What sort of great lines will Fran speak today?

"in order to beat KU you must score more"

KU player on floor bleeding from elbow to nose. "The Jayhawk fouled the ISU guy with his nose"

"If my son had played at KU they undoubtedly would have strung together four final fours in a row with a couple of NC's to boot, probably three or even four"

"KU should send Bill Self packing and hire Chris Beard who is a proven winner"

"ISU is not intimidated by the word Kansas on their jersey. In fact history has shown KU is intimidated by the word Cyclones on a jersey"

Hopefully Fran behaves today.

Big game today: KU is only .500 against ranked teams this year (4 wins-4 losses) and is 4 wins/3 losses in road games. Caleb Grill came back from injury to score 8 3s against TxTech on Monday, so KU might want to guard him beyond the arc. When will Gradey get his stroke/scoring back? Today, I hope. Re: Fran, I don't listen to the announcers much. Most of the game, I have sound on mute because they say the same stuff every game.

@stoptheflop I enjoy good announcers! Fran isn't one of them and I tune him out a lot. I must say I'm guilty of plenty of stupid comments on these pages too, probably above average if my Ken Pom commenting stats are to be believed.

Pertaining to ISU, a cyclone is a tropical storm, not a tornado, so they can't even get their mascot correct, although I must admit, the Kansas based classic Wizard of Oz probably is responsible for this misnamed storm so we (notice pronoun use @mayjay) Kansans bear some unfortunate culpability in this scientific error.

Gamethread has been hijacked.

@wissox technically one is a thread and the other is a chat.

I need to look better, I often just auto-pilot.

Fran might be bad luck🤬

I listened to Landen and his dad's podcast GLUE GUYS and it provided a lot of landen's insight into what players think and go through. He saw a lot this last week and they mentioned they had a players meeting after 3rd loss.

LFG

RockChalk

Game day crew all said KU would win!!👍

@RockChalkinTexas said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Game day crew all said KU would win!!👍

Guaranteed loss damn.

@BShark they also all picked KSU over UT🤦‍♀️

Wow, nice start for Jwill

Go JWill

Should have called a flop on ISU dork falling in lane. When a 150 pounder runs into you you don't just fall down.

Kev- who me?

3 seconds

regroup.

Only down 6. Feels like 15.

If I had to live in Ames I'd...move

Crash the boards, fellas

1-6 and not playing a lick of defense cool

Think we picked the wrong day to sleep in

Need some buckets

We'll be fine once we start hitting some shots

@ISU is my least favorite game of the year. Always ugly even when we win.

Defensive intensity is non existent

If this team could figure out how to start a game they’d be pretty good.

I'd be good with KJ never taking another jump shot.

@BShark nah. I like the free throw line jumper. It will fall enough.

Gradey struggling again.

Lost a bunch of big tree limbs from the ice😥

@RockChalkinTexas I lost a couple whole trees. Split down the middle. Clean up is my afternoon plan.

@BShark hitting that three after he stepped out might help

@benshawks08 spent 3 hours hauling the ones I could yesterday. Gonna have to buy a chainsaw for the biggest ones.

Absolute war for rebounds wow

That's a foul on white. Clear as day

Fran you just said it was ok to play rough!

@RockChalkinTexas yeah hoping I can get my chainsaw working.

Trying to get into passing lanes now. Hasn’t worked yet but it’s a good sign.

10 skip passess and no points from them

Wow - throwing lazy passes and not getting back on D...

I'd love to have a reason to fire up my chainsaw. I used it to heat my house for 9 years but not much use for it now. Where should I come?

you gotta makes shots...

@wissox Austin Tx. You’d make a killing just walking a neighborhood revving that bad boy.

ice cold except for Jwill

Udeh time. Need some height

is that 3 airballs now?

Say it aint so Joe

@DanR said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

ice cold except for Jwill

ICE COLD. like not even close.

Yesefu’s hand when he shot it went left that was so ugly. Why is Gradey not in?

Like the rim is moving back and forth

@Jethro said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

is that 3 airballs now?

Strategic so that the fans can’t focus the air all chant on one guy. Solid teamwork.

ISU playing aggressive defense and we don't have players to take advantage of that. Will be nice to get Elmarko.

Have we even had a shot inside the 3 point lane yet?

@kuballin10 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Why is Gradey not in?

Playing poorly, he will get back in eventually.

@Jethro KJ hit a 5 foot turn around

@kuballin10 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Yesefu’s hand when he shot it went left that was so ugly. Why is Gradey not in?

Bricking threes on one end. Layups on the other. Just needs a reset. He will lock in at some point today. Just not yet.

I don't get nervous til the last minute.

@BShark don’t make me say about Jua……….

@benshawks08 Gradey better shooter and rebounder

Joe brings nothing

Gradey can't guard any of ISU's perimeter guys, it's rough. Beat like a drum.

@kuballin10 I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t take over this game at some point.

to play as bad as we have, and only down 5 is amazing. we'll settle down.

Joe, Bobby and Udeh in at the same time????

nice, joe. we drove the ball...

