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Our game with Lafayette was entertaining. We got to enjoy some good 3pt shooting, some players that don't usually run the show ran the show, and it was (for the most part) an upbeat game during the holiday season.

We can easily become delusional from some of the events of this game. Lafayette is not on the national radar screen and few even know where they come from. However... there were plenty of nice outcomes to this game that were unexpected. And as we all like to deflate this victory because of the opponent, we should also make note of the time of year it was played in, and how games around Christmas time can often be dictated by distractions away from the game.

Here are my takeaways from this game:

1. Frank Mason continues to improve. We all know he has skills and packs a lot of athleticism in his mole-build body. Frank has been lighting it up from 3, and he often comes through with a big basket when the team needs a big basket. That is certainly a part of leadership. He is converting from volume scorer to team facilitator. He can only improve, and I see this guy earning plenty of national recognition by his senior year. We are fortunate to have him!

2. Kelly Oubre continues to improve. I really thought the wraps would come off of his game after Christmas... after all the heavy Christmas season practices, but I guess Kelly couldn't wait that long. Gone are the cobwebs, and those that were way too critical about his first moments as a Jayhawk.

3. Hunter Mickelson finally steps out of the shadows. The guy we saw in this game was the guy Self (and most of us) thought he would become at Kansas. The key for getting more production from Hunter is to keep giving him some minutes. Without those minutes he'll rust away like the Titanic.

4. Perry Ellis doesn't stay hydrated. That is my conclusion after reading the comments made about his lackluster performance. Flu-like symptoms from guys who don't have the flu are typically caused by lack of hydration. He even mentioned it himself. He may be one of those guys that hates to drink water. Pity if it is true. There is no way a guy his size and athletic ability can play that many minutes and produce so little. His energy was zero. Perry should drink plenty of water an hour before game time, and even better, some watermelon juice. And then eat a banana, for potassium and slow-releasing sugars to energize him for 40 minutes of basketball.

5. BamBam Traylor continues to play harder after his late night antics. Maybe he needs to make the same mistake in March! (joke)

6. Svi's extra practice on his trey after practice is paying off. He's going to continue to improve and give us some nice minutes off the bench.

7. Wayne Selden continues to be unselfish. He remains focused on doing more than scoring, and he's one of our key glue guys because of it. 6 assists from the 2? Are you kidding me?

8. Cliff Alexander continues to show us he is a work in progress. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will his offense be. He definitely is not a OAD, and I think we can start realizing that and build recruiting around him staying.

9. Brannen Greene better treat practice schedules as important as PT because the relationship has now been made obvious.

10. Landen Lucas, with all of his solid fundamentals, will have to fight harder if he wants to stay in the discussion for PT.

Self said it was a great week of practice, and it showed in many areas... mostly on offense. Our defense continually had many issues. Guys didn't make switches, and spacing was just down right horrible. We were fortunate that Lafayette didn't capitalize more on their 46.2% shooting from trey.

The difference in this game was rebounding. We owned 20 more rebounds, and those possessions gave us a margin to own the score card. If the Leopards had a footer in the paint, this game would have been a lot closer than it was.

It seems that all of us are "in" for making this a banner year for 3pt shooting. It is clear we need to make the emphasis on the perimeter. I think we should spend some practice time developing the secondary break open trey opportunities. Taking the trey shot on a secondary break offers many opportunities, including hitting a wide open trey, and a 50/50 chance at an offensive rebound (once we train our guys to focus on it). It is hard to come up with a better opportunity than that!

Now.... on to Temple!

@drgnslayr Posted this reply on another thread, but had to post it here too:

Wow. One decent game against Lafayette and people are crazy jocking Mickelson. @ralster even suggests he moves into the starting line-up and Ellis moves out.

And I think Self has a quick hook and overreacts to things at times...

Reel it in. The Oubre praise is a little more deserved. He had been making strides previously, against real competition. The expectations were that he could step in for Wiggins. For Hunter, one game against an undersized front line doesn't do much to move my expectation needle for him other than maybe he has finally done enough to overtake Lucas in terms of minutes. Maybe.

