Not closing out games - in defense of our guys

Self looked like he tore in to Dotson at the end of the first half for not getting back, and Dotson deserved it. Thankfully the guy missed the dunk.

The end of the game was something altogether different. At 5 minutes to play we were up 10 and I thought to myself, "ok guys, time to slam the door." As we all know, they didn't and by 2:30 we were tied at 73.

During that time, one guy, Jase Febres, hit 3 highly improbable 3 pointers: One at 3:50, one at 3:10, and one at 2:29. In that same timespan, the only other score was a layup from Dedric Lawson.

While I think some might fault KU's 3 defense at that point, I disagree.

For starters, all 3 shots were from well behind the 3 point line. More significantly he didn't hit anything the entire game. Prior to those three 3's, he was 1-14 from the field, and 1-11 from 3. Folks, I'm not going to brag, but I think half of the folks posting here could make 1 of 11 from 3. So as ugly as that part of the game was, I don't blame our guys for laying off him when he's at 23 feet and has missed 10 in a row dating back to the 5 min mark of the 1st half.

I'm not saying we necessarily defended as well as we could down the stretch, but Febres and his man bun were awful all night and didn't warrant a guy "in his jersey" when he was 2 paces behind the line and couldn't hit water from a rowboat until then.

Thanks NotO, but I would make a distinction from intentionally laying off a cold shooter who is well beyond the arc, and completely losing shooters and providing uncontested shots.

I believe our guys did the latter, which brings even an ice cold shooter back into play.

But I see much improved on ball defense, and have hopes that as three freshmen guards gain experience, they won't lose their man in tense late game situations. Nor will they relax after making a shot with 1.5 seconds left in the half, only to give up an uncontested dunk (ouch for the TX kid who clanked it).

I'd have to go back and look at those 3 shots again. At the time I didn't get the impression that anybody lost him, but more that he was so far out that they weren't picking him up yet.

Put it another way, if one of our guys had missed 10 3's in a row and then decided to hoist up a 3 early in the shot clock from Massachusetts Ave, it had BETTER go in or Self would have you in a deep, dark place.