Junkyard Dog Award



  • 0_1515532553733_junkyarddog.jpg

    I think we need to recognize hustle on this team. One player should earn the Junkyard Dog Award for each game, unless no one steps up.



  • Mitch Lightfoot was the clear winner last game. You could forget that win without Mitch! His game was H U G E !



  • The BIFM junkyard dog of the game award. And yes. ML



  • #BIML



  • DG was throwing his body around pretty darn good too!



  • @Crimsonorblue22 it’s true he was. And I believe it was his award under normal circumstances. Perhaps some of the luster of giving to ML has to do with the somewhat surprising stat line. Not that we shouldn’t think he is capable of that. Just for all his effort this far it hasn’t produced results quite like that until now



  • Newman last night? His effort stood out



  • There ain’t any junk yard dogs on this team. How about the “Cute Little Puppy Who Licks Your Face” award?



  • @BeddieKU23

    I’m with you!

    Malik Newman… he really came through last night!

    This wasn’t just a single game where he stepped up. He had been working hard to help his team for quite some time. For example… he has been perhaps our best sealer for the boards in several games.

    He is feeling more comfortable. And you can see it in so many ways. In his first few games this year, he was totally out of control on his drives and he couldn’t finish at the rim.

    He is starting to learn how to finish right. He slowed down enough so he can have more options on his drives. Wow… that one drive where he changed directions at the end was really sweet!

    Once again… Self is proving his decision to be correct. He has had lots of patience with Malik and extremely supportive. We are starting to see the payoff there!

    Malik still has a long ways to go. But that is a good thing! He has so far to go because he has so much upside! We have only just begun to see what he can do!



  • Gotta go w/dg. Feel like he was beat w/a bat by every tcu player and manager 3 days ago, and hung in there to hit HUGE clutch shots at the end! Those steals, passes and shots!



  • nuleafjhawk said:

    There ain’t any junk yard dogs on this team. How about the “Cute Little Puppy Who Licks Your Face” award?

    DG still looks like he did as a freshman. When he tries to glower, I just want to pick him up and give him a hug like the little boy in my avatar. He is far tougher than he looks, for sure.

    Compare the DG stare to the BIFM glare–yikes!



  • Garrett.

    Then guys redshirting on the bench like KJ and Dedric…



  • My first comment seeing the thread title might’ve been a snide comment like “none”, but then I recall the lack of depth & the fact Devonté may be dinged up. But then we recall we played 4+1 last year also, and we witnessed just how tough TheRealBIFM was. As was Josh Jackson. Newman, Garrett, Sammy on steeeep learning curve. Malik may have just turned the corner.

    Maybe we get Preston & DeSousa playing, then maybe a certain 7ft, 270lb kid would consider playing like a junkyard Trex? Right now, he strikes fear in exactly no one. Getting sealed off on rbds and for opposing layups. Not a OAD, not living up to that level of performance yet.



  • @Ralster

    The rebounding is so effin’ frustrating. Rebounding is all about boxing out and getting in position and other than Garret , who seems to have a nose for it, nobody else seems to know how or care to do it; if Mason was playing, he would be the leading rebounder this year and would not even be close



  • @drgnslayr

    He helped win us the game as Mitch did the previous game. I’m happy he finally had a game where he looked comfortable in his own skin and with his teammates. Without his heroics on both ends KU loses. I respect and applaud his effort and play in last night’s game.

    Looking at this outside my KU blinders I would say this was the type of game that Malik should have played well. ISU isn’t a good defensive team, ISU doesn’t have long athletic guards to bother him and for good chunks of the game ISU was guarding Malik with a 6’9 freshman. Newman benefited greatly from playing ISU and being able to get by a big man who had no chance of stopping him.

    I think the talk that Self mentioned with him was more then just positive reinforcement. I think Self hit a cord about his effort, he was a completely different person last night. There was spring in his step, he didn’t hesitate to take shots and seeing shots go down gave him confidence. His junkyard dog moment of the night was that block on the 3 pointer at the end of the game. Not easy to do without fouling and requires great instinct. That was the one play I would be congratulating him about. That was the best play he’s made all year. I almost mentioned a few rebounds he got in traffic or the nice step back 3 he had in the 2nd half but the block stands out with me. Scoring has always came easy for him but effort and being a complete player have always been things coaches have been searching for him to find.

    If the ISU game was the light switch going on its possibly the best thing that can happen going forward. I hope we see the same effort Saturday, I know I’ll be watching for it



  • @JayHawkFanToo 100% agreed. I honestly thought this B- version of the CyClowns was going to get us in AFH. Svi looked lost on D, too often caught in no mans land. Opponents shed like sheep our defenders with simple ballscreens—another “fleecing” in AFH, no less. We hit key 3s only to allow the Clones to answer every KU run. This is ROYball (score 90s, pretty transition, not a lick or “shuck” of D, & get beat when shots not falling, & watch Self get beet). Self ball 101 for this team is that bball is played on both ends of the court, “make the other guy ugly on offense”, to quote Jankovich in about 2007, quoting Bill Self.

