Volume 125 Issue 43
kansan.com
Tuesday. November 6, 2012
COMMENTARY
Withey starts season slow
W ithey starts slowly yet again Who cares where Waldo is? The question is: where's Withey?
Senior forward Jeff Withey, preseason honorable mention All-American, didn't score against Division II Washburn until a dunk with 15:14 left in the second half. Withey's first two points against Washburn should have come much sooner than five minutes into the second half.
After averaging nine points per game last year as the second scoring option in the post, Withey had to improve his offensive game to accommodate for the departure of Thomas Robinson's 17.7 points per game.
"He hasn't been a factor at all in our first two exhibition games until the last, I'd say 10 minutes or so," coach Bill Self said. "He caught the ball several times at two feet and not ready to score. That's on leff."
In fact, he more closely resembles the Jeff Withey of two years ago, who barely averaged six minutes per game.
batter, averaged 0.11 minutes per game.
The problem isn't necessarily Withey's lack of scoring. It's how he goes about not scoring that's a problem. When Withey received the ball in the post against Washburn, he almost always brought the ball down before going up with it instead of heading straight for the basket.
He has not done that.
Watching Ellis and Withey during the first half, one might guess Ellis was the senior and Withey the freshman. Perhaps the play that best summed up the gap between Ellis and Withey came when the Jayhawks led 26-19 in the first half. Withey received the ball in the low post and immediately brought it down and dribbed instead of looking to score. After picking up his dribble, he passed to Ellis who went up, drew the foul and made both free throws.
Ellis did quiet down in the second half, in part because the team played sloppily overall, and in part because Withey picked up some of the slack. But it shouldn't take a senior more than half of the game to get going when a freshman enters the game in the first half and impacts it right away.
You can't do that, not even against Washburn. The Ichabeds routinely stripped Withey of the ball. If he would have gone straight up with the ball against the much smaller Ichabeds, he probably could have gone to the free throw line.
Edited by Emma McElhaney
Withey's struggles are actually magnified by the play of his freshman teammate, forward Perry Ellis. Once Ellis entered the game in the first half, the lajahawks' offensive dynamic changed. He looked more confident with the ball than Withey and displayed much better footwork, leading to easy baby hooks and short jumpers. Ellis even took a fast-break layup coast-to-coast, drawing a foul in the process.
Withey played only 26 minutes, so he had fewer opportunities to score. He didn't take advantage of them until the middle of the second half, when he converted an old-fashioned three-point play and then scored on a dunk a few minutes later. He followed that with a block and outlet pass to senior guard Travis Releford, who dunked and was fouled.
To be fair, he impacted the game defensively throughout. He blocked seven Washburn shots, continuing the record-setting "Withey Block Party" from last season's NCAA tournament run.
Withe finished with nine points and eight rebounds. He tied freshman Ben McLemore for the team lead in player efficiency rating. The issue is that 35 minutes of the game had already elapsed before Withe got hot offensively.
KANSAS 62 WASHBURN 50
LEADERSHIP LACKING
Seniors failed to demonstrate full potential in exhibition game
ETHAN PADWAY
epadway@kansan.com
In its final outing before the record counts, the Kansas men's basketball team didn't look like a team that had already played in five exhibition contests since August.
Instead the Jayhawks played like they had never been on the court together, operating as five individuals playing his own game.
After riding a 13-5 run into half, the Jayhawks started the second half flat, turning the ball over nine times in the first 11:02 of the second half as the Jayhawks clawed their way to a 62 to 50 victory against the Washburn Ichabods.
"I think that it's too many people thinking too hard and they're not just playing." Senior guard Elijah Johnson said. "And with us thinking so hard and thinking about everything, making it so complex, I think that it's confusing each other, rather than just rolling in a rhythm and hopping on the same train."
"Ben struggled the whole night. Now here's a guy with multiple turnovers and no assists, and Elijah having him initiate offense," coach Bill Self said. "That's not what guards do. He's got to do a better job running our team."
