🏀 KuBuckets Archive

The Big 12 is gonna be a beast this season. I don't care what anyone else says.
I just watched OU beat the living daylights out of N.Western.

Wasn't OU supposed to be down this year? I mean, Trae Young and everybody else. Maybe middle of the pack in the league

But, yah I know, its N.Western. BFD, right? Yah, I know, any single one of our leagues teams could beat down N.Western. That Young kid though. He is legit and the rest of the OU players I saw seemed to know their roles around him very well. They were cohesive on both ends. Good defense. even better offense.

KU cannot sleep on any of the Big 12 teams this year. Not one! We go to ANY other teams house and we better be ready for a fight because KU has the biggest target on its back.
I really like this team so far and I think we will obviously be better up front with Preston and DeSousa. But, we will be very youthful up front. Very inexperienced.
Think for a second, Lightfoot is our most experienced 4-5 guy right now.
Udoka is coming along very quickly, quicker than I thought he would to be honest. But we have no experience down low. All our experience is in the back court with our guards.
Preston and De Sousa being ready and available for games will be a Huge watershed, windfall, whatever for this team. But we are going to take some losses along the way while we wait for both of them to mesh with the team and figure out their roles.

Let the second season begin!

@Lulufulu I think the conference race will be highly competitive and very fun to watch as it has been most years outside of a few when we took the rest of the league to the wood shed with little resistance. I’m not sure how good the conference is comparing to other power 5 conferences at this point, I would say the big 10 looks like a joke early but the PAC 12 and the ACC look better than the B12. The conference must do better come March to be an elite conference.

Let's talk about it in March. Every year we hear and talk about how great the lil10 is and every year the conference underperforms as a whole when it matters most. It's a rhetoric that simply must change before the lil10 is seen as formidable.

I kind of like the fact that the Big 12 has lacked a little sports media respect this year. It can only help push every team in the Big 12 to improve.

The season is long. And anything can happen. We could see 3 of the top players in the ACC go down from injuries all within one week. Conferences, like teams, need a bit of good luck as the year progresses. Injuries are key, but also winning our conference share of close victories, especially outside of our conference.

Just look at Kansas. Just look at Bill Self. Where would we be today if Mario had missed that shot?

We might have our first answer Friday night in Austin. That's looking to be a very tough matchup.

@drgnslayr And Mario likely would have missed that shot if Collins hadn't delivered one of the most spectacular timely passes in Jayhawk history.

@wissox

Could be a low scoring game unless we control the pace. We have to run Bamba off the lane, he's an elite eraser. The best shot blocker in the Big-12 since Withey by far

BeddieKU23 said:

@wissox

Could be a low scoring game unless we control the pace. We have to run Bamba off the lane, he's an elite eraser. The best shot blocker in the Big-12 since Withey by far

Read from the Texas site that Andrew Jones their leading scorer might be back for the game Friday.

I don't think we have to worry a lot about them trying to slow it down, I think they will want to try and run , quicker pace - just from what I've seen from them watching them this year they have a hard time shooting the ball, I think low 40's % wise

If Jones can't play I think the one's you have to watch for the most is not Bamba ( Offensively ) anyways he still pretty green in that area BUT on defense for sure he makes up for a lot. Offensively probably from what I've seen this year the other Big can't remember his name is pretty decent and then Roach , Roach loves to try and drive the ball and if he gets to the hole, he wants to tear the rim down - -can really jump.

I'm thinking we will probably end up winning this game somewhere like in the middle 80's - like 85 -78 somewhere in that range would be my prediction. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

6 teams in top 25. Let's see what happens after they all beat the hell out of each other and how many FF teams we have from the big 12. I don't think we have a FF team in the league based on current rosters and performance. (I reserve the right to change my opinion after Silvio and Preston return).

The Big 10 is down. Big 12 is about average. The only difference is that the Big 12 may not have any elite teams this season, depending on the eligibility of Preston and what that does for KU.

@justanotherfan

The Big 10 has Michigan State and Purdue and it drops big time from there.

@JayHawkFanToo

You could have put the period after Purdue. Lol. The rest of that conference is pretty poor. I can't seem them getting four teams into the dance, honestly.

Come selection Sunday, their bubble teams will have an uphill climb.

Ohio State already has losses to Clemson and Butler. Their best win is Stanford.

Michigan already lost to LSU. Best win is UCLA.

Maryland lost to St. Bonaventure and Syracuse. Best win is Butler.

Minnesota has lost to Arkansas and Nebraska. Best win is Alabama.

Penn State has lost to NC State and Rider. Yes, Rider. Best win is George Mason? Pitt? Nobody?

Nebraska has losses to Creighton, UCF and St. Johns. Best win is Boston College? I guess?

