You should be more concerned about tonight. OU is just as good as KSU and this is a road game (KU haven't performed well at all on the road so far and as a young team, you wouldn't expect them to). Also, as you mention, this team is simply soft right now and leaving AFH won't help with that.

If they won tonight, I'd be a bit surprised.

Yeah, and OU is averaging something like 88 points per game. Rebounding and defensive effort have to be there to beat any of our next string of opponents.

I'm sure you would have done the same with Perry Ellis last year. You're an idiot.

It's like people have never watched a young team before. I'm simply flabbergasted by the lack of perspective.

Basketball is not all talent and athleticism and "want to." You have to be able to recognize the court. It isn't that the team is sitting there saying "Oh - there's weak side help. I know exactly where I'm supposed to be to box out, but eh... I think I'll skip it."

You have to actually learn these things. And then when you learn them, you have to recognize them. And once you recognize, you have to react. And when you react, you have to react on time. And THEN you have to execute.

It's like you people think that the coach says "you need to help the helper." and then IMMEDIATELY everyone knows exactly where to be and how and when to be there, and any failure to do so is either a lack of talent or effort.

It's called experience. You can't hurry it. You can't cut corners. You can't buy it or cheat it. It takes time. And more time. And more time after that.

The reason you have a brutal non-con is because you want the maximum amount of time spent on a court against experienced, well-coached teams. You want the maximum amount of rebounds where there is a weak side player crashing the boards. When you play cupcakes, you don't get that. You get young players who aren't in the right position, so you end up thinking that you DON'T have to block out. Or close out. Or hedge on screens. Or see the double team. Or find the skip pass for an open three. You get lackadaisical. You get lazy.

All of this has been for a purpose, and if you don't see the improvements in this team, you're blind or not looking. Bill Self has to stay on their asses, because he has to get them ready for the tournament.

But I don't. I am free to see how much better the guards are against the press. How much better the positioning is when the post is double teamed. How the shot selection has improved (for the most part, when we aren't taking long twos).

And most of all, how the defensive intensity is so much better. The defensive AWARENESS and RECOGNITION are what still have go up. But my god... just look at Wiggins at the start of the year and then watch him against SDSU. You can't see the difference in his defense? Really? REALLY??

What channel is the game on tonight?

ESPN2 at 6 Central.

espn2

You're absolutely right, and Self is the best there is when it comes to doing just that. The problem is that it's tough to do that with a bunch of kids who will only be on campus for a few months. With one and done players, you have to dumb down the system and hope they can use their overwhelming talent to make up for their lack of polish. It's not easy. Calipari did it once, but that is starting to look more like a fluke than a blueprint to me.

As I recall, Cal did it with a good mix of upperclassmen as well as freshmen.

Their starters were three freshmen and two sophomores. They got 10.7 ppg from juniors and seniors combined. It was a pretty similar roster to what Kansas has this year, actually.

We do not have a Darius Miller. That's the veteran guy that got all the talent on that team to buy into the team concept. Even though he wasn't a big stats producer, that guy helped mold that team as much as any coach did.

Saul is exactly right, they had only 1 upperclassman who did squat on that team

I totally agree with that point. I get sick and tired of media and fans indicate the reason a team won or lost was because they "wanted it more" or gave "110%" or some other stupid cliche about effort. When I played competitive sports, never in my life did I say to myself, man I need to try harder. That's it, I'm not trying hard enough. And then I tried "harder" and gave it "110%" and then that just fixed everything.

Several fans are in attendance tonight.

Agree.

I don't think selfs system is conducive to one and done kids.