🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@kjayhawks agree. Stumbling and crashing at the end of the season is a discouraging and troubling way to enter the post-season.

The portal + NIL essentially creates a mercenary strategy for teams. Keeping teams engaged is even more of a challenge than it used to be.

The officiating is not egregiously bad. It’s not great— they also missed the foul on the pass to KJ that left him in a heap on the floor.

But the stats won’t lie. I don’t have them in front but we have taken fewer shots, made fewer threes, probably more turnovers and fewer rebounds. Oh and probably 50% free throws.

Lots of room for improvement and plenty of reasons why we are down. .

KJs effort has been consistent. And he made his free throws.

KU winning four games in a row is less likely than a portal to another dimension opening in my arse.

Free throws. SMH

Only a couple 10-0 runs away from tying this up

The last 3 min we matched our scoring output for the first 15

9 points at the 5:30 mark

I had low expectations. Maybe make it a game for the first half

They have to play the full 40. Quiet ride home.

Cue up the discussions about how we respond.

It. Is. So. Over.

We just don’t seem to operate as a unit the way we used to

On track to lose by 40+

@patoh3 When we shoot.

I had low expectations but did not expect self-immolation.

It’s pretty simple calculus if we lose at Houston.

If we win, it gets more complicated and interesting as we head toward selection Sunday.

@Crimsonorblue22 regarding Furphy, as a freshman, you can’t really count on much in the tournament. He might be a huge factor one game and disappear the next. Typically the more experienced players are more consistent with less extreme lows. But this team has been inconsistent most of the year so not sure this logic applies.

@AsadZ Agree. This is why I think Timberlake is more important than most people think. His experience matters. He's the kind of player that could make a difference in the first few rounds of the tournament.

But we will need him to stay hot like he was against KState in virtually every game going forward. I don't think that's asking a lot. I think that's how he has performed in practices and it's finally making its way to the game.

I don't see UCF pulling it off unless the lights go out and they have to end the game right now.

Caitlin is pretty phenomenal.. But equally phenomenal and often forgotten is Lynette. Good move by Iowa allow her to pass the baton.

Now can we just get the NCAA to fix the record books and also to allow the Helms Championships?

It's a deed that is consistent with my observation that JD is a really good dude on top of a really good player.

If so, that's a really good combo.

Best coach.

We can what if all day. Maybe.. probably... if we had picked up Ingram and passed on Morris, we would be competing with Houston for the B12 title. But that's not what happened.

IMHO, Morris was the bigger blow because Self really has excelled with dual-guard teams. He would have taken pressure off DeJuan and probably allowed him to take more 3s and grow his confidence as a shooter. That would have spread the floor and opened up the inside even more.

As things are today, we're too easy to defend.

I can't help but think of that TCU game that was decided at the end by Udeh. If we don't win that game, this season seems a lot darker than it is right now.

This team seems wildly inconsistent -- beating UConn and Houston and losing to KState and UCF. It's hard to know how this all translates when we get to the tournament. I'd like to think we could win a couple rounds if we have reasonable matchups with teams outside of the B12, but who knows.

I would say our fate is largely dependent on the seeding and matchup.

@Zabudda said in Wounded Jayhawks game thread:

@bskeet said in Wounded Jayhawks game thread:

The officiating was not great, but I think I have been sensitized to horrible officiating because it didn't strike me as egregiously bad as it was with other games.

I did want to ask about that layup that Kevin missed on the fast break in the second half-- I thought a Baylor guy hit the backboard as his shot was coming off the rim.. Isn't that basket interference? I know they called a goal-tending a few min earlier that apparently was controversial, but that's no excuse to swallow the whistle on that one.... Did I not see that correctly? There was no mention by Fran and John (not exactly evidence I would ever build a case on.)

Yep you could hear the backboard thud easily.

And it was clear on replay.

No explanation.

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Wounded Jayhawks game thread:

I don't care if the refs are or aren't why KU lost today, but holy shit that was some terrible officiating today. When Bill Self stops working the refs during a game, you know it's bad. KU took 45 field goal attempts, most near the basket and Baylor's bigs only committed two fouls the entire game? Are you f-ing kidding me?

That's been consistent most of the conference season. Kevin and Hunter get hit and rarely get the call. They will call a foul when KJ gets hit a bit more frequently, but we don't ask him to go to the basket as much.

The foul on Elmarko when he was knocked on his ass was completely wrong. That was a charge 99% of the time.

To be clear, the team made its fair share of mistakes that put the team at disadvantage (Jamari taking an ill-advised shot in the final 3 min when we had closed the deficit and Kevin with a bewildering pass turnover.)

Also, I think there's a decent chance we go 2-4 the rest of the way for the season.

3-3 would be a pleasant surprise.

4-3 would be over-achieving.

5-3 would be miraculous.

@kjayhawks said in Wounded Jayhawks game thread:

This is probably the downest I have ever been on KU BB in my life time. Can we even beat KSU Tuesday?

I get it... But, apparently you didn't live through the end of the Ted Owens era.

The officiating was not great, but I think I have been sensitized to horrible officiating because it didn't strike me as egregiously bad as it was with other games.

I did want to ask about that layup that Kevin missed on the fast break in the second half-- I thought a Baylor guy hit the backboard as his shot was coming off the rim.. Isn't that basket interference? I know they called a goal-tending a few min earlier that apparently was controversial, but that's no excuse to swallow the whistle on that one.... Did I not see that correctly? There was no mention by Fran and John (not exactly evidence I would ever build a case on.)

It’s true. That said, his energy and passion are infectious. I wouldn’t mind having him on our team this year. Reminds me a bit of the way CB played.

To clarify my point, the effect of that much money flowing into a small area is that there is a lift to everything in the surroundings.

