| Related pages
Game summary
Box score
| The Kansas Jayhawks held their first "glorified practice" of the season tonight at Allen Fieldhouse against the EA Sports California All-Stars, who already have earned the distinction as the team with the longest name that the Jayhawks will play this season.
Final Score: KU 98, EA Sports 80
If you’ve ever seen a commercial for EA Sports, their slogan is "It’s in the game." Well, the EA team that came to Allen Fieldhouse tonight was anything but "in the game." I’ll briefly talk about the EA team first and then get to the Jayhawks.
The All-Stars had about 100 3-point attempts tonight and I think they made 7 of them. Other than that, I’m not sure if I’ve ever watched a team play with less emotion in my entire life. They also played a new brand of defense called "no defense." Drew Barry launched 3’s from about every corner of the court. Ed Cota made you forget that he actually was the point guard for North Carolina in the Final Four last year. Joe Vogel fouled out of the game without breaking a sweat. It is safe to assume that KU works harder against each other in practice than the group that visited Lawrence tonight. I didn’t even want to say that much about them, but it’s painful to watch a team play with so little emotion, even if it is an exhibition.
And now to our Jayhawks.... I saw a lot of things tonight that caught my attention. Here are my takeaways from the first game of the season:
- Kirk Hinrich is the man. Make no mistake: THIS IS HIS TEAM. Even in this exhibition setting, Kirk penetrates with a fluidity and confidence comparable to Jacque Vaughn during his KU days. Kirk gives this team a tenaciously competitive floor leader with supreme confidence in his game. In addition, he played the best perimeter defense of anyone on the team. All of us need to realize right now that we have a great player (and leader) blossoming before our very eyes. I am going to enjoy watching him over the next 3 seasons.
- Eric Chenowith took the ball strong to the hole on a few occasions tonight. All in all, it wasn’t a particularly strong game offensively for Eric. Early in the game it appeared that the team was trying to get him established down low. Unfortunately, he was establishing position 6-8 feet away from the basket, which lends itself to missed 6-8 foot jump shots. Eric missed several "short shots" tonight and also got called for traveling during one journey to the hoop. That being said, he did hit most of his free throws, did a tremendous job rebounding the ball, had a couple of dunks and, most importantly, didn’t seem to lose his confidence even though his shots weren’t falling tonight. Eric put in the work this past summer and I am confident that it will pay dividends for the big man as the season progresses.
- Drew Gooden was a man among boys in the first half, with 8 boards in the first 6.5 minutes. Similar to last year, the word that best describes Drew is ACTIVE. He was everywhere tonight and had some nice buckets (including a sweet little jump hook) to go along with his rebounding mastery. He also threw up a couple of bricks from the outside. Those kinds of things are never easy for Coach Williams to deal with, but the good outweighs the bad in Gooden’s case.
- Kenny Gregory isn’t wearing his headband anymore and doesn’t appear to have found the outside shot he’s been talking about so much in the preseason. Of course who needs a shot when you get as many dunks in the game as he did. You can just feel the crowd’s anticipation anytime Kenny gets in position to slam one home. When he does throw one down, the eruption of the crowd must be music to his ears. Kenny continues to be awesome in transition and showed good low post moves on a couple of occasions. And he’s still got that uncanny ability to drive the lane and make something happen. Hopefully Kenny "Sir Dunk-a-lot" Gregory will find that outside shot as the season progresses. If he does, look out. One other thing I noticed about Kenny early in the game: he was palming the ball a lot. Not sure what his reasoning is for that, but it looked pretty cool.
- LUUUUUUUUKE! I was thrilled with what I saw from Luke Axtell tonight. Last year I felt that Luke was a 3-point threat and that was it. I knew he had more to his game, but we never saw it. Tonight he showed us what we’ve been waiting to see. Highlights included a tip-in basket, a sweet pass to Gooden, a 10-12 foot bank shot, a pull up 3, another tip-in off a Hinrich miss, and a slam in transition. He also misfired on a couple of 3’s and made a ridiculous attempt at a behind-the-back pass that sent him to the bench. The bottom line is that he showed an all-around game tonight and was much more active than at any point last year. Not too bad considering this was a "glorified practice."
- Jeff Boschee kept his hair. It looks pretty good, but after his shooting performance tonight, he may want to go back to the shaved look. At one point in the game, he was 2 for 8 from the field and had misfired (including one airball) on more than one 3 point attempt. I’m not sure what it was, but he definitely did not appear to be in the flow of the game. He did hit one jumper from the corner that looked pretty good, but not much more from Jeff tonight.
- Nick Collison gave the kind of effort many of us have come to expect from him night in and night out. Let’s just call him "Captain Consistent." I absolutely love Nick’s game. He has this "workmanlike" quality to him that let’s you know he will do his job, and do it well, whenever he is on the court. He is quietly confident and is always in control of his game. When he turns, squares to the basket, and let’s the jumper fly... ahhhhh, there’s nothing sweeter. He is a stud, pure and simple.
- Jeff Carey, Bryant Nash and Mario Kinsey played some solid minutes. I thought Jeff played very well in limited minutes. He hit a nice jump hook, another drive to the basket and also took a charge. He should get the minutes this season that will go to the 8th man in the rotation. Nash and Kinsey definitely looked like freshmen, however they didn’t look like "intimidated" freshmen, which is a good thing. They should be able to provide some solid minutes, if needed, throughout the season.
Other tidbits:
- The new "Beware of the Phog" banner looks good, though the character of the old, ragged banner will be missed.
- The Jayhawks pounded the offensive glass tonight. With 8 minutes to go in the first half, KU had a 21-8 advantage on the offensive boards. A lot of that margin was due to effort from the KU players and a lot of it was due to a lack of effort from the EA All-Stars.
- At one point in the second half, KU was 1 for 11 from 3-point range. Not a promising number, but also nothing to be overly concerned about during an exhibition game. This team has players that can knock down the threes.
- You may have heard that the officials are looking to call the games tighter this year. Overall, the game wasn’t interrupted too much, but there were some "touch" calls that were certainly questionable.
- At one point in the second half, the "points in the paint" stat was KU 40, EA 10.
- Overall I thought the defensive effort was solid. Coach Williams is once again making it clear that if a player wants to play, he will need to play solid defense. There were a few lapses, but that is to be expected in an exhibition game. I expect the defensive effort to be much more crisp and active when the Jayhawks get to the Big Apple.
A solid effort tonight from our Jayhawks and a good win to set the foundation for what will surely be an exciting year for Kansas Basketball.
|
