KU at Texas Official Game thread

[ousdahl]

But let’s discuss a new point:

Could the issue be that the ball moves better and gets into the paint more when the guards handling it are not named Marcus?

And before you start, lemme say I dig Marcus too...

[pdub]

"The roster’s built for small ball"

But I don't know if it is.
We say it is.
And we want it to be.

Yet here we are shooting the 2nd most 3's we've ever shot under Self yet 8th out of 10 in our conference in making them ( 33% ).
Or here we are with Garrett missing 9 layups.

And no, DMac hasn't learned how to position himself for rebounds ( he hasn't found that timing to when you should help on defense or stay home to rebound ) - and his vertical leap doesn't seem strong enough. He definitely needs to work on rebounding, for sure. I think he's average to above average at protecting the rim - better than anyone we have on the team certainly.

[pdub]

Oh, I agree, I think Marcus should play but not be the primary ball handler.
Give me Bryce or Jalen.

Which is obviously an issue when your senior point needs to rely on shooting guards or small forwards ( or whatever we want to call them ) to handle.

[ousdahl]

Yeah, for a dude his size, he plays pretty below the rim.

I kinda wonder how Dave would look like 20 pounds lighter.

Cuz it’d be one thing if he was good at using his mass to play bully ball, but that’s not his thing either.

[ousdahl]

I think the rest of the season, and going forward, we need to be getting Bryce more touches.

Dude’s the quickest guy on the roster.

[holidaysmore]

This team is best when MG plays off the ball and his sole focus is defending. He can get buckets when he is the second or third option on ISO plays. When you ask him to be 'the man' like Dtae, Frank or even Dot was that just isn't his game. He sat a good amount in the first half and should have had fresh legs but you could see in the second half his explosiveness was gone.

Dave, might be the most vilified player that I can remember in some time. Some of that is on him because he gets sped up. When he gets sped up he makes mistakes. When he slows down and lets the game come to him he can be a very efficient player. The problem is the rest of this team is just as prone to spaz outs just like him. Och, can't defend and is nothing more than a spot up shooter. Braun, scrappy but is also a spot to moving shooter. Harris, true PG but brings you nothing on offense. Wilson, probably the best player on this team but he is prone to making bad decisions forcing his offense.

Self, is asking two players - Dave and MG to be players they simply aren't. Not, at least against really good to elite competition. The problem is there are no other options to turn to. This team is what it is. They don't have elite, next level talent on this roster and when they play against teams that do it shows. Until Self can start recruiting those players again and mixing those in with guys that are great role players - i.e. Dave and MG these are the types of seasons I will expect.

[pdub]

He's averaging 11 rebounds per 40 minutes this season compared to Jalen's 11.1.
Not good enough.

Dok 2020 - 15.1
Lucas 2017 - 13.0
Dedric 2019 - 12.6

[sdoyel]

How does a team (this late in the season) continue to make the same mental mistakes over and over again?

I’m talking about the ones Self points out in the presser.

-Running the wrong play(s)
-Committing bad fouls

Those kinds of things...

You kind of have to pin that on the coaches. Right?

[sdoyel]

I think the rest of the season, and going forward, we need to be getting Bryce more touches.

Dude’s the quickest guy on the roster.

Self played him like 5 minutes in the 2nd half and overtime. Very well could be one of the biggest reasons we lost...

[PhDhawk]

But let’s discuss a new point:

Could the issue be that the ball moves better and gets into the paint more when the guards handling it are not named Marcus?

And before you start, lemme say I dig Marcus too...

But how quickly we forget 2020.

We had an All-American "point guard" in Dotson, yet we ran our offense through Garrett in our half court sets a majority of the time. That's WHY Self made him the PG.

Something happened though, when he was the guy dribbling it 94 feet, instead of just being the guy who played PG in our half court sets. I think it's at least partially a mental thing.

It also goes to show you how important the 6-10 points Dotson created just by being really really fucking fast. This team WORKS for almost every bucket...one encouraging thing from last night was Thompson getting a couple break aways.

[twocoach]

I'd probably take Cheick Diallo as a junior ( I think the dude should have played more, certainly over Jamari, and would have been nasty with a couple more years in college ).
The others there's no rationale for except some weird recency bias.

This. Now people are just pissed and lashing out saying stupid stuff.

