Jay Williams at half time, "Batman has no Robin."
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When it looked like KU was about to experience it’s worst loss in a very long time, the halftime boys at ESPN were delivering a eulogy for the streak. Seth Greenberg had long ago jumped ship on the Jayhawks as many did when we lost our 3rd game at home vs.Tech.
But Jay offered some intelligence. “Graham has no Robin.” Last year, Batman, (Mason) had Robin, (Devonte) and still we lost again at WVU. Newman is not Robin. We hope he can be, But with the exception of ISU, he’s not been there. With Doke in the game, I feel so much better about this team. But what has given me a confident smile is how we won. I liked Keegan’s post game quote where he said, “KU feels uncomfortable not being at the top of the Big 12, and all the other teams feel uncomfortable being at the top.” It takes courage to decide to be a winner. This is like the Conner Teahan group in the National Championship game. This is the Lunch Bucket Brigade. From now on, I expect the Jayhawks to win. Nothing will be easy, and this year is much, much harder than other years, but I will expect the Hawks to win. Yesterday, I didn’t have that feeling for the first time in 14 years.
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We lost Greenberg years ago. Actually I’m pretty sure he’s lost in general. Imagine Seth & Dan Dakitch calling a game together… The audience would need brain surgery
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All the announcers appear to recognize KU is not getting its share of players, and that their own ratings depend on stroking EST eyeballs. They all jump ship on KU ASAP. It’s SOP after all these years.
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I liked how Williams pointed out our high school dunk moves on defense. Someone, besides me, needed to do that. Very humiliating amateurish play that does nothing but spark our opponents.
In this case… I think it worked in our favor since we played a great game of “rope a dope.” But, in general, we need to start playing like D1 players when it comes to finishing at the rim.
No more one-armed dunk attempts on defense! Time to use two hands and stop telegraphing the path of the dunk. Go at the rim with strength and draw the foul while half the time finishing the dunk, too. This current method of pretending our guys are on an open-court highlights slamfest has got to STOP! Enough with the humiliation!
This is Basketball 101.
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Who needs Batman when you have Superman.
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Batman has LaCobra.
And Malik is finding his way.
While the talking heads focus on what KU lacks, Self and his Players are busy becoming the best they can be.
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@jaybate-1.0 I saw some promising signs from Malik. He still has a way to go, but I thought his defense was much better and he wanted the ball in the last minute when WV had to foul.
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…and he took a bunch of valuable of time off the clock with WVU players chasing him.
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Man I tell you what. - -I know that Mitch by far is not the most talented, not the biggest BUT - - the kid has fire in his gut. - I mean just like the rebound and the put back with like a minute that was called goal tending was huge - -and the fire the edge he has - his whole reaction - the emotion -I love that from the kid.
I might just be blind, maybe just totally me - but man does this kid try and always gives 100 % seems to me anyways - -he has made plays in some crucial times this year -giving it his all - I can tell just how much he loves to play -how he loves KU -these kind of kids - these are what I want to help our depth.
Man if we could get him to red shirt - and I feel the redshirt just for bulk, because as been mentioned countless times with him playing out of position - I think believe it or not - -I think the kid has OVER achieved all things considered put some girth/bulk on him so he isn’t getting pushed around - pretty decent shot blocker - -ya give me some more of that. - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@wrwlumpy If that 1st picture is the stare Doke gave, yeah, maybe I can see the T. But I think it was a different play, and his glare was not so animated.
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They were saying this same stuff 7 years ago.
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Only a$$ clown and MU homer Jack Harry was selling KU that short. Of course KU made sure to bit** smack little Jack. Remember he also called KU fans “gayhawks”? No one misses Jack.
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@mayjay basketball nation take notice… Don’t stoke the Doke!
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Newman is a mystery for me right now. He’s not playing poorly, but he is not shooting the ball well at all. I am somewhat concerned about the after affects of his concussion. He’s 11-36 from three since he returned from the concussion. He was 17-45 before the concussion. He’s 14-19 from the line since the injury, which is still pretty good, but he was a perfect 11-11 before that.
I just don’t know if Malik is 100% right now. I hope he is, because concussions are serious, but he doesn’t seem quite right with the way he is playing right now. He’s just a little bit off right now.
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He is playing against better competition now so the averages are bound to be lower.
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@justanotherfan I felt like he has played better since the concussion tbh.
His real problem, his shooting form is not good, and he doesn’t know how to attack the basket against 6’9 guys who can jump.
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Bet on the concussion.
It also appears Self is massaging his role into a the guy who drives it late in games and sits as much as Self can afford the rest of the game. It seems like Malik is becoming this teams 6th man even when he plays starter sized minutes. He is supposed to come in when we aren’t running the offense anymore and go get baskets. This sort of role would make his average fall also. His shots are created, instead of the offense shaking him loose for some looks.
Its pretty apparent that Self decided to let Malik be Malik and stop trying to bang him into the team player role. He did something similar with Andrew Wiggins. Wigs and Malik share something similar. They are not ball hogs so much as great athletes that really can go get baskets against almost any D1 defender. And when Self tries to get them to let the offense come to them they get tentative, because it is literally not clear to such players when to pass and when to impact. Unlike other players, they see a floor where they could impact every touch. So then they just start passing the ball and not getting involved enough in the offense. Self obviously struggles with coming up with a workable shooting heuristic that allows them to blend AND impact. After mid season, in both players’ cases, Self finally just crafted roles where they could more or less go get baskets anytime they felt like it. Wiggins had the green light full time and played full time because he was a fine defender and did just did so many things well even at only 2/3 speed. Malik is not quite as overwhelmingly talented, but he’s pretty darned good in go get a basket mode. So: Self is literally putting him in games when he wants Malik to go get baskets, and he sits Malik for Garrett when ever Self wants more offensive flow; i.e., when he wants to ball to keep moving. I was pretty confused about what Self was doing until the KSU game sunk in. But it happened again vs.WVU. It appears the last 5-8 minutes of games our offense defaults largely to either create and impact, or catch and shoot. It actually makes quite a bit of sense, considering the abilities of Devonte, LaCobra, Malik and Svi. They are kind of a scary bunch when they are impacting or in catch and shoot modes. Mix in an occasional cut or back door to our bigs and you’ve got a late game stew to serve for all opponents.
But I believe the concussion is lurking as an issue. Malik is still not quite as freewheeling as he was; that’s a signal to me that those landings after creating shake the brain meat in its hammock still and it doesn’t always feel good.
