KU’s Williams believes defense still improving

By The Associated Press     Jan 23, 2001

? This won’t come as good news to the rest of the Big 12: Kansas coach Roy Williams feels his fourth-ranked Jayhawks are getting even better on defense.

“I think the kids are working harder each and every day in practice,” Williams said during the Big 12 coaches teleconference Monday, a few hours before taking on Colorado.

Kansas 40 45 85
Colorado 43 32 75

Attendance: 11,363

No team in the Big 12 stresses defense more than KU.

“They’ve started to realize how important it is, the whole picture of preparation I think they’re doing better,” Williams said. “And I think they’re taking things from practice into the games better in terms of seeing the big picture.”

The Jayhawks, the Big 12’s only unbeaten team going into the Colorado game, rose one place to No. 4 in this week’s Associated Press poll. Iowa State climbed to No. 17 and Texas to No. 20, while Oklahoma and Missouri fell out of the list.

The fall must have been particularly hard on the Tigers. They spent just one week at No. 20, their first national ranking in the Quin Snyder era, before losing to Kansas State and Virginia.

Snyder hopes the two loses might “rattle” his young team a bit.

“We had two different games. Kansas State they were terrific. They played so well. We had some kids who were not ready to play,” he said.

After getting whipped by 21 at Kansas State, the Tigers lost 85-72 on Saturday at Virginia.

“I thought we played better. Down two with a couple of minutes to play, we miss foul shots, they make them and the next thing we know, the game’s away from us,” Snyder said.

“We need to get it going. We need to be better.”

Even though Oklahoma State has hit 13 three-pointers in its last two games, don’t look for the Cowboys to start throwing bombs night after night.

“We’ve been working on our shooting. We’re not a strong three-point shooting club like we’ve had in the past,” said coach Eddie Sutton.

“I don’t think we’re going to be in the upper echelon of three-point shooters in the Big 12. We want to shoot them when they’re there. I don’t think you’re going to see us hitting seven or eight three-pointers in a game the way we have been in the last two ball games.”

Kansas State does not have a midweek game before going to KU on Saturday, but it will be hard for the Wildcats to get in much extra practice because the injury to center Joe Leonard has reduced them to just nine healthy players. They can’t even play a five-on-five.

“In the short term, it has not been as difficult as one might think,” said coach Jim Wooldridge. “But we still have six or seven weeks left. That’s where the difficulty comes in.

“Our challenge is going to be how we can improve our team consistently over the next six or seven weeks, not just six or seven days.”

In desperate need of at least a 10th player to practice with, Wooldridge is talking to football coaches about borrowing Rashad Washington, a 6-foot-3 running back who was an all-state basketball player in Wichita and named the state’s high school player of the year.

“I don’t know how that’s going to shake out,” Wooldridge said.

Do not look for any bitterness from Nebraska coach Barry Collier about the unusual way his game with Iowa State ended on Saturday. Officials were not sure whether the Cyclones’ game-winning bucket went up before or after the buzzer.

After checking television replays, they ruled the bucket good.

“Clearly the right call was made,” said Collier.

KANSAS (85) MIN FG FT REB PF TP
m-a m-a o-t
Drew Gooden 32 5-14 0-0 3-12 2 10
Kenny Gregory 30 7-15 2-5 4-5 1 16
Eric Chenowith 19 6-11 0-0 2-8 4 12
Kirk Hinrich 37 4-7 0-0 1-5 3 9
Jeff Boschee 37 6-12 4-4 0-4 1 21
Nick Collison 21 5-10 5-6 3-8 4 15
Bryant Nash 2 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 0
Jeff Carey 8 0-1 0-0 0-0 2 0
Luke Axtell 14 0-2 2-3 1-2 2 2
Team 1-2
Totals 33-73 13-18 16-48 19 85

Three-point goals: 6-16 (Boschee 5-10, Hinrich 1-2, Gregory 0-2, Axtell 0-2). Assists: 21 (Hinrich 11, Boschee 6, Gooden, Gregory, Collison, Axtell). Turnovers: 12 (Gregory 3, Hirnich 3, Collison 3, Gooden 2, Axtell). Blocked shots: 6 (Gooden 3, Chenowith, Collison, Axtell). Steals: 7 (Collison 2, Gooden, Chenowith, Hinrich, Boschee, Carey).

COLORADO (75) MIN FG FT REB PF TP
m-a m-a o-t
Jamahl Mosley 18 2-6 2-3 5-10 3 6
Stephane Pelle 29 6-17 3-4 6-15 2 15
D.J. Harrison 35 8-19 6-8 2-6 3 26
Jose Winston 27 0-2 1-2 0-0 3 1
Nick Mohr 29 5-13 0-0 3-5 1 12
Ernest Renfroe 11 0-0 0-0 1-3 1 0
Michel Morandais 6 0-2 0-0 0-1 0 0
Justin Harbert 23 3-9 2-2 0-0 2 9
Richard Fox 22 1-3 4-6 2-6 3 6
Team 0-1
Totals 25-71 18-25 19-47 18 75

Three-point goals: 7-21 (Harrison 4-8, Mohr 2-6, Harbert 1-6, Winston 0-1). Assists: 18 (Winston 6, Fox 4, Mosley 2, Harrison 2, Harbert 2, Mohr, Renfroe). Turnovers: 15 (Mosley 4, Winston 4, Fox 3, Pelle, Harrison, Mohr, Harbert). Blocked shots: 3 (Pelle, Harrison, Fox). Steals: 9 (Harbert 3, Pelle 2, Harrison, Winston, Mohr, Morandais).

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