🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Wow! What an impressive W in Austin!!! Rock Chalk New Look Hawks!

This year's version of our beloved Hawks is different from any in the past, but does have some similarities to all the teams of the Self era - we are the champions!

The observations and recommendations of the board rats and die hard KU fans are happening as this team morphs into something we have not seen before: more threes, early in the shot clock ; more outside-in play ; more dribble-drive and less pass around the perimeter ; less high-low systematic feed the post offense ; more switching on ball screens ; more depth and diversity of options ; more trap and pressure D than in the past ; and FINALLY more minutes for the Big Red Dog.

Similarities: tough D, hustle, majority of 50-50 balls, total team concept, rebounding, high percentage offense, great coaching, on-the-road poise, vast improvement over Xmas break, intimidation and mojo against other Big 12 teams who are so used to fighting for second place that they no longer believe they can win.

Frank and Devonte are incredible ball handlers who will only get better. They do not jack up shots or try the spectacular pass or loaf on D or get discouraged or lose their poise. They are LEADERS and STUDS, both of them, and tough as nails. They way they close out games when we have the lead is very impressive, great handles and confidence to make the right play, or hit the free throw, or pressure without fouling.

We have not had this kind of play at the point guard position since Sherron graduated and there are two of them. One cannot emphasize enough the maturity and decision-making ability of these two young floor generals: No Turnovers the entire second half, and three for the game - a sign of unbelievable mastery at the lead guard position. And good D which will only get better.

And Cliff got his 25-30 minutes he deserves per game...at last! Cliff will produce the same results on average every game as the last two games if he gets time on the court. I actually thought Coach should have subbed him in even earlier in both halves. His foot work is still not very good (like a big puppy who has yet to grow into his body) but the "motor" has plenty of power. I like the fact that he comes off the bench instead of starting. Feed the Big Red Dog 25+ minutes / game and he will perform with consistency and give us a chance to do great things this season.

This team can shoot and the crowned prince of the shooters is BG. What a stroke, and what ice in the veins! And we are just learning how to get him open and he is just now learning to slide to the open spot on the court to catch and shoot. But the team as a whole are better shooters than we have had in the past. And we still have Svi who will light it up before the end of the year in a game or two. Watch as the free throw percentage gradually rises in Feb and March.

Kelly and Jamari are the hustle guys who are the most disruptive and just great athletes. Kelly's rebounding has improved vastly and his D is becoming a problem for whomever he guards. He is a combo RR (on-the ball) and Mario (in-the lane) on D, but bigger and stronger. These guys play with a chip on their shoulder, big time, and are now channeling and focusing on how to use it to higher performances within their skill ranges.

Perry is a stud who just needs to play less as a classical back-to-the-basket big and more away from the basket, like Niang, and FINALLY coach is moving him into positions on the court where he can be more effective. His D and rebounding are improving too, and he is a winner who wants to make his team better. Perry should shoot more outside shots, and well as drive and shoot. Making 15-18 footers, and the occasional three is not fool's gold but a high percentage play for Perry.

Wayne is the most underrated and under appreciated player on this team. He is a tough, tough player on both ends of the floor who seems to come up with the right play at the right time in every game (his first three got us going and gave us confidence early in the UT game - like a lot of games this year). Wayne is the ultimate team player and a wonderful complement to his teammates, doing just enough on D and O to make sure we stay on track. He is the key glue guy on this group of Jayhawks.

Landen and Hunter are good players who would start on most teams and will make more contributions this year and next as they wait for their turn. Very solid backups and great team players as well.

New Look Hawks...turn 'em loose Coach, we are on a roll and this team is getting better!

@jayhawk-007 Very good thread !!

@jayhawk-007 I think you make a good point about Selden. I thought he played physical, hard nosed defense on the perimeter yesterday. I didn't DVR the game like many of you do (I think I will start doing that) so he may have had lapses....I don't know.
I also commented on some of the other threads that I think Self has made the right moves in the last 2 games by playing the guys down the stretch that are producing the best results....even though that hasn't included Wayne. But his contributions yesterday, with big 3's and tough perimeter defense were, I think, a big part of the win.

@jayhawk-007
Great post

@jayhawk-007 said:

They are LEADERS and STUDS, both of them,

This seems almost silly for me to say in January about a team that could bring home another NC this year, but I'm going to anyways... I'm practically drooling over the thought of how good those two are going play for us next year.

In the meantime, the #11 trophy is looking pretty darn attainable right now. And with not just the high caliber of play, but completely different styles of play in B12, we should be ready for a nice long run in big dance.

Dang, its good to be jayhawk fan these days :)

(this is a great site too, hats off to whoever started it)

@Jyhwk_InTigrtwn

I sure hope they decide to play for us, but most assume they're not going to stick around.

By the way, the site started after the KUSports.com changed their login procedure forcing people to have a facebook login thus revealing their names. That irked a lot of people and a kind Jayhawk fan whose technical ability far exceeds the rest of ours started it up. Thank @approxinfinity for doing this.

Post a topic someday if you haven't, we'd like to hear what you have to say!

