A Little Early Season Commentary and Analysis (and Unease)
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@KUSTEVE Howling!
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Go, man, go!
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@jaybate-1.0 Great post!
I don’t know about a 30 point blowout, but it’s going to be a game that will definitely be a wake up call for the whole team. I think it could be a good thing to lose this game to humble the team (and us) and to put some fire in their bellies to get better, and want another chance at them.
If you believe there are a few untouchables on this team like Perry, Wayne, the OAD’s, etc., then this would be a good game for Self to use the hook on them for sloppy play, poor defense, or lack of toughness. I mean, if you’re going to lose anyway…might as well send a message even in a “big game”.
Also good early season practice for “amping” and preparing a team for an opponent. This TEAM will need to develop over the season, probably more so than last year. They need an identity and to build some character.
Nevertheless, here’s to hoping we kick the snot out of them!!!
Rock Chalk!!!
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@drgnslayr This could be a good litmus test to see if HCBS has embraced the x-axis game, and if so, how far our guys have come along learning it. What do think? Will the team play the x-axis game?
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@drgnslayr In my illustrious basketball coaching career I had a team of 5th grade boys. We had 10 players. League rules dictated players play even amounts of time. All ten players practiced faithfully, so no need to discipline a kid for not practicing by not playing him as much as others. So I had two teams. They practiced as a 5 man team against each other every day. Come game day, they already knew how their team would react. We went undefeated. The boys ran a basic motion offense that led to unguarded layups when they ran it correctly.
I hope Coach Cal doesn’t figure this out. On the other hand maybe I’ll send an email to Self and give him a few tips. We could be deep enough to play two 5 man rotations as well!
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@KUSTEVE If you look at recent activity on KU Buckets you’ll see we’ve been discussing that article all week! By the way, I don’t go back far enough to remember Ted Owens, but I have also been confident we’d win every game since Larry’s been here.
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@wissoxfan83 I hope he doesn’t figure that out also, though I get the feeling that he might have.
I have no doubt that Kentucky is the team to beat and, barring a collapse or a phenomenal performance by some team, will be in the final four and will probably win the championship. Is it possible that they could go undefeated using the methods that you yourself utilized and what The Squid is planning on doing? Yes, it is possible. I do not think it is probable, just possible. There have been other teams in the past, such as Florida in 07, UNC in 09, and Kentucky in 12, that were arguably just as good if not better than Kentucky this year and didn’t go undefeated.
As for this year’s KU team, I feel as though going to the final four is definitely a strong possibility. They will probably lose to Kentucky next month, but I highly doubt that it will be by 30. A few weeks later they play Florida at home, which is a major advantage, and they should win that one.
I feel as though everyone is putting too much emphasis on not having a shot blocker extraordinaire on the team this year. I should point out that the 08 team did not have someone like Joel or Jeff. I have been going through YouTube and watching some of their games and noticed that the way they played team defense negated the fact that they did not have a premier shot blocker. Now that is not to say that Kaun, Arthur, and Jackson were incapable of being good rim protectors, because that would not be the case.
If you think back to the teams that have made the final four the past five years, how many of them had a great shot blocker? Not very many of them.
The point of all this is to point out that a great shot blocker is nice to have and makes defense much easier, but is not required to succeed in the post season. For Pete’s sake UConn was able to beat Villanova, Iowa State, Michigan State, Florida, and Kentucky all without much height in the post. As we have discussed ad nauseam, guard play and the x axis are the key to post season success.
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@DinarHawk I was listening to Self’s post Late Night comments, and he brought up once again the idea of playing Wayne at point in some match ups. That leads me to openly speculate if he’ll start Wayne at point guard in the Kensucky game. The fact that Kensucky has announced that Poythross is going to the play the 3 makes me wonder if we’d have Wayne at the 1, Greene/Oubre? at the 2, Perry at the 3, Cliff at the 4, and Landen at the 5 in that game to mitigate somewhat their huge height advantage. I could be all wrong, and probably am, but this might be the one time we could afford to play Perry at the 3.
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@KUSTEVE I think that it would be a good strategy for the Kentucky game, though I’m not sure if Self will actually do it. I think that it would help to somewhat even the playing field in terms of height. Kentucky figured out how to utilize their size last year in the tournament, so this would definitely be a possible strategy to beat them.
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@KUSTEVE Personally I don’t think that Bill will change his starting lineup around for this game…or any other game for that matter. Bill is pretty set in his ways as we have all discussed.
With all of that, I think it may actually be an advantage to play smaller against this much bigger team. How many times has KU been the much taller team and had to watch quicker guards run all over us. It seems to happen at least a few times a year. The WVU game last year comes to mind. The VCU game comes to mind. UCONN beating UK in the title game last year as the much smaller much quicker team comes to mind. I say we put our best players on the floor at their appropriate positions and play one hell of a game. To beat UK we will have to hit a bunch of 3’s. I hope CF and Greene see plenty of minutes…although they probably won’t. They will probably come into the game, miss a couple of shots and then never seen the floor again.
