A woozy Perry Ellis misses free throw by three feet after elbow to the head
If Perry Ellis initially appeared to be OK after taking a vicious elbow to the head from Georgetown's Nate Lubick on Saturday afternoon, the Kansas forward's ensuing trip to the foul line proved otherwise.
Ellis missed his first free throw so far wide left you'd have thought somebody left a window open in Allen Fieldhouse.
Immediately after his errant free throw glanced off the underside of the backboard, Ellis pointed to his head and asked to be removed from the game. The sophomore went to the locker room and did not return to the bench for the final 18 minutes of Kansas' 86-64 demolition of the visiting Hoyas.
The free throw gaffe wouldn't have been a laughing matter for Kansas had it kept the Jayhawks' second-leading scorer and leading rebounder out for an extended period, but coach Bill Self made it clear during his post-game news conference that Ellis' injuries were not serious.
"I'm not a doctor, OK, but if he had a concussion it's very, very, very slight," Self told the Lawrence Journal-World. "What he did is he bruised a nerve in his neck and it's something that the doctors think he'll be able to come back from in a very short time."
Having Ellis available may be valuable with games coming up against unbeaten Toledo and No. 24 San Diego State before Big 12 play begins, but Kansas certainly didn't need him against Georgetown. Joel Embiid continued to flash lottery pick potential and previously struggling Tarik Black enjoyed his best game as a Jayhawk, scoring 17 points apiece, combining for 14 rebounds and thoroughly outplaying Georgetown's frontcourt.
It's rare for a 76.7 percent free throw shooter to miss as badly as Ellis did, but he can take solace that his foul shot won't be the worst in Kansas history.
Nothing is topping Brady Morningstar's double-clutch slip at Texas from 2010 – and Morningstar didn't have the excuse of being woozy from an elbow to the head either.
