The Mayor Was Out Coached
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I was sure I would see something along these lines before but nothing.
It appears that the Mayor was handed his a$$ last night by Scott Drew of all people and at home no less. The point was made endlessly by the color man that using all of his timeouts to stop ISU runs won the game. Along with Kenny Chery. Also note that this was done with Rico Gathers sitting on the bench. We should put a lot or credence in what the color man said since we believe them whenever they opine that KU should launch 3s.
Drew went with a smaller lineup of 3 pt shooters since Gathers wasn’t doing much under the boards. He took probably the only player that has a sniff at the league out of the game.
The Mayor on the other hand kept having his players chuck up 3 pointer after 3 pointer with little or no success. Niang couldn’t hit the proverbial KSU bull in the butt with a scoop shovel. What was working for them was Niang going inside, drawing defenders and passing to McKay for dunks. But no that wasn’t good enough since ISU is known as a 3 point shooting team. He also couldn’t prevent his players from making turnover after turnover at the end. What was he thinking?
Everybody here seems to love the Mayor for adjusting to his players strengths and not running a system. Did we see that last night. No we did not.
Maybe things really are as simple as the fact that it is very hard to win in the Big XII either at home or away. Maybe every coach doesn’t go from a genius when they win to a dolt when they lose. Who knows?
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Good post to shake out all the theories in here.
I watched that game in it’s entirety.
I’m not sure I’m blaming Niang and his missed 3s as much as I’m giving credit to Baylor for suddenly, out of the blue, getting red hot from 3. I know at one point they hit 4 or 5 in a row on consecutive possessions.
The other area I give credit is for Baylor’s defense. They did several things to keep challenging ISU from just getting easy offense, and for most of the game, ISU was getting easy offense. But Baylor players shot gaps and stole a lot of passes, and they actually sped the game up more than ISU liked to play at, even at home. Got to hand it to Chery for constantly pushing the ball up the court. It helped keep ISU defense from completely setting up in the half court.
Gathers coming out also helped when he threw his temper tantrum on the sidelines, kicking chairs and screaming. That seemed to be the point when they turned up the effort.
If the game had gone another 10 minutes, ISU might have won by 10 or so. Hard to say. A lot of what happened was just a timing thing. Baylor stuck around, and down the stretch they had that 5 minute (or so) stretch where they lit it up from 3!
I kept saying to my wife… “yeah, but they are Baylor, and they will blow it in the last minute.” After all, Baylor was 0 - 12 from Hilton. So they kept pushing up the lead and running down the clock, so I would state… “if they can just get a few more points, they stand a chance.” Ha! I think I was able to use my powers of jinxing against ISU! I have got to keep trying that more often!
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Live by the 3, die by the 3. This is what happens when you have one dimensional, 3-point shooting team that goes 6-24 (25%) from the 3 while your opponent goes 14-24 (54%). The two steals in the last two minutes were key as they denied ISU the opportunity to score but more importantly, they used valuable clock.
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Yeah… I also thought ISU played cocky. They weren’t as disciplined as they have been most of the season. I think they were feeling too confident of a home win and sharing the lead in the B12.
It is also a burden to lead the pack. Arrogance is something that usually isn’t tested until the situation puts you at the top. This was finally their chance… and the blew it!
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Yeap. Tough to be the team with the bull’s eye on the back. Other than McKay, ISU played well below par; McKay has really been a great player for ISU.
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@JayHawkFanToo I think he’s the key, or she.
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Hate to say it, but a KU team went to Ames either 1 or 2 yrs ago & got a W off a very average performance simply because IowaSt shot themselves right outta their own gym, going 2-19 or 3-20 from 3. Fools Gold??
