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Inside the numbers
Coach Williams' comments
Box score
Season stats
Possession analysis
| NOTE: I want to forewarn anyone who is hoping for a "looking through rose colored glasses" story on the game. It’s not going to happen here. If you read this story and don’t like it, I apologize. This game deserves a story like the one you’re about to read. It’s gonna be random and it’s gonna be ugly. You’ve been warned. And please don’t bother emailing me if you have anything to say along the lines of "the team will learn from this loss", "Baylor played their hearts out", "It’s not the end of the world", "You're obviously not a fan from the way you write", yada, yada, yada. I fully understand that I will probably rethink all of the things I’ve written a couple of days from now and look more logically at this loss and what it means (or doesn’t mean). But since I have more adrenaline than I know what to do with, I thought I would go ahead and write the story and get it over with.
It is a sad day to be a Jayhawk fan. ESPN Big Mondays have not been good to Kansas basketball. This was the kind of thing that wasn’t supposed to happen anymore. KU was supposed to have put these types of losses behind them. No longer would KU fans have to worry about humiliating losses to inferior opponents; the venom that has poisoned one season after another. Well, think again. We are back to questioning the team; questioning Roy Williams; questioning the system; questioning whether we’ll get past the FIRST round of the NCAA tournament; questioning why KU teams always seem to choke; etc, etc.
Embarrassing. Pathetic. Humiliating. Disgrace. Hideous. Disgusting. Pick a word, multiply it by 100, and you will still be miles away from accurately describing KU’s play in the first half against Baylor. I have never been more embarrassed as a KU fan in my life. The team and Coach Williams showed zero emotion, zero intensity, zero execution, zero defense, zero confidence, and zero hustle. The Jayhawks should be ashamed of themselves. The first half of this game has to go down as the worst first half in the history of Kansas basketball. Once again, on national television, the Jayhawks come out and get their jockstraps handed to them. There is no sugar coating this. There is no bright side to the first half. There is absolutely nothing positive to take away.
I’m not sure if I have ever seen a KU team collectively play this poorly. There was not one guy that came to play in the first half. A complete joke. A complete embarrassment. Their lack of effort in the first half is a disgrace to the history of Kansas basketball. Sorry, folks, I’m laying it on thick, but it needs to be said. The half-time score was 47-22. The 25 point deficit was the worse half-time deficit for any team in the Roy Williams era. And again……this was Baylor and this was the biggest win in the history of their pathetic basketball "tradition". (I’m not going to bag on Baylor anymore. They played a helluva game. The played better than even they thought they were capable of. The played out of their minds. It was their best game of the year and probably the best game any Baylor team will ever play.)
And I know KU made a valiant effort in the second half, getting to within 4 points. That’s all well and good, but it was too little, too late. Just like at Missouri. Just like against Iowa State. And now….just like at Baylor. It hurts my fingers to type that. The Jayhawks should be embarrassed and completely humbled. Roy Williams needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out why his teams keep doing this.
- Do we have the worst perimeter defense in the country? I am getting absolutely sick of watching our players be caught out of position and go flailing with arms in the air at another wide open 3-point shooter. I am amazed that Coach Williams has not done anything to correct this. How many teams have to light it up from the outside before adjustments are made? The players clearly can’t play the kind of defense Coach Williams wants. So what is to be done? Will we just continue to let teams penetrate, dish and swish all season long?
- The "aura" of the Kansas basketball team is gone. Teams do not fear Kansas any longer. If any KU opponent believes they can win, they have a legitimate chance against Kansas. Heck, if I was "Joe Blow University", I’d be on the phone now trying to set up a Big Monday game with the Jayhawks. There is no other top 10 team in the country that so routinely chokes on national television.
- Why do we bother trapping? We get burned trapping way more than we have success with it. It is a waste of time and it has led to way-too-many easy buckets from our opponents.
- Why did our seniors play like 8th graders in this game? Eric Chenowith and Kenny Gregory had more turnovers (9) than a German breakfast and failed to show any leadership on the court. Kenny spouted off before the game how it was hard to get up for some teams (alluding to Baylor). Well, Kenny, I guess you shouldn’t have a problem getting up for lower-tier teams now, right? I would hope that getting your butt handed to you would give you a much-needed lesson. Terry Black dunked all over you and the rest of your teammates and made it clear who was the MAN and who was the BOY.
