Will DeSousa play against Clemson? Might be good to have a quick defender and solid rebounder in for a few 8 or 10 or 15 minutes. Are we in danger of getting destroyed on the boards again?
betterfireE
287 posts
When was Clemson actually good in that game and Auburn not terrible.
@JayHawkFanToo
We definitely had a hand in our luck. We pressured and bothered their guards. Even Devonte and Garrett, who had “poor” games poked on the ball and bothered ball handlers. Seven steals in this game was how we evened the odds against superior rebounding. This team was waaayyyyy better than an 8-seed. We imposed our will on them and made them play bad (except for our rebounding).
That said, we were still quite lucky that we survived. This could have been another Michigan loss. We weathered the storm.
@DCHawker it’s also how they played. If you actually watch the game, you can see that UMBC was trying to kill teams with quickness. Virginia is a slow team, but K-State is not. Just goes to show what speed can do to exhaust and frustrate opponents. Everyone was tired in that game.
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.
People were impressed with Clemson, but what I saw was some garbage defense by Auburn. Anybody have any thoughts?
@truehawk93 Nova looking like the champions of a couple years ago. Alabama playing like a young team.
I saw a classic non whistle. Somebody please tell me why it’s ok to run into someone causing the pivot foot to move, thus inducing a travel.
@HawkChamp Arguably similar teams as well. Both teams are reliant on the dribble drive and one on one. Both are rather undisciplined as well. I also think Seton Hall is a it out of shape. Gotta make these guys run.
Not sure how they can dominate us. With shooting? I think we can wear these guys down with running. Even Penn got wore down by us, and they were coached to perfection. Be patient on offense, but don’t be afraid to make them run.
They missed a lot of open shots and a lot of free throws. We gave up a lot of interior passes and didn’t fight through screens.
Perhaps the time of day affected our play?
@BShark So you have KU losing to Seton Hall or N.C. state?
What’s the best trait of Malik? You could say shot-making or confidence, but arguably, it is his savvy. The latter half of this season, we’ve seen Malik make good decisions over and over again. I wish I could make GIF’s from my DVR, but I think this has been pretty obvious for a while now. Yes, Malik is making shots, but he has solid dribbling skills and instincts as well. He’s seeing the game better. His steal numbers are increasing. There is more to basketball than making shots,and Malik’s overall game’s
trajectory bodes well for the tournament.
DeSousa is the X-factor in our title run, IMO. Yes we will need Vick to keep improving as well (good game against WVU), but No one quite raises our ceiling like #22 our there right now. We haven’t had a big move this quickly since probably T-Rob, and DeSousa has an even better natural touch around the rim. I saw him do things like avoid potential shot blocks on his attacks on the hoop, yet he was still a perfect 8-8 from the field. Even in situations where DeSousa did not get the rebound officially, he got the high point of the rebound, influencing how the play unfolded. In other words, he’s kind of a freak. He’ll be a star when peaking, but has the potential to be a real pest as well.
@BShark Garrett is one of the best freshman passers we’ve had. People talked about that Vick screen for the Newman three the other day, but it was Garrett who threw the pass across the court, and it was a perfect pass.
Check it out:
🐦 View Tweet?s=21
Bonus DeSousa GIF: 🐦 View Tweet?s=21
This may sound crazy, but I would highly consider playing two bigs against Penn. All of our bigs are pretty fast. On offense, we should be able to muscle them into oblivion.
Slaps are hard to see, but bumps are pretty obvious. I can recall at least 4 bumps throughout the game that went uncalled. (One of them caused Malik to throw the ball away). Many times we were unaffected, which is a great sign for things to come. We’ve got poise.
Let’s hope we don’t get totally screwed like the Villanova year.
I think we got hosed a little bit by the refs as well today. Could have won by 40. Graham had some bad passes. Vick just needs a little more effort on D.
Garrett and Newman were money. Lightfoot and Silvio are progressing. Silvio could start to get really good in these next few games.
He’s also the key to the floor.
I want Garrett and DeSousa to get plenty of minutes. We will need a lot of quality minutes from Doke. But his minutes should be limited. Garrett and DeSousa for 40 minutes. Mitch, Vick, Newman, Svi, Graham, and Doke should rotate in (ordered by number of minutes). If Vick doesn’t improve his play by tournament time, he can be the odd man out. Sorry, but it’s March. It’s your last chance.
Frankly, I think Garrett has good enough handles that he can attack closer towards the rim. Have Svi sweep by the paint area. 3 or four players driving in to attack the rim.
We won’t have to goes as fast as we think we have to. We can beat teams like Oklahoma State, who are fast, but we need to play more accurately. On defense, we need to continue to have on overarching goal: to make things difficult for the other team. When we play great offense we wear other teams down defensively. You demoralize. You impose your will. Everything should be in the service of that. This is why Kansas has been creating havoc at times on defense. We can chip away at their will.
Speed alone is not always the answer. Against fast teams like Oklahoma State, we need to be more accurate than speedy. Ideally, both, but turnovers will kill us. We need to beat them with endurance not speed. And with accuracy over athleticism.
@BShark Disagree. The newest Rock and Chappelle specials solidified them as among the best ever in my mind. Certainly among the best active comedians.
