🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@justanotherfan

Keep in mind that UK opened the 2012-2013 season ranked #3 with 5 #1 votes in the Coaches poll only to have a precipitous fall to the NIT.

If you don't think losing to Robert Morris matters, just go to one of their forums and mention Bobby Mo and you will see the reaction you get. We still sting from the loss to TCU a few years back, imagine how they feel about losing to Bobby Mo...everybody and I mean EVERYBODY remembers that loss in the same way that everybody old enough remembers Virginia losing to NAIA Chamminade and now to UMBC.

In 2010, the worst year under Coach Williams, UNC ended up in the NIT and it fought its way to the title game where it lost to Dayton...UNC fans remember this. If KU ever end up at the NIT...we would remember it for a long time.

Just about every team has one game where it plays well above and the opponent well below their averages; the OU game this season that KU won by 30 comes to mind. I have no doubt KU is a better team than OU but, is it 30 points better? Can we keep Young to 3-13 and 11 points considering that in the first game he was 7-9 in route to 26 points? Probably not. The other game that comes to mind is against UNC in the NCAA in 2008 when KU led by as many as 28 points in route to an 18 point win. Was KU 28 or even 18 point better than UNC? Probably not. KU had to hang on for dear life the previous game against lowly Davidson and there was no reason to believe it would blow out UNC, and we know how the next game went...OT win over Memphis.

Last year KU put together and impressive streak of 38, 20 and 32 point wins against UC Davis, Michigan State and Purdue only to take a 14 point loss to Oregon, this is a 46 point swing between the previous win and the final loss. It happens.

The Clemson-Auburn game was one of those games, "Perfect Storm Good" for Clemson and "Perfect Storm Bad" for Auburn. If these teams play more games, I would bet the rest are all within 5+/- points. There is no reason or precedent to believe Clemson will repeat what it did against Auburn or that KU will play dead for most of the game like Auburn did. In fact, it is more likely that Clemson will have a let down and KU will win big.

Analysts love to make outrageous predictions because there is little downside to it. Seth Davis predicting Penn would beat KU had zero downside for him, if Penn would have won he looks like a friggin' genius and it KU wins nobody really remembers his prediction because KU was supposed to win anyway. I read that more people took Penn over KU than any other 16 over a 1 seed ever and I understand that Clemson is now the trendy pick over KU as well.. A lot of the disrespect is no doubt fueled by the East Coast MSM that cannot believe good basketball can be played outside of the East Coast. Funny how Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, that are NBA analysts and have not done a college basketball this season before the tournament that I can remember are now the experts on teams they do not follow and at times seem to be grossly unfamiliar.

In short, you can get better information about KU and the conference here than you can from just about any other source...of course Trae Young being the exception since ESPN is his official publicist.

Will Hardaway be the next Kevin Ollie except with less college coaching experience? More importantly, will Lil Penny be part of the coaching staff?

Considering that Wiggins just signed a maxed out contract, people that actually follow the NBA know it is not about the money.

@jayballer73

Maybe they are hesitant to criticize KU since it already beat UK earlier in the season?

betterfireE said:

I thought we were extraordinarily lucky to beat Seton Hall, but we beat them with contributions from basically everybody. Our defense won us that game (7 steals). So did clutch shooting and FT-making.

I don't believe KU was "extraordinarily lucky" by any stretch of the imagination, it simply was the better team with better players and had the game under control most of the game.

@benshawks08

There have been proposal for reseeding teams starting with the Sweet 16 but the objection has always been travel arrangements. Reseeding for the Final Four should not be an issue since they ll play in the same place.

@justanotherfan

I get what you are saying but I was referring to high seeds and not the entire field. #1 seeds are supposed to have the easiest paths and #16 the toughest. It did not quite work this way for KU who had two tougher games than it should have been expected by virtue of being a #1 seed...after all, what is the use of being a #1 seed if you don't get a favorable bracket? Right?

