“The guys were fine. I think they are confident in those situations,” Self said, referring to needing to score on the game’s final possession to overcome a 63-62 deficit and pull out a huge road win.

“The demeanor was good. I think everyone felt comfortable with what we were trying to do. Certainly, we were fortunate, but it worked out well,” Self added.

What happened, of course, is forward Perry Ellis flipped a pass to center Joel Embiid, who drove the baseline, but had the ball poked away with four ticks left. Andrew Wiggins retrieved the ball in the lane and dropped in a one-footer with 1.7 seconds left for the winner.

“Very rarely do you ever choreograph a play where it works out perfectly in a situation like that,” Self said Wednesday on his weekly Hawk Talk radio show. “What you have to do is have your best players step up and make plays and that’s what happened.”

Self’s version of the play goes something like this: “Perry threw the ball to Jo. Jo did the right thing trying to score, but he fumbled it. Andrew was ‘Johnny on the Spot’ there,” Self said.

Wiggins after the game told Self, then related to reporters, that it was the first time since he’d started playing basketball that he’d hit a buzzer-beater for the win.

“I started thinking about that. The kid is a freshman. His high school team (Huntington Prep in West Virginia) was so talented and so good I bet they didn’t play three close games a year,” Self said. “When you stop and think, he hadn’t been put in any situations like that ever. I bet he hadn’t shot the ball at game point with a chance to win maybe but once or twice in his life. Even though it was not a long shot ... he said he’s made several to tie, but not win, so I thought that was pretty neat.”
LJW


Sometime over the last 11 years, Bill Self’s coaching reputation began to evolve. He was always The Master Recruiter, an accomplished winner who could manage a roster and put a team of top-50 recruits on the floor.

But in those early years at Kansas, Self was never thought of as a late-game tactician. But now, you can hardly go a game without a color analyst talking up Self’s ability to take advantage of in-bounds opportunities and draw up useful sets. Perhaps nothing has changed in the last 10 years. But perception can be a powerful thing.

If you watch enough Kansas, you notice a familiar trend. It’s not that Self draws up late-game plays that opponents haven’t seen before. It’s generally that KU runs the same two or three late-game sets — sets with multiple options — and the Jayhawks generally run them well.

On Tuesday night in Lubbock, Kansas beat Texas Tech in the final seconds. There was an element of luck involved, of course — maybe a lot of luck. But it’s worth taking a look back at that final possession, when Andrew Wiggins swooped in and dropped in a last-second layup after Joel Embiid lost the ball across the lane.

It’s not just that it was essentially the same set that Kansas ran to tie the game against Colorado earlier in the season. (Remember that play?) It was the exact same play that the Jayhawks had run on the previous possession. So before we get to Kansas’ final play, let’s look at the possession before that, when the Jayhawks trailed 61-60 with under 40 seconds left.

Kansas spread the floor with Andrew Wiggins on the left wing, and Joel Embiid on the block. And Perry Ellis set a high ball screen for Naadir Tharpe.

In the next moment, Tharpe delivered the ball to Ellis on the pick-and-pop, setting up numbers for Kansas on the left side. Ellis had the option to attack the basket or look for Andrew Wiggins in the corner. With the help defense shading into the paint, Ellis quickly looked toward Wiggins.

Wiggins, as he had done for most of the night, attacked the basket. He missed the dunk, but Embiid was there to grab the offensive rebound and throw down a two-handed jam.

So that’s the set Texas Tech had seen just 30 seconds earlier. Now Texas Tech had made two free throws, regaining the lead. And Bill Self called timeout with 12 seconds left.

So what would Kansas run?

Once again, Kansas came out in the same look: Wiggins and Wayne Selden on the wing, Embiid on the block, and Ellis setting a high ball screen for Tharpe. Except this time, Texas Tech packed it in the lane, surrounding Ellis and essentially taking away the options on the pick-and-pop.

Here’s where it gets a little confusing. Ellis said after the game that Texas Tech “hedged (the screen) real hard” containing Tharpe at the top of the key. So instead of going to his right, Tharpe moved to his left and Ellis took a step toward the lane before flashing back toward the top of the key.

By packing in the defense, Texas Tech took Wiggins’ side away, and Tharpe quickly swung the ball to Ellis, who looked inside to Joel Embiid on the block. Thing is, I’m not sure if this was the play all along. Ellis and Self seemed to suggest that it was the same play, that KU was just going off how Texas Tech played it. Maybe KU really did want to get Ellis on the same side as Wiggins again. It was so seamless, though, it almost looked as if they were using the past set as a decoy. Either way, Ellis adjusted on the fly and delivered the ball to Embiid.
KC Star


KU vs. Texas Sat. 6:30 CT ESPNU. Student Camping Group Name of the Week: Frankly Naadir, I Don't Give a Damn
@JMarchiony


5. Kansas
Last week, I wrote about Kentucky’s struggles to get all its young talent playing together and on the same page. I noted that every game, one or two UK players disappear while another couple guys play out of their minds. I suggested that fans see names like Randle and Harrison on Kentucky’s roster, and they expect the Wildcats to be unstoppable, but the on-court product rarely matches those expectations. I might as well just copy that entire section on Kentucky and use it to describe Kansas. Here’s what I mean:

Andrew Wiggins — Been great lately, but not too long ago he followed up a 29-point, seven-rebound game by going 2-for-12 and fouling out against Texas.

Joel Embiid — Battles foul trouble just about every game.

Perry Ellis — Scored 32 points and grabbed eight boards against TCU on Saturday. Three days later, he went oh-fer at Texas Tech and finished with four points and two rebounds.

Wayne Selden — Scoring totals in the last six games: 21, 4, 17, 2, 15, and 6.

Naadir Tharpe — In the last month, he’s had two double-doubles and a game where he scored 22 points. He’s also had two games where he’s gone scoreless, he was awful at Texas Tech (38 minutes, 1-of-7 shooting, four turnovers, two assists), and he almost put up a 20 trillion at TCU.

We’ve seen glimpses of Kansas at its best at home against Kansas State and against New Mexico in December, but we still haven’t seen Kansas consistently play at its full potential. If you’re a Jayhawks fan, this must be frustrating, since now would be a good time for teams to find their groove and hit the ground running in the NCAA tournament. If you’re a fan of any other team, however, it must be frightening to think that the team with the no. 1 RPI in college basketball should be even better than it already is.
Grantland Titus’s Top 12

Link to above video


Who's the top freshman in college basketball? It's a debate that has simmered since before the opening tip of the 2013-14 season, has continued weekly thanks to Jeff Borzello's Wayman Tisdale Watch, and will come into sharper focus during CBS Sports' Super Social Saturday initiative this week.

Throughout the day Saturday, fans will get the chance to vote their choice for the top freshman by using the hash tag #TopFrosh on Facebook and Twitter.

The top five players in Borzello's current edition of the Tisdale Watch -- Duke's Jabari Parker, Syracuse's Tyler Ennis, Kansas' Andrew Wiggins, Kentucky's Julius Randle and Kansas' Joel Embiid -- will be eligible as part of the #TopFrosh voting, along with Arizona's Aaron Gordon who is currently listed with Borzello's "next in line" group for the Tisdale. The results of the #TopFrosh voting will be announced during Saturday night's UNLV/Boise State contest (8:00 PM, ET) on CBS Sports Network.
CBS Sports


Vote for Wiggs for the Wooden Award


NBA.com VIDEO: All Access with Ben McLemore at the All-Star Weekend


Student body President Marcus Tetwiler and three other Advisory Board members recommended eliminating a student fee funding women’s and non-revenue sports for Kansas Athletics Monday afternoon.

University of Kansas students are required to pay the semesterly $25 student fee to offset travel expenses for women’s and non-revenue sports. Students pay between $1.2 and $1.3 million annually to the athletic department fund through the current fee.

The Senate’s responsibility to help finance Title IX, a federal law, was a main question of senators. Tetwiler pointed to the Senate’s earlier decision to forgo funding a federally required accessibility ramp at Strong Hall. The Senate questioned if students should pay for the University to meet government standards.

“Our opinion is that that’s not a responsibility of student fees,” Tetwiler said.

The committee recommended two different options to a separate Student Senate Fee Review Committee: That the student fee be eliminated entirely, or that the fee be lowered from $25 a semester to $20.

The $20 recommendation came based on a 2004 contract signed by former student body President Andrew Knopp and former Athletic Director Lew Perkins that guaranteed a fee of $20 or more until at least the year 2020. David Catt, the chairman of the Women’s and Non-Revenue Intercollegiate Sports Advisory Board, who voted on the recommendation, disputed the validity of the contract.
UDK


“Pay Heed. The game you love began here. Respect those who came before you. Make their legacy your own. Because destiny favors the dedicated. And rings don’t replace work. In this game you don’t get what you want. You get what you earn. We are Kansas. Together we rise. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Been asked for my Final Four a couple times on radio past few days: Florida, Kansas, Duke, Iowa State.
@jeffborzello


1. How many teams in the Big 12 can reach the title game of the conference tournament?

Nine. After Texas Tech took Kansas to the wire Tuesday night in Lubbock, losing 64-63, the Red Raiders officially joined the conversation as a team that can make a run during championship week. Tubby Smith's team has already beaten Baylor, Oklahoma, as well as Oklahoma State and their performance against the Jayhawks reiterated that they're going to be a tough out moving forward. What does that mean in terms of the big picture? The Big 12 has reached a point where 90% of its teams have a legitimate chance in March to play for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. You can't say that about any other league in America. With the exception of TCU, every team in the Big 12 is going to have a chance during the final weekend of the season. This conference is truly the gift that keeps on giving for college basketball junkies. We simply can't get enough of it.
CBS Rothstein


K-State was on its way to a comfortable win over last-place TCU, the only team in the Big 12 without a conference victory. Just like everyone had expected.

Sort of.

Though the final score didn’t show it, this game was in doubt most of the way.

“It’s disappointing in some ways, but also kind of what you expected,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “We had three emotional games in a row against Texas, Kansas and the overtime loss at Baylor. No matter what we say, you’re probably not going to come out with great energy and focus.”

K-State made mistake after mistake — 13 turnovers and an air-balled layup — in the first half and took a 27-26 lead into the break. Things didn’t improve for the Wildcats in the early going of the second half, and the score was tied at 42 with 12:52 remaining.

With a smaller-than-usual crowd on hand, the arena felt dead and the Wildcats looked deflated. They weren’t sprinting to an effortless victory the way they have so often during their 14-game home winning streak, which ties the Bramlage Coliseum record.

“Our intensity wasn’t there,” junior forward Thomas Gipson said. “In the second half, we got things together.”
KC Star


2/19/14, 4:15 PM
NCAA tweaks existing rule.Now any player going into stands to confront a fan will be assessed a Flagrant2 foul and ejection from the game.
@JimmyDykesLive


Baylor chants "Where's Marcus?"
AT YO MOMMA'S HOUSE vine.co/v/MZqObiYuer6 -- funny comeback from Markel Brown”
@OKStateProbs


Everybody's luck runs out.

That's what people will say about Syracuse in the coming days: That it was bound to lose eventually. And that's right, to a point: There are only so many times you can bet on red and expect to hit.

In the past week alone, Syracuse barely got past NC State, 56-55, thanks to a late steal and go-ahead bucket in the final moments. Last week, Pittsburgh had a huge home win in hand four seconds before Tyler Ennis made the 35-foot buzzer-beating shot of the season. On Feb. 3, two days after a thrilling 91-89 overtime win against Duke, the Orange needed 33 points (on 9-of-12 from 3) from Trevor Cooney to squeak past Notre Dame 61-55.

There are plenty of other examples: The first Pittsburgh game, on Jan. 18, a 59-54 win very much in doubt until the buzzer sounded. Or Jan. 4's ugly 49-44 win over Miami. Or on Dec. 15, when Syracuse flirted with St. John's at the Garden just a little too long. Much of Syracuse's 25-0 start was built on solid, obvious victories -- on simply being better than the other team. But nearly as often, Jim Boeheim's team has had to figure out a dramatic method in the final moments. Until Wednesday, it always did.

