Basketball Articles
Jayhawks Win in Manhattan
Posted by Hiphopopotamus on January 31st, 2010 under Basketball
As if there was ever a doubt. After all, in the time I’ve been on this earth, it’s been statistically more likely that Kansas would win the national championship than lose a game in Manhattan. Need proof? Since 1984, Kansas has:
- Won two national titles
- Lost once in Manhattan
And there are many more just like it, most of which are equally hilarious. But you knew all that. What you didn’t know was that this particular Kansas team has grown it’s proverbial balls. For the first 15 games or so, we were letting Sherron’s do most of the heavy hanging – and his aren’t going anywhere – but as we’ve gotten into league play, we’ve had several others get in on the act. And that’s why we’re sitting with a two game lead in the Big XII. Well that, and Texas’ in ability to run a competent offense. But I digress.
Speaking of Texas, colleague Trips Right nails it, when he points out the Cole Aldrich was the biggest difference. Just as he has been the last couple weeks. And as I’ve said all year, as he (with the help of the twins) will be if we’re to accomplish what we all want. He opens up so much for everyone else on the offensive end, and has the ability to completely seal off the basket on the defensive end. Sherron is our unquestioned leader and crunch time guy, but no one means more for forty minutes than Aldrich. Glad to have ya back, big fella.
As for his help down low, the Morris twins really have come a long way. Kief’s 0-4 from the strip was disappointing, to say the least, but his defense, rebounding and passing should not go unnoticed. A former foul machine, he has officially learned to play D with his feet and not his hands, and it’s been huge in his development and ours. He’s probably as good a passer as anyone outside of Sherron and Brady, and his per minute rebounding is likely as good as anyone on the team. As for his brother, once we teach him how to finish a layup, we’ll really have a player on our hands. Marcus finished with 13 points (on 5-11 shooting) and 10 boards, so obviously we’re happy, but if you watched, you know it could have easily been 20. I’ll give him a pass on the laughable offensive foul early (which he scored on), but the three missed layups could have cost us dearly. Put him on the block and he’s smooth as silk. Put him point blank and he looks like a fish out of water. Think that guy has a guard mentality? Regardless, he’s got the face up game, the turnaround and he can take most bigs off the dribble. It helps to play alongside Cole and the attention he commands, but Marcus’ offensive diversity is an enormous asset.
Before we move to the guards, I should mention how surprised I was that Withey got the call over Robinson. In such a physical game – especially knowing that K-State’s best offensive is a missed shot – seems like a perfect game to unleash Thomas. Since I have to think Bill feels the same way, I think our only inference at this point is that Thomas’ turnovers have caused Bill to lose whatever trust he had in him. That won’t be earned back easily.
While we’re on that, I think we all saw exactly what he thinks of Xavier right now. Effort is not the problem, and it hasn’t been. He’s taken leaps and bounds on the defensive side and his rebounding continues to improve. But the fact of the matter is, he: A) can’t go right; and B) isn’t strong with the ball. Big time kudos for the two shots he hit late when forced into action, but it’s pretty clear Bill doesn’t trust him in a big time game right now. There’s nothing I wanted to be more wrong about, but unfortunately I saw this one coming a while back. I’ve been spouting off since November that once teams started to key on him – and more importantly, his weaknesses – that he was going to have trouble making the adjustment. Right now, he’s looking for other ways to contribute, but hasn’t been able to get his mojo back offensively. A couple weeks ago, I didn’t think we could get where we want to go without it, but Marcus has since become that third scorer. If we get early season offensive X back (or anything close), we’ll obviously be much better for it, but we’re not fucked if we don’t.
Another part of the reason for that is Brady Morningstar. All Sleeves did last night was play 39 minutes of mostly great defense and chip in 14 points on all of 5 shots, to go along with a couple assists, 3 steals and the one board he got credit for. He’s comfortable handling the ball, he feeds the big men and he hits the open shot. There’s a reason Self gushes over him during just about ever post-game presser.
