RALEIGH, N.C. – While Danny Manning was on fire here Saturday, teammate Archie Marshall was striking a few matches, too.
Manning clearly destroyed North Carolina State with his virtuoso perfomrance in KU’s 74-67 come-from-behind victory, but Marshall was second on Larry Brown’s kudos list.
The 6-6 senior forward, who sat out all last season because of a serious knee injury, scored a dozen points and grabbed seven rebounds against the Wolfpack.
Fine, but Brown was more impressed with Marshall’s hounding of NC State guard Vinny Del Negro in the second half
“Archie did a great job on Del Negro,” Brown said.
Del Negro finished with 17 points, but he was only three of eight from the floor in the second half.
Marshall praised for his defense? Why, Brown sat Marshall down in an early season game in Hawaii because he felt Marshall wasn’t guarding anybody.
Has Marshall’s defense come that far in a short a time?
“Well, the way I see it,” Marshall said afterward, “is he (Del Negr0o) didn’t work hard to get the ball. I think that was basically it.”
Maybe so, but teammate Kevin Pritchard also noticed the job Marshall did on Del Negro, saying he “just shut him down.”
Pritchard, incidentally, also did his part in Saturday’s satisfying road triumph.
Pritchard was runnerup to Manning in scoring with 14 points, including two that could have been as important as any in the game.
They came on a jumper from the top of the key with 2:40 remaining, giving Kansas a three-point lead. It was the only KU field goal by any Jayhawk other than Manning in the last 7 1/2 minutes.
Pritchard’s goal didn’t look pretty, bounding around before dropping in, but the points sure looked beautiful on the scoreboard.
“I was so pumped up,” Pritchard recalled. “It was in the heat of the game and I wanted to put up a shot. That was a crucial one, don’t you think?”
It was one of ’em, that’s for sure.
Most of the biggies, though, came from Manning who heard choruses of boos down the stretch after he had accidentally collided with NC State point guard Chris Corchiani and sent him sprawling – no foul was called – midway through the second half.
“I could hear what they were saying,” Manning confirmed. “I just wanted to go out and play hard.”
Hard is the word.
“That’s probably the most aggressive I’ve seen him,” reserve point guard Scooter Barry noted. “He proved a lot, to me, to coach and to a lot of people.”
Actually, Barry proved something, too. He had a team-high seven assists and knocked down a pair of bonus charities with 21 ticks left to apply the clinchers.
Just a minute earlier, Barry had clunked the front end of a one-and-one.
“I was a little tense on that first one,” he said, “but the second time I concentrated. I said there was no way I’d miss two in a row.”
Barry was in there because starter Otis Livingston had fouled out with 4:21 showing. If Barry had been whistled out, newcomer Clint Normore was available.
In fact, coach Larry Brown used the KU football player for three mintues late in the first half, despite the fact he hadn’t joined the team until last Monday.
“I was a little nervous,” Normore confessed, “at least until I touched teh ball. It helped to go in and play defense first.”
Normore even scored…on a breakaway layup just before halftime.
“I was trying to decide whether to dunk or lay it in,” Normore said, “and I decided to go for the sure two.”
Notes
Among the estimated 325 KU fans at the game was Brown’s wife Barbara who flew down from New York…Also on hand was former KU aide Mark Freidinger who now lives in nearby Winston-Salem and does part-time regional scouting for the NBA Indiana Pacers…All three officials were assigned by the Big Eight…
