D's Notebook

Tag: college sports (Page 12 of 41)

Weekend Hoops Notes

February 21, 2022 /

Jayhawk Talk

Ah, the trip to Morgantown, where so many good/great KU teams have gone and dropped total turds. It didn’t matter that this year’s WVU team is kind of bad and sitting in 10th place in the Big 12: this game should have frightened KU fans because of our past experiences there.

(You could tell this West Virginia team kind of sucks by the way Bob Huggins coached. That was as docile as I’ve ever seen him. He knows he has some good kids and they’re trying hard, but they just aren’t good enough. He understands there’s not need to berate them when he’s already getting all he can out of them.)

There were some scary moments Saturday night, but KU rallied and actually closed out a game strong for the first time in weeks to get a nice road win. Sadly, it was just matching Texas Tech and Baylor, who had both already won there. But it still felt big.

We’re at the point in the season where every team pretty much knows what they have. I think we know what we have in KU: a very talented team on offense that throws the ball away too much, can rebound the hell out of the ball against all but the most athletic opponents, and plays pretty middling defense.

Those turnovers and defense plus the team’s struggles to be poised late in halves say that this isn’t a Final Four team. They have too many weaknesses that will get exposed when March rolls around. It’s a really good team, but I don’t think they have greatness in them.

Which is fine.

They are still really fun to watch at times. Ochai Agbaji seems to have re-found his mojo. David McCormack is playing really well. Jalen Wilson’s transformation has been spectacular. Christian Braun always finds a way to affect the game.

It just doesn’t feel like they have the right mix to hang a banner of their own.

Thus the focus is on adding their own notch to the Big 12 banner. With five games remaining, going 3–2 guarantees at least a share of the title. Go 4–1 and neither Baylor nor Tech can catch them. It’s right there in front of them.

It’s not a done deal, and KU could certainly slip up and turn 3–2 into 2–3. But I’ve decided to enjoy the next five games and the Big 12 tournament, and then figure this team won’t play to their seed and end the season on a disappointing note. Maybe they’ll win a couple so their loss can come in the second weekend of the tournament while I’m on spring break and have distractions. I’m hoping the end will be easier to take since I’m already accepting it a month in advance.

NCAA Tournament Preview

I think it’s kind of weird that the NCAA started releasing these bracket previews a few years back. Partially because there are seemingly hundreds of bracket previews out there, why do we need another, even if it is the officially-sanctioned one? I guess it dominated college hoops news for an entire day, so it serves a purpose.

I don’t know that there’s a good time to release it that doesn’t render it temporary, but a Saturday morning seems like an especially fluid time. Nearly every ranked team plays most Saturdays. Within an hour-or-so of the preview’s release Auburn and Kentucky were both trailing. Kentucky came back to win, but Auburn came up short in their comeback. Immediately non-NCAA bracketologists were sliding Auburn down in their overall seedings.

More annoying to me are people who argue about these projected brackets. They literally do not matter because the season does not end on February 19 or whatever. The teams that are fighting for the top seeds will all play anywhere from 6–9 more games before the final brackets are posted. A LOT can happen in that time. A team that looks like Final Four material now can have a big injury or just go cold on offense. A team that is struggling to find themselves can get an injured player back, or the coaches can make an adjustment that suddenly helps them cover up some warts.

Drew Magary said on Twitter last week that Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir needed to stop acting like the Olympics figure skating controversy was the Cuban Missile Crisis, which I thought was amazing. Same goes for people who take these early brackets way too seriously.

Along those lines, bitching about rankings is dumb. There’s a KU podcaster I follow who rips rankings from various writers each week. His issue isn’t always with where they have KU, but it often is. None of it matters. Now it is whack to have a team that everyone else has in, say, the top seven, #18 or whatever on your list. But in the era of NET and Quadrants and all the other advanced rankings, the media poll is a meaningless artifact of a bygone era.

Youth Hoops

L’s team hasn’t really had a close game this season. They lost one game by four, but trailed by close to ten most of the game. Just about every other game has been 10+ points either way. They finally had a tight one Saturday.

We were up 16–10 midway through the first half then gave up a 6–0 run to tie it. Our best player was on fire, though, and we went into halftime up two thanks to her 10 first-half points.

The second half was a bit of a slog. Neither team hit a shot from the field until eight minutes into the half. By then we were down because they had hit six free throws to our two. As usual they were running way better offense than we were, so it felt like the game would get away from us. It didn’t help that we had just six players, and our only sub was a girl called up from the B team (which is really a C team).

But our girls hung in there. We tied it up, took a brief lead, then fell behind by 3 with about 3:00 to play. We have a girl who has the craziest shot you’ve ever seen. She’s about as big around as your pinky finger and shoots the ball from below her hip, twisting her body as she heaves it toward the hoop. But she somehow makes a lot of them. She kept getting fouled Saturday. She missed her first two free throws, then hit seven straight, four of those in the closing minutes.

We had a one-point lead, playing defense, with about 15 seconds left. Their best player had fouled out so another girl tried to drive and dribbled it off her foot. We were inbounding with five seconds left. They stole a long inbounds pass in their backcourt, pitched it ahead to a girl who fumbled the ball twice near midcourt, then recovered and threw a perfect, cross-court pass to a teammate who was wide-open from about eight feet. She turned, flung the ball, and it banked in. I was keeping score and it looked good to me. One ref didn’t make a call, typical for the general quality of refs. I don’t think he was even watching. The other ref casually waved the basket off. The other team’s entire bench went nuts, coaches and players. Our girls sheepishly celebrated.

One of our parents was recording the game for grandparents. We looked at the tape and the ball was still in the shooter’s hands when she shot, so it was a legit call by the ref. But it was damn close.

Whew!

L scored a season-high 10 points, hitting four shots, including a break-away layup that gave us a 3-point lead with under a minute to play. She was also 2–4 from the line, hitting one of two when their coach got T’ed up. After the game I jokingly told her she should go thank him. Her response, “No way! He’s crazy!”

It was nice to get a win, nicer to do so in a close game. One more game next weekend followed by the tournament and then she’ll be all-in on travel ball for four months.

Hoops Notes

February 15, 2022 /

Jayhawk Talk

Two more wins, one entirely too stressful, the other had too much sloppiness but 15 of the better minutes of the year to balance.

Saturday against Oklahoma, KU looked slow and uninterested for much of the game. Like they saw the line was KU –10.5 and figured they would just walk onto the court and the game would be over.

They got their shit together in time to turn it into a comfortable win…until they started missing free throws and turning the ball over. It was a needlessly close, too stressful, two-point win.

After the game KU sat at 9–2 in the Big 12, a game ahead of Baylor, two ahead of Texas Tech. This was the second last-minute win over Oklahoma. There were late wins over Iowa State and Kansas State. It took two overtimes to beat Texas Tech. They blew the game in Austin in the final minute.

