Kansas Post Game Thread

[FreeKlaiber]

Clingan is not an effecient low-post scorer. Get used to it.

Screen and roll, cuts, transition and putbacks.

Also your use of ellipses is anmoying. Cut it out or you're getting put on ignore.

yes you are obviously correct lol.... shown by your previous comments comparing samson to springs. and saying Tristan has no nba hopes...i guess we will see lol

 

[UconnU]

We all love DC but he’s not 100% right now, the foot, the conditioning. We‘re a better team with Samson at the 5 for the time being.

 

[HuskyHawk]

 

[Magic32]

Tough to watch early on but we were still within reach. I kept saying if we can keep it within 8 at half we will have a chance. We certainly did have a chance so I can't complain. Kansas looked much better than they have this season and that is a credit to them. The fact that we had a shot to win while not playing our best (Newton excluded) is a credit to us.
I thought Cam getting hurt really messed up our spacing and his timing but I love his heart. Kid was in pain but kept on.
Thought the atmosphere was electric and student section was fun to watch.
Looking forward to a neutral court rematch.

 

[ctchamps]

Huh?

DH admitted it in the presser. Take if fwiw. I think it's plausible for Hurley to say this in public for several reasons but the primary one for me was to help our intense players. Cam Spencer in particular who can't make excuses for himself for missing the last shot even though he has the valid excuse of pain shooting through his foot as he lifts to shoot. Or Donovan or Alex who didn't necessarily have horrible games but my take is they expect nothing but perfection from themselves and take losses personally.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Did someone mention Lasso?

 

[ctchamps]

Honestly, I think most of the looks are for Clingan. Dickinson may never get out of the g-league.

There was a time I thought Dickinson looked dejected even when Kansas was winning. Probably projection on my part but Donovan demonstrated Dickinson can be neutralized easily by physically strong tall players. Donovan otoh showed moves that won't easily be contained by big strong players. Of course you have to project the age factor and Donovan will continue to progress.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Que sera, sera.

Team was flat at the start. Fought back and took the lead. Final result was doomed when some doofus in the chat room wondered allowed at 54-50 UConn if UConn could keep it's 10 point win streak alive. Dooomed from that point on.

Karaban looked small out there. His one weakness is average athleticism and Adams exposed him on both sides last night. I'm not worried about Alex. He showed last year he could learn on the fly against bigger, stronger 4's and I think by March/April he'll be fine.

Game had so many "what if's". What if Newtown and Spencer didn't go 3-8 from the FT line over first 30 minutes of the game? What if UConn doesn't hit three separate contested buzzer beater 3's? What if Spencer didn't hurt his foot early in the game? What if? What if? What if?

I liked the refs letting Clingan and Dickinson be physical with each other all game. For all the pregame sniping here on the board over Dickinson's previous flops, he took some big hits from DC and didn't drop.

I never worry if Newton can play big in big games. Doesn't mean he will every game but we've now seen enough of him to know he won't wilt in the moment. With all the new players coming in and many of the players, including returnees, still learning roles, this may have been the turning point where Newton becomes the definitive leader of this season's team.

I had no problem with Spencer taking the last shot. He was open and he's a shooter. Shooters gotta shoot.

I'd love to see some splits on DC at the FT line when he goes 1-2. Seems like he misses the first and makes the second way more than he makes the first and misses the second.

IU, Texas, Kansas, UNC, Gonzaga. Go 4-1 against that group and it's all good from a big picture perspective.

 

[Chin Diesel]

View attachment 93612

What is that guy doing behind Murray?

 

[usedtoberats]

Karaban had 10 pts, 6 rebounds, a steal and a block. No complaints here.

there is one here, hes done much more in the past ( expectations) and less today that equals a complaint

 

[JesusAllen11]

Those issues need fixing ,but Kansas got nothing around the hoop for a reason , Not sure Samson brings that presence. A tired and hurt clingan still owned the paint on defense. Clingan should demanded some more post touches too, he was getting good positioning on HD.

We all love DC but he’s not 100% right now, the foot, the conditioning. We‘re a better team with Samson at the 5 for the time being.

 

[AntG168]

This loss was more beneficial to this group than any win we’ve had all season

 

[JustbrewitMan]

no kidding, of course there is a difference...but you take it to Dickinson, and force him to defend at times rather than limit Clingan to screen setting at 3pt circle alone...you think him getting 8 shots is good when we are struggling from perimeter other than newton???...what an arsehat response

lol your response?

