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Jayhawks Edge Georgia, 88-78
By John Steere
 
Box score
Williams' comments
Season summary
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The Jayhawks’ freshmen returned to earth and the veterans took over Thursday night as the Jayhawks advanced to the second round of the Great Alaska Shootout with an 88-78 win over Georgia. It wasn’t particularly pretty, at least not for any significant stretch of time, but the Jayhawks did show some character in fending off a determined Bulldog foe. The Jayhawks led by 13 with 5:00 to go, but a series of miscues and poor shots allowed Georgia to pull within 4, 80-76 with only 1:30 to play.

Nick Collison twice converted both ends of one-and-one free throw opportunities, though, and Georgia ran out of time. The Jayhawks trailed in the game only once after the first minute. But the Jayhawks were never able to open a comfortable lead. In both halves the Jayhawks opened double-digit leads only to give the lead back by throwing the ball away and by putting the Bulldogs on the foul line.

The Jayhawks led by 7 points at the half after leading by as many as 12 in the first half. But Georgia chipped away at that lead over the first 10 minutes of the second half. Georgia clearly had the momentum, and the Jayhawks looked rattled when Anthony Evans' short jumper with 11:26 left gave Georgia a 56-55 lead, its only advantage since 2-0.

Williams then returned all of the starters to the lineup except for Collison Axtell played in his place with Bradford playing the big forward. The new lineup rejuvenated the Jayhawks. Axtell hit a long three-pointer seconds after Georgia took the lead, and the Jayhawks went on a 15-2 run.

Georgia wasn’t done, though. KU led by 12 with five minutes to play. However, a series of KU turnovers, bad shots and fouls gave Georgia new life and they went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to four points, making the game very tense until Collison buried his four free throws in the final 90 seconds to ice the game.

The story of the game was fouls. Georgia went to the line 38 times and scored 29 point there. By contrast, the Jayhawks shot only 19 free throws and half of those came in the last five minutes. The Jayhawks converted when they got there, hitting 16, but that did nothing to make up for the striking disparity in attempts. The Bulldogs didn’t have a starter over 6-7, but their front line looked like a linebacking corps. The more muscular Bulldog front line pushed the Jayhawk front line around most of the night, revealing that the big guys still need some work on defensive fundamentals.

Kenny Gregory played his best game ever as a Jayhawk. He scored 20 points, hitting 10 of 11 shots, grabbed five rebounds and dished four assists. The only blemish was four turnovers. The best thing was that not all of his points were from two feet. He hit at least four jumpers from 10 feet and out, and they came at key moments. The beautiful thing was how in control he played in the half court offense. He didn’t try to force the action, but played very much in control. He looked like KU’s go-to guy last night.

Boschee also played a great game, scoring 18 points while playing a team-leading 29 minutes. He dished four assists without a turnover and hit four of five three-point attempts. Hinrich, by contrast, played like the freshman that he is. In the first half he picked up 3 fouls in all of 75 seconds. In the second he picked up his fourth two minutes after entering the game. He played only 6 minutes in all, and his line in the box score is a string of zeros except for one missed free throw and a turnover. I expect Kirk will bounce back, but for those who have speculated that Kirk might push Jeff out of the starting lineup the game serves as a reminder that Kirk is a freshman, albeit a very talented one, and Jeff’s experience in the system and in physical games such as this one counts for a lot.

Drew Gooden and Nick Collison also experienced freshman growing pains. Nick played well overall, leading the team with 10 rebounds and scoring 10 points, including the four key free throws late. But he also fouled out trying to defend the small, more physical Bulldog front line. He was pushed around a lot and got himself into a position defensively where he was forced to foul.

Gooden experienced the same problem, picking up his fourth foul mid-way through the second half and spending most of the rest of the game on the bench. Gooden finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds in 16 minutes, but hit only 4 of 13 shots and committed 3 turnovers. Gooden tried to go one-on-one too often in the paint and couldn’t get some tough off-balance shots to drop. He is still learning to pick his spots. Those moves, which will eventually make him a star and which did make him a star in high school, won’t work consistently at this level until he gets a bit more leg strength and learns when to take them and when to pass back out. It will come with time.

