Dick Weiss on NCAA Tournament
SAN ANTONIO, Tex.— Kansas red shirt sophomore guard Malik Newman didn’t think he’d in college this year.
The 6-3 Newman from Jackson, Miss. Callaway High School, was a McDonald’s All America who averaged 29 points and the MVP of USA Basketball’s youth team that won a gold medal in the World U17 championships in Dubai.
Newman was considered a one and done when he initially signed with Mississippi State. But it took him two years and a transfer a shift in location to become the star he was destined to be.
Newman played hurt as a freshman and underachieved, averaging just 11,3 points and shooting only 39 percent for new coach Ben Howland. At the end of a troubled season, he decided to test the waters in the NBA and participated in the league’s draft combine. When he didn’t receive the feedback he hoped for from NBA GMs, he made a bold decision to transfer to Kansas and play for Hall of Fame coach Bill Self, even though it meant sitting out a season and practicing but not playing for the Jayhawks.
Newman’ father told the Clarion newspaper ‘the style of play didn’t fit Malik” and he had some trust issues with Howland.
But Malik was chosen to avoid any controversy, remaining silent whenever reporters ask him about his experience in Starkville.
It took a while for Newman, who had been a point guard, to adjust to playing off the ball with point guard Devonte Graham, who had waiting three years to run the point. Newman was an immediate starter, but he averaged just 12 points during the regular season and by his own admission struggled with “overthinking” while trying to play mistake free basketball and defensive intensity. At late at March 3, in a regular season ending road loss at Oklahoma State, he committed three fouls and three turnovers and needed seven shots to score seven points.
Then the light bulb came on.
Beginning with the Big 12 tournament he has turned into Mr. March, averaging 22.7 points in Kansas seven post-season games and going off for a career high 32 points—and all 13 of the Jayhawks’ points in overtime—as Kansas (31-7) defeated Duke, 85-81, to win the NCAA Midwest Region championship at Omaha and to advance to a national semi-final match up Saturday against Villanova (34-4), a top-seeded clone from the Big East that defeated the Jayhawks during its 2016 national championship run and can also score from all five positions on the floor.
“It’s interesting to me that I heard Bob Huggins of West Virginia say we remind them of Kansas,’’ Villanova coach Jay Wright said. ‘I heard Chris Beard of Texas Tech says we remind them of Kansas. When I heard that, I always took that as a compliment, and now we’ve got to play against them, so now I’m not so excited about it.
“it’s funny, I think both of us really like to shoot the three-ball, but both of us really try to be good defensive teams and good rebounding teams. It’s going to be interesting who can stop each other. You know, I think we both think that way. But it’s hard to do against these teams. It’s hard to do against us, and it’s very hard to do against Kansas.’’
Newman has surpassed Graham as Kansas’ best player on a team starts four guards and wings
“It’s the guy I knew I was,’’ he said. “I just had to find myself. Had to do some soul-searching. Thing just clicked at the right time.’’
Newman’s heroics basically salvaged the Jayhawks’ season. There was a time at mid-season when Kansas looked like its Big 12 regular season championship streak might be in dangerous. The Jayhawks even lost three games at fabled Allen Field House. “We were winning, but I didn’t think we were a very good team,’’ Self said.
But, in the end, the Jayhawks righted the ship and won eight of their last nine games heading into the tournament, captured a 14th straight regular season title and emerged as a No. 1 seed that overcame their lack of size to beat a Duke team with the most talented lineup in the country in their biggest game of the year to date.
“The last three weeks, he’s taken us from being a pretty good team to a terrific team, at least the way I see it,’’ Self said. ‘Now, you’re got to guard everybody, and he’s become one of our best defenders.’’
Newman stepped up in a big way against the Atlantic Coast Conference Blue Devils, limiting their senior guard Grayson Allen to just 12 points on 3 for 13 shooting. He closely guarded Allen on potentially game winning jump shot that fell off the rim in the final seconds of regulation and forced overtime.
“I thought last year he did a great job of doing things NBA people said he needed to improve on,’’ Self said. ‘’But when you’re coaching a red shirt, when they’re on the scout team and they take a bad shot or don’t guard one day as well as they should, it’s usually not the same emphasis if you’re eligible and playing ample minutes. He probably got by with some stuff. Then, this year, I felt like he’s always been a good offensive player, but I was on his butt for not doing some other things, and that probably limited his offense, as well.”
Not against Duke.
‘’At the end of the day,’’ Newman said. “this is why you come to Kansas, to be in moments like this.’’
