If that's a foul on Storr, ISU is fouling on the ball carrier on every possession

No foul on Storr!

For as good as hunter is, he sure plays lazy at times.

Showcasing Storr? LMAO

Is Dickenson hurt or something? He hardly jumps at all. I mean, his feet don't leave the floor hardly.

There's a part of me hoping KJ misses some time - just to see what HCBS might do with the starting lineup and rotation.

He can barely dunk despite being 7 feet tall, he literally just can't jump high.

I love it when douchebag walk-ons get rowdy and talk shit. LMAO

It's ISU bench taunting KU taking a timeout?

The entire part of me hopes he does. They need to start playing Flory regularly.

Slipping Away?


That happened in the 1st half!

I've noticed that, but tonight he is not hardly jumping at all.

Well, yeah me too, but I was trying to be empathetic, or something. LMAO

Nothing is easy for KU in this one. Every shot is contested...KU will get them in their place.

UH vs Iowa St. will be a war.

Iowa State has a good basketball team. But that entire community seems like the corniest bunch of goofballs.

Mayo was fouled on the drive.

I've seen enough, night gang!

They've been fouled all night, and no calls hardly.

Definitely expected this team to lose by double digits, so no surprise there.

I'm glad the team fought back and showed some toughness and grit to get it down to two.

Just build on that.

Not much to be optimistic about.

Blown the **** out.

I was hoping to see walk on Conrad Hawley, former KU QB.

Jumped right into him. An atrocious whistle all game but can't expect much different here.

Hope we get even close to the same benefit in a couple of weeks.

Defense was great again (particularly in the 2nd half when guys weren't throwing up moon shots from 3), they held them to under 40% shooting and turned them over 13 times.

Offense/ball possession was just an absolute disaster and not for the first time.

ISU shot double the amount of FTs we did that game despite being the far more physical team. I'd love it if our group would play anywhere near as hard as they do.

Sounds made up to me.

I just dont care about this team anymore... same exact product as last year. Lucky to make it out of the 1st weekend.

Self needs to start thinking retirement.

If this team gets bounced early, we’re talking about early exits in 5 of the last 6 tournaments.

****ing Covid in 2020.

Thank god for the 2022 team, otherwise this would be really ugly.

Another wasted season because Self refuses to adjust and for some reason loves mid players. Harris and Adams can’t be gone fast enough.

Perhaps but a loss against a top 5 team in the country on the road isn't much indication of anything.

He has a great class coming in.

I’m typically a homer, but I don’t see it ever really coming together for this core.

Just too many limitations and issues with guys we rely on.

What about the loss at home to unranked WVU?

Damning but they had played great since then and particularly defensively (which also carried over to today's game too; the offense/turnovers sealed their fate). If they're an elite defensive team (#3 in the country coming into the game), that is something quite a bit different than last season.

Our net rating right now is higher than what the NC winning 2022 ended the season with. No reason to write off them yet.

As of right now - what would you be happy to see this team realistically do the rest of the year?

Win 14 games in conference, get a 2 seed and then see whether the crapshoot goes our way. Not sure they'll do that, but they're certainly capable of it.

For any of you who have given up and have season tickets, Iowa State @ KU is just a few days after my birthday. Your favorite CP Chiefs/Cyclones fan.

Auburn, Duke, Houston, and ISU look like the only teams clearly better than us so far. We've beaten one of those teams already and we were right there with ISU on the road in the 2nd half for a while before it fell apart (despite playing atrocious offensive basketball and getting 0 calls all night).

Season ain't over yet.

Theyre supposed to beat UCF and Cincinnati, WVU too.

Last year's KU wouldn't have been beating Cinci on the road, that's for damn sure. It didn't beat UCF either for that matter.

KU is 7th right now in the KP net rating btw, it was 27th last year

It's not the same team (and that might become even more the case if Flory is ever allowed to play).

Laughable performance

I don’t doubt that they’ll go on a run here for awhile until playing at Houston in early March.

I just think that will be a bit of fool’s gold, since nothing will happen to fix Harris’s and Adams’s limitations as players.

I think we were mostly surprised that Agbaji, Braun, and Wilson all turned out to be guys who look like they can play a decade in the NBA. Remy’s emergence is what really took that team to its highest level. That team had a strong upside to it.

Having 3 NBA wings and a high level 6th man (who could’ve started almost anywhere) allowed guys like Harris and Adams to just play their roles.

This seems like a “high floor” team.

Not at all. Its going to be between KU, UH and ISU. Whoever doesn't get tripped up by some other team will win it, b/c those 3 head to head are gonna split. Having said that, ISU looks like the best team in the conference right now, followed by UH, KU and WV. A lot can happen before March though.

I don't disagree with anything you said although I'll add that it's very possible that Flory will end up being the best NBA player on either team. It's on the coach to play him though over a guy who should very clearly be a bench player.

100%, but I have my doubts that will happen.

I’ve been pounding the table for Bidunga to start next to Hunter since before the season.

Makes all the sense in the world to me.

Bidunga can play the 5 on offense and defend the 4 on defense. Adams can defend multiple positions but can’t shoot or rebound. He’s too small to play the 5 and can’t stretch the floor enough to help as a 4.

While Bidunga can’t shoot either, he provides length as a shot blocker, rebounds well, and is an elite level finisher around the basket.

We can have a guy who doesn’t shoot, but he can’t be a 6’6” guy who doesn’t rebound.

Completely expected outcome.

Iowa State is really really good. Hard to win a road game as it is in the Big 12.

