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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2011
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KANSAS 77. FLORIDA ATLANTIC 54
BASKETBALL REWIND
Kansas 42 35----77
Florida Atlantic 26 | 28 - 54
JAYHAWK STAT LEADERS
Points
Robinson 19
Rebounds
Robinson
Assists
17
Releford 4
GAME TO REMEMBER
Thomas Robinson, junior forward
Robinson wasn't at his finest — he missed nine of his 13 shot attempts. However 19 points, 17 rebounds and, most importantly, 11 of 13 from the free-throw line is nothing to belittle. Last season, Robinson's greatest kyptonite outside of fouling was missed free throws. After another long summer of working at it and gaining confidence, he coolly converted from the charity stripe. Robinson will take plenty more visits to the line this season and Wednesday's performance there indicated that he may not waste them.
Robinson
GAME TO FORGET
Eliiah Johnson. junior guard
Against UCLA Johnson was his team's best player. His three-point shot was smooth and he made wise, quick decisions with the ball. Against Florida Atlantic on yesterday, something went wrong. Self might not have exaggerated when he said that Johnson was still in Hawaii. Not a single point and seven turnovers just won't cut it against the Big 12. Johnson needs to learn from his mistakes, clear his head and move on. If not, an already shallow backcourt will be in bad shape.
Johnson
PRIME PLAYS
FIRST HALF
(SCORE AFTER PLAY)
16:13 - Pablo Bertone takes a quick dribble on the wing before stepping back and knocking down the jump shot over Elijah Johnson. Bill Self takes a 30 second timeout. 9-3 Florida Atlantic.
10:09 Elijah Johnson finds Justin Wesley on the low block, who finishes with a layup, giving Kansas its largest lead of the game, 19-14.
9:22- Conner Teahan knocks down his third three-pointer of the game, giving the Jayhawks a 22-16 lead.
3:46: Tyshawn Taylor connects on a three-pointer from the top of the key and the Jayhawks take a commanding 36-18 lead.
SECOND HALF
11:21- Conner Teahan steals a pass on the wing and finds a wide open Thomas Robinson standing alone at the other end of the court. Robinson receives the pass and throws down a one-handed dunk. 57-38 Kansas.
7:19- Raymond Taylor knocks down a high-arcring three from the wing to cut the Kansas lead to 60-47.
4:55 - Pablo Bertone hits a three-pointer from the wing, and the Owls once again cut the Jahyh lead. This time to 14, and it's 66-52.
1:15- Kevin Young connects on one of two free throws to give the Jayhawks a 20 point lead, 74-54.
KANSAS
Player FG-FGA 3FG-3FGA Rebs A Pts
Tyshawn Taylor 5-12 1-3 3 1 18
Elijah Johnson 0-4 0-3 4 3 0
Travis Releford 5-9 0-2 6 4 11
Jeff Withey 5-5 0-0 2 0 10
Thomas Robinson 4-13 0-0 17 1 19
Conner Teahan 3-7 3-5 4 1 9
Justin Wesley 1-3 0-0 7 0 2
Naadir Tharpe 0-1 0-0 0 1 0
Kevin Young 0-0 0-0 5 0 5
Totals 24-55 4-13 53 11 77
FLORIDA ATLANTIC
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN
Player FG-FGA 3FG-3FGA Robs A Pts
Kore White 4-12 1-3 0 1 9
Alex Tucker 0-3 0-1 1 4 0
Greg Gantt 1-4 0-2 0 0 2
Pablo Bertone 7-15 1-3 12 2 17
Raymond Taylor 2-10 2-5 1 1 6
Andre Mattison 0-2 0-0 4 0 1
Dennis Mavin 6-12 5-8 4 0 17
Omari Grier 0-5 0-3 2 0 0
Totals 21-85 4-17 32 8 54
Senior guard Tyshawn Taylor defends Florida Atlantic's junior guard Greg Gantt during the first half of Wednesday night's game at Allen Fieldhouse. Taylor had three defensive rebounds along with one steal for the Jayhawks.
Self frustrated by sloppy play
KORY CARPENTER
kcarpenter@kansan.com
Coach Bill Self said his players might have had too much pineapple juice while in Hawaii for the Maui Invitational. In their first game back from the Islands, the Jayhawks committed 17 turnovers, but Self didn't think the hangover was the cause of the sloppy play.
The first half was relatively clean, as Kansas turned the ball over six times in the opening 20 minutes of play. The second half
"I don't know if I can say that totally," Self said after the sloppy 77-54 victory. "Because we're good at turning it over both inland and in Hawaii, so I don't know if that's true."
was a completely different story, as missed layups and bad passes were more prevalent than the customary highlight-reel dunks fans are accustomed to seeing when a mid-major walks into Allen Fieldhouse. Junior forward Thomas Robinson finished with 19 points and 17 rebounds, but his missed dunks and layups kept him from an easy 30 points on a Florida Atlantic frontline that was overmatched all night.
Junior center Jeff Withey had 10 points and two turnovers in 18 minutes of action and would like to see the slow starts that Kansas has had become a thing of the past.
come over time.
"As soon as the ball is tipped off or in the second half, we come out slow, usually," Withey said. "That's going to be the difference between our team being great and not being great."
Self seemed more upset with his guard play.
Both Withey and Robinson talked about the need to not always bring the ball down for a quick dribble before going up for a layup or dunk. Withey called it a reflex to regain his balance, and it's something the Jayhawk big men are working on cutting down with the help of assistant coach Danny Manning.
"Tonight, their best offense was our offense," he said. "Us dribbling it up and getting ripped and them going to make a layup. Our guards are too good to play like this."
Robinson blamed the turnovers on a lack of focus and reminded everyone that the season is young and a full 40 minutes of focus will
"I made it tough for myself," Robinson said. "I knew they were going to swarm me, and I kept putting the ball on the floor over and over and over."
Even with the abundance of turnovers and sloppy play, Robinson is optimistic that the team's carelessness will be taken care of as it heads forward.
"It's still early in the season," he said. "We've got 30 more games probably, so it's going to be here for a couple of more games. Eventually we will become a good team for 40 straight minutes."
- Edited by Jennifer DiDonato
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
Coach Bill Self yells at freshman guard Naadire Tharpe during the first half after Tharpe made a personal foul against Florida Atlantic freshman guard Alex Tucker. Kansas had a total of 20 personal fouls.
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
Junior Guard Travis Releford dunks against Florida Atlantic junior forward Kore White. Releford had a total of 11 points and Kansas won against Florida Atlantic 77-54.
NOTES
- Kansas hasn't lost to a mid-major at home since Nov. 15, 2006.
- Thomas Robinson's 19 points and 17 rebounds gave him his sixth double-double in six games this season.
- Kansas scored a season-high 25 points from the free-throw line
- The 13 blocked shots were the most by Kansas since Dec. 9, 2006, against Toledo, where it collected 15.
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
Senior guard Conner Teahan scores with a wide open shot during the second half of the game. Teahan had nine total points for the game.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"He's still in Hawaii. He didn't get hungover. He got left there."
Bill Self on junior guard, Ellijah Johnson
Self
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