Vent Here....
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These losses will just help us to appreciate the wins. This team has a lot of holes in it. A LOT. Let’s watch the genius mask those holes. Until Doke adds something more than a drop-step dunk to his offensive repertoire and learns to protect the rim the team will live and die by the 3.
On a side note: Newman is holding this offense back, imo.
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@Blown What is Malik doing that is holding the offense back?
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7 man rotation with no front court depth is getting exposed especially when players are not yet mentally tough. KU has had 7 man rotation in the past but had players like Tyshawn, Releford, R-Rob, Kevin Young, they all had grit. This squad has not gotten it yet.
Bill Self has a real problem on his hands, will be a rocky ride. I am hoping that Preston and DeSousa become eligible sooner rather than later.
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@Kcmatt7 I think the ball sticks with him when he gets it. He has a quick trigger. Drives at the most in opportune times and doesn’t know when he’s in too deep and to stop, pull up, and get the ball back out swinging around the perimeter. It appears to me like he goes rogue.
EDIT: Ya know, on second thought, Svi have a few of those same qualities, too. Maybe they are selfishly playing for their draft stock?
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Non Aggressive. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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Keep this up and we’ll be a 16 seed, but then win the first game ever for a 16 seed.
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KU was unlucky insofar as it ran into two teams that were in the zone and played their best games of the year. Arizona State made some highly unlikely shots that another day probably don’t go in and I was not too crazy about some of the call either. So much for the excuses.
This KU team badly needs concentration, composure and poise, something a team with the available experience should have. With over 5 minutes left, the team got within 6 and had the ball and I was thinking…here comes the run…only to have Malik turn the ball over and it never got closer after that. New Mexico played a similar small ball style with basically 6 players, so we cannot really say they had an advantage there. When a team is making shots from the outside, the key is to deny them the shots but the defense has been sub-par in the last two games. A Coach Self indicated, the team right now is soft.
Look like DeSouza will be joining the team soon but I just don’t see him contributing much until late in the season,. The physical requirements are year ahead of HS and I would be surprised he can play more that a few minutes against Division I bigs and he will also be way behind in the playbook and probably less effective than Lightfoot; I sure hope I am wrong. Preston would be the most desirable addition since he has been practicing with the team, is more physically ready and more familiar with e playbook, but with each passing day the chances get smaller.
Maybe this loss will light a fire under their collective butts and make them try harder…and smarter. Playing like this will not win the conference; no way, no how, no m’am.
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@JayHawkFanToo It looked like they had a fire lit under them when they ran up the 15-2 lead. Didn’t it? I was impressed with their hustle and fire for a couple of minutes…then they just let up.
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That was familiarity with AFH and cockiness. After Arizona State settled the team lost its poise.
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KU is stil overrated at 13th. ASU picked up 5 first place votes for beating KU at Allen Fieldhouse. Crazy how beating KU gets teams instant respect.
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Yep. 11 spots rise for them, 11 spots drop for KU…of course there was the loss to Washington.
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Has anyone else noticed that after a football player joins, KU has lost all games? Coincidence? Obviously but still…
Feel bad for Sosinski, he can seem to catch a break; he joins the basketball team and it goes on a losing streak…
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JayHawkFanToo said:
Yep. 11 spots rise for them, 11 spots drop for KU…of course there was the loss to Washington.
I’m actually surprised we didn’t fall further. - -Two losses this week - one home game and then one suppose to be pretty much a home game. - I actually thought we would be like 16th-17th.
Arizona losing three games in a week cost them to drop out completely .
As I have mentioned before actually the rankings in the regular season doesn’t really mean Jack other then the fans being able to gloat - -beat their chest like OH look at us. - -
What we need to want or should want is like everyone else - end the season with a W - that means we won the NCAA tourney and THAT’S what it’s all about right? - Who really cares where your at in the regular season - other then possibly more towards the end for seeding purposes. - on a Side note KU has no quality wins this year to speak of - I guess you might say Syracuse - -maybe maybe Kentucky - -but with Kentucky as young as they are and it being the 1st game of the year on a neutral site ehhhh not so much. - Others then those - we really don’t have that signature win yet, of course when your a blue blood like us - harder for us to get those - it’s the others guys if they knock us off - then it’s a HUGE signature win for them.
