Sparkling Perimeter Play Masks Flame Out by Big Men
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KU’s Version of a Presidential Transition Team–the perimeter services firm of Mason, Graham, Jackson and Mykhailiuk, LLC, literally shot, stold and rebounded KU to a 20 point win over UAB. The perimeter services firm was a combined 27-48 from the field. They also came up with 9 steals and 17 rebounds.
As I increasingly like to write: big men? we don’t need no stinking big men.
The big 4 of the perimeter services firm also shot the proverbial bottom out of the basket from with going a whopping 12-24!!!
The only failings of Mason, Graham, Jackson and Mykhailiuk, LLC so-so FT shooting and 10 pop tarts. But this amounts to complaining about a single wild hair on Marion Cotillard’s neck when she is standing radiantly beautiful and naked in front of you instead of Brad Pitt in Allied.
The only member of the perimeter services firm NOT to sparkle was Lagerald Vick, who FINALLY had an off game in which he played only 11 minutes, went 0-3 from trey, and baked three pop tarts. Vick has earned an off night, after the string of stellar solid performance he has put on in games when the senior partners of Mason, Graham, Jackson and Mykhailiuk, LLC were sputtering themselves.
That was the good.
Now let us dawn Haz Mat suits to talk about the toxic waste that was dumped on the floor by starting bigs Carlton Bragg and Landen Lucas. Bragg was the better of the two. which was tantamount to a saying pimple was better than a boil. Bragg lasted 22 minutes and produced 5 points and 5 rebounds. The best we can say for Bragg was that he baked no pop tarts and got two blocks.
Landen Lucas practically constituted a Super Fund Site all by himself. Big Luke played 15 minutes and rang the bell for a whopping 2 points and 6 reebs. The rebounds were a flicker of light in a darkness of 0 assists, 0 blocks, and 0 steals.
Self turned to Azuiibuke and was punished with 4 personal fouls, 3 turnovers, and 0 steals. Doke did get 2 blocks and 7 glass vacs,
Coleby and Lightfoot barely saw the floor.
KU’s big men together gave KU exactly what it needed, if what it needed was insignificant scoring, some rebounding, turnovers, and no steals.
Outside good.
Inside bad.
Next.
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@jaybate-1.0 all true statements, I don’t think my imagination is as superb as yours tho lol
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@jaybate-1.0 said:
KU’s big men together gave KU exactly what it needed, if what it needed was insignificant scoring, some rebounding, turnovers, and no steals.
Outside good.
Inside bad.
One really good dunk. One attempted dunk that would have broken the internet. Several garden variety dunks. 22 points by a freshmen. Steals, rebounds, defense and energy.
JJ looked good. Really good. That’s a good omen for the rest of the season.
Inside was impotent and we still won by 20 = good team.
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Azubuike was a positive, even if not a lot of points produced.
Lucas, Bragg and Vick were the low points.
Free throw shooting?
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@jaybate-1.0 “KU’s big men together gave KU exactly what it needed, if what it needed was insignificant scoring, some rebounding, turnovers, and no steals.”
PHOF
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The bigs will have to be much better tonight because Georgia has a really good 1-2 inside/outside combo in Maten & Frazier. Maten is a man inside, we don’t have anyone to guard him. Frazier is a jet, same size as Mason so that will be an exciting match-up. The rest of Georgia is junk, Parker has played well for them but he’s a junkyard type guard with no perimeter shot.
This is the type of game that could be close because Georgia has 2 very good players that can have big games and they only need the rest to do their normal job. We’ll need to play well in this one
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Well said, the bigs were not good last night. I feel like we’ll see this bunch be up and down for a while.
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Lots of threads about the post performance to choose from, but I’m going with this one. It’s definitely a problem, that said UAB is pretty good inside defensively. This was always a game that our perimeter players were going to have to win. And I mean, if you were one of the guards on this KU team would you really want to feed Lucas the ball?
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Exactly we just don’t have an option in the post that can be trusted with the ball.
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Was it Fran that said Kansas can’t compete for a National Championship without strong post play? He made it a general statement, like it can’t be done by anyone.
As I recall… UCONN’s last trophy was won by a guard-heavy team that didn’t have much of a post presence.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t focus on improving our post play… that is one area where we can make huge improvements. I just didn’t like how Fran framed it.
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@drgnslayr said:
Was it Fran that said Kansas can’t compete for a National Championship without strong post play? He made it a general statement, like it can’t be done by anyone.
As I recall… UCONN’s last trophy was won by a guard-heavy team that didn’t have much of a post presence.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t focus on improving our post play… that is one area where we can make huge improvements. I just didn’t like how Fran framed it.
