Some thoughts…from Allen Fieldhouse
Gary Bedore, Journal-World KU men’s basketball beat writer
“UMKC did itself proud in making it a 10-point game with eight minutes left. Chalmers had a good game with 23 points, but KU missed too many free throws and too many dunks. On to the Washburn game.”
Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor
“When the competition stiffens and Mario Chalmers isn’t draining three-pointers, Kansas will need to know that it can rely on throwing the ball into the post and watching Darrell Arthur carry the team to victory. He’s not there yet. He has flashes of brilliance, but isn’t consistent enough yet to dominate the way his talent suggests he one day will if he stays long enough in college basketball.”
Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor
“Mario Chalmers’ three-point stroke has never looked rushed. It’s always looked smooth and thorough. Such was the case tonight against UMKC, as he drained a career-high six trifectas.
The most impressive part wasn’t the look, though. It was the timeliness. His first big one came when UMKC had closed it to a 22-21 deficit in the first half. The second was after halftime, when the Kangaroos got back to within 10.
KU’s got a ways to go, still. The intensity is solid right now, though. UMKC is a good, well-coached, scrappy team. They could make some noise in the Summit Conference for sure.”
Inside the numbers
6: Mario Chalmers’ six huge three-pointers were the catalysts on his 23-point night. He and Russell Robinson combined for nine treys. They came on a night when Sherron Collins was 0-for-6 from deep. As Bill Self pointed out after the game, two out of those three guys hitting shots will usually be enough. Chalmers’ night extended beyond the points, as he had six assists and four steals, too. Robinson added nine assists to his 15 points. Collins still finished with 10 points, and even had seven rebounds.
5: The offense was balanced yet again, with five Jayhawks notching double figures in the point column. While it wasn’t pretty for a couple of guys (such as Darrell Arthur from the field and Sasha Kaun at the free throw line), 85 points in a limited possession game, as Bill Self called it, will win out on most nights.
3: KU uncharacteristically missed three dunks, including two by Mario Chalmers. That wasn’t the only area where it was a strange night on offense for the Jayhawks, but those three occasions in particular stood out more than others.
15: KU missed 15 charities, going 16-of-31 from the stripe two days after going 15-of-19. Bill Self didn’t sound too concerned, since most of the culprits missing freebies were his typically-solid free throw shooters, such as Mario Chalmers, Darnell Jackson and Russell Robinson. Sasha Kaun, however, was just 6-of-13. Against smaller teams this year, the opposition might start trying to put him at the line as much as possible. His percentages have to perk up.
13: Despite an off-night from go on offense that still produced 13 points, Darrell Arthur’s stat line didn’t look horrible. The sophomore forward also had 10 rebounds, two blocks, three assists and three steals. On a night like this, the missed dunk and layup can pretty much go down as freak occurrences.
Just in case you missed it…
Sherron Collins turned his ankle a bit in the second half while flying down the lane and was left on the ground in pain for a moment. He got himself up and went to the bench, then was escorted to the locker room by trainer Bill Cowgill. It was nothing to lose sleep over, though, as Collins not only returned to the bench, but he came back in and played down the stretch, going just as hard. Self said afterwards that the ankle shouldn’t be an issue after tonight.
Hopefully you didn’t miss it…
Even with Sherron Collins in the locker room for a bit, KU’s ‘three little guards’ again were the show-stoppers. Between Collins, Mario Chalmers and Russell Robinson, there were 48 points scored, 19 assists dished, 12 rebounds pulled down and eight steals recorded. The Jayhawk offense was again moving at a faster pace, and this time slowed down enough to play better defense than Friday night. Again, the fact that Brandon Rush is on the sideline, knee brace and all, was lost in the mix.
They said it…
Mario Chalmers on his three-point shooting: “The coaches did a lot of work with me in the offseason on getting my jumper right, and being able to hit down shots. I think they just did a good job of working with me, and I’ve got more confidence now….Just more repetitions…sometimes I’ll shoot 500, 250, quick 50 before practice, whatever coach (Joe) Dooley wants us to do.”
Russell Robinson on the improved defensive showing: “He just feels like the energy level is the key to playing good defense. We’ve got our principles down pat, he just wanted guys to bring energy, help one another. Help defense is big. We didn’t really know what they were going to run, because we only had one tape on them, so he just wanted everyone to have a lot of intensity defensively.”
Russell Robinson on UMKC’s play: “They were definitely competitive, and I loved that about them. They didn’t back down at all. They came out and competed until the finish. I think that’s going to take them pretty far this year. I was surprised. Normally you’d think ‘Hey, they might be a little frightened in the Fieldhouse.’ But they came out with a lot of intensity, the coach had a lot of energy over there on the bench and that’s probably whey they played well today.”
Bill Self on Mario Chalmers’ shooting: “In our four games so far, he’s 14-for-22 from three, so obviously he got off to a good start counting the exhibitions tonight. He shot it good. He needed to shoot it good tonight, because we didn’t have a lot of stuff going a lot of possessions. I was pleased with how he shot it. Russell’s shooting the ball better too, and Sherron shot it well the other night and didn’t make shots tonight. But if you can get two of those three guys making shots, you’re probably going to be in pretty good shape.”
Bill Self on what he liked outside of the three-point shooting and why Cole Aldrich wasn’t on the floor more: “I thought we got on the floor a lot. I think that’s a positive. This team likes to get on the floor. UMKC’s stuff is hard to guard with no preparation. They did a good job. They did a good job and all their big guys can shoot, and that’s the only reason Cole (Aldrich) didn’t play. He was going to match up with (Alex Pledger) and (Pledger) didn’t play much.”
Bill Self on his team’s defensive showing: “Better than we did the other night. But obviously it still wasn’t stellar. But you give up zero offensive rebounds the first half and you get 15 steals, I think it was, so your defense wasn’t terrible by any means. And I thought it got better as the first half went on, but unfortunately we let them hang around, and when we let them hang around they got confidence.”