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@joeloveshawks I understand playing small - why does Coach keep talking about Selden playing point?
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@KUSTEVE maybe against Kentucky?
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“Will the team play the x-axis game?”
This will be the year Self may decide to try some things. He typically likes recruiting height and we may not have our height domination (y-axis) team this year. I say “may not” because we don’t know yet how a player like Hunter might impact this team.
Still… x-axis ball is focusing on everything that happens from a little over 6’ to the ground. Passing, stealing, ball handling, screens, creating scoring space via non-vertical approach, tempo, pressure, driving, driving lanes, passing lanes, hustle, communication, help defense, ball fakes, shoulder/body fakes, no look passes, everything lateral, hedging… then I’d add into that… scouting… I could go on and on because I’m talking about all of basketball except that tiny bit played above the rim.
Players get sucked into some of the same pitfalls coaches and others do. They walk on a court and see a team much taller than themselves and they panic. They get intimidated instead of realize the advantages they do have. It’s easy to draw fouls on tall and big guys… especially these days with the way they are calling games. It’s easy to stop tall dribblers because the height of their dribble.
Analyze the game and be aware of the physical, mechanical dynamics. Long wingspans are great for something, bad for other things. When these guys are reaching in on a ball handler their longer arms extend out farther. That can be an advantage… also a disadvantage. The extra length is harder to retract. If the ball handler entices the long extension then drives into… who gets the foul? RIght… the long-armed defender. And how about “lateral nimbleness?” How about the fact that long guys just can not be as nimble in lateral movement because their body limbs are longer? Get them going in one direction then change a direction and make them foul you because they don’t have the ability to control their lateral movements down the court the same as a smaller player.
So for teams like Kentucky, spread the court, stretch the game and make them guard in space.
Another good x-axis strategy; be VERY good at the FT line. Work on getting fouled, and then knock down FTs.
If we really went at Kentucky the right way, we would expose their weakness (height) and expose their gimmick attribute (height). Cal is counting on everyone they play getting intimidated by their size and no one figuring out that beyond their size they have weaknesses like every other team.
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@drgnslayr Your explanation on how to beat Kentucky is exactly why I do not think that the game will be a blowout.
The reason that Kentucky went to the title game last year was because they were bigger than the teams they faced and utilized it well, while the teams they faced did not have an answer for it, except of course for UConn.
I know they have had this off season to improve and develop better chemistry as well as add some Mickey Ds all Americans, but we can’t forget that it took several fortunate three pointers at the end of the Louisville, Wichita St., Michigan, and Wisconsin games for them to get that far. The only game that did not require any heroics was the K State game.
My gut feeling is that Self is starting to figure out how to advance in March, and he has a very good blueprint in how to do it because of UConn. He needs to sit the team down and show them every single UConn game from the tournament and instruct them on how to apply the x axis strategies that you enumerated in your post.
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Starting last season, I shake my head every time I read a comparison to the 2008 team. Folks, my head hurts, this has to stop.
The 2008 team was the 2007 team one year later. OK, Wright left but that’s it.
What I mean is the 2008 team had experience and had played together a long time. Last year and this year we are counting on too many freshmen to allow comparisons with 2008. Even 2007 is a reach.
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“The reason that Kentucky went to the title game last year was because they were bigger than the teams they faced and utilized it well, while the teams they faced did not have an answer for it, except of course for UConn.”
That’s it! I thought Marshall was going to figure it out and his PG sort of did, except his game was off that day. The Shocks were intimidated by the size and they got stuck trying to play them like other teams… cutting off passing lanes and applying some pressure. They should have applied even stronger pressure out on the perimeter. Done a better job of denying the twins a dribble and easy pass making them anxious and confused… They were really the right team to beat Kentucky prior to UCONN.
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The early Kentucky game is the perfect early season heavyweight game. Last year we played great against Duke and pulled the game out with some Wiggins heroics.
I’ve said to limit the depth this Kentucky team has we have to switch our defense up. Baylor last year early in the season gave them fits with zone defense and beat them. Kentucky will not be great when we play them and depending on how how our team comes together early we could stand a real chance of winning. Their superior advantages come from front court depth and length at every position. Besides the twins and freshman Booker, they have no shooters on this team. Why wouldn’t we exploit that to cover up our lack of size against them. Limiting dribble penetration is the other huge part of this teams philosophy and throwing a zone as a wrinkle would do wonders in our chances. This could limit them from getting 40 free throw attempts, putting our players in foul trouble etc.
