Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Lawrence, Kan. — FINAL: Kansas 91, Siena 84
And that's it. Siena put in a noble effort (Clarence Jackson and Ronald Moore were outstanding) but Kansas held on.
It got a little hairy in the final minute. The Saints nearly pulled to within five when Edwin Ubiles finished a layup and was fouled with one minute left. But Ubiles missed the free throw and Kansas had a 85-79 lead.
Photo Gallery
Men's Basketball vs. Sienna
A photo gallery of the Jayhawks win over Sienna Tuesday night.
Reed pulled down a crucial rebound on the missed free throw and made two important free throws on the other end.
The Siena pulled out a little more magic when Ryan Rossiter finished an and-one, pulling Siena to within five at 87-82.
But Collins made both of his free throws on the other end, giving Kansas an 89-82 lead. Moore missed a three on the other end and that was pretty much it.
We'll see what coach Self has to say, but he probably wasn't happy with the way his team played in the second half. But in the end, it was just too much Cole Aldrich. Aldrich finished with 24 points and he was efficient as well (he made 9 of 13 from the field).
Aldrich definitely gets a gameball, but we'll hand one out to Tyrel Reed, too. Reed finished with 14 points and made three three-pointers.
Collins had a great second half, finishing with 11 in the half and 18 overall. So Kansas hangs on, improves to 11-3 and now will travel to East Lansing to take on Michigan State. It should be a great game. You never know what your gonna get from these Jayhawks. But a win isn't totally out of the realm. Who knows? But Michigan State and Tom Izzo are extremely tough at home.
Check back tomorrow for full coverage from Kansas' win over Siena. And check Kansan basketball writer Case Keefer's blog, BLOG ALLEN, for more notes from tonight's game.
Second Half: 3:23 to play, Kansas leads 79-71This game just came to life and so did the Fieldhouse.
Collins hit a crucial three to give Kansas a 73-65 lead and moments later Aldrich grabbed and offensive rebound and a stickback to give Kansas a 75-65 lead. But Siena isn't going away. How about these Saints... they really remind you of Davidson in their scrappiness, the way they run the floor, the way they play great fundamental defense... just everything ( 'cept no Curry).
A few thoughts to ponder... well one.
1. Tyshawn Taylor, for all his talents (and he has a ton of them) just has a tough time finishing layups. At the beginning the of the year it seemed flukey now it definitely seems to be a trend. Taylor just missed a layup that would have given Kansas a 10-point lead.
Second Half: 7:58 to play, Kansas leads 69-63
Well, Collins and Aldrich responded. Collins sliced his way into the lane and found a cutting Aldrich for a dunk that gave Kansas a 69-60 lead.
But, on the other end, Ronald Moore responded and hit a three, bringing the Saints to within six.
And in the end, it comes down to making shots. And Siena has really shot the ball well in the second half. They are 10 of 17 from three-point range.
Second Half: 9:10 to play, Kansas leads 67-60 (Bill Self calls full time-out)
Cue up Kansas's second half struggles....right...now.
Of course, everyone wants to point to Kansas' youth and experience to explain its erratic and inconsistent play.
That's answer, right? Right?
But here we are in the second half, and again, the Jayhawks have let their opponents back into the game.
Siena's Kyle Downey hit a three from the left wing to pull the Saints to within seven, and it just got a little warmer in the Fieldhouse.
This is where you really need to lean on Collins and Aldrich. Yes, I know we just argued that it was good that Kansas was balanced this game... but in this situation, you need your leaders to respond. Let's see what Collins does.
Second Half: 11:48 to play, Kansas leads 65-54
Don't look now, but Siena is hanging around.
Clarence Jackson finished an and-one to pull Siena tow within nine (63-54).
Kansas extended the lead back to 11 when Little found Markieff Morris on a high-low pass for a layup.
It's safe to say that Bill Self had a few words to say to his team about intensity. Kansas seems to have taken it's foot off the gas and put things into cruise control -- but not in a good way.
A few thoughts to ponder:
1. They showed highlights of Kansas' victory over Texas Tech on senior night during the timeout. The look on Russell Robinson's father's face gets me everytime.
2. Markieff Morris has put in a solid effort on the boards. Morris has eight rebounds in 20 minutes.
3. Josh Duell left the court with what looked to be a right knee injury. He got a nice round of applause from the Fieldhouse crowd.
Second Half: 15:36 to play, Kansas leads 55-43
Kansas is handling Siena pretty well, so let's take a few minutes to focus on Kansas' offensive output tonight. Seven players have at least five points and that's a positive. Of course, Collins and Aldrich have to be scoring for Kansas to play to its potential, but it can be dangerous relying on two players too much... especially at the college level. College players are just prone to be a little more erratic than pros... Obviously, there's a lot of reasons...
