Best posts made by tundrahok

Gradey is averaging 21 points a game this season so far, after 8.5 last year. He’s really stepped it up in year 2.

@Fightsongwriter Make that 200!

http://kuhoops.com/ku-basketball-news/133596889/

“I knew that was back-to-back games where I didn’t make clutch free throws,” said Lucas. “In the tournament, we might lose a game because of that. I figured I had to stay in the gym until I hit a couple hundred. It was more than 200. It was a lot. I was in there until I felt confident moving forward.”

That’s senior leadership.

@Jethro Thank you! I had not been able to find the complete game online (but haven’t looked in a while). I’ve watched all the clips and highlights I could find and the last 3 minutes in full, but not the whole game.

The night of the championship game I was on a train to the Arctic, with no internet or cell service. Hit a pocket of service around midnight and found out I had missed the biggest comeback in the history of the NCAA championship. Woke up half the train.

I scheduled this trip back when we weren’t playing well, and thought the chances of us playing that night were remote. I was punished for my lack of faith. Still pretty happy with the outcome.

@wissox Wildlife research on the tundra and the edge of the boreal forest. I traveled up with 4 grad students who are not basketball fans (they have nothing against it, just don’t follow). They gave me grief when I originally said I didn’t want to travel on that day, just in case. For future trips I’m going to have to remember who is in charge, and sets our priorities!

Bill Self just tied Phog Allen for most wins. Wow.

All schools are still open in Winnipeg, where I live, despite being -40. People are prepared.

I’m in Tucson right now, though. Pretty happy about that.

@wissoxfan83 I disagree. I think @drgnslayr is the most interesting man in the world.

At KU, his majors were sailing, cigar appreciation, and the tango.

His two cents are worth thirty-seven dollars and change.

You can see his charisma from space.

He’s a lover, not a fighter; but he’s a fighter too, so don’t get any ideas.

34 minutes is a lot for Dok. Tests his stamina, good reason to sit the other bigs that could have played.

2 fouls is not very many for Dok. Encouraging.

11 rebounds is a lot for Dok. Even more encouraging.

jayhawkcsg said:

I love Bill Self, but I would not be disappointed if he and his staff got the boot.

I would be extremely disappointed. Regardless of the circumstances.

26 points in 27 minutes for Ochai. Pretty good rate.

I just realized we scored 55 points second half. Not something we can ever count on, but nice to see we can put up points sometimes.

@mayjay And an AARP membership.

@BeddieKU23 said in OU Game:

Watch Saturday with Iowa St in town and celebrating 125 years with coaches be a completely different team.

In 125 years, KU has had only 8 head coaches. Truly phenomenal.

All 5 starters earned conference recognition. Pretty cool.

@jayballer67 I believe the over/under on KU wins this year was 2.5. Looks like we have a winner - already!

I suspect that was the plan from the beginning. He would be here for one year. Both sides agreed, and made plans accordingly.

Certainly a different way of thinking about commitment. A one-year scholarship offer? But if that’s the understanding on both sides from the beginning, then they are just following through with the plan. Doesn’t mean he was kicked off the team. His one-year offer expired.

KUsports is still the best source of information on Ku sports. The articles are generally quite good, the staff is dedicated and insightful. I’ll keep reading, and I may even post there occasionally. But it’s not what it was.

KUsports in 2013 is Roy Williams in 2003. We had a beautiful thing, and a decision was made that ended it. I appreciate everything Roy did for the university and KU basketball. I understand why he made his decision, and even though I was hurt and disappointed, I wish him the best.

But it sure was nice to beat him in the tournament. Twice. And it was kind of nice to see that the number of posts here during the game Tuesday quadrupled the number at KUsports.

Here’s hoping that this site will be Bill Self, making us all feel better about Roy’s decision. Indications are good so far.

Tuition & fees at KU for out-of-state students is $28,239.

Maybe they should get more, but student-athletes on full scholarship aren’t getting nothing.

@HighEliteMajor I agree it’s the attempts, but it’s really the expected value per attempt, and the variance in that expected value, that matter.

The expected value of a shot attempt is the probability a shot goes in times the number of points it produces. In general, a 2-point shot has a higher probability of going in, but nets fewer points. In the regular season we made 190/496 3-point attempts (38.3%) for an expected value of 1.15 points per shot. We made 568/1224 2-point attempts (46.4%) for an expected value of 0.93 points per shot. Clearly, on average, a 3-point attempt is more likely to produce more points.

