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KANSAN.COM
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KELCIE MATOUSEK/KANSAN
Junior guard Brannen Greene passes the ball to a teammate. This is the first game Greene has played in since his suspension.
Despite Brannen Greene's return and Cheick Diallo's OK, Kansas men's basketball has yet to play at its full strength
SHANE JACKSON
@jacksonshane3
It has been an eventful start to the 2015-16 season for Kansas, to say the least. In the early stages of the season, Kansas coach Bill Self wrestled with the NCAA over the eligibility of freshman big man Check Diallo. Then, just as that was clearing up, junior guard Brannen Greene was slapped with a six-game suspension.
Nevertheless, Kansas stormed out to a 6-1 start on the season, which included a championship performance in the Maui Invitational, and appeared to be one of the more talented teams in the country.
With Greene returning early and Diallo cleared, Wednesday's contest against Holy
Cross was the first chance for Kansas fans to see the team at full strength.
Or so they thought.
or so they thought.
Senior forward Jamari Traylor and junior forward Landen Lucas were both held out of the game for precautionary reasons, as they were a bit banged up.
"They got the shaft tonight because they could have played, but I didn't see any reason to [play them]," Self said. "They could have played five minutes but then turned an ankle, and we need to be at full strength." Despite not having a pair of their frontcourt pieces, the Jayhawks stormed past the Crusaders, 92-59.
One reason for the lopsided win was the return of Greene, who came back one game early
from his suspension.
"He's been practicing well, and his attitude has been really good, so I thought that was enough," Self said. "He definitely earned his way back on the court."
"He's been practicing well, and his attitude
has been really good, so I thought that was enough. ... He definitely earned his way back on the court."
BILL SELF Kansas Coach
The junior checked in at the 11:53 mark in the first half,
and he immediately knocked down a three on his first offensive possession to increase the lead to double digits.
His three-point basket opened up the floodgates, as the team began finding the bottom of the net on just about every shot beyond the arc.
"It definitely felt good to be back on the court," Greene said. "After practice yesterday, coach told me I was going to play. But I didn't really know how many minutes I would play."
Greene finished the game with a trio of three-pointers, scoring 14 points in 17 minutes.
"He doesn't really miss," said junior guard Wayne Selden Jr. "We are a great team when he is out there."
Without Lucas and Traylor, Kansas never featured a three-big-man lineup — something the team had gone to in most games of the season. For that, the wings found extra minutes in the game, as was the case for the big men, especially senior Hunter Mickelson.
In his first official start with Kansas, Mickelson was efficient, finishing with two blocks, two assists and two steals in 15 minutes.
"Hunter didn't score and really didn't get a lot of rebounds, but I thought he did some good things too," Self said. "It was a nice effort, but it wasn't anything special by any means."
And it wasn't just the senior who benefited. Diallo and freshman Carlton Bragg Jr.
saw more time as a result of the injury bug. After combining for 16 minutes on Saturday against Harvard, the two young big men recorded 36 minutes against Holy Cross. Over all, Wednesday didn't turn out to be the first glimpse of the team's full potential, but it did allow Self to get other players some much-needed court time. As the conference season looms, Self is still trying to figure out how to piece it all together.
The layhawks' untapped potential has yet to be discovered, but Wednesday night showed that even when they are not at full strength, they are still one of the more difficult teams in the country to stop.
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