🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Man alive... Who do I single out for the FLOOR BURN AWARD on this one? Perry Ellis had a MAN NIGHT! 32-points, 8 rebounds (4 offensive), 5 assists and 2 steals! And he proved he can be a threat from the perimeter, nailing two 3-point shots. It will be nice (moving forward) to exploit that option!

Andrew Wiggins.. played a solid game. He's staying busy and on the move. He managed 17-points and just took what was given to him.

Wayne Selden.. showed up wearing big boy pants. 15-points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and a block! 3 STEALS!

Jamari Traylor... a man possessed! 10-points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist and a block in only 22 minutes of floor time! He had a couple of major highlight finishes in the paint!

Tarik Black.. he's such a favorite with all of us... he was limited because of foul trouble, but he made his presence known in the 9 minutes of floor time he saw.

Landen Lucas.... I hope he can continue to steal a few minutes. What a treasure he is to have planted deep on our bench.

We brought big time energy as a team. It is hard to reward only one or two players, so I won't... I'll reward every player who had playing time with the award this time! It was a team effort and everyone deserves a piece of the pie!

Conference Season Tally:

Wayne Selden 5

Joel Embiid 3

Perry Ellis 3

Andrew Wiggins 3

Naadir Tharpe 3

Tarik Black 3

Frank Mason 2

Brannen Greene 1

Landen Lucas 1

Conner Frankamp 1

Jamari Traylor 1

Andrew White III 1

Justin Wesley 1

Evan Manning 1

Niko Roberts 1

Christian Garrett 1

@drgnslayr loved the press, thought it got them going 2nd half! I realize they were playing TCU, but they were fun to watch, the 2nd half. Let's build on this and take care of teams, one by one. Like to see Embiid come off bench, go slowly back in to it. Thanks, love this post.

I loved the overall team energy in this game.

We were just chatting in here if they could become more of an open court team. The TCU game was a kind of hybrid version of open court. We picked up the pace considerably and often scored in what I classify as a secondary break (anytime the defense hasn't set yet).

I know we accomplished all this at home against the worst team in our league... but at least we accomplished it and got a taste of what our future can be if we bring a different mindset (and strategy) into games. Even though TCU offered little defensive resistance, we still had to come out there and push the pace beyond what was our previous comfort level and then execute. This was a good opponent to try this strategy, and hopefully we will take some confidence away from it and bring the same amount of energy into future games.

It will be tougher to execute this style of game away from home and against tougher opponents... but we have the talent to do it. And if we maintain a high level of confidence it won't be so incredibly hard to do it against better teams.

That was a fun game to watch, and if my memory serves me right this was the first game in a long time we really mashed our opponent. We didn't let off their throats the entire game. Even our walk-ons performed admirably.

I hope Self is just bluffing on Embiid's return for Tech. I'd like to see us have to win on the road without him. Embiid gives the rest of our guys a sort of security blanket that doesn't help them stay motivated. It would be nice to have a few games without him and let them build on that motivation... long enough to establish a pattern. Plus.. we need him fresh for March!

What we experienced Saturday closely connected to the expectations many of us have for this team. Amazing how much better they look when they all keep a high-revved motor!

Now we have to learn to play that way against better opponents. Not a hard adjustment... mostly mental.