Kansas University professor of basketball Bill Self, who teaches hoops class daily on James Naismith Court and in Horejsi Center, gives his student-athletes a solid grade of “B” for their work first semester.
“I’m a pretty tough teacher,” said Self, whose No. 2-ranked Jayhawks are 8-0 heading into Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. home battle against No. 9 Georgia Tech. “There’s times we’ve been ‘A’ and at times ‘C’ level, but I’d probably say ‘B’ overall based on our talent level.”
His Jayhawks, whose closest game was a 64-60 victory over South Carolina and biggest blowout a 96-51 decision over Louisiana-Lafayette, are averaging 81.4 points per game off 50 percent shooting to opponents’ 60.1 points per contest off 35.7 percent marksmanship.
While those numbers may be “A” quality, others like free-throw shooting and rebounding may be closer to “C” status. The Jayhawks have made 62.8 percent of their free throws and are outrebounding foes 42.4 per game to 35.9.
“Rebounding has been a struggle the whole time,” Self said. “We’ve been plus-8 in rebounding. We should be plus-12. I think we should be better. If we were able to steal four more possessions a game, you score on half those possessions, that’s four more points, then you are looking at an ‘A’ first half grade as opposed to a ‘B’.
“I think we’ve been an average rebounding team. I think we should be a good rebounding team.”
He wants his players “being strong with the ball in traps; strong square ups, making aggressive blockouts and doing everything 100 percent as opposed to 70 percent.”
As far as the free throwing … “We’ve got to put more pressure on them at practice, shoot a lot more. We’ll have time to do that now that we’re on break,” Self said Monday on his weekly radio show. “We can be a good free-throw shooting team. I’m confident we’ll do that.”
Free throws are as much mental as physical.
“I’ve never been a good free-throw coach, never,” Self said, “because sometimes the more you talk about them the more they worry about them. You step up and make ’em.”
Self is hoping the Jayhawks can accomplish a lot until Jan. 20, when winter break ends.
“With unlimited time we’ll do some new things,” Self said. “It’s been basically meat-and-potatoes stuff thus far. We’ve had some wrinkles, but it’s been mainly meat and potatoes. We’ll tweak some things and have a bigger package of stuff so to speak once conference begins.”
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Chalmers excels: KU signee Mario Chalmers of Anchorage, Alaska, scored 29 points off 9-of-15 shooting in Monday’s 87-70 loss to Miami Senior High at the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The 6-foot-1 Chalmers hit nine of 11 free throws and two of four threes.
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Boschee’s hip woes: Former KU guard Jeff Boschee, who plays for the Kansas City Knights, has hip problems that are not going away.
“The thing is, I was taking anti-inflammatories and that took away most of the pain in my hip, but gave me stomach aches that were creating ulcers in my stomach,” said Boschee, who returned from a pro career in Greece last October because of the problem.
“Now I’m not taking them and the pain in my hip is coming back.”
Boschee, the 11th leading scorer in KU history who last played at KU in 2002, said a cyst was growing on his hip socket.
“It causes pain to the whole hip, shooting down the leg,” Boschee said.
“It was hard to get through a whole practice let alone two a day over there,” he said of his time in Greece. “We haven’t been practicing as much, but it’s been flaring up some.”
He will hold a holiday basketball clinic with Knights teammate Jon Crispin on Jan. 1-2 in the Overland Park area. Information is available at 913-344-8172.
KU’s basketball players will hold their holiday clinic today, with registration starting at 9 a.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.
6Sports video: Kansas held to higher standard