By Gary Bedore, Wednesday, December 4, 1985
Kansas University basketball teammates Calvin Thompson (#35) and Danny Manning (#25) congratulate each other in this 1985 file photo. Thompson and Manning were part of a 1985-1986 squad that earned the program's 1,300th victory by defeating SIU-Edwardsville in December.
Ron Kellogg was looking forward to a long, hot, post-game shower.
Then...
"Greg Dreiling came up to me and said we had practice. I didn't believe him," said Kansas University's senior forward, standing courtside, wearing hi KU practice jersey.
Kellogg was awaiting the beginning of practice -- yep, practice -- which started about a half-hour after the Jayhawks' 86-71 win over SIU-Edwardsville on Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
Hoping to make a point, Jayhawk coach Larry Brown had his troops work out following the sloppy 15-point decision. Kellogg said memories of the workout will dance in his head tonight, when the 4-1 Jayhawks face 0-1 Western Carolina.
Tipoff is at 7:35 at Allen Fieldhouse.
"We don't want to go through the same thing again," said Kellogg, who scored 11 points on four-of-nine shooting. "I know we won't start out the way we did ... and we won't end the way we did. We'll play as hard as we can the whole game.
"We didn't play up to our potential tonight. We had breakdowns defensively and rebounding the ball. We tried to make too many great passes," said Kellogg. "That's why we're practicing tonight. It'll be good for us. It'll definitely help us for tomorrow."
Before Tuesday, Brown had never resorted to such an attention-getter.
"I've heard other coaches have and I thought they were nuts," said Brown. "I hope you don't take it the wrong way about Southern Illinois. I don't mean it in a derogatory way. If he (Cougar coach Larry Graham) was coaching our team, we'd have won by 35 to 40. I'm disappointed in myself. We're gonna get a better understanding of how we have to play.
"I think they played with poise against a ranked team. I think their effort was so much better than ours. We're supposed to win, and win easily."
The seventh-ranked Jayhawks, who led 41-32 at halftime, were never in danger of losing. Yet they never put the Cougars away.
Kansas committed 20 turnovers to SIU's 17. On the positive side, the Jayhawks did hit 37 of 57 shots, a torrid 64.9 percent. Forward Archie Marshall banged in eight of 10 shots and scored a team-leading 18 points.
"I just try to come out and play. Scoring points is not a key factor," said Marshall, who grabbed four rebounds. "The main thing is to win. I don't think we were flat. We just didn't do the things it takes."
Kansas cashed 12 of 23 free throws, compared to SIU's nine of 10.
"We shot free throws like it was the finals of the NCAA tournament," said Brown. "We were so tight on the free throw line."
Brown, who sat stone-faced on the bench the last few minutes, recounted a pre-game chat he had with Cougar coach Graham.
"He said 'the reason I wanted to play you guys was to show how hard the better teams play,'" said Brown. "They played harder than us."
Perhaps the Jayhawks, now 4-1, were bushed after beating Louisville on Friday and losing to Duke on Sunday night in the Big Apple NIT finals in New York.
"Heck, it's early in the season," said Brown. "We didn't have to travel like they did last night. I felt we'd be ready. I thought we learned a lesson from last year.
"Duke went out and played East Carolina the next day. They won by 35 and all their kids got to play. The great teams will do that."