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The Jayhawks started off the season on the right foot, coming out of New York as the champions of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. It wasn’t easy, but it was a good learning experience for the Jayhawks, and they should be proud of their accomplishment. I have to admit, going into this game, I didn’t know much about unranked St. John’s except that they benefited from a bad call late in the game against Kentucky that gave them the chance to play for the championship. I knew they were young and had a highly touted point guard, Omar Cook, who had been impressive in the win over Kentucky with 18 pts, (5 three pointers) and 5 assists. I knew they had a big guy down low, Anthony Glover, that hit the game tying shot and game winning free throw in the win over the Wildcats. And finally, I knew they had a good, bald coach in Mike Jarvis. I went into this game figuring KU’s experience and poise would make this a solid 15-point win for the Jayhawks. As I mentioned , it wasn’t that easy. For the second straight game, the Jayhawks got into foul trouble, were not impressive defensively, and let an inferior team get back into the game in the closing minutes. Don’t get me wrong, this was a good win over a St. John’s team that deserves more national respect than they have received to this point. But the Jayhawks came out sluggish to start the game and the Red Storm jumped out quickly to an 11-4 lead early. KU fought back with the help of a 17-5 run and took a 45-37 lead into half-time, thanks to 15 points by Drew Gooden and 14 points by Kenny Gregory. The teams scored the exact amount of points in the second half (37), so the half-time lead was the difference in the final score. At one point, St. John’s got within two points after trailing by as many as twelve. The Madison Square Garden crowd got into and it looked like the Red Storm were ready to pull off their second upset of the tournament. In the second half, there were lots of turnovers from KU, lots of bricks from the Red Storm, and several missed free throws from both teams. In the end, though, the Jayhawks withheld a strong charge from an opponent for the second straight game and played with enough composure to secure the win. It definitely wasn’t easy, but it improved KU to 2-0 on the season and gave them some valuable experience. Additional Thoughts: Kenny Gregory came up big again tonight, earning MVP honors for the tournament. His numbers were impressive: 37 minutes, 17 points on 7 for 14 shooting, 3 for 4 from the free throw line!!!, and 10 boards (5 offensive). Kenny is putting up great numbers, showing a tremendous amount of leadership, and is becoming somewhat of a "go-to guy" for this team. In addition, I find myself watching him like I used to watch Michael Jordan. While he certainly does not have the game of MJ, you just never know when he might do something that will make you jump out of your seat. His dunk off the alley-oop from Drew tonight was awesome. KU played a lot of that "point zone" defense tonight. After the game, Coach Williams said: "(Zone defense) wasn't bad tonight. It was much better than last night. We'd made the decision we were going to zone some anyway, because I don't think they're (St John's) as effective against zone as they are man-to-man. We made a bunch of errors, but still you've got to learn, and the only way you can learn is to do it in a game, and we'll show it to them on tape." I agree. They made a bunch of errors, but at this point in the season, we have to chalk them up to "learning experiences", even though that can be difficult for some KU fans, who expect near-perfection in execution and forget that this team is still learning and growing. St. John’s shot 38% from the field and 26% (7-27) from 3 pt. range. The inexperience and youth of St. John’s showed in many of those 3 point attempts that were launched well beyond the 3 point line or that bricked solidly off the back of the rim. Regardless, KU’s perimeter defense must get better as they will face teams that will shoot much better percentages and take smarter shots from 3 point land. For the past two games, I have been unable to shake these thoughts out of my head: (1) The defense needs a lot of work, particularly in defending the three, and (2) This team, while winning both games, let two inferior teams get back into games in which they should have put them away. I believe that this team will learn how to put teams away. In both games, however, it seemed the Jayhawks got comfortable with their lead, the intensity dropped, and the opponent was able to pull closer. I’m not going to worry about it too much since it is early in the season, but it is something to keep an eye on. What is up with Jeff Carey barely getting any minutes? He played only 2 minutes tonight. Many people, myself included, expected Jeff to get more minutes this season and work into the rotation with Gooden, Collison and Chenowith. It is particularly interesting to see such little playing time when you look at the foul trouble that our big men were in during the first two games (Chenowith fouling out of both games and fouling out tonight with 8 minutes to go). Speaking of foul trouble: This officiating is very hard to watch. There are so many "touch fouls" being called and there were several occasions tonight where Coach Williams, the players, and the fans had to be thinking: "What? Where is the foul?". Again, play was slowed on several occasions because it seemed a foul was called almost every time down the court. It is definitely not a good sign when Collison picks up his first foul about 30 seconds into the game and Chenowith has fouled out of the last two games. That could create some serious problems down the road for KU. Drew Gooden was again all over the place tonight. The good news is he made the All-Tournament team, logged 30 minutes, scored 22 points on 7 of 10 shooting, and had 9 boards. He also had an intimidating block, recovering nicely after he turned the ball over. The bad news is that he was 7 of 13 from the line, hitting 1 of 2 on a couple of occasions, particularly late in the game. Drew needs to improve in that area because he will be in many situations this season where he is getting the ball (and getting fouled) near the end of games. He continues to have flashes of greatness mixed with mental mistakes and loss of focus on the fundamentals. Of course, we need to remind ourselves that he’s only a sophomore and the positives far outweigh the negatives. Kirk Hinrich had a career high 21 points in the win over UCLA. Tonight he had 4 points and fouled out. We have seen this "ebb and flow" from Kirk early this season. Let’s hope it doesn’t become a trend. If he gets into foul trouble, he becomes much more timid and ineffective. He seems to be worrying so much about the foul situation that he is unable to push the offense with the same confidence and control that makes him so critical to the team’s success. 26 turnovers. Unacceptable. 2-9 from 3 point range, with Boschee going 1 for 5. This is another item that I hope doesn’t become a trend. Inconsistent 3-point shooting has been the thorn in the side of many Jayhawk teams in the past, particularly at tournament time. KU shot horrible against the California All-Stars, shot lights out against Emporia State, shot respectable against UCLA, and shot poorly against St. John’s. The last thing I want to see is this team get into the NCAA tournament and shoot 5 for 28 from the 3 point line. That kind of shooting has ended one too many seasons too soon. It’s great to see the Jayhawks win this tournament and get the season off on such a positive note. With five home games coming up against mediocre teams, they should have plenty of opportunity to work the kinks out before getting into non-conference games with Wake Forest, DePaul, Tulsa, Ohio State and Southwest Missouri State.

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Keep Rockin’ and Chalkin’... MJ