However, those expected values also vary game to game. We played 31 games and in 20 of those games each 3 point attempt netted more points than each 2-point attempt (points per shot). But in the other 11 games, when the long shots weren’t falling, each 2-point shot earned more than each 3 point attempt.

It’s an issue of variance, which is often overlooked when percentages are bandied about in sports contexts. Game by game, there’s more variability in our 3-point percentage than our 2-point percentage. That greater variability suggests the 3 is less consistent/predictable/reliable than the 2. The variance is higher for the 3. Specifically, the coefficient of variation (st dev/mean) over 31 games this season is 39% for our 3-point percentage and 22% for our 2-point percentage. The variance in shot percentage was nearly twice as high for the 3 than the 2 (0.020 vs 0.011), and the variance in expected points per shot was over 4 times as high (0.183 vs 0.042).

I think that’s what Coach Self means by fool’s gold. You can’t rely on the 3 as predictably. It’s more risky. On average it can lead to higher success. But it can kill you in a single game if you count on shooting your average and it just happens to be a night where you’re shooting the low end of the range of percentages. In a single-elimination tournament a good team may be better off with a less risky strategy, one with lower variance.

@KUinLA BBQ is always awesome.

@JRyman We are definitely spoiled.

I like being spoiled.

@JayHawkFanToo He doesn’t. He was making fun of himself, and that evaluation he made last year, during the first half tonight.

@HighEliteMajor It makes everybody feel better, players and fans alike. Confidence and chemistry have been issues with this team, and a win in Ames should help. You’re right, nothing of substance has changed. We still lack depth, which is our main problem of substance. But getting everybody’s heads in the right place could very well help with the intangibles.

I want to win our next game. Always. Do that, and the streaks and championships take care of themselves. There’s no trading. Just win.

I want both. Honestly, I think the question is a bit silly. If you’re the best team in your conference, you probably have a better shot at the national championship than if you aren’t.

Would we play differently if our goal was ONLY to win the national championship and didn’t care about the conference championship? I don’t think so.

If we didn’t try to be great every single year, might we be even better in one given year? I don’t see how.

I like the decision to award co-coach of the year to Chris Beard and Bill Self. Beard has done an amazing job with Texas Tech, bringing them from obscurity to national prominence, and deserves to be recognized. But Self just won the conference for the 14th time in a row, with one of his weaker teams. The tie is a nice compromise.

I think we should call Syracuse the Oranges. Just to piss them off.

Keep in mind, Duke could probably win if they were in WVU’s situation.

Shut up, Fran.

HighEliteMajor said:

But we need options that score the basketball. Of course, maybe we don’t have a lot (but I won’t let that get in the way of a good rant).

That made me laugh out loud. I don’t think Self is that hard to understand. He values defense. Effort, toughness, keeping the other team from scoring. As you said, Garrett grabbed 15 rebounds last night! That’s huge! Especially from Self’s perspective. Garrett does the things that Self values: defense, toughness, grabbing boards. That’s why he plays so much. Self cares more about defense than offense.

I’ve said before, facetiously, that offense is fools gold. I do think that’s Self’s perspective, to a certain degree. Of course you need to score some points to win. But if he had to make a choice between his player making a bucket vs an opposing player NOT making a bucket, he’d choose the latter. Almost every time.

Self is trying to teach a philosophy, a perspective, to his team that he thinks has the greatest long-term chance of success. Defense is more predictable, less reliant on chance, than offense. That’s why he was so strangely happy after last night’s loss. He saw his team buying into his philosophy, and playing the way he values. We missed shots because shit happens, and there’s nothing we can do about that. That’s just probability. But the things his team could so something about, on that night, they did. That made Self happy (whether you can change somebody’s shooting form to increase their shot percentage midseason is another discussion). His very young team finally seems to be getting it.

Playing 2 bigs was not the best defense last night. Self will adjust his defense to best match the opponent’s offense, even if it hurts his own offense. Because to him, defense is more important than offense.

I realize I’m not saying anything new, and most of us understand Self’s preferences inherently. I just get surprised by all the surprise expressed at some of Self’s decisions. I don’t think it’s that surprising when you understand his philosophy. Usually, it works.

