So you don't like Mitch?
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@DoubleDD My hope is that Mitch ends up playing the last minute of the game in blow outs because we got Silvio dialed in, and Sleasy Preston playing ahead of him. Mitch is a long way away from being a valuable rotation guy. He’s not ready for prime time yet, but he is making progress from last year’s results. I’m not mad at him. I don’t dislike him. I just hope he doesn’t have to play as much the 2nd half of the year as he did the first half.
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Thanks for posting a needed “correctional” post. At times, many of us, including myself, needs a slapping to come back to reality.
All Mitch can do is put his best foot forward, and I don’t think anyone has challenged that… at least, I hope not!
Lost in all the huge eye candy of Doke, Devonte and others we have lost sight of Mitch and the improvements he has made in his game. He has improved considerably, and had to at a position he was never built for.
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Seems as though every season my wife and I pick a Jayhawk favorite player. This season, Mitch is our guy. I really derive chuckles, referring to him as Lightfeet. The kid is blessed with “B” level topflight Div. 1 skill and “A++” enthusiasm. We hope he is around for 5 seasons. This program needs a Mitch Lightfoot.
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@wrwlumpy WOW! All posters really should think about that key stat. Mitch at 6’8" sits in the #4 slot in the league for blocked shots! And just think about how few minutes he has played. A non-starter playing way out of position.
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jayballer54 said:
@HighEliteMajor Actually. - - - -the blue blood chose him. - -Yep he chose Kansas, but also Kansas was the one that extended he Scholi offer so that works both ways. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
Self couldn’t make him sign though. The kid picked KU. He had other offers.
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BShark said:
jayballer54 said:
@HighEliteMajor Actually. - - - -the blue blood chose him. - -Yep he chose Kansas, but also Kansas was the one that extended he Scholi offer so that works both ways. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
Self couldn’t make him sign though. The kid picked KU. He had other offers.
If Self didn’t think he was talented enough for D-21 talent - -then there wouldn’t of BEEN an offer for him to decide on, nobody forced Self to offer the kid. - - I think that’s why Self is where he is at - and why we are where we are at.
I do think he might have just a little more knowledge about evaluating talent then you or I do - probably why he is the Coach. They didn’t have to offer if they didn’t think he would be beneficial in some form or another. - - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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My hope is that once Silvio and Preston start spending time backing up a Doke, Mitch spends more time playing his more natural position of SF/Stretch PF and continues to score from the 3 at the same .500 clip.
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@jayballer54 You do realize that Self signs players as development/depth players? Not everyone he signs is assumed to be an immediate rotation player.
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HighEliteMajor said:
@jayballer54 You do realize that Self signs players as development/depth players? Not everyone he signs is assumed to be an immediate rotation player.
I was going to say something similar. I think in an ideal situation Mitch redshirts his FR year and just plays junk minutes until he is a JR/SR but obviously it didn’t work out that way.
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Article in today’s LJW about Mitch’s roommate, fellow state of Arizona transfer Sam Cunliffe. One of Sam’s 8 sisters, Hannah, sports some super speedy genetics. She is a sprinter who is a member of Oregon’s pair of NCAA record holding sprint relay teams.
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HighEliteMajor said:
@jayballer54 You do realize that Self signs players as development/depth players? Not everyone he signs is assumed to be an immediate rotation player.
YEP - - But thanks for enlightening me. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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I am the Aflac duck.
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I am under the opinion we haven’t seen the full-tilt Sam yet. He is still adjusting to being in real games. Kind of like Vick early on.
Sam and Mitch are going to pay off for us, big time. The big superstar talent will continue to briefly play for us, while players like Sam and Mitch represent the experience of Self-ball, helping the entire team stay on the same page, the Bill Self page.
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Mitch should be playing around 10 minutes a game, preferably with another skilled big in the lineup. Instead, he’s playing almost 15 mpg, often as the lone big in the lineup.
There’s a concept called overexposure. Its basically when a solid, but limited player is asked to take on a role that exceeds their skill level, often by necessity. We saw this the last couple of years with Landen Lucas. It caused quite a discussion on this board on more than one occasion. The truth is that Landen was never a bad player, just that Landen should never have been the primary big man. Forcing a guy that should be a secondary option into a primary role does nothing but expose their flaws in ways that other teams can exploit. That was not Landen’s fault the last couple of years, and it is not Mitch’s fault now.
