@wissox said in Other games:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Must be a huge lower section because they are averaging like 13,000 per game which isn't bad.

They're averaging 10,384 per game which is right about what UT said capacity would be for basketball games. 10,000 seat lower bowl is a pretty common average for aot of newer NBA style arenas.

@wissox said in Other games:

Watching Texas. trying to understand their arena. It looked like lower level only was open for this game. But I couldn't quite figure it out. Announcers said they make more seats available for concerts and stuff. Couldn't figure it out.

I believe it is only the lower level that's open for basketball. Considering they sold the season pretty quickly, I'm kind of surprised they didn't open the top section up for select games such as Kansas or tonight that are usually pretty big draws for them.

@wissox said in Other games:

TTech gets their first conference win, didn't realize they were winless. Over a ranked ISU team to boot. Some fans storm the court which is kind of lame.

Tech came back from 23 down to win that game tonight, I don't blame those kids for storming the court after that comeback after the rough season Tech has been having.

@jayballer67 KU moved up to 8th and KSU dropped to 7th. It wouldn't have made any sense for KSU to move up because they lost to ISU last week.

Purdue stayed 1, Tennessee and Alabama swapped places and 2 and 4, Houston remained at 3, Arizona moved up to 5, Virginia at 6, UCLA dropped a spot to 9th and Texas stayed at 10th so the teams in the top 10 remained tge same, just order is different with only Purdue and Houston in the spots as last week.

@wissox said in KU-UK Game Chat:

Without looking at other teams around us, I think we should be in the 10-15 range. Hard to say after losing 3 in a row, and getting blown out at home that we deserve a top 10. But there's also a lot of teams apart from Purdue that have suffered embarrassing losses as well.

Teams that lost this week: 2, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15×2, 18, 19, 20, 25

I think there's a solid chance KU is still top 10 at 10 when the new poll comes out tomorrow because so many teams behind KU lost as well this week. Gonzaga at 14 is the only team likely to jump KU tomorrow. Baylor maybe jumps KU, but I think that's a little much at this point, but them and Marquette should each jump 5 or so spots.

@Jethro said in KU-UK Game Chat:

@Woodrow said in KU-UK Game Chat:

@Jethro said in KU-UK Game Chat:

Tagline on CBS:

"Oklahoma, West Virginia and Kansas had big upset wins vs. SEC teams on Saturday in the last SEC/Big 12 Challenge"
So...the 9th ranked team in the country beating an unranked 'Tucky team is a "big upset win". Whatever.

KU was an underdog so it was an upset

If you go by the Vegas line. Not anywhere else. The line opened KU -1, and Tucky bettors pushed them to -3.

ESPN's BPI had Kentucky at 65% to win so a lot of analytics did like Kentucky last night.

How many times have we seen KU slump around this time and bounce back in February? We know this team is capable of playing elite defense amd once they get back to that, that's when the ship gets righted. Focus on effort on the defensive end and let the offense flow from that.

Focus on playing good defense. Screw the offensive issues, the defensive one are much more concerning. Play good defense and the offense will come around.

@kuballin10 said in Other games:

@jayballer67 he wouldn’t have played in front of Juan so I wouldn’t have came here either if I were him.

After McCullars committed, not surprised we didn’t land anyone else impactful. I’m surprised we could get a legit transfer big.

Juan will be the starting pg the next 2 years even if he averages 7 ppg and 6 apg and 2 turnovers/game

I doubt Self anticipated the situation with the bigs being what it is and probably wasn't looking too hard for one since he likely anticipated one of them stepping up more than they have.

@RockChalkinTexas said in Baylor Game Tonight:

Just not used to seeing inferior coaching and playing. Never will get used to it.

RockChalk

Coaching wasn't the issue tonight in the sense that Self somehow kept this team within striking distancedown the stretch. KU doesn't have a bench and KJ Adams can't rebound for shit. 1 damn defensive rebound from your starting 5. Combine that with him being basically useless on offense the last few games and we're now in the worst case scenario offensively for KU where teams can once again ignore Adams and ignore Harris since he's been useless the last 4 games now.

Rebounding killed KU tonight. I don't even want to know how many 2nd chance points Baylor had tonight.

Make a freaking layup!

Don't turn the ball over and keep Baylor off the offensive glass. Do those two things and KU should be able to win.

Terrible shot by Yesufu.

@DCHawker said in Baylor Game Tonight:

We're shooting 56% and down double digits...

Turnovers and rebounding. Baylor is +5 in turnovers and has 9 offensive rebounds to KU's 8 defensive rebounds. That's the difference in the game.

Harris doesn't necessarily need to score for KU to win, but he has to be an aggressive playmaker and he's playing very passively since he banged his head against KSU. He's got to get back to being a playmaker and stop playing passive basketball.

@Kcmatt7 said in Just Beat the TCU Horned Lizards, Please:

@DanR trying to give up 100 points to them though is the real problem

TCU won't sniff 100 today, probably ends up somewhere around 80-85.

@BeddieKU23 said in Just Beat the TCU Horned Lizards, Please:

Nobody has confidence to shoot the ball. Not sure what self has to do here

Give Yesufu a green light since he has no issues shooting and hopefully he makes some shots.