None of which should serve to obscure just how surprising Wednesday night was.

Yeah, sure, Syracuse lets people hang around in its own gym, but Boston College? Six-and-17 Boston College? Before Wednesday, Steve Donahue's team ranked No. 324 in the country in points allowed per possession (adjusted for competition, per kenpom.com). That ranked them among the High Points and Tennessee States and Furmans and Abilene Christians of the world, teams that accept guarantee sums to go on the road and take ritual beatings for the first two months of their season. The Eagles are allowing 1.16 points per possession in conference play. BC opponents shoot 37.9 percent from 3 and 49.7 percent from 2. The Eagles have played more than competently on the offensive end this season, but they've been so, so bad on defense that no one has taken the time to notice. And why would they?
ESPN


Already two key players for Arizona, Hollis-Jefferson and York became even more important when Ashley was lost for the remainder of the season. Can both, especially York, build on their performances against Colorado on Saturday night? And can Arizona do a better job rebounding the basketball? If Arizona gets positive answers to those questions they’ll have a good chance of retaining sole possession of first place in the Pac-12, with UCLA currently making a late charge.
But this result, and its impact, is more about Utah than Arizona. Remove BYU and Boise State and just one of Utah’s remaining non-conference opponents didn’t have an RPI of 200 or worse, Texas State.
NBC


ESPN: Will next generation of college football fans show up?


Big XII composite schedule (includes results, highlights, stats)


ESPN College GameDay Schedule


2013-14 TV Schedule

A well-executed game plan by Hyde Park nearly derailed No. 1 Curie in the semifinals of the Public League playoffs before the Condors pulled out a 58-56 victory Wednesday at Chicago State University.

After walking off the court, Curie coach Mike Oliver said “We were lucky. We won the game inspite of ourselves. This team needs to remember who Cliff Alexander is.”
Link
- See more at: #sthash.LCb8ZwRu.dpuf


Hyde Park used as many players as necessary to prevent Cliff Alexander from catching the ball.
Alexander was in a preventative mood himself.

Held to a season-low 10 points, the 6-foot-9 Kansas recruit also grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked 10 shots as No. 1 Curie survived a scare from Hyde Park for the second time this season in a 58-56 victory in a Public League semifinal Wednesday at Chicago State.

…"Defense is the best part of my game," Alexander said. "I didn't have fouls, so coach told me to block everything I could. Joseph Stamps stepped up real big for us. He kept us in the game. I give all the credit to him."

Alexander's defensive presence ultimately saved Curie's day, but Hyde Park guards Marcus Smith (19 points) and Kendall Ivy got off to a fast start by forcing him to defend the pick-and-roll.

…The teams were tied at 47, 53 and 55 before Joseph Stamps drove the length of the floor to give Curie the lead for good. Alexander blocked two shots on the ensuing Hyde Park possession, but Antoine Pike corralled the second and was fouled.

He split two free throws to cut Curie's lead to 57-56 with 11.5 seconds left, and Gage scored the final point with 3.6 showing. Hyde Park did not get off a shot before the buzzer.

"They played us well," Curie coach Mike Oliver said. "It is hard to get Cliff the ball when they've got three guys around him. That's why it's 5-on-5. We win as a group. We're 23-1 for a reason.
Chicago Tribune

Link to above video

Young's escape act made Curie's two-point victory look like a cakewalk.

The dream matchup is on.

Down 15 at half with two of its three Division I players hurting, No. 3 Young stormed back to slip past No. 5 Orr 55-53 in a semifinal of the Public League playoffs Wednesday night at Chicago State.
Little-known senior Erwin Henry scored 18 points off the bench, and Duke-bound center Jahlil Okafor had eight of his 16 in the fourth quarter to set up the highly anticipated matchup with No. 1 Curie and Cliff Alexander in Friday's Public League final.

The 6-foot-10 Okafor and Alexander, a 6-9 Kansas recruit, are the two top-ranked big men in the country.

"It is going to be a lot of fun," said Okafor, who led Young to the city title last season. "It is going to be a really good battle, but it is Whitney Young vs. Curie.

"My teammates pretty much know it's not about that (individual matchup). They want to win city as much as I do. No matter the outcome between me and Cliff, I will have the better of him if we win the game."
Chicago Tribune


The two players are a contrast in styles. Okafor is a true big man with a well refined arsenal in the post. With huge hands and a powerful body, he loves to overpower people down low. Okafor is able to hold the ball out like a tennis ball before backing his defender down for a bucket. He loves to catch the ball on the right block and take one to two dribbles before utilizing a left to right spin move. The advantage goes to Okafor when it comes to low post moves, but Alexander shines in other departments. Alexander, with his broad shoulders and long stride is a freak of an athlete. He runs the floor hard and fast and attempts to rip the rim down every chance he gets. He attacks the glass hard and is relentless pursuing the ball. He is a monster in the paint on the defensive end and tries to block every shot he sees, usually with great success. His low post game is not nearly as refined as Okafor’s (although its steadily improving) but he does like to shoot a right handed hook when he isn’t busy dunking on helpless defenders.

Okafor and Alexander are both once in a generation type players and they get to go against each other with city bragging rights on the line. What could be better than that? While the individual match-up will get the hype, if the past two years has taught us anything it’s that the match-up will most likely be dead even. That means someone other than the five-star big men will need to step up to help decide the outcome. The most likely candidate would be Whitney Young’s Paul White. The future Georgetown Hoya is a 6’8” match-up nightmare but has been slowed by a leg injury this past week. With White not 100 percent, it could be Curie junior guard Josh Stamps that could provide the deciding edge.
The Intentional Foul: Big Man Battle Part 3 Preview


JaQuan Lyle confirmed to @SNYtv he plans to decide over break March 15-23. First reported by @GrantTraylor
@AdamZagoria


Kentucky’s Julius Randle reminds us of Kansas signee Cliff Alexander.
While Alexander is likely to be anchored more exclusively on the interior for Kansas than Randle has been at Kentucky this year, he has a similar combination of size, power, and athleticism to make an immediate impact. Randle has been a double-double machine for Kentucky this year and while he’s scoring close to 16 points per game, he’s done that with an offensive game that is clearly still in the development stages. Alexander should be an immediate double-figure rebounding threat from Day 1. Offensively, his offensive game is also a work in progress, but much farther along than he often gets credit for, and so he should be right there in terms of his ability to match Randle’s double-doubles.

Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins reminds us of Kansas signee Kelly Oubre.
While Oubre doesn’t have quite the same level of celebrity that Wiggins had at this time last year, he’s got similar physical tools with his size, length and explosive athleticism on the wing. His offensive game shows plenty of similarities as well. He’s at his best in transition or when able to get all the way to the rim but is otherwise reliant on space in order to create in a half-court set. Oubre may actually be a more consistent 3-point shooter at this stage, although he is noticeably behind in his ability to score points in the mid-range game. Similar to Wiggins he’ll need to figure out how to score in a crowded half-court game while committing to utilizing his physical tools on the glass.

Kansas’ Joel Embiid reminds us of uncommitted Myles Turner.
The notion that Embiid came out of nowhere to take college basketball by storm is simply false. In fact, his rapid development went into first gear about 12 months before he arrived in Lawrence, Kan., making him one of the most notable late bloomers in recent recruiting history and shooting him up the 2013 ESPN 100 as a result. Turner has followed a similar trajectory in recent months, emerging as the biggest late bloomer in the class while showing off a wealth of tools and long-term potential. He’s likely to continue to follow a similar track as Embiid did in his first season in college. Turner’s sheer talent will allow him to have moments of pure stardom but there will be some subtle bumps in the road as he turns his huge potential into production on a more consistent basis with NBA personnel following his every move.
ESPN ($)


Before last night, it had been a really long time since Myles Turner visited SMU.

When the five-star big man came to the Hilltop last season, the Mustangs were playing .500 basketball in an old arena with a shallow roster of players.

Now, SMU has built a reputation around the country as a program on it’s way to the top. They have a Hall of Fame coach, a beautiful newly renovated arena, and a roster of young, talented players.
In the Mustang’s victory over Houston last night, they showed Turner, the top-ranked uncommitted player in the class of 2014, just how far the program has come since a year ago.

“It’s my first time to new Moody and it’s awesome,” Turner said. “It’s definitely changed a lot from last year, which was the last time that I came. The team and the fans have showed a lot of energy. The place looks beautiful and they got a full support system now, so everything is great.”

Turner, the No. 2 rated center in the class, had previously cut his list of schools down to just Oklahoma State, Kansas, Texas, Ohio State, Duke, Arizona and Kentucky. However, Turner says the recent success of the SMU program, which is now 21-6 this year, has changed his mind on them a little bit.

“They weren’t on my list last time, but they are somewhat back in the running now,” he explained. “They are kind of like a dark horse so to say. I still have my official list, but SMU is still kind of in the mix.”
mustangmadness.com


Recruiting Calendar


My Late Night in the Phog videos, KU Alumni games videos, 2011-12 Border War videos, Legends of the Phog videos, KC Prep Invitational, & Jayhawk Invitational Videos and more now on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/kcjcjhawk

2/18/14, 8:32 PM
With that free throw, Andrew #Wiggins is now Kansas’ all-time freshman free throw leader.
@KUGameday


Dang ...my boys snuck out of Lubbock with that one ... But a win is a win -
@tyshawntaylor


Finished watching the #kubball game and for those people who have ever said they haven't been impressed with @22wiggins are crazy! #Beast
@jtheaps9


W by Kansas at Texas Tech means Jayhawks will have a winning road record in league games. KU has never had a losing Big 12 road mark.
@BlairKerkhoff


Kansas escapes by 1 at Texas Tech. Jayhawks have lost their mojo. Tubby's gang very quietly playing some quality ball.
@SethDavisHoops


@SethDavisHoops didn't Duke just escape Maryland?Mich State lose at home to Neb?Creighton survived Butler? KU won on the road #mojomyass
@GottliebShow


Oklahoma State has lost their Mojo - #KU is about to win their 10th straight Big 12 title
@GottliebShow


2/19/14, 7:19 AM
Veteran NBA scout on Andrew Wiggins's game-winner: 'The kid is improving, the best athlete in the draft.'
@AdamZagoria

KUAD: Wiggins saves No. 8 Kansas at Tech Tech postgame notes


KUAD: Box Score


AUDIO: Bob Davis calls the final KU play


LJW Photos


Daily Toreador Photos

Kansas University freshman phenom Andrew Wiggins — who has already accomplished superhuman feats in basketball, evidenced by all of his driving and dunking highlights shown on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” this year and last — added a first to his hoops résumé on Tuesday.

“It’s my first game-winner ever. It’s a great feeling, something I’ve dreamed about for a long time,” said the soon-to-turn-19-year-old Wiggins, who sank a one-footer with 1.7 seconds left, providing the margin of victory in KU’s 64-63 victory over Texas Tech before 12,667 fans in United Spirit Arena.

“I made some to tie,” Wiggins added, asked if he really, truly had never before Tuesday provided the winning points just before the buzzer.

The 6-foot-8 wing from Canada picked up a loose ball in the lane on KU’s final possession — after the ball was poked from KU center Joel Embiid. Seven-footer Embiid, who had 18 points and eight boards, had hit the baseline after accepting a pass from Perry Ellis.

“My heart was just racing. We get the ball to Jo Jo (on final possession after Tech made two free throws to take a one-point lead), one of our best scorers, and he delivered a great pass, and I delivered a great shot as the game ended,” Wiggins said.

A consummate team player, Wiggins tried to describe the ball appearing at his feet a pin-point Embiid pass.

“Give the ball to Jo, let him go to work. He found me,” Wiggins stated in explaining KU’s final play, which followed a timeout at 12.0 seconds.

Embiid, who hit six of seven shots on a day he played 32 minutes, was willing to play along.

“I was trying to spin baseline, and I think he kind of slapped me,” Embiid said of Tech defender Dejan Kravic. “I lost the ball. I think it was a pass, and he (Wiggins) got it and scored, and that was the play of the game.”

