Consider these comments observations....not complaints.

It seems all of our conference home games have had a lot in common

1.We get off to a good solid start and open a lead or have a good lead early on

2.Lackadaisical or sloppy play leads to turnovers and other team gets back in the game.

3.We have a spurt or two to widen the lead

1. 2 above happens again.

2. Opposing big man has a career game.

3. LL has a double double (OK...not this time...only in rebounds)

4. Other team outplays us for long stretches of the game.

5. Other team hits open outside shots (well...not this time...if they had...we might have lost)

6. We leave the other team WFO for outside shots.

7. Josh misses FTs that help to allow the other team to remain close..

8. We fail to convert lobs (seems to be more and more often now)
   (OK, those 2 are complaints)

9. The clock malfunctions to make it interesting (OK only today's game)

10. We hit a couple of shots in the last 2 mins. to make it look easier than it was (ditto...only this game).

Summary: It is really great to be 18-1. It just seems like this team plays well enough to win. The win in Ames gives me hope that we can keep doing this.

The next 2 weeks will tell us a lot.

Yeah, this team is not playing anywhere near the level they could be. Hopefully Bill will help them to play at their potential at the right time. A W Tuesday is essential

Yep. Same movie, same result. Sure feels like we are already in "survive and advance" mode, and it's not even March yet. But a win is a win, and we know we can still do much better job of playing more consistently and exceptionally throughout an entire game. Need to play to OUR level, not the level of the opposing team. Rock Chalk!

A win is a win is a win...I will take winning ugly over losing pretty any time.

@Hawk8086

1. I disagree. We normally get 8 to 10 points behind, then we decide to start playing.

2. Sloppy? There has to be a word... an adjective that is 10 times worse than sloppy to describe what we do after we take the lead.

It looks like to me we don't take the game seriously at times. Maybe we're simply that good...maybe we're not. I guess we'll find out shortly.

@KUSTEVE next week would be a great time to play smarter.

Seems we get lackadaisical when we have the lead, and start to run a slow, less effective, half court offense. And when we start losing the lead, we start forcing shots or passes, etc. Sigh

@HawkChamp 3 straight games against top 10 teams, two of which are on the road. I know we're better than what we've shown.

@JayHawkFanToo said:

A win is a win is a win...I will take winning ugly over losing pretty any time.

No question.

@KUSTEVE self said ll was sick as a dog! We Can't finish in transition

@Crimsonorblue22 Didn't know about LL. Good for him to play as well as he did, then.

@KUSTEVE tough scheduling. if they play smart, I like our chances

Missed lobs were driving me nuts today.

The good thing is it can be so bad at times it can only get better with time and practice.

Really the next 8 games we got are as tough as a run that we have had a lot of years. 3 top 10 road games as it currently sets. We will know how good we are after this stretch. I hoping we can win all of them but 6 will be fine with me but we could go .500 if we don't play well. We always have a spot in every season when we look mediocre and this could be it. So don't worry if a few Ls show up.

@kjayhawks with a veteran group, we should not go 4-4. We have experienced a bad stretch the last several years, so why experience it again? Besides, it could cost us the conference and a one seed.

@HawkChamp we experience a bad stretch most years bud even the 08 team had a few games that they lost and had a few go down to the wire that shouldn't of.

@HawkChamp I agree. I don't expect us to go 4-4. But I think we could and still win #13. A #1 seed might be at risk, though. If we hold serve at home (not a given by any means) and win either at KSU or Tech, we will have 2 conf. loses (even if we lose the next 2) with OSU Baylor and UT on the road left. Depending on how Baylor and WVU perform (obviously) I think we still have a decent chance for #13. I think the conference will be each other up. The key is holding serve at home and only lose one of the next 3 road conf. games.

@kjayhawks I know, I remember. There is still no excuse, in my mind

@JayHawkFanToo. Not me 😂 WAAAAAAH !!

@Hawk8086 agreed I'm not saying we will go .500 or not win the B12, but you never know heck the 13 team lost 3 in a row including @ TCU for one of their 2 conference wins that year. I'm just keeping it real.

@kjayhawks said:

Really the next 8 games we got are as tough as a run that we have had a lot of years. 3 top 10 road games as it currently sets. We will know how good we are after this stretch. I hoping we can win all of them but 6 will be fine with me but we could go .500 if we don't play well. We always have a spot in every season when we look mediocre and this could be it. So don't worry if a few Ls show up.

Except we usually crap out against mediocre teams when we slump. I think we get 2/3 here and lose one or two stupid ones afterwards.

@chriz very true heck look at most of selfs home loses. Not to complain but half of those teams we spank 9 of 10 times.

Big men continue to have career nights against us. - Boy how badly could we have used Jarrett just killed it., my BIGGEST FEAR IS - - when we run into multi talented bigs from the same team,. - -Say like North Carolina really afraid gonna spell big time trouble and that can come in the NCAA's - -This stretch coming up Especially these next 4 - -WV, Kentucky, Baylor, K- State I think is going to show us a lot. Hoping we can go 3-1 out of this, the 3 on the road is going to be in-believable we shall see - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

@jayballer54 we probably wouldn't face UNC until the final four, hopefully. If we do, we would just need to play our best defensively and play at our tempo. We would be fine.