I agree that we didn’t try hard enough to get Don looks in the first 5-10min. Part of it was great D from 4&5* athletes.

If you’ve been paying attention, many of our sets start with Clingan (our big man) at the top of the key. As the play flows, he gets options to get into the paint or PnR. Kansas was defending and preventing that really well.

We did find more touches for Don down low in the 2nd half as we figured things out better.

If you think we deliberately were gameplanning to get Don fewer shots, I’m not sure what to say.

 

[ctchamps]

My biggest concern is injuries. We have all the pieces to repeat and this game proved not only this but why everyone being healthy and getting experience playing together is critical for that to happen.

Tristen: Proved to us and the entire college basketball world that he has a lot of Kemba in him. He can carry the team if necessary. He's showed it with his triple doubles. He showed it in the NCAA tournament final game. But he does it "quietly". I hope this game finally gives him the recognition he deserves.

Cam: I hope his injury is minor. That kid might be the only individual who is more intense than Hurley. Heroic gutting out the game playing through pain. Reminded me of KFree when he cramped badly but wouldn't come out of the game, Taliek playing through turf toe and the murder of his best friend, and Dyson after his tooth got knocked out. The obvious pain he had when he put pressure on his foot/ankle impacted his shooting. It also limited his movement in the half court offense which aided Kansas in their defense of Tristen and Alex. For those thinking it was the reason freshman should have been given some playing time they did not watch Cam on defense. He sacrificed his mobility on offense but never on defense. It was remarkable imo.

Clingan: I hope he did not reinjure the foot. He still isn't back to the same shape he was at the end of last season but he more than held his own. Cost Dickinson money with his play. We ran schemes for him as if we had a fully healthy starting lineup playing. It might have cost us in this game but he needs reps to understand the play we need from him to win NC six. We played him as if we had a mobile as opposed to gimpy Cam, as if Alex was out of his slump, as if Castle with his playmaking ability was playing instead of Solo, and as if Tristen is still being Tristen. The plays we ran for Donovan in this game will pay dividends down the road.

 

[FreeKlaiber]

We did find more touches for Don down low in the 2nd half as we figured things out better.

If you think we deliberately were gameplanning to get Don fewer shots, I’m not sure what to say.

Of course not. But the majority of the sets we run our ones with him at 3 pt line. The 5 man out dribble handoff. As well as the high 2-3 Pete Carrill Princeton set where the center is distributor at 3 point line with backdoor cuts. I like these sets. Glad we are using them. I ran that same Princeton motion for 20 yrs when I was coaching.

MY POINT is that we need more of an inside out game, so that putting DC on low block would be something that I would run alot more often, especially when playing against smothering D on perimeter, if we arent going to look for the backdoor cut. Adama was as good as they come on low block in 4 man out offense.

Opinions obviously vary on this board about DC's low block proficiency, but I think he has excellent footwork/body positioning, he just rushes too much, hasn't shown good hands yet. I think time will tell that he is an excellent low block threat, maybe not Adama, but is much more than rim runner/screener IMO

Clearly against New Hampshire we just lobbed it into him like Chief in One Flew Over the Cuckoo nest. We had big time height advantage obviously. But by NOT gameplanning alot of low block sets for him against Kansas, we instead were hoping our ballhandlers would be able to go by their 4/5* athletes since lane would be open?

But they switched on our screens, our spacing was weak, and we got pushed further and further from hoop. I was just saying we should ALWAYS game plan to try and get DC the ball down low POSTING UP ,especially early in game, whether its New Hampshire or Purdue. Put the other big in foul jeopardy trying to defend DC. Need more inside looks for him, which I bet we see as the season goes. Dannys an excellent coach

 

[Fan1978]

Not only Cam, Clingan injured his forearm it looked like and the side line reporter said he had a foot issue too

He came down very hard on his forearm when the Kansas freshman tried to dunk of run out

 

[Madmannsucks]

At this point, there are things to look for. They did not get the win. Having said that, they held their own and belong in the conversation as a top team.

 

[alphasigko]

One thing I could not understand is why, when Clingan was in, he spent probably 80% of his time during the offensive sets at the top of the key. IMO that would be fine if he had a reliable 3-point shot like Dickenson, but that is not the case. His being out there so much eliminated the possibility of inside scoring from lobs rebounds.

