Texas Down, Four to Go Until Morgantown
-
KUSTEVE said:
@jaybate-1.0 When Texas went to the zone, I absolutely loved the Vick pass to Svi in the corner. This wasn’t Washington, where Vick looked really confused what to do in the middle of that zone. The second Vick got the ball in the middle, he instantly whipped the ball to Svi, which was a wide open 3. Now that is growth.
||| it was an act of beauty!! Houston, we have learning!!! AND that’s one of the great joys of being a fan, too—getting to the point of being able to see and share these kinds of learning moments by players and teams. Getting better is the greatest feeling in the world. It’s why we keep getting up in the morning instead of shooting ourselves.
It’s why THE WEEK OF GETTING BETTER between SEMESTERS is so sacred and thrilling to me. I thank Self for teaching me the week of getting better more than anything else but the 83% W&L and the ring.
And did u see Svi shaking Malik’s hand and meaning it after the free throw down the stretch, even though Malik bone headed and forgot we were playing the clock!!! Malik isn’t out of the woods yet. Republics and individuals aren’t rebuilt in a day. But by god him playing that game with his bell rung and enabling the team to win it with Svi’s last shot; THAT is the stuff that’s teams are made from!!! Svi saw past the head case to the human being that is like him underneath!!! And Malik finally did something OTHER than shoot (which is what he is supposed to do) that the other guys can point to and say: he’s not just a head case—he’s really one of us gutting it out in the trenches!!
It was all beautiful!
And Self was finally fiery at long last!!
Go, Bill, go!!!
-
@HighEliteMajor Some great commentary here. I was fortunate to be at this game. I’d like to make one comment about Mohamed Bamba. I have never seen a kid with such incredible blocking skills. The kid is only a freshman, he was an absolute load to handle and looks very smooth for a Freshman. He is a better shot blocker than Jeff W. I don’t see very many teams winning at TX, if we were not hot from 3 point line KU would have lost this game as we had no answer for Bamba.
-
BeddieKU23 said:
I don’t think Newman fits on this team. He just doesn’t seem to gel with anyone, there is zero rhythm in anything he does. It’s the biggest disappointment to this team right now. Id say Preston but he’s barely apart of the team as it is. Let me ask this question. Has Newman made one play all season where you were like oh wow that’s nice? I watched him in particular last night and he picks and chooses where to exert effort. Some plays his defense is stellar, some plays offensively he makes the right read, pass etc but they is very little consistent effort in his game. If I was Self I’d be trying figure how to motivate him.
I like bringing him off the bench, I think he’s shown he’s not a starter in 13 games yet. Garrett just fits better with our other 3 guards right now. Garrett rebounds, defends and moves the ball as well as anyone on the team. Important that he continues to do those things
I think he is clashing with Self a bit plus apparently he has a foot injury.
-
AsadZ said:
@HighEliteMajor Some great commentary here. I was fortunate to be at this game. I’d like to make one comment about Mohamed Bamba. I have never seen a kid with such incredible blocking skills. The kid is only a freshman, he was an absolute load to handle and looks very smooth for a Freshman. He is a better shot blocker than Jeff W. I don’t see very many teams winning at TX, if we were not hot from 3 point line KU would have lost this game as we had no answer for Bamba.
Imagine Bamba with 50 more pounds, which is going to happen naturally.
Bamba is as incredible a prospect as Embiid—maybe even better. Insanely good!
Azuibuke is turning into something marvelous too.
Azuibuke and Bamba in the same conference make the B12 the toughest conference in the country to win, regardless of the cupcake preconference schedule.
By March, sans injury, Bamba and Azuibuke are going to dominate college basketball. Add WVU and TCU and the B12 in February is going to be an absolute bloodbath of survival combat. I now see why Self is talking about a winner having 5 Losses as feasible. I didn’t see Bamba and Azuibuke developing this fast.
-
@jaybate-1.0 I concur, with 50 lbs. of muscle he will be a monster, I would not be surprised if he is a top 5 pick in next year’s draft.
