I have to take my mind off of the football mess so I went back and watched both Missouri and Lehigh again.
I also finally watched a bunch of the Big 12 games I had recorded. Do you know how pissed off a wife can be if you clog up the DVR with basketball games and some stupid hospital drama can't record?
But I digress.
First, I think the Big 12 is going to be a monster. There was a lot of talk about the Big 12 being down this year because of defections and graduations, but I honestly believe it could be better than last year. There is simply so much high end talent. The rest of the conference is recruiting really well and those young players are starting to emerge.
I read a thread at some point in the last couple of days comparing Kerwin Roach and Barry Brown. It has taken a while for Roach to find his groove playing for Smart, but people forget how celebrated he was. He would have been the fourth highest rated K-State recruit in the rivals era behind Beasley, Walker and Judge. He was ranked one spot below Dedric Lawson in the national rankings. Matt Coleman and Jericho Sims were both consensus top 60 players.
If you haven't watched Horton Tucker at Iowa State yet, you are missing out. That dude is a grown man and will battle for first team all league as a true freshman. He is that good.
Texas Tech is good. Like, really good. As good as K-State has been defensively, Tech might be better. They can be suffocating.
Right now, I would rank the conference:
1. Kansas
2. Tech
3. Texas
4. Kansas State
5. Iowa State
6. TCU
7.WVU
8. Oklahoma
9. Baylor
10. Oklahoma State
That brings me to K-State. It's been hard for me to get a good gauge because I honestly believe that Bruce has been tinkering. The schedule hasn't been good. Missouri is just not a good team. I think they are a lower half SEC team. Lehigh is actually a pretty good low major and they are a team that might end up helping the SOS more than Missouri by the end of the season. But what I saw was K-State going back to playing unstructured basketball. I believe it was probably by design. They simply didn't run much in the way of sets or even structure on the offensive end. Against Missouri, the offense was much more orchestrated. You saw a lot of ball screens and pick and roll/pop action that I think you will see during conference play. There was almost none of that against Lehigh.
I have to believe the shooting percentages will be closer to what we saw against Missouri than we have seen against the rest of the non-con. The pick and roll with Barry and Dean is simply impossible for teams to handle because of Barry's ability to get to the rim and Dean's ability to score from literally everywhere on the floor. If teams try and force Barry to give it up, they are putting the ball in the hand of the most unguardable scorer in the conference. If they try to deny the ball to Dean, Barry will score 20 every night and cause foul trouble issues.
I have to give Kam props. For the most part, he has been really good. Other than a couple of times where he was looking for his shot early in games, he has taken good shots that haven't been forced. He was pretty good defensively against Lehigh when he was off the ball. He was having a hard time staying in front of the ball when he was guarding the primary ball handler, but ultimately, I don't think that will be his responsibility anyway.
I think Mawien takes way too much flak for how good he has been. He was spectacular against Lehigh and has been really good for the most part all season outside of foul trouble. My biggest gripe with him is that he seems to have really weak hands. He keeps the ball too low (around his waist) when he catches and small guards are constantly stripping him of the ball. I would love to see him get the ball up under his chin with his elbows out and simply dare anyone to reach in to strip it. But if scores anywhere between 8 and 12 points and grabs 6-8 rebounds while guarding the best post player, he will be a key to this team making a deep run. You can tell the coaching staff simply isn't comfortable having Trice on the floor in meaningful minutes.
I hate the new hooking rule on rebounds. I understand that the rules committee is typically very reactionary and was reacting to the player getting pulled to the ground and injured in the post season last year, but to call a flagrant foul on a player because two players are battling for a rebound and one has the other's arm pinned is a travesty. Call it a foul if you want and make it a flagrant if the player gets pulled to the ground, but Mak getting two freethrows and the ball for the flagrant against Lehigh was an absurdity.
That's probably enough for now.
I also finally watched a bunch of the Big 12 games I had recorded. Do you know how pissed off a wife can be if you clog up the DVR with basketball games and some stupid hospital drama can't record?
But I digress.
First, I think the Big 12 is going to be a monster. There was a lot of talk about the Big 12 being down this year because of defections and graduations, but I honestly believe it could be better than last year. There is simply so much high end talent. The rest of the conference is recruiting really well and those young players are starting to emerge.
I read a thread at some point in the last couple of days comparing Kerwin Roach and Barry Brown. It has taken a while for Roach to find his groove playing for Smart, but people forget how celebrated he was. He would have been the fourth highest rated K-State recruit in the rivals era behind Beasley, Walker and Judge. He was ranked one spot below Dedric Lawson in the national rankings. Matt Coleman and Jericho Sims were both consensus top 60 players.
If you haven't watched Horton Tucker at Iowa State yet, you are missing out. That dude is a grown man and will battle for first team all league as a true freshman. He is that good.
Texas Tech is good. Like, really good. As good as K-State has been defensively, Tech might be better. They can be suffocating.
Right now, I would rank the conference:
1. Kansas
2. Tech
3. Texas
4. Kansas State
5. Iowa State
6. TCU
7.WVU
8. Oklahoma
9. Baylor
10. Oklahoma State
That brings me to K-State. It's been hard for me to get a good gauge because I honestly believe that Bruce has been tinkering. The schedule hasn't been good. Missouri is just not a good team. I think they are a lower half SEC team. Lehigh is actually a pretty good low major and they are a team that might end up helping the SOS more than Missouri by the end of the season. But what I saw was K-State going back to playing unstructured basketball. I believe it was probably by design. They simply didn't run much in the way of sets or even structure on the offensive end. Against Missouri, the offense was much more orchestrated. You saw a lot of ball screens and pick and roll/pop action that I think you will see during conference play. There was almost none of that against Lehigh.
I have to believe the shooting percentages will be closer to what we saw against Missouri than we have seen against the rest of the non-con. The pick and roll with Barry and Dean is simply impossible for teams to handle because of Barry's ability to get to the rim and Dean's ability to score from literally everywhere on the floor. If teams try and force Barry to give it up, they are putting the ball in the hand of the most unguardable scorer in the conference. If they try to deny the ball to Dean, Barry will score 20 every night and cause foul trouble issues.
I have to give Kam props. For the most part, he has been really good. Other than a couple of times where he was looking for his shot early in games, he has taken good shots that haven't been forced. He was pretty good defensively against Lehigh when he was off the ball. He was having a hard time staying in front of the ball when he was guarding the primary ball handler, but ultimately, I don't think that will be his responsibility anyway.
I think Mawien takes way too much flak for how good he has been. He was spectacular against Lehigh and has been really good for the most part all season outside of foul trouble. My biggest gripe with him is that he seems to have really weak hands. He keeps the ball too low (around his waist) when he catches and small guards are constantly stripping him of the ball. I would love to see him get the ball up under his chin with his elbows out and simply dare anyone to reach in to strip it. But if scores anywhere between 8 and 12 points and grabs 6-8 rebounds while guarding the best post player, he will be a key to this team making a deep run. You can tell the coaching staff simply isn't comfortable having Trice on the floor in meaningful minutes.
I hate the new hooking rule on rebounds. I understand that the rules committee is typically very reactionary and was reacting to the player getting pulled to the ground and injured in the post season last year, but to call a flagrant foul on a player because two players are battling for a rebound and one has the other's arm pinned is a travesty. Call it a foul if you want and make it a flagrant if the player gets pulled to the ground, but Mak getting two freethrows and the ball for the flagrant against Lehigh was an absurdity.
That's probably enough for now.
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