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Our date with Kentucky is coming up fast.

How do we beat Kentucky?

Self has been talking about Kentucky's size. He has been informing the world that Kentucky has 6 guys taller than our tallest player.

I scratched my head when I heard him say it. Is he expressing the fear of playing all that height (the very goal Calipari had in mind when recruiting this team)? Or is he laying the groundwork for supporting his strategy of small ball? Maybe Bill doesn't give enough credit to the Jayhawk Nation for understanding the game and how our only chance of beating Kentucky is to beat them in other areas besides height. We will not win by playing our tallest players. Period. We will be completely overpowered by their size and talent if we attempt to play tall ball with the tallest college team of all times. Kentucky may even be the tallest team in history of both the college game and the NBA. I'd like to know a taller team.

So how do we beat Kentucky?

This is 100% x-axis basketball. It's the same game UCONN played to win the title. We should be able to even play a better game of small ball than UCONN played.

1. Win the TO battle - First thing we have to do is take care of the basketball. We can't turn the ball over in high frequency (like we have been doing over the past several years) and expect to win this game. And we have to put pressure on Kentucky to force some TOs... something that should not be that hard to do against a team of such height.

2. Compete for rebounds - Height helps rebound, no question, but it is not what counts most. Contrary to what many people think, the #1 factor on owning rebounds is position, not height. There are a lot of factors involved in getting position, but the biggest factor is hustle. Good rebounders move their feet laterally more than vertically. Good rebounders have a knack for seeing a shot going up and predicting where it will go and they get the right position for the ball coming off where they predicted it to go. Few college players know anything about getting rebounding position and even fewer put in the hustle to get position. It's a game of using your hips and your arms to screen off the competition.

3. Control the tempo - We need to own the tempo. This will expose Kentucky's biggest weakness; their height. Chances are slim that Kentucky will be able to have an offense that is adaptable when things change. We have to have an offense that can adapt. Our offense has to be able to try different strategies and then exploit the right tempo for the situation. Maybe what works against Kentucky is to get off a quick shot, or maybe it works best to run lots of offense and get the shot up towards the end of the shot clock.

4. Win the foul contest - Like all games played, fouling usually becomes a factor. We have to keep our guys out of foul trouble. They have to settle down and not get intimidated by the height, just play sound basketball. Sound basketball against Kentucky is to defend, challenge their shots, but not to the point of fouling. Kentucky will still have to hit shots, and they will not bring a great shooting team into this contest.
   On the other side of the ball, we can do many things to force Kentucky into fouling.

5. Win on the free throw line - We won't win if we can't hit a free throw. If we play this game right, we'll be shooting big numbers at the line. If we keep our points-per-possession number respectable, and we have more possessions than Kentucky, we should win this game, perhaps by a wide margin!

So how will we succeed at accomplishing all of this?

TOs - We take care of the ball by, first, not being intimidated by their size and realize it is to our advantage. Kentucky has length, they also have long arms. So we have to adjust to their size. Our passers have to make crisp passes, and our guys receiving passes will have to make sure they have enough distance from their defenders to maintain possession. And they have to sometimes go get the passes.

Rebounding - We can control the boards if we hustle, and we get good position. Use our butts, hips and arms to possess turf and screen them off. Very basic basketball that literally NO ONE does anymore in college basketball. Watch the ball being shot and know ahead where it most likely will go. For the most part, rebounds either go directly back to the angle they came in on, or just the opposite. When the ball is shot from an angle, it is often like shooting pool off the cushions... the ball rebounds inversely on the other side of a 90-degree angle from the backboard. If we actually fight for position, Kentucky bigs will foul going over our backs... especially after being chewed out for not rebounding.