I sense a trend.

As a fan you can’t help but wonder what this means. Is this a team that can’t put people away, or a team that is tough as nails and unfazed by late-game stress? Are you concerned that they are playing so many close games that can turn on a single basket? Or is this team finding its identity and developing confidence that will help them weather tight games in March?

Fans love these debates, and the over-analysis that comes with them. Which is silly because the winning argument will be determined by how KU plays in March. The 1996–97 team had at least four huge comebacks to get wins over the course of the season. When they couldn’t complete their comeback against Arizona in the Sweet 16, we decided those games from November to February were all signs that something was wrong. Had they come all the way back and continued on to the Final Four and perhaps a title, that Arizona game would have been the ultimate sign of how tough that team was, how you couldn’t stop them on offense, how they were destined for greatness.

And that team had five NBA players on it. This year’s has, likely, just one. Doesn’t bode well for what’s coming.

After shaking off a very sluggish start Monday, KU played about 15 great minutes and had Oklahoma State down 26 before they decided to miss 16 of their last 17 shots. Not quite the 19-straight misses KU had in Stillwater last month, and a bunch of these were by the bench, but still an ugly end to a satisfying win.

The big takeaways were getting Ochai Agbaji back on track after two sub-par scoring games, a complete effort by the starting five, and more good minutes from Zach Clemence, who returned Saturday after missing a month with a foot injury.

Clemence is raw, fouls on every rebound, and apparently can’t hit a free throw if his life depended on it. But he battles and doesn’t appear to be afraid of the moment. He was the only KU big who had any idea what to do against Tanner Groves on Saturday, changing the game with his defense as much as his three that gave KU a lead they never relinquished. I’m not sure how much you can expect from/trust a kid who missed a month and wasn’t exactly getting big minutes before his injury. But having a 6’10” guy who is versatile and confident could be a nice bonus, especially on the nights when David McCormack is a mess and Mitch Lightfoot can’t do anything other than hack people.

Oh, the other takeaway from Monday’s game was the uniforms. Egad, man! I had not heard a good explanation for them before the game, just that KU was honoring the 1922 national championship squad. As they were white/gray, I assumed this was some dumb Adidas thing where they were overthinking how the only pictures of that ’22 team were black and white, so why not have black and white uniforms? ESPN’s Boog Sciambi finally gave a better explanation late in the game: the ’22 team did, in fact, wear gray and white, but with gray jerseys and white shorts. KU flipped that look so the jerseys would be home whites.

OK, that makes a little sense.

Still I hated them.

I hated it because if a random viewer turned on the TV, their first comment would probably be either “Who is Oklahoma State playing?” or “Why is Kansas wearing black?”

And why in the hell do you bust these out against Oklahoma State, a team that actually has black as a primary jersey color? Granted, they would have looked weird against anyone. And I think I would have hated them against anyone. But wearing them against OSU, Texas Tech, or any other school that features black in their own uniforms was super dumb.

I get what Adidas/KU was trying to do, and they get some points for intent. But the execution was terrible. KU might have worn gray 100 years ago, but there was no reason to wear it in 2022, especially against a team wearing all black. They could have made the lettering and shorts blue. Or wore the all whites the ’22 and ’23 teams wore.

Rumor has it Adidas has another alternate uniform lined up for sometime in the next month. Based on what some other Adidas teams have already unveiled I fear I may hate them, too.

Adidas has made some decent alternate uniforms for KU over the years, notably the Chalks and Phogs. But they keep messing up the regular uniforms then throwing out at least one bad alt set each year.

They really should let me design the uniforms. I would do a better job.

Pacers

Man, Kevin Pritchard came strong before the trade deadline! Three deals made some major changes to the Pacers’ roster going forward.

He shipped out Caris Levert, who in a nice player but dominates the ball too much and got an expiring contract and some draft picks in return. He sent his best player, Domantis Sabonis, and others, to Sacramento for Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, and Tristan Thompson. Then he sent Torey Craig to Phoenix for Jalen Smith.

The trade with the Kings got the most attention, with a lot of the Internet freaking out over it. Haliburton is a darling of the NBA analytics movement, while a lot of people struggle with their thoughts about Sabonis. Sabonis is the better player right now. But he doesn’t play defense, isn’t a great shooter outside the paint, and I’m not sure he has much more upside. Haliburton is younger, under team control for a lot longer, already shows a lot of promise and seems to have a lot of upside. Plus he seems like a great dude.

Whether this series of trades would have been made if Myles Turner was healthy is an interesting question. Regardless, seems like the Pacers are going with him after trying to force him and Sabonis to work together for four years.

So the Pacers got some draft picks, a potentially great young player, cap space next summer, and some other pieces that can either be moved or fill the gaps until new players can be brought in. It seems like the new talent matches what Rick Carlisle wants to do better than the old. And there’s the familiar mantra of “When Turner, Malcolm Brogdon, and TJ Warren get healthy, this team is pretty solid.” I would not be surprised if the Pacers trade some of their draft capital and returning players to move up in this year’s draft, or find a better match for their younger guys. It’s not a full rebuild, but probably as close as owner Herb Simon is willing to come to one.

The Pacers have blown leads in their first two games with their new lineup. But at least they are interesting again. Those were the first games I had watched since the holidays.

Youth Ball

L’s CYO team has had a rough couple of games.

A week ago they got hammered by a really good sixth grade team. I think they lost by 24. It’s crazy watching these year-round teams run offense like high schoolers and have 12 year olds that can hit pull-up 3’s on the break. I keep telling L if she works hard, that’s the kind of game she can have by the end of this summer after three months on a travel team.

Saturday they played another seventh grade team. Strangely they hadn’t beaten a sixth grade team but were undefeated against seventh graders. We jumped out 4–0 then gave up 15 straight points until early in the second half. We cut it to 17–16 with about four minutes to play, but threw a bunch of bad passes and airballs and lost 24–20.

Other than her first CYO game of the calendar year, when she went scoreless, she had scored six or seven points in every game she had played in 2022, whether for her CYO or travel team. A week ago she broke that string by only scoring four. Saturday she scored just two. She missed a ton of shots Saturday. She was angry and didn’t talk all the way.

I know she’s frustrated by the CYO team. They don’t really do anything on offense, so they’re easy to guard. There are two girls who are always in the wrong spot on defense, so they give up easy shots. They don’t rebound. I told her to keep her head up and try to have fun. When travel ball starts next month, with more frequent practices and better coaching, things will get better.

We got her travel schedule last week. They will start practicing in early March then playing shortly after, continuing through the end of June. Most of it is local, although they will go to tournaments in Louisville and Knoxville.

Jayhawk Talk: Win Some, Lose Some

February 8, 2022 /

A Jekyll and Hyde entry today, as I have two very different games to cover.