It would be nice if Chenowith modeled strong post play for the two freshmen, but he wasn’t any more effective, and doesn’t have the excuse of playing in only his second collegiate game. Eric was only 2 of 9 from the field and was a non-factor most of the evening. He played more fundamentally sound defense than the freshman, but was very passive on offense.

It was a frustrating first half for the Jayhawks. They played very well in spurts, especially during an 11-0 run that turned a 17-17 tie into a 28-17 Jayhawk lead. The Jayhawks eventually pushed that lead to 13 points, 39-26. But the Jayhawks let the Bulldogs hang around with a series of silly turnovers late in the first half that trimmed the Jayhawk lead to 6 points before a late basket by Gregory gave the Jayhawk the 8-point, 43-36 lead they took into the half.

Georgia was able to stay close in the first half because of the hot shooting of D.A. Layne, who scored 17 first-half points. At one point in the half, he had scored 17 of Georgia’s 21 points.

More later: With three games in three nights, each in the wee hours of the morning, I’ll save any further analysis until after the game on Saturday, when I’ll analyze the three-game weekend. I’ll do a short recap after the game tonight.

The Bracket: If KU defeats Xavier tonight, KU will play the Washington/Georgia Tech. winner for the tournament title.

Notes:

Experimental Rules: Because the Great Alaska Shootout is an exempted tournament, several experimental rules are in effect. The first involves fouls. On the 10th foul and thereafter in both halves, the team fouled has the option of either taking the ball out of bounds or shooting free throws. The purpose of this rule is to allow a team with a lead late in the game to keep the ball and continue to kill the clock rather than risking missing free throws and turning the ball over to the other team. I’m not sure how I feel about this rule. Jump on The Rock Chalk Board if you have a take on this rule and toss in your two cents.

It could have but didn’t come into play tonight. KU was fouled several times late in the game, but Williams chose to attempt the free throws, which KU made.

The other experimental rule limits the number of players on the lane during free throws. During free throws, six men (instead of the current eight), will be permitted on the free-throw lane.

Anniversary: Yesterday was the anniversary of Roy Williams’ coaching debut, and he celebrated it in the same gym were that first game was played. Roy Williams' coached his first game for the Jayhawks 12 years ago yesterday in the Great Alaska Shootout. The Jayhawks defeated host Alaska-Anchorage 94-81 in that opening-round game and went on to play in the championship game before losing to Seton Hall.

KU's Great Alaska Shootout History:
Kansas has reached the championship game in both its previous two Great Alaska Shootout appearances. The Jayhawks lost in the title games in 1984 and 1988, giving KU an all-time record of 4-2 in the Shootout.

Familiar Foe: Georgia's Jim Harrick has now coached four different teams in games against the Jayhawks. Harrick previously coached against KU while at Pepperdine, UCLA and Rhode Island. In all, Harrick is 3-3 lifetime versus Kansas.

TV Coverage: As long as KU wins in Alaska, it will play its games on national television (ESPN). A Jayhawk loss would mean no television coverage. Every other Kansas regular season game will be televised either regionally or nationally.

Milestones:

  • Eric Chenowith surpassed the career 500-rebound mark last night and now has 507.
  • Chenowith (146 career blocked shots) needs one more to move into fifth place on KU's all-time blocked shots chart.
  • Chenowith needs 13 points to reach the career 700-point plateau. Kenny Gregory needs 11 points to reach the 700-point mark.
  • Sophomore Jeff Boschee has made at least one three-point field goal in 24 consecutive games.
  • With three steals last night Nick Bradford (120 career steals) needs two more to move into 14th place on KU's all-time steals list.
  • As a team, Kansas has held opponents to less than 100 points in 318 consecutive games.
  • Kansas has begun the season 2-0 for the tenth straight season.
  • The Jayhawks have won 27 straight games in the month of November. The Jayhawks haven't lost in the 11th month since a 70-68 loss at Arizona State on Nov. 23, 1990.

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