Normally, by the time we are playing Kansas, I feel like I have a lot of thoughts re: how the game will play out... at least have a good idea what the games within the game will be. For example, last year, it was all about our perimeter defense and whether or not we could prevent post entries into Azibuike. If we could not, the game was essentially over. For the most part, we did a good job of limiting his post touches and had chances to beat KU in both games.
This Kansas team is much different. They don't have the big post presence like they normally do. Nevertheless, they are still very long across the board. Kenpom lists them with an average height that is top 30 in the country. Thus, according to the way Kenpom measures length, this is the tallest team on our schedule.
I'm intrigued by what Mark Adams elects to do defensively. We have been using full court & 3/4 court pressure defenses more than I can recall under Beard. And they look a little different than the ones we have used in the past. The Elite 8 team pressured the ball far from the basket, but it was normally just man defense (s/o to Niem Stevenson). The Final 4 team had some really salty full court looks, but they were passive and only intended to eat some of the shot clock. If you started initiating half-court offense against the F4 team with <15 seconds on the shot clock, you were unlikely to score any points (see Michigan).
This year's full court defense is aggressive. I think it's a combination of (1) Beard/Adams believing we have the kind of athletes to effectively pressure teams full court (Peavy/Shannon/McCullar), and (2) Beard thinking our half court offense may not be ready yet to carry us in games by itself -- i.e., we're going to need score points with our defense.
How often do we do we pressure full court against Kansas? They have some guys capable of bringing the ball up the court. Will it be effective? Are we doing it because we want to prevent Kansas from having 25+ seconds to run half-court offense? Or are we doing it because we are having trouble scoring ourselves in the half court? Maybe a combination of both.
Who does Bill Self want Marcus Garrett primarily guarding? I would think it's either Mac or Kyler. Whoever it is will be in for a tough day because Garrett might be the best defender in the country. Whichever one is not being defended by Garett... that guy needs to play pretty well for us to have a chance.
Can McCullar really make an impact this quick? Pretty sure he was using crutches in Frisco last weekend, although he at least made the trip to DFW, unlike the UH game when he stayed behind to receive treatment.
Can we prevent KU from getting MSS & McClung defending ball screens at the top every possession, like UH seemingly was able to do? If not, does Beard elect to play small most of the game?
What will the crowd be like? On the scale of optimal crowd situations, I would think 6:00 on a weeknight in mid December with no students in town is about as bad as it gets for us (not to mention the whole global pandemic thing...). Surely it being the first big home game of the year helps.
The strangest thing about this game: it is really significant in terms of deciding the conference race, yet both of these teams could be completely different by mid March. I have to imagine the conference winner holds serve at home against WVU/KU/Tech/UT/BU.
I really have no idea what to expect, but someone seemingly does because the line has moved almost 2 points in Tech's favor (from Tech -2 to Tech -3 or -3.5).
This Kansas team is much different. They don't have the big post presence like they normally do. Nevertheless, they are still very long across the board. Kenpom lists them with an average height that is top 30 in the country. Thus, according to the way Kenpom measures length, this is the tallest team on our schedule.
I'm intrigued by what Mark Adams elects to do defensively. We have been using full court & 3/4 court pressure defenses more than I can recall under Beard. And they look a little different than the ones we have used in the past. The Elite 8 team pressured the ball far from the basket, but it was normally just man defense (s/o to Niem Stevenson). The Final 4 team had some really salty full court looks, but they were passive and only intended to eat some of the shot clock. If you started initiating half-court offense against the F4 team with <15 seconds on the shot clock, you were unlikely to score any points (see Michigan).
This year's full court defense is aggressive. I think it's a combination of (1) Beard/Adams believing we have the kind of athletes to effectively pressure teams full court (Peavy/Shannon/McCullar), and (2) Beard thinking our half court offense may not be ready yet to carry us in games by itself -- i.e., we're going to need score points with our defense.
How often do we do we pressure full court against Kansas? They have some guys capable of bringing the ball up the court. Will it be effective? Are we doing it because we want to prevent Kansas from having 25+ seconds to run half-court offense? Or are we doing it because we are having trouble scoring ourselves in the half court? Maybe a combination of both.
Who does Bill Self want Marcus Garrett primarily guarding? I would think it's either Mac or Kyler. Whoever it is will be in for a tough day because Garrett might be the best defender in the country. Whichever one is not being defended by Garett... that guy needs to play pretty well for us to have a chance.
Can McCullar really make an impact this quick? Pretty sure he was using crutches in Frisco last weekend, although he at least made the trip to DFW, unlike the UH game when he stayed behind to receive treatment.
Can we prevent KU from getting MSS & McClung defending ball screens at the top every possession, like UH seemingly was able to do? If not, does Beard elect to play small most of the game?
What will the crowd be like? On the scale of optimal crowd situations, I would think 6:00 on a weeknight in mid December with no students in town is about as bad as it gets for us (not to mention the whole global pandemic thing...). Surely it being the first big home game of the year helps.
The strangest thing about this game: it is really significant in terms of deciding the conference race, yet both of these teams could be completely different by mid March. I have to imagine the conference winner holds serve at home against WVU/KU/Tech/UT/BU.
I really have no idea what to expect, but someone seemingly does because the line has moved almost 2 points in Tech's favor (from Tech -2 to Tech -3 or -3.5).
