🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@drgnslayr

Frank is our leader, we have to hope he can keep the team together. The problem is we don't show up on the road. We need to figure out how to bring it on the road. Frank needs to take this team and huddle them and threaten their momma's to get them fired up.

So far Self has been pretty ineffective on how to get these guys to bring 40 minute effort on the road. We can go 2-2 on the road the rest of the year as long as we are 4-0 at home. This is not a big what if situation, unlike the rest of the league that basically needs to win out to stay in the hunt for the Conference Title. a 8-2 mark is nothing to be ashamed of, 9-1 would have looked much sweeter but those are the cards we are dealt. Tuesday can't be a letdown game because if it is, "the world might actually be falling apart" around here after.

@Lulufulu

A 6-2 final stretch will win it or at least share.

I think it's impossible that any team wins out the rest of the way. If a 6-2 final stretch is how it ends up the margin for Error for everyone not named ISU is 1 game. If ISU loses more than 1 game with the toughest remaining schedule then 6-2 will win it outright.

Baylor & OU could both end with 4 losses if they won out. Both have to play KU, and OU has 2 with ISU remaining. Hard to imagine either ISU or OU sweep. Baylor has 2 T-Tech remaining which is in their favor. But road games to KU, ISU, Texas will hopefully eliminate them.

It's going to be a wild finish. Tonight starts the help, both OU & Baylor could have 5 losses after tonight. ISU could have 4. I think we have to root for Oklahoma to hold serve at home because that would give KU the cushion it needs. KU will need to win tomm and Satuday at home. And then we repeat the madness again.

@icthawkfan316

You hit the head on all them. I'm the type of fan that takes losses very hard, I spent the rest of Saturday is a "I don't give a" mood because games like Saturday are so far from the true ability of this team that is hard to accept actually seeing it happen. Yesterday I had forgiven them because it wasn't the end of the season and there's still plenty of time to make things right.

Kentucky was a bad game, I lived with it because we knew UK could be a special team.

Temple was horrid, never thought we would pack it in for X-mas break like that but the writing was on the wall.

ISU, yes even myself was totally pissed about how we lost. You forget the terrible ref's in that game, how do we go 30 minutes without a FT attempt. I hate to blame ref's but they do have some part in how games go.

I hope our players understand the importance of bouncing back Tuesday. No matter the opponent, we need to go in their gym and play our game. That has been lacking in every road we have played except Texas. We cannot play down to Texas Tech's level. We need a confidence boost so that our remaining 3 road games we have something we can build on.

@icthawkfan316

I like the response, and yes you are right about accepting losses . We as KU fans are so spoiled by the wins that we get so down when we finally slip up. And usually when we slip up, we lose in a bad way that leaves a sting. 2012 was a great example, I wasn't mad at all that we lost. To think the run they had of close games and getting to the finals was as thrilling as winning it all for me.

Out of our 4 losses this year Iowa St was the easiest for me to accept knowing that we were playing in a hostile crowd, we didn't play well for large parts of the game yet we fought back and clawed for a 5 point loss. There were many parts of that game that you could be disgusted with but at least we didn't give up.

The Oklahoma St. game you just got this sense that they really did give up for about a 10 minute stretch. Even the last 5 minutes was just mistake after mistake that even a few bounces our way would have eeked out a win. The way they lost in my mind was just terrible.

Now can we move on as fans and as a team to get back to winning ways!

Figured I'd get the ball rolling and try and look to the next game we have. I know many of us (myself) included have vented enough about Saturday's disappointing loss. The biggest downer for me wasn't that we lost as much as how we lost that just totally got me going.

Interested to see how people feel this game will go after 2 days to digest what happened.

In perspective we hold a 1 game lead on everyone, tonight there are 2 more big games to be played. First up is Baylor at home against OSU. Winner is either 7-5 or 7-4 in conference which is still "hanging" around at this point.

The 2nd game is very important to KU because ISU goes to Norman. ISU winning would keep them 1 game behind going into Tuesday's KU game. A loss would leave everyone with 4 conference losses and the chance for KU to get 2 games up again. A win for Oklahoma is huge as well because their next 4 games got a bit easier with KSU down 2 players, Texas in a huge struggle then back to back TCU & T-Tech. It's not a stretch to think OU could rattle off 5 games in a row and really turn up the heat on KU.

So to me Tuesday's game just got that much more important. We have to win, we have to win like a good team, like KU should. We have to take care of business on the road so that we keep this 2 game cushion that is crucial to winning the league.

The question I ask is will we? Will the 2nd half meltdown we had carry over into Tuesday or will Self find a way to rally the troops? I'm really hoping that it was just a bad half in a place we have played pretty poorly over the years. I do want to remind hawk fans that we played pretty poorly in Lubbock last year and needed a last second layup by Wiggins to win. Texas Tech's team last year was much better equipped to pull the upset, but at this point KU has played it's poorest ball on the road that every game away from Allen looks scary.

