G
Grant Flanders
Guest
- Weber said he wishes the young guys on this team could experience the great crowds and energy the K-State-KU game brings.
- He said Kansas is very good defensively. They sometimes have struggled at scoring but did they can be dangerous because they can still score win bunches at times.
- Coach thinks Nijel was forced to rush last time agianst KU by the way they blitzed ball screens and when he came off cuts the Jayhawks jammed him. Coach said they talked to him after practice and showed him some things telling him to keep a good pace and make the next pass. Make them pay.
- Said a key for the game is going to force KU to continually rotate and force them to play stellar defense by getting in paint and making the next pass a lot like they did against Texas if they are going to have any success.
- Coach thinks that KU has evolved as a team. They get Ajbagi in the pin downs and he’s really good at making a play on those. McCormick is one of the most improved guys in the league. As the season has gone along they have committed to getting him the ball more, not only on the block, he’s getting the ball 8 to 10 feet off the block. Weber said to him Christian Braun is the key for them. When he gets 3 or 4 open 3s he can realllly stretch the defense which makes it hard with what Ajbagi and McCormick can do in combination with Garrett’s ability to attack the basket.
- Coach says DGJ should be good to go by Saturday. Coach worked him out Sunday after two weeks in the pool and a little running. He got involved periodically throughout practice yesterday. They will see how he does today. They don’t want to push him tomorrow if there’s any doubt. “Could be limited possibly tomorrow, hopefully Saturday.”
- It was asked to Weber what kind of things does the team do to stay together in a Covid ridden season with not many wins. Weber said he talked to Tom Izzo yesterday and Matt Painter this morning. The unprecedented season been hard on the coaches. Says the front line people have been extrodinary with their time and knowledge. Said players sacrifice time on their days off to go get Covid tested. He brought up the mental health aspect of it for the players and said they are just tying to keep positive. He tells them it will help them through the long haul of their lives if they keep at it and focused and battling through challenges. He applauds his team that they have made it this far through some really rough patches and still haven’t quit and keep battling. Last week practices weren’t great but yesterday was a really good practice. Whether you win or lose for players and coaches around the country this season has been a difficult challenge for everyone.
- Sounds like it was more than just one or two guys that got Covid on Baylor this last time they got hit. More like the majority of their team. It was decided before the season by the coaches that this season’s final standings will be based on percentages since not everyone willplay the same amount of games. If everything goes right they will play Iowa State that last week before the B12 tourney. There’s still some things that could happen to derail that game from happening but the league and the ncaa is going to try to make up as many games as possible. He said we all knew this wasn’t going to be perfect but everyone has to deal with the tough times. Coach brought up Nebraska’s schedule. It is pretty nuts. After almost a month long absence they began play again on Feb 6 and have played a game every two days since then. Now this week they will play tonight, tomrrow, and Saturday. By Saturday they will have played 8 games in a 14 day span.
- Coach says they thought going into the year maybe Davion Bradford would get 18 or 20 minutes a game at the most. His endurance had been much better than he anticapated. Said he smiles, wants to be coached, and appreciates it. Coach says you can’t ask for more. Coach said he’s done better and better. His next step is getting in the weight room in the off season especially since he along with many others missed being able to be in the weight room consistently leading up to the season and early in the season cause of covid. Says he needs to get his legs stronger and if he can do that he can take another big step going into next year. Defensively his footwork needs to be better. Coach says that comes with strength and knowledge. The young guys are starting to figure the little things they have to do to make improvements. Now it’s up to to them to keep getting better at those and keep working.
- Coach said that he told EZ before the surgery that it wasn’t going to be easy to come back off of it. He had to come back in the middle of the season missing serious reps leading up to that point that you need to be ready. Said he slowly but surely is getting better with his rhythm and feel. The big guys were 9-14 against Ok State. Said if they can get that kind of production from Davion and Kaosi tomrrow that will be helpful.
- Said Kaosi has a good spirit to him and a good sense of reality and what life is about. Says his time in prep school in Canada and at UTEP along with other things in his life have helped him. Said his maturity is big but when you’re trying to get your mobility and game back off of surgery it is hard to be a leader. Coach how’s during this last stretch he can get a little more confidence and few good about himself and then help other people around him because that’s the kind of person he is.
- Coach believes a minimum of 14 or 15 conference games in a season should be enough in his eyes to win a championship if the winning percentage is better then everyone else’s. Says it will be interesting how Baylor or anyone else with a long delay responds to the absence.
Last edited by a moderator:
