Derrick Chievous has a lot to learn about winter driving.
“As you know, driving a car on ice makes doughnuts,” said Missouri’s flamboyand forward, apparently involved in an automobile accident on Friday night in Columbia.
“It spun us around. I’m OK,” he added, refusing to blame Saturday’s 4-for-14 shooting performance on the accident.
Details were sketchy after MU’s 78-74 loss to rival Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse, as Chievous and uncooperative coach Norm Stewart provided as little information as humanly possible on the mishap.
The accident may have been the reason Cheivous did not start. Then again, there was a rumor Chievous missed a team meeting early Saturday morning.
What about it, coach?
“No comment,” said Stewart, given a chance to squelch all rumors. “I’d rather not talk about him not starting. He came back strong and hit a couple of key buckets.”
The 6-7 senior scored two points while playing six minutes the first half. He rebounded for 14 points in 14 minutes in the final half.
The All-America candidate, who averaged 27 points in three games against KU last year, couldn’t explain his slow start.
“When I got into the game, I was mentally and physically out of it,” he said. “I was trying to get my teammates pumped up and wasn’t paying attention to my own play.
“At times I felt we held our own, but the crowd had a lot to do with the outcome. We couldn’t get in tune offensively since we couldn’t hear the vocal signals.”
The fans’ efforts have, of course, been well-documented during KU’s Big Eight-record 54-game Allen Fieldhouse win streak.
Stewart was asked why KU is so tough at home.
“I don’t know. Go back and ask the other 52 (sic). I haven’t been in all 52 games,” he said. “We’ve won some great games here and had the opportunity to win others. They always have a very good coach and always good players. I’d hope we win 85 to 90 percent of our games in Hearnes (Center) for the same reasons.”
Stewart had few beefs after the Big Eight opener for both teams.
“I thought our kids played hard. I can’t really fault any of ’em,” he said. “I think Greg Church (career-high 13 rebounds) had a tremendous ballgame.”
Yet the 6-8 junior drew Stewarts ire for lipping off to referee Ed Hightower following a second-half scuffle with Milt Newton. Hightower called Newton, Church and Lee Coward together for a summit, but Church would have none of it and stormed away. That’s when Stewart hooked him.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Stewart. “I don’t know if somebody pushed him. He was our captain for the game. The ref said he’d toss him. I respect Hightower. Greg was mouthin’ off. It takes something off his performance.
“I respect Ed, but I’d like to have a timeout back. We called a timeout with 17 seconds left, but with their wonderful eyesight they didn’t see it.”
MU, in fact, wanted time after Coward’s three-pointer cut the gap to 74-72 at :27. Instead, Kevin Pritchard raced in for a layup at :19.
Church grabbed a rebound and scored at :08 to cut the gap to two, but Kansas salted this one when Scooter Barry cashed two free throws at :06.
“We’ve got to learn to handle late-game situations,” said Stewart. “Buntin (Nathan, who scored 17 points while guarding Danny Manning) gave Danny a couple plays late, but we shoulda helped him more. We need to get our new guys more game situations,” he added, referring to newcomers Doug Smith, Byron Irvin and John McIntyre, who combined for 11 points.
MU’s top performacne came from sophomore guard Coward, who hit seven of 10 shots for 19 points.
