Felt good loss | The Boneyard

Felt good loss

HailUConn

HailUConn

#Chargin4Seven
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Not moral victory speech, but this loss really should make us feel good.
Lots of things went wrong for us, and lots of things right for Jayhawks to avoid a loss.

Against us:
  • a very loud, hostile environment, we can see why it’s tough to get a win there.
  • no Castle
  • Spencer got hurt early and not himself even thou he played thru.
  • Karaban did not show up, and made a bone head foul and got him fouled out when it is one possession game. He may have made the shot instead of injured Spencer if he had stayed in.

  • again, make FT. We could’ve won if we made 75% of FTs
  • A couple critical calls did not go our way. The out of bound ball was tipped by Dickinson, not Clingan. The foul on Karaban on the lob. ‘Nuff said.

  • Dickinson made 3 3 pointers
  • McCluar guy made 2 straight corner 3 at the end of game.


Regroup, get healthy, and keep your head up, Huskies! We will be scary good coming March!
 
It is amazing at how mismatched a first half could be, on the road, against a Top 5 team, and UConn was only down 7 at halftime. UConn absolutely sucked for 20 minutes, at Kansas, and was still in the game at halftime. That was the grittiest I have seen a UConn team play in a long time. Respect.
 
We simply don't lose that game without Castle. I am sure of it. On top of that half a Cam Spencer after rolling an ankle
Hurley said it best, it was like we won the lottery being down only 7 after that first half. Respect to Newton for carrying us through that game. Wish he was on the end of that look at the very end for 3.
 
At halftime my wife commented that I was abnormally calm for a big game that UConn was losing. I told her I didn't know which team would when the game but that I had seen enough to know UConn was the better team. No one can predict injuries but a fully healthy UConn is better that a fully healthy Kansas.
 
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As long as there are no long term effects for Cam or Donovan, i'm fine with this.
We weren't going to go undefeated this season, despite our wishes. Even the best, most talented, best coached teams lose in the regular season....especially away at a top 5 opponent. Everything that could have gone wrong, from the choice of refs, to injuries, to gameplan, and we had an open shot with 3 seconds left to win.

If Cam, DC, and Steph are ready to go in Feb/March, we'll be one of maybe 5 teams that have a chance at doing what we want to do.

It doesn't feel good, but it also doesn't feel all that bad.
 
We took the lead in the second half. We did something right. Hard to overcome poor shooting and suspect calls and a hostile environment.

Dickerson had a ball go out of bounds in the first have, the refs didn't run to the monitor on that play.

It was a game on the road, I get it, but up by 5 with under 9 minutes to play we had a chance to win this game and that alone made me feel just a tad bit better.

Not a bad loss. Teams need adversity to build on and also get ready for a tournament run.
 
Kitaman said:
Castle is unproven in that environment especially this early. To me he was not the missing piece.

It was up to the upperclassmen to win this game and they almost did.
Expand ...
Castle changes the whole dynamic of the group on the floor. He has to be worth 5-7 points minimum in terms of finding a shooter, tipping a pass etc. Put another way, UConn is better every second Castle is on the court instead of say Diarra.

Castle absolutely IS the missing piece as his presence frees things up for others AND creates opportunities.
 
I hate the idea of moral victories. The best teams don't have them. We had opportunities to finish them off and didn't make enough plays to get the job done.

That being said, if we can get Castle back and keep everyone else healthy, I think we're the best team in the country. I'd like to see some better three point shooting, but we play defense at a high level, have terrific ball movement, and we have two guards that can get buckets and distribute. Tristen Newton in particular has been incredible. I have to imagine the drumbeat for him as an All-American is only going to get louder and louder.
 
Every player hit their comfortable place at different times. Newton got his early. Most of the team caught on much later. Hard place to play. Kudos to the KU fans.

Tip the hat to the Phog. Now come to Gampel.
 
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Austin316 said:
Every player hit their comfortable place at different times. Newton got his early. Most of the team caught on much later. Hard place to play. Kudos to the KU fans.

Tip the hat to the Phog. Now come to Gampel.
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I'm not sure AK did. Not worried about him in the long run, but the last 2 games haven't been good.
 
So instead of getting our 25th straight non-conf double-digit win, we lost a non-conf game we had double-digit chances to win. In the end we lost because we were playing injured and exhausted after outscoring them 28-11 to turn a 12-pt deficit into a 5-pt lead.
 
