KU vs. Louisville
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Notes from the game: 1. It's too early to say where this team is going this year. 2. TKR will make a difference, but it looks like our big defender in the paint is Mbiya. 3. I wasn't impressed with Dawes on the glass. Maybe I was expecting too much but I thought his big skill was rebounding. He didn't box out Flory down the stretch on a key free throw rebound and it cost us. He just wasn't dominant. 4. So glad we have Mel and Tre back because they will be carrying most of the load this year. 5. Impressed with Stokes in some areas, less impressed in others. He definitely can play physical, and we need that. His scoring is very unpolished. He takes his body to the rim then doesn't use his body to shield the defender from the ball. That's a skill he needs ASAP. 6. This game gave me PTSD from last season. Once again, we don't seem to be able to run efficient offense in the half court. Once we get out and run we look great. So our games this year will largely be streaky. When we can shut the other team down on their offense, we have a better chance of pushing up court and getting a quick basket. When the other team scores, it pushes us into half court offense, where we suffer. Our spacing needs work... our timing needs work... our ball movement needs work. 6. Self will largely have to rely on mostly non-freshman players. There is a definite split in this team, freshmen vs upperclassmen, and I don't think we can expect to completely flip these freshmen around in one year. I say that, but I was pretty impressed with TKs defense. Mel, the experienced guy, botched several defensive shifts that cost us on the trey line. Mbiya didn't move his feet enough and cost us on the trey. At times, Cardinals were open for 5 seconds on the trey line. You just can't leave anyone open that long, even if they are 7'2". 7. I'm glad we lost. It can help us more than a win right now. These kids need to show up at the gym everyday now in serious mode. WE NEED A CHIP! 8. There is hope for this team. I remember in 2022 when Kentucky came to town and smoked us. We all know what happened after that! 9. As fans, we need to stay poised. Our players need poise, so do our fans. Chanting for Flory to fk off was tasteless and made us look like the majority of fanbases in America. Show some pride. We always have high expectations for our team but what about ourselves? All of this rubs off on our team. They will take on our character. If we become gutter dwellers, so will they!
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The good:
White and Council carried the offense. 45 points combined on 50% from 3 and 50+% from the field. But it is scary to think that we had to rely on two guys who weren't on the roster a month ago.
While he may not be NBA ready at this point and his outside shooting was just bad, I think Stokes will be the best overall player on the team before long. He rebounds, he passes, and he isn't afraid to attack the basket (although he got stuffed several times).
Reeves and Mybia combined for 11 RBs and 10pts in 32 minutes. Take that production from the 5 every game?The not so good (or just plain bad):
<30% from the arc.
Virtually no production from what one would think is one of the deepest benches in years - Blyden, 2pts in 12 minutes; Parker, 2pts in 14 minutes; Kinney, 4pts in 21 minutes (although 6 assists); Dawes, 5pts in 22 minutes.
Porous defense - giving up 89pts. 53pts in the 2nd half - we've seen that movie the past couple of years. Poor rotation leaving wide open 3s and too many easy drives to the basket. Self teams used to be characterized by tough defense and being able to win games when shots weren't falling. No more.The game wasn't a disaster as Louisville has talent and a good coach. But losing at home and giving up half a century+ in the 2d half doesn't leave a good taste...
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Flory didn't look to great
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Flory was pretty average at best believe he had 2 rebounds. That was his biggest achilles heel here. He just doesn’t put forth any effort at all on the glass 95% of the time. It maybe the reason he is still in college.
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Flory is a guy who has a game built for 20 years ago, when the focus was still feeding the post, which meant good post defense and rebounding was what you want your post guy to do. The NBA has become a perimeter game, so bigs need good ball handling and perimeter shooting. Flory doesn't have pro potential. None. His game is still relevant in college, but even that is changing. His teammate, Obinna, is the guy with the NBA potential.
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Bill's had some work done. He looks good!
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I don't even really like that TKR is gonna play and that White and Melvin are back, but goodness, this team without those guys look like we may have struggled a lot this season. I'm still working my way through the recording, don't even know if we 'won' the scrimmage, but I'm not seeing a hole bunch that gives me hope.
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@DCHawker I think Stokes will keep getting stuffed unless we make our outside game more threatening than it probably will be like a continuation of the last several years. Our outside threats in these recent seasons is isolate our designated shooter in the corner and hope they can get off a shot over the athletic small forwards. We need to answer threes with threes and we are just too predictable in most possessions.
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@Tallturd1 Stokes has a low ceiling IMO. He thinks he still in highschool, bigger and stronger than his opponents. Thats not the case at this level. He drives into the trees and gets swatted more often than not, he has to be saved by the whistle. I don’t think he has a quick enough burst to get around an average B12 defender. But thinking positively if he stays healthy, he has a chance to get better. That was always the trouble the DP. He had potential to be great had luck been a little better but I just don’t see it with Stokes. If he’s the top pick in next years draft, it says a lot about how weak this cycle is.
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I didn’t see much to like out of the exhibition game. It’s just simply that whatever offense and defense we are running is god awful. So outdated and the same every year. I’ll hope for the best as usual
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I think we've already seen a slightly different offense with Stokes handling the ball. If he can figure out how to effectively play at this level, with his passing skills it should open up the three point line for some open shots. We just have to find some guys who can make em! (same old recent problem). He'll get the big guys some dunks as well. Also should create some straight line cuts to the lane for others with a nice assist. So, i think our style of play is all on Stokes and how good or bad he is. I doubt we'll see the days of big guys posting up much, but who knows.
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Duke just punked Tennessee by 40 in Cameron and watching the highlights they had a real dunk fest and got out and ran repeatedly. Nothing the Vols could do about it. We can get a measure and hope our guys can go toe to toe against the arrogance. Without Melvin and White we need to stop the air ball upchucks we showed against Louisville. This team looks to be in the mix of lower 2nd level talent and will need to overachieve to hold it to below ten losses. We are spending enough to be upper 2nd level but our new guys seemed to be behind the game flow and couldn't score repeatedly. Stokes will get beat up but we need him to stay aggressive and win more one on ones at the rim.
