That put the 19th-ranked Commodores in the championship game against No. 5 Kansas on Wednesday (9 p.m., ESPN). Both teams came into the game as offensive juggernauts, but it was the defense (or perhaps just lack of offense) that stole the show. They pressured us, but still packed it in and we didn’t really move the ball.
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That sounds like the Commodores for most of their visit to the 50th state.
“The Spurs probably do as good a job as anybody (scouting), although I don’t know that there’s a lot of secrets”, Self said.
The Jayhawks’ play on Maui indicates they are certainly a contender to become the fifth team on that list.
Selden scored 25 points (8-11 FG, 4-6 3PT, 5-10 FT), adding seven boards and a steal in Wednesday’s win over Vanderbilt.
With the loss the Commodores suffered their first defeat of the season and fell to 5-1. Ellis had to wait until more than four minutes were gone in the second to get his first basket, an uncontested dunk. “They were far better than us early in the game”. We stood a lot, like we did [last week] against Michigan State.
Wayne Selden Jr. and Frank Mason III quickly hatched a plan for sharing the MVP award at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. They got the lead for the first time with 18:16 to play on a jumper by Mason, and Vanderbilt never was in front again.
The Red Storm weren’t very good on the defensive end of the floor though, especially in the second half. Luke Kornet also had a big night with 14 points for Vanderbilt.
“Honestly he (Selden) has the easy job”, Stallings said “He has Mason and Graham (Devonté, 12 points, six rebounds, one assist) in there penetrating and breaking down the defense”.
Jones had his second straight double-double, finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds to go with three blocks. A layup by Wade Baldwin IV gave Vanderbilt its biggest lead of the game at 16-6. I thought he got fouled a few times when going to the rim, but nonetheless he was just 4-12 on twos.
The Jayhawks failed to tally a field goal over the final five minutes of action, and withstood an 11-6 Vanderbilt run over the final four minutes with the help of six free throws down the stretch.
Vanderbilt closed out the frame with two three pointers from guards Camron Justice and Nolan Cressler to head into the locker room with a 30-26 lead, which handed the Jayhawks their first halftime deficit of the young season.
The Maui title is the second for Kansas, which won it in 1996 behind Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce. The Commodores came into the game with 35 assists and only 19 turnovers in the first two games.
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Looking for their first win at the Maui Invitational in three years, the Chaminade Silverswords dug themselves a first half hole against St. John’s that they couldn’t climb out of, falling to 0-3 in the tournament with a 100-93 loss. Entering their third game of the tournament the Jayhawks were averaging 107.5 points on 59.8 shooting from the field including 48.1 percent from 3-point range…. This is Wake Forest’s first appearance at the Maui Invitational but Manning played here with Kansas the year they went on to win the national championship…. “Even if the champion tonight blows through it, whoever the champion is, they’re still getting tested because you’re playing three games in three days against very high level competition”.
