Occasionally out of control and his confidence wavering with each
passing game, Tyshawn Taylor found himself on the bench behind a
freshman.
Sure, it hurt. It also served as motivation and Taylor has
become better for it.
Taylor played his fourth straight solid game since being
benched and Sherron Collins keyed a late surge to finish with 17
points, helping No. 1 Kansas overcome a rare quiet game from its
bench to beat California 84-69 on Tuesday night.
"He looked confident today," Kansas coach Bill Self said of
Taylor.
It wasn't that way just a few weeks ago.
A starter for 33 games as a freshman last season, Taylor was
the Jayhawks' No. 1 point guard for the first seven games this
season. Then he had a seven-turnover game against Memphis, followed
by a few erratic performances.
Wanting to get a spark and give Taylor time to gather
himself, Self replaced him in the starting lineup with freshman
Elijah Johnson for the next two games.
Taylor accepted the benching and used it as a chance to get
better. He had two strong games coming off the bench to regain his
starting spot and had 13 points, seven assists and one turnover
against Cal. The past four games, Taylor has 24 assists and two
turnovers.
"I think I'm just playing a little bit smarter," Taylor said.
"I'm not forcing up as much stuff and trying to be aggressive while
playing slow at the same time."
One of the deepest teams in the country, Kansas (11-0) for
once relied heavily on its starters. Marcus Morris had 14 points,
Xavier Henry 12 and Cole Aldrich fought through foul trouble to
score 10 with his 10 rebounds and five blocked shots.
The bench, which had been averaging 29.3 points per game,
combined for 18 points, with five of those coming in the closing
minutes after the game was out of reach.
No matter. Kansas made 19 of 26 shots in the second half,
shot 55 percent overall and used a 15-3 run to blow open a tight
game and extend the nation's longest home winning streak to 49
games.
"They have a lot of people and you'd hard pressed to say who
is there star," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. "Who is their best
player? Gee, they have about eight of them."
The Bears kept it close - at least for a little while.
Well-rested after nearly two weeks off, Cal (6-4) relied on
its perimeter shooting to give Kansas its toughest home game of the
season. Patrick Christopher hit an array of step-back shots to
finish with 21 points, Jamal Boykin banged his way to 15 points and
15 rebounds, and Jerome Randle added 16 points.
The Bears just didn't have an answer when Kansas made its
run, dropping to 2-24 all-time against No. 1 teams.
"We reacted well to their first big run," Boykin said. "We
came out aggressive and with the right frame of mind, but when they
made their surge, (it was) our reaction that hurt us."
After a series of blowouts, Kansas had its first real home
test of the season on Saturday, pulling out an uneven 11-point win
over Michigan.
Keeping up with Cal's athletic shooters was even tougher.
Coming off solid wins over Iowa State and Pacific, the Bears
had a 12-day break that allowed them to heal after an early season
filled with injuries and illnesses. Ready instead of rusty, Cal
gave the nation's No. 1 team all it could handle, the
quick-shooting trio of Theo Robertson, Christopher and Randle
knocking down jumpers every time the Jayhawks tried to pull away.
Kansas forced 7-foot-3 Cal center Max Zhang to the bench with
two fouls in the first 55 seconds and got plenty of good looks in
the early going. The Jayhawks just couldn't make anything, opening
the game 3 for 12 from the field before finally zeroing in.
Even when Kansas started hitting shots, Cal was able to keep
up, using its quickness to get shots off against the bigger
Jayhawks. Robertson, Christopher and Randle did most of the damage,
hitting one fadeaway after another in combining for 31 of the
Bears' 39 first-half points.
Finally, after more back and forth to start the second half,
Kansas, as it also seems to do, went on the run Cal couldn't answer
for its second straight gritty win.
"This definitely was a game for us to come out and make a
statement," Taylor said. "This is why we're No. 1 - we can play the
best and beat them.