@DanR said in Just Beat the TCU Horned Lizards, Please:

I'm not giving creidt to TCU for us missing wide open shots

TCU has played out of their minds today. They've made a very good defense look like garbage today.

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Just Beat the TCU Horned Lizards, Please:

Lucky that wasn't a charge on Wilson

Not the Miles drive, the possession before where Wilson ran someone over.

Lucky that wasn't a charge on Wilson

Defense is doing their part this half so far, but have to start making some shots.

That wasn't a foul, but KJ with bad hand positioning with that made it look like a foul.

Lampkin hurt himself on the jump. Probably a calf injury. Either way, huge for KU because he was killing the defense.

Get the deficit to single digits before halftime and KU will finish the job in the second half

KU women came back from 14 down at halftime to beat West Virginia by 19 tonight. KU won the second half 57-24 after being down 34-20 at halftime.

Long run, not too worried about last night. McCullar had his worst game of the season and Harris had one of his worst games. Self, I'm sure obviously wishes he hadn't called that timeout, but in the heat of the moment, it was the right decision because KU had nothing going when Self began calling for it.

The most concerning thing to me from last night was Gradey Dick. Most of his misses were short which is indicative of tired legs. Was it just a bad game, or are we seeing him hit the freshman wall and getting into territory he isn't physically used to?

KSU is a legit team and their half court defense is one of the best in the country.

KU got very lucky, that shouldn't have been stopped.

@kuballin10 said in K-St Game Thread:

@Texas-Hawk-10 it’s sarcasm but we switch everything just like Nowell was on kj or Wilson

Both teams doing the same defensively

Kevin does not need to be on the floor at all until he gets his head right

I'm not saying McCullar should be out there, but if KSU gets Yesufu on Johnson, Johnson's winning that match up every time.

@kuballin10 said in K-St Game Thread:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Yesufu is playing better than Kevin so let’s take our chances

That's a huge size difference, Yesufu isn't holding Johnson for long.

Yesufu on Johnson is a bad match up for KU.

Harris checking back in thankfully.

Harris back to the bench. Hopefully checking back in shortly.

Hit his cheek on the floor. Hopefully it's not a concussion.

I have a cousin who enjoys a KU loss more than a KSU win. That's the mentality Tang wants to get rid of.

@Crimsonorblue22 said in Why No Sixth Man on this Year's Team:

Didn't a TT big just get cleared and play last night?

Yes, but I'm not anointing him after one game.

@kuballin10 said in The next 8 games:

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in The next 8 games:

@BeddieKU23 said in The next 8 games:

Has their ever been a harder stretch of games?

@K-ST, vs TCU, @Baylor, @UK, vs K-ST, @ Iowa St, vs Texas, @ OU.

Insanity. 5 of them on the road.

I don't see any reason KU shouldn't go 6-2 or better during this stretch. @KSU and @ISU are the two I could see KU drop, but the other 6 I think KU should win.

6-2 I’d take right now just not seeing it with how we are playing. Maybe we are a better road team than home team as our most convincing wins were at missery and at wvu

Tcu and their length at home - we are due for a loss and they can do it

@baylor with their length and good guard play won’t be easy

You already acknowledged ksu and isu on the road won’t be easy. I’d guess 4-4 and it gets a little rocky but 5-3 wouldn’t surprise me

I'm assuming the home games are wins because of the past 20 years. Baylor has been less than impressive this year and their defense sucks this season. Kentucky has the talent, but Cal seems like he's checked out of Lexington at this point. We also already beat OU sleep walking for 35 minutes so I doubt KU plays that bad against them again. I believe KU will go 6-2 or better during this stretch of games. The Big 12 is good and teams are familiar with each other's tendencies so we're not going to see a lot of blowouts in league play, especially because this isn't a naturally high scoring team like last season was. This team knows how to finish and win close games and does have the best active coach in the game on the calling the shots. Self knows what he's doing and his decisions and insights tend to be the right decisions far more frequently than not.

@DanR said in Why No Sixth Man on this Year's Team:

@BeddieKU23 said in Why No Sixth Man on this Year's Team:

@stoptheflop

Zuby/Zach are filler minutes for KJ. There's no path to playing time for them outside foul trouble/injury etc.

One of these guys or Udeh needs to step it up and at least be a Mitch Lightfoot guy who can come in and block a shot or set a screen/clear the lane. Luckily, there aren't many really skilled big men in the 6-10 to 7 footer range in the big 12 (that I can think of)

Actually, who is the best big man in the Big 12?

Best true big man in the Big 12 is probably Tanner Groves at Oklahoma. The Big 12 is pretty devoid of big men this season. The conference is stacked with top level wings and guards this season, but not much in the way of post players in the league this year.

@BeddieKU23 said in The next 8 games:

Has their ever been a harder stretch of games?

@K-ST, vs TCU, @Baylor, @UK, vs K-ST, @ Iowa St, vs Texas, @ OU.

Insanity. 5 of them on the road.

I don't see any reason KU shouldn't go 6-2 or better during this stretch. @KSU and @ISU are the two I could see KU drop, but the other 6 I think KU should win.

