Let’s talk turkey about Kansas basketball…
Question: Was Kansas the only Big Eight Conference school to lose a scholarship basketball player at the semester break?
Answer: Yes, Marvin Branch was the league’s lone academic casualty.
Question: Pittsburgh coach Paul Evans was quoted last spring as saying Branch, who originally signed with the Panthers, didn’t have enough credits to qualify for enrollment at his school. Why was Branch admitted by Kansas when he couldn’t get into Pitt?
Answer: Branch owns a diploma from Barton County Community College, and KU admits all graduates of Kansas high school and junior colleges.
Question: Branch, who attended three different junior colleges in three years, was an apparent academic risk. Why did Larry Brown take him?
Answer: Because Brown needed a big man and because Branch, despite his shaky scholastic background, deserved an opportunity. Not only would it have been silly not to give Branch a chance, it would have been prejudicial.
Question: Why, then, when Branch failed to make the grade after one semester did Brown intimate that it was the fault of the university for failing to provide a curriculum that would enable students without normal backgrounds to succeed?
Answer: Two reasons, I think. One, Brown used it as a smokescreen to protect Branch from the embarassment of his situation. And, two, he was infuriated because he knows Branch would be eligible today at certain other schools, including some in the BIg Eight.
Question: I listened to Brown’s radio call-in show the other night and for almost half an hour people were asking what they could do to help. What can they do?
Answer: Nothing. If it isn’t broken, why fix it? Not a single KU football player was declared academically ineligible last season, and Branch was the only basketball player who fell short. How can one ineligible student-athlete out of nearly 100 possibly signify that something is wrong.
Question: Brown mentioned such schools as Michigan, UCLA, Notre Dame and even North Carolina, his alma mater, as having programs that accommodate below average students. Do they?
Answer: I don’t know and I don’t care. What matters is that Kansas is a state university, anot an Ivy League school. KU ins’t easy, granted, but KU isn’t impossible, either.
Question: What will branch do now?
Answer: He’s back in school hoping to regain his eligibility and play during the 1988-89 season. Branch has to pass 24 hours between now and the fall semester in order to make it.
Question: Will Danny Manning ever see a man-to-man defense again?
Answer: Only when he watches an NBA game on television. Until Kansas makes opponents fear its outside shooting, Manning will be guarded more closely than Fort Knox. KU is shooting 24.2 percent from three-point range. The next-worst percentage in the Big Eight is 34.4 percent.
Question: I thought Kevin Pritchard was a good outside shooter.
Answer: He was last year, making 42 percent (13 of 31) of his three-point attempts. This year he’s missed 10 of 11. But Jeff Gueldner, Lincoln Minor and Otis Livingston haven’t been any better. They’re a combined 0 for 14 in trey tries.
Question: What can we expect from the Jayhawks the rest of the season?
Answer: Dogged determination to maintain their homecourt winning streak, perhaps a surprise or two on the road and a growing appreciation for the elegance and persistence of Manning.