His replacements off the bench did some nice things for us as well. Tyshawn gave us thirty minutes- and also played mostly good D – kept the ball moving on O and attacked the rim when he could. He didn’t convert a ton from the field (2-4), but he drew the foul and converted at the stripe (8-9). The late steal from Clemente was beautiful and the subsequent throw-away to McGruder was just horrendous, but mostly we got a nice lift from Tyshawn. Oddly, Tyrel didn’t get much floor time last night (9 minutes) and the boxscore reflects it: 1-1 shoting for 2 points, to go along with an assist. But, as you may recall, he was the one who chased down Dom Sutton and poked the ball loose as he was driving toward the win after Sherron’s TO.
Speaking of, gotta love that guy. He’s still good for a bonehead shot or two most games. And I couldn’t believe that late game stumble (though apparently he cramped and fell), but he brings it when we need him to. The late game heroics have been well-documented, but just as importantly, let’s talk about the middle of the second half. The Cats had just turned our 8 point lead into a 4 point lead of their own with a 15-3 run. What happens next? Sherron brings it up and buries a three. Brady steals it from Kelly, dishes ahead to Sherron, who converts at the rim and just like that, we’re back ahead. He’ll make you wince every once in a while, but no one has the ability to seize the moment quite like Sherron, whether or not the clock says it’s time.
And so here we sit, 6-0 with a two game lead. You can’t win the league In January, but we’re in as good a position as our schedule provided. We’ve still got five roadies left – 4 of them extremely tough (UT, MU, OSU, A&M) – as well as a visit from the Wildcats on Senior Night, so this thing is far from over. But we won’t play in a tougher atmosphere all year long and we passed it with flying colors. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t perfect last night – far from it actually. But that’s what made it so satisfying to watch. We fought, we grinded and we made the plays when they mattered the most. We’re 21 games in and I’ve never felt better about our chances to cut the nets in Indy.
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Triston27 said:
January 31st, 2010 at 8:51 pm
If X could get his game back, and Mc Morris can continue to play as well has he has been, this team can dominate anyone it plays. It’s great to see Cole back.
BluManGrp said:
January 31st, 2010 at 9:06 pm
“I’ll give him a pass on the laughable offensive foul early (which he scored on)”
You say ‘laughable’, I say ‘aneurysmable’.
That was quite possibly the worst call I’ve seen all year. Never in my life have I seen that called a charge, and I doubt I ever will in the future. He wasn’t even running toward the basket. He simply leaned into the arms of the defender and shot — 70/30 no-call vs defensive foul. 0% of the time is that an offensive foul.
I knew then and there that the refs were out to screw K-State in the game, even if it meant calling ridonculous fouls on KU’s best players.
Raefzilla said:
January 31st, 2010 at 9:37 pm
For whatever reason, Cole is officially back (3 straight games now). We missed ya, buddy. With Cole and Sherron playing at or near the level they played at last year and the VAST improvement of the rest of the team behind them, I’m feeling pretty damn good right now. Everyone in the rotation has a role and we have 2 legitimate X-factors in TT and X that can provide a huge boost to the team on any given night. If one or both of those players can get it clicking by March while still maintaining the level of team cohesion, I will feel even better than I do right now!
Hiphopotamus said:
February 1st, 2010 at 6:52 am
BMG – That really was as bad a call as I’ve seen in a very long time. I don’t know if the guy was out of position, or just signaled it wrong, or what happened. But he could defend himself until he’s blue in the face and I wouldn’t accept his logic on how he could call that an offensive foul.
Raef – I think you touched on a point I meant to hit, but glossed over. Despite how good I feel about this team, there’s still a ton of room for further improvement. We’re seeing them take big steps and improve from game to game, but they’re nowhere near their ceiling right now, and won’t be until X and/or Tyshawn are clicking on all cylinders. I do think Bill is going to need to trust Thomas or Withey at some point as well down low.