Mitch has done a good job of trying to stick to the things he is good at, and avoid trying to do things he simply cannot do. However, in 15 mpg, the action will find you because Mitch is probably playing 5 or 6 minutes per game more than he should. That’s 15 more possessions where he can be targeted on either offense or defense.
When I was in high school, my team, like a lot of schools, lacked size. We just didn’t have many true big guys. As a result, we had to kind of mix and match to keep up with teams with some size. That often meant that either I or one of our other guards ended up matched up on the other team’s power forward (I’m 6-0 tall and more naturally suited to play either PG or SG). On the perimeter, I was a top notch defensive player, as I could handle the quickest PGs or switch off and play the best wings. I often guarded the opponents best perimeter player. However, when I had to guard the other team’s PF in some of our lineups, I was overexposed. I could usually hide out there for three or four possessions, but after that, I was probably going to get destroyed - not because I was a bad defensive player, or a bad player overall, but because I just couldn’t handle giving up 4+ inches and 40+ pounds in the post. It was a mismatch, and everyone in the gym could see it.
Mitch is in the same position. He can get by okay for a few possessions at a time as the primary big, but after that, he probably gets exploited because his limitations are exposed. If he were playing as a PF, where he has done well at times this year, he can be effective, or in lineups where he is the primary big against teams that can’t hammer him with size, where he has also had success.
But if you’re leaning on him come Friday to handle Mo Bamba on his own for 7 or 8 possessions in a row, that’s not really fair to Mitch because that’s a bad matchup for him.
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See this is the kinda stuff that bothers me. Most of us agree that Mitch is a good kid and a hard working kid, he just isn’t a great ball player at this stage. He was probably thrown to the wolves sooner than he, coach Self and we all would Probably like. He probably would’ve redshirted last year or this year had things been different, heck he may redshirt next with the guys we have coming. You know I’ve been a Kansas fan for most of my life (once I started watching as a little kid), I’ll be the first to say that I get on guys on here when they don’t play well, like a good number of us do. But that’s because I care, I coached basketball for a number of years. Watching the games I see it from a coaching stand point, maybe that’s wrong but when a player messes up you have to teach them or get on them. It doesn’t mean that I want them to transfer or to beaten at mid court. You think everytime coach Self lights into someone he dislikes them? I loved all my players and I think coach Self does too. If you go to a big time school you better be prepared to deal criticism, not all of it is warranted but isn’t easy for most.
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I like Mitch, I admit it.
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I’ve liked Mitch from the beginning , he does the dirty work. – # blocks they said - - -5 rebounds - -and 2 big charges tonight. - -how many charges has he taken this year? - -I don’t it is close between him and the 2nd best one to take a charge. - He just comes up with big plays at crucial times , gonna be a solid 4 year player for us type of players that we need to compliment the roster - -a lunch pail type of guy. - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@Jayballer54 Mitch LIKES taking charges I swear lol.
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BShark said:
@Jayballer54 Mitch LIKES taking charges I swear lol.
lol - -seems like it - -it’s ok with me lol. - -just a guy that will do whatever he can to help - does a lot of the little things. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@Jayballer54 Agree. No points tonight but still impacted the game.
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BShark said:
@Jayballer54 Agree. No points tonight but still impacted the game.
How about Malik? - -2nd half we really struggling for the first 6 minutes - then Malik drives and get’s the and one - -he finishes the night 13 points & 10 rebounds , he has really come around these last 5 games. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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He outhustled them for the ball at the end.
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@Jayballer54 Talking about Mitch. Mitch had no points. Newman hard carried the team for a bit w/ his scoring.
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BShark said:
@Jayballer54 Talking about Mitch. Mitch had no points. Newman hard carried the team for a bit w/ his scoring.
Just a big win for us on the road , – seems like this is one thing that seperates us from the rest of the league - we find ways to win on the road where others really struggle. - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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He played solid defense, rebounded well, 3 block and took a couple of hard charges and should have had one more but the refs callers a blocking foul.
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@JayHawkFanToo Yep. Impacted the game about as much as you can for not even taking a shot.
