Too close for comfort

By Gary Bedore     Nov 15, 2004

Thad Allender/Journal-World Photo
Kansas University coach Bill Self checks the scoreboard during the Jayhawks' 79-70 victory over Washburn. The Jayhawks went 2-0 in the exhibition season, but Self hopes Sunday's narrow win in Allen Fieldhouse will serve as a "wake-up call" for the Jayhawks.

Now Kansas University’s basketball players know how Purdue felt Monday night.

Just like the unranked Boilermakers, the No. 1-ranked Jayhawks of NCAA Division One struggled to a nine-point exhibition victory — 79-70 — over the Division Two Ichabods on Sunday night at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I think that team could beat a lot of folks,” KU coach Bill Self said after watching his team make one fewer basket and one fewer three-pointer than the ‘Bods, but cash 12 more free throws.

“For the most part, it was a pretty stale performance tonight,” he said of his Jayhawks, who made 24 of 59 shots for 40.7 percent and five of 16 threes. “Hopefully this will be a motivating factor and wake-up call for everybody.”

The Jayhawks, who were sparked by the play of Christian Moody (10 points, five boards) and Russell Robinson (seven points, four assists), open for real Friday versus Vermont.

Thad Allender/Journal-World Photo
Kansas' Wayne Simien, left, yells after teammate Christian Moody scored and drew a foul in the Jayhawks' narrow exhibition victory over Washburn.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff to work on,” Self said.

Like how to effectively counteract teams that double-team senior Wayne Simien when he accepts passes in the post.

With Aaron Miles and Keith Langford having off nights from the outside — the two hit two of nine threes on a night the experimental 20-foot, 9-inch arc was used instead of the 19-9 arc — Simien was hounded, and it showed in his stats.

Simien, who hustled his way to 15 rebounds, missed seven of 10 floor shots and finished with 13 points.

“I expect it will be like that a lot,” Simien said of teams doubling and tripling him. “It’s part of the game. It’s a matter of me making good decisions out of the double-team, finding the open man, something I didn’t do tonight with five turnovers. It’s a good thing we’ve got five more days before Vermont.”

Simien thinks the Jayhawks, who coincidentally beat Washburn by the same margin of victory as Purdue on Monday night (81-72), will respond well to double-teams and gimmick defenses.

The Jayhawks, however, will have to bring better intensity starting Friday, he indicated.

“That may have been a factor, not coming out geeked up tonight like we were against Emporia State,” Simien said of last week’s 115-70 exhibition victory over the Hornets. “Being at Kansas, everybody’s going to come after us.”

Washburn never backed down Sunday. The Ichabods led, 19-10, seven minutes in, and despite falling behind, 39-30, sliced the gap to 42-37 by halftime.

KU led, 59-54, with 9:11 remaining in the contest, before Robinson and Moody took command.

Robinson hit a three, then fed Moody for a bucket. Next, Moody put back a J.R. Giddens miss in a 7-0 surge that boosted the lead to 66-54 at 8:22. Simien followed with a free throw at 7:57 to give the Jayhawks their biggest lead of the night at 13 points.

“Do we win the game without Christian and Russell playing really well the second half?” Self asked. “We may have, but those two were the best performers the second half.”

Robinson also had a steal at midcourt and layin to give KU a 52-47 lead five minutes into the second half and a driving layup to give KU a 59-51 lead at 9:56.

“I thought our best perimeter player hands down was Russell Robinson,” Self said of the freshman guard who finished with seven points and four assists.

Junior forward Moody had 10 points and five boards.

Perimeter player Giddens was yanked from the lineup just 40 seconds into the second half for allowing a layup.

Giddens, who returned five minutes later, scored 10 points, missing five of eight shots.

9Washburn’s biggest lead, at 19-10 midway through the first half12KU’s advantage in points scored at the free-throw line9Washburn’s advantage in bench points

Langford, who scored eight straight points early in the second half by hitting two threes while seeing another roll in and out, missed seven of 11 shots. Michael Lee made one of three shots in 16 minutes.

“I told the guys after the game, there’s not much difference in guys,” Self said of the perimeter players. “Whoever guards the best, whoever the team is better off with in the game, whoever gives us energy. To be quite honest, I could see playing any of the combinations.”

In the final analysis, Self thinks the close call will be good for his team.

“Things have come pretty easy for the most part. That was good for our freshmen to play in a game where possessions are magnified. It’s good for our five returning players to maybe collectively not play as well and get their minds refocused to the point we know what we have to do to win games,” Self said.

“I never felt there was an urgency to play to win the game. We were just playing. The last five minutes, it was pretty evident.”

It’s also evident Washburn has a pretty good Division Two team.

“I think there’s no question, tonight Washburn could have beaten a lot of people,” Self said. “I do think this … we had a great home crowd. I know it’s a big game for them and should be for us too. They didn’t shy away at all.”

