Traditions
Believe it or not, Bucknell has been playing basketball longer than tradition-rich Kansas University. The Bison started play in 1896, as did Yale and Minnesota. KU started in February of 1899. Amazingly, the two programs never had met until Friday.
Loyal fan attends
Bob Nelson, “the Ol’ Jayhawk” and his wife, Eleanor, were on hand for Friday’s game. The Ol’ Jayhawk, who has been following the Jayhawks’ fortunes for more than 60 years, recently was paid a high honor by ex-Jayhawk Dave Robisch.
Robisch had Nelson join him at center court while delivering his jersey retirement speech at halftime of the Oklahoma State game Feb. 27.
No crystal ball
KU coach Bill Self didn’t fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket this year.
“I don’t know the last time I filled out a bracket. When I was at Oral Roberts and we were not eligible to go to the tournament was probably the last time. I focus on us now, not the other games,” Self said.
Midnight owls
Self didn’t like the late start.
“You don’t want to play the early morning game, although after it you have the whole day, but the late game is tough because you go to bed at 2 or 2:30, and your day starts early the next day.”
Simien good with media
KU senior Wayne Simien has been gracious with reporters at the Oklahoma City pod as he has all season. But he admits he’s not always a big fan of the interview this time of year.
“You just want to play ball sometimes, but answering a lot of questions comes with it,” said Simien, a candidate for the Naismith and Wooden Awards. “The accolades and awards come out this time of year, and it’s kind of uncomfortable for me because it’s not me, it’s my teammates. I thank them.”
TV time
Left with free time in OKC, Simien has been watching NCAA games on TV.
“I don’t know too much bracketology, but I saw Pacific, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Nevada, a lot of teams we played doing well,” he said.
OKC natives
J.R. Giddens and Darnell Jackson are hometown heroes. Giddens played his high school ball at nearby John Marshall High, while Jackson attended Midwest City High his senior season after attending inner-city NW Classen his first three years.
Both took walks down memory lane, crediting OKC for helping develop their skills.
“I played at the park, the boys and girls clubs,” Jackson said. “When I was younger, I played against the inmates who were out of jail. It helped playing ball against the older guys in Oklahoma City.”
Giddens also played at a different boys and girls club.
“I went there and met (Duke’s) Shelden Williams,” he said of a club on 44th St. “We played on the same basketball team. Some guys on the team were better than me. That had never happened to me before. By the end of my second season, I was not the best, but in my mind I was one of the better players on my team.
“It took me awhile to get there. A lot of games people were doing better than me, people killing me in practice. Those guys got me to go on weekends. You fight and scrap after you lose a game. Inner-city basketball, every day, you walk down the street and kids are playing. A lot of older kids pushed me around, but it helped me.”
Schedule talk
KU still needs two games to complete next year’s home schedule. The Jayhawks, who meet St. Joe’s in Madison Square Garden and also travel to Georgia Tech and play in the Maui Invitational, will play host to Idaho State, Northern Colorado, Nevada, Pepperdine and Kentucky. KU will meet Cal in a home game at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. Fort Hays State and Pittsburg State are slated to play the Jayhawks in exhibitions.
Moody’s staph infection potentially serious
The ailment in Christian Moody’s left knee in mid-February was no ordinary staph infection.
It was the MRSA bacteria that has killed more than one athlete in the past year — the bacteria that was the subject of a recent Sports Illustrated piece warning sports teams of the seriousness of the staph.
“Wasn’t that a crazy article?” Moody said of the story he read a week and a half after a floor burn he suffered at Texas Tech became infected. “You can get really sick if you don’t catch it right away. I took some major antibiotics that knocked it out.
“It was extremely painful,” he added of the infection that forced him to miss two games. “I couldn’t bend my knee, but my leg didn’t look nearly as bad as pictures in that article. It (article) definitely scared me.”
Moody’s knee is not 100 percent entering tonight’s game against Bucknell.
“The infection doesn’t affect me now. I’ve got bursitis in my knee because of the infection, which is bothering me,” he said.
Proud of home state
KU freshman C.J. Giles, a native of Seattle, spoke with Washington guard Nate Robinson before the Huskies’ victory over Montana on Thursday.
“I know all those guys,” Giles said.
If KU can’t win it all, does he want Washington to win it all?
“Truthfully, yes,” he said with a grin. “They’re good guys, and they have a really good team.”
Seniors’ last chance
It’s now or never for KU’s four seniors.
“This is the season we’ve all been waiting for since the loss to Georgia Tech last year,” point guard Aaron Miles said of an Elite Eight loss to the Yellow Jackets. “I’m excited. I’ve been excited since watching the Selection Show on Sunday. My heart was pounding. I was anxious, excited, ready to go because this is the last opportunity.”
