Kansas Jayhawks GAME DAY!

Game 2 of the "Missing 6"

KU vs Fort Hays State pregame notes


Jayhawk Television Network Info


Viewing options around KC for those without access to Metro Sports per KU Athletics
(This list is funny. Heartland Pawn Jewelry? lol)


ESPN3/WatchESPN


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(Scheduled to be blacked out for KC Metro and Kansas. If yours isn’t, then lucky you!)

Kansas University freshman backup point guard Frank Mason has already learned a lot from junior floor leader Naadir Tharpe.

“Ways to be more vocal, talking to the guys, getting everybody involved when players are down, picking them up,” said Mason, a 5-foot-11, 185-pounder from Petersburg, Va.

“It’s something I’ve had to work on. I’m not used to being a vocal leader through high school. College is a different level, being vocal,” Mason added.

Mason — who scored five points with one assist and three turnovers while playing 18 minutes as Tharpe’s understudy in last Tuesday’s 84-55 opening exhibition rout of Pittsburg State — tonight is slated to start in KU’s exhibition finale against Fort Hays State (7 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse).

The switching of the guard is designed with Friday in mind.

Tharpe must sit out KU’s regular-season opener against Louisana-Monroe as a result of a one-game NCAA penalty for playing in a pro-am game in Chicago over the summer.

“I just want to show I can defend, be a point guard and be coachable and do the things my coach needs me to do,” Mason said of his goals during the preseason. “Learning all the plays, learning the system overall, knowing my role on the team.”

…The Jayhawks have been stressing defense at practice.

“Coach wants us to play higher on the floor, make it so our man catches farther away from the hoop,” Selden said. “Farther from the scoring area.”

Another freshman who hopes to show continued progress tonight is 7-footer Joel Embiid. He had nine points, three boards, four turnovers and two blocks against Pitt State.

“Very nervous,” the Cameroon native said of his state of mind in his debut. “In the first game, when I had the dunk from Andrew (lob from Wiggins in second half), I knew I was good. In the second game, it would be good for me if I have a dunk at the beginning so I will be good,” he added with a smile. “We’ve worked on defense, guarding the ball without touching the other players.”
LJW


Just a few minutes into his exhibition debut, Kansas freshman Wayne Selden had already picked up two quick fouls. First came an offensive charge on a drive to the basket. Then a moment of overaggressiveness on defense. And Selden, 6-foot-5 guard, found himself on the bench, just a few feet away from KU coach Bill Self.

So on Monday afternoon, when Selden was asked if he learned anything from the Jayhawks’ victory over Pittsburg State last Tuesday, it didn’t take him long to respond.

“I want to be on the floor,” Selden said.

All of Kansas’ young players took something different from their first game in Allen Fieldhouse. But as KU prepares for its second and final exhibition game against Fort Hays State at 7 p.m.Tuesday, it’s the collective lessons that stand out. The Jayhawks are young, still learning and hopeful they can manufacture the type of chemistry that can take some teams years to build.

The question: Can you really speed up the process?

“I’d say probably no,” Self said. “The one thing that can certainly happen is you can have some success early, and that would probably speed it up as much as anything else. Sometimes when you don’t have success early, you’re thinking what we’re doing is not working.”
KC Star

Kansas University freshman guard Andrew Wiggins is one of five selections for the Associated Press preseason All-America team released Monday afternoon.

Wiggins was joined on the preseason All-America team by Oklahoma State sophomore guard Marcus Smart, seniors Doug McDermott of Creighton and Russ Smith of Louisville and sophomore Mitch McGary of Michigan.

…Wiggins, just the second freshman to earn preseason honors since the team was first selected for the 1986-87 season, averaged 23.4 points and 11.2 rebounds as a senior at Huntington (W.Va.) Prep School. He was on 42 ballots and joins Harrison Barnes of North Carolina in 2010-11 as the only freshmen to earn preseason honors.

Wiggins is a member of an outstanding freshman class at Kansas and there aren't many people who expect him to be a sophomore in Lawrence. The national magazine covers, the constant attention and comparisons to the likes of LeBron James haven't been a problem for the 6-8 Wiggins, whose father, Mitchell, played at Florida State and in the NBA.

