Column: Know who’s perfect 6th man?

By Tom Keegan     Oct 7, 2014

Richard Gwin
Kansas freshman Kelly Oubre works on his ball handling skills during drills at Bill Self's basketball camp on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, at Horesji Center.

Two starters return from last year’s Kansas University basketball team, but a surplus of starter-caliber players, not a shortage, makes projecting which five will make the most starts together a tricky proposition.

“What I think will be best for our team won’t be who we start with to start the season, because guys have to learn and get comfortable and things like that,” Kansas coach Bill Self said at Media Day. “But by conference play, I have a team in mind that I would like to see kind of become that. But a lot depends on how quick the young kids pick stuff up.”

My guess is the most common guess at a mid-season starting five would be Frank Mason, Wayne Selden, Kelly Oubre, Perry Ellis and Cliff Alexander.

My guess is the most common guess won’t pan out for two reasons. Starting the game with two small guards sets the right pace at both ends. Second, one player’s versatility, energy, athleticism and attitude make him an ideal fit to come off the bench early in the game.

Before revealing the identity of my sixth-man guess, I’ll share the steps I took to get there.

First, I tried to confirm my suspicion that in seeking his 11th consecutive Big 12 title, Self will put a premium on ball security and skillful feeding of the post, two qualities lacking on last season’s team, compared to most of his teams.

Doing so would require playing two of the three (Conner Frankamp, Devonté Graham, Frank Mason) small guards, so I asked Self at Media Day if that would be the norm.

“I don’t know what the norm is going to be yet, but I would say in a perfect world, we need more ball-handling,” Self said. “We need more play-making. Last year our assist-to-turnover ratio wasn’t what we hoped. We didn’t handle pressure as well as we hoped, probably didn’t feed the post as well as we hoped. So getting your better ball-handlers and passers out there, you would think would help you do so.”

Self’s comments about last season’s defensive effort also hinted at having two quick guards on the floor together plenty.

“We didn’t put pressure on the ball,” he said of the lineup that had Selden at shooting guard, Andrew Wiggins at small forward. “We never cut the head off. Teams got comfortable. When I say we stunk, we were probably still the best or second-best defensive team in our league, but that’s not who we’ve been for years.”

As Self said, nothing is the norm yet. Plenty of time to make those decisions, but it seems as if his preference would be for two point guards to play. Assuming Cliff Alexander eventually develops into the starting center, that leaves three major talents (Ellis, Oubre and Selden) for the small forward and power forward positions.

The player best suited for the sixth-man role because of his energy and versatility might just be the player who projects as the team’s best NBA prospect. That would be Oubre, who will get starters’ minutes regardless of whether he starts.

“He’s probably the guy that it’s harder for me to make a true evaluation on right now because the guy is really good,” Self said. “He’s good enough that he’s not going to be at Kansas for a long time.”

Oubre’s a perimeter player whose skills and aggressive style translate well to playing close to the basket at times.

“We’ve got to be able to plug him in to take advantage of what he does,” Self said. “He can score, but he’s so good around the rim. He’s so good defensively, getting out in passing lanes, he’s such a good offensive rebounder. There are a lot of things he can do well that are not your typical two or three-guard type things.”

Asked to describe himself as a player, the personable Oubre said: “High-flying, defensively locking up, just a lot of passion. I’ll be screaming to the crowd I don’t know how many times a game. I might be red from screaming to the crowd. I just feel the passion in this building and I’m ready to give the fans what they want.”

He’s also ready to give the coach what he wants. If that’s an energy-boosting, national Sixth Man of the Year, don’t look for that to bother him. Sixth man for KU and first-team All-Big 12 wouldn’t be out of the question for the 6-foot-7 freshman from New Orleans.

“Everybody on this team is great,” Oubre said. “We’re all going to bring something to the table, and we’re all going to do it very well and do it very hard.”

Close your eyes and imagine the roar of the Allen Fieldhouse crowd if Oubre and fan favorite Jamari Traylor regularly checked in as the first subs on such a deep team.

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