Saturday’s win against Baylor was KU’s best and most complete performance of the year. KU smacked them in the mouth from the beginning and the Bears not only never responded, they never looked interested in responding. It was as easy a win over a fellow Top 10 team as KU has had in years. And it could have been even more convincing: KU missed a boat-load of wide-open 3’s throughout the game.

That win gave KU a two-game lead midway through the Big 12 season. Which didn’t seem possible about two weeks ago.

Last night’s loss at Texas took away some of that shine. It was the worst kind of loss: a game that was on KU’s racket, as a tennis commentator would say, and they managed to piss away through a combination of bad luck and poor execution.

That game made me angry. It kept me up for hours last night, which hasn’t happened in awhile. It’s not like I was tossing-and-turning reliving key plays the way I used to. I just had so much frustration and adrenaline in my system that I couldn’t relax and fall asleep.

A four-point lead with just over a minute to play. Free throws coming for an 81% shooter. Two misses, a terrible Texas shot that banks in, a perfect play by KU ruined by a bad pass, a missed front end of a one-and-one moments later, and the game was gone. The Big 12 race was over if Christian Braun hits his free throws, if Tre Mitchell’s brick rimmed out like his others had, if David McCormack knocks down his free throws, if Ochai Agbaji’s lob to McCormack doesn’t hit the rim, if the entire team executes better on KU’s last possession down one.

Making a mess out of the final 65 seconds of the game was the perfect compliment to how KU fucked up the end of the first half, when KU fought like hell to tie the game, had the ball with 30-ish seconds left, and still went into halftime down five.

Those plays get magnified in a loss like this, where though the final margin was three, the game really came down to any one of several possessions. Change any one of like 10 different possessions, and KU wins.

The loss is extra frustrating because KU absolutely torched one of the best defensive teams in the country, shooting nearly 60%. While Texas took Agbaji out of the game – KU has to learn how to get him shots when teams do that – his teammates stepped up big time. They hit a ton of tough-ass shots in the first 19 minutes of the second half. I wouldn’t say KU’s defense was great, but it was solid. The Longhorns shot just 42% from the field, and 15% from three.

KU should win this game by double digits based on those numbers. It was the endless run of awful turnovers, especially in the first half, that negated all of that good. You can’t give a team 17 points off turnovers in a single half. It’s one thing to turn the ball over because Texas is forcing you into bad plays. It’s another to throw the ball right to them or into the crowd. Or to dribble the ball off your own foot or knee. Or to not protect the ball on a rebound and let Texas strip it away or force a held-ball. KU had a shit-ton of sloppy, unforced, dare-I-say soft turnovers.

So what do you take away from this game as a fan? Are you pissed that your team blew what could have been a massive win? Are you angry that this team struggles so much to take care of the ball? Are you pissed at guys who have played their asses off for nearly 40 minutes but clank free throws because they are either gassed or the moment gets to them?

Or do you focus on the good? The great shooting numbers against a terrific defense, on the road? The mental toughness to weather both a big Texas run in the first half then the absolute meltdown in the final 30 seconds before halftime, and still control the game for the next 19 minutes? At the entire team stepping up when Agbaji is taken away? At what an absolute bitch Jalen Wilson has become? How Joseph Yesufu is making some plays? How DaJaun Harris shut down James Akinjo Saturday and held Marcus Carr to 10 points on 3–10 shooting Monday? How David McCormack played as hard as he ever has in battling Texas’ bigs and the Jayhawks were a much better team with him on the court?

Realistically, I should be focusing on all that good. This team played its best basketball of the season over the past week. Winning at Texas was always going to be tough, KU played a fantastic second half and nearly got it done. There’s a lot to build on.

But when the loss comes because KU basically handed UT 11 points in 90 seconds combined across the two halves – that’s not counting the banked-in three, either – it is tough to remember all that good.

Jayhawk Talk: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

February 2, 2022 /

Bad news is supposed to come in threes. KU seemed poised to fulfill that cliché Tuesday in Ames, IA.

Ochai Agbaji tested positive for Covid, taking the likely All-American out of a key road contest.

Remy Martin’s knee refuses to heal, and he was ruled out of the Iowa State game as well.

Throw in a game in an arena where KU is hated as much as anywhere else, against a team that believed they had beaten the Jayhawks in Lawrence a couple weeks back, and everything seemed lined up for a second-straight loss.

But rather than a third piece of bad news, it ended up being a trio of surprises that changed the narrative.

DaJuan Harris played his ass off. He was, to be honest, mixed in the first half, combining a couple tough shots and some brilliant defense with a handful of bad turnovers and passivity on offense. I was again lamenting how Harris gets taken out of his offensive game against more physical defenders, forcing the KU offense to start way too far from the hoops. But in the second half he attacked and was key to KU building a big lead shortly after halftime that was never really threatened.

This felt like a game when David McCormack would either be really good or really bad. He was really good, going 7–7 from the floor and making Iowa State pay for their defensive scheme with three long jumpers that he calmly swished. Add in 13 rebounds, a couple blocks, and generally playing under control, and it was another one of those Good Dave games that make him so frustrating. (All that good outweighed two of the worst passes any KU player has ever thrown as ISU made a charge late in the first half.)

The biggest surprise was Joseph Yesufu getting minutes and taking advantage of them. I thought he was good in his brief run in the first half, forcing two turnovers and helping KU get two transition buckets. After making a brilliant steal and assist, he went to the bench, and did not return in the first half. I was screaming at the TV, since Harris was playing passive during this stretch and ISU was trimming a 10-point deficit down to four.

Joe returned a minute into the second half and then only sat a couple minutes the rest of the game. He was really good. Especially for a guy who had played right around 20 minutes total in the first seven Big 12 games. He guarded the hell out of his man. He pushed the tempo on offense. He hit maybe the biggest shot of the game, a corner three after two-straight Cyclone triples had cut a 12-point lead in half. He also got open for an easy layup and made a great pass to setup Jalen Wilson for a tree. He was rusty, badly missing two other threes and blowing an open layup (that McCormack dunked home).

It’s been a mystery why Yesufu hasn’t played more. He seems to struggle on defense, which is the easiest way to lose minutes on a Bill Self team. But not playing at all, when Remy and Bobby Pettiford have been hurt/ineffective, made no sense. Self has never said much about Joe, I guess because he hasn’t been asked, so my assumption has been that Joe has struggled in practice, too, and thus hasn’t earned the chance to get those rare minutes of game action.

Injuries opened the door for him last night. Thank goodness he took advantage of the opportunity. Seven points, four rebounds, four assists (one turnover), and three steals in 23 minutes is a great line from a guy off the bench. If that built both some confidence in the player and some trust in the coach, Yesufu can be a big factor in the back half of the Big 12 schedule.

Weekend Sports Notes

January 31, 2022 /

Well, for most of my friends, this was a sports weekend to forget.

