Is TCU Mitch Lightfoot's Break Out Game?
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That version of Mitch was fun!
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Mitch is one of the few players who are truly playing for Kansas University because of his pride for the program. He had a lot of natural passion and energy as a result. I wouldn’t expect this kind of statistical performance again, especially once Preston returns.
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And we should have Mitch all his eligible years too. He’s the kind of guy who will grow on all of us, get better, get bigger under hudy, and get smarter. I’m guessing there will be ups and downs, but he’s the type of ku makes following this team so rewarding.
In my book, Garrett too. He already is the best blocker-outer on the team, (ok, not a word ) and great defensively, and clearly is working hard to implement Team strategy. I totally get why he’s getting minutes. Offensive decision-making will of course improve- he’s a freshman.
And let me be at least the 70th person to remark that we REALLY need Preston or de Sousa soon … I don’t see how we win the B12 without more big able bodies.
And can’t someone help Udoka with his free throw mechanics? He really really needs to carve out more time to work on that.
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@Bosthawk At one point Garrett was the only Hawk boxing out and he was at the three point stripe. Guess who got fouled while picking up the rebound…yeah that’s right Garrett.
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@KUSTEVE His timing seemed to be so much better. He recalibrated to the speed of B12 play and he was no longer 1/2 sTep off…thus, no TO and the erasers. I take back all I have said and I would like Arthur Bryant’s Rich and spicey on my crow.
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@dylans Also where the hell is NBA bound Vick? LOL! And where the hell is Overseas bound Newman? LOL! I am sure DG, Svi, Dok, MG, and Mitch would greatly appreciate a little help from them. SCHEEESH!!!
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@approxinfinity Rags to mitches… PHOF!
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@Big-Clyde52 Yea, I found myself yelling at the tv every time Newman was on the court.
And Sam got 2 more minutes of playing time (11). I focused on his play nearly all of them. A bit disappointed too, I was hoping he’d really make the most of them. But his man blew by him a couple times, he seemed a bit slow and inactive at times, and beyond a few positives, was a definite non-factor. Still, at this point, I still like him out there over Newman.
But great win in a game I did not feel very good at all about going in. DG looked very Masonlike out there, which is awesome. I’ll be the 80th person to say it - if we could just get the reinforcements, we’d be in good shape.
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@StLJhawk Good observations on Sam. He’s just a bit stiff laterally is all I think. Not BG stiff, though. Newman did appear to be working hard early on the defensive end. His box score is puzzling. 15 minutes, 4 fouls, a turnover and nothing much else. We need Newman to get going, but I do wonder if Sam will end up the better option.
DG is channeling some Frank, getting to the line. This is the new and improved DG. This is a team finding what works best (at the direction of the coach).
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approxinfinity said:
from rags to mitches! 99 problems but a mitch aint one! #mitchismo!
PPHOF
(posting pun hall of fame)
Go, @approxinfinity, go!!!
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@HighEliteMajor Do you get the impression they have locked DG in the film room over break with an endless loop of NPOY Frank videos where our hero is talking it to the cup?
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@Fightsongwriter
% think this is the case.
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Blown said:
Mitch is one of the few players who are truly playing for Kansas University because of his pride for the program. He had a lot of natural passion and energy as a result. I wouldn’t expect this kind of statistical performance again, especially once Preston returns.
Speaking of Preston - - -AGAIN lol - but seriously was roaming around and ran across a post - - are you ready for this? - – Wait for it – Now we have SOME people not here so let me make that clear , but read this guy is now trying to bring Race into it - -thinking it is a racial thing - -are you FRICKING SERIOUS? - -OMG - -where would someone ever get something like that from. - -Made a comment saying if it was some white kid driving up to the school in a new car that there probably wouldn’t be any investigation. - -I had to ask him how long he laid awake in his bed at night thinking that this is what the hold up was - - RACIAL -come on now , are we really going there with this? - - -Please. - -how would you EVER get that impression. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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Fightsongwriter said:
@HighEliteMajor Do you get the impression they have locked DG in the film room over break with an endless loop of NPOY Frank videos where our hero is talking it to the cup?
Taking it to the cup? I believe that would be EJ’s video?
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@JayHawkFanToo haha I see what you did there. good one
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Does Self have the temerity and cojones to put Malik in the toughening box with a concussion AND a foot injury? At this crucial point of the season?
Maybe the appearances of “insufficient closeness” among Malik and Svi extended to Malik an other players? Maybe Self gave it a little time, while he fought other fires, and then finally decided the problem was not resolving itself, and said, “WTF, what else can go wrong? Why not just put Malik in the toughening box like I would do any other year, and drive his teammates to him and him to his teammates by February 1? A month in the toughening box will turn the team into a band of brothers, same as always. I’ll just play Garrett more. And maybe we’ll luck out and get Preston and/or De Sousa and I can start running Svi at the 3, too. So what if it gets a little dicey the next few weeks. We’re going to lose 5 one way or another. Maybe get them out of the way now.”