Now in your intro you try and discredit such comments that like to invalidate performances against inferior competition by saying it's Christmas time and thus there are distractions. To that I would say it was Christmas time for Lafayette too. Circumstances don't just affect our team. It's more convenient for us to believe that Lafayette was playing above their heads when they cut the lead to 8 in the second half.

I guess I could buy that Mickelson was finally stepping out of the shadows if he was a freshman. If his early struggles were just a product of him getting acclimated to the physical rigors of the college game. But he's not a freshman. He played 2 years at Arkansas. He was able to practice all of last year in Self's system. I just have a hard time thinking that it's finally clicked for him, and that now he can be counted on against Big 12 level competition. It would be great if it's true. We could use him. But before I jump on the believe in Hunter bandwagon, let me see him do it against a more worthy opponent.

@icthawkfan316

I don't think I was over the top with my comments about Hunter, just saying he needs to maintain some minutes. Which he does, and did need even before yesterday.

I've said this maybe a million times before in here.... in the past, we have wasted needed depth in March because guys rusted away on the bench all year. Brannen was an example of that last year. We very clearly need more post depth and options. I gave my caveat before boasting on Hunter about the level of competition we were playing. But even if we were playing a HS team, he still showed some moves other post players we have can't seem to make. He is a legitimate option, even Self has already stated that.

We can't go out there and recruit in a player for the second semester. We need post options. I prefer what Hunter showed us yesterday versus if he didn't show up.

If Perry plays like he played Saturday on Monday, it might be a good idea to bench him and start Hunter, if for no other reason than to motivate Perry. Starting seems to be a motivating factor for players, so why not use it to our advantage?

One last thing... players need to be encouraged. If we can't give him a slap on the back for his game on Saturday, then we potentially shelf talent that we are in desperate need of. I look at Hunter and I do see similarities to Cole. What if Cole received no praise after he came out of the shadows against UNC?

@drgnslayr

Its about damned time you dusted off the holiday blues, or whatever had has kept you quieter than usual.

This board is a day late and a dollar short without your initiating and impacting.

You've done the deed.

It makes you different whether you want to be or not.

Same with REHawk.

I apologize for any distracting pissing matches with others I may have caused in case that has kept you lower profile than usual.

And if you endured a loss, then please know we are all with you in spirit.

And are here to kick your ass out of it, when you are ready. :-)

Your take on dehydration may seem minor to you, but it is exactly what we can't get elsewhere.

You are the real politik of basketball.

Rock Chalk!

@jaybate-1.0

Thanks for the encouraging words!

I haven't been in a posting slump as much as just very busy with business. It seems the uptick in the stock market and downturn of gas prices (or whatever) has motivated consumers to do what they do best..... consume!

I really like this team. It's a unique mix of guys that have all kinds of potential. And the difference has forced Self into a different game, and I think that is good for Self and the future of Jayhawk basketball! Surely, Self's growth this year will bleed forward into coming years.

This is our chance to see my constant blabbering context of "x-axis basketball" get put into practice! It seems like every year our biggest talent of players are not just the one or two footers we have in the post, so this is their time to shine and prove their worth! I hope this year ends on a positive note and we make some noise in March. It would do wonders on our future focus on better perimeter basketball... something we have been in need of uplifting for quite some time!

@drgnslayr

Whew! Glad its good bidness. Now, I don't have to try to figure out how to kick someone's ass that can kick mine. :-)

@drgnslayr said:
" I think we should spend some practice time developing the secondary break open trey opportunities. Taking the trey shot on a secondary break offers many opportunities, including hitting a wide open trey, and a 50/50 chance at an offensive rebound (once we train our guys to focus on it). It is hard to come up with a better opportunity than that!"

Took the words right of my mouth! I agree 100%!

@ drgnslayr good post, however...a couple of thoughts
Hunter is not athletic enough to compete consistently at this level, but we love his effort and he will make a difference in a couple of games this year
Cliff is a OAD guaranteed and is already a lock for lottery pick, and could be our best player by March (if yes, Final Four for KU)
Rock Chalk!

@drgnslayr It wasn't just you; it was/is/has been over the top on the Oubre thread.