Native Kansan Wayne Simien, who has dreamed of following in Danny Manning’s footsteps and winning a national title — the school’s first since 1988, when Simien was 5 — has been counting the days to tonight’s tipoff.
“It all set in on Selection Sunday when I saw the brackets and how it was laid out for us. It hit me you can play one more game or six more games,” Simien said. “We definitely want to continue to be out there as long as we can.
“For the seniors, it’ll mean a little more because it’s our last go-around. Freshmen, sophomore, juniors have another one. We’ll take advantage the best way we know how, to go out on a win streak.”
Stingy zone
For KU to advance to Sunday’s 3:50 p.m. game against either Wisconsin or Northern Iowa, the Jayhawks must get past a Bucknell team that uses a matchup-zone and man-to-man defense.
“It was no fluke they won at Pitt and no fluke they won at St. Joe’s. They are good,” Kansas coach Bill Self said, adding, “it’s going to be a grind-it-out game.
“They don’t play it 50 percent of the time. I’d say against us they will play it at least 50 percent or more,” Self said of the zone. “They hang their hat on being a good man-to-man team, but they play zone. It’s a benefit we had a chance to see it against Iowa State, but all zones are a little different.”
Confident
J.R. Giddens, a hometown hero out of Oklahoma City’s John Marshall High, thinks KU can make a major splash.
“I think the Jayhawks will win the national championship. You’ve got to believe,” he said.
Focused group
KU junior center Moulaye Niang says the Jayhawks enter the postseason focused after being tapped a No. 3 seed by the NCAA Tournament committee.
“It will encourage us to play better, show we’ve got something to prove,” Niang said. “We’re definitely ready. Everybody is excited.”
KU aide Jankovich mum about opening
Kansas University assistant basketball coach Tim Jankovich found himself surrounded by a batch of reporters and camera-toters after the Jayhawks’ 80-67 victory over Kansas State on Friday at Kemper Arena.
Media didn’t ask him about his alma mater dropping its 31st straight game to KU. Instead, he was quizzed about the fact Matt Doherty had dropped out of the running for the Tulsa head-coaching vacancy, leaving Jankovich the rumored front-runner for the job.
“I haven’t heard one thing,” Jankovich said. “Coach (Bill Self) has a policy where assistants don’t talk about head-coaching jobs. It’s coach’s policy. It’s what coach believes in. It’s a distraction. I don’t think I can say anything.”
He was asked by a Tulsa TV type if he had been offered the job.
“I can’t say a word,” Jankovich said, “otherwise I violate my boss’ wishes.”
Tulsa interim head coach Pooh Williamson reportedly had his third interview for the job Friday.
Jankovich, who one publication said was a leading candidate along with Doherty, has been interviewed, along with OU assistant Bob Hoffman, Michigan State assistant Doug Wojcik and Texas assistant Rodney Terry.
Big trey
Kansas University’s J.R. Giddens, who has been struggling from three-point range lately, hit a big trey that upped a 60-57 lead to six points at 5:42.
“With Keith (Langford) out, everybody had to step up,” said Giddens, who hit three of 11 threes and scored 14 points. “We got the jitters out of the way tonight. We got a feel playing without Mr. Langford today. Now we have to come out and take care of business tomorrow, too.”
Giddens said his three-point form was off Friday.
“I had too much adrenaline on a couple,” he said. “The last few I followed through too hard. I said, ‘Please don’t be airballs.’ I felt bouncy today. I was 3-for-11 today; I promise I’ll shoot better the next game.”
Streakin’
KU stretched its win streak over KSU to 31 games.
“I don’t feel a ton of pressure with it (streak), although losing to Missouri and K-State back to back wouldn’t sit well with a lot of folks I know pretty well. So I knew we had to play well,” Self said. “But it wasn’t to keep that streak going. It was to play to get better and set us up better for next week to be quite honest.”
Self said he felt KU still could land a No. 1 seed if it won today against Oklahoma State.
Minutes
Alex Galindo scored five points in 13 minutes playing power forward. Sasha Kaun played just two minutes, while Darnell Jackson and C.J. Giles did not play.
“With Keith being out,” Self said, “we need some offense and at least potential offense, and he (Galindo) is the best offensive player. He has a knack for getting the ball in the basket. We give up some things, rebounding and had to play zone with Alex in the game, but we thought that was better.
“The reason the other big guys didn’t play didn’t have anything to do with other than the fact they played small with Cartier (Martin) at the 4. Alex is better at the zone.”
Hawkins excels
Jeff Hawkins had eight points and three assists in 19 minutes. He played seven minutes the second half.
