4 OUT Small Ball
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@BigBad I think we are going to feel lucky to have Newman when the lid is on the basket for everyone else and Malik rips off a stretch of 6 or 8 points to keep us in it.
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I am almost positive Malik was with Billy and should have done a better job making sure Billy made it back on time. Didn’t happen and he didn’t get the start because of it. Wing man fail!
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@Statmachine should Malik take him to class too? I’m being sarcastic
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@Crimsonorblue22 LOL.
This might be part of the reason Malik didn’t start last night. Stiffer punishment for Billy that’s for sure.
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I wonder how many of our opponents were kind enough to donate lol. It will be interesting to see who starts from here on out. Does Self continue to play small ball? Or does Preston get a good deal of starts? With the way Garrett is playing Sam may not see the floor a whole lot, we know Self loves his 8 man rotation.
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I’d bet on small ball starting line-ups all year.
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@BShark Tennessee state coach said last pm they would have done better against a 2 post team. I think a lot of teams will have the same problems.
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I think we will play predominately small sprinkled with traditional.
Agree, our guards are a nightmare for most teams. One of Kentucky’s problems is trouble staying in front of their man, which is why cal switched to a zone, or else they might have lost last night. It would be interesting to see their length in a zone vs our zone busters. You’d have to think our guys will fare a little better against it than Utah valley.
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@BShark I’m a bit torn on whether he stays 4/1. Obviously if Preston gets going, that might change things. But having that change-up off the bench is great, too – either way. I recall @jaybate-1-0 mentioning that with a thin front court, maybe 4/1 is best so as not to put our two main bigs at risk foul wise, together. Here’s the nice thing - we have a coach who has created a fast, attack oriented 4/1 offense AND who is the master of the 3/2 hi/lo. We’re clearly spending more time on the 4/1 stuff. But I tend to think that we’re adaptable. If we catch a team that we need to exploit inside, I think our 4/1 can do that quite easily. How much trouble did teams have stopping ISU inside when they were all spread out? And we’ve shown we can do it. If needed, we can go 3/2 (which I still think Self would prefer).
Also wanted to point out that Newman apparently gave Garrett some encouragement last night, telling him “not to overthink it, just go relax and play.” Nice to hear.
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You are very right that this team in 4-1 can wage lightening war. Our perimeter cats are fairly long limbed. They combine quickness and straight line speed.
A crucial question seems to be can Vick spell Devonte and sustain lightening war, or does Vick have to slow it down to stay in control of the team.
Last season, Devonte could sustain whatever Frank was doing, if it were working, or down shift to something slower that would work.
What I’m asking is: is Vick and ready and able to take over the point as Devonte was last season, when Frank needed a blow?
I haven’t made up my mind on that yet.
But if Vick isn’t quite up for running point at lightening war speed, well, then Self could go 3-2 with Preston and Buke inside and slow things down for those spells.
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approxinfinity said:
@BeddieKU23 we will see against Kentucky if Garrett’s game translates against athletic opponents. We won’t see 10 rebs again. Will be interesting.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Garrett led the team in rebounding again. One thing that he has done already is effort. You watch plays where he’s busting his butt to get in position for a rebound or sprinting back on defense. I’ve seen a lot of things to like so far. He’s a deceptive athlete and is long so I see that matching up well against Kentucky’s bunch of raw players. We are lucky to have this young man
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@jaybate-1.0 and that’s what makes this team a tough out in March - they can beat you so many different ways.
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@jaybate-1.0 Doesn’t it appear that Newman is the guy at the point when DG goes out? I’m asking because I’m not sure.
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Vick is not really a PG so Newman would be the logical replacement. Having said a that, Garret was the Texas Gatorade POY as PG and I will guess that as the season progresses, he will become the backup PG.
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@JayHawkFanToo it seems like a lot of folks on ku sites don’t think he is a point guard, yet he played point guard in high school lol.
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A few random thoughts…
@HighEliteMajor emojis can at times be quite subjective and depend on the mood of the writer at the time. The cat can be seen as Garret being the cat’s meow or the cat that ate the canary and is very pleased with himself.
What is the deal with these new hairdos? I just don’t get it, but then many people did not get the long hair in the 60s and 70s either.
Talking about looks…Devonté does not look like a baby anymore and Vick looks so much older, he has an NBA-ready face now.
Newman is indeed an enigma. Not enough handles to be a PG and perhaps not enough height or shooting touch to be a SG, can we call him a tweener guard? No doubt he is talented but right now he seems to be talent looking for a role?
In case some of you did not know, Preston was late for curfew and had to park his car in an illegal zone and the be next day he had to go and move it and in the process missed a class. He now knows that two wrongs don’t make a righ; in reality, the second call attention and makes the first look even worse.
If KU and UK play their game the way both teams played the first half Friday, KU wins going away and the squid cries like a little girl…just an expression @Crimsonorblue22, no offense to women or little girls intended.
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@JayHawkFanToo I do hate that, or throw like a girl etc.
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Vick looks more likely to back up the point than Malik.
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Until Preston reveals a light on upstairs, KU must dread a team with two good bigs.
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@jaybate-1-0 And who would the second be?
Mitch should be a 3. Billy (please be a hero!) Preston must “Get Back” to where he once belonged. His apparent flakiness is All the more need for Desousa to get cleared. Bill is Santa if he orchestrates this Christmas present for the KU faithful.
