The freshmen – especially Brandon Rush, who survived a case of “bubble guts” to record a double-double in his Kansas University basketball debut – performed well Wednesday night.
But right up there, high on the stat sheet, right next to Rush’s 17 points, 10 rebounds and four steals, were the contributions of KU sophomores Sasha Kaun, Russell Robinson and C.J. Giles, who exploded for 23 points, 11 assists and 10 points in the Jayhawks’ crowd-pleasing 96-62 exhibition-opening rout of Fort Hays State.
“I’m not surprised at all. The sophomores have really been working hard all summer,” said Giles, whose six quick points staked KU to a back-breaking 12-0 lead. “I’ve talked with coach. He needs our sophomores to play well, to score. I’ve been working hard all summer to be that person.”
While freshman forward Rush’s nerves didn’t settle until the second half, when he erupted for 15 of his 17 points, the sophomores were steady early and late.
Kaun scored 11 points off 5-of-5 shooting the first half and 12 more off 5-of-6 the second 20 minutes. He was recipient of several pinpoint passes from Robinson, who fed the 6-foot-11, 246-pound Kaun seven times for inside hoops.
“Russell has a feel for the way to pass and when to pass,” said Kaun, deflecting the credit after tallying his career-high in points. He had 20 in an exhibition against Langara last summer in Canada and a career-best 11 in a regular-season game versus Villanova.
“You see the stats. He had 11 assists. It shows he can get the ball down there.”
Kaun had no problem finishing, not only dunking, but also flipping in layups after accepting the feeds.
“I think the difference is I’m more physical,” Kaun said of his play from last year to this year. “Over the summer, I went to the weight room and worked on being tougher, stronger.”
Kaun also has been working on his free throws, but that did not show Wednesday.
He missed seven of 10 charities on a night the Jayhawks hit 19 of 33. At one point, KU aide Danny Manning chatted with Kaun during a break about the free tosses.
“Since I couldn’t make them, he told me to relax, to just let it go,” Kaun said. “He was trying to give me a few pointers.”
Of Kaun’s charity work, coach Bill Self quipped: “He was 10-of-11, 3-of-10. Usually that’s 3-of-10 from the field and 10-of-11 the line. He’s got to get better because he will get fouled. He should be 65, 70 percent. He played terrific.”
Especially with his footwork inside.
“He got a lot of short shots that didn’t require a lot of touch, and several dunks. Russell did good job of getting Sasha the ball. The second half, we made a conscious effort (to get it inside),” Self said.
Rush, who hit five of six free throws, said he was “most surprised about Sasha missing all those free throws. We shot free throws for 10 minutes yesterday. We each got up about 150.”
Rush had the best production of the freshmen – “I don’t know the last time we had a a 3-man get seven offensive rebounds,” Self said – though all had strong moments.
Julian Wright, who made sure everybody on the team scored by feeding Matt Kleinmann for a layup and Jeremy Case a wide-open three in the closing seconds, had eight points, eight boards and four assists.
69-27
Kansas’ advantage in scoring off the bench
40, 22, 9, 8
Points, rebounds, assists, turnovers by KU’s fab four freshmen combined
10-11
Sophomore Sasha Kaun’s field-goal shooting
3-10
Kaun’s free-throw shooting
Mario Chalmers, who didn’t fire an airball on his first shot as his teammates predicted, but did fire a lob way over the head of Giles for an immediate turnover off the backboard – “that one was a little too high,” Giles said with a grin – had 10 points off 4-of-6 shooting.
Micah Downs had five points and three boards in 17 minutes and also found Kaun open twice for inside hoops near the end of the first half.
“I don’t think they were very relaxed,” Self said of the newcomers. “I think we played tight early, but were better in the second half.”
“I think our freshmen were a lot more confident than we were last year,” Giles said.
Perhaps Rush, who had the nervous stomach, said it best: “We had a little speech at halftime. Coach just said to come out and have fun. We started to have fun. It was a lot of fun.”
KU next will meet Pittsburg State in a final exhibition at 7 p.m. Monday at Allen Fieldhouse.