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MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Kansas wins despite foul trouble
Freshman game at th
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time this season, the Kansas men's basketball team had to compete against multiple opponents at once. In addition to the five men Oregon State put on the floor, the Jayhawks also had to contend with foul trouble in their 84-78 victory against the Beavers on Friday.
Foul trouble forced two Kansas states, awards Elih Johnson and
McLemore started the game looking unstoppable. He scored 15 points in 13 minutes of play before finding his place on the pine.
Without McLemore on the floor, the Jayhawk offense lost its voracious attitude. The team struggled to make plays and saw its once 14-point lead disintegrate in the beat of an 18-4 Oregon State run
With Johnson and McLemore on the bench, Johnson approached another senior, fellow guard Travis Releford, and told him that with them sidelined, Releford would have to be the one to shoulder the Jayhawks offense.
I did."
"Travis played great in the second half," Self said. "I thought he played beyond awful in the first half. He played about as bad as he's played in a few years. He finally got mad at someone, maybe it was me, and started attacking the hole."
in three games at the downtown Kansas City arena this season.
Between Johnson's encouragement and Self's challenge to the guards to play more aggressively on offense after halftime, a light went on in Releford's head.
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Although the Jayhawks are learning to win ugly, Self is far from satisfied with the results his team is producing.
"The thing that frustrates me
TOP OF THE HILL 2012
the Kansas lead to 80-77 with 15 seconds left in the match. The Jayhawks struggled taking care of the ball, allowing Oregon State to keep the score close, despite Kansas' 60 percent shooting performance from the field.
"We just don't play real smart," coach Bill Self said. "We haven't had too many guys in positions to be the guys to close people out. We're not an execution team yet, so if you're not that, at least guard and rebound, and we don't do that great yet, but we did get a lot of easy shots, so you can't blame it on our offense."
Self said that after looking at 60 percent shooting, outrebounding the opponent and shooting 68 percent at the free throw line, he didn't think the win should have been that difficult.
The Jayhawks loose-on-ball defense was one factor that led to Oregon States' comeback in the second half.
"We did some good things, but it
"We had three loose balls at the start of the game that we didn't dive on the floor to secure, and they come away with six points because we don't," Self said. "That's a toughness element."
"We were fortunate to be up three at half, because that thing was at 14 and it dwindled fast," Self said. "We didn't have guys step up and stem the tide so to speak. We just played poorly when we needed to be sound. That led to the comeback."
Self said Kansas's lack of tough play and a go-to player to lead the team during the Beavers' runs allowed Oregon State to stay a viable opponent in the game.
"He got whipped." Self said. "The point guard on their team gets 25, and ours gets four. That's a little frustrating because I don't know where we go from there yet. I'm
Senior guard Elijah Johnson continued to struggle scoring, with only six points in 28 minutes of play.
time, and all of the guards, just seeing how we hadn't been attacking the paint, which is stuff we've been working on the past week," senior guard Travis Releford said. "I noticed that, so I figured I should probably put pressure on the defense to help the team, and it opened up a lot for us."
Releford said the backcourt chemistry is still a work in progress. He said the young players are still learning.
"It's early on, Releford said. "We're only seven games in. It's a lot of work, but we have a break coming up. Hopefully, we come together better than we have recently. I think it will all come together soon."
For Self, the game boiled down to one major point.
"They didn't score off their actions," Self said. "They scored off of us not being able to guard the ball, which is pretty important."
—Edited by Joanna Hlavacek
Freshman guard Ben McLemore dunks during the first half of the match against Oregon State in Kansas City, Mo. McLemore had 21 total points with two steals.
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