KU basketball needed an energy lift after Marquette loss. This freshman provided it
Bill Self hadn’t planned on watching the sun rise Wednesday in Oahu until he examined the Maui Invitational bracket that had the Jayhawks back in Stan Sheriff Center just 13 hours after the final horn sounded in Tuesday night’s semifinal loss to Marquette.
“I’ve never been much of a morning person,” Self, Kansas’ 21st-year basketball coach, said Wednesday morning after the Jayhawks’ 69-60 third-place game victory over No. 7-rated Tennessee.
“When you’ve got walkthrough at 5:30 (a.m.), that’s a pretty quick turnaround. ESPN … I mean they’re awesome. They promote our sport as well or better than anybody else, but gosh it seems like to me if you play the last game (Tuesday) you shouldn’t have to play the first game the next day, but that was the case,” Self added.
Though a bit inconvenienced by Wednesday’s early 9:30 a.m. (Hawaii time) start, which followed the Marquette game that had the Jayhawks back at their team hotel at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Jayhawks persevered and defeated Tennessee to go 2-1 at the three-day invitational.
“The guys handled it,” Self said. “We talked about being mature. Everybody’s got a job to do. We said, ‘You’ve got to do your job.’ I thought the players did a good job. I thought my coaches did a good job getting them enthused.”
Starting center Hunter Dickinson was sensational with 17 points and 20 rebounds, while starters Kevin McCullar and KJ Adams had 14 and 13 points respectively.
But on a day the Jayhawks needed their bench players to come through, they did so.
Led by freshman guard Jamari McDowell’s seven points and four rebounds in 27 minutes, the Jayhawk bench scored 16 points. Tennessee’s bench had 14 points.
“No question the bench players five through nine were much better today,” Self said, “led kind of by Johnny (Furphy, five points, 11 minutes) and Parker (Braun, two points, two steals, two rebounds, one block, nine minutes) and Jamari obviously. I thought they did great.”
Self added: “Granted we have to continue to develop some guys, but for Jamari to play 27 minutes in a big game, playing the seventh ranked team in the country was pretty special.”
Dickinson and McCullar went so far as to credit McDowell for making the victory possible
“That’s what won the game right there. We needed that uplift from (bench) guys, especially Jamari. I think he was the difference maker and the X-factor,” Dickinson said. “He guarded, hit a big 3 (actually was 2-of-6 from 3).”
Noted McCullar: “He’s a young guy learning his way, guarding, taking care of the ball and knocking down open shots. That’s what we’re going to need him to do to win games, and that’s what he did today.”
McDowell played well on not a lot of sleep the night before.
“We had to wake so early with games back-to-back. I got four, maybe five hours of sleep,” said McDowell, a 6-4 guard from Houston. “I tried to set the tone early in the morning. It was more a mental thing — come in with energy, the rest would take care of itself. I came in there, got some stops played to the best of my abilities.”
KU needed some help at guard when senior guard Nick Timberlake banged his head on the court diving for a loose ball in the first half and was limited to three minutes. Self said after the game Timberlake was fine and did not have a concussion.
“At first I was trying to see he was OK. After that I knew I had to step up once he went to the (locker room to get checked out),” McDowell said. “It wasn’t me. It was all our newcomers. We all put in a great effort doing a good job — me, Johnny, Elmarko (Jackson who started and had four points, 13 minutes). It’s a lot of fun getting to play with all these guys.”
McDowell’s stellar outing came with his mom, dad, three siblings and grandmother in Hawaii to watch him play and celebrate Thanksgiving.
Following the game, the Jayhawks were set to have some free time from around noon Wednesday to 6 p.m. Thursday, when KU’s flight will return to the mainland.
“I might catch a nap before I see ‘em (relatives),” McDowell said with a smile, “get some food with them later. Tomorrow I might go tanning, go to the pool.”
Or as Self, who because of the tournament schedule was able to see the picturesque sunrise in Oahu Wednesday, said: “Our flight is 6, 7 o’clock tomorrow. That’s one advantage of playing at 6 a.m. in the morning ... you have the rest of the day free to do whatever you want to do. That’s good. We’ll eat Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow afternoon as a group and get on back.”