I'm thinking that it will be a tight game early, maybe even 5-6 points at halftime. Maybe even close into the 2nd half and that KU will pull out an 8-12 point win. Unless this team truly has hit the wall, I just can't see us losing. Tech has won its last 2 games at home against ISU & KSU but I just can't think in any way that we could lose if we don't have a TCU type performance. I would like to predict we run them out of the gym on their own floor but we've all seen how we do with leads this year and how quickly they fall apart that it's hard to predict any kind of blowout win.

What does everyone think? Rebound game blowout? Rebound game loss? Rebound game struggle for the win?

@HighEliteMajor

"This is just a loss. An expected loss, perhaps. But the way we lose and perform sheds great light on what to expect as we move forward."

Well said and is exactly how I feel about this game. We gave them the game, we've given every road game to the other team for the taking except Texas. This is how we played at ISU, Baylor, TCU and now Oklahoma St. Notice the trend? We suck on the road, PERIOD.

Missed shots & turnovers lost this game and maybe a little pathetic defense thrown in there. The sequence in the 2nd half from the start to about the 10 minute mark was POOR coaching. Self's didn't find a way to stop the bleeding he only seemed to encourage it. I think we had 4 straight possessions without a shot, that's reminiscent of last years squad against Florida. We missed something like 7 missed shots and now were down 4. The game was over then, I knew it I'm sure others did too.

The only reason this didn't turn into a 15 point game the other way is because OSU is really terrible.

I said they needed one of their role players to step up well they got a combo of Luck shooting from Hickey and strong play from Newberry. Those performances won them the game.

We absolutely suck with pressure. They stopped us from running any tempo off made baskets and that totally made us a halfcourt team which we struggled with mightily. We got away aggressive play to the basket or drive to set up shooters. Mason for one of the first times yesterday showed how much he still needs to improve on being the PG. Some very poor play from him yesterday other than made 3 pointers. You think their pressure is anything, wait until West Virginia gets 25 turnovers on us. WVU isn't playing well, but yesterday says exactly how we play on the road.

I don't want to sound all negative, but these are the things that beat us in March. These are the games we should win that cement us as being the best team in the league. But it clouds doubt when you play so poorly against an average team and let one slip away. I will be shocked if we don't come ready to play tuesday again on the road. Another place we tend to play down to competition. Let's all move on now....

I think its a close game. We've played 1 road game with Energy & aggressiveness for 40 minutes. Baylor we had to claw, TCU we were terrible for 30 minutes, Iowa St we had a slew of issues. The first meeting wasn't our best but they missed shots and we did enough. I expect a low scoring game and that's why I think its close. We know what we have to do, guard Forte from half court and limit Nash from easy buckets and FT's. The rest of their team is nothing and it will take 1-2 of their guys to play out of their mind. If we take care of the ball and make shots we should win a close game in a hostile crowd.

@joeloveshawks

Your right they do need this game more than us, and usually that's always the case when we come to town.

Last year they fueled their fire for the home win with that first half skirmish. Plus hurting Embiid in the game certainly didn't help our cause as we saw how differently a team we were without him.
2 years ago Smart flipped in our gym and got a W, then we had to go to Double OT to beat them there if I'm right Tharpe had the game winner.

The reasons I feel confident about a win is that we are simply a better team. They are a 2 man team basically with average role players around them. They do play good defense which is surprising for a Travis Ford team. We've had a few days to refuel the jets after that brutal 6 days stretch. If we are the best team in the Big 12 we will win.

Do I think we can lose, certainly because we've played pretty poor for the most part on the road besides the Texas gem. Oklahoma St. likes to remind us that Self once was there 30 years ago like that means something and the crowd seems to come alive when we visit. I'm certain that Forte & Nash can't beat us by themselves. They will need an above average performance from one of their role players to beat us. That's how they beat Texas, Hickey had one of his better games. They missed so many open shots the first game that I said those are shots they could make at home. Self wasn't happy with our effort that game at all. A similar effort is enough to erase a 10 pt window at Gallagher-Iba.

It's all Nash and surprising we recruited him to the end, its not like we decided to go in another direction. I don't get his punk mentality that seemed to spread to Brown & Smart last year. I get it, you want to beat KU, but you go about it in the worst way. And Mari doesn't take any crap from anyone.

Crowd will be rocking to beat us, hopefully we bring the energy to get a w. The last few trips there haven't been some of our best.

The Mizz series ending was a shame but it had to be done. They are so bad this year and have been for a few years now that playing them for rivalry sake wouldn't have done anything for us. They left for football great, they have a decent team some years in that sport. Now they are at the bottom for basketball in complete rebuild mode.