distantkin said:
February 1st, 2010 at 6:58 am
It is awesome that we have a 2 game lead heading into Feb. Even though TT had 3 TO’s in the game and my wife loves to hate him, I still think he is a HUGE factor in the grand scheme of things (particularly offense). His 8 of 9 from the stripe and 2 of 4 shooting may indicate what his role is. Just as long as he doesn’t get carried away and force his way to the bucket. He’s got great quickness and he can get above the rim to finish. Damn, we’re lucky and spoiled to have this team and nitpick at issues that other teams would love to have. On a side note…I loved all the octagon references. The nickname I was thinking of was “The Purple Hole”. Did anyone understand the Col. Sanders and Chicken get up? ESPN kept going to those a-holes on the break the enitre game…
travis said:
February 1st, 2010 at 7:12 am
The reason why you all will ultimately cutt down the nets (which I covet ohh so much) is the fact that after your studs.. Self gives your role players the green light and you have guy after guy that can take advantage of that and hit a big shot when it matters.
Morningstar can kill ya from deep, Reed will hit a few shots, Taylor is very talented, and I haven’t even mentioned the most talented of the bunch in Henry.
I will admit that I was very wrong, in thinking that Texas was the deepest team in the country, we have a lot of bodies but that’s all they are just bodies messing up the rythmn of my freakin’ offense.
I’m gonna go watch my dvr’d football games and think about football now
Raefzilla said:
February 1st, 2010 at 7:40 am
Distant – I assume they both relate to the “chickenhawks.” Col. Sanders fries the chickenhawks, you see.
Btw did anyone see what kind of chickens they threw onto the court this year? Live, dead, or just rubber?
BluManGrp said:
February 1st, 2010 at 10:02 am
travis– talent-wise, you’re as deep as anyone in the country. But as good as Rick Barnes is at recruiting great talent, he’s equally bad at developing that talent and molding it into a cohesive team.
But I’m sure you remember how bad UT looked most of last year, then at the end y’all finally got sexy Dexy involved and it was a completely different team.
travis said:
February 1st, 2010 at 11:27 am
I know… I’m hoping that they can get out of this funk… but the thing that scares me is it doesn’t seem like something they can just shake, its seems like something that is in the system and teams have figured out how to get into Dex’s head.
Our role players and even some of the starters look at the bench after ever possession, and it’s absolutely taken the fun out of the game for the kids. Of course our guys have to be able to make a shot once in awhile for that to actually matter but still.
IMO barnes needs to let loose a little bit, I know its not 100% on the coach, and I know the sky isn’t falling down around me …. but It for sure makes me feel like drinking early and often
Trips Right said:
February 1st, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Great post hip. I’m green with envy on this side of the fence. You’ve got a legit basketball coach and we have a guy that has to have a collection of street fighters plus an elite point guard to be successful.
Scooby Sanchez Jr. said:
February 1st, 2010 at 4:07 pm
I’m starting to love this team as well. We have role players who accept their role and do it well like Brady, Kieff, Reed, and even Taylor. Also, our role players compliment our stars very, very well. For example, Reed and Brady shoot very, very well when open so they are a perfect compliment/bailout for SC when he drives. Kieff doesn’t give a damn if he plays 5 minutes or 20 minutes, he just brings his lunch pale and is willing to do the dirty work.
Albietheracistdragon said:
February 2nd, 2010 at 3:19 am
What about Morningstar? I felt ilke he was one of the best players of the game. I will go as far as to say right now he is a better basketball player than X. All said and done X will be the better player in the future but right now morningstar is lookin like the man!
Hiphopotamus said:
February 2nd, 2010 at 7:20 am
Trips/travis – I imagine you’re feeling a little better about things this morning. That offense looks a lot better when you have a 6′7″ taking guys off the bounce and raining threes to no end.
Scooby – Agreed. It took me a while to really start loving them, but now I’m hooked. No one is outworking them and they’re coming together perfectly. Lots of room for improvement, but the pieces are there and they know it.
Albi (great name) – I probably should have said more about him, because we’re absolutely not in this position without him. Like I said, there’s a reason Bill gushes over him any time he gets the chance. The guy does everything well, almost never takes a bad shot, and has even become clutch away from home (my biggest complaint on him a year ago). I think Tyshawn is a big key for us, but no matter how well he plays, Brady should start the rest of the year.