Not a good fit right now... but like I said, relieve this idea he has to score a bunch of points. Joe has great wheels and body. He can be another great defender for us if he was focusing heavy on defense and then letting his shot come to him.
He's a guy that should represent quality bench depth... he's not so far away from being that. Change his focus and watch what happens.
Glad to see someone else think like me that we can win another title, back-to-back!
But it's a long season.... let's hope we stay healthy!
That Indiana game came at the right time... with us having to defend the paint. Spending the week working on that was not only brilliant but helping us for the entire year defend down low (which was questionable until now). We are starting to play like a really good Nova team!
Stats are misleading. Heck... we should be starting Jank!
For the most part, Joe isn't passing the eye test. I'm not saying he shouldn't look for his shot... he should. Sometimes his stuff looks forced and it sticks out more when the rest of his team is playing like they are.
BTW: I'm a Joe fan!
NEED CHANGE:
We need to change the perspective that Joe needs to score. The guy can play, let him play if he scores or not. He definitely can play okay on defense and he has a great set of wheels.
When a player knows his minutes are determined by how many points he scores the pressure makes him play forced... over-thinking, stiff, and making mistakes. His play looks forced and sometimes he is taking forced shots.
This strategy is simply not going to work. Change the perspective on him and watch him step up, big time! Joe is a quality player that is in a place he shouldn't be.
Unshackle him and watch what happens!
I used to be one of Self's biggest critics.... afterall.... I knew what was best for our team! (lol)
But I changed my perspective and stepped more out of my bubble. It wasn't just that Self won his second national trophy (but it definitely adds to it). It wasn't just Self's amazing conference title streak (that may never be broken again in D1). Instead... over these past years I feel like I have a better grasp on Self himself.
I'm not about to pull out a Bill Self prayer rug here... though I do idolize his achievements. For quite some time I have realized that "hey, whatever it is he is doing... it is working!" That goes a long ways!
My old perspective was; how do I think we can improve to create more wins, more titles.
My new perspective is; I trust in Self and I'm going to be open to try to understand what he is doing and why is he winning so much!
Is the glass half empty or half full? Are you still harping on our loss to Tennessee? That came at a perfect time and we are already seeing fruit from that loss!
Self does want to play his bench more. I trust his word on that. I also trust when he decides to use it or not. We are about a third of our way way through this season with the best (and hardest) to come... I feel like we are ahead of schedule. Not sure if we are ready for conference play, but do we ever feel ready? The 5-spot needs time to resolve... but just look at how we are getting good production from that spot now!
I think it matters WHEN we both played who we played. I'm not sure if it crystalizes our opponent's ranking at the time we play them and then weights that moving forward... or goes back on our earlier opponents and updates their current ranking and applies it to our game?
Then it matters how our opponents' opponents perform... and in theory, our opponents' opponents' opponents... and so on and so forth.
Sounds complicated... and it is... but a computer can mash any numbers you want so you can manipulate it and tell the story you want it to tell. Ooops... I gave away the punchline! lol
I think it will be hard for us to keep both Zuby and Udeh after this season... seems one will be hitting the transfer portal.
No way I would consider myself capable to coach a successful D1 team. There must be reasons for it all, including why MJ isn't playing enough.
Perhaps Self is creating a situation where MJ wants PT more and more. Maybe it's a motivational reason.
Or... thinking back to Self's history... maybe MJ isn't proving to him he has enough defense prowess to earn more PT minutes.
BTW: It is refreshing to see our defense taking shape! Kevin sure brings a lot to our defense, Juan is amazing... and now we are seeing some moments with Gradey... oh... almost forgot (how could I) KJ and JWil.
I just looked over the stat sheet and noticed Gradey had 5 steals!
Regardless of who plays our 5, if we can post trap effectively (like we did today), we should continue to shine on D! I can think of some National Championship teams that did it without a real 5... Villanova comes to mind first!
I was surprised JWil got that many minutes when I saw him taking breathers during the game. For whatever reason, he didn't seem to have as much energy as usual. A few times I saw him jog back on defense, even when the ball was ahead of him. I'm sure it will be brought up when they watch game film later... but I thought that would have been time to substitute him with MJ.
I question more why MJ isn't playing more.
Maybe he's having a struggle keeping up in practice. He is still relatively new on the floor. Maybe he's still not quite up to speed. Self mentioned he needs more PT!
I hear what you are saying... I think Self's strategy is to iron out a really tough starting 5 before expanding much bench time.
All our guys had fresh legs today and it was important to run our starters for much of the 40.
