Merry Christmas to all! Hope everyone enjoys the holiday
BeddieKU23
31745 posts
BShark said:
I'm convinced in Trae Young. Wish he was at KU.
Bingo!
Wooo huge
That benefits us if he's hanging around the perimeter. That's a waste. Advantage KU
Billy won't be playing
He may have ultimately always been destined to stay home but bill self recruited him for years and we were his runner up. I'd believe a shoebox on the side of the road before I believed dakitch had recruiting information worth listening to
He's so full of crap
With 6 teams ranked right now we could see everyone beating up on each other. Winning on the road is going to be like finding gold this yr
8 3's and 12 assists.
To say he's the one that got away is an understatement of the yr
Lol either grades didn't get in or they are appealing
Really nice post.
I think we are seeing Cunliffe's athletic ability shine on the defensive end in his limited minutes so far. He's had some good company to defend in practice for the past year and it certainly looks as if all the time spent on the scout team is paying off. He's blended in well so far and honestly he might be playing fewer minutes then he's capable of right now. We'll see, we certainly just need him to come in and do his job and if he does that his ability to give some guys rest becomes important as we dig deep into conference play. Having a 6th guard in this offense can be just as important as adding another post player we keep dreaming about.
I thought our defensive game plan to stop Travis was excellent. We saw a ton of swarming to the ball whenever the ball seemed to go his direction. As you said I would love to see this plan executed in every game that has a standout player- including Trae Young. My honest opinion right now would be that Young is going to be the one player in the league we may simply have no defensive capability of slowing down.
I wonder if our coaches and support staff do watch film for player tendencies etc. Still even if a coach uses that detail kids still have to be cerebral and execute that in the heat of the moment. For all of our talks about the defense Kenpom still rates this a Top 10 defensive squad at the moment. Sounds like most of D-1 is having a hard time stopping the ball and executing game plans with how the rules/shot clock has affected the entire game. At least we know our offense can outscore most teams on any given night. Four guys at 15 points +, that's a heck of an endorsement to Self's new offensive strategy
Agree, Doke was awesome last night. Svi did have some nice moves and was impressed with his one hand jam in the first half. When the 3 is falling we look awfully tough. I just see some fundamental things that need to be corrected when our guys actually decide to drive to the hoop. It can't be coincidence that this team has shot so few free throws with how the rules are today.
6 losses could win the league. The only team that's going to have 3 or less is potentially KU. OU right now looks 2nd best followed by TCU & Texas Tech. West Virginia & Baylor might finish 5th and 6th in the league this year.
KU's first 10 or so Big-12 games are brutal.
jaybate 1.0 said:
Frank is in the big time, but still looked like himself. Go, Frank, go!
In the first minute of his interview says I wish I could have played here 4 more years. Hard not to gush over that
Noticed Sam playing great defense in his first half minutes. Really defended Reid Travis well, forced him into a traveling turnover on one possession. He looks to be tuned in when defending so far.
Only critical comment I found with him last night was a drive he took to the basket that got blocked. He didn't use his body to shield the shot or draw the foul at all. Problem is most of this team has that problem.
Agree about Newman he is quick enough to get into the paint and he's not showing that part of his game
Self sounded confident after the game last night they will hear news today unless they have to appeal.
jaybate 1.0 said:
Let me respond on three levels.
The players you mention are playing well 10-12 games in; that’s a month and a half. Our guys will begin to be effective in that length of time. Mid February.
De Sousa is probably not as highly ranked as many of the players you mention.
Preston is highly ranked, but historically the only highly ranked bigs KU signs have admissions and developmental baggage that other elite schools do not experience. Self would not be signing baggage carousel specials, if he could get the other type, right?
Great players can step KU never gets the
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Your right its early still.
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De Sousa was once a top 5 player in his class. He didn't play a ton of AAU ball which usually helps one maintain such lofty reputation. It's not an ideal situation joining midway without any acclimation period like transfers get. Last year Austin Whiley- a Top 20 2018 kid joined Auburn's squad mid-year and did pretty well. Wasn't dominate but he definitely helped them. It's about as close of a comparison as there is. Obviously Auburn isn't KU and De Sousa's role will likely be determined on how much Self can trust him.
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I don't know if its bad luck or recruiting the wrong players. It's a awful trend though that needs to stop
Great win before Christmas. Watched the first half replay and was happy with it. Doke was really good. Loved the pace we played at.
The best part of the night though was having Frank Mason on during the first half. That was phenomenal. So glad he got to see his hawks play
Great point!
We'll have a ton of paper talent next year. Depends on what leaves this years squad but we certainly look to have depth at every position. Perimeter shooting would be the biggest concern regarding next years squad currently. Hence why Self is still out there for a elite wing
Well I would look to this years freshman OAD bigs, lots of guys having zero issue transitioning.
