All in all the KU/Iowa State game in Ames was a pretty good game with one exception. The 4,628,199 turnovers the Jayhawk had. Maybe it wasn't quite that many but it sure seemed like it. Actually we had 22 TO's which, amazingly enough, is not even our season high. In fact 22 TO's against Iowa State only ties for third worst on the season. Before you get too excited let me also say the assist/TO ratio was a demoralizing 0.64 second worst only to the Wake Forest game. Remember that game? I thought you did. Watching the game I will make a qualitative assessment regarding the TO's. About half of the TO's were gifts by the Jayhawks on poorly executed or ill advised passes. The other half were from some quick and deft hands of Tinsley. In Lawrence it was clear the Cyclones played a flawless game and beat the Jayhawks. This game was similar but also a little different. The Cyclones played a nice game and did what they had to do. The Jayhawks also played a relatively nice game with the exception of TO's. Stop the presses. CorpusJayhawk was just fired for making a ludicrous statement. He actually posited the Jayhawks played a relatively nice game. He will be soundly flogged and summarily executed for such blatant apologetics. Now for the real story.

The Jayhawks marched into Ames, Iowa, undermanned, and reeling from a streak of 3 losses in 5 games. With Drew Gooden and Luke Axtell on the bench they knew this would be an uphill battle against the wind. It would take a near perfect game to beat a talented and formidable Cyclone team in a difficult venue under any circumstances. Yet rather than responding to the task the Jayhawks folded their tents and limped home with another sub-par performance. The game was not without it's merits but the plusses were overwhelmed by the minuses. Namely the Jayhawks couldn't seem to keep a hold on the ball with 22 TO's against a mere 14 assists. The Jayhawks have stuck with their game plan of pounding the ball inside all year but the deviated wildly today against the Cyclones. On the season the Jayhawks have taken about 58% of their shots on the inside. Today only 18 of 52 shot attempts were on the inside. That is only about 35%. But you can't complain much about that since we hit 8 of 15 treys and 57.7% overall. I only mention it because it seems like the Jayhawks were unable to execute their game plan and really tried to force some interior passes. The movement was a little suspect on the perimeter. I noticed several times Collison seemed to have good position but Kirk was not at the proper place to get him the ball. You'd have to say the shooting % would indicate our offense was clicking along pretty well. But folks that was not Jayhawk basketball. When a team goes from an average A/TO of 1.35:1 and almost 60% of the shots from the interior to an A/TO of 0.65:1 and 35% of the shots from the interior you have been forced out of your game plan. I have only one conclusion. Iowa State outsmarted and outplayed the Jayhawks. We simply did not execute on offense and the result was a horrendous A/TO ratio and the lowest offensive rebound % of the year. We only garnered 25% of the rebounds on our offensive glass. That is the worst total this season. Yes we miss Drew. This is a team game and there is more to teamwork than assisting and passing. This was poor execution and the numbers make it very clear if you look close enough. Kirk had 7 TO's. What's up with that. You have to like his clutch shooting and his great defense on Horton. But 7 TO's from your PG is a killer. Our PPP this game was a decent 0.922. That is very close to our season average of 0.931. If you look at that one number it would indicate our offense was okay. NOT! With a PPP of 0.922 those 22 TO's cost us 20 points. If we could have equaled ISU's 12 TO's we would have won the game by 2 points. As an aside we were a disgusting 3 for 8 from the free throw line for 37.5%. No excuse for that whatsoever. I do give ISU much credit for this win. They played a tough defense forcing many of the TO's and taking us out of our game. We just didn't respond with a tough enough defense of our own. Those two freshmen shooters (Power and Sullivan) burned us. We did a great job on Tinsley and Horton but those two guys murdered us. A couple of those shots were real circus shots too.

Since we've established our offense was pretty rotten how was our defense. Well in a word....rotten. To heck you say. We kept their shooting percentage down to 44.6%. That's pretty good isn't it? Well considering they hit 52.6% from the arc on mostly open shots. Considering they got almost twice as many offensive rebounds as we did (11 to 6). Considering we managed 5 steals to their 13. Okay there is one bright spot. We did get 7 blocks to only 2 for the Cyclones. They only had 11 fouls called on them the entire game. Is that possible? A little home cookin' maybe. Who knows? We are next to last in the Big 12 in steal differential. We are last in steals allowed and 9th is steals. Our defense is just not very quick or something. Here is a quick look at the steal situation in the Big 12.

Continuing on with defense we allowed a PPP to ISU of 0.988 or the 3rd worst of the year. The last two games have been two of the three worst defensive performances as far as PPP. As I mentioned above we also got outrebounded for only the third time this year. Just not a very inspired performance. Many of you may disagree that this game was that bad. Fine. After the game was over I was pretty proud of the guys for making it a game under very tough circumstances. But then I looked at the numbers and formed another opinion. We just did not execute on either side of the ball. You can argue that our defense on Horton and Tinsley was very good and you would be right. These guys were 3 for 21 shooting overall and 0 for 6 from the arc. We definitely outplayed them and shut them down. Unfortunately there were a few more guys on the court. Specifically a couple freshmen named Sullivan and Power. While their more illustrious senior teammates were getting shut down these two diaper dandies (oh my GAWD!! I just used a Vitalism. I think I have to barf now.....okay I'm better) managed to shoot 13 for 17 overall and 10 for 12 from the arc. OUCH!!!!! That hurt. Give them credit for hitting the shot but open shots aren't quite as challenging as when a defender is in your face. I'll get off of it now. I'm just pretty frustrated at the poor execution we have had to endure the last 4 or 5 games. It's almost March and these guys seem to be going backwards.

Let me summarize. ISU had a better game plan....they executed their game plan better.....they won. Now having released the venom let me add I think we have a better than 50% chance of winning a rematch in the Big 12 tourney if we are fortunate enough to get one. By the way, what did you think of Kevin Harlan's comment before the game that the balance of power is shifting in the Big 12? The truth hurts. Let's hope we can get some redemption in the post season. This race is toast.

Naming a player of the game on this one is easy. Jeff Boschee is the hands down winner. The NEP says it all. Jeff shot well and played very good defense. He even grabbed 4 rebounds, had 5 assists to only one 2 TO's had a block and 2 steals. A bright spot in an otherwise dismal game. Here are the NEP's.

Here are the NEP's for the entire season to date;

Here are the NEP's for the conference season-to-date;

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