Vick was 2 for 10 and had 3 turnovers and 0 steals in 34 minutes.
We can definitely lose with a performance like that.
Most likely we will lose at some point in the tourney. The question is how.
Last year it was inferiority to a lengthier and more athletic team (we were the 3rd best team after Oregon IMO). The year prior, we were jobbed at the end of the game by the referees (but ended up losing to the champions). 2015 was a year where Duke was gifted the title game with the ultimate friendly whistle against Wisconsin, who got totally screwed in the last game.
I have been somewhat pessimistic about the tournament since 2015. I think we may lose to a team that plays zone like Texas did the last game.
To me, that’s the question. How are we going to lose?
My position is that Garrett is the better defender, passer and dribbler. Garrett deserves more trust come tourney time. Still, we need Vick, obviously.
I am actually in agreement that we need to play better. There were too many examples of poor execution versus Tech. Poor rebounding, Vick’s lack of intangibles (allowing Evans to go coast-to-coast), etc. we cannot depend on our players to impose their will on someone else.
Even as we were controlling the game yesterday, there were many examples of poor/lazy passing where Tech nearly swipes the ball 3 or 4 times within the same amount of seconds.
In any case, how will we prepare for the tourney is the only question now. I’m sure there will be spoilers in our bracket, like Kentucky, Tech, Oregon, Michigan, etc. Teams with either talent or coaching that can exploit a weakness. I think it’s not a bad idea to drastically reduce Devonte and Doke’s minutes until tournament time. Let DeSousa and Lightfoot play at least 15 minutes. Garrett and Vick need to each be tested. We will need minutes from both, but we have to find out who we can trust.
I feel like we need to give DeSousa some court time until the NCAA tourney. I mean we should probably use him right? Or are we afraid he’ll get scouted? Do we keep him as a secret weapon to be unleashed at the right time?
@Gunman
Making prostitution illegal is a tool of cartels.
Can’t let college players have a good time, can we? I’m sure the elite have no problems getting high class escorts, or even unfortunate children trafficked in from poor places.
DeSousa is a stud, but the refs are giving him all the bad calls.
This team would be a lot better if Vick played like an upperclassman.
This would also explain why Vick and and as I contributed zilch in the Oregon game, even though we NEEDED to have Svi keep driving to the basket. Oregon didn’t think he’d do it. Why not keep doing it over and over again?
The point is that the team needs to be versatile. No more deferring. It’s time Svi and (especially) Vick showed us how they’ve developed.
The mindset should always be ATTACK. The other team should believe that you’re going to ATTACK at any moment. That’s why I somewhat detest how we execute the weave sometimes because it is OBVIOUS when we are just going through the motions as a matter of course. This team in particular needs to threaten on offense, and when we telegraph our lazy passes we get into bad habits that make us easily scoutable.
4 “guards” lol. We can’t guard. Lecomte just cut through us like butter.
Texas a dark horse tourney candidate? Coleman is pretty explosive.
Someone needs to start a thread about Vick... Really disappointing past couple of seasons for him.
@JayHawkFanToo lol
Thanks Jessie Newell for giving teams the formula to beat us (make open threes and play hard against our lazy ass at home).
Someone else mentioned that big guys don't get foul calls. Really showed up today with Doke getting very few calls. Their big should have fouled out long ago.
Carroll looks speedier than our entire team today.
@BShark Disagree
Carroll has outplayed Devonte today
Garrett should have played more than Vick did today. Vick needs to ride the pine.
We got dominated today. Just accept.
Newman and Vick have been poor
Svi for not three!
he should have fouled out a while ago.
That was a foul as well. Big guys just don't get the calls.
One of Vick or Svi HAS to step up. When both disappear, we are in trouble. I haven't seen Vick develop into the player he was supposed to. What technical aspect of Vick's game has improved since he got here?
Svi is killing us today
It looks like Doke is getting fouled constantly.
We’re getting fouled. If it gets to 20, I doubt we come back. Why are we this tired looking?
Get a backup for a backup price. Perhaps we can pay both Poe AND Logan now with the saved cash!
nuleafjhawk said:
@DanR You play through your issues in practice. You try to win the F-ing games.
We could afford to lose this one. And I think this was engineered. But who cares. Vick, Doke, everyone. We need to get better when we’re tired in the second half.
We had pretty good defense.
I wonder if Garrett is more important in the lineup than Vick at this point. Better defense and better handle.
I forgot about Billy once I saw DeSousa play. He addresses team need right now. Good luck to Billy.
Yes! And he had a good game prior to that. I just want Mitch to develop and co tribute in March. Energy guys who can finish are essential.
That looked like fantastic defense. Even Svi had some moments in the 2nd half.
The whole team had its moments. Newman impressed me at the end with his possessionS of the ball. Mitch had energy and was often in just the right spots. Svi bounced back in a huge way. Devonte was great, of course, but if someone takes him out of the game defensively, I have more confidence that the rest of our team can make up the slack. Vick can't yet shoot off the dribble, but he's learning to play within himself and become more possession-oriented.
We look like a totally different team. I have no idea why. Must be coaching. We are ready for WVU. Our defense is more effective than theirs.