UNC Game Thread
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I am going to have to agree with a point from @kuballin10. The comment about the guards is troubling. We are at game number four counting the exhibitions and we’ve already played the “best/fastest” guards in the country twice. The problem is that every guard is going to look great if they can get Hunter in a ball screen with the current scheme.
Something has to change there and I’m nervous because I don’t have much confidence that anything will.
On the other hand I am pumped for Flory. He made some plays no one else on the team is capable of making. Got some big boy rebounds, showed a little post move, played with a big time motor, and even a few dribbles on a down hill drive. With normal officiating he’d have ended that game with 3 or more blocks.
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I agree about KJ and the minutes got but let’s not go crazy Bill has a lot to figure out with this group and we played a high level team early.
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What a game
Some thoughts.
Was disappointed in losing the 20 pt lead and ending the half with that negative momentum play at the buzzer was certainly positive fuel for UNC. Made for an exciting and nail bitting moments late but that was one heck of a starting point for the season. Resume building win #1.
LOTS of positives in that first half offensively and many defensive possessions that kept UNC off script so the potential is there but it was not sustainable. Growth to find for sure.
I’ll give Hunt, KJ and Mayo a pass for looking dead tired in stretches of the 2nd half as this game got tight and intense but it must improve from them all. Hopefully they get settled and figure it out because those 3 definitely bogged down the offense during the UNC run.
Hunter is a liability defensively and they need to figure something else out on how to handle ball screens because that just became #1 film for opponents again. UNC has no doubt a top 5 backcourt in the country with those 3 plus Jackson off the bench, that’s a very impressive group. Trimble was bailed out a ton by bad officiating but it is what it is.
Not convinced Self is handling Bidunga’s minutes that well so far. The kid has too much talent and skills that nobody else can really match. He easily looks like our best rim protector around the rim and most athletic guy. I’m not seeing limitations with playing him next to Hunt as long as you surround him with spacing. Hopefully we see some things evolve there.
Mayo was big time and easily has the most advanced offensive game of the guards. There was a stretch in the 2nd half where he missed 4 wide open looks. Missed open looks in the 2nd half were a big reason why UNC got transition to the free throw line too much.
Saw a lot more positive flashes from Storr. Work in progress but there’s a budding star in there. Certainly gives us another weapon.
Harris looks to have a lot more bounce to him this yr. That dunk was so Harris and he had a driving layup in the 2nd half where he got up and it was impressive. Keeping him fresh is key to getting that kind of play out of him. We certainly need him out there running things though, he makes it all work when he’s got studs around him.
Rock Chalk that was really fun
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If you can play KJ next to Hunt you can do it with Flory too. Of course that would involve taking KJ out of the game at some point…
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KJ does a lot of unnoticed things. He is a guy who helps break the press easy. He guards VERY well. He has great court vision. He scored sort of effortlessly at times last night.
He doesn’t guard the other forwards, he switches everything. So he isn’t going to rebound like a traditional big man. Does anyone think he isn’t getting rebounds because he doesn’t have the motor to go get them? He’s the highest effort guy on the court at basically all times…
I feel like there is more to that story. I’ve never had the patience to go watch the film to see what it is, but I feel like there is some good reasons why he doesn’t put up big rebound numbers.
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I saw a lot of the Storr that I told you about. Alley oops, nice finishes, and some ugly drives into nothing. I don’t pay attention to defense much but I was trying with him specifically a bit last night. I always think someone as athletic as he should be able to D up anyone around his size. But I think he plays soft and then when he sees the guy he’s supposed to be stopping ready to make a shot or drive he hustles over there with predictable results ending in points scored.
I did see some trust in him by Self that surprised me. Thought he’d get pulled a couple of times, like after taking on 3 guys at one, but tonight Self left him in. After game 1 Self said he’s not getting it. Maybe AJ earned some trust last night.
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@Kcmatt7 KJ doesn’t box out. Ever. That’s pretty much the biggest reason he doesn’t rebound imho. Maybe it’s by design, but I don’t like it. I don’t think very many of KUs players box out well though. Would love if the staff preached it a bit.
