Ho-ho-horrible

Kansas 'miserable' in win over Waves

Santa Claus might fall asleep at the wheel of his sleigh Saturday night if forced to watch a replay of Kansas University’s sluggish 63-43 men’s basketball victory over Pepperdine on Monday in Allen Fieldhouse.

“Anybody still awake?” KU coach Bill Self asked 20 or so media members after a workmanlike effort in which the Jayhawks held the Waves to the lowest point total by a KU foe in the fieldhouse since Kansas State’s 47 points Feb. 17, 1999.

Self looked like he could use a stiff jolt of eggnog himself while discussing a KU offense that scored 25 points off 10-of-15 shooting the first nine minutes — then sputtered to 38 points off abysmal 12-of-43 marksmanship the rest of the way.

“After the first nine minutes, I thought we were miserable. I think we got selfish,” Self said. “I thought we shared the ball early. When things started going bad, everybody tried to make their own play, hit a home run instead of singles.

“It got ugly. We missed free throws (making 14 of 25 to the Waves’ six of 12). That kind of deflates you. We didn’t ever get it back.”

KU’s offensive woes started with 8:21 left in the first half when freshman Brandon Rush — who had nine points in 25 minutes — picked up his second foul. KU led, 25-12, at the time.

Without Rush, who had five of KU’s first six points, KU scored just eight points the rest of the half and led, 33-19, at the break.

“In my opinion when you have depth, you should be able to sit guys with two fouls,” Self said. “We subbed with nine minutes left and had a comfortable lead. We’re playing to win the game first, not for a point spread. We’re doing things that give us the best chance to win the game. (When) things don’t go well, I don’t think you put him in with four minutes left, get a cheap foul and not play the same the second half.”

Two players who normally contribute to KU’s depth — freshmen Julian Wright and Micah Downs — were not called on at all the second 20 minutes.

Wright had four points and three turnovers in seven minutes, his third miscue a a no-look pass out-of-bounds.

Downs missed two shots and two free throws with three boards in his seven minutes.

“I was playing the guys who gave us the best chance to win the game,” Self said on a night Sasha Kaun collected 18 points and 12 rebounds and Christian Moody contributed eight points (including two rare three-pointers) and eight boards.

“It’s not any rocket-scientist stuff. I didn’t take Julian out after his first turnover or second turnover. He had a couple of chances to make better decisions. Micah had a couple of chances to do some things we want him to do that he hasn’t been doing.

“When they make a conscious effort not to do what we think is important, we made some adjustments so that maybe won’t be a problem in the future. It was surprising to me Julian made some of those decisions in the first half because he’s really been practicing well.”

Go figure

58 – Field goals attempted by each team (KU made 22, the Waves 17)

1 – Minutes played by Rodrick Stewart in his KU debut

Freshman point guard Mario Chalmers contributed seven points with six assists against three turnovers, but missed six of eight shots in 24 minutes.

“I think he did some good things,” Self said. “I don’t think I’ll do any cartwheels based on how anybody played.”

Self didn’t want to sound too much like the Grinch on a night KU held Pepperdine to its lowest output since a 42-38 victory over Santa Clara in the 1975-76 season. The Waves hit just 29.3 percent of their shots, missing 15 of 18 threes.

Led by Kaun and C.J. Giles who had three blocks apiece, KU did reject 10 shots and outboarded Pepperdine, 56-30.

“I can guarantee you there’s no high-fiving and chest bumps in the locker room, but also we won by 20,” Self said. “I don’t want guys to leave here miserable. I’m not leaving here miserable. I’m leaving here thinking, ‘Ooh, that wasn’t very good. We caught a break tonight.”’

Self said the strange thing was the Jayhawks had looked great at practice lately.

“To me, selfishness is taking the first shot on the other end when you don’t guard on the defensive end,” Self said. “Selfishness is not who is shooting the ball. Selfishness is your thoughts, ‘OK that’ll work, but I can go do something else.’ To me it’s not how this team needs to think if we want to be a good team.

“I think it’s good they have confidence they can make plays on their own, but if you’ve had five consecutive terrible possessions, you may need to make sure more than one guy touches it on that possession. A lot is inexperience, but also guys with confidence saying, ‘It’s not working, so I’ll just do it.”’

Whatever it was, the Jayhawk players agreed it was not pretty. KU hit 37.9 percent of its shots including five of 11 threes.

“Today we were a little timid, for whatever reason I don’t know,” Russell Robinson said after collecting 10 points and seven boards in 27 minutes. “I think it was bad offense. We couldn’t get in a rhythm, we couldn’t hit anything. Luckily, we were able to keep the lead.”

“The first 10 minutes we moved the ball,” noted Kaun, who hit six of 15 shots and six of eight free throws. “Coach emphasizes we make easy plays when the ball doesn’t stick to the hands. When we move the ball, we make some great plays.”

KU (5-4) next will meet Northern Colorado at 7 p.m. Thursday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Pepperdine (2-7) will travel to UNLV on Thursday.