JW

How is this game close?

two possessions without turnovers!. Amazing with Joe and Bobby

Wow, this team lost to Misery by 17?

Joe on queue lol

Landen said he worked with Udeh this past week at practice

Someone needs to tell the ISU coach he's outgrown the M shirts

jw gets mauled- no foul. udeh breathes, and they call a foul.

@benshawks08 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

How is this game close?

ISU hasn't been great lately.

Is that 2 on Kev?

Joe running point?

JFC

@wissox wasn’t a foul on kev.

refs are struggling right now

How was that not a fouls just now as kj got clobbered?

@benshawks08 Box score shows 2 on Kev

They are bodying us a ton

painful watching Gradey barely miss those shots

Is Dick going to make another shot the rest of the year?

@wissox Yes

Gradey Brick

@tundrahok Great! Can't wait!!

Gotta believe that Gradey is going to have one hell of a hot streak any time

First game in a while that isnt in the bonus at this point in the game.

@BShark said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Gradey Brick

🧱 Ugg

We've only made 2 shots inside the arc. That's not going to get things done

@benshawks08 or down to 1 timeout left

@wissox said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

We've only made 2 shots inside the arc. That's not going to get things done

Only attempted 5. New Bill!

ISU has made zero outside the arc which is why we're still in this game.

Hopefully they settle down. Jwil is the only one handling the defensive pressure well.

We've only made three shots from outside the arc

Shooting is horrendous as always

@wissox Continuation from last game - JW, Gradey and McCullar were 2-18 from inside the arc. Although this game, JW is the only one of the 3 who has taken a 2 pt shot...

Shooting 29.4%. Figured it was worse than that

@wissox said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

We've only made 2 shots inside the arc. That's not going to get things done

Getting crushed in the paint. ISU not going to let anything easy happen in there. And refs letting them play on both ends pretty much. Gottta match the aggression.

@wissox he was so hot to start the year I expected some cool off but not this

JWill missed several 🐇🐇🐇

@DanR said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Shooting 29.4%. Figured it was worse than that

Now do players not name JWILL.

WTB: Elmarko Jackson

Still just down 2. Wild.

Gotta love KJs bounce

Darn I jinxed them.

wonder what KJ's standing vertical is

Grad3y

Finally!

Rumors of Gradey's demise have been greatly exaggerated

@wissox said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@tundrahok Great! Can't wait!!

Bite your tongue! He SCORES!

A three AND. Deflection.

Anyone know what just happened?

bobby bobby bobby

Did you all know Gradey has parents? They literally show them every single game at least once.

@DanR one of those guys has to grab that ball.

@benshawks08 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Anyone know what just happened?

Someone got a foul and the announcers were too busy talking to notice.

Point guard giving up the ball on a break...

ku gets all the calls, right

Ref show. Omg

BS

@benshawks08 ISU assistant coach caught that pass.

boooo

Iowa state throwing their weight around and only has 2 fouls….

When Fran says he doesn't know...

Rice's D sucks so bad. Playground D

Holy crap even Fran doesn’t think it’s a charge. That’s bad

Juan needs to stop trying to pass under the basket

Wow that's great d Rice. I see why you aren't playing much

Rice going to be unplayable if he doesn’t play D

@RockChalkinTexas he was stuck cause jwill pass was long

Nine turnovers leading to 8 points for ISU so far. Difference in the game

How do you just drop your hands to your sides... FN kidding me

@DanR said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Nine turnovers leading to 8 points for ISU so far. Difference in the game

Between that and our cold shooting it’s a miracle this game is t a blowout.

It will be soon. JWil with 3 fouls

Plenty of time to turn this around

@cragarhawk said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

It will be soon. JWil with 3 fouls

Really???

@benshawks08 did j will get the mystery foul that the announcers never told us about?

🐦 View Tweet this

I got wilson with one foul

Maybe it's 2

Wilson has 1, Kevin and Udeh have 2 fouls.

I thought they said his third. Maybe they said his first

@tundrahok says we have 6

Come on, Juando

Yes, the team has 6 fouls. Only 2 players have >1

Isu can foul on any easy basket opportunity at this point.

of course

Damn it

We finally play good d and then that…

of courrrrseeee

Why does Fran not pronounce the r in McCullar?

Make up charge call?

Gotta get it back to within 5 here

We're even on questionable charge calls

Dangerous play as that could have been his 4th foul this half. Lol.

@benshawks08 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Dangerous play as that could have been his 4th foul this half. Lol.

big news if true

my god our passing is something else today

@cragarhawk has 1

@DanR said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

my god our passing is something else today

Floating all of them.

JWill you know better

God 1 pt per minute. It's like watching Jr high girls

Out coached today

Tech?

try to contain your excitement, Fran

Got em right where we want them.

Not out of it, but that last 2 minutes was pure crap

Well we couldn’t play much worse next half.

Lots of things to fix.

Played decent D except for a couple short stretches where we were REALLY bad.

And gave up 12 points off 11 turnovers (11 seems low, IMO)

7 more turnovers and shooting 16% worse so there is that.

