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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | MONDAY, JAN. 30, 2017
Kansas' guards outshine Kentucky's at Rupp Arena
Guards Frank Mason III and Devonte' Graham stand together during a dead ball late in the second half against Kentucky. The Jayhawks defeated the Wildcats 79-73 in Rupp Arena
BRIAN MINI
Missy Minear/KANSAN in Rupp Arena
@brianminimum
EXINGTON, Ky. Usually when two unheralded recruits go up against the best point guard and second-best shooting guard in their recruiting class, the latter comes out on top.
Backcourt comparisons dominated discussion surrounding Saturday night's Kansas game against Kentucky when Jayhawk guards senior Frank Mason III and junior Devonte' Graham were slated to go up against Kentucky's star freshmen guards Malik Monk and De'Aaron Fox.
That is, unless you count No. 2 Kansas' win over No. 4 Kentucky.
Prior to Saturday's matchup, ESPN College GameDay flashed a comparison of the two backcourts. The Kentucky crowd went wild when the screen showed Fox and Monk's point per game average, 38.1, almost five points higher than the duo of Mason and Graham.
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas even commented that Kentucky's Fox and Monk might just be the greatest Kentucky backcourt of all time.
By the end of the game, the narrative had flipped and Kentucky's stars found themselves on the losing end of a scoring battle with Kansas' backcourt leaders.
When coach Bill Self was asked about the experience of his guards, he said, "Frank and Devonte'...those guys played with pretty good poise down the stretch. Really good."
The twosome's scoring reflected that. 10 of Graham's 12 points and 13 of Mason's 21 came during the second half after Kansas found itself down five going into halftime.
Mason's rise from Towson-commit-turned-Jayhawk climbed even higher on Saturday night against two future NBA lottery picks. After every marquee game, Mason's chances of having his jersey hanging in the Allen Fieldhouse rafters seem to increase.
Graham struggled in the first half, but Kentucky
guard Dominique Hawkins said that Graham "was able to get to the basket and hit second chance points as well."
During the second half with Kansas up by just two, Graham ran up to freshman guard Josh Jackson in the corner, took the ball out of his hands and proceeded to hit a three-pointer at the top of the key seconds later.
With 8:30 gone in the second half, Graham had already outscored both Monk and Fox, after the two had scored 18 of Kentucky's 32 points in the first half.
Graham's display showed two things: he wants to take big shots with the game close, and he's capable of hitting them. After going 0-of-3 from deep in the first half, Graham hit two of his four three-point attempts in a close second half.
"I think we just believed in each other." Mason said about how the team overcame the poor three-point shooting in the first half. ["We] started to drive the ball down hill and stay in attack mode."
Kansas' defensive game plan involved switching to
and from zone, which helped force five turnovers from Monk, two from Fox and another three from sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe. That's just one more impressive accomplishment on the growing resumes of Mason and Graham.
As for Kentucky's defensive against Kansas' guards, Mason and Graham were able to capitalize by not forcing anything.
"Coach tells us all the time don't play to the mismatch or just move the ball and it will naturally come. So that's what we tried to
do," Jackson said.
Kansas' backcourt wasn't perfect themselves, the two upperclassmen finished with a combined nine turnovers, but the high turnover rate was a small price to pay for a key win in Rupp Arena.
There's still the heart of conference play, the conference tournament, March Madness and of course the NBA Draft, but for a cold Saturday in January, there was no better duo than Frank Mason and Devonte' Graham.
Similar origins, separate paths define KU and Kentucky
File photo/KANSAN
SKYLAR ROLSTAD @SkyRolSports
Bill Self, Larry Brown, Ted Owens and Roy Williams come together to honor Allen Fieldhouse' 6 oth anniversary.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari took a long pause before answering the last question in a news conference.
The conference was held with a large group of reporters the day before his Kentucky Wildcats faced the Kansas Jayhawks in an annual SEC-Big 12 matchup of the top college basketball powers.
He went back in time to illustrate the history Kansas carries with it into games like these. Calipari was an assistant for Kansas under coaches Ted Owens and Larry Brown from 1982 to 1985.