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@Fightsongwriter Nice Preston/Beatles reference. Here, here…
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@JayHawkFanToo around here I’ve seen a lot more little boys crying in public than little girls. This expression does seem invalid.
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4 years for mr Garrett is music to my ears… he fits the mold of many of my fav players ( K Young, T Releford, JamTray), he seems to want to play D and rebound and set picks and just be a disrupter. As a pure fan, These four years types really help balance out the oft disappointing hardly-knew-ye OADs. I got my ticket, and boarded the Garrett Bus early
(Cat emoji for keeping with the thread theme )
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Crimsonorblue22 said:
@JayHawkFanToo I do hate that, or throw like a girl etc.
If you’re talking about my wife that means deadly acurate and hard. If you’re talking about my sister that means everyone 180 degrees in front of her is on notice.
So what does it mean?
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@Bosthawk Gotta love Garrett. Dudes gonna be a multiple year stud. The kind of player you think of when you fondly remember KU hoops 10-20-30 years down the road. Unfortunately the Xavier Henry’s of the world fade away…
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@approxinfinity @Crimsonorblue22
It is just an old expression that uses hyperbole to convey a meaning and as such, should not be taken literally. I did include a caveat in my post.
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““He didn’t score the second half and he dominated the game,” Self said of Graham.”
I hope to hear that more often this year. Sure… I like seeing Devonte hang some points in the book, but what we really need is a floor general from the point. Self’s comment holds true; Devonte dominated without scoring the second half.
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@JayHawkFanToo Cal will be crying like a little baby.
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Ah, looks like various sensitivities have been aroused, not matter how irrational.
I’ve never thrown like a girl. Thankfully.
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@KUSTEVE In defense of all the defenseless little babies I am deeply offended by that comment
Get back Kusteve-a (and Loretta)!
But what about the Billy Don’t be a Hero reference ? That was the first rock song I remember really digging as a pre-teener.
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@dylans JJ’s
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@Fightsongwriter And as he started to go, she said Billy keep your head lowwwww…
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Loved Devonte at PG so far. My only question, and it’s not really fair to compare against BIFM, is I can’t count the times when there was a lid on the basket for everyone else, and Frank just put his head down, drove to the basket again and again and kept his team in the game, sometimes being the only scorer for minutes on end. Can Devonte show up every game and every game be ready, should shots not be falling for everyone else, score points to get us through those lean minutes?
But overall, once again, this team looks really good. We are so spoiled with how we well reload every year. I like being spoiled.
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Nice post. We are certainly spoiled.
It will be interesting to see how we get offense when things break down. Mason was great at creating offense in those situations as you said.
Graham however might be exactly what this team needs as a more natural pg option. 12 assists in the opener. He’s a gifted passer. His vision might open opportunities for easier baskets when a play breaks down instead of relying on the many heroics that Mason gave us last season.
I wonder if there was a chart of Mason ISO’s and how often he either scored or got to the FT line when this team needed buckets. Graham might be just as effective as a better passer with the ability to get into the lane and dump it off to Doke? or an open shooter for a 3 pointer. We’ll see how this evolves but Game 1 we certainly saw Devonte controlling the game without being a major option on offense. That’s maybe the big upside to having Devonte over Frank this season. We’ll see.
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I’ve been impressed with Self’s growth in basketball over the past few years. Not having enough post depth has also been a blessing because it forced Bill to go with “small ball.” It just wasn’t enough to have a team full of trey shooters (back when we had B Greene) to convince him to focus on a 4-guard offense.
How many times have we heard Bill bark about tempo (in the past)? I recall he used to complain about our pace being too slow. Sometimes he mentioned “the ball sticking” while other times it was “walking the ball up the court” or “not aggressive enough.”
The 4-guard offense is an instant cure for a slow pace.
Now Bill has another tool in his chest. The 4-guard offense is definitely well-polished and sitting in his tool chest.
Imagine having to play against Kansas. What game will Kansas bring?
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3-2 - Three guards with two bigs. They might setup in a 3-2 structure, or it could be he just keeps his center in the low post and his other big anywhere from the FT line to playing out on the trey line, setting picks and taking shots from trey to mid-range.
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4-1 - Four guards with one big. Using a motion offense hybrid somewhere between dribble-drive and hi/lo, including shifts in tempo somewhere between it being run like a secondary break or slowed down to an aggressive form of a Princeton offense.
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4-1 - Four guards with one big. Using an aggressive hi/lo where almost every possession works through the post, either creating low post scoring or open trey opportunities.
I’m thinking a great extra tool is to have our 4 big able to nail the trey. This creates an easy scoring for our 4 to come out setting high ball screens for pick-and-pop opportunities. Get our opposition bigs away from the paint so our athletic guards, like Vick, can crash the boards!
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I’m not sure this team has a go to scorer/assassin. Lots of really good players on the team though.
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We’ll get more out of Newman, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him lead the team in scoring tonight for example. I’m really interested to see where he’s at after about 8-10 games because I think that’s when we will start seeing him assert himself more (if he hasn’t already by that point).
Vick looked real good in game 1 taking on more volume. If that outside shot blends in as well as his drives to the hoop he’s probably the best go-to option we have. Between Graham, Newman & Vick I see great potential going forward
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BShark said:
I’m not sure this team has a go to scorer/assassin. Lots of really good players on the team though.
Frankly, that might actually be a strength. Makes this team much harder to stop. If we had one guy or two that was the go-to person all the time, a team that can lockdown a player or two can be crippling to a team that functions like that.