- Thank god for Kirk Hinrich. (26 points, 5 three pointers, 5 assists in 38 minutes). This game would have been a helluva lot uglier (is that really possible?) if he hadn’t knocked down so many 3’s and kept fighting.
- Jeff Boschee: 1-11 from 3 point range, 4 of 15 overall. Pathetic. Horrible numbers for the guy who is supposed to be our "shooting" guard. Perhaps we should call him our "shooting and missing" guard.
- Luke Axtell provided absolutely no value to this team. 6 minutes, 0 for 3 from the floor, 0 rebounds, 0 assists. He hurts more than he helps. I was glad to see Coach Williams FINALLY realized that and sat Luke down for the second half. And I don’t want to hear anymore about his back. If it bothers him that much, then he shouldn’t play. If he plays and plays poorly, I don’t want to hear about his back.
- Why didn’t Coach Williams call a time-out during the bloodshed of the first half? I realize you want to see how the team responds to adversity, but this team was drowning and Williams didn’t even reach for the life preserver.
- I have already begun to mentally prepare myself for an early exit AGAIN in the Big XII and NCAA tournaments.
- It appears more likely than ever that Iowa State will completely blow us out of the building on Saturday and the Jayhawks will have let another Big XII title slip through their hands. In the world of college basketball, the word KANSAS is becoming synonymous with UNDERACHIEVERS.
- Recipe to beat Kansas: Mix a little dribble penetration from quick guards with some decent 3 point shooting. That recipe has burned Kansas teams year after year and the good coaches know it and take advantage of it. One has to wonder how Coach Williams continually gets outcoached when a team comes to the table with that recipe.
- The "passive" Eric Chenowith KU fans have learned to loath showed up again tonight. 1 of 5 from the floor (20%), 4 rebounds, 4 turnovers. C’mon, did you really think Eric was going to have TWO good games in a row? When was the last time that happened? Eric once again showed how he cannot be counted on to lead this team in any way, shape or form. Pathetic game, Eric. I can’t believe you’re a senior and you allowed yourself and your teammates to play like this. Looking in the mirror should be hard after this one.
- Roy Williams: "We weren't ready to play……… I mean, they kicked our butts every which way it
can be kicked." And whose fault is that? Every player and coach needs to ask themselves this question and really think about the answer.
- Roy Williams: "But as I said, I'm totally stunned about why we were not ready to play from the get-go. In the locker room before the game, I didn't like what we were doing. I said, 'Fellas, you gotta understand you gotta be ready to play. This is a big, big-time game for them.' The first Big Monday game, and they've done some good things. I was concerned before the game, and we just didn't
get it done." Again, who is at fault here? Players? Coaches? I think the correct answer is BOTH.
- How many dunks did Baylor have tonight? Doughnuts don’t get dunked that much. Just another example of how pitiful the Kansas defense is. I was embarrassed watching all of those dunks. I can only imagine how the KU players feel after getting humiliated repeatedly on national television.
- KU shot 14 threes in the first half. They normally don’t shoot that many threes in a GAME. When was the last time that happened? My guess is during one of the annual 2nd round exits from the NCAA tournament. Again, I ask, who is at fault here? Surely the players for completely getting away from the game plan and for launching that many dumb shots. But Coach Williams also has to be questioned for allowing the players to continue to launch bad shot after bad shot.
- I was hoping that Coach Williams would have put the five walk-ons out there in place of the starters in the first half. Unfortunately he didn’t, and the slaughter just got worse.
Sorry, folks, I just had to get that out. I’m sure most of you will be doing the same thing over the next couple of days.
I am simply dreading the Iowa State game. Of course, it’s hard to imagine getting more embarrassed than they were tonight. We now have seen how bad this team can be. Let’s hope they show us how good they can be on Saturday. Regardless, after this game, I am feeling more and more like this team is no different than the other Kansas teams that have underachieved in recent years. I tried to convince myself they were something special, but tonight all of the doubts came back in full force.
The only good thing about this game is that it’s over.
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