The real glaring statistic is rebounding (in this game).
I feel 1000% sure that had we been equal in rebounding, we would have lost that game.
drgnslayr
11251 posts
"Games like this are called Survive and Advance a win is a win, not nearly as bad as a home loss- - - ummmm- - - hhmmmm HELLO?- - -Iowa State can you hear me now?"
Oh so true.
The road to the B12 championship goes through Lubbock, Ames, and all the other venues. Just don't tell the rest of the teams that. Let teams like ISU focus ahead on AFH instead of taking care of business at home. Baylor swept them last year and won in Ames last year, too. Those losses count the same as a loss in AFH.
I'm not saying teams should cave in when coming to AFH. But this stupid idea that the conference winner is determined in Lawrence is downright stupid and is not supported with mathematics. A loss is a loss and a win is a win. Teams should first focus on making sure they can split with us.
We could win all home games and lose the B12.
Fortunately, Self can count. He knows the road to another B12 championship goes through places like Lubbock. We have to win some of our road games to secure the title.
I also kind of wonder if Perry's spurt just following after Wayne's is less about Perry being fueled by Wayne's performance, and more about Self calling plays after a Wayne spurt to go to Perry because he thinks Perry might have less double-teaming and more scoring space since the defense has to focus harder on stopping Wayne.
When our offense goes stale, it just takes a few drives by one or two of our perimeter guys to help break us from the funk.
I know fans might not have enjoyed that game so much yesterday... because, for the most part, we did win "ugly."
But I was impressed that we finished strong. That is what we need to see, and our overall record will be much better if we continue the trend of finishing strong.
I think Devonte is focused on that. He was very big in the OU win down the stretch, too. He is a bit of a "showman" so he likes the bright spot light pointed on him.
No doubt, our trey shooting is for real. That still doesn't mean it will win us every game.
What counts in March... as a winning strategy... is to increase the margin for error in securing victories. We have to be able to count on more than trey shooting to win games.
Treys didn't win us that game yesterday. Rebounding did. We won the boards by 16! That is 16 extra possessions we had as a buffer, which is a good thing because we had 6 more TOs than the Raiders.
I'm not sure the minute distribution yesterday was planned ahead of time. We are very fortunate to have the depth we have because most of our post players had foul problems in the first half.
Was that by accident? Or was that by design?
I heard Self a few months ago say something to the effect of.... "Hey, we have 5 guys we can stick at the 5-spot. That is 25 fouls we can give in the paint."
I don't know if we are making long-term plans to run 5 guys all the time at the 5, but just the realization that we may not be losing out by mixing it up a lot certainly gives us advantages that no other team has.
For example.... going into this game, Self knew we needed to control the boards. TT isn't the best rebounding team in the country, and this was one area of the game we could focus on and control, and through owning the boards we own the possession battle. Kansas owning the possession battle is a very very hard team to beat, even if our trey shooting goes south to the Caribbean on vacation.
So if we want to own the rebounds, we have to be aggressive, and with playing aggressive in the low post, we are bound to foul more. And maybe Self is okay with that. I think he was applauding all our low post scraps to get rebounds, even if it means we fouled often along the way. The idea is to keep the scrappy drive for rebounds, and over time learn to foul less while doing it.
This is THE KEY for us to stay close to OU in our game in Norman. Rebounding and defending their transition offense has the potential for helping us leave Norman with a win.
If all of this is true.... Self is doing a magnificent job of using his depth. Finally.... using the entire bench to leverage us to victory!
I think our last hurdle to success is learning to control the pace of games better. No one in our league has anything near the depth we have (inside and outside). So why not adjust the speed of the game to take advantage? Why not push harder and use our depth more, even on the perimeter? No more walking the ball up to start our possessions. Keep the intensity high as much as possible.
We should beat OU at their own game.... transition offense. If you look at our game with OU... often they would go on runs by getting quick transition baskets, many from 3. If we were pushing harder back, and trying to do the same thing, we should be able to eliminate their advantage of transition offense. And since we have more depth, we should actually win that battle because OU won't be able to rest while defending us. These guys have unique conditioning. They operate in spurts. Short spurts. They push on offense, and they get some of their wind back on the defensive side.... if we let them. Take that away from them and then suddenly they can't hit a basket any longer because they are exhausted on the offensive side of the ball.