I agree about your wasted depth. I just wonder if he is a legitimate option, or if yesterday was more of what Self calls "fools gold".

We've had entire threads dedicated to what Self says and has already stated. The double talk. His mastery of the press. So does Self saying Hunter is a legitimate option make it so? If he is, why are we only seeing it now, against Lafayette? We take Self's words with his actions, and his actions have shown a general distrust to plug in Mickelson against anything resembling a quality opponent thus far. Maybe this is the spring board. Just count me as a skeptic - someone trusting the actions of Self thus far rather than what he tells us.

I'm not opposed to encouraging players for good performances. Heck, I'm not by any means saying I wish Hunter would have stunk up the joint yesterday. I'm glad he played well. But I'm just saying let's see it again, more consistently, and against stiffer competition before we start projecting him as a starter, as Jeff Withey or Joel Embiid, as someone who can be counted on in March. Also, the Cole comparison is not really a good parallel, as Cole was a freshman playing behind 2 seniors and Shady, all of whom have gone on to have pro careers. Mickelson is a redshirt junior who has thus far been playing behind Landon Lucas. I think we all knew that Cole would shine when it was his turn and he was given the opportunity. I can't say I know that about Mickelson just yet.

@icthawkfan316

Right on... Hunter needs to back this performance up with more performances throughout the season.

"I just wonder if he is a legitimate option"

Problem is... we only have a few choices in the post. He plays a different brand of ball than BamBam or Landen.

I think we just have to view him as he is... a unique option!

Since we were able to get that kind of game out of him yesterday, we can get some of that game back in other games. Granted the competition will typically be tougher... but sometimes we just need someone to come in and spark the guys. Hunter was a really nice spark to this team, and we saw the other guys respond from his performance.

The key to depth is someone comes in and does some nice things and at least doesn't give up ground because our starters needs a breather. Even better... if we can have someone off the bench provide a spark we become a much better team!

Gosh.... remember when Sherron was our sixth man?

@drgnslayr

I agree with most of this post.

You can't take too much because this was a game we were never going to lose, although the early 2nd half shooting by Lafayette showed the same issue we've constantly had, we don't like to keep leads. But we responded well and put them away and almost hit 100. They were a horrible defensive team but you saw how good they can be on offense. They will be a force in their conference with the way they shoot it.

A few notes. I don't think Cliff is staying, he's doing enough to keep himself in the lottery discussion. His stock is never going to be higher than it is this year. If he continues to do what he's doing while improving on offense he's gone. Even if he stays there's no way you stop recruiting all the big guys we are after. With Zimmerman, Bragg, Diallo, possibly Maker, Rabb we really need to get 1 and 2 would be great.

We missed on Turner last year, we can't afford to miss out on all these guys. I'm sorry but I don't feel comfortable having the same front court next year. We need to get bigger, more athletic and longer. Diallo would be the rim protector we need. Bragg would bring offense. Rabb & Maker are NBA talents, Zimm is the most skilled right now.

Hunter gave us great minutes yesterday. I'd put him right in the rotation and drop Lucas. There is no excuse for missed dunks for a big man. He's just not played well on either end. Hunter played with Energy, rebounded, blocked shots and was active on Offense. Heck give the guy a chance to keep that kind of momentum up. Again the opponent might have aided his stat line but it was encouraging to see Hunter respond to the minutes.

@BeddieKU23

We definitely don't want to stop recruiting bigs. I'm thinking (if Cliff stays) he can help us recruit! Why not take a page out of Calipari's recruiting book and focus less on quantity minutes offered and more on quality minutes and quality practices (for development)? Cal has these recruits sold on the concept of no more than 20 mpg. Was it Bragg talking up how impressed he is in Cal's platoon?

I don't know how Cal does it... but he does it. He could sell an ice cube to an Eskimo!

Thanks Drgn! That was a good post game analysis. Much better than some of those guys at bleacher or yahoosports. If I may, Id like to offer my own perspective and some questions.

@drgnslayr said:

Our game with Lafayette was entertaining. We got to enjoy some good 3pt shooting, some players that don't usually run the show ran the show, and it was (for the most part) an upbeat game during the holiday season.

