Up for the challenge
Criticism spurs Kansas’ Jeff Withey,
LAWRENCE, Kan. — At Missouri, he did next to nothing. The biggest player on the floor took one shot and missed it, finishing without a point.
Kansas’ Jeff Withey put in 23 utterly forgettable minutes in the early February game in Columbia, Mo., where the Jayhawks let a late lead get away and lost 74-71. Coach Bill Self expected the 7-foot junior to return angry and inspired to practice a couple of days later and, when he showed up neither, pointed him toward the bleachers at KU’S historic Allen Fieldhouse. Touch ’em. Every step. “I said, ‘I’m tired of watching you play. So why don’t you just go run,’ ” Self recalled. “We’re getting ready to play Baylor. You’d think the guy would want to fight — I’m there. And he wasn’t there. I got on him, and the other players did, as well. They told him how important he was.
“The light kind of comes on there, and he’s been pretty good since.”
A newly motivated Withey delivered 25 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots in that Baylor game and went on to become — with All-america forward Thomas Robinson and standout point guard Tyshawn Taylor — a key ingredient in Kansas’ charge to an eighth consecutive regular-season title in the Big 12 Conference. He was the league’s defensive player of the year.
He was no less essential to the last two victories that put the Jayhawks in the NCAA tournament’s Final Four.
North Carolina State was a handful in the Midwest Regional semifinals. But among other things, the quicker, shorter Wolfpack couldn’t overcome a 10-block night by Withey that was one shy of the tournament’s single-game record.
Two days later, he had 15 points and came up with two crucial blocks in the final, game-changing minutes against North Carolina.
“You knew his length was something that could cause problems,” the Tar Heels’ Tyler Zeller said. “You’ve got to give him credit for staying aggressive and still going after those even though he had four fouls.”
Withey will tell you: He has to reach for that aggressiveness. “Sometimes it’s hard for me to jump-start my motor,” he said.
Said Self: “I think the typical, California laid-back deal is overused. And I’m not saying that’s it at all. But if you were to picture a guy from San Diego who hung out on the beach and played volleyball, Jeff’s not far off from that. That’s what he did.”
Withey played a lot of volleyball growing up in Southern California, on the sand and indoors, eventually hooking up with a competitive club team. But his basketball coach at San Diego’s Horizon High put his foot down. He could play one sport or the other, but not both.
He went with hoops, and it took Withey first to college at Arizona. When coach Lute Olson abruptly retired, he moved to Kansas.
Self’s high-low offense puts a premium on skilled big men. “It may be because there’s not as many big guys to go around,” he said, “but there’s not a ton of teams you look at and say they definitely play inside-out. When we’ve played our worst is when we do not play inside-out. That’s just kind of been a staple of what we do.”
Withey also became the latest in a line from Cole Aldrich to Marcus and Markieff Morris to 6-10 Robinson to blossom under the watch of former Kansas great and current assistant coach Danny Manning.
Coming off a broken right foot, Withey started once and played a little more than six minutes a game a year ago. Anticipating a greater role as a junior, Withey competed last summer with an Athletes in Action team that toured Greece, Germany and Macedonia.
He had some early-season moments, including his first career double-double in a loss to Duke in the Maui Invitational. But the breakthrough came in February.
Since his no-show at Missouri, Withey has shot 57% from the field and averaged 11 points, 6.9 rebounds and nearly 4.5 blocks. His 19 blocks in the tournament are fourth most through four games, matching Alonzo Mourning’s total for Georgetown in 1989. Withey’s 129 blocks this season are a school record.
Some of that, Withey said, is the old volleyball player in him. “It’s timing,” he said. “In volleyball, you jump so much, and you have to be quick off the ground. I think that helps with rebounding and blocking shots.”
“He went from being our fifth big guy two years ago to our fourth big guy with limited minutes last year to now he’s the league’s defensive player of the year ... and just continuing to get better and better,” Self said. “We thought he was going to be a good player, but I didn’t know he’d have this impact this soon.
“We wouldn’t be here without him.”