Too close for comfort

By Gary Bedore     Nov 5, 2003

Scott McClurg/Journal-World Photo
First-year Kansas University men's basketball coach Bill Self reacts after the Jayhawks allowed an easy dunk with six seconds left in their exhibition with EA Sports. KU added a free throw after the dunk to cap a 91-87 victory over the All-Stars Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Suffice it to say, Bill Self is happy to get his first game as Kansas University’s men’s basketball coach out of the way.

“It wasn’t exactly what I bargained for,” Self, the Jayhawks’ new coach, said of Tuesday’s somewhat scary, 91-87 come-from-behind exhibition victory over EA Sports All-Stars, a team that lost to Wyoming by 10 points Saturday. “We wouldn’t have won the game if it was not in Allen Fieldhouse.”

Self — he certainly did not want to see KU’s 18-game home exhibition winning streak end in his debut on the Jayhawk bench — credited a loud crowd for helping fuel a late Michael Lee-led rally that erased a 10-point second-half deficit against the All-Stars, who hit 16 threes in 33 attempts to KU’s two threes in 10 tries.

“Who in the heck scheduled those guys?” said Self, managing to keep his sense of humor on a night EA Sports guard Mike Brownlee burned KU’s defense for 26 points off 7-of-11 three-point shooting.

“I don’t think any other team (they play from now on) will even let any of ’em shoot a three,” Self said. “Didn’t you think every one was going in? I did.”

Scott McClurg/Journal-World Photo
Bill Self walks off the floor after his first game as Kansas University's head men's basketball coach. KU beat the EA Sports All-Stars, 91-87, in an exhibition Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Enough of the praise for the exhibition visitors.

The Jayhawks played without guard Keith Langford, who missed the contest with a sore right knee.

They did just enough things correctly to snare the victory.

“What happened tonight couldn’t have been scripted much better,” Self said. “We talk about, we are not going to be a team that outscores people. We almost get our butts beat trying to just outscore people.

“We talk about how important defense transition is. When we were up 16-10, they missed shots. The reason we were behind (40-33 at halftime) is they made the shots they missed earlier. We weren’t guarding anybody.

Scott McClurg/Journal-World Photo
Kansas' Bryant Nash (33) blocks a shot from EA Sports' Anthony Evans as KU's Jeff Graves (42) closes in.

“They were just missing shots early. It’s like fool’s gold. You’ve got to guard somebody.”

The Jayhawks did much better the second half, outscoring EA Sports, 58-47, off sizzling 71.9-percent shooting. Some of the baskets came following steals.

“You shoot 72 percent in a half and you should win, and we barely did,” Self said.

The heroes in the half, Self said, were Jeff Hawkins — Self’s player of the game for “creating havoc” on the defensive end — and Lee, who scored eight points the second half and 11 total, including six points in an 8-0 run that turned a 74-all tie into a 82-74 advantage.

“Buying into coach Self’s system,” Lee theorized after the contest, “has been a tug of war, but we’re going to get it done.”

Lee — who admits it’s going to be a lot easier to buy in starting today after the scare — surprised even himself during his gutty six-point run.

He had a spinning layin to make it 76-74, then accepted a pass from Jeff Graves and hit another driving layin. His final bucket came off his own steal, following an Aaron Miles 12-footer.

“The spin move was a freak situation. I’ll probably never make a move like that again,” Lee said. “I didn’t mean to do that. I can’t believe what I did. I started to get excited, but tried to keep my poise because the game was close.

“Mainly I was just trying to get involved in the intensity of the game, to play as hard as somebody like Jeff Hawkins, who came in and really gave us a spark.”

Everybody played a bit harder the second half after a spirited halftime session.

“Coach emphasized defense at halftime,” noted Simien, who had no points and three boards the first half, finishing with 14 points and seven rebounds. Fellow big men David Padgett and Graves had 16 and 11 points respectively, while the steady Miles led the way with 18 points, 12 the second half.

“We were giving up a lot of shots in our defensive transition, and it is something that we are going to have to work on the next few weeks,” Simien said. “He jumped on us pretty good. Then again, he wanted us to keep our poise, show toughness and be able to come back because there probably will be more times this season when we are down at halftime.”

Self did see some positives in the victory.

“We competed hard,” he said. “We are down 10 the second half, and guys come back and compete when they (All-Stars) were on fire. It’s not like they ever quit competing. We can eliminate carelessness and a lot of things.

“One thing I like is we competed hard even though we didn’t play great.”

Padgett was the best of KU’s newcomers. J.R. Giddens had six points in seven minutes, and Jeremy Case a point in eight minutes.

Self insisted the Jayhawks weren’t too shabby for a team that has had just 14 practices.

“We are not going to be a team that hangs 90 on everybody every night,” Self said. “We have to understand it is important to guard, get stops, execute the halfcourt. To me in the first half, when we went dull, the post guys should have touched the ball every possession. Instead, we came down and shot it every time. It’s what they’ve done in the past, but they also had lottery picks shooting those shots. I’m not saying we don’t have good players. It’s just a little different. We need to grow into that.”

Next up is Pittsburg State in a final exhibition at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

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