Tempo - We have to have a strategy on both sides of the ball when it comes to tempo. On the defensive side, we can impact Kentucky's offense with perimeter pressure. That may even include back court pressure, which enough of it can rob seconds off their shot clock and also force them out of perimeter position while starting their offense. When we have the ball, we have to find a speed where we can develop a groove. Even though Kentucky has a deep bench, they can't use their bench in the middle of a possession. Big guys often tire within the 35-second clock, especially if you run them through off-ball screens. Tired defenders often foul.

Fouls - If we end up fouling more than them, it is only because we were intimidated and we let Kentucky control this game. If we play good x-axis basketball, we will be busy running Kentucky all over the court. We put their players out of position by running off-ball screens, high motion offense, fast passes and no ball stick. You get these guys moving then when someone is open for the shot that guy needs a shot fake... whether with the ball, shoulders, body, or how about all of the above? We should draw at least a dozen fouls this way. Another way we draw fouls is with guys like Frank, driving the ball, and when a Kentucky player tries to cut him off, instead of Frank allowing it he needs to take the contact to draw the foul. This Kentucky team should be hack city. They have super long arms, perfect for fouling! If that doesn't make sense to you, grab a broom and swing it around as an extension of your arm. Yeah... that's what they are dealing with.

FTs - We have to hit FTs. This is where we can play a great game and lose because we leave 20 points behind by missing FTs.

While Kentucky will own that top 10% of the game, we should dominate the lower 90%. Even though the ball goes through the goal in that upper 10%, it takes a lot of mechanics to get to that place for the 10% game to happen. We can't lose if we own that part of the game... the lower 90%!

all those things are a great "if" we can.

We need to do all those things better than them to win. It's not the other way around like most teams face when they play KU. We are clearly the underdog is almost every situation in this game.

The only thing that helps us is that they will be no better then us this early then we will be. We can win if we simply play above the normal.

Turnovers, rebounding, 3 point shooting are the keys, as in most games those 3 factors decide games.

We will need Ellis and Selden to have stepped up in a big way to win

@BeddieKU23

"all those things are a great "if" we can."

So true. But that will be left to us, and Kentucky won't be able to stop us if we execute this.

"We are clearly the underdog is almost every situation in this game."

We are clearly the faster team. We clearly have better lateral movement. That is an advantage, and that is our major advantage. That is the advantage necessary in accomplishing my list above. I already give Kentucky the 10% around the rim. We won't be able to challenge them on that and their advantage is mostly owning the 10%. This idea that all you need is height to win doesn't hold water. We've lost many games to teams much shorter than us. Most of the players on Kentucky are ranked high because of their height, and they have a relative amount of skill for their height. None of these guys would be Top 50 players without their height.

If you need motivation for grasping this, replay last year's championship game. And though most of Kentucky's team is back, I think they will have even bigger challenges this year because their true alpha dogs (Young and Randle) are gone.

The first thing we have to do is develop a strategy to win. The second thing is we practice in order to be able to execute it. The third thing is we execute during the game.

If we don't follow that path, we have already lost. We aren't just going to get lucky and be hot from the perimeter.

@drgnslayr

“No Battle Plan Survives Contact With the Enemy” - German military strategist Helmuth von Moltke.

Let's not underestimate Calipari; like Coach Self, he learned the basics from Larry Brown while sitting on the bench at KU. We might not like him or how he operates, but every ranking of college basketball coaches has him ranked top 10 and most top 5.

@JayHawkFanToo

I hear you.

I don't look at our challenge with Kentucky as if we can win because Self out-coaches Calipari.

I just look at their roster, packed full of trees.

The question is... how do you beat a bunch of trees?

What is your strategy to beat Kentucky?

I posted my version of how to beat Kentucky. There are plenty of great basketball minds in this forum, and I'm hoping you and others will lay out your ideas of how to succeed.

I think half of the struggle is related to attitude. If we don't think we can beat Kentucky, we can't. That is an attitude Calipari is hoping teams bring to their games.

