🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Also see our Daily Threads, February 3, and the News Digest for Yesterday, February 2, as well as Daily Threads for Yesterday, February 2

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Newell: Jayhawks guard Naadir Tharpe disappointed in own play after loss ↗

AUSTIN, Texas — With headphones around his neck, Naadir Tharpe shook his head slowly after being asked about his own biggest disappointment following Kansas’ 81-69 loss at Texas.

“Just how I didn’t contribute or help the team,” Tharpe said in a loading dock just outside the KU locker room in Frank Erwin Center. “My man was just getting too many easy shots.”

CJOnline: Podcast on Hawks ↗

Also see our Daily Threads, February 3, and the News Digest for Yesterday, February 2, as well as Daily Threads for Yesterday, February 2

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3 pictures from the Austin paper to show how brutal the fouls that were not called were.

Roger Clemmons (who wasn't roundly applauded) and Colt McCoy and Tom Kite (who were) were the former UT alumni that were there.

The chanting by the crowd of "Overrated" was just so over the top. Barnes was trying to get them to stop and the front row of the students below me were also telling them to stop. Once they also started chanting "Where is Wiggins" over and over. Wait till they come to AFH.

@RockChalkinTexas Well, it was nice to see Texas fans remembered they had a basketball team. Has it really been so long since the days of Durant, Aldrige, Abrams, Ford, and Augustine that Texas fans are so inane? Seems like a possibility.

@MoonwalkMafia And Sat. will be the ONLY time they have a full house so I guess we should take some pride in the fact that people wanted to see us. Too bad we didn't show up.

Interesting pictures, but I don't think we lost because of officiating. We sucked is why we lost.

@wissoxfan83 we've got to learn to play thru the crappy calls. And.... There were a few of them!!!! I watched the first half again last pm, some bad calls, especially on Embiid !

@wissoxfan83 I'm not saying we lost becuase of officiating at all. I just wanted to show a different perspective on these calls. Yes we didn't deserve to win based on how we played but we didn't even try and that is what sucked.

@RockChalkinTexas Ya. My mom went to the game and asked me if I thought it would be sold out, and I said of course, KU's coming to town. This may be the only time.

Games like this are why Black was signed. This is what KU was supposed to do to other teams, but the officiating wasn't to allow this type of game. So KU adjusted to a less physical game. When the physical play picked up with no Black KU was in deep doo doo.

I am still confused how Embiid can tap someone and they go to the monitor, but when he gets body slammed nothing. Look at the reaction of the student in the picture. Even those football fans thought it was excessive.

Time to break out the football pads for practice Bill. I almost feel sorry for Baylor.

Fair to say eXtreme muscle ball will play out from time to time & yes it;s time to open up the can of whoop*ss & pour out Black. Home cooking is not that strange in CBB but we have to fight thru it.

Rick "Butcher" Barnes probably showed his team two KU games: Florida and SDSU. Barnes probably then said that's all it takes to beat them. The young Texas team probably followed their coaches advice. It worked. The pictures above record a very small part of it.

Board rats have forgotten that the kinder gentler Rick Barnes the last two seasons was a product of KU having had way the more toughness in players than Barnes had. The way the Texas team beat up on KU in Austin recently is the old Rick Barnes butcher ball and is why I nick named him Butcher Barnes serval years ago.

HEM has nicknamed our team the Finesse Family. It fits. So far.

Right now the finesse family is like the farmer, the wife and the sun in the legendary western "Shane." They are hard-working, honest people. They are willing to stand up to Jack Palance and the villainous land barons that hire Palance and his gang to terrorize the good farm families. But they lack the means and experience necessary to fight back effectively.

The finesse family has come far in this season. Their work ethic and skill and devotion to each other have elevated them and allowed them to immigrate into the High country of basketball--their dream. Alas, some bad actors do not want the Finesse family to live happily ever after in the High country.

The question now is does the Finesse family have a man in buckskins living in the barn behind the house, so far just doing scutt work, but capable of doing what needs to be done?

"Shane...Shane..Shaaaaaaaane!"

@wissoxfan83 I believe some of calls or no-calls were the momentum changers. So they did have an effect on the players and the team as a whole. But they were not the only reasons.

@Wishawk Could be true, but in my mind I'm thinking when did we have momentum? Maybe the beginning when we were within 2 or 4 through the first 5 or 6 minutes, but after that, I'm not sure.

@wissoxfan83 Agree with you about there was little momentum in our favor. It's almost like the Broncos got bullied by the Seahawks. First came the shock, then the initiatives got beaten into the shells by the repeated pounding. So they lost hope and stopped trying. Some reignited the fire like Selden did in the second half, but most probably went into the mood, "see you next game!"

I will never forget Joel getting slammed to the floor and no call. I had seats close to the action last year and saw Withey take a beating in Austin as well.

