It’s time once again to catch the vibe of the national media’s perception of Kansas basketball, by hopping around the Internet and the Twitterverse to see what’s out there on the No. 6 Jayhawks — now 16-4 overall and a perfect 7-0 in the Big 12.
**We’ll start with Eamonn Brennann’s latest Wooden Watch list**. Brennan blogs and writes about college hoops for ESPN.com, and he has two Jayhawks in [his most recent rankings][1] of the nation’s best players.
KU freshman center/lion-killer/how-did-he-do-that? specialist Joel Embiid comes in at No. 6, and freshman guard/forward/swingman/dunk-monster Andrew Wiggins cracks the top 10, too
Brennan had this to say about Embiid:
> On Wednesday night, I looked up from
> my laptop early in Kansas’s 92-81 home
> win over Iowa State just in time to
> see Embiid take the ball on the left
> block, engage with the post defender,
> pivot toward the baseline into his
> right shoulder and sink a tidy little
> 6-foot turnaround jumper. It’s
> possible Embiid has made that exact
> shot before, but I haven’t seen it. It
> may have been the first time he
> attempted it. Here’s the point: This
> happens all the time.
He offered this about Wiggins:
> Here’s the thing about Wiggins: He has
> been pretty good for most of the
> season. He hasn’t been LeBron James
> 2.0. He hasn’t been perfectly consistent from game to game. But a
> baseline, his all-around, all-court
> performance has been immensely solid.
> Now — with 56 points in his past two
> games, 29 of which came Wednesday
> against Iowa State — we’re starting
> to see some of the brilliance that had
> NBA scouts so excited.
Both great points. Kansas seems to be playing a more and more comfortable brand of basketball as a team, and the jumping off point for that development starts with the team’s most talented players. As Wiggins and Embiid grow, so does the ceiling for what this team can accomplish — if there even is a ceiling.
**BleacherReport.com’s Jason King** talked with three NBA scouts about the draftability (I don’t care if that’s not a real word) of a ton of underclassmen in his l[atest installment of King’s Court][2].
This is some of what one scout had to say about freshman KU guard Wayne Selden:
> There’s no question that he needs to
> come back for his sophomore year.
> Right now, when you think of Kansas,
> you think of Wiggins and Embiid.
> Selden hasn’t done anything to stand
> out. What’s his niche offensively? He
> hasn’t shown that he’s a great
> shooter.
The scout goes into a little more on Selden in King’s report, but here are the numbers on Selden’s shooting, following [KU’s Wednesday night home win over Iowa State][3]: Selden has hit [46.4 percent of his shots this season][4] and 36.8 percent from three-point range (25 of 68). In Big 12 play, the freshman guard has connected on 13 of his 36 threes.
**In the very latest CBSsports.com Top 25 (and one)**, which is updated daily, [KU is ranked No. 7][5].
Three teams that have defeated the Jayhawks this season occupy half of the six spots in front of Kansas: No. 6 Villanova, No. 4 Florida and No. 3 San Diego State.
**It’s been been a little more than a quarter century since Larry Brown coached Kansas** to the 1988 national championship, but he will always be associated with the program because of that feat.
Brown, now at SMU, is the oldest coach in Division I. In [a piece by Scooby Axson for SI.com][6], Brown discusses the relative success the Mustangs (16-5 overall, 5-3 American Athletic Conference) have achieved this season.
Here is a snippet from the story:
> Tradition? There isn’t much to speak
> of. Fan support? Nowhere to be found.
> After all, this is a program that has
> no NCAA tournament appearances in the
> past 21 years and only 10 NCAA berths
> in 97 seasons of playing basketball.
>
> “You can walk on campus at Kansas,
> North Carolina, or UCLA, kids will
> tackle you,” said Brown. “There was so
> much interest and enthusiasm. [Here] I
> really couldn’t believe it. I kept
> saying to myself, ‘What did we do?'”
**Twitter roundup**
ESPN’s Jeff Goodman had a lot to say about Kansas on Wednesday night.
If Naadir Tharpe and Andrew Wiggins play this way, NO one is standing in the way of Kansas winning it all.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) January 30, 2014
Goodman also got into the debate about where Wiggins will be selected in the 2014 NBA Draft.
Andrew Wiggins has been terrific the past week or so. Showing more confidence — which translates into more consistency.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) January 30, 2014
I still maintain exactly what I said prior to start of season. Wiggins is not the clear-cut No. 1 pick come June. That was always my stance.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) January 30, 2014
Back to the subject of the 2013-14 college hoops season, ESPN’s John Gasaway shared some telling numbers on how red-hot KU has been, offensively, in conference play:
In Big 12 play Kansas is making 60% of its 2s and 42% of its 3s.
— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) January 30, 2014
You can almost hear Dick Vitale screaming at his TV, while sitting at home on his couch:
Talk about a young team developing – just look at KANSAS reason future HOFer @CoachBillSelf #ROCKCHALKJAYHAWK
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) January 30, 2014
The Jayhawks, not surprisingly, have the whole college hoops world taking notice. Kentucky beat writer Kyle Tucker tweeted this out:
Also: Kansas is getting really, really, really freaking good.
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_ATH) January 30, 2014
However, not every media tweet about KU was based in reality:
No. 6 Kansas is going to hang on to defeat No 16 Iowa State. On pace to win their bazillionth-straight Big 12 title.
— Sporting News College Basketball (@sn_ncaab) January 30, 2014
[1]: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/93279/brennans-wooden-watch-week-11
[2]: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1940350-kings-court-nba-scouts-weigh-in-on-whether-top-prospects-should-stay-or-go
[3]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2014/jan/29/another-ku-freshman-burns-iowa-state-allen-fieldho/
[4]: http://kusports.sportsdirectinc.com/basketball/ncaab-players.aspx?page=/data/ncaab/players/player755806.html
[5]: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24424687/arizona-stays-no-1-in-top-25-and-one
[6]: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20140130/larry-brown-smu-mustangs/
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