Well this one turned out great for Kansas today. And it certainly helped that OSU's best player was out but I have to give my 'hawks full credit. This is another game in which they were expected to have their drawers dropped and the leather strop applied. Well they led the entire game and at times by ten and twelve points. I don't care about the star of OSU. Their other players are VERY good and could have well pulled out the win if some plays had went differently. Their guards can spot up and drain treys with the best of them. I don't follow Big Ten so you OSU fans will have to fill in the information here. I can tell you we are used to seeing great quality teams at Kansas so we know talent when we see it. OSU has it. I hope we don't run into them later in tournament. Those guys are athletic and experienced looking.
Now to Kansas. I don't care if we knocked off #2. If Tyshawn Taylor does not stop the force fed plays under the basket for turnovers I am going to pull my hair out. I think we had eighteen turnovers today. This is out of hand and something that likely has Bill Self steaming. His teams usually do not do this. It could be the Achilles heel of this somewhat upstart team. They are only really rotating seven players and if Thomas Robinson gets into foul trouble or Taylor or even Elijah Johnson for that matter, we are going to be in real trouble. Particularly at tournament time. This team plays serious DEFENSE but the essentially unforced TO's are leading to DUMB fouls trying to make up for it. And today, just when we were making a break to extend a ten point lead, T Robinson got a technical that nearly became a five point swing. OSU made both free throws and came within and ace of draining a trey on the inbounds play. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
It was absolutely essential the bench guys, who are mostly frosh, started giving some contribution and they did. Young had 14 points and most critically, two fantastic defensive plays to draw charging fouls. Both within a couple of series of plays. I think OSU was making some serious plays on those exchanges and that slowed them considerably. Did I mention Ohio State is plenty talented?
Taking a charge from experienced players like that is not easy. Hopefully we can extend rotation of players and keep the minutes down for the starting five.
Coaching. The media expectations were quite low going into the season. I think we were picked fifth or sixth by the media writers and why not? We lost two lottery picks last year and another guard(Selby) who was also drafted fairly high. I think Bill Self has done one of his best coaching jobs since he's been here. He has kept these guys together and made them play as a TEAM. This was something lacking at times last year when the twins were here an frankly, I am not sad to see them gone. We had a lot of flagrant fouls last year and it was affecting T Rob as well. He is much more focused and team ready this year. Great job by Self to keep it together. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.
Cheers, Todd
Now to Kansas. I don't care if we knocked off #2. If Tyshawn Taylor does not stop the force fed plays under the basket for turnovers I am going to pull my hair out. I think we had eighteen turnovers today. This is out of hand and something that likely has Bill Self steaming. His teams usually do not do this. It could be the Achilles heel of this somewhat upstart team. They are only really rotating seven players and if Thomas Robinson gets into foul trouble or Taylor or even Elijah Johnson for that matter, we are going to be in real trouble. Particularly at tournament time. This team plays serious DEFENSE but the essentially unforced TO's are leading to DUMB fouls trying to make up for it. And today, just when we were making a break to extend a ten point lead, T Robinson got a technical that nearly became a five point swing. OSU made both free throws and came within and ace of draining a trey on the inbounds play. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
It was absolutely essential the bench guys, who are mostly frosh, started giving some contribution and they did. Young had 14 points and most critically, two fantastic defensive plays to draw charging fouls. Both within a couple of series of plays. I think OSU was making some serious plays on those exchanges and that slowed them considerably. Did I mention Ohio State is plenty talented?
Taking a charge from experienced players like that is not easy. Hopefully we can extend rotation of players and keep the minutes down for the starting five. Coaching. The media expectations were quite low going into the season. I think we were picked fifth or sixth by the media writers and why not? We lost two lottery picks last year and another guard(Selby) who was also drafted fairly high. I think Bill Self has done one of his best coaching jobs since he's been here. He has kept these guys together and made them play as a TEAM. This was something lacking at times last year when the twins were here an frankly, I am not sad to see them gone. We had a lot of flagrant fouls last year and it was affecting T Rob as well. He is much more focused and team ready this year. Great job by Self to keep it together. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.
Cheers, Todd
