🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Here we go. Time to turn on the afterburners.

JT and LL in at the same time I don't expect we will get out of this offensive funk

who had that last TO? I missed it

I love how Bragg runs the court. Didn't have an impact in that sequence but he gets there.

Nice start

Three fouls on both LL and JT in the first half. Yikes.

We're turning down some open threes here the past few possessions. Just an observation, don't know what it means, if anything.

Mari another TO. Sigh

Lucas a bull in a china shop. Sigh.

I liked seeing KU run the play for BG to hit that last 3. The ol' elevator door play.

@Crimsonorblue22 are you at the game?

Keep playing tre ball and we will be fine

Greene on fire

Can't play much worse and we're still winning

Some of these foul calls are reminding me of the OU game

Wow

woohoo, Diallo in!

@Crimsonorblue22 Not me, I hope they keep pushing the pace, we have the better athletes. We're beating them down the court every time just not finishing. DG on the layup and Wayne on the three. Once the transition buckets start falling this will turn in our favor big time.

@JayHawkFanToo I'm not sure how your condescending question has any relevance to the topic at hand. The play in question could have been a three point play, it was an option. Also, he missed one of the free throws too and being a 61% free throw shooter that is what will happen most of the time in that scenario.

In full disclosure, the missed free throw ended up being rebounded by KU and ultimately a basket via tip in by LL himself. The sequence ended up working out great for KU but statistically we will come out ahead the most by making that initial basket, foul or not.

@JRyman

Legit questions. I am not talking about the other guys because every player will have their bad moments here and there and I try to avoid bagging someone for that. However, they have a large enough sample size to show that it is not the norm and over enough minutes they will end up being the best option for the team's success. In my opinion, that same thing cannot be said for LL. It is the norm for him. Thats the difference.

I'm not saying he is useless. For instance, he would be a decent limited rotation play if we have a big lead and want to slow things down and try to limit the other team's second chance shots. But the way i see it, for Offensive purposes our other bigs are far better. For playing fast, our other bigs are far better. For blocking shots our other bigs are better. I think all of our bigs struggle with face up D and can cite several examples of poor D by LL last night if you want but I don't see any of the others being much better. For rebounding, despite his size advantage he is not significantly better than the others and the numbers back that up.

Rock Chalk

If he is a projected lotto pick my bet is that he leaves. We could be stacked next year if everyone who is still eligible came back though.

@sfbahawk You're talking about the same announcers who could barely get anything right the whole game? The ones that were lost more times than I can count? Are those the ones you're talking about?

So if I understand you correctly, you don't think our team can put up 37 points in a half against OU without LL being a big piece of it? Is 37 points in a half supposed to be a huge stat in your arguement? Every time I saw LL come into the game our lead dropped. It happened in the first half, he missed two terrible shots and Self yanked him immediately. Self kept him in for more time in the 2nd half but what did he have, 2 points? And if I remember correctly they were free throws after he couldn't finish a dunk on a pass from Ellis when he got double teamed. 6'-10" and can't finish through soft contact while directly in front of the basket. I just don't think that its a good argument to say that since we have 4 good players that had a nice game against a tough team that it means our 5th was the reason why. I have nothing against the kid, seems like a good teammate but he just isn't the best player we could have in there. Far from it. I'm glad we won but I think it could have easily been a 6-7 point win in regulation rather than a nail biting win after three OTs.

I'm going to drop this topic now because I can tell its sensitive for a lot of people here and I apologize for that. Lets get back to celebrating a big win.

In case anyone missed it, in the Buddy Hield interview after the game he said he assumed that KU was going to foul him because thats basically what everybody does in that scenario these days and he threw up the shot when he saw Mason coming at him. One might think it was a fake out move by Self to not foul but from what I've seen, thats typical of how he handles this situation. Better scouting/coaching by OU may have pointed that out to the OU players at the end of the game and might have resulted in a better shot. Glad it worked out the way it did.

@RockChalkinTexas Whats that random hand in the picture thats about to get a handful of Self's butt cheek? Haha.

@JRyman Yesss, good one. Also, what did you guys think about Self not fouling there? It worked out but he didn't play to the odds on that one.

@RockChalkinTexas

Possibilites for what self is saying:

"Do I need a breath mint!?"

"Have you considered hair plugs!?"

"LOUD NOISES" (quoting Brick Tamland)

@justanotherfan Agreed about LL. I'll add to the fact that I think this team plays its best when they are playing fast and running, pushing tempo, etc. LL being in the game makes this less effective too because he moves so slow and can't get down the court for fast breaks or even put backs off of a fast break miss which Bragg and Diallo are terriffic at.

Also conversely, he struggles getting back down the court on defense after a turnover or miss to stop the opposing team on a fast break. Its frustrating but I don't think there is anything we can do about it. Woosah.

@justanotherfan Spot on. Most fans cannot see this because they see these two make a positive play here or there and use that as justification. Of course they will make a basket here or there and make a play here or there, after all, they are good enough to have made the team. The part they don't grasp is that they create huge voids in the offense and defense and make far fewer net positive plays than any of the other three would. The key word here is their NET difference in positive plays made.

