You shut your mouth! :mad:

Cheese steaks are wonderful.

On paper, your defense should get worse when you trade Marcus Garrett for Remy Martin. No real surprise there.

That said, this team appears to have locked in on defense which is helping to create a lot of easy baskets. Playing with 3 fairly athletic (very athletic in Ochai’s case) long wings, should at least allow us to make other teams a bit uncomfortable. Harris is absolutely a pesky defender, like a poor man’s Russell Robinson. Even Remy seems to be somewhat opportunistic on defense lately.

Very curious how well we’ll defend Nova.

I assume it will be:

Harris on Gillespie
Agbaji on Daniels
Braun on Slater
Wilson on Samuels
McCormack on Dixon

Dixon shoots 50% from 3, but only has 33 attempts on the year. I assume he only shoots if he’s wide open. With Dave guarding him, he’ll have opportunities. Curious how many he’ll take.

The question is Cheez Whiz or Provolone?

So here’s the answer to my trivia question: who is older Bill Self or Mark Few?

I answered it correctly without giving it away entirely.

I don't think their defense is worse overall. Torvik has it rated top 5 over the last several weeks. They don't have an individual defender like Garrett but the team defense has been solid. Their effort in the first half vs Providence and 2nd half vs Miami was a beautiful thing to behold.

Here's my hot take if Garrett was still on this team we'd already be out of the tournament

Cheese Whiz. Provolone is bland.

Hmmm, provolone is authentic. I get your bland take, but if done right, provolone is the best IMO. Oh, and less processed.

Provolone is actually cheese. I'm not certain that cheese whiz is.

Heh, probably not. But it tastes soooo good.

FWIW, I'll take pepper jack over either of those.

Can you imagine Harris and Garrett on the floor at the same time? It would be a nightmare.

I get that. I'm a provolone guy. I actually only eat mine with steak, provolone, and mayo.

Didn't they ever play together last season?

Why are we talking about cheese when there are more important things to talk about?


Your thoughts - are hotdogs sandwiches?

I would say no, but I have a hard time coming up with a definition of “sandwich” that would exclude hot dogs.

Sandwiches are like pornography. I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.

Self needs to check his ego at the door about some of his defensive philosophy. The only way Nova beats us is by getting to the FT line and making a ton of threes. It is critical to not double them when they drive into the paint (which can lead to fouls), let them try to make it in the paint or from midrange. If they score from there they score from there. Fine. Whoever is guarding the driver has to just guard the best they can. The moment you double them, the pass goes out to someone perched on the 3-point line which is their preferred offense.

In years past, this has been one of the reasons Self has struggled with Villanova. You have to guard them a little differently.

Ok but only the famed Kansas Cheesesteaks.

Well the problem is you don't help, Villanova is just going to get open layups. They effectively run a NBA-style pick and roll offense where they take the most efficient shots at all times without almost no mid range stuff at all.

Jay Wright is also one of the best coaches at any level going right now. He's going to repeatedly attack McCormack in PnRs forcing him to help on the driver and leaving Dixon (or others) open at the perimeter.

Self might break out the Triangle and 2 a bit in this one, with a focus on Gillespie and Daniels on the perimeter.

Samuels and Slater only shoot 28% and 32% from 3 (respectively), so it might be a bit of “pick your poison”. We absolutely can’t have Gillespie or Daniels getting open 3’s.

Obviously, you don’t run that all game but I wouldn’t be shocked if Self mixes it in a bit.

I'd say Self struggled with those two Villanova teams because they each had 5-6 NBA players. Still would have likely beaten them in '16 if not for some horrible calls down the stretch.

This isn't a team to overlook, but it's a far cry from either of those.

Yes, but only if you cut them in half

Oh man, that would be a nightmare. I was a big fan of Garret but, for as good as he was on defense, he was not much of a threat on offense.

Gradey in the McD game here in a little bit.

That would be a good thing to try in this game. Haven't seen ku play that defense in quite some time. You know Self hates to play zones or junk defense like that. But when he does pull it out, it always seems to be effective.

That game in 2016 was a travesty with some of the horrible calls. :mad:

Rice and Udeh too, right?