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@Kcmatt7 KJ just sucks at rebounding. I’d almost guarantee that if his wingspan was measured, it’d be 80 inches or less.
It took most people here two years to figure that KJ can’t rebound when I was saying it about him his sophomore year when he was playing the 5 and so many people here wanted to argue with me about it saying that KJ would eventually get better. He’s actually gotten progressively worse each season with his rebounding. I know it’s early and his rebounding % will probably go up slightly, but right now it’s under 6%. KJ has the same number of rebounds as David Coit on the season and 3 less than Mayo.
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Well that game sure had some highs and lows. What a great early season matchup. Lots has been said above, so not much else to add other than a few things that caught my eye.
— Hunter struggled to get good post position last night. Lots of extended dribbling and backing it down. Slows the offense down considerably. He ended up with great stats though. I guess with his passing skills he can find an open shooter when eventually doubled. Still on the fence if he should ever be allowed on the perimeter and shooting 3s.
— Zeke was great! I can see he was tentative a few times. I hope a big boy game like that builds enough confidence in him to dominate.
— Diggy was invisible last night. What happens when Moore returns?
— as much as I hate replay review, I sure wish coach had a couple red flags to drop last night. Hunter alone got hosed a few times. One of those bad calls nearly cost us the game.
— Bilas didn’t seem entirely on his analyst game. Seemed out of it a bit. Somewhat cliche.
— does AFH seem like it has a much cleaner look on TV? They didn’t change that much, right? It looks smoother, more like a modern, clean arena — with fewer funky angular things.
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I didn’t get to watch last night live, but seeing it this morning, the first half was KU’s A game and the second half was KU’s D game.
Everyone that was telling me over the offseason that KU’s improved athleticism would cover up those weaknesses on defense, guess what? It won’t matter with Hunter who’s going to get those key minutes down the stretch over Flory.
I don’t know why Self isn’t playing Hunter on defense the same way he used McCormack down the stretch in 2022 by having him play drop coverage on screens and be a rim protector.
The second half defense is exactly what I thought this team would look like. It took UNC 5 minutes to cut that lead from 17 at halftime down to 6 points. Coit is absolutely a high energy player, but if his shot isn’t falling like last night, then he’s not providing enough value to play bog minutes. Hopefully Shak Moore is ready to take those minutes by the time conference play starts up. Zeke Mayo had the same number of rebounds in 29 min as KJ, Griffen, and Storr had in 81 combined minutes and Coit had one less than those 3 combined. Our guards should not be getting more than double the rebounds of our forwards ever. We all know KJ can’t rebound, but Griffen and Storr combining for 3 rebounds is unacceptable because those two should be much better rebounders than KJ.
KU’s overall success this season is going to come down to AJ Storr and Rylan Griffen and whether or not they can stay on the floor for 30 mpg while providing average defense.
I think my ideal minutes distribution at this point would be Harris, Storr, and Mayo around 30 mpg, Hunter and Griffen around 25 mpg, KJ around 20 mpg, Flory around 15 mpg, and Coit/Moore around 10 mpg. I know that’s 205 minutes, it can be tweaked based on specific game needs, but I think the minutes end up close to that, KU will be okay this season.
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@Crimsonorblue22 said in UNC Game Thread:
@jayballer67 how 'bout we stop calling him that?
Where have you been ?
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Oh, and what happened to boxscores on the LJW / KU Sports site? they give up?
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So - in light of the comments about KJ on this thread, I re-watched the game and paid extremly close attention to what KJ did on both offense and defense.
Defense- KJ was excellent. When his man looked to drive and score, he never gave up, moving his feet constantly. He looked a lot like Marcus Garrett in my opinion. He communicated well with his teammates as a good veteran should about switching and helping his teammates get to the right opponent quickly. His boxing out in fact was fantastic. He always had his man in sight, and made sure there was no chance his opponent would get near the basket, except for when a teammate got beat and he had to shift in the paint to try and stop the opponents drive to the hoop. This of course put KJ away from the basket almost every time, thus never was he in a good position to rebound.
