Related pages Thoughts and observations Coach's comments Box score Season stats Possession analysis Explanation of NEP

The train rolls on. This team is definitely starting to look more like earlier Roy Williams squads than the teams of the last couple years. I know we have a couple games and 9 days but I'm ready for Mizzou!! Bring 'em on baby. Enough Mizzou pratter for now. I realize Texas A&M is not exactly a contender and the game was in the friendly confines of Phog Allen Fieldhouse but even so, it was a nice game and a nice win. In games like this you look for execution and focus. They had both. Not only did they continuously build the lead throughout the game they did it with sound fundamental basketball. They were solid defensively but definitely not as intense as the last two games. That is to be expected to some degree. It's hard to get too intense about a team that is down to seven scholarship players and only a couple real solid contributors. All-in-all the defense was satisfactory. The offense was very good I though considering Kenny had one of those games all players have occasionally when shots just aren't falling. He had a number prototypical KG shots where he slashed to the iron but rimmed out the shot. It happens and against Wake Forest we had 8 guys in that same boat. Fortunately today the rest of the team was fine. Bo looks to be back with his three point shooting hitting 4 of 6 and Nick just keeps getting better before our eyes. I have a formal request to our three soph's if they are reading this: Dear Nick, Drew, and Kirk: It is becoming more and more obvious that the three of you are blessed with great individual talent. This is, has been, and will continue to be a source of joy and excitement for the many Jayhawks fans around the world. Additionally you seem to be the type of young men that makes the KU and college basketball tradition so special. That is all fine and good but there is something that is just now starting to become clearer to those of us who watch you and your teammates so faithfully. You three men have something together that is very special and you comprise a unit that is much greater than the sum of it's parts. As you have grown from highly touted but mistake prone freshmen into seasoned sophomores you are showing glimpses of something that few schools are ever blessed with. You three truly have a chemistry that is very unique. This is not to take away from the rest of the team because we love all of you and root for all of you as a team. Yet I mention this because I have a special request. PLEASE STAY at KU and build this special chemistry into a heritage like few others. The NBA and the millions will call and no one would ever blame you for answering that call. We still follow Paul Pierce, Jacque Vaughn, Danny Manning, Scot Pollard, Raef LaFrentz and others just like when they were at KU. They will forever be family just as you will forever be family. Yet knowing what I know 20 plus years hence from graduation I can only tell you the opportunity to experience what lies in store for you three as Jayhawk college basketball players is truly a once in a lifetime. You surely sense the magic that is becoming more and more part of the Jayhawks as you three and the rest of this talented team grow and gel. Imagine what it could become with 4 years together. Thank you for your work and dedication to Coach and to the fans who support you. Rest assured you are Jayhawks for life and that is truly about as good as it gets. Don I guess I'm just a mushy kind of guy. Now, how about those numbers? As you might suspect looking at the final score the numbers look pretty doggone good for the Jayhawks. Individually and collectively the boys had a nice game. For a change of pace let's look at the individual game stats. Drew wins the NEP Player of the game award with an outstanding statistical show. He played only 19 minutes because of foul trouble but managed to lead the team in scoring (tied with Nick) with 19 points, rebounds with 10, and gross NEP with 23.54 which ranks as the 5th best individual game total for the season. Nick's 21.99 gross NEP is good for 11th. Two very nice individual performances to say the least. I will add that watching them in action was just as impressive as seeing their numbers. What makes Drew's game even more impressive is that he accomplished all this in 19 minutes which gives him a Norm-NEP of 49.57 which places him at the top of the charts. Drew's performance against Texas A&M is the most effective a player has been on the court for Kansas in any game this season. Kirk, Jeff B., Jeff. C, and Luke also had very solid games. Notably Jeff Boschee was 4 for 6 from the 3 point line, Kirk had 10 assists against 3 TO's and pulled down 7 rebounds, Luke had 5 rebounds and 10 points in 19 minutes, and Jeff Carey had 4 points and 3 rebounds in 6 minutes. As an aside there has been great debates about Eric's minutes and so forth and I will not engage that here. But I will say Jeff's performances have been very solid and I am never nervous when he is on the floor. What