We brought this drop in rankings all by ourself - -Like Coach said now we get the chore of working ourself back up. - -Actually I think we are probably ranked just about right given the way we have played so far - it’s ok - -long season, just got to get it straightened out. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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Normore was an All_state PG in HS and played basketball for 2 years at WSU before deciding to concentrate on football the next year and transferred to KU when WSU ended the football program. Larry Brown had recruited him in HS he and he wanted to play for KU but KU already had Cedric Hunter and Mark Turgeon on board.
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What gets to me is our guard failure in these games. That isn’t going to be fixed by suddenly getting two post players. I’m mostly talking about defense.
There is the argument that our guards have to protect against the drive to save Doke from fouls. But… they didn’t do that either!
All areas of our defense sucked. Perimeter shot defense. Sucked. Defense against the drive. Sucked. Transition defense. Sucked.
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I was wondering if our defensive switching was actually playing against us yesterday. We tended to switch any screen around the perimeter. I was wondering if this group shouldn’t be switching and should be fighting over screens instead. ASU made shots, some from Wichita but they were mostly all unguarded shots, no hands in the face, no hard close with a hand in the face. I’ve seen a lot of comments about ASU being lucky to make some shots. I would disagree and point to any of their prior wins. They shoot freely whenever.
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In the ASU game, we lost because their guards were much quicker than ours. Whether that is always the reality, or we just didn’t come prepared, it was evident in this game.
I think they were too quick for us to fight through the screens. I thought we did the right thing.
But… we never defended against the drive. We were always totally out of position to do so. You can tell that when you see a defense that doesn’t even come close to be able to try to draw charges. Heck… we never had one of our players anywhere near being in front of their driving guards.
In order to defend against the drive, our guards need to get up there (in their grills) and HEDGE against their driving priorities. I can’t think of one drive they made to their left! Did you notice that? Where was our scouting? Why didn’t we hedge for the right side drive? Get up in their grills and challenge their crossovers. Few college players can execute a decent crossover. Very few.
If you replay the game, you will see our guards pulling back on their guards and with ZERO hedging. The very WORST strategy for stopping drives! The WORST! Their guards could then pick up speed, while our defenders are standing flatfooted, and then only need to curl around them to finish.
Did you notice their drives almost always ended up being “blow bys?” Their guards would finish near the rim and not even be challenged because we didn’t have a defender who could meet them at their release points.
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Udoka is averaging less than 2.5 fouls per game and has not fouled out in any game; he has not been in real foul trouble yet.
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@Blown I guess I haven’t seen that quite yet. No more so than any of the other starters. Nobody can make a layup or attack the rim effectively. Svi, Vick and DG all take terrible 3s.
Honestly, to me, it has looked like everyone is just playing for their draft stock.
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The biggest problem KU has offensively is that we can’t get easy shots consistently. If the jumpers are falling, life is good, and we can probably run any team in the country out of the building.
But if the shot goes cold, we don’t really have a backup plan to score. Doke isn’t a consistent post scorer, so if we are shooting blanks from outside, it gets really hard to make things happen on the offensive end.
Defensively, this isn’t a team full of great or even above average defenders. Devonte is above average, but in his role playing 38 mpg at the point, he’s probably closer to average because he has to save something on that end. Vick is above average, but he’s playing out of position at the four, so he can’t always take advantage of that. Unlike Josh, he isn’t necessarily built to handle the bigger players all the time because he’s giving up 2-3 inches every night.
Newman and Svi are average-ish, Doke is foul prone, and Mitch can’t bang with most 5’s. Garrett is also above average, but he doesn’t help us offensively right now because he can’t space the floor with his shot. Clay Young is undersized, but can steal some minutes inside against lesser bigs, but there is a risk of exposing him too much and having him become ineffective as the season wears on and a good scouting report on him starts to circulate.
Thankfully, these problems can be fixed, and the solutions aren’t far away. Sam Cunliffe should help in the backcourt right away because he should help stagger the minutes a little bit more so Devonte and Lagerald aren’t playing nearly every minute. That lets our two best perimeter defenders sell out a little bit more on that end - the difference between playing hard for 32 minutes and playing hard for 38 minutes is enormous.
