Thad Allender/Journal-World PhotoLubbock, Texas ? Bill Self had one major regret after leaving Tulsa for the University of Illinois after the 1999-00 season.
He was arriving in the Big Ten just as Bob Knight was exiting the conference after a long, sometimes stormy, stay at Indiana.
“I was disappointed, to be honest,” said Self, Kansas University’s second-year coach. “Not that I was looking forward to coaching against him, but that was one of the draws of the league, having him in it.”
As fate would have it, Self wound up in the Big 12 Conference with Knight a couple of years later. Self’s Jayhawks defeated Knight’s Texas Tech Red Raiders, 96-77, last season at Allen Fieldhouse.
“We should be very proud of the fact we have some coaching legends in our league, primarily coach Knight and Sutton,” Self said of his mentor Eddie Sutton and tonight’s foe, Knight.
KU (20-1 overall, 10-0 Big 12) will take on the Red Raiders (15-6, 7-3) at 8 tonight at United Spirit Arena. The Red Raiders had a four-game league win streak snapped Saturday at Iowa State, 81-68.
“They’ll be mad,” Self said. “I’m sure coach Knight will have them fired up and ready. They really have a nice team.”
Some pundits have called Knight’s Red Raiders the best-coached team in the league.
“You could say that about all of coach Knight’s teams,” Self said. “They are scoring easier than anybody in the league right now. They score easy, take good shots. They are running motion like his teams did at Indiana.”
KU’s players realize the Raiders will be tough tonight.
“They will be hungry coming off a loss,” KU’s Wayne Simien said.
Added Keith Langford: “They are the toughest team to guard in the league. Back screens, cross screens, motion … it’s real tiring trying to guard them.”
The Raiders are led by the backcourt of Ronald Ross (17.1 points per game) and Jarrius Jackson (15.2 ppg), plus swingman Martin Zeno (12.9 ppg).
“Their perimeter is so quick,” Self said. “They get so many points off their defense. They are a very, very fast team.”
And, of course, well coached.
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“I love it, the whole atmosphere, coach Knight, the Red Raiders. I saw a special on ESPN on his whole ordeal recently,” Langford said of Knight’s stormy final days at Indiana. “I can tell my family one day, my kids, that I got to play against his teams. He’s so recognized. It’ll be fun.”
Self has had no problems with the Hall of Fame coach, despite Knight often being grumpy while dealing with the media.
“I can’t remember getting any Christmas cards,” Self quipped. “(But) he’s always been nice to me.”
Fans haven’t always been nice to Knight — at least fans away from the home arena.
“I think when they go on the road, people choose to root against him and get on him,” Self said. “He shoulders most of the heat that might take some of it off the players. They’ve got a good team that runs offense as good as any team in America.”
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Knight never forgets: After the Raiders’ 88-81 victory over Oklahoma on Feb. 5 in Norman, Okla., Knight recalled his trip to Norman two years ago.
That’s when a couple of clock errors late in the game went against the Red Raiders, who wound up losing.
“When Oklahoma came back and made a really great run at the end there, the thing I checked to see was if we had the same time-keeper we had here a couple of years ago,” Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. “I was glad that had changed.”
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No love for the trey: Knight was asked about his team’s 8-of-11 three-point shooting in Wednesday’s 83-67 victory over Baylor.
“There isn’t any question when you hit some threes it helps you, no matter how much I dislike the shot,” Knight said.
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Bumps, bruises: Langford, who hyperextended his left elbow early in Saturday’s victory over Colorado, wound up with 14 points in 29 minutes.
“We think he’ll be able to play (tonight). We’re not positive,” Self said Sunday on his weekly TV show.
C.J. Giles, who played for the first time in seven games, said he was “rusty, really tired” in the CU game.
Asked when he thought he’d be 100 percent, he said, “I think by after the Texas Tech game, I should really be ready.”
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Tough loss on road: Texas Tech led 21-5 on Saturday before faltering at Iowa State.
“This game was in reverse of the way we wanted it to go,” Knight said. “At the beginning of the game, we got off to such a big lead, (and) that worried me. I was more worried then than had we just played even. We inverted the game from what it should have been. If we could have gotten that lead in the second half instead of the first half, it makes a lot of difference.”
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This ‘n’ that: KU leads the all-time series, 15-1, and is 6-1 versus Tech in Lubbock, Texas, 2-0 in the new United Spirit Arena. … Knight is 4-10 versus Kansas and 0-4 while at Tech; Self has gone 2-3 versus the Red Raiders. … The Red Raiders are 11-1 at home this season, with the lone loss to No. 10 Oklahoma State, 76-66, on Jan. 8. … Knight is the winningest active Division One coach. Overall, Knight owns a career record of 845 wins and 326 losses
— Assistant sports editor Gary Bedore can be reached at 832-7186.