Shane said "Wilson (Palance) was fast, fast on the draw."
Shane was wounded, but walked away the victor. We need to beat Texas in AFH. Maybe with finesse AND muscle.

@jaybate 1.0 Black should definitely have played more. I am not sure how is ankle is doing, so that could be a reason why Self didn't have him play as much.

As has been discussed already ad nauseam, KU was owned in the paint and basically every aspect of the game. Texas was tougher, stronger, and the aggressor. For some reason, Perry and Wiggins, who are of course Mr. and Mrs. Finesse, do not want to play xtreme muscle ball. Perry is not that small and skinny where he is not capable of banging inside. I know this from personal experience. Back when I was playing, a high metabolism kept my body about 40 to 50 pounds underweight. Sure, it was much harder to bang with guys in the post, but after a while, I learned to quit complaining about it and just do it. Most of the time, I went against guys that were 20 to 60 pounds heavier then me. But I never let that stop me.

All I know is that if I could do it, in spite of my size, Perry and the Finesse family can certainly do it. It just takes a mental switch to decide to never let an opponent physically abuse you. They have what it takes. I decided to not be bothered.

This team has to get tougher in order to beat the teams that play xtreme muscle ball with them. If they can learn how to do that, they will have few obstructions in getting to Dallas this year.

It takes all kinds of games in a season in order to "season" a team. This one fits the bill for strange officiating, letting 'em play, hostile crowd, physical opponent, motivated-competitive opponent....

This was a good test for us and we failed. Back to the drawing board.

We'll have plenty of motivation when we face them next in AFH. But we haven't really performed that well in AFH this year... and as I recall, wasn't it Texas that beat us in AFH after TRob lost his mom?

The B12 now has a collective odor of Longhorn dung.

Imagine handing over the reins of 9 well-kept, tidy conference championships to the dung and flies crowd in Austin?

We've got a team full of freshmen who most don't really understand the B12 and our rival foes.

I left my burnt orange couch by the side of the road with a "Take me, I'm free!" sign back in 1979. No one took it and I had to pay a junk man to haul it to the dump.

Imagine the B12 basketball champion covered in 70's burnt orange with a 10-cent stock graphic of a Longhorn?

Not sure if this has been discussed, but I just saw where Stevie Clark of OSU infamy was arrested on a marijuana charge the other night. He's one of their point guards, starter I think? He's been suspended for a total of 5 games up to this point of the season for various infractions. Sounds like the young man is in some need of discipline in his life.

This may effect OSU's lineup when we play them soon I'd suppose.

@wissoxfan83-link texthttp://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/02/02/report-oklahoma-state-guard-stevie-clark-arrested-sunday-morning/ ↗

Just found this on CBT nbc sports page. Has at least 2 arrests this season with multiple game suspensions. Urinating from a vehicle window, he musta had to whizz quite badly I guess. But he IS going to classes & getting an education.? What? Ford should know their hopes for any championships this season are awash, so just cut him loose from the team to counseling & the system. Kid needs professional help but with millions of others, old & young alike, has to admit he needs to change to have a shot at it being successful. Sad to witness another very promising young life going down the wrong path.

@RockChalkinTexas The " Over-rated " chant is my FAVORITE of all time!! It says - " We're not good enough to beat a really good team, so you must be over-rated ".

@globaljaybird it is very sad, people are so quick to judge these kids, when staying in a program does give them a purpose. I read an article about this kids mom. Very sad!

@globaljaybird

Gosh.. I pissed from a window back in my youth, too.

I'm not saying it was right... but there just isn't space for kids to be kids anymore. I did a lot worse things than piss from a window....

Heck... I remember 12 of us riding inside and on top of a Karminn Ghia down Mass Street. The police saw us and laughed. Those days were different and college kids were given some leeway...

I would hate to be a kid today. Their entire future can be smashed by smoking a little pot or peeing out a window!

@Crimsonorblue22
Do you have a link? I'm not surprised, but I don't think we're being quick to judge a kid who has only 3 months into his college career been in so much trouble already.

These bruiser teams seem to be just too much for us this year. UT, SDSU, Nova, etc. These teams are not afraid to play tough D in the paint and on the perimeter and we don't seem to have an answer. I am still very high on our potential for March but games like this do worry me a bit as if we run up against a big / strong team in the tourney this could be a sign of things to come. I don't remember a KU team with this much talent but I also don't remember a KU team in recent memory being this soft.

@wissoxfan83 I just googled his name sat and it came up, think it was written on jan 28.

@wissoxfan83 http://newsok.com/meet-the-mother-behind-oklahoma-state-guard-stevie-clark-and-douglass-football-standout-deondre-clark/article/3929681/?page=2 ↗

@nuleafjhawk That is exactly what Barnes said in post game. He blasted the fans for doing it and said Andrew was not overrated!

