAAAH! What a game!
LAJayhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Taylor matched his career high of 28 for the second game in a row, but he did it with 7 less shot attempts. That was the difference. After the first 5 minutes, Taylor was absolutely astounding. The Enigma was fantastic.
Withey had 9... count them NINE!!... of his 10 boards on the offensive glass. Unreal. We had 14 offensive rebounds on a night we shot 57.4% from the floor... I'm actually surprised we didn't win by 40...
And TRob... I mean, come on... can anyone seriously make a case for anyone else being POY at this point? Still a lot of season left, but with his consistency.... come on....
dagger108 1 year, 4 months ago
No mention of Withey's blocks. The one to start the game was huge - shutting down a break away sla..., oh, wait, maybe not. And then there was the one they took away with the bogus foul call. There were a few (blocking foul on Travis when the guy dribbled off his leg, and charge on TT) that were pathetic enough that the team seemed to rally around those calls, gainnig extra energy from them. Just nasty.
dagger108 1 year, 4 months ago
There are so few D stats, but Travis and EJ shut down their men. Huge part of the game.
FSUJHAWK 1 year, 4 months ago
+1
JayHawkFanToo 1 year, 4 months ago
"He made all five of his free throws."
Robinson made 5 of 6 free throws; he did miss one.
Alohahawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Ho hum. Just another Jayhawk win in the Phog. Just kidding. LOVE IT!!! (all caps)
Not much to complain about. Even Dukie V's announcing was acceptable. He stated emphatically, numerous times, that the Big 12 Conference championship goes through KU. Also, that TRob is still his choice as POY. (Obviously making up for his gaffs on his previous Jayhawk rankings. And he only mentioned ACC schools in passing.)
Love that KU's starting five each were in double figures. And that TRob and Withey each had double-doubles. The opposition now must worry about all five positions, not just TRob and TT.
As for shooting 3's, KU's best game this season. Kept them to a minimum, and look at the final results. Great shooting %.
From now on, if anyone finds fault with TT's game, they can apply for a membership with the Mizzery Antlers.
Any early bets that, next week, a Jayhawk will be named Big 12 Player of the Week? Two nominations are on the board already.
1_Jaydoc_1 1 year, 4 months ago
I think they are going to have to rename the award to KU Player of the Week. During conference play anyway.
LAJayhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Granted there is another game to play this week, but... at this point TRob and TT have to share the award, right? Curious if there is any precedent for teammates being named co-big 12 players of the week.....
1_Jaydoc_1 1 year, 4 months ago
I don't know if Robinson is the best player we have had since D-Man. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE T-Rob and the passion he has for the game. I think it is safe to say he is rivaling Darnell Jackson for my favorite Hawk in recent history.
That said, I think this is more a combination of him having a higher PersonalTalent:TeamTalent ratio than any other guy we have had since Danny. Not to take anything away from this guy. He deserved all the credit he gets, but there have just been a lot of great players to come through the Phog since Manning played in the 80s.
I'm just glad we have a guy like him when we need him.
billhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
T. Rob is awesome. Maybe the best since Paul Pierce.
Our starting five is looking solid! Pray for an injury free season!
swavity 1 year, 4 months ago
I think the other candidates would be: LaFrentz(98), Pierce(98), Gooden(02), Collison(03), and Simien(05).
Robinson is still more raw than any of those guys and so probably the least developed as a scorer, but as a rebounder and physical talent he's head and shoulders above the rest of them.
It's amazing to me how short-changed the rest of the team has gotten all year, though - this is not remotely a team lacking in talent. There's pretty much none of it on the bench, no...but the starting five may very well have five future NBA draft picks, and frankly depth in college bball is overrated anyway. Either way, Robinson has seen both relentless double-teams and standard man-to-man, and he's learning to dominate the game regardless.
swavity 1 year, 4 months ago
I think the other candidates would be: LaFrentz(98), Pierce(98), Gooden(02), Collison(03), and Simien(05).
Robinson is still more raw than any of those guys and so probably the least developed as a scorer, but as a rebounder and physical talent he's head and shoulders above the rest of them.
It's amazing to me how short-changed the rest of the team has gotten all year, though - this is not remotely a team lacking in talent. There's pretty much none of it on the bench, no...but the starting five may very well have five future NBA draft picks, and frankly depth in college bball is overrated anyway. Either way, Robinson has seen both relentless double-teams and standard man-to-man, and he's learning to dominate the game regardless.
UncleMiltyN 1 year, 4 months ago
Amen. Are people already forgetting just how good Collison, Raef, and Simien were in college? Don't forget Arthur and Rush...they have a line on their resume the others mentioned don't.....
LAJayhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Agree with the above: Pierce, Collison and maybe Simien, although I might put TRob ahead of Wayne. Simien was a more pure shooter with his jump shot, but TRob is just miles ahead athletically... and that's not a slam on Wayne at all. It just suggests how unbelievably gifted Thomas Robinson is as a pure athlete.
That being said, TRob is still growing, and will, undoubtedly, become an even more efficient scorer. Collison and Simien each had a senior year to improve. Imagine TRob as a senior.... sweet merciful crap....
LAJayhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Also, Marcus Morris was a ridiculously polished college player. If you put him on a team like this without his brother, he'd be putting up 25 a night easy.
I still would give the edge to TRob's athleticism over the Morri, but... yeah, there have been some very, very solid basketball players in here since Manning.
KUfaninPA 1 year, 4 months ago
I know this isn't a real statistic, but I wonder how many dunks this team has. Specifically Robinson. And how many alley-oops? I can't remember a team or a player dunking as much as this team and as much as Robinson. And I'm not just saying this because I like big, crowd-raising thunderdunks so much. It's because in the past, it has been so frustrating watching guys (Chenowith, Arthur, Aldrich) go up for an easy bucket and try to finesse it in with a finger-roll, only to have it not go in. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've yelled at my television 'Dunk The Ball!" Kaun was a good dunker. Marcus and Markieff were good dunkers. But Robinson is amazing. The most high-percentage shot you can take is to take the ball and actually place it in the hoop.
icthawkfan316 1 year, 4 months ago
It's funny you should say that. Yesterday while thinking of Baylor going into the tunnel 2 years ago led me to check out some youtube videos of the KU intro video, and after getting pumped up watching that it led me to watch the KU championship run DVD from '08. If you can't remember a team dunking as much as this year's team, perhaps you need to refresh your memory on how often that '08 team dunked! Seems like there were 3-4 lobs every game, in addition to our bigs almost always finishing strong at the rim.
I will concede that this team is starting to finish with more dunks and is doing a better job of a lot of teams since our NC, but that team definitely set the standard.
KGphoto 1 year, 4 months ago
+1. Beat me to it. The '08 season, with Kaun, DBlock, Rush and Arthur was a dunkathon. 3-4 a game might be a low estimate. The lobs were sailing in from 3pt. range pretty often too. Both Chalmers and NY, NY could place it perfectly on the edge of the rim from long range. God that was fun!
Nobody on that team was doing rim-damage like Mr. Zero is this year though. The guy is a menace from above.
LAJayhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Yep, first thing I thought of when I read the post: the '08 team was a alley-oop/dunking machine. I don't remember seeing more alley-oops from any team at any level.
dagger108 1 year, 4 months ago
It's crazy to go back and watch the '08 team; to realize just how good they were across the board - 8 deep.
I think a contrast was created the following year or 2 when the Morri wouldn't dunk b/c they got tired during the game/season. Hudy definitely took care of that by the end. There have been some others along the way that were finger-roll softies.
manunitedjayhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
No team in the past decade threw as many oops as the 2008 team did. It really is not even comparable. Go to youtube and search "KU dunks against Villanova." All you need to see is right there. Arthur threw some pretty hard dunks down, out of all those guys he may have been the most explosive even more so than Robinson. Also look at the dunks Arthur had last year in the Association, he had the Dunk of the Night at least 3-4 times.
LAJayhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
I definitely hear ya, and this team has been finishing well (and others have already touched on '08, so I don't need to go there).
The only other thing I will say is that remember the Twins as freshman? How much we all used to scream about them not finishing strong? They picked it up their sophomore years, and by junior year they were hammering it home over everyone, but that freshman year it was like they were afraid to dunk, especially Kieff.
But now look at Kieff. He's putting up like 10-13 points a game in the NBA right now. That's what Danny Manning does for ya........
dagger108 1 year, 4 months ago
Hudy
ralster 1 year, 4 months ago
Yep, you guys got it: 2008. Add "backdoor" BRush to the '08 bigs+Chalmers.
oljhwk 1 year, 4 months ago
TRob deserves all the praise given to him, as he works very hard for his game and it shows. DVitale says he's player of the year and I agree. However, let's not forget the Paul Pierce's, Raef LaFrentz's, Nick Collison's, Kirk Hinrich's, Mario chalmer's, Drew Gooden's, Wayne Simien's of KU Basketball. A lot of greats have come through the Phog. Our memories aren't that short. At least I hope not.
REHawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Absolutely astounding Jayhawk determination and focus last night. Tyshawn's generalship was magnificent. Few superlatives large enough to label Thomas. Withey's contribution huge. The entire starting five played their hearts out, and the house was rockin'! Coaching staff probably too wired afterwards for sleep; but probably eventually drifted into mighty sweet dreams.
oxcaljayhawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Pierce had it all: scoring on the inside, outside and on the break; rebounding; and assists. He never reached his true potential at KU b/c Roy made him play in Raef's shadow. The scoring options should've been - Pierce, Pierce, Pierce, LaFrentz, Pierce.
PikesPeakSmitty 1 year, 4 months ago
Respectfully Disagree. Raef was amazing and versatile. He could do it all. Pierce didn't have his NBA driving skills yet.
SaltLakeHawk 1 year, 4 months ago
Disrespectfully agree.
PikesPeakSmitty 1 year, 4 months ago
Person of the Game: Bill Self, what a genious. Not bad for an 'off' year!! Coach of the Decade!!
Not Person of the Game: Scott Drew. Is there a worse coach in the country? How many years have they made the tourney in his tenure? I can't believe this guy gets NBA talent on his team.
Alohahawk 1 year, 4 months ago
While watching the game, it seemed SD constantly had assistants in his ear. Made me wonder who was head coach, because he seemed to have this stony look in his eyes like he wasn't really sure what was happening or what to do about it. Sort of like the old saying, "To many chiefs and not enough Indians."
drgnslayr 1 year, 4 months ago
This has been the most entertaining year in Hawk ball for quite some time.
It's been a thrill to have a year where we aren't playing to defend expectations... but instead, we are playing to create them!
Great game, Hawks!
Just keep improving because this is not the time to peak. Beginning of April is the right time for that!
Alohahawk 1 year, 4 months ago
+1 Never count a Bill Self coached team out of contention.
Now that the starting five are geling, the bench needs to step it up more and give the starters a bit more rest so they'll have some gas at the end of tough games. KU's starting five can compete with any team. They just need some breathers on occasion.
IMHO, over the last two or three weeks, having McLemore and Traylor participating on the practice squads has helped to improve the starting five immensely. Time to give those two some unbilled credit as well.
KU will sorely miss TRob and TT next year, but with the practice time that McLemore and Traylor are getting now, KU will have a lot of experience on which they can rely starting out next season: Three starters - Johnson, Releford and Withey, should all be back. Young and Wesley will have a year of playing time under their belts. Plus, the two untried abut well seasoned McLemore and Traylor. Add the new recruits and HCBS should have a good nucleus on which he can rely: Four seniors and a blend of ranked and unranked recruits and roll players.
Should make for another of HCBS's spectacular basketball productions.
SCHNBALL 1 year, 4 months ago
I just don't get it Keegs, you have a guy that never stepped on the floor or put on a uniform and he knocks down 28 according to this site and he is not even on your list. Tyshawn Taylor, did he even dress last night!! I vote Traylor!!!!
http://www2.kusports.com/schedules/mens-basketball/2011-12/kansas/
Jamari Traylor 33 10 14 4 6 4 7 0 2 2 6 1 1 5 0 28
ralster 1 year, 4 months ago
Realize our starting 5 dropped 87points--thats big! Balanced! Does mean we need the bench to do more, but our starting 5 can run with any team in the nation.
Kubie 1 year, 4 months ago
Jesse Newell - Where are you? Still waiting for the wrapup!
REHawk 1 year, 4 months ago
At this juncture, I don't envision our starting five getting caught up in negative social dilemmas. However, the injury picture leaves everyone crossing fingers for best of good fortune. A major injury to one of our starting five could make for a huge turnaround. The more practice and playing time which players 6-9 can obtain, the better our chance of surviving adversity with the top 5. Based on specific situations, Conner, Justin and Kevin have seen considerable playing time and made strides. Tharpe still on the low beginning incline of the learning curve, although I see hope. I liked his gritty response to getting his pocket picked at midcourt Monday night. He quickly made a comeback and took the ball into the paint for a score. He is two years away from the experience of Elijah or Baylor's Pierre Jackson; but I see glimpses of solid contributions for his future in a Jayhawk uniform. In looking toward next season, Traylor and BenMac should have a huge advantage over most first year players in the Bill Self system.
Cantkeepagooddudedown 1 year, 4 months ago
Elijah over Releford??? NO
Cantkeepagooddudedown 1 year, 4 months ago
And there has been nothing about his play that is quiet lately. He is the man... and it shows very loudly.
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