Kansas Crimson

Non con close to over.
KU finishes 12-1.
Houston WVU and KU TCU open B12 next Saturday.

15 wins takes the title?

maybe 14, it's a gauntlet

Yea.
I’d say 14 likely gets you a share.

AP:

KU - 2
houston - 3
ou - 11
byu - 12
bu - 18
tejas - 20

buffs, utes, ‘clones all received votes

we are so spoiled.

Super soft start to the conference schedule. A friend points out that this sets up nicely for an early February panic.

TDub wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 8:11 am we are so spoiled.

Not gonna lie, one of my favorite things over the last few years has been seeing non-KU Chiefs fans very much become the spoiled, entitled fans they've criticized for decades.

jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:41 am Super soft start to the conference schedule. A friend points out that this sets up nicely for an early February panic.

Yep. Just 1 of our first 8 conference games are against a ranked team and that's an Oklahoma team who I question just how good they really are. Then we end with 7 of our last 10 against ranked teams.

jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:43 am

TDub wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 8:11 am we are so spoiled.

Not gonna lie, one of my favorite things over the last few years has been seeing non-KU Chiefs fans very much become the spoiled, entitled fans they've criticized for decades.

Truth

jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:41 am Super soft start to the conference schedule. A friend points out that this sets up nicely for an early February panic.

Good point, tho with how prone we can be to play down to our competition, we may find ourselves in another January dogfight struggling to break 60 against some sub-500 conference bottom feeder

We are 12-1 with our lone loss to a very good Marquette team. We seem to be doing just fine.

4th best adjD by Kenpom. I don't care if we win in the 60s or 90s. The point of basketball is to end the game with more points that your opponent. We seem to do that very frequently.

Being stuck on a style of play that isn't going to exist for the type of personnel on the team this year is pointless. We don't have Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. We aren't going to run and gun and score 100pts every single night.

DeletedUser wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:43 am We are 12-1 with our lone loss to a very good Marquette team. We seem to be doing just fine.

No kidding. We've been held under 70 just 3 times all season; by UConn, Tennessee and Marquette and we still won 2 of those. The best team defenses in the Big 12 this year seem to be Houston, BYU, Iowa State and Oklahoma. Houston hasn't played a single decent team all year. Iowa State has only played 2 decent teams so far and both hung 70+ on them and beat them. Oklahoma's played 1 decent team all year and that team hung 80+ on them and beat them.

If KU's "playing down to our competition" is a bunch of wins that were closer than the betting spread then I am just fine with that.

twocoach wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:51 am If KU's "playing down to our competition" is a bunch of wins that were closer than the betting spread then I am just fine with that.

He's just trying too hard to be negative and creating false "eye test" narratives that aren't supported by stats. So, basically par for the Ousdahl course around here.

DeletedUser wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:54 am

twocoach wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:51 am If KU's "playing down to our competition" is a bunch of wins that were closer than the betting spread then I am just fine with that.

He's just trying too hard to be negative and creating false "eye test" narratives that aren't supported by stats. So, basically par for the Ousdahl course around here.

I guess you can call their performance in some of those games as "playing down to their opponent" if you don't put much thought into it. I just see it more as "not playing well for periods of the game and having too many unforced errors even though the opponent is inferior". I didn't feel like it was because the opponent was inferior. They just make too many unforced errors. They've been guilty of the same thing against good teams, too. They could have blown the doors off UConn and UK if they didn't shoot themselves in the foot with a bunch of unforced errors at both ends.

twocoach wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 12:05 pm

DeletedUser wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:54 am

twocoach wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:51 am If KU's "playing down to our competition" is a bunch of wins that were closer than the betting spread then I am just fine with that.

He's just trying too hard to be negative and creating false "eye test" narratives that aren't supported by stats. So, basically par for the Ousdahl course around here.

I guess you can call their performance in some of those games as "playing down to their opponent" if you don't put much thought into it. I just see it more as "not playing well for periods of the game and having too many unforced errors even though the opponent is inferior". I didn't feel like it was because the opponent was inferior. They just make too many unforced errors. They've been guilty of the same thing against good teams, too. They could have blown the doors off UConn and UK if they didn't shoot themselves in the foot with a bunch of unforced errors at both ends.

We also aren't a team of good shooters. Some games shots don't go in. Thankfully our team is built to win close grind it out games. That's a positive, not a negative imo.

DeletedUser wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 12:15 pm

twocoach wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 12:05 pm

DeletedUser wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:54 am

He's just trying too hard to be negative and creating false "eye test" narratives that aren't supported by stats. So, basically par for the Ousdahl course around here.

I guess you can call their performance in some of those games as "playing down to their opponent" if you don't put much thought into it. I just see it more as "not playing well for periods of the game and having too many unforced errors even though the opponent is inferior". I didn't feel like it was because the opponent was inferior. They just make too many unforced errors. They've been guilty of the same thing against good teams, too. They could have blown the doors off UConn and UK if they didn't shoot themselves in the foot with a bunch of unforced errors at both ends.

We also aren't a team of good shooters. Some games shots don't go in. Thankfully our team is built to win close grind it out games. That's a positive, not a negative imo.

Agreed. McCullar seems to have a good feel for when it's time to shot chucking it and start driving to the rim to draw fouls. And they also seem to have the ability to turn on a lockdown defense when needed. KJ has a good feel for when to ramp up the intensity level and drive his teammates to get after it more on defense.

KU opens -5.5 v OU.
Seems about right.
If it wasn’t AFH and on a neutral court I think we would only be favored by 1.

Another POV

Whereas the Pac-12 is likely the worst basketball conference in the country, the Big 12 is the strongest. From road trips to Houston to Lawrence to Ames, the Big 12 is a gauntlet. What should Arizona fans expect in year one next season season?

AZ Wildcats Podcast Arizona Wildcats basketball is about to face a new level of competition in the Big 12