🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Bad trade.

DaJuan has to play better. Also, trading 3s for 2s will not help.

Most important stat from this game: 2-0 in the new season.

Don’t look back boys.

I think it would be interesting to consider NBA coaches like Steve Kerr or Brad Stevens…

It’s good to get a win on the road but I still don’t have warm fuzzies after eeking out a fairly narrow victory over a team that is 2-14 in the conference.

Turnovers are a heartburn as many are unforced

Sometimes our O and D are egregiously out of sync

Hunter was hit in the face and got a bloody nose. No F1. No look at the monitor.

Double standards

The officials have to call that. The sound came before the ball hit the rim. That is not a play on

Didn’t the shot clock expire before the ball hit the rim?

@dylans That is so true. And probably extremely relevant.

@SlimShaddy54 I agree. Pride of school is for fans and maybe a few players.

But realistically, players pick the school for all sorts of reasons.. Some probably really do love the school (Mayo, DaJuan, KJ and maybe some on the practice squad...). But some players come for the coach. If the coach leaves, they follow. And some players come for more selfish reasons... maybe playing time, prestige or flat out $$$ money $$$.

When looking at that latter group, they are often the ones who are trying to get to the league. And when you get to the league, there's no such thing as school spirit. Players have to find their motivation and it's probably not that they always dreamed of being an Indiana Pacer, or Toronto Raptor or Portland Trail Blazer.... etc.

When players become part of a franchise, they surely have to find a burning motivator to play well every day or they won't last in the league.

If money is getting in the way of motivation in college, it's not going to suddenly be a motivator after the draft. IMHO, these players getting NIL, who have aspirations of playing at the next level, need to use this time to find their motivation. It doesn't really matter what that motivation is — whether selfishly wanting to be the best, or some deep love and respect of the game, or a drive to financially take care of their family — they have to find the thing that is going to fuel their drive each and every day.

Here's hoping all of our guys find that motivation that pushes them to play their best every possession of every game.

I hear ya. I know it’s tempting to gravitate to doom and gloom. Heck, I almost started a thread after the BYU game titled “The Day After”.

But… IMHO let’s not borrow trouble. The team and the fanbase needs to stay positive and remind themselves that this is about supporting Kansas - the school we picked and that we love. Win or lose, that fundamental should not change. Losses might bruise the pride for a bit, but hopefully that pride is sourced from experiences that are deep — not so superficial as to hinge on the performance of a team.

I know these days there’s a lot of noise that gets in the way of these ideals. We believe that some think it’s all about money - that the game has become transactional. Maybe it has for some, but probably not for all. At least for me, my support for KU is not transactional. I hope most students and fans would see it that way too.

@kuballin10 Maybe. Maybe.

But there are coaches out there who bring in guys who maybe had some history on previous teams (either underachieving or bad behavior in personal life) and get great results out of them without contaminating the team...

Andy Reid has done it. Steve Kerr has done it. I'm sure there are others.

I'm just saying there's reason to believe that Self could do it with Hunter, especially given that Hunter didn't have a criminal history like aggravated assault, etc. (cough Arterio Morris cough )

Hunter's rep was that he played with an edge. Maybe dirty. But that all sounded like a passionate, hard-playing player. I mean, no one liked Grayson Allen, but he helped his team get to the Elite Eight... for an epic matchup with a team that shall not be named by the NCAA.

Just a reminder that Self used to be a master of getting more than was expected with players who had glaring holes.

He was a magician at hiding the flaws in the team and covering the weaknesses.

So, I don't know what to make of this team where he had a bag o' money to cherry-pick players with the attributes he needed --- knowing that if someone didn't quite work out, he still had his old magic tricks....

I mean, that was the old trope for like 10-15 years, right??? He had Perry Ellis, Brady Morningstar, Tyshawn Taylor, Kevin Young, Travis Releford, etc. etc. These were good players, but they had limitations... And yet their teams had a lot of success as I recall.

The summer 2 years ago when Dickenson was recruited to come to KU, I had friends in DC area that told me "Be careful what you wish for." They knew him well from high school days.

At the time I was all... "Yeah, I'll take that risk."

Now having some second thoughts.

But to be fair, it is not clear where the fault lies. This is a TEAM problem. If it was just one player, and everyone else was great, the problem and solution would be much more evident.