@DanR I’d argue the open layups and dunks about every three or four trips down the floor means we didn’t actually play decent d.

@benshawks08 those were the bad stretches

@DanR said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Played decent D except for a couple short stretches where we were REALLY bad.

And gave up 12 points off 11 turnovers (11 seems low, IMO)

They also missed several open threes. (Not more than we did but still)

We do know ISU can blow a lead so there’s that.

just need to catch up to around 5 and wait for them to choke

@benshawks08 They have a 20-6 pt advantage in the paint. D is almost as bad as the offense...

Really looking forward to that big Duke-NC matchup later

The biggest difference was three prayers being answered. A 27' turnaround three, a gifted flip in the lane and another three from the sideline that was a one in 30 make.
We are not quite at their intensity.

I feel like we suck

We've come back from being down before!!

I don't think we played intense on D but for about 2 possessions actually. Just not disrupting them hardly at all. Lucky they are playing slow imo

Shut them down and pray for rain. Like raining threes? Our bench scoring needs to show up please.

Could be a satisfying comeback or we could get blown out. I don't have a feeling either way today.

Juando in the paint is a good start

McCuller is so bipolar on the court.

There you go!

Is that QB from your pro team out there available to engineer a comeback?

@wissox said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

McCuller is so bipolar on the court.

I think everyone but Wilson is that way

Niang sighting

Horse hockey

No way

Dumb announcer just said if they score here it will be their largest of the game. It was just 13.

Boom

We're climbing back the hard way, 2 points at a time

@DanR Beats the hell out of one turnover at a time

Finally got home to tune into the game. What happened? Turnovers 1H?

@Eric-san 11 turnovers and poor shooting

@Eric-san eleven of them

Fran explaining the obvious and getting it wrong and explaining what he doesn't understand in a way that you're not sure if he is watching the same game we are.

big point swing. Come on guys

@Zabudda said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Fran explaining the obvious and getting it wrong and explaining what he doesn't understand in a way that you're not sure if he is watching the same game we are.

I have the sound completely off. It really helps

Ugliness abounds

4 min of play per half will not get it done fellas

They are beating us - easily - to loose balls...

Unbelievable. Missed defensive rebound only down 5 leads to a 6-0 run of complete meltdown basketball.

11 down to 5 in 4 minutes then back to 11

I’m afraid it isn’t our day today

Winning big 12 is gonna be really tough

@Zabudda When you have your head up your ass, your perspective tends to be a little off

@RockChalkinTexas Wilson and dick 3

Juan and Bobby 2

Not making shots just compounds things

Of course Gradey's and 1 gets wiped off. Those are 3 points I'd like to have.

Holmes is a punk

How many times will Fran say St Bonneventure?

gut check time

He was out of bounds

Juando needs to follow every one of his three attempts. Easy 2-3 rebounds per game

@RockChalkinTexas I thought the same thing.

Refs have their heads up their collective butts as usual

Get a stop

Missed at least last 7 3 pt attempts - most way off...

@DCHawker said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Missed at least last 7 3 pt attempts - most way off...

4/18 from 3.

If they score 60 it's way over. We will struggle to get to that

We need to start fouling other teams the way they foul us— every layup, every dunk.

Their ball movement is so much better - they are getting open looks from 3 and iso's in the paint...

This game is over.

Only chance is for a complete reversal of 3pt shooting and officiating.

This ISU team is legit.

KU never won in Ames when I was a student in the Danny years.

When the wheels fall off the whole damn car catches fire and explodes while rolling off a cliff with this group.

@bskeet we're not going to get any help from the refs, but draining about 6 straight threes would be nice

Landen said they got their confidence back after 2 wins
🤦‍♀️

@DanR said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@bskeet we're not going to get any help from the refs, but draining about 6 straight threes would be nice

It would also require that they stop hitting 3s

Wilson with 20. Rest of the team bleh

Jalen has been abandoned by his teammates this afternoon.

Well KUs in the double bonus from here on out.

If they get to 60 they win. Sad.

@RockChalkinTexas I was thinking today we’d surprise them and win but this showing is resetting the expectations

Might be we just aren’t as good as we thought

@wissox said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Jalen has been abandoned by his teammates this afternoon.

Nothing new

Yesefu is never going to hit a three with that form

This will be remembered as the Jalen Wilson season. Good for him. Not as good for everyone else. TBD whether it is good for Kansas

No joe

2 bench points...

Spank.

KU just to dam inconsistent this year

Joes shot so flat just sucks has 10% chance of dropping

This one is ova

Texas and ksu gave them better games

About time for Fran to mention St Bonneventure

We just live and die by the 3. And we have 1 consistent shooter

Watching golf at Pebble Beach for a spell. Will monitor score.

I'll be here to the bitter end looking for a bright spot

Shitshow

@wissox

Wise

now it's gotten embarrassing. oh well...the sun also rises....

@bskeet No words like that have ever been spoken about me as such.

Points off turnovers must be 20+

Pretty darn big hole they’ve dug. Doesn’t appear to be their night.

