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/ SPORTS / WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
COMMENTARY
Getting Bill Self's Kansas math right
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
This team was never going to go 33-3. After losing Sherron Collins and two lottery picks, it just wasn't possible to replicate the previous year's success
Bill Self said so before the season:
"Well, this team's not going 33-3."
About that.
About that.
"Well, technically I was right,"
Self said after the season. "We went 35-3."
Self called it "Kansas math" before the season, the idea that the Jayhawks could lose so much and not have a significant drop off. And before the season started, media and coaches alike predicted that the math wouldn't add up. Kansas State was picked as the preseason Big 12 favorite, with Self and the Jayhawks slated to finish second.
About that.
The Jayhawks didn't lose a game in the nonconference season for the first time since winning a national title in 2008. There were scares — the Jayhawks needed late buckets against UCLA and USC and went to overtime with Michigan — but no slip-ups. Not until four games into the conference slate.
"Obviously we're happy with the record," Self said. "The first season is important but not nearly as important as the second season. That's conference play."
That first loss didn't come until Texas came to Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 22 to hand the Jayhawks their first home loss since 2007. The Jayhawks, emotionally drained by the death of Thomas Robinson's mother the night before, couldn't hang on to an early lead. The loss was overshadowed by Robinson's loss, though.
"It says a lot that Thomas came out and played." Marcus Morris said. "It took a lot of courage to
play since Thomas only has his mother and his sister. It is just a sad situation because you do not know what to say to him."
Kansas steamrolled its next six opponents by nearly 20 points per game before traveling to Manhattan to face the preseason favorite Wildcats. For one game at least, they backed up that ranking, as Jacob Pullen poured in 38 points to hand Kansas its second loss and leave the Jayhawks two games back of Texas with five to play.
But in true Self fashion, the Jayhawks managed against steep odds to wrangle their seventh consecutive conference crown away from the Longhorns, who stumbled down the stretch while Kansas won its last five.
Morris earned Big 12 Player of the Year honors, and following a dominant three-game stretch in the Big 12 Tournament, which the Jayhawks won in a classic final over Texas, backed it up by being named the tournament's most outstanding player.
Six days after the final, Kansas teed off on Boston University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, turning a four-point halftime lead in to a 19-point whupping. Two days later, they handled Illinois 73-59 to move to the Sweet 16, joined by the 10-, 11- and 12-seeds in the region. But after putting 12th-seeded Richmond away in impressive fashion to become the only No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight, the Jayhawks stumbled at the hands of Virginia Commonwealth, which became the third 11-seed ever to reach a Final Four.
"It was set up for us regardless of seeds," Self said. "We were the better team in my opinion. We weren't that day, but we were the better team, and that's tough to stomach."
It was the last game of six Jayhawks' careers. Josh_Selby and the Morris twins declared for the NBA draft, while Tyrel Reed, Brady Morningstar and Mario Little will graduate in May.
Edited by Becca Harsch
Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010
Mario Little suspended indefinitely after arrest
Senior guard Mario Little was suspended indefinitely Thursday after an arrest early Tuesday morning on charges of battery, criminal damage and criminal trespass. Little was booked into Douglas County Jail just after 5 a.m. The arrests occurred in an apartment at 12th and Ohio streets.
Lawrence police Sgt. Matt Sarra released an account of the arrest, according to police, in an email on Thursday;
Police were called at about 2:45 a.m. to a disturbance in progress at the Ohio Street apartment. Little had gone to the apartment to see a former basketball manager who police identified as his girlfriend.
Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011
Jayhawks say goodbye to Thomas Robinson's mother
Washington, D.C. — Thomas Robinson got out of a black limousine and immediately went to comfort his 7-year-old sister, Jayla, who was waiting outside Antioch Baptist Church Thursday morning.
Jayla's hair was done up in meticulous braids with blue beads at the tips. She clung to her brother's waist and scrunched down against the fur lining of her parka's collar.
It was the third funeral in less than a month for Robinson, a sophomore forward on the Kansas basketball team. Robinson's grandmother died in late December and his grandfather died less than three weeks later. Then, last Friday, the most shocking blow — his mother, Lisa Robinson, died from an apparent heart attack at age 43.
By the end of the day, Robinson's pain would bring together the people from this neighborhood on the east side of Washington, D.C., and the entire Kansas men's basketball team. Together, in the modest red-brick church, they remembered Lisa Robinson and sought to comfort Thomas, Jayla and their brother, Jamah.
Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010 Josh Selby shines in debut
Selby's debut went unconciasionally well, to the tune of 21 points and a game-winning three with 26 seconds left on the clock. The hype, if possible, actually came up short. He turned it over, and he missed a couple shots (5-of-11 from the field, 5-of-8 from three). But Selby did more than enough to become a Jahewk legend after just 27 minutes on the floor.
"I don't think he should ever miss a shot or ever turn it over," coach Bill Seil said a week before Josh Selly's debut. "If he does that, I think he'll live up to what you guys think he should be."
The hype was too much. Nobody, not even the No. I recruit in a class that has seen some pretty impressive freshman, could do what people were asking.
Funny, right? Well, Selby didn't quite live up to that. Instead, in the Jayhawks 70-68 victory, he might have topped it.