Volume 126 Issue 5
kansan.com
Thursday, August 29, 2013
COMMENTARY
Golden opportunity for Naadir Tharpe
To call junior point guard Naadir Tharpe's current situation a gift would be an insult to gifts.
He fell into a box of misfit toys and came out looking like a 14 karat ring. A National Championship ring, perhaps.
Nine months ago he couldn't beat out Elijah Johnson, a shooting guard with no prior point guard experience, for starting duties on a team that was one good point guard away from contending for a national championship.
Tharpe was then recruited over for the second straight year, as highly-touted prep point guards like Marcus Paige, Anthony Barber and Demetrius Jackson as Bill Self chased the last two seasons before going elsewhere. When Self's most talented recruiting class of his career was complete in the spring, there wasn't a top-flight point guard to be found.
Only Frank Mason, a 5-foot-10 unranked recruit whose other scholarship offered included Towson, Tennessee State and George Mason, according to scout.com, was found. Mason might be a warm body on the bench or he might eventually contend for serious playing time, but Tharpe will be the starting point guard on opening night against Louisiana-Monroe.
To go from the bench, to being overlooked by Self, to distributing the ball to a handful of future NBA stars must have Tharpe believing in a higher power. Racking up assists this year will be as easy as handing the ball to Andrew Wiggins — the number one overall recruit who many have called the best prospect since Kevin Durant — and getting out of the way.
When Wiggins is double-teamed, likely one-and-done and NBA lottery pick Wayne Selden will be there to pick up the slack. Don't forget about sophomore Perry Ellis down low. Or five-star freshman center Joel Embiid.
The starting point guard on this Kansas team was going to have the best job in the country this season, and that job fell into Naadir Tharpe's lap.
You get the point
The window to capitalize on the months Self spent recruiting this class will slam shut the second the final game is over. If he thinks that final game will be anywhere but Cowboys Stadium on the first Monday in April, don't expect subpar point guard play to be his downfall.
But this season won't be like last season, where Self had to stick with shoddy point guard play because he had no better options on the bench, ultimately costing his team two consecutive Final Fours. Self surely realizes he will never coach a player as good as Wiggins, and he likely won't have three soon-to-be lottery picks on his team the rest of his career.
Naadir Tharpe could be one of the best point guards in the country this season or he could be left on the side of the road. It won't be an easy situation to handle, but if he wanted anything different he would have gone to Minnesota instead.
Edited by Hannah Barling
INITIAL INVITATIONAL
Volleyball begins nonconference season with Arizona Invitational
PAGE 9B
THE FEW-TURE
4
Eight new freshmen join the Kansas roster
V
PAGE 3B
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