Boycotting "Big" Monday Games
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Monday games are tough on teams, especially the travel team. Now that Big Monday seems to have lost all its glamour, I wish KU would just say no thank you to ESPN Monday games. I need the day off, so I know the team does. Come on KU, just insist on Saturday and Wednesday games henceforth.
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@stoptheflop And only play ranked teams so we’ll be motivated.
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It’s done to drive the entertainment value of the Big-Monday slot to have KU on the road on Mondays. They have said in the past that a home game for KU doesn’t sell as well as a road game so that’s what we get now. This is what the NBA calls a “scheduled loss”. Even at full strength the cards are stacked against you traveling on the road 1 day after a big home game. With possibly 2 starters down and a role player as well it will be just about impossible to avoid. The back half of this schedule certainly felt intentional this year with how it was drawn up. There’s no way someone can straight face the schedule and say KU wasn’t biased against due to its reign on the conference under Self.
2 Big Monday games on the road after big home games on Saturday (Houston/Baylor). Play Kansas St (Rival) on road after known big game against Houston- intentional. Play Texas Tech on road after Baylor Gameday- Intentional.
2 road games in consecutive weekends against Baylor/Houston to end regular season- Intentional.
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Or we can just man up and play the dang game. What if our players are whining about it right now? We’re doomed from the start. The coach that can convince their players it’s 10 feet high, 94 feet long, and 40 minutes of time wherever you play will be the coach that wins a lot of games. Of course having a full squad helps and is why we’re probably going to help ESPN make some more money tonight by letting America watch us lose. Bluebloods losing is what NCAA fans love. We do too. Someone usually brags here when Kentucky/Duke/UNC lose games. We love to see ‘car wrecks’.
2 road games in the last two consecutive weekends is just schedule making. The networks want premier games. It’s a sign of respect for our great program.
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@wissox said in Boycotting "Big" Monday Games:
Or we can just man up and play the dang game. What if our players are whining about it right now? We’re doomed from the start. The coach that can convince their players it’s 10 feet high, 94 feet long, and 40 minutes of time wherever you play will be the coach that wins a lot of games. Of course having a full squad helps and is why we’re probably going to help ESPN make some more money tonight by letting America watch us lose. Bluebloods losing is what NCAA fans love. We do too. Someone usually brags here when Kentucky/Duke/UNC lose games. We love to see ‘car wrecks’.
2 road games in the last two consecutive weekends is just schedule making. The networks want premier games. It’s a sign of respect for our great program.
Had my own experience kind of like what you was saying when I played ball , now mind you a lot lesser degree then you mentioned but yet kind of the same.
Like you said a Coach saying 10 feet high 94 foot long etc , well we had a Coach and he use to get so mad at some of our Bigs-- he would have a trainer get a step ladder and have them measure from rim to floor and tell everyone on the team - -then he was on one player a lot he used an example he would say - - -Randle THIS IS A BASKETBALL , then he would point to the rim and he would say THAT RANDLE is an APPARTUS – and say now Randle TAKE THE BALL TO THE APPARTUS LOL. - -then he used an example and he would get TWO Basketball’s and climb the ladder and he would drop both through the basket at the same time lol.
He then would say now someone please tell me IF I can drop two balls though this basket at the same time then why in the hell do you guys have such a hard time making one go through. – Yet during a real time game when the opponent went on a run he wouldn’t jump up yell , stomp his feet or anything - simply he would stand up and wave a little white hanky lol-- his way of letting us players know he wanted a time out lol
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Regardless the schedule is what it is but it’s always good to point out what’s been scheduled in a manner to put KU in a tough spot. I’d love to find the time to statistically prove some of what I’m saying.
Hopefully our 6 healthy + 1 injured can find a way to keep the game competitive. Tonight could be one of those nights where it could look worse then expected because of things outside their control.
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@BeddieKU23 Seems strange to me more that we haven’t gotten a home big Monday game. Usually we’ve had one or two.
