The Greene Room Live: Day three in KC

By Staff     Mar 15, 2008

**6:22 p.m.**: Word association time…Mario Chalmers, what is the one word that comes to your mind when you hear Texas Longhorns?”Excitement,” he said in the spacious hockey locker rooms in the Sprint Center a few minutes ago.It may not be bulletin board material for the Longhorns to hear that, but it pretty much sums it up, as KU awoke from a 60-minute sorta-slumber to play 20 minutes of electric ball here in KCMO Saturday afternoon. And, as you probably heard by now, it sets up a Sunday title game three-quel with the Longhorns, who KU has defeated in the last two Big 12 postseason championships.A little more shocking was Chalmers saying he considers UT to be KU’s No. 1 rival right now. Given the magnitude of each matchup over the past four or five years, that’s really not as off-base as many old school Jayhawk fans might think.But, as we said on [The Spodcasters last night][1], now that KU had a scary survival situation Friday that was anything but pretty, some pressure was on the team to end the weekend by getting back on track. Today’s second half was certainly an indication that could be going on.Now for the N’s…**Notes & Nuggets** -Darrell Arthur is strugglin’ offensively in Kansas City. Russell Robinson was blunt (and said he’d be blunt) in saying that a good part of it is Arthur’s own doing. True, it’s hard for a big man to work against double teams and get open offensively, but he scored five points on combined 1-of-5 shooting if you combine the first halves from Friday and Saturday. They double-team in the NBA, too, sometimes. The offense has struggled both days before the break, but Brandon Rush today was able to turn it into a footnote.-Speaking of Rush, his 28 points were a career-high. He was 5-of-8 from the three-point arena.-An interesting road feature of the Jayhawks’ locker room? A Jayhawk door mat, brought into the middle of the dressing area on each road trip as an away version of the Jayhawk at the center of the team’s Allen Fieldhouse locker room on which no one steps. Thought I might as well deliver some insight, seeing as we’re finally able into the open locker room setting in the postseason.-Mario Chalmers said the ankle turn he suffered in the first half won’t have any lingering effect. Said it feels fine.**Numbers** -KU was outrebounded 35-25, and when the Jayhawks have that happen, they typically bounce back well. That’ll be needed tomorrow against Texas. As you may remember, Damion James outboarded KU on his own in the second half in Austin on Feb. 11, 13-12.-KU shot 6-of-13 from deep, while A&M was just another team to die by the three against the Jayhawks late, shooting at a 9-of-26 rate.-A&M’s big man trio of Bryan Davis, Joe Jones and DeAndre Jordan, which combined for just 16 points last week in College Station, totaled 31 Saturday. But Jordan was held to just one point in four minutes of run, still recovering from a stomach ailment.-Josh Carter’s tough week against KU got even worse. He was 1-of-11 from the floor in the regular season finale and just 2-of-10 Saturday.-Line of the day for KU: Mario Chalmers, four points, five assists, one turnover, three steals, three rebounds in 30 minutes.-Cole Aldrich scored six points in 10 big minutes, mostly in the first half. He again showed his developed offense with a baby hook and a huge slam on a lob.Talk to you tomorrow from the Sprint Center, and we’ll go all day as the selections are announced in the evening. Enjoy your Saturday night, wherever you are.**5:38 p.m.**: Be back shortly with notes, nuggets and numbers…**5:15 p.m.**: And by the way, if the Bulls draft this DeAndre Jordan kid, I’m never going to another game while he’s in uniform. Then again, I haven’t been to one in three years…but you get the point. I still don’t get all the fuss.**5:13 p.m.**: This looks like the Brandon Rush who did whatever he wanted on offense against UCLA last year, except this time he’s getting better support. His game is working from everywhere on the floor, and it’s freed up Sherron Collins, too, for some perimeter looks. The x-factor, just as it was last Saturday, is Rush’s defense on Josh Carter. The Aggie sharpshooter is still getting little to nothing that resembles a clean look. He finally hit his second shot of the game with just over eight minutes to play after his last two three balls were tipped by Rush.**5:01 p.m.**: Just a tough day for Arthur. I hate to make it seem like I’m being too hard on him, since he’s a quality kid, but not sure what it is with him these last two days. Defensively, Elonu’s two he just scored was done by working under the hoop from one side to the other against Arthur, which landed the KU big man on the bench. He’s back in now with KU up 51-47 and 11:34 to play. He got a good talking-to from Bill Self during his rest stop. We’ll see if that can shake him out of it a bit.Ah, question answered. In his first offensive possession back, he posted up four times, finally getting the ball from Chalmers and slipping in two on the turnaround. He could use a couple more of those.**4:48 p.m.**: Nothing drives me more nuts than a cluster of coaches huddling during a timeout that they called, such as the one A&M called at the tail end of KU’s 9-0 run early in the second half. Especially while the team is on the bench waiting to hear something. It just makes the head coach look confused, in my opinion.But that run was huge for KU. It’s today’s version of last night’s 10-2 run, which doesn’t cancel out a rough first half, but at least provides a solid stop-gap and puts A&M in a tough spot.**4:37 p.m.**: Some first half numbers of note…-Darrell Arthur just three points on 1-of-4 shooting. That means he’s 1-of-5 in first halves here in KC the last two days. It came today in seven minutes, as he picked up two fouls. He needs a big second half, or there’s gonna be some big questions. That seem unfair? Tough, he’s the most talented offensive player on this team. That carries some responsibility.