Kansas defeats Texas Tech!
KUAD: Postgame box score, recap, notes
LJW Photos
KC Star Photos
ESPN Photos
2/10/15, 8:53 PM
Fade screen to the corner at the end of the half still works like a charm
@treed14
Proud of my teammates and coaches on the job they did tonight. #KUCMB
@F_Mason0
Alexander with the dunk! (LJW image)
Cliff Alexander’s well-publicized “motor” was revving too fast during the first minute and a half of Tuesday’s Kansas-Texas Tech basketball game in United Supermarkets Arena.
“I was a little bit too excited,” KU’s 6-foot-8, 240-pound freshman power forward said after scoring 10 points off 4-of-5 shooting, grabbing five rebounds and blocking four shots while playing 20 minutes in the (20-4, 9-2) Jayhawks’ 73-51 victory over the (12-13, 2-10) Red Raiders.
He also had two turnovers, which he committed the first two times he touched the ball in the paint.
…Alexander played so well after the early snafus that KU’s coach was able to joke about the over-throws after the game.
“I think Cliff’s first two passes ... if fans in the 10th row weren’t alert, maybe he coulda hurt somebody,” Self said, smiling. “Nobody’s going to accuse him of being Bill Walton passing the ball out of the post. We didn’t do particularly well the first half as far as taking care of the ball (six turnovers, 14 for game). I do think traps bothered us in the post.”
…“I am a rim protector, that’s what they need me to do, protect the rim,” said Alexander, who aggravated his bruised sternum injury after getting hit during the game. He’s had the chest discomfort the past two weeks after taking an elbow from Landen Lucas (three points, three boards, 11 minutes) in practice.
“Our guards kept getting beat. I just needed to protect the rim, play my role.”
LJW
Cliff Alexander started for the second time this season Tuesday night, but he was only the second-best freshman center in the game.
Texas Tech’s Norense Odiase, who has a much bigger body than Alexander, used it to total 13 points and eight rebounds in 27 minutes. Alexander contributed 10 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots in 20 minutes.
“I thought Norense Odiase played really well, and I thought he got the best of Cliff tonight,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.
Said Texas Tech coach Tubby Smith of Odiase: “He was outstanding. I was very impressed. He was one of three guys who belonged on the same court as Kansas. He and Zach (Smith) and Kennan (Evans).”
Told that Self said he thought Odiase outplayed Alexander, Smith used the question as a teaching moment: “He played well tonight. He did do a good job. Whether he outplayed anybody, it’s usually us against them, not one guy against another. Norense does play with that edge. He plays that way.”
Odiase wasn’t doing backflips about outplaying Alexander, either.
“It’s always good to win a battle, especially in the paint, or just play harder than your opponent,” said Odiase, a native of Fort Worth who stands 6-foot-9 and weighs 270 pounds. “I just wish that it resulted in a win.”
LJW
Link to above ESPN video
Wayne Selden fired up a 3 early in the shot clock. It missed. And Bill Self covered up his mouth — the universal sign that something profane was about to come out of his mouth.
The 12th-year coach let the guard have it, ripping into the sophomore as Selden guarded his man in front of the Kansas bench.
A minute later — just before the halftime buzzer — Selden fired away another 3-pointer from the corner. This one went in.
Selden ran to the locker room without even looking back to his coach.
…Much like Selden, KU continued to fire away from 3-point range in the second half, trying to make Texas Tech pay for a sagging zone defense that left openings on the perimeter.
The result? The Jayhawks made its first six 3s of the opening 12 minutes, quickly stretching a five-point lead to 20.
“If we're open, coach wants us to shoot it,” Selden said.
…Selden led KU, scoring 16 points while finishing 4 of 7 from 3.
"He’s been shooting it lights out definitely, which is big for his confidence," KU sophomore Brannen Greene said. "I don’t know if (it's) the haircut, whatever it is. But he’s been knocking them down, which is big for us. We need him playing well."
Ellis added 14 points on 5-for-12 shooting with nine rebounds.
TCJ
Kansas turned it over eight times in the first half and made just 5 of 14 two-point field goals. At that point, KU had 16 two-point field goals in its past 60 minutes of game clock, including both halves of the Oklahoma State loss.
