I didn't cuss once!
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I used to always scream at the TV. Not this time. I wasn’t expecting to lose, but I knew how often we lose these early season games. Dayton deserved that win! They won the 50/50 balls. We were completely outplayed… even with their TOs. After we blew our lead, they owned the court mojo!
I had several takeaways from this game, many weren’t bad!
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Christian is very capable on the drive! I thought he had his best game ever as a Jayhawk! Too bad it ended in a loss!
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Remy is yet to take the helm and run this team. He hasn’t learned that his role is to lead this team. We need a leader at PG. I do think he is capable. He just has to change his mindset and know… though he is a newbie with veteran players, he’s the boss! Would have meant a W tonight.
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Dave is in a tough place. I think it’s crystal clear now… 4 guys on this team have to bend their natural instincts to slow down the game to keep Dave involved. Dave has probably the worst footwork we’ve had in the post for a long long time. But he lays his heart out there. Our current concept of hi/lo isn’t going to cut it this year. Instead of benching Dave or loading him up with the burden of carrying this team with the old hi/lo, why don’t we use Dave differently? Maybe stop forcing the feed into the post and just let it be… take what the defense gives and when it’s there, feed it. Otherwise… have Dave also clear out and allow more guys to finish at the rim.
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Right now, only Christian looks to drive the paint. What about Remy, Jalen, even Dajuan? Our offense doesn’t attack in the half court. So many quality pieces but very little initiative. Probably because we have this idea of running hi/lo. Spread out the perimeter and feed Dave in the low post. It is definitely not the way we are going to be successful this year.
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Watch Gonzaga and take notes. When you don’t have the ball, don’t sit on the trey line. Look for the right time and angle and dart through the post. What the Zags do is not rocket science. It’s a very simple attack on the rim! Also… drive the paint more!
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We lacked emotion! Once Dayton started coming on they owned the mojo in this game. If we stay like this, we will lose a lot more games than we should!
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Zach had the highest positive point impact based on his PT. Granted it was 3 minutes. But it is what it is and we tend to have positive play while he is on the court.
We have a talented group of guys and I still look forward to a very entertaining year! Just hope we figure it out soon and start playing better ball. Maybe we are playing soft just trying not to have turnovers!
Come on, guys! Attack the rim! You are dangerously close to having me lecture a lack of chip! lol
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1: Christian: yup, thought he’s been good the last few games. aggressive. He did some things at the rim we haven’t really seen before. 2: Remy: This will be a season-long growing process. He obviously got feedback from the NBA guys, who said with his size he needs to learn to be a true point. So, he’s gotta learn how to be a point, which given my limited viewing of him seems to be against his nature to wanna shoot. 3: Dave: who the eff knows. 4: Driving the paint: not sure I agree with your assessment here. Even Och seems to have upped his game here.
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I agree here. Change it up. It’s painfully obvious that Dave is not a traditional, back to the basket, post player. So stop trying to force the issue. He’s got a pretty good motor, he’s strong and athletic (although WEAK around the rim), is a pretty good weak-side shot blocker, and is a good FT shooter.
Those are all complimentary traits, and not meant to be a focal point.
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Ooops… definitely left out that Ochai drives the paint! My bad. Would like to see more of it. Why don’t we have several play sets that clear out a side for him to do his thing? He can drive to the rim or give us that silky-smooth, NBA pull-up finish!
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Nice post Dragon! Congrats on nat cussing even once. I didn’t either which isn’t a surprise because I never cuss! Still fearing moms bar of soap I guess. I’m not a big X’s and O’s guy so I’m not sure what everyone screams about not feeding the post is right or not, but goodness it hasn’t been working so far so we have to stop doing so!!!especially when the game is on the line and we need a bucket!!!
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The turnovers and inconsistent play are not surprising. There are a lot of new faces and not much time to get used to each other.
As for the last offensive possession, that needs to be the last time this year that a crucial possession doesn’t see the ball in the hands of either Agbaji or Martin, the two best creators on this roster. If Dave gets a dump off on a drive from a guard, that’s good offense. Lobbing the ball inside to him just goes against his best skillsets. That’s not putting him in a position to succeed.
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FOLLOW-UP:
Few days have passed and we escaped embarrassment from Iona. More random thoughts…
CB is crazy important to our success this year… both on offense and the boards. Opposition has to put their best defender on Chai and focus help defense on him, too. CB has to just keep developing like he’s doing. He’s becoming the Timme version in a guard! Playing smart. Seeing the game. Seeing driving lanes, timing, scoring space. CB is starting to get it. He has improved his athleticism enough to do about anything he wants. Definitely strong on the drive. I hope he weathers good through a few rough games and stays positive. He should become a very consistent scorer for us this year!
Jalen… not quite on stride yet. Not so sure he likes coming off the bench. He has to come to terms with himself. We are seeing HALF Jalen right now. He should become the catalyst for a much different, better team, on both sides of the floor. Self is grooming him into maturity… I feel certain of that… and it will pay off later this season.
Remy/Dajuan… which guy is going to run this team? I know both can… but who will? From a practical perspective… it seems when they are both out there that DJ needs to be the main controller. He’s less of a scorer and Remy needs to go get his points. We can definitely use his scoring threat. DJ needs to become still more aggressive. He is much improved this year, but he needs to attack harder, on both sides of the ball. He should be getting in some foul trouble because that is a symptom of aggressive defense. To me… our success depends on us ironing out the PG leadership. I’ve never bought into the concept of strictly “leading by consensus.” Someone has to stand up and take control.
Dave… Dave Dave Dave… where we see Chai and CB enter this season with more confidence… Dave starts out with less. Why? Maybe he can’t hurdle over the expectations? We definitely expect a lot from our bigs at Kansas. When you look up in the rafters and see the word “Manning” and “Chamberlain” you know you better bring game. I can’t recall now, if it was in the Dayton or the Iona game… Dave took a small shove and he tipped onto his back heels. He almost went over exactly like what happens when cows are tipped in those prank rural videos. I’ve never seen a big struggle so hard with his feet. Makes me think he should have a medical exam looking for some level of neuropathy. Not trying to be funny here.
KJ… I wish these guys showed up with a USB link directly into their brain. Wouldn’t it be great to just plug KJ into Self? And then network all the players so they know how to play with each other. His athleticism is nuts and we could sure use it around the basket!
Joseph… I like this guy! He has that lateral “X-axis” ability.
Self mentioned how hard it is to sub in so many players. His comments there were spot on. How do you do it without mass subs at the same time? When you do that, you impact rhythm. I remember some of Calipari’s old teams… where he had 5 go in at a time. It does seem to make sense using an approach like that. You have to have these guys practice together on the same side of the ball so they can build some chemistry. At a certain point, depth becomes a curse! I think a little of this will go away later on in the season as this group spends more time practicing.
+/- minutes stat… This tool is probably overused and very misleading. Just look at Jalen’s +/- in the Iona game. -4 in 12 minutes. I don’t recall how he was subbed. Was he put in for very short gaps… say… 2 minutes at a time? And if he was put in with other bench players… how do you assess his contribution in that -4 result? I think this stat may be more accurate later in the season if computed collectively over all games. This reminds me of my days playing high school football. We needed a third-string quarterback. No one stepped forward, so I did. I was a defensive back. I had speed and minimal quarterback skills. I thought it would be fun handling the ball every down. So… eventually I made it out there in a real game. My offensive line was atrocious! Every play the defensive line was in my backfield about the same time I was! Even though I sucked at QB it wasn’t fair to judge me based on what I had to work with. Boo hoo! lol
