UNC Matchup Friday Night
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@patoh3 seems like cause for optimism. This team doesnt seem offensively deficient.
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@approxinfinity and crampless
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@DCHawker said in UNC Matchup Friday Night:
Gave up 59 points in the 2d half…
I mean this is clearly the issue. Not saying offense didn’t have its woes, but this was supposed to be a team with some defensive prowess.
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Well that wasn’t our best half, not super worried this early in the season. We have to learn to play as a unit defensively. No help and very little rotation my biggest concern is we have zero post presence at all. Flory was bullied all night long man I miss Zuby feel like he is the missing link. We need a big dude down there that has girth. Elmarko maybe worse than his freshman year at this point so that’s disappointing. We lack anyone that can get to the rim consistently outside of Peterson. To me the best player on the floor won in Wilson.
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Jamari and elmarko are just brutal
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Start Tiller. I genuinely don’t care who you bench but Tre seems like he’s more likely to pout about getting benched.
Other guys just have to better man. Council has to be able to make outside jumpers. Dawson passed up too many open 3’s and I was immensely disappointed by Flory tonight.
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Worried we are wasting a generational talent this season because we don’t have the pieces around him
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@kjayhawks said in UNC Matchup Friday Night:
Worried we are wasting a generational talent this season because we don’t have the pieces around him
It’s the truth to a degree to be honest. We don’t have a secondary or third scorer. That’s an issue even if DP is a phenom.
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@kjayhawks I’m more worried about his constant cramping. He doesn’t need much talent around him. The trainers better figure this out in a hurry.
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@TYOHawk I’m just not sold at this point, but it is very early and I probably shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
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@kjayhawks said in UNC Matchup Friday Night:
@TYOHawk I’m just not sold at this point, but it is very early and I probably shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
The thing that alarms me is when he isn’t on the court is that they look clueless. We’ll have a lineup out there with guys like Melvin and Tre and it’s like…Darryn isn’t in. We need you guys to score.
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A few things we may have learned (but yes, it’s early):
– They generally played well in the first half. I thought it was looking like an easy win.
– Not to pick on just Elmarko, but he was a freaking revolving door on defense tonight. Not good at all. Wow.
– Tre White shouldn’t really handle the ball in traffic much.
– VERY happy to see Tiller knock down some 3s. Those looked solid.
– VERY happy Kohl hit the actual net tonight (after his first airball)! Hoping he gains some confidence after making a few.
– Agreed with another poster. When DP is not on the floor, we seem lost in the headlights. Did we even score in the first half after he went out? I’m not sure we did score while he was on the bench. We just seemed to pass the ball around without much purpose.
– There were times in the second half when the team seemed to have no clue they were playing a basketball game. More than a few times they just casually tossed the ball to the TarHeels! that was weird.
Oh, well. I’m happy i at least figured out a way to watch the game. Tough roadie.
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@TYOHawk said in UNC Matchup Friday Night:
@kjayhawks said in UNC Matchup Friday Night:
Worried we are wasting a generational talent this season because we don’t have the pieces around him
It’s the truth to a degree to be honest. We don’t have a secondary or third scorer. That’s an issue even if DP is a phenom.
Not trying to be a smart ass @TYOHawk , but just reliving a lasting memory as a KU student.
A smart professor once used the word “tertiary” on me. My face went blank. I had to go look it up afterward. that set me on the right track after a dicey start to my education at KU (perhaps aided by too many $1 Hawk glass refills). Haven’t looked back since!
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A truly “deer in the headlights” event in the second half. We were overwhelmed by the crowd and tar heel enthusiasm.
Wilson is an absolute beast. He’s NBA bound next year.
Let’s see how we respond from this. I remember when Kentucky shellacked us on our own court in 2022 and we responded with a trophy in April.
Our defense was horrible… especially off high ball screens, back doors, and really anything that put one of their players in the paint at the rim all alone. It kind of looks like we haven’t worked on defense in practice yet. lol
Even though we lead most of the first half, we were never in control of the tempo. They killed us on rebounds. We have several guys that should be claiming more rebounds.
At times we look horrible on both sides of the ball… but we only lost by 13. Hopefully, this will be our worst defeat this year, but who knows?
Love them Tiller treys!
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My biggest concern from this game is that the switching at all five positions just might be a bad scheme but we seem committed to it. It worked in the first half against a young team early in the season but a few adjustments and they were off to the races getting whatever they wanted. That second half reminded me way too much of that Gonzaga game where they just scored at will. Run some ball screens. Get the mismatch you want. Force help. Dunk or open three.
