Gary Bedore’s KU basketball notebook

By Gary Bedore     Oct 14, 2010

Self in New York

Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self was in New York on Wednesday night for the Jimmy V. Classic Dinner Auction at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers.

The event was hosted by ESPN’s Mike Tirico. Also attending were coaches Josh Pastner of Memphis, Tom Izzo of Michigan State and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse. KU will play Memphis, and Syracuse will tangle with MSU at the one-day Classic, set for Dec. 7 in Madison Square Garden.

Late Night info

Self is hoping for the usual packed Allen Fieldhouse for Friday’s Late Night in the Phog. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the show to start at 7:30. Admission is free, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis. A short scrimmage featuring Josh Selby, the No. 1-ranked prospect in the Class of 2010, will conclude the proceedings.

“This is a big Late Night for us for a lot of reasons,” said Self, not specifically mentioning recruiting in accordance with NCAA rules. Suffice it to say, a lot of top prospects will be on hand.

“With it being fall break and the students gone, we have to have a packed house. It should be a fun night, too. It’s a chance to see the new-look Jayhawks. We are different than we have been the past few years,” Self said.

It was incorrectly rumored that comic actor Will Ferrell would attend.

“No, he will not be here,” Self said. “But I could tell you some things to get people here. I’ll tell you the (Rolling) Stones are going to sing the national anthem. Plus Will Ferrell is the emcee.

“Nah, we have some stuff going on, though. Marketing has some fun things. Will’s not coming, though.”

Seniors to attend on official visits: No. 4-rated LeBryan Nash, 6-7, Dallas Lincoln High; No. 17 Ben McLemore, 6-5, Oak Hill Academy, Mouth of Wilson, Va.; No. 76 Angelo Chol, 6-8, San Diego Hoover High.

Juniors to attend on unofficial visits: No. 27 Shaquille Cleare, 6-9, The Village School, Houston; No. 37 Marcus Paige, 6-0, Linn Mar Community School, Marion, Iowa; No. 38 Nino Jackson, 6-2, Ardmore (Okla.) High; No. 97 Zach Peters, 6-9, Prestonwood Christian Academy, Plano, Texas (orally committed to KU).

Sophomores: No. 1 Andrew Harrison, 6-5, Travis High, Fort Bend, Texas; No. 3 Julius Randle, 6-8, Prestonwood Christian Academy, Plano, Texas; No. 10 Aaron Harrison, 6-5, Travis High, Fort Bend, Texas (brother of Andrew); unranked Ishmael Wainright, 6-5, Raytown (Mo.) South High; unranked Travis Jorgenson, 5-10, Rock Bridge High, Columbia, Mo.

It’s possible No. 19 Norvel Pelle, 6-8 from Price High in Compton, Calif., also will be in town for Late Night.

Gary Bedore’s KU basketball notebook

By Gary Bedore     Sep 8, 2010

Selby in class

Kansas University freshman basketball point guard Josh Selby attended his first classes of the semester Tuesday.

“Going to class. Putting my phone away time to focus,” Selby wrote for his 4,729 followers on Twitter.

“Done with class, that was an exciting class. Happy to be at KU,”‘ Selby reported on a later tweet.

As reported Sunday, the NCAA is allowing Selby to attend class while looking into his eligibility. He has not yet been cleared to play.

“I expected there could be a situation in which things could be looked at, absolutely, no question,” KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self said Tuesday after a media session to discuss athletic director Lew Perkins’ stepping down. “I didn’t anticipate it going into after school started. But also stop and look at what is going on across America. There have been numerous things on many different fronts that keep the NCAA’s plate very full.”

Self said he had no idea when the NCAA might make its final ruling on Selby’s eligibility.

Recruiting

Wichita Heights junior forward Perry Ellis made an unofficial visit to KU on Tuesday. Ellis’ AAU coach, Steve Young, told Rivals.com that Ellis spent time with KU players on campus, checked out the weight room and visited with the coaches. … Mikael Hopkins, a 6-8 senior forward from DeMatha High in Hyattsville, Md., will make an official visit to KU on Sept. 24-25, Rivals.com reports. The country’s No. 79-rated player will also visit Miami (Fla.), Ohio State, Texas and West Virginia.