I don't feel bad for them we have a new rival in Iowa St. Hoiberg has brought back the magic to their school, and Elijah Johnson cemented the foundation for a great rivalry.
We lose by 5 playing like crap this year, then whip them at home. The last 6-8 games between these schools have been played like its the last game of basketball these kids will ever play.

Even College Gameday went to Ames, and the return matchup was talked about for a week before it happened. That's the making of a rivalry right there. K-St's semi recent success in beating us on their home gym is a blip on the radar compared to the high level Fred has ISU playing against us at. Texas has given us rival status from time to time but never consistently sticks to it because of them being a football school first. Wichita St does nothing for us outside the state of Kansas. No benefit to playing them, unless Marshall stays and consistently has his team winning 25-30 games a year.

We haven't had a non-conference series set up that sticks like some of the others teams. The champions classic has been great for recruiting and early season hype but we don't play UK, Duke or Michigan St consistently every year.

@JayHawkFanToo

The general idea is that at some point he will be making money playing basketball. But I'm thinking that could be anywhere from Next year (not likely in my opinion) to 3-4 years from now. That's why I think he could have been shirted if we had to. He would have had a year to catch up to his peers in age while preserving a year of eligibility. It didn't happen, no big deal and he got some valuable playing time early this year.

He got a handful of starts (early) but only 25 minutes in league play. He's behind on the depth chart if no one leaves and a big question mark if we sign someone else. It could be til his Junior year where we see him get starter type minutes. Who knows

@jaybate-1.0

Recent guys like Durant & Nowitski only further the notion of bigs away from the basket. Look at their fame and they are legit PF/C's in shear size but do all their damage with a jump shot. The bang back to the basket guys are a dying breed. Being versatile has become more important than mastering a single position. You are more marketable and important if you can step outside and drain a 25 footer. Kevin Love has become a deadly 3 point shooter since joining the league. He probably wouldn't be the All-Star he became if he didn't find a versatility in his game. Maker has a chance to be just like any of those guys with an outside/in game but it will be up to him. It won't be Self's 1 year or Cal's 1 year with him that makes him who he will become.

@JayHawkFanToo

I would have red-shirted Svi this year if we hadn't needed him early this season. He's a talented kid and Self is very high on his long term ability but I'm not sold he's just a 2 year player here. All that talk was we had him for at least 2 years because of his age.

I believe this off-season will help him as much as anyone but he has an uphill battle for minutes with a backcourt that's not likely to lose anyone, and still could add more players to it.

Again I think he's in America because he wants the education & to play American ball. I think too many people are judging him that he's just going to bolt home when the reasons he came here in the first place are right here. Staying here will give him the most exposure and if he becomes good enough to start, will give scouts the best chance to grade him out for the NBA. Right now, he's far away from any scenario of NBA, oversea's you name it.

@drgnslayr

Self wanted Hield but didn't Buddy sign with OU because was basically recruiting him from the beginning. You win some you lose some, as they say in recruiting.

I would not be hurt if he was still suspended when we come to K-St but I'm almost certain he will be back by default before we go there. Without him they are an offensive mess, Williams is a mid-range guy and Gibson is the perfect complementary big. But who else do they have who can even shoot?

If he doesn't change his attitude he's probably gone and I won't be sad about that!

@konkeyDong

Spot on about Zimmerman. The word is out that Wood will go pro basically opening the 4 or 5 for him if he's looking for the most PT. They have Goodluck as well so I see him teaming with him and the transfer from Oregon, Carter in the frontcourt. If he wants to stay west and play for a good team you'd have to think Zona is in a better chance but you'd have to think Zeus would have to leave for that. UCLA is another school in the dark but still there. Parker is likely still there, but Looney is gone for sure.

But if I'm Zimm, why would you go to UNLV when they aren't going to be very good next year? Vaughn & Wood are likely gone, Doolin & Kendrick are Sr's. They have Derrick Jones that is an exciting transition player but little outside game. My point is KU has a glaring hole at C. Bragg is a 4, Traylor is a 4 in a 3's body playing C with Ellis. You come and get Hudy, the exposure & the chance to start from day 1 basically. Mari can go back to a reserve role that's best served to his talents.

Surprised you think Rabb has a good chance if we get him on campus. I think it would change his recruiting but the family and him seem really comfortable with Cal. Hard to get him off the coast when his family is on board.

@jayballer54

Surprised so many think Svi goes home when his parents are teachers and value education highly. The kid wants to play College Ball that's why he is here. He is a 17 year old kid who could have really used a red-shirt year if we had a full roster to sit him. It's a testament to his talent that he has been able to play at all and start at KU. The experience he's getting now is only going to help him next year. I still have questions on what level of PT he will get next year assuming our back court doesn't budge. But a summer for him will be as big as any. We've seen the progression from Mason & Greene to Soph. year.

