Just in case you thought winning at Nebraska is insignificant: I nearly did a spit-take when they said on the telecast that the Big 12 was 114-1 (not a typo) at home. According to the Star, that one loss was Iowa St., by three points, against 15-1 Northern Iowa.
Granted, there were a lot of strawberry shortcakes in there -- including KU opponents -- and all those Pac-10 teams have turned out to be 'cakes as well (Cal is probably the best team in that conference).
114-1 until last night, that is. We still looked out of it for about 3 quarters of that game, but it was a nice bounce-back from the 3-point stripe, and for Marcus. Sherron continues to get it done, and there was help from Brady ("he's a raker!") and Tyrel.
Cole and X continue to look dispirited on the offensive end. I have confidence that they'll snap out of it; but I still say some of the onus has to be on their coaches and teammates to get them involved.
By the way, once again we have celebrity sightings at the Devaney Center: This time it was Joba Chamberlain; a few years ago it was my second-favorite comedian (after Chris, of course); and in 2002 it was the Hughes-Dominicks w/ yours truly.
Wow--was that really '02? Sounds like a long time ago! That was a great game, what with Langford's 3 to put us on top (if memory serves...).
ReplyDeleteI generally agree with your analysis, dgl, and it's pretty exciting to be in what is clearly the best conference in the country.
Cole is an odd case--as you say, he's been off on offense, but meanwhile he's putting up incredible numbers on defense. Averaging nearly four blocks a game, and what did he have, like 18 rebounds in the Tennessee loss?
Be an interesting stretch for him: does he turn into a defense-oriented player, leaving Marcus as our go-to big guy for scoring? Or is this slump just a by-product of inefficient ball movement?
I do recall seeing some double- and triple-teams on Aldrich in the Nebraska game, so in a sense it's hard to blame Cole or the rest of the KU squad too much. On the other hand you'd think that a coach as good as Self could find a way to get Cole open...
As Chris mentioned the other day, a few steals would do a lot for our offense--hopefully that's something we'll see tomorrow against the Red Raiders.
Thoughts on that one? They've had some good wins, for example against then-ranked Washington, but lately they're struggling.
Oh, finally, speaking of sharing thoughts: anyone else following Coach Self on Twitter? Nothing ground-breaking, but there's something kind of charming about updates like the following:
Watching tape of tech. Athletic and can score. We need to have good practice and b turned up tom. Players r happy students r back.
My parents were at the Texas Tech game. They are not fans of the JumboTron.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, not much to say except: Brady and Tyrel were our best players in the 1st half; Tyshawn may be headed to the doghouse (only 12 mins.); X still not shooting well, but 5 assists and a monster putback.
Another sign that Elijah is a different kind of kid: Not in the highlights, and I didn't see this part of the game, but in the closing moments he apparently had a monster dunk of his own -- and then apologized for it.
Condolences to Sherron and Cole.