Halftime PPP

Not exactly an offensive explosion. KU was cold and Texas is really darn good defensively. We did miss a could bunnies. Seemed like about 7-8 travel calls for both teams.

39 possessions each

Texas 0.949 PPP
Kansas 0.743 PPP

Give Texas credit, they are very good defensively. But we need to hit some shots. We will never be a great team with McCormack as our main guy in the middle. He is not a good college basketball player. At least not a championship level good player. He was not the only problem for KU in that half but he was the worst. No one played particularly inspiringly. Garrett was reasonably good and Agbaji was pretty good. No one else was very good.

What an butt kicking..never did I ever think a BS team would get linked by 25 PTS at AFH...embarrassment!

We had a few good moments followed by a ton of defensive breakdowns and missed shots. Admittedly biased, I did not understand why Lightfoot was on the bench for the first 30 minute or so, and then played only sporadically for the rest of the game. Braun seemed hesitant to shoot and instead would pass the ball to.....the other team. Mitch wasn't perfect, but he altered and blocked shots, and gave his usual 100% effort, something that usually sparks the team to a better performance overall.

Just my opinion, of course.

Murph, I am so disillusioned by Dave right now, I would be thrilled if Mitch started and played as many minutes as he could muster. I am missing Udoka like crazy. He was a freak defensively for a almost 7 footer. Dave is well below average defensively. Heck, I would say start Mitch and give Gethro minutes to get him some experience. I hate believing (and I do believe) that we cannot be any better than a low top 25 team with Dave manning the middle. He seems like such a genuinely sincere and hard working young man. I don't question his work ethic or attitude. I simply believe he is just not a quality big man. I agree on Christian. I really want to love Christian and I have sort of adopted him as my favorite player on this team, but dude, where is the energy and killer instinct? I still am not convinced that Jalen is a great baller but I have no doubt that Jalen has a killer instinct. There were at least 10 times when Braun had a driving lane if he was a savage balls to the wall get to rim at all costs killer. But he demurred time and again. I admit, I have never really been on the Ochai bandwagon, but I am more and more every game. He is really a different player this season. He is smarter and a little better ball handler and shooter. But he does not attack the rim either. Marcus played a reasonably decent game today, but he is not a primary ball handler. I mean, he has the ball handling skills but he does not have the mentality. Sort of like Perry Ellis as the primary post guy. Perry was a great college basketball player but always seemed to me to be the type of guy that was far better being a small power forward with a huge guy in the middle. We set no screens today that wore for bleep. Our energy was dismal and there were numerous times where 4 guys were watching Marcus dribble the ball. I give Texas tons and tons of credit. We likely would have lost in any case today, but losing by 25 at home is more than just great play by Texas. That was disgusting. Devon Dotson lacked much in his game but the dude was a killer. Udoka had some weaknesses but the dude was the best defensive Big I have seen. He was not a shot blocker much but he was a shot alterer par excellence. Mitch is just as good only about 2 feet shorter. Dave is never in position to alter shots. He is too busy looking for his jock strap. I sure as hell hope to see Mitch starting against TCU. Mitch is a beast and is a true killer instinct. Landen Lucas had minimal talent and became a key cog in a great team on smarts and attitude. Mitch is similar. I say play Mitch. Maybe I am wrong and Dave is doing more than I see. But shooting 38% for the season and playing the worst defense that has ever been played in the history of this and every other universe is not acceptable.

Okay, I am ranting now. But losing by 25 at home to tie the worst AFH loss ever when we are ranked 3rd is ridiculous. Texas was hot and in a groove. So that means we lose by 10, maybe 12. The other 15 points is pure lack of effort and incompetence.

How the heck does Shaka freaking Smart recruit this sort of team to Texas. The more talented roster was Texas and boy did they put the hammer down. It used to be KU had by far the most talented roster and now freaking Baylor and UT have more talent...in no universe is this right..how are Drew and Smart out recruiting Self.to lesser basketball schools. Never did I think KU would have to close a talent gap with Baylor or UT. Texas, as much as it pains me to type these words, would have rolled KU by 15 pts even with a full Field House.. Argggh!!!

I'm not an x and o's expert like you and many others are, but watching hundreds of games through the years has given me some insight.

I especially like the comment about what Dave was busy doing! Thanks for a very informative and humorous post.















































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