Tuesday, March 20, 2007
SAN JOSE, Calif. — This week is spring break at Kansas, but Mario Chalmers’ alarm still went off early on Tuesday.
“It just gives us more time to watch film and get ready,” the sophomore guard said. “It’s more time to relax and get focused.”
After a practice and film session, the Jayhawks left for San Jose Tuesday afternoon. They’ll face the Southern Illinois Salukis on Thursday night at 6:10 p.m.
“They like to play a tight game and try to make it tough to get an open shot,” Chalmers said.
It will be a battle of tempos as Kansas fights off Southern Illinois’ tenacious defense. A low-scoring game would likely favor the Salukis, who pride themselves on taking advantage of every mistake and scoring points off defensive turnovers.
Unlike major-conference teams that can recruit tall centers, Southern Illinois has assembled a team with five fast players. Coach Bill Self said the Salukis remind him of his team when he was coaching at Tulsa.
“They’re undersized, but fast,” he said. “They contest every ball and pass and take great pride in that.”
It would seem the Jayhawks have few things to tweak after near-perfect performances against Niagara and Kentucky. But Self isn’t worried about taking a team from the Missouri Valley Conference lightly, especially because Southern Illinois was tabbed as a No. 4 seed in the tournament.
“A No. 4 seed is supposed to be in the Sweet 16, if things go well. They did exactly what they were supposed to do,” he said. “People across America understand Southern Illinois had potential, so I don’t see them as being a cinderella.”
The Jayhawks will hold an open practice today in San Jose to familiarize themselves with the arena, but spring break in California doesn’t mean time on the beach for this team.
“We’re just going to take the same business-like approach,” Chalmers said. “That’s what got us here, and we’re not going to stray from it.”
Jankovich’s job to Manning:
Coach Bill Self released a statement Tuesday night announcing that Danny Manning would take over assistant coach Tim Jankovich’s job when the season ends. Jankovich is leaving leaving to take the head coaching job at Illinois State. Self said that this is something he had been anticipating.
“Although Danny’s responsibilities will not change until after the season, this is something we knew would take place once one of our three recruiting coaches moved on,” he said in a statement.
No seniors is no problem:
One observation that is often made about this year’s time is that they lack senior leadership. Because of that, no player on the team was part of the Jayhawks’ Elite Eight run in 2004. That’s not something that concerns the players.
“We don’t have any seniors on our team, but we have a lot of leadership,” Chalmers said.
The Illinois connection:
There’s ties to the state everywhere, including Self’s tenure at Illinois, a game against Southern Illinois, Jankovich’s new job at Illinois State and the team returning from the first-round games in Chicago. Self said that the state has always been a great place to be for basketball, and has three large recruiting bases nearby in Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis.
“Illinois has to be one of the best — maybe the best — basketball states in the country,” he said. “They just love ball in that state. Kansas is not a populated state like Illinois. There are always going to be good players at all levels.”
— Kansan.com will have complete basketball coverage all weekend long.
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