Good news and bad news...

Regarding last night's game. I'll start with the bad, in no particular order:

1. Terrible Defense: this kind of effort won't win us a title.
2. Questionable free throw shooting: I say "questionable" in that it's isolated to specific players. Put it this way: If I'm an opposing coach, I'm going to harass the bejeezus out of Josh Jackson and not worry if it puts him on the line.
3. 3rd T for Jackson: another great reason to harass this kid. Refs are now LOOKING OUT for him. Looks like yesterday he said something, nothing major, but it was enough. It's safe to assume that any/all outbursts by him will now get noticed.
4. Svi clearly walked. Glad I'm not around any KSU fans who will harp on this indefinitely. If Svi misses, we go to OT and I think we win, but still...bleh.
5. Complacency: seems like we woke up in the 2nd part of the 1st half and thought that if we led at halftime, we could mail it in in the 2nd half. Hoping that this scare is enough to reinforce that the games are typically 40 minutes long.

Ok, now for some good news:

1. We won. WVU, by the way, didn't. So right now there are only 3 undefeated teams in the league and two of them (Baylor and ISU) play each other tonight. So we're one full game ahead of Huggy's thuggies. This could be a big deal later on.
2. Landon Lucas: I forget who I was discussing the potential of him being a liability for us just a couple weeks ago. I think Landon has hit his stride. He'll never be a star, but even against non-top 25 teams, double doubles are a good thing. I think he's finally figured out how to play within himself
3. Bragg: ok, this one might be premature, but he does appear to be heading slightly in the right direction. Still a long ways to go, but he appeared to also trying to play within himself last night.
4. Svi: Glad he got to be the hero last night. Should be a confidence booster for him.

To me, the biggest story last night was WVU losing at Tech. If ISU can beat Baylor tonight, that would be REALLY great. This is a season where we not only need to play as well as we can, but we should welcome any "help" we can get from other teams in the league. Sending a nice thank you letter to Tech today.

Don't be thanking Tech just yet. We're in their crosshairs next!- lol.

1. Calling this terrible defense is just not sufficient. That was ridiculously bad defense. I have like Bragg since he stepped on campus. But right now his defense is a mixture of effectively using his height on one possession to doing the exact wrong thing on the next. I guess on the good side the bad defense is sourced in something that is fixable, namely bad (very very very bad) decision making. We are not bad on defense because we lack athleticism or height or hops or quickness or coaching. We are bad on defense almost exclusively from bad positioning (Vick), terrible anticipation (Devonte' and Svi), terrible decision making (Bragg) and questionable effort (Devonte' and Frank at times). Vick looks lost right now on defense. Bragg made some of the worst decisions last night on defense that are not even acceptable for a freshman in his first 10 games. Bragg added muscle this year supposedly but he looks so soft it is ridiculous. I am disgusted with the defense right now. Clearly we can play better because we have (Duke). There seems to be a malaise on defense right now. I hope that malaise does not turn out to be the zeitgeist of this season.

2. Agree on the FT shooting.

3. Svi walked but my highlight of the night was the the fact that he made that shot with his dad sitting in the stands. Even better than watching WVU lose.

4. Complacency, I already mentioned the defensive malaise. Offensively I do not sense a malaise rather a tendency to lose focus and not run through their rotations before jacking up low percentage shots. A low percentage shot is the equivalent of losing 1/2 of a possession. 6 of those a game is three points. Not necessarily huge but in a game like last night it was. And mostly it is totally unnecessary. Shot selection was an issue last night.

5. I love me some Devonte' and my wife thinks he is adorable. But he is a Ferrari with 83 octane fuel right now. He is settling for hanging out on the perimeter. How many times have you seen him drive? How many floor burns has he had? He has been reasonably effective on offense with the exception of some poor shooting games. But overall he has not looked like he is 100% into it.

6. Vick shows flashes every game of what he will be. But his defense is all too often not there. He needs some Clockwork Orange treatment. Self needs to set him in front of a scouting tape with his eyes taped open and every time he is caught out of position on defense he receives a shock.

7. Listen, this team is crazy talented offensively but even that can be squandered with bad decisions and lack of effort. But defensively we are soft, unmotivated, unfocused, undisciplined and lack coordination.

On the good side
1. Landen Lucas has less reason to be a starter on the No. 3 team and especially to be a standout. I have been president of the Landen Lucas fan club for 3 years now. The main reason I have been such a fan is that he gets more productivity from such limited natural ability than almost any player I can remember. He is maybe the overall most intelligent player we have had since Jacque Vaughn but Jacque also was quite talented. Landen is not. Landen's eye popping numbers come almost solely from grit, determination, intelligence, effort and playing ti his abilities and his coaching. I love this kid. He may get a gig playing overseas but these are his glory years and he is making the most of them. I expect him to continue to be exactly what we are seeing now. Please God, don't let Landen get hurt.

2. Mason had an okay game last night. He lost focus in the offensive flow a few times and was not ready for the defense they threw at the team. But he is iced nails. When we really need something desperately I immediately and totally say, "Get Frank the ball." What a senior year.

3. Svi can shoot!! Who knew. After three years I don't say "set his butt down" after every air ball. He is developing nicely. But good gawd, don't make those occasional terrible passes.

4. This team can shoot. And more than that, with Landen actually a real high-low option, this team is incredibly hard to guard. Self will coach this into a lethal threat. As long as the guys don't go off script with boneheaded low percentage shots out of rotation.

5. Jackson is growing. The dude can flat out pass. Look for more Jackson off the dribble creation. Not a lot but more. The dude can pass.

6. Bragg can shoot the short range. Now just get his brain engaged.

7. Devonte' has shown us all what he can do So at least we know he is capable of greatness. Now go do it.

8. Coach Self is our coach. 'nuf said.

May I say that Mrs Corpus has fabulous taste in men.

Devonte' is adorable......as I am sure you are too, CJ!!!!!

Good points. I'll say this about Bragg: yes he needs to engage his brain, and work on consistency. I wonder, however, how much of this comes down to figuring out where his potential lies.

I remember some old guy named Perry Ellis who played about 12 years at KU not too long ago. IMHO, he was a total underperformer for his first couple of seasons, and it wasn't until Self realized that he wasn't a true "back to the basket, post-up" kind of player, and was more of an agile "take an occasional mid-range jumper" guy that he really flourished.

Not saying that Bragg warrants a Perry comparison at this point, but he also seems to be kind of a "tweener" physically and talent wise. He doesn't seem to have the body to really get physical down in the paint, but at 6'10" with arms of a 7 footer, the tendency is to make him play there. So that leaves 2 choices: 1.) he needs to learn to play that position and type of game, or 2.) Self needs to play to Bragg's strengths rather than Self's desires.

Again, this is totally premature at this point, and Bragg has a LOT of foundation work to do before he should be dictating anything, but when Landon is off the court, we really don't have a 2nd big body to play physically under the basket (Coleby looks like he's got the body for it, but still isn't 100%).