In like a lion it roars and out like a lamb it goes. That’s what they say about the month of March…meteorogically speaking, that is.
So it was with the Kansas basketball team in January.
The Jayhawks started ferociously, roaring back from a 19-point deficit to claim a delicious road 67-57 road victory over Washington. But KU ended the month sheepishly, blowing double-digit leads the last three times out.
The third time it happened – in Saturday’s 72-61 loss to Kansas State – it finished the Big Eight’s longest homecourt winning streak ever at 55. At least it’ll be easy to remember since it matches the national speed limit. OK, so that’s a rationalization.
A neutral observer might look at the Jayhawks and, based on that hot-and-cold January performance, call them an enigma. But Kansas has not been enigmatic. The Jayhawks have simply been up a tree without a Branch.
KU won its first three games in January with 6-10 Marvin Branch playing center. Since Branch was declared ineligible, however, the Jayhawks have not defeated a major college team. Their only victory in the five games since Branch stopped suiting up was over Hampton, a Div. II school.
Now the Jayhawks remind me of the Kansas City Royals of a couple of years ago when they didn’t have a potent bat behind All-Star third baseman George Brett.
“We’re not going to let Brett beat us,” opposing managers would say after ordering him walked intentionally.
Sometimes that free ticket to Brett would come back to haunt the opponent, but the percentages dictated it and, in the long run, the Royals couldn’t consistently make the other team pay for removing Brett from their offense.
On the KU basketball team, of course, the equivalent of Brett is Danny Manning. The Jayhawks’ 6-10 All-American cannot make opponents pay if he doesn’t have the ball, and his teammates can’t pass it to him when he’s nearly imprisoned by zone defenses.
If any college basketball player in the country knows how Custer felt, it’s Manning. He is completely surrounded.
It’s ironic that one of the most popular sweatshirts on campus – basketball pep band members even wear it – is the one with “EZD” on it. “EZD” is Manning’s nickname, a reference to how easy he makes it look.
If used as an acronym, though, those three letters would be just as meaningful standing for “Expect Zone Danny” because he’ll never see a man-to-man defense again…at least while he’s wearing a Kansas uniform.
“We tired to sag off on Manning,” K-State guard Steve Henson said after Saturday’s game, “and make the other guys shoot the ball. Trouble was, the guys we wanted to have the ball were hitting their shots in the first half.”
In other words, K-State’s players and coaches knew the Jayhawks’ outside shooting was inconsistent at best and that the law of averages was in their favor.
Basketball purists who complain about the three-point line in college being too close to the basket at 19 feet, nine inches obviously haven’t seen the Jayhawks this season.
In front of that parabolic arc, Kansas is one of the nation’s best shooting teams – KU ranked No. 7 in field goal percentage last week – but beyond that line is a venture into no-man’s-land.
Forced to unload three-pointers late against K-State, the Jayhawks missed 12 of 16 tries and that’s about par. For the season, they’re making 26.7 percent of their treys.
Unaccountably, Kevin Pritchard, the team’s best distance shooter last year, has missed 18 of his 21 three-point attempts this season. Saturday’s other starter at guard, Lincoln Minor, hasn’t made one all season and he’s jacked up a dozen of ’em.
In spite of the Jayhawks’ current woes, though, they won’t be mailing in the rest of their scores. Who knows, during March the Jayhawks might go in like lambs and come out like lions.