🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Today we were +1 on Kentucky. Good day.

And the talking heads will only talk about that one call. Yes it was a poor call. But no one will talk about the dozens of plays throughout the game where Samford was benefiting from poor calls -- getting the benefit of flops, etc. etc.

Multiple Jayhawks were in foul trouble. Only one Samsung dude had 3 or 4. Pretty one sided.

Samford and Oakland shot the 3 like they had made deals with the devil. Everything fell. AND, the officiating in both games allowed the underdogs to play aggressive defense (fouling as they pressure).

The difference was our coach and our experience (upperclassmen). That's it.

@DanR 100%

Legitimately about to lose my mind.

Can a team shoot 150% from 3?

From Auburn Hills, Michigan

It is officially March now.

And don't look now but Gonzaga :eyes:

@DanR said in Thursday game chat.:

Oakland might make a mini run. They look pretty solid, but good 3pt shooting does that.

True. Some teams like BYU live and die by the 3. Oakland looks like the kind of team that can operate in the half court some.

@StLJhawk lol

Any team that wins this tournament has to have the ability to hit 3s at a pretty high rate. It's a different era than 10 or so years ago.

I'm assuming that Oakland is full of seniors, super-seniors, etc. That's Kryptonite for a Kentucky team built on freshmen.

To be honest, if I was Kentucky, I'd be a bit sore about how the game was officiated. It was tight enough early on. But Oakland is making the shots even though Kentucky is making shots as well.. It's been an impressive second half.

I would gladly sacrifice my bracket to see Oakland pull this off. Holy cow.

We should have a thread tracking former Jayhawks in the tournament.. There are quite a few.

@BShark Lol. I think I have a very very similar final four and outcome on one of my brackets. Wow.

That would NOT surprise me at all.

That was a god awful display. Either Virginia is really not good/possibly bad or Colorado State is sweet 16 material.

Yeah, I think that's true, although this team was considered elite or at least nearly elite until they played UCF. Frankly, the warning signs were there with the TCU game, which Udeh won for us.

In other words, we were looking pretty good until we faced B12 competition.

Now that we're in the tourney, and we're out of league play, can we get that mojo back?

@MR11 I agree.

Speaking from strictly optics (because I don't have any inside info or know anything about the agreement), the one time it appeared that coach had guaranteed starting and a position was Josh Selby. As I recall, throughout the season, it looked like he wasn't ready for primetime, but he played (and then left prematurely).

Since then, I haven't seen any player's position/PT look the same (playing and performance grossly misaligned).

There are some freshmen and transfers who have come in and started and played in that position all year (most recent freshmen: Grady Dick; most recent transfer, Hunter) but in all recent cases, the performance totally justifies the position/PT.

BTW, I give huge props to ElMarko because he moved from starting to backup (so, clearly, no guarantee), but he continues to play hard and I think has a big ceiling. I don't know if I'm in the minority, but I hope he stays. I think he'll be a successful Jayhawk in a year or maybe two in Self's system.

In January, if you'd told me that we were going to play Samford in the first round and it's basically a 50/50 game, I would have thought you were insane.

But that's how it feels in March.

The guys need to be locked in like they were in the first half of the season.

I know they can win. But it all hinges on whether we get Dec/January Jayhawks or February Jayhawks.

I hate to say it, but getting past Samford will be a challenge.

I’d like to think a win would generate some much needed confidence, but it’s hard to tell if this team will jell at this point. They have looked fragile and soft lately.

If anything, it seems like the decline has become steeper. I fear they will need a miracle to pull out of the tailspin of the past few weeks.

Last year we ended up talking about the women’s team more/longer than the men’s team.

Could be the same this year.

Maybe we should rename this thread “Post-season Schadenfreude”.

There is sure to be more today. Kentucky? Could UConn lose?

Well that is depressing.

My 2 cents: Russ Rob and Sheron are a good comparison. As a tandem, Russ was the floor general but Sherron found more and more minutes as the season progressed for his contrasting abilities, including scoring.

In 21-22, Juan worked out well with Remy similarly. i recall the team looking very sketchy during many games that season when Remy wasn’t available and Juan had to play the majority of minutes.

There were three ways Remy made Juan better: 1) Remy was a scoring threat — especially 3s — so he took significant scoring burden off Juan, 2) Remy sometimes replaced Juan and that allowed Juan to be more fresh, and 3) Remy was stylistically a completely different kind of PG, which was complimentary but also - don’t underestimate this - hard for teams to adjust back and forth.

I believe Self was trying to get a similar pair this year with Juan and Arterio. It never had a chance to play out but I can imagine that a second guard like Arterio would have been a game changer because he’s so different/complimentary to Juan. Juan has some solid qualities. He clearly has Self’s confidence in running the offense and is a good passer. He can be a solid second tier scorer.

This year - and especially in these recent games where we’ve been without a tier 1 scorer - we needed him to be something he is not.

I think it’s wrong to beat him to a pulp for this. I even give Self some slack because I think he knows Juan’s limitations. You can’t win championships if you aren’t intimately aware of each player’s strengths (and weaknesses) and set them up for success.

Shit happens. Sometimes multiple shit happens. That’s where we are right now. But that’s not where we have to be next year. And let’s not sound like whiny, overreacting Kentucky fans while we process our disappointing season.