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@benshawks08 Yes I’ve hated the switching everything we have done the last 5 years. It’s for teams that can’t play defense IMO. It only worked in 2022 and that team was very average defensively. Not sure how many times their bigs got switched to a guard and went in for a dunk but it seemed like about 50.
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@kjayhawks fwiw Bill Self agrees with you and doesnt want his players switching out of laziness on “weak ass ball screens”: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3029910/2021/12/23/off-switch-coming-for-kansas-breaking-down-lazy-ball-screen-coverages-and-what-needs-to-change/?source=user_shared_article
I think switching is a necessary evil in the 3 ball era and even moreso in the NIL era where rosters are built every year.
We have a roster with length and athleticism this year. If we play with consistent energy our switching only when its a necessity should theoretically work.
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@approxinfinity I agree if we switched periodically, it could work better. White and Kohl trying to guard a 7 footer didn’t work and seldomly will.
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The worst realization for me is we aren’t winning this conference with this team. We aren’t beating Houston, BYU, Baylor, Tech and Arizona. We aren’t beating Duke next week but hope we can sweep KSU and make it outta the first weekend in March for only the second time since 2018.
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I also haven’t paid enough attention to the rest of basketball. Is that UNC team really the 25th best team? If so, yeah we are toast. We definitely COULD have won that game but we aren’t going to win many against teams better than that.
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Well, we did beat higher ranked Louisville already. But as I watch St John’s vs Alabama, not sure we could compete with their athletes. Come back, Zuby!
It seems to me that Self was trying to build an athletic run and gun team, but left off the gun part.
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Self doesn’t do run and gun. Hes running the same offense every year and doing the same crap on defense that doesn’t work. Nothing new really, just the same.
It’s going to be a rough year but I’ll remain hopeful for improvement. Hopefully some of the pieces around Peterson step up.
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@benshawks08 It was easy at the basket pick and roll the last two years and we blamed it on Hunter saying he was just too slow. It was one of the Texas teams that successfully ran it five straight times at the start of one game. Every team has figured it out. Last year we were dared to shoot threes and scored at a low 70’s rate. This game we made twelve threes but couldn’t get within ten points after they blitzed us. Without Tiller in the first half we only scored 25 pts. Last year we had a top 15 team defense. It’s not last year or the year before I know but giving up 58 points in the half and 48 points in the paint I am actually encouraged we only lost by 13. Tiller has the physical size to help and the fouls should get less frequent. On offense we have seen him finish inside a time or two along with being a pure shooter but stopping the offensive boards is where we need help just like before.
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@BeddieKU23 said in UNC Matchup Friday Night:
Self doesn’t do run and gun. Hes running the same offense every year and doing the same crap on defense that doesn’t work. Nothing new really, just the same.
It’s going to be a rough year but I’ll remain hopeful for improvement. Hopefully some of the pieces around Peterson step up.
Yea, agreed, but with the new roster he built, it sure seems like he wanted to try.
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@rockchalkjayhawk at this point it’s a proven fact Self sucks at roster construction. Did we give up a top 5 basketball program for. 5-7 win football team is the question of the day.
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I don’t think so.
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My personal opinion is that everyone is wound way too tight for the SECOND game of the season. Nobody knows these players and how they’re going to develop. Let’s lose our stuff on about January 15th or so.
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Hey at least this team is a lot more fun to watch!
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@approxinfinity said in UNC Matchup Friday Night:
We have a roster with length and athleticism this year. If we play with consistent energy our switching only when its a necessity should theoretically work.
We were just beat yesterday… because our energy level dropped off the table. We had just enough energy in the first half to lead by 8. The second half, the Tar Heels came out with more energy and our response was to go Beta instead of Alpha… Bill Self learned something yesterday. Right now, as this team sits, they fold when getting punched in the mouth. He’s got to change that.
I’m not sure who will step up to lead this team. DP is great, but is he alpha enough to lead the team? Council mentioned that he will lead this team. Not sure what will happen. But we need someone who will keep our guys composed when attacked and actually TURN IT UP to meet the challenge!
Switching or not… I’m old school and want to see my guys fighting through screens. Eventually, it wears down offenses and they sort of give up setting high ball screens when they don’t work.
If we took advantage of our speed and size… our big man could step out into the path on the screens and cause havoc enough and usually get back in time. That also requires our guard to get out there quick enough to make it hard for their guard to throw the lob.
Anything is possible when your TEAM has HIGH ENERGY! We really fell in that second half.
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Previous teams folded when punched in the mouth so it’s something we are becoming accustomed to
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Self’s offense is not a one pass and go.
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@BeddieKU23 - All too similar to last year. Hope the men respond with grit and not just bag it for the $$$.