For now, we'll just point out that if Taylor, Releford, Reed and Morningstar can relieve some outside scoring pressure off of Collins, that's a good thing.
A few thoughts to ponder...
1. They really need some more space along the sideline at the Fieldhouse.
Obviously, the dimensions of venerable Allen Fieldhouse are just too small, but someday, somebody is going to get really hurt crashing into the press and scorer's table. Morningstar had a mishap in the first half and Siena's Kenny Hasbrouck fell hard into press row as well.
Halftime: Kansas leads 51-38
And a child shall lead them and his name is... Tyrel?
That's right, Tyrel Reed is your offensive star of the first half. Reed and Aldrich both finished the half with 10 points, but Reed (despite missing his last two threes) really gave Kansan a lift with some sweet outside shooting.
Siena really didn't play all that bad, it was just a stelllar offensive performance from Kansas. Something tells me Bill Self probably wasn't that happy with the defense at times, and there were some breakdowns, but overall, Self has to like what he saw during that first half.
When all the pistons are firing (First half against Syracuse and Arizona and the whole game against Tennessee) this team is really dangerous.
A few thoughts to ponder...
1. Collins was quiet in the first half, but still made his presence felt. He had seven points and did a nice job distributing the ball.
2. Jay Bilas was right. Aldrich really might be one of the top 5 big men in the country by season's end.
3. Anybody else excited to see Mickey Rourke's performance in the Wrestler?
We'll be back in a few moments for the start of the second half....
3:53 to play, Kansas leads 44-31
Siena's Clarence Jackson has been scoring machine. Jackson has (nearly single-handedly) kept Siena within striking distance. He has 11 points in just nine minutes, including three long-distance treys.
Kansas is still shooting a blistering 62% from the field, and Tyrell Reed has really shot the ball well. He hit a three, and had a nice shot-fake hesitation move that culminated in a 15-footer off the glass.
A few thoughts to ponder...
1. It looks like we won't see that much Mario Little tonight. That might not be a terrible thing. Reed, Releford Morningstar have all played pretty well.
2. Go see the Wrestler... the trailer was really good.
7:57 to play, Kansas leads 32-18
The leads back down to 14, but Kansas has really shot the ball well in this half (67%). They've made four-of-six three pointers as well. Aldrich has eight, and Taylor and Releford both have five.
A couple of thoughts to ponder.
1. Releford has provided a nice lift. He hit a three-pointer and started a fast-break with a steal (funny story actually). Releford picked up a loose ball, and fed it to Taylor on the break (Releford was obviously looking to get the ball back, preferably on an alley oop. Instead Taylor kept it himself and finished a layup on what is becoming his patented move (the leaning, falling back layup on a fastbreak...)
2. Mario Little finally checked into the game for a few minutes. He didn't get many touches and quickly sat back down. Just in case you were wondering, his splint is back on.
9:04 to play, Kansas leads 30-16 (Bill Self calls 30-second time-out.
Kansas was pulling away from Siena, and they were doing it on the defensive end. But then some cat named Jackson came off the bench for Siena and nailed two three's and Kansas' 30-10 lead suddenly shrank to 30-16. Self was not happy. Aldrich finished a layup right after the time-out to extend the lead back to 32-16.
11:54 to play, Kansas leads 18-10
Well, the Jayhawks started defending, started rebounding, and most importantly, they started making shots.
Marcus Morris his a couple of jumpers to get Kansas going, the Morningstar hit a contested three and ended falling into the press row table right in front of us. And that started a big Kansas run.
Collins dropped in a three-pointer with the shot clock running down to give Kansas a five point lead, 16-10, and Travis Releford entered the game and finished a layup off a backdoor cut to extend the lead to 18-10
Weird call in front of the
A couple of thoughts to ponder...
1. Travis Releford hasn't played much this year. Mostly because he still needs to improve his team defense a little bit, but he always seems to be in the right place at the right time.
2. Former Kansas walk-on Christian Moody is sitting in the first row behind the Jayhawk bench. Last we heard, Moody was playing professionally in Australia, but not quite sure about the details on that one. We'll see what we can do to confirm that.
15:58 to play, Kansas trails Siena 9-5
From a physicality and talent stanpoint, Siena might remind some people of Davidson (if Davidson didn't have Stephen Curry).
Aldrich picked up and early foul with 18:36 to play in the first half and then Hasbrouck hit a three on the same possession. Kansas trails 5-3. Not a great start.
On the next possession, Aldrich took an ill-advised 15-foot jumpshot early in the shot clock. That earned him a seat on the bench. Although, it may be that Bill Self was just a little worried Aldrich might pick up foul No. 2 early in the first half.
A couple of thoughts to ponder...
1. Kansas needs to tighten up on Defense.
2. Hasbrouck isn't afraid to pull from deep.
3. Kansas can pound it inside all night, but can the Morris twins and Aldrich finish around the basket?
PREGAME - 5 minutes till tip
A couple of final notes...
