Next Up: Texas (17) 14-4, Big 12 3-2
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Starters Hgt. Wgt. mpg ppg Key 3P Threat (%)
Jonathan Holmes SR 6-8 240lbs 26.9mpg 11.6ppg (36.9%)
Isaiah Taylor SO 6-1 170lbs 27.1mpg 11.1ppg
Cameron Ridley JR 6-9 285lbs 19.9mpg 8.6ppg
Demarcus Holland JR 6-2 190lbs 29.6mpg 7.9ppg (45.5%)
Connor Lammert JR 6-9 240lbs 22.4mpg 5.0ppg
Key Reserves Myles Turner FR 6-11 240lbs 22.3mpg 11.9ppg (43.3%)
Javan Felix JR 5-11 195lbs 26.1mpg 10.2ppg (36.8%)
Kendal Yancy SO 6-3 200lbs 20.2mpg 5.0ppg
Prince Ibeh JR 6-10 260lbs 10.4mpg 2.4ppg
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Forgot Ibeh, he’ll be playing and we will know it when he’s swatting shots.
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@BeddieKU23 Thanks. Wow! They will be bigger then.
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I’m going to point out something big for this game. Texas has all the size in the world and depth to match ours. We don’t have anyone other than Cliff who has a chance of sizing up one of their posts. They are not a good outside shooting team, which is usually our Achilles heel on defense.
We saw Self switch his offense late to utilize his personnel and it worked. Do you think he could switch up his defense to negate some of the advantage they will have inside. A Zone, a Zone press, a junk switch defense to try and negate Taylor’s quickness? Will we play with the same intensity as we did last night on the road against a good opponent? Duke has all of a sudden switched to zone and it’s silenced both Louisville & Pitt. Why couldn’t we throw a huge wrinkle into this game to try and get some advantage.
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Listened to the post-game from TCU UT game before ours and Javan Felix only talked about their next 2 games - us and then they have to go to Ames for Big Monday. These are 2 huge games for them since they are trying to claw their way back in the standings. Neither is a given. Their bigs are big but Jon Holmes is one that will have to be watched as he can go inside and he can also shoot the 3 - maybe Kelly needs to stay on him. Connor Lammert too can be crafty. You think he is a blocker and will be inside the paint but if left alone he can nail the 3. Mason has to stop Taylor. I think Cliff learned a lot about playing inside last night against a big and as long as fouls don’t come too fast for him, he can give some quality minutes. Selden will have to guard whoever he is on as they can slash and drive. Turner is still a freshmen but has to be blocked out. Perry would be best on him. He’s been their high scorer on lesser opponents. Going to be a full crowd but they are no where near anything like Ames as far as staying loud. Lots of boosters sit in the front sections and they just don’t show that much enthusiasm.
With Greg Anthony having been suspended from CBS, wonder who will be calling the game now? He talked a couple weeks ago about this being one game he wanted to see. What a huge mistake he made - career vs. hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I’m making my sign for the game.
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I’ve said from day 1 this year that the key for our success this season will be your elder players… Perry and Wayne.
I recently started shifting my focus to Kelly and Cliff. I put it on the line in the ISU game, thinking this was going to be Kelly’s game to dominate and bring home the victory. He wasn’t quite ready for that, but it isn’t fair to lay the blame on him, Perry and Frank were our only Hawks partially ready to battle ISU.
Kelly showed us last night, not only his talent, but his heart and competitive spirit. He was clearly our leader yesterday, making key steals and diving for balls, taking it hard to the hole in crunch time, and hitting key shots when we really needed a basket.
The question: is Kelly ready to take his show on the road? There is a leadership role wide open on this team awaiting him. Is he ready to lead this team?
Cliff needs a broader skill set, but what we need out of him now is energy. Self has it right, and the focus on his effort is key to him earning PT and making an impact. He’s our only enforcer. Someone has to battle Ridley (for example).
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I agree with @drgnslayr . The focus has to be on Kelly and Cliff. They just have so much talent that we can’t reach the potential of this team without both of them breaking out. The numbers yesterday were encouraging - 13 and 13 from Cliff, 19 and 9 from Kelly.