I watched the Kansas post game on Espn+ and they said that's the best KU has played this year, especially on D....so we took their best shot in a hostile environmnet w/o Castle & a very impaired Spencer and game was right there to win.

Hard to feel too bad, it was a missed opportunity to post a great road win but fully healthy we're the better team....so hopefully we get fully healthy soon and stay that way. The UNC game at MSG on Tuesday is huge so rest up boys....a loss on Tues would feel much worse so let's win!
 
Besides Newton they didn't play very well. No Castle. And winning at AFH is really tough. Really, really tough according to this. All that and they had a chance to win at the end. Huskies will be fine.

The win marked the 13th time in coach Bill Self's 21-year tenure that Kansas has played a top-10 team at home that was ranked higher than the Jayhawks. KU has won all 13 games.

That's pretty crazy.

www.cbssports.com

Kansas vs. UConn score, takeaways: Jayhawks rally past Huskies to snap nation's longest winning streak

Kansas needed a late rally to end UConn's nation-best winning streak on Friday
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
 
Not upset about the loss. They were in the game at the half after playing terribly. Had a shot to win the game. Even Greenberg in the post game analysis mentioned UConn is a legit Final 4 team and Kansas has work to do and needs to find a third scorer. Not often do you hear a more critical analysis of the winning team after a game.
 
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HailUConn said:
McCluar guy made 2 straight corner 3 at the end of game.
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According to this it was 3 in the last 6 minutes. Wondering what he was shooting from three before last night. Don't want to bother looking it up.

After falling behind 52-47 with 9:09 remaining, Kansas used an 14-2 run over the next five minutes to regain control. Spearheading the late charge was McCullar, who hit three 3-pointers over the game's final six minutes.

www.cbssports.com

Kansas vs. UConn score, takeaways: Jayhawks rally past Huskies to snap nation's longest winning streak

Kansas needed a late rally to end UConn's nation-best winning streak on Friday
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
 
HooperScooper said:
The win marked the 13th time in coach Bill Self's 21-year tenure that Kansas has played a top-10 team at home that was ranked higher than the Jayhawks. KU has won all 13 games.

That's pretty crazy.
Expand ...

That's more due to home officiating than to Self's coaching. I wouldn't put too much merit into that stat.
 
B1GEast said:
That's more due to home officiating than to Self's coaching. I wouldn't put too much merit into that stat.
Expand ...
Nonsense. If we made a few free throws we win this. But the fans factor in missing those.
 
HooperScooper said:
According to this it was 3 in the last 6 minutes. Wondering what he was shooting from three before last night. Don't want to bother looking it up.

After falling behind 52-47 with 9:09 remaining, Kansas used an 14-2 run over the next five minutes to regain control. Spearheading the late charge was McCullar, who hit three 3-pointers over the game's final six minutes.

www.cbssports.com

Kansas vs. UConn score, takeaways: Jayhawks rally past Huskies to snap nation's longest winning streak

Kansas needed a late rally to end UConn's nation-best winning streak on Friday
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
Expand ...
8-27 (29.6%)
 
HooperScooper said:
Besides Newton they didn't play very well. No Castle. And winning at AFH is really tough. Really, really tough according to this. All that and they had a chance to win at the end. Huskies will be fine.

The win marked the 13th time in coach Bill Self's 21-year tenure that Kansas has played a top-10 team at home that was ranked higher than the Jayhawks. KU has won all 13 games.

That's pretty crazy.

www.cbssports.com

Kansas vs. UConn score, takeaways: Jayhawks rally past Huskies to snap nation's longest winning streak

Kansas needed a late rally to end UConn's nation-best winning streak on Friday
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
Expand ...
Let me re-state that.

Kansas is 13-0 at home when facing a top 10 team ranked higher than they are. That is unfathomable.
 
87Xfer said:
I'm not sure AK did. Not worried about him in the long run, but the last 2 games haven't been good.
Expand ...

He had 3 in the first half. 7 in the second half. He played better in the second half and just got caught in foul trouble.

The one thing I’ll say about Alex is he needs to be more aggressive and draw more fouls. You’re not wrong. I think he’s been playing a little softer the last few games.
 
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Obviously not a UConn fan, but I have no doubt that they are the better team. Other than Newton, no one played particularly well while most Kansas players were at least what was expected of them. Watching KU against Marquette and UConn has convinced me that they would have at least 6 or 7 losses in the Big East, and may end up that way in the Big 12.
 
