🏀 KuBuckets Archive

As usual, teams that shoot treys more efficiently, and rebound better, while doing everything else about the same as opponents tend to win. Even inspite of the home team getting a home whistle!

OSU was +13 on the glass.

OSU shot 44.4% 3pt.

KU shot 36.4% 3pt.

Thus, despite KU storming back, KU came up 5 short.

Devonte was better today. Maybe he is getting used to playing 40 minutes operable? He shot it less. Made more. Stripped more. Even looked sharp on 8 assists. But frankly DG didn't look very good on defense early or late. NOTE: HIS LEFT LEG APPEARS CYBERNETIC.

Svi was worse. He went Brickailiuk finally from trey on 2-9 and made a glaringly bad TO late to stymie the comeback. But he ,kept playing hard, snagged 5 alassvacs and 4 assists.

Doke was programmed to score 30-40 today, but instead got fouled up and got 20 efficiently, but only played 21 minutes. This drove his rebounding down to 5. Not. Enough. Doke deserves strokes for 4-7 from the line.

Lagerald Vick, after a stellar 2/3 of a season, has entered into, dare I say it? A mother of all slumps reminiscent of Brady Morningstar's monster slump. (pause while I put on my anti-brick-bat helmet). LaCobra still has the hooded, flared trapezius look--the Basketball equivalent of Thomas "hit man" Hearns--the Motor City Cobra albeit on pipe cleaners. But...

Lagerald no makey from closely and no makey from farrey.

Lagerald makey 3 pop tarts.

Lagerald get no strippies.

Selfie no likey 34 minutes of a hooded cobra with no fangs.

Lagerald is about to find out just how long starting an entire season can feel in February.

February is GRIND time.

February is when boys are separated from men.

Malik Newman continues to cruise along scoring and rebounding efficiently, so long as Bill keeps asking Vick to do all the dirty work and Elmer's chores and let's Malik just kind of glide around in his 1-man offensive world. Malik got his 16 points efficiently, and he got his 5 boards dutifully, but notice the assists = 0, steals = 0, and blocks = 0. Self is old school. Anyone can and should get 16 and 5 in 34 minutes if they don't lift a finger to do any other team chores. Self loved on Malik lately, because Malik was doing a lot around the house, not just scoring and grabbing stray caroms. I doubt Self is going to be quite so warm and fuzzy about today after peaking at the video.

Mitch? down arrow. 18 minutes of nothing horrible, but marginal productivity. Mitch has to do more for this team to weather Doke's foul ups.

Marcus Garrett got 14 minutes and did a Mitch. Nothing horrible, but no productivity either.

De Sousa = 1 minute. Apparently practice is not building coaching trust yet.

THE TAKE AWAY: Self sent them out without an AMP in hopes of stealing one at home with a home whistle, Doke pivoting for near dunks, and some decent trey shooting. He got the whistle, only 21 minutes of Doke, and the shooting was pretty bad.

Expect an AMP for TCU. They HAVE to win this TCU game. PERIOD!

This TCU game will be the latest test of this team's character. Their backs are now to the wall. Jamie Dixon will make sure this is a seriously physical game. The Birds have to find a way once they get ashore. Its not the way Sun Tzu says to win, but I am doubtful Self can give them a wrinkle pre-game to buy them this game.

This is like New Britain in the Solomons Campaign. The Army fought this battle, not the Marines. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war. The US Army tried to wage it their way--the Army way. But the butchery and swamps soon dragged them down in to battles just like the Devil Dogs had been fighting elsewhere. Army soldiers after being savaged badly, began resort to tactics instead of strategies and began to fight one pill box at a time. Army soldiers became supreme jungle fighters same as the Devil Dogs had become. This was an island engagement of ferocious butchery on both sides. It was after this battle for New Britain that the Japanese found themselves faced with the worst of all possible worlds. A Navy-Marine column of attack through the Central Pacific and an Army-Navy column of attack up through the southwest Pacific. And both were hardened jungle fighters no longer fearing the Japanese superiority in that kind of warfare, but rather eagerly wanting to kill every Japanese in their paths...whatever it took.

Our guys proved a while back they could fight this way.

But they are going to have to prove it again now in a bigger engagement.

No R and R now.

Resupply, redeploy and fight.

@jaybate-1.0 Vick's disappearance is hard to figure. I literally forgot he was on the floor in the first 5 mins. or so of the game. We certainly didn't come ready to play...at least in the first half.

