Silvio And Malik
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What’s the best trait of Malik? You could say shot-making or confidence, but arguably, it is his savvy. The latter half of this season, we’ve seen Malik make good decisions over and over again. I wish I could make GIF’s from my DVR, but I think this has been pretty obvious for a while now. Yes, Malik is making shots, but he has solid dribbling skills and instincts as well. He’s seeing the game better. His steal numbers are increasing. There is more to basketball than making shots,and Malik’s overall game’s trajectory bodes well for the tournament.
DeSousa is the X-factor in our title run, IMO. Yes we will need Vick to keep improving as well (good game against WVU), but No one quite raises our ceiling like #22 our there right now. We haven’t had a big move this quickly since probably T-Rob, and DeSousa has an even better natural touch around the rim. I saw him do things like avoid potential shot blocks on his attacks on the hoop, yet he was still a perfect 8-8 from the field. Even in situations where DeSousa did not get the rebound officially, he got the high point of the rebound, influencing how the play unfolded. In other words, he’s kind of a freak. He’ll be a star when peaking, but has the potential to be a real pest as well.
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Malik Newman is averaging 22 points and has made 19 of 32 threes over the last five games.
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Carpe Diem - Malik Newman
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Vick to have a Malik game leap any game now.
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Waiting for Mitch to UNLEASH the fury
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Ok…Omaha here we come to the Sweet 16
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Vick had a pretty good game, not a Malik-like game but a good one nonetheless.
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@JayHawkFanToo Two in a row!
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JayHawkFanToo said:
Vick had a pretty good game, not a Malik-like game but a good one nonetheless.
Vick seems steady and somewhat sure. I think he could have a monster breakout game. I think he’s capable of having a 2-3 game type Newman performance. But if this is what he does and when needed, then let’s hope he at least remains Vick-like consistent. Maybe he’ll have one of those games when needed most.
Vick reached his ceiling?
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@truehawk93 Vick can still turn it up a notch. He has been good, but he can be better. Compare Devonte last year (very good) to this year (great). Vick could improve by at least the same amount. He has the physical ability to be great, if he locks in every single possession and takes ownership of the game.
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tundrahok said:
@truehawk93 Vick can still turn it up a notch. He has been good, but he can be better. Compare Devonte last year (very good) to this year (great). Vick could improve by at least the same amount. He has the physical ability to be great, if he locks in every single possession and takes ownership of the game.
Totally agree. And this is the time to make the step toward that next level. A great tournament this year could propel him into a great position next year.
He is spurty and inconsistent, but like you said, needs to lock in every possession on both sides.
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Vick showed more emotion in one game last nigjt than he did all season. That is s very good sign. Bill just has to keep him dialed up.
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@truehawk93 Vick plays so much better when he hits his first shot. Probably all about confidence.
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Malik on being asked if “Big 12 Malik” was back with this 28 point explosion - Graham chimes in off camera “oh yea”
Reporter asking Malik if he had any doubts that after his great feed to Svi if he was going to make it “none, I was at half court before the ball the went in”.
Svi was pretty happy about that shot, you don’t see him do the shoot the arrow afterwards very often, that was fun to watch.
Leading and controlling most of the game, this one was much easier to watch than the first game.
Next…
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Malik is probably the most talented pure scorer that KU has on this roster. As I have been saying since early January, when Malik attacks, everything else is so much better. He won’t stay quite this hot from three, but if he continues to get into the paint, he won’t have to because the points will come from the drive anyway.
You simply can’t take away what Malik is doing right now and at the same time take away good looks from three for both Svi and Devonte. You just can’t do it. It puts too much stress on the defense because this team can really spread you out. Add in Doke getting 4 or 5 dunks because you have to single cover him on the block and the issue isn’t scoring.
Granted, either Duke or Michigan State can handle Doke one on one inside, so that will be a much bigger challenge, but at least for now, things are going well. All things considered, this has to be thought of as a success given this team’s personnel limitations, regardless of what happens this week with Auburn/Clemson and Duke/Michigan State/Syracuse. If Syracuse somehow advances, that certainly changes things, but I’m pretty happen with what this season has been.
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Newman, Svi, and Vick must step up when teams key in on Graham. It was great to see passes to Newman and Svi, only for them to bury them in the net. The SH coach forced other KU players to beat them, not so much Graham. Newman, Svi, and Vick provided enough lift. Graham was bonus in this SH game. The talk of the tourney for KU is little to no dominance. I don’t think KU is dominate, but they are consistent. They have learned to play 40 mins of basketball. We will never “dominate” teams with 20+ plus pts. I think Nova and Dook have fans fooled into “fools” dominance. I don’t think they have those games going forward. If they do, they deserve to win it all. I don’t see other teams “dominating” either. I don’t know why fans think a team should show dominance to win games. It’s nice, but its not realistic. The Sweet 16, E8, and F4 are the best of the best teams that have separated themselves.
