Kj at the 4
benshawks08
4625 posts
@bskeet maybe when the lead gets to 30…
Feel like yes should play the rest of this game. Rotate the starters out. Give MJ and Bobby some spurts. Let Udeh get some more run.
@BShark said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
@benshawks08 said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
@bskeet said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
This kind of game is tough on the legs.
MJ rice time. He might actually fit in this type of game.
Bill needs to get ahold of Norm, tell him to get the bench in lol
He probably told him not to play them before the game because norm has given them so much run in his other games.
Sit Gradey Juan and kev as much as possible from here on out.
@bskeet said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
This kind of game is tough on the legs.
MJ rice time. He might actually fit in this type of game.
@BShark said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
Udeh next year could be truly special
So glad he’s gonna get a year or two with juan. Those two can do some damage in that middle corridor.
Keep passing Gradey. Get the triple double.
@RockChalkinTexas said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
VEEP in the house 🙌
Politicians love Iowa.
We look silly sometimes.
@BShark said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
Is Hem a Missouri fan now?
Lol.
@BShark said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
@DCHawker said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
Easy score off Gradey...
They should go at him every play. Make him move off the ball.
Drive him and back cut him. Open all day.
@BShark said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
@BeddieKU23 said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
Pathetic refs again
We might be covering with good refs.
Think we might anyway.
They just keep giving us the ball out of bounds instead of calling fouls.
Kev what is that?
Lol. How is that not a foul.
Here comes Juan.
Had a chance to break them. Let it slip away.
Pretty sure Gradey drives Kevin crazy.
@benshawks08 said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
Ugh. Looks like we are still going to be struggling with rotations.
Everyone helping. No one helping the helper.
Ugh. Looks like we are still going to be struggling with rotations.
@stoptheflop I coached a soccer team that played 20 different players. Feels like that.
@BShark said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
We are beating them on the glass pretty good. Turnovers a slight edge. Good shooting from Howard though.
Has the d been as bad as it looked on the few moments I was able to really focus on on the first half? Saw a few sets just pick us apart and had Texas flashbacks.
@BShark I’m late to the party. Had to get some family on the road so I’ve been stealing moments to watch on my phone. Home on the couch now. We good.
@RockChalkinTexas said in Norm Roberts Cooks Up Some Bison Burgers Game Thread:
Juan needs to get going
He’s definitely in a slump right now. Might be focusing too much on being aggressive. Let Juan be Juan and he will come thru when we need him most. Can’t remember him turning the ball over on just not even close passes like he has in the last few games. He will figure it out.
Got this one going early huh?
Ok. Just thought I’d share what I convinced myself of in the shower today. Consider this. Kansas beat Texas earlier in the year. They play again in Austin with nothing on the line. Bill self knows Texas is a good team maybe a great team. He knows the big 12 is strong and likely to have a big 12 opponent in his bracket somewhere. What if it’s Texas? Flash forward a week. Self is in the hospital it’s KU Texas for the big 12 title. Growing evidence that Texas might be a great team. Is this the game to pull out all of the stops to beat Texas?
I’ve decided bill self has a few adjustments in mind for Texas but just hasn’t unveiled them yet in case we run into them with something real on the line. Nothing huge. But a few tweaks that would make the Texas staff have to adjust.
We ran so little offense in that title game and made zero defensive adjustments. It was mostly Jalen hero ball which we all know is not this teams best strategy on offense. I’ve decided those losses were not exactly purposeful but strategic decisions to make sure we had something new for when we meet Texas in the final four. How delusional is that?! Lol.
Also, to add to the fatigue conversation I just realized I don’t think anyone brought up the emotional fatigue on the guys of having their coach in the hospital. Like I’m sure it was a bit of a boost for that first game but after that it had to be exhausting.
@drgnslayr KJ was TERRIBLE on hedges vs Texas and the last few games. Might be yet another reason we were just switching everything for so long.
As for joe I think some of the thought process on the early shots is a marginal to bad shot is still better than a turnover. And if Juan Is out, this team doesn’t always get good shots. Also, if you don’t shoot when you are wide open as a small guard there’s not really much else you can do and it makes life harder on the rest of the team. He believes he is a 35% shooter from three. Let’s hope he gets there with a hot tournament. He’s had one before.
