tu played well last night, and deserves credit for their win. atchley stepped up and had a big game, as did james.

although, ku and more specifically self are to blame for this loss. this game very much reminded me of the ags losing to tt last year. ku play intense, gambling man to man defense that pressures each player looking for lots of steals. it work well, and is their style of play on defense just the ags were with tkc. they did force steals and played very fast in the first half.
in the second half when the game slowed down, and they are still playing that type of defense, they start to gamble when they shouldn't and they paid for it. they got burned on give and go's with atchley (??-how does that happen?), the leave jones for offensive boards, they give up offensive rebounds to guards in the paint. simply put if ku where to back it off the pressure man, and play like the ags did this year they could shut down tu's offense. so much of tu's offense is predicated on high ball screens 30 ft from the basket (when playing a pressure defense like ku) and then augustin gets in the lane and creates for his teammates. or like last night, augstin starts to the basket at gets fouled because they are reaching and gambling. play off and sag, stepping out for players like atchley to not allow the threes.

self is just like his disciple tkc, and doesn't adjust to who he is playing. ku has the athletes, if they played slightly less aggresive they could absolutely bring tu's offense to a grinding halt. this is why they always seem to fall apart, and lose to teams that they are way more talented than in the tourney (which is 99% of all teams in div 1).

KU is also missing a consistent outside threat.

They lost the game on the boards, giving up too many putbacks and offensive rebounds because they were standing around.

Your idea of them playing sag defense would be terrible against Abrams, who can make a three if you give him any kind of space. KU played Abrams and Augustin pretty well the majority of the game.

The game hinged on KU's offense against the zone. In the 1st half, KU got open shots from the elbow, but t.u. made a 2nd half adjustment with the zone bringing Gary Johnson up a little from under the basket to contest the elbow shot which Arthur began to miss. KU stopped playing team ball and went one-on-one and it hurt them.

You are so right. The sips played well but KU lost it by themselves.

why would their coach adjust?? theyve lost one game all year, go with what works. this game was decided by great defense on the Horns behalf, and an absolutely incredible effort on the offensive glass, as the Horns outrebounded the Jayhawks 23-13 in the second half. Augustin is still in a slump, but he did an incredible job controlling the clock and distributing, and this loss had nothing to do with Kansas not doing anything. Texas crashed the offensive boards late for give me follow up baskets to hold off the Jayhawks late charge, and the extra offfensive possession late ended up being the difference. also, remember, if Chalmers doesnt hit that miracle three, Kansas loses this game by 6+.

i know yall hate giving us credit, but come on, Texas did way more to win

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Your idea of them playing sag defense would be terrible against Abrams, who can make a three if you give him any kind of space. KU played Abrams and Augustin pretty well the majority of the game.

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i thought it was understood when i said play defense like we did against ku, that you would shadow abrams (can assume anything on texags). obviously no one is going to sag on a three point shooter who cannot and never does go to the basket.

by sag, i mean play a step off and going under all the screens for augustine when esp. when they are 25+ ft from the basket (as many, many of the ball screens were). i was also referring to not playing total deny on someone like atchley. he is a good shooter, but you can still play a step off and pretty much shut him down, esp with ku's ahtletic big men.

ku shot very poorly especially in the end against the zonee, but tu made huge baskets down the stretch and almost all of the were a direct result of ku's gambling defense. had ku shot well against the zone they win anyway, despite the defensive mistakes, but they play smarter they win even though they didn't shoot well.

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this game was decided by great defense on the Horns behalf, and an absolutely incredible effort on the offensive glass, as the Horns outrebounded the Jayhawks 23-13 in the second half

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again, this goes to my original point. tu got tons of offensive rebounds because ku plays such tight man defense so far away from the basket even against the big men. that is my point exactly. it is much harder to control the defensive glass playing defense like that. if tu starts crashing the boards and you are overplaying a guy 20+ ft from the basket, it is very easy to get by your man when the shots goes up and get position. this is pretty basic basketball.

it is in no way a slight tu's effort, or them playing well down the stretch. i am simply saying that, as we saw when the ags destroyed tu, is that playing a slightly less aggressive defense against tu works much better. pressuring the best point guard in the nation,
and going for steals against him is a silly strategy.