"It kind of grew on me over the years to where I'm used to it," Wiggins said of the attention. "I just think of it as a blessing. A lot of people don't get an opportunity to be showcased like that."
AP


Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins was named to the Associated Press' 2013-14 Preseason All-America team, released Monday. The AP team is voted on by a 65-member national media panel.

Additionally, Wiggins and teammate Wayne Selden, Jr., have been named to the 10-man Wayman Tisdale Award Preseason Watch List, which is presented to the national freshman of the year by the United States Basketball Writers of America (USBWA), the organization announced Monday.
KUAD


After a generation of players — from Kobe Bryant and Grant Hill to Jerry Stackhouse and Harold Miner — were saddled with the label of the “Next Michael Jordan,” Canadian import Andrew Wiggins, Kansas’ 6-foot-8 freshman forward, has taken the torch for a new era, as the best high school prospect since LeBron James.

“He’s stunning athletically,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said of Wiggins. “His talent level absolutely matches the hype. He’s got everything you want in an athlete.

“He’ll make plays from the first game that will be ‘SportsCenter’ Top 10 plays.”

Wiggins reportedly is leaning heavily toward entering the NBA Draft after the season, particularly if he leads Kansas to a national title.

Former St. John’s coach Fran Fraschilla, an ESPN analyst, compares the McDonald’s All-American’s athleticism to perhaps the most freakishly gifted athlete in college basketball history — N.C. State’s David “Skywalker” Thompson. CBS analyst Doug Gottlieb sees Wiggins as a cross between James, Kevin Durant and Tracy McGrady, with Wiggins’ athleticism unlike anything Gottlieb has seen since Kevin Garnett came out of high school in 1995.

Though Kansas assistant coach Norm Roberts said Wiggins has more natural abilities than any coach could ever dream, the 18-year-old isn’t relying on those gifts.

“He’s extremely coachable. He wants to be great and he wants to learn,” said Roberts, whose staff has Wiggins operating on the perimeter more than in high school. “When he does something wrong, you correct him and he says, ‘Yes sir, no sir, got it sir.’ … He’s all about winning. He’s an unselfish kid.”

…Rob Fulford, Wiggins’ coach at Huntington Prep in West Virginia — which had a 58-5 record in Wiggins’ two seasons — scoffs at the comparison to Randle, a 6-foot-9 freshman at Kentucky. Wiggins’ game is overly critiqued because he’s the top prospect, while other highly touted freshmen, such as Randle and Duke’s Jabari Parker, have their positives accentuated, Fulford said.

Fulford believes Wiggins’ defense — his passion to lock down the best player on the opposition — has gone largely unnoticed, and separates him from others.

“He’ll be the best defender in college basketball,” Fulford said. “I’ve seen Jabari literally not get shots off [against him]. He completely dominated Julius Randle in an AAU event, so much that Julius couldn’t get his shot off. [Wiggins] is a lock-down, in-your-face defender. He enjoys the challenges.”

One game in particular stands out to the Huntington Prep coach, following a scathing Sports Illustrated article published on Wiggins that questioned his passion, work ethic and whether he could be the latest Canadian star to flop. He didn’t say much before or after the game about the story, but Wiggins exploded for 57 points in a rout over the Marietta College JV Pioneers last February, making 24 of 28 shots and grabbing 13 rebounds.

“That’s a lot of what he’s going to do over the next few months [when criticized],” predicted (Huntington, W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch sports reporter Grant Traylor, who covered Wiggins at Huntington Prep, spending time with him four days a week.

Off the court, Wiggins couldn’t be more different from James, the player to whom he often is compared, Fulford said. While James hobnobbed with Jay Z in high school and got a tattoo “Chosen1” on his back, the understated Wiggins doesn’t seek the spotlight, even if his magnetic on-court performances have drawn millions of YouTube hits.

His circle is tight, made up of his family and close friends he trusts. When Wiggins picked Kansas, it surprised many who felt Kentucky and Florida State were his leaders.

