Guard Devonte’ Graham lighting it up for No. 2 Kansas

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Jerry Briggs

If you didn't see this Devonte' to Lagerald alley oop, well, you need to. ? (via ESPN) pic.twitter.com/8BY2L2kZo9

— Kansas Basketball (@KUHoops) December 3, 2017

Second-ranked Kansas will play on national television twice this week, which is a good thing for fans aching to see more of Jayhawks senior point guard Devonte’ Graham.

The undefeated Jayhawks will take on Washington on Wednesday night in Kansas City, followed by a home game in Lawrence on Sunday against Arizona State.

Graham has been nothing short of sensational lately, scoring 35 in back-to-back victories last week.

In the wake of a 76-60 victory over Syracuse in Miami on Saturday night, Graham took over at the end of the first half in a tight game, scoring 14 in a row.

Afterward, a question was raised about the concept of a point guard on such a talented team taking 17 shots.

“The thing with Devonte’ is, he is a point guard, but he is also a scoring point guard,” Kansas coach Bill Self said, in notes posted on Kansas’ web site. “He’s a guy that can score or make a pass to finish a play.”

Self said it’s not a negative for his team when it goes to Graham for a spark.

“17 (shots) isn’t a lot of shots to get 35 (points),” Self said. “I don’t think that will be a negative at all but I don’t think it will be a nightly thing.

“I think we’re better when we have balance. On a night when we didn’t have anything going on, he needed to do that (score).”

In offensive outbursts against Toledo and Syracuse, Graham became the first Kansas player since Andrew Wiggins in 2014 to score 30 or more points in back-to-back games.

Wiggins scored 41 against West Virginia and 30 against Oklahoma State in March 2014.

Graham, from Raleigh, North Carolina, said he lets the flow of the game dictate when he elects to shoot or pass.

“We’re just trying to be aggressive, and if I can get in the paint and make plays for others, than I’m going to try to do that and make the right plays,” he said. “My shot was just falling tonight (and last game).

“The previous game before that, my shot wasn’t falling as well. It’s just good to see the ball go in.”

POLL ALERT: Notre Dame drops to No. 9 in men's hoops, Florida climbs to No. 5. Duke still unanimous No. 1; Seton Hall, Purdue, Nevada all in https://t.co/YyI0MEsdqX pic.twitter.com/xIz4tj3BtK

— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) December 5, 2017

UTSA forward Deon Lyle settles in, finds his shooting stroke

Posted on December 2, 2017 by Jerry Briggs

Part of the reason for Deon Lyle’s hot streak on offense can be traced to a move from small forward to power forward.

In UTSA’s offense, it’s fairly easy to get pure shooter like Lyle open on pick-and-pop plays when he is playing at “the four” position.

UTSA coach Steve Henson says he also believes some of reason for the high-percentage shooting can be attributed to the former junior college standout becoming more comfortable in his NCAA Division I surroundings.

Lyle, in turn, says he always has had confidence in his shot.

It’s just that, most recently, when one goes in for the 6-foot-5 native of Nebraska, several others seem to follow in rapid succession.

“I’m just glad the ball’s going in,” Lyle said. “The first few games, I think I had goose eggs. Oh for five. Oh for four. Oh for three.

“So, it just feels good to have the ball go in. I’m in the gym constantly. I’m constantly working on my shot. It’s just a sign of relief that the ball goes in.”

To be precise, Lyle wasn’t putting up goose eggs early in the season.

He was 1 for 5 in UTSA’s season opener. He was 1 for 4 in the second game. But when the Roadrunners traveled to the Bahamas Showcase, something clicked.

Lyle relaxed and started stroking it.

Now, in the past three games, he has averaged 13.3 points per game off the bench, while shooting 57.6 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point distance.

Lyle hopes to continue the streak when UTSA plays tonight at Orem, Utah, against Utah Valley, and Monday night at the University of Oklahoma.

Henson said he is happy that Lyle, from Cloud County (Kansas) Community College, has adjusted fairly quickly to the speed of the game Division I.

“He’s playing with confidence,” the coach said. “He’s playing mostly the four now, which allows him to get open a little easier. You got a facing four man, a pick-and-pop four man, you can get shots for those guys. That’s what he does best.”

At Tulsa earlier this week, Lyle broke out with an eye-opening performance.

While most eyes were watching Jackson score a career-high 29, Lyle made his presence felt with 14 points in 17 minutes.

He nailed 4 of 9 from long distance, including a few seemingly hoisted from the suburbs of Oklahoma City.

“I’m trying to get my confidence back,” Lyle said. “I’m starting to get my feel back. It’s just been going in. I try to stay confident. Stay aggressive. My teammates do a great job of finding me. And that’s the big thing.

“If my teammates didn’t find me like they did, I wouldn’t shoot a high percentage. I promise you that. So, they do a great job of finding me. They pass the ball really well, and the numbers show.”

UTSA erupts for a 125-64 victory over first-year Ottawa

Posted on December 1, 2017 by Jerry Briggs

UTSA guard Giovanni De Nicolao takes it inside to score in the first half Thursday night. Video: theJBreplay.com

UTSA sophomore guard George Willborn III says he considers basketball a team game.

With that, he credited teammates for his career-high, 22-point explosion Thursday night in a 125-64 rout over the Ottawa Spirit at the Convocation Center.