It's frustrating that we are a middling tourney team; good enough to make the tourney with a top half seed, not good enough to beat many of the teams seeded above us and inconsistent enough to lose any torueny game we play regardless of opponent.

Still, I am happy we arent fighting for our tourney lives right now like Duke, UK, Carolina etc... AKA the teams who haven't seen their recruiting crushed by the ncaa foot draggers. That case will end at some point and we'll get some alphas in town instead of a roster of nothing but supporting parts and we'll be back to being in the conversation for deep tourney runs.

[pdub]

holiday nails it - though I would say, I think this team, if they stick together, will be a top 10 team next season.

Jalen and Bryce will grow exponentially.
Ochai will be ready to take on a larger role.
DMac will work on positioning and letting the game come to him.
Braun will find his shot again.

[ousdahl]

Already said this somewhere but somebody call me out if I’m wrong:


Does the ball seem to move better with 5 out? Since there’s nobody even in the arc to get in the way?

Jalen seemed to drive better in that lineup too

[PhDhawk]

Yeah, for a dude his size, he plays pretty below the rim.

I kinda wonder how Dave would look like 20 pounds lighter.

Cuz it’d be one thing if he was good at using his mass to play bully ball, but that’s not his thing either.

I don't think it matters, he's not a fast-twitch guy.

Remember he's like 60 lbs less than he was in HS.

[PhDhawk]

holiday nails it - though I would say, I think this team, if they stick together, will be a top 10 team next season.

Jalen and Bryce will grow exponentially.
Ochai will be ready to take on a larger role.
DMac will work on positioning and letting the game come to him.
Braun will find his shot again.

Normally I'd agree...but this season other than NBA draft picks leaving, there's no reason to assume the teams ahead of us don't stay about the same roster wise. I don't know that we leapfrog 10-15 teams ahead of us.

[pdub]

It did move better for a good stretch last night.

But overall, it moves in a different way - not sure if it moves better.
DMac has been getting better at making cross court passes and drawing the double to get those guys open.
Just gotta hit those shots.

And you can still drive the ball with a big there - in fact, he can set a screen or wait to see if the help is too strong looking for the dish.

[pdub]

holiday nails it - though I would say, I think this team, if they stick together, will be a top 10 team next season.

Jalen and Bryce will grow exponentially.
Ochai will be ready to take on a larger role.
DMac will work on positioning and letting the game come to him.
Braun will find his shot again.

Normally I'd agree...but this season other than NBA draft picks leaving, there's no reason to assume the teams ahead of us don't stay about the same roster wise. I don't know that we leapfrog 10-15 teams ahead of us.

But I think a number of those top teams have guys who will leave for the pros - while we don't have any clear guys who will. And i'm also encouraged by how I think this team has gotten better over the season - and think it could carry over to next.

[holidaysmore]

Already said this somewhere but somebody call me out if I’m wrong:


Does the ball seem to move better with 5 out? Since there’s nobody even in the arc to get in the way?

Jalen seemed to drive better in that lineup too

The easy answer is yes. Of course. It doesn't require any of the guards to think 'boy, I need to throw the ball to D-Mac right now'. Och, is a prime example of that. Second half catches the ball in the corner and stares at D-Mac. I said it before the ball was even thrown that a TO was coming. Sure enough he stares, and stares then throws the ball and it gets picked from the back side. That is thinking not acting naturally.

Someone else on this board, I can't remember who said it best in the first half the team scored easily. They got out and ran. Forced turnovers. Dribble drive and kick to wide open shooters - i.e. Och. In the second half they looked like they were stuck in first gear or in mud.

[PhDhawk]

It did move better for a good stretch last night.

But overall, it moves in a different way - not sure if it moves better.
DMac has been getting better at making cross court passes and drawing the double to get those guys open.
Just gotta hit those shots.

And you can still drive the ball with a big there - in fact, he can set a screen or wait to see if the help is too strong looking for the dish.

I think 5 out creates more space for penetrating, but as you said, you loose the ability to do screen and roll.

Also, I think that it helps shooters to have a pass out from the block more than a lateral pass, you can step into it and be balanced when it comes from the block.

[ousdahl]

“Stuck in mud” is a good way to describe our offense for most of the year, with one of the exceptions being that lovely small ball stretch late 1st half.