KU is starting to reach their full potential

ATXJay, thanks a ton for posting good quant-takes throughout the season. Along with the work of Corpus and Asteroid, it adds just that much more texture to an already great board. Hat tip...

As for OU, I expect Self to take the "Belichick" approach and focus on neutering (or at least semi-containing) their paramount weapon. We all know who that is. The two-pronged question is What's our best hope for doing that? and Do we have anyone that can guard him in Man and sufficiently contain him?

In the first (epic) game, Selden took him first and Hield absolutely blistered us. Then Mason begged at halftime to take him, Self obliged, and Mason stayed on him like a pit bull (to his credit)...yet Hield still went off.

So who draws the assignment this time around? (Knowing full well that you can't routinely double him, because of their other solid scoring threats) Hopefully Self and the staff are reviewing not only the game one film, but also those games where Hield struggled the most (like the Texas game, until he came up big in the clutch at the end).

The corollary to such an approach, if we can contain Hield decently, is we need to win some of the other position battles as well. It would be nice, in that respect, if we could completely de-fang Cousins like we did in game one. It would also be nice if we could put Mason (rather than Graham) on Woodard, since Graham is a matador in open space--and once the faster/more agile guard blasts past him, our help D must kick in, which will often open up the dish to Spangler or Lattin. Hence, go with Frank there, if you ask me. (He's not perfect at this, either, but he's far better than Matador Graham)

We also need Perry to come up huge, like he has of late. Do that, and it opens up the ability to dish it off to Landon (if he can stay "on" on the offensive end--by going up strong to the rim, not putting it on the floor, and dishing OUT when there is no clear shot).

I am more bullish on KU now (after last night and the intangibles that I saw with TCU). But that just means I'm more 50-50 about our chances in this one than I was a week ago (when it was more like 30-70).

Self is presently pushing the right buttons (apparently with all of our starters, but most definitely with Lucas and Traylor, who now have newfound confidence and bounce). Traylor still scares the bejeebus out of me when he's on the floor (and it's been noted that we tanked pretty soundly when he was on the floor last night), but Self has clearly challenged his manhood (Traylor admitted as much after the TCU game, saying Self knows how to push his buttons) and that could mean he'll punch above his weight class again come Saturday. If he and Lucas can do that, Ellis can be his steady self, we get some timely energy-lifting threes, we play D like we did last night (excepting Graham), and we can semi-contain Hield, we'll likely come out with a massive, race-changing win on the road. Yes, that's a lot to ask, but you already knew that it will take an "A" game to pull it out (which is precisely what I'm describing above).

Rock Chalk...

There's probably a good article to be written on this--aptly titled "The Returnee's Curse" or something like that--by a national commentator.

Incidentally, I don't think Pitino has a very good record at Louisville when returning to Lexington. Not sure how Mike Anderson has fared with Arkansas in Columbia, but it'd be interesting to see how this has played out over the years, across coaches.