UNC Game Thread
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Least they got things to work on
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I’m tellin ya our D-2 player came up big in some critical minutes late in the game. HELLOOOOO (KU BALLIN ) didn’t hear from you tonight , hmmmm Surprise, Surprise lol
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Anyone catch that KJ had 37 minutes?! I thought his minutes would go down this year? I was told his minutes would go down? I’ll be honest, I’m rarely upset watching KJ play.
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@benshawks08 said in UNC Game Thread:
Anyone catch that KJ had 37 minutes?! I thought his minutes would go down this year? I was told his minutes would go down? I’ll be honest, I’m rarely upset watching KJ play.
The issue is 37 minutes and 2 RBs at the 4 spot…
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where would we be without KJ’S 14 first half points ?
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This team is going to get so good as the season goes on
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@DCHawker I said last year and this year we won’t win in March with KJ playing 30 plus minutes and tonight I think proved it. We don’t win that on a neutral court. He got schooled several times on defense when ask to cover a guard and was one of the main culprits of poor rotation. I believe he had 1 rebound and 2 fouls for second half stats.
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Griffen was on the bench a lot and seemed like the matchups dictated this a bit too. Not a sustainable number for Adams though.
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https://x.com/phoggythoughts/status/1855039320597651712?s=61&t=8gxVJFoXYFc_4K5Nm7wEnw Pregame video, dream on!
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@jayballer67 how 'bout we stop calling him that?
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Couldn’t find the post game on the ESPN- what’s up with that?
Went on reddit for kicks to see what people are talking about. I was shocked to see informed, interesting and respectful discussion about the game from NC and KU fans. Nice job, basketball fans!
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Wait, only 4 TO’s, in the second game of the year, with god knows how many new people, against U-freakin’-NC?
I am gratifyingly amazed!
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@DanR I know some former buckets members that are on there.
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@DanR wished I knew why theres no pre or post game!
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@approxinfinity Zach play?
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A rough outing for Coit looking at the box score. 0 points, 3 assists and 4 rebounds woof. I forgot he was on the floor several times tonight. Not to keep on KJ but damn dude had 2 rebounds in 37 minutes. Love ya man but damn that’s unacceptable in 37 by any player let alone a forward. Storr and Mayo are likely starting before the end of the semester.
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@kjayhawks KJ was CLEARLY HURT but it’s also on Bill for playing him. As for Coit, we need Shak for sure. Depends on match-ups.
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@BShark ya I wonder about that after the fall I just don’t know why he does that trying to get a call. They ain’t gonna call it if you fall every single time. It will be interesting to see how Shak fits into the rotation.
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Learned a bit about this group tonight. Awesome to see the guards hitting shots. Speed and athleticism of UNC was a challenge. Refs are rusty.
Always good to have a talented player from the state of Kansas on the team. Even better when from Lawrence! This is a different team from last year, with a common core that knows how to win. I’m excited to see if they can make winning a habit.
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bill needs an intervention regarding KJ
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I feel like KUballin is the equivalent to Smokey on the Friday movies. “When Deebo be here, I’ll be quiet but when he gone, I be talking again” haha
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@rcjhdraft Nah the staff needs an intervention with Bill on the best lineups
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Since everyone missed me - thanks I feel loved
Pro’s - when we played the right lineups we got up 20.
We won the game
Juan had some clutch buckets down the stretch
Best lineup: Juan (may end up Moore), Mayo, Storr, Griffen, Hunt/Flory
Moore might take diggy’s minutes if he can defend like @BShark says and hit the occasional 3.
Cons - Bill tightened up the lineups the second half and we peed it away. Had it not been for AFH which masks a ton of issues - we’d lost on a neutral court or road game.
Coit’s shot didn’t drop and he struggled to attack the paint
KJ’s man was in the paint as kj set a screen for Juan at the top of the key. Literally everyone knows not to guard him. This kills everything offensively yet Self rolls with it….unfathomable
Kj can’t rebound, can’t shoot outside 10 feet, isn’t guarded by the other team. He’s athletic as heck and can dunk but more negatives than positives
We still don’t defend the 3 well
Griffin got beat on a back door cut then sat the rest of the game and Juan gets beat off the dribble but plays unlimited minutes if not for fouling. Griffin a final 4 starter a year ago….
Bill’s postgame just read he isn’t worried about defending ball screens cause not many teams athletic like unc. Hey Bill u ain’t winning a title with this pu$$ attitude. Better figure it out or round of 32 against elite guards like Arky or unc. U prepare for the best not the other 90%. Idiotic
We have the potential but let’s see what we are made of on the road this year and with Duke in Vegas (dukes for real)
Lineup is set with moore for diggy and diggy getting kease’s few minutes.
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Even though we didn’t play that well a win is still a win
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I wish I hadn’t seen the final score while in the car. Was going to watch after arriving at my folks, but man o man, I wish you all could have seen the northern lights and the stars here.Really amazing. I watched the game anyways, way more relaxed than i would have been if I didn’t know the score. I think I would have been mad at the refs. But it was an exhilerating win.
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Was out with friends for dinner and watched at the restaurant so was distracted. But after a rewatch!
-Juan makes this whole thing go. Everything just runs better with him in. Stoked to see him under 30, you could tell his consistency and intensity were better.
-Hunt was out of shape, that’ll come. But will be a monster in league play. Also for the Bill Self suggestion box, play some more drop coverage.
-Love Diggy but he just doesn’t have the physical gifts to be a starter. Microwave role is perfect.
-Zeke was for the most part terrific. Hope he starts Tuesday but also needs to be in better shape.
-KJ was all world in the first but clearly wasn’t the same guy down the stretch. Very strong glue guy
-The bulb is flickering with Storr. He did some great things but also doesn’t know what to do yet. The drive into 3 dudes was something.
-Rylan kind of has the same thing. The midrange jumper was killer. Needs to embrace a 3 and D role. Just doesn’t have the skill to be a primary scorer (yet). Very impressed with his work on RJ
-Flory also has no idea what he’s doing, but he’s going to be special once he learns to dribble and rebound.
-This team thrives in transition. Dickinson is a terrific outlet passer and these guys can GO. Should be a major weapon.
-Defensive intensity comes and goes. Which is par for the course in early November. And partly was due to some… interesting calls. We couldn’t be as aggressive as we wanted. And missed a few assignments. Good teaching tape against some really good guards. Stoked we get Shak soon.
-Rebounding is going to be an issue all year. Hunt’s great but boy it gets bare after that.
-The only thing that kept this from a blowout was UNC shooting the piss out of FTs. 28/31 is legitimately absurd.
-Bill still rules in end of game situations, Hubert continues to be bad.
-KU and UNC should play every year. It’s too fun not to.
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@rcjhdraft said in UNC Game Thread:
bill needs an intervention regarding KJ
About to channel my inner kuballin10
Bill Self is the only coach in the country that starts KJ with this roster.
Rebounds
KJ Adams 2
Diggy Coit 4… at 5’8’’ in half the minutes.
Flory 8 and 8 in 11 minutes he needs to play more.
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KJ can’t rebound to save his life and it costs KU several points. - he came in wearing lingerie and clearly tweeked his leg late in the half. Hunt needed to sit in favor of Flory for a couple of minutes late in the game to get a breather. But really it looked well coached and played game. The crowd was great, but seeing several hundred UNC fans in the building was weird. I’ve never seen that many opposing fans in Allen Fieldhouse.
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This post is deleted!
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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.
