10B GAME DAY THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2007 The image provided is too blurry and low-resolution to accurately recognize any text. It appears to be a blank or severely blurred photo with no discernible content. Therefore, it is not possible to provide an answer to the question based on this image. COUNTDOWN TO TIP-OFF KU TIP-OFF AT AGLANCE Kansas probably just played its best nonconference opponent of the season in USC and won despite playing an ugly game. That victory should give the Jayhawks confidence and let them know how good they can be when they do start playing better. Eastern Washington is not a very talented team. Kansas' only problem against the Eagles would be overlooking them because the game comes after a the victory against the Trojans and before a revenge game with DePaul on Saturday. WHOTOWATCH Tyrel Reed, Freshman guard. Reed Reed is almost back to full strength after spraining his ankle against Arizona 10 days ago. He's made seven of 13 three-pointers on the season, and has already turned into a fan favorite in his limited role. If his ankle is OK, he should get plenty of minutes against the less-than-stellar Eagles and get an opportunity to add to his three-point-shooting totals. TUNING UP FOR DEPAUL No freshman phenom in this game QUESTION MARK Why couldn't Kansas have scheduled this game last year? A game against Eastern Washington last season would have been much more interesting. The Eagles weren't NCAA-caliber team back then, but they did have Rodney Stuckey, a legitimate scoring threat who would have been first team all-conference in any league. Stuckey, who wasn't recruited by major programs out of high school because of his grades, left as a sophomore to enter the NBA Draft. He was picked 15th overall by the Detroit Pistons. If Stuckey was playing, the Eagles could have at least kept the game close. HEARYE, HEARYE EASTERN WASHINGTON AT KANSAS 7 p.m. Wednesday, Allen Fieldhouse, Jayhawk TV "They ought to give him 4 points from where that guy shot that from. The kid made a big shot." — Tim Floyd, USC coach, on Mario Chalmers' shot Sunday. "We were supposed to put that game away. I think we turned it over twice during that stretch, and we and made it very entertaining for fans. That shouldn't happen with a veteran ball club, and hopefully it won't happen again" -Bill Self on not being able to close out Sunday's game. Kansas 9-0 THE PROJECTED STARTING FIVE Russell Robinson, 6-foot-1 senior guard Russell Robinson, 8-0th, 7 senior guard Robinson's defensive performance on O.J. Mayo during the UC game was the main reason Kansas won that game. He's only made eight of his 27 three-pointers this season, but those numbers will improve. Mario Chalmers, 6-foot-1 junior guard Mario Chalmers, 6-foot-1 junior guard Robinson upstaged Mayo defensively while Chalmers outdueled him offensively. Although Chalmers scored 17 points in the second half and made the most important shot of the game, he still needs to become more consistent. THE PROJECTED STARTING FIVE Rodrick Stewart, 6-foot-4 senior guard Stewart came through in the clutch with an important pass to Chalmers at the end of the USC game. Self wants him to improve defensively though. Kellen Williams, 6-feet-4 senior forward The Eagles' leading scorer and rebounder is in his third season with Eastern Washington after transferring from Highline Community College. Williams lack of size could hurt him against Kansas' frontcourt. Arthur really disappointed on Sunday against the Trojans' highly touted big man duo of Taj Gibson and Davon Jefferson. Part of the problem could be the guards' inability to get the ball down low, but Arthur needs to start getting open and demanding the ball. Darrell Arthur. 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Matthew Brunell, 6-feet-8 sophomore forward Eastern Washington is seriously devoid of height. Brunell plays because he has it. But his 3.4 points and 2.1 rebounds per game are not very encouraging. ★★★☆☆ marcus Hinton, 6-feet-3 senior guard Hinton is fourth on the team in scoring with 7.0 points per game. But the Tacoma, Wash., native refuses to shoot from the outside. He only has six attempts in nine games. Marcus Hinton, 6-feet-3 senior guard Darnell Jackson, 6-foot-8 senior forward Robinson may have been the MVP of the USC game, but Jackson deserves some special mention. He rebounded plenty of Mayo's missed shots on his way to a season-high 13 rebounds. Gary Gibson, 6-feet-1 sophomore guard Gibson is a transfer from Miami Dade Junior College. In his first nine games, he has played 24.2 minutes, registering 5.7 points per game. Trey Gross, 6-feet-2 freshman guard Gross has started all nine games for the Eagles. The Stockton, Calif., native can shoot from the outside. He's hitting 45 percent of his three-pointers. THE SIXTH MAN Brandon Rush, 6-foot-6 guard. Kansas looks pretty on offense. The ugliness needs to stop soon, Sure, the Jayhawks are winning games, but they need to start playing more fluidly on