[Chiefs Pantalones]

Looks like Smart is dumb...Ford didn't say that about cutting down the nets


Lower back strain might force KU's Embiid to miss some playing time this week

Self said 7-footer should be OK for postseason; OSU coach Ford weighs in on Smart's statements

Story by Gary Bedore
Monday, March 3, 2014
Kansas University freshman center Joel Embiid has a lower back strain and likely will miss some time this week — the final week of the regular season — coach Bill Self said on Monday’s Big 12 teleconference.

He said Embiid’s back injury would not affect the 7-footer’s availability for the postseason.

“I think he’s OK for the long term, don’t get me wrong on that,” Self said. “I’m not really sure if in fact how long or if we’re going to need to rest him. It’s a similar thing as before, a lower back strain basically,” Self added of the injury that kept Embiid from playing in a Feb. 15 game against TCU.

“He certainly benefited from the five days before that we gave him off (in mid February). Still obviously he’s not close to being 100 percent because he reaggravated it (back) in the Oklahoma State game (Saturday). Hopefully if we do give him some time off — which I would probably right now think that’s what we’ll go to is to give him a little bit of time — I don’t know how long. Certainly I don’t think it’ll be anything that would affect the postseason.”

He said Naadir Tharpe (dislocated left thumb) should not miss any time.

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More on net cutting: Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart said after Saturday’s win over KU that one of the reasons he played so well was his desire to keep the Jayhawks from cutting down the nets in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

“Before the game, the coaches showed us a quote of Bill Self saying he was coming here cutting down our nets, and he was gonna win it outright in Stillwater,” Smart said of the Big 12 regular-season title. “We couldn’t let that happen in our house, so I just knew I had to keep pushing until the end,” added Smart, who had 21 points versus the Jayhawks.

Self told the Journal-World Sunday he never said anything about cutting down nets in Stillwater. And on Monday’s teleconference, OSU coach Travis Ford said he never presented such a quote to Smart or other Cowboy players.

“I never heard Bill Self say they were going to cut down the nets. I never saw that. I think Marcus was probably equating if they (Jayhawks) win in Stillwater they would celebrate then and he probably just equated something along that line. There was nothing ever said, we never showed any quote of that at all, absolutely not,” Ford said.

Ford also said: “There was no quote we showed them (players), none whatsoever. We did talk about what they (Jayhawks) were playing for ... we know what they had at stake (undisputed league title) but we never mentioned anything about cutting down any nets or anything like that. I think Marcus equated them celebrating to maybe cutting down the nets. He might have felt that. We never talked once about how they would celebrate.

“You try to motivate your team,” Ford added. “We told them what was at stake for Kansas, how hard they were going to play. They’ve got a great team, great kids, they are playing hard and they deserve when they win it outright to celebrate. They deserve that.”

Self again was asked about the issue on the teleconference.

“That was disturbing seeing that,” Self said of Smart’s quote about KU planning on cutting down nets in OSU’s arena. “I don’t know where he (Smart) got that information. That’s not for me to answer. (It’s) certainly 100 percent false. There was never one thing uttered out of my mouth to talk about doing anything on somebody else’s floor. We’ve won it a few years in a row and I don’t even know if we’ve cut down nets at home, maybe once. Certainly all celebratory things that would take place with anything like that especially on the road would take place in the confines of the locker room. I don’t know where that came from, but certainly that’s not for me to answer.”