-
Had a great time and was good to see all the KU fans. Went to Scholz Garten about 4:30 and 2 older couples from Houston sat at my table. They had been to the 08 championship game and so walked with them to see the team bus come in at 6:00. Told them about the team coming out after the game for autographs and we went our merry way. Ended up sitting to an engineer living in Austin, who had played against Mario in Anchorage and went to KU because of Mario. He had a college buddy who also grad. KU. On the other side was a freshman at KU home with his Mom from Houston and he had on a #4 old time jersey. We were a boisterous crowd. Before the game started I was down near the court and gots lots of pictures during shoot around. Malik was limping the whole time. It was noticeable. Gary Bedore saw me from the press box and came down to say Hi. I told him we would win by 8 but that we were going to win. We talked BPreston and Gary said money needed to be paid back and that for now nobody had the money to pay back. Silvio was right in front of us and I welcomed him to Jayhawk Nation and he said THANKS. Guys were hitting all their 3’s during warmups so had a feeling they were zoned in. Reason Marcus started is because of Malik’s foot I believe. Went up to talk with Jesse and then saw Matt Tait on my way behind where Hanni and Gurley were. I padded Gurley on the shoulder and not realizing they were on the air I told him to call a win and he shushed me. Signed 5 mins. Oh Boy. So I went and sat down. The little towels they handed out that said BEAT KU I took my sharpie and wrote “IN YOUR DREAMS” below it and got a few boos for that.
Seeing the game in person is a lot different than watching them on tv for sure. No replays of one of our 3s on the video boards but had to see the Bamba dunks over and over. I am glad that we played UT last night and not later in the season here because they will get better but it was pretty evident that UT does not have another reliable perimeter shooter. Here is what the long time sports writer in Austin wrote (Kirk Bohls):
"Posted December 30th, 2017 Story highlights Kansas coach Bill Self was so impressed with the defensive prowess of Texas’ Mo Bamba that he thought he blocked the sun. The Jayhawks’ three best players are all shooting better than 44 percent behind the line; Texas has just one near that in the still-recovering Andrew Jones Shaka Smart wants to see more aggressiveness out of Dylan Osetkowski, more rebounding from his guards. The always-competitive, highly charged Big 12 basketball race will end probably as it began on Friday night. With Kansas on top. It’s as certain as the sun rising in the east. You know the sun. The one that Bill Self said he could have sworn he saw Mo Bamba block at the Erwin Center in the league opener. The Texas center didn’t, of course, but maybe only because it was a night game. He did block everything else. “That guy could have blocked the sun tonight,” said Self, whose Jayhawks embarked successfully on a journey that may well lead to an absurd 14th consecutive conference championship in March that should embarrass the rest of the league. “What was that, a solar or lunar eclipse we had a few months ago?” Bamba was arguably the best player on the court in this league opener, what with two blocks shy of a spectacular triple double in a 22-point, 15-rebound, eight-block Big 12 debut. He’s good. Problem was, the next five best players were wearing Kansas uniforms."
"Shaka Smart doesn’t dare tell his team to attempt that many for fear some of the fans in the first row might require medical attention from errant shots. Texas’ offensive deficiencies will likely cement it to a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 place, and even that high only if the Longhorns become defensive gnats. Smart has seven players with an accuracy of 31 percent or worse behind the line with Andrew Jones the only competent shooter at 43 percent. Texas, meanwhile, has vacillated between a very promising team that can beat a Butler or an Alabama team on the road and an offensively challenged squad that can look downright awful and managed to beat a 5-7 Tennessee State team by a single point on a late Matt Coleman floater. That was the same Tennessee State team that Kansas manhandled 92-56 in its season opener. OK then. In short, it’s a sizable gap between an 11-2 Kansas team and a 9-4 Texas club that must refocus quickly with a road date at Iowa State on Monday. That matchup might represent the Longhorns’ best chance of stealing an away victory if Smart’s bunch has any hopes of finishing 9-9 and harboring ambitions of making the NCAA Tournament after a one-year absence. Smart’s not looking nearly that far on the horizon and shouldn’t. But he knows full well how treacherous the Big 12 is with eight other league teams with an RPI in the top 47 and five of them in the top 25. “The gap tonight was six points on the scoreboard,” said Smart the literalist. “In the standings, they’re 1-0, and we’re 0-1.” And in reality, Kansas is a loaded team that has three players who can scorch the nets night after night, and Texas never knows where it’s next perimeter shot is going to come from. It needs more rebounding from its guards, more crucial stops and fewer empty possessions."
I like the hustle from Marcus and think the offense will come. Doke several times put his hand to his back and think that he didn’t attempt to block more because of the strain on his back. Hudy spent a lot of time in warmups stretching him. I looked at box score and told my seat mates “Look Vick has a quiet 21 points.” He was lethal. Devonte’ shined and don’t know if you caught him flashing the “T” sign after Higgins hit Smart. He was just walking away past midcourt and with hands down by his thighs did it twice. That’s why most of the fans booed the call. I yelled at Higgins a couple of times. Except for the goaltends not being called and Roach nocking Devonte across the face and him going down (there was a gasp by us) there were a lot less fouls than I had assumed would be called with Higgins out there. Used my binoculars to watch Coach during time outs. He was really after the guys but after Devonte’ stared down Bamba he was laughing. Silvio sat behind the team bench next to the cop guarding the bench. Never saw CMoore or the Lawson bros. On Sam not playing, I chalk it up to he hasn’t earned the trust from Coach yet. We know Coach will use PT as incentive for other goals so I’ll leave it at that. Mitch really is someone who has the right intentions and desire but he is not strong enough yet. He is as enthusiastic as all others when on the bench but you can see the disappointment in his face when he gets yanked. Toughens them up doesn’t it?
