Sir Isaac and Fig may be hearing footsteps. They’re still the world’s most famous Newtons, but look out for Milt.
Milt Newton’s career-high 21 points helped Kansas subdue Missouri, 78-74, in the Big Eight basketball opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon in Allen Fieldhouse.
Yep, that’s the Milt Newton who had started only three games for the Jayhawks until Archie Marshall went down a week ago with a season-ending knee injury.
“Milt’s always been there,” teammate Chris Piper pointed out. “He just hasn’t had the confidence. The whole key to his game is confidence, and it looks like he’s got it.”
It didn’t take him long to acquire it, either. Newton posted the Jayhawks’ first eight points, including a three-point goal.
“I knew they’d sag on Danny (Manning),” Newton said afterward, “and when they did I knew I’d have open shots, so I shot it.”
For the afternoon, Newton made eight of 10 field goal attempts and eventually his outside shooting did open the middle for Manning, who collected a game-high 28 points, 19 in the second half.
“Danny was just sensational the second half,” said KU coach Larry Brown.
Newton wasn’t too bad, either, in eclipsing his previous career high of 12 points accomplished less than a week ago at Washington.
“Milt’s waited his turn,” Brown noted. “I’m probably the guy who doesn’t realize just how much he can do. Today I thought Milt more than held his own.”
Yet despite Newton’d unprecendented outburst, desptie Manning’s latest bravura performance, the Jayhawks needed near perfect free throw shooting to win this one.
That’s right, one of their heels of Achilles this season.
Kansas made 10 of 11 charities in the last 4 1/2 minutes – not bad for a team shooting just 62.2 percent at the foul line going in – and none were more important than the two bonus attempts cashed by Scooter Barry with just :06 on the clock.
If Barry, like Newton a fourth-year guy who’s been a seldom-used reserve until this season, had missed the front end of that trip to the line, Missouri could have won with a three-point goal.
As it was, Barry made ’em both, and Derrick Chievous’ three-point try – it missed – at :02 was meaningless.
Barry, it turned out, was the wrong guy for Missouri to foul because he’d missed only three of 17 charities all season. Still, Barry was facing a game situation, and that’s something he’d never faced before.
“That was probably the first time,” reflected the fourth-year junior. “I never even did that in high school. A lot of their players were saying, ‘He’s gonna choke, he’s gonna choke.’ They were trying to psych me out. It’s part of the game.”
Was Barry psyched? Hardly. Neither one of his free throws drew iron. Or much of the netting, for that matter.
Kansas made 19 of 26 free throws overall. That’s 73.1 percent, a lot better than the 62.2 percentage KU players made during the first 13 games.
“That’s been a problem for us,” Brown remarked. “We’ve been working on it. I don’t know what the remedy is, but if they want to improve they have to work at it.”
“We’re spending 10 to 15 minutes a day, plus our own time, on free throws,” reported Piper, a fifth-year senior. “And that’s a lot more than ever before. It’s a good idea, too, because we’ve been awful.”
On Saturday afternoon, in front of the usual sellout crowd and a regional TV audience, Kansas was awful in only one category – rebounding. Missouri owned a 38-28 edge on the boards and half those 38 caroms were on their own end.
“They killed us on the boards,” Brown said. “I thought we defended good, but we had no defense for those second shots.”
One reason the Tigers collected those 19 boards was because they missed so many shots. In fact, if you take away their uncanny six-of-eight accuracy from three-point range, MU made 19 of 54 floor shots. That’s only 35 percent.
Nevertheless, Brown said Missouri was “as good as any team I’ve seen this year. They are so deep and have such size. This was a big, big game for us.”
Kansas, 11-3 overall and 1-0 in the league, travels to Iowa State on Wednesday night. Next home game is Saturday night against Hampton U.
