Releford's Defense Receives High Praise

Dec. 20, 2011

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – On a night when the Kansas basketball team just couldn’t get over the hump, junior guard Travis Releford’s defense stood out as one of the few bright spots for KU. The Jayhawks led only once in the entire game and had to play catch-up for most of the night as Kansas fell to Davidson, 80-74, on Monday at the Sprint Center.

Kansas forced 12 first half turnovers, with nine of those turning into steals for the Jayhawks. Releford picked up a career-high four steals in the game. However, the Wildcats made the proper adjustments at halftime as Davidson committed zero turnovers in the second half.

“We came out very sluggish tonight,” Releford said. “We had to play from behind from the very beginning.”

If it’s any consolation, Davidson head coach Bob McKillop had some very high praise for the Kansas City, Mo., native.

“Releford is a wonderful defender,” said McKillop. “He sticks to you and if you notice we had to take him off the ball. We would alternate the point guards because we didn’t want Releford to guard the point the whole game. He would have worn us down.”

Playing in front of his hometown crowd, Releford finished the night with eight points and six boards to go with his career-high four steals in a career-high 35 minutes of action.

“We’ll fix it as a team,” said Releford on how the Jayhawks can bounce back. “It starts individually, we’ve got to know our roles, and come together as a team.”

No. 12 Kansas will head west to play USC in Los Angeles, Calif., on Dec. 22. Tip-off is set for 10 p.m. CT and will be televised on Fox Sports Net. KU will then return home to play Howard on Dec. 29 at 7 p.m., on Jayhawk IMG Television.