The Greene Room Live: KU-Oklahoma

By Staff     Jan 14, 2008

**10:27 p.m.**: You know it was pretty routine when the players come to the postgame interviews pretty much with the same demeanor they had after beating Loyola last Tuesday in a lopsided whipping.In my opinion, one of the more overlooked pieces of the game was KU’s 17-of-18 showing from the free-throw line. The Jayhawks are now, get this, 30-of-34 from the stripe in two Big 12 games. Darnell Jackson said the practice regimen with free throws has remained the same all year, and now it’s just paying off.The only statistical category Oklahoma had an edge in over Kansas was on the offensive glass, outdoing KU 13-9. Though while the Sooners pulled down those 13 offensive boards, KU had 31 defensive rebounds. Also, take into consideration that the Sooners missed 43 shots, one would hope they’d have more than nine second chances.There’s really not much more to be said about this one that hasn’t already been muttered.Here’s some interesting final numbers…-Brandon Rush has now scored 35 points in league play. Those have come from a perfect 6-of-6 showing at the stripe, plus 10 field goals. Of those 10 buckets, nine have been from beyond the three-point arc.-Mario Chalmers is 8-of-8 from the line in Big 12 play.-Three Jayhawks (Arthur, Rush, Jackson) had at least eight rebounds. That’s the first time that’s happened in a game this year.-KU held true to its average in terms of points off the bench, notching 21 from the reserves tonight.-The Jayhawks outscored the Sooners in the paint 32-20.-Both Sherron Collins and Darrell Arthur fully redeemed themselves from their showings last year against the Sooners in the regular season. They were both scoreless in a combined 39 minutes of play then. Tonight, Collins had nine points, three assists and no turnovers, while Arthur had 14 points, eight boards and two blocked shots.Not much else to share. I’ll be back before Saturday’s game at Mizzou. Late.**9:30 p.m.**: Brandon Rush just hit his first two-point bucket of Big 12 play and has been…wait for it…aggressive again. Maybe Mario Chalmers’ prognostication the other night might not come true.The thing about this game tonight is that it all just looks so systematic for the Jayhawks. It’s not like they’ve done anything we have yet to see this year. If this continues, it’s going to wind up being a lot like the 1995-96 Bulls, in that winning almost gets boring to watch…though I’m sure the KU faithful certainly won’t agree with me there…**8:58 p.m.**: Doesn’t sound like Griffin’s coming back in that one, and that’s truly a shame. What is it about unfortunate injuries with star freshmen getting hurt in their Fieldhouse debuts? Durant last year, Griffin tonight…maybe Mike Beasley might want to hang back in Manhappenin’ when the ‘Cats roll this way…Here’s some first half numbers/observations for your pleasure…**Stud of the first half**: Darnell Jackson had eight points and seven rebounds, as he continues to play like the Jayhawks’ MVP this year. D-Block had a HUGE dunk on Longar Longar to start the game, then had a stretch of defensive boards on three straight OU possessions. He was also an efficient 4-of-5 from the floor.**Dud of the first half**: Taylor Griffin came in when his brother got hurt, and he has yet to make himself part of the game. He has one board and two fouls, but even worse is his 0-for-4 showing from the floor, including three out of place misses from beyond the arc. Tony Crocker is a close second for this one, playing just four minutes after picking up three personal fouls and going 0-for-2 from the floor.-KU was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line. That included a 4-of-4 showing from Darrell Arthur, who is shooting just 65 percent from the stripe this year.-In five minutes, Blake Griffin had just one rebound and missed both of his shot attempts.-Brandon Rush has 11 points, including a 3-of-5 showing from long range. Rush now has 30 points in his last three halves of basketball, but has yet to hit a two-point bucket in conference play. His 30 points include eight treys and six free throws.-Sherron Collins, who was scoreless in 33 minutes against OU last year in the regular season, has seven points and two assists off the bench in 15 minutes of action.-Without Longar Longar, this would be a _complete_ blowout. The OU senior has had to earn all 10 of his points so far on 5-of-10 shooting.**8:45 p.m.**: I’m currently patting myself on the burnt orange-clad back for picking Arthur and Collins as those to click.How are these numbers for you…After the two went 0-for-7 from the field in a combined 39 minutes of play last year in the regular season meeting with OU, the two are a combined 5-of-8 from the floor with 15 points so far in the first half.The most mind-blowing number, though, has got to be KU going 10-of-10 from the free throw line so far. That never happens. And I mean never.**8:24 p.m.**: That didn’t look good for Blake Griffin. His knee appeared to jam a bit as he was landing from that rebound try. If he can’t return from the locker room to play, this one could get very out of hand, as Longar Longar has had to work _hard_ for both of his buckets so far, and no one else looks to be in any kind of an offensive rhythm for the Sooners.**8:14 p.m.