Once a point guard himself, Larry Brown can be awfully exacting about that position. Just ask Cedric Hunter and Mark Turgeon who played there during Brown’s first four basketball seasons at Kansas.
And ask the myriad group trying to fill the hole left when Hunter and Turgeon, now a student assistant coach, used up their eligibility last year.
Kansas, in fact, really doesn’t have a starting point guard going into Friday’s regular-season opener against Chaminade in the Maui Classic, although soph Kevin Pritchard and juco transfer Lincoln Minor will open in the backcourt against the Silverswords.
“Right now we don’t have any direction on the court,” Brown said. “We haven’t had anybody assume that responsibility.”
Juco transfer Otis Livingston, the only true point guard Kansas recruited, has clearly been an early disappointment while Minor and Pritchard appear ill-suited for the quarterbacking role.
“I don’t know from one minute to the next what he’s gonna do,” Brown said of Minor, “and neither does he.”
Of Pritchard, the best outside shooter on last year’s team, Brown said: “He was doing great (at point guard) as far as I was concerned, but he’s much better as an off-guard.”
Pritchard confirms the point is still foreign territory to him.
“I don’t really feel that comfortable with the ball,” Pritchard said, “and I think he (Brown) realizes that. I’m more comfortable at off-guard.”
As diverse as they all are in skills and temperament, they all lhave one thing in common. Their ears are burning.
“I’m hard on the point guards because I’m spoiled,” Brown confirmed. “I just want us to be great, and I want us to be great yesterday. I’m brutal on the point guards, but Turg can tell ’em it isn’t like the abuse they went through.”
Barry, a fourth-year junior, has been around long enough to apply the Richter scale to Brown’s wrath and he actually notes little change.
“He’s been harsh,” Barry conceded, “but it hasn’t been any more overpowering than any other year. It hasn’t been any worse than any other year.”
NOTES
The team party made the all-day flight to Maui on Tuesday…Soph forward Keith Harris, still in Brown’s doghouse for undisclosed reasons, did not make the trip…Senior forward Chris Piper, originally expected to miss two weeks with a knee injury, has recovered quickly and may play as early as Sunday…KU’s opener at 4 p.m., Lawrence time, on Friday will be televised by ESPN…