“He’s sort of a mystery, or an enigma. You never know what he’s thinking,” Traylor said. “He doesn’t like all the hoopla surrounding him. He’s a kid who loves the ball. That’s all he needs.”

He’s a normal, goofy kid who likes to joke around, routinely messing up an assistant coach’s hair at Huntington or untying Fulford’s shoes. In his free time, he played so much Xbox at Huntington Prep that Fulford joked, “he may have a ‘Call of Duty’ endorsement before he gets a shoe deal.”
NY Post

11/4/13, 3:45 PM
Three Top10 draft picks rocking Kansas jerseys according to Nbadraft.net:
(1) Wiggins
(6) Selden
(7) Embiid
@Coachjhoward)



Jamari Traylor joined Kansas University’s perennial-powerhouse basketball program and in many ways it was as if practices were in English and he spoke a foreign language. He possessed the raw athletic ability, but didn’t have the background to apply those skills with as much purpose as the basketball lifers who surrounded him daily.

“When I first started playing as a junior in high school,” Traylor said after a recent practice, “I thought a lot of different things were being thrown at me. Then I got here, and I basically realized I didn’t really know much at all. Everything I did know wasn’t even a fraction of what I had to know.”

…“I’m definitely getting hold of it,” he said. “As far as playing against guys who have been playing all their lives, I guess that kind of motivates me because I’ve only been playing for X amount of years, and I’m already at the University of Kansas, so I’ve got a lot more potential in me. I’m trying to reach my ceiling.”

It’s a high one, especially for a role player.

…“I want this team to do great things, so I definitely want it,” he said. “It’s a little early to be talking about everything, but I know I want to win the Big 12 championship again, and I want to continue and win the whole thing. I think if we continue to work hard, we can do some big things.”
LJW


Conner Frankamp believes in himself. Not that Perry Ellis doesn’t. Quite the opposite. Ellis is brimming with confidence as the college basketball season begins. It just took him a while to brim.
It won’t take Frankamp a while. He might not play well at times as a freshman at Kansas, but it will have nothing to do with self-doubt or an acclimation process.

In many ways, Frankamp and Ellis are different despite their City League pedigrees — Frankamp became the City League’s career scoring leader at North, overtaking Ellis, a year older and leader of four straight state championship teams at Heights.

The 6-foot-9 Ellis is a power source. He’s much bigger, stronger and faster than he was at Heights and after he finally decided to be somebody about two-thirds of the way through last season, he was a big contributor.

Now, as national magazines sing the praises of freshman Andrew Wiggins and a couple of other KU freshmen look like potential one-and-done players, it’s Ellis that KU coach Bill Self is propping up.
“Perry easily could be our leading scorer this season,” Self said. “Or he could be our fourth-leading scorer. But he’s certainly talented enough to be our leading scorer. He’s been great. He had a great last third of the season last year and he’s had a really good spring and summer. I think Perry will be able to take the next step.”

…He probably won’t have to spend much time emphasizing “play hard” to Frankamp, who has never had a moment of doubt on a basketball floor. That doesn’t mean Frankamp doesn’t recognize the difference between being the top dog at North and trying to fit in with a bunch of outstanding players at Kansas. It just means that he’s not intimidated by the notion.

“I feel like I’m a pretty confident person, especially on the basketball court,” Frankamp said. “Of course there are things that I have to work on. But I’m always in the gym a lot. There are going to be some adjustments because of the level I’m playing at now.”

Self can hardly wait to unleash Frankamp, a 6-foot-1 guard who tilts when there’s a 20-mph wind, on unsuspecting opponents. He doubts they’ll be unsuspecting for long.

“If there’s somebody who can shoot better than Conner, I would like to see him because I think he can shoot it maybe as well as anyone we have had here,” Self said. “Whether he can do it under game conditions remains to be seen, but we certainly think he can.’’

Frankamp will likely begin his college career as a zone buster and spot-up shooter. He knows some are skeptical about his upside because he lacks size. Just more fuel to his already-raging fire.
“I do hear those people every once in a while,” Frankamp said. “I just have to prove myself and everything will be fine. I work a lot on my shot. As a freshman, I feel like I can do whatever Coach Self asks me to do. I can knock down shots and I want to try to be a defensive stopper as well.”

