I certainly won't bag on you about Lucas. He represented one of the few shining lights from this road trip. I'd like to see Lucas given more minutes now, too. Not so much because of his numbers in the few minutes he played... but because he's another legitimate option and he's never seen real court time before. From what I hear, he's already made huge improvements since being in Lawrence. So let's see how he reacts when he's given real PT. Some players bounce up their games an entire notch when given real minutes. He may be that type of player. We won't know unless he's given some minutes.
Every team, including great teams, get stuck in ugly games. It is important that we win them. The last game mostly became ugly at the end... but at least they brought some energy to that game. I never did see the first game enough to judge. Their loss to Villanova was pathetic. I'd make them run stairs for a month if I had a team that pulled that ridiculous stunt. They embarrassed themselves and should apologize to the entire Jayhawk nation for not showing up... especially the 3000 fans that built their holiday around supporting Jayhawk basketball. I wrote an entire rant about that yesterday.
I think it goes without saying that Embiid will continue to receive favor for more minutes. Embiid and Mason were the other two shining lights that came on in the Bahamas. From the beginning, I mentioned a need to start Embiid... but after further thought, I guess I don't really care if he starts or not, just that he gets plenty of minutes. Starting is something that can impact some player's attitude. I don't think Embiid cares. He didn't grow up with basketball. But it may mean a great deal to Black. He hasn't always performed well but we do need Black this year. He works with all the big guys in practice, too. So if Embiid doesn't care, what is the loss in starting Black? As long as Embiid gets his minutes. He'll never play 40 minutes.
I'm perplexed with Tharpe. At times he really shines... and other times he really dips. The largest attribute he should bring to this team is consistency. And he has a respectable trey shot, but he doesn't use it. He feels a bit too much responsibility to facilitate other scorers. We need perimeter scoring. I don't think Frank is our answer for that... So when we have both Frank and Naa in the game at the same time (and Selden on the bench) who can hit the trey? Better question: who WILL hit the trey?
Villanova exposed how soft we play on the perimeter. Their perimeter trap was marginal at best... but it totally worked to disrupt our half court offense. We had no answer for it. We were unable to attack it, and let's face it... it should have been a gift for us to shred it up and throw it in Wright's face. The fact that Wright brought that strategy should tell us all how desperate he was to try and find anything that would slow us down. He'll never admit it, but no one was more surprised than Wright that it worked and we never adjusted to it and attacked it.
That's what happens in November to rookie teams. They get exposed for how little they know and how little they can change during a game to react to the pressure. I don't even care about that, because it is just a part of the game that seems to be a rite of passage.
What I do care about is hustle. And this team has enough skill and depth to bet 99% of the teams out there if they just show up ready to play!
