KU notes: Basketball assistant Jerrance Howard suspended for two weeks
LAWRENCE – Kansas assistant coach Jerrance Howard will serve a two-week suspension starting Thursday after it came to light this week that he was fined for possession of marijuana in his hometown of Peoria, Ill., last summer.
Kansas coach Bill Self announced the suspension on Thursday afternoon.
Howard, in his second season at Kansas, was charged in July 2014 with unlawful possession of cannabis, a Class B misdemeanor in Peoria County, and was ordered to pay $1,178.26 in fines and was placed on six months of court supervision, according to a report in the Peoria Journal Star. The six months of court supervision was set to end on Friday.
“I am disappointed,” Self said during a news conference on Wednesday afternoon. “But on one front, just to be real candid, I'm disappointed I didn't know about it. I love the guy, and the fact that I didn't know about it, regardless of what circumstances surrounded it, is disappointing to me.”
Self reaffirmed Thursday that he first learned about the situation on Wednesday afternoon. Howard will miss all practices and games during the suspension. He will miss four games in all, beginning with this Saturday’s home game against Baylor. He will eligible to return for a home game against Texas on Feb. 28.
“I take full responsibility for my actions,” Howard said in a statement. “I should have never been in that situation. Not only did I let myself down, but also my family, my coaches, my players, the fans and this program. Coach Self has done so much for me and I’m honored to a part of this team and this staff.
“I compounded the problem by not disclosing this incident to Coach Self and Kansas athletics. I brought this penalty upon myself and will use this situation as motivation to work harder and represent this great program positively moving forward.”
Howard, 34, who played for Self at Illinois, is in his second year on the staff at Kansas. Before coming to KU, Howard spent one season as an assistant at SMU under Larry Brown. Howard previously worked five seasons at Illinois for Bruce Weber, who is now at K-State.
Regarded as one of the nation’s top young assistants and recruiters, Howard was key in the recruitment of Kansas freshman Cliff Alexander and has been the lead recruiter for Malik Newman, a consensus top-five recruit in the class of 2015.
“Regardless of circumstances,” Self said in a statement. “I was disappointed that I was not made aware of this immediately following the incident. Jerrance has been a part of our family for many years. I’m confident that he will take ownership of this and be better for it.”
Ellis approaching 1,000 – Perry Ellis does most things quietly, so perhaps it’s not a surprise that he’s quietly closed in on 1,000 career points during the last few weeks.
Ellis, a 6-foot-8 forward, finished with 14 points in Tuesday’s victory at Texas Tech, leaving him with 997. KU plays host to No. 16 Baylor on Saturday.
“We’re playing Baylor (so) he’s going to need to get more than three,” Self joked. “But I think that it is a great accomplishment. There’s not as many kids doing that in today’s time as what there was before, because kids don’t stay for three or four years. If he were to stay here for all four years, he could be in that 1,500 range possibly, which would be a great accomplishment to be one of the top 20 scorers in school history.”
Ellis, from Wichita Heights, is averaging a team-high 12.9 points after averaging 13.5 points as a sophomore. His numbers, though, have spiked in late January and early February. In Kansas’ last eight games, Ellis has been in double figures seven times and averaged 14.3 points.
“His personality has really come out, I think, in the last year or so,” Self said. “He’s a stud. He’s a stud, and he’s been a great ambassador for our university and for our program, and he’ll continue to do so.”
Alexander holds starting spot – After earning his second start at Texas Tech, freshman forward Cliff Alexander appears poised to remain in the starting lineup moving forward. Alexander finished with 10 points and four blocks against the Red Raiders, adding an element of physicality to Kansas’ front line.
“It was something that I just think our team needed,” Self said. “It wasn’t that Jamari had done so poorly. It was just the fact that we needed a bigger presence, and so that’s what we’re going to — that’s the direction that I thought we should go.”
Self remembers Tarkanian – One day after the death of college basketball coaching legend Jerry Tarkanian, Self remembered the former UNLV and Fresno State coach as a “unique” figure in the world of college hoops.
Self said he first met Tarkanian during his tenure at UNLV, but their relationship grew while Self’s Tulsa teams competed against Tarkanian’s Fresno State teams on an annual basis in the late 1990s.
“I thought he was unique in that he was very complimentary of other coaches,” Self said. “… My last team at Tulsa lost five games. All five were at the buzzer, last possession. We lost five games on the last possession. Three of them were to Fresno State, and he came in our locker room after they beat us at their place in the (conference) tournament.
“They made some shot to win by one or two, whatever it was. And I think it was a three from the corner, Terrance Roberson, but who remembers that kind of stuff? He asked me after the game, ‘Can I come talk to your team?’
“He got in and talked to my team, he said: ‘I just want to tell you guys, ‘God, I love watching you guys play. Now, we’ve beat you three times, but this is the only three games we’ve played worth a crap all year long.’ I mean, just going on and on.’”
This story was originally published February 12, 2015 at 3:45 PM with the headline "KU notes: Basketball assistant Jerrance Howard suspended for two weeks."