Thon is very much like Embiid. Extraordinary skill level with some missing strength and the body to truly dominate with his size. For his size he should be posted up on the block, but he likes to shoot jump shots just as much. He's got a game that is rarely seen for his age. Embiid had it and learned at rate Self hadn't seen. Thon has that similar mentality potentially.

@drgnslayr

Wayne's inconsistent play says 4 years but as an All American he was barely supposed to be here 1. Now it looks likely we get 3 at least. That's great he's still got the talent to be a 1st rounder but usually when scouts sour on you the more they see you, its hard to just change their minds. GM's can draft 19 year old kids instead of 21 year olds with less known weaknesses.

To me, 2 of the best players in the draft are Jerian Grant, and Delon Wright but their age is going to keep them from going where their talent says they should. Grant can flat out score, Wright can flat out play defense and for his size will be an excellent combo guard in the league. The more years Wayne stays in college, the more "age" becomes a factor in his draft stock.

Cliff has people influencing him. Will a late first round pick be good enough for him when he was top 10 on hype alone in September? He clearly is the one guy on this team that would have benefited the most from a full summer with the team. Because he was hurt, we was unable to improve on his b-ball skills like he could have. He's a very raw player and he would improve tremendously with individual skill drills all spring/summer/fall. Will we get that opportunity to see it? Clearly the biggest unknown right now.

@truehawk93

The word on Rabb is California as he's said his relationship with Martin is the best he has with any of the coaches. As far as KU's chances go, we are late to the game and we usually lose out when that happens. If he comes for a game, great we will show him a great atmosphere and he knows what Self does with bigs. Just seems like we are late to the party for him even with his interest.

If UK loses 3-4 bigs, you can bet your dollar Cal will sign at least 2 bigs. Zimmerman is the most likely I think. If Rabb goes out of state it will be UK. Diallo has played it close to the vest. I think hometown St. Johns is a real possibility, but KU has been their from the beginning and I have seen nothing to see why he'd go to ISU, but experts are trending that way.

We clearly have the team to make it as far as we want to go.

We have the Point Guard this year that is vital for leadership, scoring, passing, and controlling the game.

We have shooters galore all over the court.

We have depth, and players we can plug in when we need to.

We may lack the inside game but 3 points is more than 2.

We may lack the senior leadership, but we have guys with tournament experience.

We have a hall of fame in waiting coach with a National Championship and countless experience in games.

So what's in the way of winning it all? Besides the team itself just a little Luck, Matchups, where we play, injuries, momentum. But that's nothing right? We will know more down the road just how this season is going to end.

@wrwlumpy

It will be a tuff game with that scenario played out. We played like crap in Morgantown last year besides Wiggins monster game. The year before that we had to scrap for a close victory. Hopefully the assistants and Self have a game plan of working on their press before the Baylor game because Sunday will be a short day to get things in. We know the crowd will be amped for KU in town. I bet a lot of us fans realize that could be a likely loss with the short turnaround but this team is tough and we won't know how they react to the game until it happens. We get the return trip in Allen, we all saw how we beat down Iowa St after a tuff road loss.

Of course Cliff would be the biggest benefactor of a Sophomore season. He's not starting, and he's been inconsistent in his play to warrant a high pick. Right now he's back end of first round, maybe middle if he was to declare and have a good showing of himself leading up to the draft. A lot can still change though from here on, he could have games like he did against Texas & Oklahoma in the tournament and be back up on boards. I've also heard that he has people around him influencing him, maybe not in a bad way but maybe in the way that has him leave anyway. If he leaves, we stand a good chance of signing someone else. We'd love to have him work on his game here, have a healthy summer and dominate next year but if that's not the case he helps out our recruiting if he goes in the first round.

It was great to see WVU brought down to earth. They caught a hungry team, but if you beat the press their defense is absolutely terrible. And its one of the things to look forward to when we play them is if we can consistently beat the press with good passes they have nothing. Their guards are a bunch of hackers especially Carter. Hopefully we had someone watching that game getting us ready for them in a few weeks.

A few tidbits recently have pointed out that Zimmerman is going to UNLV. The hometown school seems to have caught up to the big fish after him. His crystal ball says that's where he is most likely to land at this point. But I believe he will won't say anything until the roster shakedown from Kentucky happens.

We have seemed to gained momentum with Newman but I haven't read anything on why. If Selden makes the wise and only good decision to return for a Jr. season then its hard for me to see him coming here. Oubre is top 10 material and I don't think his stock is going any lower, scouts love him. With Oubre gone we could really need a wing but the issue I now have with getting an elite wing like Brown or Ingram is Greene has played his but off lately and if given a starters role with 30 minutes or so man I'd like to see what his shooting #'s are. With a dedicated off-season he could really become that next guy.

