🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Hey its a win right? It was nice to see the result well in hand before halftime.

You always wonder how a team will respond off a close win like we had Saturday with a fragile team right now. Some guys saw the ball go in (Svi & Malik) that badly needed a game like last night.

Sam got 20 minutes and looked good showing off a little bit of everything we think we knew coming in on him. As always I'm afraid Self reverts back to old habits and puts him in witness protection when we are in close games despite situations where Newman scores 2 points or Marcus continues to struggle shooting the ball from the perimeter. I'm not expecting Cunliffe to be the missing piece but it would be nice to see what he can do as we approach conference play where the opening 2 1/2 weeks look very difficult. I caution myself against too high expectations with him because he's that new car in the lot, we don't know his on-court deficiencies just yet after 2 games. Our HOF coach seems to be very bullish on his impact. Hopefully he gets some opportunities, can't imagine Self is happily settled into rotation minutes at this point after the past few weeks.

On to Thursday's game. 11pm eastern start, who thought that was smart? Unfortunately I'll have to tape it and catch some of it in the morning.

Thursday is that Classic before-Christmas-not-100%-focused-let's-get-home-to-the-family-game. Anyone remember the UNLV game last year? It's best not remembering things that get you upset even if it was a win. I'm sure Stanford's coach will have zero issue getting his team "up" for this one given the connection. So will Self have the same luck? Or will half these guys be interested in their plane ride after. Stanford is having a rough season at 6-6 but this will probably be a similar game to Nebraska. Reid Travis and Humphrey figure to give us plenty to yell about with the lack of post options. Sosinski better be ready for action because I wouldn't be surprised to see both Doke & Lightfoot benched with 2 fouls in the first half.

Hopefully we have a good game plan and make some shots before the break. Then its 8 days until Texas...

The Temple slaughter of a few years ago stands out among the pre-Christmas, not 100% focused games.

I thought Cunliffe looked fine. Still has the nice looking shot. He was a bit stiff and slow, I thought, but that amounts to nit-picking since that's his first real sustained game action. He could be some shooting off the bench, and now that we're in a more shooter friendly era of KU basketball under Self, a shooter off the bench won't get his head bit off. He could definitely have a role.

@BeddieKU23 I'd be willing to bet Mr. Floor burns Haase will have his boys ready to play! Hope our guys show up ready to go, they have the talent edge it's a matter of effort and execution.

Given our history of poor performances before the break.........I am worried about this road game.

HighEliteMajor said:

The Temple slaughter of a few years ago stands out among the pre-Christmas, not 100% focused games.

I thought Cunliffe looked fine. Still has the nice looking shot. He was a bit stiff and slow, I thought, but that amounts to nit-picking since that's his first real sustained game action. He could be some shooting off the bench, and now that we're in a more shooter friendly era of KU basketball under Self, a shooter off the bench won't get his head bit off. He could definitely have a role.

Oh mercy I thought I had that Temple travesty put to bed lol. Still have night mares about that game , that was about as ugly as it gets. Like we were talking yesterday just seems like we have trouble with focus right before their Christmas break, like was mentioned, thinking more about jumping on the plane and getting home - -seeing family , friends - -hope we are focused Travis will have a field day against us if were not - -might have a field day if we are. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

dylans said:

@BeddieKU23 I'd be willing to bet Mr. Floor burns Haase will have his boys ready to play! Hope our guys show up ready to go, they have the talent edge it's a matter of effort and execution.

I forgot about Jarrod being the Stanford Coach. - -Did you ever read his book about floor burns? - I thought it was a pretty coo read. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

dylans said:

@BeddieKU23 I'd be willing to bet Mr. Floor burns Haase will have his boys ready to play! Hope our guys show up ready to go, they have the talent edge it's a matter of effort and execution.

Yeah I'm sure Haase will be personally invested in this game. Sometimes that can rub off onto the team.