Am I just imagining things? (don't you hate when people say that. Unless they are totally brain dead, aren't they imagining something?)
When I break down games this year, I am starting to notice a trend.
And that trend is this team plays "idle ball" (meaning... they just stay close to their opponent's score).
Then, suddenly, Wayne busts loose for a few buckets. Either out in treysville, or driving the paint.
It is what happens after that where I am seeing the trend.
It seems right after Wayne explodes for a basket or two, Perry then does the same. It seems that Perry is fueling off of Wayne's contributions.
And from Perry's response to Wayne, Frank follows Perry, and makes a contribution. This is where we get our 10-point gap.
I am starting to see Devonte as a big closer! I thought he had a very flat game yesterday, but put his big boy pants on down the stretch to make an important basket off the drive and also contribute many FTs. We could sure use him contributing more in the other 38-minutes of the game, but at least he may come through when it counts most, down the stretch.
We always here the same thing.
"The road to the Big 12 championship goes through Lawrence."
There is always some partial truth to that.
But what if it is less important as to what places the road goes through and it is most important the speed of the road?
Seems the team that stays on the autobahn road to the Big 12 championship is more likely to get there ahead of the rest of the teams that are taking their sweet time on dirt roads.
Is it possible that the Big 12 champion will be determined by which team plays the best transition offense? Or... which team defends best against transition offense?
I've been watching the ISU/Baylor game this afternoon. It is in the second half and Baylor has put up a good fight. Then, suddenly, ISU runs off a flurry of quick, easy points from their transition offense. Made me ask myself... "how much of a threat is ISU if they DIDN'T have transition offense?" And, the same question for OU.
There were moments in our game with OU on Monday where they ran off a bunch of quick points through transition.
Do we need to push harder for more transition opportunities?
Do we need to do a better job of stopping our opponents from scoring in transition?
I think it would be a great help to know the stats on transition scoring in our league. What percentage of offense is each team getting through transition? How well does each team defend against transition offense?
This is something to ask @Jesse-Newell
I would like to see some revealing stats on our team. I'd like to see a graph where on one side it shows the shot clock, and the other side it shows our offensive efficiency. Are we more likely to be efficient when taking a shot at the 12-second mark of our possession, or the 24-second mark? This graph would not only show our efficiency in transition offense, but also offense in general as relating to pace and aggressiveness.
That is definitely one way.
Or... Wayne could step up on his own and ask his teammates to specifically look for him, or run plays for him, or clear out.
I don't think Bill would stop it from happening.
I'm just curious if someone like Wayne has thought about this already. That at some point this season he may have to step up and take over. Not because he is a ball hog or selfish. Just because he doesn't want to lose and will carry the team even beyond just being the high scorer for KU that day. Where he just says... "okay, I'm taking this game over because I won't leave with a loss."
There is a lot of dynamics involved within a team. I always worry that we get too team driven. To the point where no one feels it necessary to personally stand up and fight, even if their fight feels like it is alone.
A lot of times.... momentum gets going after one guy makes a play that was pretty much all his and not a team executed play.
When I think of a guy taking over, I think of Sherron.
Sometimes the results were good, sometimes bad. He seemed to have to take over too many times because some of those teams (after our NC year) didn't have anywhere near the level of team execution we have now.
Let's take another example.
We are playing Xavier this March. We are down by 8 with 5 minutes left in the game. This is one of Self's true "grind games" and the score is Xavier 52, KU 44.
KUs offense is a mess. Xavier completely has us figured out and we just don't get many open looks and we have no team flow.
Our best option on this day has been Wayne. He has 16 points and is the only one shooting a decent %. Xavier doesn't seem to know how to shut down Wayne on his individual moves.
From this point forward, do we exploit the only offensive positive we have had all day (Wayne)? Or, at the 5 minutes mark, do we just accept that we are going home to watch the rest of March Madness?
This is also a frustration statement from me because most of the time, I can see our loss coming before the end of regulation and I wondered why we didn't try more things and especially try to exploit perhaps the only positive thing that day.
Sometimes I see our "team play" as a disadvantage. Not often.... but this happens in March too many times.
