Today you were taught (yet again) the value of post offense in college basketball.

You never learn.

You realize -4 means we are favored to win by 4, right?

Not sure how anyone can worry about Nova…I’m still worried about Texas Southern

Miami played like a 10 seed... terrible shot selection, throwing up shit 3s all game and looking for that 15 point shot in the 2nd half.

And I didn't know Tyler Hansbrough played for them... ****ing clown would rather flop on a 3 point shot and hang out on the floor than get back on defense. Pretty awesome he fouled out with 8 minutes left, that was definitely a highlight.

Never denied McCormack’s value. I warned about the threat level of Waardenburg against a slow-footed big like McCormack who can’t defend the perimeter. Self’s solution in that regard was to put Wilson on him and stick McCormack on the non-shooter PF. It effectively limited Waardenburg to nothing except that one time when McCormack got stuck on him and they went at him in a PnR.

Also, has Rams Fan stopped by to congratulate us on our success? Not only have we become the winningest program ever, but we’re in the Final Four. Two wins away from winning two national championships in 3 years. That’s really hard to do.

I would congratulate him if Kentucky became the winningest program ever. They aren’t, so I don’t have to. But I would if they ever did.

Hansbrough at least could rebound (except against Cole Aldrich).

Just realized that Mitch Lightfoot has been to 2 Final Fours, and Frank Mason didn’t go to any.

Life isn’t fair.

Frank Mason lost an E8 game in Kansas city

Hey man, I don't hate you. You know I laugh at your posts and rep or thumbs up your posts a lot. Just don't let your dislike of KU make you seem douchey 😜

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It should be more.

I was thinking -6.5 when the injury was confirmed

Villanova is way too good for that. KenPom only has KU as 1PT fav. Moore isn't worth 5.5 points.

Bill Self on his motivational words at halftime

"There really wasn't. I'm not good at those type of things. I told them we need to play better. But I did tell them that KJ Adams gave us the best 29 seconds defensively than anybody did the entire first half. And just challenged our guys to guard them."

And if Embiid had stayed healthy...

It's a crapshoot.

The best a program can do is try to stack the odds in their favor as best they can.

Bullshit. Mason brought it. They just lost.

It's not a crapshoot.

I meant a team lead by Mason, not that it was his fault specifically.

Still DANCING baby! We still DANCING!

You need some luck. But, the final four prove that in mens college BB the blue bloods win more often than not. The can get upset like every team. No way a “St.Peters” type team will ever win a championship. You have to win 6 games. Usually you have to win several ways. Have top athletes. Only the blue bloods have that consistently.

One and done, instead of a best of seven like the pro's.

One key guy gets in early foul trouble.

Some random opponent has a career game from the three point line?

Self has had plenty of stronger teams not make the final four.

Shout out to KJ Adams for his defense at the end of the first half.

Would’ve sucked to go into half down 9. Probably still would’ve won, but that would’ve been serious momentum for Miami.

Not a crap shoot. 32 of the 36 champs have been a 3 seed or higher.

Some luck is involved, but that’s true with any sport.

If it was a crapshoot, we wouldn’t see this many 1 seeds win it all:

https://bracketresearch.com/the-dna-...ent-champions/

There are hundreds and hundreds of Div 1 schools with basketball programs. Far more than football programs. So in that sense it is harder than a Super Bowl. One in several hundred versus 1 in 32 if you didn't know anything else.

But the pool of teams that could win is still pretty big. And there are no guarantees that any given blue blood won't be upset in the first few rounds.

Even a really dominate Kentucky or Zaga team is still an underdog to the field trying to win 6 straight games.

A 3 seed???

You mean having one of the top 12 teams win isn't a crapshoot?

How many teams qualify in college football?

Okay, maybe this is just getting pedantic.

KU basketball is the only thing in life that makes
Me use profanities in front of my kids. And I own that.

I’m really amazed they’ve (we’ve?) built that. 125 years of dedication.

It wasn’t free. Lotsa worthy schools. Thanks to all fellow KU alums and fans for making a really awesome program!

Here’s an idea of what Nova’s lineup will look like:

Starters (Points/Rebounds/Assists):

G-Collin Gillespie (15/4/3) 6’3” 195 lbs
G-Caleb Daniels (10/4/1) 6’4” 210 lbs
F-Brandon Slater (8/4/2) 6’7” 220 lbs
F-Jermaine Samuels (11/7/1) 6’7” 230 lbs
F-Eric Dixon (9/6/1) 6’8” 255 lbs

Their bench will basically be Jordan Longino, Chris Arcidiacano, and Bryan Antoine. None of them played any serious minutes this year. Nova mostly played 6 deep, so losing Justin Moore kills what little depth they had.

I dunno, 64% seems kind of low when you're talking about the top 4 teams in the country.

The top 4 in the NFL win the SB about 75% of the time, by comparison. And of course up until the bye week change, the system was built for the best teams to win, as opposed to March Madness.

