Not really worth mentioning, except for this snippet:

Nick Fazekas had 26 points and eight rebounds and reserve Marcelus Kemp added 12 points for the Wolf Pack (10-1). They led 54-32 with 9:46 left, but made only 14 of 27 free throws and missed seven in the final 1:22 to let the Ragin’ Cajuns back in the game.

They were 21-24 in our game and made 11-12 in the final minutes.

The Big 12 had another nice night in football, as the once struggling Sooners redeemed their season with a win over BCS snub Oregon. That’s two wins over high profile programs so far and a dominating performance by KU to boot. I don’t know if I’ll be rooting for MU tonight, although the justification for doing so seems to be that their fans might take the small measure of satisfaction in beating a decent Gamecocks squad in a bowl game and parley that into their typical stratuspheric expectations next year.

We’ll see how ISU, MU TTU and UT can do, but if they can match the 3-1 record that their B12 brothers have put up, I think it’s safe to say that the big 12 wasn’t all that bad this year.

If UT can take home the Rose Bowl Trophy and the Big 12 is 6-2 in bowls, I think a lot of people will say it was the best football conference.

I don’t know enough about football or conferences to make that judgment, but on the surface, the numbers look pretty compelling.

In lieu of attempting how to describe UNO’s ineptness in anticipation of tonight’s game, I’ll take a look at the numbers of the 10 Jayhawks who have played significant minutes so far this season.

(Note: All stats are taken from game box scores, NOT from play-by-play information. The Chaminade game is not included. I’ve only considered games against Division I opposition.)

Link to stats glossary

First, shooting:

Not much there that anybody couldn’t tell from watching the games.

Rush is obviously the team’s best scorer and shouldn’t be the sixth-most frequent shooter. The rest of the perimeter players (and you could include Giles here, considering the location of too many of his shots) aren’t making very many shots.

Other than Rush, none of the perimeter players are making more than 36% of their three-point shots, and only Chalmers (who is struggling the most from behind the arc) is making more than 37.5% of his two-point shots.

From observation, I’d say that Robinson’s shot selection has improved markedly as the season has progressed. If he improves his ability to finish in the paint, both his and the team’s offensive efficiency will get an immediate boost.

CJ Giles shoots too much, or not well enough, depending on your perspective.

Kaun is greatly benefitted by his improved free throw shooting.

Julian Wright, when shooting, is already an effective offensive player.

Moody and Vinson seem to have a good sense of their limitations as basketball players.

Rebounding:

At the risk of contradicting Coach Self, I’ve arranged the players into three categories: bigs, mediums, and littles, rather than two when looking at their rebound numbers.

Moody’s a liability on the defensive glass which can obscure his effectiveness as an offensive rebounder as most have yet to come to the conclusion that those are two different skills.

Coming into the year, I assumed that Wright’s rebounding numbers would look more like Moody’s, but he has done pretty well on the defensive glass without creating much havoc on the offensive end.

Rush and Downs have not, thus far, provided the rebounding boost I had hoped. (JR Giddens 2004 (OR%/DR%/TR%): 2.6/11.8/7.5 and 2005: 2.2/12.5/7.8).

Robinson and Hawkins have both improved their rebounding rates with increased playing time this year, though neither is doing anything exceptional.

Chalmers’ paltry rebounding numbers shouldn’t cause great alarm. Few freshman point guards get many rebounds. If he doesn’t improve next year as a sophomore (when playing more off-the-ball), then I’ll be worried.

Vinson’s solid off-the-ball defense carries over to his defensive rebounding. As he’ll always be assigned to the perimeter player least likely to dribble-penetrate, he should be getting proportionally more rebounds than the other guards.

Finally, ballhandling, steals, and blocks:

Same arrangement as above: littles, mediums, and bigs. These numbers are per 100 individual possessions. Kansas is averaging 69 possessions per game so far this year.

Hawkins turns it over too much, though not as often as Chalmers, and he doesn’t create many turnovers.

My theory regarding the difference between Hawkins’ reputation as a practice defender and his performance in games: in practice, all those fouls he commits 35 feet from the basket are ignored, allowing him to be a significant nuisance.

Once Chalmers gets the turnovers under control, his passing and on-the-ball defense will make a big (positive) difference for the team.

To go along with my observations about Robinson’s improved shot selection, he’s improved his assist-to-turnover ratio as the season has progressed. Through the Western Illinois game, he had 11 assists against 12 turnovers. He’s had 13 assists and 3 turnovers in the last four games.

