BTO’s Kansas Postgame Report

#52
#52
Loved Pons/Fulky's aggressiveness, if they can get 30/15 between the two of them on a nightly basis, Tennessee is a top ten team and legit Final Four threat. Josiah should be a 10/5/5 guy in His sleep, the three of them need to be consistently aggressive. I loved seeing the freshman in the starting lineup, they both have the ability to get into the paint and make plays for their teammates. Springer and Vescovi in the backcourt together make each other's lives so much easier. I thought Olivier and Bailey were solid as well.
 
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#53
#53
cncchris33 said:
Good write-up. I've steered clear of posting recently, especially following losses.

Some things I noticed...
1. Maybe the best rebounding effort, especially on the defensive end, of the season. That is doubly true when you consider the opponent. 38-23 edge and we only gave up 5 ORebs.

2. Fulky, Pons, and JJJ stepped up big. They were challenged publicly and privately, and at least in this game, they all three showed up.

3. Speaking of showing up, this team once again displayed the tendency for them to play off of each other's success of failure. We tend to either play really well, collectively, or struggle as an entire team. In our three losses, they have all struggled mightily. In our best wins, they have seemingly all played well, individually, across the board.

4. Still felt like we were sloppy, at times. We had more TOs than our opponent for only the second or third time all year. Our defense was really good, but Kansas also just missed a lot of open shots, making this less of a game than it probably should have been.
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I didn't see that we only gave up 5 offensive rebounds. That's pretty impressive because I think I remember Kansas getting 3 of them on one possession early on when they missed a 2 and 3 3s on the same possession.
 
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#54
#54
cardvolfan said:
We were never as bad as the Florida game and not as good as the Kansas game. We skew more toward the Kansas game when we are hitting on all cylinders. I still think Tennessee is a Top Ten team. Many folks on this board just don't understand that every team has several off nights shooting-wise in the course of a season.
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I agree. If you have watched teams like Iowa, Wisconsin, and even Michigan from the Big Ten. They will go out and beat a ranked team by 30 and then turn around and lose the next game to someone like Penn State by 12. It’s very very rare to do what Baylor and Gonzaga are doing this year and even our Grant and Admiral team did that year. It’s how you bounce back and learn from the off nights that will give you the tools to make it fire on all cylinders come March. So many people get caught up in Bracketology but it’s nonsense to a degree if you are in the top 20. How many times have we seen a 3 or 4 seed end up with easier matchups than a 2 or a 1 when it comes to sweet 16 and elite eights. Just get into the tourney as 4 seed and let it ride! We will be ok and have just as good a chance as most this year.
 
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#55
#55
I agree, its all about peaking at the right time!
Anybody thats played bball knows theres a point where you start shooting and it feels like everything will go in. Keep trying to rotate and get healthy, keep getting up tons of shots in practice.
If we play defense like we know and rotate and move like we know, it comes simply down to shooting and playing unselfish! The team “can” go far in the tourney! Or lose early. Keep practicing shooting in game type pressure at this point in season!
 
#56
#56
GRRN7MAXIMS said:
I agree. If you have watched teams like Iowa, Wisconsin, and even Michigan from the Big Ten. They will go out and beat a ranked team by 30 and then turn around and lose the next game to someone like Penn State by 12. It’s very very rare to do what Baylor and Gonzaga are doing this year and even our Grant and Admiral team did that year. It’s how you bounce back and learn from the off nights that will give you the tools to make it fire on all cylinders come March. So many people get caught up in Bracketology but it’s nonsense to a degree if you are in the top 20. How many times have we seen a 3 or 4 seed end up with easier matchups than a 2 or a 1 when it comes to sweet 16 and elite eights. Just get into the tourney as 4 seed and let it ride! We will be ok and have just as good a chance as most this year.
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I agree with everything you said. The bracketology that begins even before the season starts is just about the dollars. I never pay attention to it because the only day it matters is when they announce the pairings. As you said, play hard and let it ride.
 
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#57
#57
bleedingTNorange said:
**I didn’t get to watch full game until this morning so I held off on this thinking @cncchris33 might have done one, but since not I’ll go ahead...**



1. This is exactly why you don’t rush to judgment based off a 3 game stretch of games in which we were without arguably our best player in Jaden Springer. There’s no need to revamp the offense, or make philosophical changes, the team was getting good shots but was simply missing, missing too many free throws and turning it over too much. That would’ve been worrisome had it been a seasons trend, but it wasn’t, it swung back in a big way last night to a point that’s also not sustainable though. 53% fg, 62%3pt, 94%ft against a Top 20 defense is not going to be a seasons average, but it’s a positive sign and hopefully a confidence builder.

2. There is very little doubt in my opinion that Springer makes a huge difference to this team, and for multiple reasons. Offensively he breaks down the defense and has REALLY good vision when he gets into the lane (those 2 rim lobs come to mind) and also can finish in the paint, something Vescovi struggles at. On the flip side there’s things Vescovi does well Springer necessarily doesn’t, but having both keeps defenses on their toes and unable to scout to just the 1 as both can play PG and both can be on the court together. I think Springer is better with Vescovi out there and I definitely think Vescovi benefits from Springer being out there, his shooting numbers with/without Springer are pretty drastic I would guess.

3. Yves Pons has been on a recent tear and for the first time in awhile Fulky looked a little bit like Fulky from last year...we need to continue to push those guys to be aggressive and continue to play through them, they are both willing passers and they need to be involved.

4. I will be tracking the offense closely going forward, with Springer back out there I want to see how we perform. We climbed about 10 spots nationally in offensive efficiency after last nights game, but we got about another 40 spots to go to be where we need to be. Obviously it’s about how you’re playing heading into the dance so even if we don’t climb all the way into the Top 20-25 nationally if we are playing as a Top 20 offensive unit since Springer’s return that will be worth noting. Last nights offensive rating of 1.21 would rank 4th nationally, the number we want to see going forward is 1.13 or better.

5. Maybe it was the benching or maybe it was just a random outing, but JJJ played one of his better games, 11 rebounds is likely not sustainable for him but if he plays with that aggression and focus he can pull down 7+ a night which would be a big help for a team that struggles to rebound. I also though Bailey played one of his best games, he didn’t force shots, was actually super efficient with 11pts on 4 shots, and played really good defense out there, again maybe it was sitting on then bench like JJJ that sparked him.

6. Tennessee is probably going to lose again guys, just so you are aware, we sit at 12-3(5-3), we’ve got 9 games remaining assuming the SC game isn’t made up. The goal now is to continue to gel offensively with this group of guys and stay healthy, I think 7-2 or better down the stretch gets us a 4 seed or better in the NCAAT.

GBO!
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I think one of the big factors in this win is the fact that we gave the majority of minutes to our best players. Notably, Anosike did not play at all. The fact that we played eight guys is a huge contributing factor to the reason we won.
 
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#58
#58
VolArmy74 said:
I didn't see that we only gave up 5 offensive rebounds. That's pretty impressive because I think I remember Kansas getting 3 of them on one possession early on when they missed a 2 and 3 3s on the same possession.
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Yep. Jalen Wilson had 3, Mitch Lightfoot had 1, and they had 1 team rebound. We put worked them 31-5 on the boards at that end.

Incidentally, we had 7 ORebs of our own to KU’s 18 DRebs. And we had 8 fewer opportunities (missed shots). We also had 14 second chance points while KU had 0. In fact had it not been for our sloppy play, at times, the came could have really been a laugher. Nearly a third of KU’s point total came off of TOs (19 pts), 10 on fast breaks. Tennessee, meanwhile, only scored 4 points of TOs and had 0 fast break points.
 
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#60
#60
VolArmy74 said:
I didn't see that we only gave up 5 offensive rebounds. That's pretty impressive because I think I remember Kansas getting 3 of them on one possession early on when they missed a 2 and 3 3s on the same possession.
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From what I could tell Kansas didn't even try for offensive rebounds. What I mean by that is, time and time again I saw one Kansas player around the rim on offense and four guys staying back ready to back pedal and play defense. It's like Bill Self had a strategy to concede the offensive boards and not give up easy transition buckets.
 
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#61
#61
Sea Ray said:
From what I could tell Kansas didn't even try for offensive rebounds. What I mean by that is, time and time again I saw one Kansas player around the rim on offense and four guys staying back ready to back pedal and play defense. It's like Bill Self had a strategy to concede the offensive boards and not give up easy transition buckets.
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Which would be odd because we have been a terrible transition offense this season. I can probably count on one hand the number of breakaway dunks we have had. We just don't score, or even attempt to score in transition, for whatever reason. I assume it is a lack of elite speed and ball-handling. We also have several guys who can't finish at the rim consistently and continually make bad decisions on when to attack the rim versus pulling the ball out or kicking out to an open teammate.
 