Offense - he mostly is a role player here, setting picks, moving pretty well away from the ball. Obviously he is not a prime target, but when he had the ball in open space he shot well in the first half. But when other KU players shot the ball he was passive, standing around really, and got easily boxed out virtually every time. Thus he had no offensive rebounds (he had one in the first half but I think that was it) Because of all the minutes he got, he was tired in the second half, and perhaps hurting a bit.
We all know Self has always had his “glue guys” and his favorites and we all know KJ is one of them. Self loves guys who play hard defensively and do what they are coached to do. kJ does both. And if Self and the coaching staff wanted KJ to become a rebounder, his playing style would be different. And if they wanted KJ to shoot more, he would be shooting more. Apparently they love what KJ is doing and has been doing the last several years.
As far as his scoring ability (and Juans ) after all these years, it is what it is. He will never improve all that much at this stage. He and Dajuan at least know this, and don’t force up too many bad looks.
Now if we can get the transfers to buy in to playing consistent high effort defense, (we know they can score) I think this team will be real contender.
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Flory Bidunga and Zeke Mayo…you two have changed my life.
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@Bosthawk I saw what you saw. KJ definitely got hurt (leg or ankle) maybe 5 minutes in to the second half and slowed noticeably. The lack of boxing out and offensive rebounding is frustrating, but I found myself wondering if Coach Self gave him orders to get back on D instead, to slow the fast break. Glad we won. The second half was a tough watch.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Your minutes are spot on yet kj played what 37……and I doubt that changes
Bill’s playing favorites and letting some guys play through mistakes while others can’t bites us in the arse again.
Rylan can’t sit the bench because of 2-3 boneheaded plays….he ain’t a frosh
Self is great but man he’s stubborn and his lineups with his guys gave up the lead built from letting guys like flory, zeke and especially Rylan play more
If Kj, Hunt and Juan are 30-35 mpg we will have an ugly sweet 16 loss when other players should have played more
The allowing “his guys” to get beat back door or turn it over not no quick hook vs final 4 players getting the quick hook
I can tell you both player and parent will get upset real quick with his childlike favorites
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@HoraceZontal said in UNC Game Thread:
@Bosthawk I saw what you saw. KJ definitely got hurt (leg or ankle) maybe 5 minutes in to the second half and slowed noticeably. The lack of boxing out and offensive rebounding is frustrating, but I found myself wondering if Coach Self gave him orders to get back on D instead, to slow the fast break. Glad we won. The second half was a tough watch.
Did they not show his injury during the broadcast? There was little time left in first half when KJ tweeked his leg - I think knee since he was wearing lingerie on it. He was limping around pretty bad during the timeout afterward. I couldn’t believe Self put him back in before the half. KJ lost his bounce after that.
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@rockchalkjayhawk I heard the lighting was much improved which would show better on TV.
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Fun fact of today- Mayo has made 27% of the 3 pointers Nick Timberlake hit all season last year…… in 2 games
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Pretty sure Nick won a game for us when Kevin was hurt.
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@dylans that’s what I was referring to. I thought it was early second half, but perhaps late first. He clearly was affected — slower and earthbound. And that was for the rest of the game. Tigger without his bounce is very sad.
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@kjayhawks said in UNC Game Thread:
Fun fact of today- Mayo has made 27% of the 3 pointers Nick Timberlake hit all season last year…… in 2 games
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@BShark lol I completely forgot Nick Timberlake exists.
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@dylans said in UNC Game Thread:
@BShark lol I completely forgot Nick Timberlake exists.
Our “depth” last year was him and Parker Braun. Loooooooool
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My son and I made a last minute trip from Ohio for this game. Our first time back since 2020 senior night. It was an awesome night in the fieldhouse. Such a great environment.
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@BigBad Wow, great memories formed!
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Self had a tight rotation in this game as NC had a furious come back.
I’d love to see Flory, Passmore and Zach get more mins.
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@BShark forgetting Sarah Marshall is a guilty pleasure of mine.
