Volume 125 Issue 68
Wednesdav. Februarv 6,2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY & ANSWER
kansan.com
COMMENTARY
COMMENTARY Fans need to stand by their point guard
A crossover dribble can be a funny thing.
When it's done well,
when a defender doesn't expect it,
when a defender can't do anything
about it, it's one of basketball's
prettiest plays.
When it goes off a defender's foot in the final possession of a game,it gives fans the opportunity to question your job.
Right now, Kansas fans are questioning if Elijah Johnson should be the Jayhawks' starting point guard. Right now, Kansas fans are asking whether or not Johnson should even be in the starting lineup.
They should stop — right now.
They should stop — right now. No fan should be thrilled with the performance of the senior leader. Bill Self isn't and neither is Johnson. However, that doesn't mean they should just give up on a player that is a key ingredient in the Jayhawks' 2013 recipe for success.
"For us to have any chance of being a national contender and competing at the highest level, your best players have to play good," Bill Self said. "He is without question one of our best players."
Self said in this case, with this team, the point guard should be judged for his record more than his stats. In Johnson's case, 19-2 and a top-5 ranking doesn't look too shabby. However, it's easy to say that Johnson is a big reason the loss column has a "2" instead of a "1", and he knows it.
"I blame that loss on me 100 percent," Johnson said. "The senior guard always rallies the team up, and gets the Fieldhouse to turn up and takes care of the job for the night. I never did that. I had a blank face out there and I didn't like that at all."
Self's banking on Johnson being more of a Flacco than Naadir Tharpe being a Kaepernick, and why wouldn't he?
Just one year ago Johnson found himself in a similar midseason slump. You know what happened? He snapped out of it and was imperative to the Jayhawks' run to the National Championship.
Self likes to point out that the Ravens didn't bench Joe Flacco after losing four of their last five games to end the season. It worked out pretty well for the Ravens, and John Harbaugh looks like he made the right call. It needs to be said that benching Alex Smith for Colin Kaepernick worked pretty well for Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers, too.
If the jayhawks hope to have any kind of repeat love-affair with winning a championship, Johnson will have to be the jayhawks' starting point guard. This is no time to make a lineup change, just time for Johnson to pick up his play like he did one season ago.
In fact, Johnson was one of KU's best players in the championship game against Kentucky. He was one of three players to score double-digit points and traveled on a late three that would've given Kansas a chance.
Edited by Madison Schultz
"It will fall," Johnson said. "I know it will."
STICK TOGETHER
SELF CONFIDENT
Self to maintain Johnson as the team's point guard
GEOFFREY CALVERT
gcalvert@kansan.com
Kansas coach Bill Self isn't wavering on his starting lineup when the Jayhawks take the court at 8 p.m. tonight against the TCU Horned Frogs.
Although senior point guard Elijah Johnson drew the brunt of criticism for turning over the ball on Kansas' final possession in its Saturday loss to Oklahoma State, Self is sticking with Johnson against TCU and apparently for the rest of the season.
"I think most quarterbacks are judged by their record more so than their stats, and I think in our situation, we should judge our point guard more by their record than we do his stats," Self said. "And I do know this: for us to have any chance of being a national contender and competing at the highest level, your best players have to play good, and he is without question one of our best players. He is my guy and will remain my guw, period."
Although Self could have pulled Johnson from his starting role in favor of a true point guard in sophomore Naadir Tharpe. Johnson said Self's decision to keep him in the starting lineup may be the boost he needs to help him raise his game. Self may have realized that before even John did, because he admitted he didn't even realize he needed Self's pep talk until Sunday.
"Usually I don't but yesterday I did," Johnson said Monday. "I definitely needed one yesterday and coach gave it to me. And I didn't realize until I went home that's what I got."
Playing against TCU may be the perfect opportunity for Johnson to
regain his confidence.
The Horned Frogs are in their first season in the Big 12 Conference, and it's clear their basketball program is overmatched. They enter with a 9-12 record that includes an 0-8 mark in conference play.
