DAYTON, OHIO ? It’ll probably take more than a strained arch to keep Ron Kellogg from playing on a Saturday.
In fact, the Kansas senior has fashioned so many high-scoring basketball performances on Saturdays, it might take being hit by a truck to keep him off the floor on the sixth day of the week.
“I’ll be ready,” Kellogg vowed. “That’s a special day.”
Event though Kellogg played only eight minutes, Kansas cruised to a 71-46 victory over North Carolina A&T in the Jayhawks’ NCAA Midwest Regional opener on Thursday afternoon in the Dayton Arena.
That sends them into the second round against Temple, a 61-50 overtime victor over Jacksonville in Thursday’s other afternoon contest.
Tipoff will be approximately 1:30 p.m., Lawrence time, on Saturday. A live telecast will be available on channels 5 and 13.
For the first time since he was a sophomore, Kellogg started a Kansas basketball game on the bench Thursday.
“I intended on starting him.” KU coach Larry Brown said afterward, “but I watched him in warmups and he just wasn’t moving well.”
That was Brown’s opinion, but not necessarily Kellogg’s view.
“It felt great,” stressed the 6-5 senior about his bad arch, “but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to start.”
And for the first time this season, the Jayhawks’ starting lineup was broken up. Junior Archie Marshall, the team’s sixth man, opened in Kellogg’s place and collected 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“I think it was great giving Archie a chance,” said Kellogg, “because we’re gonna need him down the stretch.”
Brown certainly didn’t need Kellogg down the stretch of Thursday’s easy win over the out-manned North Carolina A&T. Kellogg played one minute early in the second half, then sat the rest of the way.
Later, Brown confirmed he’d held Kellogg out to save him for Saturday.
“Hopefully, the fact Ronnie played sparingly will give him two extra days of rest.”
Although Marshall took, Kellogg’s place in the lineup, it was actually senior Calvin Thompson who filled his role as outside shooter. Thompson was seven of seven from the floor, six from long range.
“I didn’t expect Thompson to shoot that well,” A&T head man Don Corbett said later, “because all I’d heard about was Kellogg.”
And, of course, Danny Manning was Danny Manning on Thursday, scoring 15 points on seven of nine accuracy and hubbing a defense that forced 19 Aggie turnovers.
“Danny Manning was everything they said he was,” smiled Corbett, “and will be next year. But fortunately we don’t have to face him next year.”
Maybe and maybe not. Manning is on record saying he doesn’t plan to turn pro next season so possibly the two schools could meet again in NCAA play.
“Yeah, but if we happen to get in next year,” Corbett cracked, “we hope it’s in another direction, maybe south or something.”
This was the second straight year the Aggies drew the Big Eight champion in the first-round. Last year Oklahoma whipped them, 96-83.
In truth, A&T’s only hope Thursday was for the Jayhawks to come out flat. Unfortunately for the Aggies, though, the KU players had watched the first several minutes of the Duke-Mississippi Valley State game on television at their hotel before busing over to the arena.
No. 1-ranked Duke struggled early against lightly regarded MV State and Brown made sure his players knew it.
“He (Brown) kinda let us react in our own way,” center Greg Dreiling pointed out. “He didn’t dwell on it, though.” It’s not like he kept repeating it. That’s because we know what can happen if you’re not ready.”
Afterward, Brown was certain the Jayhawks went to school on Duke’s early woes. And, for that matter, on Georgia Tech’s early troubles against Marist, another no-name team in the tournament.
“We cam out ready to play,” Brown affirmed,” and some of the upset possibilities around the country were a benefit to us. I wanted the kids to know what can happen against teams you haven’t heard a lot about.”
Temple, despite its 25-5 record, fits into the same category. The Philadelphia school has no “name players and no memorable victories, although the Owls did knock off defending NCAA champions Villanova last December. But this year’s Villanova team is merely a shadow of last year’s.
“I think Temple is as well-coached as any team I’ve seen,” Brown emphasized. “They won’t beat themselves. We’ll have to beat them.”
If not, the Jayhawks won’t climb over the second-round hurdle that has derailed them in each of the last two NCAA tourneys.
“We’ve come over a lot of humps this season,” Dreiling remarked. “We’ve done a lot of things we haven’t done in the past, like win the Big Eight title and the tournament. Hopefully, this will be another one of them.”
If the Jayhawks do knock off Temple, they’ll qualify for the Midwest Regional next Friday and Sunday in Kansas City’s Kemper Arena.
That’s something to look forward to, all right, but so would Timbuktu, if that’s where the regional were going to be.
“I think the kids want to go a step farther, not necessarily Kansas City,” Brown said. “We’ve lost in the second round the last two years, so we don’t need any incentive.”
Notes: Thursday’s win was KU’s 32nd of the season, a Big Eight record. Oklahoma had won an All-Time league best 31 last year … KU shot under 50 percent (49.2), but that’s because the reserves missed 10 consecutive shots during one stretch after Brown had cleared the bench …