KU

I picked a very good night to have dinner plans that interfered with me watching the KU game. Thus I was able to not see a minute of KU getting whacked by Kentucky. We left right around tip off and by the time we got to our destination, the lead was already big enough that I was saved the awkwardness of checking my phone throughout dinner.

Without visual knowledge of what happened, I can’t really break it down. But I am concerned my little line last week, intended to be a throwaway, about Bill Self’s off-season transfer haul being a waste, seems more true than ever. Kentucky was a much more athletic team, and KU couldn’t hang. Remy Martin played 15 minutes, Joe Yesufu 5. Which means Self is basically running the same team out there that didn’t belong on the same court as USC last March.

There’s still a lot of basketball to be played, so it’s not worth worrying about March when we still have a day left in January. But a team that seemed like one of the best in the country six weeks ago, with plenty of room for growth, now seems like just another in a large group of decent teams with no real Final Four chances.

Fortunately KU gets a chance to bounce back by playing…(checks schedule)…at Iowa State, Baylor, and Texas over the next week. Oh damn!

NFL

I’ll tread lightly here, since I have a large Chiefs-fan contingent in my reader base. The AFC title game result was…surprising. I missed the early part of the game and was only half-watching as the Chiefs stretched the lead to 21–3. No need to watch the rest, I thought, as we straightened up after having some family guests over the weekend. Next time I walked by the TV the Bengals had the lead and I had no idea how.

From Twitter I gather the Chiefs defense did enough to win but, amazingly, it was the offense that let them down. That is also surprising.

My bigger takeaway is how this weekend might have officially turned the page for quarterback generations in the NFL. Peyton has been gone a few years. Brees left last year. Brady is leaving, maybe? If Rodgers continues to play he likely has just a brief time left in his career. Russell Wilson seems like he’s on the back-half of his career. In that group you have the quarterbacks who have dominated the game over the past 20 years.

On the other side of the generational divide, Patrick Mahomes has already ascended. Josh Allen sure seemed to this year. Joe Burrow is the swaggiest QB since Joe Namath and just got to the Super Bowl in his second year in the league, after blowing out his knee his rookie year. Those three play in different AFC divisions, meaning they will battle for a long time as long as they remain healthy. I would also add Lamar Jackson, who is doing things that no one thought possible for a quarterback in the NFL. Kyler Murray is just outside that group, but is such a unique talent that if he can learn to harness it for 20-some games he could easily move into that group. What a treat for football fans!

What is this bullshit rolling Michael Buffer out to “announce” the kickoff two-straight weeks? Is it 1997?

The Niners-Rams game wasn’t quite as fun as their last meeting, but still enjoyable as a neutral. So many just stupid plays that affected the result. So much over-coaching. I was hoping for a three-OT game as the teams traded stupid play after stupid play.

Props to Jimmy G for likely ending his career in the most Jimmy G manner possible. Carson Wentz probably shed a tear if he was watching, thinking Jimmy made a great play.

USMNT Soccer

During much of the Bengals-Chiefs game, I was actually watching more of the US-Canada men’s World Cup qualifier. Without diving into pay channels, it was only available on Telemundo, so in Spanish, in standard definition. Which was weird. Made weirder by being played in some glorified college stadium on a narrow, artificial turf field in Ontario.

I missed the opening Canada goal but watched with great frustration as the US mostly dominated the game, yet couldn’t put a tying goal in. They had a brilliant chance late in the first half when Weston McKennie had a beautiful header that the Canada goalie knocked away at the last possible moment. It was a brilliant save, made even more impressive since the goalie looked like some dude they randomly picked up before the game in a nearby park.

That was the story of the entire game: the US dominated possession but could not get good shots on goal. And when they managed a decent shot, the goalie was always there.

The game got nice and chippy late. Lots of pushing and mock, soccer player anger. The referee was great. He would come charging in from 30 yards away anytime there was a little dustup, blowing his whistle and waving his arms. The Canadian crowd was in a frenzy, as a win would both be Canada’s first over the US in a WC qualifier since 1980 and pretty much lock up their World Cup berth. They added a goal in the final minute of stoppage time as the US pressed forward and the place went nuts. If it wasn’t so annoying that the US had, once again, found a way to make getting to the World Cup entirely too difficult, it would have been awesome to watch.

I don’t follow the USMNT super closely. I do know they have their best crop of talent since those great teams of the early 2000s. They tend to play really well against Mexico, which is awesome. But they still throw too many duds up against teams they have way more talent than. For example, last week’s game against El Salvador. Played in freezing Columbus, OH, you would expect the US to win easily. They had to gut out a nervy 1–0 win. I watched most of the second half and they seemed so much better, but just can’t finish. I’m sure it is maddening to people that are really into the team.

They are still in a good spot to get to the World Cup next fall. But they could have wrapped up that spot by now and have only themselves to blame if it comes down to the last game or, worse, they have to go to a playoff to get in.

Jayhawk Talk: Never Not Exciting

January 26, 2022 /

A delayed edition of Jayhawk Talk because Monday’s game against Texas Tech was far too stressful. I would complain about the rest of the season being as exhausting as the past week was for KU, but I prefer winning to losing. If that means 12 more games like the last three and a Big 12 title as reward, I guess I’m on board.

I did not watch the game live. Well, 99% of it. L had a game that night so I had to record it. Once we got home, I had some family time, took the trash out, and by the time I sat down to fire up the DVR, the live game was well into the second half in Lawrence. Thanks to skipping commercials, halftime, and then entire possessions in overtime (because I was angry), I actually saw the final 10 seconds or so of the game live. Glad those last 10 seconds ended with a double OT win.


The two big topics after the game were Ochai Agbaji and Remy Martin.[1] Which has been the case for much of the year.

Ochai was a flat-out stud. Yes, he missed four free throws in the final 13 minutes of play, three of which could have ended the game sooner. But dude was balling out. And he hit one of the biggest, most memorable shots in recent KU history. I’ll allow the misses if he keeps going for 30+ and/or hitting game winners.

As for Remy, I’ve tried to stay detached from the Internet outrage about his usage this season. I said early on I expected his arc to be similar to Malik Newman’s in 2017–18: it would take him awhile to get acclimated, but it would happen. Remy’s knee injury in late December has set that timeline back a bit.

Monday he looked as good as he’s looked since he got hurt. Texas Tech just did not have an answer for his speed. He got blocked at the rim several times, but he balanced that with buckets and assists because Tech could not stay with him.

And then he didn’t play in the final 15+ minutes of the game.

Listen, I get it. Remy couldn’t guard an 80-year-old lady in a walker. He’s constantly gambling for steals and putting himself in bad positions, forcing his teammates to cover for him. On a defensively challenged team, that’s a problem.

But this was another game when DaJuan Harris was totally overmatched physically. He was pretty much a non-entity on offense, trying about five different versions of his miracle shot against Iowa State, none of which came close to dropping. He got bullied on defense. Nearly every perceived advantage he has over Remy went away against Tech.