@wissoxfan83

I figured KO and the BRD will go pro, and we may lose a couple of others here an there, but this is the first I've heard of Mason and Moonlight maybe not returning. Did I miss something?

@Jyhwk_InTigrtwn

Oh, major booboo on my part. For some reason I was thinking you were talking about Kelly and Cliff. No, never heard anything about Frank and Graham leaving.

@jayhawk-007 Our guard play is the best since 2008, imo. I read somewhere that Coach said yesterday that Frank was where they would thought he would be as a senior, and they were surprised he had gotten so much better so quickly. Me too, Coach. I thought he was a project. Devonte is everything I thought he would be - he is simply a tremendous player. If we had those two guards last year with the skills they are showing now, we would've been national champs last year, imo. I think we have a very good shot at a deep, deep run. Yesterday, we played good, even though we didn't shoot particularly well. When you are blowing out a former top 5 team on their homecourt, and you didn't shoot that great ...well, we haven't seen our best game yet.

@Jyhwk_InTigrtwn Love your post. I absolutely agree 100% with your assessment - our guard play has been the missing link since 2008. That VCU loss hit me like a dagger. How could a team with that much frontline talent lose to the likes of VCU? and it's real simple- their guards beat our guards. Last year, UCONN's guards beat Kentucky's guards. The year before, Louie won a national championship with two great guards. This year, WE have the guards that can change a game, can hold onto a lead, can get us back into a game....

Got to love BG!

The dude brought .7 ppm with him to Austin!

He sure helps solve Self's problem of trying to know where his offense is going to come from!

Self was right... Brannen 'bailed' us out!

@KUSTEVE I agree about having these pt guards on last years team, a healthy Embiid, and of course the black hole wiggins, we would have gone much further.

@Crimsonorblue22 IMO, if we had better guard play last year, the loss of Embiid would not have been nearly as detrimental as it ended up being. It exposed our useless perimeter defense, and without Embiid to mop up our guard's lapses, we got flat smoked last year. Our much improved perimeter defense this year is making up for not having that big rim protector quite nicely, imo.

@KUSTEVE even w/these great pts, we could use a rim protector and a great offensive threat underneath. Embiid was a pretty special player. He's had a tough road this past year.

@Crimsonorblue22 I wish he had stayed. I was convinced he would. I felt like the kid that finds out Santa Claus isn't real when he announced. Could you imagine a healthy Embiid in our lineup with Cliff, Kelly, and our guard play? We would be undefeated.

I talked to Frank's dad a lot after the game outside waiting on the players to board the bus and he told me the next 2 years were going to be fun to watch Frank grow. So I said that means he is staying and he said yes. Really nice guy and down to earth. He knew a local optomerist here who flew him down. After the bus left he told me he had forgotten to ask Frank about meeting President Obama. We talked about Frank's and one after the Jamari floor burn midcourt and how Frank was not intimidated by ther bigs. I told him Frank was a BULLDOG.

Kelly's dad was really gracious and thanked me for supporting him and the team, knowing tickets were not cheap. We talked about their life after Katrina and how much closer they were. I told him I always had faith that Coach knew how to get the most from his players as there was no givens when you play at KU and that Dr. Randall had told me what a great kid Kelly was. He said Kelly always wanted to go to KU to learn from the best! I asked Kelly to sign the picture of his backwards dunk and he was so proud of that picture he showed it to his dad. He said he hadn't seen that one.

Texas fans are such a##holes. When they were up in the beginning, one guy a couple rows in front turned around and grabbed his crotch and said Rock Chalk this. Late in the second half when we were chanting Let's go Jayhawks he screamed at us to get a football team. Then when the Rock Chalk chant started, he said At least we don't have to live in Kansas. That is why our solid D and play shut them up much better than anything I could have said back at him. I've probably lived in Austin longer than him as I moved here in 1980! He kept yelling to foul us. When Ridley was at the line to shoot 2 I screamed Miss It on both and he did! Payback is a mf.
Not to mention they all started to leave with 3+ minutes left.
I asked each of the guys if they could hear us fans and Tyler said that was awsome. I asked Evan how his dad liked it at Wake and he said he was enjoying it. I told Svi to hang in there his time would come. Cliff was the last player out and I thanked him for his energy and dunking the shit out on the and he said That WAS fun. Brannen's ease in shooting is something to see in person. No words can describe how pure he is. I told Devante I loved his hussle and that this board was happy for him and in his return and he flashed a big smile. The only one I didn't see as real supportive was Landen. Hunter was really happy with the W and I said it was good to get the payback. Snacks knows everyone and was a gentleman along with Norm and Jerrance. Coach was last one out and signed my poster and said Yes this was a really good win and a tough one on the road too.

Well I'm approaching a Jaybate size post. If lumpy wants to email me I can give him some pictures to post.

Rock Chalk Jayhawks!

@jayhawk-007

Spot on on Selden. He has not scored much lately but his points seem to come at critical points in the game and are momentum builders.

@RockChalkinTexas thanks for sharing! Was the guy that grabbed his crotch this players dad?!image.jpg ↗

Kinda sounds like it could be!! Would love to see your pics! Rock Chalk!

