Post Texas Tech Thoughts.



  • Whewww. Needed a good 24 hours to get my ticker working normal again after the last couple days of Football and the K-St/Tech game. Imagine a lot of fellow KU fans have felt the same. I can’t imagine how you feel if your also a Chiefs fan. Let’s get to it.

    First off and most important I want to congratulate this team for just finding a way to win. The toughness and will to win is strong with this group. We have an Alpha playing at the highest of levels in Agbaji and a supporting cast that’s doing enough to keep this machine going. I saw the 17-2 record is the best in the last 5 years I believe.

    This game was an instant classic, reminding me of the OU/Buddy Hield game or the WV comeback (although that game was hard to watch for 36 minutes). Much respect to Texas Tech and their first year coach Mark Adams who looks like a College Professor on the sidelines. It makes you think if he’s been the brains behind the operation the whole time to Tech’s rise (he was previously Chris Beard’s assistant). Beard was salty when he didn’t follow him across town. But who can blame Adams for sticking around and getting the HC job. Beard changes jobs more often then high school teenagers change love interests. Besides the point Tech is an very old team. I was remembering just how many guys they got that have been in College a half decade it seems. There defense is really good but they don’t have a single youngster playing heavy minutes. It also seemed like the lack of a true PG is their only flaw besides outside shooting. Anyway much respect for that team, perhaps round 3 later? I’m good if we don’t have to face Bryson Williams again. Did we send poop in the mail to his parents house? He was outstanding against us.

    Let’s talk Agbaji- 37 pts (career high), 7 3’s (career high), believe it was the most points scored by a Jayhawk at Allen in a long time. 66 points in his last 2 games. Carrying this team on his back so far. Will he get his jersey retired the way he’s going?

    The Supporting Cast: Jalen, CB, Dave- Mixed bag of performances in this one but Jalen rebounded and defended his but off at times. He even made some FT’s at critical points. CB- one of his worst shooting nights and some untimely turnovers that swung momentum but came up cluch at the FT line and played almost all 50 minutes. Dave- thought this was a game he neither hurt us or was one of the reasons we won. Going 7-8 at the FT line was a big improvement from what we’ve seen in some other games where he’s struggled there.

    Dajuan Harris had one of those games where I didn’t think he played all that great and was a bit limited on both ends trying to score and defend over bigger guys. I know the game thread got a bit heated with Harris playing the last 15 minutes of the game or so including overtime over Remy who at times was carving up the Tech defense. I went back and watched some of the game and Dajuan kept the ball moving on offense and made some of the right reads/passes that ended up in buckets for KU. Who knows if anyone else could have made those plays.

    KJ Adams- What a spark off the bench he was. He just seems to have a knack for being around the ball and despite Williams getting 33 he did the best job slowing him down defensively. For a freshman playing a 5th year veteran who was having the game of his life I thought KJ was extremely poised in the situation and that’s something to be really proud of him for competing and thriving in the moment. He had a tip ball that bounced out to CB in double OT that was one of the biggest plays of the game. Hopefully this gives Self confidence to keep playing him in these kinds of situations. He was pretty complimentary of KJ in the post game.

    We saw one of Remy’s good games despite only 4 pts, he did have 5 assists. I thought the way he was able to knife into the lane created energy for this team and exposed Tech’s 5 out switching they were doing. We need more of that Remy!

    Game 1 of the 5 game gauntlet is in the books. Saturday is another big one with Kentucky coming to town with Gameday here. It will be interesting to see if TyTy Washington plays after he’s sat the last few games for them with an injury. They have not looked good without his offensive scoring power out there losing to Auburn and going to OT against Miss St at home. Tschiebwe is going to be a really big problem to stop down low. Let’s hope the guys rise to the occasion and board against him because this guy has been on an absolute tear all year long rebounding the ball.

    Rock Chalk



  • CB may have had an off night shooting (and boy were some of those OFF!!!), and he was certainly sped up when pressured out high with the ball leading to a few turnovers. But I think one play that has been overshadowed is the lob he threw to Och. Not sure we have another player on this team who would have had the confidence to put that ball up there for him. Och was fairly well guarded and just jumped over his man. If I remember correctly, that was at one of the many big moments in that game and had the red raiders worried about the back door for the rest of the game possibly freeing up just enough space to get off some of those outside shots late.



  • If this team makes a FF then Och locks up the rafter spot. He might get there anyway.



  • @BShark said in Post Texas Tech Thoughts.:

    If this team makes a FF then Och locks up the rafter spot. He might get there anyway.

    He’s going to be a 1st team AA. He’s in the rafters





  • @benshawks08 said in Post Texas Tech Thoughts.:

    CB may have had an off night shooting (and boy were some of those OFF!!!), and he was certainly sped up when pressured out high with the ball leading to a few turnovers. But I think one play that has been overshadowed is the lob he threw to Och. Not sure we have another player on this team who would have had the confidence to put that ball up there for him. Och was fairly well guarded and just jumped over his man. If I remember correctly, that was at one of the many big moments in that game and had the red raiders worried about the back door for the rest of the game possibly freeing up just enough space to get off some of those outside shots late.

    Braun didn’t have an off shooting night against Tech, he hasn’t shot well since conference play started. He’s sub 40% from the field overall and only at 30% from 3 in 7 Big 12 games.