It’s possible still that Frankamp could be redshirted. Kansas has an abundance of depth and after KU's exhibition opener Tuesday night against Pittsburg State, Self said Frankamp was thinking too much after he missed the three shots he took.
Wichita Eagle


The only drawback in rooming with Ted Owens on golf excursions to Scotland and Ireland, Bill Self says, is the 84-year-old former Kansas University basketball coach’s habit of rising before the sun.
“He wakes me up doing his pushups and calisthenics at 6 every day,” Self, KU’s current coach, said after Sunday’s “An Evening With Ted Owens,” held in the Kansas Union Ballroom. “I lay down about 2 (a.m.), and he’s getting up at 6 every day.”

Self, who wrote the foreword for Owens’ just-released biography, “At the Hang Up,” has walked close to 20 golf courses with former KU hoops coach Owens, including St. Andrews and Pebble Beach.

“I love the guy. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve been around,” Self said. “The competitive streak comes out in him. I will tell you this, I love having him on my team because he’s not going to putt anything outside of 6-feet. Those are gimmies. He’ll tell everybody, ‘I’m picking that up.’ He’s the guy you always want on your team if you are playing a golf match.”

Self still has a ways to go to catch Owens, who worked 19 seasons at KU; Self is beginning his 11th.
“Bill Self has made me and my family, my players, feel such a part of Kansas basketball,” Owens said in a speech and question-and-answer session at an autograph signing of Owens’ new book.

“The only problem ... winning nine straight conference championships makes the rest of us feel we are dragging our feet,” he added, smiling.
LJW


How would you size up the Big 12 race?

“Kansas has to be considered the best team again. You win nine in a row, that's some pretty strong evidence you're going to have a chance to win it again. Bill Self has an NBA-size front line and really talented. His freshman class is within shouting distance of Kentucky's for talent, not quite as deep in talent but overall really, really terrific. Andrew Wiggins (6-foot-8 guard), I think everybody has heard, is the top prospect. I'm not sure he is ready to be the top player, but you give him a little bit of time and he is just going to continue to get better and better. I was really impressed with Wayne Selden (6-5 guard) when I was there. He's probably their hardest worker. And Joel Embiid (7-foot center), he's a No. 1 overall pick caliber talent. You just don't see guys with that size, agility, feet, hands and touch. I like their team a lot.

“Oklahoma State is very good. They don't have the front line that Kansas has. I think that's the difference. Markel Brown (6-3 wing) is one of the most underrated players in the country, and Marcus Smart (6-4 guard) is probably the most complete player at both ends of the floor. But having to go up against the front line of Kansas is going to be the real challenge, having to keep them off the glass, keep them out of the paint and defend them in the post is going to be really, really difficult.”
The Oklahoman: Q&A with Jay Bilas


Athlon Kansas Preview


If u know me u know ku is installed n me
@TRobinson0


Sometimes you don't know what you got until it's gone. When Xavier Henry exited the Los Angeles Lakers' game against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday with a head wound, his team was up by 15 points. When he was able to come back in after receiving nine stitches to the two-inch laceration on his forehead, the Lakers were trailing by two at halftime.

The momentum swing got Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni thinking that the more Henry his Lakers have, the better, so he is putting him in the starting lineup.

"You could definitely read into that," D'Antoni said after shootaround Sunday before the Lakers game against the Atlanta Hawks. "That wouldn’t be wrong."

Henry, who is averaging 13.0 points and 4.3 rebounds through the Lakers' first three games, will take the place of Nick Young at small forward.

"He’s played as well, if not better, than anybody so there is no reason not to go ahead and do this," D'Antoni said.
ESPN

Big 12/College News

Arizona expects Kansas transfer Zach Peters to be cleared for today's practice, sources told ESPN. Give Wildcats a big man who can shoot it.
@GoodmanESPN


Texas has landed a pledge from 6-foot-8, 230-pound junior college power forward Obi Oleka.
He also considered Gonzaga, Southern Miss, Oregon State and Old Dominion, among others. He will have two years of Division 1 eligibility remaining.
Zags Blog


When asked about the level Duke freshman Jabari Parker's skillset, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas isn't shy in paying the 6-8 forward the highest of compliments.