Ok. No more games prior to 3 pm. They don't wake up til atleast 3 pm

Anyone think we win the big 12?

Tcu is the best when healthy
Texas, isu, ksu, Baylor right there
Then us

@cragarhawk said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Ok. No more games prior to 3 pm. They don't wake up til atleast 3 pm

I loathe 11am games.

Beginning to look like gonna have to pull for K/ state later so we just stay 1 game back of K/State & Texas

This team goes on epic droughts

@kuballin10 no. But I don't care. More concerned about losing to st Bonaventure as a 2 seed in an 11 am NCAA tournament game. 1st rd

36-54 9:22. 😳

Getting into YMCA game territory on offense

This team is just too flawed. We have sweet 16 loss written all over us.

A team with one offensive threat is struggling against an elite defensive team interesting. At least we beat them in Lawrence somehow.

@Kcmatt7 I dunno, we do ok against teams that aren't in the B12

At this point I feel like this team just isn’t likely to play well 6 games in a row in March and are probably not good enough to beat a tournament team when they don’t play well.

Too many desperation passes and shots

OK, yesefu can hit a sideways three

We are making ISU look like an offensive juggernaut...

Like a national champion.

We're the defending national champions so I can take this.

Just put in the scrubs and take the L.

This definitely not the main issue but these traveling calls have baffled me all day.

Not gonna win very many games win you turn the ball over 18 times with still 7 1/2 minutes to go in the game

16 more shot attemps by ISU....

What is really baffling is that ISU has travelled at least twice and no call

It just takes a massive lack of pride and heart to be getin ya ass beat that bad by anyone. I have very low tolerance when players look like they aren't even trying. Pathetic cause obviously they can do better just with a lil try

How bad is KSU defensively??!

@Kcmatt7 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Just put in the scrubs and take the L.

Agree it's over. No need to get someone hurt.

@BShark said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

How bad is KSU defensively??!

KSU squad is a total fraud lol.

This ISU team could go FF

Jankovic?

HUGE HUGE game Monday against Texas for sure now

Is this game worse or the TCU game at Allen?

Shellacking by TCU and now ISU. Wins agains Duke and Kentucky.

This team has serious variance.

@bskeet two of those teams are good. Two are not.

Gradey needs to do something for his Mom

Entire offense right now is JW drawing fouls on difficult shots...

I'm OK with leaving the starters in. They need the practice. Plus, Gradey's mom

I think it is all about 3 pt discipline and over-reliance on one player

@BShark Seems like the scrubs have been in since the opening tip

@DCHawker absolutely smashing KU when they touch the pain has been a pretty good defensive strategy for several teams this year. This team gets out physicalled a lot.

Believe it or not. Watching this game is still better than wading thru the applicants for a summer job I’ve got posted. Procrastination at its finest.

Gradey gets bumped around a LOT

When JWil has to go get 30. It's largely a losing team formula. Feel bad for him

@DanR he got fouled once and the. They called the questionable block charge.

Jwill probably thinks we're going to win still

@cragarhawk IDK, I think your analysis is wrong. These guys would run through a brick wall for Bill Self. Massive lack of pride and heart? These guys? Bill would kill them if he didn't think they weren't trying. Losing 4 key guys off a NC team is really a lot to overcome. I think there's a little bit of a recruiting issue that has left this team without more depth, but that's easier said than done.

@dylans Can I apply?

Not Juando's best defensive effort

@wissox said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@dylans Can I apply?

Sure

Gradey has had a really bad game...

@dylans ouch

travel

@dylans I'll have a few contract demands we'll have to work through, and most of them have the word golf in them.

So much fouling with no call

Let's get it under 10 and see what happens, just for fun

too much dribbling kev

@wissox nah. We've seen how they look when they have intensity. They don't today. Ppl just driving by them. Stand there and watch the opponent get rebounds. There are things out of control. (ISU hitting a well guarded shot, etc). But lack of intensity? Controllable. Mentally. And when you don't do it, you aren't trying.

We will not hit 60

@wissox said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@dylans I'll have a few contract demands we'll have to work through, and most of them have the word golf in them.

Take the old George Carlin approach to job interviews. Show up late so as not to set false expectations. Ask if fridays are optional. Let him know you’ll be leaving early to miss the rush. Lunch hour cocktails are not optional. 😂

@BShark we go as Juan goes. Juan has been brutal and go figure we get blown out.

Doesn’t help Gradey can’t hit anything and Mccullar only plays defense

When Bobby and Juan were in genius to play the 1-3-1 and let them toss it back and forth for 25 seconds and barely get a shot up

Neither of a guards attack well

The friendly confines of AFH mask a lot

@bskeet said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

We will not hit 60

Probably not. Will take 70+ to win.

@benshawks08 I mean JW and Kj can hang

Kev is skinny, Gradey not strong

Juan and Bobby aren’t strong with the ball or physically imposing

You can always take watching play a hard fought game and lose. That happens to everyone. This is not that

Maybe… maybe Grady might be back next year.

