OU + 20 over WVU....hand Wringing Reduced
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Score on WVU even once and they are in trouble, but oh my are they strong.
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Was watching hoping OU could finish which they did.
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Thanks Mr Hield who answered my wish! RCJH!
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Now, we need a favor from Drew to take care of WVU on 7th Feb. Mr Hield, please continue the good work and take care of Niang and Co. on 9th Feb. And, if we take care of the next 2 road games, things could be pretty clear by then. RCJH!
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Shocked at all the empy seats. OU is having the best season they have had in a while and cannot sell out the place; embarrasing. Of course they will sellout the joint when KU comes to town.
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It was great to see WVU brought down to earth. They caught a hungry team, but if you beat the press their defense is absolutely terrible. And its one of the things to look forward to when we play them is if we can consistently beat the press with good passes they have nothing. Their guards are a bunch of hackers especially Carter. Hopefully we had someone watching that game getting us ready for them in a few weeks.
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WVU now plays the toughest part of their schedule. When they go on the road, they really go on the road. On Coaches show last night, a questioner asked about the difficulty of playing in Morgantown on Big Monday after Baylor on Saturday with only a half hour to work on the WVU press, right after working on the Baylor press, flying to WVU, playing the game, immediately flying home and getting in at 5 a. m. Huggy has complained about travel because that scenario happens every away game for them. Bob Davis joked about Lubbock being a quick return trip. Playing in a different time zone hasn’t worked out well for too many teams. I remember disastrous trips to Oregon and Temple against lesser opponents.
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@wrwlumpy said
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Sorry about two rankings, can’t figure out how to delete without the ghost posting. Nice logo for Texas.
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It will be a tuff game with that scenario played out. We played like crap in Morgantown last year besides Wiggins monster game. The year before that we had to scrap for a close victory. Hopefully the assistants and Self have a game plan of working on their press before the Baylor game because Sunday will be a short day to get things in. We know the crowd will be amped for KU in town. I bet a lot of us fans realize that could be a likely loss with the short turnaround but this team is tough and we won’t know how they react to the game until it happens. We get the return trip in Allen, we all saw how we beat down Iowa St after a tuff road loss.
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Kruger did a masterful job of beating that WVU press. A couple of years ago I posted an article about the strength of Big 12 coaching, experienced winners from top to bottom. On any given occasion, each of these guys is capable of designing splendid game plans. Bill Self’s record speaks for itself, his tenacity for the league win title rarely blemished en route. But weekly he foxes with peers who possess the wind of Blue Collar Hounds.
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Thank you, OU! You are a good team and deserve a full house. The empty seats is an embarrassment to our entire conference.
I feel for those OU players… they really fight hard and don’t get recognized for it.
All year I’ve circled WVU away as a loss. We will be coming off only two days rest and have to travel there. And it is our first experience with them this year and we are still a very young team. However… if we screw on our hats tight like we did when we traveled to Austin, we can never count this team out!
I’m doubtful Self will start the preparation to play WVU until after the Baylor game… leaving us exactly one practice session to work on something very difficult to beat. If he does this there is no way we will be prepared.
Our biggest advantage is that we have depth to run in hopes we can stay fresh. Another monstrous advantage is that we don’t play them until towards the end of the Big 12 season. WVU not only plays aggressive, but they also play rough. Their style of ball puts more wear on their players so hopefully they won’t be really at full strength by then. I’d rather have them at full strength and put our guys to the maximum test. I just hope Self gives them a chance by practicing beating the press and traps at least a week ahead of our game.
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And right you were and remain, Coach.
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Significantly, OU did not let Huggie stop OU transition.kind of amazing. Shoot the trey. Transition when you can.
Huggies dad’s offense has been adapted to 4 out much of the time.
(added subsequently to original post.)
@JayHawkFanToo, see below the comment of @sfbahawk. Between the two of you you are on the right track.
Protection and rebounding buys you the chance to build a little lead and defend it.
Shoot the trey, transition when you can, then defend the lead.
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I have said it before, if you can beat the WVU press you will win big. OU was not ready for their first game and lost by 21 points; they were plenty ready last night and won by 19; Texas did the same thing and won by 27. Hard to believe such a huge swing.
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“I have said it before, if you can beat the WVU press you will win big.”
I agree… as long as you convert beating the press with easy finishes at the rim. If you can’t do that, and you are trying to do that, suddenly you don’t have offense anymore because WVU has successfully sped you up.
There was some of that going on in the OU game where OU beat the press then started to run some half court offense and they continued to rush their shots.
It’s tough to control the pace of those games. WVU speeds up all parts of the game and you either fight it by still trying to run your set offense in the half court, or you just try to score fast because the other possessions you had run outs.