“It’s a team game,” Willborn said. “We worked hard on defense and got a lot of easy buckets. That was our main focus.”

The Roadrunners (5-3) placed six men in double figures and hit 50 percent from the field en route to the fourth-highest scoring game in the school’s 37-year history.

Out-rebounded by 20 in a 100-96 loss at Tulsa Tuesday night, UTSA dominated the boards 67-33. The 67 rebounds were a school record.

Willborn punctuated his best individual effort in two years by nailing 8 of 16 from the field and making all three attempts from 3-point range.

Guard Tanner Riley scored 14 to lead the Spirit (2-7), who are in their first season as a program.

With solid execution on both ends, the Roadrunners built a 37-point lead at halftime (62-25) and stretched it to as many as 63 points (123-60) with less than two minutes remaining.

Playing against a less-established program, with smaller and less-athletic players at virtually every position, it would have been easy for UTSA to let the game get sloppy.

But coach Steve Henson said he liked his players’ approach.

“We kept talking to our guys about playing the right way, defending the right way, making the right play,” Henson said. “We had a lot of success in driving it and scoring in the paint. We just told our guys to continue to focus and keep it simple.”

UTSA’s highest-scoring games

136-68, vs. East Central Oklahoma, 11-22-2008 (Coach Brooks Thompson)
132-97, vs. Texas State, 11-24-1990 (Coach Stu Starner)
128-70, vs. Georgia State, 2-10-1990 (Coach Ken Burmeister)
125-64, vs. Ottawa, Ariz., 11-30-2017 (Coach Steve Henson)
118-97, vs. Centenary, 1-12-1991 (Coach Stu Starner)

Fond memories of a coaching sage: ‘One more rebound than a dead man’

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Jerry Briggs

Former Texas coach Abe Lemons holds court with the media. (Courtesy of UT Athletics)

By Jerry Briggs
For thejbreplay.com

More than 40 years ago, a wise-cracking coach who presided over one of the minor sports at the University of Texas started teaching us all that life didn’t necessarily end after the bowl games.

I remember meeting Abe Lemons, all right.

As a University of Texas senior studying journalism, I learned that perhaps the best post-game quotes in college basketball history could be yours if you could just find the coach’s tiny office in the bowels of Gregory Gym.

Lemons was always in a pretty good mood with us, even though his team was decidedly mediocre in his first season in Austin. I think the Horns finished 13-13 that season, or some such.

Nevertheless, Abe seemed to be genuinely appreciative of the attention he’d get from the media in general and from student reporters, in particular.

Could he deliver the one-liners? Oh, my gracious. He was an aspiring scribe’s dream.

Reflecting on his days as coach at Pan American University in Edinburg – now, UT Rio Grande Valley – Lemons would say he’d warn his players about straying too far from campus lest they be carried off by the coyotes.

As he looked over the stat sheet after UT games, the coach would chew an ever-present cigar down to a nub. Then he’d let fly with zingers, sparing no one.

A UT power forward coming off a modest performance would be hailed by Lemons for producing “one more rebound than a dead man.”

So, with a nod to Lemons’ humor, irreverence and genuine enthusiasm for the game, I want to welcome you to another college basketball season.

Also, welcome to my new website, which we will call, The JB Replay. You can find it by typing in www.thejbreplay.com.

I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with this project.

But with a unique year in basketball dawning in the Alamo City, I think it’s the obvious choice as website’s primary focus for the next several months.

I’m not talking about Spurs/NBA coverage. You can get your Spurs coverage anywhere, most notably from my erstwhile former employers at the San Antonio Express-News.

Dial up The JB Replay, and you can expect to get an expanded look at the game from the grassroots level, to the colleges.

Why prep and college basketball?

Well, for the first time, San Antonio will host both the UIL state tournaments and the NCAA Men’s Final Four in the same year.

The state girls and boys tournaments will be held in the first few weeks of March, followed by the Final Four from March 31-April 2, both at the refurbished Alamodome.

In addition, San Antonio for the first time will have two universities eligible to qualify for the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s tournaments.

UTSA, as the Final Four’s official host school, features a men’s team led by second-year coach Steve Henson and a first-year women’s coach in Kristen Holt.

The University of the Incarnate Word, meanwhile, will come charging into full-fledged Division I membership under 12th-year men’s coach Ken Burmeister and second-year women’s coach Christy Smith.

So (and excuse me for carrying on a conversation with myself) maybe that’s the initial goal for this news site … devote a day or two per week in the spring to reporting on the high schools and then split the rest of it between the local and major colleges.

Before long, it will be football season again.

Then, maybe we can do the basketball thing all over again in 2019, just in case fans need a reminder on the worldview of Lemons, an Oklahoma native who won 599 games in his college basketball career.

At Texas, Lemons led the Longhorns to the 1978 NIT championship and raised the possibility that basketball could indeed spark interest in a football state.

Without knowing it, he also opened a young journalist’s eyes to the potential for a pretty cool life-long pursuit.

Suffering from Parkinson’s, the coach died in 2002 at age 79. Even basketball referees, a frequent target of his verbal barbs, smiled at the memories.

“You can say something to popes, kings and presidents, but you can’t talk to officials,” Lemons once complained. “In the next war, they ought to just give everyone a whistle.”