Kansas University junior forward Marcus Morris earned his first Big 12 Player of the Week honor on Monday.
“He deserves that,” KU coach Bill Self said of the 6-foot-9, 235-pounder from Philadelphia who averaged 18.0 points and 7.3 rebounds in victories over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Ohio and Arizona.
“He’s been great offensively. Against Arizona … how did he not score? He scored facing. He scored from deep. He scored mid-range. He scored off post moves. He demonstrated his versatility.”
Morris scored 16 points off 4-of-8 shooting (2-of-2 threes) in Saturday’s 87-79 victory over of Arizona in Las Vegas after scoring 26 points off 11-of-14 shooting in Friday’s 98-41 rout of Ohio.
“The guy is shooting 70 percent or whatever,” Self said of Morris, who for the season has iced 44 of 65 shots for 67.7 percent. He’s made eight of 13 threes (61.5 percent).
“I doubt there’s been anybody in our league that has had a better week or better start to the season than he’s had,” Self added.
Morris took the honor in stride.
“Hopefully I have more to come,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve played that well to start the season. I think I can play a lot better in different aspects of the game as far as rebounding (6.3 per game) and defending a lot better.”
Too chippy
Self doesn’t want his basketball players yelling at opposing players during games. He sat Thomas Robinson the final 14 minutes of the Ohio game as a penalty for getting a technical foul for an exchange with a Bobcat player.
“If fans watched the first (Ohio) game, they saw it got chippy,” Self said on his Hawk Talk radio show. “We made it a point of emphasis nobody talk. The next play, Thomas gets a foul, he has to run his mouth, he gets a technical. It’s why he didn’t play the rest of the game. He responded well the next night.”
Robinson — he averages 10.7 points off 64.1 percent shooting and 6.3 rebounds a game — hopes to keep his emotions in check. He didn’t have any problems with any Arizona players but did yell something in the direction of the Wildcat bench after hitting a jumper. He had heard somebody on the bench say he “couldn’t shoot.”
“I mean, that’s something me, myself, I actually have to apologize for to the Arizona coaches, actually speaking to them during the game,” Robinson said. “It’s all about being mature. I was childish when I did that. I apologize for that.”
Of Robinson’s play in Vegas (three points, three boards vs. Ohio; 14 points, three boards vs. Arizona), Self said: “Awful against Ohio and the polar opposite the next day. Of all our guys, he played the best when we needed somebody to play well.”
Morris addressed the topic of his own trash-talking.
“I don’t think I do it that much. It’s just a part of my game. It’s just a part of how I’ve been since I’ve been playing basketball, you know what I mean? It’s just who I am as a basketball player,” Morris said. “I like to trash talk. I like to get into the game I play. I feel like that makes the team get going a little bit when two teams are going at it. It’s just competitive nature, too. It’s just something that I enjoy doing.”
Yet … “If coach is upset, I think he always has good reason to be upset. I really can’t say too much about him being upset. He’s our coach, and if he doesn’t want us doing trash talking, then we don’t need to do it.”
The bottom line?
“It blows my mind. Why don’t we just let our play do our talking?” Self said on his radio show.
Slow start from three
Self isn’t alarmed at Tyrel Reed’s 8-of-28 three-point shooting. Remember, Reed had perhaps the play of the Arizona game — a driving hoop and foul shot — that sliced a four-point second-half deficit to one.
“He was in the office yesterday. I said, ‘That’s the last thing I worry about with you,”‘ Self said of shooting. “If he has space, it’s a good shot. He is going to make shots.”
Self on TCU
Self commented on TCU accepting an invitation to the Big East Conference:
“Kansas could have been making the same announcement today that TCU made, and K-State could have been in there, too (had Big 12 not been saved last summer after defection of Nebraska and Colorado),” Self said.
“There was a feeling I had when realignment was going on, if by chance Texas goes to the Pac-10 and we’d stayed buddies with K-State, then the Big East would have come and gotten us, K-State, Iowa State and Missouri. In theory they say, ‘Bad travel.’ There could have been divisions with the teams close and maybe a Louisville and Cincinnati (in KU’s division). It was smart of the Big East. If the Big Ten poaches somebody else, it will be a football playing school. If the number (of football playing schools in Big East) goes below eight, they are not eligible for a BCS bid. They are covering themselves with enough football playing schools. It’s probably great for TCU and all that stuff. I see no problems with it.”
Combo coming
Josh Selby likely will be playing both point guard and shooting guard when he become eligible Dec. 18 versus USC.
“The perfect way for us to play is multiple guards in there,” Self said. “Whoever gets it, brings it. It’s not fair to Josh that he be on the ball all the time. He’ll be thinking so much. There will be enough pressure outside people will put on him.
“We’ll probably keep Tyshawn on the ball a majority of the time. I don’t know if people see how well Ty is playing. He’s close to leading the country in assists. His assist-to-turnover ratio is good (43-17). I think we’re better with him on the ball running the team. For him (Selby) to get in the game a lot of minutes, he has to beat somebody out. He knows that and understands it. It’ll be fun. Practice will be competitive, and I certainly enjoy that.”