The only part of the game I'm willing to concede to Kentucky is the 10% of the game played with the ball up high, where the trees can dominate. Should the trees also dominate the action when the ball is in play from about 6'3" to the floor? I really believe we should win that part of the game.

@drgnslayr

Shizz, I have tried to be objective about this UK game and come up pessimistic. But reading your post makes me drop my objective mode and jump down in the fox hole with you!

"We need to own the tempo. "

This seems to be the ultimate test of Self's adaptability. Who we have been under Self is "let them set tempo and we beat them playing it their way."

But I agree with you that the way for this team is to come fast sometimes and come slow other times. And in between after that. Use your twin ball handling guards to control the tempo.

An second key is every time UK goes to three seven footers, 3/4 zone press them. Force the footers to handle the ball in open court.

A third key, long pass it up the sideline to keep the UK bigs from having time to set up where they like.

@drgnslayr said:

@BeddieKU23

"all those things are a great "if" we can."

So true. But that will be left to us, and Kentucky won't be able to stop us if we execute this.

"We are clearly the underdog is almost every situation in this game."

We are clearly the faster team. We clearly have better lateral movement. That is an advantage, and that is our major advantage. That is the advantage necessary in accomplishing my list above. I already give Kentucky the 10% around the rim. We won't be able to challenge them on that and their advantage is mostly owning the 10%. This idea that all you need is height to win doesn't hold water. We've lost many games to teams much shorter than us. Most of the players on Kentucky are ranked high because of their height, and they have a relative amount of skill for their height. None of these guys would be Top 50 players without their height.

If you need motivation for grasping this, replay last year's championship game. And though most of Kentucky's team is back, I think they will have even bigger challenges this year because their true alpha dogs (Young and Randle) are gone.

The first thing we have to do is develop a strategy to win. The second thing is we practice in order to be able to execute it. The third thing is we execute during the game.

If we don't follow that path, we have already lost. We aren't just going to get lucky and be hot from the perimeter.

We cannot say we are a faster team. If anything with Kentucky's Platoon style it allows their players to play with reckless energy because they know they are getting a break soon.
We may have smaller guys who are quick but we haven't proven a thing in a real game yet that gives us a deciding edge.

Their length at every position will bother us, maybe the biggest factor that could hold us back.
Cliff, Ellis, Lucas, Jamari will all have to find ways to get good looks against them.

I thought defensively we looked better in the first exhibition then we did most of last year. I would like to see the same Tuesday and obviously Friday in the opener against real D-1 teams. If we can count on our D to hold us in the Kentucky game then I think Self can work on the small things that win games like tempo, fouls, turnovers, rebounding.

I will point this out again though, we don't have a good chance if Ellis and Selden don't take the Alpha dog roles in this game and put up big numbers.

@BeddieKU23

"I will point this out again though, we don't have a good chance if Ellis and Selden don't take the Alpha dog roles in this game and put up big numbers."

I totally agree with that. I know it was just an exhibition game, but Perry didn't exactly impress the crowd with his first impression for the coming season. I thought Wayne intentionally backed off the throttle a bit to focus on getting our new guys involved.

I'm sure you are right that their height will bother us at every position. It shouldn't be that way unless they can keep their foot speed up with ours. I loved to have bigger guys guarding me in M2M back in my days because of my foot speed. I could always create scoring space and I'd become more alpha dog because I knew I had them beat. I hated the little guys that were fast and sticking to me like glue.

We should have lateral speed over Kentucky. Right, nothing is proven until the game is played... but little guys should be have quicker lateral movement over bigger guys. Granted, Kentucky is stuffed with McDs AAs... we also have highly ranked players. I can't really see either of the twins being able to match foot speed with Frank.

@jaybate-1.0

"This seems to be the ultimate test of Self's adaptability. Who we have been under Self is "let them set tempo and we beat them playing it their way.""

True. We don't take advantage of this aspect of the game. There are so many games where we could make it an easy win just by controlling tempo and instead we grind them out. I don't understand why.