Well they get their sell out every time we come.

We know this team has little margin for error. It bites us today. It's going to happen about three or four more times I guess. Four conference losses will be a very good year for some teams.

@cragarhawk no, so many layups and dunks

Udeh is getting whipped on the block and looks completely lost. Game is slower at home than away.

Hopefully this season rests Bills gyro a little that Juan is not Chris Paul

@Zabudda 11-7 for us

At Texas
At tcu
Lose one of at ou or osu

Home against Texas and Baylor aren’t guaranteed W’s either

Joe is not our best bet is he?

No one on this team other than Wilson can score consistently against teams with good physical defenses. It's what happened against TCU as well.

Definitely our best offense. Joe throwing up a prayer 3 seconds into the clock after not hitting the ground with his fn hat in three tries....

We can’t manufacture points

We cannot shoot.

Kev had a bunch of boards. That's my bright spot!

Good learning opportunity for Gradey

Plenty to learn from this.

Jump ball. Lol.

@bskeet like listening to scouting report

fouled at least twice and they call jump ball OK

@benshawks08 can’t shoot
Can’t throw it down low for a post move
Guards don’t drive to hit floaters or create for others

Literally big 12 good teams have us figured out. Go under on ball screens and dare Juan and Bobby to shoot.

So far Juan isn’t proving his shot is as good as Bill sees in practice

I said after his 18 point game he is THE most important player and people didn’t agree. It’s blatantly obvious.

Fran with the utterly idiotic stat

get the ball to Jank

I don't think there's 1 thing to learn from this game. Doesn't even look like our team by in large. They flat didn't get out of bed, didn't get off the bus, and were NOT ready to play. Nothing else

Isu still has starters in

Have a better day y'all

Why not include James Naismith in that list and go back to 1909

Whelp. I'm going to rake the back yard. Oak tree finally finished dumping leaves.

Rock chalk!

WTF was Rice doing - literally no effort..

Morning games are becoming a tradition of suckage.

Well that sucked. On to the next one

Either Rice isn’t giving effort or he really has no clue on D.

Morning pacific

@bskeet yes. Please God put us later in the day in March. Or it's early to head home this year

@DCHawker let him transfer he’s weak

Said last game at half he couldn’t go

If im Bill im down with him. He got hit in the mouth as a frosh and hasn’t gotten up to ever punch

Give me the new freshman and get some legit transfers who can score.

Bill prioritizes defense which is backwards. Way easier to teach an athlete to guard versus teaching a guy who can’t shoot or score to just magically at 19-20 learn how to do that

We've seen this before and it's a bitter pill but we can play much better. Nice game JWill. Thank you.

@dylans guessing this has way more to do with why we don't see him much than any spasms

If someone told me there would be 4 teams from the Big12 in the elite 8 and Kansas isn’t one of them, i wouldn’t be surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. This team is too fragile.

Bottom line is - - -just way to many flaws with this team - - -39 % from 3- -turn it over 20 times - overall % horrible. - -No scoring, every time out same song Jalen Wilson

KJ - -Juan - -- Grady -- -Kevin 18 - - points total. - - Grady 25 % 3 point shooting last three weeks THAT'S not gonna win you very many games. - - Unfortunately seen this to many times

Unlike previous Self coached teams, this team does not show fight when things are tough. This is so difficult to see as a fan.

The sky isnt falling. This team is fine. Championship bound? Probably not. There is always a lot to learn from a loss. If we have to lose, lets do it before March.

Was anyone chanting 'Over-rated "?

Besides me?

You will lose just about every game you shoot 38% on the road.

The 12 o clock start time was bullshit today but that didn't matter. At the end of the day this team has 1 guy that gets it

Was 11 here.

The team is actually great when they come to play. I saw very little to nothing today that said we were ready to play this game. Outside of JWil for certain. We've all seen they are better than this and we'll see it again. The worry is what the formula is for when they look so completely out of it, like today. So far I can see "early" games. Also we're appearing a lil "live and die by the 3 ish.
Today looked like not awake, not focused, not intense

@Crimsonorblue22 was 9am here

Definitely a live and die by the 3 attitude. And when they don’t fall, we don’t have a way to stem the bleeding. No outside-in or hi-lo action. Too much dribble drive and get bumped and miss the tear-drop or high off the glass or fade away jumper low percentage shots. And rarely a foul called on the contact that is generated from said prayer shot.

I take full responsibility. We should have used the thread @BShark started.

@approxinfinity said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

The sky isnt falling. This team is fine. Championship bound? Probably not. There is always a lot to learn from a loss. If we have to lose, lets do it before March.

The sky isn't falling but not sure how you define "fine." We could easily end up .500 in the league. Not sure I see more than 3 should-wins. 11-7 is probably the ceiling. We still have 4 tough road games and Baylor and Texas at home.

Doesn't mean we can't win a few games in the post-season, but it may end up being as 3-4 seed and little margin for an off game.

I think we're fine. We just can't play early. We're asleep. CS seemed to agree without watching tape "energy and effort" were lacking. Based on ISU probably getting 75-80% of 50/50 balls.