"Jabari isn't just one of the most special players in the country, he's one of the best coach (Mike) Krzyzewski's ever had," Bilas said. "(Parker) can play posting up, he can play with his back to the basket, facing it. He's really, really impressive. He can put him in the backcourt and play him all the way to the 5. Coach K can put 4 guards with him and operate. With that amount of versatility comes a lot of flexibility. Coach K is going to use him like a queen on a chess board."

Strong words from a former Blue Devil, and Bilas is on the outside looking in. Parker might be rated as the second-best freshman behind Kansas' Andrew Wiggins, but he's already convincing coaches and teammates that he's a once-in-a-generation-type player who could spearhead Duke to another banner season.

…Team strength/weakness: Parker and Hood can stretch the floor offensively but the offensive potency leads to some defensive liability. Rebounding and size pose concern for this versatile group when they're playing against bigger, better rebounding teams like, say Syracuse. Duke wasn't a strong rebounding team last year (ranking 213th nationally) and was able to overcome that for the most part but the team's Elite Eight loss to Louisville is the prime example of it mattering.
USA Today countdown: #4 Duke


An exhibition does not always mean an easy win.

Duke learned this lesson against Division II national champion Drury Saturday in a highly-contested 81-65 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Although the Blue Devils played a subpar first half against smaller competition in the Panthers, the second half told a much different story.

"They weren't scoring because we weren't working hard," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "They were scoring because we weren't working hard together. Second half we worked hard together."

The Blue Devils came out determined after trailing at the break 38-34, and forced a turnover that earned Rodney Hood an easy layup in the opening seconds. Hood led the Blue Devils with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting, grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out four assists to lead his team's comeback effort.
Duke Chronicle


The Gators are coming off three consecutive Elite Eight appearances and this year have a typical Donovan team: plenty of upperclassmen, or "program guys," as assistant Matt McCall calls them, with a star or two sprinkled in.

"He always finds a way to push us and make us better and give our best effort, regardless what we have on the floor," senior forward Will Yeguete says. "Every year we lose some quality players, and he still finds a way to bring us together and make the best team out of the players he has that year. We still think we could have done better every single year. … He's not satisfied ever."

Not only does Donovan get players who, for the most part, plan on exhausting most or all of their eligibility, but Florida also recruits a lot of talented players who aren't necessarily McDonald's All-Americans. Joakim Noah, now an NBA All-Star, played 10.3 minutes a game in his freshman season.

"In this 'me' age where guys are focusing on -- society is telling them, 'You've got to go get your points, be the face of the program, be the man' -- well, that's exactly not what we're looking for," says assistant coach John Pelphrey, one of Donovan's longtime friends. "That's not what makes it work here. That's how ( Donovan) has sustained it. If anyone's been the face of the program, it's been him."

From Noah to Chandler Parsons and many others before, after and in between, former Gators and current pros cycle through Gainesville each offseason.

"The relationship part, the journey, the process, the coming together as a team -- that's where the worth is," Donovan says. "The trophy and the ring are symbolic."
USA Today

What is your favorite enemy arena in the Big 12?

Kansas, Allen Fieldhouse. Being good friends with Phil (Forte) and his dad being an alum who played football at KU, that’s all we used to hear –— stories about KU. Basketball. Football. We grew up watching Kansas and hearing the stories about how historic it is and about the major tradition there and how intense it is, and how hard it is to win there. And everybody knows that, it’s one of the hardest places in the country to go win. And it’s one of the great atmospheres.

What’s your least favorite arena?

Texas Tech, just because of the atmosphere. It’s a nice coliseum to play in. It’s huge. It looks beautiful, but the atmosphere just isn’t there.

Who is the toughest guy in the Big 12 to defend?

I’d probably say Andrew Wiggins at Kansas. I’m sure I’ll end up on him some. That’s going to be a tough matchup for anybody to guard him. He’s a great player. He’s a big-time player.

