I may not have a great deal of time to post any responses on this message board related to this topic today, but I thought that I'd post my thoughts on last night's game.
First of all, am I the only one that was surprised by PV A&M quickness on the court? They were, granted, very small and didn't look great "getting off of the bus", but they showed some speed on the court and had at least a couple of shooters that created some challenge at times, at least. This is a team that was being blown out by an average of probably 30 points per game. If you go back and look at the box scores, you'll see that a great deal of this was due to the number of 3s that they give up by playing zone. We were reluctant to take those shots in the 1st half and, instead, opted to work our zone offense even though they were laying back off of us and not giving us much room to work in the middle of their zone. I don't know this for certain but, I believe Weber was doing this knowing that, while the win was assured, we will see some zones in the Big XII this year that we need to be better prepared to attack and not simply "settle" for 3s even though we are one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the conference. I was/am okay with this. Particularly given how many FT jumpers we had that were wide open and we simply missed. We need to work on that shot and executing against that defense. Nevertheless, I still believe that PVA&M is NOT the worst team that we've played this year regardless of their RPI but that's probably splitting hairs because, as one person on this board said previously, the contest for the worst team we will play is a real horserace.
Secondly, one of the most encouraging things that I'm seeing from our basketball team right now beyond the excellent 3-point shooting is the chemistry of this team. This team plays very well together, defers to one another, and yet with Brown, Sneed, and Kamau, has enough aggressiveness and willingness to take shots to be a high-scoring offense. We seem to be looking to get a better shot, inside, and then finding the open man outside when the defense collapses. We actually have an inside game with DJ and Wade and to a lesser extent Maurice. And, as I've said before, when Wade goes well, the team goes from good to great. Once of the things that Gottlieb spoke about yesterday was the issue that Duke, Kentucky UCLA and others have with getting players that have tons of NBA potential but struggle to learn to play as a team. They become NBA players, for sure, but never really accomplish what they should in college. I'm not sure that I'd totally agree with that in terms of Kentucky, but I do see it in Duke, UCLA, KU, Michigan State, and others. It struck me as he was saying this that THIS is what I DO see in K-State this year: Chemistry. We don't have guys standing around waiting for Rodney McGruder or Jake Pullen or Angel Rodriguez or Marcus Foster or whomever to create and make a shot. We have more of a pure team that works together continuing to look for a better shot but not afraid to pull the trigger as the shot clock winds down. I think this weak non-conference schedule may have helped us achieve this. NOW, we do NOW need to play someone and we should be in about a week against Colorado State but I sure would like to see Gardner Webb instead be Stanford or Creighton or Michigan State or someone in that range or of that caliber. Perhaps Texas finally meets that criteria on the 30th but that's one game before we play KU. If we were to put a couple of heavier weights on our schedule here in December, I think we'd give KU a run for their money in Lawrence. Now, I'm not sure. Regardless, I like where this team is headed and I'll be surprised, assuming this chemistry continues to develop, if they aren't 6-3 after the first half of the Big XII season.
First of all, am I the only one that was surprised by PV A&M quickness on the court? They were, granted, very small and didn't look great "getting off of the bus", but they showed some speed on the court and had at least a couple of shooters that created some challenge at times, at least. This is a team that was being blown out by an average of probably 30 points per game. If you go back and look at the box scores, you'll see that a great deal of this was due to the number of 3s that they give up by playing zone. We were reluctant to take those shots in the 1st half and, instead, opted to work our zone offense even though they were laying back off of us and not giving us much room to work in the middle of their zone. I don't know this for certain but, I believe Weber was doing this knowing that, while the win was assured, we will see some zones in the Big XII this year that we need to be better prepared to attack and not simply "settle" for 3s even though we are one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the conference. I was/am okay with this. Particularly given how many FT jumpers we had that were wide open and we simply missed. We need to work on that shot and executing against that defense. Nevertheless, I still believe that PVA&M is NOT the worst team that we've played this year regardless of their RPI but that's probably splitting hairs because, as one person on this board said previously, the contest for the worst team we will play is a real horserace.
Secondly, one of the most encouraging things that I'm seeing from our basketball team right now beyond the excellent 3-point shooting is the chemistry of this team. This team plays very well together, defers to one another, and yet with Brown, Sneed, and Kamau, has enough aggressiveness and willingness to take shots to be a high-scoring offense. We seem to be looking to get a better shot, inside, and then finding the open man outside when the defense collapses. We actually have an inside game with DJ and Wade and to a lesser extent Maurice. And, as I've said before, when Wade goes well, the team goes from good to great. Once of the things that Gottlieb spoke about yesterday was the issue that Duke, Kentucky UCLA and others have with getting players that have tons of NBA potential but struggle to learn to play as a team. They become NBA players, for sure, but never really accomplish what they should in college. I'm not sure that I'd totally agree with that in terms of Kentucky, but I do see it in Duke, UCLA, KU, Michigan State, and others. It struck me as he was saying this that THIS is what I DO see in K-State this year: Chemistry. We don't have guys standing around waiting for Rodney McGruder or Jake Pullen or Angel Rodriguez or Marcus Foster or whomever to create and make a shot. We have more of a pure team that works together continuing to look for a better shot but not afraid to pull the trigger as the shot clock winds down. I think this weak non-conference schedule may have helped us achieve this. NOW, we do NOW need to play someone and we should be in about a week against Colorado State but I sure would like to see Gardner Webb instead be Stanford or Creighton or Michigan State or someone in that range or of that caliber. Perhaps Texas finally meets that criteria on the 30th but that's one game before we play KU. If we were to put a couple of heavier weights on our schedule here in December, I think we'd give KU a run for their money in Lawrence. Now, I'm not sure. Regardless, I like where this team is headed and I'll be surprised, assuming this chemistry continues to develop, if they aren't 6-3 after the first half of the Big XII season.
