🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Landen... Dear Landen...

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Wow! This is your potential career. Basketball.

You only have 30 or so games left in D1. D1 is your marketing tool for a future in basketball.

I can't say this often enough... STOP BRINGING THE BALL DOWN IN YOUR "GATHERING" PROCESS!

Landen suffered the consequences last night in Hawaii. He received the ball under the basket, all alone, and he brought the ball from his chest to his knees, while bending his knees to gather for the stuff. That extra time to gather, along with bringing the ball down, created the opportunity for Indiana to punch the ball away, off of Landen's body, turning the ball over to Indiana.

How many points are we going to lose this year, just on Landen's struggle under the goal? 50? 100? How many games will it cost us? Maybe already 1?

I'm done pussyfooting around. I'm tired of watching these young men work their rears off and make monumental mistakes.

We have got to find a practice drill for Landen. Something he can rep, over and over again. Something that will re-train his mind/body/muscles to never bring that ball down again.

We have a great year ahead of us... but we will have some losses. How many of these losses will be by just a few points? All of them? This one factor, getting Landen to listen and change, may be just enough to help tilt several of these games over to the winning bracket. Perhaps even a game or two in March!

Can I get support on this? Can I get others to come on here, stay on just this one topic, and voice some support for this change.

I agree that he has to find a way to NOT bring the ball down but he has done it his whole time here and I don't see him changing now. How do you make a major change in something that is just so natural for him to want to do?

@RockChalkinTexas we did a drill w/broom under the goal. They kept the ball up pretty good. Just grabbing and hanging on to it seems a problem too. I would think going against doke in practice would toughen up Bragg and LL!💪

He shouldn't bring the ball down. Unfortunately it happens in the NBA as well as at KU. On the other hand, the only people not seriously fouling him are unable to touch him. BB is a tough game under the boards, but that is a bit much. I particularly like the big guy who has both hands firmly planted on his right arm. I guess the arm is a part of the ball.

In a nutshell, this was another "missed bunnies" loss, by the KU bigmen.

I also find myself slowly getting more and more disgusted with the focus of officiating. It seems to neuter the playstyles of Self and Izzo. And Duke, who also plays handsy/dirty, simply doesnt get the calls. You could say the rules effectively favor UNC-style (overtly) and Duke (of course, covertly).

Maybe the BIGGER focus, perhaps even the title focus of a blog about KU bigs--> should be on Carlton Bragg. What a funk he is in, especially when you look bad in both exhibitions.

Bragg is the face-up big. He needs to hit the jumper to keep his man off Lucas.

Lucas is an improved "glue" man. Improved, but still glue, like Darnell Jackson always was.

The epitaph of that Indiana game is : Mason and Lucas need help.

@sfbahawk "I guess the arm is a part of the ball."

In that photo, both the forearm and the shoulder, too!

I wish Cole Aldrich was around to teach the bigs to keep the ball up and your head up at all times. That guy had the quickest most accurate outlet pass of any big I can remember at KU. He led many a success fast break just by his beautiful outlet passes both off of rebounds and opponent makes. Truly something to study and admire.

A big issue is that he just isn't a high level athlete. Doke needs to play more. Lucas is super smart though so that will keep him on the floor.

@ralster Lucas is 5th year, right?

@drgnslayr

Landon is just not an athletic player where he can change that. Bragg got the ball and kept it high on a few plays in the post because he has the ability to do so.

That play with Lucas was another example of poor officiating, the ball did not go off Landon.

Are we missing Perry yet?😭

@JayHawkFanToo said:

Are we missing Perry yet?😭

He was really underappreciated.

@BShark he was, but missing him does nothing to help the current situation, so it is a pointless activity. Our guys have all the tools to succeed and improve, so that is where the focus should be.

@drgnslayr That's why I was so ticked when he did it so much against IU, we worked on since middle school when I played, no reason for a 5th year senior to do that. Other issue to me is his claim to fame is rebounding and defense which wasn't anything great ether.

@JayHawkFanToo

Definitely missing Perry. We lacked the go-to scorer so Frank just played his 1 on 5 game again which was working but we know its not a style of play we can rely on every game. Guys have to step up, especially Devonte and Jackson.

@drgnslayr
I totally feel ya on this one, I just made a big post on jaybates thread not knowing you started this one. Yea LL is a MAJOR liability. I really hope Dok gets a chance this year.

@RockChalkRedlock

If Lucas is a "MAJOR liability" then KU is in serious trouble. Outside of Mason and Graham he is the most dependable player in the team. What we are seeing is Lucas being double or triple teamed because Bragg is not asserting himself and teams are leaving him alone. Once he starts to produce, opponents will have to guard him and Lucas will be a lot more productive.

