Sunday, February 15, 2009

'Hawks Retake Manhattan

I tuned into the KU-KSU game late, to find our boys down 28-13. From there Marcus took over and our rally began. So in the game I saw, KU wins 72-46.

Marcus continues alternating between brilliance (see Baylor and K-State) and embarrassing (see Mizzou, though I still believe he got a raw deal on that technical). But KU fans need to be patient -- his upside, and Markieff's as well, earns him some indulgences.

Cole looks to have his offensive groove back with a new mask. Marcus engineered our comeback in this one, but Cole was the one who slammed the door shut at the end. Very authoritative performances considering these guys are both still underclassmen.

Our guard play was a little spotty -- too many turnovers, fouls and points scored against by Clemente and Pullen. Gotta love the 8-for-12 three-point shooting, though.

Also, in fairness, since I always complain about turnovers, the Star's J. Brady McCullough has an interesting piece explaining why turnovers are a necessary component of Self's style. Given the results in terms of wins and losses, maybe I should stop whining about it so much.

Any thoughts? Hellooooo......

3 comments:

  1. I think I tuned in about the same time as you, Deron.

    Aldrich was very good that game, and Sherron seemed to have his composure (mostly) throughout the game too.

    It was a relief, because I couldn't have taken losing to MU and KSt in the same week. That's a quality road Big XII win against a team that was extremely hot going into the game.

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  2. Great link from the Star--thanks, dgl. (Especially as I never got into the habit of looking at that paper . . .)

    It is interesting that the best year in terms of turnovers was last year, but it's reassuring that the difference between then and now is only 2 or 3 / game.

    Was fun to see that K State game from the start, if only to see how well the team responded.
    One thing about Self (another Deron complaint, if memory serves) that bothers me more than turnovers is the timeout usage. Was better in the 2nd half, but boy did he blow through them in the 1st.

    I wasn't as bothered as some by the turnovers against Mizzou--I mean, they sucked, sure, but the cold shooting seemed like a bigger factor down the stretch. Took us 8 field goal attempts and 8 free throws to get from 50 to our end-of-game 60. That's a lot of shooting for ten points.


    But all that aside, Scott's right: we got a big road win, and right when we seemed to need it the most.

    Huzzah and Rock Chalk!

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  3. PS, I see that despite the loss we've moved up in the AP rankings from 16 to 15.

    Huzzah indeed.

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