UNC Game Thread
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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.
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Jayhawker podcast was interesting to hear Self compare KJ to Ochai, and just go on and on about DaJuan and his great value to the team. I guess he doesn’t really know his own guys. There is no way KJ is coming off the bench after listing to Bill Self today. That podcast is on IHeart Radio and where you get your podcasts. Great interview/season preview.
Another interesting part was him saying 38-40% of shots taken will be 3’s this year. That is the goal. Last year was about 30%.
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@rockchalkjayhawk said in UNC Game Thread:
@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?
Diggy had such a bad game against NC, it seems like other players playing so much better should start. Diggy played 20 min, went 0/4, but had 4 rbs and 3 asissts. I know coach likes consistency so Diggy probably starts-one bad game shouldn’t bench a player. But, Zeke has been flat out bringing the scoring and I think deserves to start.
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A note about the defense, it feels like Self generally sticks to a simple man scheme early in the season. As the team gels, I would expect him to add in different looks especially on ball screen coverage. If Hunter is getting seriously cooked, I could even see Flory closing out some games as soon as Bill starts to trust him. Potentially even offense/defense substitution situations late in games.
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@BShark I would be too - to the media and then tell my guys how to complete negate him offensively
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@Jhawk69 25 mpg but he will get 35+ no matter what
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@wissox You sure he said KJ to Och? Was it athleticism or what? That seems crazy to me as Och can shoot the 3 and score a ton whereas KJ can literally only dunk it and hit 30% of the time the occasional 5-10 footer
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Was it a bad game because he didn’t score? He got good looks, just didn’t make them. But his impact on offense did seem very limited outside the 3 assists. It’s interesting he has started so far given he joined the team last. He’s wired to score so when he doesn’t score I think its going to stick out if he doesn’t impact the game in other ways. I thought he tried on defense with on-ball pressure but I don’t recall paying attention to his D that much when he wasn’t on-ball. Assuming his size was picked on a bit given the athletes UNC had at guard. I think Moore is going to be an important alternative to Coit when we need some defense. I think Coit will be important when we need a guy to score…
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Don’t forget we need ball handlers. I think that’s a big reason he’s starting.
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@rockchalkjayhawk yes, I agree, Diggy’s impact is felt also with Dejuan being able to go harder at the end of games because he’s had some rest.
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To me it’s pretty obvious what the best line up is but I doubt BS will ever not start KJ. Which is okay just don’t play him 37 minutes.
Harris
Mayo
Storr
Griffen
Hunt
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@kjayhawks said in UNC Game Thread:
To me it’s pretty obvious what the best line up is but I doubt BS will ever not start KJ. Which is okay just don’t play him 37 minutes.
Harris
Mayo
Storr
Griffen
Hunt
That would be an entertaining lineup for sure. Defense optional for maybe three of em though.
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I feel like I at least saw good effort from May and Griffen so far on that end, and Juan is a good defender. There was even a play or two vs. NC where Storr got switched on to Davis and it didn’t end terribly. The tools are there, they are learning how to try hard on that end, I’m hopeful the perimeter D will be at least OK this year. Now, when Hunt gets involved? It’s over. He just has no ability to move his feet or use his height or anything helpful on that end other than the occasional rebound. I know he puts up decent rebounding numbers but I’m not sure I’ve seen him actually go GET a rebound. He is tall and stands near the basket.
Where I have been impressed with the improvement in Hunt is on his off ball movement in the post on offense. He has learned how to seal up the lane better than last year and that has led to some easier buckets for him on that end. And with the spacing the guards can provide this year, you can almost book 8-10 easy layups off those lobs to the corner of the backboard after he has sealed his man up the lane.
