Posted on Thu, Nov. 19, 2009 11:27 PM
Kansas has no trouble routing Central Arkansas
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LAWRENCE | C.J. Henry last played in a game four years ago. That was the Oklahoma Class 6A high school semifinals, and there’s been a professional baseball career and full season at Memphis in between.
That gives a man time to think, and Henry did some just minutes before tipoff of a game he knew he would play — finally — when a video of Kansas basketball highlights played on the Allen Fieldhouse scoreboard.
“I was like, ‘Man,’ ” he said, “ ‘my dad played here, my brother played here, my mom played here, my aunt played here, man this is crazy we all played here.’ It’s indescribable for a whole family to do one thing.”
Henry’s debut came late in the first half, with the outcome already certain in what would eventually become a 94-44 blowout for top-ranked Kansas over Central Arkansas at Allen Fieldhouse on Thursday.
Henry’s season starts late because of a swollen right knee that coach Bill Self thinks is still only 80 to 85 percent healed. He played 9 minutes and scored eight points, all in the second half, though he’s still not exactly sure where he will fit in with a deep and talented roster.
Self said he couldn’t tell much yet, either, estimating that Henry had participated in about one-third of practices so far.
“I think I mesh well with everybody,” Henry said. “It’ll all work itself out with me. I still gotta get a lot of reps. It’s still early in the season, we’re still forming as a team, finding our identity.”
If it’s hard to know what to make of Henry just yet, it’s at least partially because it’s hard to know what to make of the outcome.
Central Arkansas dropped to 1-2, shot 26 percent and appeared overmatched from the beginning. Self complimented his team’s defense but qualified it by noting that Central Arkansas “didn’t really attack the basket or look to score.”
If nothing else, it had to be nice for Kansas fans to see their team score 94 points with 19 assists and seven turnovers two days after scuffling to 57 points with 10 assists and 21 turnovers in a two-point win over Memphis.
“We did some good things,” Self said. “We took better care of the basketball, that’s a positive effort after pitching the ball all over the building on Tuesday.”
Sherron Collins, Xavier Henry, Marcus Morris and Tyrel Reed shared the game high with 12 points each, and Thomas Robinson added eight points and 11 rebounds.
Wearing their red jerseys for the first time this season, the Jayhawks took control from the very beginning, with a 23-0 run in the first half and led 37-15 at the break.
“I told the kids that some older gentlemen pay thousands of dollars to go to fantasy camp and play somewhere like this,” said Central Arkansas coach Rand Chappell. “I think that we will take a neat experience from here. It is hard to say this getting beat as badly as we did, but I though that our guys competed pretty hard.”
One note worth mentioning: Marcus Morris completed three separate three-point plays, continuing to show an increased aggressiveness.
Robinson and Markieff Morris had the highlight plays with follow-dunks, and Collins survived a brief scare when he returned from the locker room after tweaking an ankle.
If there’s a concern, it’s that Central Arkansas outrebounded the Jayhawks 38-36 — which Robinson noted meant extra sprints in practice today.
“I think it was pretty obvious that we got outrebounded,” he said. “We let them get a couple in the first half. They got a lot of offensive rebounds. I wasn’t surprised, but we know we need to work on that.”
K-State beats Boston U. 80-70 in the first round of Puerto Rico Tip-Off. | B9
@ Go to KansasCity.com for a photo gallery from the game and the Campus Corner blog.
To reach Sam Mellinger, sports reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4365 or send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com.
Posted on Thu, Nov. 19, 2009 11:27 PM
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