I'm just not convinced
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@REHawk Durant and Hield each scorched KU in the games you’re likely referring to. It was the rest of their teams that KU stopped just enough to barely win those games.
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Young, time to meet Doke!
he’ll be waiting for you!
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@jaybate-1.0 Nah, nah, nah, not THIS kid. He might be born and bred an Okie, thru and true, but he eats Texas beef for breakfast. I’m tellin’ ya now, and I don’t plan to tell ya again, THIS KID IS THE REAL DEAL! LOOK OUT!
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@Crimsonorblue22 Nope. The KID is too quick for Doke. Don’t be for buyin’ in to any of that jaybate skepticism. Yer gonna eat crow!
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@Texas-Hawk-10 I’m just sayin’…
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@Lulufulu Don’t be givin’ even one inch on this situation, Lulu. You and I both know precisely what we’ve seed. No stoppin’ this kid.
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And High Elite Major, you needn’t jump onto the shoulders of this kid neither. Just wait…
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@REHawk I know that, silly! But if he gets to close, could be deadly for the small kid.
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BShark and beddie know. Lon knows. Cindy is jabbin’ Bill in the ribs, tellin’ him, Listen up! On the 23rd of January Norm Roberts and that Hudy lady are gonna be gnawin’ their Doublemint. This Okie kid was BORN READY!
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@Crimsonorblue22 Yer stayin up kinda late, eh Crimson?
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@REHawk I’m always up late. Watched the ksu game.
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@Crimsonorblue22 Mr. Weber pace the sideline tonight, conduct himself with customary restraint and dignity?
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@REHawk yes! Probably writing letters as we speak. A weird looking bobcat on the side line. Wasn’t paying that much attention. Definite strong comeback in the 2nd half. I switched before the end.
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@REHawk Snyder!
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@Crimsonorblue22 You are, indeed, an extraordinary Jayhawk woman. You watch K State FOOTBALL?
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@REHawk 2nd and 3rd quarter. Nothing else on. Big 12 needs to win, hard for me to ever root for ksu. Ever!
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@REHawk So you’re saying that Trae Young is going to go off for 40 points and 15 assists and KU wins by a point?
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@Texas-Hawk-10 There you go again, attempting to denigrate Lon Kruger’s very probable and real path to 2018 Sooner GLORY! And even after I made it very clear that his KID was dining on TEXAS BEEF.
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REHawk said:
BShark and beddie know. Lon knows. Cindy is jabbin’ Bill in the ribs, tellin’ him, Listen up! On the 23rd of January Norm Roberts and that Hudy lady are gonna be gnawin’ their Doublemint. This Okie kid was BORN READY!
Young won’t beat KU alone, he’ll need plenty of help from Manek, James etc. The key is if Young is getting everything his own way his mates will feed off that energy. If we find ways to force him into misses or get a few turnovers off his passes then we stand a good chance. Young is the real deal, not dismissing what I’ve seen of him. I think he’s the one kid in the Big-12 we don’t have an answer for because he’s responsible for so many points, not just his own. KU has won plenty of games before where a team had a featured hyped player. Doesn’t mean we can’t be beaten. Our coach usually game plans well for these type of situations. That and the guy guarding him will probably be pretty jacked up to try and stop him (I’m looking at you Devonte).
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@BeddieKU23 History says Trae Young will have monster games against KU. Bill Self’s strategy against these types of players that he doesn’t have an answer for is to let them get theirs and focus on trying to stop the other 4 players on the floor.
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Just because Young ran his mouth about ending the streak, perhaps we invoke the opposite strategy. Stop Young, and make the supporting case beat us. In fact, sometimes, depending on the athlete and cast, it might be the better option. Here, though, he’s a very effective passer. I’d be most interested in disrupting the passing lanes first and foremost.
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Not sayin’ he won’t go off.
Sayin’ he will probably not be experienced enough to keep from being fooled some.
Regardless, if Self can’t get Preston and De Sousa in play, Lon could probably beat us without Trae!