KU needs 4 more National Titles.

Longino is out for the year with a knee injury. Arcidiacano is their 6th guy now, so effectively they're not going to play a bench at all if they can get away with it.

Nova is another team with 0 real shot blockers. Kansas has 3 players who would’ve lead that team in blocked shots.

They already played a short bench, but now they’re down their second best player. We should have a huge advantage attacking the basket. They don’t block shots AND they really can’t afford any foul trouble.

Longino was playing fairly recently though, right? Like around conference tourney time.

Obviously, they’re still really good and really well coached. They won’t be a pushover for anyone. That said, those injuries on a team with a short bench seem like a lot for any team to overcome when playing other good teams.

Accurate.

When the best team in the tournament routinely has at best a 15-20% chance to win it all. It's a crapshoot. It's like a poker tournament. Usually a good player wins, doesn't mean they were the best, though. Over the course of time and thousands of tournaments, the good player wins the most. In a small sample though, it's not as statistically significant.

Bryan Antoine is the one I'd play if I were Jay Wright, not ARCIDIA-douchenou, and he's a REALLY puzzling case. Antoine is a 5-star recruit and a Top 15 recruit Nationally. He's never got really any minutes at Villanova, and he's a junior. Why he hasn't transferred is beyond me. He probably at least has the athleticism to guard.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospec...n-antoine-4833

That's a good point. I wondered, too, how much that effort by kj pumped up the team as well as maybe deflated Miami just a tiny bit.

He had knee surgery on Friday. Pretty recent.

Kinda reminded me of a certain recent football game where a team played really well for a half then ****ed up around the goal line and ran out the clock before kicking a field goal.

Maybe it’s just a result of having a short bench, but it looks like these guys are prone to foul trouble.

Lightfoot leads Kansas in personal fouls at 2.3 per game. 3 Nova players average at least that many (Slater, Samuels, and Daniels). Moore actually averaged the fewest fouls of any of their 6 man rotation. That probably also explains why he was able to lead the team in minutes played.

This disrespect Kansas is getting right now by ESPN & Sportscenter is unbelievable.

Last night Duke led Sportscenter. Tonight it's North Carolina beating a ****ING #15 SEED. They talked about it for 10 minutes. Had CBB analysts talk about the game. Nothing about KU at all then they went to WOMENS BBALL highlights and analysis. Then Kyrie Irvings first game back after being allowed to play unvaxxed. Then onto LeBron losing a regular season game...and then men's soccer.

Holy literal ****.

Being under the radar has worked just fine for KU thus far.

so we need to get their starters in foul trouble.

Correct. I don’t think their bench is ready for this moment. Jay Wright apparently doesn’t trust them in less important games.

I wonder how the refs handle it though. The officiating has been interesting in this tournament, to say the least. Do we think they’ll actually call many fouls on a shorthanded team in a Final Four matchup?

I’m skeptical, but we have to try.

Turn that bullshit off.

Unless it’s live sports I’m not giving those ****holes a second of viewership.

This team shocks the shit out of me. All year they lose focus, so dumb shit, are limited athletically, don’t have the skills to attack teams weaknesses. All that spelled early loss for virtually everyone in this thread. And here we sit. Obviously it’s a favorable draw but we still executed.

We were the only 1 to make it out of the S16. Obviously it’s. A stretch but you could argue that KU was the best, most consistent team this year. No way I’m asserting that, but it’s one way of looking at it.

Who would have thought 2 months ago this team would win the big 12, win the big 12 tournament and make a final 4? Not this guy.

McCormack has earned a lot of respect from me. Maybe some of it is the injury is good because Self doesn’t think he needs to be the focal point anymore. But the dude is obviously laboring and is making plays. He still gets stoned inside a lot. Especially because he can’t move as well, but the dude is leaving it out there. I think it also says a lot of the quality of bigs in the Big 12. We wanted to go small because the front court couldn’t do shit. Now we’re dominating inside LOL.

Watched it from the sprayer again but I couldn’t be happier.

I won't even watch live sports on ESPN anymore. They have the worst announcers and terrible camera work.

So you never watch MNF, even when its a good game?

Meh. It’s ESPN.

Can’t remember the last time I turned it on outside watching a Chiefs or KU game.

They scream nothing but racism and hate. Especially screaming A Smith. That dude is a angry and hateful as any person alive.

I’ll cruise around read other sites, here, Phog, and maybe a few rivals boards to see what’s happening.

But I won’t waste a second watching the racism network.

I only watch MNF when the Chiefs are on. He's right - ESPN is horrible.

Honestly with my schedule and time i have at home.

I get to watch about 70% of chiefs and KU games.

Also when im home im so busy with grandkids, projects and golf with my son, I rarely turn on the TV.

Man I look back to when our sundays were completely consumed by the NFL to now watching only the chiefs games.