    Im so sick & tired of this circus sideshow of bigs who cant play for whatever reason. Its like we only get to window shop them, don’t actually get them. Even Embiid was a test drive only.

    We are also reminded tha true alphas just arent dime-a-dozen. Rebounding by committee can very easily degenerate into “oops, I thought he was going for that rbd”. Eventhough we lost to Oregon, Frank & Josh battling for same rebound shows the mentality they were wired with. I love Garrett but he’s just a baby yet. Adding DeSousa and Preston completely changes this team, the rotations, the energy level, and both onball, offball, & rim defense. More height by natural post players could help quick, as its more natural for them in the post play game.



  • Seriously, the BIFMDog Award is still lockdown by Frank…he put that crown at an even higher perch than where Sherron or RussRob left it. Notice I refrain from using the term lockdown with any of current roster, although DTae & Garrett are reasonably close…

    Meanwhile, we about to get BoomedprettySoon by Trae Young, as he tries to slice, dice, dime, & shoot us to death, be it in OK, KU, KC…(might as well add Africa…). Does anybody think our 4-5 guards can do to OU what PressVa did to OU? (I didn’t think so, but we can hope.

    No nervous laughter from me, as I wouldnt want the numerals “14” to come flying out of mouth and get lost between the crevices of our own bleachers at AFH.



  • Got to go with Devonte in this game. He turned the corner on his bad start and took the team along with him.

    Doke probably would have won JYD had he stayed on the floor. That technical foul was a rip off and someone should bring a formal complaint to the NCAA. Opening up calling T’s on guys who just stare at someone from 25 feet away means blowing the whistle every single play.

    Meanwhile… a WVU player jammed the ball and put his face right back into one of our guys face… no call.

    The officiating was marginal…

    Sure am enjoying Doke’s progress. He has something new to show us in every game. And now we are seeing him with big time emotions… emotions is what we need from our guys! Doke just has to turn his emotions into positive results instead of getting flagged for bogus technicals or where he makes a bad foul out of anger. Doke will learn. He seems to learn everything quickly!

    Nice to see Svi get back into the game after he had several consecutive bad plays. He’s a guy who just keeps bringing game even after a few bad moments. Vick should learn something from Svi on that. Play through mistakes and missed shots.

    Malik didn’t have a great game, but he was often our biggest fighter on 50/50 balls and rebounds. His game has come along nicely, he just didn’t have a great game.

    Silvio showed some bright spots. I still can’t believe this guy is only out of high school for a couple of weeks and he made an impact in Morgantown! Wow, is he going to be a big Jayhawk asset! Did you all see him drive in the post and just stiff arm Konate out of the way (while drawing a foul on Konate)? He moved Konate out like he was a praying mantis… It was fun watching Konate whine to the refs about physical play! Ha!

    ALL of our guys need to learn how to dunk on defense. That was pathetic. Kudos to Jay Williams for talking about how KU gifts over blocked shots to other teams. Heck… anyone could have blocked those shots… blindfolded! Very amateurish play, more like high school. And all it did was stoke the passion for WVU. Maybe that was the plan…



  • @drgnslayr

    Svi has matured a ton as a senior. When he missed shots earlier in his career it affected his entire game including that silky smooth shot. Now he’s learned to put the last play behind him and still make an impact. Its great seeing what he’s become when he’s locked in. His best play might have been that drive to the hoop late in the game, that’s an aggressive play we are not accustomed to seeing from him.



  • @BeddieKU23

    I noticed KU is driving a lot more than it did before and not relying on the 3 as much; only 23 attempts from the 3 last night.



  • @JayHawkFanToo Bingo. A good balance is the key. Attacking the hoop is critical. And it makes our shooting that much more effective.



  • @HighEliteMajor

    Absolutely and it makes the team less predictable and harder to plan a defense like Washington, Arizona State and Tech. did.



  • @JayHawkFanToo

    I give two thumbs up, just like you and HEM! More drives means our guys are finally playing more aggressive. Not afraid to “mix it up” concerning physicality.

    And this should be a START of more aggressive play. We still have a ways to go. We caught a tired Mountaineer team who returned home exhausted after their road loss, and then we had them spend all their energy early. It truly was rope-a-dope, either by plan or just by good fortune.

    But our guys deserve a lot of credit for buckling down and focusing after a rough start. It is impressive when teams can REGAIN their composure. In this case, we didn’t have composure until the second half. Devonte and Svi were KEY stabilizers and they showed plenty of leadership by their actions in the second half. Bravo!

    I think we have a pretty scrappy road team. My worry is at home. It seems like #14 pressure increases in AFH. These guys are terrified of losing the streak. TERRIFIED! And anyone thinking our guys don’t care enough just don’t know our guys. If anything… we need our guys to stop thinking about the streak and stay focused on playing their best.



  • A little post locker room celebration…and so well deserved! I award the “junkyard dog” to the collective…

    https://www.facebook.com/KansasBasketball/videos/10156059584449532/


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