I just picked out tuition, but really the first thing to rise will be real estate. Eventually that will lead to increased business, wages, standard of living but also cost of living.

If I was an investor, I’d invest in Lawrence now.

Speaking of Larry (or, actually Ted...) From the twitter sphere:

Last night was the latest in a season that Kansas has lost in AFH since losing to Nebraska on 3/2/83.

First time Kansas has lost at home after Feb 20th since Oklahoma topped KU on 2/22/84

Yeah. KU is committed to making football competitive and have put their money where their mouth is.

I think the investment is wise.

I also expect that tuition will increase significantly in the next 10 years.

@nuleafjhawk I, too, am proud/guilty to be so entitled.

Some wins in mid-to-late March can cover the stench of February.

This team very well may get knocked out in the first or second round. But they also may make a run. There is enough talent to carry them to April and I still think the HOF head coach knows a helluva lot more about basketball than most. Matchups in March matter more than is often given credit.

Also the B12 is a death gauntlet this year. Will that work to our advantage (battle-hardened) or disadvantage (injuries, tired) I don’t know. But it is a fact that the average quality of the teams is outstanding. I hope this is demonstrable in the tournament (3-4 of the elite 8 from the B12?)

I’m bummed about the outcomes (We lost the B12 race this year) and sometimes the performance (use your short- or long-term memory) but, at the end of the day they are still My Jayhawks. I hope they clean up the details and get healthy in the next 10 days.

We are a pretty average team without Kevin. But also give BYU credit for shooting about 50% from 3 in the second half. Our 3-pt defense is not elite, but not many teams can shoot at that clip.

Hard to beat a team when they are shooting like that unless you have similar fire power.... (which we don't, although hitting free throws would have made it a much closer game)

CBS is a cluster... They tell you to go to the CBS Sports App to watch the end of the UH/BU game.. I did that and clicked on the game and it was showing the Arizona game. There was no way to watch the OT of that game.

Unbelievable.

They need to learn how to run a broadcast network in the age of streaming.

WTF??? CBS cut away to the start of the Arizona / Washington game!

Maybe they wouldn't if they were ranked ... oh wait, they are.

Maybe if it was a Duke game?

I agree with all of you. Second game of the first weekend will make me nervous, but I expect we'll get through that. If we win the third game, we are playing with house money.

I'd really like to see AI applied to officiating.. Not to remove the officials from the game, but to help drive consistency across the board. It wouldn't be hard to build a model of plays (both with fouls and no-calls) and then have it show the likelihood that a play would be result in foul and on which player.

Imagine seeing contact on a play and the model references thousands of similar plays with similar contact and it shows on the screen that this was called a foul 87% of the time.

That would be instructional for the officials when they see which of their fouls are called the way they called it less than 25% of the time (that is, 75% of the time it is no call or called opposite). And it would hopefully eliminate some plays that are called differently 95% of the time... Like in this case, where a coach is off the bench, on the court during the game and grabs the ball in play... And then contrast that with a coach with one foot out of the box on the sideline getting a T or the shadow of a player's heel over the line and the player is called out of bounds.. Ridiculously inconsistent management of the game.

The goal would to be drive officiating toward norms.

This is to be expected given the penalties from the investigation. It was a penalty to have fewer scholarships. It makes a team thin and is a significant disadvantage during the regular season and conference tournament.

The NCAA is surely feeling a bit more satisfied with their punishment with every rung of the ladder that we fall.

We need to stay healthy and positive about how this could play out in the tournament where depth is less significant.

The officiating sucks this year. It's way too selective. And the officials are inserting themselves on the game in weird ways -- like instead of managing the physicality of the game, they are quick to give technicals for ticky tack stuff like coach disagreeing and throwing coaches out for stepping out of the box (Drew and Self). But again, it's selective (focusing the two coaches that have won an NC?) because you can see some coaches all over the place.

Apparently this is what happens when Higgins is bumped up to the office. Boo.

http://www.espn.com/watch?id=5c5a5de2-a787-40c1-88eb-d9d38599dc0a ↗

May require an ESPN+ subscription.

Fun stuff!

Plus, NIL $ takes some of the risk out of staying and working on your game. I think this is one of the best benefits of NIL to the game.

@RockChalkinTexas said in KU vs Octagon of Tang Doom Game Chat.:

I believe that the first 6 minutes of non-stop play exhausted our players more than they would admit.

Yes. More evidence of how the officials were selective throughout the game.

When they finally blew the whistle, it was a traveling call on the perimeter. I was happy, but that was just weird considering all the contact in the previous 6 minutes. It was NOT foul-free.

And don't get me started on how they look closely at Kev's foot on the sideline, but not the KSU players crossing the free-throw lane...

Part II

I really am beginning to feel like the refs have something against Kev. He gets scrutinized unlike others and gets hammered and gets no calls.

This is a fairly recent thing because he was getting calls fairly consistently in the first 10 or so games... If I recall correctly (and haven't looked at the stats to verify), he was going to the line frequently. Now he goes to the line maybe 1 or 2 times a game.

He's still driving and still drawing contact, but not getting calls. What changed?

KState entered 1-1 after a foul in OT.

Anyone who watched the physicality and intensity knows it was not that kind of game.

It simply wasn't called consistently.

Plus, didn't help that the guys were gassed. Bill didn't sub as much as he should have, in retrospect (and appears to have lost some confidence in the bench).

@approxinfinity said in KU vs Octagon of Tang Doom Game Chat.:

Now jealously for KSUs guards? Wow

Sacrilege.

In the tourney, anyone can get hot and anyone can get beat.

I don’t think this team is as bad as these losses suggest. I’ve watched them and I’m sick of the officiating in some of these.

Not just us. If anyone watched the Purdue /Wisconsin it was also poorly called