Winning Strategy to Bring Home a Trophy...



  • “It wasn’t us playing good,” Self recalled again on Thursday. “The mindset was we just have to make sure that everybody else plays worse.” - Self

    I just hope we don’t revert to BAD BALL!

    It will take our guys to step up on defense to win a title. But we can’t do it at total expense of our offense.

    That last gear is us playing both sides of the ball… and controlling pace! We coast when it is our pace. Our pace is fast when we play defense and then push for runout offense.

    The guys need to know that their reward for defensive stops is fast runouts at the other end!

    Please, please… don’t mistake our offense for a good half-court offense… because it’s not!



  • @drgnslayr From Matt Tait’s pregame write up on KUsports.com

    "Said KU’s Christian Braun of his team’s love of running the floor: “That’s when we’re at our best. We know when we get out and we get stops, we can run.”



  • I feel like this team is a very smart KU team. I’ve rarely seen anyone complain about effort or taking bad shots or anything like that with anyone in this group. There are games where a certain guy may not be hitting his shot or may have trouble staying in front of his man. For a time Remy seemed lost on D but that hasn’t recently been the case.

    They know what they are supposed to do. They know how to do it. They’ve all proven they can do it. It’s all about execution and consistency now.



  • @drgnslayr probably no need to worry about pace. If you recall against Creighton, the sideline reporter noted that Self told them in a timeout that they looked “slow”. He knows they need to play fast.



  • Thanks, all, for the reinforcement. My consciousness has been bruised from past history of BAD BALL! This team will not win it all with BAD BALL alone!



  • @drgnslayr Really the goal should be GOOD BAD BALL. Where we play good, they paly bad, and we win every game easily.



  • @benshawks08 said in Winning Strategy to Bring Home a Trophy...:

    @drgnslayr Really the goal should be GOOD BAD BALL. Where we play good, they paly bad, and we win every game easily.

    But if we do this, how would we ever develop a chip…??? Hmmm… back to the drawing board.



  • I’m back in worry mode.

    I’m glad we advanced… but last night should have been a blowout.

    I am thankful we have a group that doesn’t freak out when punched in the face… and this has saved us all year long and again last night.

    But here we were… a BAD BALL game… slugfest down to the wire. Maybe we can win 3 more games like this… I just don’t see this as the best strategy to go.

    I think we influenced pace last night because we seemed happy keeping it slow. Self had given us a headsup mentioning BAD BALL before this game.

    I see we are capable of winning a slow or a fast game, or a game with it being mixed. I get that… and we have made it this far. I’m grateful.

    From here on out are we just going to run mostly halfcourt offense?

    Can we go ahead and plan that Och isn’t going to be a real factor on offense from here on out? Has he ever put up big offensive numbers in March Madness? Are you really an “All-America” if you never step up in March? I don’t care if he goes 2-24 in a game… put up the damn shots, son!

    I appreciate Wilson’s game yesterday… He never stopped fighting on both sides of the ball. But I’m calling us “The University of Remy” from here on out!

    So how come we can’t have a successful Remy, CB, Och and David in the same game? It just looks like they’re coasting. I heard about Self constantly pleading with them to man-up!

    Wilson doesn’t count on being hot or cold… he just hustles and that gives him a double-double.

    I hope we luck out and continue to draw low seeds. Not likely in the FF. I have little doubt in this Miami game… 38 minutes of whatever… it all comes down to the last 2 minutes and I hope we shine at the end!

    If we win the NC playing 3 more games of BAD BALL, I will consider getting BAD BALL tattooed on my body!



  • I too appreciate Wilson’s dogged determination. I just wish all the starters played with Wilson’s determination. Remy’s quick trigger on offense is fine when he scores, but several times a game he shoots too quickly. But I’ll take the bad with the good from Remy the rest of the way. KU is only continuing to play because Remy is willing to shoot when our other guards have their heads in the sand.



  • @drgnslayr said in Winning Strategy to Bring Home a Trophy...:

    I’m back in worry mode.