-The Jayhawks were outrebounded 22-12 by A&M, including the Aggies getting eight offensive boards to seven Jayhawk defensive boards. Joseph Jones had three to go with his game-high 11 points. He’s night-and-day compared to last Saturday.-KU had just four turnovers to 10 assists. Shots simply aren’t falling, as the paper would indicate. KU is 13-of-30 from the floor, A&M 13-of-26.-Josh Carter, who was 1-of-11 from the floor last Saturday, is just 1-of-4 today. KU is defending the perimeter well again…except for that final minute where Dominique Kirk shook loose a couple times to key the 7-0 run to end the half.**4:17 p.m.**: Some more first half observations…-KU’s offense is clicking at about 75 percent, I’d say. Darrell Arthur still isn’t seeing much of the ball on that end of the floor, and again KU is having a tough time finding a consistent flow. The guards are pressuring again, though, and most notably, Josh Carter’s open looks are again being limited by Brandon Rush & Co.-Mario Chalmers appeared to turn his ankle on an open court layup inside of the three-minute mark, and after limping around for a bit on the floor headed to the locker room with trainer Bill Cowgill during the TV timeout. What happened was Chalmers looked to dunk the ball and went up with the ball cocked back as it would be if a throwdown was coming. Realizing he was too far in on the hoop to do so, he turned his body and the ball somewhat to be able to lay it in instead, landing awkwardly on his ankle.-Cole Aldrich and Sasha Kaun have scored a combined 11 points, while Arthur has just three. Aldrich looks fantastic today on the offensive end, no denying that. It’s almost hard to believe this is the same Aldrich who five months ago at Late Night looked like he’d never take his warmups off this season. He’s a great story.**4:02 p.m.**: KU must have done its homework last night on A&M’s tendencies and plays. After Cole Aldrich’s jam off a lob feed from Sherron Collins, Mark Turgeon signaled a play in to his backcourt in which he formed his index fingers and thumbs in the shape of a ‘W’.Seeing it, Mario Chalmers caught the KU defense’s attention and signaled the same thing to everyone. Just thought it was worth pointing out.**3:53 p.m.**: Dominique Kirk added to his credentials as my favorite guy in the Big 12, fist-bumping the team’s radio announcers before the tip. He’s also about as friendly a guy as there is to interview…But KU hasn’t been nice to A&M today, and that’s why the Jayhawks are ahead. While the execution isn’t necessarily crisp through the first 10 minutes, KU is putting forth much more effort than it did 24 hours ago.A&M has a surprising amount of spring in its step, considering this is its third game in roughly 40 hours away from home. The Aggies apparently made it a point to slam the ball inside early and often, not letting the Jayhawks take control of the paint right off the bat like they did last Saturday.And if there’s any readers who can fill me in on some details of these weird motions the A&M yell leaders do, it’d be appreciated. I can only imagine what the training is like for those guys. I’d never be able to take it seriously. But that doesn’t surprise me, as this is the same school at which a student shot a mean look at me for leaving the middle of midnight yell practice in October to use the restroom. It’s a different world in Texas, better believe it.**2:34 p.m.**: I was struggling for something…anything…to lead of today’s gameday blog with, and good ol’ Tyler Hansbrough gave me just what I needed.Because, we all know it’s hard to find much interesting from last night’s KU win over Nebraska to roll off of.We can talk some KU in a bit, but first…If I were voting, I’d still give every one of the 6,538 Player of the Year honors to Michael Beasley. He’s a better player, means more to his team and has had far less to work with.But there’s something everyone should enjoy about watching Tyler Hansbrough. Not only is he a dominant player, but he’s one who fully intends to stay in school for four years, realizing the NBA can wait. Honestly, how many players these days do you see have great (not just good) four-year college careers? I, personally, respect the heck out of what he’s doing. It’s much more fulfilling if you’re an average onlooker to see that as opposed to one year of dominance from say a Beasley or Kevin Durant. Just my two cents…**Back to today…**How’s this for what a difference a week makes? Last Saturday in College Station, a kid from the student section gets picked out, hits a half court shot and wins a $100 gift card to Schlotzky’s. Today in KC, a random guy hits three of four free throws before the KU-A&M game and wins $49,500 in cold, hard scrilla. Unreal.But what KU needs today is more of the same from a week ago. That was KU’s best road showing from start to finish in league play. The post players dominated on both ends, Brandon Rush hounded Josh Carter into 1-of-11 shooting and Sherron Collins did whatever he wanted in transition.Don’t underestimate the fatigue factor for A&M, as this is the Aggies’ third game in three days. Two players in the A&M locker room told me last night they haven’t done that since AAU ball in high school. As for KU, they now have their legs under them with a game less than 24 hours ago.In short, **prediction, KU 78, A&M 66**.Also, the video highlights before each team’s introduction this weekend get a C+. Quite average. But then again, it’s been a pretty blah atmosphere inside the arena for most of the week.We’ll talk more after tip. [1]: http://www2.kusports.com/podcasts/spodcasters/2008/mar/15/ku_must_stop_slop/

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