What this means…from Kemper Arena
Gary Bedore, Journal-World KU men’s basketball beat writer
“It was great to see Brandon Rush snap out of his scoring funk in the first half. Yet, he struggled again from the field the second half.
It sure wasn’t pretty, in fact it was pretty ugly overall, but at least it was a win and the Jayhawks can re-group without a game for a while.
Also Sasha Kaun was pretty darn effective.
Not a good effort, though, against a pretty bland Toledo team.”
Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor
“Dr. James Naismith could have come back to life and watched this game and made this comment: ‘Looks pretty much the same as the day I invented it, except for one thing – what’s with cutting holes at the bottom of those strange looking peach baskets?’
Calling this an ugly win wouldn’t be doing justice to the word ‘ugly.'”
Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor
“Sasha Kaun took advantage of the perfect opportunity to not only produce, but also gain some confidence on his recovering right knee.
Against a Toledo team without a key contributor standing taller than 6-foot-6, the Jayhawks’ most intimidating physical presence recorded season highs in points (10), blocked shots (4) and minutes (22).
That will help the Jayhawks find a more concrete rotation with their big men in the upcoming 10-day layoff until playing Winston-Salem State at home on Dec. 19.”
Inside the numbers
15: That’s how many blocked shots KU registered Saturday, which broke a school record that stood since 1996. Even more impressive was that four KU players had at least three, led by Sasha Kaun and Brandon Rush who had four apiece.
6: That’s how turnovers freshman Sherron Collins had, including two back-to-back in the second half which earned him an extended benching. But who knows, maybe it’s a mirror image of Mario Chalmers’ freshman contest in Kemper Arena against Cal, in which he stunk up the joint with turnovers and from there enjoyed a breakout of sorts.
25: That was KU’s second half field goal percentage. The Jayhawks shot a blistering 72.7 percent from the floor in the first half, but uglied up the win by falling into some offensive woes in the final 20 minutes. Don’t be completely misled, though, as the Jayhawks’ shot selection earned praise from Bill Self after the game. They just happened to not fall in the second half.
Just in case you missed it…
Darrell Arthur requested to come off the bench rather than start a couple of weeks ago. Self denied it for awhile, but with early foul trouble plaguing the freshman as of late, Self fulfilled the request Saturday. Arthur responded with nine points, four boards, three blocks and a solid defensive performance in 22 minutes, but still picked up three whistles.
Hopefully you didn’t miss it…
Brandon Rush’s game was what Bill Self expects of his sophomore preseason All-American selection. True, in the first half he was 4-of-5 from three and shot just 2-of-10 from the field the rest of the way, but he was consistently aggressive, which is something Self has preached to Rush during his entire KU career.
They said it…
Darrell Arthur on his new role as the Jayhawks’ sixth man: “It’s cool. I like coming off (the bench). When I start off I just get a lot of the silly fouls. Coming off I can just see what everybody does, slot well and play defense better. And now the rotation’s better.”
Bill Self on winning ugly yet again at Kemper: “I thought the first half we made shots, so it looked better, but we didn’t guard. Second half we actually guarded better but we didn’t make shots. It was exactly like the Oregaon win here, the Cal win here, the Wisconsin-Milwaukee win here – it was a dud win.”
Bill Self on his team still needing to find a nasty streak: “The thing that disappoints me is that we just haven’t got that nitty, gritty, tough mindset yet. We’re just kinda good ol’ guys out there playing ball. We all know that won’t work over time.
Bill Self on the crowd at Kemper: “Yeah, the crowd was dead. But I don’t blame the crowd. Part of it’s (us being) spoiled, too. I told the guys, when you play ball, you shouldn’t need the crowd to get you into the game. We should be able to get ourselves there. And if we get ourselves there, the crowd will get there, too. They’ll follow. The crowed was dead, but based on what I saw, I can understand that.”