@Crimsonorblue22 That picture is awesome. Me and my brother were watching the game and thought "really?"

@RockChalkinTexas Sounds like you had an awesome experience! Very happy for you! Thanks for sharing and for supporting the team down there :)

@icthawkfan316 I'm embarrassed for him!!

@RockChalkinTexas

Really nice post. We don't hear much about the players families and your post was a great introduction to them.

@Crimsonorblue22 said:

@RockChalkinTexas thanks for sharing! Was the guy that grabbed his crotch this players dad?!image.jpg ↗

Kinda sounds like it could be!! Would love to see your pics! Rock Chalk!

That was in the first part of the game. All the sportswriters here and comments from fans lay this on Barnes for not using the talent he has. Look at this from the sports writer here:
The Rock Chalks got every shot they wanted — Brannen Greene scorched Texas for four triples — and the team registered six assists and zero turnovers in the final half. They were Spur-like in their execution and intelligent in diagnosing Texas’ zone.

The 75-62 loss was lowlighted not only by Kansas forward Cliff Alexander’s bullish 15 points, nine rebounds and four dunks but by the inability of anyone not named Taylor or Jonathan Holmes to generate any offense for the Horns. It’s a tough spot for Taylor, whose game is built on attacking the rim, because the other guards — Javan Felix and Demarcus Holland — didn’t do nearly enough in support to get a win in what was a tremendous college basketball atmosphere.

A sellout crowd of 16,540 reached a fevered pitch in pregame, right after mascot Hook’em, accompanied by few hundred burnt-orange and white balloons, came down from the rafters with a big wire on his back. By the time Axl Rose finished welcoming the Jayhawks to the ATX jungle, Club Erwin had been transformed into Club Beehive.
Judging from all of the pregame excitement, it was a perfect environment for Texas to make a statement in conference play. It turned out to be a familiar refrain: not enough shots going down to beat a quality opponent.

The start on the scoreboard was fine — Texas fans will take an 8-2 lead over Kansas any day — but the issue was the guards weren’t getting the big guys involved. Post Cam Ridley, who had scored 29 points in the previous two games, didn’t even get a shot up for 11 minutes, 30 seconds, and Barnes was quick to point out that the big man flashed unguarded toward the bucket early in the game and wasn’t properly fed for a dunk.

The Horns, now in the middle of the Big 12 pack at 3-3, jacked up 18 3-pointers and made only three, while Ridley was credited with four field-goal attempts and five trips to the line. Holmes scored 14 points, a number Kansas coach Bill Self said he would gladly take.

“I have to do a better job of feeding the post,” Taylor told me. “Just knowing when we have a mismatch with guards on Jon (Holmes) or when Myles (Turner) has it going and things like that. Just got to do a better job of knowing that and recognizing (the defense).”

Texas Tech did the Horns a favor by knocking off Iowa State on Saturday, but that won’t matter if Texas doesn’t find the right mix when it visits the Cyclones on Monday.

Barnes said he believes the Longhorns can win the rest of their games — yeah, he really said that— but understands Texas will catch the business end of the scoreboard if he doesn’t get more balanced production from the guys in the backcourt.

Knowing is one thing. Doing is quite another.

Comments to that article.

Same old, same old.

8:18 a.m. Jan. 25, 2015

Larrywp Report
You know, this is just what happens to Barnes' teams. They look great early, then fold like a cheap tent down the stretch. When are they going to wake-up over there and stop rationalizing about Barnes. He's a good coach. Period. He ain't a great coach. Period. If they want the Basketball Program at Texas to move up to Kansas' league, they are going to have to get a coach capable of going there. But there are serious questions regarding administrations desire to have great basketball here. Hell, there's serious questions regarding their desire to have great football. The only thing you can't question about the Administrations desires, is the desire to make money. Winning, to them, is a collateral issue, not a primary one. So they are perfectly happy with Barnes. He wins just enough to, occasionally, bring in some money.

9:08 a.m. Jan. 25, 2015

Wanted to add that Kelly came out with 3 box lunches and gave his dad 2 of them. :-)

Well, one couldn't blame Texas for feeling inferior when a world class basketball organization comes to town. I assume this will be the Horn's only sell out crowd of the year, so maybe the extra noise scared them...confused them.

@KUSTEVE It will be their only sell out. Frank's dad asked us if was really sold out and we told him there were empty seats here and there. All week on sports talk here they were so confident the horns would win that I guess the players believed all that hype. I heard Fran Fraschilla say on Thursday he had to give this game to UT because of their size and Deano Guadio said that Kansas would leave Austin with a loss. That was on College Sports Nation on Sirius. Andy Katz and Miles Simon on the wrap up on ESPN last night had to say those words they wouldn't say earlier in the season -- the Big 12 goes through Lawrence!!

One last suggestion. Go to KUAthletics and watch the Rock Chalk video.

@RockChalkinTexas Is this the one?

[link text](

@bskeet Yes. Thought it showed Jamari's hussle really good.

Can't wait to go to work tomorrow and have all those that told me UT was going to win have to look me in the eye and tell me I was right! ;-)

You could just hear the long sighs from UT fans every time Brannen hit a 3. So so sweet.