Kenyucky Wildcats. 8:30 in Chicago
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Tre White Highlights vs. Kentucky (30 Pts, 6 Rebs)
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I am giddy to see that Bill stuck with a small ball lineup, even after Melvin went down. Small ball is the future and I believe the 2-center lineups we have been using lately are partially responsible for our lack of success.
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Thank you for posting this stuff.
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Zoom Diallo is an incredible talent but in addition to that is he an indication of the Pope losing the locker room?
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Well how's about that beat down! yay. Didn't get a chance to weigh in yesterday.
Pretty much everybody looked good. Funny, i was cussing at Trey for obviously searching for whatever shot he could get and not letting it come to him, then realized he had 30!!!! no clue. zzz.
Stokes lived up to the billing. Hope he can shoot like that every night! He was aggressive, in a good way. Didn't even seem fazed when that Kentucky douche stood over him. I would have come to his rescue as well. That tech foul or whatever was uncalled for. Protecting your player. Guys who do that (stand over you) deserve a beat down.
Blyden. Hmmm. Good and bad game? seemed involved and determined, but couldn't score worth a crap. I at first thought he would be a liability against a typical big Kentucky lineup, but noticed their counterpart was his size, and a transfer like him from a smaller school. Felt some relief then.
So the big vs small ball lineups ... i think Self has to play it by ear. Last night we got away with a smaller lineup because we had a sizeable lead. But that Kentucky 7-footer was scoring at will.
May not be able to allow that some nights. A counter 7-footer required.
Overall quite pleased with our performance, especially after the two exhibition losses to big name schools.
We were very confident last night.
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I think this is the best KU halfcourt offense I've ever seen under Self. It was slash and cut... and burn! TK, TKR, and Stokes make a deadly passing trio. I've never seen the ball stick LESS in our halfcourt! We ran UK ragged. This is the way to slay huge teams like Duke. And even if they have depth... we have depth, too. This allowed us to establish the pace and flow of the game for almost 40 minutes. I know we miss the speed of Melvin... but we've upgraded our ball movement. When he returns, he's going to have to learn to pass at this level. He has a low TO rating, but the ball doesn't quite move at this pace and he needs to speed it up so we can keep it like this. Several players did not have good scoring nights, and unless you examine the scorecard, you wouldn't notice it. This is the first game I've watched over again in years. I'll probably watch it again. And we should only get better! We've had teams before that had equal to or better individual talent. But we've never had a team with the right kind of parts to put something together like this. Hence... we finally have a halfcourt offense that can win! Now.. let's not trade in our open court scoring... especially off TOs! I haven't been this excited to watch Jayhawk basketball since 2022!
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You just offered up an epic locker room pep talk.
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One of the indications of how the game went to me was when I realized at halftime we had 46 points and it kind of didn't feel like it. The points came pretty 'naturally' if that's a good way to put it. This is also a good defensive team. 69 points is their season low by 16. Early of course and we were the first 'real' team they faced but I think we've learned something since Louisville lit us up from 3. Don't think we had the 3 super seniors that exhibition either.
A few stats. Early of course but the team is scoring more than 90 per and giving up 59 per game. Not sure if we've ever had a 90 per game average even after over 3 games with Self.
Tre white 20ppg and shooting 65% Stokes 15PPG and almost 8 RBPG TKR 12 and 5Quite a few sports pages like ESPN, CBS etc do their own power rankings a few times per week even and we're #4 on ESPN's. I think we've got a great chance to get to the conference with 1 loss or if all goes really well, undefeated. A game at UCONN is obviously going to be a tough one so making no bold predictions there. A Dec 19 game in MSG NY against OSU will be a good game but we should prevail if all things remain the same. But next week UNLV and if we win, a winnable match between West Virginia/Auburn and then either Houston or Florida in the final. Strange there's other BIG12 teams in that event but Thanksgiving day could be must see feast of hoops for us.
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UConn and Hurley are prepared every time. We got out coached last year I remember thinking. Michigan was a monster last year and UConn held them to under 70. I don’t remember the game clearly but it takes effort and patience for that.
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The key on offense is to keep using those backdoors. It keeps defenses honest. They can't overplay the passing lanes without getting burned. The real key is having TKR on top to tear defenses apart. I am sooo relieved Self didn't turn to his old hi/lo this year, especially with TKR on the team. We haven't enjoyed decent spacing in the halfcourt for years! This is the key to raising our trey %! We just need to keep practicing and refining... adding in plays. This is just the beginning. Now, add in offball screens, pick and rolls, pick and pops. Self's legacy, to this point, is largely the hi/lo. I believe he can establish this new offense as a big addition to his legacy. We put the college basketball world on notice from just this one UK game. I know for certain, what we did is being studied and scouted, big time!