@Crimsonorblue22 CBS shows he was dismissed. They are really depleted and will have a tough one tonight in Ames.

We dropped to 8 in AP poll and still 1 in RPI.

@RockChalkinTexas

"That is exactly what Barnes said in post game. He blasted the fans for doing it and said Andrew was not overrated!"

I caught that... and I think that is the reason why Barnes is probably the most-popular coach in the B12. He may like a physical brand of basketball but he must be the softest speaking coach in the league.

I've always liked Barnes... and I've also been glad that there were many years he had so much talent but couldn't make it happen.

Hey guys...long time watcher/reader of the Kusports.com threads and on here so I guess Ill make my first post this season...

I'm glad Barnes said what he did about the "over rated" chant, it's nice to know that another coach in our league isn't a complete tool bag and basking in the glory of beating us (as we know most schools in our league look forward to this every season). Most other coaches would of probably not had even said a word about it. He knows the horns still need to come into Allen and the students there are going to give him and his team a hell of a time. Smart man

PS: Glad to see Jaybate finally made it on here...love reading his insights!

@jayhawkerfor420 welcome! I was glad to hear Barnes say that too, surprised me!

@drgnslayr
I was guilty of innocent fun and a lot worse back in the day.Lucky for me I was treated with kid gloves. No doubt those cops are long retired. Maybe I need to write a check to the LPD retirement fund as thanks for the free passes.

And no telling what a disaster social media would have made things for many of us.

@JayhawkRock78

Amen!

Stevie Clark has been dismissed from OSU team. What with Cobbins' achilles injury, OSU now down to 6 of their eight rotation players.

@jayhawkerfor420

Welcome aboard! Don't make it your last post! We are in need of fresh minds posting in here!

@REHawk

I'm not an OSU fan but I'm disappointed in Clark's dismissal. I like teams to be at full speed when we play!

@drgnslayr As much as I want Iowa State to lose, I want OK State to lose even more.

They are reporting here in Austin that Javan Felix is out for the UT TCU game tomorrow night with a concussion after running into Jojo (3rd picture up above).

@RockChalkinTexas Hmm, concussion? I hope Jojo Embiid is OK...

@drgnslayr- There are far too many damn laws & no such thing as privacy anymore either. Yeah whizzin out of a car seems pretty harmless to me to. But there really is a whole helluva lot of room to NOT get caught around Stillwater. There ain't shizz there for cryin out loud... Eskimo Joes? Please. This is minimum the 2nd time he's been arrested since the season's begun, at least that has been made public. But like it or not, or believe it or not, there are places like, for instance, Elkhart, In. that if you are caught urinating in public & convicted, you must register as a sexual offender. Not at all saying it's right, like weed or booze or whatever. I had old WWII vets tell me when I was a kid, "What the hell do you think we smoked in Manila kid, Camels?" But if it's illegal, don't do it or have enough will power & presence of mind to not get busted or popped. Simple as that. Dwayne Bowe, Justin Bieber, Stevie Clark, whoever-just let someone who's judgment is not impaired make decisions, get a cab, whatever. When there is an anti social pattern of behavior that repeats itself again & again, you don't need a Dr to say it, just plain horse sense says it's broke & needs to be fixed before someone completely innocent is hurt badly. Yeah we all did a lot worse-a helluva lot. But cops just don't look the other way anymore, they are liable & accountable also. Glad I'm not a kid now either, the flippin Chinese may be dividing up the whole damn country before our grandkids are dead & buried. Right, wrong, indifferent, or just plain ornery has no bearing anymore slayr. All that needs to be said is that if it's illegal don't friggin get caught, and if it's broke fix it while it can still be repaired & prior to tragedy.

Welcome @jayhawkerfor420 !

@drgnslayr

Heck... I remember 12 of us riding inside and on top of a Karminn Ghia down Mass Street. The police saw us and laughed. Those days were different and college kids were given some leeway...

I would hate to be a kid today. Their entire future can be smashed by smoking a little pot or peeing out a window!

I love your empathy, here. Totally with you.

The end of American Innocence... Stiff global competition in schools and in work, the insurance industries peddling the ever imminent threat of strangers and the ever imminent threat of ourselves, the HD distractions making the world outside seem remote, the monetizers that want us to herd in predictable manners.

Lots of forces pushing for homogenization. Fall in line or be marked.

@approxinfinity

Thanks!

@globaljaybird

There is too much painful reality in your post. I'm old and tired... I don't have anything to gain from dribbling out of a window anymore... But I want my kid to know there is a time and a place to try to get away with something... So I'll safely drive him out on a country road and let him do a whiz out the window. It is a thrill. especially when trying to be neat! I'll flip off the Chinese while he is busy... ;)

It is the time of the season where teams start top get thin. Stevie Clark is gone from OSU, Arizona lost Ashley for the season and analyst have seriously downgraded their chances in the tournament.

