Gameday is HERE!!
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BShark said:
I’ve never needed the distraction of a KU game more in my life than tonight.
Good timing then. Hopefully we have about 40 more distraction nights coming
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Svi will start tonight. If his cranium has been removed from its hiding place he might start again Tuesday. If not I am not sure he starts again this year. I believe he seriously pissed off his coach and he best make amends by playing his ass off.
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@BeddieKU23 I like your enthusiasm. I guess your description of a laccadaisical 1st half, followed by the much-needed Self butt-chewing at halftime, followed by a stellar, AFH-tradition-compatible 2nd half…somewhat reminds me of the FortHaysState exhibition game.
What?! Yes, the game where tiny FHSU (nonDiv1) was leading KU in our own badass, big-o-barn, with a few min to go in the 1st half…No player taller than 6’7. I even saw some of those 99yr old KU alums in the front row not knowing what to think for a minute, seems like feathers ruffled a bit. Least of which was Self, who was loading the mental machine gun for halftime with a very long belt…
Not down on this team’s chances, but they lost big heart (Mason), big fire (Josh), and big stats (Mason+Josh). We see how much the 7ft “monster” has to learn, as does our KY-like athlete MickeyD (Preston). But in their favor, we see already that Udoka is > Lucas, and Preston has already shown more than Bragg.
Not worried about “KY” as in November, especially with this younger than usual roster, they are nothing more than an all star AAU team. How are they much better than the Mcdonalds All American game, at this point? They will become a dangerous athletic March product by, well, March. That’s Calipari’s system at work. Of course the slap on Self’s red face is if somehow that gang of “KY” kids is able to pull off the upset over KU on Tuesday, but really doubt they are capable of that. (But then, do Malik and Doke and Billy P get caught up in the 1-upsmanship of playing other McD guys??). At least we know Devonte and Vick play for real. And play in a real system. The others still learnin’
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Nicest thing I can say for our post play is that we have lost the slow-footed, brick-handedness of Lucas in the post. Now, we have a chance to return to a Div.1 level of play in the post, not only size, but quickness and skill as well. Not every 6’9+ sized guy is a Div.1 caliber player. We sufferred thru that, now we want better. I would take ANY of WichitaState’s bigs over Lucas.
The short Lucas bash is over, unless we want to bring up the Oregon game, and whine about that a bit…
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@JayhawkerRedLegs You remember when asked - -the players were asked - -who they rather play with last year? - - And their response was? - - - - - - - - - - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@jayballer54 that was 2 years ago and the only other choice was Diallo. Last year LL was the only choice.
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I don’t think the team was particularly motivated the other night against Fort Hays. It was great ammo for Self to use which can be the added benefit of not playing great in a exhibition game. I think we see better effort tonight especially from some of the individuals who were called out from Tuesdays game.
If we learned anything from Tuesday it was the defense isn’t very good and this team is far from realizing its potential. I think that’s fine for now as long as we start to see flashes of what we expect from this group over the next month. I’m sure tonight will be a mix of good and bad. More ammo for Self to use over the next few days as they prepare for a real test on Tuesday Night.
As always I’m looking forward to seeing how our HOF coach gets this team to run like the well-oiled machine its been the past 13 years. The talent is there and we just need to see who’s going to step up
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@JayhawkerRedLegs Lucas isn’t the reason why KU lost to Oregon.
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Lucas played like Lucas that game. If we had a better player in the middle than Lucas, sure, we might have won. If Doke would have been there for that game, it might have been totally different. But Lucas didn’t underperform vs. Oregon. That’s how I look at it. So I’d have to agree with @Texas-Hawk-10 – Lucas didn’t lose us that game. Our go-to guy this season was our biggest underperformer (DG). Other issues too. But today’s our opener. A new day before us.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Agree totally with your phrase, as it is indeed the first half of the sentence: “(comma), but he is a key part of losing to Oregon.” We all saw him get absolutely owned by that 6’7 athlete (Bell?) who, sadly, out-hustled our dear slow-twitch Lucas.
@HighEliteMajor is correct in his logic that Lucas played like “Lucas”, but by the same token, you cannot be a blue blood, aka a high elite-major program, and take a nonDiv.1 plodder as your post man. You will, he will, get exposed.
If I look at Lucas’ stat line vs Villanova, it was better. The missing link in that game was Mr. Ellis, reverted back to freshman/soph shell, which can happen, but just wish it didnt happen in that game, golly…And Villanova had some fast twitch athlete named “Ochefu”.