If Self is set on changing things up like the smaller guard lineup, then I’d love to see him do the same on D. Switch it up Self
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Games are not won on paper. They are won on the court. There are probably 10 teams that are capable of winning the whole thing. Each year, it is a combination of skill and luck. Who knows what team will win it all? I don’t have a clue, but each and every year I hope it’s the Jayhawks. When we lose it sucks, but the Program goes on. Question: In the past 10 years, with the exception of the Championship Game (because that’s the end of the tournament) how many teams have beat Kansas in the NCAA Tournament and gone on to win the National Championship?
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@KansasComet Happened a couple times with Roy, but never in the Bill Self era… since 2004, lost to Georgia Tech, Bucknell, Bradley, UCLA, Mich. St., NIU, Michigan and Stanford. Won one championship game, lost one.
Roy’s teams lost in two F4 semi-final games (North Carolina in 1993 and Maryland in 2002 who both went on to win the championship) Most memorable was probably the Arizona team that plowed through three number 1 seeds in 1997, beating us in the Regional semi’s.
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@DanR Michigan State was the most “normal” loss. If memory serves, they were seeded higher and went to the Championship game.
Roy had fewer “bad losses” in the Tournament and fewer “great wins”. I think none of us would trade our NC for zero losses the first weekend.
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@DanR Thank you. I went back ten years because of course that is the Bill Self Era. Great breakdown of what happened in the Roy Williams Era. You were all over it. Again, thanks! No one has beaten Kansas in the Bill Self Era and gone on to win the National Championship. That is a fact. I think it has a lot to do with the physical and mental emotion it takes to defeat an outstanding program on one of the biggest stages. After the KU games, i feel, most teams don’t have anything left. They have reached their ceiling. Everything else is a let down. Just my humble Jayhawk Fan opinion.
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@ParisHawk I still like Roy. He meant a lot to Kansas Basketball. I did not like the distraction UNC created as we were going on a title run in 2003.
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@KansasComet said:
@ParisHawk I still like Roy. He meant a lot to Kansas Basketball. I did not like the distraction UNC created as we were going on a title run in 2003.
I agree about UNC, but I will never blame a guy for going home for a job.
Did it burn at first? Heck yeah it did, but it worked out for KU and UNC, so I don’t worry about it.
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@JRyman especially since we have his number! I think he hates to play us!
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I’m just not sure Kentucky will have a good replacement for Young. He was the guy that saved them in so many possessions throughout the year. He was definitely their “go to” guy when things were impossible, like 5 seconds left on the shot clock. He bailed them out on hundreds of occasions. I have a feeling he will be the guy they really miss this year. Not so much Randle.
Yeah… they got lucky with those haymakers. They shouldn’t have even been that close late in those games.
Kentucky’s offense last year looked horrible.
It would be great if several teams could beat them playing small ball this year, and then get the media focused on Kentucky’s weaknesses. For most teams, that would be what they want so they can fix it in time for March. I just don’t have the confidence in Cal’s abilities in that area and it would be fun to watch the Big Blue Nation suffer with not being able to fix something made so obvious that even the media ran with it!
Think about it… there are many ways for Kentucky to totally implode this year!
Their real issue is Cal’s inability on x’s and o’s. He tries to mask his weakness by over-recruiting… putting too much height on the floor… things like that. He’s doing all of it to compensate for the weakness he knows he has. If you don’t believe me, search the internet for some of his interviews and listen to him defend his x’s and o’s.
The ultimate this year is for Kentucky’s weaknesses to be exposed early, and then Cal can’t fix it by March. That would create a colossal unraveling, and everyone would be blaming everyone else.
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Let;s not underestimate Calipari’s capabilities as a coach. Sure maybe he is not in the top 3 but certainly he is in the top 10. This 3-month ESPN article list him as #2 behind only Donovan and ahead of Coach Self who comes in as #6…
This one has him as #4 and Coach Self as #7…
This ranking has him as #4 and Coach Self as #5…
Here is one that list who would the NBA draft and Cal comes a #1 and Coach Self as #3…
You can look for yourself and I don’t believe you will find him ranked outside the top 10 anywhere. Keep in mind that he learned coaching from Coach Brown sitting on the the KU bench and Coach Self inherited the position when Cal left for and assistant coach position at Pittsburgh. Underestimate Cal at your own risk.
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@JRyman It was Roy’s right to leave. Glad we got Coach Self.
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I believe Coach Williams did great at KU and he has always been vocal saying how thankful he is for getting the opportunity and how respectful he is of the program. He even got in trouble with his own fan base for wearing a Jayhawk on his sweater at the NCAA.
I don’t blame him for going back home; we all knew it was matter of time. However, I do think the way the left was questionable and for this I blame Kansas native and KU alumnus and former Assistant Coach Dean Smith; he really showed where his loyalty was…and it was not his home state of Kansas.
