Open Game Thread :: Game #11 :: Kansas 8-2 (0-0) @ Arizona 7-3 (0-0)
by rockchalk on Dec 23, 2008 8:30 PM CST
in Basketball
82 comments
Kansas Jayhawks at Arizona Wildcats, Dec 23, 2008 9:30 PM CST
As I said, who the hell knows how this will all turn out. Should be fun, though, and definitely a good test to see where we're at.
The key will be Brady on Budinger, IMO. If Brady can keep Budinger from completely going insane, our superior talent just about everywhere else (Hill is good, yes, but Aldrich is better and I'll take Collins + Taylor against t heir backcourt duo any day of the week and twice on Tuesday nights) should allow us to win. So, Brady, I'm looking at you. Make us all proud.
My prediction? I'll say that Brady does a pretty good job on Chase, and one of the Morris twins (my bias will take Marcus, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it be Markieff at all) blows up. Kansas 78 Arizona 67
But again, that is purely a guess. There are far too many teams to identify which one is going to show up for both teams, making predictions pretty much impossible.
I should be here for game time, by the way, if you want to stop by and chat during the game. I'll be flipping back-and-forth between the KU-AZ game and the end of the sure-to-be-epic San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl between Boise State and TCU, but should still be plenty active.
ROCK CHALK!
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Boo
No national coverage? And Mizzou-Illinois was on ESPN? What’s happening?
Insanity is just a state of mind.
Unfortunately
I get the Sharks-Canucks game. Pretty bad, since I’m a Duck fan.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
Well, we started out hot.
but then they hit some shots and our freshmen freaked out with the crowd noise.
We need to settle down…
OK, we're starting to calm down.
A couple of huge threes by Reed and Brady and we are looking pretty solid.
Hill looks very average, and Brady’s doing a fine job on Budinger. Nic Wise, though, is scary-quick. And Horne is playing a helluva game for the Wildcats.
Well
Found an online feed. Seems decent. I’ll try to follow once it switches from Minn. game.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
I like the offense right now, nice movement. I don’t like the D-boards though.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
+1 on both.
We are doing a good job at getting shots against the zone. They aren’t all falling, both of the Morris twins missed the free throw jumper earlier, but we’re doing what we should be doing.
We need to work on boxing out, though, for sure.
Is it me?
Or is Morningstar more involved in the offense? Or is it just that he’s getting open? I like his shot, he just needs to shoot with confidence. And he’s shutting down Budinger. I feel good about this game.
The inside play needs work on both ends.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
He's getting a lot more confidence.
As each game goes on.
I am feeling good as well. You have to figure Cole is going to start being a factor at some point.
And yeah, Brady is getting more confidence, so he is running to the open spot more instead of just hanging out in the corner merely serving as someone to move the ball around.
It’s all about confidence with Brady.
Geez. Tyrel needs to start hitting his shot. They are all close enough as to were I firmly believe he is merely in a cold streak, but he has to break out eventually for that to be true.
I'm thinking the same thing
When is Aldrich going to take over inside? Is he in foul trouble? Or are we just able to get the passes to him?
Insanity is just a state of mind.
No.
Just one foul. He picked it up really early, on a stupid hedging foul thirty feet from the basket.
We need to start forcing the ball down low to Cole and let him work. We are taking too many perimeter jumpers as it is.
So frustrating.
I almost throw my remote at the tv every time I see a big man pick up a foul 30 feet from the basket.
+1.
I hate it.
Cole is young, so he should still learn, but nothing was more frustrating than watching Darrell Arthur pick up AT LEAST one foul a game a mile away from the basket. I don’t think he’s learned his lesson yet… ;)
Ewww
I don’t like this anymore. Without Collins taking charge on offense, we look lost. When he runs it, we look much more smooth.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
We're fortunate
Arizona certainly looks like a team with an interim coach: Great talent but sloppy and not much on hustle or fundamentals
by hunter s. royal on Dec 23, 2008 10:16 PM CST reply actions
I think we’re falling asleep against the zone and being content with the jump shots, for stretches, anyway. We need to dribble and dish.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
Agreed completely.
And even when we’re driving, we are favoring taking the tear-drops instead of dishing it out.
The jump shots aren’t terrible, at least we are a good enough passing team and move the ball around enough that the shots are open ones, but it is worse than either driving in or simply passing it in to Cole.
They are doing a good job of double-teaming Cole, though, so it does make some sense that he’s struggling so much.
Collins made a few nice passes at the end of the first half.
If he can keep that up, they’ll be a great team. Jacking 3’s on the hand…
Agreed exactly.
Against UMASS, he took far too many threes from way too far away.