We definitely have a talent edge, I'm surprised at Stanford's slow start but I see they are without two veteran starters due to foot injuries which has forced two freshman into the lineup. We are probably lucky we are playing them when they are not at 100%.

They only go 6 deep with a 7th playing Lightfoot type minutes due to the injuries. The issue for us Thursday is 4 of their 7 rotation guys are post players. Reid Travis lit us up in Allen last season going to the line 22 times and is averaging 8 FT attempts per game this season already. He's the type of smart post player that will bait Doke into fouling him and I guarantee Haase game plans for that. KU's overwhelming advantage is guard play and that's why making shots will be very important to off-set the advantage Stanford will have in the post against us.

@HighEliteMajor

I have tried so hard to remove the Temple one from memory. Wasn't there a year we went to Villanova before X-Mas and had a similar fate? Regardless it seems those before a holiday games seem to be an trend for sloppy play. It sure would be nice to get another confidence building game before the gauntlet starts

Interesting, Hasse's career high in points is 30... against Temple. :smile:

Although he played and coached at KU, he is now better related to Roy Williams and North Carolina, although he has always been a great Jayhawk alumnus.

@JayHawkFanToo I get the Roy thing but why is more related to N Carolina than KU?

@Crimsonorblue22

He was not only an assistant coach for 9 years at UNC (4 at KU) but also the HC of the Junior Varsity team, same as Roy Williams and we know where Williams loyalties ended up.

Like I said, he has been and great Jayhawk alumnus but he has been removed from Kansas for almost 15 yeas, most of those at UNC. I did not say he is not loyal to KU but he is "better related" to UNC because of his more recent involvement with that program and Coach Williams in particular who has been his mentor.

This team needs to come ready to grind. Once Preston and DeSousa are in the mix, Self may then go back to a more typical Self-ish hi-lo type game which wins games. I think it's going to be a bit of a grind for half, if not most of the game tonight against the trees. If the KU guards are flat, it's going to be a long night on the West coast.

Frank did a great job! I like the announcers! Just doing their job!

@Crimsonorblue22 And we stretched out the lead while he was on the mic!

Why didn't vick start 2nd half?

Maybe 3 fouls? Not sure.

@KirkIsMyHinrich that's right! Thx!

5 guards?

ESPN has Lawson on the scoreboard.😂

ESPN has really gone downhill.

Dedric Lawson has an assist.

Really liking Svi's inside game tonight. Developing a quicker step to the basket.

Stanford must pay the refs really well, 16 fouls on KU only 6 on Stanford.

Allowing interior passes easily. Awareness on the team is weak.

We should be up by 30 points against this soft Stanford team. Yawn.

@betterfireE I'm enjoying it

2nd half was shit. Team played like the game was over.

Pretty cool about DG passing haase on scoring, weird

Nice pass doke

Nice steal by Garrett. Is he the one player that can make the other team play poorly? One would think Vick could produce some more steals as well.
Doke is allowing passes to whizz right by his arm. Keep your arms active!

What a pleasant group of announcers, I didn't miss any of the game!

Yep. PJ Carlesimo knows enough about the game that he doesn't have to fall back on lame schtick like Dan Dakich.

Rock Chalk. Next stop Austin, TX and I will be there to cheer on our team. Merry Christmas everyone.

@RockChalkinTexas And a Merry Christmas to you and yours ! Enjoy the holiday, everyone !

@Crimsonorblue22

All commentary was related to the game and the programs, a nice change from previous games.

@RockChalkinTexas Merry Christmas to you and the girls! Hang in there! Give us the latest news from texass!

Hopefully we will be getting some nice gifts, large gifts! No new cars w/big bows!

I’m glad they played like crap in the second half. I’m still hoping for more improvement over the break! No complacency

@dylans

I would not go that far. Both coaches made adjustments at half time and both defenses stepped up and the game slowed down. Nothing new for KU which has consistently scored more in the first half.