The curtain came up for the second half and Kansas demonstrated ball movement that called to mind the 2008 national championship squad. The same team that struggled to score 27 points in the first half, even when shooting a decent 5 of 13 from long distance, rattled off 46 points, shot .727 from the field and made 6 of 7 three-pointers.
“Fools’ gold,” Kansas coach Bill Self again called relying on the three-point shot to win games. “You can’t bank on making 55 percent or 50 percent of your threes. You want to, but if that’s what you play to, then you’re not going to be able to hang your hat on that. You play a team that takes away the threes and forces you to score inside, you’ll end up going home sad. That’s what happened Saturday. We had no low-post game.
“You can score it inside off the bounce. You can score off the pass. You can score it in transition or whatever, but you’ve got to be able to score points close to the basket. That’s the name of the game, in my opinion, is getting easy baskets and eliminating easy baskets. And we’re not doing near a good enough job of doing that inside.”
That’s a tough message to preach when the team so often does it and gets away with it.
LJW
On Tuesday, the Jayhawks’ winning formula was basically this: Drill threes on offense and play suffocating defense on the other end.
“We like to play inside-out,” said sophomore guard Wayne Selden, who hit four of seven from three-point range and finished with a team-high 16 points. “That’s how we play.”
In basketball terms, of course, this is not an either/or scenario. It’s not simply a question of whether Kansas needs to ditch its inside-driven offense and chuck up more threes. Self likes to say that he wants to open up shooters by throwing the ball inside — to get more open looks by emphasizing ball reversal and movement.
But when a team shoots like this — Kansas made its first six threes in the second half — it’s easy to wonder if the Jayhawks should be bombing away even more.
…“You guys may not agree, but when you rely on making shots, that can easily go the other way,” Self said. “We’ve got to rely on making people play poorly and rebounding, defending, ball movement, and things like that. And I think we’re kind of average at those things. I think we’re kind of relying on making shots right now.”
KC Star
Wayne Selden fired up a 3 early in the shot clock. It missed. And Bill Self covered up his mouth — the universal sign that something profane was about to come out of his mouth.
The 12th-year coach let the guard have it, ripping into the sophomore as Selden guarded his man in front of the Kansas bench.
A minute later — just before the halftime buzzer — Selden fired away another 3-pointer from the corner. This one went in.
Selden ran to the locker room without even looking back to his coach.
…Much like Selden, KU continued to fire away from 3-point range in the second half, trying to make Texas Tech pay for a sagging zone defense that left openings on the perimeter.
The result? The Jayhawks made its first six 3s of the opening 12 minutes, quickly stretching a five-point lead to 20.
“If we're open, coach wants us to shoot it,” Selden said.
…Selden led KU, scoring 16 points while finishing 4 of 7 from 3.
"He’s been shooting it lights out definitely, which is big for his confidence," KU sophomore Brannen Greene said. "I don’t know if (it's) the haircut, whatever it is. But he’s been knocking them down, which is big for us. We need him playing well."
Ellis added 14 points on 5-for-12 shooting with nine rebounds.
TCJ
Kansas turned it over eight times in the first half and made just 5 of 14 two-point field goals. At that point, KU had 16 two-point field goals in its past 60 minutes of game clock, including both halves of the Oklahoma State loss.
The curtain came up for the second half and Kansas demonstrated ball movement that called to mind the 2008 national championship squad. The same team that struggled to score 27 points in the first half, even when shooting a decent 5 of 13 from long distance, rattled off 46 points, shot .727 from the field and made 6 of 7 three-pointers.
“Fools’ gold,” Kansas coach Bill Self again called relying on the three-point shot to win games. “You can’t bank on making 55 percent or 50 percent of your threes. You want to, but if that’s what you play to, then you’re not going to be able to hang your hat on that. You play a team that takes away the threes and forces you to score inside, you’ll end up going home sad. That’s what happened Saturday. We had no low-post game.
“You can score it inside off the bounce. You can score off the pass. You can score it in transition or whatever, but you’ve got to be able to score points close to the basket. That’s the name of the game, in my opinion, is getting easy baskets and eliminating easy baskets. And we’re not doing near a good enough job of doing that inside.”