Julian Wright’s across-the-board contributions (and his near-epic turnover rate) provide a numerical context for the excitement he provides.

Neither Rush nor Downs are a liability with the ball in their hands. I assumed both would struggle guarding smaller players and they have at times though neither has been a disaster. The infrequency of both their blocks and steals, combined with their mediocre defensive rebounding numbers points to the greatest opportunity for defensive improvement as the season progresses.

Kaun, despite his massive general improvement, still demonstrates little ability to pass the ball out of the post. He’s making up for this by almost never turning the ball over. If he can continue to take care of the ball once conference play starts, it will be a great help.

Moody’s biggest problem this year has been his increased turnover rate. He’s giving the ball away 152% of the time compared to last year which really cuts into his effectiveness.

Vinson’s numbers will undoubtedly shrink if he continues to play significant minutes, but I think he can be useful if Self adequately picks the spots in which he uses him.

Conclusions
I don’t think anything groundbreaking has been discovered by doing this. Both the struggles and the promise of the program have been obvious in all year (with the possible exception of the Arizona game).

I think I’m more positive than most about the necessary, limited usefulness of Hawkins, Moody, and Vinson and have tried to point out what they can provide the team. There is no doubt the program will be in better shape when the more talented, high-profile recruits are playing all the minutes and playing effectively. I’m skeptical that the latter will occur this year and I’m certain that were Self to have played the freshman more extensively, he’d be criticized and questioned just as severely would the results have been the same. The improvement of Kaun and Robinson gives me reason to believe that Self can develop players, though his method of doing so may frustrate fans.

The offense isn’t good, but it’s better than I imagined it would look coming into the year. I had visions of the ‘99 team (Boschee, Robinson, Gregory, Pugh, Chenowith, Bradford) with its collection of young and/or mediocre offensive players struggling to work together to create a decent shot. I’ve certainly witnessed that this year, but I’ve also seen the team use defense to create easy shots, and run their half-court sets effectively for brief stretches. Once the young players are capable of putting complete games together, their minutes will increase and they’ll get longer stretches to play together, and presumably the half-court execution will improve. Again, it may be 2007 before this all happens.

I was very negative about the team’s defense following the St. Joseph’s game, but I’m hopeful that the good defense of the first 17 minutes of that game will be more representative than the team-wide defensive breakdown that transpired over the final 23 minutes. Looking at Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency numbers leads me to believe that some of my negativity had more to do with my clumsiness with the numbers than the team’s play. The performance against Cal and the defensive performance against Pepperdine fuels my newfound optimism.

I thought they’d have one more (Division I) win than they have right now, but the Big 12 looks to be even weaker than I thought. I think this is still an 18-win team that gets into the tournament.

*Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich are very likely to square off in an exhibition game next October in Allen Fieldhouse. What a great idea.

Hinrich’s Chicago Bulls and Collison’s Seattle SuperSonics are finalizing plans to meet in an NBA exhibition game, likely to be played Sunday, Oct. 15, in KU’s tradition-rich building.

*Sherron Collins scored 29 points in another win.

Update: Here’s a more in-depth articleHis stock is rising.

Crane’s Sherron Collins, looking a bit sluggish after missing eight days of practice with a bruised heel, still dazzled the Detroit Renaissance crowd, which came out strong to see the No. 1 guard in the nation.

*Gregg Doyel calls JR Giddens one of the worst things in college basketball in 2005. I’m inclined to disagree and I certainly wish JR the best.

*Gregg Doyel counts both Bucknell and Illinois among the ten best things about college ball in the last year.

Number 9?

One word.

Missouri.

Mike DeCourcy said it, not me.

The LJW site has an article up in which Bill Self seems to imply that he’s found ‘the solution’ to the team’s offensive woes:

“We have to be really good at something and have something we can hang our hat on. We think we know what it is. We need to get really good at it and the players believe they can score out of it whenever we run it.”

Additional commentary from Self implies that he is pushing the team to run, run, run. If this scenario were to actually materialize, there would be a lot of enthusiastic fans around here. But can a team this young handle the demands of a fast-paced offense? Bill Self is probably asking himself this very question. Any thoughts?

Nick Reid:

“To go out on top with a big win like this, it just hasn’t sunk in yet. We’ve come a long way. It’s pretty neat to be part of the foundation.”

