No more fun and games: KU prepares for MSU

Michigan State guard Denzel Valentine (45) drives past Marquette Golden forward Steve Taylor Jr. (25) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Kissimmee, Florida. MSU on Sunday will face Kansas in the championship game of the Orlando Classic.

Kissimmee, Fla. ? There’s no way Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self was going to drag himself away from a Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center meeting room to join his players for fun and games Friday night at Walt Disney World.

“We watched tape. I did not spend any time with Mickey or Minnie,” Self joked after a short practice Saturday in preparation for today’s Orlando Classic final between No. 11-ranked KU (4-1) and No. 20-Michigan State (5-1).

Not only did he and his assistants need to watch Friday night’s MSU-Marquette semifinal game to learn KU’s opponent in today’s noon (Central time) finale at HP Field House, but they had to grade film of the Jayhawks’ 82-67 semifinal victory over Tennessee.

Also on the evening agenda was pouring over the Spartans’ previous wins over Navy (64-59), Chicago Loyola (87-52), Santa Clara (79-52) and Rider (77-45) and loss to Duke (81-71).

“They hung out, rode a few rides. I don’t know (what else),” Self said of the Jayhawks’ trip to Magic Kingdom and other sections of the world-famous theme park.

Self — his Jayhawks have gone 1-3 against MSU in his 12 seasons at KU — noticed familiar tendencies in the Spartans’ 79-68 win over Marquette.

“I think they are good. It’s a typical Michigan State team, great in transition, obviously a great rebounding team,” Self said. “That will be the two biggest keys … getting back and then, of course, keeping them off the glass. Then we have to defend the three-point line. They are a very good three-point-shooting team.”

Travis Trice, a 6-foot senior guard from Huber Heights, Ohio, scored 19 points with seven assists and six rebounds against Marquette. KU sophomore point Frank Mason III had a similar line in the Jayhawks’ victory over Tennessee — 11 points, seven rebounds, six assists.

“He’s really good. He’s good with the ball. He’s clever. He’s a great shooter,” Self said of Trice.

Denzel Valentine, a 6-5 junior from Lansing, Michigan, who is probably front-runner with KU’s Perry Ellis for tourney MVP honors, scored 25 points with four rebounds, three assists and five turnovers against Marquette. Branden Dawson, a 6-6 senior from Gary, Indiana, had eight rebounds and five points against the Golden Eagles.

“Valentine arguably could be the best passer in the country,” Self said. “He can really shoot. Forbes (Bryn, 6-3, junior) is a good shooter. They have Dawson inside. They have others inside, but Dawson is one of the freakish tough athletes that we have (in college game).”

ESPN’s Dick Vitale mentioned at the conclusion of Friday’s MSU-Marquette broadcast that today’s final is a clash between two certain Hall of Fame coaches in Self and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo.

Izzo’s MSU squad stopped KU, 67-64, in the 2012 Champions Classic in Atlanta; 67-62 in the 2009 Sweet 16 in Indianapolis; and 75-62 earlier that 2008-09 season in East Lansing. Self’s Jayhawks won, 81-74, during the 2003-04 season in Allen Fieldhouse.

“We haven’t played Michigan State in … what’s it been, two years? They beat us by three. We ran ‘chop’ to end it, and didn’t get a good look (on Travis Releford miss on final possession),” Self said. “The whole thing is, I enjoy playing against Tom’s teams. It will definitely make us tougher moving forward.”

The Jayhawks enter the finale on an uptick offensively.

KU, which arrived in Florida as a 39.8 percent shooting team (11 of 42, 26.2 percent from three), hit 49.0 percent of its shots against Tennessee (eight of 19 threes) and 47.2 percent versus Rhode Island (eight of 17 from three in 76-60 win).

Self is much too superstitious to praise the improved marksmanship, but he concedes the shooting has at least been acceptable of late.

But is it better than expected?

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I thought we would probably score the ball better than what we have. You take away Santa Barbara, which we didn’t shoot the ball at all (41.5 percent), and you take away Kentucky (19.6 percent in 32-point loss), we’ve actually looked pretty good offensively. But you don’t do that. You don’t take away certain games. You’ve got to look at the whole package. I think that we’ve been above average since the Kentucky game but still not good enough.”

The Jayhawks today will be trying for their first eight-team preseason tourney title since the 1999 Great Alaska Shootout.

KU won two games and the title at the CBE in 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri. The Jayhawks also went 2-0 to win the Las Vegas Invitational in 2006 and 2010. KU in the Self era has yet to win the Maui Invitational title in two tries. Last year, the Jayhawks went 2-1 at the Battle4Atlantis.

“For the most part, we’ve played in these tournament and done pretty well,” he said. “It’d be nice to get a quality win, just like (it would be for) Michigan State. I can’t speak for Tom, (but) they’d like to get a quality win, too. It’d be good for both programs to get a quality win this early in the season.”

Team not tired: Self said he was not overly concerned about the minutes played in the semifinal by Frank Mason III (39), Ellis (35) and Wayne Selden Jr. (33).

“If we’d have played today (Saturday), I’d have been worried about it, but not with a day off. I think they’ll be fine,” Self said.

He and his players planned to watch the KU-Kansas State football game on TV after lunch Saturday, then have regular meetings while remaining in the resort.

“We didn’t go hard. We went about 40 minutes probably, broke a good sweat,” Self said of practice Saturday at a Florida high school. “We obviously spent a lot of time on scouting report.”

Same lineup?: Self said he planned to start the same lineup for the third straight Orlando Classic game: Ellis, Selden, Mason, Landen Lucas and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk.

Traylor struggled in Thursday’s semifinal, totaling one point with one rebound, three assists and three turnovers in 12 minutes.

“Jamari had a rough day yesterday,” Self said. “Hopefully that’s out of his system. He did some good things, but he had a couple bad stretches. He has been probably as consistent a performer as we’ve had all year, but I don’t think he’s played quite as well since he’s been down here. We need him to have a big game.”

Traylor posted a photo on Instagram of the Jayhawks on a ride at Disney World: “Great times lol I needed this! Cuz I been playin like . I’ll do better tho #DisneyWorld 1st timer #MagnaMoment,” he wrote.

Svi’s progress: Freshman Mykhailiuk scored seven points off 2-of-4 shooting (1-for-3 on threes) versus Tennessee.

“He’s been OK. He hasn’t shot the ball well yet,” Self said. “He’s capable of going out and making five in a row. I think he’s played pretty well. I went with Brannen (Greene, six points) to end the game yesterday (during late 20-5 run) just because he’s a little more experienced in that situation, but I think Svi has done fine.”

Last time they met: Former KU guard Travis Releford missed a three at the buzzer as KU fell to the Spartans, 67-64, on Nov. 13, 2012, in Atlanta. His last-gasp miss followed a driving lay-up by MSU’s Keith Appling that increased a one-point MSU lead to three with 14 seconds remaining.

“Leaving my hand, it felt great. It just didn’t go in. I also kind of rushed it at the time, but it was a good look,” said Releford, who shot after accepting a pass from Elijah Johnson. “Ben (McLemore) wasn’t open. That was the guy we were trying to get the ball to at the end.”

MSU’s Dawson and Valentine had 12 and zero points respectively in that game. Traylor had six points and Ellis had four for KU. Leading scorers were Appling (19), Gary Harris (18), Elijah Johnson (16), McLemore (14).

For a Journal-World story on that game go to http://ljw.bz/1yp3v3A