Kansas concerned with Memphis first

By Gary Bedore     Dec 28, 1987

NEW YORK – The Jayhawks may give their regards to Broadway during their five-day stay here.

Then again, they may not.

While an excursion to the theater district is certainly possible during KU’s holiday stint in the Big Apple, it’s not high on Larry Brown’s travel itinerary.

“You know, we’re going to play basketball,” said Kansas coach Brown, whose Jayhawks open play in the four-team ECAC Holiday Festival tonight against Memphis State. “It’s a big tournament, a great experience. The kids love the opportunity. That’s our purpose in making the trip.”

Tipoff is 6 p.m., Lawrence time, at Madison Square Garden. It’ll be televised live on Channels 41 and 49. St. John’s faces Marist in the other first-round battle at 8:30 p.m.

Brown, who was born and raised in Long Island, has always been a fan of the ECAC Festival.

“You know, it used to be an eight-team field,” Brown explained. “It’s still a tremendous for our kids to play in Madison Square Garden. It’s one of the stronger fields they’ve had. Every pro scout will be there with Danny and Smits playing.”

NBA scouts know what KU’s Manning can do. They’re not as sold, however, on the potential of Marist’s Rik Smits, a 7-4 senior from The Netherlands. Like Manning, Smits thought long and hard before deciding to forego last year’s draft.

Brown isn’t worried about facing smits just yet.

“I’m not concerned about the other game. We have to worry about Memphis State,” said Brown, realizing Tiger guards Elliot Perry and Cheyenne Gibson will be tough to handle.

“I hope St. John’s wins and we do. That’d be exciting playing them in the finals of the Holiday Festival”

After an off-day Tuesday, the teams return to the floor on Wednesday. The consolation game is 6 p.m. with teh finals at 8:30. Channel 49 will telecast the title game if Kansas is involved.

Kansas has already played St. John’s, whipping the Redmen, 63-54, on Dec. 5 at Allen Fieldhouse.

“If we played them, we’d have to do a better job on their young sophomore,” said Brown, referring to Jayson Williams, who scored 11 here. “But Chris (Piper) is a pretty good post defender and we’ll have him this game. I hope we’d contain their guards like the first time, but that would be tough to do.”

Brown brought his full squad here, stressing that no one is ineligible at this time.

“Right now everyone is eligible until the first day of spring classes (Jan. 13) and everybody is still playing,” Brown said.

The only Jayhawks who might be affected by academics are freshmen and junior college transfers. All the other members of the squad have been certified for the entire season, including soph forward Keith Harris who didn’t make the last road trip to North Carolina State but came here.

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