The key is to maintain composure. OU did a good job of getting back on track when they started to slide. I thought Kruger did a heck of a good job controlling his guys.
This will be a great test for our guys… really see their composure pushed to the max, especially in Morgantown.
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@JayHawkFanToo Excellent post.
The way you described the first OU-WVU game where OU was not ready is exactly what happened to us against UK.
I noticed an article today on ESPN that talked about the five teams that can beat UK. Surprise, surprise, KU wasn’t on there. The teams they mentioned, IMO, are not going to be able to beat them because they can’t spread the floor and bomb the trey well enough to win. As HEM mentioned before, KU probably has the best chance of beating them because they can spread it out, drive and dish, and shoot the three incredibly well.
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@drgnslayr One thing that no one has mentioned is how WVU gets on the offensive boards and they were missing a big man, Delvin Williams. They are relentless and pound like the devil. Not only do we need to beat the press but we must control the defensive boards. Especially since their press is keyed off of made baskets.
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@DinarHawk I’m curious as to who they had as the possible world beaters of UK?
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Wisconsin, Virginia, Duke, Gonzaga, Arizona.
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Thank you Lon Kruger for the game plan. KU can break the press and find Greene and Selden. No reason we can’t do the same to WVU. Hield made WVU pay for that crazy press. Huggy Bear will pull that crap against us and the team needs to take this page right from OU’s game plan. OU executed really well.
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The trap of playing the WVU is thinking that only two point baskets on breaking the press are all that are needed to beat WVU.
OU’s key to success was getting outside and inside treys, plus making WVU turn it over; that is the only way to overcome the WVU press, if you refuse to press equally.
Huggie is using the press to make you turn it over and to make you lose your legs to shoot treys.
Why is he doing this?
Because his team is lousy at trey balling.
Huggie has to beat you most nights with 2ptas and some FTs.
To do that he has to reduce your total FGAs by turning you over, AND by making you too tired to shoot a high percentage of treys.
If you have enough trey shooters on your team to keep resting them during the press, over the course of the game you are going to break the game open if you just keep draining treys.
But if you keep settling for 2ptas the entire game you are playing into his trap.
Self will have the guys take all the short twos he can get early, while he shortens the game the first half, but at some point, he is going to rain treys to take the lead.
Shorten the game up front. Then shoot the trey. And transition when you can to build the lead. Then shorten the game and spend the lead doing it.
You win.
Its the same formula, whether you are playing a pressing team or not.
That’s what is ingenious about what Self has come up with this season.
P.S.: the press in some ways favors KU’s approach this year, if KU can protect. Why? We can’t score inside B2B. We have to attack the blocks to get a short shot. So: the press makes it even easier for our short bigs to run and jump at the basket. Frankly, if I were Huggie, I would surprise KU by not pressing the first half at all. Hope and prey you keep it close; then fritz KU out with the press the second half. That will discombobulate Self’s game plan.
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@jaybate-1.0 AND, Coach has 6 guys that can make it rain from deep this year! 6! Who has that? Ummm, like nobody.
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Yes, and it feels like he may be about to let Jamari start hoisting a few from outside.
Jamari?
Yep. Jamari took one or two the last game. I don’t think they were treys, and looked bad, but they were 18 footers and that’s usually how Self has had his bigs work up to the triceratops.
Self has to have someone else that can approximate Perry, when Perry goes out for a breather, or gets in foul trouble, and it seems Jamari is going to get a shot…
To be able to drive the blocks–Self’s term for attacking the rim with bigs from outside–the post man has to have at least shown an outside jump shot that has to be honored some.
Also note: Perry is now part of the 3 man weave expanded to a 4-man weave. Self clearly liked what it added, because they used it frequently the second half against ISU.
Self has to keep the opposing bigs honest with all this three balling.
He has to keep finding different ways for our short bigs to make running attacks at the rim.
The 4 man weave is a great way to do it, because it forces an opposing big to start sliding and chasing away from the rim AND can force him into switching off onto a wing, or even the point guard. I have been really surprised that more board rats here did not jump on the significance of thing.
This 4-man weave is going to be crucial to beating a team like Kentucky, Louisville, UA, Duke, or Gonzaga with a load of footers.
And before we are through we may see a five man weave.
Self has tried running the floor end to end with the bigs and that worked very well, so he has that in the quiver, but he can’t do that both ends of a two game weekend in the Madness.
Self has to figure out how to move footers either way fro the rim, or at least get them moving around near it…
The weave is the thing.
Now he is working
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@jaybate-1.0 I first took notice of the weave back with the 08 team. When it is used this season is it apart of the inside out attack or outside in? I guess by adding the 4th man to it, it kinda makes it outside in?