KJ is now our big that has the most experience and I feel sure he is plugged into all our practice offense with the starting 5.
In just a few games we are seeing how much more he is contributing... and it isn't that his personal skills have improved, but he is plugged into an offense. He now knows what he is supposed to do.
In most areas now, KJ is setting the expectation standard for the other bigs to learn from.
Just my opinion. I'm sure Self has his reasons!
Amazing how our 5-spot looks so good now that we are getting into a real offense. And for every play we run that finishes with a KJ dunk... he just gets that much more pumped up and kickin' arse!
Yes... we look fast and a big part of that is fast ball movement!
This team learns fast and the sky is the limit this year with this team! Might end up being even better than last year's team! Might...
I'm hoping we show even more improvement than our last game in Columbia. I like having a week now to school our guys. Perhaps I'm dreaming... but I feel like this is a high basketball IQ team that learns at a rapid clip.
Indiana will definitely be a notch up in personnel over Mizzou. I wonder if they will try to go with their 6'10" Duncomb, who has been out for a while.
Had an interesting article on KUSports about our bench and how little we've used ours. I like how Self is playing this... develop a very capable starting 5 and get them playing in harmony and with speed THEN bring in bench to try to keep to that level.
Our biggest question mark is at the 5 on the bench. I'm starting to think KJ will be our starting 5 from here on out because we are developing offense with him in mind. His dominance against Mizzou was eye-opening and showed us what he can do against smaller bigs... especially with Self teaching the other 4 players how to feed him.
This Indiana game should be an entertaining game. We will be pushing tempo and it will probably come down to who can wrestle away more rebbies. I'm sure we can expect the typical rough play from a Big10 opponent. All our guys will need to step up on defense or this team will attack a weakness... even if it is just one weak defender.
"The NCAA has chosen Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker as its next president, succeeding Mark Emmert. "
https://theathletic.com/4004875/2022/12/15/charlie-baker-ncaa-president-mark-emmert/ ↗
What a shock.. naming a politician to run the NCAA. Guess they need someone who can smoothly float bull sh*t to the public.
Connecting the dots here...
School mass shootings relate to our youth not interested in sports.
How many of these school mass shootings turn out to be former students of that school and they seem to be living out a vendetta?
I know I'm reaching here... but maybe we have less young people taking this kind of action if they are playing less video killing games and participating more in sports and having sports as a release for frustration pressures.
Love ya, man! You call it right down the line!
Greed has won, but it will be costly eventually because college sports will suffer. Killing so many rivalries (whether they are huge rivalries or just traditional in-conference localized games) will be the eventual death of college sports.
Think of it this way... pro sports are now looking better at keeping rivalries and traditions around even after their shuffling of the deck (except for a few examples).
Speaking of examples... "Las Vegas Raiders?" Really? Talk about a lost identity. I used to go to all those Chiefs/Raiders games when the Raiders were known to be the bad boys of the league and Oakland was a frightening location.
All of these shifts and trashing of identities, rivalries, traditions goes against human nature. Man was built as a vindictive creature... sports was such a great outlet for releasing all those pressures... for example... that nasty boss you can never retaliate against! No problem... you go back to work on Monday with a smile on your face because the Chiefs just beat the cr@p out of the Raiders when they were bad boys and cheap-shotting your star receivers.
Players need agents in college.
Next step!
Yes.... no matter what he needs professional help!
I wonder what violence Chris has in his background? Violence is rarely a "one off!"
There has to be evidence to decide cases of "he said, she said." Typically, it isn't video. When there is video it often makes it to TV where it can be sensationalized.
I'm disappointed in TV. News shows love to attract viewers with videos and stories... it's how they make their $. Why don't they bring some of the better abuse counselors on to educate men, women, and children on how to stop the abusers by gathering proper evidence for a conviction? DAs usually don't need the victims to prosecute now but they need evidence to convict and usually it isn't video.
Luckily, more EMS, ER services, police, firemen, are finally receiving better training to record vital evidence in the moment... photographs of bite marks, bruises, swelling, blood... tools used to hurt... rape kits... getting the story immediately after it happens... taking proper notes.... asking the right questions...
Abuse happens to every group... children... elderly... women... men... animals! We need to care more to prioritize it and point to areas that hurt or do not help stop abuse!
I like this:
"His hire was deemed a coup for a program that didn’t record a single NCAA Tournament win in six seasons under Shaka Smart. Beard is a basketball winner who has always subscribed to a tough brand of ball while also preaching accountability and responsibility off the court. It’s his turn to practice what he has preached to his players."
