Beyond the dominant defense (2012) v. strong offense (2017) difference, there exists a disparity of clutch scorers between the two KU teams. In 2012, we have two great guards in TT and EJ, but they are not as clutch as DG and FM. (EJ was 'Big Shot EJ against Purdu(2012), but mysteriously elected to pass the ball to Nadir for the last shot against Michigan (2013) at the end of the regulation.) Both Frank Mason and Devonte Graham are comfortable taking the big shots. Plus, this year we also have JJ who also is a cool customer. In the sense of having clutch, this year’s team is more like the 2008 team which has Mario and Sherron for clutch.
Also, the defense has drastically improved. In both of the blowouts, we scored a lot of the points off run outs from defensive stops/steals. In the 2nd half, we have stopped both M. St. and Purdue from scoring. I think Purdue scored only 24 points in the 2nd half last night. That my friend, is a good (much improved) defense. Another sign of a much improvement in defense is that none of our last 3 opponent’s big man had a ‘career day’ against us. A real positive sign for our interior D.
RCJHGKU!