4B
SPORTS / THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Aldrich guards Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett during the first half of Oklahoma City Thunder's game against Boston Sunday night. Almond is playing in his rookie season for the Thunder after being drafted 11th overall in the 2010 NBA Draft.
Then junior center Cole Aldrich pulls down a rebound against Nebraska. Aldrich is the ninth all-time leading rebounder at Kansas.
ALDRICH (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
said. "You don't have class, so basically you just go to work three, four hours a day, and you go home and just hang out or do whatever you want to do."
His home life, he said, has been made easier by a few years at Kansas.
"My three years at KU were the years you learn to do so many things," he said. "Not only your laundry, your cooking, your cleaning and all that, but just you learn so much about yourself and your friends around you."
Aldrich said he still has "like 12
or 15" hours to finish up before
getting his degree from Kansas, but that it's something that is a must for him. He's not taking any class this semester, with trying to settle into the NBA game and his role with the Thunder, but he'd like to get it out of the way before too long.
"I've pondered about going back to Lawrence for the summer and taking class and working out with the guys," he said. "But that's a long ways away."
Step one is getting his first paycheck. Former Kansas player and current Thunder teammate Nick Collison said Aldrich should get it soon — sometime in November.
But Aldrich has already found a place to live — incidentally a few blocks from where Bill Self grew up and went to high school in Edmond, Okla., about 15 minutes away from the Ford Center.
"I'm renting a place here up in Edmond. It's by coach's statue." Aldrich said with his trademark toothless smile. "I texted coach and he just starts laughing."
Aldrich's life is made a little easier by another tie to the Jayhawks: the presence of Collison, a seven-year veteran who might as well have been custom-built as a mentor for Aldrich.
"It's really helpful. Not only a guy from KU, but just a positive guy," Aldrich said. "He's out to help everybody, no matter if it's me or anybody else on the team, he's really there for them."
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against Garnett, who he idolized as a Minnesota youth while Garnett was a perennial MVP candidate for the Timberwolves.
helps when it comes to the locker room smack talk, Collison joked, especially with two Longhorns — NBA scoring champ Kevin Durant and Thunder newcomer Royal Ivey — on the roster.
With power forward Jeff Green out with a sprained ankle, Aldrich played a career-high 14 minutes against the Celtics, most of them in man defense against his boyhood idol.
Cole's poster.
Collison said having Aldrich, who was a fan favorite at Kansas with his goofy, fun-loving personality, has been "a breath of fresh air."
"We usually bet and then I always win". Collison said. "That's been pretty standard the last few years. Now we've got Royal, so that'll be some extra money in mine and Cole's pocket."
“It's pretty cool. It is,” Aldrich said. “There's a number of guys that when I was young and I was watching games that you see on the court and it's like 'Wow, I remember you when I was in eighth grade.'”
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Aldrich didn't score in the game, but pulled down four rebounds and played solid defense as part of an effort that held Garnett to a season-low eight points on just 3-of-10 shooting.
"We go grab dinner once in a while and we talk about the old days when we were at KU," he said with a laugh.
He said the relationship with Collison has helped him ease into life as an NBA rookie.
The bond of being Jayhawks
"We've got a lot of really good guys," Collison said when the Thunder were in Kansas City for an October exhibition. "But Cole's different from everybody else."
that the lack of offensive production doesn't bother him with Aldrich, who is averaging one point and 2.2 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game.
WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND
All that locker room chatter came before the Thunder faced off with Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics on Sunday night. Aldrich said it was a little surreal to go up
It fits the bill for why Oklahoma City grabbed Aldrich on draft day. No one expected Aldrich to be an offensive force in the NBA, especially early. Defense and rebounding have always been his forte.
"I need a physical presence, a screen-setter and a ball-mover and he's able to do that," Brooks said in an interview with the Thunder's official website. "The minutes, I don't look at point production. I look at how the minutes are played. Is he setting screens, is he running the offense, is he getting back on defense?"
"I'm not going to try to go in and do spectacular things, only the things that I'm good at," Aldrich said after being drafted in June. "I'm good at rebounding and defending and blocking shots and that's how I'm going to make my presence on the court early is doing those things."
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Collison said that Aldrich has been a quick study in the NBA game.
"Hes' doing a great job. He's smart. He picks up the stuff. He's got a good feel of how to play and where to be," Collison said. "But it's a huge adjustment. He'll have days that don't go well, and days that'll go really well."
So far, Aldrich said, there have been a lot of the days that go well. He said he's happy with the pace he's moving at in the transition from college to the NBA.
But he's got some work to do to become an NBA veteran like Garnett, his childhood idol.
"You just hope to be one of the guys that can stay in the league for that long," he said, "and you can make a name for yourself."
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Thunder coach Scott Brooks said