We can easily become delusional from some of the events of this game. Lafayette is not on the national radar screen and few even know where they come from. However... there were plenty of nice outcomes to this game that were unexpected. And as we all like to deflate this victory because of the opponent, we should also make note of the time of year it was played in, and how games around Christmas time can often be dictated by distractions away from the game.
Most definitely distractions happen during the holiday season for our boys. I believe it was a couple years ago, I think it was Tennessee at home, We should have won that game, they were short because of injuries and our guys came out not ready to play and got beat.

Here are my takeaways from this game:

1. Frank Mason continues to improve. We all know he has skills and packs a lot of athleticism in his mole-build body. Frank has been lighting it up from 3, and he often comes through with a big basket when the team needs a big basket. That is certainly a part of leadership. He is converting from volume scorer to team facilitator. He can only improve, and I see this guy earning plenty of national recognition by his senior year. We are fortunate to have him!

I keep saying that Frank reminds me of Sherron. Not exactly the same player by any means but his grit, his toughness and fearlessness to me are nearly identical. Frank is proving to be just as good a shooter as Sherron was and his passing skills are improving. But again by no means a clone of Sherron at this point in Franks career. We are lucky to have him! I really hope Devonte' heals quickly and can return this year. I guess we will find out soon if he gets a rouge smoking jacket, right?

1. Kelly Oubre continues to improve. I really thought the wraps would come off of his game after Christmas... after all the heavy Christmas season practices, but I guess Kelly couldn't wait that long. Gone are the cobwebs, and those that were way too critical about his first moments as a Jayhawk.

How did Kelly do on Defense? The game still goes too fast for me to pick out everyones defensive deficiencies. Kelly seemed to be active on D and have very quick hands. I think he picked a couple pockets that he didnt get credit for cuz he poked the ball out and someone else came away with it. This kid should lead us in steals soon. I really hope he doesn't declare for the draft after this season.

1. Hunter Mickelson finally steps out of the shadows. The guy we saw in this game was the guy Self (and most of us) thought he would become at Kansas. The key for getting more production from Hunter is to keep giving him some minutes. Without those minutes he'll rust away like the Titanic.

Hunter was awesome! I hope he continues to do what he did. Especially when we play some bigger bigs this season.

1. Perry Ellis doesn't stay hydrated. That is my conclusion after reading the comments made about his lackluster performance. Flu-like symptoms from guys who don't have the flu are typically caused by lack of hydration. He even mentioned it himself. He may be one of those guys that hates to drink water. Pity if it is true. There is no way a guy his size and athletic ability can play that many minutes and produce so little. His energy was zero. Perry should drink plenty of water an hour before game time, and even better, some watermelon juice. And then eat a banana, for potassium and slow-releasing sugars to energize him for 40 minutes of basketball.

Our trainers can force, ok well not force, but strongly suggest hydration to Perry during pre game and on. IV fluids, Gatorade, whatever. Maybe the student section can bring big giant bobble heads of Perry drinking a bottle of something.

1. BamBam Traylor continues to play harder after his late night antics. Maybe he needs to make the same mistake in March! (joke)

Yeah, Joke but not really joke cuz you are right, we will need super Traylor in March.

1. Svi's extra practice on his trey after practice is paying off. He's going to continue to improve and give us some nice minutes off the bench.

I knew the lid would come off for Svi some time. I believe I said as much just the other day!
Watching him drop 3 treys in a row, I almost thought that he was gonna break Brannens total makes in a game for a minute
7. Wayne Selden continues to be unselfish. He remains focused on doing more than scoring, and he's one of our key glue guys because of it. 6 assists from the 2? Are you kidding me?

Yeah, Selden is a beast. He also had a double clutch dunk that I thought was awesome! See guys he still can get up. I will concede though, that he probly has lost some of his pop but I dont think its as bad as we thought, maybe? the 6 asst from 2guard doesn't surprize me, He has to be our primary back up PG. He took a seat about 6 min into the first half so he could spell Frank at PG. At least I think thats what happened.