What happens when our team concept isn't working? When we are playing a team that is all amped up and we are well guarded because they also scouted us well.
What then? We try different team concept things and nothing works.
Then what?
Sometimes, one guy can take over. He has an advantage on his man and he starts scoring most of the points, sometimes more than the opponents.
In the NBA, coaches don't care how they win. They just want to win. And if one guy scores 90% of their points, they are happy to let it happen if it secures a victory.
I can see someone like Wayne go wild on an opponent. In the right situations, he is about impossible to stop (in D1).
Remember back.... to many of our March losses. And we were probably running more hi/lo (but it could be more like we run now). And we had 3 guys standing in one spot the entire time on offense along the trey line... throwing the ball back and forth and nothing happened, No seams opened. The defense flexed properly over and over again... for 40 minutes. But we just kept at it and methodically lost the game.
I can't think of any of those games where we couldn't have won had we had a capable alpha dog start taking ownership of the game. Wigs.. he wasn't really capable in his one year.
I don't think I explained this thread well enough.
I don't want to see us lose a team perspective. I know we have so many guys that can put up good numbers.
What I am saying... if everyone goes cold, will one guy stand up and take control to the point of owning the game?
Wayne appears to be the closest to having this ability and possible desire if things are going bad as a team.
Or what if things aren't going bad for the team, but one guy is just blazing hot? We have seen guys like Wayne get red hot. Does he "holler for the rock?"
Big difference between us and OU. Most of OUs starters are really good at 1-on-1. We have more of a team concept, and use a combination of players to free someone up. OU does this, too... but most of their guys can do fine if just given a bit of space to take their man.
Ahhhhh.... you are a "texture person."
I think I can keep you away from unpleasant textures.... you probably don't like slimy food, too.... right? No urchins or raw oysters for you! And I'll take extra care cooking the octopus so it isn't chewy.
Mmmmmm..... grilled octopus! Then soaked in lime juice and blended with some pico.
How about king crab? Lobster? Sardine?
I think this is the last one. Every once in a while, the Dukey announcer guys like to say how many consecutive years Duke has had at least one Plumlee.
You are a lot more flexible than many.
I bet if you were our house guest for a week, we would have you eating all sorts of things. When something is cooked and smells really good, it makes it easy to get over the mental barriers.
I understand. It is hard to adapt to these kinds of foods if you weren't already adapted to it in your youth.
What about wild game? Elk? Deer? Feral hog? Pheasant? Duck?
Seafood? Urchins? Raw oysters? Squid? Octopus? Mussels? or how about "ditch shrimp".... Crawdaddy?
I'm expecting a big let down to Jayhawk fans after our last game with OU. Today's game might get a bit ugly and we are bound to lower our play to the level of TT.
I just hope we can win out in the end. We need to be a team that earns a reputation for closing out well in the last few minutes. That is probably what it will take today.
"you’ve got me wondering where to find a Mexican butcher."
They are usually buried in the back of your local "Super Mercado".... Mexican grocery store.
Looks great! That's all you need right there!
I agree with @Crimsonorblue22 .... if you have the chance, post a pic.
I love tongue! Slow boil for hours, then cut into small pieces and skillet fry. That is one of my favorites. I also like all organ meat. My father often owned restaurants, and my mother was a "closet chef"... collecting cooking books and always trying new things. They got me started early, feeding me some kind of batter-fried meat that I gobbled down and the only clue as to what I was eating... "mountain oysters." So I quickly changed my attitude to eat anything. Right after that came fried lamb brains and eggs.
Just imagine what would have happened had he not suffered the injury!
Something on my bucket list....
To finally perfect my fermented pepper marinade. It has been something I have dabbled in for years. I always grow at least 15 varieties of peppers every summer, and two years ago I grew over 40 varieties of very unique peppers from Mexico. I made gallons of traditional mole. For those who don't know what mole is.... it means "sauce" in Spanish. But there is some extreme tradition in mole recipes. Many call for 15 or more varieties of peppers. So then you must ferment your mixture properly.
I experiment with marinading and aging meat in fermented pepper sauce. The enzymes and bacteria help break down the proteins in meat, tenderizing and flavoring the meat.