Since then, however, on Saturday and tonight he has been MUCH, MUCH better at merely distributing the ball and only taking shots in rhythm. Big bonus.
Seems like
Self is trying to protect Collins this year from injury and fatigue by having Taylor or Reed handle the ball until crucial spots and late in the game.
by hunter s. royal on Dec 23, 2008 10:26 PM CST reply actions
Agreed.
On Self’s teams, there really isn’t such a thing as a ‘PG’. Sure, Russell brought it up a lot last year, but he didn’t have to, and Mario did plenty of times as well. Pretty much, Self wants all of his guards to be able to dribble the ball up the court and set up the offense.
This helps out when your (arguably) best and (certainly) most experienced player is the PG, allowing him, as you say, to get some rest.
I feel pretty confident.
Cole should pick it up, and we are doing a fabulous job of covering Budinger; all credit goes to Brady’s stellar effort. Tyrel needs to kncok down one of his open shots or two, and it would also be pretty cool to pound it in to Cole occasionally.
Still, I think we end up winning. The freshmen, by-and-large, are playing pretty well in a pretty hostile environment. There have been a couple of stupid mistakes (“Marcus, you’ve gotta catch the ball!”), but that is to be expected with freshmen playing in their first ever road game.
We are in good shape, overall.
Oh, BTW...
Did anyone see that Portland State, our first round victim last year, upset Gonzaga in Spokane? Quite the upset. And that short, 5’6"-or-whatever PG of theirs had like 30 points. The kid can play.
Oh, and the Huskers lost to UMBC. Combining that with Mizzou’s choke-job against Illannoy, and the Big 12 North looks painfully weak. I was hoping that at least one of those two teams could step up and be halfway competent, maybe even competing for a NCAA bid. And while still possible, tonight did a lot to halt those dreams…
Maybe not neccesarily bad
This might be the year I would prefer I would prefer a weaker North. I get the whole thing about playing good teams, but this team seems like they could use confidence from winning more than close fought losses. Those will come against Texas and Oklahoma in my opinion.
And yeah, crazy upset. Gonzaga was going to fall sooner or later to a lower opponent.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
I see that.
I just wanted to prevent all of the jokes about the incredible weakness of the Big 12 North. It would be nice, though, to have some easy gimmes in conference to try and win our 5th straight conference championship.
That’s still within reach, right?
Oh, one more thing before we start playing again...
Thanks for stopping by all of you. Giants, obviously, you’ve been around. And I’ve seen Warden over at RR, but never over here. Glad you’re here. Same with hunter s. royal, glad you stopped by and chatted.
These are way more fun the more people join. Especially when it is intelligent conversation and not just cheerleader-type-stuff. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Yeah, came here from RR.
Looking forward to participating. It’s more fun when I’m not just yelling at the tv or dead air in my apartment.
No problem
I love breaking down basketball games, however, high school is much simpler than college, so I try my best. I know exactly what you meant with Morningstar looking for shots more, that’s the exact type of player I was for 2 years, then I quit… lol.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
Don't like Texas
But almost have to root for them tonight because of the bad losses by Missouri & Nebraska. Of course I could never apply that sentiment to misery or the psycho in manhatten.
by hunter s. royal on Dec 23, 2008 10:36 PM CST reply actions
Anybody watch the TCU-Boise St. game?
TCU should’ve won by more. Glad to see Boise lose, just a personal preference.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
Missed most of the football game
It was too enjoyable watching Missouri suck. I couldn’t turn it off.
by hunter s. royal on Dec 23, 2008 10:46 PM CST reply actions
Doesn't it seem like Self is more animated on the sideline this year?
I don’t know if he’s more tense because of the youth of the team or just figures he has more room to take liberties because of the National Championship.
by hunter s. royal on Dec 23, 2008 10:54 PM CST reply actions
He does seem a little more animated.
I think it’s probably because of the youth.
And I don’t like the way this game is heading.
What is this?
Sloppy offense, not playing D, very bad. The crowd isn’t even that loud. We just need to concentrate.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
Sadly, not surprising for the first road game.
Kind of disappointed in Sherron though. He really seems to press too much in key moments.
by hunter s. royal on Dec 23, 2008 11:11 PM CST reply actions
I thought we got seem calls early.
Now it seems to be payback time.
by hunter s. royal on Dec 23, 2008 11:14 PM CST reply actions
Now I think we're going opposite
We’re not taking the jump shots, trying to make too much happen.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
Well...
not completely unexpected but certainly dissapointed, we lack toughness big time and are getting killed on the boards because of it….