There was no single culprit to the Jayhawk turnover mess, instead the whole team contributed to the poor performance, with the team's four leading scorers all turning the ball over four times each.
It started with the leadership at the top.
At the outset of the second half, the Jayhawks guns, Johnson, McLemore and
Johnson didn't take control of the offense, instead he let other players, such as freshman guard Ben McLemore, take the ball up the court and start the offense.
freshman forward Perry Ellis, went silent. After scoring 29 of the Jayhawks 36 first half points, they managed just 11 points in the second period.
Ellis said the Jayhawks need to work more as a team.
"We still need to learn how to get it back together," he said.
But the bigger culprit turned out to be the Jayhawks showing their youth by committing mistakes and turnovers. Mistakes they didn't show in their previous exhibition outing.
Despite being absent in the first half, where he recorded only one block and one rebound, Withey came to life after being benched, solidifying the defense with six blocks in the second half.
When the game got sloppy and physical, the Jayhawks turned to their big man down low, senior center Wife Withe, to fend off the feisty Ichabods.
Self said the team missed opportunities to take charges, jump for the ball and box out.
"You shouldn't have to take a guy out and sit him to get him mad to where he aggressive," Self said. "That's how he should be all the time, he should start the game that way."
"That's as soft as a team could play," Self said. "They beat us on everything."
The passive attitude started with Withey and the other seniors trickled down, causing the whole team to take on that mindset.
Self said he felt his seniors didn't do enough to carry the team when they needed to drag the struggling younger guys along.
—Edited by Luke Ranker
TYLER BIERWIRTH/KANSAN
Senior center Jeff Withey slams a basket during last night's game against Washburn University. Withey had seven blocks overall against Washburn, assisting in the 62-50 win. However, he has yet to play to his full potential compared to last season.
FOOTBALL
Sims plays hard but can't carry team
BLAKE SCHUSTER
bshuster@kansan.com
Sims leads the Big 12 in rushing with 657 yards, is averaging five yards per carry, and has four touchdowns. That's after sitting out Kansas' first conference match up against Texas Christian University because of his suspension.
Yes, James Sims is the workhorse for the Jayhawks. He should inspire hope, Kansas can recruit top talent, but Sims alone will not bring the Jayhawks' their first conference win in 19 attempts this Saturday against Texas Tech University.
Junior running back James Sims is a model of what could be for the Kansas javhawks.
"Everything is just living oft James Sims," Weis said on the Monday teleconference call. "We're going to continue to lose because we need to score more points. Everyone else needs to play significantly better or things aren't going to go too well."
Yet, from the beginning of the season Weis talked about making the Jayhawks tougher in every aspect of the game. Even though it won't score as many points, one of the ways to teach that toughness is through running the ball.
Consider this: Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege has thrown 31 touchdowns this season on only eight interceptions, while Kansas has only scored 19 touchdowns total. Add in the Red Raiders run game and they double the
Meaning quarterback Michael Cummings' nine for 19 passing, 81-yards and two interceptions won't cut it. Nor will the defense giving up an average of 45 points on the road—compared to giving up an average of 20 points at home.
"The best players on our team are our running backs," Weis said. "It helps to start to establish an identity of being a tougher football team by being able to run the ball."
"The touchdown to interception ratio is astronomical," Weis said. "They've thrown more touchdowns than any other quarterback in this league and that's saying something."
Toughness is great, but the lavhawks need more points.
If that didn't make Kansas' life hard enough, Texas Tech also has a top 20 defense.
It's saying that based on how Kansas has performed on the road this year it could be a long day in Lubbock, Texas. Especially considering that putting together a 60-minute game is something the Jayhawks' have struggled with all year.
"Being competitive for a half just isn't good enough," Weis said. "You come out in the second half and basically do nothing on either side of the ball. It's obviously my responsibility, but we have to do a much better job on the road."
Jayhawks' scoring total.
Edited by Hannah Wise
TYLER ROSTE/KANSAN
Junior running back James Sims sprints downfield in the Oct. 27 game against Texas. Sims is leading the Big 12 in rushing with 657 yards.
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