On to Hilton

Saturday was a "see if we have a pulse" game. We do. Monday we see just how healthy we are. I recall HCLB going 0 for Ames.) I was up there in 1996 and saw a pretty good Hawk team struggle, but win an ugly game.
With six teams bunched at the top of the Big XII like a Peloton it would be nice to get a road win against a contender.

My first thought is that over the last couple weeks, except when they play OU ( the Clones twice and us once) the scoring seems to be dropping into the 70+ points per game range. If we aren't playing track meets a rotation of 8 or 9 starts to make sense. As does letting our core four each play 34 or more minutes.

The remaining 66 minutes have caused some vexation. I'd say it comes down to two things: match-ups and who plays team defense well enough to let the core four play their positions without have to compensate.

If we have a big who can slow down Niang he will play a bunch of minutes. Beyond that the guy who intuits when to go over screens, under screens, switch and be in position... will play. Texas got behind our defense for some dunks, Without looking at the tape I suspect one of our bigs was out of place. With Niang being able to shoot fairly deep threes we need agility and fast twitch. From here that might mean Bragg gets a first crack at him. After that Jamari chasing him around seems better than some of the alternatives.

Thinking longer run it looks like four or five loses will, at worst, arrive on the last Saturday with a shot at a co-championship. We have the Clones in Allen for the 18th game. And chances for payback with WV. The trip to Norman seem daunting, and Austin or Waco could be trouble. In other words we need to stop losing to non-contenders and take care of home court.

That said Monday I will expect effort and cohesiveness, watch for personnel decisions that suggest what HCBS is planning down the road, and hope for victory.

Thinking even longer run. Until recently I expected one of the freshmen bigs and Svi to enter the draft.Now I could see them all return. That might explain our lack of signings.

I am assuming Wayne will go, leaving , at minimum,three rides, but not necessarily a lot of playing time. HCBS does some of his best work late and adding two, or maybe just the right one off that 5 star list might be what it takes. And we have done rather well lately with non 5 stars who almost went to mid-majors. In other words 3 or 4 years of Devonte seems more useful in a number of ways than one of Kelly or Andrew.

Not looking forward to tonight. While it was nice to see some decent play vs. Texas, it certainly wasn't a 40 minute great effort. The first 10 minutes were awful. The next 5 were decent and got us back to a tie, and the last 5 were mediocre. 2nd half, we played pretty goof for 15 minutes and looked dominant. Still in the last 5 minutes I felt pretty good with a 13 point lead, only to feel a little let down when we went from a 12 point lead at 2 minutes go down to 5 points by the 0:53 point. 7 unanswered points in a minute? Left a bit of a question in my mind about the team's ability to focus. Certainly not what you want in regard to mental state as you head to Hilton.

Hoping for the best, but afraid of what might happen. My confidence is not high.

I think we will do alright. We have a secret weapon, Hoiberg works for us now. Paige Hoiberg that is.

www2.kusports.com/news/2016/jan/24/mayor...-coach-hoiberg-ku-n/

Some good points in this thread. Always tough in Hilton but will be even tougher tonight because I still don't think we are hitting on all cylinders. With respect to recruits and signings, I think it's going to be a real difficult task until the NBA lets the one and done type players enter the draft after high school and then makes the players that do go to college stay 3 years. That's what we need to see. KU has not enjoyed much success with the one and done types.

Here's the bazillion dollar question: can we put in a full 40 minute consistent effort? I'd argue that the last time we did that was the Oklahoma game. That was 3 weeks ago (and in reality, they put in a 55 minute effort).

I'm not talking about 40 minutes without mistakes, or 40 minutes where ISU won't catch a break, but 40 minutes where all 5 guys on the floor are all working together toward the same goal, and 100% mentally plugged in.

If anything, I think a close game would help. With this team, it seems that once they get up 10-15 (of late anyway) they relax and let the momentum shift. If they're never comfortable, maybe that'll help.

Tonight I will grade on effort rather than outcome. We are a slight dog and based on prior results should win the game about nine out of twenty times.

