Aldrich towers over Nebraska

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Sophomore center Cole Aldrich stands at least three inches taller than every Nebraska player who has appeared in a game this season.

The 6-foot-11 Aldrich averages nearly 10 rebounds per game, putting him second in the Big 12 Conference. Nebraska has no one in the top 20. Every Cornhusker averages fewer than five rebounds per game.

Photo by Weston White

Sophomore center Cole Aldrich jumps for a basket during the Jayhawks' Jan. 24 game against Iowa State University.

This sounds like a mismatch. Tonight’s game against Nebraska at 6:30 in Lincoln’s Devaney Center could be the perfect opportunity for Aldrich to compile a career night against an undersized front court.

Aldrich doesn’t think that way. In fact, he said he didn’t look forward to playing against teams without a traditional center.

“I usually like another big guy,” Aldrich said. “It’s a little more fun for me, just for the fact that I’ve got another big guy I can bang with. But whatever teams have, you’ve got to deal with it.”

Nebraska has guards. A lot of them. Out of the Cornhuskers’ eight rotation players, only one is listed as a forward.

The other seven players are guards at an average height of 6-foot-2. But they are spunky and efficient. The Cornhuskers compensate for their weak rebounding numbers by ranking first in the Big 12 in scoring defense — they’re allowing only 57 points per game — and second in steals with nine per game.

The Nebraska guards won’t be able to push Aldrich around in the post, but they’ll try to pester him into committing turnovers and taking bad shots. At least, that’s what Aldrich and Kansas coach Bill Self expect.

“Every time Cole catches it, he’ll feel two guys on him,” Self said. “A lot of times small guys trapping are just as effective as big guys trapping, because if you bring the ball down below your waist, there’s a good chance they could deflect it or steal it.”

Aldrich knows he’ll probably spend the game being constantly double-teamed. But he said the Jayhawks’ other big men could benefit from it.

Nebraska’s attention to Aldrich could free up freshman forwards Marcus and Markieff Morris or junior guard Mario Little.

The Cornhuskers could also switch to a zone defense to dissuade entry passes to Aldrich.

“They’re going to try to do a lot of things,” junior guard Sherron Collins said. “A lot of teams are going to try to muddy it up.”

The Cornhuskers do have one player on their roster who could match up with Aldrich, at least size-wise. Brian Diaz, a 6-foot-11 freshman from Puerto Rico, enrolled at Nebraska last week.

But Diaz didn’t play in Nebraska’s 76-74 overtime defeat against Oklahoma State on Saturday. Nebraska coach Doc Sadler told the local media that Diaz was not ready to play yet.

Nebraska’s size disadvantage this season comes because of the graduation of Aleks Maric, a 6-foot-11 center, who was a staple of the Cornhuskers’ rotation for the past three years. “I’d love to go against him again,” Aldrich said. “But they don’t have any big guys so you’ve got to play your cards that way.”

— — Edited by Chris Hickerson

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