After Geelong lost by 20 points to McNeese St. and by 49 to Memphis, you had to figure that the Supercats were not a particularly good team. They aren’t. Despite being the champs of the Australian Basketball Association, the Australian version of the CBA, the Supercats were the equivalent of a moderately good Div. II team. Basically they were Fort Hays St. with a little down-under swagger.

I’m not trying to bag on the Supercats, but it means that it wasn’t much of a game tonight, and the Jayhawks lopsided 119-44 victory can only tell us a little about how this team will play against good Div. I competition in the regular season.

Which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t feel good about the whipping we put on the Aussies tonight. The Jayhawks showed a lot of discipline. Despite having this game won after the first ten minutes, the Jayhawks avoided losing their focus, getting lazy on defense or committing an inordinate number of turnovers.The Jayhawks turned the ball over only 15 times, which is a respectable figure in a tough regular season game, let alone in a run-and-gun blow-out where it is easy to get complacent and to try to liven things up by making show-boat passes. The Jayhawks avoided reverting to one-on-one play, as well. Twenty-nine of the Jayhawks’ fieldgoals came off of assists.

So at the very least the Jayhawks showed that they pay attention to coaching, which is no small thing.

The game wasn’t a contest after the first seven minutes. The Supercats jumped out to a quick five-point lead after the first minute, but the Jayhawks responded with 17 unanswered points over the next 6:30 and never looked back. The Jayhawks led by 20 with eight minutes left in the half and went into the locker room with a 34-point, 52-18 lead.

Coach Williams calls these exhibition games glorified practices, and that is certainly all that this game was. Before the game Williams said that he hoped to work on the new half-court offense. Unfortunately the Jayhawks didn’t get as many opportunities to do that as Coach probably hoped. When the Jayhawks weren’t getting fast-breaks off of Geelong miscues, the Supercats often as not were defending the Jayhawks with a zone, while the Jayhawks’ new offense is designed to be played against a man-to-man defense.

When the Jayhawks did run their half-court offense, though, it looked pretty good. Both Kenny Gregory and Luke Axtell got opportunities to post their defenders for easy baskets and Collison especially was able to cut effectively off of screens at the high post for open shots in the low post.

The Jayhawks again showed their tremendous depth. Williams substituted in waves throughout the first half. He started the game with a freshman-dominated lineup of Nick Collison, Drew Gooden, Kirk Hinrich, Nick Bradford and Kenny Gregory. The second wave, which came in after the first four minutes, featured Eric Chenowith, Jeff Boschee, Lester Earl, Ashante Johnson and Marlon London. Both groups were equally effective.

For the game the “starters” accounted for 63 of the Jayhawks 119 points. Each of the three freshmen scored 13 points, while none of them played more than 19 minutes. Hinrich was practically perfect on the evening. He hit all five of his fieldgoals, including a three pointer, made both of his free throws and dished five assists. His only blemish on the stat sheet was a single turnover.

Luke Axtell got his first action of the year and looked both rusty and promising. The fans were waiting for Luke to shred the net with one of his famous long-range bombs. They will have to wait for another night.

Luke’s first two shots came in the paint, the first on a nifty post-up and the second a slam on a fast break. After that warm-up he did let fly from long range, but blanked on all five attempts. Luke’s legs looked tired even playing only 12 minutes, which likely explains his 0-fer night behind the arc. He tried to do all the right things and was very active away from the ball and on defense. It probably will take some time for him to work into regular season shape. Not only will the conditioning and practice he missed because of recent ankle and hand injuries slow him down, it always takes awhile for a player who has sat out for a year to get comfortable in the flow of live action. Luke finished with 11 points.

Gregory looked outstanding for the second straight game. He is flying around the court with ease, and his points seem effortless. He took only one shot from further than point-blank range, a three-pointer which he nailed, so some of his scoring punch can be explained by the high-speed nature of the two exhibitions, which gave him a chance to score in transition, his forte. But I’ve been impressed by how smooth he looks. He always seems to be in the right place on the break, is helping to get the break started by playing tough defense, and is giving the ball up on the break to set up his teammates. And he’s just dominating the offensive glass, where he’s playing like he’s 6-8 or 6-9.

The real test for Kenny will be the first game in which the Jayhawks are forced into a half-court game. Still, watching the last two games one begins to see why Coach has been so quick to identify Kenny as one of the players who’s shown the most in practice.

Don’t look now but Bradford may really have developed a three-point shot. After hitting only five of them all of last season, he drilled two in a three-minute span in the first half. Neither looked like a fluke. He’s gotten rid of his quirky elbow-out, ball-behind-the-head motion and is shooting with text-book form. If Nick forces teams to guard him out to the three-point stripe the Jayhawks will be hard to zone.