I still say if Brown and Ingram want to come we obviously sign them because that's 2 elite players to add to a roster who will bring back a great nucleus next year anyway. But I've now changed my stance on "Need", to fill your roster with the best if you can get them mentality. I could change my mind because Brown could come in and do a lot of things Oubre does that Greene doesn't do very good yet (Defense, Athleticism). And we don't know what jump Svi will make and if that's good enough to rely on.

I would think if we don't get any more of the studs left that we should play the transfer market for a immediate C, a big and SG who can sit. I don't think we want to pocket any scholly's this year because next year we will lose plenty to graduation.

I'm also going to tune into the Oklahoma WVU game tonight to see how affective they are against a good team with good guard play which we have. Will be the only time I'm rooting for the Sooners.

@jaybate-1.0

The thing about WVU's press is that if you break it successfully our chances of scoring immediately off a lob dunk or layup are pretty high. That was something K-St wasn't athletic enough to take advantage of. But from my vantage point Ellis/Traylor/Cliff could get a handful of easy dunks of it. From just watching that game I saw a press that was predicated on the opponent helping them out. K-St gave them 10 or so turnovers without them even trying hard. If our guys are poised, and have an understanding of how to beat it then I'm confident we can expose them. But if we employ the tactics we showed last night then we are in trouble. That's why practice leading up to the game will be key, even with the short turnaround from the Baylor game. I kind of expect us to struggle in Morgantown with it and then have a similar adjustment game at home. If we walk out of Morgantown with a win its hard to imagine KU not winning the league from that point on.

The other key is defensively stopping Staten. He's a one man band out there for them and his quickness is simply not matched. Mason and Graham can be jets but Staten is just a blur out there. He will put a lot of pressure on them and it will be key for them guys to stay out of foul trouble because he's an expert actor.

A few more comments for discussion.

I thought State's defense early was more effective because they were playing some kind of matchup zone up top. It seemed they were just rotating with the ball. We missed a bunch of shots early which at that point Self was like heck lets go back to what worked in the first meeting. Iowa St couldn't defend the dribble weave with its constant action and we more or less wore them down to exhaustion because of it. Iowa St didn't have the horses to sub in like KU does, Thomas and Nader were ineffective. Mckay is just a hackfest waiting to happen.

Self outcoached Hoiberg last night and it showed in so many area's.
The transition D you know was addressed and all the kids bough into the effort to get back.
The switch in offense just totally left Iowa St unable to stop us.
Our Defense for the most part was stellar in not allowing them to just get where they wanted. I thought it was one of the best jobs we've done in defending the spread offense to date.

Lastly the press Iowa St showed at the end was troublesome for us. I know they put predator aka McKay with his length on the front end but I was more than concerned that in 2 weeks that we don't have 20+ turnovers written all over our forehead. That's how they have won games with this lethal press. It's just like VCU, you break the havoc and its swiss cheese at the backend. But the problem is, WVU does a great job forcing you to be play sped up and they capitalize on it. I really hope Self and co work on this leading up to that game because without improvement I can see us struggling mightily against it.

Great game and the crowd definitely fed the fury last night. It was the loudest I have heard Allen this year and I'm glad our fans came to party just as much. Huge win, huge implications towards the league. Now we must root for Oklahoma tonight to hold serve against West Virginia at home.

Some game thoughts:

All Selden needed was some home loving from his momma to get him off his scoring schnide. 14 points Saturday, 20 last night and we needed all 5 of his triples to keep the lead at a safe distance. When he's making outside shots its great and he does enough of the little things to be a key part of this team. Just wish his 2 point game especially his drives would fall. Great game Wayne anyway.

Greene, what can you say about this kid. The light has come on and its great to see how quickly he can ignite our offense and energy with his shooting. His defense has been much better and its hard to not see him getting more minutes the way he is playing. Him and Oubre on the court at the same time was great to see.

Ellis has hit his mid-season stride. No longer forcing things, proud of how he's responded and he's rebounded the ball so well lately.

Lucas banged inside well last night, his energy when inserted has been good to see. Definitely has made strides since December. Good to know we can get quality minutes from our 4th big.

Mason & Graham are a great tandem. We do need to find a way to give Mason a break sometime. He does look like he needs to good ol R&R.

Now the troops need to regroup for Saturday. It's a big win to get and hopefully we can pull it out

Frank had his worst passing game I thought saturday. A few times he threw to nobody and Self wasn't happy and took him out. It looked like one of those games for him and some shots that usually go in like the open 3's just weren't falling. You could say that was his first "off game" since the beginning of the season and luckily we did enough with everyone else to win comfortably. I think he will rebound tonight and we will need.

