Final Four bound!!!
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The team played with heart. This was the most exciting game of the tournament. Lots of lead changes and neither team lead by more than 5 or 6 points. The game required overtime before the Big 12 champ won the mini ACC 2 game tournament…
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Lulufulu said:
HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHIT!!!
I lowered my expectations for these guys this season. I straight up doubted they could do this.
I was wrong.
I think we will get a few more…
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I always wonder what a recruit like Langford is thinking right now
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@Gorilla tougher team w/better coach. Duke was soft, all that talent, waste
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Did this team just show another level of play?
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@Lulufulu Uh huh. Told you so.
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@KUSTEVE - - OK my friend NOW it’s time for Villanova - - - payback time
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Whatever happens from here. This is absolutely Bill Self’s best coaching job. And is Malik Newman Mr March or what?
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@cragarhawk Excellent observation: Malik Newman is Mr. March
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@cragarhawk I hope u r heading to San Antonio
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Great team effort but Malik is the man. Signature win for Self and the program. Onward to another 2-game / 4-team tourney for another banner in the AFH rafters and immortality. Take care of Villanova first!
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Coach Self…this is the best played game I have been a part of in the NCAA…
Malik, Most Outstanding Player of the Midwest Regional.
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JayHawkFanToo said:
Malik, Most Outstanding Player of the Midwest Regional.
Think about the comparison of Malik to Trae Y. Self bent Malik to become a complete player and then this: MOP & going to Final 4.
Kruger sold his basketball coach soul to get Trae - whose dad apparently told Self he wouldnt let Trae play his game so he wasn’t coming to Kansas - and look at where he’s at, sitting at home after a total team meltdown.
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@truehawk93 hopefully back to back.
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@Bwag Thank God Bill would not cower to Trae’s idiot dad and let him “play his game”. Which is to dribble a lot, take horrible shots, and turn it over at alarming rates. Thank you Coach for sticking to your principles.
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Not everybody going to the Alamode!
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@Fightsongwriter Worked out great for everyone. Un Young got to chuck and KU is in the FF.
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If you didn’t doubt this team you were not watching all season. There were some bad spots. Everyone here doubted them at some point.
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@BShark Fine line for Trae between chucking it up, and up-chucking.
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@mayjay Not a big fan of Lon Kreuger but I am happy for him that he doesn’t have to put up with that arrogant little shit anymore
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BigBad said:
If you didn’t doubt this team you were not watching all season. There were some bad spots. Everyone here doubted them at some point.
Too much talent.Too much experience. Too good of a head coach. Never a doubt!
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Two things happened to change the ceiling for this team.
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The emergence of Silvio De Sousa as a legitimate backup big man. His athleticism, energy and talent allows KU to matchup with different big men. In some cases, because Silvio is more mobile, he’s actually a better matchup for us than Doke. That’s not a knock on Doke, but against a team like Villanova, Silvio and Mitch may play a huge role because Villanova goes 5 out at times.
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Malik Newman becoming what I thought he would become at the beginning of the season. Dynamic scorer. Slasher. Creator. He makes this offense so much more dangerous. He has, over the last three weeks, looked like the guy he was coming out of high school. Malik Newman at times flat out could not be guarded out on the perimeter. We are back to that point, where it just doesn’t look like people can keep Malik from getting where he wants to go.
When KU was Doke and an out of position Mitch inside, that made KU very vulnerable. Adding a third interior guy with a different skill set changes KU’s depth.
Having Malik go from being the guy that scored just 7 in the regular season finale debacle at Oklahoma State to averaging nearly 23 per game in the postseason changes the offensive ceiling for a team that was already very good offensively. It allows Devonte to do his thing without having to score as much. It allows Svi more spot up chances. It creates more space for Doke and Co. inside. It frees up Garrett and Vick to be more flexible whether its attacking the glass or cutting.
Its like KU has added two completely different high level players.
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Tournament Newman is what I hoped we were getting all along!
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There is no shame in being wrong about this team.
This team has endured and triumphed over more hardship than any bunch since the Marines on Guadalcanal.
I have been optimistic about what they could accomplish since about three weeks before they won the conference title; that much I forecast correctly. But several others have seen this coming long before me.
And I believed they could get to the Final Four if they had an off shooting game in the second weekend and the other team had a worse one; that much I saw correctly.
But when @wissox put me on the spot and said, okay, batenac 1.0, tell me what’s going to happen next, I just couldn’t 't see it clearly beyond what I have so far stated above. These guys are just amazing human beings that I have nicknamed the “Find-a-Way Boys.” They are finding doors now that I can’t see.
Hell, most of the game yesterday I was ragging about how they weren’t executing, or capitalizing on, the stuff Self was giving them that was obviously shaking them loose. I don’t know how many times I jumped up off the sofa and started yelling at the big screen for Vick to shoot, or put it on the deck and drive and dish, when he would get the ball in the high post and kick it out, or just stand and look at an open man he could have bounce passed to, or driven to the post and dished off to!!! Then for another stretch I was jumping off the sofa and screaming, throw the ball into Vick again; then I went through a patch where I was yelling go inside, go inside, go inside.
I still don’t really know how they did it. @HighEliteMajor made some good points about KU 's defensive tactics that rang true with me. And its obvious that Malik supernovaed and that Duke tired some down the stretch and Silvio grabbed ten boards as a sub and Malik missed almost no free throws and KU shot 35% from trey and Duke shot 24% from trey, but as to exactly what Self and Devonte finally figured out that allowed Malik to just begin to run wild the last five of regulation and the five of over time, I really don’t have a clue.