Graham fouled out and was on that night. Probably would’ve won if he didn’t.

Yep

I think Rice has a minor injury and is sitting out.

What channel?

ESPN at 8

Garret was really pretty good at passing the ball inside. But yeah, it was too bad his outside shooting was so weak. Definitely a fan favorite.

Here’s something interesting. Justin Moore played at least 27 minutes in every game this season. He played fewer than 30 minutes in just a few games. Most games, he played 33-38 minutes.

That means the lineup we’ll see, at most, could’ve only played 13 minutes together in any one game. Obviously, the number is much less than that because Arcidiacono, Longino, or Antoine could’ve spelled him for a bit.

Their projected starting lineup has likely played very very few meaningful minutes together this year. No doubt Jay Wright will have them prepared, but you have to think they’ll have at least a few issues adjusting in just a week.

Dick with tha 3

"I'll be honest with you, after about the first four minutes of our first game, I tried to forget everything. Because we got punched in the mouth down there by 'Nova without question, so. But I do think there are a couple of things that I know personally that we've made notes on and stuff that I'll try to handle differently down there. And then the way we handled it in San Antonio such as your mind."

Self was reluctant to share what he would change.

“Those are my notes,” he said with a smile.

https://247sports.com/college/kansas...ans-185427566/

This is the most ive seen kids defend in a McD All-American game. Its still not good defense but alot better effort than normal.

Dick looks like Downs, hope he's much better.

Yeah not so good so far but AllStar games mean nothing.

Better to watch the Sunrise Christian games that are going to be on later this week and the weekend also on ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNU.

Dick can really stroke it

I see charlie villanueva again lolz

Don't tell Billay

Wait till Billay sees Dick take it to the hole

From what I’ve read/seen, sounds like Dick’s game is pretty similar to Agbaji. He probably won’t look great if he has to go get his own shot in a jumbled mess like this, especially when they’re actually trying on defense.

Udeh has an NBA body, but looks pretty raw. We may well have him for 3 years. Which is completely fine by me. His upside as a rim protector is tremendous.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not done yet 💪<br><br>Mitch Lightfoot to return for a 7th year of eligibility for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KUbball?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KUbball</a>. <br><br>More ➝ <a href="https://t.co/L2wNp0v042">https://t.co/L2wNp0v042</a> <a href="https://t.co/v1A5WDe03i">pic.twitter.com/v1A5WDe03i</a></p>&mdash; Kansas Men’s Basketball (@KUHoops) <a href="https://twitter.com/KUHoops/status/1509913848442245125?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Apral Foools

Both offensively (for us) and defensively (for the other team).

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Man that was great. Love Mean Girls

Breaking News: BWillie has announced and guaranteed a KU victory over Villanova. The same as he has done in the previous rounds of the NCAA tournament after seeing the bracket open up.

This is the same dbag (BWillie) who said that USC would wax KU last year in the tournament so this is not some crimson and blue glasses homer.

KU ROLLS BABY

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/9ijt46Acg5ji0" width="480" height="294" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/9ijt46Acg5ji0"></a></p>

Any other Jayhawks out here in New Orleans from the Planet?

https://i.imgur.com/YX2BVQg.jpg

For the second time in the Self era, KU will play Villanova in the NCAA Tournament F4. It didn't end well the first time in 2018 as Villanova's athletes and five out/NBA style exploited a more traditional KU roster construction with center Udoka Azubuike struggling to cover the perimeter. Unfortunately for us, Villanova problematically plays the same five out/NBA style of basketball against a similarly structured KU roster centered around McCormack at the 5. As you'll recognize below, this has the potential to be an absolute matchup nightmare once again.

Villanova is one of the best offensive teams in the country and quite possibly the best offensive team KU has played all season (9th in adjusted offensive efficiency). Their efficiency is largely a product of their shot profile (they shoot threes on 46.1% of their field goal attempts, 20th in the NCAA), not turning the ball over (29th in turnover rate), and the highest team FT% in NCAA history (83%). They are likely the most analytically inclined program in the NCAA and like most/all NBA teams these days they look to get layups/get to the line or kick out to 3PT shooters every possession. Under Jay Wright (arguably top 5 coach in all of NCAA/NBA basketball), they are an incredibly disciplined and well coached team who value the ball, space the floor and take high efficiency shots at all times. Regardless of their personnel, with this style, they are incredibly difficult for any team to defend. They also purposely play the game at a snail's pace (345th tempo in the country) to limit their opponents' transition opportunities. As noted previously with Miami, limiting transition is especially important against a team in KU whose major strength is exactly that.

