Ready, Set.... GO!
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I just came from reading the Gameday Breakdown over at KUSports.com.
I think Matt Tait does an admirable job covering Kansas basketball.
He listed 3 key factors for a Kansas victory. One of those keys is for us to get out of the blocks fast.
That seems like an obvious piece of advice. But does it hold water?
We only have one loss this season so it is pretty hard to look and compare our failed performances as related to winning and losing.
It seems logical that getting out to a fast start will help us in many ways. It will give our guys some optimism, it will diminish the crowd noise and home court advantage, it may even help create chaos for WVU, causing them to fall apart and never really challenge us.
This could be one of those games where we go up early and we stay on top all game, answering back on every Mountaineer run.
Or… it could backfire.
Just look at many of our past games. We have had plenty of experience falling behind early in games and then mounting big comebacks. We’ve also had games where we get out quick, and then had to hold on and eek out the victory.
I’d like to see @Jesse-Newell come into the picture. I think he could get to the bottom of this.
Do we stand a better chance of winning if we get out of the blocks quick tonight?
I’m like everyone else… and I want to see us get out quick. But what I care about a lot more is that we finish strong.
The momentum tide tends to shift several times in a game. WVU will be out for blood. They’ve dropped 2 in a row and they see their season slipping away. They love to play in front of their home crowd, and they do not want to lose another game at home.
If we kick them in the head early in this game, will they roll over and die? I seriously doubt it.
The more I think about this, the more I think we might have a better final result if we come out just a bit slow. Not falling behind by many… but definitely not kicking them in the head right from the getgo.
These Mountaineers stand a very good chance of tiring out. They are under immense pressure to win. Their press requires an outrageous amount of energy to run. Kansas might be a bit slim with depth, but we are a well-conditioned team with fast athletes.
I sort of like the idea of playing this game out from the sleeper position. We just stick around… down by 5 or 7 for most of the game… then we go on one of those famous Jayhawk runs down the stretch. WVU is winded and spent. No way to come back. No time left to flip the momentum back.
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@drgnslayr I always like when we played really well but were losing at half. By played well I mean we played good defense and ran the offense just fine, but maybe we couldn’t hit a 3 ball to save our lives. Or maybe we played good D but they hit a couple of lucky end of shot clock 3’s. Maybe the refs missed a couple of obvious calls. Something like that. Because then usually statistics balance back out the second half, or the calls go your way and the momentum, like you said, comes so strong the other team can’t hold it off. How many times in the past have we ran away from teams by 20 but were either losing or only up by 2 or 3 at the half? That is what I am waiting for from this team at some point this season. A “signature win.” Or as I like to call it, a shove-it win. Where we just show how good we really can be. A game that teams watch the film of and it makes them nervous. We need that type of win.
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I totally agree.
I’d love to see us make the game tonight a statement game.
I would think some of our guys are developing a chip if for no other reason than not being a unanimous #1.
I think it is hard to keep a momentum spurt up for 40 minutes. We don’t need to do that. We just need to not dip so badly when the momentum dies down.
I think Josh has been great at keeping up the hustle. Even when his shot isn’t dropping he is impacting the game for us. He has helped us from having big drops, like when the momentum fails us.
