FLOOR BURN AWARD: KU vs EKU - March 21
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I bet most of you already know who I’m going to pick.
I’m going for the tandem. I’m going for the two guys who started this season as the “cruise brothers” then earned the “bruise brothers” and are now working on owning the “not gonna lose brothers!”
There was no way we were going to advance through the first weekend without one or more non-freshmen stepping up. I was hoping it would come from the leadership spot, PG, but instead we made this first victory as tough as possible by coming out in the first half having more TOs than a team should have for the entire game. We swam up stream in this one, and fortunately someone threw us a paddle for the second half, actually two. Jamari Traylor (aka “Bam Bam” ) and Tarik Black (aka “Black Death” ) decided they wanted to stick around for more than one game this weekend.
This may be the start of something special. Let’s face reality, we won this game without our star center, and without quality play from our starting PG. I don’t care who we were playing… we are playing in the tourney and we picked up a victory without help from these players. That is tough to do!
Bam Bam shot 7 of 8 and went for 17 points, 14 rebounds, two assists and a block. Black Death went 6 for 6 and 12 points, 5 rebounds and a JoJo-like 4 blocks. Without this duo’s stellar shooting from the field our offense would have gone from 60.4% down to 48.7% from the field.
Connor Frankamp and Frank Mason deserve an honorable mention. Both of these guys helped fill the hole left by Naadir Tharpe’s lack of leadership. Put these guys together and they had 8 assists against only 1 TO.
And a very quiet honorable mention goes to Perry Ellis. Perry did his best to maintain his stealth presence while making a valuable contribution to this team. Perry went for 14 points, 13 rebounds and 2 steals. We couldn’t have done it without Perry and he remains our secret weapon playing below the radar.
Conference Season Tally:
Andrew Wiggins 8
Wayne Selden 7
Joel Embiid 6
Tarik Black 6
Perry Ellis 5
Naadir Tharpe 4
Frank Mason 2
Jamari Traylor 2
Brannen Greene 1
Landen Lucas 1
Conner Frankamp 1
Andrew White III 1
Justin Wesley 1
Evan Manning 1
Niko Roberts 1
Christian Garrett 1
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@drgnslayr love the bruise bros! Agree w/everything! Mari and Tarik are great friends and they are so funny to watch at press conferences. They have great chemistry. What would we be doing if Tarik hadn’t come here this year?
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We’d be watching tomorrow’s game in St. Louis back home in Lawrence!
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@drgnslayr http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/21/4907279/kus-jamari-traylor-has-come-a.html
Dang drgnslayr this chokes me up! Love this kid!
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@Crimsonorblue22 Great story and thanks for sharing.
Traylor, “He definitely lets everybody know that he’s proud of me,” Traylor said. “And he let me know after the game. I love my coach, and I know he’s got love for me, too.”
Love Coach Self! He’s the father of the team!
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There is everything to love about Bam Bam. He has truly won the heart of Coach Self. Self said he wasn’t going to let him leave Lawrence until Jamari knows enough to earn a good living at basketball. There is no way Self is going to let Jamari slip back into being homeless.
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@Crimsonorblue22 Thanks for the link. Tears flowing here. I am going to try to remember this the next time I think I am having a bad day.
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Madness is bringing out your best.