The margin for error for this team is small but it was last year too. Dave had to play great after struggling for a good portion of the year. Remy had to come out of nowhere and make massive contributions. We will see if anyone steps up this year.
@wissox said in Complain About KU's Unfair Bracket Thread:
After a murders row (sarcasm font) of 6 opponents in the 2022 (upset induced I understand), we have little room to complain about the west. We also had 7 losses, a mindblowing number of losses for a #1 seed in my opinion. I get the quad 1 wins and all that. We still lost 7 times.
Right there with you. I don’t think any team deserves an easy path but we definitely didn’t. What are we, 8 on kenpom? The metrics don’t love us. We lost a lot of games. Seeds are all perception anyway. Want to prove you’re the best? Win the games. YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME! Lol.
Can I say something positive about our draw on this thread? Not sure if that’s allowed but here we go.
This draw could be good for this team mentally. Last years team was trying to prove everyone (bill self in particular) wrong. They’d convinced themselves that no one thought they could win and set out to do just that.
I’m seeing all kinds of stuff about how we are the 3rd or 4th most likely team in our bracket to make the final four. If that doesn’t build @drgnslayr ’s chip I don’t know what will. Everyone talking about Kansas City and how this team had that wrapped up and earned it etc., that was SOFT. You earn things by WINNING GAMES not playing a tough schedule. This team earned the big 12 championship by winning more games. This team LOST the big 12 tourney and the last game in Austin because they thought they’d earned a number 1 seed in the Midwest. It’s wake up time. No one is going to give this team the championship because they won the best league. No one is going to give this team a championship because they played the toughest schedule. Only way to win the championship is to go win. And guess what Jalen, no one thinks you can do it.
@BShark I’m not entirely joking here that I think it might be a good idea to consider 2/3 of Udeh’s minutes off the bench be for KJ and the other third for jalen (meaning slide kj to the 4). You then steal 5 minutes for joe subbing for Gradey/kev/Juan and hope they can all just go 35+ minutes.
Kj at the 4 has got to be a better option than Bobby on the floor right now. I don’t see another way to get guys any kind of a breather. Is self really going to play MJ Rice in a tough tournament game?
The other option would be to jump on whichever of ark/Illinois we get early. I’m much more comfortable playing the bench when we already have a 8 point or more lead. They did ok vs WVU and ISU. They didn’t like produce anything but our leads didn’t evaporate while they were in.
Also, Texas is just a really good team. They had a ton of preseason hype because of all the returning talent and additions they made. You’d expect a team to fall apart after all the turmoil around beard but they’ve clearly come together and are playing for each other and their current coach whom they clearly love. I was cranky watching them celebrate because we lost but honestly that level of joy is telling about a team. Last years KU team had that joy. Texas has a clear chip on their shoulder and can use their adversity as motivation. I usually don’t pick Texas to go very far but think they might be my pick for the final four from their region this year.
It’s also easy to look pretty good when all you are doing is shooting uncontested layups and three pointers. Seems familiar honestly.
@BeddieKU23 yeah, Bobby and joe are never going to be Kevin no matter how good they play. They just don’t have the same size and skill set. I wonder if anyone on the bench mentioned to Gradey that it was actually HIM that needed to be filling in for Kevin’s role defensively. He’s the one with the length and athleticism to rebound and take up space defensively. He just didn’t have a good game either. Joe actually did some decent rebounding for his size but there’s only so much a guy his size can do in that area.
@RockkChalkk said in McCullar:
These are young people in peak physical condition in the prime of their lives. Being tired from three games in three days is a made up reason to justify a reason for them losing. Its just that they had a bad game and/or the other team wanted it more. The bigger problem I see is that it seems like the team lacks heart sometimes. I never see anyone pulling the group together on the court for huddles or encouragement. Don't see a lot of emotion on their phases or in their actions when the games start slipping away.
Lol. What games are you watching? Jalen and Juan pull the guys together all of the time. I think it’s much more reasonable to question fatigue than heart. There are multiple NATIONAL CHAMPIONS on this team.