…About the possibility of Wiggins dunking there, Self wasn’t about to second-guess: “To me, he was up high enough. Whatever he did, he made the right play,” Self said. “He went up strong tonight and tried to dunk several.”

The Jayhawk players mobbed Wiggins on the court once a desperation heave by Texas Tech sailed past the backboard.

“It was a good feeling for what I did, the good play we did. It was good,” said Wiggins, whose 19th birthday is Sunday.

Self cited one other specific shot, besides Wiggins’ that fell in crunch time. Wayne Selden hit a crucial three with 2:34 left to slice a 59-55 deficit to one point. At that point, Selden had made one of seven shots and one of three from three. KU for the game hit just four of 14 treys.

“It was the biggest shot of the game other than Wiggs’ tip-in,” Self said. “He’s 1-for-7, and we’ve got nothing going, screw around and allow them to go up by four. The game wouldn’t be over, but we’d be close to dead if Wayne didn’t step up and make that three.”
LJW

“We were lucky,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.

In some ways, he was right. In the final minutes, Kansas and Texas Tech kept trading baskets. Selden hit a three-pointer that cut the KU deficit to 59-58 with 2:35 left. And two minutes later, after a rare defensive stop, the Jayhawks took a 62-61 lead after Embiid picked up a loose-ball rebound and threw down a two-handed slam.

But Texas Tech’s Robert Turner hit two free throws on the other end, and Bill Self called timeout with 12 seconds left. The play was familiar, a four-up screen designed to get the ball to Perry Ellis, who had spent most of the night in foul trouble.

“They kind of hedged it real hard,” Ellis said.

The paint was walled off, so Ellis went to option two: Embiid down on the block. But as Embiid began to spin, the ball was slapped loose. Wiggins crashed in at just the right moment.

In most cases, Wiggins said, he would have dunked it. But he wanted to be sure.

“The ball slipped, it was slippery,” Wiggins said. “It slipped on the way up, so I just tried to guide it in.”

For years, United Spirit Arena has been like a Kansas house of horrors that’s a lot more frightening than it should be. Entering Tuesday, the Jayhawks were just 5-3 here in eight trips to Lubbock.
Some of those losses came when Bob Knight was putting together NCAA tourney teams and building interest in the program. But in most cases, the formula has been pretty familiar: an inferior Red Raider squad will hit some threes, Kansas will play lackluster defense and you know what happens next.

In a Big 12 circuit with deafening atmospheres and wild scenes, the rather cozy confines of this 15-year-old building have often provided some curious losses.

So it was on Tuesday night. The Red Raiders, of course, had won three of four in the Big 12. And first-year coach Tubby Smith had made basketball fun again in Lubbock.

But this was a familiar feeling for Kansas.

The tempo was DMV-waiting-room slow, much to Smith and Texas Tech’s liking. And the Jayhawks were plagued by the same old road problems. They couldn’t piece together the stops on defense. But they made enough plays to win.

“We battled; we fought hard,” Selden said. “We felt like we deserved it. There’s been so many games that have come down to that last possession and we weren’t able to come through with it.”
KC Star


Andrew Wiggins, never known to be an emotional player, was grinning as wide as he could as teammates mobbed him following Tuesday’s 64-63 victory over Texas Tech at United Spirit Arena.

Just a few seconds earlier, Wiggins had grabbed the ball after Joel Embiid lost control of it in the post, scooping it up to put in a short jumper with 1.7 seconds left and give Kansas a one-point lead.

After Jaye Crockett’s desperation half-court heave banged off the backboard, every teammate found Wiggins, and who knows how many more moments of pure joy he’ll have left like this in a college uniform?

“It’s a great feeling,” Wiggins said. “That’s my first game-winner ever.”

What followed after was more of Wiggins’ personality that is rarely seen.

In the postgame news conference he was asked about the play, and he tried to insist that Embiid had passed it to him.

When asked a second time, he couldn’t contain his laughter. He doubled over in front of the table, and Embiid, seated next to him, gave him a soft tap on the head.

“It bounced high. I was worried about it,” Wiggins said of his game-winner. “But the lucky touch came in.”
TCJ


“Their defense was pretty effective,” Smith said. “And I thought the longer we could keep ourselves in the game and get the lead, then the pressure’s on Kansas to do something. We were logging a lot of minutes, especially Rob and Jordan, so we wanted to give them a break, too. When we spread the floor like that and run the clock down, that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The Red Raiders could have easily pulled away from the Jayhawks in the second half had they not fouled so much.

After making five free throws in the first half, Kansas scored 17 points from the charity stripe, half of its 34 second half points.

“They were huge,” Wiggins said, “because we missed a lot the first half.”

Tech switched from a man defense to a zone defense throughout the game.

“We were having trouble guarding them one-on-one and getting out of position,” Smith said. “The zone was pretty effective. They went 1-of-6. We wanted to make them shoot from the outside and try to take away the inside. It was effective for a while.”

Despite the tough loss, Crockett doesn’t want anyone to count out Texas Tech.

“We fought hard, made some big plays and got rebounds when we needed to,” Crockett said. “We hit shots. Let them know that this season isn’t over. We’ve still got this tournament and a few games left.”
Lubbock AJ


What did he tell his team afterward?

“There wasn’t much to say,” Smith said after a game witnessed by 12,667 spectators, including 4,338 students. “They’re down. They’re despondent because they didn’t win. Tough loss. They felt like they played well enough to get the win. You always have to finish the game the right way to get the win.”

About the last play, Smith said, “Good teams like Kansas make plays like that. Great players make plays like that. Andrew’s a great player and great players make plays like that.“

Kansas coach Bill Self said the crowd that turned out for Tuesday’s game was something he hadn’t witnessed in Lubbock since the early years of Bob Knight’s reign.

“That’s a compliment to our fans, to our student body, our administration, especially our marketing people,” Smith said. “They’ve done a good job of getting out and spreading the word, even asked me to do some things. Our guys are playing well, playing hard. That’s what they want to see. Tonight we came close to giving a complete effort as we have.”
LJW

Kansas University freshman guard Wayne Selden wasn’t lacking in confidence as he went up for a huge three-point shot attempt with 2:34 left and the Jayhawks down by four points to Texas Tech on Tuesday night in United Spirit Arena.

He put perfect touch on the ball, cutting the deficit to 59-58 in an eventual 64-63 victory.

Selden heading into that shot had made one basket in seven tries.

“Not at all,” Selden said of perhaps being hesitant to fire away. “Coach (Bill Self) said the other day, ‘A good shooter is not going to think about his last shot.'''

When was that advice offered?

“He said it recently,” said Selden, who finished with six points and three rebounds in 33 minutes.
LJW


Joel Embiid had one blocked shot, meaning he’s tied Eric Chenowith’s freshman block record. Chenowith had 62 blocks in 1997-98.

“I’ve been getting calls and texts lately telling me I still have the record,” former KU pivot Chenowith said before Tuesday’s KU-Tech game.

“A lot of people have been asking me if I’m upset my record is getting broken. To be honest with you, a part of me wants to keep it forever. The other part is I’m happy for the program. It means things are still progressing and doing well. Records are being broken. KU is winning. That’s the important thing,” Chenowith, a 7-footer from Villa Park, Calif., added.

…“I’ve watched him a lot. He has tremendous upside,” Chenowith said. “It sounds like he hasn’t played the game very long. He’s picking things up quickly. It helps playing for coach (Bill) Self obviously. From where he was when I first saw him on TV in November to where he is now, it’s night and day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen improvement like that so quickly.

“The sky is the limit. He has all the tools, all the ability in the world. I’m glad he came to KU and chose to be a Jayhawk.”

Chenowith will be in Allen Fieldhouse for Saturday’s game against Texas and Monday’s versus Oklahoma.
LJW


In his first game back from a one-game rest forced by back and knee woes, Embiid matched a career high with 18 points and added eight rebounds and a blocked shot in helping KU defeat Texas Tech, 64-63.

Embiid moved noticeably better than in his last game, an overtime loss to Kansas State in which he played just 18 minutes.

The Jayhawks needed every one of his 32 minutes to edge a Texas Tech squad in the early stages of basketball revival being masterfully steered by classy coach Tubby Smith.

“I think I was about 90, 90 percent,” Embiid said. And that was after nearly a full week of rest before rejoining practice.

KU coach Bill Self, closing in on his 10th consecutive Big 12 title, has seen too many amazing things from his center from Cameroon in his third year of organized basketball to express surprise at anything he does on the court. But he didn’t see one thing coming.

“I’m shocked he played that many minutes because he hadn’t practiced all week,” Self said.
LJW


LJW Keegan Ratings: Wiggins comes through on both ends of the court


LJW Keegan: Updated totals for KU dunks, hustle plays (before TT game)

Though a 64-63 score might suggest this was a game dominated by defense, that number was skewed by a tiny number of possessions. In actuality, KU won the game like it has most others this season: by simply outscoring its opponent.

A good offensive rebounding night and an ability to get to the free-throw line helped KU get to an impressive 1.19 points per possession, and that was just enough to counter a weak defensive performance where it surrendered 1.17 PPP.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, KU continues to be a team of extremes: spectacular offensively and subpar defensively compared to other Self teams.

The Jayhawks' adjusted defensive efficiency slipped to 30th after Tuesday, and as a reminder, Self has never had a team finish worse than 25th in his 11 seasons at KU.

If I'm Self, I'm starting to consider all options. Press more to better dictate tempo? Use more Triangle-and-2? 3-2 zone? Switch defenses more?

This team's first-shot defense (72nd in eFG% defense) isn't good enough to make up for its other deficiencies, and with only a few weeks left, it might be time for Self to consider additional thinking outside the box.
TCJ Newell Post


VIDEO: Half-time at Texas Tech featured a dunk contest. By the TT football team

With Oklahoma State’s basketball season going down in flames amid seven straight losses after being ranked No. 8 in the country less than a month ago, it’s time for uber-booster T. Boone Pickens to make Kansas head coach Bill Self an “indecent proposal” in the form of a $10 million-per-year contract.

That’s right, $10 million per year. That’s over twice what Self is currently making at KU ($4.75 million/year) and almost three million more than the highest-paid college basketball coach (Coach K at $7.2 million/year). It would also make Self the highest paid coach in American sports (the New Orleans Saints’ Sean Payton currently holds that title at over $8 million per year).

I know it sounds crazy. But Oklahoma State has to do something drastic after seeing a historically great program that most recently excelled under Eddie Sutton in the 1990s and early 2000s not make it past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament since 2005. It can’t settle for the next hot mid-major coach like it did with Travis Ford or even an above-average coach at a major program. The Cowboys need to swing for the fences, and it would be doing so by trying again to bring Self home to his alma mater after OK State failed in 2008.

What’s left to ponder if you are Pickens? Self is one of the greatest college basketball coaches in the game today, if not the greatest. Oklahoma is home for Self and his wife and Okie State is their alma mater. $10 million is an obscene amount of money to pay a college basketball coach - unless you are Boone Pickens.

…Granted, Self already turned down a reported $4 million per year deal in 2008 with a whopping $6 million signing bonus. He’s a god in Kansas who loves everything about living and coaching in Lawrence. A friend of mine that covered KU basketball for the Kansas City Star has told me that Self wouldn’t leave Kansas under any circumstance. Period.

But I’m not so sure about that. Everyone has a price and if Oklahoma State offered Self a $10 million per year contract to come home, he’d be forced to seriously consider it even if he felt like he was being treated like a million-dollar prostitute, a la Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal.
LostLetterman: Indecent Proposal: Boone Pickens should make Bill Self $10 million offer

The University of Kansas is dropping a request before the state Legislature for bonding authority to build upscale apartments that would house basketball players and other students.

University spokesman Tim Caboni said Tuesday the decision to withdraw the bonding proposal came after a House committee rejected it last week.

The university was seeking bonding authority for $17.5 million to help build apartments near Allen Fieldhouse that would house 66 students. Thirty-two of the apartments would be for men's and women's basketball players.