@jaybate-1.0 Another bullet point noted by Matt Norlander is his unfortunately spot on analysis on CBS Sports of this group of Jayhawks - we allowed OSU to grab 47% of their misses. OSU is not a big team. That's just effort and technique (coaching) - or lack thereof. The continued failure of this team to be able to box out is particularly frustrating - it's just not that hard. We managed to make a mediocre team look like world beaters - of course, the same was true in losses to ASU and Washington.

DCHawker said:

@jaybate-1.0 Another bullet point noted by Matt Norlander is his unfortunately spot on analysis on CBS Sports of this group of Jayhawks - we allowed OSU to grab 47% of their misses. OSU is not a big team. That's just effort and technique (coaching) - or lack thereof. The continued failure of this team to be able to box out is particularly frustrating - it's just not that hard. We managed to make a mediocre team look like world beaters - of course, the same was true in losses to ASU and Washington.

YEP. Lazy effort today. No excuse.

Next year should be better rebounding.

Also he probably wouldn't play a ton next year but Ochai Agbaji is a KC area kid we are recruiting that is a really coachable, tough hard worker. Averaging almost 10 reb a game in his SR season and grabbed 14 boards in front of Self the other night. KU offered today after having him in for his third unofficial visit in about a month.

It amazes me how poorly KU plays at home. Yet when they play on the road they seem to find another gear, and push through any adversity.

KU just looked tired to me . I mean really tired. I'm afraid to say and think , but maybe it's time to forget the conference championship run and see if Coach can start saving some legs for the Tourney. Graham just looks exhausted . I know it's a taboo point to make. Yet I'm afraid this team is running out of gas big time.

Tired legs equals more missed shots, and the defense begins to break down. The biggest hope I have now is that Desousa is fast tracked into some meaningful minutes. Doka can sure use some help. Kid is getting double and tripled teamed.

The pressure is building, and Coach better find a release value or this season maybe on the side of the road without any gas.

@DoubleDD OMG STOP BEING SO NEGATIVE!!! (joking)

No stats needed we sucked

BeddieKU23 said:

No stats needed we sucked

I'm ready for Vick to go.

BShark said:

BeddieKU23 said:

No stats needed we sucked

I'm ready for Vick to go.

Unfortunately it's just not his year. He's a real disappointment no doubt, having one of those junior lull years. His shot has regressed and I'm not sure what he does well anymore.

@BeddieKU23 Nothing really, but the other options are not really better.

@DoubleDD I thought they looked bored. Lazy, inattentive, disinterested. I think they thot they could show up and not have much effort, and still win. Teams do it all the time. Every year, we seem to have a game or two where we cake walk, and get our asses handed to us. This team last played on Monday, so I don't think they're tired. Hopefully, they'll want to show up and play next game.

@KUSTEVE Agree. It was cruise control to start the game. They tried better in the 2nd half but it was too much of a hole that they dug for themselves. Oh well on to TCU.

BShark said:

@BeddieKU23 Nothing really, but the other options are not really better.

We could talk about Sam but we've been there before. He isn't playing well enough to be the only option

Maybe KU can get Kevin Young, who is now playing for the Kansas City Tornados, to stop by and teach the current players how to rebound. He can probably use the extra income and KU players can definitely use any help they can get.

This game was no surprise. This is the 2017-18 Jayhawks. Up, down, all around. Ride the roller coaster. But we know it, right?

Our coach isn't doing anything wrong on the court. There are no huge omissions, or major errors to analyze. Our team has significant warts from a personnel perspective. Self has the best scheme for this team.

The subjective element here is whether we are mentally ready to play. We clearly aren't sometimes. This seems be the area that Self has to really look at and challenge himself on.

This team is not going to ever make us comfortable. We know we can beat anyone. We can legitimately lose a 15/2 game and it would not be shocking. That's a pretty wide berth.

It's almost a peaceful feeling.

It is fairly peaceful. I mean I have had almost no expectations for this team from early on. Even winning number 14 is very much in jeopardy. But idk if I care. Maybe it is time the streak goes by the way side. Take the pressure off of that. It would be nice. But I could see the advantage either way. The disturbing part of it isn't that they lost yet another home game. It's simply that there was little to zero effort for at least the first half and a couple stretches second half. That is simply uncalled for.