So after the game the kid with the #4 jersey and his mom followed me to get autographs and I let the kid use my sharpie to get Devonte’ to sign his jersey. Made his year he said. He showed me a selfie he had taken with Devonte’ in the cafeteria and had gotten to go to a workout with Hudy. Kid was a fan. As we were leaving the restaurant I grabbed a Jayhawk from one of the tables and gave it to one of the ladies (with an extra sharpie I had brought). Malik was the first one out and I asked him “I saw you limping in warmups. Is it your ankle?” He said “No, just my foot but we all good.” Teahan and Suskind next, then Silvio who had a lot of attention, then Doke (he is big), Svi, Mitch, and so on till Devonte’ was last and then Snacks, Coach T, Coach R, Coach Q and when HSBS came out everyone cheered and Rock Chalked. I waited for my turn with Coach and said my name and that I was the one who wrote to his assistant each year. He is so gracious taking the time for each of us. Wished him as well as all the other players when I got their autographs a HAPPY NEW YEAR. Justin Wesleey was there by the bus. It was DARKKKK - almost 11:00 by then and when I asked Devonte’ for a selfie he had to show me how to do it. Svi looked much bigger to me than I remembered. I told Vick that I loved his momma’s tweets. Bus departed at 11:10. Listened to the local sports talk when I got in my car and they were at the tale end of their show but they felt that “since we only lost to KU by 6” that it was a moral victory. Hoo Boy. Can’t wait to watch Shaka on the 6:00 pm sports spin it like in the article above.
Well Jayhawk fans. As I told Gay Bedore, Jesse and my seat mates, HCBS is going to EARN his money this year. I am so impressed how well he is able to take what talent he has and get us to where we are now. I gotta believe that this team has the players that do NOT want to end the streak and regardless of your views on how important conf. wins are vs. a national championship, it is a “pride” thing and a motivator and can’t wait to see how the ride ends up for us.
Hopefully pictures to come in another post.
-
@dylans It might not be conventional wisdom, but it might be wise to run clock on the road when you have a team with hardly any subs, your best shooter has 3 or 4 fouls, and your best big guy has 3 fouls and a bad back.
-
Going to have to spend some time downsizing my photos as they exceed the allotted space requirements. Forgot to add that when Silvio was signing my stuff, I asked him when he was going to play and he said “Tuesday.” When Billy signed, I told him we were all praying for him and several chimed in the same. He said he was ready to get this behind him so we will see. Gary actually said that their is also the part about “who the car belonged to issue” that hadn’t been resolved, but said team is optimistic both will be free on Tues. when the NCAA offices open again after the break. Rewatching the game I heard Bilas pretty much say the same thing.
-
@RockChalkinTexas thx!
-
@jaybate-1.0 imagine if he was playing for Coach Self?
-
Flat out best game report by any of us ever!!!
The pro journos would be envious of what you turned out that looked so effortless and flowed so well.
Lucky us for having you at the game!!!
-
Ring time!
-
@jaybate-1.0 Bamba would have more posts moves
-
Instead, clueless Shaka gets Bamba.
-
Great stuff. Love hearing this up close side of things
So what your saying about Preston is he needs to pay back money to get eligible and they don’t have it? Sad Situation.
-
@BeddieKU23 Yep. That was the gist of what Gary said. OK. Here are the pics. from pregame. Just throwing them out there for anyone who cares to see things a little up and close by a fellow Bucketeer and a few pics from the local press. We had several “floor burns” and was good to see. One other observation - Sam did work out with the starters while Doke worked with Clay, Chris et al. I think you can see from these that Malik stayed in warm ups throughout and looked lackluster (imo).
-
(Matt Tait in the background)
-
-
Who likes short shorts? I like short shorts!
And the 4 people I met at the restaurant are in this picture in the row in the stands. Small world. ROCK CHALK!!
-
Boog Sciambi has gained A LOT of weight.
I took this pic off of the ESPN monitor!
