Late Night Thoughts on the game that got (taken) away.



  • Christmas gift from daughter to Chicago Symphony meant DVR’d game, and a quick watch. I saw the 1st half, ff’d the 2nd half in parts, although i saw all of our possessions. So here goes.

    13-3 foul count (I think) in the first half. My wife looked at me funny (happens a lot) as I was getting agitated and she kept looking at the score and us up by 5-10. I know other teams get hosed too, but goodness, it really stings when it’s us, and a quick read through the game thread means a lot of ya’ll thought the same.

    Walton was effusive in his praise of our program. I like that guy.

    KU just got fouled again, no call.

    We might have set the school record for airballed threes tonight.

    Some ASU freshman ran at a ref arguing one of the few first half calls against them and didn’t get T’d up.

    The refs should have given themselves a T for their ASU myopia.

    Lawson was heading for a 40 point game and then he ended his night at 30 seemingly not scoring in the last 10 minutes. I guess foul trouble sat him?

    Vick seemingly stands and watches 3 point shooters right in front of him. The dude can leap out of the gym. I’d like to see him challenge those shots.

    We win if Doke is playing. Just too much KU inside.

    The Chicago in me and of course the KU in me really wants Charlie to be playing better than he is.

    Grimes is a head case. Walton kept talking about him and the NBA and I’m just not sure.

    College players on the #1 team in the country ought to be able to finish a fast break 1 on 1 opportunity. Our guys just can’t for some reason.

    Congrats to ASU, you just won your biggest game of all time. You’ve been to three elite 8’s. 43 years ago was your last elite 8.



  • At least @BShark is happy, he was finally right.



  • Saw a lot of selfish and bad plays late. Grimes fouled on a 3. Pick a play we were tackled a bunch including the no calls on Dotson on in bounds and Garrett tackled on a tie up. Whatever this is what you get on the road. I thought for a while this team played to its ceiling but that faded with turnovers and bad calls. We didnt give dedric the ball instead jacked 3s we couldn’t even hit rim on. This was a good game for coach to preach poise and toughness because we lacked it late. Had to lose sometime but it wasnt fun how it happened



  • A rewatched some of it with a cranky non sleeping baby lol. As I said on the game thread I also have never seen at player throw a temper tantrum like that and not get a T. Personally I think it was a missed call that went KUs way, the trouble is I stopped counting a 15 bad calls that went ASUs way. We still should’ve won, we settled for some silly shots late and Grimes and Vick took way to many guarded jump shots. This teams defense isn’t respectable at this point and will struggle to get stops when needed, none of guards are able to keep in front of their man. Dotson was decent but had five turnovers, I think this game could be a huge learning point for the young fella.



  • I think i have seen enough now…grimes may be a good athlete but he is a bad basketball player. Gets blown by repeatedly, terrible entry passes to the post, bad shot selection, weak D, and stupid plays over and over. Major head case.

    He absolutely killed us in this game. Anyone know our +/- with him on the floor?



  • @BeddieKU23 We don’t lose often, but often when we do, its a physical game where the refs swallow whistles down the stretch. UCLA, VCU, Michigan tourney losses come to mind.

    When the game is close, refs are more likely to swallow their whistles, imo, because they don’t want to change the outcome of the game. If we were up by the 8 or so points that we should have been up by on play alone [by limiting turnovers and converting easy buckets], we would have gotten fair whistles and the game would have been a 20 point victory.



  • I think @BShark gave money to officials so that Arizona St. would win. I’m watching you, you slimy bastard.



  • Ive learned my lesson on betting on my team but I still like to watch the line. The line went from -5 to -3 with a majority of tickets coming in on Kansas so it doesn’t shock me to see the reffing that we saw last night.



  • As we have seen frequently, it was a tale of two halves. If felt like the 8 pt halftime lead should have been at least 12…maybe more. We really outplayed them. The 2nd half we didn’t play any defense and jacked up way too many contested 3s. Giving up 49 pts in the 2nd hald….bad. Doke would have helped, for sure. I didn’t realize we only made 2 FTs and no FGs in the last 5 mins…tough to win that way. I usually don’t complain about officiating…it usually goes both ways. But the tie up on Garrett was so obviously a foul…it makes you wonder what the heck they saw…and it was at a key point in the game too.



