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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas has a lot to live up to as the Big 12 basketball preseason favorite, the consensus preseason No. 1 and a strong pick to win a second national championship in three years.
The Jayhawks also have some things to live down.What looked to be a long-standing battle over whether the basketball or football team held more campus sway blew up in September.Sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor dislocated a finger in a scuffle with one or more football players and later posted comments on his Facebook page that surely made coach Bill Self and school officials cringe.The incident was the third time in 24 hours KU campus police were summoned to break up incidents between the factions.Reportedly, the feud had some history. Stories were told of one unreported fight at a Lawrence bar last spring that moved to Jayhawker Towers after the players were kicked out of the popular hangout. Shortly after the big blow and after Self brought the hammer down on his team, starting guard Brady Morningstar was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Self suspended him for the fall semester.Not the kind of face you want to put on for the rest of the country."You know for the short term, I think it did hit us from an image standpoint," Self said Thursday at Big 12 basketball media day. "Especially the fight."Senior guard and team leader Sherron Collins conceded the whole affair colored the program in a less-than-desirable shade."I don’t think we were an undisciplined team," Collins contended. "I just think it was an incident that got bigger than it should have. It should have never escalated to that, but it did."I think we’re well-behaved. And we’ve created good images of ourselves. We just had one incident we let get out of control."The intent, all concerned say, is to take the lesson learned and do something with it."It’s about learning from mistakes," center Cole Aldrich said. "We’ve gotten our punishment, but I think it’s helped the team come together and bond that much more. It’s spinning a negative into a positive."And now with Late Night [marking the start of practices] and all that, I think we’re all just looking forward to the season."Self is inclined to agree."If anything, I think we’ll be more disciplined," he said. "We’ll be more responsible. And if you have that combination — along with good players — I think that can make for some fun."The potential is certainly there.Collins and Aldrich are preseason All-Big 12, two of five returning starters, minus Morningstar. In fact, KU returns 94 percent production in every statistical category from a 27-8 Sweet 16 team that won 14 of 16 Big 12 games.As well as a few recruits you may have heard of, like guard Xavier Henry."This is the best team I’ve played on and the best league in America," Collins said.Still, the ’Hawks have to get the right bounces, hit the right shots to win it all again."A lot of things have to happen," Aldrich pointed out. "We found that out two years ago. If we didn’t get lucky when Mario [Chalmers] hit that shot [with 2.1 seconds left to tie Memphis and send the title game into overtime], we wouldn’t be wearing rings on our fingers right now."An image worth remembering.Mike Jones, 817-390-7760
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