8B
* THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13,2002
Basketball CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
Frie Braam/Kansan
some trouble on the boards. Juniors Bryant Nash and Jeff Graves combined for six rebounds, but senior Nick Collison grabbed 15 rebounds to go with his team-high 24 points. Williams said he wanted to see people besides Collison picking up the slack.
"Without Wayne in there, somebody's got to step up and rebound," he said. "We challenged everybody else to a better job on the boards, but Nick still got there himself."
Senior forward Nick Collison snags a rebound before the lechabods' Troy Douglas has the opportunity. Collison led the Jayhawks last night with 24 points and 15 rebounds.
Kansas' other senior Kirk Hinrich went 5-of-7 from the field and finished with 12 points and six assists. He attributed his performance to his play-making tendencing.
"I still have a point guard mentality so I just try to make plays," he said. "I'm not going to try and force it. I'm going to let the game come to me."
Williams said although Hinrich had a modest statistics line, the senator leader impressed Williams with his willingness to pass the basketball.
"Kirk: Hirsch was unbelievable," he said. ("Hirrich), who I think is the best guard in the country, only shoots three times in the first half. It shows that he is unselfish."
The Jayhawks played their first game with Graves as an official team member and he ended with seven points and five turnovers in 17 minutes. Williams said Graves practiced hard but needed to work on his discipline off the court.
"He's got to do more push away — push away from that table "Williams said.
Freshman walk-on forward Christian Moody, who had four points in five minutes, earned the loudest applause when he stammed the ball home with a minute remaining. Langford
leapt out on the floor after the dunk, but said he wasn't surprised by Moody's sudden aggression.
"Christian does that all the time in practice," he said.
And after starting point guard Aaron Miles missed an open dunk minutes earlier, Williams said Miles could learn something from the freshman.
"Christian Moody's going to give Aaron Miles a lesson on how to dunk," he said.
Notes
Williams received his first technical ever last night. Two
minutes after halftime, Williams disagreed with a missed backcourt violation call and was whistled for the technical.
The Associated Press named Hinrich to its All-American team yesterday, but he did not know it until announcer Max Falkenstein informed him at game time.
"I just found out before the game," Hinrich said. "I didn't really think anything. I just went out and played."
Colliison finished seventh in the voting, four votes behind Erwin Dudley of Alabama.
Edited by Nicole Roche
Big East Conference back on top
The Associated Press
The last Big East game last season was the conference's best.
When Connecticut heat Pittsburgh 74-65 in double overtime in March, Madison Square Garden was rocking for the league's tournament championship game just as it did in the years the Big East was always among the country's top conferences.
Pittsburgh has all five starters back from last season, and Connecticut has three starters back as both try to repeat as division winners, and the Big East has enough quality teams that another six bids to the NCAA tournament is a possibility.
"People have to understand this started with a great closing run to the season two years ago," Panthers coach Ben Howland said. "Last season was a continuation of that, and hopefully it will go on."
Brandin Knight is back at point guard, and Julius Page is one of the most exciting off guards in the nation. All of the frontcourt players improved last season, when the Panthers won a school-record 29 games.
Pittsburgh, ranked No. 5 in The Associated Press preseason poll, has one other factor in its favor this season: a new building. The 12,500-seat Petersen Events Center opens on campus; the fast available ticket was sold Aug. 31.
"With all that has happened and is right around the corner." Howland said, "things are going pretty well around Pittsburgh basketball."
It isn't too shabby around the Connecticut program, either.
The Huskies went on an impressive NCAA tournament run, losing to eventual champion Maryland in the East Regional final. Sophomore star Caron Butler left for the NBA, but the three-guard rotation of sophomore Ben Gordon, junior Taliek Brown and senior Tony Robertson and the inside sense of sophomore Emeka Okafor (third in the nation in blocked shots last season), is a pretty good starting point. Coach Jim Calhoun also has four freshmen with a chance for quality minutes.
Boston College has one of the nation's best backcourts in Troy
"We're young, but we’re pretty talented." Calhoun said.
Bell and Ryan Sidney, Georgetown's experienced frontcourt is led by junior Mike Sweetney, who was fifth in the league last season in scoring (19.0), third in rebounding (10.0) and first in field-goal percentage (56.7).
Miami has starters Darius Rice and James Jones back as it looks for a fifth NCAA berth in six years. Notre Dame has one of the nation's best point guards in sophomore Chris Thomas. St. John's got some backcourt help for leading scorer Marcus Hatten in freshman point guard Elijah Ingram. Syracuse has the league's most heralded freshman, forward Carmelo Anthony.
Xavier was the Atlantic 10's only team in the NCAA tournament last season. With two-time conference player of the year David West deciding to return, the Musketeers — 10th in the preseason AP poll — are a safe bet to make the field of 64 for a third straight season.
The 6-foot 10 West averaged 18.3 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks last season.
"Hands down, Xavier is the team to beat," La Salle coach Billy Hahn said.
Crider CONTINUTED FROM PAGE 1B
Crider was limited to only 22 minutes last night after getting hit in the back of the neck early in the first half.
25 points and tied for the team high with rebounds.
"It's a good ball team we played out there," Crider said. "I had a lot of fun until I got my neck jarred."
He was 2-for-7 from the field, finishing with four points, three rebounds and three assists.
Murphy led Washburn with
"They kind of hung off me at first," Murphy said, "but I was able to get some good looks and get it in the basket."
Murphy didn't have much help. The next leading scorer, junior forward Troy Douglas, had just eight points.
The team's top returning scorer, senior forward Manny Clifton, played just 10 minutes after picking up two fouls in the game's first two minutes and recorded just five points for the night!
The game resulted in a 35-point defeat for Washburn, but Crider said the Ichabods realized this game would serve as good experience as they head into the start of their season in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
"Playing in an environment like this is different," Crider said. "I was looking forward to it, and we saw everything tonight from them defensively that we could possibly see."
- Edited by Nicole Roché
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