Victory Over GU: The Power Of Three And Return Of The Quick Hook
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We knew that Georgetown would be physical and they were. I was glad to see that KU didn’t fall into a passive pattern against a physical team.
Oubre is making strides. He is just too talented not to eventually come out on top. It has taken longer than most of us (especially me) expected, but I had to realize last night that we are just 8 games into the season. He hasn’t found his shot yet, but if he finds his aggressiveness offensively things could pick up for him very, very quickly. And once they do, the fortunes of this KU team will rise with him.
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Agreed. The other thing that must be considered is that Texas has size that KU does not, so they match up with UK much better than we do. However, they cannot present as much size as UK does, so while they match up with UK better, we may be able to exploit them in different ways because they can’t run big guy after big guy at us like UK did. The KU-Texas games will be very interesting this year, as will the games with OU (they also present some interesting matchups inside).
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Mark Twain Quote After his obituary was mistakenly published, Mark Twain sent a cable from London stating “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
Brannen Greene, “The reports of my transferring are greatly exaggerated.”
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Love these KU Athletic Game videos.
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Another underwhelming performance.
I am not sure why you consider it an underwhelming performance. GU is a legitimate top 20 team, playing at home, with some favorable match ups and was a 2-1/2 point favorite. I think it was gutsy performance by KU, particularly when you consider how physical GU is and how the refs heavily favored them.
I agree that turnovers are an issue, I have posted after every game this concern but the team is making progress. Once again,. KU is playing a tough schedule and last night’s win was very good one not only because KU was able to win though adversity but because we saw what a confident Green can do and also saw Oubre show what he all thought he could do with his athleticism and long arms, slash and rebound in traffic.
All in all, a very good win.
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“None of that diminishes Svi, nor the praise I and others have had for him. Svi is still very much a work in progress, but it’s the combination of his potential on top of his already very strong fundamentals and high BBIQ that had me going to begin with. Nothing has changed in that regard. We’ll be seeing plenty of Svi this season.”
I’m with you. Svi is a good player now, and he will quickly become a great player. Imagine him after he learns American ball, puts on some muscles, perfects his trey, and continues to add more to his toolbox! Self was right in saying he has as much NBA potential as anyone on his team.
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I don’t agree that Svi has a problem with physicality of the game; like Coach Self said, he has been playing against grown men in the Euro Leagues for the last couple of years. The problem with Svi, IMHO, is the speed of the game; the American game is much faster paced than the Euro game.
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@justanotherfan Loyal UT fans down here in Austin know it is just a matter of time before Rick Barnes screws up the team. He is not thought of as a great game day coach. Tickets have gone on sale here and I’ve got mine. They do have a bench. I’ve watched most of their games and there are plenty of weaknesses. They average 8000 fans + a game but this one in Jan. will be the only one they sell out. I believe it is on CBS. Won’t be like last year. Now that Cliff has had time to play vs big men, should be a great matchup with Ridley. Ridley can get quick fouls and sit most of a half.
Glad to see Kelly get to play and get in PT as it can only help. Like that he got to take questions too after the game with Brannen. Emailed the surgeon that I know this morning to tell him I saw him multiple times on tv right behind the bench and he said it is just a matter of time before Kelly explodes and that he is a really good guy.
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@JayHawkFanToo I don’t think we win against Florida if Coach didn’t replace Svi with Graham. We are simply much faster with Devonte and Frank on the court than any other combination of players we have.
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@JayHawkFanToo Because we had almost 20 turnovers again. Because I found myself thinking several times, “Georgetown is trying to give us this game.” Because we continue to run at the rack hoping to get bailed out by foul calls when the identity of our team could be something more efficient. Because we continue to throw it in the post against teams with size and length when we know we are not effective at all against it. That’s why I think it was underwhelming.
But you are right. A good win on the road against a good team in December. I’ll take it.
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I want you to close your eyes and visualize success…
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8 more inches and we have the EJ-Michigan situation all over again. No pun intended.
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@JayHawkFanToo sore subject, surprised that’s not brought up more.
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Some good signs:
1: ‘Solving’ a physical opponent (a formula that will be necessary to repeat as soon as Saturday, and later against Texas and others)
2: A team with balanced scoring: [PPG] Ellis 14.4, Mason 10.6, Alexander 9.6, Selden 9.3,
3: Winning without Traylor (and Svi, for all intents and purposes)
4: Repeatedly coming back against an opponent on the road
5: Oubre’s positive attitude: “I love my team,” Oubre said. “We showed some signs down the stretch that we’re going to be great.”
- Lots of room for improvement, yet 7-1
A cautionary note or two: 1: KU is the third “luckiest team” this year
2: KU is facing a true test on Saturday. Despite beating some good names (Tennessee, Michigan State, Florida and Georgetown), the reality is that KU is 0-1 against top 25 teams this year. Utah is 1-1 against top 25.
I’m repeating myself but the Utah game will speak volumes about what to expect from this team.
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I am not sure I agree that we are 0-1 against top 25 teams. Michigan State was top 20 when KU played them and dropped because of the loss to KU; it still is #23 in the Coaches Poll. Florida was top 10 for the first two weeks and even when they are 4-4, their loses are to Miami,. North Carolina, Georgetown and KU, all top 25 teams; they are still getting votes in the polls and will likely be top 25 once they get some of the injure players back. Georgetown is in my opinion a legitimate top 20 team and it lost to Wisconsin, Butler and KU; they have received votes in both polls and are currently a borderline top 25 team. I have no doubt that y mid-season, all three teams will be top 25.