1. Cliff Alexander continues to show us he is a work in progress. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will his offense be. He definitely is not a OAD, and I think we can start realizing that and build recruiting around him staying.

Cliff is also a beast, I hope he sticks around for another season too. Also, I hope he continues to play this way against the footers we will see in the not too distant future.

1. Brannen Greene better treat practice schedules as important as PT because the relationship has now been made obvious.

Yep, Brannen probly slept in or got himself a lil girly friend. That boy needs to keep his head on straight. Not take lessons from Jam Tray.

1. Landen Lucas, with all of his solid fundamentals, will have to fight harder if he wants to stay in the discussion for PT.

Self hinted at using a different line up of our 5 bigs each game. I mean, I think he wants to use 4 of the 5 but different every game. Wonder if he continues that trend into the conference based on match ups and practices.

Self said it was a great week of practice, and it showed in many areas... mostly on offense. Our defense continually had many issues. Guys didn't make switches, and spacing was just down right horrible. We were fortunate that Lafayette didn't capitalize more on their 46.2% shooting from trey.

I know right!? How do we let a team shoot 46% in AFH!? I know our guys can defend better than that. Why did they have so many problems? It could have been a much bigger win and KU could have broke the century mark.
The difference in this game was rebounding. We owned 20 more rebounds, and those possessions gave us a margin to own the score card. If the Leopards had a footer in the paint, this game would have been a lot closer than it was.

It seems that all of us are "in" for making this a banner year for 3pt shooting. It is clear we need to make the emphasis on the perimeter. I think we should spend some practice time developing the secondary break open trey opportunities. Taking the trey shot on a secondary break offers many opportunities, including hitting a wide open trey, and a 50/50 chance at an offensive rebound (once we train our guys to focus on it). It is hard to come up with a better opportunity than that!

Now.... on to Temple!

Yes! Monday night game! Temple should be a good test for us. Another away game.

Regarding Hunter, Bill Self has shown a tendency to reward players who have stepped up significantly. The Temple game is such a quick turnabout on the schedule, I would expect Hunter to get at least 6-8 minutes to prove himself, several more minutes if he continues to shine. There exists not enough practice hours for him to miss timelines or practice himself out of playing opportunity! Concurrently, Landon's progress has fallen too flat to ensure Self's confidence in him at the moment. During practice hours at the extended Christmas break, this could change, of course. I will be more than somewhat surprised if Landon starts vs. Temple...or enters the game before Hunter's number is called.

@drgnslayr

Cliff is the perfect complementary 4 to a Zimmerman 5.

We've got to get Cliff out of the 5 at all costs.

I know we've got Perry at the 4, and I don't know how to solve that, but Cliff cannot be wasted the way Sullenger was at Ohio State playing 5.

P-O-W-E-R F-O-R-W-A-R-D!

No matter how good Cliff becomes offensively, he will always get eaten by a good footer in March. It is wrong to build teams around undersized guys if there's a choice. There is a choice. Find the footer and figure find a scheme for what to do with Perry.

Cliff needs a footer like TRob needed Withey/Kieff.

Cliff could be an all timer at power forward.

Self and Big Shoe have to get him one.

@jaybate-1.0 Is that LITTLE Big Shoe????

@REHawk

That would be correct. I believe no one gets an OAD footer just on the coach's ability to melt a mom's heart.

Concerning Self speak, like all ferocious competitors, his goal is to play well and win, better yet, win even if you do not play well.

Coach Self is a fiery guy, much, much more so that his press conferences (re: locker room halftime "motivational speech" against FL and the team's performance since then - Self speak, 'yes, we challenged them')

Self teaches and coaches the high percentage play and overall scheme to give his team the best chance to win, every game, every year, and there is no one better than he is at grinding out W after W, conf title after conf title, with consistency and excellence

What is interesting is how much/little does a coach adjust to his current roster, and to the competition, to allow changes which are counter-intuitive, or even against his coaching philosophy, at the core.

The core of Coach Self has never been outside/in. It is not full court pressure or 40 minutes of hell or trapping zone defense or 25 threes a game or play 10 guys....(the list goes on a long way)

Coach Self is rather inflexible and we like that rigor, but does it sometimes lead to good but not great teams?

