BIG GAME!! The Students Are There, We Should Talk
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You can look at this game one of two ways IMO. We had to be playing at Allen Fieldhouse or we get smoked (may or may not be true). Or you could say that’s a good win against a good team, when they had a guy go absolutely bananas for 41 points. In which I’ll bet anyone here he doesn’t do again this season. I’ll choose the later in December, I was very pleased with our defense for much of the night. They had to hit fade away 3s at the end of the shot clock repeatedly to not get ran out of the gym.
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The freshmen will stop forcing things. The team which returned only 3 guys… 1 who was a transfer last year, 1 who is pass first, and 1 whose mom just died, will find its team identity, and the sum will start to look greater than its parts.
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You have to take the win and be happy. Seriously. But I can’t help but think these players, these pieces could look so much better together. Like I’ve said. Silver lining is its still gotta be very very possible
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@approxinfinity odd to me that Mari got zero minutes, was pleased with him the past few games. I think Self is still putting in Timberlake for spurts, hoping he does something to earn more minutes.
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@kjayhawks yeah I was curious if Mari said something stupid, or if this is some undisclosed toughening box thing… or if it was just tightening the belt against UConn.
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NT is all but relegated to the CS bench doghouse for the season even per the presser after E. ILL. Which makes the Mari minutes even more curious
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@cragarhawk ya we basically played 6 guys tonight, which I don’t like with how tough our schedule is this season. Nick was in but I only for 1 or 2 minutes. Hopefully it’s just a minor deal with Mari, he could be sick. I’ve heard of the flu or something running thru the team since Kevin was sick in Hawaii.
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@cragarhawk I wonder if he was just giving EJ enough run to get into a flow, and Kevin and Juan couldn’t come out.
It’s going to be this story all year, I think.
EJ/JM/NT all fighting for 2 minutes, unless 1 of them can handle well enough that Self can put Juan down for spells (I’m skeptical)
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@approxinfinity ya that’s a fair point and one we’ve seen in the past quite alot. I don’t like it for ceiling building. But I said last night it would probably go that way tonite. You can read the games that matter more to CS by the rotation belt… and this was one for sure
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@cragarhawk @approxinfinity We will need these young guys to develop to go anywhere in March. Can’t ride Juan for 38 minutes all year and expect him to not be completely gassed by February. I think Self just wanted to be sure we got a win tonight. Will be some other games guys can get some PT. Furphy continues to impress me thus far.
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Fun stat from X- 13 times in Bill Selfs career Kansas has hosted a higher ranked team in AFH. Kansas’ record in those games….13-0
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The rest of December is a big yawner. Lots of room for the team to grow.
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@FarmerJayhawk yes and no, should we have trouble with the likes of Indiana, Fizzou and WSU? Probably not but we know we are the Super Bowl on their schedules so I don’t expect those to be easy games.
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Wsu has been doing really well, think they play Mizzou this weekend.
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Big win for the good guys tonight! RCJH!
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@BeddieKU23 said in BIG GAME!! The Students Are There, We Should Talk:
Clingan is more athletic then Hunter at 7’2 and has better lateral movement as well. He can run the floor on the fast break at times as well so it’s something to watch. He’s also a threat defensively at the rim. Tough matchup for both our bigs tonight
That was a good matchup of talented bigs. I thought that block was legit by Hunter, yet the whistle blew.
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Hey, how’s about that! That was an amazing game to watch as a fan. High energy and entertaining,
And, that was one of our best defensive showings in a long while. Why can’t we do that more often? Even Hunter was great on D! Very pleased to see that kinda effort.
The Self bench belt tightening has begun early this season. I saw that coming tonight. But cmon, we need way more than six guys to play minutes, coach! Got us a win though, huh.
Here’s the thing about Elmarko…he still has shown us virtually nothing of his skills or potential on the court, but I think these minutes are helping him. He seemed to be more aggressive tonight at least. Maybe he’ll take another step up the ladder by January.
