🏀 KuBuckets Archive

I like the standing height I saw under the basket there. Oubre, Hunter and Lucas.

I like Jamari on that 12 footer. We will need him to make a couple of those in March if we are to go on a run.

For this game Selden taking those jumpers is fine, but I'm not sure if I ever want him taking those in March. I'd rather work on our interior passing seeing as Hunter will see the floor a lot for the rest of this year.

I find it comical that teams like Arkansas are ranked 18, while K-State, TCU, Okie State are all unranked. I really do think we will surprise teams come March. The Big 12 has a toughness about it this year.

@DoubleDD said:

No the Big 12 doesn't have two blue bloods to stake it's claim, and the Big 12 hasn't shown their best in the tournament. However from top to bottom and a round robin schedule it's hard to be tougher than the Big 12. All you have to do is look at how bruised and battered the Champion is to see how brutal the Big 12 can be. Every week of conference play is like rivalry week for KU.

Have to agree with this. This year, if you wanted to watch a good Big 12 game on a given day, all you had to do was tune in to ESPN.

@Bwag Good point. But we played HORRIBAD and still managed to come back.

It wasn't like the ISU game, where they played essentially perfect basketball in the second half. We played ugly, ugly basketball with our backups and still came through against great 3 point shooting.

@Bwag Arguably, FTs are the type of offense that is easiest to improve in the short run. Or are you referring to drawing fouls being fool's gold?

@5541-james I think that's bullshit. We're a team that wins. I get it, I get it.. threes are pretty.

@Bwag Our identity is that we don't have an identity. Check out Jaybate's "Bad Ball" post.

@Blown Thank you for mentioning this. Jaybate, in his "Bad Ball" post, basically described Self's season-long strategy for developing a tough team that can survive a March run. Last year, we were thoroughly exploited in March. This year, Self is making sure we are exposed for all to see before the big Tourney so that maybe we can heal and learn and become stronger for a big run.

Today, we had to prove that we could do things without Ellis, and the bigs really came through for us in the second half.

Swoosh. Frank Mason.

@Bwag To be fair, they played out of their minds.

If Perry tore his ACL, he would not be on the sideline in sweats

Our FT shooting has been our saving grace lately.

@Bwag He looked lost.

Horrific foul call. Really not much of a foul.

@cragarhawk said:

@betterfireE probably did if when we lose this....

?

@Bwag Hoiberg didn't win the league this year though.

If the coach needs to praise the 3 to get the players to hit the 3, this team doesn't have enough mental fortitude anyway.

Grandma Greene cannot move. How does the AAU work anyway. Just find big dudes who have awful footwork and dribbling?

Greene just lets his man go by

Jamari Traylor is an important player. Not sure if any of our guys bring what he brings. Maybe Oubre on the perimeter.

@Bwag We are missing WIDE open looks.

We look tired. Too much partying. We'll definitely know in the second half.

Basically this team cannot pass and cannot create shots. Some of the same issues as last year.

Oh yeah, and dribbling. I guess it's one of those lost arts in modern AAU basketball.

@DCHawker Teams that are soft as cheese. The tourney has tough teams though.

@Eric This is the problem. If we cannot play well against WVU, there are tons of tournament teams that won't be good matchups for us.

Wow, Oklahoma completely bailed out at the end here. TCU had them turned over.

K-State actually guarded the perimeter really well. They are a good defensive team on the perimeter. In fact, so was TCU, so is Baylor, Oklahoma etc. The Big 12 is stacked.

Our defense towards the end was pretty awful. It doesn't matter how many threes we take if we play defense like that.

@Hawk8086 His first three was Perry on him. Bill needed the time out to scheme.

I seem to recall people on kubuckets saying that Graham wasn't that good. He's good. He's essential to what KU has going on.

I'm pretty freakin' pumped for this game.

People don't seem to understand that TCU is a actually a good perimeter guarding team and that Big 12 is stacked this year. We'll have something like 7 of them in the tourney, and how many do you suppose will get knocked out of the first round?

TCU is not the worst team in the league by a long shot.

We won this game because of open looks caused by penetration. With what our guards can do, we can cause damage in multiple ways. Watch the game again. Graham and Mason are stars.

This team always had problems at the 5 position. We knew it going into the year. I took a look at Cliff Alexander and thought "Ok, he's 6'9". Decent wingspan. No dribble. Clunky feet." Not sure why anybody expected much different from year 1. We were always going to be better defensively playing small and quick.

In many ways, we are the same team. Perry and Wayne keep being themselves. Frank Mason killed us a little tonight, just like he used to do as well. Landon Lucas missing free throws again. Missing bunnies... Just like against Stanford. Point guard play letting us down. Poor awareness of teammates. Getting killed by threes late in the game...

I hope this one hurts and hurts in a way that helps us realize and maintain our true potential. We showed grit climbing back into (and at times, controlling) this game. But we made a lot of the same mistakes we've made for the past 2 years, and it's heartbreaking.

That said, Jamari Traylor had a pretty good game, and we absolutely will need him in March, just like last year.

Who defends McKay is the question. This is why we probably need Jamari on the floor. I wonder if Self will ask Kelly to play big at all. Two of Jamari, Kelly, Perry should do it.

I could also see a Mason, Graham, Oubre, Jamari, Cliff lineup when Perry is not in use. We will need Cliff's offensive production to replace Perry's. And Jamari will be our transition D stopper.

Assuming this goes well, we'll need Greene and Selden to keep our guards fresh. If the above strategy doesn't go well, then we'll just need to outscore ISU with 3's from Greene and Selden.

Wiggins does not play the same position as James. If anything, Love and James cross over more. Wiggins is a 2/3 whereas Love is a straight up 4 who offers little rim protection. Lebron in my eyes is becoming much less of a 3 over time, but still, you can put Wiggins at the 2 spot. With Love, you have to make up defensively. I think a Wiggins + Lebron lineup could have been paired with a rim protector for equal effectiveness without sacrificing the future of the franchise as Cleveland has done.

I'm not sure Mozgov + Love gives the level of return you want for what you gave away. The future could really be bleak for Cleveland unless they find a diamond in the rough a la Hassan Whiteside. As it is, I don't think they are set up well enough to contend.