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It’s due to KU’ home court advantage being bad for business for ESPN. That’s one stat I will dive into and have numbers to back, that KU gets put on the road on Big Monday more then any other league team.
This year the matchups on those Big Mondays has been disadvantageous on paper and worse when faced with the realities of this teams performances on the road so far and the lack of depth/injuries they are facing.
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I know we had a really tough fb schedule!
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@BeddieKU23 It’d be interesting to know for sure, don’t do a deep dive for me though!
TTech scuffling a bit I hear. Glad to hear it because I thought they were ranked in the top 20. We need a win in a game like tonight pretty bad so this thing doesn’t start spiraling downhill.
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I’ve been meaning to dive into this one for a while but finally have the motivation to do so.
Tech has overachieved with a good up and coming coach so far. Still a lot of the DNA that Adams and Beard brought is there.
Hunter needs to be at his best tonight and I’m worried he’s going to wear down as the game goes and get in foul trouble with the short rest. The other key is what we struggle with is limiting 3’s. Isaac’s, McMillan, Walton, all high volume shooters. Walton is 53% from 3 on the year. Isaac’s almost has as many made 3s on the year as Kev and Furphy combined.
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This game was everything it was set up to be, a scheduled loss by our TV affiliate.
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@BeddieKU23 Looks like our coaches and players didn’t get the message to “man up.” ESPN is going to want KU to play Monday night games against AZ and BYU in future years. I wish KU would just say no to Monday games.
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We should let it breathe, as it has been said on other threads. This is the most shorthanded we may ever be.
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I’ll say I’m never a fan of where they place us scheduling wise in football or basketball most the time. I remember in football we had 3 years in a row where KSU got a bye week before us and basketball they always put the KSU game between two huge games like they did this season usually with a short turnaround. But I also don’t like the excuses we keep inventing for this group. It’s this way pretty much every year for us and most the time we succeed with it. I really started to question our conditioning and why we seem to be so tired compared to other teams. It’s an embarrassment at this point. Everyone has players dinged up this time of year.
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The short answer is the team is tired because players 6-9 are not trusted by Self to continue the level of play he wants to see succeed without a drop off. He doesn’t have to play his starters 35 minutes a night, he just chooses to. That’s Bill’s decision. Why the team only has 9 players also falls back on our coach. It is what it is.
The schedule is a problem though as constructed.
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@BeddieKU23 I do agree with that assessment for sure but our guys don’t lead the conference in minutes, I believe Juan is our most played guy and he sets 5th in mpg in the B12. That being said it was one of the worst coaching decisions to leave Juan in last light after the stretched it to 18 with about 12 minutes to go. Put the younger guys and tell them just go play.
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Last night is what it looks like when you feature a DII player in D1. The roster construction as it currently stands sucks, but there were some curveballs. Next year should be deeper, but much younger too. Youth creates a whole new set of issues.
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I’ll feel extremely blessed if we go 500 on the rest of our B12 schedule.
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@approxinfinity said in Boycotting "Big" Monday Games:
We should let it breathe, as it has been said on other threads. This is the most shorthanded we may ever be.
help is on the way
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I wasn’t listening to Fran call the game so I missed this but I saw a tweet in which Fran claimed Bill told him that he’s never going to have an incomplete roster like this again. Sounds like he’s coming back with a new resolve. Lets hope so.
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@wissox It’s not entirely Self’s fault that he has an “incomplete” roster. I mean, not a lot of good players want to come to Kansas. We’re not really established yet.
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I don’t believe Fran knows what he’s talking about. Self had the opportunity to fill the roster but chose to take some of the penalties now and chose to bring back Clemence on a redshirt/suspension and chose Morris in the portal despite his known red flags. Choices… oh well there’s still time to make it all work I suppose
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Thankfully none of the tournament games are on an away court. Unfortunately none of them are in Allen Fieldhouse either. The games won’t be any more difficult than league games or KU’s non-conference schedule either for that matter. They will be battle tested and these bruises will be calluses by then. This is the hardening box. They will either emerge tougher or fall apart at the seems.
