It didn’t take long for guard Nick Timberlake to get reminded of Sunday’s perimeter-shooting disparity between Kansas and Illinois. Joe Dooley, the KU director of student-athlete development, made sure it was fresh in Timberlake’s mind as he worked on his shooting back in Lawrence Tuesday.
“That was the first thing that he came over and said to me, pretty much,” Timberlake said Tuesday, “was, ‘They got almost 30 more points than we did from the three-point line. I brought you here to shoot 3s, so I’m expecting you to get some more shots up.'”
The Illini got hot from deep and connected on 11 of their 27 attempts, nine 3s supplied by two players alone, while the Jayhawks went just 3-for-12. It was simple math that made part of the difference in the 82-75 exhibition loss for KU, and drew attention to a potential weakness that KU coach Bill Self had already highlighted in the offseason.
Timberlake, who shot 41.6% from beyond the arc in his fifth and final season at Towson, will shoulder likely the greatest responsibility for supplying 3-pointers for the Jayhawks this year. He went 2-for-6 overall and just 0-for-3 from deep at Illinois and said he hopes to elevate his shooting and his individual defense, as KU hosts NCAA Division II in-state foe Fort Hays State at Allen Fieldhouse for another exhibition Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
Self suggested that the small sample size Sunday, plus the fact that three of the Jayhawks’ attempts were “desperation 3s,” made it difficult to judge his team’s actual effectiveness from beyond the arc. He also noted that KU got itself plenty of opportunities at the rim. And so asked what he would look for from his team Wednesday in terms of perimeter shooting, he said, “I don’t look like that. I’m sorry. I would like for us to shoot the ball … I would like for us to put ourselves in position to shoot open shots.”
“There will be games like that that we don’t take as many 3s the way Illinois guarded us, but we’re not going to change what we run to try to make sure we shoot more 3s,” Self added. “We’re not going to do that.”
Injury updates
Johnny Furphy did not dress for the exhibition at Illinois, but Self said that he has been doing a little bit of work for four to five days, after severe shin splints kept him out of practice entirely for two weeks.
“He’s going to practice some today,” Self said Tuesday, “and then we’ll have some restrictions on him but hopefully he can play or get in the game at least tomorrow, play a little bit, get his feet wet. And then my goal is by next week, hopefully be in a position that he can play some meaningful minutes if need be.”
It’s all part of the process of getting the Australian freshman acclimated to KU and the speed of the college game. He had originally been planning to wait another year before entering college in the United States, but his breakout performance at the NBA Academy Games in July in Atlanta accelerated his timeline. He committed to KU at the start of August and made it to Lawrence by the start of the fall semester.
Self said he thinks Furphy can ultimately end up playing 15-20 minutes per game this year if he’s healthy.
“This (shin splints) is stuff that’s been bothering him for over a year now, so I hope like heck that he can get this behind him where he can just focus in and be able to play pain-free,” Self said.
Kevin McCullar Jr., for his part, had his inspired performance at Illinois cut short when he collided with Illini players going for a loose ball late in Sunday’s game and suffered what Self called “whiplash.” Self said that McCullar still has a stiff neck but that it’s the sort of minor ailment that has not kept him out of games in the past.
AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
