Time for a Defensive philosophy change



  • @Crimsonorblue22 if you’re asking me, I leave Doke out most of the game. I also probably sit Svi in favor of another big (yes I said it). You’re not going to beat Nova the normal way. They were always better than us, and it appears that they have a better coach too.

    I love Bill Self and our team. I am satisfied with the progress we made this year. We were inferior. Our coach was inferior.



  • But who you putting in for them?



  • It just seemed, to me, that Jay Wright and company, had a plan and worked that plan. On the other hand, we looked like our plan was to hope they missed shots. Self even said after the game that they knew V was going to have to miss shots in order for us to win. OOOPS! We have 6 days to prepare and that’s the strategy we come up with? Could we have at least put some pressure on the shooters? Practically all of their looks were WIDE open.

    All frustration aside, we did overachieve this year, and we have a ton to be proud of/ thankful for. Making the FF is a huge accomplishment. It just looked like we ( Bill Self’s staff primarily) were content with being there, while Jay Wright and company were there to do work. Props to them.



  • Jay Wright is making a great argument against one and done. He has even managed to convince talented players to redshirt. Lots of players are going to play professionally after playing at Villanova, after putting in the hard work in College and not rushing out the door. Also, it appears he has a grudge against us after the 2008 game with Collins and Chalmers. Just my opinion. I don’t think Coach Self has to change his model after losing this game. I would have liked to see Svi and Newman shoot more baseline 3’s which is what they are excellent at. 6 more 3’s fall and maybe we are having a different conversation.



  • @KansasComet you may be right on the grudge.

    Their philosophy was to not let us shoot 3’s. And we didn’t for the longest time.

    The last time we played in E8, they also disrupted our movement on the perimeter, our game wasn’t so much a full embrace of the 3 at that time.



  • @Bwag Thanks. I thought back to what was said in Beyond the Phog.



  • Our defense was not good the whole year. This team got blown out on several occasions throughout the year. We never guarded the 3 point line in last night’s game. Next year, we will be much better defensively. Our front line will be massive. If Spellman wants to go out to the 3 point line, Lawson will be in his grille ( we play Nova the next two years).





  • @kuballin10 @BigBad He actually had a decent mid-range pull-up game in HS. He was over 60% from 2. Never been a three point shooter though. He just needs to get more comfortable at this level and he should be good.



  • @kjayhawks The answer to this Villanova game becomes the last chapter of next year’s book and the rest of the chapters should get written from there. Silvio doesn’t need to be able to hit the 3 but he should be able to guard it come March.



  • Given that our team this year shot 40% from 3 and next year is very likely a regression, winning a game like this one will likely have to be mostly on the defensive end.



  • betterfireE said:

    Doke should have never started this game. This was obviously a game in which we needed to surprise and we did nothing. We played like scared little pussies giving them so much space along the arc.

    I am really disappointed in Bill this time. I am not going to hide it. Yes, they hit a ton of threes but how many were open? Too many. And that is unacceptable. We didn’t put any pressure on ova defensively and gave them exactly what they were expecting. This was a a disaster. Someone tell me otherwise.

    I’m disappointed to but we overachieved by a mile.

    Honestly I had people saying we need to defend like nova in the gameday chat which I 100% agree with but the players did what Bill wanted defensively as his game plan was hope nova misses which is horrible.

    That’s why I preached offense because defensively we haven’t been good all year. We may get a stop late sure but nothing continuous.

    Offensively is what got us here and we needed to freely let it fly which we didn’t. Some of that nova and plenty of it self inflicted with “feed the post” to start.



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  • Four of the best ran offenses in college hoops this year. And Self went away from what made this team good on offense. 🤷🏻

    Not sure KU wins even if he didn’t but it’s disappointing.



  • Villanova would’ve been ranked #1 all year if it wasn’t for Virginia. No shame in losing to that team on an unbelievable shooting night. I don’t care how guarded or unguarded the shots were they knocked them down.



  • @BShark I seem to remember lots of posts here over the last few days about how we should force it inside to get Pascall and Spellman in foul trouble defending Doke.



  • @mayjay Not from me, at least that I remember.



  • @dylans For all the talk of troughs and peaks, if you rewatch those games, it’s clear than defense can dictate how well you shoot. And we did not play perimeter defense in the beginning when we got down 22-5 or whatever it was.



  • @betterfireE There are not 7 guys on KU’s team that can hit a three. Don’t take away from what Villanova did, they were far more awesome than KU was bad.



  • @dylans Apparently we don’t have 5 guys, or even 3 guys that can guard the perimeter. I’m proud of this season, but this team, Coach Self included, was unprepared for the most important game of the season. And they know it. It’s not like we gave it all, and they were just better than us. We gave no pressure defensively, had a horrible game plan. Players and coach. The bitterness is really because we didn’t leave it all out there.

    And it’s tiring to hear people on this board complain about criticism of the coaching staff. Bill Self makes more per year than many people reading this will make in their lives. I think he is deserving of criticism.

    This is Kansas. We should expect more. And last night we were embarrassed on National television.



  • I admit I did hope for more with a week to prepare. I thought that would be an advantage for CS. We just weren’t able to to take advantage I guess. Personally I believe this team achieved well beyond their depth and overall talent level. So I’m not disappointed in the players or coaching staff for this particular season as a whole.



  • Hmm wonder how much coach K makes?



  • @BShark I think you have nailed it. KU went from a 4 guard offense to an inside-out low post oriented offense the first 10 or so minutes in the game.



  • BShark said:

    @mayjay Not from me, at least that I remember.

    Yes, you are correct. I got lost in all the flipping up and down.



  • @Bwag I just don’t understand the double teams. They had no inside presence at all and we just left the shooters wide open.
    This game eerily reminded me of our game against Syracuse. Crazy first half shooting and they were out of the game.