I know, in my heart, this is where the real "holy grail" is for future bbq. But for now, I am really appreciating all the efforts many put in the smoke/cook process. Customizing your grill to tweak out like you want it to is the big time rage in the bbq world.
I am pretty much like you on my smoke woods. I keep piles of them to get what I want. I tend to use my chainsaw a lot, usually to help out a neighbor. In the process, I often get my hands on some very nice smoking wood. I never turn down a fruit wood and always want to try one I haven't tried before. I tend to like cherry for beef and pork. Also apple for pork. And probably my favorite, pear, which I often use on pork and fish. And then, of course, I love pecan. Not too fond of mesquite... just too strong a flavor for me. When I want to add a kick to my smoke I will add in a small branch of hedge apple. Yes... it burns outrageously hot! But it doesn't have that strong, pungent flavor mesquite has. It is very plentiful and free just about everywhere in the Midwest. Just find a hedge row...
It's all amazing!
"Some people don’t know how time consuming real smoking at 180-200 degrees can be, but it’s a real task when you use wood & charcoal for indirect cooking"
Couldn't have said it better. BBQ almost has to be your religion to ace low heat cooking with real wood on a grill/smoker that needs as much attention as a newborn baby.
I don't know what it is or why it is... but grilling does seem to be a "guy thing." My wife laughs at me for being so emotional around my grill and smoker.
Sometimes I cheat a bit and I'll precook my ribs in the oven. I usually cook them at 225, with some moisture in a big foil pan and covered. Then, I finish and smoke them on the smoker. I do different finishes, depending on the plan for the meal. I create all my own rubs and finish sauces. Some have about 15 ingredients and took years and years to perfect. I often use a finish rub that has some sugar in it so I can get a nice, blackened burnt finish.
Over Christmas, for our big meal we decided to go non-traditional and just have my smoked ribs with my wife's mushroom brisket. She waited too long to put her brisket in the oven with my ribs, so she didn't tell me she turned up the temp to 250. I was super pissed off on Christmas! It definitely impacted my ribs.
Got to agree.... never too cold to grill. In fact, I was out there tonight, in my jacket and with my flashlight.
Not a great photo here, but I grilled Mexican pork. Ribs and Arrachera preparada. Throw the meat on a grilled tortilla with salsa, guac, and grilled big green onions. Splash lime juice on the top and then just try to eat slowly. Very hard to do.
Gosh... I can heavily advise for trying a Mexican butcher. Typically, meat is very inexpensive, high quality, and the cuts are different. Definitely setup more for grilling. They cut their ribs the other way... thin slices sideways through the bone.
I wanted to, but it appears my food plans were interrupted by a kids party I have to go to tomorrow in the midday. I don't have one of those easy pellet smokers. I have to stick around all day and "tend" the fire.
"I couldn’t think of anything to girly up " bud ", but I’m open to suggestions…"
"Bud" in Dutch means "sperm."
Always fun to have Dutch visitors in my house. I don't have Bud in my fridge... but eventually the conversation will get to this anyways just to have a laugh.
"You can legally sell sperm in cans?"
"What is this sperm light stuff?"
Could food topics be a good tool for recruiting? Do you all know how nasty most bbq is around America? Memphis is the furthest east I've been where I could get respectable bbq ribs.
Lawrence is conveniently located near KC and the best bbq joints anywhere!
I'm kind of surprised we didn't discuss this sooner... and yes, it is basketball related!
What is your gameday food? With all the creative people in here, I'm certain all of us will gain something from this thread.
Here is one of my favorite combos, but it only works for night games because of the time it takes to smoke and slow cook.
Feel free to share your recipes!
Good question. Because in some situations, like the one we are talking about, passers don't have enough space.
But the problem is on the depth of the sideline.
This is a discretionary thing with refs. And they should work this out the right way, but the problem is really on sideline plays because many venues simply are not designed with enough space.
The NCAA (once again) needs to get off their brain (backside) and take some responsible action. On courts where the venue can't create more space without major renovation, allow them an exception but requiring them to put a small sideline line out far enough so refs can force defenders behind the line. As it is now, there is no definition of the rules.
For example.... what does it mean to have a ref scream out, "hey, get back and give him some room!"
What do they do if they have interpreted the defender didn't do it to their liking? Based on what? Imagine a national championship being decided on this?
