🏀 KuBuckets Archive

I still can't believe what happened in Stillwater. How did we lose that game?

Free throw disparity? Obviously I'm biased but I thought the officiating was horrendous. Perry seemed like he was mauled every time he went up inside, yet there was seldom anything called.

Of course it doesn't matter as much if you're getting foul calls when you can't make your free throws...

Turnovers? Probably a significant factor. I'd be interested to know the points off turnovers.

We looked like we had very poor offense once they started defending the 3 better. This has been a fear of mine all along while discussing the "outside-in" approach we hoped this team would take. We made 10-20 threes; I think if you would have asked most fans before the game they'd take that in a heartbeat and chalked this one up as a win. Yet in the second half the open looks were harder to come by, and when they didn't come we looked lost.

Where was Oubre? Why did he play only 14 minutes? In the second half when the outside looks dried up having his offense off the dribble could have been huge. Yet he languished away on the bench.

As much as I love Mason, he played horribly in stretches. Missing free throws, haphazardly driving to the hoop in transition and coming up empty, shooting his mouth off and getting a technical, etc. Minus his three 3s, a pretty poor game (so much for my hawk to rock).

Selden continues to demonstrate he's lost his hops. He had a shot at the rim where it should have been an easy dunk. Instead we came up empty. He had a Naadir Tharpe moment getting his pocket picked at half-court. Continues to be a liability handling pressure. Like Mason, minus his outside shooting, not a great game (at least on the offensive end of the court).

Jamari with 6 turnovers...ugh.

Perry, despite my contention he was hacked, still has to be better than 4-12 from the field. Soft against contact.

Very frustrating game. Moving on I suppose.

@icthawkfan316 I agree, we are not strong w/the ball! Block outs? TO's free throws, etc! Oubre was just off today. Really disappointed w/effort and heart!

18 points off of those 18 turnovers.

Oubre's jump shot form seems terrible to me...looks like he has 1 foot in front of the other most of the time and kinda jumps forward...no wonder it seems to hit the back of the rim.

Bad turnovers. Missed Free throws. Overall poor execution in the 2nd half.
That is how I would sum it up.

And I love Greene, I'm sure Self played him a lot in the 2nd half because he is our best offensive weapon, but he does a lot of stuff wrong, I think. Fumbles around out there. A couple of times he didn't even come close to contesting shots when the shooter was right next to him.
Total 2nd guessing, but man in retrospect, I wish KO had played more in the 2nd half. But I'm not putting the loss on Greene. Others had more blame.

This was the worst ball handling, passing, shot selection, and shot execution - sometimes seeming to just throw the ball towards the hoop - since I watched one of my girls 8th grade game last year in their schools first year of playing hoops.

@Hawk8086 I actually thought Greene was doing more stuff right than his teammates. He did get caught a couple of times with his hand down, but overall I thought his defense was decent. There was one time he got caught by himself having to guard 2 guys on the perimeter in the half-court set, and I thought "where are his teammates?!?" I think his ball handling is superior to Selden's (we saw Greene used as the second guy in the backcourt against the OSU press as opposed to Selden). He doesn't seem to panic.

No reason you can't have Greene AND Oubre in the game at the same time. Greene is essentially a tall 2-guard on offense.

We're soft. Except for our hands. They are incredibly stiff. I guess that's why we have the ball bounce off our hands and into the hands of the opponents on seemingly every other possesion. We don't get back on defense anywhere near as quickly as we should. We have the attention span of most two year olds. And the intellect.

I know a lot of KU fans are "poo-poo"-ing the importance of Conference Championship verses National Championships. Until this team figures out how to play ball, they'd better PRAY for another Conf. Championship, because we're likely to get bounced (again) in the second or third game of the tournament.

@icthawkfan316 Well, I hear you, but while Greene was not credited (?) with many turnovers, he was pretty shaky, I thought, handling the ball.

@nuleafjhawk No doubt, our weaknesses are still there. But, it is a journey. I think we will continue to get better. Sort of one of those jagged upward trend lines, if you will......not a straight line.
4 losses still probably wins the league outright. 5 probably ties. But you don't know what ISU is going to do the rest of the way, so if we can beat KSU on the road, we can still lose at OU and WVU and win the league....probably outright. But, we have to do those things, of course.

@icthawkfan316 I guess what I'm saying is we need Greene to score to justify him playing a lot of minutes.....and he didn't do that in the 2nd half.
Again....I agree he wasn't the major problem. Jamari....6 turnovers....bad enough for a point guard who has the ball in his hands all the time....a 4 man....really bad.

It's games like these that really try my patience with this team.

People have been very quick to throw around the "this game was as bad as the Kentucky/Temple game" at various points in the season. To me, this game really was that bad.