    I’m glad we advanced… but last night should have been a blowout.

    I am thankful we have a group that doesn’t freak out when punched in the face… and this has saved us all year long and again last night.

    But here we were… a BAD BALL game… slugfest down to the wire. Maybe we can win 3 more games like this… I just don’t see this as the best strategy to go.

    I think we influenced pace last night because we seemed happy keeping it slow. Self had given us a headsup mentioning BAD BALL before this game.

    I see we are capable of winning a slow or a fast game, or a game with it being mixed. I get that… and we have made it this far. I’m grateful.

    From here on out are we just going to run mostly halfcourt offense?

    Can we go ahead and plan that Och isn’t going to be a real factor on offense from here on out? Has he ever put up big offensive numbers in March Madness? Are you really an “All-America” if you never step up in March? I don’t care if he goes 2-24 in a game… put up the damn shots, son!

    I appreciate Wilson’s game yesterday… He never stopped fighting on both sides of the ball. But I’m calling us “The University of Remy” from here on out!

    So how come we can’t have a successful Remy, CB, Och and David in the same game? It just looks like they’re coasting. I heard about Self constantly pleading with them to man-up!

    Wilson doesn’t count on being hot or cold… he just hustles and that gives him a double-double.

    I hope we luck out and continue to draw low seeds. Not likely in the FF. I have little doubt in this Miami game… 38 minutes of whatever… it all comes down to the last 2 minutes and I hope we shine at the end!

    If we win the NC playing 3 more games of BAD BALL, I will consider getting BAD BALL tattooed on my body!

    If KU goes to the Final Four, the semi final game will be a bad ball game regardless if it’s Houston or Villanova because those two teams play at a snails pace. Miami could very well be another rock fight game because they’re not super quick, not as slow as Providence but definitely not a fast team. They also don’t shoot a bunch of 3’s and don’t turn the ball over much so KU may not have a lot of opportunities to get out an run.



  • The only thing I’m worried about is can we defend again like the first half plus having even an average shooting night. To me, that is the next gear for this team. Pace can help get you more possessions to take more shots, but if you’re not making them it doesn’t matter. I really liked the attention to the D last night, getting out on shooters and making them play bad, especially in the first half and key moments in the second half. I rewatched highlights of our final four game against Villanova and the difference in effort on perimeter D was night and day compared to last night. Got to keep it up and start knocking down some 3s.

    Fortunately, Miami seems to like a faster tempo and they tried to constantly trap ISU last night, who ultimately didn’t make them pay nearly enough for that. Shouldn’t be a worry about pace in this game @drgnslayr.



  • We are the University of Kansas! A team!



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 said in Winning Strategy to Bring Home a Trophy...:

    @drgnslayr said in Winning Strategy to Bring Home a Trophy...:

    I’m back in worry mode.

    I’m glad we advanced… but last night should have been a blowout.

    I am thankful we have a group that doesn’t freak out when punched in the face… and this has saved us all year long and again last night.

    But here we were… a BAD BALL game… slugfest down to the wire. Maybe we can win 3 more games like this… I just don’t see this as the best strategy to go.

    I think we influenced pace last night because we seemed happy keeping it slow. Self had given us a headsup mentioning BAD BALL before this game.

    I see we are capable of winning a slow or a fast game, or a game with it being mixed. I get that… and we have made it this far. I’m grateful.

    From here on out are we just going to run mostly halfcourt offense?

    Can we go ahead and plan that Och isn’t going to be a real factor on offense from here on out? Has he ever put up big offensive numbers in March Madness? Are you really an “All-America” if you never step up in March? I don’t care if he goes 2-24 in a game… put up the damn shots, son!

    I appreciate Wilson’s game yesterday… He never stopped fighting on both sides of the ball. But I’m calling us “The University of Remy” from here on out!

    So how come we can’t have a successful Remy, CB, Och and David in the same game? It just looks like they’re coasting. I heard about Self constantly pleading with them to man-up!

