Hey, X-and-O Folks!

I am not nearly astute at the fine points of this game as many of you are. Our team is playing quite well right now and they deserve to be considered one of the best teams in the nation. To you X-and-O folks, I'd like to pose a couple of questions: If you were the coach of a team about to play KU, what sort of game plan would you institute to beat them? What weakness (s) does this KU team have that you would exploit? I look forward to your answers! Rock Chalk!

Cool question Doc. I am certainly no X and O guy but I will stab at it. As Self says, you have to cut off the head. To beat KU you have to disrupt Mason. Good luck on that. When KU is clicking their strength is wrapped up in the 3P's...passing, position and patience. KU tends to be toward the top is stats like assist per FGM and shooting percentage because of their 3P approach to offense. So one way to play Kansas is to get them rattled out of their patience. Get them to take stupid shots rather than pass and position for a patient shot. One reason Mason is such a stud as a senior (and even last year and as a sophomore to a lesser degree) is he does not get rattled most of the time. That is also why Landen, even with limited shooting skill is still very effective in KU's sets. He is patient and great at positioning. Bragg has largely been ineffective at times mainly because of his lack of positioning and patience. Josh's biggest miscues this season have been largely under the category of lack of patience. You have to risk playing passing lanes against Kansas. Monte' Morris did a good job last night of that. You better scout them very very well and know their passing angles and tendencies. Mason has developed a great ability over his career to take the extra step or dribble to make the smart pass. Jackson already has that ability to a large degree. So rattle their patience with switches and press, disrupt their passing with scouting and aggressively playing the passing lanes and keep throwing wide bodies to push them out of position. KU has never been a particularly physically tough team so teams that knock them out of their positioning are more effective. The response to that is driving to the hoop which is another reason guys like Mason and Tyshawn Taylor are so valuable. You double switch him on the perimeter and he will turn north and drive right at you. Part of what makes a team like KU so tough is that everything a team can do to be effective at stopping or slowing down KU can be countered if it is seen and the team is ready. A team aggressively playing the passing lanes can be very susceptible to skip passing, baseline drive or high low passing. A team that switches and harasses on the perimeter can be susceptible to a guy who can penetrate well. Teams that disrupt positioning can be worn down by more athletic or stronger opponents and are susceptible to either hot perimeter shooting or even worse, pull up jumpers at the elbow. So guys like Mason who have spent 4 years adding skills to be ready for whatever the defense throws at him and also adding the ability to recognize it quicker become stars. Hope this helps a little. I would love to get some real X/O guys chime in.

My game plan on defense would be to leave Jackson open on the outside and dare him to take 3 pointers. If he drives I foul him and assume he's 50% at best from the line. Single team Lucas and dare him to score (he's as good now inside as I can ever remember, which still isn't very good). Use the balance of my defenders to pressure our guards as far out as possible to challenge any 3's.

On offense I would pound pound pound the ball inside. We barely pretend to defend inside, so shots are relatively uncontested. I also would hope for fouls on Lucas and to get Bragg on the floor as much as possible.

And by the way, there are 17 coaches who haven't figured out a plan that wins yet this year, but I think the above keeps my team in the game with a chance to hit a couple threes at the end to steal a close game.

Ok, in order to do this, I think you need to make a huge assumption right away: that you have the players to execute a plan. Players will dictate what kind of game you can executive (do you have good/big bigs? Lots of guards?, etc.). So for this exercise I'll assume that I have a well-balanced squad with adequate depth in all positions.

The first weakness KU has is a lack of depth in the post. After Landon, the dropoff to Bragg has been pretty steep, and after him, things go downhill quickly. With that in mind, my first goal would be to put Landon on the bench with fouls. Much in the same way that Self likes to go inside, I'd have my "big" go right at Landon and hope that he gets fouls. As a secondary strategy, I'd try to devise plays where Landon would have to come over on help defense, where he'd be less likely to get there in time, get good position, and be forced into letting a guy score vs. fouling. Option 2 is harder to execute, but I imagine that it would start with some pick and roll plays that involve Landon's guy.

Josh's shooting, as others have noted, would be another target. Josh (or Svi for that matter) are no threat on the line, so I wouldn't let either of those guys get an open shot off all night. I'd also play a step back on Josh when he's on the perimeter so that the defender would have more time to react to his drives, and wouldn't worry too much about him shooting the 3 until he could prove that he's better than a 75% miss rate.

Finally, if I had a size advantage, I might play a "big" lineup vs. our "small" group. What we give up in speed and ability to run, having 2 bigs on offense might allow us to score at will on the interior (Baylor-esque?). The flaw in that logic is that some of our "small" guys (Josh and Svi) are ball handlers that are also 6'8" tall...so not-so-small afterall.

Anyway, fun question. Frankly I don't think there's a way to stop Frank that doesn't involve a disgruntled figure skater who hires a guy with a pipe to take out knees (aka get somebody to "Galooly" Frank). Devonte is solid, but can be countered if the other team has at least one other solid point guard.

In the end, it's all about matchups. When you find two dissimilar guys who have to play each other, will the big/strong dude outmuscle the small/agile guy, or with the small/agile guy outmaneuver the big/strong guy? I kind of feel like Svi, Josh, and even Legerald are all capable of playing big or small depending on the situation and opponent.

I would look at the OSU and TT tapes. Underwood had his team set up to cut off Mason and have his big go at Landen. Both Beard and Underwood had their teams ready for us. We just had more talent.

The UK game will be interesting. I am not expecting a win but they are the best team, guard wise, so it should give us a clue to whether anyone can stop our guards.