the offensive end to have true success. Part of the reason the offense has struggled can be traced to the absence of Sherron Collins. He made the offense go and took away some of the pressure from Russell Robinson. Eastern Washington likes to play a somewhat fast tempo so this could be a good game for Kansas to regain some offensive swagger. Rush had played well since coming back from ACL surgery until Sunday against USC. He missed three-pointers and lay-ups. He played like the injury affected him for the first time this season. THE SIXTH MAN ALLEN FIELDHOUSE WILL ROCK IF... Milan Stanojevic, 6-feet-2 junior guard. A Serbian native, Stanojevic played last season at Northwest College in Wyoming. Stanjovecic Mark Dent bout hoisting up threes. He's shot 44 threes in nine games. — Rustin Dodd PHOG ALLEN WILL ROLL OVER IN HIS GRAVE IF... Kansas' rebounding regresses. The Jayhawks had their best rebounding game of the year against USC, and it was one of the main reasons they won. Darnell Jackson led the way with 13 rebounds, and he'll have to get at least eight rebounds per game for Kansas to be successful on the glass. Darrell Arthur also needs to step up because Sasha Kaun will likely continue to be inconsistent. Against a team like Eastern Washington, whose second-tallest starter is 6-foot-4, Kansas needs to win the rebounding battle by about 10 boards. EWU TIP-OFF ATAGLANCE Give Bill Self credit. He's given his team a tune-up game for everyone of its big non-conference games. First, Kansas warmed up for Arizona with Northern Arizona. Then the Jayhawks feasted on Florida Atlantic before taking care of USC. The next big-name opponent? Depaul on Saturday. But first, Kansas gets Eastern Washington. The Eagles are 3-6, but are coming off a 65-54 victory on Monday. This game could have featured former Eagle Rodney Stuckey, an honorable-mention All-American last season as a sophomore. But Stuckey chose to enter the NBA draft and was picked 15th overall by the Detroit Pistons. Too bad, the Jayhawks probably could have used Stuckey to get jazzed about playing a team that finished 15-14 in the Big Sky conference last season. WHO TO WATCH Now that Stuckey is gone, the name fans need to know is junior forward Kellen Williams. No, not Kelter Williams. He's the jam band magician. This is Keller Williams from Seattle, Wash just jams basketballs. He's leading Eastern Williams Washington with 10.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. The question is whether Williams will be effective when matched up with Kansas' big men, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson and Sasha Kaun. Bill Self QUESTION MARK When will Kansas lose? With Arizona and USC behind them, the meat of Kansas' non-conference schedule is over. Road Trips to Georgia Tech on Dec. 18 and Boston College on Jan. 5 loom, but the Jayhawks might not be truly tested until their conference opening game at Nebraska on Jan. 12. And if the current Associated Press Top 25 holds true, Kansas won't face a ranked opponent until its Feb. 5 tussle with Texas. HEARYE, HEARYE "Just as we did against teams like Washington State, Washington and Michigan, we are going into that game trying to get better. We haven't deviated from that. From day one it's been about preparing for Saturday, Dec. 22 and our first conference game against Portland State. Nothing has changed. We took a step back in the right direction against Missouri-Kansas City, and I absolutely expect us to go in the right direction on Wednesday in Lawrence." Eastern Washington coach Kirk Earlywine JAYHAWK STATS Player Min. FG-FGA 3FG-FGARPG PPG 04 Collins, Sherron 27.5 12-23 4-13 3.5 16.0 00 Arthur, Darrell 25.3 40-75 1-5 6.1 13.9 15 Chalmers, Mario 28.9 32-58 14-29 3.1 13.3 32 Jackson, Darnell 23.1 30-51 2-4 6.4 10.9 25 Rush, Brandon 21.8 19-47 8-21 3.4 10.6 24 Kaun, Sasha 19.1 20-25 0-0 4.1 7.6 03 Robinson, Russell 28.0 15-40 8-27 2.6 6.9 05 Stewart, Rodrick 21.3 19-35 2-9 3.6 6.9 02 Teahan, Conner 5.8 8-11 8-10 0.5 6.5 14 Reed, Tyrel 12.4 10-17 7-12 0.8 5.4 45 Aldrich, Cole 9.0 8-13 0-0 2.9 2.9 10 Case, Jeremy 8.0 6-14 2-8 0.5 2.3 11 Bechard, Brennan 2.8 2-4 1-3 0.8 1.5 22 Buford, Chase 2.5 0-5 0-4 0.8 0.0 54 Kleinmann, Matt 3.8 0-2 0-0 1.0 0.0 40 Witherspoon, Brad 2.3 0-1 0-1 0.3 0.0 PREDICTION The Jayhawks will lead by 18 at the half and will never be threatened in the second. Freshmen Cole Aldrich and Tyrel Reed will get the opportunity to play significant minutes. 87-64 KU Witherspoon Meter Will senior walk-on on Brad Witherspoon get the opportunity to play Sunday? This meter tells all. EAGLE STATS Player Min. FG-FGA 3FG-FGA RPG PPG 34 Williams, Kellen 35.9 38-78 9-26 7.6 10.4 22 Gross, Trey 29.3 27-64 13-29 1.9 9.4 10 DeLeon, Adris 24.9 25-84 11-39 2.9 9.9 01 Hinton, Marcus 23.0 15-38 3-6 3.1 7.0 11 Stanojevic, Milan 23.4 18-53 17-44 1.3 6.1 04 Gibson, Gary 24.2 16-39 9-25 1.8 5.7 45 Moore, Brandon 21.4 20-51 0-0 3.8 5.6 32 Brunell, Matthew 18.7 11-37 3-13 2.1 3.4 24 Loofburrow, Jack 4.3 3-8 2-5 0.5 2.0 ( ) ( ) A ---