Side not, hopefully Greene gets about 20 minutes. The way he has shot the ball and tried harder on D is unavoidable for more minutes. Avg. 11pts last 4 in 17 minutes a game while making 10 3's. You have to give him floor time for those kind of numbers.

@HighEliteMajor

Agreed on Oubre. He was like the 6th man in Ames for a while as he missed a lot of shots early that he can usually make. He's in a mini slump, 6-18 from the field 0-7 from 3 in his last 3 games. He was 5-15 and 0-3 from 3 in the first matchup. As a team we missed 43 shots, that's a crazy amount of shots to miss and lose by 5. If him and Ellis show up with good games we should win handily.

The biggest thing to me is that this team comes out with energy & aggressiveness and make shots. We didn't shoot a single FT until what the 10 minute mark in the 2nd half in the first meeting. We didn't get many against K-St either. We have to draw fouls and make enough outside shots to keep them from gimmicking us with their other stuff.

We should basically sacrifice our 2 guards on offensive rebounds for getting back. We were crushed in transition by Mckay, Long, whoever else ran the floor. Selden played great D Saturday, we need another effort like that to keep Long in check. To me when he's making 3's from 3o feet he's impacting the game more than any other player on their team.

Cliff was benched to send a message even though his offense was better than Lucas/Traylor combined in the first game. I bet Traylor shows much better effort tonight, not sure how much PT Cliff gets if he can't guard outside.

That's where playing small might be the best thing we can do. Play Oubre/Greene at the 4 and let them fly. Offensively the 4 out 1 in seemed to open the floor more late in the game and seemed effective. I'm not sure how much of that we will see but it could be a game changer. We also need to be wary of Morris's D. I noticed him jumping passing lanes and disrupting pace of sets when the ball came his way. Our passes have to be on point tonight.

Other than that we just need to rebound well and not let Jones/Hogue get offensive boards. It seemed every one they got in Ames was a killer. I know the house will be rocking and our players understand its payback time and a game we must win.

If we bring energy at home this will be a blowout. I pointed out in another thread that we have beaten them by avg of 20 points at home in the last 6-7 times. If Nino doesn't play I'm not sure how they score more than 60 on us.

I saw that he has re-injured his toe again. It looked bad when initially seeing him reacting to it.

Then he played through it and seemed to be unhindered by it.

I am concerned this could get worse and he will have to be shutdown. We cannot afford that, its a huge luxury being able to get Mason a rest (on) and (off) the court with Graham running point at times.
Hopefully its something he can monitor and play through

Great honor for him, well deserved. I was worried he might not get invited.

There's something like 9 uncommitted kids in the game, which has to be close to the record.
Hopefully we get 1 or 2 more with 6 of them serious targets.

@wissoxfan83

The foul by Mason was dumb, I understood the intent to close out on Anderson in that situation but it ended badly in a bad foul.

Mason had a great game but he also missed a 1&1 at the end of the half that could have made it 8 points, and then missed badly on 2 FT's at the end which gave TCU the last chance to tie. I'm not going to pick at him much because the rest of the game he was great but you expect more from your 2nd best FT shooter than badly missing on 3 attempts. He wasn't the only bricklayer at the line in our best rendition of "how to blow at double digit lead in 2 minutes" production. Graham clanked his 1&1 and wasn't even close with it. Even Greene missed one.

It was clear we didn't play with any Energy. Lucas brought it for a while, Mason had it most of the game, Traylor had it for a few plays but everyone else was in slo-mo mode. We usually are better at getting 50/50 balls, we basically lost every one of them. Offensive rebounds were just a killer and when you have the refs in your pocket its going to hurt you in some way.

Foul trouble predicated zero rhythm for this team other than the stint where we built the big lead early. Ellis sat 18 minutes and it showed in the 2nd half as he missed badly on some attempts he usually makes.

I was yelling at the tv for more 3 point baskets. TCU was basically mugging us on every play in some fashion so its not surprising we didn't get many looks but I think the min for any game should be 15 for us. We are not a team who can trade 2's with all game long. We should have been more aware of trying to get up more 3's.

Ugly ugly win, it totally takes the wind out of you to watch these type of games. Good thing we are home the next 2 and hopefully can get back to real KU ball

Well, well don't they say;
"it took all season to build Rome, but only 4 days to tear it down".

Boy that was definitely the "worst win" of the season. You could even argue we played as poorly as our blowout losses. The overall effort was not there, these guys looked gassed.
This should have been a 20 point win, we had them in the corner at 23-10 and then decided we didn't care about leads AGAIN. Self I know is absolutely livid with how good we can play one game and how bad we can play the next. It's a young team, one that doesn't fully understand how to keep its foot on go consistently.

You add in the inconsistently horrible Ref's to the list for the 3rd road game this season. Is it the goal of these Big 12 ref's or whatever they call themselves to be against us. I'm not going to get into specifics because the list was too long.

