Tom Keegan, over at KUSports.com, posted an interesting story today. He focused on the 5 post players for Kansas NOT named Perry Ellis. The majority of his interest was on Hunter Mickelson, and his recent rise in earned PT. Hunter was asked what parts of the game he would take from his post teammates if given the chance and he nailed the strengths of all our post players. All of our post guys have specific strengths and weaknesses that make them unique and also give us plenty of options to deal with the uniqueness of players competing against us.

Will it be enough?

Will we continue to parse out enough minutes to each of our bigs to keep them from rusting out?

Is this just a temporary situation until Cheick learns enough to be a solid contributor?

Or has Carlton got so quick out of the blocks that no one can catch him for his minutes and he will be our go-to guy in March?

How about we just keep running all of these guys every game, and focus on them pushing the pace while on the floor? Hunter mentioned this in his interview with Tom.

We have an interesting challenge for us still left to face this calendar year. No... I'm not talking about those pesky SDSU Aztecs that ruined our home winning streak last year. I'm talking about our challenge in AFH against the tallest college basketball team in NCAA history, with an average player height of 7'! A 7'2" PG? Uh.... yes.

!ucirvine.jpg ↗

I can easily imagine Frank Mason leading us in rebounds with 10. Devonte and Wayne combining for 10 steals. Perry being scoreless.

Once again... this game will largely be determined by pace. Not many footers have big motors. And when they do, they don't play their college ball at UC Irvine. The opening minutes of this game might be a little rough for us because we will have to adapt. But we better have a game plan of running these footers all the way back to Irvine. If we do that this game will turn out to be every bit as lopsided as the height advantage for the Anteaters.

7' foot anteaters? I can't even imagine this experience on the Discovery channel.

I think when Self ran Svi at PG, it was with the intention of using a big line up against UCI. UCI is a good team and was a popular pick to upset Louisville in the NCAA tournament last year.

@Texas-Hawk-10

Hard to imagine this.... but with Svi at PG, he is still at a 6" height disadvantage (or advantage for those who have bought into x-axis basketball).

This should be our fastest game all year. We should murder these guys in the open court.

@drgnslayr If Svi is running the point, he isn't guarding one of the footers though. He would only be guarding a footer when he's in with 2 of Mason, Graham, or Selden. Perry Ellis is the one with the worst match up because he's guarding a footer whether he's playing the 3 or 4 against UCI and we know his poor history against bigger players.

@Texas-Hawk-10

Who guards their 7'2" PG? Who guards their 7'6" center?

@drgnslayr Actually looking at UCI's roster and stats, UCI isn't as big as they appear to be. http://www.ucirvinesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/UCI.OverallStats.2015.16.pdf ↗ That poster is nothing more than promotion and one of the guys on that poster has only played 17 minutes all season.

7-2 Ioannis Dimakopoulos is not UCI's PG, he's their back up 5 and only plays 14 minutes per game and has 5 assists on the year so wherever you saw that Greek guy was the PG is 100% inaccurate. UCI's starting lineup this year has primarily been 7-6 Mamadou Ndiaye (23 mpg), 6-10 Mike Best (20 mpg), 6-4 Dominique Dunning (22 mpg), 6-3 Luke Nelson (30 mpg), and 6-2 Alex Young (31 mpg). Their primary reserves are 5-10 Jarron Martin (18 mpg), Dimakopoulos (14 mpg), 6-3 Aaron Wright (18 mpg) who has missed 3 games this year, 6-5 Brandon Smith (13 mpg), and 6-10 Johnathan Galloway (13 mpg). The Shawn Ray kid on that poster has only played in 4 games this year and only averages 4 mpg so he's just a scrub.

UCI could go huge if they wanted to, but the line up their going to have on the floor most of the time will include 3 guys who are 6-5 and under, not exactly a big line up. Ellis is probably going to be the guy who struggles most in this game for KU given his track record against size and he'll primarily be on Best and Galloway. This is the match up for Self to try and get Diallo some confidence on the defensive end because he's the only guy with the length to match up with Ndiaye.

@Texas-Hawk-10

Here is the read about UCI. It may have just been a stunt to gain attention. But what do they have to lose by coming in to AFH and pulling another stunt?

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/12/uc-irvine-assembles-the-tallest-starting-lineup-in-college-basketball-history ↗

Personally... I really hope they do run the big lineup. Our guys need to get over this idea of intimidation when playing a taller team. Our coaches should dedicate a practice or two just to focus on how to create scoring space. At times, most of our guys really can't handle being closely guarded, especially by taller players. Of course I am talking about Perry, but all of our guys struggle when being defended.

@drgnslayr I agree - really glad that this game wax schedjled after I learned how tall UC Irvine is. Should be good for the guys.