When I hear Self talk down the full court press saying that good teams will beat a press tells me he doesn't understand the real benefits of a press. Most teams will beat a press, even bad teams (if they just get the ball to a good ball handler). One of the goals is to wear down a team, and eventually, even the best teams will give us some TOs when they are tired. Also, as the game progresses, teams tire more just within their offensive possessions, hence (most likely) dropping their offensive effectiveness.

Another vital benefit of running the press is to control tempo. Forcing teams to speed up their offense usually brings rewards. If you can cut out a few seconds of the shot clock on every possession you are making an impact especially with teams that like to use the entire shot clock. Another benefit is changing the starting position of the other team's possessions. Since you pressed them you make positions a bit different to the start of every possession. That sounds like a little thing, but it actually is huge. You are removing a key piece of structure and rhythm out of their offense.

We never have to make a steal with our press and we should still reap big rewards.

We don't have to run the press on every possession, just mixing in a hard press is enough to do the job, and sometimes it works better that way because it catches teams a little bit off guard and mixing it up makes possessions differ from each other.

The Axis? And I thought the key to beating anyone was to score more points than them.

I said it last year, for a Bill Self team to win games, it has to win the rebound battle, shoot a high percentage from the line, do it's best to not turn it over and take quality shots.

It sounds simple, but look at the games KU lost last year, they were out rebounded, they played sloppy and couldn't make a FT when needed. They got out hustled.

Even in games where they turned the ball over 17 times, they went hard to the glass and took good shots and made FT's to push for the win.

If this makes anyone feel better, if the Mildcats were in the NBA, they would have the 2nd largest team in the NBA. I wish the tallest team always won in many of our NCAA games.... Northern Iowa and VCU come to mind.

It won't be easy, but we can beat them. All of Kensucky's returning starters are complimentary players. The offense ran through Randle and Young last year, so there is a question who takes over the scoring. My thought is the Bobsey twins will assert themselves as the alpha scorers by launching shot after shot. That is a good thing if the skulking twins shoot anywhere as badly as they shot last year ( .423 for Thing #1, and .367 for Thing #2). The Bobseys reasons for returning another year have little to do with making the Mildcats the best- they are more interested in improving their stats for the NBA draft. In every game, in the back of their mind, they are thinking ... gotta score ... gotta put points up. Now Coach Squid will fight against their impulses, but they have the ball- he doesn't. They already know they are going to be pulled at certain times due to their need to divy out minutes to all the semi-pros, so the pressure is on to put #s up when you're in the game. We will need an outstanding defensive effort from our guards, but I think we can pressure them enough to have a poor game.

Poythress came back due to his numbers collapsing last year. He is no way a 3- can't shoot a lick. Oubre is way too quick for him. And Oubre is big enough to keep him off the boards.

Lyles is a guy that could hurt us, but the jury is out how aggressive he will be in his 2nd collegiate game. I think Perry could hold his own against him in this game.

I assume Cliff draws the task against Dakari/WCS. Cliff is going to get his, but the fouls could ring up quick. So, I'm sure we'll see Landen and company a lot.

So, where's the Alpha Dog? Who is the Alpha dog? Is he sitting on the bench, waiting to get his 5 minutes (guaranteed) each half? Or, will it be the Bobsey twins launching up shot after shot?

I like the fact that nobody thinks we can win. I relish an underdog role, which happens so rarely for KU. If we play a good game, we will beat them.

@drgnslayr for some strange reason, I think Coach Self knows about the advantages and disadvantages of different presses, and what he can do w/the team he has. Jmo

@drgnslayr said:

@BeddieKU23

"I will point this out again though, we don't have a good chance if Ellis and Selden don't take the Alpha dog roles in this game and put up big numbers."

I totally agree with that. I know it was just an exhibition game, but Perry didn't exactly impress the crowd with his first impression for the coming season. I thought Wayne intentionally backed off the throttle a bit to focus on getting our new guys involved.

