THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2012
SAN JOSE STATE 57
PAGE 9
REWIND
Senior guard Travis Releford fights through the contact to score 2 of his 15 points Monday night Nov. 26 at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks went on to defeat San Jose State 70-57.
BRANDON SMITH/KANSAN
SCHEDULE
*all games in bold are at home
Date Opponent Time
Oct. 30 EMPORIA STATE (EXHIBITION) W, 88-54
Nov. 5 WASHBURN (EXHIBITION) W, 62-50
Nov. 9 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE W, 74-55
Nov. 13 MICHIGAN STATE L, 67-64
Nov. 15 CHATTANOOGA (CBE) W, 69-55
Nov. 19 WASHINGTON STATE (CBE) W, 78-41
Nov. 20 ST. LOUIS (CBE) W, 73-59
Nov. 26 SAN JOSE STATE W, 70-57
Nov. 30 OREGON STATE 7 p.m.
Dec. 8 COLORADO 1 p.m.
Dec. 15 BELMONT 6 p.m.
Dec. 18 RICHMOND 6 p.m.
Dec. 22 OHIO STATE 3 p.m.
Dec. 29 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 7 p.m.
Jan. 6 TEMPLE 12:30/3:30 p.m.
Jan. 9 IOWA STATE 6 p.m.
Jan. 12 TEXAS TECH 3 p.m.
Jan. 14 BAYLOR 8 p.m.
Jan. 19 TEXAS 1 p.m.
Jan. 22 KANSAS STATE 7 p.m.
Jan. 26 OKLAHOMA 3 p.m.
Jan. 28 WEST VIRGINIA 8 p.m.
Feb. 2 OKLAHOMA STATE 3 p.m.
Feb. 6 TCU 8 p.m.
Feb. 9 OKLAHOMA 3 p.m.
Feb. 11 KANSAS STATE 8 p.m.
Feb. 16 TEXAS 8 p.m.
Feb. 20 OKLAHOMA STATE 3 p.m.
Feb. 23 TCU 3 p.m.
Feb. 25 IOWA STATE 8 p.m.
Feb. 29 OKLAHOMA STATE 7 p.m.
March 2 WEST VIRGINIA 1 p.m.
March 4 TEXAS TECH 6 p.m.
5 p.m.
March 9 BAYLOR
KEY PLAYS
FIRST HALF
(SCORE AFTER PLAY)
19:49 - Freshman guard Ben McLemore dunks an alley-oop pass from senior guard Elijah Johnson, giving Jayhawk fans hope that another rout is on. 2-0 Kansas.
2:27  Senior guard Travis Reeford makes a three-pointer, Kansas' last points of the half. 40-25 Kansas.
0:17  San Jose State DJ's Brown bumper is a cap to a cap 7- O spartan run to finish the half. 40-32 Kansas.
SECOND HALF
11:42 - A Jeff Withey jumper gives Kansas its largest lead of the game at 24 points. Kansas wouldn't score again for 6 minutes, 52 seconds. 60-36 Kansas.
2:41 — A three-pointer by James Kinney brings San Jose State to within seven points. 64-57 Kansas.
0:23 - Ben McLemore slams home a windmill dunk on a breakaway, giving Kansas fans something to cheer about to end the night. 70-57 Kansas.
Jayhawk offense loses momentum in second half
TREVOR GRAFF
tgraff@kansan.com
Over the break, coach Bill Self focused on two major points of emphasis, points that held the Jayhawks back in early season contests—energy and assertiveness.
To Self, his squad played too lethargically on offensive and without assertiveness on the defensive end. The Jayhawks struggled on both ends of the floor, despite senior center Jeff Withey's triple-double, in a 70-57 win over San Jose State.
"Withey won the game for us almost single handedly," Self said. "He was the only one that played well."
Self said Withey has been
scoring better and covered up a lot of mistakes in tonight's game.
The lajahays struggled offen-
sively, a theme of the early season.
"We couldn't pass it, shoot it, dribble it, screen it, we couldn't do anything," Self said. "We were just awful."
After first half struggles, the Jayhawks picked up the pace on the offensive end to start the second half, but the hot start didn't last. The last 12 minutes of play were a struggle for the Jayhawks scoring only 12 points in that stretch.
Senior guard Eljah Johnson said playing harder in second half was a matter of showing the difference between the Jayhawks and San Jose State.
"That's when we knuckle in and grind," Johnson said. "Coach puts
that in our head in the locker room all the time at the half, we usually come out with that fresh in our minds."
"We did play well, but we were up 15 with two-and-a-half left and in our building they went on a 7-0 run," Self said. "Then, in our building earlier in the second half they went on a 16-0 run. That was certainly beyond discouraging in that stretch."
But a 16-0 scoring run from the Spartans led to a stale shooting performance late in the second half.
The Jayhawks lack of offensive rhythm early in the second half gave San Jose State the added momentum they needed to hang with the Jayhawks for the remainder of the game.
"I think we just gave them
momentum, and I think we made some bone-headed plays to give them some extra energy," Johnson said. "Any team can take that momentum and turn it into something, and that's what they did tonight."
The rough play was most evident on the glass. The layhawks were outrebounded 45-to-41 by the Spartans, and struggled to score in the paint outside Withev's efforts.
"We didn't have any post presence if it wasn't for Jeft," self said "You can say take jump shots, but right now Ben obviously wasn't a factor offensively tonight. Elijah had no juice so he couldn't get pass anybody. When you only have one low post presence it just isn't that easy to say get the ball in tight."
The Jayhawks didn't score on opportunities when the post players established position in the second half. This lack of interior scoring led to an offensive pace that was, "ridiculously slow," Self said. Self wasn't happy with his squad's efforts to push the pace.
"It never happened tonight," Self said. "Now when we got from defense to offense, I thought there was se me good pace involved there, but if we hadn't figured it out, we've got a pretty good guy behind blocking shots, so why wouldn't we get out and pressure our guy? That's the thing that's discouraging me."
Spartans senior guard James Kinney found plenty of open space in the Jayhawk defense. His 30-point performance highlighted a flaw in the Kansas defense.
"He was all over the place," senior guard Travis Releford said. "It wasn't a single-man task. He got his chance to play against everybody out there. He put up 26 shots. We have to do a better job at communicating as guards and just go from there."
The Jayhawks have two practices to prepare for Oregon State. The Beavers are the biggest team Kansas will face to this point in the season.
"Those guys that are short have to play bigger than their standing height," Self said. "We're so passive as far as being active and going after the ball. Maybe I see it through different eyes, but I just think that we're not a real aggressive group."
Edited by Luke Rankel
Join us at Relay For Life of KU 2013
Fight back against a disease that already takes too much!
Team Captain Kickoff www.relayforlife.org/kuks
November 27,2012 Come and go 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Burge Union, Relays Room COME GET YOUR SWAG BAG!