Zink

Excellent post, I think this is the right take. Our offense is just totally non-existent and that’s because pretty much our entire rotation (minus Wiley) excels at bully-ball, meaning we can’t spread the floor whatsoever. We need to spend a little less time in the weight room and a lot more time in the gym. Believe it or not, but you have to make shots to win basketball games.

That could have a lot to do with who they play in Lawrence vs KC. Generally the KC games are against high(er) quality opposition.

The coaches really need to limit him to one dribble. If he tries to take a second dribble, he loses it immediately every single time.

I agree. Although French came out of a timeout there at the end and was on the wrong side of the court. Bess has to push him out of the way. I wonder how much of the problem is the planning and how much is in the execution.

We played pretty well until the end there. Absolutely horrendous last couple minutes of offensive possessions. Ford really needs to rethink his end game strategy. This game was very winnable.

Horrendous call there. Looked like he thought Bess threw an elbow. Completely asinine.

What?!!?!

Isabell playing with a bit of fire this game, getting on the floor a couple times, forcing a held ball, and drawing fouls. Need to keep that intensity going for twenty more minutes.

Honestly an embarrassing game. Lots to think about for Ford and Co.

SIU has pissed away the past two minutes and we have nothing to show for it.

Don’t know. Not optimistic though.

Hopefully Ford realizes that he needs to completely change the offense. When our defense goes from great to merely good, we are in dire straits. Can’t win games when every possession resembles a root canal.

Absolutely abysmal defense. Easy call for the ref on a play that wasn’t at all threatening.

Is this Goodwin’s first game without a mask?

It’s not. BUT (just to give some room for optimism) I remember back when I was a student and Willie Reed was using crutches the day before a game once, and then played like his normal self once the game came around. Apparently he’d turned it in practice and part of the recovery was just to remove any weight whatsoever so that he could play ASAP. Fingers crossed that Wiley just turned or tweaked something... but I honestly doubt we see him for a while.

What a great effort. We held them to 28% from the floor, 17% from three! Absolutely insane defensive efficiency.

Playing with the sustained defensive intensity and ability we showed at the end of that half will keep us in every game. Outstanding effort.

We don’t look great so far. Have to rebound better and the offense has been stagnant. A few good post-ups, but nothing else. Two possessions that ended with French holding the ball as the shot clock wound down is not what you want.

And extended that midrange game beyond the arc, it seems. Great get for Ford and #teamblue.

Driving home from out of town today so I could only listen on the radio, but it sounded like maybe our best overall game yet. Need to reduce turnovers, but our offense really clicked for some nice bursts, which we haven’t yet seen. Usually every possession is a grind, but that wasn’t quite the case today - plenty of room for improvement, but maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Gordon, Goodwin, and Bess all had big games. Nice to see Isabell put up 13 on only 9 shots. If we have 4-5 fewer turnovers, this is a 20pt blowout, and we had about that many very correctable turnovers. Played smarter with fouls than we had the last two games. Overall, I think this is a decent win for us, with plenty of learning opportunities to be had.

I wonder if Ford is looking at our team this year wishing he had better shooting out of our bigs, realizing we’ve looked pretty good with Bess at the 4, and thinking that Hankton/Hargrove combining to back that spot up might not be a bad idea next year. Still want another true big, but if those swingmen can hold their own in the paint on defense, it really could open things up for offensively.

The weird thing is most of his points in the first half came off of rebounds or cuts, things he can do regardless of who brings the ball up the floor. Goodwin has to be consistently aggressive if we’re going to dance this year and so far it hasn’t happened, except for the first half today.

Honestly Smart is an undersized bulldog of an off-guard in the NBA. He’s never been a ball dominant player at that level. Goodwin needs to improve his shooting to make it to the NBA. His ball-handling and passing are way closer to being good enough.

Guilty

Summa > magna