-
Me and Gary
New board
Devonte’ getting interviewed post game
HaHaHaHaHaHaHa
That’s it folks. I’ll have to try and figure out how to get a few from my phone to here. Off to watch Duke. The 4 I met are supposed to email me some of their pictures. They had iphones - I have crappy old one.
Happy New Year KU Buckets! May 2018 be a healthy one for all Jayhawks. I’ve been through a lot this past year and owe you all a big thanks for getting me through it with all your love and support.
-
@jaybate-1-0 Slow down on the Bamba = Embiid comparisons! He did that against a team with only one other big. Impressive sure, but we were already seeing signs of Joels footwork which far exceeds Bambi’s, even when Joel was a frosh!
-
@RockChalkinTexas that’s what friends are for! You make it easy! Thx for making the game fun for us too! Happy healthy new year to you too!
-
wissox said:
@jaybate-1-0 Slow down on the Bamba = Embiid comparisons! He did that against a team with only one other big. Impressive sure, but we were already seeing signs of Joels footwork which far exceeds Bambi’s, even when Joel was a frosh!
Bamba is not close to Embiid on offense.
-
To which I respond:
9 feet 6 inch wing span.
If this measurement is accurate, everything has changed but the way we think!!
He is every bit as good as Joel was at the same age. He just has a ka-ka coach.
Forget whether he is better. He is just an awesome player and along with Azuibuke and Embiid forms a triad of Big Man Era 6.0 to add to Walker.
1.0 Mikan, Lovellette and Kurland
2.0 Russell, Chamberlain, Thurmond
3.0 Jabbar, Walton Gilmore
4.0 Malone Olajuwon, Parrish, Ewing, Robinson, Sampson
5.0 Shaquille, Duncan, Nowitzki, Manning (4.0 and 5.0 kind of run together)
6.0 Davis, Embiid, Bamba, Azuibuke
-
@jaybate-1.0 Bamba is at or above Unibrow level lane protection.
-
mayjay said:
@dylans It might not be conventional wisdom, but it might be wise to run clock on the road when you have a team with hardly any subs, your best shooter has 3 or 4 fouls, and your best big guy has 3 fouls and a bad back.
Actually what you describe is conventional thinking, its how everyone does it, I just think its wrong. I’d take the layup. It’s how you built the lead, why pass up points? Prevent D in the NFL is bull too.
Any points you score makes the clock that much more in your favor. I’m not saying jack up shots early on the clock, just take any easy buckets the d gives you until you can actually dribble out the clock.
I love it when with 5 minuets left the other team stops doing what works and goes to running clock it gives us a fantastic chance to come back.
-
I really enjoyed your post, almost like being there.
-
@dylans Good ideas, provided we had access to layups, easy or otherwise.
-
@jaybate-1.0 Speaking of learning, Doke went into the locker at half time and the pre-game plan of using his roll to the middle jump hook was wiped out by Stretch Armstrong. Doke became Kevin McHale and did the up and under thing to give him his daily double-double. He was rebounding much better. He’s getting better and better and better and better…
-
@mayjay both of which were hard to come by last night
-
@wrwlumpy tougher!
-
@wrwlumpy Yes, there was a halftime adjustment that allowed our lead to stretch to comfortable levels. A lot of it had to do with Dokes improved play.
-
Doke is really skilled in the post. Soft touch. Great footwork.
-
@HighEliteMajor Been a while since we could throw the ball to a post player and he took care of the ball and scored using multiple finishes.
-
I agree on Sam. The kid is good, really good. We just have too many guards. Although, Coach might want to think about giving him some more minutes regardless so our 35+ minute guys can get a breather every now and again and maybe reduce their chances for getting “knicked up” towards the end of the season when we really need them on court.
Garrett over Newman. I doubt it’ll be a thing every game. Coach Self is probly just doing what he has always done. Bit of “toughening box” Newman is good, really good. I expect that he will start more often than not.
Their biggest problem, to my untrained eyes, against the press is getting it in bounds. It takes them longer to in bound it than to break the press down. We don’t have Frank anymore. I think they’ll get better at press breaking. They’ll have to!
Udoka IS a beast, that’s no stuff. But Bamba has him beat on quite a few things. I’m not trying to jump on the Texas band wagon. I’m just merely stating that Bamba is better than Dok at this point. I’m pretty sure Bamba is a top 3 lotto pick. Dok still has a bit more work to do.
I loved our zone against Texas, I loved our trey shooting. MY GOD SVI can really knock it down! I think he may have went unconscious a time or two.
I know I saw Udoka block AT LEAST one shot yet he did not get credit for it in the box score… WTF!?
