Senior guard Sherron Collins claps his hand after finishing a bucket. Collins was 6 for 11 from the field and led the Jayhawks with 19 points Tuesday evening at Allen Fieldhouse.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The preseason is not made to make teams look pretty.
The Jayhawks appeared to have the offense of a championship-caliber team defeating the Fort Hays State Tigers on Tuesday night in a packed Allen Fieldhouse. Their defense is another matter.
Photo Gallery
Kansas Basketball vs. Fort Hays State
A gallery of the men's basketball exhibition game against Fort Hays State University Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
“You guys saw it,” coach Bill Self said. “We showed flashes where we looked pretty good, we showed stretches where we didn’t look good at all.”
Sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor said Self’s goal for the players for this game was to show him they could play defense.
Despite this being an exhibition game, high standards remain for the Jayhawks. Taylor had 15 points and three turnovers — a performance his coach called “careless.”
“Coach still expects things from us no matter who we’re playing,” Taylor said.
Several players tried to do too much with the ball, which resulted in 18 turnovers, and the Tigers had wide-open three-pointers available all night long.
On paper, the defense and offense both looked great; Kansas shot 53.3 percent and held Fort Hays to 33.8 percent.
The Jayhawks did impress their opposition. Fort Hays State coach Mark Johnson said he is confident Kansas will find a way to maximize its potential.
“I think that they have a lot of pieces to the puzzle,” he said, “and he (Self) will get them to play the way that he wants them to play, that is for sure.”
The most positive news came from the young stars.
With the two best players in the country in Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich, it was good for those two to see they have teammates to ease their burden.
“Tonight, I didn’t do as much as I’ve always had to do,” Collins said. “We have so much talent to take pressure off of me.”
Collins led the team with 19 points, going three for six from three-point range in 27 minutes.
Freshman guard Xavier Henry’s debut came with a three-pointer 1:05 into the game. He finished with 14 points in 20 minutes. When under control, Henry looked dynamic. But there were times when he was careless with the ball and recklessly barreling down the court.
Freshman guard Elijah Johnson’s welcome-to-Allen-Fieldhouse moment came when he converted a steal into a dunk with six minutes left to go in the first half. At the beginning of the second half, he received an alley-oop pass from Taylor that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
This night was just how Johnson dreamed it would be.
“It felt great, it was unexplainable,” Johnson said. “Especially to have a breakout like that — I’ll never forget it.”
The offensive sparks were impressive, but they have no bearing on the regular season, especially when better teams come along. But this game meant a lot to the players, especially to Taylor, who treated this game just like any other.
“I feel like we have to approach every game the same way,” Taylor said. “We’re a team that has a lot of expectations, not because we asked for it but because of the situation that we’re in.”
Collins has the same approach, even for an exhibition game. This game was not just an opportunity to fool around.
“You’ve got to take every game seriously,” he said. “Every time you step on the court, you have to get better.”
Despite his team’s effort, Self said he is going to work them a little harder in practice to get his team where it needs to be, especially on the defensive end.
“I feel like we should have been a little bit further along than what we are,” he said, “but we make the game harder than what it is because we don’t share the basketball as well as what most of our teams have done in the past.”
Kansas plays Pittsburg State next in its final exhibition game Nov. 10.
— Edited by Samantha Foster
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