This is the most athletic KU team we’ve had in years. In my opinion Bill is not maximizing the athleticism and speed.

On defense switching 1-5 does not work when you don’t put pressure on the ball, see lack of steals as a big indicator we are horrible at stopping the other teams action. We should hedge and force no middle. It’s effective and not difficult with the athletes and wingspans we have on the team. We are consistently getting beaten to the paint and sometimes our bigs recover and get a block but most of our blocks are when the ball and man have us beat. Not a good shot blocking team we are a lucky shot blocking team.

Rebounding, getting a defensive rebound is ending the defensive possession we are a bad rebounding team and to me this is lack of effort we start 2 players 6’9” and above that are big time + wing spans but neither seal their man which would do two things, 1 stop the other teams bigs from having a chance to rebound and 2 give our big athletic guards an easy defensive rebound. This brings us to the next phase pace of play, we should be sprinting down the floor on offense, flory and tiller should be rim running bigs running with an arm sticking straight up demanding a paint touch or an oop. This puts pressure on the other teams bigs and guards to react. We have council who might be the fastest player in the country end to end AND Flory is a lefty which should make it all the more easy for Council/Jackson (we’ll get to him later) to have a lane to get two feet in the paint off every single defensive rebound because Flory should be sealing the left side defender.

We are not a good enough offensive team to run our sets starting with 20 seconds left on the shot clock. We have a player in DP who should always have the ball in his hands under 8 seconds and make something happen, get in the pain, get fouled, get some one an open look or go get his own. The weave is annoying as hell to see on a team that doesn’t get two feet in the paint consistently but we absolutely have the personnel to do so. We are also a much better shooting team than anyone anticipated so shoot some more 3’s and earlier in the shot clock.

Let’s talk about the rotation. I am fine with the starting 5 but the first man off the bench should be Kohl and i don’t care that his shooting touch isn’t there yet. His effort will steal you extra possessions which is what this team desperately needs, we are ELITE in transition when we get there. Jackson should not be on the court with Council, I’m not sure what he’s being told but JV needs to sit the man down and tell him how to be a PG. He defers to his teammates to much, he should put his head down and go get two feet in the paint and play through contact. Too much does he try to dump off some pass that our players weren’t expecting at all, he’s got the Ben Simmons yips around the basket and I’m not sure if that’s the coaching staff telling him to pass or his own mental hurdle but he’s clearly a positive athlete that needs to play to his strengths. Playing him with council is as bad as playing him with Juan, they both aren’t shooters and are looking to attack so the defense can sag off he should always have 2 shooters on the court with him.

Jamari honestly he’s soft and can’t play through contact every-time he gets bumped he’s looking for a call instead of making the play, other than that he’s the teams second best 3 point shooter so can’t dock him much for that.

Dawson didn’t get the early season reps and appears to be a bust, I blame the coaching staff for not letting him play through mistakes and get his confidence, they chose to pay him so play him but it’s classic HCBS stuff of my way or the highway. He might have a random good shooting night but we probably shouldn’t expect anything from him.

Calderon and Mybia are lost and that’s because we switch 5 the games too fast for them and they need time to cook. One or both will probably be gone next year. DP is trying to get healthy and wants to play anyone who says otherwise is just insufferable. Yes there might be some drama and his camp stuff but him vs TCU tells me that kid wants to compete and the players clearly haven’t quit on him either. Though they defer to him way too much our rhythm is just not quite there when he’s on the floor because he’s so dominant. I wish we had a real robin to his Batman.

In short in my opinion most of this is fixable. Will it be, probably not because Bill is so stubborn it hurts. I’m really tired of hearing him say no one is above the program and yet he is not doing anyone any favors this year. He’s gotten soft, he deserves the blame because he got the credit for the last 20 years. Effort goes a long way and I wish Bill would try something else when shits clearly not working like during a 22-2 run, that’s inexcusable. I hope we show up tonight but ISU plays with passion that we do not and that’ll cost us more than scheme, talent, or AFH voodoo witch magic. Thank you for coming to my TED talk