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#62
#62
cncchris33 said:
Yep. Jalen Wilson had 3, Mitch Lightfoot had 1, and they had 1 team rebound. We put worked them 31-5 on the boards at that end.

Incidentally, we had 7 ORebs of our own to KU’s 18 DRebs. And we had 8 fewer opportunities (missed shots). We also had 14 second chance points while KU had 0. In fact had it not been for our sloppy play, at times, the came could have really been a laugher. Nearly a third of KU’s point total came off of TOs (19 pts), 10 on fast breaks. Tennessee, meanwhile, only scored 4 points of TOs and had 0 fast break points.
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Turnovers continue to be an issue, especially in relation to 5 games ago when they averaged 9.9 per game. I just can’t understand all the risky passes they make. Drives me nuts.
 
#63
#63
cd12 said:
If it wasn’t for turnovers the referee would have stopped the fight!
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We have a knack for making a good stop on defense or creating a turnover only to take it up the floor and give it back.

My old coach used to say, "Do you like playing defense?, Thats what we have to do everytime we give them the ball."
 
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#64
#64
cardvolfan said:
Turnovers continue to be an issue, especially in relation to 5 games ago when they averaged 9.9 per game. I just can’t understand all the risky passes they make. Drives me nuts.
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9.9 would rank Top 5 nationally so that might’ve been tough to sustain, but 11 or less a game would be a good target, Top 25 nationally.
 
#65
#65
bleedingTNorange said:
9.9 would rank Top 5 nationally so that might’ve been tough to sustain, but 11 or less a game would be a good target, Top 25 nationally.
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I’m like Barnes. Turnovers make me cringe. I would settle for 10, but anything above that starts making me nervous. You’re a knowledgeable basketball guy. Why do these guys make passes that are obviously risky? Just bothers me as to why they think they can make these high risk passes.
 
#66
#66
cardvolfan said:
I’m like Barnes. Turnovers make me cringe. I would settle for 10, but anything above that starts making me nervous. You’re a knowledgeable basketball guy. Why do these guys make passes that are obviously risky? Just bothers me as to why they think they can make these high risk passes.
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Trying to force getting the offense into motion is some of them, Barnes wants the ball to move and not stick but good defenders anticipate that too.
 
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#67
#67
I can live with the risky passes, but lazy passes are what drive me crazy and we make, at least, 3 a game that get stolen. That's when I lose it, because there is no excuse for it, UT usually does it, when we are about to put the final nail in the other team's coffin or when we are about to take the lead. Probably, just seems that way
 
#69
#69
I did not catch except the last 5 minutes of the game, if nobody has posted a report I’ll do one later this evening. Quick take though, terrible loss that there’s no excuse for at all, very disappointing after Saturday’s outing.
 
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#70
#70
In before Barnes makes $5 million, didn’t take his time outs at the proper times, didn’t adjust to the zone trap, has never won anything, will lose in the first round of the NCAAT, and failed at recruiting.
 
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#71
#71
bleedingTNorange said:
I did not catch except the last 5 minutes of the game, if nobody has posted a report I’ll do one later this evening. Quick take though, terrible loss that there’s no excuse for at all, very disappointing after Saturday’s outing.
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I’ll do one in about an hour or two.
 
#74
#74
Thunder Good-Oil said:
In before Barnes makes $5 million, didn’t take his time outs at the proper times, didn’t adjust to the zone trap, has never won anything, will lose in the first round of the NCAAT, and failed at recruiting.
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So I'm not a Barnes basher, and I don't agree with a lot of the criticism he receives...but do you not think some of the blame for last night's game falls on his shoulders?
 
#75
#75
Just had a chance to listen to Coach Barnes’ post game press conference and you can see he is visibly upset with this team. He spoke a lot about how they went over how to attack that zone and players kept doing what he told them not to do, dribbling and throwing into spots where they were told not to go. They were suppose to be pushing towards baseline and I have to believe with his coaching experience, he drilled this into them and they went against what he was saying. The players got what they deserve. You don’t listen to your coach and you end up getting beat by a team that’s nowhere near your talent level. Maybe this will finally be the thing where he can use to get through to them, that they can’t just walk out onto the court and expect to win without discipline. Right now we have a bunch of individuals playing basketball instead of coming together as a team. We’re too far into the season to be making middle school mistakes.
 
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