Aldrich cannot play like this he’s too important to our success at ths point but I know he’s still very young ans far as actual game experience. I guess we’ll see how this cointinues. I’m looking forward to reading the comparison to 04-05 sometime in the next few days and hopfully it will brighten my outlook.
On a side note noticed we had a couple new faced here tonight, Hunter…Warden…welcome and hope you’ll stick around here at RCT and give your thoughts and add to the discussion around here.
Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.
Sorry for being gone for awhile.
My dad got home, so I rewound so he could catch up. We’re live now, and these refs suck.
Wishy-washy call after wishy-washy call.
Ah, well. None of us knew what was going to happen, like we said. Hopefully we can learn from it and get better for Big 12 play. Still, while I did say I had no idea what would happen, I didn’t expect this at all.
unexpected in the sense that...
if you had told me Chase Budinger would only score 5, I would have felt we would be pretty competitive and we haven’t
Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.
bout what should be expected
from a young team playing its first game on the road. Our only experienced player tries too hard at times because he doesn’t trust everyone else. Hopefully that will change as the season goes along and we get better at playing on the road.
by 2.1 seconds left on Dec 23, 2008 11:26 PM CST reply actions
I agree with the trust factor...
but at the same time I feel like we are getting to the point where we’ve got to quit bailing Sherron out with this excuse everytime he hurts us with his play.
Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.
Agreed.
We had 25 good minutes anyway. Just have to learn from this. Plenty of teachable moments for Self from the second half.
by hunter s. royal on Dec 23, 2008 11:30 PM CST reply actions
College basketball = homecourt rules
Which means we better learn from this and dominate tennessee
by 2.1 seconds left on Dec 23, 2008 11:31 PM CST up reply actions
I just hope we start...
winning some of these so we aren’t sitting at home for the tournament this year.
Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.
We aren't sitting home.
We will make the NCAAs. We have the name value. Last year, Zona lost 14 frickin’ games, but still made it.
We’ve lost 3 so far. As long as we lose 10 or less, we comfortably make it as an 8 seed or so.
Now, it’s time to get worried if we lose to Tennessee and Michigan State AND drop a game early in the conference season.
I want to do a post substantiating this in the next couple of days…
No need to freak out.
Not freaking out...
just looking for a win or two we can hang our hat on at some point…I’m sure we won’t miss the tourney but never say never, Florida and Ohio State missed last year after being in the final game the year before.
Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.
I suppose you're right.
Kansas is a much bigger name, though, than Florida and Ohio State. We would have to truly be undeserving to be left out, IMO.
And I agree, we probably need to beat Tennessee/Michigan State to feel really confident going into Big 12 play. Unless we want to be forced into getting a big win against OU in Norman or Baylor in Waco or even Texas at home, we need to do something besides merely beating up on the inferior Big 12 North.
+1.
Plus, we got substantially out-physicalled today, and Self’s teams NEVER get out-physicalled. NEVER.
So, yeah, Christmas won’t be too fun of a time for this Jayhawk team.
I bet that self
never lets these kids out of the weight room over break, unless its for practice. We desperately NEED some interior toughness by february and march, I am sick and tired of opposing teams getting all these offensive boards. But, I guess these guys are mostly my age or younger, and I don’t know how much toughness level measures up. Probably pretty badly.
l
by 2.1 seconds left on Dec 23, 2008 11:38 PM CST up reply actions
Well folks...
again welcome to the new faces, have a good holiday and hope we’ll see everyone back here for a better game next time…and if anyone’s headed to Tempe, I’ll see you there.
Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.
+1.
Thanks everyone for coming. Hopefully, next time we all show up it won’t be a L.
I might end up putting up a post tomorrow, but if not, I just want to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you.
same to you...
Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.
Lucky for us.
The big 12 North looks horrible.
by hunter s. royal on Dec 23, 2008 11:36 PM CST reply actions
I was surprised to hear that Baylor...
was the only Big12 team to beat a pac10 team this year…maybe the whole conference is down a little this year…of course anytime Kansas is down the Big12 is down.
Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.
On the road.
They said Baylor was the only team in the whole Pac 10/Big 12 Challenge to win on the road. Every other game was won by the home team. I think that makes us one game up in the whole Challenge thing, and if Texas Tech can beat Stanford we should win for sure.
Not that it matters or anything…
Have fun writing this up
D was horrible all game long, just no effort on that end of the court. And our O functioned well until we just lost control in the 2nd half, started giving up turnovers and taking stupid shots. For some reason the zone gave us fits. Hope to see Aldrich back to normal next game.
Also, Morningstar: Good 1st half, bad 2nd half. Can’t expect shots all the time, but not quite the effort in half 2.
Insanity is just a state of mind.
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