🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Also see Daily Threads for the day
and the day's Postgame Roundup as well as news for the next day and previous day

!Tharpe and Embiid ↗

Too early for KU to feel comfortable in Big 12 race ↗

Bill Self says he isn’t going to talk to his team about having a lead in the Big 12 standings. Or about what a home victory on Monday night against Baylor could do for Kansas’ chances at a 10th straight Big 12 title.
That’s because the KU coach says it’s too early in the conference race to even bring up those sort of things.

Newell: KU basketball's physicality could be key against Baylor ↗

Some of Baylor's best offense comes from its own missed shots. The Bears rank third nationally in offensive rebounding percentage, coming away with 42.6 percent of their missed shots.

Tharpe, Embiid sweep Big 12 weekly awards ↗

Kansas University teammates Naadir Tharpe and Joel Embiid have been named the Big 12 Player and Newcomer of the Week after the Jayhawks' victories against two top-10 opponents last week.

Also: CBSSports.com Player of the Week: Kansas' Joel Embiid ↗

ESPN: Kansas' Joel Embiid a secret no more ↗

Embiid stands alone in his innate sense of how to play the game. He's almost a savant. Two months ago, Embiid wasn't quite sure how to block shots. Now with little instruction, he's become frighteningly good at it. Against Oklahoma State, he swatted eight. He paired those with 13 points and 11 rebounds to make him the first Big 12 freshman to put up that kind of stat line in a game.

AP college basketball poll: Kansas No. 8, first among six ranked Big 12 schools ↗

The Big 12 has by far the biggest presence of any conference in the rankings, with six of its 10 teams making an appearance, a remarkable 60 percent of its members. The only other league with half as strong a penetration as that is the newly formed American Conference, which has 30 percent (Louisville, Cincinnati and Memphis) of its members in the top 25.

Road no easier for slumping BU ↗

Baylor’s No. 12-ranked basketball team, which figures to sink in the AP poll after losses to Texas Tech and Oklahoma last week, today travels to a place not conducive to slump-busting.

Newell: The biggest obstacle keeping KU basketball from its ceiling ↗

Kansas has one, glaring, can't-take-your-eyes-away weakness on both ends: turnovers. And if you needed any proof to show just how much they affect KU, Saturday's first and second halves were perfect examples.
!turnovers ↗

Keegan: Past is prologue for KU, Naadir Tharpe ↗

It’s always better to look ahead anyway, as in all the way ahead to the Baylor game tonight in Allen Fieldhouse, where Tharpe will have an opportunity to show again how much progress since the beginning of the season he has made in attacking a zone defense. Baylor plays more man-to-man than 2-3 zone against most teams these days, but tends to play more zone than man versus Kansas.

YESTERDAY'S THREADS:

• @REHawk: Amping vs. Playing Flat

• @drgnslayr: FLOOR BURN AWARD: KU vs OSU - Jan 18

• @drgnslayr: Best Win All Season!

Dang, we need to bring that up again? Iowajhawk will love it! When they announced past players at ISU game , EJ was warmly welcomed! Interesting to hear the poster say EJ got hit "there" earlier. Surely we would have seen a replay??? Blown are you going tonight? Maybe you should wear the new shirt!

@HighEliteMajor Finally watched the game for the 2nd time & just as we discussed, OSU sure enough got the quick foul on Joel with a screen hedge. And as we've countered others many times, Joel E is the ultimate key in our success for the season-conf title, NC title, everything. With him in the game no one has an answer. With him out for extended periods, we're an inexperienced team of undependable freshmen & underclassmen playing tentative & average. And as @drgnslayr & I discussed, Forte & Brown completely blistered our perimeter defense if you can call it that. I think Forte may also be the D 1 leader in FT %. We were damn lucky Brown got the 2nd T & was on the pine at the finish. Albeit Mason's strip sealed the deal at the end, if he gets whistled there-OMG it's a 3 shot foul-for the win. Another freshman brain lock? Though Selden was in Smart's pocket all game, I knew he would get his, even if from flopping & the foul line, as he is the best at getting the ref's favors. And my view on not breaking the press is as you stated HEM, lack of prep & limitations in strategies. As a coach playing from the advantage, you can always change your offensive & defensive attacks & the opponent has no choice but to adjust. Is no diff than changing pitchers & countering with pinch hitters in baseball. You adjust & do what you can to keep your advantage. How about an 11 point lead with under 2 Minutes? That's the spot if there ever was one. Run clock & make them adjust. Selden was so poor at ball handling, you just have to make the case for Greene to get some of his minutes. But all our guards appear as weak-arm passers & need Hudy to hammer them in the weight room. It's only five on five so is easy as hell to find the open guy if he's moving. We'll see the zone from Baylor too, & if they press, their bigs will potentially cause more havoc that OSU. And for all the accolades we're getting about Joel, some games Wigs is just an enigma, similar to the times last year when Ben just disappeared. If we only get consistency from Nadir & Embid, we'll be in dogfights every time out from now on. IMO it's high time for Wigs to get off the tricycle & get it done every flippin' night out. And from a historical perspective lets add this-Bill could stand a little change-up, curve ball, knuckler- now & then also. Just a tweak, OK? Up 11, under 2 min at misery with TRob & Tyshawn, up 11 vs Michigan & utter futility, & up 11 vs OSU under 2....2 losses & a near miss in a game you led by SEVENTEEN!....There's a friggin' pattern to this madness I swear even Ray Charles could see. One may be as good as a hundred, but we should've won this one by 20. Although Bill was not an active participant in this near miss of a conclusion gone wrong, he sure as hell enabled it. JMO

For all Jayhawk fans that watched the KU-OSU game you know that since Marcus Smart could not do a flip he did a flop instead. In the NBA the play would be reviewed after the game and he would be fined for flopping.