Gary Bedore’s KU basketball notebook

By Gary Bedore     Sep 9, 2009

NBA talk: Self says Aldrich, Collins high picks

Kansas coach Bill Self was asked where he feels junior Cole Aldrich and senior Sherron Collins will be taken in the 2010 NBA Draft. It’s all but certain the 6-foot-11 Aldrich will head to the pros after this campaign.

“I think Cole’s going to be in the discussion — I could be wrong on this — to be somewhere in those top seven or eight picks with a chance to go real, real high,” Self said. “If he has an unbelievable year, maybe he could go in the top three. If he improves at the same rate that he did last year and gets better, I think he will be a very high draft pick, but I’m not sure he’s the best player on our team. I think he’s the best prospect.

“I think Sherron is a fabulous college player. I think by him coming back, hopefully that will give him an opportunity to really play himself and solidify himself as a first-round draft pick, which I think he should be, if he has a good year,” Self added.

Self on the Hall of Fame Showcase opener:

“You talk about Louisville, which was a No. 1 seed last year, and they will always be a perennial Top-10 team. You talk about Arkansas, which is coached by John Pelphrey, and he will do a great job. They are getting their feet under themselves. That will be a fabulous game because both teams will play very fast and press.

“To have a doubleheader of this magnitude in front of a sold-out house, I think will definitely tip off the college basketball season right.”

More on the ’08 title game

“An immature team could not have won that game,” Self said, still amazed KU erased a nine-point deficit in the final 2:12. “Had that team not lost to Bradley and maybe to UCLA in the Elite Eight game the year before, I don’t know if we would have been prepared. To see that all come together was pretty special from a coach’s perspective. To see how it happened made it more special for me personally.”

Recruiting

Self today was to make an in-home recruiting visit with the family of Josh Selby, a 6-2 senior point guard from Lake Clifton High in Baltimore.

Gary Bedore’s KU basketball notebook

By Gary Bedore     Mar 12, 2009

Self honored

KU coach Bill Self on Wednesday was named Sporting News Coach of the Year.

Self, who also won the Sporting News’ Coach of the Year award in 2000, led the Jayhawks to an outright Big 12 championship with a 14-2 conference record.

“It’s been as much fun as I’ve ever had coaching, the last two months,” Self said. “The fact that every day I’ve seen maturation with these guys that I didn’t see coming.”

So far, KU’s Self has been named national coach of the year by Sporting News, Yahoo Sports, Athlon Magazine, CBSsportsline.com and Foxsports.com.

Rogers hits glass

Baylor’s Kevin Rogers, a 6-foot-9, 250-pound senior out of Dallas’ South Oak Cliff High, grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds in Wednesday’s 65-49 first-round Big 12 tournament victory over Nebraska.

Rogers grabbed six rebounds and scored 15 points in BU’s 75-65 loss to KU on Feb. 2 in Waco, Texas.

“Not at all,” Rogers said with a grin Wednesday, asked if he’d ever outrebounded an opponent all by himself.

“Anything that I can do to help this team win and keep us playing and trying to get into the NCAA Tournament, I’m willing to do.

“Rebounding has always been the emphasis, especially for a team like us,” Rogers said after the victory, which sets up today’s 11:30 a.m. quarterfinal clash against the Jayhawks. “We are not the biggest team and that’s been a focal point of ours the entire year. I’m glad that we were able to finally kind of put it together in the tournament, definitely when we need it.”

Team meeting helps BU?

Baylor (18-13) had lost 10 of 12 games entering Wednesday’s game against Nebraska. The Bears went a disappointing 5-11 and placed ninth in the Big 12 regular season league race.

“We had a team meeting and discussed it,” BU senior guard Curtis Jerrells said of entering the postseason with a “clean slate.”

“From this point on, everybody is 0-0. You lose, you go home. We understand that. We just want to come in and our goal is to win, win, win.”