We are 18-1. I don't really care how that happened. It's tied for the best record in the country and we are in a great position to win another Big 12 Championship which would likely earn us a #1 seed in the tournament which will give us a great chance to make a deep run. I'd rather have our record than Duke, Louisville, UNC, etc. WVU is currently losing at KSU. Baylor will start losing as they have Scott Drew as a coach. I couldn't imagine us being in a better spot at this point of the year and we have not even played a full game up to our potential.

RCJH

Actually we see it year in and year out. Opposing bigs or guards always have a great game in AFH. Watch every home game and you find that various opposing players have or at least one has a monster game. For example, Buddy Hield came into AFH and torched us for 30+ points his senior year. I remember when freakin' Kevin Durant came into AFH and torched us for 30+ points. We don't even have to play at AFH. Every single team and every great player always plays great and up to KU. It seems we always play down.
Today, say what you want. All in all, we played with all the atypical play, and still won. I hope this is the year and team that will erase the all too familiar pattern of playing sloppy for 2-3 games, only to succumb to an eventual loss. Every year I watch each KU team play and win, only to watch them falter in one "trap" type game to lose. I'd like to see KU get through WVU and BU. IF this team lives up to it's current pattern of winning at all costs, hopefully my all too familiar pattern experience will not happen.

@Crimsonorblue22 LL sick? And he still grabbed 12+ RBs? And we won? I think rather looking at how they failed, lets look at how they succeeded and gain some more hope. I thought JJ finally played more to his potential. The lobs were nasty failures and I don't think we completed one lob.
I do agree with Clark Kellogg and today's analysts, KU was exposed inside. Bragg played better, but his aggressive flush is an example of how they need to play every game. KU plays soft for too much of the game. When they play aggressive and assertively, they can beat any team in the nation.

@truehawk93 I disagree - they didn't get exposed. Clark didn't say that did he?

@wissox The timing was off and VIck should've told UT he was going to lob that fast break. This team needs to get more reactive, and stop allowing the opposing to dictate their play. A great head fake would've caused them to jump right of his shoes and they get an easy bucket. It's almost as if UT's scouting report was half way effective today.

@truehawk93 Well that's one blown lob, what about he 5 or 6 others? :)

The good thing is....we are 18-1 and haven't played up to our potential........at all.
Hopefully we can peak at the right time..........

@jayballer54 ya the Allen kid was nothing short of great. Man would we be great with him. Not a knock towards doke who's hurt but if he's here only til the end of next year doubt he's as polished as Allen.

@kjayhawks but would be better than bragg

@HawkChamp I think the other CBS host said it. I don't remember his name. The inside game is discussed since Doke has been sidelined. I just hope Self continues to compensate and/or Bragg steps up. I thought Lightfoot came in and gave us a few good mins today.

@truehawk93 I still don't agree with him

@HawkChamp Let's say I'm optimistically hopeful that LL, Bragg, and now Lightfoot will step up for the next several games. Our frontcourt is very thin right now with Doke out. Teams with bigs like UT will pound the ball. I did like Self's plan with our three bigs. It worked. Let's hope it proves the "exposure" comment completely wrong.

@truehawk93 the way I view it, when our whole team is focused on stopping the other team, which we have seen a few times during the season but never for very long, opposing bigs have trouble scoring and guards cant get in the lane to dish it off. But when they arent focused, guards get in the lane and bigs score. The correlation is simple: focus and energy = elite defense; unfocused, just getting the game over with = teams score on us with little difficulty.

@HawkChamp Mason is a bit too fearless. He's got to be smart when driving into the likes of Claire(?). He beat UT a few times and willed his way to the glass. I'd like to see our bigs meet Mason and company at the rim for a dish and flush.

The flow of this thread leads me to believe that we are at best a 10-9 team masquerading with a 18-1 record. So, what is our "true record" based on all these things that we need improvement on? My opinion is we do a heck of a lot more right than we do wrong, and I am enjoying this season and Senior Night is going to be bittersweet. I miss Frank and Landon already. A few more may leave early, so I spend my time enjoying the process of these young men developing into something real special. 18-1 seems pretty good to me at this point, especially after losing the big fella. Imagine how much better he could have gotten. Finally, no one has defeated us in regulation or in the continental United States at this point.

@truehawk93

"Actually we see it year in and year out. Opposing bigs or guards always have a great game in AFH. Watch every home game and you find that various opposing players have or at least one has a monster game. For example, Buddy Hield came into AFH and torched us for 30+ points his senior year."

I think a lot of that relates to Bill's strategy to not change up much just because a certain player is hot. Sure, he will switch up on match ups. But He isn't really a believer that one guy is going to beat us.

With his record in AFH, I believe he knows what he is talking about.

@chriz said:

@kjayhawks said:

Really the next 8 games we got are as tough as a run that we have had a lot of years. 3 top 10 road games as it currently sets. We will know how good we are after this stretch. I hoping we can win all of them but 6 will be fine with me but we could go .500 if we don't play well. We always have a spot in every season when we look mediocre and this could be it. So don't worry if a few Ls show up.

Except we usually crap out against mediocre teams when we slump. I think we get 2/3 here and lose one or two stupid ones afterwards.

Hate to say I called it, but...