Those faint-of-heart dare not peek at Mike Maddox’s feet.
“He’s got the worst case of blisters I’ve seen,” Kansas basketball coach Larry Brown said.
The Oklahoma City freshman ripped a good portion of skin off the bottoms of both feet at practice last Thursday. He’s been hurting ever since.
“They’re really sore. Yeah, I’m in pain,” said the 6-8 forward, who scored two points while playing nine minutes in Saturday night’s 95-69 home romp of NCAA Div. II Hampton.
“WE’re putting Vaseline and pads on ’em. There’s not much else you can do. Hopefully they’ll toughen up and heal in three or four days,” Maddox said.
Seems strange the blisters would form at this stage of the season.
“I’ve always had soft feet,” said Maddox. “I’ve had problems with ’em before. I hadn’t been playing that much, but with Marvin down, I’ve been playing more. I’ve put a lot of friction, pressure on ’em lately.”
Brown is hoping Maddox will step in and pick up the slack for junior center Marvin Branch, who last week was declared ineligible for the second semester.
Maddox, in fact, was listed as a starter on Saturday’s pre-game notes. He, however, did not receive his first start.
“I’d been running with the Blue (No. 1) team in practice, since Chris (Piper, groin injury) hasn’t been able to go,” Maddox said. “I had a couple of good days until the blisters. I want to do what I can. Right now we’re getting used to a new style without Marvin.”
Brown said the Jayhawks would use this week to experiment with new offensive sets. KU, now 12-4, doesn’t play again until Saturday afternoon on national TV at Notre Dame.
“We need to get (Mike) Masucci, Maddox and Keith (Harris) in condition and we’ve gotta establish another way to play,” Brown said. “Against Hampton, we were able to get it up and down the court.
“We’ll have to be more patient against some teams. Not that we won’t run, but we’ll have to establish different styles of play. I think we can do that.”
Considering the Jayhawks have recently lost Archie Marshall to a season-ending knee injury, along with Branch, the current break in the Big Eight slate is welcomed by Brown.
KU’s next league game is a week from Wednesday at Nebraska.
“The way the season has gone, with injuries and Marvin, this has come at a great time,” Brown said. “It gives us time to practice. I think we need it. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster.
“I think a week of practice will be good for us,” noted Maddox.