Several stages of the first 30 minutes it was obvious the changes Self was making, most of which either didn’t work very well, or the players could not capitalize on because they were still too confused about reading the defenses well enough to take the open looks they were getting. This was the longest I have ever seen this team take to get off its heels and really attack an opponent. I can’t say if it was a plan, or if they were just so baffled by the multiple defenses of Duke that it took them 35 minutes to find the way to attack Duke.
But whether I understand it or not, and whether we can forecast it or not, shoot! It was an incredibly beautiful thing to witness down the stretch!!!
Talk about a gutsy performance!!!
Holy Cow!
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Excellent post btw.
This version of Malik has exceeded even my most optimistic thoughts of what he could be here. Its not just the scoring its everything he’s doing on the other side as well.
He dropped a dime to Svi on a drive yesterday that was a great moment of the evolution of Malik with his teammates.
I loved the story about his road to get to this point with this team. He didn’t quit on his team or his coach even as he struggled. His father didn’t overstep his reach when times got tough. Both of them showed great trust in Self to get him here. It took longer then we thought but I can’t imagine trading it for anything else now.
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I keep checking Mock Drafts to see if Newman’s name would start popping up. Haven’t seen anything yet. But he has legitimately been the best player in the country for 3 consecutive weeks. Hard to think he wouldn’t be a end of the 1st round pick at this point.
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Nobody pinch me! Let the dream go on!
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I don’t believe most mock drafts have been updated recently and likely do not reflect the last few weeks, at least they did not last time I checked…maybe they have been by now.
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@justanotherfan I do not believe I have ever seen a KU player with a steeper learning curve than Silvio’s this year. I’m sure there have been others, but to come in at semester and progress to where he is now? . . .Amazing. We are fast approaching the time when I would just as soon have him in as Doke.
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Against Villanova, Mitch and Silvio will probably be more important than Doke because Villanova will spread the floor with shooters and KU will have to match up against that. This is a huge learning curve, especially for a guy that just as likely should be practicing for the McD’s AA game as playing in the Final Four this week. A guy that should be going to prom next month might be the X-Factor in a KU national championship bid. Silvio has stepped up. Mitch has stepped up. Now we need them both to step up at the same time, in quite possibly the biggest game of the year.
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One way KU can potentially overcome Spellman’s ability from the 3 point line is to guard him with Svi. Spellman is really just a big man with a shot, not a significant low-post scorer but if your looking for a way to take away that 3 point line you put Svi on him and make him give up the ball. Spellman has made 41% of his made shots on the year from 3. Villanova in general takes 40% of their shots from 3.
With Doke, Spellman is going to get open looks especially off pick and roll situations because Doke simply cannot move his legs quick enough. Doke on Paschall however is a much better matchup for Doke because Paschall shoots only 33% from 3. You can live with him making shots just like KU survived Duval having a great game. Spellman though has proven all season long to be a difference maker in their offense. Will be interesting to see what they gameplan for them
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@BeddieKU23 can’t wait!
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KU shoots 47% from 3 and holds them to a season low 20% shooting! We win by 10!
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@BeddieKU23 Thanks for the scout there … Svi definitely showed his wares yesterday on the defensive end. I would think we’d trap Spellman here and there, but not always, and certainly not immediately. Might be good guy to catch sporadically on the first bounce.
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@justanotherfan Solid post!
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The experience he got playing in Europe against grown men probably helped.
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@jaybate-1.0 Oh yah! I almost had a heart attack last night!!
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@jaybate-1.0 Question. Where is KU on the trey % ebb/flow chart? Seems like the last couple games have been below average shooting nights as a whole for our trey gunners.
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Villanova? Bring’em on! We have a debt to collect from them. We should bring plenty of chip into that game.
Time for Devonte to earn that Naismith Award.
Nova can be beat. They play good defense, but we have played against better defensive teams. And their offense is mostly about crossing their T’s and dotting their I’s… meaning… they make the shots they are supposed to make. All we need to do is bring our A-game on defense. Overwhelm them with athleticism. Move the ball at our quicker pace. Disrupt, disrupt, disrupt!
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Here is an interesting look at 3 of the major computer rankings after the weekend games.
Ken Pomeroy - Villanova #1, Michigan #7, KU #8 and Loyola #30. He still has teams like Virginia, Duke…yes, Duke at #3, Cincinnati, Purdue and Michigan State ahead of KU. Difficult to look at the rankings with straight face and say they are correct.
Jeff Sagarin - Villanova #1, Duke #2, Kansas # 3 and Loyola checks in at #56. Duke is still #2 which seems counter intuitive given KU’s win yesterday.
Here are his predictions for the Final Four games:
Kenneth Massey - Definitely the more realistic with Villanova, Michigan and KU in the top 3 and Loyola checking in at #8.Duke dropped to #6
These are his prediction for the Final Four games:
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If Ken Pom has a non tournament team Penn State ranked 26th there’s obviously some flaws in the ratings.
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So, they are saying KU can’t win? Hmmm.
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HighEliteMajor said:
So, they are saying KU can’t win? Hmmm.
Can’t or won’t?
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Remember the Alamo…just seemed like the thing to say against Nova
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Bwag said:
HighEliteMajor said:
So, they are saying KU can’t win? Hmmm.
Can’t or won’t?
Wahwahwahwah…We weren’t supposed to win the B12.
We weren’t supposed to win the B12 tourney.
We weren’t supposed win the first game of the NCAAs
We weren’t supposed to get passed the E8…oops…I think we’ve over achieved.
We were supposed to choke? I think was the term?
Rock Chalk
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Did you guys see how emotional Self was in the locker room after the game? It really showed how much he wanted these guys to finally get over that hump to the final four.
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is there a place to watch the replay of this game
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@kjayhawks i looked for that video. couldn’t find it
