Kansas basketball notebook
¢ KU leads the all-time series 13-3 and has won all seven games since the Bears prevailed, 65-62, on Dec. 29, 1954, at the Big Seven tournament in Kansas City, Mo. KU won the most recent matchup, 80-67, at the Pete Newell Challenge on Dec. 28, 2002, in Oakland, Calif.
¢ California’s six-game win streak is the team’s longest since an eight-game spurt midway through the 2002-03 season. That season — the last year the Bears reached the NCAA Tournament — Cal defeated San Francisco, then won its first seven Pac-10 games. The Bears went on to finish 22-9 overall and 13-5 in the Pac-10.
¢ Cal’s 80.0 ppg scoring average is nearly 13 points more than the Bears averaged last year.
¢ Leon Powe was named Pac-10 Player of the Week on Monday after scoring 26.5 ppg and grabbing 10.0 rpg in victories over San Jose State and Akron. He followed up those efforts with a 22-point, eight-rebound, three-assist performance vs. San Diego State on Tuesday.
¢ Powe, who went 629 days between games (March 11, 2004 to Nov. 30, 2005) because of a pair of left knee surgeries and a minor stress fracture in his right foot, was the 2004 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and is rated the No. 1 power forward in the country by CBS Sportsline.
¢ As a team, Cal is shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc, up from 32 percent last year and 31 percent in 2003-04. Cal was 10-for-18 on three-pointers vs. San Diego State, making at least 10 in a game for the first time since Feb. 5, 2004, vs. Arizona.
¢ Brothers Omar and Jordan Wilkes are the first set of siblings to play for Cal since the Hughes brothers — Solomon and Gabriel. Solomon played at Cal from 1999 to ’02, while Gabriel played from 2001 to ’04. Ryan and Tashaan Forehan-Kelly played together at Cal during the 2002 season. Ryan, a 6-5 wing, lettered for four years from 1999-02, and Tashaan walked on for the ’02 and ’03 campaigns.
¢ Cal has committed a meager 88 turnovers in six games.
¢ Cal coach Ben Braun, a 1975 Wisconsin graduate, is in his 10th year in Berkeley and 29th season as a college head coach. His record at Cal stands at 172-111, while his career mark — which includes 11 years at Eastern Michigan and eight seasons at Siena Heights College — is 505-346. He has led the Bears to the postseason six times in his first nine years.
¢ Ex-Jayhawk Omar Wilkes averaged 17.8 points a game during Cal’s trip to Italy during the summer. Jordan Wilkes, a freshman, averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds a game his senior year at Loyola High in Los Angeles.
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- Kansas basketball notebook (12-10-05)
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- KU basketball schedule
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