Love and basketball

By Gary Bedore     Mar 14, 2007

Nick Krug
Kansas guard Sherron Collins, right, puts up a shot against Texas guard D.J. Augustin in the Big 12 tournament championship game. Collins and the Jayhawks will play Niagara on Friday in Chicago.

Tough taskmaster Bill Self, who sometimes stresses the shortcomings of his Kansas University basketball team, on Tuesday was full of high praise for his Big 12 regular-season and postseason tournament champs.

“I downplay our team, but I love this team,” Self said of the 30-4 Jayhawks, who will carry a No. 1 seed into Friday’s first-round NCAA West Regional clash against No. 16-seed Niagara (6:10 p.m., Chicago’s United Center).”

The 23-11 Purple Eagles advanced by downing Florida A&M, 77-69, in Tuesday night’s play-in game in Dayton, Ohio.

“I think this team has the highest ceiling of any team I’ve coached. I think we are still young and make young mistakes, but we do have a high ceiling,” Self noted.

That’s high praise from a coach who has taken three teams – KU, Illinois and Tulsa – to the Elite Eight.

“I really like how it doesn’t matter who it is,” Self said of go-to-guys on a given night. “I like the fact Sherron (Collins) can go scoreless last week and get 20 on a big stage (Sunday against Texas).

“I like the fact Brandon (Rush) can miss shots and come back and make them and Mario (Chalmers) can get nine one game and hit the shot that put the game into overtime.

“Who is our go-to-guy now? It still changes, but I like our balance and like the fact the guys seem to like each other. In my opinion, we are, if healthy, equipped to play very well. Our depth situation has been very important to us.”

As far as the injury situation … Darrell Arthur (bruised pubic bone) and Sasha Kaun (bruised back) “should be fine” for Friday’s game, Self said.

“Sasha is sore and swollen,” he said of the junior center who fell hard in the second half of Sunday’s title contest. He walked without discomfort Tuesday, continued to receive treatment and is expected to practice today.

“He had no contact today,” Self noted Tuesday night, “so he didn’t do drills, just took shots. Hopefully he can go (today), but it may take him another day, too.”

Arthur, who was kneed by UT’s D.J. Augustin, returned to practice Tuesday.

“Not bad … he practiced,” Self said of how Arthur looked on the court.

Arthur said four to five ice treatments a day had worked wonders.

“I’ve been taking a pill for my virus (in lungs). They say the pill helps the soreness go away (in his groin), too,” Arthur said. “The ice and stem treatments have helped. I was never worried because they told me it was nothing but a little bruise on the bone. I knew I’d be back.”

Arthur, by the way, reiterated Wednesday he wouldn’t finalize a decision until after the season but “probably” would return to KU for his soph season.

¢Distractions aplenty: KU coach Bill Self will warn his players to eliminate all distractions and concentrate solely on the task at hand – defeating Niagara.

“You can’t be everything to everybody. You can’t return calls, texts. You can’t worry about tickets, media, you have to keep the same routine, and it creates better play,” Self said.

“Guys have to play for Kansas,” he added. “(NBA) agents, runners will try to get word ‘You need to do this, that. It’s your time to shine.’ I don’t buy into it. I don’t think the players buy into it. I told the guys, ‘You are not that smart to think, ‘I am the guy who can handle it.’ We’ve all got to buy in that it’s good for you (to not deal with ticket requests and spend time with those outside the team).”

KU freshman Collins, who like Julian Wright is from Chicago, has taken his coach’s words to heart.

“I will turn my phone off tomorrow or Thursday night,” Collins said. “The message I leave will be my uncle’s (phone) number and tell anybody who needs tickets or anything to call my uncle, and what I’ve got left is what I’ve got left.”

¢Play-in game impressive: KU coach Self watched Tuesday’s play-in game on TV from his office since it’s against NCAA rules to scout the game in person.

Self was impressed with the winning Niagara team.

“I thought they looked pretty good. They didn’t look like a typical 16 seed,” he said of Niagara, a team whose RPI of 136 is better than No. 16 seeds Jackson State and Central Connecticut and No. 15 seeds Weber State and North Texas.

“They’ve got quickness, got size and their big guys all can shoot. They didn’t shoot the ball well the first half, but they’ve really got guys that can make shots. Whenever you have good shooters who can shoot a lot of threes, a couple of guys get hot, and it creates a lot of problems. They have more than one player capable of having a big night. They score the ball as well as anybody we’ve played next to Texas (76.1 ppg).”

Of 6-foot-7 senior Clif Brown, who hit a whopping six threes and had 32 points, Self said: “He was great tonight. … The first half they were, I think, 4-of-18 from three, and for the game they probably shot close to 30 threes (8 of 27).”

Charron Fisher, who was a teammate of KU’s Russell Robinson at Nike camp several years ago, scored 13 points off 5-of-11 shooting.

“He’s pretty good,” Robinson said of the 6-3 junior from New Jersey.

¢Schedule: The Jayhawks were to practice this afternoon then leave via bus for Forbes Field at 4 p.m. The squad figures to leave Topeka at 5:30 p.m., and arrive at the Westin Michigan Avenue Hotel at 7:30 p.m. The team will hold a short shootaround practice from 4:25 p.m. to 5:05 p.m. Thursday in the United Center.

¢‘Mad’ about recent past: As expected, the media is asking about KU losing in the first round the past two years.

“The last two years have not made me as nervous as made me mad, and sometimes that has created some extra incentive and fight, which hopefully will play out to be a positive situation, and I’m sure our players will sense that in practice this week,” Self said.

¢TiVo would be nice: Some of KU’s players said they planned to watch the play-in game on Tuesday night. Self said he’d excuse those who had study hall and would tape the game and obviously show plays during scouting report.

Darnell Jackson, however, was one who had a conflict and wouldn’t tune in. Would he ‘TiVo’ the game, a TV reporter asked?

“I wish I had TiVo,” he said.

Jackson said he was impressed by the atmosphere on campus.

“Today I was walking to class everybody was honking their horns, yelling out the window saying, ‘Go get ’em.’ I think everybody’s excited,” he said.

¢Aggressive fan: A Niagara fan was shown on TV carrying a sign that said, “Bury Kansas,” late in the play-in game telecast.

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