Nova too.
@BeddieKU23 said:
Exactly we just don’t have an option in the post that can be trusted with the ball.
Josh might be our best option, the kid is a natural scorer. Need to see more of those looks.
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We need better rebounding from the front line. We can score with anybody, but unless JJ or Svi is a 6-7 rebound a game guy, we need Lucas or Bragg or Azuibuke hitting the glass so we don’t get mauled on the boards.
Last night’s rebounding performance was a bigger issue than the lack of scoring. That’s the area I am focusing on going forward.
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UAB was right around their average and rebounding was pretty even. Now, it will likely be a problem against teams like UK, but fortunately not many UKs out there.
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I think our biggest post issue is rebounding.
The most alarming stat from last night’s game was that we tied them on the boards… actually… they outperformed us by getting more offensive rebounds than we had.
I’ve been looking at our rebounding issue more closely.
There are a few issues that really pop out.
First… I think our entire team needs to be coached on post play. When I was a young player, I was big for my age and always played in the post. I was taught one thing that helped me play well in the post -
“Once you step your foot into the paint, it becomes a game of positioning. You are either positioning to rebound, or you are positioning to score, or you are positioning to screen for another player.”
Doesn’t matter if you are a perimeter player or a post player, the rule applies to everyone. If you are going to stand in the post, you better be focused on positioning and I see most of our guys not thinking about that.
Second… I don’t think we are using many set plays. If we were running set plays, those plays should focus on having a couple of guys in position to rebound when the ball hits the hands of the shooter.
When watching our games, notice where all our guys are positioned when the ball leaves the shooter’s hands. Rarely are we set up to rebound… then we have to be reactive and fight for position at the last second. That often creates over the back fouls, etc.
Last… our guys all need to fight harder for that ball. We are NOT getting our share of 50/50 balls. I think most of our guys are guilty in this area, not just our bigs.
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JJ is our best back to the basket post player, at 6’8" he is the size of a lot of college big men, with his speed a big man won’t be guarding him, I think we will see more and more of JJ getting the ball in the post, if I remember he had 3 or 4 shots from his post up position and was fouled twice in the post. I think he could be a nice way to get some post points and I look for him to get it more and more down there.
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@Jayrawks1 said:
JJ is our best back to the basket post player, at 6’8" he is the size of a lot of college big men, with his speed a big man won’t be guarding him, I think we will see more and more of JJ getting the ball in the post, if I remember he had 3 or 4 shots from his post up position and was fouled twice in the post. I think he could be a nice way to get some post points and I look for him to get it more and more down there.
I’m no expert but if I’m Self I try to set up more of these looks and make it a part of the offense.
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I’m not sure how revved up to get about Josh yet. I know he is good, but he got 15 FGAs; that’s about tops in a Self offense and he was not as efficient as Devonte (not yet at his best) or Frank (on an average night).
The UAB game appeared to be one of two “branding” games every OAD appears to get from Self before conference starts. They come against lesser teams on the schedule. I wouldn’t call UAB a cupcake, because they were good last season, but…we beat them by 20 on a night with out Post play and +o on rebounding. Capice?
Another 1-4 from Trey is only going to make team’s sag off even more.
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I think you are kind of crazy about oads.
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KU doesn’t need more than 15 points and 12 boards out of the paint from its Composite post of Bragg, Landen and Doke. It’s already getting the 10-12 boards. It’s the scoring that seems a problem.
Self is building his own private Eddie/Keady UARK team wit Moncrief/Delph/Brewer and some invisible guys at 4 and 5.
Self’s edge over the great UARK team is SVI. Svi let’s Self stay great at the 3 man perimeter for 40 minutes, or let’s Self play some small 4-1. Eddie/Keady never had that luxury.
Bragg is another potential edge, if he gets to where he can play.
Short answer is: IF your no name 4 and 5 can guard and rebound with the best, they will confront in the March Carney, as say Mike Bibby’s great UA team, or the Nova team you mentioned could, a team can get along fine with great perimeter players only.
It’s also helps if they don’t see an opponent with a great post man.
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@jaybate-1.0 not sure if that was a “branding game”. You are right about what is needed out of a 4 and 5. The game is guard oriented, and we have that in spades. Our three need to buckle down and work their tails off inside.
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The 15 FGAs suggests it was a brander on a night when Josh couldn’t quite get fully untracked. But we’ll know for sure in a while. If Self keeps giving Josh 15 FGAs every game, then we’ll know it wasn’t a brander.
