New Mexico State Game Thread
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@BShark Shocking? Not by then, perhaps.
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Self should love it…he loves winning ugly.
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This is not the team I expected. Yet we win. I really don’t know how.
Maybe character? Team character? These aren’t bad teams we’re beating.
Trying to spin this in the right direction because I don’t think I’ve seen a Kansas team this messed up since Wiggins’ season here, or late in the 2014-15 season.
I will say that one thing seems obvious here – Self has played the right guys each game. He’s ID’d the guys that will give us the winning formula, from Garrett a few games back, to Lightfoot last night. That’s the biggest reason we’re undefeated.
I am concerned about the Vick thing, and Self summarily saying he just had a bad day Thursday.
We might have three losses if Vick wasn’t playing now.
Most critical in my mind is Grimes. If he’s lost, getting to the second weekend may be a challenge.
But look at our league. It sucks. This discombobulated crew might have only three or four losses even playing like this.
Another thing, it had seemed to me that Doke was causing issues for Dedric. And I know many felt we might play better without Doke (including me). We may need another theory.
DeSousa … just dreaming.
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@KUSTEVE Nice video. Gives me chills. I probably shouldn’t compare it to the introduction of Les Miles as Head Coach at the University of Kansas, but that was so recent I can’t help it. The comparison just highlights the difference between our basketball and football programs. Ecstasy vs agony.
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@Gorilla72 Didn’t we play the best with Mitch and Dedric playing together?
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I believe the charge call on Grime early in the game that invalidated the basket and gave him a foul took the wind out of his sails; he had been playing with purpose up to that point.
A couple of days ago I made a comment that Doke is the perfect match for some teams and a poor one for others and you asked if KU should not play him and I don’t believe I answered that question because there is really no answer.
While Doke can be a defensive liability against smaller teams that score from the outside since he does not defend well against team that stretch the floor, he would be extremely effective on offense against the same team since every time he gets the ball inside, and at the rate he scores from there, particularly against smaller players, it would certainly result in points. You have to weigh his contribution at each end and determine how much he plays on a game and opponent basis. Last night KU desperately needed Doke as New Mexico was scoring and rebounding at will inside without a big inside presence to prevent it.
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@JayHawkFanToo good point on Grimes. Needs to be smarter on not getting offensive fouls. Liked his energy though.
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Folks have to, once again, remember that we go through these discussions EVERY YEAR. EVERY YEAR people say “we aren’t making it past the sweet sixteen” or similar things. Last year was a prime example, same thing with the year before, and yet the past three years Self has had his teams playing final four/championship level basketball in March despite looking disjointed or ugly in the non con.
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Nice post.
I will say that one thing seems obvious here – Self has played the right guys each game. He’s ID’d the guys that will give us the winning formula, from Garrett a few games back, to Lightfoot last night. That’s the biggest reason we’re undefeated.
I like this, and should keep this in mind. You’re right. Self knows these guys and what wins games. You know, one of the interviews earlier this year with Mitch was telling to me, prior to the Michigan State game. Mitch said that there were several things they hadn’t shown yet that they were saving for Michigan State. If we can remain optimistic (and there really is no reason not to. we’re undefeated and have a top 5 coach and top 5 talent, even if we like to pretend it isn’t), we can look at the early commitment to the High Low as us working on the more difficult offense in our bag, and doing it while still winning games, because we can. The 4-1 was always there, and will always be there. Maybe Self just didn’t want to lead with it. Like the Nitro button in a sports car. It’s there.
Another thing, it had seemed to me that Doke was causing issues for Dedric. And I know many felt we might play better without Doke (including me). We may need another theory.
I was there with you. We know Dedric can operate at a high level offensively, but its pretty clear he can’t be the 5 when we need stops. And maybe its on Dedric more-so than Doke to figure out how to work with Doke. If Dedric is the high bball IQ guy that we all think he is, then he could well figure out how the two can operate, space a little differently instinctively, and talk talk talk to Doke.
DeSousa … just dreaming.
I will continue to dream.
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After all of yesterday’s games this is how the 3 top computer polls stand for the top 10 spots.
Pomeroy:
Here is Sagarin:
and Massey:
Can someone explain to me all the love for Virginia? Both KU a and Virginia have the same overall record, 8-0, According to Sagarin KU has more wins against top 25 teams (2 vs 1), against top 50 teams (3 vs 2) and KU’s SOS is #9 while Virginia is an embarrassing #315 and yet Virginia is ranked ahead of KU. Pomeroy has also Virginia ranked ahead of KU. I understand it is still pretty early and the rankings will get better with more data but they should at least pass the reasonableness test. At this time and based on what I have seen to date I like the Massey ranking best. Thoughts?
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@JayHawkFanToo I’m assuming our defense sucks statistically and UVA’s doesn’t?
UVA is what UVA will be. A solid, defense first, grinding team, with average athleticism.
We are amorphous, we could be any team’s worst nightmare in the tournament. We also could struggle against teams that UVA could put away with their D. Our ceiling on offense is much higher than UVA’s. Our ceiling on defense is possibly higher, but our floor is much lower.
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KU had a big Kenpom boost to start the season due to perception. KU actually kinda sucks, so sites like Kenpom are catching up to that.
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OMG …we moved from 2nd to 3rd in Kenpom… the sky IS falling.