KU has been a “dominating” team in the past, only to be bounced by the most unlikely of teams. I would rather play and win games with consistency, than dominance. Dominance is fleeting, but consistency is hard to find this time of year. I think UNC might be one of the other “consistent” teams too. If KU “dominated” games by 20+ pts, I would be concerned as to whether they can keep it going when it counts. The answer is not likely. I might even throw UK into the “consistency” teams. I do think UK is likely going down, because they lack shooting consistency. But they have played some grinding games since their tourney game against Tennessee.
The question was asked who KU matches better between Auburn and Clemson. I don’t think it matters. KU just needs to remain consistent with their game and win, regardless who they play. I’m not even looking at the E8 yet. This Auburn or Clemson game against KU may be the game that some were expecting against SH. I don’t think KU dominates, but I think this will be a great indicator of their resolve at this point in the tourney.
Newman is a man on a mission. I think he has fully realized this is it. He knows this tourney will define his game at this point. He knows this will be huge for his future at KU and beyond. Carpe Diem Mr Newman…your future is bright and now you have to seize it all. I hope he keeps letting the game come to him and plays team ball every game. He’s doing great and his investment is paying dividends at this point. I’m really enjoying his game.
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So much for consistent UNC. Auburn getting an a$$ whooping of historical proportions.
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@truehawk93 KU doesn’t have to be the best team in the tournament, just the better team on floor 6 times.
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Absolutely
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JayHawkFanToo said:
So much for consistent UNC. Auburn getting an a$$ whooping of historical proportions.
dadgumit Roy…he lost that sucker
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What happened to the “Malik Newman poison” talk? Who started that crazy talk?
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@Statmachine they ALL poison
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Will DeSousa play against Clemson? Might be good to have a quick defender and solid rebounder in for a few 8 or 10 or 15 minutes. Are we in danger of getting destroyed on the boards again?
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Delgado was an exceptional rebounder. He exploited Lightfoot and others. His advantage was well noted before the game because of Doke’s injury.
Thomas is the best rebounder on Clemson and pulls in 8 a game overall, 2 offensive boards a game FYI. Nobody else even averages 1 a game.
Clemson as a team is 259th in the country in offensive rebounding, KU gets more offensive rebounds then they do by a good margin.
A big key to the game will be how many minutes Azubuike can play without fouling. It sounds like they are expecting him to start and play closer to 30 minutes if he’s smart and isn’t dead tired.
They are a guard heavy team since the injury to their best player who’s out for the season.
KU is considerably better in almost every offensive statistic compared to Clemson. We have no idea if Clemson’s hot shooting against Auburn carries on or not. Their stats would say they will regress closer to their mean which isn’t very good.
Clemson has survived all year on good defense (top 30 in points per game). They are 8th in the country in 2pt FG% defense but 178th in 3pt FG % and 209th in 3pt FG’s given up. We all know KU’s strength is perimeter shooting which is a big weakness KU can exploit. They don’t foul a ton and don’t get steals so its interesting that Clemson has defended as well as they have. I think the numbers don’t tell the whole story. This team is just 9-6 since Donte Grantham went down with an injury.
This is a game KU can win considerably easier then some may think if they play well
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I agree. On paper, we should move on. But it’s March and it’s all about who is hot, and who is not.
Question is: just how much “hotness” do we need to beat Clemson?
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Absolutely.
Honestly I don’t think KU has to play any better then they did against Seton Hall to win.
We shot the ball extremely well in the 2nd half and needed to because Seton Hall kept fighting. This was all while our Senior Leader had an off shooting game and our starting C was playing only 3-4 minutes at a time due to injury/foul trouble. We were beaten up on the boards and yet still controlled the game.
However as you said this is the Sweet 16 and we just don’t know what’s going to happen in this situation. In the past Self teams have done extremely well in this round, Self always game-plans well and the players seem to execute with the time to prepare. We’re also playing in a KU friendly arena where it should be a heavy KU crowd.
We have the experience edge, talent edge, coaching edge, better overall team. We should and expect to win. I hope that is the case
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@BeddieKU23 I’ve seen a couple of Clemson games and their defensive strategy is simple. They pack the paint and force teams to beat them from deep. They adopted that philosophy because it’s a good plan to be successful in the ACC and it worked for them as they finished tied for 3rd this year.
If KU is making their average on 3 pointers Friday night, KU will move on simple as that.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Let’s see, Oregon defended the paint really well, and all we had to do was make some shots from outside… Do you see this as similar?
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I think the only real thing we have to worry about is getting cold and staying cold.
So if we come out and go 0-8 from trey… we going to stop shooting the trey? Or will our guys tighten up and make things even worse? If we do that, we end up with a game where we go 4-26 from trey.
How resilient is this team? If we start cold can be break out of the funk?