We can blame DG for no-show, or overzealous Josh+refs for his foul problems 1st half, but when BigManU Self has to play 4+1, and that 1 post player is Lucas, you only possess a compromised team, one that the right combination of style and personnel could possibly expose, and it happenned. It happened against Stanford, it happened against Villanova, and it happened again against Oregon. Each has slightly different reasons, but each time we got exposed, unless we are OK chalking it up to poor shooting night, like UNI, VCU, KY’12…which can of course happen. I miss the post presence of TRob + Withey. Eager to see what Udoka + Preston can develop into by March…
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“saw him get absolutely owned”. Well, the TV announcers saw it and commented on it. Bell got (& earned) high praise. Charles Barkley at halftime thought the best plan for Frank Mason was to “involve his teammates more”. Dont know what was said in the locker room, but I see 2nd half Frank and DG “feeding” Lucas, who of course was good at sealing off his man…but once he received the pass, the adventuresome journey down the tortured path of statistical no-return began. My lasting image of Lucas, as a senior, no less, is of sealing his man off perfectly, and going up for a 2ft airball off the backboard. For a 6’10 big who spent 100% of his time near the rim (due to zero face-up range), that’s hard to do. But it tells the story of what Lucas was (as @HighEliteMajor perfectly alluded to), which segues precisely into what’s been missing from KU’s post presence for a few years now. Self tried his best with the hand he got dealt by fate (recruiting and injury to Doke, and fall thru floor by Bragg). And I cannot fault players like Frank Mason or Sherron, even if they have an off day in the Tourney–point being that they proved their greatness. I’d only wish they got the big prize for their own sake, then our sake second…
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Texas Hawk 10 said:
@JayhawkerRedLegs Lucas isn’t the reason why KU lost to Oregon.
Exactly. - -Lucas by far wasn’t the reason we lost to Oregon, We couldn’t hit any kind of shot to save our soul for one -we for sure lost as a team - -everyone had a role in why we lost that game - not just Lucas by far. – ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG
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HighEliteMajor said:
Lucas played like Lucas that game. If we had a better player in the middle than Lucas, sure, we might have won. If Doke would have been there for that game, it might have been totally different. But Lucas didn’t underperform vs. Oregon. That’s how I look at it. So I’d have to agree with @Texas-Hawk-10 – Lucas didn’t lose us that game. Our go-to guy this season was our biggest underperformer (DG). Other issues too. But today’s our opener. A new day before us.
Agree with you 100% - - Today the journey begins - - - New year - -New Day - -New team – ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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BeddieKU23 said:
BShark said:
I’ve never needed the distraction of a KU game more in my life than tonight.
Good timing then. Hopefully we have about 40 more distraction nights coming
Now that what I feared has actually happened I will post.
Just had a close relative pass away.
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BShark said:
BeddieKU23 said:
BShark said:
I’ve never needed the distraction of a KU game more in my life than tonight.
Good timing then. Hopefully we have about 40 more distraction nights coming
Now that what I feared has actually happened I will post.
Just had a close relative pass away.
I’m so sorry for your loss. The KU bucket family wishes you condolences during these tough times. Hopefully tonight’s game will give you a few hours of happiness on a dark day
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JayhawkerRedLegs said:
“saw him get absolutely owned”. Well, the TV announcers saw it and commented on it. Bell got (& earned) high praise. Charles Barkley at halftime thought the best plan for Frank Mason was to “involve his teammates more”. Dont know what was said in the locker room, but I see 2nd half Frank and DG “feeding” Lucas, who of course was good at sealing off his man…but once he received the pass, the adventuresome journey down the tortured path of statistical no-return began. My lasting image of Lucas, as a senior, no less, is of sealing his man off perfectly, and going up for a 2ft airball off the backboard. For a 6’10 big who spent 100% of his time near the rim (due to zero face-up range), that’s hard to do. But it tells the story of what Lucas was (as @HighEliteMajor perfectly alluded to), which segues precisely into what’s been missing from KU’s post presence for a few years now. Self tried his best with the hand he got dealt by fate (recruiting and injury to Doke, and fall thru floor by Bragg). And I cannot fault players like Frank Mason or Sherron, even if they have an off day in the Tourney–point being that they proved their greatness. I’d only wish they got the big prize for their own sake, then our sake second…
Copy, Paste.
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If KU shooters had a day even close to their shooting average, KU wins by double digits. Look at the numbers, worst shooting game of the season. KU shot 35.0% from the field compared to the season average of 48.0% and 20.0% from 3 (5-25) compared to 40.4% for the season; had they shot their average that is another 15 points. In comparison, they shot 54.8% and 53.6% against Purdue in the previous game. Assist and steals were also well below average, all in all poor play by the smalls had a lot more to do with the loss than Lucas.