BTW, Bobby Mo called and said how about us beating Kentucky? They don't always play to their expectations. :smile:

@mayjay

I agree. I am a big fan of Martin the person first and then the coach.

Wouldn't it be nice if KU gets to the Final Four by running the table against the best of the entire East Coast and topping it off by spanking Kentucky?

@justanotherfan

Agreed. He does not really look at how tough the matchups were. If UMBC would have beaten KSU, it would probably be ranked top 3.

By all account, KU had the toughest first 2 games of any team and won booth of them. On the other hand UK, a #5 seed, can get to the Elite 8 having played seeds 12, 13, 9 and either 7 or 11 depending on which wins between Loyola and Nevada; in other words not a single seed higher than 7...I guess the squid can't complain this year.

Huggins and Martin have in the past taken in shall we say "wayward" players, so I would not be surprised if he ends up at one of those two schools.

I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that most posters thought that the Sweet 16 was this teams ceiling and many even posted KU would not make it out of the first weekend, particularly after Preston left.

It is amazing how the team came together, after being written off several times along the way, and the key turning point was the ISU game in Ames (ready to admit it now, @HighEliteMajor?) and the team is now on a 10-1 run since then with the only loss being a meaningless game at OSU. In many ways, every win from here on is gravy and KU is basically playing with house money given the makeup of the team compared to others and the expectations throughout the year.

Any way you see it, an amazing accomplishment by the the team and coaching staff.

@wissox

I believe you misses the game where Gonzaga beat THE Ohio State. For the ACC to have 4 teams out of a 15 team conference is not the same as for the Big 12 with only 10 teams.

Look at the percentage of team in every conference in the Sweet 16 and you will see the Big 12 is flexing muscle more so than the others.

• Big 12 - 4 teams, KU, TTU, WVU and KSU. 4 out of 10 or 40%
• ACC - 4 teams, Duke, Clemson, Florida State and Syracuse. 4 out of 15 teams or 27%
• SEC - 2 teams, UK, Texas A&M. 2 out of 14 teams or 14%
• Big 10 - 2 teams, Purdue and Michigan. 2 out of 14 or 14%
• Big East - 1 team, Villanova. 1 out of 10 or 10%
• MVC - 1 team, Loyola. 1 out of 10 or 10%
• MWC - 1 team, Nevada. 1 out of 11 or
• WCC - 1 team, Gonzaga. 1 out of 10 or 10%

@BeddieKU23

Nice scouting report.

So far the Big 12 doing really well with its 4 top teams advancing to the Sweet 16.

• Big 12 - 4 teams, KU, TTU, WVU and KSU. 4 out of 10 or 40%
• ACC - 4 teams, Duke, Clemson, Florida State and Syracuse. 4 out of 15 teams or 27%
• SEC - 2 teams, UK, Texas A&M. 2 out of 14 teams or 14%
• Big 10 - 2 teams, Purdue and Michigan. 2 out of 14 or 14%
• Big East - 1 team, Villanova. 1 out of 10 or 10%
• MVC - 1 team, Loyola. 1 out of 10 or 10%
• MWC - 1 team, Nevada. 1 out of 11 or
• WCC - 1 team, Gonzaga. 1 out of 10 or 10%

KU will be the favorite over Clemson and TTU and Purdue are close but KSU and WVU will be underdogs to UK and Villanova. KU and TTU with good chance to advance and WVU style of play could disrupt Villanova enough to make it stumble. KSU could be a bad matchup for KU parucularly if Wade plays and an upset although not likely it is possible.

So far the Big 12 has proven to be the strongest overall conference.

Can’t remember a tournament with so many upsets. Parity has come to college BBall and now any team has a chance to advance although only a dozen or so have a realistic chance to make it to the Final Four.

Replays are ruining the game and getting out of hand. While I did not watch the specific game, I understand that the las minute if the Wichita State game took over 18 minutes and the refs still managed to screw it up and got a call wrong...6 minute delays are momentum killers.