The Bears are intent on making a serious run in this tournament.

“I think when you are struggling in conference, it is kind of like a weight vest and I think anyone that has ever used a weight vest, you put on 10 pounds, you lose a couple games, you put on 20 pounds, lose a couple games. It gets up to 40 pounds, you just can’t wait to get the vest off,” BU coach Scott Drew said. “I think the conference tournament, you’re able to take the vest off and you feel better.”

Opportunity ahead

BU coach Drew called today’s matchup, “a great opportunity for us. Every team you play in the Big 12 we know will be tough. Kansas, obviously, they can hurt you inside and outside. Whenever you have two players like Sherron (Collins) on the outside and Cole Aldrich on the inside, it makes it very difficult. But the shooters they have on the outside also makes it tough when you try to focus or concentrate on Cole Aldrich.”

KU in Big 12 tourney

KU has won six Big 12 tournament titles, three more than Oklahoma. The Jayhawks won in 1997-98-99 and again in 2006-07-08. … KU is 6-1 in tourney title games — the only loss to Oklahoma in 2002. … KU is the only team to have won at least 20 games in the tourney. The Jayhawks are 25-6; OU next best at 19-9. … KU has been the No. 1 seed six times (1997, ’98, ’02, ’03, ’07, ’09), No. 2 seed four times (2001, ’05, ’06, ’08), No. 3 seed twice (1999, ’04), and No. 5 seed in 2000. … KU has reached the semifinals 11 of 12 tourneys. The Jayhawks did not reach the 2000 semis. … KU has won three of its six Big 12 tourney titles as the No. 1 seed — 1997, 1998 and 2007. KU was the No. 3 seed in its 1999 title run and the No. 2 seed in 2006 and 2008. The lowest seed to win the event was No. 3 — Kansas in 1999, Oklahoma in 2003 and Oklahoma State in 2005.

KU in Okie City

KU is 6-2 in Oklahoma City, including a 5-1 mark at Ford Center. KU’s run to the 2003 NCAA title game started with wins over Utah State, 64-61, and Arizona State, 108-76, in the first and second rounds. … KU fell to Bucknell, 64-63, in a 2005 NCAA first-round game at Ford Center. … Kansas played at the Cox Convention Center in the 1998 NCAA first/second rounds. KU defeated Prairie View A&M, 110-52, before falling to Rhode Island, 80-75…

Team notables

KU has outshot 25 of 31 opponents and has shot 50 percent or better in 15 games, including nine Big 12 contests. Kansas is 23-2 when outshooting its opponent and 2-4 when outshot. … KU has outrebounded four of its last six foes and 23 of 31. KU finished with a plus-8.2 rebound margin in Big 12 play, plus 7.3 in all games. … Sherron Collins has scored 20 or more points in 11 games, including five of the last six. Cole Aldrich has six 20-point games. …

KU-BU at a glance

KU leads the series 14-1, including a 75-65 win on Feb. 2, in Waco. KU has won seven straight in the series that dates to 1951. The lone Baylor victory was Feb. 12, 2001, an 85-77 win in Waco. … This marks the first time in Big 12 tourney history the two teams have met.

Gary Bedore’s KU basketball notebook

By Gary Bedore     Jan 6, 2009

Long day for Siena

Siena College’s basketball team had a long travel day on Monday.

Pete Iorizzo’s blog in the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union details a trip that started with boarding a commercial flight at 5:45 a.m., Eastern time in Albany, and ended with touchdown at 4:30 p.m., at Kansas City International.

“Well, at least the Saints don’t have to play the defending national champions tomorrow. Oh wait, yes they do,” Iorizzo wrote in his blog.

The Saints sat on the plane in Albany during a two-hour de-icing.

Upon arriving for a connection in Detroit, they again sat for 30 minutes waiting for fuel. Twenty minutes after takeoff, the Saints’ flight returned to Detroit because of a problem with a gear on the plane.

“All that extra fuel made us too heavy to land. So we circled the city of Detroit for an hour to burn off some extra gas,” Iorizzo wrote.

Siena talk

Siena, 10-4, returns all five starters off last year’s 23-11 team. The Saints stunned Vanderbilt, 83-62, in a first-round NCAA Tournament game, before falling to Villanova, 84-72, in the second round.

“They will win their league,” KU coach Bill Self said of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference school located in Loudonville, N.Y., just outside of Albany.

“I think they should be put in position they don’t even have to win the (postseason) tournament to get an at large bid. They press as much as Tennessee presses once the ball is in bounds,” Self added. “They play fast. It will not be one of those walk it up type games.”

Some have called this a “trap game” for KU since it comes after Saturday’s win over Tennessee and before Saturday’s contest at Michigan State.

“It can’t be that from our position. I can’t imagine our guys looking past anybody, especially a team as talented as Siena,” Self said of the Saints, who have won five straight games and eight of nine.

Noted guard Sherron Collins: “It’s not a trap game because Siena is good. They beat Vanderbilt by 25 in a tournament game. They’ve got five starters back.”

Three of Siena’s losses came at the Old Spice Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The Saints fell to Tennessee, 78-64, Wichita State, 72-70, and Oklahoma State, 77-68. Siena also has lost at Pittsburgh, 79-66.

Siena has wins over Boise State, Cornell, Loyola, Albany (71-64), Marist, Buffalo, Saint Joseph’s, Holy Cross, Fairfield and Saint Peter’s. KU beat Albany, 79-43.

Little’s leg sore

KU junior Mario Little, who played 10 minutes in his season debut versus Tennessee, was “sore like we thought he’d be,” at practice on Monday, coach Bill Self said on his Hawk Talk radio show.

Little is battling back from a stress fracture in his lower left leg as well as a broken bone in his left hand.

“He’s going to be sore. He’s not done anything in such a long time,” Self said. “What we have to decide is he on three off one (days of practice), on two off one. We have 10 days to figure it out then make a decision on what his status will be (in terms of possibly red-shirting).

“He sparked us (against Tennessee). He does not have the explosion he’ll have in a month or so. He was a factor in us winning.”

Flu updates

Siena’s Ryan Rossiter and Josh Duell, who missed the Saints’ last game because of the flu, made the trip to KU and were feeling better Monday according to the Albany paper. KU’s Brady Morningstar, who’d been weakned by the bug, says he’s fine.

Siena, Holy Cross clash

Siena coach Fran McCaffery called the play of Holy Cross’ players “dirty” following the Saints’ recent 12-point victory.

In the game, Siena guard Ronald Moore ended up with a few stitches below his lip, and Duell suffered a black eye. Also guard Alexander Franklin “got hit in the head on numerous occasions,” McCaffery told the Albany Times Union.

McCaffery waved his players off the court following the buzzer with no post-game handshake.

Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard defended himself and his team on his own blog. His entire statement is available at http://www.coachralphwillard.com/blog.html.

Self on his T

Self, who was tooted for a technical foul versus Tennessee, discussed his ‘T’ on his weekly Hawk Talk radio show.

“First of all, I thought I had a debatable case. After I watched the tape I realized I was dead wrong,” said Self, who was miffed Quintrell Thomas was called for a foul while setting a screen.

“I think the call may have gone either way, but you don’t do that (scream at ref). I did a very poor job in handling that. In what was discussed between us, I didn’t agree with his explanation of why it was a foul. After seeing the tape I can see where he came from.

“It was an emotional game, a big game for us. I don’t feel I handled that well at all. You want to fight for your team and sometimes ‘Ts’ are OK. I was too emotional with it. It’s something I need to address and not put my team in that situation again.”

This, that

Today’s game is the 500th coached by Self. He has a record of 359-140. He’s 152-35 at KU. … This is the first meeting between the teams. KU is 12-1 versus MAAC opponents. Last meeting was a 90-60 win over Loyola last January. … Jeff Withey, KU’s 7-foot transfer from the University of Arizona, now is planning on arriving on campus on Jan. 12, his mom told Rivals.com. Withey can practice but not play in games until next December.

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