Box Score
MU3143-74
KU3444-78
Missouri: Greg Church 2-8 4-4 8, Nathan Buntin 7-12 3-4 17, Doug Smith 1-5 2-2 4, Lee Coward 7-10 1-2 19, Byron Irvin 2-6 0-1 4, Gary Leonard 1-1 0-0 2, Derrick Chievous 4-14 7-11 16, Mike Sandbothe 0-5 1-2 1, John McIntyre 1-1 0-0 3, Team 25-62 19-38 74.
Three-point goals: 6-8 (Coward 4-6, Chievous 1-1, McIntyre 1-1). Assists: 13 (Church 4, Buntin 3, Smith 2, Coward 2, Chievous, Sandbothe). Turnovers: 17 (Church 4, Chievous 4, Irvin 4, Coward 2, McIntyre 2, Smith). Blocked Shots: 1 (Smith). Steals: 4 (Coward, Irvin, Sandbothe, McIntyre).
Kansas: Danny Manning 12-21 4-5 28, Milt Newton 8-10 4-6 21, Marvin Branch 2-9 4-6 8, Kevin Pritchard 3-6 2-3 8, Otis Livingston 1-2 2-2 4, Scooter Barry 0-0 3-4 3, Chris Piper 1-2 0-0 2, Lincoln Minor 2-4 0-0 4, Jeff Gueldner 0-0 0-0 0, Team 29-54 19-26 78.
Three-point goals: 1-1 (Newton 1). Assists: 17 (Livingston 6, Barry 2, Manning 2, Pritchard 2, Piper 2, Newton, Branch). Turnovers: 14 (Pritchard 4, Branch 3, Manning 2, Newton 2, Livingston 2, Minor). Blocked Shots: 8 (Manning 4, Branch 2, Livingston, Minor). Steals: 7 (Livingston 2, Barry 2, Minor 2, Manning).
Kansas’ home win streak still intact
Sooner or later, it’s going to end. In fact, some thought Kansas’ nation-leading homecourt winning streak would be history by late Saturday afternoon.
It wasn’t, though.
Kansas knocked off Missouri, 78-74, on Saturday afternoon to hike the Jayhawks’ Allen Fieldhouse skein to 54 games. The next longest streak in the country is Indiana’s 28-gamer.
“This is our hous and we don’t want to get beat here,” said senior Danny Manning who never has been, “but that’ll happen if we don’t play hard.”
No one played any harder than Manning did Saturday, even though it may have looked like he played his hardest in the second half when he scored 19 of his 28 points.
In the first half, the Jayhawks’ All-American settled for nine points, sitting out the last 4:40 after picking up his second foul. For the game, he converted 12 of 21 field goal tries. He also blocked four shots.
“In the second half, I think I concentrated harder,” Manning said. “I worked hard to get open, but my teammates got me the ball and that makes me look good. They did all the work. They gave up 15-footers so I could get six-footers.”
Manning certainly did his part to keep the Allen Fieldhouse streak alive.
‘We had a little bit of doubt today,” said senior Chris Piper, “but it’s starting to look like we won’t (lose in Allen Fieldhouse). We have a lot of tough games left, though.”
It would appear the KU players are gradually accepting the loss of starting forward Archie Marshall, who underwent knee surgery last Wednesday and is still hospitalized.
“I told the kids in the locker room,” Brown remarked, “that we can’t worry about who’s not here. We’ve got to be happy with who’s here.”
Kansas has now captured three straight with Milt Newton replacing Marshall in the starting lineup. Newton poured in a career-high 21 points on Saturday.
Correction: That’s his career high in college. Newton scored 32 points in one game while playing for the Virgin Islands in last summer’s Pan American Games.
“You know, I was telling some people that Milt got 32 points against Brazil last summer,” Brown pointed out, “so I told ’em not to be surprised if he plays well. I think he’ll get better, too.”
And if the entire team gets better as well, that ever-lengthening homecourt string will take care of itself.
“I don’t think about streaks,” Brown emphasized. “When we go out, I just don’t want ’em to be afraid to lose. The only thing I’m concerned about is we go out and play hard, and play respectable.”
