8B GAME DAY THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2007 COUNTDOWN TO TIP-OFF KU TIP-OFF ATAGLANCE This game is a tune-up. Florida Atlantic is the worst Division I team on Kansas' schedule and could even be worse than Washburn, a Division II school. The real game for Kansas this week comes Sunday against Southern California, a Top 25 team with a highly touted freshman in O.J. Mayo. Jackson WHOTOWATCH COOLDOWN AFTER THE FIGHT Owls should provide easy game after Arizona against Arizona (and right-fully so), but the other big men didn't rebound particularly well either. Jackson had five in 29 minutes and only scored four points. Those four points came early in the first half. Jackson needs to produce like he did in the first two games of the season, especially while Kaun continues to struggle. Darnell Jackson, senior forward Kaun is drawing a lot of ire from fans for his poor rebounding performance QUESTION MARK FLORIDA ATLANTIC AT KANSAS 7 p.m. Wednesday, Allen Fieldhouse, Jayhawk TV Outside of Rex Walters, how is Florida Atlantic connected to Kansas? Before the Walters became coach of the Owls, former Kansas assistant Matt Doherty was the head coach for one season. Doherty was an assistant for Roy Williams from 1992 to 1999. He coached Notre Dame for one season before moving on to North Carolina. His stay only lasted three years before complaints from players and an underachieving record pushed him out. Doherty stayed out of coaching for two years before leading the Owls to a 14-6 conference record and its seventh winning season ever in the 2005-2006 season. He is now head coach of Southern Methodist University. HEARYE, HEARYE "He was good. He has to become a lockdown defender but he played real well. He played really smart and took good care of the ball. I thought it was his best collegiate game. You can expect the things that he does. You can expect him to continue to do that stuff." Kansas coach Belf Self on Rodrick Stewart. THE PROJECTED STARTING FIVE Russell Robinson, 6-foot-1 senior guard Never thought Robinson's ranking would go down this low. The ultimate model of consistency will start playing like himself again tonight. Mario Chalmers, 6-foot-1 junior guard THE PROJECTED STARTING FIVE Chalmers did a good job of taking over down the stretch both offensively and defensively toward the end of regulation. But where was he for the game's first 37 minutes? Florida Atlantic 1-5 Xavier Perkins, 6-foot-4 freshman guard Xavier Perkins, 6-foot-4 freshman guard A redshirt freshman from Delray Beach, Fla. Perkins has played more than 18 minutes per game and averaged 4.8 points per game for the Owls. Rodrick Stewart, 6-foot-4 senior guard If students actually still came to Allen Fieldhouse, they'd get to see how Stewart has developed into a viable offensive threat - not to mention one of the most exciting athletes in college basketball. Darrell Arthur, 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Carderro Nwoji, 6-foot junior guard Arthur had his best game of the season Sunday on a night when Bill Sell said the guards didn't pass the ball down low enough. It's a semi-homecoming for Nwoji, who played his high school ball at Wichita South High School in Wichita, Kan. Nwoji handles the point guard duties for Florida Atlantic and lead the Owls with 29 assists in six games. Carlos Monroe, 6-foot-8 junior forward Monroe, a Second-Team All-Belt selection last season, was named to the coaches' preseason All Sun Belt Conference First team. The Philadelphia native is averaging 17.2 points per game. Paul Graham III, 6-foot-5 junior guard Sasha Kaun. 6-foot-11 senior center Kaun's rebounding numbers from the Arizona game, two in 25 minutes, are embarrassing. It's close to impossible to come down with that few. Kaun needs to start rebounding soon or Kansas will be in big trouble later this season. Another Philadelphia native, Graham is leading the Owls in scoring at 17.8 points per game, and shooting 42 percent from three-point range. Brandon Rush, 6-foot-6 junior guard Brittany Rush, junior guard If Rush didn't play as well as he did for as long as he did against Arizona, the Jayhawks would have probably lost. That said, don't expect Rush to play 36 minutes again tonight; he'll probably play about 20. ★☆☆☆ Students come to the game. You see, for a place to "rock" and maintain its reputation as one of the best venues in college basketball, it has to be full. Whatever the reason was for its emptiness on Sunday in the biggest game of the nonconference season, it can't happen again. Kansas is a Top 10 team. Teams ranked in the Top 10 without any basketball history can sell out their gym. The Jayhawks nearly lost Sunday night and have lost non-conference home games in three of the past four seasons. Allen Fieldhouse used to be the toughest place to play in college basketball, but suddenly it doesn't seem quite as mighty. Tonight's