I'll be razor-focused on our body language in this game.
The one thing I ask of our players... follow JWil's attitude! Even in our losses, he has maintained excellent body language, which shows where the mind is.... staying positive and in the moment!
I don't care what anyone says... this could be one of the best defensive teams under Self if they just stayed focused and hustled.
We could totally humiliate UK this weekend if we did this. I know... they've got size... amp up speed and then expose them for not playing good team ball.
I'm not even talking about playing "BAD BALL." This team has enough offense to avoid looking bad when their defense comes through.
@wissox said in ok guys now that I have let reason play in more then emotion:
@mayjay You think me and Nuleaf can get some NIL money?
I'd buy a bumper sticker! lol
Of course it is a bad tradeoff sticking in any reserve for Juan... but compared to leaving him in...
I'd rather have the old Juan for 30 minutes a game then have this one for 36.
I don't think Juan has ever been pushed this hard in past years.
Plus... something never discussed... when you keep tired players in for overuse you run a much higher risk of injury! Imagine Juan going out for the rest of the year?!
Bobby looked great before Big 12 play. Then the competition became much tougher and we face all of these teams who have us totally scouted. He needs more minutes to adjust then he'll contribute more. Same for Joe.
Doing nothing different, at this point, would be a big mistake.
Heck... try starting Bobby once or twice. It's a way to shake things up. Maybe Juan plays better. Maybe Bobby plays better. Win-win.
We need to bite the bitter pill... mix things up a bit. We are already stooping to Self's intentional technical fouls.
Good article on him being worn down on KUSports.
I believe it is an accurate assessment. Our Big 12 competitors realize they need to attack the head of the beast.... and that is Juan.
He needs less PT and has his rest break in games monitored at proper timing so he can perform at a maximum.
Hard to recognize this team with Juan being off like this.
I think in the off-season he should work heavily on strength/conditioning. Look what it did for JWil! Juan has the body of a boy and he's facing some stout PGs.
In other news... GD gets a good write-up at KUSports. He's starting to figure out how to score beyond catch-&-shoot! He's also been rebounding a bit better, too!
If he can become another guy who can make his own shot regardless of being defended (like JWil) then we've got an extra big-time weapon in our offense.
Good things are coming our way... we just have a painful wait!
It's irrelevant to even glance at our offensive problems at the moment. We have the tiniest chance to win games without reasonable defense.
Right now we have some challenging areas: defensive rebounding, Juan, KJ fouls, Kevin cold, Gradey cold, TOs... all going bad at the moment but playing tough D is only a mind thing and hustle. When you fix D you partially fix the rest without doing anything else.
Right now if we could sneak into practices... it would be (or at least, should be) all about Self selling guys to buy in to his M2M defense.
All 3 of those losses happened first of all because of bad defense. The KSU wasn't as bad but we took them to the wire in OT missing 3 players on a team only running 5 deep.
Okay.... it's in moments like this that some of us say stuff out of emotion, then often later apologize or get called out when we start playing better again.
This now qualifies as a "dip"... even though we can argue that only the home loss was unexpected.
We've been extremely spoiled ever since our last losses last year including that UK beatdown at AFH.
So if we've been spoiled, don't you think our players have been spoiled? Heck... we (and team) have been living in denial before we started collecting multiple "Ls." We've been winning by just a couple of points every game and then instead of looking at why we weren't pounding these teams we applauded our coolness and ability to finish games.
We've got a bunch of talented guys... but it takes more than that. We've got to turn it up a notch for 40-minutes (not just a few minutes per game).
Being in a tough league pushes us to bring game for 40 minutes. And that's exactly where our mindset has to be for March. Best we learn it now and we still have time to go on a long run in February and regain confidence.
Actually... a good strategy! Fellas get the week off and just get blistered in Lexington. We pick up more chip and some rest! I'm in for that.
Love your optimism... but I'm not feeling it in Lexington this year. Hopefully, I reverse jinx them!
Man.... if we had Filipowski (spelling)... we'd still be undefeated.
So it will be KSU at home being the game we need to win to stop a 5 game losing streak.
yeah... Bilas.... did he see Duke lost to VT right before this? lol
with all our dysfunction... not really a surprise we can't close games now.
over
no fouls
pretty
Joe....... why?
If Harris was on... he'd be getting a key steal about now.
Baylor looks like they lost... body language sucks.
How in the hell are we still in this game?
Mostly Juan's defense.
What we are missing is Juan.
I just don't like losing to UK. Calipari and fan base disgust me.
I'm already dreading that Lexington trip!
Juan hasn't been himself lately.
Let's lose by 20... build more chip!
this game is decided in the next two minutes.
Love that love kid.... he's been through a lot.
which will surely give us a chip!
so we lose this one... then lose to Kentucky... that's 4 in a row and all the sports tv guys will go crazy
oops I meant they are getting motivated... we are getting tired.
they are getting tired
we are getting tired
Keep Rice out there! he needs the minutes.
Juan!
Motivational speaking! lol
Gradey 20!
@DanR said in Baylor Game Tonight:
we’re taking our damn time getting up the court to set up the offense. maybe that’s by design to save energy because our bench is thin and useless, so
Definitely, one way to see it... or if we get out in transition and get a fast score we conserve energy.
we punch, they punch back. It's how it should be... as long as we keep punching back and don't go soft!
I'm going outside now to clean my trash cans.
this is one tough league.... not a good year to play soft!
We don't get into an offensive groove these last games. It all looks awkward. It's because our defense sucks. When the other team scores, they get back and set their defense. When we defensive rebound and get out in transition, their defense isn't set and our offense flows.
So we are a small team that can't guard the trey. We just don't hustle.
good lesson for us playing a team this deadly from trey. Exposes how bad our trey d is.
our in the paint physicality sucks.
yowsa
Gradey is a freshman.... he's learning.
That's tough
You will receive credit if they win!