In a tight game I understand Bill Self wanting to reduce the unknowns. I guess he figured even if DaJuan couldn’t provide much, he also wouldn’t make the big mistake like Remy might.

But, still, Remy also had better upside than DaJuan against Tech. And it’s not like anyone on KU was guarding well Monday.

The key to this is how the game changed. After Ochai’s sweet alley-oop dunk put KU up by 12 with under 7:00 left, Tech began face guarding him and pressuring KU in the backcourt. Once KU got the ball in play, which for some reason they struggle to do, there was only token pressure in the backcourt. But Harris continually took his time getting the ball into the front court, putting no pressure on the Tech D. KU went through a stretch where they either didn’t get shots off, or were hoisting prayers at the end of the shot clock. All because Harris was too cautious bringing the ball up. Next thing you knew, the lead was gone.

I think you give Remy a shot in those situations. Let him use his speed to break the press, to maybe get a transition bucket or two, or at least force Tech to scramble on defense. That’s when KU was at their best Monday: when they could keep Tech from getting into their base defense and slow the game down. Sure, he might turn it over a time or two. But he also gets you a couple buckets which means this game never gets to overtime.

I have zero insight into what’s really going on with Remy. I remain hopeful he and Self will find a way to coexist so that he gets more minutes. If they can’t, Self’s off-season transfer shopping will have been a total bust, and, aside from having one of the five best players in the country, KU will be basically the same, not-very-athletic team that got run out of the gym by USC last March. Not a recipe for success this March.

  1. Well, KJ Adams got some much-deserved love, too. But he was not a prime subject of discussion.  ↩

Weekend Sports Notes

January 24, 2022 /

Some weekend of televised sports action!

KU Hoops

For the first time all year, I bailed on a game. Well, partially. After a truly atrocious first half in Manhattan, which saw them trailing Kansas State by 16, I moved the KU game over to the laptop, sat it on the coffee table, and put the Bengals-Titans game on the TV.[1] I had zero interest in the football game, but I couldn’t stand watching KU continue to play the wretched basketball they played through the first 20 minutes. L’s team guards their opponents better than KU guarded K-State in the first half.

Lawrence Central high school’s Nigel Pack looked like Steph Curry, going insane for 22 points without trying very hard. Five-foot-one guard (OK, 5’8”) Markquis Nowell was blowing past KU’s guards like they were dribbling drill cones, and then throwing in circus shots that had about a 2% chance of going in when they left his hands. It was everything you expect from an upset: the favored team looked listless and confused, seemed to be doing five different things on defense, and even when they did something properly saw it somehow turn into a positive for the Wildcats. The home underdog was playing with massive confidence, making every hustle play, and was rewarded by hitting tough shot after tough shot.

Yep, I didn’t need to be all-in with this nonsense.

Long time readers probably already have a question in their minds. The answer is, no, I never fully reinvested. But I also didn’t go all Colts-Chiefs game, either.

I could see that KU sliced the deficit in half before the first TV timeout, but I kept the laptop on the coffee table. I knew K-State wasn’t going to keep shooting 800% from the floor (I checked the math, and that is indeed what they shot in the first half), but figured they would play good enough defense that making up 16 points (17 at one point) was going to be insanely tough.

Every so often I would pick up the laptop and watch a play or two closely, but that never seemed to work. Thus it stayed on the coffee table until the final moments of the game. It was indeed in my lap when Ochai Agbaji hit what became the game-winner, although it nearly tumbled to the floor as I screamed and yelled.

Since I didn’t watch the game super closely I can’t say much about the game’s details. Obviously K-State is really solid, and the fact they are scoring more easily makes them a legit tournament team. I love ripping Bruce Webber because of all his weirdness and public insecurities, but he is also a really good coach, especially when he gets the right mix of players. Which he seems to have this year.

A gutty performance by KU, especially by Ochai, Jalen Wilson, and David McCormack. They played their asses off in the second half. If the team, as a whole, had shown even half the effort in the first half they showed in the first half, that’s a relatively comfortable win. Instead it became a momentary classic.

That’s a new term I just coined. I like it. Everyone wants to call any exciting game an “Instant Classic.” All-too-often these games are forgotten a week or two later when some other game equals/exceeds it. Not every game can be a classic, folks. So how about Momentary Classic? KU fans are going to buzz about it for awhile. It was good highlight/discussion material for national media outlets for a day or so. I’m sure workplaces that have KU and KSU people mixed together are interesting this morning. The highlights will be fun to look back on for years to come. But odds are this game will be a footnote when we get to April and look back on this season as a whole.

Big 12 Refs

One thing Big 12 fans can agree on are that the referees that do conference games have a lot of issues. We can disagree about what those issues are – well, I’m sure we all think they call too many charges – but we would agree they make glaring errors every game.

I tend to think these errors balance out, and a fan who is pissed about a call in one game will likely see his team benefit from a crappy call in the next game.

Listen, I think the refs flat-out screwed up the call when a K-State player fouled Ochai Agbaji while shooting a three-pointer late. They called the foul, but only gave Agbaji two shots, saying it was not a shooting foul.

Big 12 director of officiating told the Kansas City Star that the call was correct because Agbaji had landed before he got hit in the legs. Which is absolutely ridiculous because every replay showed Agbaji was still in the air when he got hit.

I’m less upset about the call – KU won! – than about the explanation. How hard is it to say, “We messed up. We made this call thinking he had landed, but the replays clearly showed he was in the air and it should have been three free throws. Our bad.” But, no, the league has to “protect” the refs by providing an explanation that is clearly false.

And why isn’t this reviewable? They review whether a toe is on the line on a three all the time. Anytime someone gets accidentally hit in the face it turns into a 10-minute review that the refs often turn into a wrong call. But this isn’t reviewable? Maddening.

ESPN+

Man, ESPN+ sucks. The production values are always at about a C. The crowd audio is always terrible; it often sounds like you’re watching through an old telephone connection. Are there 8000 people in the gym, or 80? The graphics package is always glitching or lacking information. I swear, every single game I’ve watched this year they’ve had the score wrong at least once. Saturday they gave a KU basket to K-State then had the score wrong three times as they tried to correct their error.

And the announcers are just the worst. I think Saturday was the third time KU has had the combo of Bryndon Manzer and Ted Emrich. They suck.

Well, Manzer isn’t terrible. He understands hoops and often does a good job of explaining things. He just takes awhile to get there. And his style is so understated that he can get lost in what else is going on. He also tends to rely on “When I played…” examples too often. I give him a solid B.