In fact... we don't really know if this situation will have later repercussions. What if OUs seeding is reduced because of this loss, which was affected heavily by this call?
I'm pretty sure if this had gone the other way... and we were behind and threw the ball in and had this happen.... we would be shizzing all over ourselves because we would feel ripped off.
Shucksssss... I thought eating all those rubber burgers would eventually pay off!
Hey.... I'm on the list!
:)
Wait a sec.... wasn't TT at home the game ISU lost last year that put them out of the conference race?
Oh yeah... we aren't ISU.
Frank did a great job of defending Buddy. Stats don't always tell the complete story.
I agree with that....
There is no rule for players giving space. They have full access to the in-bound court.
The problem is not enough space on the out-of-bounds on the side. That should be regulated and there should be enough room so the defender can step right up to the out-of-bounds line and still have enough room for the passer.
I hope so, too.
The only thing putting on the brakes on Wayne is Wayne.
Come on, Wayne, slide your foot off the brake and back on the gas and leave it there!
Looking forward to seeing this team on the road.
It is easy to show poise at home.... not so easy on the road.
You are right on with how to win the conference.
But let's hope our opponents still go by "the road to the championship goes thru Lawrence."
Let them focus on winning in Lawrence.... this is close to "fool's gold."
Then they let up sometimes on their home court and also on the road against the bottom teams.
All they have to do is win in Lawrence.... hahahehe...
good
I didn't catch the original post either... it was already gone.
But from here on out (in this thread) it must say something that we continue to post on a thread that doesn't exist.
Just proves we are all animals. I think we forget that sometimes.
So whether we like to think of it this way or not, life is a race, and as you run past people you have to fight through all the outreached arms, trying to slow your progress.
With the exception of a few good people around, willing to help push you forward, affectionately labeled as "keepers."
Points well taken.
I just have the feeling Buddy will kick arse at the next level. But he will have to go out there and prove it like everyone else.
"Lucas always has to catch and gather. He cannot catch and finish. That’s why he has no gravity."
Very well put and worth repeating!
Nothing against Landen... but this is something no one can challenge and it would do Landen good to read this (and practice the quick finish).
I believe so
Thanks for continuing to mention Wigs defense. I think I get a little star-struck by Buddy's offense and tend to overlook the other side of the ball.
I think your point about defense is key in this comparison and who GMs should favor!
It is very difficult to make this an "apples-to-apples" comparison for many reasons. One being that Wiggins is already starting to establish himself as a star in the NBA. Hield is more speculative.
But I wonder if we could have changed out Wigs for Hield for this game, could Andrew have gone off for 46 points against our defense in AFH? I find it unlikely while he was in college, but my scenario is to take him out of the NBA now and drop him in AFH. I think he is capable of doing it.
I'm trying to think of different scenarios to compare these two.
If anyone else has ideas.... I'm all ears!
Good one!
The NCAA should make their refs rotate with UPS delivery guys. Freshen up the crew while keeping everyone in good shape.
So is it the majority in here view Buddy as more just a college phenom and won't be near the phenom in the NBA?
It's looking like Wiggins was the other way around (because as others mentioned, he didn't stick around long enough in D1), but is sure becoming the phenom in the league.
I'm right with you on that!
Gosh... just last year I was petrified every time Wayne drove the ball. He was always out of control and would usually either dribble off his leg or get called for a charge or whatever. He was always out of control.
He isn't usually out of control this year and when he gets near the goal, he is almost automatic. He seems to realize now that his girth is a huge plus in the paint!
I think I know what you mean and I agree.
But I don't think that addresses the very specific situation I am mentioning. Where we just have one guy red hot, and everyone else is playing subpar offense. I know we should never give up an open guy under the basket to throw it out to a red hot guy on the perimeter...
I am just feeling like some of our guys get hot and they don't exploit it out like they could. Sometime I would like to see one of our guys who is hot say "stop me, or I will continue to beat you down."
Maybe we won't even face this exact situation this year. But there are other times that I think we are already suffering from our red hot guys not cashing in their total prize. Some people call this "lacking the killer instinct."
I can't recall the details of the MSU game now, but maybe that is what we lacked in our only loss.