@drgnslayr I was thinking the exact same thing during the game! Keeping the ball high is one fundamental Lucas still needs to learn. I think he will. The fundamentals are what has made him valuable. As others have noted, he is not an exceptional athlete. He's just a big body who is smart. He does what he's supposed to. He's fundamentally solid. I think within a couple more games we won't see the ball coming down low any more. He will learn.

If only our other bigs could learn their fundamentals. Like boxing out. Just putting a body on somebody when the ball is in the air goes a long way to swinging the rebound probability into the defender's favor. Right, Carlton?

@tundrahok

I'm not sure Landen will ever learn to keep the ball high, this is year 5 with the same issue. I don't think its a fundamental problem its a physical-athletic issue. He draws power from his legs because he doesn't have the natural ability to go up with the ball upon catching it.

Bragg had a play in the 2nd half where he caught it and layed it in without the ball coming down which too me showed the difference between the 2 players athletic ability.

Around the 2 minute mark is the play

I don't understand the LL thrashing that's going on ONE GAME INTO THE SEASON. I'm not his best friend or anything, but good grief - isn't he the one that the TEAM told Coach Self to start last year? Isn't he the one that everyone (including the people on this site) ranted and raved about and said that we wouldn't have advanced as far as we did without him last year? Am I in some sort of alternative world?

@nuleafjhawk 👬 I feel like he should be, at the very least as good if not better than last year. Same thing w/Bragg, throw the dang🏀 Down!

@Crimsonorblue22 One game... - It takes me a week to get back to normal at work after missing one day.

@nuleafjhawk I hope you are right!

@BeddieKU23 Yes, but Lucas is tall enough that he should be able to get up to the basket without needing much power. It took him 4 years to demonstrate some of those rebounding fundamentals we started seeing last year. I'm thinking he didn't really start working on offensive fundamentals until recently, so I'm not giving up hope!

If only Bragg and Lucas could trade skills, and share each others' strengths. Shooting vs rebounding, offense vs defense. Granted, neither player has shown much of either aspect yet this year, but it's early.

@Crimsonorblue22 If he doesn't score 30 and get 25 rebounds tonight - I'm done with him.

@nuleafjhawk 😭👬

@tundrahok I just want to see some toughness!

@nuleafjhawk you can be coy, but a lot of us that are critical of Lucas are just pointing out the obvious. For over ten years now one of the cornerstones of KU basketball is dominant big men.

I really to do hope for the best, but you really gotta hope for Bragg to step up, or that Dok is givin a chance to play 15- 20 minuets in a game. Tonight will be another great test, I am sure glad we play tough teams early and don't have a false sense of security like other teams with cupcake schedules.

@nuleafjhawk

I don't want this to turn to trashing Landen. About two months ago I gave him a huge positive thread on here that was well received.

Having said that... Landen is a 5th-yr senior. He now has no one in front of him. He will have to be held 100% accountable.

Call it what you want... I call it "tough love."

I watched the game again yesterday and noticed another play where we fed Landen in the post and he didn't bring the ball down... he just laid the ball in the basket quickly.... scoring easily.

I think there are probably a dozen little tweaks we need to make this year that will mean the difference of possibly winning everything in March, or coming up short. This is definitely one of those necessary tweaks. We have all been on Landen for 4+ years now about bringing the ball down and combining it with a big gathering moment. That all has to stop. It's embarrassing to watch and 99% of the time leads to a negative outcome.

This is important to Landen. I'm sure he would like a shot at pro ball after this year, whether it be NBA or abroad. I can tell you with certainty that this one issue is outlined in RED by every scout who has watched him. There is rarely a game where he doesn't do it at least once or twice... sometimes more.

I feel a need to stay on him about this... taking a proactive attitude.

Every player has certain strengths and weaknesses.

For Landen, his major weakness happens to be very well known, to the point that I am sure everyone has it mentioned in the scouting report. As a result, it will be exploited more than maybe some other player's weaknesses simply because guys know that if they double down on Landen, he will bring the ball down and they can force a turnover when he does that.

That's no different than the fact that guys are going to play off Josh and his suspect jumpshot, or the fact that teams funnel Frank into traffic because he tries to bull his way through it, or guys will get physical with Carlton because he still doesn't hold position as well as we would like to see.

There are improvements that must be made because these are known deficiencies that will be attacked as the season wears on.

LL will be better tonight just needs to settle in and do what he is capable of rebound and defense, LL is a Jayhawk although disappointed at times with him I still love him, as I do most hawks.