Some members of the House Education Budget Committee last week called the project extravagant and suggested the school's athletic boosters could help build it.

Caboni told The Lawrence Journal-World the university will explore other options to complete the apartment project, but he didn't provide any details.
KAKE


After playing the majority of three seasons on the wing with future WNBA talent Angel Goodrich at the point, Kansas senior CeCe Harper is adjusting back to point guard, her natural position.

Harper was a three-year team captain at James Madison High School in San Antonio and set program record with 2,353 points and 524 assists in her time there. However, once she got to Kansas, she struggled to find her place on the team.

She appeared in nearly every game her sophomore and junior seasons with 21 starts, but it was not until this year that she really hit her stride.

“It was a struggle at first, but I think I’m getting back into the flow,” Harper said. “It’s just getting back and comfortable at that position.”

Harper, the Jayhawks’ lone four-year senior, is leading the team with 5.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game while adding 10 points. She also recently broke into the top 10 for single season assists at Kansas with 109 so far this season.

“I don’t know that she would have thought or I would have that she would play 40 minutes at the point for us,” Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “She didn’t start early in the year for us, but has certainly taken over that position and has done a good job her senior year of playing a position she has played sparingly.”

She’s had to serve as an emotional leader as well for the Jayhawks who are 12-14 overall and 5-9 in conference play with five freshmen and a sophomore.
KC Star

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“Pay Heed. The game you love began here. Respect those who came before you. Make their legacy your own. Because destiny favors the dedicated. And rings don’t replace work. In this game you don’t get what you want. You get what you earn. We are Kansas. Together we rise. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

After two impressive wins against conference opponents, Texas fell victim to the strength of the Big 12 on Tuesday night.

At the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa, No. 19 Texas (20-6, 9-4 Big 12) had trouble pulling past No. 17 Iowa State (20-5, 8-5 Big 12), falling to the Cyclones 85-76.

Texas failed to control the Big 12’s leading scorer, Melvin Ejim, who coming into Tuesday’s contest averaged 18.9 points per game. Ejim tallied 25 points and eight rebounds, leading Iowa State to a split in the season series with Texas. But Ejim wasn’t the only player who gave the Longhorns trouble; a total of three Cyclones passed the 20-point mark on the night.
Link


...this is the best week of the year so far in college basketball.

More precisely, the best weekend. There are fascinating and important games all over the place. Conference races, NCAA seeding and bubble drama will be hashed out from Saturday morning until Sunday night. The 10 weekend games you must be aware of if you call yourself a serious college hoops fan:

…Louisville at Cincinnati (2). When: Saturday at noon ET. Another rematch of a big-time meeting from a few weeks ago. The Bearcats got a huge lead, weathered a furious Cardinals comeback and won at the end behind the heroics of Sean Kilpatrick. Cincinnati is a game up on Louisville for first in the American Athletic Conference, and a victory in this game could almost cinch the league title for Mick Cronin’s team. But the Cardinals have been brutalizing teams since that loss and lead the nation in margin of victory at 21.3 points per game. If that holds up, it would be the highest since Duke (24.7) in 1999. Six of the last 15 national leaders in scoring margin won the national title (Kentucky 2012, North Carolina 2009, Kansas 2008, Florida 2007, UNC 2005, Duke 2001); two lost in the title game (Kansas 2003, Duke 1999); five had No. 1 or 2 seeds but were upset before reaching the Final Four (Gonzaga twice, Kentucky 2010, Duke 2002, Stanford 2000) and two were small-school outliers (Belmont 2011, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 2006).

…Seeding lines 5-12 will be truer and fairer (23). The most significant change to the process is in seeding, where the rigid old rules of trying to avoid conference rematches earlier in the tournament have been relaxed. The reason: with conferences expanding, it’s gotten progressively harder to avoid conflicts, and the committee was skewing the seed lines too far to make its rules work. Now the goal will be to keep everyone where they were seeded to begin with.

So these are the new rules: play a team once in league play and you could meet them again in the round of 32; play a team twice and you could meet them again in the round of 16; play a team three times and you could meet them in the regional final – which used to be the old threshold for league competitors. Thus if, say, Syracuse is a No. 1 seed and Virginia is a No. 8, and the two don’t meet in the ACC tourney, they could conceivably match up in the round of 32 because they have only played once.

Bottom line: a No. 7 seed is not going to be jerked down to a No. 9 or inflated to a No. 5 anymore in order to make the bracket work. That’s a good thing.

The technology has advanced radically (24). Just a decade ago, NCAA staffers were using Velcro nametags to stick teams on a board. More recently than that, the floor of the selection committee war room was covered in so much paper it looked like a ticker tape parade went through. Gary Johnson, keeper of the NCAA’s RPI numbers for the past 30 years, said the RPI used to “eat my house,” due to the reams of printouts.

Now the process is virtually all electronic, and set up for maximum efficiency. In-house computer programmer Colin Chappell has developed software that makes every potential bracketing roadblock and conflict obvious, saving plenty of trial-and-error time. For an institution that doesn’t change easily, the NCAA has caught up with the technological times when it comes to filling out the 68-team field.
Yahoo Forde Minutes

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski says his team’s success has been built around one player, freshman Jabari Parker. 

“Well he's not normal ... You know, he's special,” Krzyzewski told CBS This Morning. “And, over the years, USA Basketball, at Duke ... I've dealt with some of the greatest players in the world as they've developed. They look at things differently. That's why they're different. It's not just talent. Their emotional makeup, their mental makeup, and Jabari is a treasure. He's a treasure to the game. And he's also a treasure to human beings, but to our game, he's pure ...  And that treasure and that purity needs to be developed along the way. And we're part of that process right now, and we need to do the very best job possible in developing that.”

WRAL

VIDEO: Indiana’s roof falling


Big XII composite schedule (includes results, highlights, stats)


ESPN College GameDay Schedule


2013-14 TV Schedule

2/18/14, 11:59 AM
F Kelly Oubre Jr. (@K_Ctmd22): 15 PTS, 3 AST, 3 STL for Findlay Prep in a win over Planet Athlete. #ROCKCHALK #EYBL d1circuit.com/game/show/6271…
@D1Circuit


2/18/14, 9:06 PM
Coppell vs Duncanville Friday as Myles Turner's Trinity career is over. Coppell pulls off upset.
@ihss_dfw


2/18/14, 9:18 PM
Final: Coppell's run continues. Upsets Euless Trinity, 47-43, in 5A 1st round. #txhshoops Myles Turner's final HS game: 13 pt. 9 reb. 6 blk.
@corbettsmithDMN


For a moment, it looked as though the game would get away from Coppell (22-12). Two thunderous dunks late in the third quarter by center Myles Turner gave Trinity (24-7) a 31-25 lead.

“From that point there, we rallied together and finished strong, which is what we’ve done the past two games,” Coppell guard Landon Goesling said.

Pehl echoed that sentiment, using the word “resilient” three times in a five-second span to describe his team.

“All year long, our defense will manage to keep us in games,” Pehl said. “They went on a couple of runs where they looked really good but then we stuffed them.”

With Trinity trailing by three with 5.8 seconds left, Turner made the first free throw in a one-and-one situation. But he never attempted his second shot. Trinity’s Jalen Jackson was called for a lane violation, falling into the lane after jockeying for position with Coppell’s Simi Socks.

The made free throw was the only point for Turner in the fourth quarter, as he finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and six blocks.
Dallas MN


Myles Turner
Biancardi - Texas
Finkelstein - Texas
Francisco - Kansas
Stovall - Kansas
Rankin - Texas

JaQuan Lyle
Biancardi - Kansas
Finkelstein - Kansas
Francisco - Kansas
Stovall - Kansas
ESPN ($) Predicting the uncommitted ESPN 100s

Jayson Tatum stuffed the stat sheet and No. 3 large school Chaminade (20-2) rolled over Hazelwood East (13-8) Tuesday night at home.

Tatum scored 25 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, handed out eight assists, blocked five shots and had three steals as the Red Devils dominated the Spartans.
St Louis Today


Recruiting Calendar


My Late Night in the Phog videos, KU Alumni games videos, 2011-12 Border War videos, Legends of the Phog videos, KC Prep Invitational, & Jayhawk Invitational Videos and more now on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/kcjcjhawk

So we're breaking down Kansas, en route to its 10th straight Big 12 title and God only knows what else beyond that, and a Big 12 assistant basketball coach, unprompted, blurts out this:

"Perry Ellis gets the shaft more than any player I've ever seen."

I laugh.

He doesn't.

Point taken.

"Right, right," Ellis said after you tell him about this coach, and this comment, an hour or so after he lit Texas Christian up for 32 points, eight rebounds and five assists in a 95-65 laugher at Allen Fieldhouse. "I mean, it's something I try not to really worry about (if), I mean, I don't get the recognition.

"I just really want to help my team win. As long as we're winning, good things will happen. So I just try not to worry about that."

Andrew Wiggins gets magazine covers and rap songs and hype, then backlash, then hype again. Joel Embiid, for the past six weeks or so, has become the "thinking man's" No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, a rocket stock, the king of the midseason.

And then there's Ellis, the 6-foot-8, 225-pound sophomore, quietly cleaning up everybody else's messes, quietly setting up his teammates to bring the house down, or quietly making life an absolute bear for the other team on the boards. Quiet, quiet, quiet. A mouse in front of a microphone, Godzilla in the paint.

…TCU Weekend is the Big 12 hoops equivalent of football homecoming: Entertain somebody you know you'll beat, bring the alumni back, a few celebrities, and let the good times roll. And the celebrities were in full-force, a guest list that included former KU stars Nick Collison, Jeff Withey and Kevin Young -- and even actress/'60s icon Barbara Eden, star of "I Dream of Jeannie." Eden's husband, Jon Eicholtz, is a KU grad and big-time Jayhawk fan.

But it was Perry -- not Jeannie -- who had the magic touch Saturday. He scored under the hoop. He scored on putbacks. He scored on jumpers. He scored on treys. He had the wherewithal several times to drop short passes over to teammates cutting through the lane for easy looks.

"He always involves his teammates," noted Wiggins, who converted one of those assists into an alley-oop slam. "He gave me the alley-oop, and I would do the same for him. He's aggressive the whole game attacking the hoop and making plays. He's doing everything."
Fox Sports Keeler

VOTE FOR PERRY HERE - Capital One Impact Performance

Link to above video

KUAD: Kansas shuts down TCU, 95-65 post game notes


KUAD: Box Score


AUDIO: Davis/Gurley TCU highlights


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How can you not just love Phog Allen Fieldhouse !? #WorldsBestFans
@WayneSeldenJr


How about my boy @PElliz today !! Balled out!
@LandenLucas33


2/11/14, 6:12 PM
Had a 10 yr old kid come up today to tell me how we should have guarded the high pick&roll at the end last night lol That's Kansas for you.
@LandenLucas33


According to @jppalmCBS Kansas has played most difficult schedule in 20 years by a significant margin.
‏@tsnmike


Instagram Vid: Bonnie Bernstein visits KU practice
http://instagram.com/p/kVXzNqGzed/


2/14/14, 3:34 PM
Great to see @JeffWithey @waynesimien and @riochitown23 at practice today.
@KUHoops

Link to above video


LJW Keegan: Ellis top ratings again


Fonda Ellis sent a text message to her son, Perry, just before Saturday’s tipoff.

“Go get another double-double,” it read.

Forgive Fonda if she wasn't upset following No. 7 Kansas’ 95-65 rout against TCU on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“We’ll take 32,” she said with a grin.

Ellis smashed his previous career high of 24 points set against Duke earlier in the season, scoring 32 points on 13-for-15 shooting.

No, he didn’t get to double-digit rebounds (he ended with eight), but for good measure, he added a career-high five assists to go with two steals in 31 minutes.

“I thought he played a terrific all-around game,” Perry’s father, Will, said. “He did a little bit of everything.”

…Following a TCU timeout, the crowd showed its appreciation by chanting, “Per-ry! Per-ry!”

