Stop the streak



  • What would you change or adjust to stop this losing streak and get back on the W train?

    Without Juan we’ve looked bad (TN) yet he’s been bad lately because teams aren’t guarding him on the pick and roll. They go under and make sure to cover KJ so he doesn’t have 15-20 pg. Ever since this change the O has been bad.

    Joe can attempt to be Remy but isn’t the same.

    Bobby has 1-2 bright spots and otherwise been underwhelming.

    Bigs stink besides KJ

    JW is a stud

    Kevin hasn’t been good but hopefully Baylor he got his mojo back



  • I don’t care what anyone says… this could be one of the best defensive teams under Self if they just stayed focused and hustled.

    We could totally humiliate UK this weekend if we did this. I know… they’ve got size… amp up speed and then expose them for not playing good team ball.

    I’m not even talking about playing “BAD BALL.” This team has enough offense to avoid looking bad when their defense comes through.



  • Focus on playing good defense. Screw the offensive issues, the defensive one are much more concerning. Play good defense and the offense will come around.



  • I think shot selection has a lot to do with our issues. Our percentages have been lower the last few games. Sure, the defenses have something to do with that, but this team needs to learn how to manufacture points when we start to have a drought. We need to stop allowing 8-0 runs (or worse). The way to do that is to realize that the other team has scored 4 or 6 straight and work to for a layup or dunk… or drive and get fouled.

    And we need to make the free throws when that happens… seems like ft% has dipped the last few games. Teams are very comfortable hacking certain guys if they get 50% or less from the line. They are stealing possessions from us very effectively.

    We need to shoot threes when it’s truly in rhythm and when they are in their “spot”. Guys are heaving some pretty questionable shots from deep. I know they can make them, but will they? I think each player need to take threes within their own personal ability. Value the possession.

    Plus, bad long shots lead long rebounds and that leads to fast breaks.

    Just my 2cents.



  • Boards, no second shots. Box out Oscar, back into to him hard.



  • There is no one to stop Oscar. Hasn’t been for 4 years now.



  • They need to smoke some weed before the game. Get basketball out of their minds and just PLAY. A three game losing streak for KU is much more mental than anything they’re doing. I’m pretty sure they can all ball or they wouldn’t be in Lawrence.



  • @nuleafjhawk I want them to play fast- not slow.



  • A Purdue fan was kind of making fun of our team last night because of our 3 game losing streak. I said when you’re the defending national champ who loses 4 key pieces, heck 5, lets throw Mitch in there!, you can expect a bit of a drop off.

    Tomorrow, teams with length worry me. I’m worried. Going to need some good shooting from Gradey, stellar ball handling from DaJuan, Joe and Bobby gonna have to know their limitations, finding their moments. KJ gonna have to fix his mind again to be tough against their size. Keven is going to show why he’s on the watch list for defensive player of the year. Udeh or Zuby or Zach going to have to decide to utilize their size and help this team out.



  • @Jethro WAIT! - Maybe they HAVE been smoking weed before the game. If that’s the case, they should stop.



  • Good thing is this next game is just a get right game. The win or loss doesn’t really matter. I’m in agreement with @drgnslayr that it’s more about energy and effort. UK is on a little roll and has length and talent. We could play well, with good energy, and lose, and I’d still be happy. Watch what guys do without the ball, when their man doesn’t have the ball, are we resting, lazy, or locked in? That’s the key to me.



  • @BeddieKU23 he has fouled out several times. 🙏



  • We need to start going 10 deep for real, and pressing for 40 minutes.

    It allows Kevin, Juan, Bobby and Yes to do what they do best and pester ball handlers. I would imagine between the four of them we could force 4-5 easy turnovers for buckets a game.

    I also love the idea of pressuring the ball with the little guys and then you have to try to make a pass over KJ or Dick or McCullar on the trap. We have length, athleticism and smarts on the court. But it isn’t necessarily being used to its maximum potential.

    My final point - we are asking Bobby, Yes and Rice to play in the structure of a half court game. We HAVE to up the tempo (at least when they are in the game) to get something out of them. Asking these 3 to play half court defense for 25 seconds and then go down and play half court offense when none of them are really scorers is not going to work. You need to force the action. Ask them to make plays vs. try to run plays. They are all good players in transition. So create more transition opportunities.

    Just my two cents. What we are doing isn’t working and has been full scouted. We need a new wrinkle. Jalen isn’t going for 30 every game, and if he does it is more of an indictment on the rest of the team than a good thing.



  • I’ll be razor-focused on our body language in this game.

    The one thing I ask of our players… follow JWil’s attitude! Even in our losses, he has maintained excellent body language, which shows where the mind is… staying positive and in the moment!



  • @Kcmatt7 That’s one way to generate the energy and urgency to get this team back on track but I don’t think it’s the only way. And I’m fairly confident it’s not what Self will do. I know that wasn’t the prompt and I’m not saying you are wrong, but we will almost certainly not know if your idea would work because it just won’t happen. I do think there is something to being a little more generous with bench time with the goal of keeping on ball pressure maxed out. But we won’t go 10 deep.



  • @Crimsonorblue22 said in Stop the streak:

    @BeddieKU23 he has fouled out several times. 🙏

    Bout our only hope.



  • @benshawks08 I agree it is probably unlikely it happens.

    But I don’t know what else they can do to crank up the defense without significant changes in minutes. Opponent turnovers are WAY down since B12 play started. Switching everything has been scouted.

    The stretch from Tennessee to Harvard we forced 18.8 turnovers per game and 12.6 steals per game.

