Jayhawks’ hot start helped by sizzling shooting, home games

By Gary Bedore Dec 14, 2004

Shooting has been a strength of Kansas University’s men’s basketball team during the first six games of the nonconference season.

The Jayhawks, who hit 46.5 percent of their shots a year ago, have made 193 of 372 attempts in the early going for 51.9 percent.

The No. 2-ranked Jayhawks are 11th in the country in field-goal shooting. New Mexico is the leader at 53 percent, Oklahoma State rates fourth at 52.8 percent, and Texas A&M is sixth at 52.1 percent.

“Those are good numbers. We’ll win a lot of games if we keep that up,” KU coach Bill Self said Monday during his Hawk Talk radio show.

“We’re shooting 52 percent, but we’ve made a lot of layups, too. You shoot better when you get those. We’ve not shot a lot of threes.”

The Jayhawks have taken 16 fewer threes than their foes, canning 41 of 103 (39.8 percent) to their opponents’ 33-of-119 shooting (27.7 percent).

“Usually 35 percent of your shots are threes. We’re not quite there yet,” Self said. “We will shoot more as teams start taking certain things away. I like the way we’re shooting for the most part. Take the Vermont game out of there, and we’re shooting very well.”

Without KU’s 38.2 percent outing against the Catamounts, the Jayhawks are a sizzling 54.3 percent for the season.

“The tendency is in conference play people will have you better scouted,” Self said, aware the hot shooting might not last all season.

The 6-0 Jayhawks, who also have benefited from playing all home games, are averaging a robust 85.7 points a game, which ranks 12th in the country and second in the conference.

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Jayhawks’ hot start helped by sizzling shooting, home games

North Carolina is first overall at 89.9 points a game, and Texas Tech right behind at 89.7.

Number crunching: KU is fifth in the country in scoring margin (with an average differential of 25 ppg). The Jayhawks do not rank in the top 25 in team defense, having allowed 59.8 ppg. The country’s stingiest team, Air Force, has allowed 47.3 ppg in nine games. … Wayne Simien is third in the country in rebounding at 12.2 a game. … Aaron Miles is fourth in the country in assists at 7.5 per game. … Miles is tied for ninth in three-point field-goal percentage at 66.7 percent. He’s made six of nine threes overall, including six of his last seven.
Tickets left: A limited number of general-admission tickets are available for Saturday’s 7 p.m. home game against South Carolina and can be purchased at the KU ticket office or by calling 1-800-34-HAWKS.

About 16,000 tickets have been sold for the Dec. 22 game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, set for 7 p.m. at Kemper Arena. KU students can purchase tickets for the Kemper game at the reduced rate of $10.

Japanese rap: Former Kansas basketball walk-on Scott Novosel’s music video is up on his Web site www.niceguyjin.com and available for viewing free of charge.

Novosel, a Japanese rap artist, has his CD, Niceguy Jin All-Stars, available for sale on the Web site along with shirts, cups, posters and mousepads.