"Trent Johnson is in his first year and during that transition period, you always have some situations that don't go smoothly." Self said. "He's building for the future, and they've actually recruited very well thus far. His teams will guard you, they don't give up a lot of points. They'll be much better moving forward."
Kansas coach Bill Self sees TCU's program as one that's concerned with future years, not this one.
No matter what Self's prediction for the Horned Frogs' future is, the most important thing for him is his team's performance tonight. Kansas has gone 264 games without consecutive losses since losing at home to Kansas State and in Columbia. Mo. against Missouri.
But after suffering Self's eighth loss at Allen Fieldhouse Saturday against Oklahoma State, the Jayhawks have to defend the streak again tonight.
That's not a bad challenge for Self, who said his team needed to experience a humbling loss.
"Losses are OK as long as you get better through them," Self said. "I think losing at home, to be honest, was good for us. I don't want to lose — don't get me wrong — but I think for our team, our mind set and psyche, I think it was probably good for us to be humbled."
Edited by Brian Sisk
EMILY WITTLER/KANSAN
Senior guard Elijah Johnson goes for a dunk during Saturday's game against Oklahoma State at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks were defeated 85-80. Johnson scored 8 points during the matchup.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Senior leaders must step up to fill the void
MAX GOODWIN
mgoodwin@kansan.com
Sophomore guard Natalie Knight walks into practice with a limp and a laugh. A smile never seems to leave her face as she rebounds missed shots for her teammates.
She is surrounded by teammates that know exactly what she is going through. Senior guard Angel Goodrich, senior forward Carolyn Davis and junior guard CeCe Harper have all experienced a torn ACL before.
A week ago, the starting guard tore the ACL in her right knee and realized her season was over. Knight has remained a symbol of positivity since the shock that came with such a major injury.
Senior guard Angel Goodrich drives the ball during the first half of the match against Baylor at Alen Fieldhouse on Jan 13.
Goodrich had 16 total points with seven assists. Kansas was defeated by the Lady Bears 60-82.
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
"It was devastating," Carolyn Davis said of Knight's injury. "You never want to see somebody go down, especially someone who's young and never been through that, but at the same time it gives everyone one strength. We're playing for her."
Wednesday night, the Jayhawks will play on the road against Baylor, the No.1 ranked team in the nation. The currently unranked Jayhawks are going into the game with the mentality that there is nothing to lose.
The game at Baylor represents another challenge for Kansas, a team
V
that's been through its fair share of challenges. A Kansas win would shock the college basketball world. A loss, no matter how large, would not surprise anybody.
"Their atmosphere is crazy," Goodrich said. "It's tough to play there, but it's also exciting. We've gotta stick together, we're all we got when we go on the road."
The team has had to come together over the past week since Knight's injury. The seniors, Goodrich, Davis, and guard Monica Engelman, have been through this a few times now. They know how to handle the adversity of a season-ending injury. Last season it was Davis' injury that had the same affect.
They also know that there is no one player on the roster that can make up for what Natalie Knight does; it has to be a collective effort. Sophomore Asia Boyd will certainly see more playing time, as she did in the last game at Kansas State, but the Jayhawks are not looking for Boyd to replace Knight. They would rather she play a role that fits her and what she does well.
The goals for this season did not change with Knight's injury, just as the team didn't give up its hope of an NCAA tournament appearance when Davis was injured last season. What changes is that there is no more room for error.
In a way, the experience of dealing with so many of these same injuries in the past seems to have
"When your team is low on numbers because of injuries, you better be low on excuses too," head coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "They've responded that way."
made the team stronger.
If not that, maybe it is simply the smile on Natalie Knight's face as she goes through this recovery process that bonds the team together.
"I feel like what makes us even stronger is seeing the positivity in the one that's hurt," Goodrich
said. "Seeing that their still pushing through, so you have to push through."
Edited by Madison Schultz
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