Love to see that from Mr. Incredible, Nick Reid. Success begets success, especially in college football. I expect KU to be competitive for a Big 12 North title for the forseeable future. That may be a humble aspiration, but hey, I’m a humble guy…

Don’t know if I’ll be around for the next few days, but I wanted to thank everybody for a great year. God Bless you all, even you Mizzou fans!

Tops of my Jayhawk list? A bowl win tonight over HO HO Houston. Who’s with me?

The above santa figure can be purchased here.

Sherron was not played in last night’s win over a team ironically named Collins. It appears to be a bruised heal, and nothing more.

“We held him [Collins] out for precautionary reasons,'’ said his coach, Anthony Longstreet “He is scheduled to take an MRI [today].’

More on bruised heels here at Men’s Health.

*Anyone else glad to see Darnell Jackson back in uniform?

*We’d very likely be 9-1 right now instead of 6-4 if he’d been playing since day one. We’d be ranked in the top 25 and pundits from Pasadena to Princeton would be on our proverbial bandwagon. But we wouldn’t be a better team. But it’s good to know that Gregg Doyel was right.

*Our offense moved the ball better in the second half, but I think we got a bit lax on defense - NoCo shot 52% in the second stanza.

*George Brett looked as baked as a Christmas turkey, or Lute Olsen.

*Tom Keegan at the LJW has a real eye for illustrative stats. Case in point, his thoughts on the electrifying Julian Wright:

He’s juiced on the road, too juiced by the crowd at home. In 66 minutes at the Fieldhouse, Wright has 12 turnovers. In 97 minutes elsewhere, he has seven turnovers.

*The Big 12 is not good this year. OU got their wagon handed to them by the Gansey led West Virginia Mountaineers. WVU is a good, but not a great team.

*That’s all I got. If my bosses are reading this, I hope they recognize how little time it took to post.

Merry Christmas all if I don’t post again!

PB reader Cathy writes in with an update on the ever-Mercurial Dwight Lewis, who committed to KU, only to back out, re-commit and de-commit again. He has turned up in the Houston area after being dislocated post-Katrina:

I read something on either on your blog or another KU source back in September that Dwight Lewis would be attending a private school in Katy, Texas after he had to leave Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina. His dad said that he enrolled at Katy High School, wouldn’t be allowed to play basketball, so he left for a private school. Daddy said that it had something to do with politics in the district.

I wrote Katy High School’s basketball coach and sent him the link. He said that it was news to him and that he’d never spoken to Lewis or Daddy Lewis.

Imagine my surprise when Lewis turned up at one of the other schools in the Katy Independent School District (there are six), Taylor High School. So far, he’s doing okay…. Here’s a quote from one of the
articles:

Taylor played with a split squad for the second consecutive game and was also without leading scorer Dwight Lewis, who was benched for the first half for violating team rules.

Lewis was held to four points in the second half while committing four personal fouls.

Entire article is here:

The other article that mentions him is here:

Katy High has been consumed with their football team going to State, so basketball coverage hasn’t been heavy recently. The Tigers lost, but it was a great season.

And that’s the rest of the story.

How have Northern Colorado managed to lose their first 13 games?

Of course, they’re generally bad. Out of the 334 Division I teams, Ken Pomeroy calculates their offensive efficiency rank at 287th and their defensive efficiency at 290th. More specifically, Northern Colorado, over the course of their first 13 games have turned the ball over on 30.2% of their offensive possessions. Doing so makes it very difficult to win.

To put that into perspective, the young Jayhawks, who have obviously struggled to limit their turnovers, have turned the ball over on 23.6% of their possessions. In the debacle against Arizona, Kansas turned the ball over on 38% of their possessions. Northern Colorado has bettered (worsened?) that twice: at Air Force and at Cal State Northridge. So, should Robinson, Chalmers, Wright or anybody else capture a bunch of steals tonight, I’ll both enjoy the display and keep in mind from whom the ball was stolen.

My expectations for the team were raised against Pepperdine despite the putrid offensive performance the last 30 minutes of the game. Pepperdine are a terrible offensive team, but the Jayhawks did hold them 25% below their season average of points per possession while dominating both the offensive and defensive glass.

Self appears to recognize that this team, this year, will probably never be a consistently efficient offensive team. They’ll have to win with defense. They’ve had their two best defensive performances of the season in the last two games. Amidst the missed free throws, layups, and turnovers, we may be witnessing a team coming into its own.

Prediciton: Kansas 79 Northern Colorado 52