We gotta win at WVU. Freekin Huggy bear just called OU the best team in the Big 12. I mean, he might be right, but still. Its insulting.
- “Frank Mason - I know, the Texas game is what I’m talking about. But he got his second start tonight. Best PG in KU history. Hang his jersey in the rafters now.”
Yep. Do it.
Rock Chalk!
-
@Gunman that’s why the ASU game is so frustrating to me. He is a matchup advantage against everyone not named Bamba and Bagley and we barely used him in that game.
-
@HighEliteMajor Thanks for expanding on press break and breaking strategies. Quite informative.
-
HawkChamp said:
@Gunman that’s why the ASU game is so frustrating to me. He is a matchup advantage against everyone not named Bamba and Bagley and we barely used him in that game.
At least the team seems to be feeding Doke more lately.
-
@BShark yes and it will make us a better team going forward. Then with Billy and Silvio…
-
@RockChalkinTexas Loved your report. Hope all is well in Austin.
-
BeddieKU23 said:
Has Newman made one play all season where you were like oh wow that’s nice? I watched him in particular last night and he picks and chooses where to exert effort. Some plays his defense is stellar, some plays offensively he makes the right read, pass etc but there is very little consistent effort in his game. If I was Self I’d be trying figure how to motivate him.
I had the same thought last night, so I started looking for it. There was a decent dunk in transition I appreciated. But it was the expected play. Between this thought and I think @cragarhawk throwing out the Langford comp and the knowledge that 2 top 10 guys are coming in next year I’m concerned Malik is smack dab in the middle of the triangle of stress, injury and despair, and is far far away from being what he could be. I think he might get be a really good player I just don’t know that it can happen at Kansas.
-
I STILL have faith in Malik.
-
@HawkChamp He’s not the same player.
-
2 plays in particular stood out in the game in regards to Malik against Texas.
I’ll start with the bad, the play where he drove to the hoop and bamba swatted the ball into the 15th row of the stands, doke is standing there all alone for a dunk but Newman still decides to try and float a shot over him. Selfish play in my honest opinion. Thats not a player buying in to the team. He knows Bamba is going to block it but he does it anyway. That would have been a oh WOW play.
Now to the other play. Newman is guarding the pg at the top of the key. Bamba comes for a ball screen, malik fights through showing great lateral quickness, even though malik gets through the screen well our defender hedges in to stop penetration, at this point Roach is open for a 3, Newman correctly sprints to him instinctly to contest the shot and forces a bad miss that leads to a 3 pointer in transition at the other end. It was a great display of defense leading to offense that can be quickly forgotten if your not looking for that detail
Obviously he’s not playing great and there could be a bunch of reasons why. All we can hope is he finds a way to turn it around
-
@BeddieKU23 There’s another Malik play that stands out to me. Tejas makes the bucket, and presses. Malik gets the inbound, and tries to dribble through a double team instead of passing to our wide open player standing near half court. He waits until the double team is closing in on him, then tries to pass over them, which gets blocked. As I recall, that was the only turnover their press created. If he handles the press the same way against WVU, we’ll get slaughtered.
-
Crimsonorblue22 said:
I STILL have faith in Malik.
I do too…he will shake this off. Maybe not all league…but he will be better. I love his smooth drives to the basket…he needs to do that more often.
-
We need Malik healthy and playing closer to his potiental for ku to be a major threat. Heck, we need the entire team playing close to its potiental for six games to have a chance to win it all. One bad shooting nigh5 and it’s all over. This team doesn’t hang it’s hat on d.
-
dylans said:
We need Malik healthy and playing closer to his potiental for ku to be a major threat. Heck, we need the entire team playing close to its potiental for six games to have a chance to win it all. One bad shooting nigh5 and it’s all over. This team doesn’t hang it’s hat on d.
It’s kind of amazing the record is as good as it is with Malik being close to a non-factor. He was supposed to be one of our top 3 players.
-
@BShark @dylans Malik hasn’t been great but he hasn’t been that bad, averages 10.4 ppg (5th on team) and 4.8 rpg (4th on team) all while shooting a sub par 44% from the field and 36% from 3. But he his shooting 94% from the line, he needs to work on his shot and knowing when to pass for a better (averaging just .5 assists per game) shot. Most of his issues are correctable, he’s probably not ever gonna be the top 5 recruit he was rated but he is a very important player for this team going forward. I think you’ll see him start to play better here as the season keeps going. Having an ankle issue and a concussion definitely hasn’t helped, his worse game was after his concussion vs Nebraska but we don’t beat UK without him and Texas would’ve been tougher without him.
