My thoughts about the K-State game

D

dadrivr

25+ Posts
Here are my observations and impressions. What do you think?

Free throws... We shoot be shooting 100 FTs after every practice when their legs are tired. If they don't make 75, make them run and then shoot 100 more until they make 75 (or more).

Rebounds... We need to learn to box out. We won't always be able to rebound the ball just because we are bigger (as seen tonight).

Jordan Hamilton took a couple really bad shots. He is a spot-up shooter and nothing more. If he is going to take poor shots, then he shouldn't be on the floor.

Chapman killed us on the defensive end. He cost us probably 8 points or more. He scored on the offensive end, but only because the guards got him the ball in good position to put it in. He should be a deep reserve at this point behind Pittman, James, Johnson, and Wangmene.

J'Covan Brown is wildly out of control with the ball. He makes poor decisions, poor passes, and wild shots. He needs to play reserve minutes until he can learn to make the easy play instead of turning the ball over.

Justin Mason and Balbay gave us some good minutes, but neither are legitimate threats to score from the outside, so defenses can leave them to double team or play help defense. Mason needs to play more, and Balbay is good, too, but neither of them should be on the floor at the same time - we need to complement the defensive, ball handling type with an offensive threat like Avery Bradley.

Pittman and James obviously underachieved, but it's no doubt because all of the defense can suck in around them when we don't have other threats to score.

We need to figure out a solid rotation. We are too deep, and haven't figured out a good rotation. Without one, it's difficult to get into an offensive rhythm.

My lineup:
Mason
Bradley
Hamilton
James
Pittman

Alternatively, I think we could go with a 3 forward lineup:
Mason
Bradley
James
Johnson
Pittman

First off the bench:
Balbay
Johnson

Mix in:
Lucas
Brown
Wangmene
 
FG % was < 37%
FT % was < 41%
Assist : turnover ratio was 13:18
Out-rebounded 42 to 34
Our 3 best players (James, Pittman, Bradley) went 11/31 and 2/7 from 3's

I don't mean to take anything away from KState, but we would have lost to just about anybody tonight with that effort.
 
My thoughts are expressed in the following emoticons:

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Brown is frustrating. He makes Freshman TJ Ford passes that no one expects. I remember Sophomore TJ Ford making those same gorgeous passes and his teammates scoring. Hope JCB gets toward that level before the end of this season.
 
easy boys, it's only january. the nice thing about basketball is that 1 loss is not going to kill your season. the boys will be fine, come back with a better game against uconn and we'll pull it together. you often learn more from a loss than a win, and i'd rather have this one now than in march.
 
Selfishness and laziness and I am sure there are a few other words you can describe this game. We took 11 three-point shots, I can't remember how many of them were wide open looks but I can't remember any..and I love the guards driving into the lane, but it seemed like they were also trying to finish every play themselves. I can't remember one kick out to a guy on the wing for an open shot. A good example was James coming down with a 3 on 1 and he tries to do everything himself and misses the shot.

There might be a bit of "I better get my points while I am in the game" mentality but last night most of the offense looked like 1 Texas guy vs 5 K-state guys.
 
It was a bad night. It's basketball not football. I hate to lose a game as much as anyone but this was bound to happen. We have not been playing really well since beating Michigan State. Hopefully, we will get our mojo back and win the conference. That is important I think. This program needs some championships over KU.
 
On the one hand, we were bound to lose:

We were a tired team (overtime on Sat with a road trip to follow).
K-State was a top ten team with a tremendous homecourt advantage.
No way we were going to go undefeated.
Frank Martin psychotically willed his team to victory.

That being said, it's obvious what every players weak points are, but in this game, it seemed that K-State killed us with offensive rebounds and getting loose balls. Is this because we were tired? Also, it seemed they would strip us of the ball at critical times of the game.

Finally, I know Balbay has skills, but it seemed he made some unbelievably bad turnovers that killed us in one stretch.

I'm not worried about the team. Tough loss and we need to just get our legs back.
 
rebounds (especially on defense), free throws and layups were what cost us the game. Heck 2 of the 3 and we may have won by double digits
 
12 hours later, I am somewhat thankful for this game. Texas was not going undefeated this year, and for the 2nd straight game it could be argued that they deserved to lose.

Sub-50% free throw shooting is unacceptable. I don't know how you fix it in January, but then again I'm not paid to know. Somebody better figure it out though.

On that note, Avery Bradley is beginning to remind me of Jay Williams. Rarely do you see a good shooting guard struggle so much from the line. Stay away from motorcycles, Avery.

Last night was the first where we truly lost composure - hell, I'm not sure we ever had it. Senior leaders James and Pittman provided no leadership.

The freshman played like freshman. I am growing a little concerned about J'Covan - he is not battling back from frustration very well and really letting the talking and refs get to him.

And as an announcer, Bobby Knight makes a great coach.
 
I have never seen a team miss more shots inside of 3 ft. Take away dunks and how many shots has Pittman made in the last 2 games? He went from having the highest shooting percentage in NCAA to maybe making 1 of 15 shots inside of 3 ft.......incredible

Last night James had an off night, it happens move on. But the other guys on this team have some serious issues. The free throw shooting is a complete joke, nothing less. I would hate to see where we rank as a team.
 
Our offense is getting out of balance. Seriously, this year's team is better than last year's because of the offensive firepower brought by Brown, Bradley, Hamilton and Lucas.

Last night, and three nights ago were flashbacks to last year. The only difference was Bradley instead of AJ. We need to stop playing Balbay and Mason at the same time. Opponents don't respect their perimeter shots, and crowd the paint.

We need to achieve balance between perimeter shooting and the inside game. We are too much inside game now. Opponents are daring us to shoot from outside by collapsing around the paint. We have the shooters. Let them shoot without worrying about being pulled because he just missed a shot or put up a bad shot. We need to trust our shooters more.

A football analogy: We keep rushing the ball and get little out of it because the defense is putting eight or nine men in the box. Yet, we won't throw the ball. Just take what the defense gives you.
 
If Chapman would do something in the middle other than standing like a totem pole, maybe Barnes wouldn't have to keep putting Wangmene ahead of him.
 
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