Who’s the toughest guy in the Big 12 to score on?

Isaiah Austin. His length. He’s a great shot blocker. I know he blocked like six or seven shots a game. And that’s a big. He changes shots for his team. And it’s tough to score on him.

What other coach in the Big 12 could you see yourself playing for?

Bill Self. He’s a great coach. Everybody knows his track record, all that he’s instilled into that program. He knows what he’s doing and he does it well.
Athlon Sports
 

When Georgetown tips off its 2013-14 basketball season Friday in South Korea, it will have been nearly a year — 348 days, to be precise — since Josh Smith last appeared in a college lineup.

That’s the longest Smith recalls going without playing a competitive game. And as he and his fellow Hoyas prepare for their season opener against No. 19 Oregon, to be played at Camp Humphreys, a U.S. military base, the 6-foot-10 Smith said Monday that he considered himself “blessed” to be able to take part.
Washington Post

After enduring Louisville's nearly two-and-a-half-hour-long exhibition last Tuesday, which included 64 fouls and five Kentucky Wesleyan players fouling out, coach Rick Pitino looked at the assembled media and issued a pre-emptive warning for the upcoming season: "That is the way it is going to be called now."

When the 2013-14 men's college basketball season tips off Friday, expect a marked difference in how games will be officiated, highlighted by a crackdown on hand checking and a different interpretation of the block-charge call. Some veteran coaches are calling the edict — proposed by the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee in May to increase scoring and diminish physicality and adopted by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel in June — one of the most dramatic changes in the sport in many years.

…Here's Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger's prediction for early season games: "Tons of fouls, a lot of free throws, long, ugly games. Hopefully fans can prepare for that. It is going to be frustrating."

Scoring will in fact increase, Kansas coach Bill Self said, but it won't be because quality of play becomes any more "artistic." Instead, Self said, some college games will devolve into fragmented contests that resemble free-throw shooting contests.

"I don't think that makes for a better game … " Self said. "Early in the season, we may have some games where you can't go up and down twice without having stoppage because it's going to be a broken game in large part."

…Curtis Shaw, the coordinator of officials for the Big 12, Southland, Ohio Valley, American Athletic Conference and Conference USA, said the way games will now be officiated will better accentuate the unprecedented athleticism throughout the sport. A "growth period" will occur early in the season to break bad habits, Shaw said, and the sport's intended focus will return to athleticism. And he believes there are far-reaching ramifications: Encourage young players to work on their scoring moves rather than merely their biceps in the weight room.

"I will tell you, the focus of playing tough, physical defense was never the game of basketball," Shaw said. "So I think we are just going back to the rules of basketball, saying let's go back to playing an athletic game, not a physical game."

Shaw, who officiated more than 1,500 games including seven Final Four assignments, made clear that simply touching a ball handler will not result in a foul. But placing two hands on a ball handler, continuing to jab him by placing a forearm on an opponent or using an arm bar to impede the progress of the dribble will be called fouls.

…Self's advice to offensive players is simple: Drive the ball on every opportunity, because if a defender puts two hands on you, it will ultimately lead to free throws.

"The teams that can guard the ball are going to be the ones that probably separate themselves because it's going to be hard to guard the ball because the rules won't allow it," Self said. "I don't understand how you can have no contact. I don't understand that."

John Adams, the NCAA's men's basketball national officiating coordinator, said a conference call is scheduled for today for Belmont coach and Rules Committee chair Rick Byrd and the NABC Board of Directors to discuss, among other issues, the new rules and feedback from exhibitions and scrimmages.

Adams, who believes the game long term will become more graceful and artistic, said fewer than 10 coaches have reached out to him personally and, to date, the feedback has been "very positive." During most exhibitions this fall, Adams said, the foul totals have ranged from the normal 30-35 to up to 70.

Adams said the fouls in question were moved from guidelines to rules after "talking to the NABC, to coaches, to the commissioners around the country. We have an awful lot of support from our stakeholders to implement these rules. We were reacting to input from our stakeholders that the game had become too rough."