The other, less certain fix, is of course Billy Preston. Preston is bigger and stronger than Mitch, and more skilled than Doke. He changes how we can score because he can go get buckets on the block if necessary. He commands a double team inside.
Let’s think back to the 2006 team that got knocked out in the first round of the NCAA tournament by Bradley. That team was the same one that the following year went to the Elite Eight, and two years later won the whole thing. So why did that group get bounced in Round 1 as freshmen, then go all the way to the Elite Eight as sophomores? Darrell Arthur.
Not because Shady was the best player on those teams - he was probably the third best. But he changed the way that team could play because he could post up and generate easy shots when guys weren’t hitting jumpers. He could draw fouls and get guys on the line (and in foul trouble). Right now, this team lacks that in the same way that the 2006 team lacked that. Billy Preston’s skill set changes this team from the 2006 first round eliminated Hawks into the 2007 Elite Eight version.
The only question is whether he ever sees the floor for this team. If he doesn’t, this team will run hot and cold with its jumpshot. If he does, we can go back to discussing the weather in San Antonio in late March and early April.
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@justanotherfan TLDR; Flawed roster
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I disagree with everyone - the first five minutes showed how good out guards can be defensively. Honestly, that was the best five minute stretch of defense I’ve seen since 08. The real question is, why did they do it for only five minutes?
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Hawk8086 said:
@JayHawkFanToo It looked like they had a fire lit under them when they ran up the 15-2 lead. Didn’t it? I was impressed with their hustle and fire for a couple of minutes…then they just let up.
Sometimes a hot start is the worst thing for a team. Makes them complacent. Of course a cold start, like the Washington game causes doubt and leads to what happened there, so I’m confused now!
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Maybe the guards can sell out & defend the 3 as a primary defensive goal. Good guards are going around us anyway. Let them take mid range jumpers which no one in college seems to want to take consistently. The last two losses we gave up so many killer threes.
This group is going to have to settle defensively by giving something up. Just not athletic or deep enough to maintain 40 min of quality defense.
Maybe we can stop the rediculous turnovers too.
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The defense is terrible, especially at the guard spots which really isn’t surprising when you look at how bad we were last year on defense with two highly athletic guys in Mason and Jackson. Our players won’t look like D1 players when playing a good a team. Malik Newman maybe the biggest recruiting flop in history (top 5 National). No way he plays in the NBA no chance, I bet he rides the pine a year from now and transfers. Lagerald must turn into the dog that Self is talking about. He has all the tools to do so. Unless Billy can go and he is a Trob type player no way we make it outta the first weekend in March without hitting a high number of threes. If Self makes this team B12 champions, he is the best coach to ever live. Question, Will Bill Self still have more B12 titles than loses at home bye the end of the season? I honestly think not, I could see us losing 3 more home games, this team will be Selfs second double digit loss team. All this being said we are due a down year. The streak has to end at some point.
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@JayHawkFanToo Sosinki is the first Jayhawk basketball player to be 0-2 ever?
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@approxinfinity I bet we have started 0-2 at some point in our 100 and some odd years. I know we have started 1-2 several times.
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@approxinfinity @kjayhawks Guys, guys … the last time we started 0-2 was in the 1987-88 season. When we won the national championship.
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Close but not quite correct.
KU beat Chaminade at the Maui invitational to start the season 1-0 and then lost the next 2 games to Iowa and Illinois at the same tournament for a 1-2 record. It did go to win the NCAA though.
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Considering KU seldom loses 2 games in a row, much less at home, I am pretty sure it has not happened in the last 30+ years…unless KU had a transfer that started just before on of those rare occasions.
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@JayHawkFanToo Darn it. I trusted my memory again. Should have used that simple thing called google.
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@wissox but it proves they are capable of it and that’s actually the most important part.
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JayHawkFanToo said:
That was familiarity with AFH and cockiness. After Arizona State settled the team lost its poise.
So hustling and playing with great energy is being cocky? You and I must have watched two different games. I watched the KU game on Sunday December 10th at 1 where they played how we thought they could play in the first five minutes. How about you?
