Jayhawks won’t be caught off guard by McCray again
There’s no truth to the rumor that Joe McCray has been invited to try out for kicker on Nebraska’s tradition-rich football team.
The 6-foot-5, 210-pound NU freshman wouldn’t have a chance at beating out blue-chip recruit Jordan Congdon, who signed with the Huskers on Wednesday, but he did show off a lively leg during NU’s 59-57 hoops loss to Kansas on Jan. 19 at Allen Fieldhouse.
McCray was seen booting KU’s Michael Lee in the midsection as the two scrambled for the basketball, and both players were whistled for technicals after exchanging words.
“It was just heat of the moment, everybody just playing hard, with intensity. That’s all,” McCray said Thursday.
McCray, one of the top freshmen in the Big 12 Conference who scored 19 points off just 4-of-13 shooting (8-of-10 on free throws) versus KU, was asked if he would talk to any Jayhawks before Saturday’s 11 a.m. rematch at Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb.
“Nah, I just go out there to play hard. You shake hands at the end of the game. I don’t worry about stuff like that,” said McCray who averages 14.7 points and 5.1 rebounds a game for the Huskers (10-8 overall, 3-4 league).
Lee also says he won’t dwell on the incident.
“I don’t even want to talk about it. It’ll be interesting,” Lee said of the rematch. “Up there, I want to keep it solely in the context of basketball.”
KU’s J.R. Giddens, who also had words with McCray during the game in Lawrence — which would have been won by Nebraska had Corey Simms’ last-second three swished — grinned when asked if he’d talked to McCray since the KU victory.
6Sports video: Nebraska to get another shot at KU (02-03-05)
Huskers throw scare into KU (1-20-05)
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KU coach Bill Self said McCray had the Jayhawks’ attention.
“He certainly gave us some reasons to respect his aggressive nature going up to Lincoln,” Self said. “I don’t mean that in a bad way. He’s going to get after it. We can’t be surprised by how he gets after it when we go up there.”
Giddens and others did a strong job defensively on McCray in Lawrence. He was 3-of-7 from three and 1-of-6 from two-point range.
“They were denying me,” said McCray, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “I was just drawing fouls. They were holding.”
Asked if he’ll be a much bigger target of KU’s defense, he said: “I think they’re going to play me much differently.”
Self said McCray “wasn’t a surprise to our staff, but probably to the players. He’s very aggressive, and we did a good job on him. We fouled him twice on threes. He scored 19. He’s one of the better freshmen in our league and our league has good freshmen with (Richard) Roby, McCray, (Aaron) Bruce and (Daniel) Gibson.”
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Aldrich hasn’t committed: Cole Aldrich, a 6-10, 235-pound high school sophomore forward from Bloomington, Minn., who has made two unofficial visits to KU, including Saturday for the Texas game, has decided to not make an early, early verbal commitment to KU.
He also is considering Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky and others.
“No, I did not commit,” Aldrich told gopherillustrated.com. “I thought about it a little bit, but I’m just going to wait and see how the summer goes and stuff. It’s still very early.”
KU, however, still is listed as his leader.
“The visit was real cool,” Aldrich said. “It was awesome, and the Kansas fans there are just crazy.”