On a related note, the Argentinian Soccer Federation awarded Smart an lifetime honorary membership. :)

Smart Flop ↗

Interesting feature in Isaiah Austin...

Austin feature ↗

It does explain why he shies away from contact and does not play much on the inside, like you would expect from a 7 footer...and Scott Drew still sucks.

Please forgive this speculative and tangential post. This may interest only me, but as I perused Twitter today I noted a tweet from Rob Dauster that "Billy Donovan says Florida freshman Chris Walker still hasn't been cleared for game-action by NCAA."

That made me think: Where would KU be today if we had signed Chris Walker? Maybe we weren't all that close to getting him, but I remember thinking we had a chance and was disappointed when he chose UF. Some of the posters who keep closer tabs on recruiting may have to help me with all the details - including the timeline. If I remember correctly Walker committed to Florida fairly early (summer 2012.) I know Embiid didn't commit until November 2012, and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have come if Walker was coming.

So if we had Walker sitting on our bench in street clothes and no Embiid, and a hot and cold Tarik Black (mostly cold) still starting, I'm thinking we're not all having the Final Four thoughts that currently seem pretty realistic. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Landon Lucas would've then had the opportunity to shine. But even on his best day, he's not half of Embiid on his best day. And that's not meant to be a knock on Lucas - I'm real optimistic about his future at KU. But who could have known what we have in Embiid this year. But it might not have ever been, if Chris Walker had picked KU.

Deleted by the author.

Hey @approxinfinity (or anyone else who knows) - why is this thread not showing up on the Home page?

@JayDocMD Nope

@JayDocMD My bad. I just added it...

@jaybate 1.0-Alas, my Baylor grad friend Jeff will again be clicking pics on the court at AFH tonight & I again, will be warily wired for the precious press pass postponement patiently. Maybe I'm still retained in reserve by preference to one who would not denote the embarrassingly serious slip twixt the cup of the lip. Oh well, I still get all the crucial replays, certainly no detention at the head, and absolutely no procrastination at the bar. Plus, Woody obviously doesn't understand what profanity really is & he's never once complained. Then again, maybe my ship will ultimately arrive at the big 12 Tournament! That, I can handle.

@JayHawkFanToo -

"For all Jayhawk fans that watched the KU-OSU game you know that since Marcus Smart could not do a flip he did a flop instead. In the NBA the play would be reviewed after the game and he would be fined for flopping.

On a related note, the Argentinian Soccer Federation awarded Smart an lifetime honorary membership."

Awesome post! You deserve to see this:

I'm enjoying the current rivalry between the Kitties and the Kowpokes!

And the gif you linked to has gone viral:

http://www.lostlettermen.com/article/video-marcus-smart-has-huge-flop-vs.-kansas ↗

Check down the page at Matt Unhruh's comment showing a KU fan (Jackson Reynolds) who has caught the "Marcus Smart Flop Virus" or "MSFV"... no doubt with health warnings soon to appear on the CDC website!

!Flopper ↗

Must-see Flop video ↗

!KC Star ↗

Blown are you going tonight? Maybe you should wear the new shirt!

@Crimsonorblue22 No unfortunately, I cannot make it. I play in a pick up league on Mondays & Thursdays. But last Monday I had two teeth knocked almost completely out. The Dentist pulled them back straight and said "they are not broken." So for good fortune and good luck this week, I'll go back down and see if I can get two more teeth loosened up for me by an elbow.

Hey, Don't judge me and my superstition--it worked for the Iowa St game :-)

@Blown - Yikes... be careful!

Maybe you should study all the footage on Smart and learn to flop ahead of the contact! It might save your smile!

@drgnslayr my problem is that I'm only 5'7 but I've never felt an inch under 6'7 :) All I could think about was "holy $*&^ I just ruined my smile....shortly followed by, hey Cole did it, so can I

Stay out of the post Munchkin, said the elbow flying through the air!

@Blown-I feel for ya. Many decades ago in an intramural game a guy pump fakes & when I was in the air, came straight up under my chin. I bit a huge hole all the way through my lip on the contact, & was on the PUP list for weeks. No money, no doctor, no stitches. Only blood, pain, & water right down the front, out of the damn hole. Went to the "quack shack" on campus & they said it'll heal by itself....in a couple of weeks. Just stay on a liquid diet. At 19 years old that was NOT a problem!

@Blown Good luck in your pick up league.

@drgnslayr

Smart is quickly developing a reputation as as flopper; not a good thing. I found an awesome pic but lost the link; I will try to find it and post it later.

Live blog is up ↗ for those interested ...

@bskeet Way to go Jayhawks!

@bskeet Re: Jesse's article on KU's horrid TO% this year. How on earth will or should Coach Self start to correct the horrid turnover percentages this season?