Fans get first glimpse of men’s basketball team

Senior guard Sherron Collins drives around sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor during the Late Night scrimmage. The men's basketball team played a 20-minute scrimmage in front of a packed Allen Fieldhouse Friday night for the 25th annual "Late Night in the Phog."

Senior guard Sherron Collins drives around sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor during the Late Night scrimmage. The men's basketball team played a 20-minute scrimmage in front of a packed Allen Fieldhouse Friday night for the 25th annual "Late Night in the Phog."

By Corey Thibodeaux

Friday, October 16, 2009

This is the way the Kansas basketball program wanted to start the season.

With a packed Allen Fieldhouse, Late Night in the Phog gave fans a reason to look at the men’s basketball team in a positive light.

After breathtaking displays of the history of Kansas basketball and skits featuring the players, the team played in a 20-minute scrimmage to show off the preseason No. 1 team.

Travis Releford and Markieff Morris each scored a team high of 15 points, Releford for the red team and Morris for the blue.

Releford started the game, guns-a-blazing.

“Right off the tip was a good lob from Tyshawn (Taylor), and that dunk just kept me going after that," Releford said.

Despite putting up 15 points in 20 minutes, the scrimmage was no indicator of where Buford stood as far as minutes go.

“First day of practice is tomorrow,” Releford said. “Time will tell. There’s no set starting five right now.”

For some of the freshmen, this was their first experience with a full house. Xavier Henry was overwhelmed.

“It was a full-packed house, and I have to get used to it being at home,” he said. “I was nervous this whole time. I was nervous all this week. I was nervous this whole year. Now (the season’s) getting started, and I’ll start calming down, and just get into it.”

The game was fun for the fans, but not from a coaching standpoint. Head coach Bill Self was not impressed by what he saw — a lot of rusty players and a game of horse.

“Pitiful play in some regards,” Self said. “You can’t expect it to be anything other than that.”

Comments

vegasjayhawk (anonymous) says...

Check you spelling of "Releford"

October 17, 2009 at 7:12 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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