Even the normally stoic Perry seemed to be enjoying himself, as he leapt up to back-bump his teammates near the bench.

“I think he cracked a smile,” Fonda said with a laugh.
TCJ Newell


In another Year of the Freshmen, where the highlight reels and daily debates are often focused on the rookies, it’s been easy to ignore Ellis — both here in Kansas and nationally.

Maybe that’s partially an Ellis problem, of course. He can be quiet and smooth, and nothing about his game has a real high decibel-level.

“The way that he plays,” sophomore wing Andrew White III said, “he gets a lot of sneaky buckets, sneaky rebounds.”

“Subtle points,” Tarik Black said.

But for one afternoon, no one could overlook Ellis. He finished 13 of 15 from the floor. He demolished his previous career high of 24, set earlier this year against Duke. (It was the most points by a Kansas player since Ben McLemore had 36 last season against West Virginia.)

Ellis grabbed eight rebounds and dished out a career-high five assists while carving up TCU’s zone defense. And he did it all with freshman center Joel Embiid sitting out, recovering from knee and back injuries. By the end, when Ellis finally exited the game with under four minutes left, the Allen Fieldhouse crowd had come to its feet and the student section was chanting: “Perry, Perry!”

“I definitely felt in a rhythm,” Ellis said. “I wasn’t taking rushed shots. I was just trying to take the most shots in rhythm. That’s when most of them go in.”

Last Monday, in the moments after Kansas’ overtime loss in Manhattan, K-State coach Bruce Weber had called Ellis his choice for Big 12 player of the year. On a team with a handful of future millionaires, maybe it was a little surprising. But Self said Ellis provides something that Andrew Wiggins and Embiid can’t — at least not yet: offensive consistency.
KC Star


Wiggins and Selden scored efficiently Saturday afternoon, just one game after struggling at Kansas State. It was the kind of recovery you don’t always see from freshmen after they struggle, particularly with Selden, who scored just two points in the Wildcats’ 85-82 overtime win against the Jayhawks.

“We knew we had to prepare ourselves, and get back on our feet, and ready for the next game,” Wiggins said. “Good teams never let one game decide how they’re going to play for the rest of the season.

Then again, facing a TCU team that hasn’t won a game in conference play all season can make for the kind of recovery Selden had Saturday against the Horned Frogs. After sitting on the bench for much of the second half and overtime against Kansas State, Selden played 33 minutes and scored 15 points for KU.

Kansas coach Bill Self complimented Selden’s play, particularly his 11-point, 19-minute first half.
“When you go on the road there’s a good chance not everybody’s going to play well,” Self said in reference to the Kansas State game. “Wayne will be fine.”

The other freshman was more than fine. Wiggins shot 7-for-11 from the floor, including multiple finishes at the rim in his 17-point outing. Wiggins has gained somewhat of a reputation for not being able to finish at the rim, which was a non-issue against the Horned Frogs’ 2-3 zone.

Combined, Wiggins and Selden scored 32 points, grabbed 8 rebounds with 8 assists and committed just one turnover.
TCJ


It had been more than two years since Bill Self and Brandon Rush saw one another, so when the former Kansas star walked into the locker room after Saturday’s rout of TCU, it was —more than anything, perhaps — simply a nice moment for the two to reconnect.

But it was Rush, after all, the lanky, 6-foot-6 forward Self considers the best defensive player he’s coached in his 11 seasons in Lawrence.

Now, Rush isn’t regarded as the most vocal guy, so Self didn’t tap him to deliver his team a defensive seminar. He did, however, go ahead and ask Rush — a standout from KU's 2008 national title team — how he thought Jayhawks guarded.

“Not great,” was Rush’s reply.

“Very profound,” Self would later say.

…Self, in revealing the PG-version of his halftime message, said he wanted his team to maybe, “try a little harder.”

Got it, coach.

In a smothering five-minute span to begin the second half, KU forced four turnovers and TCU went 0-for-4 from the field — not scoring until Amric Field’s free throw at the 16:18 mark. During that span, the Jayhawks raced and dunked their way to a 13-1 run that pushed their lead to 60-41.

Ballgame.

“They came out with a lot of intensity on defense, and it led to easy baskets,” Anderson said. “That’s what good teams do.”

…Freshman guard Brannen Greene was held out of the game due to what KU officials called “a pattern of irresponsible behavior” just before tipoff.

After the game, Self didn’t offer any details about why Greene sat, but said he expects Greene to play moving forward.

“We can have slippage from a responsibility standpoint,” Self said, “and that’s basically what happened.”

“I would rather try to have their heads right or whatever early in their career than I would being lax and trying to get them back later,” he added. “I would rather just address this and get it out of the way and now (Greene) will know better.”

EMBIID UPDATE — Self was optimistic when asked about center Joel Embiid’s status for Tuesday’s game at Texas Tech.

“He should be able to play Tuesday,” Self said. “Hopefully he’ll be able to practice (Sunday) and play Tuesday. He could’ve played today if he needed to, but he wasn’t pain-free, so we’ll get him back out there tomorrow and see what he can do.”

FORMER JAYHAWKS RETURN — It’s NBA All-Star weekend and all, so many former Jayhawks were in attendance. Among the faces in the crowd were Nick Collison (Oklahoma City Thunder), Mario Little, Rush (Utah Jazz), Jeff Withey (New Orleans Pelicans) and Kevin Young, as well as former KU football standout and current Denver Broncos linebacker Steven Johnson.
TCJ


Traylor, meanwhile, appeared motivated to make up for whatever transgressions led to his benching. He finished with a career-high 10 points and eight rebounds in 22 minutes.

“I feel like I did something to let my team down,” Traylor said. “So I wanted to get out there and (light) a spark.”

Traylor, who is now shooting 77.4 percent (24 of 31) in Big 12 games, said he felt personally responsible when he was on the bench for KU’s loss at K-State last Monday.

“If it was up to me, I wouldn’t want to have to sat out,” Traylor said. “But that’s between me and coach. … It was definitely a physical game at K-State, and I think if I was out there, we would have had a better chance to have won.”

Traylor and Self talked Thursday afternoon, and Traylor said they came to a mutual understanding.
“Pretty much,” Traylor said. “I’m not going to screw up anymore.”
KC Star


Kansas University sophomore Andrew White III, who hadn’t scored a point since Thanksgiving Day, busted the drought with four points in five minutes in Saturday’s 95-65 victory over TCU in Allen Fieldhouse.

“It felt good. I think those were my first points in conference play,” said White, who entered having played eight minutes total in Big 12 action.

“Coach (Bill Self) has been stressing to be aggressive. That’s what I want to do. Although I was cold and stiff, I knew I had (the last) four minutes to give it everything I’ve got. I went out there and played hard. It’s all I can do at this point. I think I blended in with the other walk-ons. Every opportunity I get I’m going to play hard regardless of how much time it is or what the score is.”

White, who is on scholarship, had hoped for more this season.

“It’s been real frustrating,” the 6-6 guard from Richmond, Va., said. “Although there’s a lot of talent here, everybody kind of has their own expectations when the year starts. That’s usually them planning to play well and get playing time. It didn’t go accordingly. I’m not happy about it obviously but I don’t complain. I don’t make phone calls home complaining. I just do what I can and that’s work hard in practice every day and try to be ready when and if coach calls on me. It’s been a big down point but I’ll recover.”

White stressed: “I’ve not been slacking in practice. Me being on the court (sparingly) isn’t an indication of what I’m doing off the court. I’ve been practicing hard. I’ve been putting in extra time. I’ve been competing with guys at my position as if I was playing. It’s a matter of getting there. That’s in coach’s hands, not mine.”

Senior Tarik Black was happy to see White get on the board.

“Andrew is one of the hardest workers we have on our team by far,” Black said. “It was good to see him out there. He was doing his thing. He was knocking down shots and playing defense. I’m happy for him.”

…Actress Barbara Eden, best known for her role as a genie in the 1960s TV series, “I Dream of Jeannie” attended with her husband, KU grad Jon Eicholtz, and sat next to KU’s chancellor. Eden was shown on the scoreboard at various junctures and even performed her trademark head nod and blink for the fans, who gave her a loud ovation.
LJW

The reality of it was, TCU basketball coach Trent Johnson was not all that upset with his team after a 95-65 loss to No. 7 Kansas University on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.

Not that you'd know that from listening to a few of Johnson's post-game soundbites following the loss.

After first talking about how proud he was of the effort his overmatched players gave and how impressed he was by the way the Horned Frogs played tough for a half and trailed just 47-40 at halftime, Johnson put a dark twist rooted in dry humor on an otherwise pleasant five minutes with the media before he left the room.

“Appreciate it,” Johnson said. “It's nice being in Lawrence. Hopefully I'll be able to come back next year, if I don't kill myself in the meantime.”

If not for such heavy words, one might have thought Johnson was OK with the state of TCU basketball, which fell to 9-15 overall, and, more painfully, 0-12 in Big 12 play on Saturday. He's not. And it stings. But he also knows there is not a whole lot he or his injury-riddled team can do about it this season. So he mixes in metaphors and one-liners that take the focus off of the basketball ever so slightly.

“My guys play for an idiot, who's really competitive,” Johnson joked. “I'm not sure how bright he is.”
Then, getting back to basketball, Johnson equated TCU's task of trying to play with a Kansas team that is full of future pros to boxing.

“I'm all about respecting tradition,” he said. “But this is still a basketball game. It's not a boxing match. If you don't compete, you're gonna get knocked out. It's all about competing.”

…“They're good,” Johnson said. “They're really good. The thing I like about them is they're really competitive. They play for the jersey. They're selfless, real physical and they just wore us down.”
LJW

Rookies no more, Kansas guard Andrew Wiggins and center Joel Embiid have been named to the list of top 30 candidates for the 2014 Naismith Men's College Player of the Year award presented by AT&T, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Thursday.

…Last season, Ben McLemore and Jeff Withey made the top-30 candidate list as did Thomas Robinson the season prior to that. Danny Manning was the first, and only, Jayhawk to win the award which began in 1969.
 
Each year, the Atlanta Tipoff Club's Board of Selectors chooses the 50 preseason "Naismith Watch" list as well as the mid-season team of 30 candidates. The Naismith voting academy narrows that group down to four finalists who will make up the final ballot. The voting academy, comprised of leading basketball journalists, coaches and administrators from around the country, bases its criteria on player performance throughout the season. The 30 candidates will be narrowed to four finalists on March 23, with Naismith's Men's College Player of the Year announced April 6.
 
Jayhawk Nation can help as the fans' vote will account for 25 percent of the selection process for the Naismith Men's and Women's College Player of the Year. This program sets the standard in college athletics for integrating fans into the voting process and providing them with more input than with any other major collegiate sports award.
KUAD


Vote for Wiggs for the Wooden Award


VOTE for Kansas at the NCAA 6th Fan Contest


Since we are on the topic of assists - the #McDAAG assist leader = Jacque Vaughn (West, ‘93) with 13 #NBAAllStar
@McDAAG

Honored to be giving back in NOLA with @nbacares - cleaning up a school. So blessed to be at #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/syDnZJE7uh
‏@BenMcLemore


Shaq-lemore


Fox Sports: Scott Pollard impressed with Wesley, ‘Jayhawkers’


“Pay Heed. The game you love began here. Respect those who came before you. Make their legacy your own. Because destiny favors the dedicated. And rings don’t replace work. In this game you don’t get what you want. You get what you earn. We are Kansas. Together we rise. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

The Big 12 tournament in Kansas City will be wild this year. I don't know who's winning that thing.
@MedcalfByESPN


Every week I get asked which is the best conference in the country. Every week the Big 12 convinces me more and more.
@jeffborzello


Sure Bramlage Coliseum is where KSU plays but I prefer to know it as home of 2A State Basketball.
@mickshaffer


K-State fans aren't booing, everybody has a long "u" sound in their name. #Fuster #Sprudling #Wulliams
@mickshaffer


After nearly two hours of watching Texas score in just about every way possible from all over the court, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins slumped into his seat and put his hand on his chin.