“Jeff played well again tonight,” Self said. “Maybe we should have played him more the second half and rested Aaron (Miles) or whatever, but I’m real pleased with Jeff. I think he has become a very good player, and I think will have a huge senior, a big, big senior year.”
Recruiting
Jeremiah Rivers, a 6-foot-4 high school junior from Florida, told rivals.com he would make an official recruiting trip to Kansas in the coming weeks.
Rivers, the son of former NBA great Doc Rivers, has a list of KU, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
Thad Allender/Journal-World PhotoKansas’ Self T’d up
Kansas University coach Bill Self received his first technical foul of the season in the first half and his first since last year at Oklahoma State. He was livid Keith Langford was called for his third foul on a charge.
“I think I said a lot. I deserved it before he gave it to me,” Self said of official Paul Janssen. “To me, I didn’t think it was a good call at all. It took a player pretty important to us out early. It may have been good, but from my vantage point it wasn’t. I basically wanted to get it.”
“I think coach wanted to get it,” KU’s Wayne Simien said. ” I think he did it to fire us up and the crowd.”
Bumps, bruises
Simien came down hard on an ankle late. He said he was fine.
Darnell Jackson took an elbow at practice Monday and suffered a concussion. It’s believed he’ll be able to play Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette.
‘It’s not over’
With around three minutes left, TCU’s Chudi Chinweze went down in a heap under the TCU goal. As he was being helped off the court, several KU fans started heading to the exits, prompting a chant of, “It’s not over,” from some of the remaining Jayhawk faithful.
Just this week, Self suggested the Allen Fieldhouse crowd was losing its fire.
“I think our crowd has been really good in spots, but I don’t think they have got as geeked up as they are going to be,” Self said.
Crowd flap
There was some confusion in the northwest corner of the fieldhouse during the first half when ushers apparently told the students to stand on the floor, not on the bleachers because standing on the bleachers blocks the view of fans higher up. The ushers were told to cease and desist because the northwest corner is all students, and KU officials don’t care if students stand on the bleachers in that corner.
Nearly a Horned Frog
KU junior center Moulaye Niang considered transferring to TCU last offseason. He made a visit to the Fort Worth, Texas, campus to meet with Horned Frogs coach Neil Dougherty, who recruited Niang to KU.
Niang also visited San Diego State before ultimately deciding to remain a Jayhawk.
“He just told me what he had to offer. He said if I decided to leave KU, I was welcome to go there. I appreciated it,” Niang said.
“I really liked ‘Coach D’ and his program. I am glad I stayed, really happy I made this decision. If I were to leave, it may have been something I would come to regret.”
Dougherty remembers Niang’s postseason thought process.
“Everybody wants to play more,” Dougherty said. “He was in a situation at Kansas the person who recruited him had left with a new coach coming in. Maybe coach had him in his plans, maybe not. He was a little unsure.”
Giddens’ late three big for Jayhawks
J.R. Giddens hit a clutch three-pointer with 3:36 left, right out of KU’s final long timeout, erasing a 58-56 deficit.
“Coach called, ‘Fade,”‘ Giddens said. “I jumped up and jabbed my man. I knew I had to set him up good and act like I was going to go baseline to get an open shot. Two steps, you know, knockdown — money ball.”
Giddens did not start. The nod went to senior Michael Lee.
“J.R. didn’t practice yesterday. That’s the only reason Mike started,” KU coach Bill Self said of the decision to hold out Giddens. “It’s not a knock on Mike or J.R. J.R. was nicked up. He said he was too sore to practice, so we started Mike because Mike’s been out there every day.”
“That didn’t bother me at all,” Giddens said of not opening the contest.
No headgear
Giddens did not wear his trademark headband much of the second half.
“I was driving toward the basket, and somebody knocked it down over my eyes, and I threw a blind pass. After that I threw it off,” said Giddens, who flung it toward the stands and never asked for it back.
Freshmen big men don’t play much
KU big men Sasha Kaun and C.J. Giles didn’t play the second half.
“Darnell (Jackson, six key points in first half stretch) played the most because he was most productive,” Self said. “The other guys didn’t get a chance tonight. It’s a tough game for ’em to play right now because when you play a perimeter 4-man that can really shoot it and we want to trap the post with Taylor Coppenrath, it’s a tough matchup. Those guys have not been through it before.”
This, that
KU has won 32 straight openers in a row at home and three straight overall. … KU is 6-0 against America East teams. … Wayne Simien grabbed his 600th career rebound in the first half.
Game coverage:
6Sports video: NCAA tourney ends for KU
Hear Bill: KU vs. Bucknell post-game comments
Photo Gallery: KU vs. Bucknell
Get the stats: KU vs. Bucknell box score
Scorecard: Grade KU’s performance against Bucknell
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