WVU with a 98% chance of winning... ↗

@Crimsonorblue22

You are probably correct. If there was a year, this would have been it playing a heavily under seeded, disciplined team in Penn. I understand Penn was the #16 team with the highest percentage of bets and bracket picks to upset a #1 ever.

@jayballer73

I would honestly suspect most of us are rooting for KSU, some will not admit it and other like me have no problem saying I am rooting for them.

@truehawk93

So much for consistent UNC. Auburn getting an a$$ whooping of historical proportions.

MSU had a very weak schedule and did not even win the weak B1G. I said before that it should be a #4 or maybe a #3 at best...looks like I too overestimated them.:smiley:

@Barney

Agreed. SHU was not a good matchup for KU and likely a tougher opponent than either Clemson or Auburn. Unless upsets happens, looks like KU will be playing the winner of the Duke-MSU game...not that I am looking past the next game. :smile:

@dylans

Jaybate does not let the facts interfere with the narrative. :smiley:

@approxinfinity

What @mayjay said. No question that Duke and Nova had impressive games and seem to be peaking at their right time; Duke is actually started playing some decent defense which was considered its weakness.

@mayjay

UConn might be between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Apparently it does not have the money to buy Ollie out, the State legislature said will not pay and if Ollie is successful in challenging his firing “for cause,” it might need a volunteer coach; interesting because it seems to have a large athletic budget. Apparently the very on-the-court successful women’s basketball program generates a large financial loss like all women’s programs, even the very successful, seem to do; sad by true. This a reflection of the general lack of interest in all college sports not called men’s football and men’s basketball; this is by no means a sexist statement but a reflection of reality.

FWIW, I personally enjoy women’s volleyball a lot.

@wissox

There is no question that Villanova and Duke had impressive wins and so did Kentucky that now has the easier path. KU had two good, solid wins but the writer does not seem that familiar with the opponents and why KU’s wins were not the 20+ point wins the other teams had.

Obviously college basketball is not his forte and the article reflects just that, so take his words for what they are worth...not much. Frankly, I would not bother reading articles from someone that covers primarily soccer.

FWIW, here is his bio from the Yahoo site.

Henry Bushnell

Henry Bushnell covers soccer – the U.S. national teams, the Premier League, and other top European and international soccer – for Yahoo Sports. He occasionally dabbles in basketball as well. His work has appeared on ESPN Insider, SI.com, SB Nation and elsewhere. He is a Philadelphia native, a Northwestern University graduate, and currently a Chicago resident.

@approxinfinity

Which ones do you think are wrong? Look fairly reasonable to me.

jaybate 1.0 said:

Delgado can transfer to KU anytime he wants!

He can transfer but can’t play.

@jayballer73

Maybe Coach Self was waiting for the refs to start calling walks on Delgado?

@Crimsonorblue22

Talk about mix feelings. I wanted Michigan eliminated but the Houston player with the man bun is just the most annoying player in the entire tournament, glad to see him gone.

@wissox

A few days ago when Washington played Boston the twins had huge games.

Two conference teams advance to the sweet 16 and hopefully two more. Good showing by the conference so far.

Zaire will be terrorizing the conference.

TTU needs to score or go the line.

@BShark

The East Coast multiple step...

How many steps are Florida players allowed before a walk is called?

The refs helping Florida stay in the game.

TTU putting together a nice run and up by 5.

@truehawk93

Vick had a pretty good game, not a Malik-like game but a good one nonetheless.

In the first two round KU has had the toughest matchups and still won. I’ll take it.

@Crimsonorblue22

Just pointing out to someone that thought he first half was worst than the second.

@DoubleDD

KU won the first half by 5, lost the second half by 1, just sayin’...

Survive and advance...yep, that’s the recipe.

@Kcmatt7

Agreed.

Refs trying hard to become the story...pathetic.

@Bwag

Refs gotta make it interesting...

Svi-shhhhhhh.....

@Bwag

Not quite 90 but I’ll take it. :smile:

@BShark

Another win for Sister Jean.:smile: :thumbsup_tone2: