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Basketball: Marcus Morris loses starting job

By Jeff Faraudo
Wednesday, December 29th, 2010 at 12:23 am in Basketball.

Kansas coach Bill Self promised that junior forward Marcus Morris would be punished after being ejected at Cal on Dec. 22 for deliberately elbowing Harper Kamp in the head.

The sentence: Morris has lost his starting job.

At least for Wednesday night, when the third-ranked Jayhawks (11-0) play Texas-Arlington (5-5), whose losses include to Oregon State.

“Marcus has to be smarter than that,” Self said. “That was a very, very immature play that he made. He’s cost himself a starting position. He’ll play. But he certainly has to be more mature than that because he’s too valuable.”

Morris offered this in the way of an apology for the incident.

“I just felt like he was playing dirty,” Morris said of Kamp. “I retaliated the wrong way. I should have went to the refs and told them something was going on. But I retaliated the wrong way and got myself kicked out of the game. You can’t do those things in any sport. I apologized to him and to my team.”

Self said he’s not sure when Morris — who averages 15.5 points and 6.1 rebounds — will return to the starting lineup.

Our best guess is he’ll be back in the starting five in time for Texas or Missouri or Kansas State. Someone likely to provide a greater challenge than Texas-Arlington.

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  • bevo

    KU beat CAL without Marcus Morris. Yeah, it is a big deal to lose your starting position at Kansas.

  • Yoda

    Bill Self is a fraud. “He’ll be punished, big-time, I promise you that.” That’s what he said after the game. Poor kid, he has to wait a few minutes to play in one meaningless game.

    I wonder what a slap on the hand would look like.

  • bevo

    Welcome to the big time yoda. The spotlight shines all the time. I’m sure Self would disagree with you, but he would say your entitled to your opinion. Fun, eh? Now about last night’s game…where in the was that CAL passion and support for your team?

    Check out ESPNU tonight when KU plays Texas-Arlington; packed house, band, cheer squad and passion.

  • Tony

    What a pathetic excuse for an apology from Morris. When it’s your guy, he’s playing “physical.” When it’s the other team they’re “dirty.”

  • Neil

    Kansas = thugs, elbows galore. And to think, it used to be a respectable program.

  • Uh oh

    Yoga:

    Gee, at least Self called Morris out publicly for the play. Most coaches would barely make mention of it and move on. He not only shamed him with his words, but shamed him again by not starting him. What did you expect?

    I did think it was lame for Morris to claim he thought Kamp was playing dirty. Please! Kamp is 99 and 44/100th percent pure. Show me the video, Morris!

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