1. decent crowd for a Tuesday night during Christmas break. Still some empty seats up in the corner, but a decent amount of students and a some good energy from the crowd during warm-ups...
2. Mario Little wore a splint on his injured hands during the early shoot-around, but he just took it off and it looks as if he's going to try to play without it. It'll be interesting to see how many minutes Little plays. I'd set the over-under at at 14.
3. One last note. Interestingly, this is Bill Self's 500th career game... With a win he'll improve to 360-140 all-time and 153-35 at Kansas.
4. KU now owns the third longest home-court winning-streak in the nation (32 games), and a win tonight would make it 33.
PREGAME - (KEYS TO THE GAME)
Before we get to the keys to the game, we'd like to share a couple of factoids about Kansas' opponent, Siena.
So where is it located?
Glad you asked. Actually is a small, catholic liberal-arts college of about 3,000 students located in Loudonville, NY. Here's a short history lesson. The college was founded as St. Bernadine of Siena College in 1937 by a group of Franciscan Friars on the site of an old asparagus farm (seriously...). And interestingly enough, the nickname, "Saints" is short for Saint Bernards (as in the dog. Remember Beethoven? He was a Saint Bernard... well the dog. Anyways.. how about the team?
Well, here's the starting line-up...
Ronald Moore, guard, junior.
Moore is averaging 8.4 points per game ( all of Siena's regulars average more than eight points per game...)
Kenny Hasbrouck, guard, senior.
Apparently just broke out of a shooting slump with a big game against Saint Peters on Sunday. We'll see how he looks tonight. The 6-foot-3 senior is averaging nearly 12 points per contest.
Edwin Ubiles, forward, junior.
Ubiles is another swingman with some size (he's 6-foot-7), which means that Brady Morningstar will have to match up with another big body for most of the game. So far, Morningstar has done a yeoman's effort containing bigger guys. Ubiles is not Chase Budinger, but he's capable of going off for 20 or more.
Alex Franklin, forward, junior.
Here's where Kansas might have the advantage. Franklin is averaging nearly 14 points per game, but he's only 6-foot-5, so on paper, you'd have to think that Kansas has the slight advantage at the power forward spot.
Last but not least, Ryan Rossiter, forward, sophomore.
The Saints' 6-foot-9 forward is averaging eight points and six rebounds per game... What else? Well, according to the game notes, Rossiter was sick with the flu and didn't play on Sunday in Siena's 65-52 victory over Saint Peter's...
OK, on to the Keys...
We'll spare you the obvious one... (OK, we won't, but obviously the Jayhawks can't look past Siena. They have to somehow try to match the energy and emotion they played with on Saturday. That will be tough, but if Kansas can play well the first few minutes, it'll make the task that much easier. If Kansas misses some early shots and Siena hangs around, the Jayhawks might clam up a little bit... Next, obviously, Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich have to play well. When they are playing well, Kansas is a Top 15 team... When they aren't, well, Kansas could lose to just about anybody. Aldrich and Collins don't have to be brilliant tonight, they just have to play smart, give Kansas a lift, and most of all, stay on the floor.)
THE REAL KEYS...
1. Defense and rebounding...
OK this isn't a totally groundbreaking concept, but hey, neither is basketball. Even if the Jayhawks shoot poorly tonights, they can make up for it by controlling the boards and wreaking havoc on defense... And that means shutting down Ubiles and Franklin.
2. Production from the Morris twins and Morningstar...
Cole and Sherron are fabulous (as Bill Self would say), but the Jayhawks are really dangerous when Morningstar is knocking down shots and the twins are active.
3. Make shots.
Quick story. After Kansas beat UNLV to advance to the Sweet 16 in Omaha, I was out with a few managers from the basketball team. We had a quick discussion about what Kansas needed to the do the rest of the tournament...
I said something like, "They just need to make shots and they'll be fine."
One of them just smiled and said, "Well yea, doesn't it always come down to that."
We'll be back in a moment after the Rock Chalk and alma mater...
PREGAME
Well, we're about an hour away from tip-off. Kansas plays host to Siena in its final non-conference home game of the season. The Jayhawks are coming off a breakthrough victory over Tennessee on Saturday, and they'll travel this to East Lansing, Mich., this weekend to close out their non-conference slate with a pivotal game against a perennial Top-25 program in Michigan State. And here's the rub... Kansas' opponent tonight, Siena, is no slouch.
The Saints, as you probably know, advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament last season by running Vanderbilt 83-62 in the first round... Bill Self said yesterday before practice that his players won't be looking ahead to Michigan State. And let's hope not, because if Kansas comes out flat tonight, all those good vibes that were brought on by the Tennessee victory could be gone... just like that.
We'll be back in just a moment to go over the keys to the game (as well as some great nuggets from the game notes)...
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