🏀 KuBuckets Archive

So with the way things have been going , this stretch of bad ball , players under preforming , conflict in the locker room , Coach's , players , The question now becomes-- - - what next ?

If this continues over even the short haul , then what's next ?- --If say todays game , if they come out once again Sluggish , slow start , sloppy ,- -Then what ?

How does the fan base react ?- - What about the students ? -Do we start to hear boo's at a College game ?- -Will the field house still be sold out ? -- OR maybe will the students not show out as strong ?- -Or maybe just dead- - like the team- - - no enthusiasm ?-- - will we possibly start to see signs about Bill ?-- Signs about players ?

For me- -I don't know- -I hope we still have their backs, show support , but wouldn't guarantee it. I think possibly could be mixed , I'm sure it's not going to take a lot for things to turn sour fairly quickly unfortunately .

I guess the REAL BIG question is- - Do these kids have heart ?- -Fight ? and more then anything else does this group have any PRIDE left ?- - -Are they willing to fight for School Tradition /History?

The Mystique of the Phog has been damaged this year/ wounded . --Teams that once hated playing in the Phog - -no longer fears playing here . Why ?- -because we have let the Phog down , the Coach's- -The players - -we the fans to a point-- what ever3 happened to that Strong, distinct Noise/that chant at the end of a game ?- -ROCCCCCK-- -CHALLLLLLK-- - JAYHAWKKKKKKK ?

just kind of sad my friends let's hope that everyone involved can prove people wrong and SHOW that we ARE NOT DONE the PHOG IS STILL very alive , for me ?- -it's Rock Chalk All Day Long forever.

Opposing teams shoot poor percentages against us. We shoot better than they do almost every game.

Who is our go to guy on offense? Zeke gets assigned their best long and athletic defender. Is capable of shooting 4/12 or worse from the field. He is getting his best looks, and making them, from pull up threes. Either early in the offense or on fast breaks. Other than that he is covered.

Hunter has a few moves but he has to be close inside to use them. He is getting pushed farther out more and more by all the bruisers. He seems to be hurrying the 6-8 footers and misses them. I think he is also hurrying the bunnies and one and done off to the races.

We get back on defense but can't seem to match up on our guys soon enough and they get open looks. Hunter gets back when he can but he is slow and has the farthest to run. Teams see this and exploit us.

Zeke and Coit are our best at being ready to shoot threes. Rylan is a good shooter but he seems funky in getting open. Juan has never taken a three with out contemplating his naval first. He is streaky but gets open because he's not considered a threat. I like Storrs and Shak taking corner threes. Hunter??? IDK. Passmore has put up some and when he is on the floor in his 15 second inserts we look so much bigger.
I see threes missed by the other team and the big bounces they get a second or third chance. It seems one and done on our end.

So Hunter, Zeke (play some defense please) and Juan get your mo-effing-jo back or fake an injury and sit down. Quit being so boring and turnovers can be exciting but not really. Kease work on free throws maybe practice with Flory.

I think we win today with a another game in the sixties and not look good.

Love, Zabudda T.

I hear ya. I know it’s tempting to gravitate to doom and gloom. Heck, I almost started a thread after the BYU game titled “The Day After”.

But… IMHO let’s not borrow trouble. The team and the fanbase needs to stay positive and remind themselves that this is about supporting Kansas - the school we picked and that we love. Win or lose, that fundamental should not change. Losses might bruise the pride for a bit, but hopefully that pride is sourced from experiences that are deep — not so superficial as to hinge on the performance of a team.

I know these days there’s a lot of noise that gets in the way of these ideals. We believe that some think it’s all about money - that the game has become transactional. Maybe it has for some, but probably not for all. At least for me, my support for KU is not transactional. I hope most students and fans would see it that way too.

@bskeet I agree- I'm guilty in the heat of the game, runnin my mouth heated more then i should. Just the passion for this School for me, I just can't deal with them losing, losing is bad- -but losing and being ugly at it is just not good.

After I've had time to think about things I try and think more positive, - you mention about them picking the School that they love, the question is do they ?-- I mean when you have turnover 5-- -6 players every yr - -ne coming in for one year -- Do they really invest enough- - spend enough time the history , the tradition of this School. - -Do they really love the school ? -- I dunno

@SlimShaddy54 I agree. Pride of school is for fans and maybe a few players.

But realistically, players pick the school for all sorts of reasons.. Some probably really do love the school (Mayo, DaJuan, KJ and maybe some on the practice squad...). But some players come for the coach. If the coach leaves, they follow. And some players come for more selfish reasons... maybe playing time, prestige or flat out $$$ money $$$.

