Malik Newman, Please Report to the Three Point Line, Malik Newman, You Are Wanted at the Three Point Line
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Frankly, the thought of KU going to war without Frank Mason’s 47% trey gun and 4.2 rpg on the perimeter frightens me.
Has any coach in the history of KU basketball ever had to replace a point guard that averaged 47% from trifecta AND 4.2 rpgs?
I don’t think so.
The guy was voted player of the year for a reason.
Frank Mason went all autobot transformer last season. Each game he walked on the floor looking like a Ford Fiesta ST in silks–a tiny, ripped out, hot hatch; then, before our eyes, he would deploy into this hulking, after burner charged, cylinder gun toting set of giant gears and struts with a chunk of All Spark at the center and he would go whirling and crashing down the floor 10 times his size wreaking havoc for all Jayhawk Land and all the little guys, too. It was like Self had hired Michael Bay as an assistant coach of point guards and he cut loose a barrage of special effects with Frank.
Autobots, unite!!!
His absence leaves a bigger hole in Allen Field House than the All Spark left, when it was flung out of Cybertron, or than those evil sunnsabitches have left in Transformers: The Last Knight, by turning Optimus Prime, the greatest cybernetic hero in the history of film, into a lousy villain, because some limp phallus screen writer could not keep believing in what every kid needs and deserves–an awesome kick ass, digitally rendered demigod inside a red, white and blue diesel tractor. Ah, I digress.
The point of the post is just to say we’ve got to move the high percentage cylinder gun to a 2- guard wing this year and that wing has got to get Optimus Frank’s 4.2 caroms caroms, while Devonte repeats his three rpgs from the point (not a walk in the park), Josh’s 7.4 gets picked up by 6-9 Billy Preston and Landen’s 8.3 rpgs gets ramped to 10 rpgs by Doke.
But the real key is the 47% trey gun. Svi and Devonte can repeat their respective 40% and 39% from trey with any luck. Preston ought to come close to Josh’s 39, from what I hear, probably more like 36-37%. And that “probably more like” put extra importance on what the 2-guard wing shoots.
I know, we can be much more productive offensively down low with Doke and Preston cramming it down low.
But in today’s game, it appears someone has to have one of those insanely high 3pt percentages for a season to make a team really dangerous.
To wit: KU should contact former Kansan, D-CIA Mike Pompeo, for a special favor for the old home state. Someone should ask him to see what he can do about getting some of his tech wizards to get a rumored directed energy technology capable of broadcasting certain bandwidths into human targets to remotely hyp-MO-tize subjects to follow suggestions. The endlessly repeated message would be something simple, like…
“Malik Newman, Please Report to the Three Point Line, Malik Newman, You Are Wanted at the Three Point Line to Make 47%.”
Call it Operation All Spark '18, or something slightly more cryptic, like Operation Treywood.
It would play in his head all night long starting now and be repeated through April of 2018.
Voila!
KU celebrates a ring.
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Maybe its just me, but I never thought of Frank as a 3 point threat. He wasn’t like B-Mac or B-Green where if they touched it at the trey without someone in their face it was a free 3 points.
To me, it looked like 99% of Frank’s 3s were completely unguarded. His defender left him to help on the drive or to rebound and Frank was left standing alone at the 3 point line. Part of that is his crazy driving and finishing abilities that forced teams to not close out on him hard. But part of it, was the thought he wasn’t that great of a 3 point shooter.
I do think Newman will shoot around 42% from trey. Svi has the potential to hit 50% from trey. Vick is destined to shoot better than 37%, he started the season in an epic cold streak. DG shot a cold 38% last year. He hit 44% the season before. I don’t believe that the 3 point line is a concern whatsoever.
Now post defense, that’s a question. Whitman and Doke both couldn’t have lasted 30 minutes per game last season without fouling out. Then you have a freshmen. And finally, you either roll out a guard or a guy with arms that look like Spongebob. Talk about a problem.
