I like to doodle during my lunch break and my doodles usually have to do with KU sports, so I figured why not share them with KUsports.com readers on weekdays in this space, usually at noon, and if not, almost always in the 11:30 a.m.-to-1:30 p.m. range.
First, I’d like to take the opportunity to answer a frequently asked question: Why do I look so serious during Kansas basketball games when they are played in the most exciting basketball building on the planet?
Fair question. The answer is it’s my job to be objective, taking in all the emotion and not get caught showing any. I mean, the last thing I ever would want to do is get caught on camera all but jumping out of my seat after witnessing something amazing, such as, oh say Mario Chalmers launching a game-tying, overtime-forcing three-pointer. Can you imagine how much grief I’d catch if that ever happened and someone caught an image of me losing it? Good thing no such photo exists, which makes sense because I never would lose my poker face while working for fear of being labeled unprofessional.
Now that I’ve cleared that up, onto today’s doodle.
In the box score distributed to the media after each game, a tally sheet of a vague category called, “hustle plays” appears on the back of the last page. I asked Kansas men’s basketball media relations contact Chris Theisen how that is compiled, etc. I’ll share more on that during some other Lunch Break, but first, Theisen told me that fourth-year director of student-athlete development Fred Quartlebaum, Coach Q for short, Q for shorter, tracks extra-effort plays daily in practice and in games.
Coach Q — from left the fifth suit on the bench, one row in front of Urban Meyer look-alike Sean Lester, deputy athletic director, and announcer Greg Gurley — said head coach Bill Self came up with the idea “a few years back,” as a way of getting players to “get after it defensively, flying around, creating havoc.”
Q tallies “energy points,” in seven categories.
“Obviously we have talented players, but with coach’s philosophy we also want tough-minded kids,” he said. “It shows you’re having an impact, you’re putting your footprint on things that really are important to coach Self.”
Coach Q agreed to show me an example of an energy chart from Monday’s practice in preparation for the UMKC game with the names of the players redacted. Here it is:
At first I was disappointed he covered the names, but the more I thought about it, the more I was glad he did that. Now we can all try to match the player with the energy points, even if we never find out what we scored on the test.
As you can see, two players reached double figures and the one with 13 points scored at least one point in 6 of 7 categories — the steal tally for him is barley visible, but it’s there — and led the practice in two categories, offensive rebounds with five and dunks with three. I’m going to guess Josh Jackson because he does a little bit of everything, but I wouldn’t rule out Lagerald Vick or even Carlton Bragg.
The player with 10 energy points had a team-high five steals and didn’t throw down any dunks. He also had two deflections and didn’t block a shot, which tells me he’s a perimeter player, probably Devonte Graham.
Quartlebaum is not above bending the rules when charting.
“The other day there was a loose ball that ends up on Stanford’s bench and the guy wouldn’t give it back to us,” Q said. “Devonte Graham went over and grabbed the darn thing, so I gave him credit for a 50/50 ball.”
Quartlebaum, by the way, is an upbeat, friendly man, so please don’t hold this against him: He had a hand in North Carolina winning the 2005 national championship under Roy Williams. Quartlebaum worked for Matt Doherty at Notre Dame and again at North Carolina, where he recruited four players from Roy’s first national-championship team. Coach Q also was on Norm Roberts’ staff at St. John’s for six seasons.
**Conventional stats aren’t where it’s at**
In the Dec. 5 issue of Sports Illustrated, Kentucky coach John Calipari points out that two of his former centers chosen No. 1 in the NBA draft weren’t even close to leading their teams in shot attempts. Anthony Davis (2012) took the fourth-most shots, Karl Anthony Towns (2015) the fifth-most.
“Make them realize that numbers, minutes, all of that stuff is not important,” Calipari told SI. “Just be the best version of you.”
I’m glad Calipari called attention to that because it’s amazing how many people think NBA scouts put a premium on players’ points.
A candidate to go first in the 2017 draft, Jackson ranks second to Frank Mason on KU’s roster in shot attempts and has taken four more than third-place Graham.
**One more look back at Duke game**
The KUsports.com staff stacked so many stories on top of each other from KU’s 77-75 victory over Duke at Madison Square Garden that you might not have read every single one of them.In case you missed it, [Bobby Nightengale’s blog][1] examining how Duke star Grayson Allen fared against the five different Jayhawks who guarded him is well worth the time it will take you to read it.
It illustrates how Frank Mason’s contributions extend well beyond points. Nobody did a better job on Allen than KU’s leading scorer, who led KU with 21 points that night and leads them in scoring for the season with 19.6 per game.
**Kangaroos strike from long distance**
You don’t make it all the way to the doorstep of 600 victories without giving your players specific challenges for each game, even when facing a prohibitive underdog.
Self explained the challenge for tonight’s game vs. the UMKC Kangaroos, who not only have one of the better nicknames in college sports, but the sixth-best three-point shooting percentage (.430) in the nation. (Kansas is tied for 14th with Oklahoma at .408).
“Their freedom offensively,” Self said. “They attempted (34) threes last game and so us being able to defend the three, get to their little guards. They’re going to be quite a bit smaller than us. Can we defend quickness? I think those will be the key things. . . . For the most part can our quickness match their quickness, so that will be a challenge for us.”
The ‘Roos will be without 5-foot-11 Martez Harrison, their second-leading scorer with a 16.5 average. Suspended, he will miss his fourth consecutive game.
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/call-nightengale/2016/nov/18/breaking-down-kus-defense-against-grayso/
