Volume 124 Issue 80
kansan.com
Monday, January 23, 2012
COMMENTARY
Withey spreading his wings
ThomasRobinson and Tyshawn Taylor drive the Kansas basketball machine. Without the duo, the Jayhawks would struggle to generate points and probably give up way more offensive rebounds.
But as Kansas continues to evolve into a Final Four-caliber team, we can't forget about the development of junior center Jeff Withey.
Here's a guy who played six minutes per game last year and a total of four minutes in the Jayhawks' nine games last March. He was, at best, a big body that could pick up a few fouls, alter a few shots and slam a few dunks.
He's so much more to the Jayhawks now, thanks to an offseason of weight training and teaching from big man coach Danny Manning.
Withey averages a block every 7.37 minutes on the floor. His 14.75 block percentage — a measure of the percentage of shots blocked by the player while he's in the game — ranks fifth in the nation, just above Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis' 14.28 percent.
Withey didn't have his best game in Kansas' 69-66 win in Austin on Saturday, finishing just 2-of-7 from the field and blocking two shots in thirty minutes of action.
His presence in the paint still altered Texas' offensive attack — the Longhorns hit just 30.9 percent of their two-point attempts. The threat of a Withey blocked shot can almost be as effective as an actual blocked shot.
Withey also came up clutch in the final minute, corralling a Robinson "assist" and finishing a layup while getting fouled by the Longhorn's Myck Kabongo. Withey hit the free throw, giving the Jayhawks a two-point lead with 37 seconds remaining.
Ken Pomeroy, a basketball analyst who runs the site KenPom.com, created a similarity matrix that allows the website to compare any current player to one from the recent past, using each player's statistics and role on the team to make the correlation.
Withey is certainly a unique player — a seven-footer who blocks a high number of shots, grabs lots of offensive rebounds and shoots more than 80 percent from the foul line. You can't walk into any gym in America and find a Jeff Withey.
His most similar connection is relatively weak, ranked 837 on a 1000 scale. Pomeroy urges his site's visitors to use the similarity scores carefully, especially ones less than 850.
That being said, the most similar player to Withey this year is Cole Aldrich from his final season at Kansas, 2009-2010.
Aldrich fouled a little less and rebounded more, but also shot a worse percentage from the free-throw line. Aldrich was a bigger part of the offense and played more minutes, too, so it's clear that Withey doesn't impact the game the way Aldrich did.
The comparison is still fascinating.
Robinson and Taylor must play well for Kansas to make waves in March. But the play of Withey will certainly impact the Jayhawks' chance at a Big 12 title and a run in the Big Dance.
GRAB YOUR POSTERS KANSAS PLAYS TEXAS A&M PAGE 4B
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SWIMMING TEAM SINKS ARKANSAS BESTS KANSAS PAGE 7B
KANSAS 69, TEXAS 66
JAYHAWKS HOOK'HORNS
MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
Down three points with one second left, the Jayhawk killer, Texas junior guard J'Covan Brown, hurled a fadeaway three. The shot clanked off the rim, wide left, and No. 7 Kansas (16-3, 6-0) escaped with a 69-66 victory on Saturday afternoon.
"He still got a look that scared me," senior guard Tyshawn Taylor said of Brown, who was defended by junior guard Elijah Johnson and sophomore forward Justin Wesley on the final shot. "I thought it was going in when he shot it."
He said his mother wasn't
It was Kansas' closest victory of the season, with only the 67-63 victory over Georgetown in the Maui Invitational bearing any resemblance. For a team with aspirations of success in March, Self echoed the importance of games like these.
One year after his mother's death, and one year after Brown scored 23 points and ended Kansas' 69-game winning streak at Allen Fieldhouse, junior forward Thomas Robinson started slowly, logging just six points and one rebound in the entire first half.
"Coach was saying how good this was for us in the time out when we were down four points," Taylor said. "Games like this are always learning experiences. This is how teams get better, having close games and fighting on the road."
on his mind when he was out there.
"No disrespect," Robinson said. "But that's something that I have to live with every day. For the media it's the anniversary."
"It's a regular day," Taylor said. "Just coming out here and doing work."