When looking at that latter group, they are often the ones who are trying to get to the league. And when you get to the league, there's no such thing as school spirit. Players have to find their motivation and it's probably not that they always dreamed of being an Indiana Pacer, or Toronto Raptor or Portland Trail Blazer.... etc.

When players become part of a franchise, they surely have to find a burning motivator to play well every day or they won't last in the league.

If money is getting in the way of motivation in college, it's not going to suddenly be a motivator after the draft. IMHO, these players getting NIL, who have aspirations of playing at the next level, need to use this time to find their motivation. It doesn't really matter what that motivation is — whether selfishly wanting to be the best, or some deep love and respect of the game, or a drive to financially take care of their family — they have to find the thing that is going to fuel their drive each and every day.

Here's hoping all of our guys find that motivation that pushes them to play their best every possession of every game.

I'm responding now after the game.

Very happy to nail down a big win!

My happiness is buffered by the reality that we looked better, but part of it was playing OSU... but part of it was a show of life again!

We had a few pass-around half-court plays that were spectacular!

Our turnovers really held us back from really thumping them and cause for alarm.

I liked how minutes were distributed in this game. Flory played 20 and he didn't dominate with points, but he definitely dominated on rebounds and blocks! 16 rebounds in 20 minutes!

Shoutout to KJ, for showing good energy! His minutes were cut, and wisely so, but had he played more he could have put up a double-double.

That horrible Hunter guy... once again, led us in points. Put up a double-double and did it just playing 21 minutes. People just have to live with the fact that he isn't a graceful player but he puts up big numbers, usually points and rebounds... the two categories we need desperately!

David... where have you been hiding? lol

Juan... silently filled a stat sheet... 14 pts, 5 assists, 6 steals, 2 rebs, 1 block... in 27 minutes!

I thought our defense was okay. I know the stats say good... but OSU missed some wide open shots.

Anyways... this is a start. Let's look forward and I hope we see improvements every game!

@drgnslayr Got to agree with part of what you said anyways lol. !st have to agree, was really happy with the way the guys played yesterday vey crisp , sharp- lot's of movement and yet like you said have to be tempered some by who we were playing, be vey interesting if we can follow this showing up come Monday Night against Colorado, they actually played us pretty well in the Phog.

As far as Dickinson goes , have to give him props on this game Actually the 1st time I've seen true hustle and some emotion and sure he put up big numbers again- -but like I've mentioned before who was the quality of the opposition he was doing that against ?-- a smaller 5 , possibly not as athletic, can't really see that being possible but size difference. You put a 5 same size , better athlete Hunter really is a no show, The biggest thing with him is sure puts big numbers but he negates all that with his just insane horrible defense, so can't really agree there

But hey he did a really good job yesterday so major props to him for that , maybe he breaks out defensively from this.

One thing that showed yesterday looks like these guys played as a group , not individuals - -Hell AJ even was ok not great but serviceable The game ball goes to- - - DIGGY COIT, he was the one who was the spark that lit the blaze.

One last thing is that it was good to see the guys carry this through from the 1st half through the 2nd half -- Complete game. - -ROCK CHALK

So I guess Hunter is the current active cumulative scoring leader in D1 basketball!

That guy who is constantly criticized. My only criticism is that he's not constantly playing in the low block. I'm not expecting him to suddenly have quicker feet or whatever.

Hunter has been rightfully criticized for his play this season. He has been good on offense this season and he needs to be great to make up for his defense. Like you mentioned he often has played too far away from the basket and settled for jumpers instead of fighting in the post. It shows in our offensive rebounding numbers (unless Flory is out there with him) and in our FT rate.

Last few games he has been much better so hoping he can keep that up.

@MR11

I wonder how he is being coached? Self doesn't seem to rip his ass during games. Maybe Self is instructing him to play away from the basket. Those high ball screens look like part of the plan. Why don't we just use KJ for that?

Self used to have some pretty amazing low post schemes. He got his early fame on the hi/lo.

Agreed that not all of it falls on Hunter. Honestly my bigger complaint with him is how much his energy level can vary from game to game. When you know the level a player can get to, it becomes more glaring when they fall short of that.

And yeah idk why we aren't running some of the post plays we used to. While limited overall as an offensive player, Landen was at least above average at getting post positions and clearing lanes for Frank to get to the basket. Maybe we don't run these plays because we don't have any natural drivers on this team that can take advantage of that? Part of it could also be that the team doesn't seem to excel at passing into the post or it is too crowded with KJ playing. I haven't been watching games as closely as I usually do to be able to say.