    In Conference play we are only forcing 12 turnovers a game and are only stealing 7.5 balls a game.

    I will say that almost all of those steals came from the starters… So the bench is an issue regardless. But we have to change our game a bit because teams are running whatever action they want against the switch everything D as it is so predictable. And they are getting the looks they want. KSU did it with Sills. TCU got everything they could ever have wanted with everyone on that team. And Baylor just did it with Flagler and Cryer.



  • @BeddieKU23 said in Stop the streak:

    @Crimsonorblue22 said in Stop the streak:

    @BeddieKU23 he has fouled out several times. 🙏

    Bout our only hope.

    I’m honestly more worried about the Toppin matchup. Oscar will get his. But what can we do to stop Toppin just going over the top of guys? That is what killed us last year. Toppin and Brooks just Kareem’d us to death in the paint. Didn’t have anyone who could get up enough to bother them.



  • Self likes to win every game and I’ll say he wants to especially beat coach Cal even though all these top coaches are competitive and will say it’s just another game. He puts guys in trying to win but in the end it’s the players who make the plays or don’t. Ta Da it’s Captain Obvious. If we cold start again I’ll be worried and hope we don’t look over matched.



  • @BeddieKU23 worth a shot, Wilson’s pretty good at drawing fouls, maybe gradey? Usually backfires on him.



  • @Kcmatt7

    I don’t think KU can win if they don’t control the glass and actually make shots on the other end. This is another bad matchup at the worst time. All I can do is hope they have had enough of losing and change their ways.



  • @Crimsonorblue22

    KU is currently 219th in the country in FT attempts per game.

    Gradey & Kevin went 14-14 from the line in the Baylor game. Jalen as you mentioned gets to the line. Guys will have to prove it



  • @Kcmatt7

    I like the idea of pressing and using 10 players. I don’t think Self will go that way… and if he did… we stand the chance of a complete breakdown if we don’t execute.

    There is a danger of running presses… and that is having it break down and lead to easy scoring. It can also add to removing team structure by adding chaos and that can impact both ends of the court.

    Add on top of this… Self has never been a coach that uses presses. Not sure why since he stresses defense. Perhaps he just isn’t much of a believer in the results except to use sparingly.

    I think what you are asking is something that should have been decided in the fall when there was time to adequately train with this mindset. Full-court pressing is also a mindset!

    What I like about pressing… it gets your team turned up (just like Self’s technical fouls, lol). It’s a way to change the tempo and suddenly get our opponents out of their comfort zone.

    We are failing to get our opponents out of their comfort zone!



  • Do we all remember early in this season when it was stated that this would be a real open-court team?! We were going to keep a super fast pace?!

    I don’t see it now at all. I see a typical Self team.

    I believe we would heavily benefit by pushing tempo on offense. Getting up shots before teams are set. Running slow offense, after the defense gets set, and then hoping we break them down after making the extra pass can work… or it can just push us into making bad choices as the time clock runs out. I’d like to think we can do well running fast or slow… but I know for sure we aren’t running enough fast offense lately!



  • Slowing the tempo down for conference games has ground us down. We will win if we run; we will lose if we don’t.



  • @nuleafjhawk said in Stop the streak:

    @Jethro WAIT! - Maybe they HAVE been smoking weed before the game. If that’s the case, they should stop.

    Oh man. Thats funny.



  • Some great reasoning in this thread - looking forward to seeing what adjustments the staff makes



  • I hope this is just a slump and honestly it’s the best time for a slump so I’m still not panicking.



  • @benshawks08 said in Stop the streak:

    I hope this is just a slump and honestly it’s the best time for a slump so I’m still not panicking.

    We played right into their hands with double digit deficits.



  • How many times have we seen KU slump around this time and bounce back in February? We know this team is capable of playing elite defense amd once they get back to that, that’s when the ship gets righted. Focus on effort on the defensive end and let the offense flow from that.



  • You sure can tell our 3 game streak is HUGE around the Nation - All I’m hearing is KU 3 game losing streak -3 game losing streak for KU - If Self loses tonight they say be 1st time in Self era - mercy I’m tired of hearing that



  • Tennessee is the best team



  • Watching Ark vs Baylor I swear I said shut the eff up Fran until my wife put it and me on mute.



  • Don’t feel great about the game tonight.



  • @BShark said in Stop the streak:

    Don’t feel great about the game tonight.

    I don’t think realistically not very many do



  • The bottom line is we have JUST GOT to stop digging such a huge dam hole to try and get out of early in these games- -has to STOP



  • Juan turnover the “jump pass” like a jr higher

    Gosh man if he’s gonna be this bad the rest of the year like he was most of last year we aren’t going anywhere



  • Let’s go Juan!!! SHOOT IT LIKE THAT



  • Juan shutting me up let’s go!!!



  • /thread



  • Guys dug in defensively like many above suggested and we boarded extremely well which allowed us to run like @Jethro said. I agree when we board and can run we are at our best.

    What a win



  • UK was 5th in the Nation in offensive rebounding at like 14 per game - - they got 5 - -ZERO 2nd chance points - - -ZERO - - the guys really got after it last night. - -Now when we play like that - -THIS is the guys that I think can make a serious push at another title.

    Another big thing I love we got to see our Bench -Udeh - - Zuby - -& MJ - and they all did something anyways. Hell Udeh got 12 minutes - -those 12 minutes are huge - -Zuby would of played more if he hadn’t messed up his ankle - -only ONE question ? - - Where was Zach ? - -that to me tells me something


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