After devouring a traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings late Thursday morning, Kansas University’s basketball players were set free to roam Maui with instructions to forget about hoops for a while.
“These guys are probably as brain-dead on basketball as you can possibly be. They need a break,” KU coach Bill Self said.
That break would come via swimming, snorkeling and/or shopping, with the Jayhawks taking a red-eye flight home. They are due to arrive in Lawrence at about 12:30 p.m. today, and have a pair of practices slated for Saturday.
“We’ve got to get better,” Self said of his squad, which went 1-2 in Maui, with a victory over NCAA Div. II Chaminade (102-54) to go with losses to No. 9 Arizona (61-49) and unrated Arkansas (65-64).
“A lot of good things happened on this trip,” Self said. “Unfortunately, if you are going to equate everything to winning and losing, no, it wasn’t a great trip. It was not a great trip basketball-wise. It was a good trip from an educational standpoint.”
He informed his team a 1-2 record in Maui is not the end of the world.
“I kept telling ’em it’s a long season. We’re going to lose some more unfortunately,” Self said. “We don’t want to. We want to run the table, but be realistic. You can’t get too high or too low.”
Self said he firmly believes his young team will gain from playing in Maui. Remember, even a veteran team like Arizona went 1-2 here with the field billed the toughest in tourney history.
“We don’t have a false sense of who we are. We know we have got to get a lot better,” Self said, noting he could have taken the team “to a different tournament and gone 2-1 and think maybe our team is better (than it is now).
“We definitely hurt our preseason ranking here losing to Arizona and Arkansas, but last time I checked Arizona is pretty good. (KU’s) young kids fought back (from) 20-4 and tied it. Arkansas is a tournament team and that’s a one possession game.
“We have no reason to hang our heads,” Self continued. “People that make a big deal about our record … we knew there was the chance of that when we came here.”
KU had a chance to beat Arkansas, taking possession with 12 seconds left. However, Brandon Rush passed to Jeff Hawkins in the corner instead of taking the ball to the hole, Hawkins’ shot getting blocked with just under three ticks left.
Points
Brandon Rush, 16.0 ppg
Shooting percentage
Rush, 60.6
Assists
Jeff Hawkins, 18
Steals
Mario Chalmers, 7
3-pointers
Rush, 4-8
Turnovers
Hawkins, 11
Then on the ensuing inbounds, Hawkins passed to Russell Robinson in the corner, who had a shot blocked at the buzzer.
You better believe Self discussed the late-game situations with his players at film sessions after that Arkansas game.
“We went over it,” Self said. “The thing is, the percentages are you are not going to score. The percentages are with the defensive team in that situation. We executed almost flawlessly the last five minutes up until that point (in erasing an eight-point deficit).
“At that point we just kind of went brain-dead. We had the ball in our best offensive player’s hands that day (Rush), C.J. (Giles) pick and pop wide open and we didn’t get the ball to him. The thing disappointing to me is we didn’t attack. We tried to shoot jumpers over long guys, when we’re in the bonus (foul wise). We should have been driving.”
Giles confessed to reporters that, on the final play, he was confused — not sure if the play was set up for a lob dunk to him or a shot for Robinson.
“One guy ran the wrong play,” Self said, not identifying that player. “One of the players forgot what we he was supposed to do, but they have not been in that situation before. We made a lot of young mistakes we’ll learn from.”
As far as individual players, well, the Jayhawks learned freshman Rush is a scorer. He averaged 16.0 points in the three games and is averaging 15.0 for the season.
“Brandon, after the first game, is feeling more and more comfortable,” Self said. “He can score points in bunches. As he gets better defensively he’ll become more whole. I’d say of the guys, Brandon over the course of three days probably played as well as any of the guys.”
Big man Sasha Kaun averaged 11.0 points and 7.0 rebounds for the tourney and will take 14.5 scoring and 9.3 rebounding averages into Thursday’s home game against Nevada.
“Of the guys, I think Sasha has been consistent. C.J. needed a big game and got that against Chaminade (21 points). He does that every day in practice,” Self said of the sophomore center who averaged 11.7 points and 7.7 boards in Hawaii and 10.5 ppg and 7.5 rpg overall.
“Sasha and C.J. are both long, both pretty athletic. We need to play through those guys more. We’ll make some adjustments to make sure we play through them more.”
As far as the guards, Self said senior Hawkins remained the team’s best “primary ballhandler” at this time, with freshman Mario Chalmers coming along steadily.
“Our guards were better (versus Chaminade),” Self said, “because they didn’t feel they had to go make plays. The last couple games they felt they had to go make plays and forgot about throwing it to our big guys.
“I’m not unhappy with anybody,” Self added. “I think every position can improve. To me with our ones and twos, with Russell, Hawk and Mario, we need to get more consistent. I don’t think that’s any earth-shattering revelation. We need consistency and to get better defensively.
“If you are not going to pass it real well and if you turn it over and don’t shoot it great, you have to be a great defender,” the coach continued. “I think our three little guards can be more consistent.”
The freshmen played their best ball against Chaminade, with Micah Downs and Julian Wright scoring 13 and 10, respectively.
“Julian will get more confident. When he does get more confident stepping off the block and scoring in the 10- to 14-foot range, it’ll make us a lot better,” Self said of the player who hit for 5.3 points and 5.3 boards a game in Maui.
Obviously the young team is a work in progress and Self said he’s as enthused as ever about the campaign.
“I wish this tournament would have gone different for us personally. I think these guys would echo there were really good players, teams, coaches here,” Self said. “We’ll learn from it and get better. It was a fun tournament, first class, well-run, the people here tremendous.
“I hope we are considered to be invited back in the future,” added Self.
The Jayhawks indeed will be back in 2009.
“We couldn’t be happier with anything but the outcome of the first two games but we will learn,” Self said. “We’ll get better.”
