Kansas basketball game briefs

By Gary Bedore     Nov 29, 2006

Kansas University coach Bill Self was asked if he was disappointed by the 2,000 or so no-shows for the Jayhawks’ rout of Dartmouth.

Officially, it was listed as a sellout because all 16,300 seats were purchased.

“To me, it looked like the majority of the empty seats were the students,” Self said, correctly referring to the northwest corner of the building which normally has empty seats when the students decide to stay home.

“No, I’m not disappointed in anything. How can you be disappointed in our fans the way they traveled to Vegas. They played a huge role in us winning the game (against Florida) 1,000 miles from here. There were legitimately, what, 14,000 here tonight, maybe? Our fans have been great. Yet we want every seat filled. The big thing is we have got to get the students coming out. The students will come out. This isn’t a game I think our students had circled from the beginning of the season. Our fans have been great, absolutely great.”

Point guard Sherron Collins said: “I didn’t pay attention. I still thought it was packed. We have great fans.”

Added Darnell Jackson: “I thought it was pretty crowded out there. We appreciate our fans out there cheering.”

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Low total: Dartmouth’s 32 points were fewest scored by a team in fieldhouse history. The previous low was 37 by Portland on Jan. 13, 1968. KU also had 37 against Oklahoma State on Feb. 24, 1962.

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Attaining focus: Jackson, on the Jayhawks needing to refocus after the euphoria of Saturday’s win over Florida.

“The next day we were still talking about it,” he said. “We watched the tape, and there were a lot of things we made mistakes on. He (Self) was pretty tough on us. The game was over. It was fun. We just had to move on.”

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Jackson cut: Jackson needed five stitches to close a cut by his right eye. “On a rebound Rod (Stewart) and the other guy came down, and I went up and got hit,” Jackson said.

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Payday: Dartmouth received guaranteed money of $65,000 for playing in the fieldhouse.

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Hawkins back in U.S.: Former KU guard Jeff Hawkins watched the game from behind KU’s bench. Self said Hawkins had e-mailed him to indicate his Bremen Roosters team in Germany had financial problems.

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This, that: The game was broadcast in Chinese, which is believed to be a first in college basketball history. After the game, the announcers indicated they had a good time and believed the broadcast, which was streamed on KU’s Web site, was a success. : Stewart scored a season-high eight points. : Matt Kleinmann had four points off a pair of left-handed hooks. : Jeremy Case missed four threes and was the only Jayhawk scholarship player not to score. He had two assists in 12 minutes. : Walk-ons Brennan Bechard and Brad Witherspoon didn’t play, coach’s decision. “I made a mistake by not getting Brennan Bechard and Brad Witherspoon into the game,” Self said. “I just did not even think about it. That was just a mistake on my part. Those guys should have got to play some minutes tonight.”

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Extra Minutes: Kansas 83, Dartmouth 32

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