During prep for this game did they not watch what Marquette did on defense to Kansas? Kansas obviously watched that and did what Marquette did to them, and did the same to us throughout most of the 1st half.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

This made sense in your head? Clingan controlled the paint that second half.

Dickinson the 5th year national player of the year candidate blitzed him early with threes and then Clingan pretty much shut him down the rest of the game. We knew Dickinson drawing him out and making threes would be a problem and it was. What would you have Clingan do there? He's not a good defender of the three point line, he may never be. Dickinson is also the only 7 footer in the country who shoots like that. Put Karaban on Dickinson?

Sometimes it seems like you don't even watch the game and rely on the narrative you have in your head.

I don't put that loss at any of our players feet and it's bogus to do that but Karaban has trouble guarding athletic 3/4's. It's been a problem several times. I've yet to see Clingan have trouble controlling the paint defensively in his career.

I’m not “putting the loss” on them. 8-7 on 3/8 shooting is not gonna do it against big dogs. He has obviously very lofty expectations, like All American ones, and you are usually the man behind his hype train. This was a game to prove it IMO. Not being fully ready for those expectations is fine.

His defense is a known quantity, he’s elite there, no doubt about it. Just was hoping for a slightly bigger jump on offense.

 

[HooperScooper]

Also this

https://x.com/joelmgarver/status/1730802917139996714?s=46&t=XASCYDynCVB4F7AI_pi2zg

Wow I didn't realize how bad that call was. Nice shove to the Clingan's back by Dickinson too. Oh well.

 

[Fan1978]

there is one here, hes done much more in the past ( expectations) and less today that equals a complaint

The refs had a lot to do that. Fouled him out on phantom fouls and let him get mauled twice, bilas even commented on it specifically. Not having the third 3 point threat hurt down the stretch.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I agree DH maybe could've given Stewart and Ross a couple of minutes to see if they're up for the moment, but with Karaban, Spencer, and Clingan having bad games there wasn't much left in terms of reliable scoring.

My take was early on it was apparent that we needed two of Clingan, Karaban and Johnson at the four and five spots and we also needed three ball handlers on the floor at all times, with Newton, Spencer Ball and Diarra as the only available options.

The situation (being a close game throughout the second half) never allowed for Stewart or Ross getting a few minutes.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

This made sense in your head? Clingan controlled the paint that second half.

Dickinson the 5th year national player of the year candidate blitzed him early with threes and then Clingan pretty much shut him down the rest of the game. We knew Dickinson drawing him out and making threes would be a problem and it was. What would you have Clingan do there? He's not a good defender of the three point line, he may never be. Dickinson is also the only 7 footer in the country who shoots like that. Put Karaban on Dickinson?

Sometimes it seems like you don't even watch the game and rely on the narrative you have in your head.

I don't put that loss at any of our players feet and it's bogus to do that but Karaban has trouble guarding athletic 3/4's. It's been a problem several times. I've yet to see Clingan have trouble controlling the paint defensively in his career.

And by the way…Full on over reaction by me on that. Woke up briefly at this time and was still bummed about the loss and typed something out that was certainly hyperbole to the idea I had in my head. I’m not worried 1 bit about Clingan defensively, it’s the other end that worries me.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Adams going up for the alley oop and Karaban getting called for the foul for touching the ball, Kansas scores 2. Our next trip down the floor Karaban gets mauled under the basket no call Kansas goes down and scores. Completely changed the momentum

Especially since Adams climbed over AK's back on that play. Should have been a foul on Adams, not two free throws.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

Yep. Lots of mutual respect in the arena. Except maybe for Hurley who went a but nuts for no reason I could see. We can’t rely on Newton having games like that. We need to fix that. Some issues were exposed, Castle fixes some of those.

KU had issues and was looking for solutions. I said before Hunter and Harris can shoot, they need to take more 3s until Jackson or Timberlake contribute. Well they did. Donovan forced that in many ways.

It was a fantastic college basketball game. Both teams will benefit from having played it. Our guys got to play someplace louder and more hostile than they will ever face again. That’s useful. It’s no coincidence that Cam missed two FTs in row after missing none and Newton misssed too. We are tougher now and better prepared for Gonzaga.

Maybe it was just me but I felt it was obvious why Hurley was upset. At least he composed himself but again. We didn't lose the game because of the refs but it certainly didn't help. About as good an outcome as you could have hoped with for taking a loss.