A win is a win unless as pointed out a win is supposed to mean more positives than negatives. Now we have a few days of Self Hell until we see if being at home will awaken the true team.

@JayHawkFanToo

That's the case with most Big 12 teams we play. KU high ranked vs unranked conference foe. All our losses get overblown because we have dominated for so long its truly a David vs Goliath situation with all 9 teams. This year is obviously different with a lot of strong squads, the re-configured big 12 has trimmed the fat from struggling schools like we had in A&M, Colorado, Nebraska, and Mizzsucky even had its lean years. A loss to TCU is overblown still 2 years later and mostly from comments our own coach made.

@drgnslayr

I forgot about Nino, the way he was playing in their previous 2 games that only added more insult to injury on how they lost. He was a 2 point basket machine lately and I have to think not having that Senior leadership out there killed them against that press.

Staten was banged up, good thing they don't rely on him for jumpers and its his left hand I believe.

I still think that West Virginia is likely one our road losses but if we play like we did in Texas nobody beats us. That was an NCAA tourney type game we played and the execution was on point.

@drgnslayr

I think KU will be able to attack the pressure much better than Kansas St did. We have better Athletes and especially if Cliff is in game we beat a press and attack and its basically a lob dunk every time. I say if the opportunity to attack presents itself we take it. There press was only effective because Kansas St was so good at throwing the ball away. I have to re-watch but some of the turnovers were just unthinkable and they still only lost by 6. Add in the fact that Kansas St missed 15 FT's and I start thinking more and more that we can sneak away from the game in West Virginia with a win. But that will be dependent on if Devin Williams makes 15 jump shots again.

Offensively for West Virginia they were stagnant when Staten wasn't out there. I think he's the quickest guard in America, he was simply getting wherever he wanted. We have to stop him from driving and kicking, or driving and drawing fouls. Mason & Graham will have their hands full with him.

@wrwlumpy

Is the media driving the fact that they think it will be a closer game than might actually be? People are still talking about 2 years ago like it happened yesterday. Talent wise they are much better but Big 12 play has already shown that they are still behind from contending with the big boys. I'm sure they will stick with us early and try and bring more energy than us but I think as the game wears on we will find ways to exploit them.

@HawkInMizery

I thought the same thing about KSU in pressing them Saturday. They looked horrible against pressure, Marcus Foster was comical in-bounding the ball. I think I saw him throw to WVU 3-4 times with no chance of his teammate getting the ball. They also had a bunch of Shaq's out there bricking FT's. 15 missed bunnies will do every-time in a loss. Gives us a clue what we will see in a few weeks with West Virginia. They force turnovers and Staten is the key to everything they do on offense. Those 2 perfect storms win them games and we will have to negate both to win either matchup down the road.

Good conversation to have after such an uplifting week for this team.

Self is at a point where he will never get the credit he is due until he is a hall of famer because every years he does the same thing. He's replaced entire starting lineup's before after seasons and won big 12 championships. He's compiled a home court record that's unheard of. The list goes on so until this season ends its hard to say this is his best coaching job yet.

If we drop tonight's game or one of the next 2 at home a lot of views could change. With this great road win we are all thinking positive until the next low comes. But the optimism that started this topic is what happens if the lows never come back again like we have seen 3 times already.

If that is to happen I firmly believe that Cliff Alexander's high level play that has ignited the last 2 games will be the heartbeat for that optimism. He can do the things (dunk & rebound) that is the missing link to the entire KU game. Getting Oubre on track was the first link, Getting Graham back from injury was the 2nd link, and getting Cliff into valuable high level minutes is the next. If Cliff continues his improvement its clear this team will hang #11, and will have a chance to make it far in the tournament depending on matchups.

How bright can the light be?
Right now after seeing them put a 40 minute game together on the road the light is obviously Final 4 worthy. Consistent effort like we showed Saturday can either be a virus that becomes this team, or its a one game high. Obviously we are hoping the Texas game springboards a successful 2nd half of the season.

A few weeks ago I still believed we were a 2nd round to Sweet 16 team. We've flirted with good halves and then lackluster play in many games. Identity wise, we know this team is better than last years and they do so many things that can extend a season bettter than the 13-14 team. Most of us understand our deficiency inside is the biggest link missing to consider us Championship material. What can we possibly do if hypothetically we played UK in the NCAA Final and get a 2nd chance at them? So much unknown at this point that we can't possibly know what will happen. We have a hard enough time predicting where we will be a week from now in our own conference. I'll check back to this topic in a week after these 3 games test our true abilities.

@JayHawkFanToo

Your calling 1988 not to recent past, that's 27 years ago. None of the players on this team were even thought of when that happened. I'm not trying to nick pick but we blow them out at home every time we have played them since 2007 season.