@kuballin10 said in Let's talk Iowa St:

@Texas-Hawk-10 I thought we didn’t turn it over then when we went to that lineup we did.

It’s so bad offensively we hardly get any quality shots even though we don’t turn it over

I'm not saying the 3 guard line up didn't turn it over because there were some, I'm just saying that protecting the ball against ISU's defense was likely Self’s logic in using that line up.

@kuballin10 said in Let's talk Iowa St:

@stoptheflop bill’s blinders on this one. He’d say we play better defensively but we lose so much offensively when Bobby plays.

The small two guard lineup is not Frank/Graham vibes or even close so not sure the purpose

Against elite defenses like ISU, the Harris, Pettiford, Yesufu lineup to me is about ball handling and minimizing turnovers.

@HawkChamp said in Let's talk Iowa St:

@Texas-Hawk-10 leave Purdue off that list and I think it’s solid.

Their offense is good enough this year to carry them to me. They're pretty much the opposite of Houston.

Alabama, Connecticut, Houston, Kansas, Purdue, and UCLA are the legit contenders to me. Rick Barnes can't make it past the weekend and that's going back to his Texas days and I don't trust Texas with their coaching situation. If they still had Beard, I'd call them legit as well.

@wissox said in Let's talk Iowa St:

Why in the Sam Hills Grandpa is that game between two top 15 teams being shown on espnplus? Because at the same time that network is showing bama-lsu a game that most residents of those states won’t give two rips about.

Unlike the college football TV schedule that's announced a week or two in advance, the entire college basketball season TV schedule is basically announced before the season starts.

@justanotherfan said in State of the Roster 2023:

Improvement on the lines is a must. Watching the national title game last night, Georgia's lines dominated TCU on both sides of the ball, which made everything else irrelevant. And Georgia had other talent! But they were so much better up front that it just didn't matter.

If KU wants to take the next step, improving the offensive and defensive lines has to be a priority. Skill positions are heading in the right direction, but it won't mean anything if the line play falls behind. I'd love to add another good lineman on defense, and at least some depth on the o-line.

The lines take the most time to develop because there's no shortcut when it comes to physical development.

@drgnslayr said in Please Stop This!:

Please Stop This! The iPhone ad captured the moment during last night's thrashing...

!IMG_0453.jpg ↗
!IMG_0454.jpg ↗

College football has become a joke. I thought it was like watching an NFL team thrash a high school team last night.

I know, I know... a football post on a basketball blog. Well... as we have already learned there is only one college sport that counts. It's the sport that decides what conference your teams compete in. It's the sport that determines what kind of $$$ your athletic department hauls in. It's the sport that determines a big part of how your academics get graded and funded.

Unless there are changes made, this is only going to get worse.

We are fortunate in basketball that typically only half a dozen players or so really determine the outcome in our game. This makes it harder to create such lopsided teams. Our conference quality is proof of the value of coaching over just recruiting top shelf talent.

However.... is last night's thrashing an example of what will come in the future to college basketball? If it is, does anyone think it will be the Big 12 that will be the thrashers?

I feel sorry for TCU. They had a great season and deserved a better ending. This outcome will not age well for all of those players (and for the Big 12). They can boast how they played in the biggest blowout in college bowl history.

Last night was Georgia having experience on stage and TCU shitting themselves on the stage. Dykes said at halftime that a lot of TCU's issues early were self-inflicted like not lining up in the right spots on defense and stuff like that. I think it would've been a closer game had TCU shown up, but they weren't beating Georgia last night.

@Kubie said in Maybe #1:

I believe what tickles me most is the fact that Phogg Allen, Moses, or perhaps Self has gotten Dajuan to shoot 3’s. Three to five a game and if they are all makes it is even better. As much as anything else his showing he is an effective 3 point shot will help the team reach their peak.

I said it his freshman season that he needed to take more 3's because he can make the open ones at a high rate and was ridiculed by quite a few people here for it. He still has a really low release that's almost like a middle schooler, but his shot is much quicker now and that's helped him out a lot.

@Gorilla72 said in West Virginia Game Saturday:

Why was Yesufu getting so much playing time? He’s not playing at the level the others are…

Dick had 2 fouls was a part of that.

@Kcmatt7 said in Other games:

@BShark said in Other games:

@Jethro said in Other games:

The Clones for real?

Yes. You could argue they have the third best coach in the league with Beard gone.

Who do you like at 2?

I wouldn't put Otzelberger at 3. Right now, I'd put Self, Drew, and Jamie Dixon ahead of Otzelberger and also maybe Huggins, but I think he's lost a step the past couple of seasons.

One interesting name I've seen floated out there as a potential coach for UT is John Calipari. The natives are getting restless with the direction of the program recently amd Cal seems to have issues adapting to the new world of college basketball recruiting with NIL and the transfer portal mostly overtaking AAU/Shoe influences.

Austin would be a great place for Cal. They have money, the expectations are lower than Kentucky, and UT is still a school that can attract big time recruits to go there and the fan base won't care as much about being an NBA factory like they 15 years ago.