So happy for KJ! Dunk city.
Here’s the thing about Furphy…he’s obviously got a smooth stroke. He’s looking more comfortable shooting the ball. More minutes! To me he’s a true wing or 3/4. Not a two guard at all. So, It’s becoming very obvious despite my love for Furphy that he cannot switch onto smaller, faster guards. He smothers them once in a blue moon, but they mostly blow by him. I don’t love him less for that, but I dunno how you protect him with all our switching.
Did Jamari get lost on his way to the Fieldhouse??? Shocked that Self didn’t put him on that Newton dude for a few minutes at least to cool his roll. And that was one helluva roll. I don’t understand these wimpy coaches these days. Send in Jamari or some bench scrub to knock him on his arse! Throw him off his game. Do any of the Detroit Bad Boys have eligibility left?
That really was a great game. Happy we won. Rock Chalk!
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@rockchalkjayhawk said in BIG GAME!! The Students Are There, We Should Talk:
@BeddieKU23 said in BIG GAME!! The Students Are There, We Should Talk:
Clingan is more athletic then Hunter at 7’2 and has better lateral movement as well. He can run the floor on the fast break at times as well so it’s something to watch. He’s also a threat defensively at the rim. Tough matchup for both our bigs tonight
That was a good matchup of talented bigs. I thought that block was legit by Hunter, yet the whistle blew.
Me too. Hunter definitely won the battle and our defensive game plan limited his touches which was huge. Big props to Hunter for battling down low
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Yupp cried like a baby watching this
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Some low key critics of the coach. Beating UConn was high priority for him and if he figured our best chance was to play a short bench I’m good with it. It worked!
I really love Kevin McCullars game. He plays with a “I’m a national champ” swagger that is loud and clear.
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"UConn coach Dan Hurley in the postgame: Just an awesome environment. Great to be a part of. Credit to Kansas… “the environment really knocked us on our heels.”
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If the benefit of playing Elmarko 32 minutes in a game like that pans off later in the season for him and for the team overall then I’m also okay with it.
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@wissox Then the player - no I don’t think that bothered us any.
Dan was being more honest, or dude was completely unaware that he was the only person making plays for UConn.
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@kjayhawks thanks for posting that. HCBS at his very best.
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Kev getting some looks as a possible first round pick right now
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@BeddieKU23 excellent. Its all happening for him.
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For those grumbling at Dajuan shooting 1-7, myself included: chill baby.
The team shot 50% from the field and 64% From 3. Maybe our starting PG had something to do with that?
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@approxinfinity I think we learned last night how we can win these big games against good teams. Defend and be efficient offensively. As you said we shot 50% from the floor, 64% from 3 and 70% from the line while having only having 8 turnovers. Those stats are with Juan and Hunter missing some shots that had bows on them from Santa Claus. UConn ended up shooting 10 more shots than us but still lost because a lot of those shots, even several they made weren’t good looks. Other than one or two by Elmarko, our shot selection was great.
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It also helps the draft class is down but he is certainly impressing the NBA scouts right now. He’s been superb
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@BeddieKU23 he looks more athletic to me this season, not sure he’ll go first round but getting g drafted in general is a good goal for him.
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Healthy too. He was hurt a bunch last yr. We need him to stay this way because he’s just too good
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@kjayhawks maybe we should host a higher ranked team every game.
No. Wait. We’re usually ranked higher than whoever we are playing.
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Self mentioned it’s good for the sport to get eyes on them with games like this when football is consuming. Agree with him that there are plenty of benefits to a game like this.
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https://twitter.com/hoopvision68/status/1731052844160057494
This is why Nick didn’t play.
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@BShark great clip. Thanks for posting. Yes, Nick really did look lost (or maybe slow?) in the switching D. It was a noticeable contrast with the others.
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That D will travel
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@dylans Defense always travels, the ole saying is offense puts fans in the stands and defense wins championships. I think since KenPom has been tracking Adjusted defense every team that has one a title was in the top 20 in that category.