…During one Texas scrimmage, coach Rick Barnes said he noted three plays on which charges would typically be called. Yet blocks were called each time. The intent of the new interpretation is safety related, intended to dissuade defenders from sliding over at the last second and undercutting a dribbler who has no ability to change his direction when about to go airborne.

"If every time someone takes a charge it is a block, how the hell do you ever stop anybody?" Huggins said. "But I don't know if they want anyone stopped."

Several coaches said they were working on implementing more zone defense — some albeit grudgingly — because that may become the preferred defense to avoid significant foul trouble. As Brown said, "Boeheim is the happiest man in America now," referencing Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim's traditional reliance on zone.

Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford, who calls the rules the game's biggest change since the three-point line, said the Cowboys began adjusting immediately and regularly perform drills that emphasize playing great defense without placing hands on the offensive player.
USA Today


Division II West Georgia lost twice as many games as it won last season, finished tied for last in the Gulf South Conference and already fell by 13 against Jacksonville State in an exhibition game last week. As a result, it's probably not a great sign for Alabama that the Tide needed overtime to escape with a one-point win over the Wolves on Monday night. Trevor Releford scored 27 points and sank key free throws down the stretch as the Tide erased an eight-point second-half deficit to win 65-64. Many familiar problems arose for Alabama, which shot only 41.7 percent, got out-rebounded by nine and lacked enough scorers around Releford to pull away.
Yahoo

Big XII composite schedule


ESPN College GameDay Schedule


2013-14 TV Schedule


2013-14 Early-season events schedule

Recruiting

In his Findlay Prep debut, #kubball commit .@K_Ctmd22 (Kelly Oubre) exploded for 30 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists
@JayhawkSlant


Just spoke with Cliff Alexander @humblekid11, says he will be visiting Kansas this weekend.
10 days until the decision.
@ImTaylorRooks


Chicago Curie big man Cliff Alexander will visit Kansas this weekend, his mother confirmed to SNY.tv.

“Yes, he’s going to watch his girlfriend play [on the Kansas women's basketball team],” Latillia Alexander, Cliff’s mom, told SNY.tv Tuesday
Zags Blog


Chicago Curie big man Cliff Alexander will cut his list from four to ”three final schools” before his Nov. 15 announcement on ESPNU, according to Taylor Rooks of Fox Sports, who spoke with Alexander Monday.

Reports surfaced Monday that the 6-foot-9 Alexander would choose between local schools DePaul and Illinois — and had thus cut Kansas and Memphis — but Rooks quoted Alexander as saying those reports were “not true.”

“No, not at all. They don’t know what they’re talking about,” Latillia Alexander, Cliff’s mom, told SNY.tv Monday
Zags Blog


Malik Newman is the top-ranked player in the ESPN 60. He led the prestigious Nike Elite Youth Basketball League in scoring (24.7 points per game) and helped the USA U16 team win gold this summer in Uruguay, winning MVP in the process. That kind of production has elite schools like Kansas, Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina State, and many others, putting on the full-court recruiting press. Newman has agreed to give USA TODAY HSS exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a monthly blog.

…I talk to Coach Howard at Kansas and he talks a lot about how good he thinks they'll be. I agree too - I think Kansas is gonna be good this year. Coach Howard talks a lot about the 2014's they've got coming in like Kelly (Oubre) so I know they'll definitely have some talent there for a while.
I'll definitely be watching this season to see how these teams play. I just want to see their style, who they'll have coming back and how their guards play too.
USA Today


Rashad Vaughn is still planning on signing in the spring, not the fall, despite reports to the contrary, Findlay Prep assistant coach Pete Kaffey told SNY.tv.

“No, that’s not true,” Kaffey said of a potential fall commitment and signing.

The 6-foot-5 shooting guard will take his first official visit to Iowa State (Nov. 17) before going to UNLV (Nov. 25).

The early signing period runs Nov. 13-20.

Vaughn is also considering Baylor, Kansas, Arizona, North Carolina and Minnesota.
“He’s still considering every school that’s on his list of seven,” Kaffey said.
Zags Blog

Recruiting Calendar


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