His challenge was to explain how a team that had looked ready to be a force over the second half of the Big 12 schedule could appear so helpless against the 19th-ranked Longhorns in an 88-71 loss Saturday night.

"We couldn't guard. Couldn't, didn't, wouldn't. Something," Huggins said. "You can't let people shoot that well, especially when you're not making shots."

Javan Felix scored 18 points and the Longhorns put five players in double figures. Texas shot nearly 60 percent for the game, outrebounded West Virginia 41-26 and dunked eight times in a romp that kept the Longhorns a game off the lead in the chase for the Big 12 title.

Cameron Ridley scored 17 points and was a force on defense with three of Texas' five blocks, including two in the final minute of the first half. Jonathan Holmes, the Longhorns' leading scorer, had 11 points in his return after missing a game with a knee injury.
AP


Q: Along those lines, what's your level of optimism when it comes to your goal of raising the minimum age to 20 (years old from 19 when the next CBA is negotiated, likely when there's an opt-out after the 2016-17 season)?

A: It's hard to tell. I never quite understood the player opposition. Of course it's a zero sum game in terms of numbers of jobs, and amount of salary we pay out. We pay out roughly 50% of BRI (basketball-related income), and that's divided among the players in the league. So there is absolutely, and by definition can't be, a financial savings to us by increasing the age to 20. It has been our belief that we have a better chance to grow the (financial) pie that gets divided 50-50 if we increase the age and create, in essence, a more competitive league. And it has been our sense for a long time that our draft would be more competitive if our teams had an opportunity to see these players play an additional year, whether it be in college or professionally in the Development League or overseas.

We believe the additional year of maturity would be meaningful. And increasingly, I've been told by many NBA coaches that one of the issues with the younger guys coming into the league is they've never had an opportunity to lead. By having come directly out of their first year of college, those are the moments in their lives where…they were put in positions as upper classmen, where they first learned how to lead teammates. And ultimately, if you look at our most successful teams, they're successful because they play as a team and I think that's one of the beauties of this game is that it's such an interesting mix of team play and at the same time individual (skill).

A team plays together with individual attributes. It's that blend that teams are always constantly trying to achieve, the perfect blend. Again though, it's one of those issues (where) it needs to be collectively bargained, and for good reason. It's something that during collective bargaining the last time, we had lots of discussions about it with the group of players who were representing the union at the time and I think it's something that we should continue to discuss. Let me just throw in that at the same time, I think maybe, just to broaden my horizons a little bit, I'm trying to look at it not just from the perspective of the NBA because I believe strong college basketball is also beneficial to the NBA and to the game generally. So even if it's not terrible for the NBA right now, at least talking to a lot of my college coaching friends and college (athletic director) friends, their view is (that) one and done is a disaster. I think this is one of these issues that the larger basketball community needs to come together and address, not just the NBA owners and our players. Youth basketball and college basketball should have a seat at the table as well.
USA Today: Q&A with NBA commissioner Adam Silver


CBS: Syracuse snafu. School tweets advertisements for Tyler Ennis jersey. NCAA violation, not their first for social media


NCAA: Annual mock tourney selection teaches media new bracketing principles


Raise your hand if the video below seems really familiar.
Imitation. The sincerest form of flattery?

...And here's the backstory for the above video.


For comparison’s sake, the cost of getting into a WSU game is higher than comparable seats at the University of Kansas, the state’s traditional basketball powerhouse.

The lowest-priced nosebleed seats for KU’s Feb. 22 matchup with Texas are $208 each, $14 less than a comparable seat for the same day’s Shocker game.

You can get a seat at KU’s March 5 season finale against Texas Tech for $106, less than half the cost for the WSU-Missouri State game.

The highest-priced seats for KU are much higher than Wichita State’s. Near-courtside tickets are on Stubhub as high as $1,936.

Bargain hunters might go for Kansas State University. The Wildcats’ last two home games of the season are March 1 against Iowa State – $60 for the lowest-priced ticket – and March 8 against Baylor, $52.55.

The more Wichita State wins, the more the university will be able to charge for tickets and TV rights. And increasingly, athletic departments are using the resale market to guide decisions on where to set the face value for tickets, Noble said.

Time and ongoing team success will tell whether the current ticket prices are a bubble or the start of an upward trend. A big part of it is reputation.

According to Noble, KU has that and remains a ticket in demand even though its current season – 19 wins and six losses as of Saturday – is not what its fans had hoped for when KU signed one of the nation’s top-rated recruiting classes.

Noble compares WSU to Gonzaga, a once-obscure university in Spokane, Wash., that has parlayed basketball to national prominence. The Zags had their best season in 1998-99, advancing to the Elite 8 in the March Madness tournament.
Wichita Eagle


Big XII composite schedule (includes results, highlights, stats)


ESPN College GameDay Schedule


2013-14 TV Schedule

Kelly Oubre, Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.), SF, 2014
College: Kansas
The weapon in my repertoire that I love the most is... 

"My athleticism. I love dunking on people. I will dunk on anybody!”
USA Today

VIDEO: Curie (Cliff Alexander) vs North Lawndale Charter game replay


In the past, the Sun-Times has selected an All-CPS team comprised of the top players in the Public League. This year we’re transitioning to an All-City team that will be selected from every school in the Chicago city limits. This year’s team will start with two of the most talented players that have ever played in the state of Illinois — Young’s 6-11 center, Jahlil Okafor and Curie’s 6-9 center, Cliff Alexander. The pair are currently rated nationally as the top two players in the class of 2014.

Kansas-bound Alexander is a defensive phenom. He currently has the Condors ranked No. 1 in the state and is averaging 25 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks. Curie coach Mike Oliver said Alexander is a one of a kind player who has worked hard to become the player that he is. “When he walked through the door you knew he could be good, but you would never imagine that he would grow into the player that he has become,” Oliver said. “He is without question the most dominate high school player in the country, but that is just part of who he is. He is an outstanding, humble kid who has put this school on the map because of the way he is on and off the court.”
Chicago Sun-Times


Oklahoma St official 21-23 & Kansas official 24-26
@JMamba5


Kansas asst Jerrance Howard was on hand when 2015 G @iammaliknewman went for 31 including a 3 from 20 seconds left
@AdamZagoria


VIDEO: Beyond the Game (Malik Newman)


Myles Turner, the top remaining uncommitted prospect in the Class of 2014 is aiming to unofficially visit SMU next Wednesday (2/19) when the Mustangs host Houston, his father confirmed.

"We're hoping to go," Myles' father David said Friday morning. "SMU is in the conversation. There's no front-runners right now."

The 6-11 Turner has already taken official visits to Oklahoma State and Ohio State and can officially visit three other programs before making a decision.

David Turner said there's no update as to which other schools his son will visit.

"We have to sort that out," David Turner said. "We have too many schools still on the list."
CBS


The mixtape, produced by Ty Kish of CityLeagueHoopsTV, shows the 7-foot Maker of Carlise High School in Martinsville, Va., displaying the jaw-dropping length, athleticism and skill that has vaulted Maker into the consensus top-five discussion for basketball prospects in the 2016 class. Some services have even put Maker at No. 1 and it isn’t hard to see why based on some of the highlights seen in Maker’s latest mixtape.

But when media outlets begin to pick up on these high school mixtapes and start attaching NBA names to the equation — as happened with alarming regularity with the Maker mixtape over the weekend — that is when things start to get dicey. Websites such as Deadspin and The Big Lead mentioned Kevin Durant after watching Maker’s mixtape and that is when things start to get dangerous. One news organization even gave Maker the outrageous distinction of having the potential to be a hybrid of Kevin Durant and Chris Paul.

If you were to take the time to see Maker play — as I have in multiple events last spring and summer — or look at his stats on the grassroots circuit in the Nike EYBL, you’d see those Kevin Durant comparisons aren’t really all that close. Thon Maker played two grade levels up for prestigious AAU program Boo Williams and led the very difficult EYBL in blocked shots and blocked shots per game last spring. Maker also shot 40 percent from the field and 3-for-17 from the three-point line during EYBL play last season and averaged 8.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game in 18 games for Boo Williams.

These numbers are impressive — especially for a sophomore playing guys two years older than him, in many cases — but how can you compare an elite shot blocker and questionable perimeter shooter to Kevin Durant, one of the top two players in the world?

And off of a two-to-three minute video of hand-picked highlight plays?

…What you don’t see in mixtapes is kids making bad decisions or bad basketball plays. You don’t get turnovers and blown defensive assignments on a mixtape. Want to see a mixtape of a kid curling around a screen and putting himself in position for a great catch-and-shoot jumper? Good luck.
Where is the mixtape footage of Thon Maker trying to assert himself physically on the interior and being manhandled inside of 10 feet as happened in multiple games last spring and summer?

This isn’t a knock on Maker, who, again, is a top-5 prospect in the sophomore class. But you have to paint a complete picture with a high school player when making a comparison model to NBA All-Stars and not just carelessly throwing names out there to bump up page views.

Highlight reels are fun to watch, but they don’t show the full and complete portrait of how a basketball player truly functions on the court.
NBC


Recruiting Calendar


My Late Night in the Phog videos, KU Alumni games videos, 2011-12 Border War videos, Legends of the Phog videos, KC Prep Invitational, & Jayhawk Invitational Videos and more now on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/kcjcjhawk

Well, I thought it was the KState game that was making me ill, turns out that was only the beginning. 6 days later I've returned to the land of the living.

Now, back to the Jayhawks!


Rock Chalk!

There is a clear point where the territorial dispute between Kansas and Kansas State is hotly contested.

All that separates a keen display of billboard banter is four lanes of interstate.

Where? Smack dab in Topeka.

What better place? One, because it is the state capital. Two, because our city sits between the two Big 12 schools, which are set to renew their basketball rivalry as ESPN brings its Big Monday production into Manhattan for an 8 p.m. clash in Bramlage Coliseum.

If you live here, you know where two billboards designed to interest westbound travelers stand side by side in Topeka’s downtown corridor along I-70. One touts KU. The other touts K-State. Choose one and you’ll miss the other — unless you want to swap paint or scrape concrete.

This is a stretch of road where out-of-state visitors accustomed to urban life, but unable to board a plane and execute a Midlands flyover, think that, “Hey, there is life in Kansas.”

…Suddenly, you’re struck by the contrasting billboards … which provide a sense of the athletic allegiances, and loyalties, predominant (sorry, Wichita State) statewide.

On the south side, Kansas is observed — a simple, yet powerful, message as the rings symbolizing the Jayhawks’ nine consecutive Big 12 basketball championships are displayed on the fingers of a KU player.

On the north side, Kansas State is observed — a salute to the conference basketball championship the Wildcats shared with the Jayhawks last season, along with a phone number to order tickets.

…This was particularly important for KU, which has around 25 billboards it has purchased to gain more visibility throughout the state. It is the flagship school, yet the perception KU fights, and actually created to some extent, is it only cares about one particular corner — with Topeka representing the western boundary of that footprint.

Now, for the toll you pay to drive the turnpike, you get a lot of KU material along the roadside. Actually, billboards promoting KU stretch across much of the state’s 82,276 square miles.

“It’s more of a brand-awareness issue than it is a measurable entity,’’ Marchiony said. “It’s an effective way, we believe, to keep the KU brand in people’s minds.’’

K-State is not quite as demonstrative, but it targets high-traffic areas.

“It is important for us to continue promoting our brand in Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita and western Kansas,’’ Lannou said. “We try to do that in a cost-effective manner, so the billboards are strategically placed rather than buying as many as possible. We also invest in short-run billboard ads to celebrate significant achievements.’’

The level of achievement in basketball is strong for both schools — historically and in real time. KU leads the Big 12. K-State just ended a seven-game win streak for second-place Texas.

