🏀 KuBuckets Archive

That was the best win we've had this season, and I'll explain why:

1. The first half was the best basketball we've played all year. We played well on both sides of the court, and we were rewarded for it with a hefty half time lead. Now we know what to do.... we need to play that kind of basketball for 40 minutes!

2. The second half represented the biggest negative change we've gone through in any single game this year. Never had we gone from playing that well to playing that bad. For whatever lessons we take from the first half on how to execute, we should learn twice as many lessons from the second half on what it takes to blow a huge lead.

3. Many of our guys who needed to play well to help their confidence, did so, and were all vital in helping us hold on to this victory; Embiid, Black, Traylor, Tharpe, Greene, Mason...

4. Many of our guys who still need to mature their games had bad games: Ellis, Wiggins, Selden... and just for his TOs... Tharpe.

5. Now we know that every single team we play, from here on out, is going to pull plenty of flops... especially if they think they can draw a flagrant1 or flagrant2, or they can draw a foul on Embiid. Now we know this and now we know that we can play through such nonsense and still win!

6. We won this game... so, technically, it counts in the win column. But, for all intense purposes (like for butt-chewings from Self), we lost this game! This win was one of the few wins where our guys should actually pick up some humility from winning.

7. We snagged this win away from what may be the second-best team in our conference. That always makes it a big win!

I would love to sit in on the first practice after this game! I'd be the guy sitting there with ear plugs and a big smile!

I can't think of a better outcome for helping this team move forward than what happened on Saturday. These are the kinds of games that coaches pray for; a win that feels like a loss!

Rock Chalk! And I hope this translates into a total beat down tomorrow against Baylor!

Starting Tuesday, copy and paste. Today and tomorrow the guys have got to be recharging getting geeked by the coaches for an incredible opp to deliver a TKO punch TO THE CONFERENCE RACE that is going brain a staggering Baylor and buy Self some games to do some head work on Wigs and Ellis and further develop the haymaker backup punch of TRAYOR AND BLACK! Also it's pretty clear now that Self is going to have his way with Greene and Conner. From here on out he is tempering their steel. There isn't going to be any touch feely PT. These two guys are going through the toughening box of produce and perform or get out. Make it or screw, as they used to say. By March Greene and Conner are going to be producers, because it's the only way either cocky gunner gets to stay on the court. For every one that wants to give PT development time to one guy watch these two slowly , steadily become hard cases, nerves of steel types, the kind of guys that make what they take on demand. After a season of what Self is putting these three guys through (white is part of this...he is the unemployed guy waiting to work for nothing if Greene or Frankamp crack. This is brutal competition aimed at producing one can-do dead eye made of steel, not Dr. Phil insight. Self wants a SEAL assassin from trey come tourney time, not just a comfortable trey shooter; this is coldwater training to find who can take the most pain and execute with extreme prejudice on cue!

@jaybate 1.0 AhHa! Haymaker punch. The Bruise Brothers. Oooh. Anticipated fun for Jayhawk boosters.

@jaybate 1.0 Regarding the SEAL assassin, at this juncture I predict Greene to pull down the most PT. Not because he might be a deadlier shooter than Conner, but because his length and movement fits better to the current schematic, esp. when Wigs slips into aphasia or draws too much coverage to be effective in particular matchups. The only impediment to Greene's earning minutes (other than erratic or careless play) would be attitude...or Self's suspecting that he might bolt come May. I think that Greene would play 20 minutes per game for most of our league opponents. 35 minutes for several of them. Heck, Lucas, Greene, White, Frankamp and our big Arkansas transfer could probably outplay the bottom 2 or 3 squads in most leagues if they had the current game experience of Wigs and Wayne. Even Travis Ford declares that Self's bench is just too potent.

@jaybate -

"These two guys are going through the toughening box of produce and perform or get out."

I haven't seen this much toughening box since watching "Cool Hand Luke!"

@drgnslayr What we have here is a failure to reliably trifectate. :-)

The Self way -

@drgnslayr Ouch, that scene still hurts. Hud, Cool Hand Luke, and Hombre. The Greatest Anti-Hero trifecta anyone ever achieved. Old Mr. Short Legs knew story and he could act a lick, or three, and he could handle a car. The movies miss him dearly.

@jayate 1.0-I've always been kinda partial to PN inside the box from "The Hustler." The scene where he cries, "They broke my thumbs Fats!"

@globaljaybird OMG how could I have forgotten The Hustler!!!!!!!!!!!

Newman had a Four Bagger of anti-heroes. The Hustler has to go on the list.

"Let's shoot pool, Fast Eddie."

Oh, how he shot pool against Fats!

And to think the youth of today may just remember him for salad dressing!

@drgnslayr

...and auto racing...

https://vine.co/v/hl6DXPE9Xai ↗ ↗

@drgnslayr

"My momma loved me, but she died."
--Hud