OK, target practice is over for the Kansas basketball team. Next Thursday at Wake Forest we’ll get a much better indication of how good the Jayhawks are or can be.
The prognosis is promising but No. 2-rated KU has a lot of proving to do between now and early March.
Playing at Wake Forest is a hazardous experience even when the aggressive Demon Deacons are marginal. This year, they’re doggone good and as physical as ever. Dave Odom’s muscular club will bring a 6-0 record into the game. It has won 10 in a row dating back to last March.
We hear a lot about Kansas’s great November record under Roy Williams 36 straight as of now. Wake Forest has gone 22-1 the past five Novembers and won eight of its last nine games the past season while grabbing a National Invitation Tournament title. The Deacons feel they were slighted by NCAA selectors last spring. They seek to be so strong in 2000-2001 they can’t be ignored.
An upset of prestigious Kansas on Pearl Harbor Day would be a major pelt on the wall at Winston-Salem. We’re likely to see an exciting war on the North Carolina court. Kansas can’t risk tippy-toeing around and revitalizing the old talk about how “soft” Roy Williams teams tend to be in big games. This is a big one, folks.
Kansas would have a tough time scripting a better early scenario than it has provided to date. There were the trophy wins over UCLA and St. John’s in New York followed by five helpful tune-ups since. The Jayhawks have been able to try a lot of things and get a closer look at their weaponry; they better have their armor strapped on tight for Wake Forest.
Then come three more tough KU tests DePaul, Tulsa and Ohio State before things get easier against Southwest Missouri State Dec. 30 in Kansas City. After that, there’s the Big 12 opener on Jan. 6 at Texas Tech.
The KU season won’t pass or fail on the basis of the Wake Forest visit. But it will show whether the Jayhawks have been lulled into a false sense of security with the five breezes past less-than-Final Four opposition.
The disciplined Deacons have tested veterans Darius Songaila, Robert O’Kelley and Josh Howard; added threats are provided by Josh Shoemaker, Antwan Scott, Ervin Murray, Broderick Hicks and Craig Dawson.
Songaila is a Lithuanian Olympian import who led the Deacons in points last year. He scored in double figures the last 14 games and made 33 straight free throws in one span. Further, he attempted 188 free throws, most for any Atlantic Coast Conference player.
That means Songaila will be hustling, with the aid of home cooking, against the likes of Kansas center Eric Chenowith, trying to get Cheno into foul trouble while profiting at the foul line. But there’s a flip side to this: No ACC player committed more fouls (118) than Songaila, who fouled out of seven games, many of them when Wake needed him on the floor during a January swoon.
So just as Chenowith and the other KU big men could foul Songaila to his advantage, so can they go at him, force him into foul trouble and earn key free throws of their own. Songaila has a history of fouling; Kansas will try to capitalize.
Maybe you saw the Deacons on television Tuesday, playing in Ann Arbor. Wake overcame an 11-point second-half deficit to beat Michigan 71-60. The Deacs should be even tougher at home, even if they’ll be without the ailing Rafael Vidauretta at center for several more weeks.
A number of Kansas performers have posted some impressive numbers to date. Are they misleading or have the Jayhawks absorbed these lessons to become better and tougher rather than errantly savoring figures which might be deceptive window-dressing?
One doesn’t need a hyper-imagination to daydream that prospects for this Kansas club, if it gets deeply committed, are virtually unlimited. If the current seven bell-cows (including Luke Axtell) keep improving and nobody else gets hurt; if freshman Mario Kinsey can help as much as he did in New York; if junior Jeff Carey can give the front line added punch at both ends of the court, you can easily conjure up wondrous things.
In effect, KU has four seasons: Pre-January, the regular Big 12 grind, the league postseason tournament, then the NCAA championships. It still has a lot to prove for all four. The beauty is, Kansas is master of its own fate and has all it takes to do big things in all categories.
Yet the longer I look at what the Big 12 has to offer in the way of treachery, the more frightened I become about the chances that Missouri will be the main challenger to Kansas as it has been too doggone often.
The Tigers have in senior Brian Grawer and hot-dog Clarence Gilbert guys who consistently find ways to harm the Jayhawks. Kareem Rush can rack up nifty double-doubles on any night if he can stay out of foul trouble. Senior center Tajudeen Soyoye, at 240 pounds, and freshman Arthur Johnson, 6-9, 280, can be trouble in the paint. Senior Johnnie Parker is no stranger to KU and freshmen Wesley Stokes, Ricky Paulding and Michael Griffin will be heard from. Then MU picks up 6-8 blue-chipper Travon Bryant in time for the league battles.
There are would-be Kansas assassins in the bushes and trees all the way from here on in. But first, there are crucial statements to be made by Kansas at Wake Forest.