Is it possible that this team should play outside-in as some have suggested? Duke shoots lots of threes but is traditionally even more upset prone than KU. Our coach would never allow one of his teams (including this one) to live or die by the three point shot.

Without strong post play this year, Coach Self is having to adjust and we will see how flexible - and successful - he will be with this group.

Beware of Texas!

@jayhawk-007 I, for one, would wager on a pair of losses to the Horns if Self insists on customary inside-out offense. He is sitting atop a powderkeg of outside-in potential.

@jaybate-1.0 This time last year, Bill Self had to be thinking ahead: Joel and Cliff...jeez, maybe I really can find ways of juggling Perry at the 3!

@jaybate-1.0

I agree... Cliff needs a low post helper! And he can help a low post helper if he can develop more offense. I'm not sure what to think of Cliff's offense. He has hit some midrange jumpers. They look unorthodox and flat, but they go in.... sort of like his FTs. The guy has so much more he needs to develop before even considering pro ball. I just don't see him leaving this year... and surely a lot of those tall UK players will leave this year. Seems like a small hat filled with big names in this lottery... seems a bad year for someone like Cliff to throw his name into it.

We don't even know if he can dribble yet. It's pretty hard to get drafted without basic dribbling skills.

But let's look at what Cliff DOES bring to the Jayhawk table right now:

1. Rebounding
2. Defense
3. Rim scoring

All these things we need badly. All these things Perry is weak at.

There is a need to get this guy more minutes now.

Now let's look at Hunter. What does he bring to the Jayhawk table right now:

1. Rebounding
2. Defense
3. Scoring

Hunter may not be the most-athletic low post player... but he has potential of producing some numbers, and most of his numbers will come off of hustle. He's clearly just now starting to feel more confidence. Confidence usually leads to assertiveness and hustle. Let's not forget how much help Kevin Young was to us, and his entire game was built on hustle.

I agree with others, that Hunter should get some minutes Monday. He should be rewarded and given a shot to see if we can start expecting productivity out of him. He, in the least, can take Landen's minutes right now. Who knows... maybe he can even develop into being a good midrange scorer.

Reward Hunter and discipline Landen and maybe Perry. We have to start putting productivity expectations on our post guys. The hot hand gets the minutes. All these guys need to be pushed into production. Look at BamBam. He was slumping and then gets disciplined and sidelined for a game and suddenly he produces big.

Hunter has just made my "like" list... now he has to prove he belongs there!

The whole team... guys need to stay proving themselves or must sit. No free rides this year. No free rides because of seniority. No benching because of being young. Everyone has to earn their PT. Everyone!

This is a hard year to decipher Self's words. But he sounds like he's willing to reward players with minutes if they have a good week of practice.

So Evan... you want some PG minutes? Bust a nut in practice and see what happens! All of these guys need to realize the threat of potential bench time for coasting!

@REHawk Agreed,

20 threes a game on average would be good for this team but KU average over past few years is less than 16 three point attempts per game...and shoot them earlier in the possession if you are open, this could be the best shooting team (re: 3 point and FT percentage) than we have had in a long, long time

@icthawkfan316

Ict, I thinks you have it right. As nice as Mickelson's performances was, we cannot draw too many conclussi0n yet; we need him to do this on a consistent basis and so far we have not. Oubre's performance is different insofar as we have seen him get better over the last few games and yesterday finally put it all together.

I am even more baffled about the comments about benching Ellis. Really? Ellis is currently the best and more experienced player in the roster and the player that a couple of week ago Myron Metcalf of ESPN called perhaps the best player in the conference ↗. It has also been said that Perry is weak at rebounding and scoring, yet he leads the team in scoring (13.3) and rebounding (6.6) and the only player that is even close in rebounding is Alexander at 6.3 , the next one is Traylor at 4.3; likewise the second scorer is Mason at 10.9. How can anyone suggest we bench our top scorer and rebounder because he had one below average game when he was under the weather escapes me...but then, if we are ready to start Mickelson after one decent outing, why wouldn't we bench Ellis after one poor one?

@drgnslayr - Excellent thread.