Which basketball tradition is richer: Kansas or Kentucky?
A reporter asked Calipari a question that forced him to take a side.
"So they had a good shower and then they had that old one. I always went in the old one. And, you know, from Wilt Chamberlain to you think of JoJo [White], all the guys that played there — I'm hoping [former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall] was here today, I know I was trying to get those guys to come in too."
"We were in Allen Fieldhouse in the old locker room and they had, literally, a shower that was 50 years old, and I'm thinking Phog Allen showered in this shower," Calipari said.
Since Owens cultivated a coaching mind that went on to accomplish everything, Calipari has operated a basketball mammoth in Lexington that didn't begin with him and certainly won't end either.
An image of former Wildcats Anthony Davis and Michael. Kidd-Gilchrist smiling on draft day springs off the wall behind Calipari outside Kentucky's practice gym.
At Kansas, images of everyone from former Jayhawks Wilt Chamberlain to
Owens, Calipari's mentor, would join the team at practice after the news conference.
In Lexington, there is decidedly a more 'basketball royalty' feel to the program.
Andrew Wiggins cover the gallery near the Kansas locker room, with one common theme: every player is pictured in a Kansas jersey.
The DeBruce Center makes the arena look more sleek, and perhaps Kansas is stepping it up, but Allen Fieldhouse is modest. The knowledge that Chamberlain, JoJo White or Paul Pierce once occupied that rectangle on the floor — even if it wasn't that specific hardwood — is enough to count it among the venerated college basketball arenas.
Davis, Julius Randle and
John Wall played there. Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith coached there. The arena is attached to a mall. A college basketball museum is attached, and this one doesn't hold anything written by Dr. James Naismith.
Kansas subtly stratifies its program from the rest of the country.
Rupp Arena isn't a cathedral. It's a factory.
A college basketball museum is attached, and this one doesn't hold anything written by Dr. James Naismith."
Kansas' and Kentucky's basketball traditions stem from a similar, coinciding history. When Adolph Rupp
took to Kentucky, it was after being a pupil of Kansas' Phog Allen, who revolutionized basketball coaching.
It's only fitting that the men who stand at the helm of these two programs now began at the same place: cutting their teeth as assistants at Kansas. Calipari coached under both Owens and Brown. Bill Self came to Kansas shortly after Calipari left.
Self and Calipari's origins may have been similar, but their paths to success were vastly different.
While Calipari's fledgling head coaching career found him coaching in an Elite Eight and Final Four with UMass, Self's career had him recording the first winning season in his three years as Oral Roberts coach. Self left Oral Roberts with an NIT Tournament first-round appearance as his biggest accomplishment.
Calipari's Kentucky machine is unabashed and it's also wildly successful.
After Calipari's Memphis team fell to Kansas in the 2008 National Championship, Calipari hit back with a win over Kansas with Kentucky in the 2012 national title game. Self's consistent success over 14 years with Kansas contrasts with Calipari's explosive success: three Final Fours, an NCAA championship and an Elite Eight all in eight years with Kentucky.
Much like Self or any other successful college basketball coach, Calipari is a respected celebrity in Lexington. But that's different, too.
Calipari hosts his own radio show called "Cal Cast," where he most recently interviewed Drake. He doesn't tweet at halftime like Nebraska coach Tim Miles, but who'd be surprised if he did?
The team built a $7 million dorm for basketball players in 2012 called "the Wildcat Coal Lodge." Kansas' residence hall, McCarthy Hall, cost more at $12 million, but it was built three years later. The Jayhawks' last upgrade in the recruiting arms race likely won them Josh Jackson, who averages 15.5 points in an outstanding freshman season.
More than 4,000 games have been won by Kansas and Kentucky combined. The internet wasn't invented, let alone social media. And there sure weren't lavish residences for basketball players when Phog Allen and Adolph Rupp were coaching.
A lot has changed since these two programs were born.
But even as the modern college basketball landscape has grown into what it is today, the Kentucky and Kansas brands of basketball set themselves apart.
The Kentucky basketball program wouldn't mean this much without physical proof of it either.
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