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ku shot very poorly especially in the end against the zonee, but tu made huge baskets down the stretch and almost all of the were a direct result of ku's gambling defense. had ku shot well against the zone they win anyway, despite the defensive mistakes, but they play smarter they win even though they didn't shoot well.

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youre talking about a perfectly played defensive game, which never happens, your post is based on them covering every single person on a basketball court, which does not /cannot happen. and poor shooting performances are due to the other team's defenses. your post is claiming if all their shots went in they would've won, well, duh. and they wouldn't of won, bc they didnt. their defense was very good, Texas was super pumped and played in front of a pretty rowdy home crowd and took advantage of good shooting and some excellent defense, outrebounding the Jayhawks 23-13 in the second half, crashing the offensive boards hard

13 rebounds in the 2nd half for that guy. That's why they won.

Here's what I thought:

KU was extremely sloppy on offense, trying to be too quick. They should have slowed down and been more patient. They should have set up a half court offense more, using their advantage inside.

Defensively, I felt they should have mixed in some zone defense. I know a lot of people frown on doing that against the sips because of their 3 pt shooting, but I'd give them that in order to take away all of their guard penetration which was leading to a lot of assists for easy dunks and layups. That was the difference in the game.

Of course, the FT discrepancy played a huge role as well. You've got to play 10-15 points better than the whorns to win by 1 to over come the officiating you're going to get at the FECes.

I thought Turge did a great job vs. the sips, having us taking away their penetration even if it meant giving up open looks from way outside.

[This message has been edited by Aggies12sips7 (edited 2/12/2008 10:46a).]

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The game hinged on KU's offense against the zone. In the 1st half, KU got open shots from the elbow, but t.u. made a 2nd half adjustment with the zone bringing Gary Johnson up a little from under the basket to contest the elbow shot which Arthur began to miss. KU stopped playing team ball and went one-on-one and it hurt them.

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+1 for this

t.u. can play a solid, tough zone when they want to, and KU didn't have the perimiter game in the 2nd half to neutralize it. that and they stopped trying to go inside and trying to go through the high post. credit the t.u. D again for taking the high post away towards the end

[This message has been edited by Zoog (edited 2/12/2008 8:59a).]

Kansas settled for the outside shot in the end when it was critical, not using their inside advantage.

The sips played good D and had contributions fron everyone. Pretty amazing that they beat the jayhawks with DJ going 1-13 from the field.

I thought they were going to lose because of how bad they looked on Saturday but you never know.

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youre talking about a perfectly played defensive game, which never happens, your post is based on them covering every single person on a basketball court, which does not /cannot happen.

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i was talking about adjusting your defensive philosphy slightly for your opponent. augustine cannot hit the broad side of a barn right now, and yet they chose to pressure him 30+ from basket. that made no sense to me. they fouled him repeatedly by reaching and going for steals against the best point guard in the nation, again that is playing very dumb.

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and poor shooting performances are due to the other team's defenses. your post is claiming if all their shots went in they would've won, well, duh. and they wouldn't of won, bc they didnt. their defense was very good, Texas was super pumped and played in front of a pretty rowdy home crowd and took advantage of good shooting and some excellent defense, outrebounding the Jayhawks 23-13 in the second half, crashing the offensive boards hard

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i give barnes credit for going to the zone. the fact is kansas missed 5 wide open threes in the last 5 minutes. three of them were the moved the ball very well and the guys shooting had no one witihin 5 ft of them. they missed the shots, don't make it like ku couldn't get a shot of because tu's zone was so good. they just didn't make shots. ku was too rushed, and shouldn't have settled for threes when they are not falling - so again give credit to barnes for going to the zone.

if you cannot understand my previous post about how adjusting the way you play man defense would make a difference on offensive boards, i am not going to restate for you.

i personally don't like ku or tu, and didn't really care who won. i though ku would win, and was scratching my head watching how they played tu. that was the point of my original post. if you don't think the defensive tweaks would have worked, go back and watch the ags vs tu. it worked very well with the ags doing and ku has better athletes.

tu played very well and deserved the win. What I found most interesting was that KU had mucho touble with tu's bigs. And if they think those guys are tough, wait 'til they play ours. Just from watching last night, I feel better about our game with them.