This has always been an issue with us in March and why we often lost to very inferior teams.
This year… we have come back in many games. It kind of seems like we are better off just digging ourselves into a hole in the first half in order to inspire us for the second half. I get more worried when we come out red hot, and then later go cold… then we are trying to flip it around in time to pull the win out.
So much of this relates to Devonte. His senior leadership should be crucial. He has been a solid leader since entering Big 12 play. He’s going to try to rally the troops if we fall behind.
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mayjay said:
@Texas-Hawk-10 Let’s see, Oregon defended the paint really well, and all we had to do was make some shots from outside… Do you see this as similar?
It’s not much different than Oregon. KU didn’t make shots last year and list because they didn’t make their shots. I probably said the same thing last year, shoot your average and win. No different than what KU needs to do on Friday. KU is the better team, they make shots and they win, simple as that. If KU doesn’t make shots, they will lose.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Doke is a big difference from last year, though. So, Clemson will not be as dominating as Oregon was.
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Having read your post I went and dug through Clemson’s losses this year starting from around the time their best player went down with injury figuring that would give me the best baseline for where this team is at.
Obviously box scores can only tell you so much but North Carolina was the only team that shot over 50% from the field, made a ton of 3’s and beat them. They lost a lot of their other games having bad shooting games or in the same game having the other team shoot poorly as well.
It seems they have lost more then their share of close games, something KU is well versed in this year.
Obviously we don’t want to start off shooting poorly in the game Friday. We didn’t start off the game that well against Seton Hall either but a couple of momentum swinging 3’s towards the end of the first half seemed to key what was a really good 2nd half offensively for KU. We’ve seen that time and time again this year as well, struggling, digging a hole and then one or two plays triggers a run. I’d rather KU keep control of this game as much as they can but if we are in a situation where we are struggling I will remain calm knowing these guys have been put in this pressure situation time and time again this season.
I will be watching closely to see which Hawks get going early. Devonte, Vick, Newman seem to play at a higher level when they are making shots especially if they make the first one. Svi has had a knack all season long for forgetting his last shot so I generally don’t worry too much about him.
I think we have three big advantages in this game. Perimeter shooting, Devonte’s leadership, and Azubuike’s size advantage in the post. To me this seems like a game where all three of those things will be too much for Clemson to overcome.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Didn’t Oregon put a wrinkle in? Extend the defense on the perimeter with long armed guards and force us a little further out?
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Anyone remember in Bananas when Woody Allen is being taught how to suck out the poison from snake bites. Hilarious.
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Dwight Colby had a nice line tonight in Western Kentucky’s quarterfinal NIT win over OK State (92 to 84):
In 33 minutes of play:
7 for 10 FG; 2-4 FT; 13 REB; 2 AST; 3 BLK; 2 TO; 4 PF; and 16 PTS
I am happy for Dwight but hope that Silvio/Lightfoot produce at least one very impactful game this tournament to help lessen the sting.
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@CRH107 Interesting stat in that game was WKY is now 23-0 when leading with 5 mins to go. Their coach, Rick Stansbury, is 36-0 overall in that stat in his 2 years. They have improved under him from 15-17 last year to 27-10. Interesting program: acc to Wikipedia, they are actually #8 in all time winning percentage (#16 in total wins).
Good luck, Dwight!
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Self decided Clemson was a Silvio and not a Mitch game apparently.
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@BShark And thank goodness he did. Silvio’s strength and athleticism is so far superior. Against Duke’s bigs I think we will see more Silvio again. I love the kid. He is doing great for his 3 months of experience. What a ride he is on. Go Silvio!!
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@BShark Mitch is at a big disadvantage against more powerful players. When the opposing big is more inside/outside he flourishes. He is just out of position in the 4 out 1 we have run all year.
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We may need Mitch more against the quicker duke bigs, who knows.
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Crimsonorblue22 said:
We may need Mitch more against the quicker duke bigs, who knows.
I agree and I can see a big hustle game out of him.
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@Barney Yep I mentioned some of this in the other Mitch thread (lol two Mitch threads) but I agree. Silvio and Doke were clear mismatches for Clemson’s bigs and Mitch was not. Self seemed content to let Clemson’s C take threes if he wanted to.
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BUMP
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Malik Newman for president! Everyone write that in 2020
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Under Malik Newman’s goatee is only fire!!!
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KU might have been better with Silvio in the game instead of Doke. Need to review the tape.
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CRH107 said:
Dwight Colby had a nice line tonight in Western Kentucky’s quarterfinal NIT win over OK State (92 to 84):
In 33 minutes of play:
7 for 10 FG; 2-4 FT; 13 REB; 2 AST; 3 BLK; 2 TO; 4 PF; and 16 PTS
I am happy for Dwight but hope that Silvio/Lightfoot produce at least one very impactful game this tournament to help lessen the sting.
You got your wish!