We had this game. It was ours to lose and that's exactly what we did. I don't think anyone played particularly well, but I also don't think that we lost because one person didn't contribute per se...except for Jamari Traylor.

That was the worst game I've seen him play all season. If Cliff Alexander gets benched for not having his "motor" running, what's Traylor's excuse? How long is his leash? Think about it. Brannon Greene has gotten a longer leash from Self, sure. But he's also arguably the best three point shooter in college basketball. His leash should be long. Back to the motor thing... If having a motor is of such vital importance, what do you call a bounce pass while running the weave? That was hard to watch. Also, you don't feed the post with a bounce pass from the top of the key. Bill Self's infatuation with Jamari Tralyor is beyond logic. I'm beginning to ponder conspiracies it's so bad. People crucified Tharpe and Tyshawn for turnovers. I understood that. That's not what you want from your point guards. But that's the thing, they were point guards! They handled the ball every play! Traylor should hardly touch the ball except on occasion. Six turnovers!? What are we even doing anymore? One last thing I'd like to point out on Traylor. When asked about who KU should look to for energy, Self said, "I think we should look to Jamari & obviously that didn't work today…" I could hit Self for saying something so GD stupid. Then why did you play him 23 minutes, coach??? You weren't willing to give Graham, Alexander, or Oubre (or SVI!!!) another look, but you were willing to stick with someone who gives you little more than "energy"? Yup. Got it. Can't win, don't try.

KU runs an 8 man rotation primarily, right? That rotation consists of Mason, Graham, Greene, Selden, Oubre, Alexander, Ellis, and Traylor (and sometimes Lucas). Who is the worst player in that rotation? Please, tell me. Since when did Jamari Traylor turn into such a great option? His offensive efficiency is appalling. It is sickening.

One last thing, I'm not gonna complain about officials (although I agree, and I'm biased along with everyone else), but to hear that Mason got a T for saying "everyone chill out," makes me wanna throw up. Shameful.

Absolutely astonishing loss. Don't let one loss against a bad team turn into two now...

@Hawk8086 @nuleafjhawk Winning the league is still a probability IMO. No need for prayers asking for divine intervention. ISU is the only real threat. Texas was supposed to be coming for our throne, but they imploded and have 6 losses. The wheels are coming off for WVU, who is 2-4 against the rest of the conference not named Texas Tech & TCU. Faylor is still coached by Scott Drouche, so they're not a legit threat. OU with 4 losses and still 2 games against ISU and one game against us, so realistically they'll end up with at least 5 losses.

So we're still in good position to win the Big 12. But the NCAA tourney...better tighten some things up!

@icthawkfan316 No question....need to tighten some things up!

@MoonwalkMafia You know, the home team will usually get the benefit of the calls. We get the same in AFH. Refs are human too (well, most of them) :)

@MoonwalkMafia Are we sure that's what Mason said? Or all he said?

@icthawkfan316 Haha fair point. What can I say. I'm pissed off...

@MoonwalkMafia Me too!

Frank said in post game something like, we need to shut up.

@icthawkfan316 who's not?

@Crimsonorblue22 The team.

That's what bugs me the most about this team. They give up a big lead, look stupid and not one of them looks pissed off. They're all looking down at their chests and see that it still says KANSAS.

I guess they figure that's good enough for them.

@Crimsonorblue22 It begins to look as tho every member of this Jayhawk squad will have to shoot off his mouth in a crucially volatile moment when refs are pumped with blood racing all the way from ears to testicles. Except Gentleman Ellis, of course. Freshmen and sophomores represent powder kegs, just waiting for explosive moments to shoot off their mouths and turn the positive flow of a series into sudden reversals...tsunamis, if you will. I suppose that Graham's technical last week was to be expected, as he is still green about the gills. But Mason? HOLY F. MOLY! Chowderheads!

@nuleafjhawk during the post game show, I think you get it, they looked and sounded pretty pissed off. Interviewed Selden, Perry, BG, and Mason.

Moonwalk...whoops you were only complaining about the T....got you mixed up with some of the ref comments.

One thing we are learning about this team: Never feel comfortable when this team has a lead, no matter who or where or when.

Should make for some pretty tense and dramatic games in March.

@icthawkfan316 couldnt have said it better myself. KU sucked bigtime in the second half and the officiating sucked even harder the whole freekin game.

We lost because of a new strategy put in place. In order to come out fresh in the second half, our guys took a 20-minute halftime "power nap."

Guess they didn't quite wake up after 20 minutes.

The team is exhausted. Mason has been rode into the ground.

@Crimsonorblue22 You are an awesome fan to watch the post game show. I could barely stand to watch the game. But I did.