Anyways, it doesn't seem fair to blame one player for the weird lineups and the ill-preparation... Nor for the roster construction. I'm hesitant to point fingers at individuals. That just seems too superficial given what I've observed.

@dylans said in Tonight's game:

@approxinfinity KUs three double digit loss seasons (so far in the last twenty five years!!!) are last year, 7 years ago, and 12 years ago. So no it’s not cherry picking to include all of Bill’s career and a bit of Roy’s to get to a quarter century of sustained success. If I go back further it get a bit darker only highlighting how good off all these newcomers to KU basketball that have only known Bill Self as the coach have had it.

Bill Self 3/22 years with double digit losses. (One more on the way)

Roy Williams 5/15 years with double digit losses.

Larry Brown 3/5 years with double digit losses.

Ted Owens 8/19 years with double digit losses. Three years below .500

I think this is really helpful for perspective.

The pit that I'm feeling is that it feels like the blow-out wins have become fewer, the 1-2 possession victories have increased in frequency, and the number of AND margin of defeats have grown. So it's the sense of a trend that's getting me.

I think there's talent. But the pieces have not meshed. I feel like Self is still waiting on DeJuan to transform into the locker room leader a la Sr Mario or Sr Sherron Collins or Sr Frank Mason or Sr Davonte Graham....

But he's not that kind of personality. He's not taking over the locker room. While they wait for someone to call the team meeting and make that impassioned speech and pull the pieces together, the team is heading off the cliff.

For whatever reason.. the alpha is absent on this team. And at this point in the season, if you haven't found your source of energy in the locker room, your team is not going to have one.

How many games do we need to win to still be in the tourney?

@approxinfinity right on

:anguished_face:

And I'm free

Free fallin'

Yeah, I'm free

Free fallin'

Making some history. Way to go

Also, this team seems to get into double-team trouble that lead to a turnovers more than most junior high teams.

By the way, flagrant fouls are supposed to be reviewed. They did not review the flagrant 1 on KJ

I'd like to see an analysis of our margin of victories and margin of losses over the bill self era.. My sense is that margin of victories were greatest in the 2008-2018 and have been declining steadily since.. And the margin of defeats have been increasing since 2020.

Not that it matters, but that's not F1.

We are horrible.

That call is a great example. They could have called that 12 times in this game.

@SlimShaddy54. I don't think any decision was made recently.

This game isn't that different from the Utah game or take your pick of a dozen prior games.

@DanR I think the first part of your wish is well on its way.

Can we hit 50?

That was some great D. NOT

@SlimShaddy54 Oh. totally agree.. This is an ass whooping largely of our own making.

I can still hope that the officials can call things evenly.

basically we allow 70 points in the first 3 quarters of the game

Officials in the B12 are no help.

Is there some advantage that I don't see that would cause us to intentionally throw the season?

Maybe everyone's stock drops so much they can't leave. So we only lose the ones that age out or that we want to let go???

Entitlement is the enemy of effort.

Maybe coach should rethink that pregame speech "Let's go out there and have some fun."

I actually think there is adequate talent on the floor. This team was very competitive early in the season.

What has happened, starting around the Mizzou game has been a decline, then a plateau, then a decline, then a plateau. Meanwhile everyone else is getting better.

@kjayhawks I'd be ok only losing this one by 20. In other words, playing even the rest of the way. That's an embarrassing bar to set. And yet, it ain't happening either.

one good possession and two bad possessions is not the path to recovery.

The talking heads keep saying we are inconsistent. I have to disagree. This seems pretty consistent.

Last time we lost 3 years in a row @Kstate, I was in high school. It was the Ted Owens era.

And what I hate to think about is that the last time we won there was the year we won the National Championship... and does anyone remember that game? I think we were down by 25 at one point.

It could so easily be the 4th year in a row that we've lost there.

Sum is less than the sum of its parts.

This team has 1 gear. So, when we are down, we... keep playing in that same gear.

Way to go officials. Let two fouls go one one side and then call a late foul on the other side.

Looks a lot like the Missouri game.

free throws. SMH.

Well, it's mid season and we're still pretty impotent in the half-court -- both defense and offense.

We look good when the opponent is behind or broken down.

Is there a stat for assists to the opposing team?

Game changer.

Here we go. Another critical game.