Kansas Jayhawks coach Bill Self said he’s seeking improvement in a lot of areas, including setting screens and running offense to score, as well as defending for the entire shot clock.

“If I was going to pick something I’d want to happen more than anything else ... we don’t play with a personality,” Self said. “We do not play with the personality where it shines through, and there’s energy exuding all personnel out there on the court.

“I don’t feel that yet. Certainly that’s something we’ve always done a great job in. It doesn’t have anything to do with trying hard, nothing like that. It has more to do with understanding: ‘OK, this is what we need, and if we do this, we’ll become better defenders; we’ll do this; we’ll do that.’”

Shabazz Muhammad is looking at Kentucky, Duke, UCLA, Arizona, Kansas and UNLV.

USC, the alma mater of Muhammad’s father, Ron Holmes, is apparently out, as is Texas A&M.

“I narrowed my list down actually to six,” he said at the City of Palms Classic. “I think it was a good thing for me to narrow them down to six because a lot of schools were calling that I wasn’t really interested in. So now I can stay grounded on the court and get ready and go through the season.”

Brannen Greene, a 6-7 junior small forward from Mary Persons High in Forsyth, Ga., on Tuesday orally committed to play basketball at Kansas University.

Greene, who is ranked No. 35 in the Class of 2013, chose KU over UConn, Louisville and Harvard. Memphis, Ohio State, Florida State and many others were in the mix.

Greene is averaging 24.5 points and 14.0 rebounds a game this season for 6-4 Mary Persons High.

The Naismith Hall of Fame announced that North Carolina’s Kendall Marshall, Ohio State’s Aaron Craft, and Kentucky’s Marquis Teague are among 64 point guards nominated for the 2012 Bob Cousy Award.

The annual award, named for Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic Bob Cousy, recognizes college basketball's top point guard.

See below for the remaining list of 2012 Bob Cousy Award candidates:

• Randy Davis, Ball State
• Pierre Jackson, Baylor
• Keegan Bell, Chattanooga
• Andre Young, Clemson
• Andrew Lawrence, College of Charleston
• Brian Barbour, Columbia
• Shabazz Napier, Connecticut
• Chris Wroblewski, Cornell
• Antoine Young, Creighton
• JP Kuhlman, Davidson
• Ray McCallum, Detroit
• Seth Curry, Duke
• TJ McConnell, Duquesne
• Kenny Boynton, Florida
• Erving Walker, Florida
• Luke Loucks, Florida State
• Jeff Peterson, Florida State
• Tony Taylor, George Washington
• James Fields, Georgia State
• Brandyn Curry, Harvard
• Scott Machado, Iona
• Stephen Thomas, IUPUI
• Tyshawn Taylor, Kansas
• Tyreek Duren, La Salle
• Mackey McKnight, Lehigh
• Casper Ware, Long Beach State
• Peyton Siva, Louisville
• Damier Pitts, Marshall
• Will Barton, Memphis
• Joe Jackson, Memphis
• Malcolm Grant, Miami
• Trey Burke, Michigan
• Kaylon Williams, Milwaukee
• Dee Bost, Mississippi State
• Mike Dixon, Missouri
• Will Cherry, Montana
• Kendall Williams, New Mexico
• Lorenzo Brown, NC State
• Stallon Saldivar, Northern Arizona
• Reggie Hamilton, Oakland
• D.J. Cooper, Ohio University
• Jared Cunningham, Oregon State
• Tim Frazier, Penn State
• Zack Rosen, Pennsylvania
• Ashton Gibbs, Pittsburgh
• Lewis Jackson, Purdue
• Bryan Dougher, Stony Brook University
• Scoop Jardine, Syracuse
• Brandon Triche, Syracuse
• Wil Peters, Tennessee State
• Myck Kabongo, Texas
• Dash Harris, Texas A&M
• Hank Thorns, TCU
• Will Weathers, Troy
• Brad Tinsley, Vanderbilt
• Maalik Wayns, Villanova
• Erick Green, Virginia Tech
• Abdul Gaddy, Washington
• Tony Wroten, Washington
• Trey Sumler, Western Carolina
• Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin

Kansas point guard Tyshawn Taylor is expected to play Monday against Davidson, just eight days after surgery to repair torn meniscus in his right knee.

"Yeah, I do. I do think he'll play, unless something happens negative today," Self said. "He's going to go up and down a few minutes today (in practice). Just a few. He won't play 30 minutes or anything. If he doesn't have a setback today, I think he'll be OK to at least play a little bit tomorrow."

Self said Taylor shot on Friday "pretty much full speed. We waited to see if there was any swelling, and there wasn't. He practiced yesterday some, but only half court. We waited to see today if there was much swelling, and there wasn't. We're going to let him go up and down today a little bit — 10 minutes, 15 minutes — and see how he does there. We'll wait and see tomorrow if there's any swelling. But if there's not, there's no reason he can't play some tomorrow."

Kansas coach Bill Self believes guard Tyshawn Taylor is taking more criticism this season than is warranted.

“I can do that probably more so than anybody, because he’s the point guard and he’s the quarterback and he’s more responsible than anything,” Self said during his Hawk Talk radio show on Monday. “But the bottom line is, instead of seeing sometimes what he doesn’t do, I think we should look at what he does do. Because if you look at us, we don’t beat Long Beach State if he doesn’t play. And we certainly don’t beat Ohio State if he doesn’t play.”

Against Ohio State, Taylor contributed nine points to go with a career-high 13 assists in 35 minutes. He also had seven turnovers.
“He can do so many things to get in the paint to force help to get us easy baskets that when he doesn’t make some plays, we look at the negatives as opposed to all the positive things that he does,” Self said. “He’s got to tighten his game up. We’ve talked about it. We’re going to watch a lot more tape. He’s got a chance to watch a lot of tape right now and (we can) try to help him with that.

“But gosh, does he have a lot of talent. I mean, that is one talented kid that’s a phenomenal athlete.”

Marcus Denmon ranks as the third-most efficient player in the country, with an offensive rating of 147.3.

According to Synergy Sports Technology, 50.6 percent of Denmon’s attempts have been of the catch-and-shoot variety, with 79.7 percent of those coming from beyond the arc.

Denmon is scoring 1.468 points per possessions on catch-and-shoot jumpers, and that number rises to 1.548 PPP in spot-up situations.

Denmon excels at finding space in transition and knocking down threes off the catch.