**: Man, Darnell Jackson continues to look incredible when playing in front of NBA scouts.At a game last week, I asked one Eastern Conference scout at a game a couple weeks back if he thinks Jackson will be on an NBA roster next season. His response? ‘Oh yeah.’**7:56 p.m.**: I might as well give a self-plug here before tip-off.Don’t forget to check out The Spodcasters Postgame Edition tomorrow morning.Now lets get it goin’.**6:36 p.m.**: OK, settled in here at the Fieldhouse. Loads, loads and loads of NBA scouts in the house tonight, presumably not only to watch the usual KU suspects, but also OU’s Blake Griffin.It’s pretty much known that when a team sends two scouts to the same game, they’re pretty serious about someone. Four teams can claim that status tonight: Portland, Indiana, San Antonio and Houston.A few notable NBA folks in the house include former Jayhawk Kevin Pritchard, now GM of the Portland Trailblazers. He was a starter 20 years ago on KU’s last national championship squad. Also on hand are a couple of guys whose teams the Jayhawks got the best of on that road, including Vinny Del Negro (now with the Sacramento Kings) and Danny Ferry (with the Cleveland Cavaliers).**5:37 p.m.**: Figured I’d get an earlier start than normal today, so hello.As you probably know from having read [Tom Keegan’s story][1] today, Blake Griffin makes his first (and more than likely only) appearance today in Allen Fieldhouse. Griffin, a McDonald’s All-American a year ago, leads OU in both scoring (15.4 points per game) and rebounding (9.1 boards per game).Now, by no means am I expecting to see something resembling [Kevin Durant’s first half][2] last March in the Fieldhouse, but Griffin is certainly good enough to be considered one of those guys who will get his numbers. What I mean by that is he could come in, put up 15 and 10, for example, and they could be rendered meaningless.See, numbers are so misleading in basketball.A good recent case to look at would be the matchup between KU’s post players and Nebraska’s Aleks Maric Saturday night.On the final stat sheet in KU’s [79-58 beatdown of Nebraska][3], Maric finished with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting in 26 minutes played. All of those numbers hit right on his season averages. Now say I handed it to a friend with the key portions that tell the game’s story whited out, he (or she) would probably think the Huskers’ most dominant big guy had a good game, right? Especially when you consider that Sasha Kaun, who bodied Maric up most of the night, had one blocked shot and zero defensive rebounds.But in reality, Kaun got the better of that matchup on Nebraska’s offensive end by a landslide. Along with Darnell Jackson and Darrell Arthur, the Jayhawks’ bigs made Maric just look uncomfortable all night. He struggled to move well with the ball in hand and back to the basket. If you look _inside_ those numbers, you’ll see that Maric scored nine of those 19 points in the game’s final 5:07, when the margin on the scoreboard was never smaller than 17.Maric just never looks comfortable against KU, though. That’s clearly been the case in the last three meetings between the Big 12 North rivals. Then again, with Maric, it was essentially one-on-three all night. Oklahoma, on the other hand, has a little more meat in the paint to combat the Jayhawk giants with.Longar Longar (no, not a typo) is a name the Jayhawks are certainly familiar with. In a game that didn’t really break open until late to start KU’s run through the Big 12 Tournament last year, the Oklahoma power forward had an efficient 13 points and 14 rebounds in 27 minutes of run. The Sooners also have Blake’s older brother, Taylor, who is a junior at this point. The elder Griffin has actually seen his playing time diminish a bit this year (23.4 mpg last season, 16.8 this year), but he’s capable of roughing it on the boards.The problem for Oklahoma, however, is guard play. The Sooners just don’t have a solid enough backcourt, in my opinion, to pull it off tonight. Tony Crocker is lethal from three-point land, shooting an incredible 49.2 percent from there (31-of-63). Though with the way the Jayhawks limited Nebraska’s three-point looks with heavy perimeter pressure Saturday night, getting off good shots early in the play clock could be an issue for OU, as it has been for several Jayhawk foes this year.I’m saying Griffin goes for about 14 and 10, KU wins 82-65 and the picks to click in Crimson and Blue this evening are both Sherron Collins and Darrell Arthur, simply for karmic purposes.In case you forgot, when the Jayhawks won a 67-65 grinder in Norman near the end of last year’s regular season, it was the only time all year both Jayhawk then-freshmen were held scoreless on the same night. The two were a combined 0-for-7 from the field and had six personal fouls between them. Arthur was more excused for the goose egg, since he played just six minutes. Collins, though, played 33.I’ll talk to you again before tip from the Fieldhouse. [1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2008/jan/14/year_rookie/?mens_basketball [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTjaXrOUoQY [3]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2008/jan/13/better/?mens_basketball

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