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@Kcmatt7 Otherwise known as the Travis Releford shooting plan. But yeah Graham shot the most by far and Svi shot around the same number of attempts on a lot less minutes. Frank played extremely smart basketball last season.
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When someone makes 47% of 174 3ptas while running the team from the point guard position, that’s enough for me to see him, think him, and dream him a trey shooting Autobot.
But maybe trey balling is in the eye of the beholder.
Wouldn’t it be great if Devonte cut back to 174 from 243 and made 47% instead of 38.8%?
We can hope.
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@jaybate-1.0 Wouldn’t it be better if Devonte shot 243 and hit 47% of them instead?
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Lets not worry about that yet. Hard to tell how each player is going to shoot months before the games are played. We will know by big 12 play how skilled of a shooting team it will be.
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Definitely a best case scenario!
What the hell! Count me in on this. 47 % on that many treys would probably guaranty an perfect season!!!
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Svi - 46%. 14 pts per game Newman - 41%. 15 ppg Davonte - 45%. 17 ppg Vick - 43% 13 ppg
Book it.
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@jaybate-1.0 That’s like peas and carrots for me. Left Twix and right Twix. Fric and Frac. Laurel and Hardy. Bonnie and Clyde. Seen the movies hundreds of times, seen Frank play hundreds of times. I’ve actually watched Frank on the same day while Transformer binging, so I get your reference.
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@Fightsongwriter I think Vick leads the team in 3 pt %, and he comes in over 50%. I think he’s that good.
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Kcmatt7 said:
Maybe its just me, but I never thought of Frank as a 3 point threat. He wasn’t like B-Mac or B-Green where if they touched it at the trey without someone in their face it was a free 3 points.
To me, it looked like 99% of Frank’s 3s were completely unguarded. His defender left him to help on the drive or to rebound and Frank was left standing alone at the 3 point line. Part of that is his crazy driving and finishing abilities that forced teams to not close out on him hard. But part of it, was the thought he wasn’t that great of a 3 point shooter.
I seem to remember some wide open shots but also him shooting off the dribble behind Landen’s double screens. He did that really well.
Either way, plenty of players who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn if left wide open, so I was pleased with his %.
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As a team KU shot 0.404 from the 3 last season although only 2 players individually shot over 0.400, Mason was one and Svi at 0.398 came close. Do you want to guess who the other player was?
KU has at least 5 players that can potentially hit 0.400 or better from the 3 next season, Graham, Newman, Svi, Cunliffe and Vick; Preston hit 0.375 in HS and I am not sure what Garrett’s percentage was. If they all progress as expected, KU could be scary good and the college version of the Warriors.
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Draymond Green, KD, Steph and Klay aren’t walking through that door.
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Woa! I didn’t know Cunliffe had a gun!!!
I need a self-doubting, hand-wringer emoji!!!
Seriously, that’s really great news, if we can nickname Cunliffe “Sam Bam from 3pt Land” !!!
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Cunliffe shot 0.405 in the 10 games he played for ASU. Great athlete with huge upside.
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Oh good!!!
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@JayHawkFanToo What is height and incoming weight of Cunliffe? I would check at the old LJW site, but my computer locks up every time I click on to that url. (Probably a good thing…)
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@JayHawkFanToo Ah-ha! I found it. Cunliffe arrived in Lawrence 6’6", 200 pounds.
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@REHawk I keep getting “You have been selected…” or “Android virus on your phone!” alerts every time I am on the LDJ site on my phone for longer than about 3 minutes. Annoying, to say the least. No other site does it repeatedly, and it doesn’t matter if I clear my cache or cookies.
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REHawk said:
@JayHawkFanToo Ah-ha! I found it. Cunliffe arrived in Lawrence 6’6", 200 pounds.
So: Sam is 6-4 and 195, indexed for the disk expanding anti-gravity of Lawrence, KS! A nice sized shooting guard!!!