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As the hype builds towards KU-Duke in a month I’m sure by game time ESPN will be promoting it as Flagg getting prepared to take on KU all by himself and will probably be successful.
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@wissox That game is only 2 weeks away.
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@wissox to be honest, he’s scares the shit outta me but they don’t have much else. Make him earn his and shut everyone else down. Crazy to think we played UNC Friday then MSU Tuesday and Dook all before thanksgiving.
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@dylans oh come on now. Boys to Men? One Direction? In sync?
Crap, I forgot too.
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@BShark That is some fine photoshopping !!
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@Bosthawk said in UNC Game Thread:
@BShark That is some fine photoshopping !!
Not my work, it made me chuckle for sure.
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My first comment since UNC/KU.
Fun to watch our offense start to make things happen.
But what stuck in my head was our bad defense. It almost has to improve.
UNC was an obvious perimeter team… why did our guys think they need to sink in like they would be weakside help when they end up guarding no one? We have a footer in the paint. These guys need to be out there on the perimeter, sticking to their own man only, let our bigs guard off the drive. On most plays we had 3 guards guarding no one!
If we learn some level of defense… and also rebounding… we should develop into a damn good team! I’m already starting to like a lot of the new pieces!
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@kjayhawks said in UNC Game Thread:
@wissox to be honest, he’s scares the shit outta me but they don’t have much else. Make him earn his and shut everyone else down. Crazy to think we played UNC Friday then MSU Tuesday and Dook all before thanksgiving.
Yeah, but you get scared by basically any opponent of ours.
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@wissox well I can’t argue with that, I’d say the ones that don’t scare me end up beating us. As much it may turn the tide I have zero fear for MSU Tuesday. Hopefully I’m not jinxing us but we win that by double digits 8 out of 10 times.
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@drgnslayr The old Bill Self defend inside out….meanwhile it can cause some issues with how todays game has been played
Defensively these last 3 years we’ve been bad….
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I’d like to see us run a 4 guard line up a little more often. Worked in 2018 and 2022 was pretty much 4 guard JWill was much more of a guard than a Forward.
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So, who will start in Diggy’s spot against MichSt? Why isn’t Zeke starting? Zeke is getting his minutes, 29 against NC, but he needs to start. Starting Griffen or Storr is a tossup for me; both will contribute and get minutes. And, KJ can’t play 37 minutes.
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@stoptheflop said in UNC Game Thread:
So, who will start in Diggy’s spot against MichSt? Why isn’t Zeke starting? Zeke is getting his minutes, 29 against NC, but he needs to start. Starting Griffen or Storr is a tossup for me; both will contribute and get minutes. And, KJ can’t play 37 minutes.
You think Diggy won’t start?
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He shouldn’t be starting
Should be
Second half bucket getter Juan
Zeke
Rylan/Storr - see next spot
Storr (but it will always be KJ)
Hunt
Whoever doesn’t start from Ry/Storr is 1st off bench with Flory and Moore once he’s healthy
Kease and diggy in spot minutes
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@BShark lol I completely forgot Nick Timberlake exists.
Hey, I kind of like “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” Ooops… it was Justin.
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Do you believe KJ should get any minutes of playing time?
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My days at the bucket became much more pleasant when I discovered how to block someone. I’m sure others days at the same became more pleasant when they learned to block me! If you want to block me I can tell you how! lol just joking.
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@wissox I’ve only blocked one person in all my time here, but it’s sure made a difference this last year or so. Doesn’t impinge on their free speech and allows for a much more enjoyable experience for me, a win win.
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to show a difference from last year to this about Depth , last year struggled with points off the bench–This year first two games bench has scored – — -45 points - --& 42 points
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@Jhawk69 Definitely - he needs to be the spark off the bench but his inability to rebound and offensive inefficiencies really hurt us on both ends against top tier teams
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@kuballin10 I agree. I would like to see us play 4 out with Storr and Griffen at the 3 and 4. KJ I would like so see get about 20 mpg off the bench. How many minutes do you think he deserves?
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KJ will continue to play 35 or more minutes a game imo. Izzo was very positive about KJ today.