  • We didn’t lose last night because of the officiating. I agree that it was poor, but we could have easily overcome the whistles, or lack thereof.

    Walton is a whack job, huh. That’s his schtick. It works when you’re not pissed off at the TV. He kept saying they were playing in Phoenix though. My patience for him comes and goes.

    We had to go with a two big lineup in the first half because of foul trouble and presumably how much Grimes sucks.i don’t remember if that was more successful than than our small lineup.

    Charlie Moore: I noticed a difference in his shooting form last game when he was smokin hot. Didn’t have it last night.

    The fast break: man. This isn’t pretty. Dotson is aggressive, but small. Still love his play. Grimes I think we all know is a cupcake and can’t finish at this point. Not Vick’s strength. So, the fast break or transition break is a mess.



  • @jayhawkcsg That is a great comment about the fast break…really bad. So many times we didn’t finish.



  • @approxinfinity

    I agree.

    A few things. How in the world is the last play with Dotson and the guard not reviewed.

    I really can’t figure out how 3 of these guys cant get on the same page about the rules of the game. We had this game but we obviously lost our poise and forgot about dedric who was having possibly the best game of his life. I feel like they got their priorities out of whack due to the crowd and momentum. Hopefully they learn from it



  • @jayhawkcsg I actually had fun listening to Walton for a change, but he kept referring to players not on the floor (foul on Mitch he said was on Dotson, who was on bench; talked about Grimes having made a great play when he was sitting).

    The Tempe/Phoenix thing shouldn’t bother you unless you get upset about those of us from Prairie Village referring to being from KC just because it is easier to refer to a large metro area. Tempe is right next to Phoenix.



  • @kjayhawks What did the cranky baby say about the game?



  • @mayjay Screamed just like her daddy lol



  • My adult daughter was trying to sleep in the living room at 12:30 when I was finishing watching when she finally blurted out, “KU lost Dad, go to bed”. So i missed the call that should have been reversed. I was pretty pissed by that point, which is stupid because I’d had a great evening to that point, but I was glad she spared me the last minute at least.

    It’s interesting how poor officiating combined with poor play by our part in the 2nd half really is a deadly combo for us fans. We’re upset with the team and we can rightly blame them for losing, but in such a tight contest, we can look at officials and say, we’d still have won this game had the officiating been more even.



  • @wissox Merry Christmas. The sun rose again today. I’m not upset about this loss, even if it means I was wrong for the first time this year on a KU game. We’re real young in the hero department, and Vick will have to learn not to imitate EJ in close games. And others will have to learn to step up when Dedric can’t get the ball. All in all, a great beginning to what could be an incredible season. 10-1 with the schedule we’ve faced is not too shabby.



  • Merry Christmas too! Good perspective on things



  • @wissox this isn’t the first time we’ve been flat going into the holidays. And it won’t be the last. Boys in vacation mode. All good!



  • Well all I know is this - -for them to drop us from 1 to 5 from this loss is total - -BS. - I’ve had said rankings really don’t matter at this point but this is utter BS

    I mean here you are - -on THEIR home floor in that atmosphere - -with out our Big which would of changed the game for sure - - 1st true road game of the year - -we control that game for 90 % of the game and they drop us 4 spots - -sounds like BS to me - -that’s ok - -ought to motivate us some I would think



  • I thought Dedric was out of this world.

    If he can stay dialed in like that for most of this season we are in for a pile of great wins and the conference streak continues.

    To see him step it up a notch and have it happen on the road… wow!

    What I don’t want to see is the rest of the team riding for free on his back. Everyone needs to contribute.

    We still have some pretty big defensive holes to fill. I see lots of promise, including from this game. The loss should help us.

    I get a nice feel from this bunch.



  • @jayballer73 Agreed. There’s no way UVA or Tennessee should be above us. UVA has only beaten 1(?) ranked opponent in Maryland, and Tennessee lost to us.



  • @approxinfinity

    UVA beat Wisconsin as well but it has one of the weaker schedules in Division I. I have mentioned before I don’t get why they are ranked so high.



  • @JayHawkFanToo they certainly seem prone to the same tragic fate as last year, ranking dead last in pace.