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A random number of thoughts on K State

Posted by The General on January 31st, 2009 under Basketball

1) Early in Big XII play K State was a very athletic basketball team that didn’t want to guard anyone.  Evidently, Dalonte Hill is spreading the Beasley dollars around for defense now, because K State has been bringing it after starting 0-4 in conference play and squeaking out a win against CU.

2) The key to KSU’s early defense was pressure on our wings causing guys to catch the ball in no man’s land.  You have to be at the free throw line extended to make effective entry passes to low post players with good position.  You can’t do it from the coaching box.  This pressure completely annhiliated our offense.  Not understanding proper spacing and not countering the overplay on the wing with anything at all are both coaching issues.

3)  It sounded like the PA guy in the Drum was saying Teniente Clemente. 

4)  44 is alot of points for one guy.

5)  It is hard to be tough if your first name is Connor.

6)  I think the Longhorn interwebs are a little tough on AJ Abrams and Damion James.  I have yet to see Barnes chastise AJ for any shot that he has taken.  I ain’t going to bang on a kid that is doing what the coach wants him to do.  Damion James has vastly improved the speed of his release and the fluidity of his midrange jumper.  Too bad he was a stiff last year that made alot of shots.  He looks more like a shooter this year, but the lid has been on for him nearly the entire season.  Anybody expecting more out of these guys than what we have gotten wasn’t watching them too closely last year.

7)  I don’t think any of the Longhorn basketball players are selfish.  If AJ was selfish he would be demanding the ball in the backcourt so he could run the point every possession.  He can’t shoot his way into The League.

8)  Effort was not an issue at any point in the game, despite what you might read on the Longhorn interwebs.

9)  Frank Price needs the Rick Barnes’ diet.  He has really packed on the pounds.

10)  I watched the Purdue v. Michigan game before heading to Scholz’s to down Blue Moon’s on a beautiful day.  Matt Painter has a bunch of decent athletes that have some size, but no real point guard.  You know how Painter masks this deficiency?  An offensive system is employed where players and the ball move around in a progression that eventually leads to an open shot.  I was sad that I was so impressed. 

11)  The squatty, fat, dumpy looking official is worse at his job than anyone else is at theirs including Isaiah Thomas, Dubya, Keith Olberman, Dave Lapham, and Jerry Jones.  He was proactively awful.  Usually bad officials are bad for the road team.  He was bad for the home team until about seven minutes to play when he made the magnanimous decision to suck gigantic elephant cock for both teams.  The other two guys made some bad calls, but not the egregiously stupid calls that Humpty Dumpty made.

12) I can’t understand having Balbay on the floor instead of Gary Johnson at the end of the game.  Neither are three point threats, but I would much rather see GJ throwing up a prayer than the auto foul on The Doge.

13)  I thought Barnes would slow it down in overtime and try to run an offense, but he is really a dance with the one who brung ya type of dude.

14) Memo to The Doge: Do not give up back to back open threes to the only guy we really need to guard on the court.

15)  Varez Ward has gargantuan testicles.  He is going to be the guy that we wish Justin Mason turned into.  I prescribe 500 threes a day in the off season.

16)  Speaking of the Mase, thanks for driving in the second half.  The only thing that makes sense with Mason is that there is an Adrian in Rocky level woman sucking his will to live somewhere in his life.  I do not understand what has happened to this kid.

17)  Also, dude, it is really bad if the ball spins sideways when you shoot.

18) I think the crowd at the Drum was really a factor in the come back.  We were a factor because of the officiating.  We don’t know when to stand, sit, or make noise, but we will jump all over a horrible referree.

19) I wish it was downhill from Scholz’s to The Drum.

20) We have a volleyball player named Destiny Hooker.  Everytime I hear that, I have a picture of Jack Horner saying, “Those are some great names!” and I giggle.

21) I don’t know why, but it is an awful idea to drink one Pilsner Urquell after a pitcher of Blue Moon.  That combination made the pils the worst beer I have ever had including all the hot Lone Star’s and Natty Lights.