It’s a fricking miracle we haven’t had a similarly down year in the last 25 years.

Appropriately, Self and the staff will do some reflection and look for ways to improve. The game is evolving. I can see changes to the officiating and I also see teams scouting us much more effectively. Maybe we are too predictable. I leave it to the basketball minds to figure it out.

Anyway, go back and look at Juan in 21-22. The 23-24 version is largely the same. Self values that consistency and predictability in the PG. Remy drove him crazy. Sherron had to grow into that role. Devonte did too (recall it was Mason.and Graham initially)

It is what it is. And what it usually is, is 25 wins and a conference championship. Not this year, but… usually.

We will still be in the tournament (I would not be surprised if the committee hits us with a 6-seed). We still have the same opportunity that every other team in the tourney has.

We could capture lightning in a bottle and win 6 straight.

Or, we could lose in the first round. That would suck but I doubt any of us would be shocked.

Either way, the sun will come up tomorrow

Not sure which is worse, our shooting or the officiating. It’s a tie. Blech

The thing is, the bigs in the NBA have to be outside threats as well.. So if you want potential NBA talent in a college program, you have to accept 6-11+ guys shooting some 3s. If you stifle that part of their game, they will feel that an aspect of their development for the NBA is stifled... and eventually you will lose the opportunity to have future NBA-level bigs come to the program.

It can be frustrating/painful to watch guys work their game out, but that's what college is for most of the guys we will recruit because we're looking for potential NBA talent. Self coaches them up, helps them refine and polish their game..

And then the good ones like Furphy fly away all too soon.

@TYOHawk said in Liam McNeeley:

Also his family loved their tradition. Like I’ve seen Indiana people say that his family’s favorite movie is Hoosiers.

Not exactly the strongest criteria for decision-making... but it is boldly unique, I guess.

:crossed_fingers:

The implications are pretty profound for the NCAA tourney committee who always like to take into account the health of players in their seeding decisions.

It will be interesting. The committee allegedly looks at wins — quad 1 wins and quad 2 etc.

How do they look at losses and how do they compare losses to wins?

That is unclear to me. I don’t think I’ve heard it discussed, however I will concede that as a KU fan I’ve never had to really pay attention to discussions about losses.

I recall having some success with guys who signed with Towson U and Appalachian state.

….perhaps the NCAA has successfully convinced some that never happened, but I remember!

@Gorilla72 I saw that too

One other point. All this fear about next year, just stop and reflect a little.

Self has had many years where he’s lost seniors and starters and 80% of the scoring and so on and the following year is not Armageddon. Sometimes it’s been a conference championship. It’s always been an NCAA berth. It’s always been a top 20 team. It’s always been a top 4 seed in the tournament.

The dude literally has created firebeasts from ashes of the previous season multiple times.

He’s a Phoenix maker.

Now maybe this time it will be different. But why preoccupy with what would have to objectively be considered the least likely scenario —- the one that has never happened?

He will rebuild. We will win again. The hawks will rise again.

He is the Phoenix-maker.

Mistakes were made in recruiting for sure. I would not include Hunter in that group. He’s a double-double machine.

The sanctions do matter because with 13 you can afford a whiff or two in recruiting. With 11 or 9 or whatever the margin for error decreases by multiples.

We had a confluence of issues - a perfect storm or whatever - yet, we will still be in the tournament (probably a lower seed than we’ve seen in 20 years) and end with a 20+ win season.

It is a sucky year by comparison to the rarified air we are used to, and that reminds me a lot of 88-89 (also post ncaa sanctions)… however unlike that year, Self has likely preserved the NCAA tournament streak.

@kuballin10 said in Cougar chat:

@kjayhawks Shall we say the league level’d up and KU didn’t….ouch

I think this is very possible and the sting could be reduced in three weeks if there are 3 or 4 B12 teams in the elite 8.

Wright's teams were legit good and fairly well rounded.

I list those teams as examples because they had the specific characteristics we had struggled with all year... and they promptly lost the next game. They were only good as a spoiler.

@kuballin10 Maybe that had something to it. But I don't fully buy it. The seedings were a bit too coincidentally kryptonite matchups. Northern Iowa, Stanford, etc.

Sports writers have to go back to the history books and do a lot of research after this game and this season. When was the last time we scored less than 50 in a game? Last time we lost by 30? Etc. etc.

@kjayhawks I don't want to give up on next season before this one is done.

This season is enough to crap on.

We don't know what's going to happen between now and then.

@Crimsonorblue22 said in Cougar chat:

They got starters in

yep. Cause the lead is only 31 with a 1:31 left

Just wish we'd gotten a few more FF appearances and Natl Championships when we were racking up all of those conference championships. We got jobbed in the tournament so many of those years.

Welp, I'm spoiled because I haven't been in a mood like this at the end of the conference season for a couple decades.

I'm going to have to turn off the sound.

someone with access to stats should compare our season bench points over the past 30 years. I'm going to say this is the least by far.

there's a "short bench" and there's no bench

that might be the first back to back buckets for us all game.. 11 min left.

@jayballer67 for sure. Right now it's hard to imagine anyone on this team is ready for the NBA

but maybe it's better to be a 5 or 6 seed.

hoping we're a 4 seed

It seems pretty bad to go into post-season with so many players aware that they are lame-ducks

Tip your hat to Houston. They are great and they are leaving no doubt.