@wissox said in Chris Beard Arrested:
He’s Texas Toast
You've still got it! :grinning_squinting_face:
These spousal abuse cases are tricky. Probably half of the plaintiff's pull their charges later but now that doesn't necessarily end the legal situation as DA's have prosecution roaming powers these days because of the issue with plaintiff's being strong-armed into dropping charges.
If the evidence is strong, Beard should be in very deep, regardless of his attorney's language.
I don't know.... sure seemed to end Marsha's career at WSU... and he was very successful there.
This is not going to fly well for Texas. It's one thing when a player does something like this because of being young and all, but this is their head coach and supposed to mentor players.
I would think the university would hold off for a while until the facts come out... after that... if it is as bad as it smells you would think he would be terminated.
Adios, Longhorns! Can't leave the Big12 fast enough!
Self is going to do what no coach on the planet has ever done.... and I'm not talking just about more titles...
He's going to beat down a rivalry so hard they will beg to end it!
We have 4 more of these games in the current contract. I'm thinking we get 4 more beat downs and then put a fork in these dorks!
Doubtful...
I'm horrible at predictions and always feel like I'm jinxing us... so I won't predict.
But I will say I won't be shocked at any kind of result today. On paper, the Tigs look formidable... but the reality is they've only played cupcakes.
Let's see how they react when they get hit in the mouth! I feel sure we will, at least, do that today!
My perspective on the worst case scenario will be if they are as good as their current stat line says and we come out looking lost and playing soft and rusty because we haven't played for a while and our guys have had a week+ of court education by Self and staff. We might come out "thinking" too much and that usually means slow reaction time and sluggish.
My perspective on the best case scenario is the Tigs can't matchup against a legit team and they freak when getting punched in the nose... while our guys show a lot of poise and better play making and basketball IQ.
Last... it could be a game of both scenarios above, going back and forth. I tend to think this is likely because of the rivalry and our ranking versus their desire to be ranked.
I believe this will probably come down to a game determined by possessions. Will we rebound well enough to win? Will we limit TOs? We could sure give away a lot of points if they score well on a bunch of TOs!
It goes without saying... this game will be determined by Dajuan!
I think he's trying to shore up Dajuan's psyche. Dajuan has had a few outings now where he wasn't playing as smooth. Of course, it is more than Dajuan... and he can only play as smooth as the team does, too.
Let's not forget Dajuan will be playing in his hometown for this game!
That Vols game was a total breakdown.
Let's hope we see a lot of change tomorrow for the Tigers game.
I think when we finally get this team to click it will be a team that moves quickly... and now we will play a team that definitely moves quickly, too.
Should be an interesting game tomorrow. Self already warned that he didn't want his guys to play "sped up" so not sure what that means, or if he is playing Riverboat Gambler to bluff the Tigs into practicing for a slow down game.
If we give them every rebound on their offense... they will put back and score almost every possession... and no way we can match that with runouts.
All we really need to do to be effective at full-court offense is to exploit teams that even have just one slow player. If we have 5 guys that can run, we can crash the boards but just turn around and hustle it up the court. Maybe we only beat one slow guy but having that is enough to keep them from setting up decent defense.
There is "primary breaks" where we just outrun them and score at the rim first ahead of the defense... but "secondary breaks" are awesome... dealing with teams who get back but not set and we quickly hit the open guy for a trey or another easy, unguarded shot.
I'm really interested in how all of our newbies do... especially Gradey. I just have a feeling he's going to come through!
This is a great game to help us prepare for what is ahead... screaming nutty fans...
This could go either way... after some serious time for practice teams sometimes come out flat... hope that isn't the case!
I think you have to remember their best opponents so far this year has been Wichita State and Her Holiness Sacrament of Used Car Plaza. lol
I don't know but I'm thinking it depends on what the NIL is for. If it's something like an endorsement, it can probably be guaranteed. If it is images on tshirts (etc) it depends on sales. Just my opinion.
@BeddieKU23 said in Money... money.... money.....:
Both have NIL deals worth as much or more then they would have made this yr not in college. Neither received a first round grade from what I recall. Tshiebwe may make over $1 million this yr alone. Tough call but seems like Great money to refine your skills another yr
Yes... I've seen that. Except if they turned pro and earned a decent contract it should be worth considerably more when you think of it in long-term projections. I feel like they get down the road for better NBA money quicker and that exceeds the current NIL money... though NIL continues to build steam!
I’m already seeing NIL Collectives focus on player retention in addition to paying HS and transfers. Those that can sustain paying certain guys to return will benefit.