Those performances allowed Perry to shine in a more complimentary role (16 and 8, as the defense couldn’t really double him aggressively without getting burned). It also opens things up for everyone else.
The freshmen have to take over. This is a huge game on Saturday, as KU doesn’t want to get pulled into the pack. The Hawks need a big road win to seize an advantage in the conference race.
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“Those performances allowed Perry to shine in a more complimentary role”
Right on! We keep trying to force Perry into a leadership role and to carry this team on his back. That doesn’t appear to be the right approach.
We’ve sort of forced arguments to support this. We’ve been saying that when Perry plays well we win. True… but is that because Perry is leading the team? Or is that because other players are stepping up and taking some pressure off of Perry, allowing him to do what he does best (stealth scoring)?
We need to come up with a new name for Perry… and it should have the word “stealth” in it!
Perry may not lead with enthusiasm and wild dunks and blocks… we can’t force him to be what he isn’t. But Perry can work effectively (and invisibly) while another one of our guys (or two) steals the attention. How key is that?
What we have here is a “Yin Yang” situation. Perry is the “Yin”… the night working with the day “Yang”. He’s the female “Yin” working with the male “Yang.”
I’m not declaring that Perry is a female. I’m stating that in our society we view men as the strong role, when in reality we know women have every bit the strength as men do (often in differing, complimentary areas), and women are better “team players” allowing men to steal the limelight while focusing their efforts more on just being effective in the relationship, accepting a stealth position. Men need to “protrude their chests” with pride, like roosters do. And women, for the most part, accept the need for men to prance proudly.
So we have “male” players like Kelly and Cliff… ready to make a statement, and after their dunks they beat their chests while running down court. Our team needs that energy, that swagger. It’s the pride of a “male” rooster. But we need more than that. Perry offers us the other side. The side that works silently that supports our roosters, not only with his stat line, but by letting the emphasis (chest beating) come from our roosters.
James Brown had it right:
“This is a man’s world, this is a man’s world… But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl”
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@drgnslayr mans world, I prefer that to be equal!
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I totally agree with the generality, especially when it comes to equal pay for equal work.
My comments were geared towards personality generalizations that exist in our society.
Feel free to “protrude your chest” and prance proudly! We need more “female” roosters in this world!
Or should I have worded it… female “roosters?”
I’ve confused myself!
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@drgnslayr I don’t feel the need to do that, but ok.
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IMHO, the players that pound their chests are the ones that don’t have a lot of big plays and half of the time they get beaten on the next play…while they pound their chests.
OTOH, I don’t mind if women want to “protrude” their chests…of course, some more so than others…
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“IMHO, the players that pound their chests are the ones that don’t have a lot of big plays and half of the time they get beaten on the next play…while they pound their chests.”
There seems to be a time and place for chest pounding. As you said, it often backfires because the prancer isn’t getting back on defense. And sometimes they sort of aim it at their opponent, another bad idea because it gets them fired up more than your own side.
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Is meeting the President a better motivation for the next game than a film session of T Rob playing Texas the day after his family lost?
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I’ve been looking at the matchups for Saturday. It’s clear that Alexander must start to match up with Ridley. Starting Traylor or Ellis on him just sounds painful. I’m almost certain Self will try and double in the post on Ridley’s touches.
Holmes and Taylor are big matchups for Oubre & Mason. Taylor torched us last year in Austin and Holmes always plays well against KU.
It will take a superior defensive effort on the road to win this game. Texas is an equally good or better rebounding team than we are, and I’m certain they will block a good amount of our shots if we are not smart about things. Can these hawks make 3’s and play d on the road??
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Don’t suppose anyone has an extra ticket sitting around waiting for a fellow bucketeer to fill one of those nasty orange seats with a beautiful blue shirt? If not I’m going to have to check stub hub and for some reason I hate that place!
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If we can do what the Badgers did last night, we’re gonna be fine. They had zero turnovers for the entire game. Remarkable indeed. Did it against 25th ranked Iowa.
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@benshawks08 A good friend (UT grad) is taking me-I’ll be wearing my Jayhawk BLUE for sure.
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RCJH!
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“Starting Traylor or Ellis on him just sounds painful.”
