🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Increasingly, this season seems to be segmented into two seasons.

The first season was when fouls were called very tightly inside and out and there was next to no butcher ball.

The second season was when fouls on the perimeter were still called tightly, but the refs began to "let 'em play" inside. Butcher ball came in session in the paint and in transition with a vengeance, while the guarding of a perimeter player had to remain gingerly done, though a bit of loving hand checking was permitted.

In the first season, there seemed to be few injuries, and what injuries there were were injuries that players appeared to heal from while playing through; this implied kinder, gentler injuries.

In the second season, fouling scaled up to Flagrant I and tried to fall just short of Flagrant II, but often appeared to achieve Flagrant II without being called. Fouling began to take on the look of premeditated assaults in certain cases. It began to look like coaches were coaching their players about how to approach the threshold of Flagrant I, but hopefully avoid Flagrant II.

In season one there was a little flopping on defense.

In season two there was a lot of flopping on defense, and even some flopping on offense.

Or so I recall anecdotally and with aging memory.

Does anyone else notice the recollected tendencies described, or not?

Do KENPOM, or Hoopstats, have a flopping stat yet?

@jaybate 1.0 I think all this bs foul calling is why Embiid is injured! I could write a page on it. First they call crap on him, then they review every damn call, then when you think you know what goes, the other center throws you down and "no call"! Throw in you've only played a few years, and it's one big mess(nice word for what I wanted to say) don't forget he hit heads w/Felix-Texas player had a concussion ! What 7 footer wouldn't be beat up? Physically and mentally!

@Crimsonorblue22 Good points. Forgot about the head banging with Felix. So: he has perhaps been a bit concussed, also. Wilt reputedly got so sick of the double, triple and quadruple teaming and all of the fouling that went with it that he jumped to the Globetrotters to escape it.

@jaybate 1.0 how much did Wilt weigh?

@Crimsonorblue22: The short answer is I don't remember. I suspect Joel is a bit heavier than Wilt that freshman season. Joel is said to weigh 250. I don't recall, but I would be surprised if Wilt weighed more than 230. Wilt was extremely thin his freshman season, but he got that year to mature. He was still thin when he played varsity, but Wilt was characterized from the beginning as being extremely strong. He seemed more powerfully muscled than Joel. And remember that during the years Joel was playing volley ball and soccer, Wilt was playing basketball and track. And in track and field he was a serious quarter miler, high jumper, and triple jumper. And by the time he got to the KU varsity, he had competed not only a year of freshman basketball, but also a season of freshman track in which he trained in all the events I mentioned, plus frequently trained in the discus, the shot put, and hurdles, because at that time his dream was to enter the decathlon and try to win an Olympic gold. He backed away from his dreams in the decathlon to keep focused on basketball, but he was a stellar high jumper on KU's varsity track team eventually.

What I'm trying to say is that Wilt and Joel had different kind of muscling and strength, plus Wilt was a monster track man. And track and field, competed in at the college level, is a tremendous stimulus to physical development.

Wilt high jumped 6' 6" with a scissor kick landing in sand. Well above average for a scissor kick as it would be jumping at the height of his neck, but other athletes who had mastered the role could jump over their heads and land in sand safely. Still 6' 6" was a great jump, but he could have been better if he mastered the role.

@JayhawkRock78 good and interesting info, thanks!

This site has height and weight measurements for Wilt at different stages in his career including KU.

Wilt's measurementst ↗

@JayHawkFanToo wow, he was a big man!

@Crimsonorblue22
Bottom line I was more impressed with his leg spread given the era he ran/jumped in. I would like to compare his sprint times to other 7 footers. These kids are so much more explosive thanks to training like Hudy gives them. Still, I think Wilt as a sprinter would hold up quite well to kids these days given the advances made in the past 50 years.

With a trainer like Hudy and today's technology, Wilt would be one of the greater if not the greatest athlete of all time.

@JayHawkFanToo No disrespect, but he was anyway !!!

When the refs started this year with the ridiculous calls... and in such a wave that the game's focus went away from the teams and on to the refs, they sent a message to every players and coach, "WE decide the outcome of this game!"

From that point forward, players looked harder to find effective ways to flop and win calls, on both sides of the ball. It wasn't like flopping didn't exist before this year, but not so widespread, because in the past, players weren't thinking the refs decide the outcome of the game.

Like I've now said a million times... the change in the call of the game just opened up more variance and how it could be called. So the first major variance (after the initial change in calls) was the "make-up call" in the post (I mean, the make-up NON-call!). The game went totally out of whack at that point; finger fouls on the perimeter, no call in the paint with nun-chucks.

I agree.. that Joel has been totally abused this season by the system.

Let's see...

First... he developed a bad rep early as a guy who plays dirty. It wasn't fair because you could see it was just his knee-jerk reaction because of his lack of experience. And players were already flopping, exaggerating the situation.

Second... he barely speaks English. He doesn't know how to verbally defend himself with refs. Players don't say much to refs, but what they do say helps keep refs fair.

Third... he isn't from our culture. So most of the time he didn't realize just how bad he was getting ripped off.

When he was thrown over the shoulder without getting a call, even after review... that speaks in volumes...

One thing is for sure... next time he gets smacked, he needs to go down on the court and stay down. Show the pain he feels... instead of not getting a call while really getting hurt. He especially needs to stay down in AFH. Let the fans get involved at that point. Refs are weak... they give in to fan persuasion. Then if they go to the monitor, he is likely to get the call. Tell me he wouldn't have got the call in AFH when he was thrown over the shoulder?

Joel is one tall stick... but he always gets the short end of the stick!

I'm afraid they will revert back to the tickytack foul calling in the tournament and that is going cause a lot of problems.

@Blown

It could easily go that way. Or they could back off.

Since we are approaching March and we don't know how games will be called.. because we are left in the dark, the refs are already controlling March!

Teams are tweaking their games now to win their conferences and they are starting to focus on tweaks that will impact their March play. And they have to prepare with a big question mark in place!

Like... how are we supposed to prepare? Our guards need to guard tight now because the knick-knack won't be called? Or will it? Should our post players play with more aggression because they will let the post play go rough (like they are starting to do now)?

How are we supposed to prepare ourselves for March?

My guess is we will have the largest variation in calls in the history of the tournament. One game will be tight, the next loose. Or... the finger foul on the perimeter is called, while mugging is allowed in the paint...

Whatever... but they are already impacting March now!

The refs will (for the most part) determine the next National Champion!

@drgnslayr you forgot to include, "check the monitor"

@jaybate 1.0 The story is told that Wilt out-distanced two-time Olympic medal winner and three-time world record holder, Bill Nieder, in the shot put. Wilt threw the shot backwards, over his head!

@741hawk loves these stories, I follow the track team too.