Personal issues can certainly influence on-court performance. People have wondered why his play this year was so much poorer than the numbers he put up at Cal. I think we finally have a plausible reason. Both parents being ill and hospitalized would be a serious distraction.

When my kids were little the refs let players run all over the court without dribbling. Or some kid would dribble a while, then pick up the ball when somebody guarded them close, then dribble around the kid guarding them, then pick up the ball when somebody else guarded them, then dribble around that kid, all the time getting closer to the basket. Finally when they were right under the basket (which was only about 6 feet high) they would shoot. No incentive to pass, encouraged ball hogs. The kids who actually passed and tried to play by the rules never got the ball back. Used to drive me crazy.

Yes, they were really little. But they sure weren’t teaching them the right way to play.

I read that article too, and was thinking what a good job our coaches do at teaching players how to communicate with the media (what not to say). Q never whined or complained in public, nothing that could get printed. Self was always positive about him. Why he decided to transfer after the NBA didn’t work out is a mystery to me.

If they don’t, the coaches should also coach players NOT to read sites like this one. We’re probably less nasty than most sites, but I agree that nothing good can come of players reading our inexpert evaluations.

@wissox And who scored 17 points for Evansville in that game? Sam Cunliffe, former Kansas basketball player.

Nice to see Kansas helping an Indiana school to glory.

Billy Tubbs had his team cut down the nets at Allen Fieldhouse when they clinched the Big 8 championship in 1984. They were up by 12 and called a time out near the end of the game, just to rub it in.

“They’re a great team,” first-year KU coach Larry Brown said. “I wish they acted like a great team. I’ve never seen a team cut down the nets on a visiting court.”

Talk about a dick move.

I’ll take it.

Man, I’m exhausted just watching.

He has 31. Hit him in the face again.

I like seeing Mike Boynton as commentator in the Big 12 tourney. Brings attention to Ok St in the post season, after they got screwed by the NCAA. Good for ESPN (I don’t say that often).

Last year, KJ played when Bill needed a big who could guard on the perimeter. That was his role. Nothing to do with offense, and there were better options for interior defense. But the way the game has evolved, with more bigs playing on the perimeter, that need will still be there. Unless the new guys can do that better, I think he will still have a role, regardless of how the rest of his game develops. I doubt he will start, but he should get some minutes because he’s an athletic, mobile big. But that is a bit of a specialty role. He’s a bit undersized to be the starting 5, and has a lot of work to do on offensive skills to be a regular contributor at the 3 or 4.

Free throws could be a concern if the game is close, given we’ve only hit 52% so far.

@KirkIsMyHinrich said in Dook Game Thread:

Beat Duke in football and basketball.

Suck it, Duke

I hope we play them in baseball.

Besides the 3, Zach has been doing well. Guarding, disrupting, a block and a steal. Fantastic to see.

Udeh & Zach have 5 pts, 4 boards, 3 blocks and 2 steals in 12 combined minutes. Also 3 fouls, but they get 10 and are backups. Fantastic from our bench bigs.

@FarmerJayhawk Gueldner is awesome. Great analysis. Love Landen too, though.

Harris and Bidunka were working that one together. Very cool.

@jayballer67 said in Okie St. Pokie Game:

Is Coach L - - Coach of the year ?

https://bryantawards.org/fan-vote/

Vote for Lance, once a day.

mayjay said:

How many 4-time All Americans have there been in history, not just KU but all schools?

However many there are, there won’t be any more.

@HighEliteMajor You are correct, if you use that narrow criterion, number of NCAA tournament championships in the last 20 years, KU is not a top 5 program. We are 6th, tied with 7 other teams.

no. titles:

Connecticut 3

Kentucky 3

Duke 2

Florida 2

North Carolina 2

Arizona 1

Arkansas 1

Kansas 1

Louisville 1

Maryland 1

Michigan State 1

Syracuse 1

UCLA 1

However, I reject the premise that the 2 choices you offer are the only alternatives. I think reality is somewhere in between.

I was going to take a combination of the red & blue pills, which would be purple. But I hate purple.

@stoptheflop Leipold said he’s done that in a game 3 times (QB kick). Not sure if either of the other 2 were at KU. He said two of them have worked out really, really well. They practice that every Thursday since he’s been a head coach.