I personally don't see the Mickelson deal from yesterday as a sure thing related to anything yet. But I do see 1) It is likely that he has displaced Lucas for now as the 4th big, and 2) that it could be some evidence that Self is adjusting his offensive focus to fit his talent.

I think Self was hopeful Lucas could be some sort of presence as a more true "center" type. That appears dead.

@jayhawk-007 You are correct on three point attempts.

Here is the progression of three pointers made per game/three point attempts per game/three point percentage, in the seasons under Self:

1. 2003-04: 5.69/17.03/33.5%

2. 2004-05: 6.6/17.96/36.7%

3. 2005-06: 6.21/16.33/38.0%

4. 2006-07: 6.07/15.36/39.6%

5. 2007-08: 6.77/17.07/39.7%

6. 2008-09: 6.2/16.71/37.1%

7. 2009-10: 7.27/18/40.4%

8. 2010-11: 7.13/18.68/38.2%

9. 2011-12: 5.69/16.48/34.5%

10. 2012-13: 5.83/16.05/36.4%

11. 2013-14: 5.4/15.88/34.5%

12. 2014-15: 6.2/15.7/39.5% (through 10 games)

Going into Utah, the numbers were 5.5/15.37/35.8%.

I kind of wonder if Hunter had "a moment".... meaning... sometime over the two weeks a light bulb went off in his head. Something that made him play more aggressive, or see something that he hadn't seen before. Or maybe he made a physical breakthrough.

Those things happen for players and not just the OAD types. We have all noticed the improvement with Kelly's game. So why isn't it possible that Hunter had a breakthrough moment, too?

I think we are all just hopeful this is the case, and Saturday's performance was not a fluke or not just because we played a dud. Hunter was just playing apprehensive basketball before Saturday and now he's letting go a bit.

I'm staying hopeful.

We are rolling into Christmas week and I'm refusing to play the role of Grinch.... I'll bah humbug later, after the new year!

If I compare the best of what Lucas has shown us this year and the best of what Hunter has shown in just this one game, I'll take Hunter as the 4th big any day of the week. Hunter is probably our only hope for any kind of a legit rim-protector. He sets solid screens, runs the floor really well, and he's smarter in every other aspect of the game than Landen. He bobbled a couple good dishes inside that would have added to his scoring, but that was rust. I sense a "beast mode" potential with Hunter that Withey tapped once in a while.

No reason for Lucas to still be so casual offensively and playing like dunking the ball is illegal. He has shown zero beast mode potential.

But.... the only reason we're even talking about Landen and Hunter is because of Cliff's slow development. He should be a beast, right?? Unless he's fed the ball unguarded for a dunk or layup or gets a put-back, offensively he's still pretty weak. He's had guys barely touch his arm while he's attempting to dunk it and clanks it. They should be getting the hell out of his way. Where's that jump hook he was supposedly working on the day he got to Lawrence? Physically, how could that kid not intimidate a team like Lafayette? I can't even remember the last foul he got banging someone inside. Usually his fouls are bad screens or chasing a guy out of the paint. OK... end of rant. Try not to expect anything from freshmen.

@DanR

"I sense a "beast mode" potential with Hunter that Withey tapped once in a while."

I do, too!

I'd like to know what his real height is. He seems like he could be another Cole. And we all thought Cole was 6'11" as a Jayhawk, and he turned out to be something like 6'8 1/2". Regardless.... he is similar to Cole's size and we know what kind of shot blocker we had there!

@drgnslayr

You mean this Withey?

!Withey posterizes Cobbins.jpg ↗

or this Withey...

!withey.jpg ↗

@DanR "Playing like dunking the ball is illegal" may be my favorite quote ever on this site. So well said. He looks afraid to score the ball especially scared to slam the ball!

I am probably boring this site with my anti Lucas comments but I truly don't get it. Cliff, Perry, Jamari and now Mickelson all appear to be playing at a totally different level that Landen. It would be great if Landen could grow into a solid player by next year or his senior year but for now I think he should only be in the game if there is serious foul trouble...yet he is starting games. Can anyone remember a starter who played fewer minutes?