What a pathetic effort. Sad the seniors go out like this, but at the same time they almost deserve it after a showing like that. Hookem I guess?
I remember when Kansas lost to Oklahoma State by 21 this season, somehow they got over it. Also getting Ridley back for even like 20 minutes or so a game will help tremendously. Looks like that is going to happen by Big 12 Touney time, according to what was said during the game. They thought he might be cleared last Friday, but wasn't quite ready.
Horns were 100% playing with house money and if they were going to roll out their worst performance of the year, this was absolutely the game to do it. Hopefully they put this one behind them quickly and move on down road. Winning Friday would mean 20 win season and 11 wins in Big XII and that is a monster achievement for this team particularly given how ridiculously stacked a schedule they have played.
Just an awful game where things snowballed. How many shots did we have open that just didn't go down? KU plays great defense so a lot of that is them setting the tone, but I lost track of how many shots Taylor had that were open and that he usually hits, and he either shorted them off the rim or just couldn't get the roll. Add to that the fact that for once in the entire season, the refs finally decide to NOT be a factor in the game, and our guards never adjusted to that. If you don't think you're going to get a foul called, you can't just charge into the paint with no plan other than to force up a shot in traffic. We stayed with that long after it was clear it wasn't going to work. KU's guards are a really tough match-up for us - one of the few groups that can make it really hard to get into the paint at will. If the outside shots are falling, there's an answer for that. Tonight the entire team was cold, and KU couldn't miss. I almost thought that midcourt shot at halftime was going in - it was basically that kind of night. It's done, take it for what it was and move on. We'll play better and they'll play worse.
This 30 point beatdown was hard to watch... it seemed like KU never missed a shot and the Horns couldn't buy a bucket when they needed it. Can we somehow blame this blowout loss on Manziel?
not much to add to what's already been said. We got beat by a great team that had their best shooting night of the season. We had a terrible night shooting, but it was against the best defensive team in the B12 right now. What a performance by Perry Ellis. Staying the extra year (he is a senior, could have come out last year) made a difference. His offense is compete. He is slippery down low, moves to the hoop with a purpose, and has a nice jump shot. And their guards were deadly accurate from beyond the arc. Kansas brought the perfect storm. No one in the country would have beat them last night.
They were just outstanding in every aspect of the game. I think we can get to that level under Shaka.
I agree. And we will get there quicker if one or two really good juniors (aka Isiah Taylor) will stay through their senior year to stir the chemistry just right with the younger players. For example, there is no way to overstate how valuable Perry Ellis is to KU now. Without him they are not a top ten team, imho.
It would definitely be helpful if Taylor stayed. I don't really see it happening, but I do think he'd benefit from it in the long run. I still don't think he's a first-day selection because he hasn't shown he can shoot consistently, although he's definitely better, and he also hasn't shown the wisdom to know when to drive and when it's not there. He's not going to be able to just drive in and force stuff at the next level - I think today's game showed what it's like for a guard who drives in expecting to get contact fouls and the refs don't respect him enough to give him the benefit of the doubt. That's what he'd see in the NBA, and it would translate to a lot of wasted possessions.
OMG, what a ridiculously negative way to spin things. The Horns came up against the best team in the country, playing its best game of the season. We played much worse than we usually do, but that undoubtedly was due to Kansas's stifling defense. It's too bad the senior's had to go out against Kansas. They deserve much better than this. Hook 'Em, definitely.
For whatever reason we've been struggling getting easy baskets since the TJ Ford days and the one Durant season. Combine that with low percentage free throws and you make things even harder. We are slightly better in free throws than last year. I do see improvements in these 2 areas and much more to come with Shaka.
I decided not to comment until the dust settled. I watched the game until 15-0 then moved on to my pseudo-writing career. It seemed to me to be a perfect storm. There were several offensive possessions where we couldn't buy a home town call (assuming they weren't actually fouls). There were probably at least three right under the basket which the refs decided were clean blocks. You may recall the crowd booed lustily; and while the crowd aired that frustration Kansas raced back and converted with incredible shooting. Plus we blew a couple of lay-ups. Ball game. To me, Texas is just a very inconsistent shooting team (seems to be our recent history) and we were cold at the wrong time. Connor daggers OU over and over and then doesn't show up against KU. What can you do?
