Self seeking maximum productivity

By Gary Bedore     Nov 15, 2003

Scott McClurg/Journal-World Photo
Kansas University men's basketball coach Bill Self, right, shoots around during practice. Self, shown Monday at Allen Fieldhouse, wants the Jayhawks to maximize their offensive possessions.

Those who expected Kansas University’s basketball team to play at a snail’s pace under first-year coach Bill Self had to be pleasantly surprised during the just-completed exhibition season.

The Jayhawks, who nudged EA Sports All-Stars, 91-87, and pounded Pittsburg State, 103-73, averaged a robust 97 points per contest.

A year ago, the Big 12 Conference champion and national runner-up Jayhawks averaged 106 points in the exhibition season and 82.7 ppg in games that counted.

“I’d love to average 95 a game,” Self said. “The thing about it is, you are not going to always make shots. If you don’t make shots, you’ve got to hunker down, really defend, rebound and take care of the ball.

“You have to maximize all your possessions. Those are the type of nights we won’t score as many points as we possibly can.”

KU outshot its two exhibition opponents 60 percent to 42.4 percent. The Jayhawks, however, made just five of 24 three-pointers to their foes’ 25 of 63.

“We have good shooters,” Self said. “We’ve not shot it great so far (from outside). What bothers me is, if you don’t shoot it great, then you don’t look for a shot. Guys need to stay aggressive at all times.”

Hawkins leads way

Jeff Hawkins was KU’s leading three-point shooter in the preseason, hitting two of six tries.

“Jeremy Case, J.R. Giddens and ‘J-Hawk’ need to perform well. We need their shooting,” Self said. “It’s hard to run good offense unless you’ve got two guys out of the three (perimeter players) consistent … who can stretch the defense.”

Case went 0-4 and Giddens 1-2 from beyond the arc during exhibition games.

“I think Aaron is a good shooter,” Self noted of point guard Miles, who hit 14 of 19 shots and was 0-2 from three-point range. “Mike Lee (5-14, 0-4 three) is a good shooter. Keith (Langford) is a little bit streaky, but I think his stroke has improved tremendously. We have good shooters.”

Langford hit seven of 10 shots against Pitt State, but missed his only trey.

“I think it could be (a weakness),” Langford said of outside shooting. “I don’t think it will be as long as me, Aaron, Jeremy, Mike and Bryant (Nash, 1-4 threes) remain confident. As long as we don’t get down about missing shots early or making a couple turnovers, I think we’ll be fine.”

Kansas University made just five of 24 three-pointers during two exhibition games. The breakdown:

Jeff Hawkins 2-6
Omar Wilkes 1-1
J.R. Giddens 1-2
Bryant Nash 1-4
Keith Langford 0-1
Aaron Miles 0-2
Michael Lee 0-4
Jeremy Case 0-4

Big men on fire

KU’s big men all shot well in the exhibition season. Wayne Simien hit 80 percent of his tries, Jeff Graves 70 percent and David Padgett 61.1 percent. Moulaye Niang hit his only two tries for 100 percent.

“As the competition gets better,” Self said, “defenses will take things away and you have to step up and make shots. The last two games, how many layups have we shot? How many bunnies? We’ve gotten quite a few. It’ll all change as the competition gets stiffer.”

Self wants his big men to get lots of touches during the regular season.

“If you take a shot early on the shot clock,” Self said, “you do not give our guys a chance to seal (inside). We have to find a happy medium. I want to shoot quick, but unless we are wide open, we need to get the ball reversed.

“You should never take a marginal shot. You should always get the ball reversed and give our big guys a chance to work.”

What about ‘D?’

On defense, Self seeks hard work every possession heading into next Friday’s opener against Tennessee-Chattanooga. Game time is 7:05 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.

“When we talk about defense, it’s a mindset,” Self said. “When we are up by 20 we think trading baskets is OK. It is not OK. We should never be content if anybody ever scores.

“The only time you can be content if somebody scores is if they make a bad shot. When they make bad shots, pat ’em on the butt, move on down the road and say, ‘You whipped us that possession.’

“I don’t think there’s a sense of pride yet (that) when your man scores you feel you let down everybody who ever supported Kansas. That’s how it should be.”

The Jayhawks realize they need to improve their perimeter defense. EA Sports hit 16 of 33 threes; Pitt State nine of 30.

“We’ve done a poor job of that, especially in transition, finding our man,” Simien said. “It’s something exposed and something we’ll have to work on. It’s still early.”

With tough taskmaster Self in charge, one can bet the defense will improve.

“The attitude of the team stems directly from the coach,” Langford said. “Coach Self’s attitude is defense when we step onto the court. We will work on our mindset every day we take the court.”

¢

Not quite: An ESPN-TV report that Jeff Hawkins and David Padgett had wrapped up starting spots for next Friday’s opener against UT-Chattanooga were premature, Self told the Journal-World Friday night.

“I said that could be the case,” Self said of his interview with an ESPN reporter. “But no, nothing’s been determined yet. I also said Mike Lee had been playing better. That’s one of the ways we can go, but nothing’s been determined yet.”

PREV POST

Recruiting briefs

NEXT POST

4780Self seeking maximum productivity