Post Texas Thoughts

Sido's late night rant:

I passed out around the 13 minute mark of the second half - and woke up in the fetal position in the middle of my office - screaming something incoherently - all I could make out was how I wanted to shit down the throat of Rick Barnes?Thanks for showing up tonight, Brandon. Definitely didn't see his disappearing act coming - he hid that well.Perhaps this team needed a solid kick in the ass? A little motivation for Dallas? Pretty sure Self will have their attention, as they'll be running upon their return to Lawrence.Goodnight,James.

Scott J's thoughts

Well sucked to watch tonight, but it doesn't hurt as bad when you expected to lose. It'll be nice to remember how they left in their starters til the one minute mark next year when they come to the Phog without Tucker, Aldridge, or Buckman. I hope we beat them by 50.Now that that's out of my system, thoughts on the game. I thought Texas would win, but I am surprised that we were blown out, because this Bill Self team just doesn't get blown out. Our D is usually enough to keep us in games even if we aren't shooting well. I thought we gave good effort and hustle for most of the game. Two things happened that spelled doom for KU, one that I predicted and the other that I didn't see coming whatsoever. We did not shoot well from the perimeter and they shot lights out. That was critical especially in the 2nd half when we couldn't penetrate against their zone. The other thing, and I guess I have to give Rick Barnes a little credit here, they did a masterful job on Julian Wright. In KU games recently, Wright has been abusing teams with his uncanny passing ability in the low post. I guess Barnes watched all of that film and stressed to his guys to be ready to jump the interior passing lanes every time Wright got the ball. It was a very effective strategy. It's not the only reason they won, but it sure didn't help. I didn't think it was the best-called game I had ever seen, but it wasn't the worst either. We got some calls early in the 2nd half, but they got several calls driving the ball into the low post that really hurt. Some of Texas's playmakers that game, especially in the first half, made difficult shots even when they were well defended. That's the mark of superior talent.

I thought that individually, Kahn and Giles played some nice minutes in the 1st half, especially on D, but folded in the 2nd. Rush had one of his worst games, offensively, and defensively on Tucker, mostly in the 2nd half (tucker only had 2 pts at te half). Chalmers and Robinson did not force as many turnovers as they had recently. I know that Tx isn't immune to that, since Memphis forced a lot of turnovers against them when I saw them earlier. OSU got a lot of TO's too.

As far as our seeding and ranking go, I think we drop probably 2 or 3 spots in the Top 25, to 21 or 20, no big whoop. Doesn't mean too much right now. Seeding wise, it's a huge difference here. If we won, and won the Big 12 Tourney, I think we could've made a case for a 3, but getting blown out makes us look a little illegitimate I think. The selection committee really uses 4 criteria: RPI, Strength of schedule, "quality wins" and "bad losses". Unfortunately for KU, since we lost by 25, it will be considered a "bad loss" by the selection committee. Any loss by more than 20 is a bad loss for them, just like TX's losses to Duke and Tennessee will be considered bad losses, even though those are good teams. That and the OSU loss kills their chance at a 1 seed. For us, we are ok on the first two criteria, but since the Big XII is down this year, we don't have a lot of quality wins to trumpet. Oklahoma is probably the best, and we did that barely in our gym. You might count California too, since they've come on recently. One other thing the tourney committee loves is how you are performing late in the season as opposed to early. That helps KU a lot. The most recent Bracketology had us at a #5. I think this drops us to a 6. If we win the last 2 games vs. CU and K St, I think we maintain that. The only way to improve our seed now dramatically is to win the Big XII Tourney and maybe beat TX in a rematch. That would give us legitimacy. I think if we do that, we are a #4 seed. If not, we stay at 6, mostly because of our lack of quality wins. I'd rather be a 6 than a 4 or 5 anyway, though. That 5/12 game is historically a b****, and if you're one of those 2 seeds, you gotta play the #1 in Round 3. Given the separation of the upper echelon this year in college BB between the top 4 teams and the rest of the field, I'd much rather play the #2 than the #1.Rock Chalk!!!
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ljworld game stats
BrieflyTexas had a 22-17 advantage in points off turnovers, a 15-6 edge in second-chance points, a 9-4 lead in fast-break points and a 20-11 edge in bench points. ... The teams tied with 24 points in the paint

Kansas LeadersScoring: Julian Wright 18, Mario Chalmers 10.Rebounding: Brandon Rush, C.J. Giles 4 each.Assists: Russell Robinson 8.Turnovers: Wright 5, Rush 4.Texas leadersScoring: P.J. Tucker 19; LaMarcus Aldridge 18; Brad Buckman, A.J. Abrams 12 each.Rebounding: Buckman 9; Tucker, Aldridge 8 each.Assists: Tucker 7.Turnovers: Tucker 5.