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Horribly disappointed and we are not use to this, but the good news is that its really early in the season. They have time to decide what they want to do going forward. They need some hunger. They need some stark, raving, mad dog starving desire to win. These are some nasty lumps, but we just learned momentum can swing really fast.
They’re capable, now the question is can they play up to their much higher capability? We shall see.
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KU made its first 5 shots and took an early lead but after shots stop going in the wheels fell off the wagon and the team lost its poise and concentration and not only missed shots, it had silly turnovers.
After KU went up 15-2 three and a half minutes into the game, it was outscored by Arizona State by 23 points the rest of the game. You are telling me the team played with energy and confidence for all of 3-1/2 minutes?
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I don’t like this alternate universe where WSU is ranked 10 places ahead of Kansas. There’s something dirty and disgusting about this. And one more note to Self and the team:
DON’T LOSE AT HOME ANY MORE. IT TICKS ME OFF.
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@JayHawkFanToo nope I said five minutes. I know it doesn’t fit the current narrative but there was a definite difference in the next thirty five minutes energy and intensity wise. A friend watching it with me saw the same thing.
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@HawkChamp said
nope I said five minutes. I know it doesn’t fit the current narrative but there was a definite difference in the next thirty five minutes energy and intensity wise. A friend watching it with me saw the same thing.
Between the 3-1/2 minute (mine) and 5 minute mark (yours) KU was outscore 8-0, are you still saying it played well in those 1-1/2 minutes? I think not.
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@JayHawkFanToo the point still stands regardless of how many minutes or seconds.
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Didn’t I say the same thing? I just called the first 3-1/2 minutes familiarity with AFH and cockiness, after that it was a complete collapse and KU was outscored by 23 points.
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@JayHawkFanToo how did you come up with cockiness? That is the completely incorrect adjective.
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How 'bout confidence? ''Tis the season
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@Crimsonorblue22 to most everyone else, confidence is the correct word.
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I realize that. Doke wasn’t anywhere near their drivers when they finished at the hole. He couldn’t challenge their shots because he wasn’t close to them.
I just don’t want to hear our guards use an excuse claiming they had to lay off guarding the trey shot in order to protect Doke from penetrating drives.
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Svi’s wingspan is 6’5” no wonder he can’t defend anyone or protect his dribble. The t-Rex comparison isn’t too far off. Good thing he’s skinny, he’d have a hard time wiping his kester if he had a belly.
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We’re picking the bones off the flesh. We’re not going to be an NBA All-star team. Still, I think this team can be a real good team, warts and all. Cunliffe will help keep the guys fresh on the perimeter, and should play good defense when he’s in there. Now we have a pivot if Newman or Svi is struggling. De Sousa is a classic old style 4 with elite rebounding skills. He will help us when Doke gets in foul trouble. Two extra players in the rotation will allow us to play more aggressively. All is not lost - keep the faith.
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If De Sousa comes in, I wonder what offense we will run.
Self just mentioned “making changes” and it sounds like he wants to slow down the pace and go back to “BAD BALL.” Did anyone else catch this?
I get it. Our guards are playing ZERO defense! We’ve been putting all our emphasis on offense. So… kill the offense!
If I squint my eyes and replay our last two games, it looks like we have 4 or 5 BGreenes out there!
This isn’t my biggest worry (even though it is horrible). My biggest worry is about what I saw from Devonte for the past 3 years. Consistency was an issue. He can’t be inconsistent and lead this team. It seems like he had a couple of hot games, then he let off the gas. Hot and cold will always be there… hustle is a constant! Using your head… is a constant!
Devonte, alone, needed to step up in these games and put the team on his back. He could have shredded both of these teams with his drive, which might have helped our guys get motivated on both sides of the court.
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@drgnslayr I kind of want Bill to go full bad ball for a little while. Force the guards to drive and learn how to finish in the lane. After that, slowly loosen the rains and open the the trey again. But the first thing we have to do is prove to ourselves that we can score inside, even with a 4 guard lineup.
That and then just play hellacious D. Get these guys flying all over the court and create some havoc.