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@JayHawkFanToo Completely agree with that. Poor shooting days have felled us, and more than once, (by the guards). But look what we are doing, and even what the KU team had to do last year: it’s mostly all on the guards, success or fail? Why? Because they (guards) had to do most of it, which then naturally they take more of the blame if we get bounced, since you can point to their missed atts, etc. But that whole team’s construct can now be judged in proper Selfian context: Compared to other Bill Self teams, we sucked in the post last year. Think of all the things we used to execute with Darnell, Shady, Cole, the Morri, etc…and thats on top of whatever havoc the guards are doing. For example, 2008 with Rush, Mario, Russell, Sherron was a whole ton of mayhem on top of whatever Shady, Darnell, Cole, Sasha gave us in the post. Compare the post play, and as an analytical KU fanalum/fanalyst, what options would you like to have. Sure, Lucas was, is, and always will be a solid Jayhawk. But no need to be sentimental in our final analysis about last-year’s guard-extravaganza team, one that was restricted in what might have been if not for woeful post play (cupcake opponents excepted of course).
My larger point (sorry to pick on Lucas, and also Ellis in the Nova game), is that I missed the dominance of Thomas Robinson + Withey (Thomas Robinson played like an effin lion vs KY, although guard shooting felled us, ran out of time, fell too far behind, 3 missed dunks, etc). Or the Morris twins. Or even the energizer skinny bunny Kevin Young, who unlike Bragg, actually gave a damn, and played beyond his skill.
This is a new year, so Im looking fwd to seeing what Udoka, Preston, Lightfoot develop into by late-Feb. We need every one of them. And just maybe 1 or 2 of them can become something special in the post? Not too much to ask for, imho, for a blueblood fan/alum…
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Gonna get a little taste before our game comes on tonight. - -Watch a little of the W Virginia/ Texas A&M game on ESPN at 6:00 - maybe catch a little of the Texas game at 7 on the Longhorn Network then to the one that counts - -OUR BOYS - -DO YOU FEEL IT? - - - IT’S HERE – -ROCK CHALK BABY
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Mercy more for me to get a peek at before our game then what I thought. Made a mistake W Virginia is at 5:00 on ESPN. - – -N Carol @ 6:00 on ESPNU - -and Kentucky @ 6:00 on the SEC network oh it’s - - - -channel surfing time lol. - - Kind of weird Baylor played their 1st game today straight up 12:00 - they won easily but just strange - - -Cincinnati has already played today also - -whats the deal? - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@jayballer54 Maybe the “deal” is we got the primetime TV slot on ESPNU. Cant complain.
Also, what’s your early scout on WVU and Baylor?
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JayhawkerRedLegs said:
@jayballer54 Maybe the “deal” is we got the primetime TV slot on ESPNU. Cant complain.
Also, what’s your early scout on WVU and Baylor
Could be - doesn’t matter to me I’m just a BB junkie anyways lol gonna catch a hair of Kentucky scout them for Tuesday lol.
Think both WV and Baylor gonna be down a bit. – - I think WV when they get some people back a little later still gonna cause problems -Huggs said he was going to have to be more selective with his press at what times because of his bench - -they gonna be ok I think
Baylor? - -I just think they gonna take a hit. - how much not really sure, BUT you lose a player like Motley then dam can’t remember his name the big boy that was so solid - -build wise actually there was talk about him maybe trying pro football - -what was his name? - But right there are two pieces that will be missed.
Ready to ROCK - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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My point was that Lucas makes a convenient target but, if the other players shot at a decent clip, Lucas does not have nearly enough problems inside particularly on offense.
BTW, KU has not had a dominant center since the Embiid in ‘13-14’ and Embiid was injured and Black filled in well but he was really a forward and not a Center. The last conference level Center KU had was Withey in '12-'13.
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Garrett starting tonight. Wow
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BeddieKU23 said:
Garrett starting tonight. Wow
I did tweet Dear Bill Self (without @ mentioning him) please start Marcus Garrett. I take full credit for this! LOL YA RIGHT
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@JayHawkFanToo Agree with all you said. I would finalize the thoughts about Lucas with your own phrase: “Lucas makes a convenient target”. Precisely. His comparative lack of attributes does indeed make it convenient. Because we know full well the guards’ off-shooting night was an occasional aberration. Normally they were stellar. The counter example is a game (NC game, no less), where our “guards shot us out of the game”, but no one has ever, ever dogged on Thomas Robinson or Withey in that game. Even if they missed some dunks. We knew what their norm was. We also saw Landon’s norm, in repeat fashion. Removed all doubt. When the guards were flat, Landon couldnt help them. It goes both ways. I do recall offensively limited Sasha Kaun actually saving our bacon vs Davidson (E8) when those “guards were flat”.