Bagley & Carter at Duke are playing great. Carter was a little slow to begin with but had 27 in their win last night. Bagley is 2nd in freshman scoring behind Trae Young and has shown widely why he will be a Top 5 pick in the upcoming draft.
Then we have Ayton at Arizona, arguably their best player, has been dominant and a Top 5 pick next June.
McCoy at UNLV averaging close to 20 and 10 and backing up his ranking with no issue.
Bamba at Texas has been exactly what he was advertised as. An elite defensive presence with a raw offensive game that has plenty of long range potential.
Jaren Jackson has been a big part of Michigan St's Top 5 team so far showing the offensive versatility and defensive abilities that he was known for coming out of school.
PJ Washington & Richards at Kentucky have been solid so far. Both looked more comfortable when I last saw them last weekend against Virginia Tech.
Other then Preston & Vanderbilt who have yet to play a minute this OAD batch has been pretty darn good so far.
Last years class was a mixed bag, some returned due to injury/ineligibility/not ready. Still at least 5 bigs in the top 25 rankings went in the first round last year and had good seasons. 2015 class has a ton of OAD's who had good freshman years. There will always be some that just don't progress quick enough. Unfortunately the common theme is that freshman OAD type bigs at KU fall flat on their face. Alexander, Bragg, Diallo all came and went and threw what we thought were promising seasons with them out the door. Preston hasn't played a game yet, seems to be fitting right in line.
I know the win was more important especially for a team that hasn't been in the playoffs in forever and is in position to be a playoff team finally. It was more a jab at our favorite debbie downer of Mr Andrew's abilities
Mason had 2 points last night in a Kings win.
Jackson, starting for the Suns had 17 in a loss last night.
Wiggins only had 7 points last night. We know someone happy by this development
He has a fear of birds, so he's afraid of a Jay-Hawk
kjayhawks said:
Stanford isn’t a good team, 198th in RPI and 106 in kenpom. They are pretty much a one man band with Travis who did hurt us a year ago. Seems like we play like crap in these games before Christmas. Lets just play hard and get a win.
A big reason they are 6-6 is they are without two perimeter starters who have injuries. Playing two freshman in their place and going only 7 deep because of it. They lack depth just like KU does.
Are you talking specifically about KU freshman bigs or freshman bigs accross the country?
The misses in that class alone could have all contributed to a change. Ayton, Young, Sexton- all thriving at other schools. Usually we look back and say well that kid wouldn't have made KU better. Not the case with these 3
Utilizes that floater game with great precision. And surprisingly when he does go all the way to the rim he is really good at using his body and deceptive athleticism to finish.
Yeah Manek was terrific in that game against WSU, has a really quick release and is the type of stretch 4 man that always gives us fits. Depending on who's eligible to play by that point we should be able to put either a guard on him or someone with size, preferably Preston.
What they will do with Doke is run him off the paint with the high ball screens which Young has shown an advanced skill set for coming off or using to his advantage to get separation for a 3 or making a quick pass off their action from the screen. We'll have to come up with some game plan against him, either hedging hard and ball trapping or something. Not only is he a deadly shooter, his vision is so pin point. He knows where to go with the ball before the defenders even have a chance to bother him. Marcus is a good option especially because he defended him last year in HS. Young is a nightmare to stop right now
Will be interesting to see how Devonte responds to the matchup with Young when they meet in Norman in late January. The last time Devonte was challenged to stop an big-named OU player he got the best of Hield. Young will be a different animal to stop then Hield was. OU runs a ton of high ball screens that will make it very difficult for our defense to do anything other then pray he misses or makes a bad pass. Right now he's doing both at a level that no one can stop.
It's time for the coach to be fired. period
And that's truly sad to witness
nuleafjhawk said:
@BeddieKU23 I wonder if he's good enough to play for Wichita State?
Greg's wife said hold my beer
love me some BIFM news
The way he's playing he could be putting himself in the Top 10 of the draft despite lacking some of the conventional physical attributes that guys that go that high usually have. If he continues to show a game that compares to a NBA superstar (Curry) its going to be interesting to see what teams do to try and get such a talent
22 assists, that's absurd.
Glad he's doing well, just wish it was in a different uniform.
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
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.
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...
Kcmatt7 said:
@BeddieKU23 I just think we don't want him shooting the ball period. Not this year at least.
It is a good point about DG. But then let's just have someone else bring the ball up and he can wait for them at half court lol. If someone presses he can come get it.