22) I have a completely irrational feeling that the shots are going to start falling for these guys at some point, and that will mask our offensive weaknesses.  I mean we can’t miss this many layups and open looks for the whole year, right?

Right? RIGHT? RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT?

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26 Responses

  1. Facebook User said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    That’s gold, TG.

    I wish your random number had been higher than 22.

  2. Bob in Houston said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 6:41 pm

    It’s never as bad as it looks from the bottom of a bottle.

    This team could have packed it in a half-dozen different times, and yet made a remarkable comeback to tie.

    That said, they don’t have enough scorers, or at least not enough scoring threats, on the floor right now. I also find it hard to believe that a team that has watched other teams dog AJ’s every step couldn’t figure out how to stick with Clemente.

    KSU made its last eight threes… roll that one around in your head.

  3. The General said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    “This team could have packed it in a half-dozen different times, and yet made a remarkable comeback to tie.”

    This is why, though I loathe how our boys are coached on offense, and I pray for more looks on defense, I love Rick fuckin’ Barnes.

    We never give up or lose because of a lack of testicular fortitude.

    BTW, Connor’s pseudo block (because it was actually a foul) on the breakaway was the loudest I have ever heard the Drum.

  4. RansomStoddard said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 7:58 pm

    I’ve said all year this team is a collection of spare parts. Further, we have bigs that like snuggling/cuddling better than basketball; guards who can’t shoot or create; and forwards who are neither shooting forwards or power forwards but some kind of crazy, hybrid sort of thing. Combined with the complete regression of Mason and Atchley and you have this team. It is what it is.

  5. gus said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 8:05 pm

    Odd to hear whining about money being spread around from a Texas fan…

  6. hiphopopotamus said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 8:07 pm

    Re:#22 – that is one fantastic name. When I was in school, their was a softball player with the name Destiny Frankenstein. I would really love to be there when the parents of these children give these names to the docs for the birth certificate.

  7. Hippie said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 8:11 pm

    can anybody count the # of times AJ has been poked in the eye this year?

  8. mysterious package said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 8:31 pm

    I am hungover because jack in the box at 5 am.

  9. EggNog said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    The players seem to knock down a pretty good percentage of shots in the shootarounds, much more than some of the teams from the past. I dunno why that doesn’t seem to translate to the game for us.

    Putting up 20 points in the first half then 50 points in the second half was odd. I wish we would charge out of the gates putting up those kinds of points.

  10. bighornfan32 said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 11:06 pm

    We are just an abysmally bad shooting team. Hard to watch.

  11. Dunstan Pearl said:

    January 31st, 2009 at 11:58 pm

    Dammit. My son’s name is Connor

  12. scagnetti said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 1:16 am

    i find us hard to watch, because we are what we are as ransom said.

    ive been surprised all year how high we’re ranked.

    we are a 4 or 5 seed, tops.

    spare parts is right!

  13. Texoz said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 6:03 am

    Something that hasn’t been mentioned…we had 20 turnovers in the game and most of those game in the 1st half, and the beginning of the 2nd half.

    Connor made a spectacular block to keep us in the game at the end of regulation, but then he didn’t get that rebound on the foul shot. Yes he was being held and it should have been a foul, but you’ve got to want it more and that K State player won that battle.

  14. RansomStoddard said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 6:09 am

    The Atchley failure to blockout on the free throw epitomizes our bigs: the KSU guy simply pushed Conner aside with one hand. Because he was thinking about the last Maya Angelou poem he read, instead of how pissed he was, Conner fell awkwardly out of the lane.

    I feel sorry for Barnes, who I really like. He is clearly frustrated because this team is a riddle with no solution.

  15. SkymonkeyHorn said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 6:59 am

    RS, or is Barnes the riddle?
    Players are an extension of their leader. The talent is there under the the surface.I really am tired of reading that DJ leaving is the reason we look so bad. When a player is open for a shot and misses that is DJ’s fault. when we miss bunnies and layups that is DJ????? Last time I looked they still play with 5 players on a team. We have no leadership but when you have 5 talented D-1 players their coach leads.