Coach and Devonte publicly acknowledging Devonte's knee bone bruise is disquieting. Discussion of Injuries, regardless of severity, are typically taboo. Hope he is a fast healer.

@KUSTEVE

Agreed that every year there are a few bad games. It goes with Self's philosophy of performances:

1/3 good

1/3 middling

1/3 bad

When one assumes this sort of normal distribution of performance, and the randomness of it, one also take on the random overlapping of various levels of the performance distribution.

Over 35-40 games, several of the guys 1/3 bad games are going to coincide in a perfect storm of bad game.

The reason being shorthanded is so bad, from a statistical standpoint, is that when you have more good players to try each game, you have more possibilities of finding guys that are not sucking that day. But even with a ten deep roster, over the course of 40 games, you're going to have a perfect storm stinker once, or twice.

Another way shorthandedness impacts that we just don't have any guys on the bench that even on good days can come in and replace the productivity of our starters. Hence, any day when two starters are struggling, we are very close to an L. Period.

Compare this with a deeper team. Two starters struggle. Two subs come in and only one is productive. Well, that still means Self still has four productive players out of five and that means he can almost always scheme around one struggler. For instance, its easy for one struggler to become just a glue man. That doesn't work this year. KU needs all of its starters to be scoring in double figures to really have a good chance of winning against most teams.

And so on.

There is not substitute for a well rounded and deep team over the long haul. It doesn't mean you will go all the way, but it means you will have a lot fewer losses at home and on the road from flame outs.

Seems like years past we had depth but complained that Coach Self wasn't using it...seriously, I don't know how he keeps this team motivated. Certainly, there is no real threat of limiting any starter's playing time. Maybe just the option of a deep bench was enough. In the post interview today, he seemed frustrated with the effort of all but Devonte and Svi. No argument here.

@CRH107 I think that may be a factor.....a lack of effort does not get you benched....at least for very long. And.........Svi may have given a good effort.......but he had a bad game......those missed layups in the first half really hurt and he couldn't hit from 3 all day. Even though he was cold from 3........those layups could have made a big difference.

@CRH107

Most definitely that was the complaint.

This year we are learning about REAL shorthandedness.

Persons that talk about other teams playing 7 man rotations are missing the likelihood that in many of those cases the coach has 3-4 more players down the bench that could contribute if he wanted to use them.

Self has 7. And 6 and 7 are rarely productive.

Self is the only HOF coach of the last 20 years that I can recall being in such a bad situation. And somehow, miraculously, he’s tied for first as late as the first week of February.

These players of his badly want this 14th ring for him. They are playing on fumes mostly.

Fans have to acknowledge how much valor we are witnessing.

These guys can’t foul.

They can’t make mistakes.

They can’t come out of games.

They have to play sick AND injured.

They have to play with bad matchups.

They have produce near peak or lose.

I love this team’s courage.

They are way outside their envelope taking best shots and they just keep clawing and scratching toward the next bunker.

“This team is not going to ever make us comfortable. We know we can beat anyone. We can legitimately lose a 15/2 game and it would not be shocking. That’s a pretty wide berth.

It’s almost a peaceful feeling.”
—@HighEliteMajor

You nutshelled it.

http://kuhoops.com/ku-basketball-news/198301769/ ↗

@HighEliteMajor

Wooden lost Jabbar and again Walton. Both times he said it would be good to get back to trying to win games instead of trying not to lose games.

I think the peace you feel is this.

Making the best of great advantage is good.

But so is making the best of disadvantage.

Greatness comes from both.

If we receive it.

Greatness lies in achieving as much of your potential as you can.

This team has greatness in its grasp as surely as any other.

Time will tell.

Under Self's tenure, the Jayhawks have focused on (perfected?) the Hi-Lo offense. And with no surprise, we practiced this extensively heading into this season. Then Preston goes down at the start of the season, and now we are forced to rely solely on a 4-1 offense. It takes time to master that, and we are still figuring out how to negate the rebounding problems with the 4-1. Right now, I see lack of effort and knowledge. I would like to see how we play with Doke and Lightfoot on the floor (ala Hi-Lo) if for anything, shits and giggles. Regardless, let's hope this team perfects the 4-1, warts and all, into a championship team!

@Crimsonorblue22 At least it’s correctable?!?

https://giphy.com/gifs/l4pTrNOq296FVGXwQ?utm_source=iframe&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=Embeds&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kansas.com%2Fsports%2Farticle198301769.html ↗

:nauseated_face: