High school basketball players talented enough to earn Division I scholarships hear about how much tougher practices become once they get to college, but they don’t understand it until they do it.
Kansas University reserve post player Markieff Morris, a 6-foot-9 freshman from Philadelphia, was asked in what area he thinks he has improved most since joining the program.
Injured Mario Little was walking by and heard the question.
“None,” Little said and flashed a smile.
Morris was quick to correct that and answered: “My intensity. I play a lot harder than I did in high school. And I would say my stamina. If I didn’t work as hard as I could, I wouldn’t be the player I am right now because it’s really tough at Kansas, playing at the fast pace that we play at.”
The improvement in his stamina is noticeable. He huffed and puffed and seemed to drag himself up the court in early games. As for his intensity, here’s guessing his definition of the word will change during his time at Kansas. That can be said for most big men in their first year of college basketball. His understanding of what it means to play hard already has changed since high school.
“Playing hard now is like all-out, non-stop, playing until you’re dead tired,” he said. “In high school, it was playing until you’re a little tired, (then) start walking up and down the court. That’s how I used to play in high school. But now, coach is not having us walking up and down the court, so you just play until you’re dead tired, until you can’t go anymore.”
Markieff averages 17.4 minutes per game, seventh on the team. His 25 personal fouls are a team-high. If he could improve to the extent he earns 25 minutes a game, that would enable his twin Marcus to play some at small forward, giving Kansas a big lineup. Markieff wants to play more, but does he know how to go about earning the minutes?
“I have to play with more intensity,” he said. “I have to rebound more. I have to get Sherron (Collins) open. I have to make easy shots and just play hard.”
The verbal language has all the words in the right place. The body language during games could use work, especially when things don’t go his way.
As for making easy shots, playing bigger than his size instead of smaller would take care of that. Battling Cole Aldrich daily in practice should help him play more like a big man than he has so far.
“When I first got here he was dominating me because I didn’t know what to expect from him,” Markieff said. “Now we go at it a lot in practice. He still gets the best of me sometimes because he’s older, but I just like to run past him when we’re playing fullcourt, just beat him down the court and score easy buckets on him.”
So Markieff is saying he gets down court faster than Aldrich?
“Yeah, no question,” he said.
Practices are closed, so we’ll have to take Markieff’s word for how his battles with Aldrich are going these days.
An encouraging sign: When asked to name a player who has stood out recently in practice, Self pointed to the player averaging 5.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.
“He was the best player in the gym yesterday, so that’s a very positive thing,” Self said Wednesday.