Could Self possibly be thinking that way?
It makes my head spin even speculating about the possibility but Self is a hard man. I wouldn’t put it past him. I sure hope he tells Newman’s parents, if this is what Self were doing.
Malik Newman is playing like a player in the toughening box–much more like that than like a guy with a bum foot, or a concussion, both of which we reputedly know afflicts him.
God help us all!
Malik hypothetically in the toughening box in early January with Doke down with a bad back and no Preston, no De Sousa, and Vick doing the Jamari Traylor and Mario Little leg drag masked with Vicky’s Secret lingerie!
OMG, OMG, Help me, help me, help me, I think I am going insane!
Not the toughening box with a concussion!!!
Hell, HEM and I will volunteer to go to Lawrence, walk on and go in the box for Malik.
NOoooooooooooooooooo!!!
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I don’t believe its the racial.
I believe Billy P has gotten caught up in a power struggle between D-CIA Pompeo and interdimensional beings that the CIA has been in contact with, since Trump released his Uncle’s copy of Nicola Tesla’s never published paper on the pathway to communicate with interdimensional aliens using long wave radiation from a hill top in New Jersey once owned by a dummy corporation tracking to John D. Rockefeller.
I could be wrong, though.
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Newman had some plays defensively where he flat out gave up. Whether it was due to his foul trouble its becoming a problem. I replayed the game to check out some things, it would be interesting to see how Self interprets Newman’s effort because to the eye it certainly appears he’s in more then just a slump.
2nd “soft” game from Vick this week. Also battled foul trouble but it seemed Self was sending him a message as well sitting on the bench for long stretches. I wonder what’s going on with him, he’s too good to be loafing around for this team. I hope he puts this past week behind him playing at home.
Mitch’s 2nd half was by the far the best half of basketball he’s ever played. He became confident in himself when he was making plays, you saw the smiles after he blocked some shots. Even the announcers seemed stunned when he made a corner jumper with the shot-clock running down. We’ve been waiting for a game like this from Mitch all season long. Whether he’s capable of giving this team similar type games in the future is something to watch. For one game though, he was the man
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@BeddieKU23 It was funny listening to the announcers go crazy when Mitch hit that little jumper from the baseline. He has proven to have a nice touch…I felt good about that shot when he took it…but they went crazy…same deal on the 3.
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It was funny, almost as if they thought it was really improbable he could make it. Mitch was en fuego in the 2nd half
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Was Wayne Larrivee one of the announcers?
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Vick appears definitely to be playing injured; that’s what’s triggered the sudden weak performances IMHO.
Watch his legs. Appears to be ligamentis, or tendinitis, at the top of the thigh bones, based on the way he’s dragging one, if not both, legs, and sporting the increasingly broad coverage lingerie. Can barely slide one direction. This condition fools lots of fans, because he seems to be able to jump on the run off the uninjured leg. He can even jump a little still on a J if he can get both feet under him and go up favoring the uninjured leg. But the give away is watch him on the quick one step jumps, and on the drop step and sliding one direction. I forget which now. He’s badly limited right now. Opposing teams will see it studying game film and they will really begin to exploit him next game. TCU did some already. Self finally HAD to cut his minutes.
My big worry is that Cunliffe appeared to pull something similar in one leg in the game before TCU. Cunliffe is pretty fresh (i.e., he hasn’t been on The Canal from the beginning, like Vick has been) and so restored quite a bit and only showed the least little hint of limitation in the TCU game. But this sudden increase in minutes makes Cunliffe a candidate for a more serious pull and rapid performance deterioration. Please basketball gods, spare the young man, who has waited so long to play the greatest game ever invented.