He's a better shooter then he's shown. Has to be a mental thing for him right now. I do however think until he can work on his shot diligently that he should pass up the shot. I know that's kind of counter-intuitive to the mindset and style of play Self is letting these kids play with but 4-19 with some of the attempts just plain awful (like hitting the side of the backboard at Nebraska) make it difficult to watch him chuck them up. He's not forcing anything either which makes it worse. I think Marcus could be the one guard that instead of just taking a wide open 3 could take the ball to the hoop and collapse the D for a pass or a potential layup/foul. We need anyone to have a mindset on driving and drawing fouls/getting to the line because right now I've never seen anything like it in all the years of watching KU basketball. We simply don't care about forcing defenses to foul us.
I honestly think the solution with Marcus is putting him in the post and letting him operate closer to the basket. He's shown he's a very capable rebounder, much more active defensively then Lightfoot so I think that could end up helping us get easier baskets for Doke. Lightfoot has 1 assist on the season and has very limited offensive awareness right now. I know Mitch is playing out of position but its really tough to watch him play defense and not rebound when Doke is sitting. Marcus is not capable of being a consistent shooter in this offense right now and scouting against him in the lineup will make teams sag off him. If you put him in a ball screen role and post him up the defense cannot do that and I think in order to get some confidence in his shot it might be best to get him some close range shots. Just some thoughts. Unless we magically get some big's eligible Self needs to get a little more creative then he is currently
Fightsongwriter said:
@BeddieKU23 And the three stroke looked pure.
That first shot looked real good. Hope he doesn't get lost when the competition gets better. It seems Self isn't keen or ready to just throw him in there. I think we need him
Really liked what I saw from him. He's as advertised, a great athlete with some quickness and moves without the ball well.
I'm surprised at the lack of shooting from Marcus. He really came out strong and his defense and rebounding are still a plus but Self either has to convince him to pass up that shot or get him to drive it. He had a few open lanes on the open 3's he badly missed. I think we need to do a better job of putting Marcus in position to score from places outside of the 3 point line. I'm sure scouting reports are already showing you can lay off him. We could certainly do a better job to get him the ball on the baseline or at the FT line, something that could make it easier for him. If his shot is going to be a struggle this season we are just setting him up for failure the way we are utilizing him.
Against Nebraska I agree Doke could have had more points. He already made up for poor offensive games from Newman, a quiet game from Vick & an inconsistent game from Svi. I thought Doke did everything to his ability at a high level, a level if he played at the rest of the season would really take some pressure off what is starting to become an inconsistent perimeter. Nebraska didn't have anyone to stop him and from the comments looks like Self lit a fire and he responded.
Devonte played near 40 minutes for the 4th consecutive game. We don't have another PG on this team, we all saw the 2 minutes Devonte sat how poorly we executed offense. He should get the ball over quicker but either this was a coaching decision by Self to try and limit some possessions of Nebraska by going deeper into the clock or Devonte is laboring a bit from all the minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if its a combination of both.
Agree on the defense but we know its not changing. Self said as much in his recent comments. He'll roll over in his grave before his team becomes a Zone team. I do however think he's too stubborn here and should practice some zone to give a different look. I've always wanted him to employ the Nova method where we show some type of full court press and back into a physical M2M or some cheap zone. Just think what 5-6 successful trips of this could accomplish. At least what this does is force a PG into thinking about what he's going to do to get it up the court instead of just having his way down the court. I'm continually stunned that more schools do not use some kind of dummy press with the shorter clock. If you take away 4,5-8 seconds from an offense's normal routine you have a great chance of disrupting flow and controlling pace!
Self admitted the mistake with that timeout. That almost cost us the game late as KU was absolutely clueless on what to do in that zone. Imagine if Nebraska kept to it on that last possession instead of going man and giving up the 3. Hard to imagine we would have scored with how poorly we attacked and executed against the zone. I haven't watched much of Nebraska before that game but I wonder if they threw that zone wrinkle into their arsenal because of KU's struggles against Cuse/Washington zone's.
Team is in a funk, not an easily fixed one. Self has his work cut out for him.
I expect the game to be close unless Saturday's win was the jolt mentally this team needed. Would love to see them come out and put Omaha away by 20+ at half. We'll know in the first half tonight if these guys took anything from that win.
Doke was great. Difference in the game for us on offense.
Sam didn't even play a minute. So much for guard depth. Close games will do that though, self always gets tight
truehawk93 said:
@BShark And again, because they beat us, they will have a strong argument come committee time. They may be a very low seed, but because they beat KU, there will be an argument. I guarantee you ASU gets in because they love Bobby Hurley for obvious reasons.
Asu was ranked when we lost to them. They will have to fall off the earth to not make it
Washington won't be in unless they win the pac-12, which won't happen
If OU plays like that, getting elite play from young and having other guys step up it's going to be rough playing them
BShark said:
Wish he was a Hawk. Though he wouldn't really fix our issues.
He's a better point guard then what we have. No offense to Devonte either