Emrich is what really pulls them down. As understated as Manzer is, Emrich is the opposite. Over-the-top about the smallest plays, acting like a short jumper midway through the first half that turns a two-point lead into a four-point lead is Jordan dunking from the free throw line. He has that overly affected, modern sports broadcaster voice that sounds like 58 other people, all of whom sound like they’re trying too hard. Nothing sounds genuine about the way he broadcasts a game. Too many announcers like him fail to understand that the people watching at home understand what plays are important. We get those cues from the crowd and the players and the situation. Not every moment in a 40-minute game needs to be treated like the game-winning play.

Because of them, I watched the first half with the volume turned down about as low as I could and still hear the crowd and whistle. Which, as I said, wasn’t easy since ESPN+ apparently uses one crowd mic. And I kept the laptop muted until after Ochai’s game winner.

Sadly, since the Big 12 and ESPN LOVE to put KU on ESPN+, this won’t be the last time I have to deal with them.

NFL Playoffs

Greatest playoff weekend ever, right? Every game was mega-interesting. Every game went down to the final play. Every game held huge significance for the future of the league. I didn’t watch every minute of every game, but I was greatly entertained.

While I had Cincinnati-Tennessee on the TV Saturday, I wasn’t really watching very much. Tennessee always felt like a false #1 seed since they hadn’t been at full-strength since November, so I was not super surprised that the Bengals got the win. Not saying I would have picked them, since this was Cincy’s first-ever road playoff win. But still not surprised.

I still don’t understand how Green Bay lost to San Francisco. They destroyed the Niners on the first drive of the game, and never sniffed the end zone again. The Niners had guys hobbling off the field the entire day, yet somehow kept making plays. Jimmy Garappolo tried his hardest to piss the game away and the Packers refused to take advantage.

I have to think there was some kind of weird karma at play here, and has been for awhile. As Robbie Gould’s game winning field goal sailed through the uprights, I was trying to think who legendary quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ career should be compared to. He won a Super Bowl, so he can’t be Dan Marino or Dan Fouts. I’m leaning towards John Elway, since both were ridiculously physically talented quarterbacks who constantly made jaw dropping plays. But Elway not only won two Super Bowls, he went to three others. Rodgers has a long history of losing to lower seeded teams in the playoffs at home. I guess that makes Rodgers unique, which suits him and his personality just fine. We’ll see where he ends up next year.

I saw the first and final thirds of the Rams-Bucs game. It seemed like the wackiest, most mood-swinging game in recent memory, for about three hours. The fourth quarter was just nuts. So many plays that made no sense at all. It was all set up for Tom Brady to do some Tom Brady shit. And he damn-near almost pulled it off. Until, for some reason, the Bucs decided to let Cooper Kupp run right down the middle of their defense and catch a long ball. For the second time in the game!

The Rams are a wild ride, so I love that they are still playing. I don’t care if they win or lose, I just enjoy the craziness that comes with watching them for 60 seconds. Now we get to see what happens with Brady going forward.

And, of course, the nightcap Sunday, which has to be one of the best playoff games ever played. Forget my Momentary Classic comment above: this was most definitely an Instant Classic. There will be NFL Films shows about this game. It will be a constant call-back for any crazy, back-and-forth game.

All the ridiculousness of the LA-Tampa game got amped up about 50 times in this one. I didn’t care who won – well, I was leaning Buffalo but I don’t really have any love for the Bills – and was screaming as both teams traded punches in the fourth quarter. So many massive plays by both teams. So many tiny things that could have changed the outcome without it getting to the overtime coin flip. Just a magnificent game to watch, unless you’re from western New York. Even then it was pretty great for about 59:47. Mahomes-Allen is turning into the new Brady-Manning.

Pretty good weekend for my KU-Chiefs people.

NFL Overtime Rules

Here we go, the instant complaining about NFL overtime rules. Which I get, because these rules suck. A winner-take-all game should not be determined by the vagaries of a coin flip. But the NFL seems wed to these rules. They’ve only very slightly tweaked them in, what, 60 years? The NFL being an uber-conservative organization isn’t going to throw out the rules tomorrow because of the game yesterday.

Going to college rules would be silly. Because the college rules, as entertaining as they are, are no way to decide a playoff/championship game.

I’d lean towards just playing a 10-minute quarter in full. I get the concerns about turning an NFL game into a five-hour marathon if no one has the lead after 70 minutes. I strongly believe both teams should have a chance to score, though.

I’m intrigued about the idea of one team picking the spot on the field where the ball will be placed and the other team getting choose whether to play offense or defense. But that seems gimmicky and weird and I’d have to see it in action to form a full opinion on it.

Overtime rules are strange in most sports. Basketball and (playoff) baseball stick closest to their normal rules, but fouls and number of players left on the bench can throw both of those into nutty territory. But at least they’re playing the same game, with both teams having an equal chance to win what was an even game at the end of regulation.

It feels like football is destined to be flawed no matter what system us used.

  1. I also switched seats.  ↩

Jayhawk Talk: I’d Like to File a Complaint

January 19, 2022 /

I guess I have to start getting used to this.

Tuesday brought another ugly-ass road game for KU, this time in their visit to Oklahoma. The Jayhawks pissed away a 12-point lead in the second half, gave up a 20–2 run, saw their best player get injured early and go 34 minutes without scoring a point, made countless unforced errors while trying to come back, but, thanks to Christian Braun’s biggest shot of the year, escaped with a win.

There is some hope that the occasional game in Allen Fieldhouse will produce aesthetically pleasing basketball, like the second half of Saturday’s beatdown of West Virginia. But every single road game is going to be an absolute slog.

Some of that is defense, and commentators around the country are raving about what a tough, defensive league the Big 12 is.

That’s true, there are a lot of good defenses in the conference. That doesn’t fully explain why games in the Big 12 are so ugly.

The biggest factor is that referees have largely stopped calling fouls. It’s not like Big 12 teams are hiding in zones or playing passive man-to-man D. No, they are in each other’s jerseys most of the time. And grabbing. And holding. And riding guys out of position. There is no cutter that doesn’t get bumped. There is no guard trying to turn a corner that doesn’t have a hand on his hip. And refs just stand there and watch it.

Well, until the get a chance to call a charge. Which they jump all over.

Looking back through some Big 12 box scores – extremely small sample size warning – there is the occasional game with both teams over 20 fouls. But in almost every game I reviewed at least one, and often both teams, max out between 12 and 14 fouls for the game. Saturday Kansas State and Texas Tech played an intense, physical game. There were 22 total fouls called in the game.

Twenty two! In a game where every attempt to get close to the rim was like trench warfare.[1]

I don’t know if referees are overwhelmed by the physical aspects of the game – call it the Bob Huggins factor – and don’t want to blow the whistle on every play. No one wants that. But a few early calls can force teams to adjust and make the rest of the game less of a wrestling match and more of a basketball game. The lack of calls makes good defensive teams get hyper aggressive, knowing they won’t be penalized for it. It doesn’t punish weaker defensive teams (like KU) for relying on grabbing and pulling when their overall effort is poor.