Journal-World File PhotoAdonis Jordan has played pro basketball not only in the NBA and CBA, but also for teams in Australia, Israel, Venezuela, Korea, Hong Kong, Belarus, Finland, France and Germany.
It seems the 6-foot, 170-pound, 32-year-old point guard has been just about everywhere since bouncing his last basketball for Kansas University during the 1992-93 season.
Tonight, as a member of EA Sports East All-Stars, Jordan likely will be reminded there’s no place like home. He’s certain to receive a thunderous ovation from KU fans, still grateful for Jordan’s Final Four appearances in both 1991 and ’93.
Tipoff for the KU-EA exhibition game is 7 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Adonis will get a special reception,” KU coach Roy Williams said of his first marquee recruit.
Journal-World File Photo“No doubt. I think it’ll be crazy,” noted former Jayhawk Kevin Pritchard, the starting point guard in 1989-90, Jordan’s freshman season at KU.
“Adonis was a great teammate and great player here. He worked hard, pushed me in practice. I always felt with Adonis he really wanted to be a great player. I took him under my wing, just like Cedric (Hunter) took me under his wing.
“Adonis has been in the NBA for a cup of coffee (1994, Denver Nuggets). He has gotten paid to play pro ball. He’s had a great career,” added Pritchard, Kansas City Knights’ coach and general manager who lives in Lawrence and will attend tonight’s game.
Jordan, who collected 15 points and five assists against eight turnovers in EA Sports’ 81-80 overtime loss to Missouri on Saturday before 6,787 fans in Columbia, Mo., had hoped to play in Australia this season.
He was cut by the Townsville Crocodiles last month.
“He went there because they had a guard who was hurt,” Williams explained. “I didn’t want the kid to stay hurt, but if he had, it’d have been better for Adonis to play there the whole year. He was healthy so Adonis came back.”
He’ll be back at his alma mater tonight.
“I think he’ll get a great reception,” Williams said of Jordan, who ranks 19th on KU’s overall scoring list and fourth on the all-time assist charts, “then we’re going to try to run his old legs to death. Once you get over 30, it’s hard to run up and down as much as we’re going to try to make him run.”
KU senior guard Kirk Hinrich says it’ll be special sharing the same court with Jordan.
“I have never met Adonis,” Hinrich said. “He’s one of the real good players who played here. It’ll be fun to see where he’s at now and how he plays now.”
Hinrich and fellow senior Nick Collison are even more interested to see how some of KU’s reserves fare tonight.
The Jayhawks have unproven scholarship bench players in Bryant Nash, Michael Lee, Jeff Hawkins, Moulaye Niang and Jeff Graves, plus walk-ons Christian Moody, Stephen Vinson and Brett Olson.
| When: 7 tonight.Where: Allen Fieldhouse.Television: Channels 13 and 38. |
“To me it’ll be interesting to see how much the young guys remember from practice once they get in front of the fans,” Hinrich said. “We’re trying to get the new guys an understanding of what we want to do and go from there.”
Collison believes it might be the most important exhibition game since he’s been here.
“It’s big because we have a lot of guys without game experience,” Collison said. “It’ll be good for our team to get those guys out there and see how they do. Hopefully if they screw up it’ll just be a good experience and if they do well it’ll give them confidence. Either way, it’ll be good for them to be out there.”
Added Williams, “I think it’s a good read on the things. I think it’ll be good to see how they react in front of 16,300 and get a better idea on how certain combinations play together.”
And, of course, it’ll be good to see Jordan. The coach and pupil have remained close throughout the years.
“If it goes five weeks, coach will call me to make sure I’m alive,” Jordan said. “He’ll ask me why I’m slacking and not checking in with him.”
Jordan signed with KU even though the Jayhawks were put on probation a week before the signing date during Jordan’s senior year at Cleveland High in Reseda, Calif. Jordan’s high school coach, Bobby Braswell, helped during the process, recommending KU over Seton Hall, UCLA and others.
“Coach Braswell knew coach Williams was somebody I could trust and I thank him for that every day,” Jordan said.
D.J. Harrison, a 6-7 forward from the University of Colorado, plays for the All-Stars. He scored nine points and grabbed 14 rebounds Saturday at Missouri in 31 minutes. Harrison had words with Drew Gooden in last year’s KU-Colorado game in Boulder, Colo.
