Aldrich, Jayhawks to Tip Season Off Friday Night

The football season is not over yet, and I don't plan to give up on Mark Mangino and his group of gridiron Jayhawks anytime soon.

My next three Saturdays are booked.

Weeknights, however, are a different story, and tomorrow night I'll be found inside Allen Fieldhouse with 16,000 other KU faithfuls awaiting the tip-off to one of the most highly-anticipated basketball seasons in Kansas' history against coach Tom Pecora and his Hofstra Pride.

I'm not particularly worried about the Jayhawks overlooking the Pride (they've been preparing for this game since March), but Hofstra is still a good basketball team.  There is no doubt in my mind that Bill Self knows Hofstra annually fields both respectable talent and plenty of nice compliments.

Opening night will certainly be a big day for everyone, but there are a few Jayhawks in particular to whom this game may mean a little more. 

Here are some Jayhawks that game one may significantly impact in the season's early going.

Thomas Robinson

If Robinson gets the chance, I'd like to see how he performs against Hofstra's starting power forward, Miklos Szabo.  It may not happen much (Robinson is the second big off the bench, while Hofstra may try two new freshman forwards), but if it does, we'll see how good our super frosh really is.

Szabo is a big guy (6'9", 250 pounds) who is very effective at doing the garbage work near the basket.  This super-experienced senior has played every size and shape of basketball available (Hungary and Europe-wide in high school, junior college, and Division I), and provides Self with a good opportunity to test his young forward.

Just keeping Szabo away from the basket, rebounds, and easy buckets for a minute here and there will go a long way in earning Self's trust.

C.J. Henry

Tomorrow night, the Hawks will try to neutralize this year's Colonial Conference front-runner for player of the year, Charles Jenkins.  At 6'3" and 220 pounds, C.J. would project as a prime matchup and could establish himself on this team as an athletic, versatile defender.

As it is, we don't know if C.J. will be ready to go.  If he's not, the lighter Tyshawn Taylor and Elijah Johnson, the larger brother Xavier, and shorter Sherron Collins will probably split the duty of trying to stump Jenkins.  Should they prove very effective as a group in minimizing Jenkins' impact, I think C.J. will have a little farther to go in terms of cracking the rotation upon his return.

I'm not worried that the elder Henry won't get his minutes.  However, it will be harder for Self to find him consistent minutes if the healthy guards play well without him.

Cole Aldrich

For the past five years, the Big 12 Player of the Year has been a double-double machine (Wayne Simien, P.J. Tucker, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley, Blake Griffin).  I won't crown him just yet, but only a handful of guys in the Big 12 fit that mold so nicely (I'm thinking Damion James, Craig Brackins, or Aldrich).  This is Aldrich's first chance to state his case.

Another reason I put him here, though, is because of his pending and very intriguing matchup with Pride center Greg Washington.  Aldrich is an inch taller and weighs 30 more pounds, so I wonder how Hofstra will approach stopping the larger of Kansas' All-Americans.

One place Washington does matchup well with Aldrich, though, is in the shot-blocking category (2.3 to 2.7 blocks per game last season, respectively).  I hope each set of guards is on the lookout, because the lanes will probably be off-limits tomorrow night.

So those are a few things I'll be watching for tomorrow evening as the Kansas Jayhawks try to live up to their preseason number one billing.  Here's to hoping that both Kansas and these individual Jayhawks do what they need to do in that ever-important first stepping stone of the season.