Graham's Injury
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New guy here but I have been reading your guys’ insights ever since kubuckets was created.
I am interested to see how players will step up after Graham’s injury. I have been eagerly waiting see Greene and Svi play extended minutes together. Mason driving with Svi on one side or Perry getting doubled to pass back out of Svi on the other. Two 6’7+ shooting wings is something that I haven’t seen in Self’s era.
If those two get hot, expect Utah to let Perry on more one on one and our inside out game becomes more deadly.On top of that, with Mason improving with dishing it after beating his man, the team’s flow could similar to Roy’s teams with the defense minded team of Self. I am being rather optimistic but that is what pregame predictions are all about!
I expect a close game with a lot of runs but KU wins by six because of foul shooting at the end. Rock Chalk.
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@JhawkAlum Way to call it man.
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yep… pretty much nailed it.
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This post is deleted!
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@JhawkAlum Welcome to the site new guy! Impressive accuracy on your prediction.
I’m interested too to see how the team looks without Devonte. Mason appears to be the best conditioned guy on the team and can probably play 36 minutes or more every game like he did tonight, but it takes away Self’s ability to swap him out if/when he is struggling. It does give us a chance to see the much talked about Wayne at the point scenarios. He was OK today in the limited minutes there.
Overall I hate that the guy is hurt because I love his game! Hopefully he is able to take as much time as is needed to fully recover and he isn’t rushed back into action, but we have a lengthy history of Self expecting guys to play through injuries, so I’m not holding my breath.
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I was disappointed in how Greene and Svi played together. I underestimated how much a lack of ball handling would effect us. The hawks seem to always need to have a two out of the three ball handlers in the game (Mason, Graham, or Selden).
Another slap-in-the-face realization is how bad our second post players are behind Ellis (Self doesn’t need a distinction between the 4 and 5). Lucas is smart and knows how to push his man forward but doesn’t have the athleticism or explosion to score on bigger defenders and Traylor doesn’t posses the height or skill. Alexander had the body and explosion but hasn’t figured out how to put himself in the same position has Lucas. Hopefully he figures it out or we will be seeing Oubre play that mismatch 4 more often,
On the bright side, this team shows toughness to start something with absolutely no momentum. The floater by Ellis and pull up 3 by Mason are perfect examples. That toughness is something I haven’t seen since 2012 and when that toughness mixed with the talent is enough pull out NCAA tourney wins and another conference championship. This will be a good season but hopefully we will not be bald by pulling out our hair in the process!