That’s a tough message to preach when the team so often does it and gets away with it.
LJW
On Tuesday, the Jayhawks’ winning formula was basically this: Drill threes on offense and play suffocating defense on the other end.
“We like to play inside-out,” said sophomore guard Wayne Selden, who hit four of seven from three-point range and finished with a team-high 16 points. “That’s how we play.”
In basketball terms, of course, this is not an either/or scenario. It’s not simply a question of whether Kansas needs to ditch its inside-driven offense and chuck up more threes. Self likes to say that he wants to open up shooters by throwing the ball inside — to get more open looks by emphasizing ball reversal and movement.
But when a team shoots like this — Kansas made its first six threes in the second half — it’s easy to wonder if the Jayhawks should be bombing away even more.
…“You guys may not agree, but when you rely on making shots, that can easily go the other way,” Self said. “We’ve got to rely on making people play poorly and rebounding, defending, ball movement, and things like that. And I think we’re kind of average at those things. I think we’re kind of relying on making shots right now.”
KC Star
Greene for three! (LJW image)
Self has 10 more Big 12 titles than the rest of us, and the man is quickly closing in on No. 11. He prefers method to madness, and if you don't like it, well, he'll just point to the banners hanging at Allen Fieldhouse. (Similar to calling "scoreboard," in any disagreement with coaches, pointing at the banners generally ends the debate.)
But here's the thing: His team -- which drained 11 of 18 treys in Lubbock and is 21-for-38 in its past two tilts from beyond the arc -- has him in a philosophical pickle. The Jayhawk Way -- proven, tested, true -- is to work from paint to perimeter, inside to out. The run sets up the pass.
Which is fine except, if we could stretch the football analogy a bit, this KU team can't run the ball for squat.
Coming in to Tuesday, the Jayhawks ranked 259th nationally in 2-point shooting percentage (45.5), 137th in effective field-goal percentage (49.8), 249th in 3-point attempts per game (16.8) ... and 14th in 3-point percentage (40.2).
Self has seven players among the top nine in his rotation who are completely comfortable with the 3-point shot, and six of those seven went to Texas Tech having made more than 34 percent of their attempts from beyond the arc, and six with at least a dozen makes through the season's first 23 games.
These Jayhawks defend as a unit, scrap as a unit, better than each of Self's past two KU teams. He likes that. But they're also the worst finishing squad under the rim that he's had in ages, maybe the worst over a venerated 12 seasons in Lawrence, a red-headed stepchild that he loves but can't quite tame.
Fox Sports Keeler
#9 Kansas Jayhawks
When the Jayhawks won the 2008 national championship, their third and final loss of the season came at the hands of Oklahoma State in Stillwater. I'm not guaranteeing a national title for KU this season, but at a minimum it can be said that losing on the road to the Cowboys is not necessarily the end of the world. Still, if Bill Self insists on finding something to worry about, perhaps it will be that his defense could see its fortunes change on the perimeter. To this point Big 12 opponents have made just 30 percent of their 3s against Kansas, a number that's likely to improve as more games are played. And given that this group doesn't force turnovers and isn't anything to write home about on the defensive glass, a few more makes by opponents from outside could potentially land with a thud on KU's bottom line. Then again, if Self continues to give more minutes and more shots to Brannen Greene (he of the 62 percent 3-point shooting in Big 12 play), this entire line of fretting is officially moot. -- John Gasaway
ESPN ($) Bilas Index
Current @NCAA Record. #kubball @KUHoops
These coaches are quite similar: Both get the top recruits, sometimes losing out to one another. Both are affected by one-and-dones and constantly have to play the guessing game as to what their rosters will look like the following year. And each get massive television exposure.
In the chart below, the numbers for each coach represent the amount of times his teams have either had that specific seed (left) or advanced that far in the tournament (right) over the past 10 years.
USA Today image
Which coach has had the better decade? It’s an easy call for No. 2, right? Both have a title, but Coach 2 has more tourney wins (22 to 18), more Final Fours (2 to 1), more Elite Eights (4 to 2), a better cumulative seed (19 to 22) and fewer first-round losses (2 to 3).