ISU will still do what they always do in March on a neutral court, I’m sure. That frenetic style of basketball won’t play if you run into the wrong ref crew.

But yeah, they’re not losing a single game in that building this year. I expect they take the B12 because of that.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">KJ plays like if Jamari Traylor thought he was Frank Mason</p>&mdash; Father of Kansas (@PhoggyThoughts) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhoggyThoughts/status/1879688419212923023?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Dead last in free throw rate. And I mean dead last. Not in the Big 12. Not in the power five. Playing at magical Allenfieldhouse. 364th. This team is going absolutely nowhere.

https://www.barttorvik.com/teamstats...ort=6&conyes=0

KJ and Frank both average 3.4 rebounds per game for their careers.

His weak ass box out on the defensive end allowing Jackson to literally move around him, rebound the ball, put up and get an AND-ONE was so frustrating.

He literally adds nothing to this team except "emotion and energy."

Does KJ even really add emotion and energy?

As long as Bill insists on playing KJ more than fill minutes, I won't be able to muster any GAF about this team.

Add to that....

Stone feet Dickinson isnt much better....
Numerous times last night......Herman Munster stood there while ISU
grabbed a rebound that was right next to him.

Exactly how I feel. I just can't find a GAF when KJ is getting so many minutes. 24 minutes last night and a 5 minute injury, 4 points. Then you have Flory getting 11 minutes and having 6 points & 4 blocks.

Flory should be getting 99% of KJ's minutes.

Except he is much better. The guy is the 3rd ranked player in the entire country right now on KenPom despite other teams completely not guarding the 4 in his starting lineup.

ISU was literally immediately sending a double yesterday on any possession Dickinson caught a ball in the post because they were so unworried by the thought of KJ putting up any kind of shot at all.

Dickinson (and Mayo) are pretty much the only reason KU has any kind of half court offense at all right now and they’re both hamstrung by having no space to work with due to our coach’s decision to play a guy who can’t shoot or make a contested shot under the rim.

I’m convinced the individual pieces are there for this team to be quite good but Self has to allow that to happen and it seems he won’t.

Has KJ’s go-to move (run into an opponent near the rim while double clutching the ball and throwing it at the backboard) ever actually worked?

Absolutely correct.

One time. By accident.

Maybe we should fly a banner over AFH...

"PLAY FLORY!!!"

FYP

I'd rather see a sign that says "Stop playing KJ!!"

KJ Adams is very likely my least favorite KU player ever.

I’ve never seen a guy with such obvious limitations be referred to as so “important”.

Plenty of other players have annoyed me over the years, but I could at least see the upside or value.

I just don’t get it with KJ. A 6’6” power forward with no scoring ability and short arms who won’t rebound.

Just so many strikes against him.

He’s not good but I don’t blame him. I blame Self for not recognizing that (apparently) and playing him anyway to the point that it sabotages the team.

KJ would probably be more liked if he was a 10-15 min a game bench guy like Traylor.

Here's the thing and what is pissing me off the most...Self's stubbornness has always been one of his greatest strengths. But in the case of KJ, it seems to me that he's doing this to almost spit in the face of the social media backlash against KJ. The comments above about KJ are almost universally shared by any KU basketball fan and general college hoops fans, yet Self (and his staff) don't see it? That is what doesn't make sense to me.

He would also probably be a better contributor to the team in that role.

I’ve lost count of how many guys figured it out around the middle conference play and we all of a sudden saw what Self did.

With KJ though, we’re on year 3 of this. It isn’t changing.

We haven’t had him holding back a Bidunga before though. Udeh turned out to not be very good (though I still liked his upside). Options were limited last year too.

There’s really no great reason to force KJ in there now.

I've got a couple of buddy's that are on Team KJ where I'm definitely not. I've been saying the exact same thing all season to them. The roles need reversed. Flory to start getting 25 minutes, KJ off the bench getting 10-12. But Self will never do it.

I know several of those guys as well.

I think they just want KJ to be the next 3-4 year guy who became a legend for whatever reason. Maybe they’re just nostalgic for T Rob, but don’t remember that T Rob was a great rebounder, taller, longer arms, and could shoot well enough to be respected from outside the paint.

I guess they’re both ripped? Maybe that counts for something?

Not sure that's true after hearing the announcers go on and on about how great KJ is and how important it was for the team that he could come back after that shoulder injury

Do you still have KJ crusaders in your friend group?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KUbball?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KUbball</a> coach Bill Self says KJ Adams is OUT for Saturday&#39;s game vs. K-State. <br><br>Separated shoulder. Week to week. <br><br>&quot;Knowing the injury and how tough he is, a lot of it depends on strength &amp; range of motion. But he&#39;s already made progress.&quot;</p>&mdash; Matt Tait (@mctait) <a href="https://twitter.com/mctait/status/1880300746316673270?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

KJ will no doubt make a miraculous recovery and play next week somehow, but at least Flory will get to play on Saturday.

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/5toopdqwxMP0gs0K0u" width="480" height="480" style="" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/cbc-funny-comedy-5toopdqwxMP0gs0K0u">via GIPHY</a></p>

At this point it wouldn't surprise me if Self just started 4 guys instead of 5 instead.

My team is on the floor. - Gene Hackman

Small miracles do happen. Now watch as the offense takes off.

Wishing KJ a long and restful recovery.

No need to rush back.

Whenever he’s cleared to play, I’d say no more than 10-15 minutes per game through at least April.

After that, he can get back to full speed and workload.

Happy Flory Bidunga Day!!


PLEASE
PLEASE
PLEASE