Printable Schedule

2015-16 Kansas Jayhawks Schedule
DATE OPPONENT RESULT/TIME RECORD/TICKETS
Fri, Nov 13 vs

Northern Colorado
W
109-72
1-0 (0-0)
Tue, Nov 17 vs

13 Michigan State*

L
79-73
1-1 (0-0)
Mon, Nov 23 @

Chaminade
W
123-72
2-1 (0-0)
Tue, Nov 24 vs

UCLA*
W
92-73
3-1 (0-0)
Wed, Nov 25 vs

19 Vanderbilt*

W
70-63
4-1 (0-0)
Tue, Dec 1 vs

Loyola (MD)
W
94-61
5-1 (0-0)
Sat, Dec 5 vs

Harvard
W
75-69
6-1 (0-0)
Wed, Dec 9 vs

Holy Cross
W
92-59
7-1 (0-0)
Sat, Dec 12 vs

Oregon State*
W
82-67
8-1 (0-0)
Sat, Dec 19 vs

Montana
W
88-46
9-1 (0-0)
Tue, Dec 22 @

San Diego State
11:00 PM ET CBS Sports Network
Conversation | Tickets
Tue, Dec 29 vs

UC Irvine
9:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Jan 2 vs

23 Baylor

4:00 PM ET CBS
Conversation | Tickets
Mon, Jan 4 vs

3 Oklahoma

9:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Jan 9 @

Texas Tech
9:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Tue, Jan 12 @

19 West Virginia

7:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Jan 16 vs

TCU
2:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Tue, Jan 19 @

Oklahoma State
7:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Jan 23 vs

Texas
2:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Mon, Jan 25 @

11 Iowa State

9:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Jan 30 vs

12 Kentucky

TBD Conversation | Tickets
Wed, Feb 3 vs

Kansas State
9:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Feb 6 @

TCU
12:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Tue, Feb 9 vs

19 West Virginia

7:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Feb 13 @

3 Oklahoma

2:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Mon, Feb 15 vs

Oklahoma State
9:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Feb 20 @

Kansas State
6:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Tue, Feb 23 @

23 Baylor

8:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Feb 27 vs

Texas Tech
TBD Conversation | Tickets
Mon, Feb 29 @

Texas
9:00 PM ET Conversation | Tickets
Sat, Mar 5 vs

11 Iowa State

TBD

Sorry this turned out bad from the transfer with no Home and Away designated or tv. All from after SDS will be on ESPN - ESPN2 - ESPN U

@drgnslayr who guards our quicker than snot 1-5 guys?

@Crimsonorblue22 I agree with slayr - run 'em out of the gym. Maybe even press from the tip.

@DinarHawk we always had to sit Withey when we played a smaller, quicker team.

@Crimsonorblue22 UCI will most likely want to play a half court game to keep their footers on the floor, but pressing is a huge advantage to the faster team.

I don't care how big UCI goes. KU should not try and match their size. There is no point.

We have better basketball players. We should run them off the floor with our speed. None of their guys are elite offensive players. Between Ndaiye, Best and Dimakopoulos, they average 12 points, 8 points and 5 points, and 7 rebounds, 4 rebounds and 3 rebounds. You don't change anything to match up with that. You just stay with who you are because you are better.

Best and Dimakopoulos aren't even shooting 50% from the floor! Only Ndiaye is a shotblocker (the other four combine for 22 total blocks on the year in 12 games. I would actually go small and spread these guys out. Something like Mason-Graham-Selden-Greene-Svi for a few minutes to see how they handled a 5 out look with Ndiaye having to chase around either Greene or Svi. That would be a fun lineup to run out there for a short burst.

Let's face it, if their bigs were any good they would be playing for an elite program and not UC Irvine. I can only hope they go with that super tall lineup, KU would literally run circles around them.

Perry does have problems against quality bigs but these guys just ain't it. Perry will have a fine day.

@drgnslayr

Our guards would have a field day against a 7'-2" PG...think about it...every time he puts the ball on the ground our PGs would steal it; PGs love to guard very tall player dribbling the ball. :)

@drgnslayr They did that against a non D1 program. UCI starts 3 guys 6-4 and under so that was a publicity stunt and not what UCI does on a regular basis. KU should win this game, but UCI is a good team and KU probably isn't running them out of the gym like they have most teams. They regularly sub their bigs to keep them fresh since they all average about 15-25 mpg.

My point with this thread is that we should never be intimidated because of height. We are bound to face some tree-like teams and post players this season.

That doesn't mean we think the way we were thinking when we were smoked by Kentucky last year. We gave them just what they wanted... a shorter opposition who never used a shot fake or created scoring space... just took it up right in the teeth of their big guys.

I would like to think we can be just a wee bit more sophisticated this year. Stop focusing on our disadvantages and focus on our advantages. We aren't going to overcome physics. If we bring shots in on a 7'6" player that can dunk flat-footed we get what we deserve.

But if we decide to look at these kinds of match ups as the "glass is half full" then we quickly realize what a huge advantage we have by going up against guys that are 7'6". Like... how the heck is that guy going to fight through an off-ball screen?

I hope UCI runs at least two 7-footers at a time. We should focus off-ball screens on these two. They'll either foul out immediately, or they will be way too late on the switch or jump out.

Maybe we will even see Perry use another shot fake! Wouldn't that be something!

The only way these footers can be effective is if they go straight up and down to defend. Anything else should be ripe low-picking fruit for us drawing fouls.