Volume 125 Issue 66
kansan.com
Thursday, January 31, 2013
COMMENTARY
McLemore in NBA will help Self recruit
Ben McLemore is going to the NBA next year.
No, McLemore's Kansas career isn't going to have an M. Night Shyamalan twist ending. It's going to be predictable, like the denouement of a Nicholas Sparks novel. The two star-crossed love interests are going to end up together. And, barring an injury, Ben McLemore is going to be a top-five pick come June.
ayhawk fans. Brace yourselves, this news may come as a shock to you.
- Edited by Tyler Conover
Although his Kansas career will end soon the pressure for McLemore to perform for Bill Self's program will continue as his NBA career progresses. Kansas is looking for a player to fill Paul Pierce's shoes as a young NBA star. Having a former player who is currently succeeding wildly in the NBA just makes recruiting less arduous. If McLemore properly fills those shoes, then Self will find it easier to recruit the next generation of Kansas ball players.
Granted, Self's coaching strategy mainly involves developing players through their junior and senior years rather than bringing in one-and-dones. He gets players to buy into a system, preferring a team approach rather than focus on the individual. But every now and then a coach needs to find a star that can take over games when the offense is stagnant. McLemore's future in the NBA could go a long way to helping, or hurting, Self in that endeavor.
In the last seven years, the traditional powers all have fresh faces that their former college coaches can utilize to sell the program to current recruits. Duke has Kyrie Irving while UCLA has Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook. Kentucky has a cavalcade of stars that John Calipari seems to spawn using a combination of magic beans and hair gel. Big 12 teams such as Texas and Oklahoma have Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin respectively. Self will be competing with all these schools for recruits, and you can be certain those coaches are name-dropping their professional stars.
In those same seven years Kansas has produced a multitude of NBA players. Some are role players, some are disappointments, some are on winning teams, and some are on losing teams. But none are bona fide stars. Josh Selby has more trouble getting off the bench than Wayne Knight in Space Jam. Xavier Henry couldn't get playing time for the New Orleans Hornets despite Eric Gordon's persistent injuries. Both these players were top-ten recruits, and were supposed to be destined for NBA stardom.
If you think that Calipari won't bring up those names, when he and a high profile recruit are enjoying a dinner of lobster with a side of hundred dollar bills (I'm only sort of kidding), you are grievedly mistaken.
In addition to Selby and Henry, Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins, and Julian Wright, among others, have also not panned out professionally. The Morris twins, Mario Chalmers, and Brandon Rush are solid role players, but haven't yet achieved their high NBA potential, although they still have much time to improve.
KANSAS 78, IOWA STATE 75
COMEBACK QUEENS
Kansas women playing with heart brought victory in overtime
NATHAN FORDYCE
nfordvce@kansan.com
jayhawks win a wild one in OT; erased an 18-point deficit
As the clock dwindled down, senior guard Angel Goodrich dribbled at the top of the arc with 30 seconds left in the game.
To that point, the Jayhawks erased a 18-point deficit with 8:56 remaining in the game to be within three.
Goodrich got a screen and fired up a shot and as the ball spun through the air, Goodrich said it looked like all her other shots—which were bricks.
"No one was getting into the right spots," Goodrich said. "Then we set the screen and I said 'let me just shoot this and get a shot off'"
But this shot wasn't a brick. The 3-pointer dropped to give the Jayhawks a tie game with 16 seconds remaining.
"We were absolutely a train wreck with no timeouts," Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "CeCe was on the wrong side and Angel just dribbled. I'm trying to yell cause it got busted and we had players in the wrong spots. Often it's not the play you run, it's about making a play and she made a play."
After being down 55-37, the Jayhawks found themselves in the improbable situation of a tie ball game and after some tough defense, sent the game into overtime and eventually came up with a 78-75 overtime victory against No. 23 Iowa State. This is the third straight meeting between these teams in Lawrence that went to overtime.
Goodrich finished the night
with a double-double going 10-of-18 for 24 points and 10 assists. Goodrich did most of her damage in the second half and overtime as she went 7-of-9 from the field.
Knight started out the game on fire, scoring 10 of the first 12 points for the Jayhawks. But it was the second half that gave the team even more of a surge. Knight had some big steals and buckets on her way to a 21 point night, including 5-of-9 from behind the arc.
Along with Goodrich, the spark to overturn the huge deficit came from sophomore guard Natalie Knight.
Knight came up with a steal and a layup to cut the deficit to three with a 1:46 left in the game. But Knight went down awkwardly and had to leave the game with a leg injury.
Senior forward Carolyn Davis, finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, was batting with foul trouble most of the second half and overtime but managed to do most of her work in the stretch when the team went 10-of-13 since they were down 18. She said it was her duty to make sure the team still had faith that they could come back from the huge deficit.