Good defense involves moving your feet, beating your man to the spot, and being tougher than your opponent. When you grab and hold, that’s not good D. That’s lazy.

Until the refs remember they were supposed to clean up the game and allow more player movement four years ago, we’re going to be stuck with these ugly-ass games.

  1. I must admit I only saw the first half.  ↩

Weekend Sports Notes

January 17, 2022 /

A lot of sports notes from the weekend. I should probably split this into a couple different posts. But it is a holiday and we all have a little extra time. So one extra-large post it is!

Kid Hoops

L played in her first-ever AAU tournament over the weekend. Or rather it was a “shootout”: a one-day, round-robin event focused more on getting teams games than declaring a champion.

Her coach told us that this was just a chance to get the girls together for the first time and get a feel for the roster. Seven of the ten girls played together last year. The girls haven’t had a proper practice together, just some light work at the end of their program’s twice-monthly, age-group training sessions.[1] Making it even more fun, L’s team is a 7th grade B team and this was an 8th grade A shootout. The coach stressed not to worry about the results, this was just about getting the girls on the court.

L had been really impressed with her teammates after their training sessions. After the most recent one she came home raving that all the girls were good and, most importantly, all of them knew how to run the offense. It drives her nuts that half the girls on her other team – let’s call them Jr T’s to differentiate – don’t run the plays correctly. We had a talk about playing time last week. She claimed she was fine not playing as many minutes for a chance to play with better players. I was glad that was her mental state. I told her if she doesn’t start and/or play much, that will give her the motivation to work harder to improve.

Her squad had three games Saturday. First game we played a team that was at least mixed with seventh and eighth graders. But their eighth graders were big. BIG. L had played against some of these girls in CYO ball before and I’m pretty sure they smoked us then.

We had eight of our players for game one. L’s St P’s buddy started, as she is our tallest player, but L was on the bench. The game started ugly. The other team pressed the hell out of our girls and we could not break it. We were down 8–0 or 10–0 before we even got a shot up. L checked in and didn’t help much, mostly because she didn’t get the ball. Another girl played lead guard spot and was not used to looking at L for help.

L played one shift without doing much. She came back in with about 5:00 to play and we were down 15–0. She got the ball in the deep corner, went baseline, and threw up a little floater than she has gone about 1–50 on this academic year. This time she swished it and we were on the board. She had a little grin on her face as she ran up cord.

A few moments later she got ahead of the break, received a great pass, and laid it in. In the last minute of the half, she got open on the wing from about 15 feet and drilled the J. It was 21–8 at half and L had six of the points, going 3–3 from the field.

She started the second half. She wasn’t as lucky this time, missing a tough layup, having a short jumper blocked, and badly bricking two free throws. She seemed to be meshing with her teammates more, though. We lost 43–20 but, again, expectations were low. She was pleased after the game.

Following an hour break and quick trip to Chipotle, it was back on the court against and all–8th grade team from Terre Haute. These girls were even bigger, and better. Everyone knew where to be on every play. They would get an offensive rebound, whip it to an open girl behind the arc, and she would drain the 3. Or the girl with the ball would draw the defense and then hit a cutter with no one on her. We lost this game 62–11 and it really wasn’t that close.

L started and again scored six points on a layup, a jumper, and two free throws. She also rebounded pretty well despite their size, made a couple nice passes, and even blocked the shot of one of their biggest girls.

Another hour off before the last game, against another big, all 8th grade squad. These girls looked super impressive warming up. Just as big as the previous team but more athletic and with a couple fast, small guards.

That team did not play to its ability. Or our girls just figured something out. We only had seven players for this game and they looked gassed at times. But they played hard, never trailed by more than 15, and closed strong to only lose 46–37. L started and scored seven this time, including a nice and-one that she cashed the free throw for. She also missed the front end of a one-and-one in the final minute putting her at 3–6 from the line for the day. She rebounded her ass off, probably her best rebounding game ever.

Her St P’s buddy – her name also begins with L so I need to come up with a way to identify her – had a nice basket at the hoop that she converted despite getting mugged. After the ref called the foul, L ran over and shoved her buddy, and sent her right into the girl that fouled her. That girl was not as excited about the play as our girls were. Fortunately L started laughing so there was no drama.

So a pretty good first day with the new team. L went from sitting the bench to starting five-straight halves. I’m not sure how good the two girls we were missing are. One of the other dads told me the coach had told him whoever started the third game would be his starters going forward. Who knows how that will work and when this team will play again, but I was proud of L for at least putting her name in the mix.

She struggled a bit in the half court sets. But, to be fair, most of the team did, even the returning girls. There was a lot of two girls standing in one spot or someone away from the ball bringing their defender to the ball instead of away. That will get worked out in time. When we got home I showed her videos of Kansas and Golden State running their weave offenses so she could understand how to pass in those sets. She kept bounce passing rather than tossing or handing off since she had never seen that kind of motion offense before.[2]

She proved to her teammates and coach that she deserves minutes. In fact, this was probably the best she’s played this school year. By my math she scored 28% of their points for the day. On the way home she noted, “It’s kind of weird I played better against 8th grade teams than I have against 7th grade teams.”

I’m hoping she can take that confidence and apply it to her Jr T’s team, which is all seventh graders from several Catholic schools. She was super frustrated about her play after their game last week. They play again tonight so we shall see.

Her AAU team may not play again for awhile. Most of the girls are on some kind of school team at the moment. They’ll have skill sessions and light practices every two weeks. The coach said they won’t really dive into things hard as a team until March and most of their play will come over the summer.

There was also a sixth grade boys shootout going on, and they played on the other courts and between L’s game. Those games are nuts. It’s all pressing and running flat out and chucking threes. Some of those kids are insanely talented, light years beyond what anyone I ever played with or against in sixth grade could do. I’m usually pro fast-paced offense in all sports (see below), but this was a little much. And those games are sooooo sloppy. Most of the coaches are psycho. Another check in the Better to Have Girls Than Boys column.

Orthodonture

L got her top braces put on last week, so these were her first games with them in. I asked her orthodontist if she should wear any kind of protection. Neither of her sisters played a contact sport when they had their braces so I never worried about it. He said you can get special guards, but he didn’t think it was worth it. At her games Saturday I noticed more than half her team had braces, and no one was wearing a guard. OK, then. I broke my glasses multiple times, and had to get stitches once when the frames sliced my eyebrow open, playing middle school ball. Teeth were never my issue.

KU

I missed the KU-West Virginia game while sitting through all the AAU ball. I did get the nervous texts from friends about the Twitter rumors that Remy Martin was out for the year. Wouldn’t be a college sports season without some kind of off-the-court drama.

I won’t get into the Remy stuff for now since it seems confusing and a little over-the-top at the moment.