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Mitch is no longer a liability but a solid contributor.
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@JayHawkFanToo Agree. His improvement even just over the course of this season has been impressive. I’m not holding my breath when he is out there anymore.
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JayHawkFanToo said:
Mitch is no longer a liability but a solid contributor.
He fills in pretty nice - really good compliment player - like I said he does a lot of the dirty work. ALOT better shot blocker then I would of ever imagined also. - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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I chose Mitch to be the breakout player las season before he even played one game…I guess I might have been one year early.
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@JayHawkFanToo Yeah he just wasn’t ready last year. He actually wasn’t bad defensively last year but on offense he was an unmitigated disaster (didn’t know what he was doing etc). He has brought the offense up to what I would consider acceptable this year which makes him totally fine to have out there.
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Mitch is improving on a pretty normal improvement curve. He was a talented, but somewhat raw freshman. He wasn’t quite ready, although he had a baseline amount of talent to belong on a D1 roster. He just wasn’t ready to play in a major conference - this is how all but about 60 or 70 freshmen in the country are.
Now as a sophomore he is ready to contribute. He’s not ready to start, but he can play minutes. He can impact the game in a variety of ways, but he can’t necessarily impact the game on a consistent basis.
Next year, he may be able to have a more consistent impact, and as a senior, he may be a critical cog.
There’s nothing unusual about that, except here at KU we are used to seeing freshmen come in and play right away, or leave if they don’t.
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“To me, Mitch is cool because he lets everybody know how excited he is to be out there,” Self said. “He can screw up, but he screws up going 100 mph. I know his teammates and the staff appreciate it, but I also think fans appreciate it, too.”
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I’ve always liked Mitch. - -the kid just flat ass gets after it. - Is he always right? – No - -is he out of position get beat at times - -Yes. - -BUT the kid just flat out gets after it - -again I had no idea how well he can block shots - -will only get better - - - we need these kind of kids - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAYLONG BABY
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Love Mitch.
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@BShark Thats bunch of crap IMO, how any KU fan could go on social media and say they hate a player SMH. I get on Mitch plenty but I don’t hate nor have ever hated any KU player past or present, wish some of them made better decisions.
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@kjayhawks I loved Mitch’s response. Also that he found this means he was searching for his name because the tweet didn’t actually @ him. Mitch is the best.
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@BShark Someone probably told him.
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Mitch is great because he is just having so much fun. He knows this is probably it for him. So he’s soaking it up and loving being a Jayhawk. I don’t know how any Hawks fan couldn’t appreciate that.
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@JayHawkFanToo nice shout out to our man Mitch! But if I had to put money on a KU sleeper, I might be tempted to take DeShoota too. Co-sleepers that tag team with big plays maybe?
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@BShark The guy that wrote that was a tool.
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Mitch and DeSousa - 14 points/ 14 rebounds.
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After watching the S&M show…Silvio and Mitch for those of you with dirty minds, I am sure that Doke can take the first weekend off and KU will be fine.
Team seems to be peaking at the right time. Convincing win yesterday against a team that beat KU comfortably twice before and without the starting Center.
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Meeotch committed two stupid fouls AND fouled out, so…He’s soft and at times a little dorky on the court at times. But overall, he did some great work. S&M will have to play much smarter in the next game and the final game. They cannot afford to foul out.
Meeotch should know better too. I can give Silvio some passes, but not Heavyfoot.
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You can’t be soft and take as many charges as Mitch has taken; probably leads the team in that category.
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JayHawkFanToo said:
You can’t be soft and take as many charges as Mitch has taken; probably leads the team in that category.
As I said, overall he played a fair game. Yes, he takes some charges, but those charges are 50/50. They’ve also hurt him. Watch the game again, compare his ball protection to Silvio. He’s careless and weak. OSU double teamed him and he damn near lost the ball. Samuels tipped a shot in that Mitch should’ve snagged. He literally went over Mitch and used Mitch’s hand to tip the ball in the net. Watch the game again, and watch Mitch objectively. Self pushes him hard too. I thought Self was going to blow a gasket at Mitch and Svi.
I’m trying to pay him a compliment. I think he can play even better. Lastly, I do love his stroke and he looks so good when he sinks treys.