    EGGN, agree that the team makes more shots in warmups because Barnes does not jack anyone off the floor before game time. No pun intended.
    They are relaxed and not worried about making a mistake.
    I respect Coach Barnes and he is the golden calf of Texas BB, best thing since sliced bread but he is coaching angry which works in the short term but not over a long season. Barnes has a huge part of this riddle. IMO

  16. I peed on Allen Fieldhouse said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 7:04 am

    The only thing that got hooked was the ‘Horns. The irony of dominating a well-organized athletic department headed up by none other than former KSU AD DeLoss Dodds, by a team whose own athletic dept is in chaos.

    Go Wildcats!

  17. Leonidas said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 7:25 am

    What is it about k-state that UT athletics programs like to put up giant turds of games and lose? It’s really one of the more baffling mysteries of the Big XII.

  18. Newy25 said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 7:36 am

    If you are looking for positives, I suppose you could say Abrams showed his grit by continuing to shoot the 3. He did not let air balls, balls off the top of the backboard or other errant shots keep him from jacking 17-20 ill fated attempts at a 5% rate.

    It takes some determination to screw the pooch over and over again on national television and not even be hesitant about screwing it again. That kind of manhood cannot be taught. You have to be born with that kind of will.

  19. RansomStoddard said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 9:27 am

    Skymonkeyhorn, good point. You can certainly make the argument that the 800 pound gorilla in the room is the unanswered question about whether this team has some internal issues that we don’t know about. That is as good a guess as anything else at this point.

  20. Bob in Houston said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 10:02 am

    “The Atchley failure to blockout on the free throw epitomizes our bigs: the KSU guy simply pushed Conner aside with one hand.”

    Wrong.

    Atchley blocked out his guy, Brown, as Brown attempted (and succeeded) in locking his left arm with Atchley’s right. When the ball came off, Atchley tried to grab it with his free arm but Brown reached over while their arms were still locked and knocked the ball away. When it bounced, Atchley couldn’t grab it because Brown had a grip on his right arm.

    Meanwhile, James had initially blocked out his guy, Samuels, but when the ball came off to the right, James came across the lane. When Brown knocked it away, it bounced away from James and right to Samuels.

    I think the only internal issue on this team right now is that there is only one guy with confidence to take and make a three-pointer.

  21. Trips Right said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 10:28 am

    Connor Atchley was outrebounded by Ward, Mason, and AJ Abrams for the game. It’s tough to give him the benefit of the doubt on that particular play given that context.

    Was it a foul? Sure. But Connor didn’t compete for that board.

  22. Bob in Houston said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 10:39 am

    Sure he did. He tried to secure it with one arm and couldn’t do it. But I agree that generally he doesn’t go after the ball like, say, James does.

  23. longhornmatt said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 11:02 am

    Connor’s inability to deal with contact on the boards has been a recurring problem. Even when he gets two hands on the ball, the ball comes lose at an alarmingly high rate if he gets bumped or swatted at by anyone, even a little guard.

    The bottom line is that he has been a poor rebounder his whole career, and his deficiency in that area played just as big a role in the play as the foul. There are a whole lot of 6′10 centers out there who can deal with a 6′2 guard trying to hook one of their arms on a rebound.

  24. TB said:

    February 1st, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    Hey, I was at Scholz’s for pregame, too.

  25. Art Vandelay said:

    February 2nd, 2009 at 6:39 am

    “We don’t know when to stand, sit, or make noise, but we will jump all over a horrible referree.”

    Sums up most Big 12 BB crowds…. except probably Kansas. Nobody boos like Baylor…. which seems odd.

  26. Bob in Houston said:

    February 2nd, 2009 at 7:12 am

    I would offer Iowa State as the booingest hoops crowd in the B12.

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