Once careless with the basketball, Russell Robinson has become one of the most efficient distributors on Kansas University’s team.
The 6-foot-1 sophomore combo guard from New York has 18 assists against four turnovers in the Jayhawks’ last five games.
That compares to Robinson’s 12 assists and 13 turnovers in KU’s first six games and 25 assists against 32 turnovers his entire freshman season.
“Russell went from being a very poor assist-to-turnover-guy here lately to our best, with Stephen (Vinson, 22 assists, five turnovers) second-best,” KU coach Bill Self said Monday on his Hawk Talk radio show.
“What I think needs to happen is, we need to get ‘Hawk’ (Jeff Hawkins) off the ball more, Mario (Chalmers) off the ball more and Russell on the ball more.
“Russell has been our best playmaker of late. ‘Hawk’ has been our best perimeter shooter of the guys who play the majority of minutes, and Mario, if we do some things to try to free his mind — not feel like he has the weight of everything on his shoulders — maybe he could relax and be a better player for us,” Self added.
Robinson has been so protective of the ball of late, he might play more point guard than shooting guard Wednesday against Yale (7 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse).
“You need to have two perimeter players in the game who can stretch the defense and be a threat every time they catch it in order to run pretty artistic offense,” said Self, who has a scoring threat at small forward in Brandon Rush (12.2 ppg, 50.5 percent shooting).
“Right now, our two guard (Robinson) is averaging six points and our point guard (Hawkins) four. We have to do something to create more offense and still yet be as good defensively.”
Robinson, Chalmers and Hawkins have averaged 6.5, 6.3 and 4.5 points a game respectively, Hawkins the best three-point threat with 12 makes in 34 tries. Chalmers has dished 33 assists against 27 turnovers; Hawkins 35 assists against 29 turnovers. Vinson has hit four of 10 threes, six of 13 shots overall.
“Our point guard and two-guard play has been average,” Self said. “That’s not throwing anybody under the bus. We’ve just got to play better. When we do start playing better (at guard) I think our big guys will play better because they’ll get more touches in tight at the basket.”
Self did give thumbs up to the defense. KU, which averages 74.4 points a game off 47 percent shooting, allows 60.2 points off 35.5 percent marksmanship.
“Our first-shot defense has been really good. We’ve only had three teams this year shoot 40 percent against us,” Self reported.
P.J. Tucker had 24 points and 13 boards, while Daniel Gibson contributed 18 points for the 11-2 Longhorns, who have been picked to win the Big 12 Conference.
“It was a great win,” Self said. “It was certainly not an artistic game. It reminded me a lot of the game last year we had against Kentucky (KU’s 65-59 victory). Both teams going for every loose ball, fighting, scratching, blocking a lot of shots, making plays. Texas (which has lost to Duke and Tennessee) will be one of the best teams in the country before all is said and done. They certainly have the talent to do so.”
Thad Allender/Journal-World PhotoBill Self begins an evaluation of his first season at Kansas University with a disclaimer:
“No matter where you finish, you are always disappointed if you don’t win it,” KU’s men’s basketball coach said, referring to the national championship.
Though officially “disappointed” at the fact his Jayhawks (24-9) will not be crowned 2004 NCAA champs Monday night in San Antonio, Self acknowledged positives from a season that ended with an Elite Eight loss a week ago today in St. Louis.
“I hope all our ‘bad years and up-and-down years’ are 12-4 and second place in the Big 12 where we play (deep) in March — I hope that’s the case,” Self said. “It’s been an interesting year.
“People talk about struggling and yes, we struggled, but 24-9 is not horrible. And 12-4 in a league that’s terrific is not a bad year. We just had some bad losses. I mean we got hammered three consecutive road games and lost four consecutive road games.”
Thad Allender/Journal-World PhotoIt’s not difficult to locate the low point of KU’s season — consecutive league road losses to Iowa State (68-61), Oklahoma State (80-60), Nebraska (74-55) and Texas (87-62). Yet the high point of the year immediately followed the Texas loss.
KU found itself and finished strong with seven wins in nine games, including a victory at Missouri in the final game in Hearnes Center, a blowout win over the Tigers in the Big 12 tournament, and three victories in the NCAAs.
“I really think when we went to Texas and got our butts beat,” Self said, “there was the beginning of the turning point because we played hard, we played the right way and they just manhandled us.
“For whatever reason we left Texas feeling better about ourselves and had Oklahoma and Nebraska right after that, played terrific those two games which led to the big win at Missouri.”
In its final home games, KU defeated OU, 79-58, and rolled Nebraska, 78-67, before nipping Mizzou, 84-82, in the regular-season finale.
“The Missouri win is what keyed it for us,” Self said.