For Big Monday, the nation will be tuned to Sunflower hoops.
TCJ


KUAD: Kansas vs KState Pregame Notes


KSUAD: Pregame Notes


TELEVISION

ESPN

Brent Musburger (play-by-play) >> Fran Fraschilla (analyst)  >> Holly Rowe (analyst)



Fran's coming? I hope Andrew Wiggins packed his "focus on the rim" eyes.

See the rim Andrew. Be the rim Andrew.

KUAD recap


KUAD Box Score


KUAD Photos


KC Star Photos


LJW Photos


UDK Photos

2/8/14, 3:15 PM
KU jersey (fire emoji)
@BRush_25


2/8/14, 2:37 PM
The K-State-Texas final score goes up on the video board at Allen Fieldhouse, and there's some polite applause.
@rustindodd


#OleMiss-#Mizzou score just got displayed on the Phog's video board. Third-loudest cheer all day.
@SeanKeeler


2/8/14, 3:58 PM
Yeahhhhhh #wiggins mean putback
@joshselby32


Frank Mason doing pushups on the sideline while waiting to check in. That right there is the definition of No Days Off.
@Schustee19


Ankles = broken. RT @marshallartist Frank Mason. vine.co/v/MWmZ7L31emm (via @rustindodd)
@JeffEisenberg


Sorry about your ankles, sir. gph.is/1fTyaOd
@SBNationGIF

Joel Embiid has played 17 minutes. Joel Embiid has a double-double. #Facts #KUbball
@Schustee19


Kansas has drawn 6 charges this season, Tarik Black has 5 of them.
@KUGameday


Andrew Wiggins has gone to the line at least 10 times in three of the past six games. That's a great sign for KU fans.
@GoodmanESPN


@KUHoops defeats @WVUhoops 83-69. Jayhawks have now won 111 in a row at Allen Fieldhouse vs. unranked opponents.
@Big12Conference


S/O #KUCMB on the W today!! #SAVAGESQUAD
@K_Ctmd22

"Overall, we're a better team than we were," Eron Harris said after the game. "Ten times better game than it was last year and I'm proud of my teammates and I can't wait to play them again at home."

That's the beauty of this double round-robin schedule. A team that got away the first time is still fair game later in the season. West Virginia's players and coaches said similar things after a 22-point loss at Kansas State and when the Wildcats visited Morgantown, the Mountaineers were able to return the favor.

The Jayhawks don't make their trip to the hills of West Virginia until March 8, but you can bet it's a date Harris and his teammates have circled on their calendars.

Huggins appears to be right there on the same page with his players.

"I just told them in there we're going to win in Morgantown," the head coach said on his radio show. "When they come back to Morgantown, we're going to win. We're going to figure out how to win."
WVI


With the bulk of the blue-and-gold-clad Mountaineers supporters stacked three or four rows deep in the rafters of the southwest corner of the arena, the loud-and-proud WVU fans that made the 900-mile trip to Lawrence let their presence be known throughout the game. The Mountaineers players heard them.

“It helped us,” said WVU junior Remi Dibo, who finished with seven points and three rebounds in 17 frustration-filled minutes. “I think it just shows how supportive the people of West Virginia are of their players. One thing's for sure, I got support from it. And it was great to feel that in a hostile environment.”
LJW


“It’s a real asset,” Wayne Selden said of KU’s bench after a hot shooting day that resulted in 17 points. “It really showed tonight, how Jamari (Traylor), Frank, even Brannen (Greene), everybody was able to come off the bench and give us a spark of energy and get us rolling.”

KU coach Bill Self shows deep faith in his reserves and that resulted in them playing with ever-growing confidence.

“No matter who’s on the court, we should be able to do the same things,” Selden said.

Embiid’s foul trouble and Ellis’ flat performance led Self to pair Black and Traylor, who so often seem to bring out the best in each other.

They combined to play 39 minutes and produce 18 points and seven rebounds. They shot a combined 6 for 6 from the field and 6 for 9 from the line.

“We’re just used to practicing with each other every day,” Black said of the chemistry that he and Traylor exhibit. “We’re used to hanging out with each other. It’s just a friendship and a bond that everybody has on the team. Ours is just a little higher because we’re used to practicing with one another every day.”
LJW


Late in the second half, KU freshman guard Frank Mason was at the scorer’s table quietly doing a couple of pushups. It was a strange scene, but perhaps it made sense.

“I just felt like doing some,” said Mason, who also provided a spark with five assists in the first half.
Mason finished with five points, while junior guard Naadir Tharpe (five points) struggled on offense. Mason also added the highlight of the first half, crossing over West Virginia’s Gary Browne in transition and leaving him awkwardly falling to the floor.

“If you were going to pick three guys and say who was the most valuable player in the game, I’d definitely take Frank, Jamari (Traylor) and Tarik (Black),” coach Bill Self said. “They were great in the first half.”
KC Star

Without naming anyone, Bill Self said a couple Jayhawk starters didn’t start the game with the energy level they need. That’s where Traylor and Black come in.

“We didn’t have a dropoff at all,” Self said. “That turned out to be real positive for us.”

It can be positive outside of the final score as well. With KU playing at Kansas State on Monday, just 48 hours after Saturday’s meeting, the Jayhawks have the luxury of not playing their starters for the entirety of the game.

West Virginia, who also plays Monday, played both Eron Harris and Juwan Staten 39 minutes. No team wants its starters running that long two nights before another game.

“The hard part about not having depth is we have to play Staten so long, we have to play Harris so long,” WVU’s Bob Huggins said. “It may affect us Monday.”

Both Perry Ellis and Joel Embiid played 21 and 17 minutes, respectively, nearly mirroring the time Traylor and Black spent on the court.
TCJ


Somewhere along the line, people have started calling Traylor and senior forward Tarik Black “The Bruise Brothers,” and Traylor was pondering the new tag.

“I don’t really like it,” said Traylor, an explosive sophomore forward. “But I’ll roll with it if somebody thought of giving me a nickname. I’ll roll with it.”

…“It’s a cool nickname and it fits us,” said Black, who finished with 11 points and four rebounds. “We go out there and play hard.”

The chemistry between the two reserves, Traylor says, started to come together during the long practice sessions over winter break. Embiid and Ellis usually take most of the reps with the starting five, so Traylor and Black are often on the same team during practice. At times, it can feel a little like watching a hockey line change with two enforcers, two players that share the same traits: Strength, toughness, desire.

When Black and Traylor start flying around the paint, it can feel a little chaotic, a little unpredictable. There are body parts flying, and hard screens, and presumably a lot of bruises.

“I think we go out there and play hard and just look for each other when we can,” said Traylor, who had seven points. “We just have the chemistry.”

…The Jayhawks have the sort of depth that can leave a major mark. You know, like a bruise.

So by late on Saturday evening, Traylor was reconsidering his position. Maybe the nickname could stay. You know, Traylor thought, it would look pretty good on one of those retro posters from the 1980s.

“It would look good, so I’m not saying don’t put it on a poster,” Traylor said. “I wouldn’t mind being on a poster.”
KC Star


KU center Joel Embiid tweaked his back in the closing moments. “He came down funny on the other end when he got fouled. That’s why I was going to sub for him. He’s fine,” KU coach Bill Self said.
Noted Embiid: “It’s all right. It’s OK. I just landed (funny). It’s fine.”

Embiid had 11 points and 12 boards with three blocks in 17 foul-plagued minutes.

“That’s what I told him, you didn’t play a lick and get 11 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. That’s good production for a guy that doesn’t get a chance to play a lot,” Self said. “Today I’m not sure there was a drop-off when Tarik (Black) was in the game.”

…The Jayhawks have a quick turnaround with a game against rival Kansas State at 8 p.m., Monday, in Manhattan.

“Coach said, ‘Everybody focus. Don’t do anything dumb (in celebrating Saturday’s win). We’ve got to get ready for this next one on Monday,’’’ said Jamari Traylor.

…Members of the team that competed in the Final Four 40 years ago watched the game from behind the KU bench and were introduced during a first-half time out. They dined in the fieldhouse after the game.

“I thought they did a great job,” Smith said of the Jayhawks. “West Virginia had some great shooters. They were making a lot of threes (4 of 13 first half; 6 of 23 overall). We were sitting here saying, ‘That’s not going in, then ooh (the ball went in),” Smith added. “Our guys played hard to the end, did a good job of defending people on the three.”

Those from the team in attendance: coach Ted Owens, grad assistant Bob Flickner and players Cris Barnthouse, Bob Emery, Dale Greenlee, Tom Kivisto, Roger Morningstar, Smith and Donnie Von Moore. Polly Miranda, wife of assistant coach Sam Miranda, attended.

“It’s been wonderful,” said Owens. “It was a good game. West Virginia has some really good guards that make it difficult. They (Jayhawks) did a great job.”

Of having the ‘74 team in town, KU coach Bill Self said: “It’s cool. I hope I’m around when they bring the ‘08 team and ‘12 team back in 2035 or 2040, whatever it is. It’s cool to see coach (Owens) come back. He’s still connected with all of his players. It was a special team, a great year for Kansas basketball. It was good for our players to witness that.”
LJW

About a half hour after Kansas’ 83-69 victory against West Virginia, Andrew Wiggins walked over to his cheering section on James Naismith court when his father, Mitchell, wanted to know about a baseline drive early in the game.

“What were you doing out there?” Mitchell said with a smile. Andrew gave a sheepish grin and started to explain before his dad continued.

“Everybody in the gym was expecting you to do this,” Mitchell added, pulling his hand behind his head and mimicking a vicious dunk.

…Andrew not only would watch his dad play professionally, but he also had two older brothers to go against. He also attended many of Mitchell’s basketball camps and clinics where the focus was on defensive fundamentals.

“Early on, I taught him how to guard scorers,” Mitchell said. “I taught him how to guard guys who can penetrate a lot off the dribble. He has an understanding of how to guard guys.”

So what did Mitchell teach him?

“If you’re guarding a shooter, just like a Brady Heslip (from Baylor), you get up close to him,” Mitchell said. “Andrew’s about 6-9 with long arms. Just make contact and get close to him and make them put the ball on the floor, preferably with their weak hand.”

Andrew did it beautifully against Harris in the second half Saturday, holding the 43-percent 3-point shooter to just four points on 0-for-4 shooting and 0-for-3 accuracy from 3.

…Mitchell, who will also attend KU’s 8 p.m. tilt with rival Kansas State on Monday in Manhattan, continued to see tantalizing flashes from his son. That included a follow dunk in the final seconds of the first half and aggressiveness that resulted in 10 second-half free throws.

“His ceiling: There’s no ceiling limit,” Mitchell said. “You talk about (teammate Joel) Embiid. There’s no ceiling to these guys. They can be as good as they want to be if they maybe accept the Kevin Durant or Kobe Bryant work ethic, where you practice before you practice and you practice after you practice and keep getting better.”
TCJ


Prep basketball coach Rob Fulford offered some words of wisdom to Andrew Wiggins — his most famous pupil of all time — during an otherwise relaxing dinner on Friday night in Lawrence.

“We joked with him about his drives to the basket and finger-rolls. I said, ‘If I see one finger-roll tomorrow, coach (Bill) Self won’t have to say anything to you because I’ll be cussing at you from the stands,’’’ Fulford said with a smile after watching Wiggins score a team-leading 19 points in the Jayhawks’ 83-69 victory over West Virginia on Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.

“I thought he played real aggressive today,” Wiggins’ high school mentor added, after attending his first game in KU’s tradition-rich building.

Fulford was able to witness a pair of vicious dunks from the 6-foot-8, 200-pound Wiggins, who at times has been a bit tentative in finishing around the goal.

…“Harris hit his first two jump shots. After that he couldn’t get one off. The kid didn’t make a shot the rest of the game.

“He’s an elite defender,” Fulford added of Wiggins. “I think that’s the biggest part of his game people don’t realize and give him enough credit for.”

Fulford recalled that Wiggins routinely asked to guard the opponents’ best player. “All the time. Every game,” Fulford said. “He wanted it.”

For his part, Wiggins said he made a simple adjustment after Harris hit those three early threes.
“I had to guard him closer and be more aggressive. I tried to turn him into a driver instead of a shooter,” Wiggins said.

