Jayhawks wrestle with the “bunnies”
Published on Wed., December 3rd, 2008
These are the kinds of moments a basketball player lives for.
Tyshawn Taylor found himself alone with the ball sprinting toward the basket four minutes into Kansas’ game against Kent State on Monday. He leapt from the floor to throw down a statement dunk.
But apparently Taylor didn’t jump high enough.
Freshman guard Tyshawn Taylor leaves a shot short during a fast break layup attempt during Monday night's game against Kent State
Photo by Jon Goering
The ball clanked off the rim and a Kent State player grabbed the rebound. Opportunity missed.
“Now, I think I should have laid it in,” Taylor, a freshman guard, said. “At first, I thought I had it. Then I got up there and was like, ‘I’m not even close.’”
Freshman forward Marcus Morris committed a similar gaffe in Friday’s game against Coppin State. Near the beginning of the second half, Morris spotted an open path to the basket.
He drove in from the side and elevated for a one-handed jam. But the rim got in the way and rejected his shot.
“I don’t know what’s coming over me,” Morris said. “I just know I need to start finishing a lot more above the rim.”
Shots from close proximity have baffled the Jayhawks lately. They’ll try to fix the problem in tonight’s game against New Mexico State.
It’s not just dunks. The players have also missed an alarming number of layups early in the season.
Kansas coach Bill Self and his players like to call them “bunnies.” But they haven’t made the Jayhawks feel anything close to warm and fuzzy in the first six games of the season.
Taylor missed eight shots in the game against Kent State and four of them came right under the basket.
“I felt like it was going in every time,” Taylor said. “I’m getting there, but I’m just not hitting them.”
Morris missed a couple of layups in the game against Kent State. His most noticeable failures below the basket, however, came against Coppin State.
In the first 10 minutes, Morris missed three layups. Each time, he was able to corral the rebound and convert on his second chance.
Self said that he was happy Kansas still came away with points on the possessions, but that Morris must stop missing so much to begin with.
“I think it was something on the rim, because every time I put the ball in, it came back out,” Morris said. “I don’t know what it was.”
Although Marcus Morris and Taylor have specifically struggled with “bunnies,” it’s been an issue for the whole team.
Kansas’ two leading scorers, junior guard Sherron Collins and sophomore center Cole Aldrich, both missed layups early in the 89-81 overtime loss to Syracuse last week.
Sophomore guard Brady Morningstar has also missed a couple.
Of course, the issue didn’t play a significant role in the game against Kent State or Coppin State because Kansas won by 27 and 32 points, respectively.
But the Jayhawks are eager to improve their close-range accuracy immediately. The belief is that if they keep missing, it could hurt them in a game against a better team.
And actually, it already has. Self and Collins point towards numerous missed free throws down the stretch against Syracuse to explain the defeat.
But five missed shots from right below the basket in the opening 10 minutes are just as much at fault.
Make only one of those five and the game doesn’t go into overtime. Kansas wins. The Jayhawks, however, aren’t dwelling on that now. They know the importance of “bunnies.”
“It’s something that needs to be taken seriously,” Collins said. “We can’t be missing those shots. Especially in a game like Texas — we’ve got to have those shots.”
— Edited by Mary Sorrick
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