A turd sandwich like we saw in Stillwater will leave grave concerns in my mind as to the progress of this team. An out of sorts, poor execution, but on the verge of creating game pressure effort like in Morgantown will trouble me , but not as much. An L after an effort like the Sooners put forth in Allen and I will sleep smiling. Of course, this could be one of those good 9 of 20 nights?

I catch myself wondering whether we might be facing one of those "or" situations that we want to be an "and." Namely we could extend the streak to 12 OR at least make a regional Final. Say it with me " I want BOTH."

Athletes as individuals, and as teams have a way of rounding into form and then declining or at least improving at a slower rate than their opponents. Coaches use the platitude about getting better every day, every day. At some point we need to see improvement in the ability to compete at a high level against a good team someplace other than Lawrence, Korea or Hawaii. Tonight seems to me the perfect time.

"Tonight I will grade on effort rather than outcome."

Exactamundo!

RC

....and for the record, I'm the contrarian here. I don't think it's an "or". Not to downplay game experience, but in reality, a 40 minute day where even the starters are averaging only 30 minutes pales in comparison to a "practice day".

The NCAA limits mandatory practice time (and I believe games are included) to 20 hours a week, which comes out to just under 3 hours a day. That doesn't count "voluntary" things like individual practice, work in the weight room, etc. The most recent survey of D-1 athletes has them putting in just under 40 hours a week for men's basketball.

With that in mind, we see 80 minutes out of the 2400 minutes the kids put in, or 3%. In other words, HCBS is privy to an additional 37 hours of work that's going on. Even if you're just looking at the NCAA-mandated 20 hours, that's over 18 hours that the fans don't see (we get to watch 7% of the 20 hours).

While I agree that real-game situations against somebody other than your own teammates is invaluable, I don't know that that's really the difference. If Carlton Bragg is going up against Perry for 10 hours a week, that's going to have a much more significant impact on his skills come march than playing 15 minutes twice a week.

That opens up the other side of the and vs. or argument: in a typical year, if you're the 3rd best team in the conference, you're probably looking at somewhere around a 3 or 4 seed at best vs. a 1 or 2 seed. While we can all point to instances where the committee has botched seeding and venues, the fact remains that statistically you're waaaaay better off as a 1-3 seed than you are as a 3-6 seed, and the best way to get that seeding is to WIN GAMES.

This year, I feel, is an anomaly. There really aren't any doormats in the league this year (or there are fewer). Without doormats, there are fewer blowouts that provide "in game experience" for the rookies. IMHO, we've only had 2 opportunities to give guys "live practice" time.

1.) Baylor: We kicked Baylor's butt from the starting gun, giving Self lots of minutes to toss around. This was probably our only conference game where he could conduct "practice". Here's how the minutes looked for the "Not Perry" bigs:
>Mickleson; 17 minutes
>Diallo: 6 minutes
>Bragg: 10 minutes
>Traylor: 10 minutes
>Lucas 11 minutes
Some things to keep in mind: it was our first conference game and Mickleson was still in HCBS's good graces. Other than that he split things up with the exception of Diallo.

2.) Tech: Only a 10 point win, but enough to give the "Not Perry" big decent minutes:
>Mickleson: 5 mins (2 fouls in 1st 5 mins)
>Diallo: 3 mins
>Bragg: 14 mins
>Traylor: 12 mins
>Lucas: 16 mins
In this case, Bragg got decent time at the expense of Mickleson, and Diallo was still too inexperienced to earn time (hypothesis on my part). It was also a road game, we stretched it to 10 in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, but Tech had it to back to 2 from 11:25 and we were only up by 6 with a minute left. So not a great opportunity to clear the bench and liberally distribute minutes.

Anyway, long story (not) short, I disagree that it's an "and" vs. "or" thing. I just think that most years we have more opportunity to train guys in safe games, and the lack of "safe" games combined with the depth we have at "Not Perry" being 5 guys is making this year a little unique from the FANs' perspectives. In practice and behind the scenes, if anything the young guys are probably having a BETTER opportunity to improve since each has an option of 4 other guys to go up against in practice (actually 5 if you count Perry).