The Utah game should be a good test against an opponent that has some of the component that give KU match up problems.
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Man what a great game, besides the Outcome in our favor this was really a true test of toughness. One that hopefully our kids can lean on when going into Iowa St. K-State, Oklahoma, & Texas.
There were many times a lead evaporated quicker than you could blink and somehow they found a way to respond. Perfect example was the 58-51 lead gets tied up in a matter of a minutes. Mason comes around a screen and dagger’s a 3 home. I love his ability to make shots like that.
The Ref’s were absolutely horrendous but what do you expect going on the road. I can’t think of too many shots we had close to the rim where there wasn’t a hack job involved.
Smith should have been penalized for the move on Lucas, and he had 3 other moments of throwing those elbows high that KU would have been called a flagrant for had it been the other way.
The blown call on the over the backboard play at the end of the game was just one of many ref blunders in the game. How do you not call something before going to the monitor. What if we had’t had the possession arrow.
Greene got his 4th foul on a play called at least 1-2 seconds after it happened from the far-side ref. The ref underneath the basketball didn’t call it, how can you?
I have to say I was impressed by Oubre and what he can bring to the team. It finally seemed like the light bulb is coming on… He just has to keep getting comfortable with the offense and know where he can get his shots from. I hope he stay aggressive going to the hoop he will draw a lot of fouls as a lefty. He rebounded well.
The turnovers were killer. A lot of bad entry passes, too many of our turnovers seem to start at the top of the key with no help to get back on d. We were fortunate G’Town missed a bunch shots close.
I’m only going to call out Selden because I thought he looked lethargic out there. He’s too hot and cold and exactly why I don’t view him as a NBA prospect right now. Put 2 good games together fella. When he makes shots consistently and makes good decisions he’s very good but we really need him to be consistent just as much as Ellis is.
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@DinarHawk Nice post. I wish our fan base would allow Texas to play themselves out of contention, like they do every year, before we spend one second worrying about them. It seems like we as a fan base are now Texas-obsessed. Everywhere I look, on every website concerning KU BB is … “OMGTexas”. They are a good team- they are a big team, but they aren’t a team that will likely be in our bracket come tournament time. It would be nice to win number 11 in a row, but I’d take a Final Four appearance over another conference title any day of the week.
@bskeet I’m not impressed with Utah. I wouldn’t be surprised if we beat them by double digits. Just my opinion.
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I don’t feel like I am Texas obsessed. They just present a matchup (size) that could give this particular team trouble. I think Iowa State is better than Texas, but we match up so well with ISU this year that I am not as worried about them.
I look at matchups and teams that can hammer away inside are going to give us trouble this season. Georgetown is a fringe NCAA team, but because they have some size, they can give us problems. Teams without size risk getting run off the floor by us because we have more perimeter talent, and if we can also batter you inside, we can really open things up on you.
Barnes probably will screw things up, but Texas has more talent than they have had since Durant/Augustin/James were there. This is the best Texas team in at least 4-5 years. This is probably the best OU team since they went to the Final Four in the early 2000’s. And they both have size, which is something we lack for the first time since I can remember. It should be an interesting race, but I think we still win because we have AFH and nobody else does.
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After Georgetown, can anyone predict who will start at the wing? Will it be Brannen, Kelly or Svi. Lucas is getting better and better and better each game, but will probably will keep losing minutes to Cliff. I’m so glad he red shirted. Poor Hunter, the Princeton burned his ass the second he came in the game. He will play this year, but for now, it seems like that will only come when two of the Three Little Bigs foul out.
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@wrwlumpy good question! I think Greene has earned it, but Self might have him come off the bench, like Cliff, unless he’s ready to start Cliff. Nice to play the hot hand!
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Texas is really good this year and the front line is not only big but very capable as well, and the team as whole, a lot better that Iowa State; I would be happy if we split with them . Also, I don’t understand why people underestimate Barnes; he is a pretty decent coach and has been successful everywhere he has coached. Keep in mind that coaching basketball at football crazy Texas is like coaching football at basketball crazy KU. The only poor coach in the conference is Scott Drew.
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@justanotherfan That wasn’t a reference to your post. It was a reference to the dozens of posts I keep reading on every KU board about Texas. Texas, Texas, Texas. Very little is being said about the fact we turned around a bad loss, and beat Michigan St, Florida, and Georgetown on the road back to back to back. Seriously, did anyone think we would beat those 3 teams in a row after the Kensucky game? I was shaking my head with the many KU fans who predicted we would get blown out at Georgetown. Now fans are saying we would lose by 20 to Texas. Does anybody believe we can win anymore? I am very proud of what this team has done so far - I LOVE this team. I’m just saying let’s give these guys a chance to develop before we write off the farm.
This post is a general venting from a myopic, defensive KU fan who bristles at any hint we aren’t the best since sliced bread. Please handle accordingly…lol.
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I wish I could have participated here … great posts. Got hammered at work and simply couldn’t do much other than poke my nose in here a few times. Thanks for all of the nice comments.
Just saw @Jesse-Newell is picking Utah tomorrow. I’ll have to ponder that for a bit.
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@HighEliteMajor I hate to see people get their priorities screwed up.
KUBuckets first. Work second.
lol
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Vegas has KU by 4. Other interesting lines include UK over UNC by 12 and Arizona over Michigan also by 12.
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Unfortunately the Vegas line is set to make the betting 50-50 on each team. They make money on the vig. I’d guess that KU fans are betting KU as well as cheering for them.