    Wilson doesn’t count on being hot or cold… he just hustles and that gives him a double-double.

    I hope we luck out and continue to draw low seeds. Not likely in the FF. I have little doubt in this Miami game… 38 minutes of whatever… it all comes down to the last 2 minutes and I hope we shine at the end!

    If we win the NC playing 3 more games of BAD BALL, I will consider getting BAD BALL tattooed on my body!

    If KU goes to the Final Four, the semi final game will be a bad ball game regardless if it’s Houston or Villanova because those two teams play at a snails pace. Miami could very well be another rock fight game because they’re not super quick, not as slow as Providence but definitely not a fast team. They also don’t shoot a bunch of 3’s and don’t turn the ball over much so KU may not have a lot of opportunities to get out an run.

    I think I saw a stat in their game with Iowa State that in their first two game Miami hd only turned the ball over THREE TIMES



  • We don’t have to accept that the other team sets the pace. If they are a slow team, we have that much more to gain if we can speed them up on offense. I do worry about teams like Nova because Wright and his PG are so well-coached on what to do.

    When we pull down defensive rebounds we can run on anyone. What ticks me off is when we push it up court and guys get all the way into the paint then they pull the ball out to run half-court offense. Instead… they need to take it to them. Be aggressive! Earn FTs! Foul out players! Score points!

    Anytime we get stuck running half-court offense we run the risk of dropping points and momentum and going cold and losing confidence.



  • @drgnslayr said in Winning Strategy to Bring Home a Trophy...:

    We don’t have to accept that the other team sets the pace. If they are a slow team, we have that much more to gain if we can speed them up on offense. I do worry about teams like Nova because Wright and his PG are so well-coached on what to do.

    When we pull down defensive rebounds we can run on anyone. What ticks me off is when we push it up court and guys get all the way into the paint then they pull the ball out to run half-court offense. Instead… they need to take it to them. Be aggressive! Earn FTs! Foul out players! Score points!

    Anytime we get stuck running half-court offense we run the risk of dropping points and momentum and going cold and losing confidence.

    Problem with what you want KU to do is that a lot of teams get their defense back instead of chasing offensive rebounds to prevent KU from getting transition baskets and Braun and Wilson aren’t disciplined enough to not run people over when they take it to the basket and have picked up a bunch of charges this year because they recklessly drive into the defense in the paint. It’s also much easier to slow a game down than it is to speed it it up.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 correct, have to be able to win a variety of ways.



  • @jayballer67 Miami turned it over 4 times, 3 times, and 14 times in their 3 games.



  • @mayjay said in Winning Strategy to Bring Home a Trophy...:

    @jayballer67 Miami turned it over 4 times, 3 times, and 14 times in their 3 games.

    7 times in two games is pretty dam good. - Iowa State turned it up on them



  • @Texas-Hawk-10

    This time of year, we have to be disciplined with whatever we do.

    I can’t think of a game where we didn’t perform well when we increased the tempo. It seems Self wants it, too.

    I hear what you are saying, CB and Wilson probably get nailed on the charge more than anyone. I’m not sure those are bad fouls. Our guys need to be more aggressive.

    I’m just glad this is probably one of the best closing teams we’ve ever had (at least… going back to 2008). If it wasn’t for that, I don’t think we won last night.

    Maybe it is best we show different tempos every game. How hard would that be to scout us now if we change the tempo constantly?

    I already feel like the Providence game was a change up. We definitely put our emphasis on defense and didn’t mind walking the ball up the court. That has to make Miami think…





  • And it was tempo in the second half that made it a blowout. I’m not wrong about this. Yes… we brought more intensity… but it was that intensity that ignited the tempo in our direction. Miami then proceeded to brick treys. They were sped up and totally out of sink in the second half.

    If we can turn it up like that in two more games we bring home a trophy. It is as simple as that. Otherwise… we will grind out games and I hope we can still prevail but I have my doubts.


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