So, have you figured out which coach is which? If you follow the sport closely (and either read the headline or saw the picture atop this post), you’ll have guessed No. 1 is Mike Krzyzewski, who has one national title in the past 10 years and a bevy of top-two seeds to go along with those three shocking first-round exits. For a coach with three national titles during his career and a team that’s a mainstay in the top 10, these are fairly pedestrian results. I’d go far as to say they’re shocking.
…But who’s No. 2? Who has the upper hand on Kyzyzewski? Rick Pitino? Jim Boeheim? John Calipari? It’s actually Bill Self of Kansas, a coach who gets his due in the sport, but is often labeled an underachiever when he can’t take his Big 12 title winners (10 regular-season titles and counting) deep into the tournament.
…If you look at the totality of the NCAA, Self if probably the coach over the past 10 years with the best resumé in basketball. Rick Pitino is close (a title and five Elite Eights and beyond, which is better than Self) but he doesn’t have a second title-game appearance and missed the tournament completely in 2006. What about John Calipari? In his time at Memphis and Kentucky, he’s never had a first-weekend loss, but has two NIT appearances to go along with his title and six appearances in the Elite Eight.
But if Self has had a better decade (considerably) than Coach K, why do we keep hearing about Coach K’s talents while Self is mostly ignored? Krzyzewski has clearly earned the benefit of the doubt but like the late Dean Smith before him, a lack of relative success late in his career has been largely ignored by the media. Ther aren’t any stories wondering why Duke can’t win first-round games. Coach K gets treated like it’s 2002 and his teams are always Final Four bound. And maybe he’s earned it. It’s not as if Duke is playing in the NIT every other year. It’s still the destination for top high-school recruits and a contender every March.
USA Today
So, have you figured out which coach is which? If you follow the sport closely (and either read the headline or saw the picture atop this post), you’ll have guessed No. 1 is Mike Krzyzewski, who has one national title in the past 10 years and a bevy of top-two seeds to go along with those three shocking first-round exits. For a coach with three national titles during his career and a team that’s a mainstay in the top 10, these are fairly pedestrian results. I’d go far as to say they’re shocking.
…But who’s No. 2? Who has the upper hand on Kyzyzewski? Rick Pitino? Jim Boeheim? John Calipari? It’s actually Bill Self of Kansas, a coach who gets his due in the sport, but is often labeled an underachiever when he can’t take his Big 12 title winners (10 regular-season titles and counting) deep into the tournament.
…If you look at the totality of the NCAA, Self if probably the coach over the past 10 years with the best resumé in basketball. Rick Pitino is close (a title and five Elite Eights and beyond, which is better than Self) but he doesn’t have a second title-game appearance and missed the tournament completely in 2006. What about John Calipari? In his time at Memphis and Kentucky, he’s never had a first-weekend loss, but has two NIT appearances to go along with his title and six appearances in the Elite Eight.
But if Self has had a better decade (considerably) than Coach K, why do we keep hearing about Coach K’s talents while Self is mostly ignored? Krzyzewski has clearly earned the benefit of the doubt but like the late Dean Smith before him, a lack of relative success late in his career has been largely ignored by the media. Ther aren’t any stories wondering why Duke can’t win first-round games. Coach K gets treated like it’s 2002 and his teams are always Final Four bound. And maybe he’s earned it. It’s not as if Duke is playing in the NIT every other year. It’s still the destination for top high-school recruits and a contender every March.
USA Today
“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!
Big 12 / College News
Who is the Big 12 coach of the year?
There weren’t any fabulous candidates, because truthfully, everyone this side of Rick Barnes had done a pretty decent job. Kansas’ Bill Self, OU’s Lon Kruger, Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg, West Virginia’s Bob Huggins and Baylor’s Scott Drew all had their teams about where they were projected to be or even higher.
I tossed out Travis Ford’s name, too, because his Cowboys were picked for eighth place and were solidly in sixth, and while that isn’t a huge jump, it is the jump that gets you into NCAA Tournament consideration.
