Woodling: Freshmen big men not impressive
Sasha Kaun missed three point-blank shots under the basket. Kaun also bricked all three of his free-throw attempts.
C.J. Giles played 10 minutes and didn’t retrieve a single missed shot. Not even an errant free throw.
Darnell Jackson logged nine minutes and was credited with just two boards, mostly in garbage time.
Kansas University’s freshmen big men — primarily the 6-foot-11 Kaun and the 6-foot-10 Giles — aren’t cutting it. In the euphoria of Saturday night’s 96-51 frolic over Louisiana-Lafayette in Allen Fieldhouse, lost were the weak performances of the young touted tall timber.
“The three big guys had a chance to set the tone for the future,” Self said, “and none of them took advantage.”
By now — six games into the season — everyone, Self included, thought at least one of the trio of freshmen would have shown some flashes of competence. Heck, last season Self started a freshman in the frontcourt (David Padgett) from Day One.
Clearly, the player Self thought would have stepped to the forefront by now is Giles. The son of former KU player Chester Giles is long, lean and athletic, but C.J. played Saturday night like a 6-footer.
Rare is it when a player who answers the opening bell doesn’t also start the second half. Saturday night, Self benched Christian Moody with the Jayhawks ahead 54-22 at the break and opened the last 20 minutes with Giles.
Showtime was short-lived.
Kansas University's Russell Robinson, front, tries to steal the ball from ULL's Cletis Fobbs in the first half. The Jayhawks collected 10 steals in their 96-51 rout Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Thirty-five seconds later, Self called a full timeout after the Jayhawks had surrendered three offensive boards to the undersized and overmatched Ragin’ Cajuns, who honestly weren’t much better than Self’s daughter Lauren’s eighth-grade West Junior High basketball team that watched animatedly from several rows behind the scorers table.
After the timeout, Giles and the other starters returned to the floor, but about five minutes later, Self replaced Giles with Kaun, who also did nothing over the next several minutes. Then with 10:49 remaining, the KU coach sent Moody onto the floor for the first time in the half to replace Wayne Simien.
Moody didn’t produce a double-double — or make another spectacular no-look pass — like he did against TCU on Thursday night, but in just 15 minutes of duty, the 6-8 Moody had more rebounds (six) than the three freshman managed (five) in a combined 32 minutes. Moreover, Moody led the Jayhawks with three steals.
A month or so ago, the Kansas City Royals announced they had signed a journeyman named Chris Truby to play third base next summer until a prospect named Mark Teahen is deemed ready to play in the big leagues, hopefully by mid-season.
The KU basketball timetable is similar. Moody, still a walk-on, is the Jayhawks’ Truby, and Kaun, Giles and Jackson are the prospects. But will any of them supplant Moody by mid-season? Or late in the season? Or ever?
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Sign up for cell phone notifications“It seems to me the gap has widened,” one press room wag remarked. “Moody seems to be getting better, and the three freshmen seem to be getting worse.”
I doubt if Self would argue with that assessment.
“The freshman have not stepped up like I hoped they would,” Self said on his post-game radio show. “I wish those guys would play with the energy and passion that they should.”
In fairness, they are freshmen, they’re facing their first college final exams next week, and they may not be accustomed to playing two games in three days with a high level of energy.
Two games in three days proved problematic last season. KU struggled on Monday nights after Saturday games, and who can forget how gassed the Jayhawks were against Georgia Tech in the gateway game to the NCAA Final Four?
That was last year, though, and, said Self: “That wasn’t an issue tonight.”
The issue was prime time and how his freshmen big men are not ready for it.