Northwestern has losses to Creighton, Texas Tech, Georgia Tech and Oklahoma (two of those in blowouts). Best win might be DePaul.

Everyone else in the conference already has at least six losses and likely won't even make it onto the bubble - sorry Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Rutgers.

That's seven possible bubble teams in a conference with only two good teams and only Michigan and Minnesota have any decent wins. Penn State, Nebraska and Northwestern probably are already on the wrong side of the bubble. Ohio State and Maryland are in trouble with some of their losses to potential bubble teams. And they will spend the next two months losing on the road against each other, giving you a host of 10 and 11 loss teams with .500ish conference records to choose from.

That's the worst possible scenario for a collegiate major conference.

@whipperboy73

Since they played Gonzaga they haven't given up 70 points in their last 6 games. They recently were in a 47-46 slugger. It's going to be low scoring game unless KU controls the pace with its guards and finds a way to keep Bamba away from blocking everything.

Luckily we've played well in Austin lately, we've had some really good offensive games since Shaka became coach. Hope it continues

The B12 is not down- it's about the same. One good team, and a slew of teams that will lose in the first two games of the tournament. They all rate the B12 best every year pre-conference, and then the conference falls on it's face in the tournament. So, the B12 lovers all beat their chest now, and then get sand kicked in their face come tournament time. I'm different- I only root for KU. I could care less what the other b12 teams do.

Every team in the Big 12 has at the most 2 loses or less except Texas that has 3...no other conference comes even close to this. Think about it.

BeddieKU23 said:

@whipperboy73

Since they played Gonzaga they haven't given up 70 points in their last 6 games. They recently were in a 47-46 slugger. It's going to be low scoring game unless KU controls the pace with its guards and finds a way to keep Bamba away from blocking everything.

Luckily we've played well in Austin lately, we've had some really good offensive games since Shaka became coach. Hope it continues

I will say right here and now, on December 27th that we WILL score more then 70 for sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt. - -did you see that 47-46 contest? - - that was one ugly , ugly ball game, Tennessee state - I think we are just a cut or two above Tennessee State and that was on Texas home floor. They wanna run seen to much of them this year they wanna run, just don't have the shooters to finish.

They are a horrible offensive club - -only average 72 points a game. Why is that? - -because they play a snail pace slow pace game? - - -no, it's because they have terrible shooters. - -barely 45% from the field - -they only shoot 62% from the stripe -- & 28% from the 3pt -that my friend is a recipe for disaster when you come up against quality teams. - -these teams they have held under 70 - - not exactly offensive jaugernauts. - - -Alabama , - -VCU - - Tennessee State ,. - - Duke the only really legit quality team they have played put 85 on the board against them. - -I'm not concerned about scoring ,last game is the 1st game Bamba has really done anything offensively other then defense . - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

Final Four. There's a measuring stick.

@HighEliteMajor You're right. Final Four is the precedent with which we should associate ourselves with every year. We ( KU ) fall short more often than not. But should we expect to make it that far every year? If we do and then it doesn't happen, it feels like a bad season. I mean, I get both view points.
We all know, at least I think we do, that the field of teams for the NCAA's doesn't exactly get done fairly for every team that gets a spot. It gets done with ratings in mind and with money and profits in mind. KU absolutely HAS to have every single domino fall in their favor during each game in the post season to have a Final Four appearance.
I'm not certain we should be judging our KU team and our conference on whether or not how many big 12 teams make the Final four each year. But I understand the inclination to want to do so.

KUSTEVE said:

The B12 is not down- it's about the same. One good team, and a slew of teams that will lose in the first two games of the tournament. They all rate the B12 best every year pre-conference, and then the conference falls on it's face in the tournament. So, the B12 lovers all beat their chest now, and then get sand kicked in their face come tournament time. I'm different- I only root for KU. I could care less what the other b12 teams do.

Now you stop that young man - -Jethro, Now me -- I'll pull for every Big 12 team once the Season is over or in the non con - -cause every time we win it just makes the conference look that much better.

Now sire I do believe you need an attitude adjustment - -what time can we schedule for you to come in lmao. - - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

@Jayballer54

I've also watched Texas a good amount. They are 264th in the country in adjusted tempo according to Kenpom. Whether its bad shooting, missing a key player etc this team doesn't do anything fast on offense. Playing KU where they are an underdog I'm sure limiting possessions is one of the keys Shaka is going to preach. They can't go up and down the court with KU and he knows it

@Lulufulu All KU has to do is win four games in a row, and most times the first game is relative gimme. There is nothing incredibly difficult that prevents a blue blood from getting to the final four regularly. We've had good draws, and bad draws. We blow opportunities in KC, or to get to KC. We've had perfect paths to get there. We've done everything at Kansas except win national titles more regularly. When you have everything, except one thing, doesn't that one thing become even more precious?