But after Monday night, there can be no debate. Ford is the frontrunner. His Cowboys beat Baylor 74-65 in Waco, and if OSU wins Saturday in Fort Worth against hapless TCU, the Cowboys will be no worse than fourth place in the conference standings.
The season began with the OSU fan base wondering if Ford should be bought out of his contract. The season might end with the OSU fan base wondering if Ford deserves a contract extension.
That’s a little much, of course, considering the length of Ford’s contract — a 10-year deal that extends through 2019 — has been the subject of much consternation in Stillwater. But this much is absolute: Ford is coaching his butt off.
The Oklahoman
Complete ESPN Networks schedule
Big 12 Composite Schedule & Results
There weren’t any fabulous candidates, because truthfully, everyone this side of Rick Barnes had done a pretty decent job. Kansas’ Bill Self, OU’s Lon Kruger, Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg, West Virginia’s Bob Huggins and Baylor’s Scott Drew all had their teams about where they were projected to be or even higher.
I tossed out Travis Ford’s name, too, because his Cowboys were picked for eighth place and were solidly in sixth, and while that isn’t a huge jump, it is the jump that gets you into NCAA Tournament consideration.
But after Monday night, there can be no debate. Ford is the frontrunner. His Cowboys beat Baylor 74-65 in Waco, and if OSU wins Saturday in Fort Worth against hapless TCU, the Cowboys will be no worse than fourth place in the conference standings.
The season began with the OSU fan base wondering if Ford should be bought out of his contract. The season might end with the OSU fan base wondering if Ford deserves a contract extension.
That’s a little much, of course, considering the length of Ford’s contract — a 10-year deal that extends through 2019 — has been the subject of much consternation in Stillwater. But this much is absolute: Ford is coaching his butt off.
The Oklahoman
Complete ESPN Networks schedule
Big 12 Composite Schedule & Results
Recruiting
Naismith Boys High School POY semifinalists announced (inc. Brown, Diallo, Newman, Zimmerman)
@iammaliknewman & Callaway set to play Dominican (Wi.) & @Diamond_Stone33 in a nationally televised game on Feb. 14
- Callaway, Miss. vs. Dominican, Wis.
Saturday, Feb., 14: 10 p.m. on ESPNU from Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon, Wis.
One year ago Wednesday, the NCAA officially recognized Snapchat as a form of electronic communication to reach out to recruits. The rule went into effect Aug. 1, 2014 and has become widespread in college basketball. Though it has not reached all programs, Snapchat is a means of recruiting that presents both pros and cons according to those who have tracked its emergence.
…Memphis head coach Josh Pastner, for example, uses Snapchat as a recruiting tool, Daniels said. He said Pastner is known for relating to recruits, and Snapchat can be an effective way of doing so.
Some Atlantic Coast Conference coaches enlist their assistant coaches to tackle Snapchat recruiting. Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, for instance, said his assistants are active on the app.
“Thankfully I have a staff that helps me with my technological shortcomings,” Brey said with a chuckle. “They coach me up when I need to be better at stuff.”
Though Brey considers himself inept, he said his daughter is active on Snapchat. Because she’s on Snapchat all the time, he knows other kids are going to be on it too. Nearly everyone he’s recruiting uses the app, so he believes it’s imperative for his staff to do so as well.
Miami’s Jim Larranaga has never come across a recruit who has specifically wanted to Snapchat him. He communicates via phone and text, but many of his assistants use it as a tool.
“High school kids are very tech-savvy, “ Larranaga said, “so we try to do as much as we can with technology.”
Tyler Lydon, a power forward from New Hampshire who is committed to Syracuse, hasn’t connected with coaches on Snapchat personally. He said it would be “kind of weird” to communicate with coaches that way. Snapchat’s more for interacting with friends, he said.
He is intrigued by the idea of a general account with team updates, but he isn’t a proponent of one-on-one Snapchat interaction with coaches.
“If I were uncommitted and a coach were to Snapchat me and say what’s up, I’d probably be cool in the moment,” Lydon said. “But then you think about it and it’s kind of strange.”
Link
Recruiting Calendar
My Late Night in the Phog videos, 60 Years of AFH Celebration videos, KU Alumni games videos, 2011-12 Final 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
RSS Feed