Board rats often do not appreciate how much adrenaline pumps in these guys early on, when they are getting their chance to prove they can play. Practicing just does not release the adrenaline. These guys are super athletic, or they wouldn’t be there. When they get on to the floor the first couple of times playing for a coach that recruited them precisely because they are explosive types, its like putting a super high octane race horse in the starting gate the first time after some practice. The adrenal pump kicks in and, like the race horse, they take sudden super man strides to show the coach just how good they can be!! Watch me run! Whew. Sudden tremendous loads on those ligaments and tendons occur with feet reaching an extra 12-18 inches farther sideways to cut off a real enemy jacked up himself to game speeds. This is especially stressful, when Hudy has been ramping up their muscle strength and mass for months as a practice player waiting for a shot. A guy like Cunliffe goes out there and tries to play under control as his coach is telling him to for a few minutes, but then someone challenges him, or the game gets down to the wire and a starters fouling out brings him in, and everyone is taking it to another level to try to win, and a guy like Cunliffe suddenly realizes all this weight work, combined with an adrenal rush, has given him another gear, same as a stallion race horse feels, a gear even he did not realize had. He feels he can jump tall building in a single bound and he almost can! And then the guy he’s guarding and is sliding beautifully to cut off suddenly changes speeds and directions faster than Cunliffe has seen and he snorts like a race horse, plants and reaches out in a 45 degree drop step like he has never reached out before and…sttrrrrrrrrrretch…the ligament is suddenly beyond its prior limit and Cunliffe the race horse is thinking one thing: I can cut this guy off!!! Just watch me!!! It was just a tweak!!! Nothing. I’ve got this guy cut off and turned to paint and help. This play alone is going to prove to Self that I can play for him. And then the whistle stops play and the adrenaline reduces and he feels how hard it is to lift his leg up to tie his shoe, or to lick his fingers and slap his soles like he likes to do, or whatever, and then the realization sets in…shizzle, its pulled. Hope its a tendon, cuz ligaments take forever to recover their elastisticity. Damn, I showed him I can lock down, and funnel to paint, but now I’m like a one legged freak. I’m not telling anyone. Not yet. Besides all they can do is e-stim it and if that doesn’t work shoot it. And you shoot a ligament, and I’ve heard all the older players say it, you shoot a ligament and you can already count the number of times on one five finger hand you can shoot it again before the ligament will never have pop again. Nope, I’ll walk over like its just a little muscle pull, and say I’m okay and go get some therapy and some e-stim. It’ll probably be just fine in two days.
Denial, not just a river in Egypt, as the cliche goes.
This IMHO is the real reason Self brings guys on so slowly, when at all possible.
Ligament and tendon injuries make walking wounded that will not likely heal this season of even the guys with the highest pain thresholds. Ligaments, particularly, are not about pain threshold. Injured, they just plain make your leg so it won’t slide. I’d much rather play with an FX booted than a stretched ligament and I’ve played with both. I just couldn’t play worth crap with the stretched ligament. And people doubt you. There’s no bruise. No swelling. Nothing visual. Except you try to slide and you can’t slide. You try to lift it and it won’t lift. The bone break? You just put it out of your mind, maybe take some pain killer, but a placebo works about as well and won’t slow your reactions. You grit your teeth and hope it doesn’t go compound on you. You man up. Everyone oohs and aaahs at your fortitude. You can actually move pretty well, if you just go into the zone and self hypnotize to forget about the pain. Some can and some can’t. But if you can, then everyone loves you and you get by. But ligamentis? Fuggedabout the heroics. The leg just doesn’t work. It won’t do what you tell it to do. You could be tortured and it still wouldn’t work. And the more you try the more worthless it gets.
Rest is the only fix.
Rest?
Not rest!
Rest is the most feared word in sports among non superstar athletes trying to make it, or trying to hang on to what they’ve got. Rest? Rest means not playing. Rest means everything else atrophying, while the competition keeps getting better. Rest means the coach looking at you and saying, he’s not that good even well, why not just set him and run him off later. Rest? Rest gives true athletes night sweats, once they have experienced how far they fall behind once or twice. Rest is the devil himself in sport. Rest is evil. Rest kills. Things at rest tend to stay at rest. Things in motion, have inertia on their sides.
I don’t know HOW Vick is going to heal. I hope Cunliffe doesn’t have to heal. I hope I am wrong about both of them.
E-stim is the only thing that ever worked for me with tendon and ligament problems and they didn’t have it when I played sports in high school. I got my first E-stim treatment from snow skiing injury as an adult thinking I was younger than I was. I got my second E-stim after going down on my beloved, life-threatening motorcycle.
In both cases, E-stim and anti-inflams and massage, immediately created the illusion of wellness, and some function. With E-stim, I could quickly walk comfortably. No tell-tale leg dragging in street shoes. It was spooky. Like faith healing. A laying on of electrodes. HEAL!!! You can walk again, brother! At least for a little while.
But I quickly learned that the illusion was limited. Go ski again like a damned fool? Lose a little control at speed on a mogul run? Streeeeeeeeeeeetch!
These guys we have the privilege of watching do the amazing things on the sacred wood they do? They are demigod bodies,minds and cardiovascular systems connected with mortal ligaments and tendons.
Defensive coaches burn up ligaments and tendons like Nero went through buildings, while fiddling.
There is no free lunch in this world.
Certainly not in the case of good team defense.
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Correlation …Vick’s rebounding
5, 7, 9, 5, 4, 3, 2, 3
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Neither Vick or Cunliffe is injured.
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Something has certainly been off with Vick. I’ve also thought he looked injured. Or tired… or perhaps it’s just a mental thing. Either way an obvious slump for him right now. Hopefully it isn’t an injury. We sure need his game.
