WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: One Jayhawk honored, another suspended. 3B
SPORTS
MELO, GOODBYE The seasonlong Carmelo Anthony trade saga reportedly reached its conclusion when the Knicks landed him in a 12-player, 3-team deal. Story on page 2B
FOR EVERYTHING ELECTRICAL
B (785) 843-9211
LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD ● LJWorld.com/sports ● Tuesday, February 22, 2011
KANSAS 92, OKLAHOMA STATE 65
Fabulous fill-in
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
KANSAS GUARD ELIJAH JOHNSON (15) PUTS UP A THREE-POINTER over the Oklahoma State defense during the second half. Johnson, starting in place of suspended Tyshawn Taylor, had 15 points in KU’s 92-65 victory Monday in Allen Fieldhouse.
Johnson makes most of starting opportunity By Gary Bedore gbedore@ljworld.com
Newly suspended Tyshawn Taylor slapped his replacement in the starting lineup on the backside as Elijah Johnson checked out with a couple of minutes left in Kansas University’s 92-65 rout of Oklahoma State on Monday night in Allen Fieldhouse. “Attaboy,” Taylor said to a grinning Johnson, who had scored a career high 15 points off 5-of-6 shooting, including 4-for-4 from three. Johnson kept that smile on his
face in the postgame interview room as he discussed perhaps his best game as a Jayhawk. “I found out right before we came out of the locker room,” Johnson said of learning he’d open at point guard for Taylor, who coach Bill Self said has been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. Self wouldn’t get specific in a press release reporting the suspension or after the game. What were Johnson’s feelings upon learning he’d be introduced as a starter for just the second time his sophomore season?
“That it was a challenge and I’d be ready for it,” Johnson said. “I try not to think about it. I just want to be ready when my number is called,” added Johnson, who played a whopping 30 minutes. “I knew it’d be called more often because we need somebody to fill his spot. But I didn’t talk much about it before the game. I prepare the same way every day, whether I get two minutes or 35 minutes. I just try to be ready to play. “I thought I did well, but there’s stuff I can improve on,” he
continued. “I went 3-3 (actually three assists, two turnovers). I threw the ball away a couple of times, two to three unforced turnovers I felt we could have had four more points there.” Johnson — he was overshadowed a bit by Marcus Morris, who had 27 points, and Thomas Robinson, who scored six points and grabbed six rebounds just 10 days after undergoing knee surgery — was most proud of his defense. Johnson opened on OSU sharpshooter Keiton Page, who scored eight points off 2-of-11
shooting. Page had three points the first half as KU blazed to a 5228 lead. “It’s all I really cared about tonight,” Johnson said. “I didn’t care about starting or scoring or nothing. I knew Tyshawn wouldn’t be here to stop him, so I knew I had to be there. I knew it’d reflect on me (badly) if I didn’t (slow him). I didn’t want that bad name. I wanted to make a statement, kind of like against Pullen (Jacob, whom Johnson guarded with some success at K-State,
ONLINE ■ For more on KU’s dismantling of the Cowboys, including message boards, The Keegan Ratings, a photo gallery, audio, video and more, go to KUsports.com
Please see KANSAS, page 4B
Did Taylor just get Pipped?
KANSAS GUARD ELIJAH JOHNSON, LEFT, GETS A SLAP ON THE BACK OF THE HEAD from teammate Tyshawn Taylor and a high five from Royce Woolridge after coming out of the game against Oklahoma State.
Lou Gehrig didn’t become Lou Gehrig in one night, so it’s a little early to fit Elijah Johnson for the moniker Wally Pip, but Johnson’s performance in the first game of Tyshawn Taylor’s untimely indefinite suspension opened a door that Johnson walked through quite gracefully Monday. After Johnson contributed 15 points and three assists with just two turnovers in Kansas University’s 92-65 rout of Oklahoma State in Allen Fieldhouse, the victorious coach made it clear with several statements that the starting point-guard position is Johnson’s to lose. As Artie Johnson used to say on Rowan and Martin Laugh-In, “Interesting. Very interesting.”
any point guards, that’s not a death sentence to national-title hopes in this season of imperfection in college basketball. It doesn’t get much easier for a player to break into the starting lineup than playing a home game against an Oklahoma State team one year after the James Anderson era and one tkeegan@ljworld.com season before LeBryan Nash’s arrival, in other words an atypiAnd Johnson — Elijah, not Artie cally vulnerable Cowboys — only got the start because the squad. Still, Johnson showed special device for Josh Selby’s enough to want to see what he shoe was at his mother’s house, can do Saturday on the road so he wasn’t ready to start until against Oklahoma and again at the correct shoe was retrieved home March 2 when Texas for him. A&M visits on Senior Day. While it’s true that if a team As baseball lore has it, Pip has three point guards sharing was hung over, said he was sick the job, it actually doesn’t have and asked out of the lineup, and
or f e c r u o s l a c lo % 0 0 1 Your . n io t a m r o f in s s e busin
Tom Keegan
Contact info Hours Maps Websites Coupons Ratings & reviews
Gehrig saw to it that he never got back in. Taylor, of course, didn’t ask out of the lineup. He was told by his coach that whatever team rule he broke, he got caught breaking it. The team needed either Johnson, who started the season with a two-game suspension for non-specific knuckle-headed behavior, or Selby to play terrifically to shift the focus away from Taylor’s latest selfdestructive transgression. Johnson did so by for the most part being content to run the offense that very often resulted in either Marcus Morris showing why he’s a strong Big 12 Player of the Year candidate or in Please see JOHNSON, page 5B
Find what you need. Get on with life.