Open Game Thread : Game #25 : #3 Kansas (23-1) @ #11 Texas (19-4)

the worst thing about big monday is the never-failing delayed start time.

big east games have to be the longest in the entire freakin' country, seriously. every single week, the big 12 game's first five minutes is not shown to anyone, outside of very "select" markets, because of the big east's ability to fit in a game in the 2-hour time constraint assigned by espn.

anger.

hopefully we dont miss too much...

texas has already hit a 3, apparently, and is beating the hawks 5-2 right now with 18:49 remaining.

i hate big monday.

villanova just tied the game, and if it goes into OT i will not be a happy person. at all.

screw the big east, i dont care how good of a conference you are.

i just want to watch my team...

i hate big monday, and i am glad that i get to see ku-ut right now, but that call with .1 seconds left was one of the worst i have ever seen in my entire life. seriously.

much worse than eddie hightower.

OK, texas is off to a hot start, up 9-7. but damion james just picked up his second foul already, so hopefully, just like saturday, we can majorly exploit the post with DA and D-BLOCK.

so far, that wont continue.

we need to start playing better on both sides of the ball, and stop turning the ball over, but we are playing pretty good so far.

darrell arthur 15 footer.

that shot is going down all day long.

we need to start actually guarding the three-point line, they will start missing some of these shots, but it is their strength and it will take good defense to get them to hit iron.

everywhere.

except on the perimeter on defense. that sucks right now. it mostly has to do with the incredibly quick release of AJ abrams and DJ augustin and connor atchley.

so, lets keep it up on offense, never turn it over again, not allow the bigs to pick up fouls 30 feet away from the basket, and make our open shots.

formula for success, right there.

hope it continues.

their gameplan seems to be to force our bigs to make jumpers. well, unfortunately for them, both DA and D-BLOCK are actually hitting them.

--- DA is playing like an absolute monster. the comparison between him and julian piqued my interest a little earlier on in the year, when his "breakout year" everyone was predicting (similar to julian) wasnt exactly happening. well, last year this was right around the time when julian absolutely exploded, and if DA explodes, with the better supporting cast thanks to the added year of experience, we are going to be extremely hard to stop. that jumper is just a zone-killer.

--- D-BLOCK is having himself a pretty good game, nothing amazing but he is doing a good job, just like sasha, of picking up the trash. i dont know how many offensive rebounds we have, but we have a bunch, and almost all of them have, in some way, translated into points.

--- we really need to start hitting our outside jumpers. we are playing pretty awesome on offense, but we would be playing incredible if russell started to hit his open threes.

--- our defense is playing OK, about the same as saturday night. it needs to improve, specifically on the quick-releases of atchley and abrams, but i am confident that billy self can get it done over the break.

i should only be around for the first handful of minutes or so of the second half, so carry on the open thread after i leave.

Damn. That could have been a really nice addition to our resume. Best true road win is still at USC.

I'm convinced there's something wrong with Russel at this point, either physically or mentally. He hasn't played up to his abilities in a while now. Even when he scored a bunch against Baylor, most of that was free throws.

The optimist in me wants to believe that this is a midseason lull, and that Self has a master plan to ratchet up the D and unleash the full potential of this squad come tournament time.

The pessimist in me wants to believe that this team is flawed and has yet to come through a major challenge victoriously, with Self unable to accomplish anything to sway the tide.

The realist in me is aware of how incredibly lucky we are to be fans of a program that is 23-2, and yet every fan legitimately feels like the sky is falling right now. If you go beyond wins and losses, however, we aren't playing as well now as we did earlier in the season.

I just wish Self would offer more creative solutions towards fixing this problem- why not try a big lineup of Kaun, DA, and Jackson for a stretch? Heck, why not toss five guards out there and see what happens? Why not try a full court press, half court trap, or isolation offense? Maybe its time for another starting lineup tweak (SC over Russ?). What's that old saying about the definition of insanity- something about trying the same thing over and over, and yet expecting a different result?