As for the Big 12, it's embarrassing how bad we are in the tourney. Flat embarrassing. No one remembers November or December.

Exactly. Nobody is gonna remember or care how many wins or losses each lil10 team has right now if they all underachieve in the dance. It's a simple question of mind over matter. Like... November and Decembers wins can just be erased from your mind cause... They don't matter. If you fail when it counts. The conference as a whole does so at an almost embarrassing rate yearly. Oh, and it very much matters to me if the rest of the conference is any good. What else is gonna make us better? Or we can keep talking about how we fall short in the tournament more often than not but geez we love that lil10 conference streak

Here is a blurb from an article on CBS:
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketball-podcast-kansas-vs-the-field-to-win-the-stacked-big-12/ ↗ ↗

Because Big 12 play starts Friday. And the Big 12 is, for the fifth consecutive season, according to KenPom, the best league in college basketball. There are four teams in the top 15 and nine in the top 50. The lowest-rated school is Iowa State at No. 76. Which is why something like a 12-6 league record might be good enough to win the Big 12 regular-season title outright.

5th consecutive year as the "best". 2 Final Four appearances in 5 years. Does that sound like the best? Even with the tournament stacked against us every year, that is simply pitiful. So, being the "best" becomes meaningless except on Kenpom's dream world.

Jayballer, I'm not being negative. I just know how obnoxious many conference fans can be. You get some rummy from Arkansas, and his football team sucks. So, he adopts Bammer and Georgia as a form of "SEC pride" so he can continue to brag, and act like he's all that and a bag of chips. Every year, I run across ACC conference flunkies- their team gets beat, so they switch allegiance to UNCheat, or Dook. The B10 conference fans are insufferable, as one of them constantly brings up how many hockey titles Minnysota has won. Ok, dude.... we're talking basketball- I could care less about hockey. If OU somehow ends up as a 1 seed, and loses in the 1st round, it's no skin off my nose. The last time the B12 was "dominant" in the NCAA tournament, we weren't even the B12 yet- we were the Big 8. And it was 1988. OMG, I just wrote a paragraph like you do..lol. You're rubbing off on me..lol.

@KUSTEVE This debate comes up every year. The B12 is once again ranked by various statistical metrics as the best conference in the country. That, in the past and again is this year, is the product of not having any bad teams (in contrast to every other conference) that drag down rankings and avoiding bad losses. During the non-conference schedule, B12 teams had an outstanding non-conference record - mostly the result of very soft scheduling. Having said that, the entire conference managed to avoid "bad" losses (one ISU loss excepted; and KU losing to UW in KC is probably the "worst" loss of any highly ranked team other than UNC losing to BC). In addition, the B12 teams had a somewhat surprising number of good wins.

IMO, the problem with the B12 year in and year out in the non-conference schedule is that B12 teams don't consistently play the other better teams around the country (KU is typically the exception, although not this year, along with Texas). In the Big Dance, you have to beat the best teams in the country. The B12 as a whole doesn't consistently challenge itself against the best competition and show that it can win those games.

This year is no exception - during the non-conference schedule, I believe that the entire conference picked up only 4 wins against the top 25 or so teams in the poll and power rankings - WSU, Virginia, Kentucky and FSU (barely). Villanova and Xavier have that many by themselves. Until the B12 teams regularly challenge themselves against the best competition - and demonstrate they can win those games more often than not - I expect they will continue to underwhelm in the NCAA tournament....

@KUSTEVE lOL - - -HEY - - -HEY - - - HEY watch it there Jethro lmao. that's not nice lol. - - I hear ya man, it's time that this league actually stand up and do something. Every dam year we fall flat on our face, with us KU leading the way a lot of times 1st & 2nd round exits.

I mean we ( KU ) leads the Nation in straight NCAA appearances like at 28 yrs in a row, and what have we accomplished in those 28 yrs? - -how many titles - -final fours have we taken? - -This league is a whole is a joke come tourney time, we have become the laughing stock of the Nation

Now do I think we could do damage in the tourney? -- Hell ya we could. I think we have 3 even possibly 4 that could actually make some noise, would be nice for a change. - -KU - - -WVU - - OKLA - - & & & - even TCU - -ya that's right I said it lol - - -TCU

See what you did, you got me writing a paragraph again lmao. - Hey sorry I just get all caught up trying to explain myself and my thoughts and logic sometimes - - logic? - what the hell is that lol - -you be nice - - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

@KUSTEVE I agree, I think sometimes that being the most competitive league, which the B12 has been IMO for the last 5 years gets mixed up for the toughest.