Obviously we've all seen that they aren't by in large the team that we watched today

The Big 12 is just a beast of a league this year. We're in February and nobody in the league has an overall record below .500 yet. We're probably getting 7 teams in the tournament with likely 6 teams getting tip 4 seeds. 13-5 or 12-6 likely wins the league this year. More than any other season, winning home games will be vital to winning or sharing the conference title. The TCU loss has been the most damaging to KU's Big 12 chances. KU has to hold serve at home in their last 4 home games. They also have win both games in Oklahoma on the 11th and 14th and split the road games at TCU and Texas.

Can KU do that? Absolutely they can do that, but will they do that is another story. I'll feel a lot better about KU's chances if they can beat Texas on Monday. To do that, they need to focus on playing elite defense because that's where their offense is going to come from. There's no help on the bench unless the light suddenly comes on for MJ Rice or Yesufu goes on a run like he had his last year at Drake.

Soft as a pillow. Too many guys playing soft.

!hastens-pillow-indoor-bedroom-accessories.jpg ↗

@DCHawker self said in pregame they had a few problems getting there last night. Got there about 8:30. Curfew was 10:15, up at 6 I think. Don't imagine he'd use it as an excuse. It was pregame.

Another 10 plus deficit in the first half. We weren't torqued up but 6/23 from three is not a new result for us. If we hit 4 more it's a lift and pressure on the Cyclones and virtually a toss up game. Other than that we go 11/21 well meh. We just can't shoot straight and 53 points is pretty pathetic but ISU didn't burn the house down themselves. How many offensive fouls about 8 or 9? Ist half at KSU down by 15. By 22 at home against TCU. At Baylor down by 13. A team that gets down by 6 to 10 possessions is a lot of stops and successful results on our end.
11-7 in conference and 8 losses going into the NCAA's. A really good result for most but we are spoiled brats.

Couple of post game thoughts. Maybe i'll make em lazy thoughts, just like our effort today! ha. or not ha.

-- Dejuan needs help. He's beat. We do not have a capable backup PG. Bobby has made ONE play this year. one. it helped, but just the one. He gets sped up and out of control. simplify!

-- Jalen needs help. Not a brilliant observation, but going into the season it seemed obvious that if you shut down Jalen, you stand a chance of winning. Well, i guess it works if you let him play a bit, and just shut everybody else down. Calling any available JUCO scorers...

-- Iowa State had a good defensive game plan. Unfortunate that the coaching staff could not figure out how to counter.

-- Gradey was a freshman today.

-- Can we just not turn the ball over on fast breaks, please? not that we had a lot of em, but the few we had we seemed to boggle. Sloppy.

You’re just not going to win when your opponent shoots 17 more shots than you do. Rebounding was bad. Defense was bad. Offensively we pass the ball too much while in the air and try to make the “extra” pass too much.

If you’re open shoot the ball.

Would have like to see Bill go with a “big” lineup today for a bit with KJ at the 4 and Udeh at the 5. I think it lets you post KJ up and offers a better rebound and defensive matchup.

This was always going to be a tough game. Was an L on the books already. Show up Monday. I actually like the matchup against UT.

Texas was getting boards.

@Kcmatt7 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

You’re just not going to win when your opponent shoots 17 more shots than you do. Rebounding was bad. Defense was bad. Offensively we pass the ball too much while in the air and try to make the “extra” pass too much.

If you’re open shoot the ball.

Would have like to see Bill go with a “big” lineup today for a bit with KJ at the 4 and Udeh at the 5. I think it lets you post KJ up and offers a better rebound and defensive matchup.

This was always going to be a tough game. Was an L on the books already. Show up Monday. I actually like the matchup against UT.

The shots attempted stat has always fascinated me. I wish i could interview Self for a few minutes to ask him how other teams get to shoot nearly 20 more shots than us, and the impact that has.

that seems just nuts to me. instant observation: we had, what, 20 turnovers? that just about makes up the difference?

Worried cause UT eyetests way way way more athletic than us atm. But it doesn't always mean anything. Gotta believe it helps tho. Lol

@Kcmatt7 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

You’re just not going to win when your opponent shoots 17 more shots than you do. Rebounding was bad. Defense was bad. Offensively we pass the ball too much while in the air and try to make the “extra” pass too much.

If you’re open shoot the ball.

Would have like to see Bill go with a “big” lineup today for a bit with KJ at the 4 and Udeh at the 5. I think it lets you post KJ up and offers a better rebound and defensive matchup.

This was always going to be a tough game. Was an L on the books already. Show up Monday. I actually like the matchup against UT.

Part of the shot differential was with FT's attempted. I don't believe a team gets credited with a shot attempt on a foul unless the player makes the shot and KU shot 9 more FT's than ISU did. Obviously that doesn't fully account for the shot differential, but that's likely a few of them. Turnovers were definitely the biggest single issue today as you rarely beat a top 15 team on the road being -10 in turnovers for the game.