"I tried to stay positive and I didn't want to let my teammates see me down," Davis said. "That's what I do; at every huddle, I try to say something positive. I didn't believe for one second that we were out of it. I knew we were tougher than them at that moment."
Iowa State sophomore guard Brynne Williamson, who led the Cyclones with 19 points, said the Jayhawks didn't care they were
down by such a large margin.
"They knew they weren't going to go away," Williamson said. "Eighteen points weren't going to stop them."
Though it is tough to believe a team can come back from such a hole, Davis said she had no doubt that the team could come back.
"I couldn't let my doubts be sent to my teammates," Davis said. "I had to cover up my doubts and no matter what I was thinking, I had to send out positive things. That's what you have to do as a leader."
The Cyclones shot 52.4 percent from the field in the opening half and held the Jayhawks to just 37.9 percent. But in that second half, the numbers were switched. The Cyclones managed to shoot just 37.5 percent as the Jayhawks shot 62.5 percent, including the 10-of-13 down the stretch and in over-13.
Kansas sophomore forwards Chelsea Gardner and Asia Boyd had a minimal impact until the final few minutes and into overtime. The combined for 13 rebounds.
With the 18-point lead, the Cyclones could have easily put the game on cruise control. But Cyclone coach Bill Fennelly said the team isn't good enough to put it on cruise control, but it came down to one simple thing: Kansas made plays down the stretch.
"Disappointing last eight minutes for our team," Fennelly said. "Give KU credit, they kept playing hard and made some big shots, and we didn't."
Edited by Megan Hinman
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
Sophomore guard Asia Boyd goes for the layup attempt during the match against Iowa State Wednesday night in Allen Fieldhouse. Asia had nine total points for the match with five rebounds, and Kansas won against Iowa State in overtime with a final score of 78-75.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Rough conference play helps in March
GEOFFREY CALVERT
gcalvert@kansan.com
Although Kansas isn't winning pretty, it's still winning.
For coach Bill Self, escaping with a road victory in conference play is more important than how a team gets that victory.
After defeating West Virginia 61-56 in Morgantown, W. Va.
Monday night, the Jayhawks sit at 19-1 overall, and 7-0 in Big 12 play. Their record to date, after Monday's game on Jan. 28, is tied with the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 teams as the second best in the Bill Self era, trailing only the 2007-2008 national champions' 20-0 start.
Self
Senior guard Travis Reelford goes to pick up a loose ball before his opponent on Saturday, Jan. 26's game against Oklahoma at Allen Fieldhouse where the Jayhawks won 61-56. Reelford had three turnovers during the game.
"If you tell us before the season, you could tell us last night, you could tell us this afternoon, 'Hey you're going to win by five in Morgantown,' we'd say 'Well we'll take that and go to the house' Self said.
ASHLEIGH LEE/KANSAN
While much has been made of Kansas' offensive struggles since conference play began, its defense has kept opposing offenses just as frustrated.
Kansas leads the nation in field goal percentage defense at 35 per cent, just above Texas' '35.2 per cent.
cent. The Jayhawks have held five of their seven conference opponents to 37 percent shooting or worse, and held Baylor to a paltry 23.2 percent shooting night.
If it holds, the lajwhaws' field goal percentage defense would be the best during Self's reign. Currently, the 2005-2006 team has the best field goal percentage defense of his era with a 37.2 percent field goal defense.
"We're pretty sound defensively," Self said. "I don't know if we're great defensively but we're pretty sound."
On the flip side, Kansas has shot above 43.6 percent in five of its conference games, with at least 50 percent shooting in two of those games. Besides their narrow victory at Texas Jan. 19, the Jayhawks have outshot all of their conference opponents by at least eight percent. Only the Longhorns managed to outshoot Kansas.
So with a defense so dominant, why has Kansas won three of its past four games by five points or less and not scored 70 points since Jan. 9?
Well for one, free throw shooting has been spotty. Kansas shot only 18-34 from the charity stripe against West Virginia.
"That's bad," senior guard Travis Releford said. "Normally as a team we don't shoot that bad. We just got to keep working on it, get in the gym, get up some free throws.
That's about it."
The two previous games weren't much better for Kansas from the free throw line. The Jayhawks swished only 12 of its 19 free throws against Oklahoma, and shot 13-21 from the line at Kansas State.
The other problem is turnovers. The Jayhawks have turned the ball over more than their opponents in five of the seven conference games, including 16 turnovers Monday night against West Virginia's nine turnovers. Kansas has committed at least 13 turnovers in six conference games.
The Jayhawks' three starting guards had three turnovers apiece against West Virginia. Starting point guard Elijah Johnson is averaging 3.9 turnovers per game.
since conference play began and his assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.52 is 203rd in the nation.
"Our guard plays got to get better," Self said. "Teams that pressure us and get after us, we've turned it over here of late. I thought we actually did some good things but we made some bonehead plays."
- Edited by Kyle Crane