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Virginia is an interesting team that as long as it can impose its (slow) tempo it can beat any team but also it can easily be beaten by any other team. When you are playing the #315 schedule out of 353 teams you better have damn good numbers; KU is playing the #9 hardest schedule so its numbers are naturally not be nearly as good.
You can compare Virginia to a semi truck racing a smaller car on a narrow road that goes uphill and half way it starts to go downhill. As long as it stays in front it can block the smaller car and win, particularly when it gets to the downhill portion where gravity allows it to go very fast and pull away. However, if the smaller car gets in front the chances of catching it , despite all its power. UMBC got in front of them last year and Virginia could not catch it and UMBC continued to pull away and won by 20 in the greatest upset in the tournament history.
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Nope, the sky is fine. If you read my post I indicated I favor Massey who has KU as #4 behind Michigan, Gonzaga and Duke which I believe is about right.
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Virginia lost to a 16 seed. Lololillolololililololol!
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I don’t know how to spell LOL
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@JayHawkFanToo That wasn’t directed to you, or at you. It was directed to those going squeamish at our win.
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I guess Gonzaga will go down a notch now…
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After watching Michigan play a couple of times, I think they are hands down playing the best ball right now. It really doesn’t pay to be playing the best ball of the season this early. I just wish We’d show a little more fire at times and not play hard for the final 5 minutes only. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think Nova will mop the floor with us. I hope they don’t forsure and having a whole week to prepare is nice. We shall see.
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@JayHawkFanToo Our win over Tenn looks a lot bigger now.
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@KUSTEVE especially w/doke sitting on the bench in foul trouble
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I didn’t say anything about the game yet (I was at the game so I wasn’t able to post immediately after). After letting it marinate, I think anyone upset with how we just played against NM State needs to think about how Doke would have absolutely owned Aurrecochea on both ends, all day long, and we probably wouldn’t have had the same lull in the 1st half. We just beat a solid team who will likely win their conference and be in the NCAA tournament while missing what would have been our best mismatch in that game.
This was a really good win on a day where we struggled. This team knows how to close out games and they’ve got some fight. I still think this group is special. A lot of room left for growth. I think we’ll see them really come together here in the next three weeks.
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@Kcmatt7 I agree. Don would have completely shut off the lane for their guy inside. It makes me wonder if Dok’s absence will have much of an effect on Saturday, given that Nova really doesn’t play a traditional post man.
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Boy that Aurrecochea was a real pain. Couldn’t even come close to pronouncing his name and then he reminded me of that kid from Nova a few years back. But it was troubling that we had difficulty guarding a JUCO big with our post players. I thought those times were gone with this years roster. Apparently not so much
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@BeddieKU23 You would have thought. Bill compounded the problem though by double teaming him for some strange reason. And give up 6 easy buckets instead of forcing several tough 2s…
Either rotations have to be so good that you can double team in the post, or you have to live with giving up some baskets 1v1. But doubling and not rotating is a surefire way to give up easy baskets.
I will say, how is it that this team is unable to properly rotate 8 games into the season? I’ve seen high school basketball teams rotate better than we do. I just don’t understand how it’s so hard for this bunch.
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@Kcmatt7 I thought McCants was a pretty scrappy bench guy for them as well. Seemed to give us problems.
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@Kcmatt7 Our first game w/o the big guy meant Dedric was in different spots on the court, doing different things. It’s going to take time to learn to play differently, since they were just learning how to play another way with Doke.
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If I recall correctly McCants scored 6 straight point including 2 momentum building dunks.
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I thought we got away from doubling the post after the Wofford game but that was probably only because film said they didn’t have anyone worth doubling. Aurrecochea made some really good passes, one I remember no look behind his head so I was impressed with his play but also mortified that NM ST post players were having their way with us. I also thought our guards made it way too easy to dump the ball in as well.
That tape is going to be used against KU going forward, especially better teams. Dedric was lucky to have zero fouls in the NM St game. We thought we had post depth this year and we’re already back to running 4 guards. Ugh
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Best way to nullify a big is prevent the ball from getting to him and that is primarily the job of the guards. Plenty of blame to go around.
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Yeah I rewatched the game and we really didn’t make it difficult on entry into the post or make it difficult for the post player to set up shop. Almost if that was the plan was to let them live with 2’s. We are a work in progress in almost every phase of the game still.
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@BeddieKU23 we had post depth when Dok wasn’t injured and Silvio was available. Sometimes you have to adjust to the situation.
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@BeddieKU23 When somebody with lots of minutes has zero fouls, I usually think they should have been more aggressive on defense.
Errors of omission versus errors of commission. We had a lot of omission in the paint during the first half.
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HawkChamp said:
@BeddieKU23 we had post depth when Dok wasn’t injured and Silvio was available. Sometimes you have to adjust to the situation.
You mean adjust every year. Its the same song and dance with the post situation.
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I’m looking at it in terms of Saturday. Villanova knows KU only has 1 good post player which Nova lacks. I can imagine the gameplan will be to double Dedric when he gets the ball and go at him on offense to draw fouls. Wright has out-coached Self in both recent meetings so you know he’s going to zero on something for Saturday. The first game without Doke didn’t really expose the fact that if Dedric can’t play 30-35 minutes a game this KU team is in a world of trouble.
