More postgame thoughts

I'm not overly surprised by Friday night. Bradley shot 32% from 3-point range all season long and 16% in the MVC tournament. Of course, against KU they go 11-21 and the tradition of running into a hot shooting team or player continues for KU. How interesting that McNamara doesn't score a FG in his last NCAA tournament game, but goes off for 6 threes against KU.

Additionally, KU hasn't had 2 players foul out of a game the entire season, but it "magically" happened Friday night. In fact, I don't think we've even had 1 player foul out in some 25 games. I don't typically get too involved in blaming officials, but Bradley did have 13 more FT attempts than KU and KU was whistled for 8 more fouls. While not the only reason for the loss, things like that add up in a tight game.

It's frustrating, but I'm not entirely surprised. This was the youngest team in KU history and they still accomplished a lot.

Bradley is peaking. We just happened to get the most underrated 13 seed in this year's tournament as our first round game.

I trust Bill Self. I have to believe there were reasons for what happened defensively, or perhaps players weren't executing. I tend to think it's the latter. He said later that it was the worst they had played defensively all year, so I tend to believe that players were making defensive mistakes. I think that was, in large part, due to how the officials called the game and the ensuing "tightening up" that occurred throughout the team.

One Bradley player said "they didn't adjust to how the game was being called". I think that is true. I also think our players didn't know how to adjust to that type of officiating. We led the nation in FG% defense. They only know how to play one way. Aggressive. When the officials blew the whistle every time down the court (and there were some highly questionable calls...I believe we were called for something like 5 offensive fouls and Chalmers was called for PALMING, which hasn't been called hardly at all in the tournament). Those calls took away momentum from KU and gave it to Bradley, who then took even more momentum by being unconscious from the 3-pt line. I believe their 3-pt outburst was more 3's than they had hit in a game all season long. We can overcome hot shooting. But we can't overcome hot shooting AND lopsided, momentum-killing officiating

I think Chalmers was tight on both sides of the ball because of the early foul trouble he was in. I believe Rush, Chalmers and Robinson all had 2 fouls fairly early in the first half. Again, this is something that rarely, if ever, happened all season long.

The missed FT's in the last couple of minutes hurt, but when you combine that with a banked 3 to end the half, well, it turned a close game into a 10 point halftime lead

Bradley looked good against Pitt, but Pitt didn't impress me. And, at this point, any team has a chance. I don't think there is any team that is heads and shoulders above the rest.

I had been saying all along that I wouldn't be surprised if we lost in the second round or made a run to the Final Four. We went out in the first round and I guess I'm just a little surprised by that, but not too surprised. We played a good Bradley team that played their best game of the year by far. They hit all of the threes after hitting an avg. of 3 a game over their last 3 games and being a 32% 3-pt shooting team. KU overcame Bradley's hot shooting, but the poor officiating gave Bradley more opportunities at the line and they hit their free throws.It reminded me of the game in Austin. Texas hit everything and we couldn't hit anything. And we were out of sorts. We threw TWO inbounds passes away. We never do that. We had 2 guys foul out. That hasn't happened all season. Bradley hit more threes in the first half than they have in their last couple of games. Mario and BRush disappeared, particularly in the first half. We turned the ball over like we did early in the season when our freshmen were actually playing like freshmen. All of the 3's Bradley were raining in took an emotional toll on this team and while they were valiant in trying to come back, they just couldn't overcome the officiating too. Bradley "careered" us tonight.

Self and KU have plenty of postseason success ahead

I, for one, think Self will be fine and will lead this team to some great postseason success...and soon.

Last year's team was divided, overconfident, had chemistry issues, and some wouldn't listen to Self or do what he asked.

This year's team was the youngest team in KU history and panicked under the pressure of their first NCAA Tournament game against a team that should have been higher than a #13 seed.

Just looking at L column in the last two years of the NCAA Tournament simplifies things a bit too much for me. Again, in my mind, this was Self's FIRST team at Kansas. And they are very, very young.

They are still conference champions. They are still conference tournament champions. They still put together a helluva season, including a career day against Texas in UT's backyard.

The future is very bright. Next year, this team will come back more determined and focused than any KU team in recent history.

KU-Bradley: Just one of those nights

I had been saying all along that I wouldn't be surprised if we lost in the second round or made a run to the Final Four. We went out in the first round and I guess I'm just a little surprised by that, but not too surprised.

We played a good Bradley team that played their best game of the year by far. They hit all of the threes after hitting an avg. of 3 a game over their last 3 games and being a 32% 3-pt shooting team. KU overcame Bradley's hot shooting, but the poor officiating gave Bradley more opportunities at the line and they hit their free throws.

It reminded me of the game in Austin. Texas hit everything and we couldn't hit anything. And we were out of sorts. We threw TWO inbounds passes away. We never do that. We had 2 guys foul out. That hasn't happened all season. Bradley hit more threes in the first half than they have in their last couple of games. Mario and BRush disappeared, particularly in the first half. We turned the ball over like we did early in the season when our freshmen were actually playing like freshmen.

All of the 3's Bradley were raining in took an emotional toll on this team and while they were valiant in trying to come back, they just couldn't overcome the officiating too.

Bradley "careered" us tonight.

On to the offseason....sigh.

KU Rap Song, Part II

This one is Crimson Blue II, track 12 and is updated with the current crop of players.

Enjoy.

http://www.bandbmediaservices.com/

Where is this team going?

This KU team started the season looking horrible at times. We were able to write that off to youth, inexperience, and lack of playing time together and individually.

We knew they would hit their stride and hoped it would be this year.

They did hit that stride and they won 10 in a row and looked to be hitting on almost all cylinders.

Now, we find the team coming off three unimpressive games against Baylor, Texas and Colorado.
We're seeing some of the same problems that we saw earlier in the year such as unforced turnovers, lack of aggressive play in the paint, not valuing the ball, missing free throws, the lack of a true "go to" scorer, etc.

We're also starting to see some new issues develop including Brandon Rush looking uncomfortable, forcing his aggressiveness, and missing shots he normally makes. Russell Robinson is making some poor decisions with his passing and shot selection. Mario Chalmers disappears for long stretches and then hits a couple of quick 3's. We try to make the Sportscenter highlight reels instead of making the smart play. Our big guys are consistently getting outmuscled and outrebounded.

We also have some positives: Giles is playing better; our defense is still very strong; the team has a ton of talent; the team still can make quick, powerful runs that turn the tide of a game; we have a deep bench; etc.

So my question is: Where is this team going? Will they beat K-State, win a couple of Big 12 tourney games and make a run in the NCAA tourney?

Or will they continue to play out of sync as freshmen and sophomores hit "the wall" and struggle for the rest of the season? Did they peak too early?

This season has been a great one. To think we are on the verge of at least a share of the conference title after replacing virtually our entire team in the offseason is, in a word, amazing.

This season has also been a roller coaster. We started slow, then moved upward gradually gaining speed, then we hit the top of the mountain, and then we started going downhill after getting drilled at Texas.

Does this team have what it takes to make one more push to the top of the mountain?

Only time will tell. And it starts on Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse West.

Mic