Collison turned in his second strong performance with 13 points, 12 rebounds and a couple of blocks. He clanked a couple jumpers short from just inside the top of the key, but otherwise shot flawlessly. The most impressive thing about him is his body control. He can catch the ball in stride coming down the lane, stop on a dime to avoid a defender, make a head fake, square to the basket and drill the jumper while making it look easy. That’s very impressive for any 6-9 player, but especially so for a freshman.

The other impressive thing is how developed his footwork and positioning are. Big guys typically come to college needing the most work on fundamentals. In high school they are so much taller than most of the competition that they can get away with poor footwork and positioning. Often the first year is a rude awakening as moves that worked in the prep ranks go nowhere against players in college who are as big as they are. Collison looks to have skipped a grade. His fundamentals are already solid as a rock. His post moves are already as good or better than Chenowith’s.

Eric is still trying to get by at times on his height. Of course at 7-1 he can do that and still be effective. Eric scored 15 points tonight and played a solid if unspectacular game. The best thing about his game tonight is what he didn’t do—revert to fade away jumpers. Eric’s buckets came from strong post positioning and offensive boards.

Over all one has to be extremely excited about this team. They are deep, they are quick, they can shoot, they can play defense and they come at you in waves. I still think that it will take time for all the parts to come together and for the players to all find their roles in the rotation. But when it happens this group will be very, very good.

The Starter Lottery: For about the last six months you couldn’t get two Jayhawk fans together without the conversation eventually turning to speculation about what the starting lineup would be this year. It has been a frequent topic for conversation on the board here, as well. Everyone seems to have their own picks and there are about seven different potential lineups that have been predicted at one time or another. Williams has kept us guessing through the exhibition games, though, changing the starters in each exhibition game and from half to half within each game.

The collective wisdom has been that Chenowith and Boschee are locks to start. Boschee is the incumbent and Big 12 Freshman of the year, after all, and Chenowith is a Playboy preseason All-American and a Naismith Player of the Year candidate. Even Williams has suggested that those two would be hard to beat out. So what does Williams do? He doesn’t start Cheno in either of the exhibitions and doesn’t start Boschee tonight. Go figure. You’d almost think he was trying to confuse us. Heck, maybe he is. He’s been known to get mildly annoyed with fan speculation about who should start.

Here’s my best guess for what it’s worth. Eric will start at center. Even with a lot of potential remaining to be tapped, he’s one of the top three true centers in the country.

Boschee will start at the point. Hinrich is awfully good for a freshman, pushes the ball well and is probably a better open-court dribbler. But Jeff knows the system, can shoot the rock and has shown that he knows how to distribute the ball in the two exhibition games. Jeff may not play as many minutes as he did last year because Hinrich will earn lots of time on the court, but Jeff will still be our No. 1 lead guard.

Nick Bradford will start at the small forward. He’s the team leader, plays tenacious defense and doesn’t make silly mistakes. He also seems to have developed a nifty jumper. It’s almost inconceivable to me that Nick wouldn’t start as much as Williams has praised his senior leadership. Neither Luke nor Ashante, the two others seeing significant time at small forward, have the complete came to beat him out.

Kenny starts at off guard. London, his primary competition, has played very well in the two exhibitions (12 points, 7 assists tonight), but Kenny looks like he’s turned the corner.

That leaves power forward, which is the hardest to call. Lester is a senior. But even with his injuries behind him Lester is not a complete player. He plays great defense and is a physical force of nature, but his post moves are limited and he doesn’t have much range. Drew Gooden has been very impressive. He is always in motion, is incredible on the offensive glass, and has wonderfully soft hands and great court vision. He’s made a strong case for the starting nod.

Still, my money is on Collison. Collison has a pure shooting stoke, rebounds almost as well as Gooden and blocks out better, runs the court like a small forward, positions himself well on defense, can create his own shot and plays the game like a veteran.

Of course, Williams has so much depth he could stay with the two-wave system that splits those players up and not miss a beat. It’s going to be fun to watch this team unfold.

Notes:

• Don’t call the new offense the Chicago Bulls triple-post offense. Coach Williams made it clear in his post-game comments that the offense is the Kansas offense that Kansas runs to help Kansas win.
• The folks up in Chicago seem impressed by the job former KU assistant Matt Doherty is doing. For an update, follow this link. Chicago Tribune Article on Matt Doherty.
  
• Stevenson signs:  DeShawn Stevenson signed his Letter of Intent this week and is now officially a Jayhawk.  Stevenson is the real deal and likely will make a strong case for a starting spot at off-guard next year.  He is strong physically, has a quick move to the basket, can handle the ball in the open court and can shoot from long range.  He's been rated the best high school player on the west coast and as high as No. 3 nationally.  He still has to make a qualifying score on either the ACT or SAT.  Assuming that he does, he will be an impact player at KU.  For more on Stevenson: Stevenson No. 1 on West Coast (OC Register article).