    Braun has still been a net positive though unlike this year because he’s finding other ways to contribute thankfully and helping Ochai get his looks.



  • This team is so weird. I just can’t figure out how good they are.

    Legitimately, they have gotten a double digit lead in every game except for two road games. @KSU and @TTU. Otherwise, this team is able to go on runs that ALMOST knock out their opponent. Some of our issues are, in my opinion, Bill doing stupid things with lineups. Some of it I think has also been the drama we’ve had this season between the Wilson DUI headcasing, and the Remy “injury” drama.

    I also can’t help but ask, are we THAT bad of a defense? I swear I’ve seen worse KU defenses than this one. Last season’s team (starting 4 of the same 5) had the 12th ranked defense. And I thought there were times last season they looked worse than at any point this year (sans the 1st half of the KSU game). MG was obviously a piece of this, but Harris isn’t a slouch defensively.

    I watch us get 12 point leads, almost effortlessly, and think “wow this team is so, so good. Could beat anyone in the country” And then I watch them go on a 2-15 run, blow the lead in 3 minutes flat, and have to fight their way back. And I think “wow this team is absolutely losing the first weekend.”

    My personal ideal rotation the rest of the season goes- with some known Bill Self limitations added in - would have this. Bill will start playing KJ 20 mpg from here on out. This will slow the post feeds which have probably accounted for at least 1/3 of our turnovers this season. It also allows us to run like crazy, which is where this team is at its best. He will find a way to get Remy 28 mpg the rest of the way out, and Remy will start “Newman-ing” here in just a couple of weeks. We absolutely need Remy to become a killer and help us put some teams away early. Avoid mid-game lulls. Turn 12 point leads into 20 instead of watching them evaporate. We need Dave to give us 15 hard minutes a game. And Mitch can have 5. Bill needs to find a way to always keep 3 scorers in the game at one time.

    Acceptable lineups:

    • Harris/Braun/Ochai/Wilson/BIG
    • Remy/Harris/Ochai/Wilson/BIG
    • Remy/Harris/Braun/Wilson/BIG
    • Remy/Braun/Ochai/JCL/BIG
    • Remy/Harris/Ochai/Braun/BIG

    NoNo lineups:

    • Harris/Braun/JCL/Wilson/BIG
    • Harris/Ochai/JCL/Wilson/BIG
    • Harris/Remy/JCL/Wilson/BIG
    • Any lineup with 2 bigs. Like any of them.

    There is absolutely no reason to not have 3 scorers on the floor at one time. None. And by 3 I mean 3 of CB/Och/Remy/Wilson. If Bill can make a rotation where 3 of those 4 are always on the floor, we will run some teams out of the gym.



  • @Kcmatt7 I don’t know if we are THAT bad on defense, but we are pretty close to that. Lost in the headiness of the win is that TTU scored 75 in regulation and 91 total with Shannon and McCullar going 2-21 from the field and 0-11 from 3 - two double digit scorers. And, I don’t believe for a minute that is solely the product of great defense by our guys. You would think that we would win going away, especially at home. This is statistically the worst defensive team of the Self era, and by a fair margin.

    As noted in another thread, this doesn’t augur well for the Hawks in the tournament. Poor defensive teams do not win championships. It usually is balance, but the bias is definitely toward defensive superiority. Good college defensive teams can almost always shut or slow down good, even really good, college offenses. Look at Gonzaga this year. Only held under 80 twice this year. Put up 100+ over the best teams in their conferences - those teams, like BYU are pretty good offensively, but don’t play defense. TTU was one of the two teams to hold them under 80 - gave up 69 (interestingly, the other was Tarelton). Last year, everyone assumed that Gonzaga would roll to the title given how good they were offensively, but Baylor really dominated them defensively.

    This year may turn out to be an exception, as there are only a couple of top 10 defenses in Kenpom’s top 10 aggregate, but we’ll see. That’s not meant to take away from the grit and fight the boys have shown. Finding a way to win like they have goes a long way - but, man, it’s been a knife’s edge…



  • @Kcmatt7

    I’d have to look but imagine this years team is playing more possessions per game then last year. We also don’t have a defensive stopper like Garrett anymore that kind of erased some of those big games individuals are having against us. We are also a poor defensive rebounding team which seems to weigh heavy in the metrics. But I think with Wilson in the lineup we have been winning the rebounding margin more often and on any given night Dave might be getting 5 or more offensive boards so it’s likely the metrics might not be giving us the most accurate picture. Lately I think the biggest issue for KU has been creating steals and getting those transition opportunities that we seem to be really good at when we do.

    I do agree this is a hard team to figure out where they are headed. I mean if we find ourselves in a bunch of close games in March we’ve seen this team is going to win more of them then not. And we have that guy who has the “it” factor and can go and get you 30 without it being his best game of his life. So while I’m scared we could lose in the 2nd round we kind of have that team that can go as far as their will to win will take them.



  • Bryson Williams became the 15th player to score 30 + since 2010 against KU. Only 3 times did they win while scoring that much.

    https://twitter.com/jessenewell/status/1486390404761145346?t=RzOfOze5UxPl4v8ZIjDO0g&s=19



  • Charlie Moore hits a game winner! From 500 feet, it seems. Bank shot. I always knew he’d come around- it’s only taken him 5 years to improve!



  • Just saw that


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