I will turn in games in my hotel. But usually busy with work etc that it’s just back ground fall asleep noise.

They’re part of the Disney family, they always have some bullshit agenda to push

It’s honestly setting up perfect for Kansas. Go under the radar and beat Villanova, while UNC and Duke get all the media attention. Whoever wins that game will have everyone predicting they win the title and acting about how great they are and have to shift the focus from the biggest win in their lives in 24 hours, meanwhile self can easily play the chip on our shoulder card while we are being ignored. It may be annoying as fans, as even listening to pod casts today people are just like whatever Kansas won let’s talk duke unc, but I believe for the team mentally having the “no one believes in us card” is never a bad thing.

The “debate” shows are beyond terrible. They just take the laziest narratives and pick a side. They’re all just playing parts, but people seem to take them serious.

SportsCenter in the 90’s and early 2000’s used to be a really entertaining watch. The mid 2010’s was probably the last time I watched an episode, and it was unbearable.

I haven’t watched ESPN for anything except a live game in years, and haven’t missed it.

Honestly, no. The aggravation of the poor production just isn't worth it.

If it's not the Chiefs, MNF isn't on anymore. Just trash.

McCormack played a good game against Miami. He had some defensive lapses as that was a hard assignment for him but he made them pay on offense and ***GASP*** he caught some tough passes without fumbling. Everyone knows how bad his hands were, but he came to ****ing play in that one.

And on top of that, there was plenty of preseason hype with talk of a Final Four caliber team, just to be fairly underwhelmed much of the season.

The biggest key to me is how they have played defensively. That second half versus Miami was filthy.

I was impressed how Bill stole rest at the end of the half for the starters.

Yeah we lost a 9/2 run. But those minutes became valuable in the second half.

This may give Reerun a chubby, but even I have to comment on it. What the hell with the free throws yesterday? 13-26 from the line with Mitch/Wilson accounting for 8 of those 13 misses. Mitch isn't good from the line, but for a bit it seemed like nobody could make a free throw.

Weird that this same team went 19-20 against Creighton.

That started in the conference tournament. They got nasty down the stretch. Thank goodness. Soft defense is maddening.

Even being down 6 at halftime or whatever it was, free throws were the one thing grinding my gears. Miami did get some easy buckets, too, but didn't think KU looked awful or anything (maybe after the Providence game, nothing was going to look awful).... but hit your freakin free throws in the first half and it's tied.

That second half was so much fun to watch.

If KU on Big Monday or Chiefs MNF isnt playing, and if we're not counting 30for30, ESPN is straight garbage and not worth watching.

And their app sucks ass.

Saying it again. The way Self used rhe be here in the last few minutes of the first half was outstanding.

https://sports.yahoo.com/in-29-secon...225318007.html

Yes, but I think I read something recently where the numbers demonstrated that KU's defense had really started picking up down the stretch of the season. Great time of year to step up and play good defense. :)

Is it Saturday yet boys?

I’m on my 15 day rotation. I watched the EE game in New Haven CT. S16 in Palm Beach. Who knows where I’ll be Saturday or if I even get to watch it.

But I’m ready.

Pretty sure KU was at or near 30th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency at the start of the tournament. They definitely were below 30th at one point last month. They are up to 17th now (which actually makes them the best defensive team in the tournament left, although Villanova is effectively tied with them).

I checked pre Tourney and we were like 41. Our KenPom profile was nearly identical to the 18 team

I watch MNF even when it isn't the Chiefs. But sometimes I turn the sound down or even off. I also delay watch it and advance at least 15 seconds between snaps that cuts down on some of the garbage and speeds the game up.

The best KU defense since when? (Excluding 2020 team that didn’t grt to play on the tourney)

Sooo 2019 then?

Self always coaches defense. The best coaches can coach offense & defense, the shitty ones can only do one or the other.

This team is a good defense, but it's still one of the more worse defenses of Bill Self's in the last 15 years.

Last year’s team was better defensively than this one statistically. Defense was bad by Self’s standards this year.

Right. On the aggregate but they kicked up the defense starting in the conference tournament. Compare the D in the TCU games to the conference tournament.

I don’t know where it sits historically but they’re playing way better than most of the year.

One factor I haven't seen talked about much is how aggressive they are in the paint. Once they drew a few key fouls Miami basically had no answer after that. If they can keep up that aggressiveness and get teams in foul trouble KU is going to be very tough to stop.

Collin Gillespie is a pussy.

**** him. And **** Philadelphia. Cheese steaks suck.

Archiadiaconolololol is gonna go 0-7 in his amazing 8 minutes of play.

Yeah, regular season defense doesn't really matter given how they've turned it on the past few weeks. And not to say this team shuts down last year's USC team if they had played last weekend, but I serious doubt it would have been any worse.

Especially in a game where Villanova is going to have give guys who typically get scrub minutes, sub minutes. If we can get at least one guy with 2 fouls early in the first half we're cooking.