Without Robinson's typical production in the early stages of the game, Taylor took charge, slashing to the hoop and knocking down 3-point shots. He finished with 22 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and perhaps more important than any other statistic, 0 turnovers.
"Maybe it was that guy that said something bad about him on Twitter," Self said of Taylor's three-game streak of more than 20 points scored.
Robinson returned to his more typical, aggressive form in the second half, posting 11 points and 8 rebounds. He grabbed four rebounds in the final 4:19 and squeezed a pass through Texas' interior defense to find junior center Jeff Withey for a three-point play with 37 seconds left.
After missing his first three attempts, Robinson sunk his fourth shot from the free throw line, setting up Brown's final miss.
"I thought they were more active than us," Self said. "But we got the key ones late."
— Edited by Pat Strathman
TRAVIS YOUNG /KANSAN
Senior guard Tyshawn Taylor pushes through University of Texas freshman guard Julien Lewis during the first half of the game. Kansas won against the University of Texas 69-66.
WOMENS'S BASKETBALL
Goodrich's career high not enough
kgier@kansan.com
KATHLEEN GIER
kaier@kansan.com
Angel Goodrich scored, rebounded and drew charges. The junior guard even led her team in scoring with a career-high 28 points, but the one thing she couldn't do was defeat the defending national champion Aggies - at least not by herself.
"She had a spark and we didn't have much behind her," Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson said.
Junior guard Angel Goodrich thinks about how to move around her opponent during Saturday nights game against Texas A&M in Allen Fieldhouse where the Jayhawks lost 76-65.
2-of-4 from beyond the arc and 4-of-5 from the line in a performance nothing less than inspired.
"She could score when other people weren't able to
Only two other Kansas players broke double figures as No. 14 Texas A&M pressured and controlled the game from the beginning on their way to a 76-65 final win in Lawrence before they leave for the SEC. The Jayhawks dropped to 15-3 overall and 4-2 in Big 12 play.
Goodrich had a team-high 13 points by halftime, and added another 15 in the second half. She shot 11-of-16 from the field.
ASHLEIGH LEE /KANSAN
out of rhythm and her passes flew past teammates and out of bounds. While Goodrich had the best scoring night of her career, she was held back by 11 turnovers.
Goodrich was disappointed with the number of turnovers and admitted she didn't respond well to the pressure.
"I wanted to push the ball more but I felt like I was just getting frustrated with myself with all the turnovers and I can't let that happen to me as a point guard," Goodrich said. "I have to keep myself composed and keep the team on the same page."
"It's uncharacteristic for her, it's a credit to their pressure and they got into her pretty good." Henrickson said. "But I love the fact that she is that aggressive offensively, love it."
score," senior forward Aishah Sutherland said. "They were pressuring so much that we couldn't reverse the ball and couldn't score so that was what the option was, was for her to score."
"I have to keep myself composed and keep the team on the same page."
But when Goodrich tried to share the ball the Jahvahws were
ANGEL GOODRICH Junior guard
Carolyn Davis and Monica Engelman joined Goodrich in double figures, but neither
played with the same sense of urgency. Davis was also restricted with foul trouble late in the first half, which allowed Texas A&M's for wards, Adaora Elonu
and Kelsey Bone, to make them mark in the paint with 17 and 18 points respectively.
The Aggies brought pressure that the Jayhawks haven't seen all season. They fought each possession and forced 23 turnovers. Then they scored 19 points off
those turnovers.
"Inside they are big, they're physical and they got into us pretty good defensively and offensively," Henrickson said. "They played pretty good post defense, I thought, and pressured the ball. If you can do those two things then you are going to dictate what somebody can do offensively and they did with us."
The Jayhawks had the better
Sutherland offered some excitement in the second half
"Chaos is what it was offensively," Henrickson said. "We didn't get shots in rhythm, we didn't have rebounders, we had no rhythm, no flow."
shooting percentage and only lost the rebounding battle by one, but the difference was in the number of shots: Kansas only took 48 compared to the Texas A&M 62.
when she hit her 1,000th career point at the free throw line. She became the 15th player in program history to record more than 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.
The Jayhawks will look to bounce back on Wednesday night against No. 17 Texas Tech at 7 p.m.
Edited by Nadia Imafidon