10A / **SPORTS** / MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2011 / **THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN** / KANSAN.COM
MEN'S BASKETBALL REWIND
Senior guard Tyrel Reed holds on to a defensive rebound against Missouri guard Laurence Bowers during the second half. Reed finished with 11 points and two steals in the 70-66 victory at Mizzou Arena.
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Manning and Robinson share pain
BY MIKE LAVIERI
mlavieri@kansan.com
Columbia, Mo. — Thomas Robinson knows a little bit about playing through adversity. On the heels of the death of Ed Manning, father of assistant coach Danny Manning, Robinson provided a huge spark off the bench in Kansas' 70-66 victory against Missouri.
"Danny had a lot to do with this"
Robinson said of his 15 point, 13
rebound performance. "He's going
through something with the death
of his father. I especially know how
he feels with that."
He said that the team talked with coach Manning and it told him that it was here for him. Robinson thought he handled his mother's death well, but he said Manning is handling it great.
"He's doing way better than I did," Robinson said.
He said that this game was also big, not only because of what Manning was going through, but because of the potential to be the No.1 seed in the Big I2 and NCAA tournaments. He also said that coming to Columbia and breaking Missouri's 17-game winning streak at home.
Junior forward Marcus Morris said Robinson played like a man Saturday and said his body of work, which came in 17 minutes, is "unheard of" Morris said that if the Jayhawks have that type of output from Robinson, they will be difficult to defeat.
Coach Bill Self said Robinson was "fired up" for today's game. At one point, sophomore guard Elijah Johnson had to step in.
"He had to calm me down," Robinson said. "It felt like everybody was against us. We were away on the road, calls were kind of going our way, but that's good officiating. At the same time, I got a little hyped, but that's what our point guard is for, to calm me down."
Self said that Robinson wasn't playing well last week as he was before and thought that Robinson might be thinking too much instead of just playing.
"Today he did what he does; that's be a factor inside and go after every ball," Self said. "He defended well and rebounded great and because he just played with a motor, he got some easy basket."
that Self stressed doing the little things to gain his confidence back and thatthe game is a mindset, but the physical game comes naturally.
Robinson even acknowledged that he had been struggling in the last couple of games, practice and just overall before Saturday. He said
He said he models his game after New York Knicks center Amare Stoudemire, who is a good rebounder with 8.4 rebounds per game this season. Robinson said of himself that he ran the floor well, rebounded, sealed and got easy shots.
"Yeah, it's much easier," Robinson said. "I don't have that much to do. If somebody just told you that you can make a living off rebounding and getting easy buckets, why not do it?"
It sounds like a pretty simple game.
Kansas 32|38-70
Edited by Corey Thibodeaux
Missouri 31 | 35 — 66
Jayhawk Stat Leaders
Points
Marcus Morris 21
Rebounds
Thomas Robinson 13
Assists
45 67
42 59
Tyshawn Taylor 3
Player FG-FGA 3FG-3FGA Rebs A Pts
Markieff Morris 4-6 0-0 8 2 10
Marcus Morris 7-15 0-0 10 3 21
Brady Morningstar 2-8 1-2 7 2 5
Tyrel Reed 3-7 1-3 4 1 11
Elijah Johnson 2-4 0-1 3 2 4
Thomas Robinson 6-8 0-0 13 0 15
Tyshawn Taylor 0-4 0-0 1 3 4
Mario Little 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
Josh Selby 0-2 0-1 1 1 0
Totals 24-55 2-7 49 14 70
Missouri
Player FG-FGA 3FG-3FGA Rebs A Pts
Ricardo Ratliffe 2-7 0-0 3 1 4
Justin Safford 0-3 0-1 2 0 2
Phil Pressey 1-4 0-2 1 1 6
Matt Pressey 0-2 0-1 0 0 0
Marcus Denmon 4-12 2-7 4 1 19
Ricky Kreklow 0-3 0-3 0 0 0
Michael Dixon 1-9 1-6 5 5 10
Laurence Bowers 8-13 0-0 10 1 22
Kim English 1-5 0-3 0 0 3
Totals 17-58 3-23 29 9 66
Game to Remember
Thomas Robinson
This is more of a "half to remember" award. Robinson had a double-double in the second half alone, finishing with 15 points and 13 rebounds, seven of which were offensive. Robinson's still not moving as well as he did before his surgery — Self said as much at his Thursday media availability — and this is the first time he's hit double-figures in rebounds or points since missing time for the injury. Good time for him to come out of it, if you're a Jayhawk fan.
Robinson
Game to Forget
Josh Selby
Selby is working his way towards being the odd man out in the guard rotation. He finished with no points, one rebound, one assist and three turnovers and didn't show any sign of the confidence or swagger that made him so solid early in his career. If he doesn't pick it up before the NCAA Tournament, he won't see a whole lot of action in it.
Selby
Quote of the Game
"You've got to wait 'til tomorrow morning then I can tell y'all."
— Thomas Robinson, on the team's celebration of winning the outright Big 12 crown
Robinson
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