Okay, I know I am wasting my time in advance; you don't need to tell me! But, what if
The Jayhawks meet KY again in the NCAAs and played the way they did last night, while KY played exactly the same game that they did when they beat us by 32 points. At the end of that game, I thought - some team is going to beat KY in the NCAAs by shooting lights out from the 3 I was thinking someone like Butler, but now I wonder if that could be the Jayhawks. At this point, we have the maturing guards and superb shooting that we never have seemed to have.
Let's see
Kentucky scored 72 points, 44 by forwards and the Center, and the rest by the guards.
This was their line:
FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
25-58 6-18 16-26 15 32 47 15 5 11 6 21 72
43.1% 33.3% 61.5%
Here was ours that night-
TOTALS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
11-56 3-15 15-27 20 22 42 4 5 3 11 19 40
19.6% 20.0% 55.6%
And here was the line for last night's game for KU:
FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
32-63 10-21 15-23 12 26 38 22 8 5 16 18 89
50.8% 47.6% 65.2%
So, this isn't to say "hey, if we had scored 89 points, we would have won over their 72".
Instead, look at how the games were played differently by the Hawks. If you look at the ratio of our 3 Pt attempts to our total attempts, it was 21/63 last night, and only 15/56 the night we played KY. If we had taken the same percentage of threes as against ISU when we met KY, and made 47% as we did last night we would have picked up another 6 points.
This would have drawn their defense out more, decreasing the chance they would have gotten 11 blocks, as we would have shot inside four fewer times, and they would have been spread.
Most notable was the difference in assists (22 to 4), indicating the much better ball movement and team play last night. If we had gotten the 8 steals we had last night instead of the 5 we had against KY, and converted them as 2s, that is another 6 points for KU and potentially 6 fewer for KY. So we are only up to 52 points and they are only down to 66 with only "moderate goof ball speculation", but the additional shot opportunities at the speed we played last night, could have made the game outcome different.
IF we were shooting hot from the outside that night, as we were last night, then their size inside means so much less. Our now much more mature guards and wings would pull them out on defense and potentially lead to better lane opportunities by our inside guys.
Anyhow, still pure speculation, but I think it would be a better game now than it was then, even though KY is of course getting better, too.
The Jayhawks meet KY again in the NCAAs and played the way they did last night, while KY played exactly the same game that they did when they beat us by 32 points. At the end of that game, I thought - some team is going to beat KY in the NCAAs by shooting lights out from the 3 I was thinking someone like Butler, but now I wonder if that could be the Jayhawks. At this point, we have the maturing guards and superb shooting that we never have seemed to have.
Let's see
Kentucky scored 72 points, 44 by forwards and the Center, and the rest by the guards.
This was their line:
FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
25-58 6-18 16-26 15 32 47 15 5 11 6 21 72
43.1% 33.3% 61.5%
Here was ours that night-
TOTALS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
11-56 3-15 15-27 20 22 42 4 5 3 11 19 40
19.6% 20.0% 55.6%
And here was the line for last night's game for KU:
FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
32-63 10-21 15-23 12 26 38 22 8 5 16 18 89
50.8% 47.6% 65.2%
So, this isn't to say "hey, if we had scored 89 points, we would have won over their 72".
Instead, look at how the games were played differently by the Hawks. If you look at the ratio of our 3 Pt attempts to our total attempts, it was 21/63 last night, and only 15/56 the night we played KY. If we had taken the same percentage of threes as against ISU when we met KY, and made 47% as we did last night we would have picked up another 6 points.
This would have drawn their defense out more, decreasing the chance they would have gotten 11 blocks, as we would have shot inside four fewer times, and they would have been spread.
Most notable was the difference in assists (22 to 4), indicating the much better ball movement and team play last night. If we had gotten the 8 steals we had last night instead of the 5 we had against KY, and converted them as 2s, that is another 6 points for KU and potentially 6 fewer for KY. So we are only up to 52 points and they are only down to 66 with only "moderate goof ball speculation", but the additional shot opportunities at the speed we played last night, could have made the game outcome different.
IF we were shooting hot from the outside that night, as we were last night, then their size inside means so much less. Our now much more mature guards and wings would pull them out on defense and potentially lead to better lane opportunities by our inside guys.
Anyhow, still pure speculation, but I think it would be a better game now than it was then, even though KY is of course getting better, too.