a blessing to have a guy like that on your team. Kenny had an off game as did Eric. As a matter of fact this was by far Kenny's worst game of the year statistically. He has been very consistent this year with a team leading norm NEP average of over 26. Against Texas A&M he managed only 12.6. Kenny has more than proven himself this year and we will certainly keep in perspective one off game. He has been hitting over 60% of his shots on the season but his 5 for 13 performance today lowered his season FG% to 59.0. Nick on the other hand continues to improve his already nationally ranked FG%. His 9 for 11 performance raise his season total to 65.9%. Of course that is only good for third on the team behind Jeff Carey's 81.8% and Chris Zerbe's 71.4%. Nick has taken a few more shots though. Some other notable stats for the A&M game were Nicks 3 assist to 2 TO's and Eric's 2 blocks which moves him ahead of Scot Pollard for second place all-time at KU. Catching Ostertag is not out of the question. Eric has 219 and Ostertag had 258. Eric is 39 block behind. With 12 regular season games remaining and 9 potential post-season games, Eric needs to average about 2 blocks per game. Here are the NEP results for the Texas A&M game. Player Gross NEP Norm NEP Min Gooden 23.5 49.6 19 Collison 22.0 30.3 29 Hinrich 21.5 26.8 32 Boschee 17.3 23.9 29 Axtell 12.9 27.1 19 Chenowith 12.0 20.8 23 Gregory 9.1 12.6 29 Carey 6.9 45.9 6 Kinsey 1.8 35.7 2 Nash 1.8 17.8 4 Harrison 1.4 28.5 2 Kappelmann 0.7 13.9 2 Zerbe 0.5 10.1 2 Ballard 0.0 0.4 2 Here are the season-to-date NEP results: Player Gross NEP Norm NEP Min Hinrich 282.2 21.8 517 Gooden 269.4 24.9 432 Gregory 247.6 25.9 382 Collison 245.8 24.6 400 Chenowith 207.6 23.2 358 Boschee 174.2 14.1 496 Axtell 86.0 18.6 185 Carey 50.2 16.0 126 Kinsey 25.8 7.8 133 Zerbe 21.5 41.0 21 Nash 19.6 10.9 72 Kappelmann 6.2 15.5 16 Harrison 3.8 25.4 6 Ballard 3.8 4.1 37 Looking at the team stats it's hard not to get giddy. These guys are executing pretty consistently which combined with talent makes for a pretty lethal combination. Let's look at the offense. The offense can be viewed in terms of execution of teamwork and also in terms of raw individual firepower. Occasionally we will run into a buzz saw in the form of a Rayford Young, or Dedric Willoughby or Clarence Gilbert. These games can be frustrating because you just happened to catch a guy on a night where he was unconscious. The key to continued success is consistent teamwork and execution. If you look at the perennial powers you notice they all tend to be fundamentally sound in all aspect of the game. Sometimes shear firepower can get the job done over the long haul but a great example of execution is Don Chaney's Temple Owls. He has fielded some teams that lacked great individual talent but have achieved well because of teamwork and execution. Roy's system is one that strives for execution as a unit. Like any team it is susceptible to the occasional hot hand of an individual but over the long haul will result in a pretty sweet winning percentage. To wit, the Kansas Jayhawks under Roy Williams were the winningest team of the decade of the 90's. Roy has the highest winning percentage of any active coach. When you look at KU's stats this season and compare them to other teams you see tell tell marks of solid execution. Consider this, KU shot 52.2% from the field against the Aggies and are shooting shooting 51.9% for the season. This leads all Division I schools in the nation. Execution! We had a PPP (point per possession) of 1.031 against the Aggies and 0.946 for the season. This leads the Big 12 by quite a bit. Execution! We had and assist to TO ratio of 1.44 against the Aggies and 1.24 for the season. Execution! We assisted on 63.9% of our FG's against A&M and 66.3% on the season. Execution! We grabbed 54.4% of the rebounds against the Aggies and we are grabbing 56.5% on the season. (38.0% of the offensive and 71.8% of the defensive). Execution! We had a team NEP of a whopping 119.6 against A&M and a season average of 101.2. Definitely execution! Defensively we held A&M to a PPP of 0.686 which is outstanding. On the season we are holding our opponents to a PPP of 0.759 and 0.730 in Big 12 play. EXECUTION! We are holding our opponents to 37.2% shooting from the field and 31.5% from the 3 point line. Execution! We have balance scoring with 5 guys averaging more than 10 points per game and 1 more just slightly under. Execution! Even our FT shooting has improved to 72.9% in league play. Kenny Gregory has passed Jo Jo White for 17th place on KU's all-time scoring list. At his current scoring average and barring injuries he will enter the NCAA tourney in 9th place all-time with a chance to pull ahead of Mark Randall for 8th. Eric currently is in 6th on the KU all-time rebounding list and 25 behinf Scot Pollard for 5th. At his current pace he would easily finish 4th all-time with a remote shot of passing Bill Bridges for third. We are 15 and 1 with some great basketball to go. Enjoy the journey.

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