Did any one watch the ISU-OSU game? OSU got the benefit of a lot of calls and Smart did his share of flops. One in overtime was so egregious that even the announcers were laughing and calling it "acting," which is a polite way to say flopping, which they are probably discouraged from using.

Smart and his flopping is quickly becoming a cartoon character and by extension an embarrassment to the conference. He is spending so much time flopping that his actual game has suffered. With his talent he should be one of the top players in the land, instead he is quickly becoming one of the most disliked players in the conference. I can't think of another player since Jason Sutherland that is disliked as much as Smart is now.

The flop Smart tried to sell when Kane was backing down should have warranted him a technical because it was that obvious. Glad Kane, who is an admitted flopper, had the knowledge to run Smart's ass over while he was getting back up from his terrible flop.

@Kip_McSmithers

It was double flop and yes, he should be given a technical...

Smart's double flop video ↗.

The other flop near mid-court was called initially a foul on ISU but I apparently the call was changed after review because OSU in-bounded the ball from the side, when play resumed, but they were on the bonus situation already and should have shot free throws.

I believe it was Kane that said he had no problems with Smart's flops because he does the same thing.

The new contact rules and the flopping are making a mockery of the game and greatly affecting teams that emphasized defense like KU; no wonder Coach Self was adamantly opposed to the new rule.

Do you think that the NCAA will adopt an NBA-like rule and review flops after the game and issue penalties after the game?

I thought the flop at half court was deemed a "charge" type of call on Kane so that's why they didn't shoot free throws.

@Kip_McSmithers you are right, I thought I missed something at first. If Smart forgot about the flopping, maybe he could play like he did last year? I don't remember him doing this last year, did he? I wouldn't want the reputation he is getting! Waste of his talent! Not that I care.

@Crimsonorblue22

Smart bulldozed over players last year with impunity. This year, with the new contact rules in place, he feels he needs to flop to get more calls. Too bad. He has the talent but lately he seems to want to skate by and let the referees help/bail him out.

I always thought #21 had his head up his own butt, I was wrong. It's up Naadir's.....

@JayHawkFanToo

BINGO!

Smart is a competitor... and sometimes competitors don't play by the highest standards.

But guess what? When Marcus signs with the No Boys Allowed league you will see him play his old game again... the bulldozer!

We should all thank Marcus Smart! Yes... that's right. We should thank him, for mocking these absolutely pathetic rule changes!

Hey.. he's just doing what he think will help him best win. And maybe it is the best way... to win. The rules are so ridiculous and unrealistic... might as well be won out by drama.

@drgnslayr but, they're not winning! I think his flopping is hurting his game. His numbers have been way down.

@drgnslayr

Well...he is a drama queen, pop diva and plain "beatch" combined into one. Off the top pf my head, I can't think of a player in recent history whose reputation has taken a greater hit than Smart.

@Crimsonorblue22

True.. but do you think that has been caused by his flop? He is using the flop in order to salvage his game.

Marcus Smart College Success ≠ Rule Changes

No one took a bigger hit than Marcus. The NCAA wanted to increase offense and reduce injuries. Yes... that meant dismantling defense. But it also meant targeting bulldozer players like Smart. I saw this coming last year for Marcus. His game was too aggressive and they started popping him with more calls.

I think his flopping is more about him saying... "hey, I'm a victim, too!"

People who victimize always like to proclaim themselves the victim.

Truth is... Marcus should have left for the league last year. I have no idea why he came back for more. I'm guessing it is his competitiveness... he has too much of It and it distorts his ability to make decisions... in games... in life. We all know people like him. He was getting tagged last year, and he wanted to come back and prove everyone wrong. He is competitive to the point of being sick. Ford has no way of controlling Marcus (even if Ford was a man).

I'm sure Marcus will probably dig himself in a hole in the NBA just like he did in college. He'll over-compete to the point of sickening a crowd of people... like he did in college with his flopball. He needs boundaries around his competitiveness.

I'm actually thinking someone is getting to him. Someone is reaching him. He is still flopping. But he has been backing down quite a bit ever since his tirade where he left the bench and went under the bleachers.

I always like competitors... until they go over the edge. I hope Marcus finds a way to pull it back and compete at levels that are socially acceptable. Like... back off all the flops!

@drgnslayr I think the reverse, instead of the flop hurting his game, I think his game(especially shooting) has been off, so he's resorting to flopping??? Chicken or the egg? I think you are right about Marcus. I really questioned if Ford was encouraging this kind of play.

@Crimsonorblue22

I think Marcus can end up an excellent pro.... if he can just reel himself in a bit to where he can function within the standards.

Man... when that guy is on, he can own a game. Not many players can do that. The NBA rewards alpha dogs.