TO's meant a lot for sure. What I hate is so many were just sleepy unforced stuff. Had to be 7-8 of them that we just made a dumb pass or what have you

@kuballin10 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@BShark we go as Juan goes. Juan has been brutal and go figure we get blown out.

Doesn’t help Gradey can’t hit anything and Mccullar only plays defense

When Bobby and Juan were in genius to play the 1-3-1 and let them toss it back and forth for 25 seconds and barely get a shot up

Neither of a guards attack well

The friendly confines of AFH mask a lot

Yeah we need a guard that can break down a defender and drive to score. I am hopeful Elmarko can be that guy.

Clemence is out 2-3 weeks it looks with a bruised knee

I think there comes a time when we just have to admit it. This team just doesn't have it Period.- -Way to many flaws.- Turnovers , no scoring consistently , to many easy scores on the other end. - -Looking like a 2nd weekend out in the Tourney - -Sorry but sooner or late just got tor realize-- it's not there this year, Grady tailed of - -Kevin no offense-- - -Juan just a shell of himself - lost all confidence - Bobbie --Pssst - -Joe give me something positive - - - - Udeh has to learn FAST NOW I mean FAST. - -Zuby out ----Zach out - -- - just not a good look right now.

Just have to win Monday for even a punchers chance - Texas took a huge step today separating themselves - to much of a cluster--we have got TO WIN - - & got to steal wins at Oklahoma & okie state- - - - just don't look good, plain and simple

@cragarhawk UT is more athletic than tcu

It’s a must win game in AFH but I think we get bodied or dog walked on Monday and this board starts to see things for how they really are

When your most underrated should be an all American 4 year pg has 2 points, 3 assist and 2 turnovers

While his counterpart goes:
9 points, 10 assists and 8 boards as a true freshman (Lipsey)

Yeah that doesn’t bode well. Juan gets his steals and he gets beat off the dribble as much as Gradey. Isu went right at both of them

@jayballer67 Juan is who he was last year.

He just doesn’t have a remy this year to bail him out

A guy who averages 5 pg’s and 3-4 apg last year Bill said is going to be “grrreeaattt” this year and he is wrong

Juan scores 2 more often than 12 which go figure is who he has always been

He is a solid backup ppg which is when our team took off when remy started playing more minutes than him last year

Issue - Bobby sucks and Joe is worse. Bring in the frosh, a transfer guard, a transfer athletic 4 and 5

I guess I'm just not that down on Juan or any one player. We just didn't look engaged today like we can be and that's disappointing. I hate losing because of effort and things like that. I'm okay with getting beat by a better performance

@wissox said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Watching golf at Pebble Beach for a spell. Will monitor score.

I got ripped off when i did the same at one point today.

Flipped over, weather looked great, course looked awesome...then I saw Daniel Berger in the lead. I was like, where the hell did he come from?? Replay from last year! Doh!

Juan is not who he was last yr! Did he score 9 3's in 3 games? Did he have 18 pts in a game? 11 ast? He'd have more assists if anyone could hit shots. Remy's yesterdays news. If we could have anybody back from last yr it be CB, Och or Dave.

@BeddieKU23 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Clemence is out 2-3 weeks it looks with a bruised knee

ugh

@BShark said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@BeddieKU23 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

Clemence is out 2-3 weeks it looks with a bruised knee

ugh

And it sounds like they don't know for sure.

Unraveling at the seems even more

No use crying over spilled milk. I learned last year you can't give up on a team because you never know when they could take off. Myself, I can't wait until we go to the expanded basketball conference schedule next year. This is the downside of being in the best conference in basketball. 2nd game in a row against a Top 10ish team. And now we have a 3rd game against a Top 10 team 2 days later. You're playing Top 10 teams every game.

I remember when the Big East was the Big East, and considered to be the best conference in basketball. They would slug through so many big conference games, they'd be all bruised and beat up by the end of the season. Give me a home game against BYU / UCF in between these Top 10 gladiator fights.

@Jethro said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

No use crying over spilled milk. I learned last year you can't give up on a team because you never know when they could take off. Myself, I can't wait until we go to the expanded basketball conference schedule next year. This is the downside of being in the best conference in basketball. 2nd game in a row against a Top 10ish team. And now we have a 3rd game against a Top 10 team 2 days later. You're playing Top 10 teams every game.

I remember when the Big East was the Big East, and considered to be the best conference in basketball. They would slug through so many big conference games, they'd be all bruised and beat up by the end of the season. Give me a home game against BYU / UCF in between these Top 10 gladiator fights.

That Big East won 3 nattys… UConn x 2 and Cuse.

This DEEP run of B12 has produced 2 nattys and 2020 KU and Baylor were two of the favorites.

