D
PAGE 10
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18.2013
KANSAS 73, TEXAS 47
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MEN'S BASKETBALL REWIND
Kansas 28 | 45 - 73 Texas 15 | 32 - 47
JAYHAWK STAT LEADERS
Points
Withey & Releford 15
Rebounds
Withey 11
Assists
Johnson
Johnso 4
KANSAS
Player Pts FG-FGA Rebs A T0's
Kevin Young 6 3-8 7 2 2
Jeff Withey 15 5-11 11 0 1
Elijah Johnson 12 5-10 1 4 1
Ben McLemore 13 4-9 6 3 2
Travis Releford 15 5-7 5 3 0
Naadir Tharpe 2 1-3 1 3 0
Rio Adams 0 0-0 0 0 1
Tyler Self 2 1-1 1 0 0
Totals 73 7-18 41 15 14
TEXAS
Player Pts FG-FGA Rebs A TO's
Johnathan Holes 6 1-8 5 1 0
Connor Lammert 9 3-8 5 0 2
Ioannis Papapetrou 4 2-7 4 0 2
Demarcus Holland 4 2-9 5 1 3
Myck Kabongo 13 2-10 3 0 3
Sheldon McClellan 7 1-7 4 0 1
Javan Felix 0 0-0 2 0 1
Jaylen Bond 2 0-1 3 0 0
Totals 47 12-55 42 3 16
GAME TO REMEMBER
Elijah Johnson, senior point guard
The senior point guard had his best game of conference play, going 1-5 from the field and finishing with 12 points. He scored the Jayhawks' first seven points of the second half, all in transition. Just as importantly, he had four assists and only one turnover.
Johnson
GAME TO FORGET
Naadir Tharpe, sophomore guard
With Elijah Johnson capably running the team Saturday night, Tharpe only got 15 minutes of action. He missed both of his 3-point attempts and scored only two points. To be fair, he had three assists and two steals against zero turnovers.
Tharpe
QUOTE OF THE GAME
"When Justin (Wesley) kind of forced us to do it, it turned into us having so much energy yesterday. And then we went into practice, it just carried over. We just started to realize there's not too much time left. Enjoy it. Right now it's something that we could look back on and say when we was going through a bad time this is when it started to get fun."
Elijah Johnson on the team's "Harlem Shake" video
UNSUNG HERO
Johnson
Travis Releford, senior guard
Ben McLemone's 360-degree dunk will lead the highlight reel and Elijah Johnson's improved play will dominate the water cooler talk, but Reledford played superbly Saturday. He hit four of his five 3-point attempts and tied for the team lead in scoring at 15 points.
Releford
KEY STATS
27
Mario Chalmers became the 27th men's basketball player to have his retired injury by Kansas.
3:16
Texas's assist-to-turnover ratio. The Longhorns finished with 16 turnovers and made only 12 field goals.
38
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
Kansas dominated down low, outsourcing Texas 38-16 in the paint.
Jayhawks' defense airtight
Freshman guard Ben McLemore shoots over a Texas defender for a 3-pointer in Sunday's game at Allen Fieldhouse. McLemore ended the game with 13 points, shooting 2-of-5 from behind the arc.
BLAKE SCHUSTER
bschuster@kansan.com
Heading into the Kansas Jayhawks' matchup with Texas, it was well known that Mario Chalmers was going to be celebrated.
There was his freshly printed banner waiting to be unveiled in the rafters, numerous replays of his miracle shot from 2008 and a standing ovation from the crowd when he took the court to receive his halftime tribute.
Even Travis Releford got into the act, connecting on back-to-back 3-pointers to open the scoring for Kansas in its 73-47 victory over Texas.
Yet, on a night when Kansas honored one of its greatest shooters of all time, it was the Jayhawks' defense that awed Allen Fieldhouse.
Uncomfortable meant that
"I felt like both halves, we did a great job of making them uncomfortable." Releford said after the game. "We were great."
of the 55 shots tossed up by the Longhorns, only 12 sailed through the net.
Not even the return of agile point guard Myck Kabongo could lift Texas from the cloud of Jayhawks. The Longhorns tallied just three assists to Kansas' 15.
Still, nothing was more telling of the defensive stance than midway through the second half when the Jayhawks forced Texas into consecutive shot clock violations — a new sight for Kansas coach Bill Self.
"I don't know if I've ever seen that," Self said. "We're fairly active 'til it gets down to 10 seconds, and we're solid then. We don't take chances. A shot clock violation is about as good as we can do."
It also helps to have 7-foot Jeff Withey guarding the paint.
"Frustration sets in on other teams when they know they can't shoot a regular shot," Elijah Johnson said of Withey's defense. "You've got to detour it all the time. You can't practice for that."
get off near him. He solidified that notion by setting the all-time Big 12 blocks record (265) in the second half, surpassing former Longhorn Chris Mihm.
Teams also can't practice for what Withe can do if a shot does
As much as Texas coach Rick Barnes was willing to praise Kansas for its ability to shut down his offense, there were issues with the Longhorns that even he can't fix.
It was Withey's 100th block on the season.
"You can't coach making shots" Barnes said. "Guys have to make them. We missed a lot of shots."
And as has been the case all season when the group is executing on the back end, the Jayhawks' defense led to a furious offense, the kind that saw four of its starters combine for 55 points.
Most noticeable was the play of Elijah Johnson, who had been struggling of late. The senior had one turnover, four assists and 12 points.
The confidence he had been lacking seemed to return all at once, as Johnson was able to drive the lane, finish at the rim and wait
for the play to develop instead of forcing it.
Or as he put it, tonight, basketball was just natural.
"When you're having fun, you don't have to listen to the scouting report," Johnson said. "When you're having fun, you don't have to know the plays. When you're having fun, you've just got to go out there and play."
And when you're having fun, you take off on a breakaway for a 360-degree dunk — or maybe that's just when Ben McLemore is having fun, like he did late in the game to drain whatever life was still left in the Longhorns.
"We guarded great," Self said. "We went after the ball soft, but we certainly weren't soft with our first-shot defense."
Either way, it wasn't the buckets from Kansas that turned Saturday night into a blowout. It was the lack of them from Texas.
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
— Edited by Allison Hammond
Sophomore guard Naadir Tharpe brings the ball down the court in the second half of Saturday's game against Texas. Tharpe had three assists and two steals.
CEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
Senior center Jeff Withey jumps over a Texas player for a layup in the second half of Saturday's game. He scores 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.