I sure like the idea of Embiid with a consistent mid-range jumper. That seems to be something that develops over an offseason, so we may never get to see it while he’s a Jayhawk, but it’s awfully fun to imagine. I’m not sure a team would be able to run a zone defense if we could put Embiid in the high post. If the D collapses on him, he can see over the top and hit someone cutting to the basket or find an open shooter. If they don’t collapse, he gets to shoot a free throw. We saw maybe one or two possessions in the Florida State game where we got him the ball there, but if he was more of a threat to shoot it, that would really open up our offense against a zone.
Regarding Tharpe, I think back to a quote Coach Self said about Russell Robinson. To paraphrase, he basically said that RR was great, but usually took one or two bad shots a game. With Tharpe, I would say similar things, though he’s nowhere close to the defender RussRob was. For him I would say he adds a lot of great things to the team, but you have to accept that in a close game, he is going to waste one or two crucial possessions down the stretch. He’s done this in every single close game this year, usually with a bad shot. He needs to realize that a guarded fadeaway 3-pointer will still be available to him with 5 seconds on the shot clock, so if there’s more time than that, there are better shots that we should be looking for. His shot selection may be the worst I’ve ever seen at KU, which is alarming for a junior. If he can’t get that under control, I would agree that Mason should be getting most of the PG reps.
Overall, we’re probably a bit behind schedule for the promised “when these guys figure it out, they’ll be pretty good,” but I still see 2014 banners that don’t have anyone’s name on them yet. If a few things are cleaned up, I believe this team will compete for them.