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Pretty amazing that they beat the jayhawks with DJ going 1-13 from the field.

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Absolutely!

I think last night's game is just another testament to how tough the Big 12 has become. With the exception of some of the bottom dwelling teams, and maybe even including a team like ISU, any win is a good win whether home or away. I'm starting to think 3 losses in the big 12 just may tie for the conference title.

KU did play sloppy, but I give kudos to t.u. That was a big win for them.

JP, I wonder exactly how closely you watched the game. You say that KU that 5 wide open looks at 3s but couldn't convert them in the last 5 minutes. I knew that statement wasn't correct, but just to be sure I checked the play by play.
In the last TEN minutes, KU took 6 3s, including 4 in the last minute. Of those 4, Rush took one in the deep corner where Abrams was flying out at him and looked to have altered the shot. Another, Chalmers missed from the top of the key that the officials ruled that James blocked. Chalmers also made one and on the fourth (last shot), Chalmers was also under duress. So your notion that KU got wide open looks is terribly wrong from what actually happened. Both teams played hard. Texas simply made the plays down the stretch and won the final 8 minutes after it was tied at 57.

Hookem


Hookem

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So your notion that KU got wide open looks is terribly wrong from what actually happened. Both teams played hard. Texas simply made the plays down the stretch and won the final 8 minutes after it was tied at 57.

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go back and look at the play by play, and there is a stretch were ku misses 5 straight jump shots (about 9 mins left to about 5 minute mark). to the best of my (admittedly terrible) memory ku was moving the ball well and getting good open looks. they do a very good job of moving the ball against the zone. it wasn't a stifling zone, where every shot was contested everytime. the threes at the end where all contested, because ku was in a position where they had to take them andeveryone knew it. tu's defense was good, but to act like all that ku's missed shots was because of a wonderful zone is just false. there were lots of open shots missed by ku down the stretch.

tu's zone was a great move by barnes, and it worked. it didn't work though because ku couldn't get an open look against it. it worked because ku settled for jump shots, and didn't make anyway. either way, it was a good decision by barnes and he should get the credit for it.

I thought Kansas was somewhat weak in the paint, but last night confirmed it. They are very athletic, and they will make it to the Sweet 16, but beyond that they will be getting lucky.

Texas' big men are not dominant. Beasly will wreck James and Atchley. Atchley is a good outside shooter, which is why you sould always guard him on the arc. The threes he hit aginst us were partly because we did not respect his ability to hit 3's.

The sips are scaping by the last few games. If they had not played so well in December, they would be looking like a 5 seed.

The worst part about their win is that unless we do something spectacular like win the Big 12 tournament, there is no way we get into the Houston regional.

With our depth I think we have as good of a shot as anyone to win the Big 12 Tournament, and we've still got a realistic shot at the Big 12 regular season title, which would get us to Houston. 2nd in the regular season and 1st in the B12 tourney would probably as well.

Even with their win last night. They lose to Baylor and us next week then we will be ranked above them so they are not a lock yet for the Houston region.

You guys have WAAAAAAAYYYY too much faith in Baylor.

Ya'll are expecting them to beat Texas and KSU?????

But lose to us?????

Sorry if Baylor has got the juice to do the first two they should be able to beat us at their place.

Rebounding. Period.

ku lost because they gave up way to many offensive rebounds and they couldn't knock down open 3's. They ended up 4-17 which is uncharacteristic of a team that shoots 38% on the season. They likely won't miss those open shots against us.

"What I found most interesting was that KU had mucho touble with tu's bigs. And if they think those guys are tough, wait 'til they play ours. Just from watching last night, I feel better about our game with them."

you just made me a lot more excited about TEXAS A&M vs kansas!!! WHOOP!

I thought Texas slowed down Kansas fastbreak/transition offense, which Kansas has used to beat several teams in the last few minutes. It's so demoralizing for a Kansas opponent in taking 30 seconds to try to get 2 points, then have Kansas get 2 points in less than 10 seconds in a fastbreak after a rebound or steal.