I don't want to be Chicken Little

I don't want to be chicken little but when we are beaten in Allen by Texas Tech by double digits, it certainly feels like the sky is falling. We live by the 3 ball and when we aren't hitting them, it appears we don't know how to win against quality competition. We need the two big guys on the bench to qualify, and even if they do, I'm not sure it will be enough. I've got too much confidence in Self and KU when it comes to conference play to give up so soon, but tonight was deeply concerning.

Yeah I don’t know how they go from how they played Friday to how they played today. Tech is good but not so amazing that KU should have looked as awful as they did.

I also don’t get why Newman continues to get the chances and not Cunliffe. Newman is awful right now. Cunliffe comes in and nails a three then doesn’t see more time until 10 mins left. Head scratcher...

Oh well guess we can’t win every game. There is a lot of season left.

Please, come off the ledge. This is nothing like the sky falling. Actually, things are shaping up pretty nicely from a statistical validity standpoint. Based on my latest updated DPPI, KU has now played 12 of 14 games within 1 standard deviation of expectation and in the last 6 games every game has been within a standard deviation and the average is about 1/2 of a standard deviation. The only real outliers are Washington and Oakland. This game is well within the expectation range. So what this all means is the DPPI appears to be converging or getting more accurate. The bad news is we are likely to lose 6 or 7 games in the Big 12 and finish 4th.

Hi Corpus - Thanks for all of your hard work and statistical evidence but all it does for me is to confirm that indeed, THE SKY IS FALLING. If I were an Iowa State, Oklahoma State or Baylor fan you would have steadied my nerves. But for a Kansas fan accustomed to winning the Big 12 Championships and receiving a mandatory 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, a likely 8-9 loss season and finishing fourth in the Big 12 Conference is the sky falling.

My personal life goes on just fine, the sun will rise in the morning but when it comes to my beloved Jayhawks, OH, NO, IT'S TRUE, THE SKY IS FALLING!!!

I think the game vs TT shows exactly what Big G was talking about. This team athletically is not very good. HCBS has done a very good job of hiding that and playing to our strengths. We really need Preston and De Sousa to physically be able to hang with a team like TT.

Gotta agree with DrJ: love your data to death, Corpus, but there's not much relief for me in numbers confirming that we're going to be a middle of the pack team who finishes in the top half of the Big 12.

The biggest problem this team has is that our lack of depth gives us a lack of options. It seems that the only "optional looks" we have are subbing between Newman/Garrett and Dok/Lightfoot.

The only "good" things I can take from last night are:
>DG still has my confidence. Glad to see him try to get to the rim last night. He was obviously trying to put the team on his back, but it was just too much to ask.
>Interesting to see the "all small" lineup (no Dok or Lightfoot in the game) and 2/3 zone. HCBS needs to keep trying things since the aforementioned 2 options aren't enough.

As for what was "bad"....long list...too long. Some lowlights:
>"Hack a Dok" is a good strategy. Guy needs to start shooting FTs underhanded. Also needs to hold onto the ball after rebounds.
>Vick needs to play every possession. Last night it looked like he played 1 out of 4 possessions.
>Svi needs to get used to the idea that he's not going to the NBA. Questionable handle, and when he cools off from 3, he goes ICE cold.
>Newman: ugh. If we had the depth, we could sit him. He had a better than average game last night, but if I'm cringing every time he touches the ball, something's wrong.

About the only bright spot I see is Garrett. He's a freshman and will make freshman mistakes, but I really don't see "mistakes" as much as I see inexperience. He's going to be very very good.

Hoping that DeSouza adds some options and spark to things. If not, it won't take a genius coach to watch film from this game and see the blueprint for taking us down. Yesterday I commented that I think the game at WVU would be a good check to see how we play in adverse conditions. Looking at last night's game, I'm thinking we should just go ahead and forfeit that one and save the gas money.

What I don't understand is that things were looking up when we started going into Dok. He had taken 17, 7 (Omaha), 15 and 11 shots over the last four games. Last night he took 6. He still had 13 and 13 against a very very awesome player in Bamba. Last night he didn't do crap and no one was getting him the ball. The entire team was just off which makes me wonder if they were sick or something was off. Tech is good no doubt but in my opinion we still could have won last nigh but we didn't establish anything in the low post at all.

While I do agree that the sky is not really descending at a rapid rate there can be no denying it has shifted somewhat lower in the past few weeks. I am not altogether disappointed though. No, I do not want this or any other Hawk team to finish 4th or 5th in the Big 12. I am also not fond of watching AFH lose some of it’s magic. What I see as somewhat of a possible advantage is, the off chance that the ridiculous amount of importance on winning the Big 12 regular season might lose some of it’s luster. Would being one up on UCLA be cool? Sure. But in their run of 13 they had 8 national championships. Yeah I know the tourney wasn’t the same back then, but correct me if Im wrong, but no one has told them to take those banners down since the field went to 64 or 68? Point being, the conference record is great but winning in March (rightly or wrongly) has become the yardstick. I just don’t know that winning your league ensures post season success. As bad as I hate to even bring it up, I remember a certain PAC 10 team that finished 11-7 in their league that finished pretty OK in ’97. Sorry, just puked in my mouth. This team does lack some toughness. They need some motivation at times. Possibly, just being “that” team could lead to some serious post season hunger.