I'm sure you are right that their height will bother us at every position. It shouldn't be that way unless they can keep their foot speed up with ours. I loved to have bigger guys guarding me in M2M back in my days because of my foot speed. I could always create scoring space and I'd become more alpha dog because I knew I had them beat. I hated the little guys that were fast and sticking to me like glue.

We should have lateral speed over Kentucky. Right, nothing is proven until the game is played... but little guys should be have quicker lateral movement over bigger guys. Granted, Kentucky is stuffed with McDs AAs... we also have highly ranked players. I can't really see either of the twins being able to match foot speed with Frank.

We should have an speed edge, Mason & Graham should hopefully disrupt the Harrison twins. From all accounts it looks like 1 of the 2 has gotten significantly better at running the team. What I saw from both of them last year was streaky shooting, and bailed out bad offense by ref's on straight line drives. Their length gives them an advantage driving to the hoop. Their backup Ulis is a jet who may see extended minutes if KU is able to disrupt the twins flow. That would be the best hope is that we can show a little Chalmers & Russ Rob action on perimeter D.

We hope that an improved Mason & freshman Graham will be up for the challenge. We don't know how Graham will react in the spotlight, will he be a Ennis type who can be that calm, poised leader or will he be easily rattled. It might even be worthwhile to play Svi or Kelly on them and match big guard for big guard. We have plenty to throw at them in the backcourt, but the 3 spot on is where an advantage for UK starts to show.

I'm also not worried about Wayne and Perry. I did expect more from Perry but I believe when he's playing 30+ minutes, his ability to affect the game will come through. Same with Selden, I believe if he focuses on getting to the hoop consistently that he has a chance to be special this year.
Tuesday should show us a little more where guys are as we get ready for the opener. Ideally I would like to see both of them get 15-16 points tomm.

And friday should give us an idea of realistic chances for the Kentucky game. Williams will be a tuff customer and hopefully Self has them cranked up not thinking ahead.

@drgnslayr

I am sure Coach Self will come up with the best plan, he know his personnel better than any of us and has a lot of talent assisting him.

My best guess is that KU will try to control the tempo with speed and quick feed to the inside where our (hopefully) quicker and more agile bigs can score or draw fouls or quick passes to the outside for open looks that our, so far "potential" shooters, can take advantage. I would say use the full court press but we all know that Coach Self likes a strong, hard working traditional defense, so if he uses it it will be a surprise and will not be for long. KU also has a deep bench so I would not be surprised to see changing looks, both in offense and defense, throughout the game as way to disturb UK's rhythm.

In any case, the margin of error is extremely small and KU will have to play pretty much "mistake-free" to come up on top. No line in Vegas yet, but it would not surprise me to see it in the 8-10 range.

If KU is to win this game The heat seeking Mason is going to have to be nails in the paint. He can't shot off not knowing where he going to land. Meaning he needs to be under control when he drives. The Bombers are going to be need quick and precise and ready to strike from three land. Hit the three and it opens up the paint. Bring in the tanks on missed shots to crash the boards. Let them know they are in a dog fight. Assassins are always needed in warfare. Perry Ellis needs to be quite and swift. In any war a secret weapon is needed. One the opponent has know idea about. The secret agent Svi will need to be deadly and stealth. Here then there. Finally we need some chemical warfare. We need the Hulk Cliff Alexander to get mean. Really mean.

UK better be ready :)

It has taken a while... but I finally feel like more people in here are gaining enthusiasm to play Kentucky!

It's nice to be underdog for a change. We aren't supposed to win this one and if we do the entire basketball world will take notice!

Maybe it is better we lose, build our chip, and go quietly to practices until March.

Naaaa...... let's just kick their azzes! It's friggin' Kentucky and Calipari!

ROCK CHALK!

Whoever wins this game will have to manage expectations.