KU — which had a huge win over MIchigan State (81-74) to highlight the nonconference season –unquestionably played its best ball in the NCAAs. The Jayhawks clobbered Illinois-Chicago (78-53), Pacific (78-63) and UAB (100-74) before falling one basket shy of the Final Four in an overtime loss to Georgia Tech.
“As a coach, you should only measure a team on what its potential is. We played beneath our potential in several games this year,” said Self, who was unhappy with a home loss to Richmond (69-68), the blowout losses at OSU and Nebraska and a loss at Nevada (75-61). “At the end, when it counted the most, we were maximizing our abilities about as well as any team I have had.
“You can’t have great years unless you play great in March. I thought we played great in March. One more win would have made it an exceptional year, getting to San Antonio. It was a very good year considering all of the stuff.”
All the stuff includes batches of injuries, some stormy moments with senior forward Jeff Graves — who was disciplined a couple of times — and the players adjusting to a new system.
Self earned high marks from the media for never losing his temper when asked about differences between his system and that of former KU coach Roy Williams.
“I think too much is made up of a system or style. Bottom line is it reaches a point in time where coaches have to get the guys to do exactly what they want them to do and the players have to do it,” Self said.
“Regardless if you’ve been in a place for 20 years, there’s a time in February where every coach struggles doing that. What Kansas went through this year is what 99 percent of college basketball goes through every year. If it was smooth sailing I don’t know if we would have gone though enough to be tough enough to play as we did at the end.”
The former Illinois coach said that in retrospect he was not surprised by too many things his first year here.
“I think everything went as I thought it would. I think the fans here are knowledgeable — much more knowledgeable than a lot of other places,” Self said.
“I think expectations are high but they should be high here. It’s Kansas. I think we grew a lot as a program. When you lose two lottery picks (Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich) and you are in an overtime game trying to go to the Final Four — that says something for your players and your program.”
After some down time for himself and his players, he’ll be ready to tackle year two at KU.
“I think we’ll have a chance to be very good,” he said.
| Season superlativesHere are some highlights from Kansas University’s recently-completed men’s basketball season, in which the Jayhawks finished 24-9, reached the Elite Eight and tied for second place in the Big 12 Conference:¢ KU won 20 games for the 15th straight season and at least 24 wins for the fifth straight year.¢ KU appeared in the NCAA Tournament for a school-record 15th straight year and made the Elite Eight a third straight year.¢ KU won at least 10 league games (12-4) for the 10th straight season.¢ First-year coach Bill Self tied Dick Harp for the most wins by a KU coach in his debut season with the Jayhawks.¢ KU won its 31st straight home opener and 13th straight conference opener.¢ KU won its 21st straight Senior Day game.¢ KU sold out all 14 of its home games to tie the school’s single-season average attendance record of 16,300 a game.¢ The team won its 21st consecutive NCAA Tournament first-round game.¢ Juniors Keith Langford and Wayne Simien each scored their 1,000th career points.¢ Simien was named first-team all-Big 12, marking the third straight year KU placed a player on that squad.¢ Simien’s 569 points rank 23rd on KU’s single-season scoring list.¢ Simien’s 167 free throws rank seventh on KU’s single-season list.¢ J.R. Giddens’ 74 three-pointers rank second on KU’s single-season list among freshmen and tie for ninth on KU’s overall single-season trey list.¢ Aaron Miles’ 242 assists rank fifth on KU’s single-season chart.¢ Miles’ 7.3 assists per game rank second on KU’s single-season list.¢ David Padgett’s 43 blocks rank second on KU’s single-season freshman list.Facts, figures/comparisons¢ KU averaged 75.8 points per game, its lowest average since a 72.1 mark in 1998-99. KU allowed 67.2 ppg, compared to 66.9 in 2002-03.¢ Kansas hit 46.5 percent of its shots, its worst mark since 46.0 in 1999-00. Opponents shot 39.1 percent, nearly identical to a 40.2 percent mark in 02-03.¢ Kansas hit 188 of 562 three-pointers for 33.5 percent, the same percentage as in 2002-03 when KU hit 183 of 546. Opponents three-point percentage was 31.5; in 2002-03 it was 36.3.¢ KU hit 70.7 percent of its free-throw attempts, its best mark since since the 2001-02 squad made 71.9 percent of its attempts.¢ KU averaged 39.5 boards a game, its worst mark since 36.1 in 1992-93. Opponents grabbed 35.4 rebounds per game.¢ KU averaged 14.6 assists per game, its worst average since 12.6 in 1981-82. Opponents averaged 14.3 per game.¢ Kansas plucked 232 steals, compared to 373 in 02-03. Kansas committed 485 turnovers, compared to 562 in 2002-03. Opponents had 471 turnovers, compared to 643 in 02-03. |
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