Professional athletes whose entire job is to be in peak physical condition utilize load management strategies to make sure they can PERFORM at that peak level the most often. Fatigue is just a fact of life. For everyone. Oh and how many pro teams play 3 in 3? I’m honestly curious about that one.
The reason I come to this board is to see why people think we win and lose games. So coming up with justifications for why they did or didn’t win is kinda the point. At least for me.
@drgnslayr I hope it doesn’t come across like I’m bashing Bobby but I can see how it would. I just got some pretty high expectations for him pretty early. I think injuring that hammy over and over again would get in my head too. I could see how it would feel like you couldn’t trust your body to give you the burst you need. His best attribute has been his first step and ability to elevate enough as a little guy to finish at the rim. The last time he got hurt you could see the dejection a frustration that it happened again on a pretty normal basketball play.
I really do hope with time he can get back to playing at the level he was earlier in his career and then grow from there.
@kuballin10 said in The Bench Theory:
@TYOHawk agreed he appeared like he had Frank driving abilities his frosh year got hurt and now just looks like he can’t even dribble
Hope he transfers
This is so baffling to me. It really looked for a bit like he was going to be the next downhill guard that could get to the bucket on his own and be that guy with a little development. Boy has it gone the other way.
@drgnslayr said in McCullar:
So evidently our limit for consecutive games in a few days is 2. Luckily we never have to play more than 2 in a weekend moving forward.
Wasn't this what happened early in the year when we faced Tennessee? Except we didn't just give up.
And the biggest "no show" was Juan. Our two best defenders were a no show with Texas.
What it really shows is how little real defense we get out of everyone else. Kevin and Juan keep us in games. For us to win moving forward we need the rest of our guys playing real defense.
Why we lose games? When we have no defense. In case there are fans still thinking our loses are based on not hitting shots... in our losses we always count specifically on JWil to carry the load. JWil is our only player who can create his own offense. He doesn't need us to push pace off of us playing good defense.
When we push the pace off of playing good defense everyone scores because we don't allow our opponents to set their defense.
Juan expended a lot of energy vs Iowa state staying connected to kausher. Through out the year we saved legs by switching everything. Without that it’s tough to play the type of d Juan doe’s especially without his best defensive buddy.
No North Carolina. Lol.
How many did the big 12 get in overall?
Definitely feels like the toughest bracket on paper but all that can change with upsets and madness.
My goal is win 2 and see what happens.
@DCHawker said in Texas game chat (danger I'm 0-1 in my last game chats):
@BShark said in Texas game chat (danger I'm 0-1 in my last game chats):
Hope they see this. Chip time.
I'm not sure he is wrong. Has any recent national champion lost 5 games by 14 pts or more??? We are a fragile team, living on the edge. Almost completely dependent on the 5 starters. If locked in defensively and generating fast break opportunities, with at least 4 starters scoring, we beat anybody. But if one or two, esp. Juan, are having a bad game, we aren't particularly good. Thin margin between getting knocked out early and winning 3-4 games (don't see a 6 game winning streak against good competition...).
This team won 7 straight against good competition not too long ago. Definitely dependent on the 5 starters. Never seen such a massive drop off from the moment any starter takes a seat.
@approxinfinity said in Texas game chat (danger I'm 0-1 in my last game chats):
Screw it. Write em off and be pleasantly suprised, when Bill and Kev get back.
Yep. They are done. Might lose to the 16 seed. Make sure they all hear that.
Kevin is the ultimate glue guy. We completely fell apart without him.
I think we would have won if @wissox Hadn’t demanded another shot at starting the thread. Really the only thing keeping us from winning this game.
Juan gonna break his streak.
So easy.
@RockChalkinTexas said in Texas game chat (danger I'm 0-1 in my last game chats):
Anyone question the conditioning of the players?
They won’t have to play 3 in 3 again so I think we will be ok there. Definitely a contributing factor today.
@kjayhawks said in Texas game chat (danger I'm 0-1 in my last game chats):
@benshawks08 id like to check the shot sheet seems like it’s all lay ups and dunks.
Or threes with no one within 10 feet.
@cragarhawk said in Texas game chat (danger I'm 0-1 in my last game chats):
Being the overall 1 will only end in embarrassment. IDC what the "quad 1" bullshit says
Hoping playing a non big 12 team will cure some ails.