I followed the score and then watched the recording on Sunday morning. That was a great performance by KU, likely their best of the season. It was, I think, the first time all year three players have balled-out at the same time. Who would have guessed that David McCormack and Jalen Wilson would be two of those?!?! I don’t think West Virginia is as good as their 13–2 second coming in indicated. Still, to hammer any Big 12 team by nearly 30 this year deserves a few minutes of satisfaction.

And on a day when Baylor lost their second-straight conference game, and Texas Tech also lost. A week ago it looked like Baylor would run away with the league. They might still do that; when healthy they are probably the most complete team in the conference. But, as Kansas State beating Tech and Iowa State being a couple shots away from being undefeated show, the Big 12 is going to be an absolute meat grinder this year.

I like that the conference is good, but I hate the way it is good: with seven or eight teams playing insane defense. That turns games into ugly slogs that are hard to watch. I guess that’s a good thing for the tournament, as playing non-conference teams will seem like a breeze after getting worked over by Big 12 teams for nearly three months. I certainly won’t complain if KU somehow comes out of this with another conference title, since that almost guarantees a one or two seed in the NCAA’s. I do reserve the right to complain about the aesthetics along the way. Especially if KU turns into a pumpkin in four or five of these games.

NFL Playoffs

The only game I watched much of was the Niners-Cowboys game, which was awesome as a neutral. The final, what, 18 minutes, were just tremendously stupid and entertaining.

Long-time readers will recall that I grew up a Cowboys fan, but have deserted them a couple times in my life. It’s been 12–14 years so I fully abandoned them because of Jerry Jones’ nonsense. But two of my college buddies I constantly text are Cowboys fans so at least watch their games these days so I can keep up with the conversation. I do enjoy watching the Fighting Jerrys lose, though. Especially in painful manner.

That was about the most painful loss possible. Get down big, early, at home. Get a break or two that allows you back in the game. Do some dumb stuff along the way. Then have your final shot to attempt to win the game taken away in a truly unique way. Running a quarterback draw with 14 seconds left and no timeouts, then watching the clock run out while the referee sets the ball has to be one of the five dumbest ways to lose an NFL game.

As I said above, I’m generally pro-offense, and enjoy all these wide-open offenses that make football so entertaining. But do we have to label all these coordinators and coaches as geniuses when they are constantly getting in their own way by trying to be too clever? Dallas converts a fake punt and then keeps the punt team on the field to try to confuse San Fransisco and ends up with a delay of game penalty that means their next fourth down is too far to go for it. And the Niners send a tackle in motion on a fourth and inches, which caused an illegal motion penalty and forced them to punt and give Dallas one final chance to win. Neither play was remotely necessary, and just examples of coaches thinking “Hey! I’ve got this great look no one has ever thought of before!” And using it in a high-stress situation that it has never been practiced under. Just dumb all around. And terribly fun to watch since I did not care who won.

I’m no expert, but the Bills-Chiefs game seems like it could be pretty good.

  1. We didn’t put a ton of research into picking a travel hoops program. We just asked a parent we knew where his two girls played and signed up there. But L’s program just had their first “graduate” commit to a D1 program. And it was a doozy. A high school junior who is ranked in the top five in the country committed to UConn two weeks ago. Girl must be a badass if she’s committing as a junior. I’m expecting nothing less than a full-ride for L now.  ↩
  2. I even sent her a GIF of KU running it and told her to watch it five times a day.  ↩

Jayhawk Talk: Heart Burn Edition

January 12, 2022 /

A near disaster in the Fieldhouse last night should have most KU fans very concerned this morning.

Iowa State has proven that their 12–0 start was no fluke, and new coach TJ O (I refuse to learn how to spell his last name; this is a blog not a newspaper) deserves an enormous amount of credit for turning the program around so quickly. They guard your ass off, and not a single KU player handled the pressure well.

There are some caveats to the concern. The biggest was Remy Martin’s absence. His speed and ability to attack the ISU pressure would have freed everyone else up. He could have played 35 minutes without scoring a point and I think just being on the court means KU wins by 6–7.

There’s no shame in struggling on offense in the Big 12 this year. But KU has looked pretty bad in the last two games with the defense forcing them out of their comfort zone.

This team is not confident with the ball, and should expect an enormous amount of pressure in every game the rest of the season. I asked in one of my text threads last night if we had ever practiced against pressure, because we looked like fifth graders playing against a press for the first time.

Speaking of middle schoolers, KU showed little desire to go get tough rebounds the past two games. It reminded me of L’s game Monday when her team got out-rebounded approximately 87–2. Texas Tech and Iowa State were both the more physical, engaged, and determined teams in going after loose balls. I rarely saw a KU player get a body on a Cyclone as the ball was going up, content to chase the ball in the air without trying to get position.

It was ironic that last night was Roy Williams’ return to Allen Fieldhouse – and there really needs to be something more formal to honor him, maybe next year to celebrate the 2002 and 2003 Final Four teams? – with the former KU coach seated directly across from the KU bench. There were moments when we knew that, had Roy been the KU coach, he would have sent the last five, healthy guys on the bench into the game. That’s not Bill Self’s style; he will always default to the guy’s he trusts, whether they’re playing well or not. But maybe last night was a game that he could have stole a page from Ol’ Roy’s coaching book and lit a fire under his team.

The most interesting aspect of last night’s game was Self starting freshman KJ Adams and playing him a decent chunk of minutes at the 5 spot. Neither David McCormack nor Mitch Lightfoot were injured, so Self wasn’t forced to start Adams. I would have been less surprised if he slid Jalen Wilson to the 5 and started Jalen Coleman-Lands. Because Self never starts a player like Adams unless he has to.

I found that move encouraging. It means Self was, for once, coaching for the future instead of the moment. KJ had a few nice moments, but mostly looked like he was just trying to keep up and not mess things up too badly. Starting him in a conference game is all about trying to get him confidence so Self can trust him when we get to late February and early March and the games get bigger.

To be clear, I don’t think KJ is the answer at the 5. He’s only 6’7” and although he’s athletic, he’s not Andrew Wiggins athletic, so he won’t be jumping over everyone to grab rebounds. He’s also not like those super strong, 6’7” dudes who would bully people back in the ’90s. But if he can just set screens, make the right rolls, not get destroyed on D, and give effort on the boards, he can be a stop gap until Dave and Mitch figure out how to stay on the court.

(Remy makes this team go. But what is going to doom this team is not having an athletic big man. I’ve said it before, but it becomes more glaringly obvious every week. There weren’t many guys like that in the portal last summer, and Self whiffed on that kind of player in high school recruiting. He also probably thought McCormack would be an effective, 30 mpg player.)

It’s still early January. KU is fighting some injuries. The team should look different in a week or two if/when Remy gets healthy and Bobby Pettiford shakes the rust. They snatched a win in a game they did not deserve on the same night Baylor lost a home game. The Big 12 schedule is going to be an absolute monster for the next two months. There is plenty of reason for concern but no reason to give up on this year’s team quite yet.

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