Villanova is also at their best when they are playing five switchable guards/wing types. The loss of Justin Moore makes that a bit more difficult for them, but Moore was Villanova's least efficient offensive player among their top 6 rotation players. No shots for him may simply mean more shots for more efficient players like Collin Gillespie (one of the best players in college basketball who shoots 41% from three) or Caleb Daniels (38% from three). Villanova also plays a 6'8 big (Eric Dixon) for much of the game who is the best shooter on the team (shooting 52% from three). He hasn't taken many of those shots this year (just 33), but without Moore he may be more inclined to take more. This spacing/three point shooting could be a serious issue for KU with McCormack stuck in the paint on defense. Will Self have to adjust and play Wilson at the 5 to address this during certain portions of the game? He may have to.

In addition to their effective offense, Villanova is also one of the best defensive teams in the country (17th in adjusted defensive efficiency) due to their ability to switch at all five positions. They have no major shot blocker, but they are so cohesive at that end and all five of their players are so adept at guarding one-on-one that they significantly limit any good shot opportunities. And as mentioned, their tempo is so slow that they allow almost no easy transition baskets.

Overall, Villanova is just a very solid, efficient, smart basketball team that poses matchup issues for more traditional lineups. While they may not have quite the talent the 2018 team did, you could not draw up a style more difficult for this particular KU team to deal with. KU will need to play easily their best game of the tournament to win. Better be ready.

LFG!!!!

How is every team the worst possible matchup for KU? It's really unfortunate for the us.

It's the final four. Every team is going to be playing another damn good team. KU doesn't bring their "A" game, they will lose. Just like every other team that has ever played in the final four.

:LOL:

tl;dr ....seems like a lot of typing for an ROI of a handful of people rolling their eyes. :shrug:

9:30am MST: Devils/Panthers on NHLN
Noon: Avalanche/Penguins on ABC
3pm: Kansas/Villanova on TBS
6pm: Duke/UNC on TBS
7pm: Blues/Flames on ESPN+
~8pm: The energy produced from the outcome of Duke/UNC rips a hole in spacetime somewhere just northeast of Raleigh, NC, destroying us all, and giving Kansas its 2nd NC by catastrophic event in the past 3 years (a new record). However, wine bottles will not be available this time.... at least not in this dimension.

Run them into the ground. They have five rotational players.

Waves of fresh energy.



and what happens if you get just one of their guys in foul trouble

Hard to do that in the tournament because of all the stoppage and TV timeouts

It's exactly what KU did in the 2nd half vs Miami.

Pushed the ball up court relentlessly, like an old Roy team.

I’m ready to get boat raced. No perimeter defense.

Let’s go.

Yeah the pushing and foul trouble I was talking about the getting them tired

I always enjoy how teams who play completely different styles can all be our worst possible matchup.

The foul trouble has to be the number one worry for them.

I hope to be drinking natty light on Mass St by tipoff of the Duke game :thumb:

No TBS. best way to stream the game?

Was just wondering myself

Won't YouTube TV give you a 5 day free trial?

Was looking into free trial options. This may be the route I go

I did the youtube TV thing once and it worked out fine

Why are these games on stupid TBS?

Still better than CBS

I did YouTube tv free trial last year. This year I created a new google account and signed up for a 14 day free YouTube tv trial. Just have to cancel w/n 14 days.

I did a free directv 7 day stream for the elite eight last week.

Dang homie. I haven’t seen or heard from you in years. You still in Oklahoma?

We need to catch up.

Just wait until we watch the entire game from a floor-level camera angle behind the play.

Guys I’m scared. That team can beat us tonite

Still better than ESPN+

Counterpoint: Kansas can beat Villanova tonight.