…“My first game here ... it was great,” coach Fulford said. “I didn’t want him to be at Kansas and me not get an opportunity to see him play in Allen. It was an honor for me to come out here.”
LJW

LJW Keegan  Ratings: Wiggins back atop ratings


VOTE for Kansas at the NCAA 6th Fan Contest


“Pay Heed. The game you love began here. Respect those who came before you. Make their legacy your own. Because destiny favors the dedicated. And rings don’t replace work. In this game you don’t get what you want. You get what you earn. We are Kansas. Together we rise. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

5 p.m. news conference at #okstate will include AD Mike Holder and coach Travis Ford along with Marcus Smart.
‏@KellyHinesTW (will be shown on ESPN and watchespn.com)


Video of TT fan and Marcus Smart incident


There's nothing to talk about. Marcus Smart should be suspended 3-to-5 games. A college athlete has no business putting his hands on a fan.
@stephenasmith


Just saw Marcus Smart video. What a turd. He’s worse than Marshall Henderson at this point. So sad he was early POY fav and now he’s here.
@clubtrillion


On Saturday night, the world witnessed what has been known to those surrounding the Oklahoma State basketball team for the last two months.

Marcus Smart is out of control.

…This has been building as the losses pile up for the Cowboys—a team that was once ranked fifth has now lost four straight games.

Two weeks ago, Smart kicked a chair against West Virginia when his team won, but he struggled. On Jan. 4, he pulled himself up over the rim on a dunk at K-State that resulted in a no-doubt technical and was a direct cause of his team's loss that day.

Last Monday at Iowa State, Big 12 referees finally caught on to his endless flopping, and when his act didn't get a call, he pouted.

On their own, each of these instances appeared to be small lapses in judgement. Together, they were signs of a renegade without an authority figure to hold him accountable for his actions.’

…I hear stuff from fans at nearly every college game I attend that makes me want to go up into the stands and ask fans, "Do you hear yourselves? These are kids. This is a game. This is a public place."

Cruel and hateful language is the norm, and it shouldn't be.

But Smart isn't the only one victim to it. It happens everywhere. And no matter what Orr said to him, there's no excuse for leaving the court and doing what he did.

Smart deserves to be suspended. He deserves to be held accountable for his actions.

And maybe if Smart had been put in his place before those final moments in Lubbock, an ugly scene never would have taken place.
CJ Moore


Knicks forward Metta World Peace believes Marcus Smart can learn from the fallout that will come after Smart shoved a fan during Oklahoma State's game at Texas Tech Saturday.

If anyone would know, it's the player formerly known as Ron Artest.

…World Peace said Smart — who is projected to be a high NBA draft pick — might benefit from learning how to deal with obnoxious fans at age 19, before he becomes a pro and millions of dollars are on the line.

"Just in general, I heard the kid is pretty good and a potential pro," World Peace said Sunday before his game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. "So those types of challenges on the court when you're playing and fans are rooting against you — that was a great lesson learned, so that hopefully when he does become a pro, he'll be able to kind of withstand the fans that are rooting against him on the road."

World Peace also said Smart needs to learn to control his energy.

"I think that emotion and that fire could be directed towards winning on the court instead of directed other ways," he said.

World Peace said given the chance, he would advise Smart to be aware of the big picture when making decisions.

"At 19 years old, when I came out of St. John's, I was fresh out the 'hood. I was fresh out of Queensbridge," he said. "So my mentality was still struggle, defensive and things like that. I wasn't really conscious. I'm 34 years old now. So he's a young kid. I wish I would have listened when I was a kid to my elders or people who had my best interests at heart, and then I wish I would have been more conscious at that age also. Those are two things that, if you were to reach out to a kid like Marcus — a talented kid, future leader in the community — you would tell him those things."

…Texas Tech is still investigating, trying to speak with people who were in the area around Smart and Orr when the altercation occurred.

"We are conducting a very thorough investigation, trying to collect everything we can," Texas Tech spokesman Blayne Beal said Sunday. "We are in conversations with Mr. Orr."

There are no fan-behavior guidelines printed on Texas Tech basketball tickets, Beal said, but the school follows the Big 12's sportsmanship policy. Before each game the public address announcer reads a few sentences about sportsmanship that includes that inappropriate fan behavior will not be tolerated.

"It's read literally at every game," Beal said.

Section 12.2.1 is titled Institutional Responsibility: "The Big 12 member institutions have the responsibility to take all reasonable steps to ensure that all university employees, students, and others in attendance at athletics events conduct themselves in a dignified manner and exhibit respect and courtesy towards game officials, other institutions and their employees, students (including student-athletes) and fans."
AP


What led the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year to cross a line, both literally and figuratively, and shove a spectator late in Oklahoma State's fourth consecutive loss? The most likely scenario has us never knowing for sure because there will almost certainly be multiple versions of this story. It'll devolve into a he-said/he-said situation, I'd bet. Regardless, know this: No matter what the man said or did, Marcus Smart was wrong to put his hands on a fan, and the sophomore guard should be punished for it.

That's not even debatable in my mind.

There are certain things players simply cannot do without repercussions, and physically engaging fans is quite clearly one of those things. So, no matter what the man said or did, Smart was in the wrong when he reacted the way he reacted. That's why he should be suspended by Oklahoma State and/or the Big 12 in the next 36 hours, and that's why I think he will be suspended by Oklahoma State and/or the Big 12 in the next 36 hours.
CBS Parrish


Marcus Smart broke one of the cardinal rules of spectator sports: You do not touch the customers.
You do not touch the customers for what they say. You do not touch the customers for what they do, unless it happens that what they’re doing is endangering your personal safety. Marcus Smart touched a customer. His college career never will be the same.

He no longer will be viewed as the consummate winner, the player who lifted Oklahoma State from mediocrity and carried the Cowboys to the NCAA Tournament in his freshman season, earning first-team All-America honors from Sporting News and then went out and directed the United States U-19 national team to a world championship.

He no longer will be the player who declined the opportunity to enter the NBA draft and instead returned to OK State because he wanted to improve his jumpshot before taking on the world’s best players and to leave the game with a better lasting impression than the team’s flameout in last year’s NCAA round of 64.

He’ll be the player who flopped against Kansas, who kicked over a chair against West Virginia and who touched a customer in attendance at Saturday’s 65-61 Texas Tech victory over the Cowboys. Their collapse in the aftermath of center Michael Cobbins’ injury has damaged not only the team’s chances of reaching the NCAA Tournament, but also the image of its star player.
TSN DeCourcy


Smart has claimed to Oklahoma State coaches that Orr called him a racial slur, a member of the basketball program confirmed to ESPN.

After the game, Smart was "down and remorseful," the team official told ESPN, claiming that the sophomore guard "got caught up in the moment."

…Big 12 coordinator of officials Curtis Shaw told ESPN that the officials don't have jurisdiction to eject a player who is involved in an altercation with a fan.

"There is no precedent for that," Shaw said. "Our rules are for flagrant 1 or 2. We don't have grounds for dealing with a fan. We don't have a rule to get involved when the player is involved with a fan. We don't know what was said. The official, Doug Sirmons, didn't know what was said."

Shaw said anything involving a fan is up to the host school.

"That's up to the security of the home team and the conference," Shaw said. "We've never had a fan with a player incident before."

Beal told ESPN that high-ranking officials at Texas Tech already have spoken with Orr. Beal said he is uncertain whether the school will issue a statement about the incident.

"We have never had an issue with [Orr] crossing the line in the past," Beal told ESPN.
ESPN Goodman


Even after the game had ended, Smart wouldn’t leave the floor. Team officials had to drag him back to the locker room as he pleaded his case. It was a bizarre, unfortunate moment in Smart’s career.

I don’t know the player I’ve watched in recent weeks.

…Smart shoved a fan. And that can’t happen.

Period.

It’s not fair. Life isn’t. But men and women in that spotlight, especially in the social media age, are subjected to levels of disrespect and hatred that few can understand. A refusal to respond does not constitute cowardice. It proves maturity.

And Smart had that chance. He had the chance to prove that a teenager was more of a man than some Texas Tech fan who might have aggravated him.

Instead, Smart placated his haters who’d already harassed him for the way he’s attempted to draw fouls this season. See: flopping.

Smart kicked a chair during a recent win over West Virginia. Since that incident, Smart’s negative demeanor has been one of the headlines for a troubled program.

He’s moped on the sideline. He’s been childish. He’s walked off the floor.

What initially seemed like a bad stretch for a good kid was actually the precursor to Saturday’s meltdown and another bad night for a program that can’t seem to do right.
ESPN Medcalf

Melvin Ejim scored a Big 12 record 48 points Saturday; he outscored 3 Division I teams (Georgia Tech, Howard, North Florida).
@ESPNStatsInfo


It’s a trying time for the Bears (14-9, 2-8 Big 12) in the midst of losing seven of their last eight games, but the players aren’t ready to call it quits.

Sophomore center Isaiah Austin wasn’t a fan of addressing reporters after the game, but did his best to put this nightmarish stretch in perspective.

“It’s basketball, it’s not life,” said Austin, an Arlington Grace Prep product. “It’s a privilege to play out there on that court. We’re thankful to be out there. Right now, things aren’t going our way, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to hang our heads.”

Said junior forward Royce O’Neale: “It’s frustrating, but we’re just going to keep getting better. Just keep practicing every day and play it game-by-game.”
FW ST


The last time most DFW sports fans witnessed Moody Madness with comparable intensity and decibel levels to Saturday night, SMU was not involved.

Instead, the phrase attached itself to a Dallas Mavericks’ playoff game from 1984, when the upstart NBA franchise sealed its first playoff series triumph in comeback fashion over Seattle. The game was moved to the Mustangs’ facility because the Mavs’ home venue, Reunion Arena, already was booked for a tennis event.

But during Saturday’s high-stakes, high-decibel, court-storming version of Moody Madness, SMU was very much the star of the show in a 76-55 rout of No. 7 Cincinnati.

The victory, SMU’s first over a Top 10 opponent since Dec. 3, 1987, should have major repercussions in efforts to return the Mustangs to the Top 25 rankings for the first time since the 1984-85 season. When Monday’s updated polls surface, SMU (19-5, 8-3 American Athletic Conference) deserves to be included after ending the Bearcats’ 15-game winning streak and making the Mustangs’ strongest statement to date that they are viable candidates to receive their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1993.

Cincinnati (22-3, 11-1) fell for the first time in league play and held only one lead — at 2-0. Bearcats coach Mick Cronin said his team “got beat in every facet of the game” by an SMU squad that shot 54.3 percent from the field and limited the Bearcats to a 35.4 conversion rate.
FW ST

Cliff Alexander had competition for best dunk.

Josh Stamps' shoulder-dip tomahawk from the baseline rivaled anything the future Kansas Jayhawk threw down Saturday night.

Stamps even outscored his teammate, though Alexander's presence had far more to do with Stamps' production than vice-versa.

Stamps scored 29 points, Alexander had 27 along with 15 rebounds and five blocks and No. 1 Curie cruised into the Public League quarterfinals with a 75-63 victory over North Lawndale in second-round action at Young.

The Condors will take on either No. 7 Simeon or Lane at Chicago State on Feb. 16. Curie beat Simeon 62-59 in the championship game of the Pontiac Holiday Tournament.

"Everybody expects us to give it to him every time, so that leaves a lot of open shots," Stamps, a 6-4 junior, said. "When we throw it in to him and they double down, we know he's going to kick it back out."

Alexander managed 11 first-half points despite hardly touching the ball against North Lawndale's zone, doing the bulk of his damage on offensive rebounds.

…"Coach (Mike Oliver) told us to slow down with the ball and work our way inside-out," Alexander said. "That's what we did in the second half."

Alexander responded with a nine-point third, though his demeanor remains the same whether or not he's being targeted.

Rarely does he show frustration.

"I just work hard on the glass, get the offensive rebound and go up at will," Alexander said. "That's what coach wants me to do — attack the glass."
Chicago Tribune

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