KU vs Louis Takeaways
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Hey… how about our Hawks!
It’s great to feel some real optimism again about our beloved Jayhawks basketball!
Here are my takeaways… whether or not they are accurate, it’s just my opinion.
DP IS THE REAL DEAL! - Watching him go live in college was everything I could have hoped for! Not only can he shoot the trey ball, he can do everything else! He created baskets for others, stole balls, and his defense isn’t too bad (still needs help). THIS IS HIS TEAM! You can already see how most of our guys have adapted his demeanor; cool headed, always with purpose, efficiency!
JACQUE VAUGHN IS PRESENT! - Even though we had 16 TOs in this game, if we didn’t have Jacque, it would have been at least 25 or more TOs. Our guys are being coached (finally) on how to pass through traps. I’ve never experienced a KU team trained up in this before. They step out and leap if they have to and create passing space from the trap. I bet this saved us 10 TOs! Louisville wanted this game bad, and their secret weapon was their press and traps, which usually works on us. Another huge factor in this game… Louisville did NOT control the tempo! This is an area we are famous for letting it be dictated to us. They wanted to speed us up and when we could we made it a sprint game in the open court. When it wasn’t there we slowed it down until the end of the shot clock. I hope they maintain this strategy moving forward… running whenever possible… because this is a great team in open court basketball! We’ve never been this capable on the open court pass and I’m going on a limb and giving credit to Vaughn!
TILLER IS A BEAST! - Many of us have discussed his potential for a year or more now. It’s verified! It takes a lot for me to admit we may have more potential running two bigs… so I will at least say we need to keep running two often throughout games just to keep our bigs from rusting… and that includes Mbiya! He should get more than 2 minutes a game.
SEVERAL OFF NIGHTS! - We had several players not playing to their potential. Give them time. First on my list was White. His stats look okay but he wasn’t on. I think he may be our guy that needs to shift the most from his past game to fitting in with our team. He had several defensive flubs, turnovers, etc… and his net impact on the team was a -6 and I saw why. Spacing… timing… basketball IQ. He’s a great player and we need him to figure it out. Kohl didn’t do much and I have to admit he looks a lot smaller in size. KU has him at 6’6". I wonder if he is even 6’3". I’m not throwing him under the bus and he will become a solid player. Council had a horrible shooting night but he still put up 11, mostly FTs. It’s great to see players shooting FTs. It means they are mixing it up! He had steals and created problems for the Cards. Looking forward to a healthy Dawson and what he can contribute!
EXHAUSTING GAME! - Been a long time since I watched a Kansas team move this fast up and down the court! I hope we keep it up and we finally do what I always begged Self do on some teams… use our athleticism and bench and run run run! DP is showing me he can handle the speed and maintain composure running this team!
I haven’t been this entertained watching a Jayhawk game since our last championship game! RCJH!
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Another positive takeaway, Elmarko looks like he has matured a lot since his freshman season. It seems he knows how to use his athleticism much better.
Something we need to work on is punishing pressure. We were not awful against Louisville’s press and broke it almost every time, but with quick on-ball guards like Jackson, Council, and Peterson I would like to see us get down hill and punish opponents for pressing and trapping us, which we didn’t do a whole lot of.
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Elmarko was a question mark, but I think he went a ways toward wiping the questions away. He seems to be fully recovered. Made some positive contributions.
In general, the team seemed to take this exhibition pretty seriously.
The athleticism and, yes, the speed, is a welcome return.
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I think Elmarko will be a better player than the Elmarko we knew his freshman year. He seemed nervous his freshman year and the game was sometimes too fast for him, even though he is very athletic. Maybe he was thinking too much instead of just playing. I’m not sure he is completely over that but I think he’s come a long ways!
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@drgnslayr About the only thing I could bitch about at little was the turnoves , but the positive out weighted the negative by far and
Darryn was responsible for six of them but he will be fine, this team like I said gonna play the hunter role this year instead of the hunted, I think people have just flat under rated us,— -fine by me.
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Rewatching first half… thoughts.
Tiller and Jamari did a nice job getting us back in the flow after Louisvilles 9-0 run.
Peterson has nice hands, and super court awareness. Hes a conductor.
Tiller and Flory can play together and there is zero problem last night. No lumbering between them and strong shooters on the floor with them.
Didnt find myself worried at all when anyone entered or exited the floor. This team feels confident, competent, and cohesive.
When we did commit turnovers it didnt feel like a mounting pressure or impending meltdown. We never got shook. We know what we’ve got.
On top of the athleticism, love the teams length. Tiller, White, Council and Mbiya have solid wingspans.
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Us never getting shook was a good sign. Last year any of those Louisville runs that got them back in the game would have absolutely broken us
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Watching Peterson with and without the ball the guy know what he is going to do and what others will do. He has an economy of motion and it makes everyone around him more calm and efficient.
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@drgnslayr said in KU vs Louis Takeaways:
I think Elmarko will be a better player than the Elmarko we knew his freshman year. He seemed nervous his freshman year and the game was sometimes too fast for him, even though he is very athletic. Maybe he was thinking too much instead of just playing. I’m not sure he is completely over that but I think he’s come a long ways!
Elmarko as a freshman was put into a position he wasn’t ready for or practiced for because of Morris. Elmarko was supposed to be Dejuan’s back up and first guard off the bench. Morris getting kicked off the team forced Elmarko into a starting role in a position he hadn’t been playing much and it showed all season.
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Lots of good stuff from that away exhibition game. It certainly was played from both sides like it meant something. We didn’t really see that dog in the team the last few years but you can see this is a different group with different leaders.
If this is what DP gives you on a given night and we really only saw him play a half then just wow. He didn’t waste any time living up to his reputation.
I thought Tiller was the biggest surprise of the night in a good way. You just never know what your getting with a player returning from injury that had missed a solid 12 months or more of playing basketball. He has to be the other big for this team to reach it’s ceiling.
Flory hitting the weight room this offseason was big, literally. His passing looks improved and he had a sweet drive into contact that ended with an athletic finish. Hopefully he figures out his foul issues.
We played a good team in their house and won rather easily, kept the crowd out for most of it. That’s what good KU teams used to do on the road. I think we saw the potential is high with this group and came away really excited about the season
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@approxinfinity After the 9-0 run we went back up by 9 points and I believe they only got within 8 twice after that. That is the inverse of last year where we were not in control. My next thought is this was just one exhibition game and we will see.
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@approxinfinity One play where Mbiya deflected a pass in the lane, He reached out from an improbable distance and I thought whaaaaat? This team is going to be an intriguing study. Thanks for your insight.
