Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self likes his team’s chances of winning on any given night … if the Jayhawks play as passionately as they did in Monday’s 72-62 victory over Southern California at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Last night I thought our kids played so hard, so hard,” Self, KU’s fourth-year coach, said Tuesday, drawing applause from the fans who assembled for his weekly Hawk Talk coach’s show at a local restaurant.
“If we make any shots, we win by 25.”
The intense effort, which was missing this season in losses to Oral Roberts and DePaul, was most evident on the defensive end as well as the offensive boards.
Led by Darnell Jackson’s five offensive rebounds and Julian Wright’s four, KU had 20 offensive caroms and 39 overall to USC’s eight offensive rebounds and 30 overall.
“We got rebounds, shot again and missed our bunnies,” Self said of players hoisting quick stickback attempts in a frantic effort to score. “We got the ball where it needed to go. Against DePaul it didn’t go where it needed to go.”
Of course, the highlight was pressure defense on a night KU hit just 38.1 percent of its shots. The Jayhawks forced 25 turnovers and had 15 steals, six by Mario Chalmers.
“When they tried to throw it in the post, we tried to dive to get the loose balls,” Chalmers said. “Our defense helped because our shots were not falling. We fed off our defense. It was great defense.”
The defense, which was sparked by Chalmers and Brandon Rush, who held USC’s Nick Young to eight points off 3-of-13 shooting, apparently didn’t impress everybody. A caller to Self’s radio show asked if it was in the coach’s new contract to not play zone defense.
“I take it you think we should play zone,” Self cracked. “Our defense has been pretty good here. When we get some time to practice, I mean really practice where we have unlimited time where we don’t have classes and all those things, we’ll work on a lot of different things (like zone).”
KU’s busy early season stretch of games has finally come to a close. The Jayhawks, 7-2, will play just three games in the next 18 days, starting with Saturday’s nonconference noon clash against Toledo (2-4) at Kemper Arena.
There will be added time to continue working on Xs and Os as well as developing some team leaders.
“What great leadership allows you to do is be successful when things are not going well,” Self said. “We have some good individual leaders, but not had anybody take care of the team yet. If we did we’d be 9-0 instead of 7-2.
“Guys have to come out of their comfort zone. We don’t have anybody yet who wants to take the ball and run with it.”
Self said after the USC game that Russell Robinson was the only real candidate for unofficial team leader. Robinson said he was trying and would try even harder.
“Russell is a very good leader. He can become a great leader,” Self said. “Just like Brandon is a great shooter who is not shooting it well right now, Russell can become a great leader. It’s just not in his character yet.”
Self believes things will start clicking soon.
“Last year I didn’t think we were very good early and we ended up being pretty good,” Self said. “We are better than we were last year at the same stage. We’ve got the same cast of characters for the most part. We are going to get good and are going to get good fast.”
He pointed out KU is not the only team to have some struggles. Defending national champ Florida, for instance, has dropped games against KU and Florida State.
“When you say we’re not playing well,” Self said to a Hawk Talk caller, “hey, everybody saw we were pitiful at DePaul. You think why … could it have been Julian going home (to Chicago) and trying to do some things out of character and Sherron (Collins, fellow Chicagoan) going home for his first road game? Our guys were in foul trouble right out of the chute.
“We played like a team usually plays when they are young and on their first road trip. It wasn’t from lack of effort, but we didn’t share it, passes weren’t on time, on target. We turned down open guys. We did a much better job against USC.
“We’ll get it going. We wish we were 9-0. We’d be No. 1 in the country. We need to grow as a team and go through some stuff to get us tougher and harder so leaders can emerge and things can develop for us.”
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What coach’s box?: One fan noticed that USC coach Tim Floyd strayed out of the coach’s box most of Monday’s game.
“Very liberal,” Self said of the Pac-10 officials’ interpretation of the rule.
“I don’t think they have a coach’s box in the Pac-10,” Self cracked. “They have made a point of emphasis to stay in the box (this year). That wasn’t a huge point last night.”
At one point, Floyd bumped Sherron Collins, KU’s guard hitting the deck.
Floyd apologized and no technical was called.
“It was an accident,” Self said. “I don’t know if you’ve studied where our benches are … our feet are three inches from the court. You get up to put a guy in the game, you will be standing on the court. That was an unfortunate deal. It just happened. It could happen with me, although I certainly hope it won’t be the case.”