The conference schedule is a grind, but I wouldn’t say it is bad for us in the long run. This is just an exceptional year where bottom feeders hired good coaches. We need a few guys to get poached 😂

Assessment of this team is simple.
Juan Harris- is not a division 1 player, wasn’t when he got here and won’t be when he leaves. He would not start at any other B12 school right now. Could be a serviceable backup which he ending up being to Remy in last seasons tournament.
Gradey Dick- has had a solid freshman season still has to learn how to move without the ball and put it on the floor more often. Defense is average but is young Will break out his slump at some point hopefully tomorrow.
Kevin McCullar- is the same exact player he was at Tech last season his stats are almost identical. He’s got to be hitting shots to be effective because Jwil can’t do all the scoring. I don’t think he starts on any B12 team outside of WV, OU and Okie light.
Jalen Wilson- Having an all-American type season, forces too many shots imo but I don’t blame him because no one else is aggressive on that end most of the time. Defensively he struggles moving laterally but rebounds well.
KJ Adam’s- having his best season if this kid was 6’10 he’d be an all-American. That being said you don’t have to guard him more than 6 foot away from the hoop. He struggles against taller post player’s defensively. No way he starts at the 5 @ any other B12 school.
The bench is young and inexperienced would like to see Bobby play less not sure why Self is so high on him. MJ has trouble with injuries and it’s killed his development for this season. Udeh should be getting more minutes and will with other bigs hurt. Joe is hot or Icey cold depending on the day. Basically I’m saying we don’t have the horses in this league plain and simple. When is the last time KU had several starters that wouldn’t start at most of the other teams in the conference? Bill Self knows it too, that’s why he waived the white flag with the 4 game suspension trying to get infractions case resolved. The good news we have seen how KSU completely reloaded to a top 10 team using the portal, either way we have to get some guys in the door. To quote one of my coaches after we got beat by a 5a school as a 2a school “You can have the fastest Jack ass in the world and they won’t let him run with the thoroughbreds in the Kentucky Derby for a reason” we don’t have horses right now. That’s okay we did just win a national title.

We'd be less worried if we had more than 1 guy who can shoot these days. Very limited team offensively.

@BeddieKU23 don’t have anyone you can force feed to get a basket.

No Frank type of guard you can uso.

No Big. Oh how I miss Dave, and I never expected to say that.

@Kcmatt7

We ran some creative sets earlier in the year. Where are the guard post ups?

The chemistry this team had earlier this season was pretty scary when it clicked. Seems like something has changed.

@BeddieKU23 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@Kcmatt7

We ran some creative sets earlier in the year. Where are the guard post ups?

The chemistry this team had earlier this season was pretty scary when it clicked. Seems like something has changed.

I would say 3 things have changed:

We're playing against better competition every time - 18 games against top 40 teams; 10 games against top 15 teams.

We're playing teams that are very familiar with what we like to run and have a lot of experience against our sets - and most are very good defensive teams even without that.

We're now 2/3rds into the season with no development of the bench and the starters playing high 30s minutes every night - tired legs.

What hasn't changed is if we are hitting shots (esp. GD contributing) and playing with intensity, we can beat anyone. The flip-side is that we can be beat any night if those two things aren't happening; indeed, we can get beat badly.

@BeddieKU23 Yea I totally forgot about the guard post ups. Maybe we need to go back to that with Kev early to get him engaged.

The offense has definitely gotten stale.

@Kcmatt7 said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@BeddieKU23 Yea I totally forgot about the guard post ups. Maybe we need to go back to that with Kev early to get him engaged.

The offense has definitely gotten stale.

This is what happens when you get into league play. Everyone has a lot more familiarity with the sets everyone runs which makes it more difficult to prepare for.

@kjayhawks I thought Juan was a Div 1 player. Did we get pushed down to Div 2 for winning the championship?

@Jethro I think Juan works hard but don’t think he is D1 sorry maybe I’m wrong but I don’t he starts at any other power 5 program without question.

@kjayhawks said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@Jethro I think Juan works hard but don’t think he is D1 sorry maybe I’m wrong but I don’t he starts at any other power 5 program without question.

A rabid K-State fan was trying to make the same argument about Juan on Twitter. I just said we're a hell of a team if our point guard is so bad. Then I reminded him of last week's score, and invited him to come to Lawrence so he could see what a national championship trophy looks like.

After the national championship, I examined several of the gripes I had with last year's team, and concluded that none of what I worried about had come true. In fact, the opposite had come true. I think we do ourselves a disservice by thinking our players and coaches are lacking awareness, and have no clue what's going on.

@kjayhawks said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@Jethro I think Juan works hard but don’t think he is D1 sorry maybe I’m wrong but I don’t he starts at any other power 5 program without question.

SMH ---- - mercy

@Jethro said in Fran Hate Us game chat:

@kjayhawks I thought Juan was a Div 1 player. Did we get pushed down to Div 2 for winning the championship?

Mercy I just seen a statement I didn't think was possible--- - nuff said lol

@Jethro I don’t think Juan lacks awareness in the slightest. I think he’s got a high basketball IQ and that saves him from how limited he is athletically, his long arms help a lot too. That being said Juan ain’t beating anyone in a foot race or a 3 cone shuffle in the conference. I trust in coach Self, doesn’t mean I agree with everything he does either.

@kjayhawks Now here is a name I haven't seen in awhile.

@BShark I needed to get @Jethro fired up before the game. Lol