When we visit Bramlage, yes recently every game has been close regardless of their skill level. They have beaten us 3 times in 7 years and the others have been close battles. We would expect that on their court that a rival would play us to a tight game.

I just think some fans are overthinking Saturday's game for more than its likely to be. Our fans will be turned up especially since it will have been almost 2 weeks without a home game and its the purple cats in town. But first things first we need a win @ TCU tonight before we can worry about how much we win saturday by.

@JayHawkFanToo

False, their last win in Allen was 2006, and if you include the big 12 tourney we have utterly dominated them other than 2 road losses on their court. We show up at home, its a blowout

This is a daunting week but the good thing is we play 2 games in 3 days at Allen Fieldhouse.

I think if we can skate by Wednesday without being locked into a single possession game then we will be fine the rest of the way. It would be a major letdown to not play up to our level.

I can't see why we would be worried about Kansas St at home. We've beaten them by an average of 21 points in the last 5 trips they have made to Allen. This isn't a better team than any previous team that thought they could win here. If we play well, we will be resting our players in the 2nd half.

And our Monday opponent is still fresh in our minds having barely played them 2 weeks ago so I'm not worried about us being prepared. I am worried that our transition D could be as poor as it was in Ames because there won't be much time to emphasize how important getting back is. We have a deep bench and hopefully we will have rested up our players enough to turn it up for Monday.

Definitely can't overlook this game. Last year we handled them easy off Wiggins big game.
This year they are improved team but blew their golden chance to show it against West Virginia.

We are coming off the best game of the year and now need to keep the consistency of that great win to stay out in front.

Starting tonight:
Either Texas gets its 3rd loss or Iowa St gets it's third loss. Right now we'd have to pull for Texas only because of Iowa St having a win over us. If Texas loses it really puts them against the wall.

Tuesday:
West Virginia @ Kansas St, someone will get their 3rd conference loss. I'd like K-St to win only because West Virginia's game Saturday is the easiest in the Saturday games, would give them 3 losses and KU should spank our rivals at home.
Baylor @ Oklahoma St neither is serious threat unless they starting winning 5 or 6 in a row.

Wednesday:
T Tech @ Oklahoma, seems like a easy win for OU but crazy things have happened like Tech beating the Cyclones.

Saturday:
K St @ KU
Texas @ Baylor
TCU @ Iowa St
Texas Tech @ West Virginia
Oklahoma @ Oklahoma St

It's very possible KU is 7-1 in Conference play by Monday's game against Iowa St. It's also possible we have a 2 game lead on everyone with the rematch against the clones. Could be a very good week!!

Best win of the year!! It might be the best win of the year depending on how things shake out. We gave great effort today, fought great on defense and I couldn't have been happier how we finished the game.

Alexander had his 2nd big boy game in a row, he just gives us that lob/dunking factor that is demoralizing to opposing teams. Light bulb factor could be coming into place since Self gave him the slip to the bench during the Iowa St game.

Early it looked like we just continued last years game down in Austin. But the 3 point shot has equalized this team to bigger heights than past teams have ever seen. We have had so many dominate inside out teams that its hard to accept when the biggest advantage to this team is setting up a good 3 point shot.

Greene was simply awesome from 3 ball today. Every one of his shots was big, every rebound he got was fought with determination. Him and Oubre rebounded the heck out of the ball inside and kept Texas from grabbing everything in sight.

Shout out to our defense today. We needed our defense to be strong and for the most part we did exactly what we needed to do to win this gigantic road game. Texas may have missed shots they normally make but we missed just as many that could have gone our way.

A loss today could have really hurt us even though Texas Tech helped the cause & TCU could have really made it an epic day. We really needed todays win to shut up some of the media types that constantly remind us that certain people think this year is the year the reign ends. We might have gained some more followers today and I'm extremely happy with how we responded from the loss last week.

A lot of people don't even think he makes it to College with all the Schools he been too, his Guardian's influence in his every move and his reclassification. I'm sure he will be a clearinghouse question mark.

It will be interesting to see what happens with him in the coming weeks and what his timeline would be for deciding what school he may attend. He would definitely benefit from Hudy from day 1.

@drgnslayr

I agree that Energy is a huge factor. Have we played with great energy on the road yet? I don't think we can say we have. Monday we showed a whole new level of Energy when things are going good and we have that crowd in Allen Fieldhouse rockin. Can we create our own Energy, because the good teams can and we will have to either play with great energy for an entire game or win certain statistical battles to win. That's why I pointed out our FG%, rebounds and Turnovers because all 3 of those can make or break the game. If we don't bring the Energy consistently but we shoot well, rebound well and turn the ball over less I think everything else will lead to a W. That's how I'm viewing this game, a game we must win to really show everyone we mean business.