Did I hear the truth? I heard some junior high players will start earning NIL.
If Tshiebwe or Bacot doesn't win a national championship this year they wasted a valuable year of earning NBA money.
That sweet, beautiful jump shot is already paying off for Gradey.
He's increasing his KU revenue by adding in more NIL -
https://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2022/dec/6/kansas-freshman-gradey-dick-one-of-4-cur/ ↗
Is it possible some elite college players will hustle a bit more while in college to increase their current NIL money?
What comes to mind with me... Quentin Grimes. That guy did not go 100% while wearing crimson/blue. But if it impacted his bank account immediately, maybe he would have put in more effort.
Thoughts?
In the least it will always be a nostalgic game for me... recalling a trip to Columbia with a deer antler in my grill and fake blood all over the front of my truck...
Yes.... You see it! The potential is there... will we realize it?
I still think we need a lot harder play from all 5 spots. In order to defend the paint well it will take pressure going all the way out on the perimeter... disrupt flows and cut off passing lanes to the paint.
We didn't press so hard after the first few games. Where did our full-court offense go to? Part was our lack of rebounding.
This team has all the pieces to become one of the best defensive teams in D1, but the stats don't really support it up to now.
Another part of this story is getting our newbies educated and all our guys playing as one solid unit.
It is fun watching the process though sometimes a bit frustrating... just part of the game and what attracts me to D1!
@FarmerJayhawk said in Other games:
Good lord UNC is bad. Now lost 4 in a row.
Yep.... They finally "cooled off!" lol
But they show what can happen when players buy in... they can milk a hot streak all the way to the FF.
I thought we overachieved when TRob and crew took us to the FF. Our hearts carried us a long ways that year!
Maybe this will work -
KJ is out of position for most rebounds because we use him on ball screens. And then he should slash better to the boards on the shot and understand where rebounds are going to go. The great rebounders see the shot and have a very good idea of where it will go.
He should take advantage of his build. Being short, but built strong, can help him because his center of gravity is low. Wish he had a bigger butt, though. Stick it out there and create spacing! lol
I'm celebrating the game tonight by watching it on my new 85" tv! No more squinting on a 75"er! lol
@BeddieKU23 said in 2022-23 stats-PER, Kenpom etc:
I think they should calm down on the lob until they practice it some more. Execution of that play has lacked because of chemistry etc. I don’t think our guards have done a good job of selling the lob and I don’t think our bigs have done a good job of catching and finishing either. It’s looked rough lately especially since teams know its coming
It's just a great indicator of how far we are away from playing good team offense. Timing, spacing, connecting... these guys need practice time... but down the road... wow, what potential!
I agree with @justanotherfan ... When Gradey nails treys in the first half they adjust over halftime and shut him down.
He has to learn to exploit defenses. When they overplay him, nail them on backscreens, etc. Some of this is Self and plugging in plays to help GD. That's all coming over Xmas.
I believe 100% that Self is going to put in some big energy to develop plays for GD specifically. He's just too good of a scorer... both on the trey line but also as a slasher/scorer at the rim.
We opened up some early plays for Kevin... one of our less scoring options... because he was so easy to adapt to plays quickly since he has so much experience. Heck... he knew most of KU's plays while at TT.
Let's pray they don't get hot.
We will need a hero in this one besides JWil.
This would be a great game for Rice to make a statement.
GD needs to fill the stat sheet with more than treys, but nailing some treys would be great.
Our post... I'm still closing my eyes... just hoping more resolved by B12 play.
Stats are tools and useful to some degree... but somewhere they lose value... kind of like driverless cars. So the car approaches an intersection with someone running a red light... there is a 70 yr old woman crossing with her groceries and a skateboarder boarding across... which does it decide to potentially kill?
My question: when is this team going to become even mildly prolific at lobs? Holy smoly, guys...
@BShark said in 2022-23 stats-PER, Kenpom etc:
If KJ somehow becomes a threat to score we will be very dangerous.
If KJ had just a bit more polishing he would be outrageously lethal in the post... and also against footers.
What he lacks in size he makes up with strength, speed, and hustle.
Give him some post moves.. head/body/ball fakes... knowledge how to use his body to go into the defenders and then create just enough scoring space...
He would foul out all but a few 5s and all 5s would be afraid to guard him.
And he would OWN the boards!
Yes... that lethal!
Hey KJ... you out there? Read the book about Chab (Charles Barkley)!
I know Texas Southern is a cakewalk.... but we are already seeing gains after the Tennessee loss.
Buckle up, JHawk fans!