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Young is both a shooter and passer. Forcing the ball out of his hands means he can likely find the open man - he’s averaging over 10 assists a game! He is averaging almost 29 points a game, but on only 18 shots. Young doesn’t monopolize the ball, and OU has other capable guys if you make Young give the ball up.
This isn’t like Durant or Beasley, where they were scorers first and foremost. Young is a PG with natural passing instincts. He’s only had 2 games all season with fewer than 8 assists. He’s only had three games all year where he has more than 18 shots, but he’s efficient enough from three (41%) that you can’t just let him shoot.
This OU team is different than anything we have seen at KU in the Self era. Young is similar in some ways to Curry, but the overall talent around him at OU is far superior to what Davidson had with Curry. Young is a better scorer than guys like Marcus Smart or Jacob Pullen, and also a better passer than guys like Hield.
It’s a tough matchup for KU because OU isn’t just Young, and Young, as a PG, knows how to get his other teammates involved. There’s also the chance he could hit 5 or 6 threes. OU isn’t the best team KU has faced during the streak, but they are one of the more difficult matchups because they could win in Morgantown and hold serve at home. That’s the start of the recipe for knocking off KU in the conference.
Any way you slice it, this will be a tough conference slate. KU could go 14-4 and win going away, or they could slog to a 12-6 and have to sweat it.
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Great shooting point guards have tended to be the toughest challenge for KU’s help defense during Self’s tenure. Great shooting point guards TEND to beat KU, whereas great bigs and wings tend to lose to KU.
Why?
Self can use everyone to surprise bigs with endless variations of help and that reduces their efficiency. On the back end of a two in three set that is very tough to prepare a team to offend against.
Great wings you just push out three feet farther and their 3pta percentage declines proportionally, while you take more short treys.
But a good shooting point guard, as Sherron and Frank have proved, and as Devonte has shown a few times already, can make u pay big time with drive’n’dish and fouls if you force them out. Leave a great shooter alone and they kill you. Remember the Michigan PG? Ugh!!! Thus fine PGs on a good night are probably Self’s toughest out and so he blows smoke about stretch fours that go off but that he finds ways to beat just the same.
You can put a Trae Young any where, point, wing point, even base line (for quick come out and initiate, something Jack Hartman did a little with Walt Frazier at SIU), and he hurts you and makes stops almost impossible.
But remember how all Great point guards look the first time they see something new? Human. Stopping a PG is a recognition game.
Remember what Izzy did to Sherron one game? It was beautifully simple. He brought his high post out to force Sherron to his weak hand. Self never adjusted. Sherron was stopped cold for a full half. Sweet.
Lon knows Self so well, because they are both Okie Ballers, that Lon will be able to prep Trae for most of what Self will try defensively. Thus, Self WILL have to come up with a wrinkle for Trae.
At the same time, Self has the perfect weapon to preoccupy Trae on defense: Devonte and the weave.
KU should attack Trey Young for stretches of 3-4 straight possessions, then look inside for Doke the 5th possession and drive Svi, then back to attack Trae 4 possessions on the weave.
Why on the weave? The point of the weave is to force Trae to switch onto Vick or Newman and then overpower Trae on the drive. PG’s feel persecuted after guarding guys with 3-4 inches on them. They love attacking big guys, but only the most strong willed don’t hate guarding bigger guys. And Trae will likely never have experienced this at D1 levels of speed, strength and skill.
Weave for size edge and drive Trae to iron again and again and he WILL crack. Then let Devonte finish him off with Treys.
In turn Trae’s offense will suffer for sure. Put him down hard a time or two as well. Anyone can be cracked. ANYONE!
But can Self still come up with a new defensive wrinkle at Self’s age? Marlon Brando said we all only have so many faces in our pockets to pull out for the Audience. At some point you’ve got nothing new to use.
Go, Bill, go!!!
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@jaybate-1.0 Sweet dude! I like your takes on how to beat Trae.
p.s. I just watched a WWII movie… Dunkirk. Pretty awesome. Made me wonder when we might see you post a war history lesson in relation to KU basketball again? I love that stuff.
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Thx for the Dunkirk rec. I have wondered about it.
I expect things will get rolling shortly and heroism by players and circumstance will inspire one!