game will probably be a laugher, but let's hope students fill the Fieldhouse to show that Sunday was an aberration. Mark Dent ALLEN FIELDHOUSE WILL ROCK IF... Jeff Parmer, 6-foot-8 senior forward Parmer provides Florida Atlantic with size and depth in the frontcourt. The senior forward can also shoot the three - he's 5-11 this season from behind the arc Darrell Arthur THE SIXTH MAN Gerrick Simmons, 6-foot-6 senior forward Simmons is playing 18.3 minutes per game off the bench, registering 3.8 points and 3 rebounds per contest. — Rustin Dodd PHOG ALLEN WILL ROLL OVER IN HIS GRAVE IF... The Jayhawks don't score from the perimeter. All but 16 of Kansas' points against Arizona came from free throws or shots in the paint. The Jayhawks only made two three-pointers out of 10 attempts. One positive aspect of that number is that it means Kansas guards number is that it means Kara grabs wore able to penetrate and get to the foul line or make runners in the paint. The negative is that outside shooting is necessary to win most basketball games. What if a team switches to a zone? The Jayhawks have to count on Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Russell Robinson and even Darrell Arthur to make shots from outside of 15 feet. FAU TIP-OFF AT AGLANCE Florida Atlantic has struggled to a 1-5 record, including a 31-point loss against South Florida on Nov 17. The Owls, who are coming off a 77-66 loss at UMKC on Monday, won 10 conference games in their first season in the Sun Belt Conference last year. This year they were picked to finished fourth in the Sun Belt's East Division in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches Poll. Florida Atlantic is a mid-major program trying to make a name for itself in the saturated Florida college sports environment. WHOTOWATCH Rex Walters, Florida Atlantic coach Rex Walters is in his first season at the helm of Florida Atlantic. Walters was previously an assistant under former FAU coach and Kansas assistant Matt Doherty. Walters first made a name for himself as one of the best players of the early Roy Williams era. Walters, who transferred from Northwestern, played two seasons at Kansas and led Kansas to the Final Four in 1993. The Omaha, Neb., native averaged 15.6 points per game at Kansas and was named Big Eight Male Athlete of the Year in 1993. Walters followed up his Jayhawk career with a seven-year stint in the NBA. Coach Bill Self said he hopes Kansas fans give Walters a warm reception before the game. Walters QUESTION MARK Will the students show up? Bill Self expressed frustration with the student turnout for the Arizona game during his weekly Hawk Talk radio show. "To be candid, it was disappointing to our players," Self said. "They pointed to this as THE non-conference game of the season, and there were fewer students than any game since I've been here." With the football team on hiatus until its bowl game, the basketball team should receive more attention. But will students pack the Fieldhouse for a Wednesday night game against a lackluster opponent? HEARYE. HEARYE "Rex will have his troops fired up and certainly he was a great, great, great player here – one of the best athletes that played in the backcourt here. People take that for granted. He was a stud athlete." Coach Bill Self on former Kansas star Rex Walters returning to Kansas as the coach of Florida Atlantic. JAYHAWK STATS Player MPG FG-FGA 3FG-3FGA RPG PPG 00 Arthur, Darrell 27.0 29-55 1-3 6.6 15.0 15 Chalmers, Mario 28.8 22-42 8-19 2.4 12.4 32 Jackson, Darnell 21.4 22-36 1-3 5.6 10.8 25 Rush, Brandon 21.3 11-22 5-8 4.3 10.0 05 Stewart, Rodrick 19.8 16-24 2-6 3.4 8.2 24 Kaun, Sasha 19.8 16-20 0-0 9-23 8.2 03 Robinson, Russell 27.2 12-29 7-21 2.6 8.0 02 Teahan, Conner 4.7 5-7 5-6 0.3 5.7 14 Read, Tyrel 12.4 10-17 7-12 0.8 5.4 45 Aldrich, Cole 9.2 6-11 0-0 3.0 3.2 11 Bechard, Brennan 2.3 2-3 1-2 0.7 1.7 10 Case, Jeremy 6.6 3-10 1-6 0.0 1.4 54 Kleinmann, Matt 3.7 0-2 0-0 1.0 0.0 40 Witherspoon, Brad 2.0 0-1 0-1 0.0 0.0 22 Buford, Chase 2.3 0-3 0-3 0.7 0.0 04 Collins, Sherron 27.5 12-23 4-13 3.5 16.0 PREDICTION 84-52 The Owls won't put up much of a fight and will probably be tired from the road after losing at UMKC Monday night. Kansas should be able to regain its offensive poise and polish after losing it Sunday night against Arizona. Witherspoon Meter OWL STATS Will senior walk-on Brad Witherspoon get the opportunity to play tonight? This meter tells all.
PlayerMin.FG-FGA3FG-FGARPGPPG
0 Simmons, Derrick18.38-161-333.8
01 Cuka, Eni6.53-62-30.52.5
04 Alarcon, Sean12.54-123-100.71.8
10 Staten, James50-00-020
11 Kone, Seydou6.62-50-01.21
12 Nwoji, Carderro30.811-335-171.86.8
15 Rodriguez, Enrique51-30-012
21 Parmer, Jeff22.214-285-112.76.5
23 Hughley, Sanchez17.56-284-151.33.3
24 Perkins, Xavier18.86-160-21.84.8
25 Graham III, Paul28.228-658-192.417.8
32 Monroe, Carlos31.740-750-110.717.2
40 Royster, Brett13.210-130-03.73.7
1 I