10B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DIARY KANSAN
MONDAY MARCH 3 2008
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Beasley's performance not enough for team victory
BY RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
Kansas State freshman Michael Beasley sat quietly outside of the Wildcats' locker room on Saturday night. Munching on a bag of potato chips, the freshman All-American tried to hold back his frustration.
"We laid down," Beasley said, after the Wildcats 88-74 loss.
Beasley may be wondering what else he can do.
His first trip to Allen Fieldhouse was a 31-minute display of basketball brilliance.
Too bad Kansas State sure knows how to waste brilliance. In fact, the Wildcats are making a habit of it.
"As a whole, we just weren't there energy wise, intensity wise." Beasley said, after scoring 39 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
In K-State's biggest game of the season, the Wildcats leading man showed up. The problem for K-State: its other 10 players didn't.
"We have to help him," K-State senior guard Clent Stewart said. "He is going out and doing what he has to do to win and we have to help him."
Stewart had just six points on 2- of 7 shooting.
the rest of the Wildcats weren't much help Saturday, either. The other 10 players who played couldn't even match Beasley's 39 points, scoring a combined 35 points on 12-of-
33 shooting.
Freshman Bill Walker and Jacob Pullen, two players who combined for 44 points in K-State's upset victory against Kansas on Jan. 30, combined for just 12 on Saturday.
Kansas' guards didn't overlook Pullen this time. Russell Robinson and Mario Chalmers corralled K-State's freshman point-guard, holding him to three points and pressuring him into three turnovers.
Kansas derailed Walker, as well.
Clearly frustrated, Walker played just eight minutes in the first half because of foul trouble and spent most of the second half on the bench. He finished with nine points; seven of those, though, came in the closing minutes with the game's outcome no longer in doubt.
"There ain't nothing going on with him. He ain't playing." Beasley said. "He sat most of the game. He still gave us productive minutes. He's playing as hard as he can."
With his teammates performing poorly, Beasley had to be a one-man army. Despite picking up two fouls in the opening minutes, Beasley showed off his NBA-caliber game — at times, making it look too easy.
His sweet left-handed stroke, his Venus flytrap hands, his powerful upper body—they were all on display.
Beasley recorded his 25th double of the season, tying Kansas
Drew Gooden for the Big 12 record.
"He may not win National Player of the Year," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "But hands down he's the best in the country."
For 31 minutes, Beasley imposed his will on the Jayhawk defense. But for all his talent and athleticism, the National Player of the Year candidate never controlled the game.
"It was a quiet 39 if you ask me," Robinson said.
The outcome continued an alarming trend for K-State. Beasley is averaging 37.6 points per game during the Wildcat's past three games, but K-State still lost all three. Saturday continued the same trend. Beasley delighted. K-State lost.
Finishing his bag of chips, Beasley wiped his greasy fingers on his pants. His 39-points — tied for the fourth most by any opponent in 53-year history of Allen Fieldhouse — were wasted.
With a sellout crowd of 16,300 fans watching, Beasley was the best player on the floor Saturday night. But Kansas was clearly the best team.
"They played with a chip on their shoulders," Beasley said of the Jayhawks. "They played with a vengeance."
"We just had no will to win," Beasley said.
- Edited by Matt Hirschfeld
Kansas coach Bill Self and his coaching staff question a call by game officials during the first half. Self and his Jayhawks improved to 1-3 in the Big 12 with the victory. "Everything was good today," Self said after the game. "Texas getting beat didn't hurt our feelings much." Texas lost to Texas Tech Saturday afternoon and fell to 11-3 in the conference.
Notes
TRIO OF TOWERS
You had to feel sorry for the people sitting in the second row behind the Kansas bench. Former Jayhawks Greg Ostertag, Moulaye Niang and Eric Chenoweth sat a row ahead of them. Chenoweth and Ostertag are seven-footers and Niang is 6-foot-9. Ostertag played from 1992-1996, Chenoweth from 1997-2001 and Niang from 2001-2005.
FIVE IS A MAGIC NUMBER
Five Jayhawks scored in double figures on Saturday.That's happened five times this season Kansas record when that happens is 5-0.
Russell Robinson snared a career-high 10 rebounds against Iowa State on Wednesday. He went for blocks on Saturday, rejecting three shots, a career high.
JACK OF ALL TRADES
Mark Dent
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Junior guard Brandon Rush makes a pass in traffic during the second half of Saturday night's game. Rush connected on 5-of-9 three-point attempts on his way to a season-high 21 points. The Jayhawks recorded 21 assists for the game compared to just 11 for the Wildcats.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Kansas State forward Michael Beasley runs over sophomore forward Darrell Arthur on a drive to the basket during the first half. Officials whistled Arthur for a play on the play. Beasley finished with 39 points and 11 rebounds. He was the only Wildcat who scored in double fouls.
the
HIGH low
HIGHS
HIGHS STUDENT SINGERS
The Kansas City Symphony Chorus sang a beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner but proceeded to butcher the Alma Mater. About halfway through,
those in the student section recognized that the choir was going too slow and did what any respectable Jayhawk fans would have done. They drowned out the choir, and sang the alma mater at the right tempo.
DICK VITALE IN THE HOUSE
Say what you want about Dick Vitale, but it was great to have him back at Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday. Sure, his incessant blathering about Duke and North Carolina is annoying, but Vitale is a great ambassador for the college game. When Vitale spent two months earlier this season recovering from throat surgery, he was sorely missed.
LOWS
KANSAS'ZONE
KANSAS
WILDCATS'REBOUNDING
Bill Self said on Friday that Kansas wasn't a zone team. He was right. Kansas went to a zone defense at times against K-State, and the results weren't great. The Wildcats were able to penetrate Kansas' zone with relative ease. Self did say the zone defense allowed Kansas to play through foul trouble in the second half.
Player FG-FGA 3FG-3FGA Rebounds Points
Darrell Arthur 5-10 0-0 5 10
Darnell Jackson 5-7 0-0 6 10
Russell Robinson 4-8 2-4 4 14
Mario Chalmers 2-8 1-3 3 6
Brandon Rush 7-16 5-9 4 21
Sherron Collins 7-12 3-7 3 18
Rodrick Stewart 0-1 0-0 3 0
Sasha Kaun 3-7 0-0 7 9
Cole Aldrich 0-2 0-0 2 0
Somebody teach K-State to box out. The Wildcats' defensive rebounding was atrocious. Kansas piled up a season-high 23 offensive rebounds — the most since the Jayhawks grabbed 23 offensive boards against Dartmouth on Nov. 28, 2006.
-Rustin Dodd
KANSAS STATE
Player FG-FGA 3FG-3FGA Rebounds Points Andre Gilbert 0-4 0-2 4 0 Bill Walker 4-8 0-3 2 9 Michael Beasley 11-23 4-7 11 39 Blake Young 2-3 0-0 4 9 Clent Stewart 2-7 0-2 3 6 Jacob Pullen 1-4 1-4 1 3 Dominique Sutton 1-2 0-1 2 3 Chris Merriwether 0-0 0-0 0 0 Ron Anderson 0-0 0-0 1 0 Darren Kent 2-5 1-2 3 5 Luis Colon 0-0 0-0 0 0
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Senior forward Darnell Jackson points to the sky after throwing down an alley-oop dunk during the second half.
1