LAHAINA, Maui – Dotted by a couple of I’s in Hawaii, Kansas’ basketball team faced self-doubt in addition to lack of sleep today.
Sunday’s 81-75 loss to Illinois in the third place game of the Maui Classic was a little better, but not much, than Saturday’s 100-81 loss to Iowa.
“It’s a rude awakening,” KU guard Kevin Pritchard confessed about the lost weekend in paradice. “But I think we have the kind of team that can play Top Ten basketball.”
Kansas went into the eight-team Maui tourney ranked No. 7 nationally, yet received an abrupt comeuppance from the two Big Ten teams.
Now the Jayhawks must bounce back quickly because their home opener is Tuesday night against Pomona-Pitzer, an NCAA Div. III school.
Tipoff is 7:35 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse.
“I think we know what to do to win,” Pritchard said after Sunday’s game. “We won that second half.”
Indeed the Jayhawks did, 42-33, but this isn’t the CBA and you don’t receive any points for winning a half.
In waht seemed like a replay of the first half against Iowa on Saturday, Kansas was completely outplayed by the Fighting Illini in the first half Sunday. Like Iowa, Illinois made the Jayhawks look like a disorganized rabble.
Actually, it was a debacle three minutes into the second half, too, after Illinois surged to its biggest lead at 56-39.
Then this one turned almost completely around. With 11 1/2 minutes left, Kansas had whittled that 19-point lead to just six.
“I’ll be brutally honest,” Pritchard said. “I don’t think we were ready to play. But then we said, ‘Wait a second, we’re supposed to be a pretty good team and we’re not showing it.”
Down by six with a fourth of the game left means it’s still a game, of course. But it wasn’t to be. Illinois finally regained its composure and KU never came any closer than four points the rest of the way.
Kansas’ hopes were highest when Marvin Branch’s baby hook cut it to four at 2:56. The Illini wouldn’t fold, however, thanks to a jam and a stickback by 6-6 Kenny Battle, a transfer from Northern Illinois who wound up with a team-high 21 points.
Kansas’ last gasp camce with :48 showing when Danny Manning – he led the Jayhawks with 28 points and 12 boards in another tour de force – popped a baseline jumper.
Unfortunately, Manning was called for charging and it was his fifth foul. Manning left and Kansas didn’t score again.
“We played with better effort,” a visibly dejected Manning said afterward. “It just wasn’t enough. A few costly mistakes…that was the ballgame.”
It was more than a few mistakes, actually. And they weren’t necessarily confined to turnovers, although 20 were unquestionably too many.
How about 31 fouls? And that on top of 30 fouls against Iowa the day before.
“We’re letting people get to the free throw line,” KU coach Larry Brown said, “and that’s a sign of not being a good defensive team.”
Here’s the proof: Combined, Iowa and Illinois made 54 of 72 charity attempts against the Jayhawks. Kansas? Just 18 of 35. It’s tough to win that way.
Brown assuredly didn’t care much for the officiating – he was called for his second technical in two days Sunday – but obviously the officials don’t make that big a difference.
Brown’s technical, by the way, came during a three-minute first-half span in which the Illini dropped an 11-0 lick on the Jayhawks.
At halftime, Illinois led, 48-33, then boosted that bulge to 19 before the Jayhawks finally woke up.
“We didn’t want to get beat as bad as we did yesterday,” Manning affirmed about the turnaround.
Said reserve forward Jeff Gueldner: “Yesterday we got down by 20 and our heads fell. Then we started executing.”
Trouble was, the trench the Jayhawks had backhoed was too deep.
Now Kansas, 1-2, faces another tough grind. After Tuesday’s game they play Western Carolina on Thursday, then return home to meet St. John’s on Saturday afternoon.
“I want us to be practicing,” Brown said, “but we’ve got a bad schedule. We’ll be all right, though.”
Notes
Forward Chris Piper, still recuperating from a knee injury, didn’t suit up and his status is day-to-day. “I imagine he’ll be playing next week sometime,” Brown said…Sunday’s game was the 2,000th in Kansas’ 90 years of basketball…In successive visits to Hawaii, Kansas has a 2-4 record with the only wins over island teams (Hawaii last year and Chaminade this year)…the KU team party wasn’t due to arrive in Lawrence until late this afternoon.
Box Score
Kansas: Archie Marshall 2-4 0-0 5, Danny Manning 13-20 2-4 28, Marvin Branch 4-8 2-2 10, Kevin Pritchard 4-8 4-7 12, Lincoln Minor 5-10 0-0 10, Milt Newton 1-2 0-0 2, Jeff Gueldner 3-3 0-0 6, Otis Livinston 0-4 0-0 0, Mike Masucci 1-1 0-1 2, Team 33-60 8-14 75.
Three-point goals: 1-6 (Marshall 1-1, Minor 0-2, Manning 0-2, Livinston 0-1). Assists: 17 (Minor 5, Pritchard 3, Manning 3, Gueldner 2, Masucci 2, Livingston, Marshall). Turnovers: 20 (Minor 4, Livingston 4, Gueldner 3, Branch 3, Newton 2, Manning 2, Pritchard, Masucci). Blocked shots: 4 (Branch 3, Manning). Steals: 8 (Minor 2, Pritchard 2, Livingston, Marshall, Manning, Gueldner).
Illinois: Nick Anderson 1-4 0-0 2, Kenny Battle 9-15 3-5 21, Jens Kujawa 4-8 0-2 8, Kendall Gill 4-9 3-4 12, Steve Bardo 3-8 3-5 9, Glynn Blackwell 4-6 5-7 13, Larry Smith 4-8 1-1 9, Lowell Hamilton 2-3 3-6 7, Ervin Small 0-0 0-0 0, Phil Kunz 0-0 0-0 0, Team 31-61 18-30 81.
Three-point goals: 1-4 (Gill 1-3, Blackwell 0-1). Assists: 13 (Gill 4, Blackwell 2, Anderson 2, Bardo 2, Kujawa 2, Smith). Turnovers: 17 (Gill 5, Smith 3, Blackwell 2, Battle 2, Kujawa 2, Anderson, Bardo, Hamilton). Blocked shots: 1 (Battle). Steals: 12 (Battle 4, Gill 3, Blackwell 3, Smith 2).
Technical fouls: KU coach Brown. Officials: Jim McDaniels, Wayne Samford, Donovan Lewis. Attendance: 350.
