And what a win it was; close only for the first few minutes, this was a refreshingly lop-sided road win.
The real story seems to be the Noodle's dominant performance: 33 points, 12 rebounds (8 offensive), 2 assists; he combined with an also-on B Rush (8 of 10 from the floor) for 54 points and 21 rebounds, it should be noted.
Highlights here.
What worked in the game? Defense, I think: we turned them over sixteen times, many of those in the key 1st half run (when the score went from 8-16 to 32-18). That, and beating that press; not sure, actually, why they brought the press, since they nearly beat us at Allen without it. . . .
Anyway, not a great day for the bigs (Kaun had 0 points and 2 rebounds in 8 minutes), but that ended up being no big deal: we still out-rebounded MU 39-31.
Deron, fill us in on some media talk.
Chris, tell me more about how we look compared to Duke (4 in a row!)
Oh, Colorado coming up . . . I see another on-the-road blowout coming. Let's keep coach Patton to one win all-time against KU. (Speaking of coaches, nice to see coach Self get that 300th win; and nice piece on kusports.com.)
Biggest win at Columbia since the JoJo White era. How 'bout them apples?
ReplyDeleteThose Channel 6 highlights were disappointing--all Julian to the exclusion of everyone else, yet not including his outside-the-lane straddling-the-defender dunk in the first half, which was clearly the play of the game. Not to worry, Topeka 49 has it.
Jason Whitlock on Julian:
"Seriously, he never took a bad shot. Everything was a layup or slam. ... He was just quicker to the ball than everyone on the court. ...
"He ... managed to outshine Rush on a day when Rush was damn near perfect."
I might still have to rank the Florida game above this one for Julian--simply because of the competition level.
Whitlock also points out that Mario is struggling a bit--maybe having trouble adjusting to Sherron's ascendance?
This quote from LJW kind of summed it up:
"MU’s Darryl Butterfield, who had seven points in 20 minutes, pulled his jersey over his eyes as he exited the court. The dejected player ran smack into a tray full of beverages."
That Pitt loss on Monday could help us. We need to at least move up into the top tier of the 2 seeds so we don't have to get past UNC or Florida just to make the Final 4.
ReplyDelete(Yes, it's still me. I'm unable to post here under my Blogger acct. at the moment--I don't know WTF is going on)...
Good find on the dunk video--clearly the play of the week, I'd say.
ReplyDeleteNot only is the Pitt loss good, but now A&M lost to Texas Tech again, which puts us only 1/2 a game out.
One last quote on the Mizzou game, which you all may have seen on kusports.com, but in case you didn't:
“Round about the fifth Kansas alley-oop, it became clear that for this edition of the Border War basketball game, the Missouri Tigers were simply props. MU’s interchangeable characters just as easily could have been orange barrels for the mild inconvenience they were causing Jayhawks accelerating to the basket.
“When KU’s long, tall Wrights and Rushes put their minds to winning a basketball game, there’s nobody in an MU uniform who is capable of doing much about it,.”
From the Columbia (MO) Tribune's sports editor, Joe Walljasper.
Anyone out there besides YHD and me? Mid-Feb. is no time to go AWOL, people!
ReplyDeleteUNC and A&M both go down at home to unranked teams, the same ones they both already lost to. This puts us back in the hunt for the conference title and the #1 seed... (A lot of italics there, and justifiably so).
The Colorado game may not be as easy as it usually is; Ricardo Patton will want to go out w/ a bang, and Roby and co. should be pumped up. Plus, it's hard to score three blowouts in a row, so I'll say KU by a mere 12.
i caught the a&m and unc games, i didn't think both techs would sweep.
ReplyDeletethis is just more icing after watching calhoun and K in a tailspin.
usually when i delight in top 25 losses, ku loses too.
so tonight, any kind of win will do. i'm pleased that we're not just winning lately, but looking good doing it. that was starting to bug me.
usually when i delight in top 25 losses, ku loses too.
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth? Some kind of sports karma at work there.