Yes it does… but…
I’d start Perry on him and I’ll tell you why. Perry needs to be roughed up and face the muscle. It’s good for him.
And for whatever damage Ridley does to Perry, Perry needs to pay him back on offense. Think about Ridley guarding Perry? Perry might just go out and hit 4 3s in a row! Give it a chance! We need offense and Perry/Ridley should give us some of that.
Another thing… if we can get Perry to take the ball right into Ridley he should draw fouls. Ridley isn’t used to going against bigs with footwork.
What Perry really needs to do is use shot fakes in this game. The right fake at the right time will draw Ridley off his feet for a foul. It certainly works against us! We fell for every shot fake in that ISU game.
If this fails. If Perry can’t hit the 3 from the top of the key, we can always change. But this gives Perry a chance to get out of the gate well, and when that happens, good chance he will continue on to have a good game. We aren’t going to win this game if Perry doesn’t do well. Period.
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@drgnslayr I’m thinking Jaybate’s MBAP might do some good against the Texas Bigs. The starters, especially Ridley are slow. Pulling them out and running them using screens, cuts, and face ups even if it doesn’t work early could give us the edge down the stretch. Plus with the way our guards are shooting this year they have to help on the high ball screen. Mason has shown a couple of times that if you don’t show he will bury it, Graham is at something like 46%, Greene is Greene, and Kelly has a smooth stroke that at one time was up to 50%! Selden is the one weak link here at 35% which still needs to be respected.
Last year UT clogged the lane and waited for Wiggins and Selden to drive and stuffed them. Wiggins started settling for 2 pt jumpers. Selden made a few late. We dumped it into Joel and they hammered him until his back broke. Perry took 0 three pointers and avoided contact. They shot 45 free throws to our 19!! They were more aggressive and our soft team last year melted away.
Fact is, they are pretty much the same team this year plus Turner, who is pretty good. But our team is radically different. You can say what you will about the lack of inside presence on this team, but it would be tough to argue that this years team is as soft as last year. I don’t think they can rough us up like they did last year. Rick “the Butcher” will be up to his old tricks. You can expect slapping, hacking, body slamming, and all the rest but my gut tells me this team fights back where last year all but Selden broke.
This year we will not get stomped by Texas. Yes, we have been destroyed twice this year by teams with length, but we are better for it. New wrinkles keep coming every game and these “coachable” boys seem to me to be turning into men. Men who will not back down. Jaybate says 17-1…Hell, why not!
P.S. If we shoot less than 15 3s we lose in spite of all I just said.
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@drgnslayr I don’t think they would put Ridley on Ellis.
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Length will bother us Saturday. Yes they are collectively the same team but we are collectively much smaller this year and have struggled against even 6’6, 6’7 type bigs. Any baskets we get inside will be earned unless we find new ways to exploit our bigs on the block.
Defense, rebounds, and a near 50% shooting effort are what its going to take to win down there.
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I like your optimism!
I hope the new Cliff and Kelly show up in Austin… if they do, we’ll be a handful for Texas.
I want Perry on Ridley for some of the game. He needs to know what he’ll face every night at the next level. It’s a reality check for Perry. It might even help him play tougher ball the rest of the year. I can’t remember which game it was, but it worked that way with Withey. He was getting beat up and at one point he got sick and tired of it and started fighting back. He was a real trooper by the end of his KU days.
Yes… we need to get Ridley out top. I think we might be better by having a short team. Have Perry be our big and that’s it. Keep the ball in motion, focus on some offense and see if Texas can keep up. If we went for a 3-pt game and get hot, what other team is going to keep up with us? Right… none!
Playing small works for many teams including teams in our league. ISU is right at the top and they are small. No muscle in the post.
I want Cliff to get some minutes because I want to see what he does against another bruiser. It’s good experience for him. Can he handle Ridley? Yes, he can. I recall Ridley getting totally shut down in AFH last year.
It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog!
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@drgnslayr Exactly! And Where does most of the fight from a dog come from? The head! Our head is ferocious, mean, bulldog of a point guard. Compare Frank this year to Tharpe last year. There is no comparison. Mason will NOT let Taylor torch us like he did last year.