Its tough to watch KU's offense with LL or JT on the court. So many times I'd see LL or JT set one of their "terriffic screens" up top for one of our PGs and the offense stalls because there is no threat if the screener is left alone. There is no pick and roll, no pick and pop, etc. Neither LL or JT can hit that shot at the top of the key so they can be basically ignored. All three of the other bigs can hit it. With LL or JT the play ends up as a pick, pass back to the screener, and handoff back to the guard which is not offense. When the same play is run with Ellis as the screener it is some of our best offense because he can easily hit that shot and can also step back farther and hit the three too. You'll see Mason and Graham directing traffic late in the game to get Lucas out of the way and Ellis up top so that they can actually run an effective play.

I keep telling myself to give it up and stop venting about this topic but its hard to let it go because it seems so obvious. If the guy makes the foul shot after Lucas' bonehead foul I think this would be a major topic of discussion today.

@wissoxfan83 Selden missed the FT that would have converted the 4pt play.

My Keys/Questions/Analysis:

1. Mason's Defense - he was playing like a mad man against Hield once he started defending him and it was the biggest difference in the game. He was able to slow him down in the second half and OTs. The most amazing part was that he was able to keep on defending him throughout those overtimes while having 4 fouls. That was huge.

2. Who was Self smiling and winking at when he sat down after he got his Technical foul at the end of the first half? Did you guys see that?

3. This game showed the incredible strong will of the team with how they were able to overcome so many things stacked against them. It was a perfect storm with the refs, hot shooting by the opponent, and Self's rotation at the 5 making this one of the toughest games for us to win and despite all of that, they still pulled it off somehow. Incredible.

They are beating us with our style of play.

PF

OU - 5

KU - 12

Ridiculous

@wrwlumpy I'm glad I placed my bet when they were 12/1. :sunglasses:

That was kindof a funny comment about the green jacket. haha

Nice block by JT!

Mickelson has played pretty decent today.

@JRyman hahaha, lol. You know its bad when we are resorting to using a few "great screens" as a justification for having someone in the game. Reaching a little bit there my friend.

@JRyman Watched the game but was in a crowd and couldn't follow it closely. I've seen enough over the season to see how ineffective he is, especially relative to our other options. I'm not saying he will never make a shot other than a dunk, which you point out he did, but it is going to be a rare occurrence.

I don't know how anyone watching this game can say with a straight face that Lucas should be on the court at all except for foul trouble/emergency situations only. Bad defense, no offense, nothing. Cheick has poor D and suspect O but at least he makes a big play on D or can make a shot on O. If its not an easy dunk for LL, forget about it.

@Bwag said:

JT played strong and was a net benefit during the game, everyone agrees.

Not me, but I think I'm alone in that thinking. Theres no way to prove it either way but it was just what I saw while watching the game.

@HighEliteMajor Wow, i am kindof reluctant to post this but I'm surprised that my breakdown of what I saw is rougher than yours. I was actually thinking that Traylor was the reason why SDSU went on that run and cut the lead to just 4. Having Traylor in the game takes away a scoring threat on offense. He simply cannot score and limits the flow of offense. We end up playing 4 on 5 in the halfcourt offense. I watched time after time our team struggle to get into sync with him in the game. Couldn't stop yelling at the TV hoping that somehow Self would hear me and sub him out. I don't think its coincidence that our offense was running like a well oiled machine for the first half of which he did not play much at all that I can recall. Sure SDSU made some adjustments but so did we, and ours hurt us too.

To give him some credit though, I think your comment that he did well within his limitations is perfectly accurate, some big rebounds, a nice steal, and most importantly his free throw shooting. Thats the best we will see. But if Bragg is in the game instead of Mari, I really don't think that the lead gets down to where it did, I feel very strongly about that. If a firefighter starts a fire, then saves the family inside the burning building by putting it out, is he still a hero?

@HighEliteMajor Nice post. I believe number 3-4 is the single most important thing for this team to win a NC. I've been saying this for a while and you hit the nail on the head, the pace will allow us to win games when our outside shooting is off because it will get us 8-10 easy points in transition every game. I also think the soft press can add another 6-8 points to that number as evidenced last night. Even if it doesn't result in a steal, the other team is just getting across half court and the shot clock is already under 20, sometimes under 15. It works great and we have the depth to do it. Keep running, keep pressing, and I think there is a good chance at hanging another banner.

I thought it was interesting that we played at the fast pace even though HC is known for their slow pace. @jaybate-2.0 had a nice post last week that suggested Self tries to beat the opponent at their own game and I half expected to see a low scoring night but that wasn't the case. KU dictated the pace by running and pressing and played how WE wanted to, not how the other team wanted to and it worked out great.

I keep thinking that something is different with this team lately. Like almost all of the things we talk about on here are starting to show up in the game. Pace is being pushed. Press is being utilized. Traylor and Lucas are watching while our other 4 bigs play. I've seen plays start to be run to get open looks for a 3. Self seems to be embracing the 3 instead of looking at it as fool's gold. Why all of these changes this season? The team isn't that different than last year's team. My suspicion is that Aaron Miles is the reason. He's the only new piece to the puzzle. Maybe he reads this board? Maybe he sees the same things we all do and has some influence on HCBS to try some new philosophies on the court? Does anyone else get this same feeling that I do?

Wow, thats what Diallo does. He came from nowhere for that rebound and slam on the press. He needs a lot of work elsewhere on his game but plays like that are just pure talent.

Greene looking stellar in his early return!

I'm about to put this game on mute, these announcers are terrible.

There it is, the press creating turnovers again.

Did LL even jump for that attempt at the rebound?

This team has so many weapons. Really liking how things are coming together.

@KUSTEVE LOL

We need to improve our free throw defense.

Thank you Harvard for switching to zone!!!