I'm still pissed because we didn't play well and more than that, at crucial moments, we played dumb.

Up 5, 52-47, and Kansas on the ropes we run absolutely nothing and Diarra has the ball in his hands with 11 on the shot clock, nearly turns it over, then has to hoist a baseline 3 with the shot clock running out. We come down and give up a wide open 3.

Up 4, 54-50, after Dickinson misses a FT, we come down, have an out of sorts possession and our shot is basically a fall away jump hook by Tristan over Dickinson. Kansas comes down and gets a wide open look for Adams.

Up 54-52, we immediately come down, run the whole shot clock down, and Ball has to heave a jumper as the shot clock expires. (This is the play where Samson got tackled). Kansas comes down and McCullers hits a wide open 3.

And that was pretty much game.

We battled and mad props to that. Kansas is obviously a quality team and their athleticism bothered us. Tristan was outstanding, obviously Spencer was hampered, DC was exposed a bit, Karaban is off, and we didn't get much of anything from anyone else. But the game was ours if we just could execute. But when the game was right there we reverted to playing passive offensively as we did in the early stages of the first half and worse yet, gave up absolutely wide open looks on three of four possessions. So this is not a "felt good loss" for me.
 
B1GEast said:
That's more due to home officiating than to Self's coaching. I wouldn't put too much merit into that stat.
Expand ...
It doesn't say it's Self coaching and that's not the point of the stat. Not sure how you took it that way. It just shows how hard it is to win there. That was the point of the stat.
 
boog204 said:
I'm still pissed because we didn't play well and more than that, at crucial moments, we played dumb.

Up 5, 52-47, and Kansas on the ropes we run absolutely nothing and Diarra has the ball in his hands with 11 on the shot clock, nearly turns it over, then has to hoist a baseline 3 with the shot clock running out. We come down and give up a wide open 3.

Up 4, 54-50, after Dickinson misses a FT, we come down, have an out of sorts possession and our shot is basically a fall away jump hook by Tristan over Dickinson. Kansas comes down and gets a wide open look for Adams.

Up 54-52, we immediately come down, run the whole shot clock down, and Ball has to heave a jumper as the shot clock expires. (This is the play where Samson got tackled). Kansas comes down and McCullers hits a wide open 3.

And that was pretty much game.

We battled and mad props to that. Kansas is obviously a quality team and their athleticism bothered us. Tristan was outstanding, obviously Spencer was hampered, DC was exposed a bit, Karaban is off, and we didn't get much of anything from anyone else. But the game was ours if we just could execute. But when the game was right there we reverted to playing passive offensively as we did in the early stages of the first half and worse yet, gave up absolutely wide open looks on three of four possessions. So this is not a "felt good loss" for me.
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I like how this team moves the ball and all the motion they do in their offense. With that said, I think the team needs to have a little better situational awareness where certain players should be the ones taking the shots. They're a couple of critical moments late in the game where Diarra was taking the shots. I'd like his aggressiveness to look for his shots but not when we need points to either stretch lead at a critical time or when down by just a few points. They should have got the ball in Newton's hand during the latter part of the shot clock.

Once they get castle back he's the type of player who can take his man off the dribble and either score in the paint, draw a file or kick to an open teammate. He probably would have been the difference in that game.

With that said, Kansas put together some really good stretches that flip the game in their favor.

None of us including the team likes losing, but it was an excellent experience for the team to build on. If the team were at full strength they would have come out of there with a W.
 
There have been many games in the past where I watched a win and I knew that it was fools gold. I felt the team was not progressing or even regressing and it was going to hurt in the long run. There were games which I watched a team lose but knew the converse was true. Last season we lost the first couple of games moving Andre from the perimeter to the base line but I knew that the coaching staff figured out a way to make Andre an asset in the half court offense as opposed to a liability.

Obviously there is a third more preferential door and that is to watch a team win and the team continues to improve. But I'll take a loss any day if it helps the team develop. Especially when it's early in the season.

This game allowed the team to play under the most stressful situation (injuries, extreme hostile environment, horrible start) and still be one shot away from winning. The players could be like several posters in this forum and not recognize the positives of this game or overweigh the negatives. Yes it could end up negatively impacting their future play if they get down on themselves. Or they can observe and believe that in spite of the loss they almost over came those hurdles. They could recognize that very few teams could have done this. They can believe they are the best team if they remain healthy and even unhealthy are one of the best teams. I hope this is their take from this game.
 
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