Tommy went into his deep meditation with his long layoff to formulate a game plan and it actually worked even with the Refs destroying us in that first half then looking the other way throughout the 2nd half.
We barely survived, but we also executed what appeared to be a "strategy" tonight.
If we do this again tomorrow that would be known as a "Win Streak".
Caleb Love played his best game of the season in my book. He could have went unhinged when the game got tight and chucked up 3's to a detriment, but he trusted his teammates and dished out some assists.
X's and O's were called for a change.
Not sure if there is a magnet in the ball and the rim, but every team is hitting 3's in this Arena.
Tommy didn't let this team hang their heads low when we gave up 2 or 3 10pt leads / couldn't extend a lead out to 15-20pts when playing basically the best ball I've seen us play this year in the 1st half for about 12 minutes.
I do hope this carries over. We needed this win big time. A loss would have confirmed what we are and would have been absolutely crushing.
We have a team that plays hard and it finally paid off tonight.
Kansass is nothing special this year, but it was a hostile environment at times and in the end the UofA Chants prevailed from the crowd. Kansass fans should actually be ashamed. They pulled a "McKale" as I call it where they got pretentious and only cared when the game got within 3 to 5 points.
This team is a bad matchup for us and it was navigated with Heart and Grit somehow.
Footnote: If this team is willing to leave it's feet on a close out on the perimeter we should be fine. Almost every time we get lazy closeouts where we put a hand up, but don't actually get vertical it seems like the opponent will make the 3. They stopped hitting those 3's when we jumped off the floor.
I don't want to see Teck's Ass Tech raining 3's on us tomorrow by virtue of us playing lazy. Run them all off the perimeter, make the rotations preemptively so they don't Alley Oop on Henri all game, and sometimes we need to do a Reverse Uno card and make the opponent have to earn their 2 points by making 2 shots (planned free throws). That is usually the strategy our opponents deploy with us.
Ownward and Up
Beardown
Quote from: arxpert on March 13, 2025, 09:35:08 PMFootnote: If this team is willing to leave it's feet on a close out on the perimeter we should be fine. Almost every time we get lazy closeouts where we put a hand up, but don't actually get vertical it seems like the opponent will make the 3. They stopped hitting those 3's when we jumped off the floor.
The problem with that is that we have certain dudes who jump straight into guys and foul them instead of contesting the shot on a fly-by.
Quote from: |ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ| on March 13, 2025, 09:52:00 PMQuote from: arxpert on March 13, 2025, 09:35:08 PMFootnote: If this team is willing to leave it's feet on a close out on the perimeter we should be fine. Almost every time we get lazy closeouts where we put a hand up, but don't actually get vertical it seems like the opponent will make the 3. They stopped hitting those 3's when we jumped off the floor.
The problem with that is that we have certain dudes who jump straight into guys and foul them instead of contesting the shot on a fly-by.
I know, but maybe there is a deep stat somewhere about this - it was completely evident that when our players got off the ground to contest a 3pt shot, the shots didn't fall much. Del Orso got off his feet on a few. Carter tried hard and did it. Love, Bradley tend to not jump. KJ can be erratic, but that dude only played 19 minutes tonight, got 11 Field Goal Attempts and 7 Free Throws. He maximizes his worth to the team.
One thing I always notice is we are athletically challenged. Our guards love to Show Time, but they get rejected by the rim a lot and most everyone else can't perform a standing dunk. We just have to continue to be fundamental with layups and put-in's.
Crazy to think that you could say Love played his best game and only scored 11 points, but you can definitely make argument. His court vision and playmaking were on full display. Del Orso started out playing great on ball defense, fighting over the top of screens and almost made an incredible play by stealing the ball and tossing it down the court for a would be fast break dunk. Townsend was obviously the hero tonight. His best two games of the year were these last two, if he can keep it up that adds a whole new dimension to our offense. It allowed Awaka to not contribute much and still we got the win. It was great to see us increase the lead late and control the game. And of course KJ had a classic whiffed wide open layup only to make an incredible steal the very next play. Henry stayed balanced and went up strong against Dickinson and that was freaking awesome. My favorite play of the game was Carters block in the fast break layup. That was an incredible difficult thing to do without fouling.
Was Tommy in the huddle telling them the key to winning down the stretch was breaking their momentum by leaving Mayo wide open? Not sure but it turned out to be brilliant.
Quote from: Bear on March 14, 2025, 05:19:37 PMWas Tommy in the huddle telling them the key to winning down the stretch was breaking their momentum by leaving Mayo wide open? Not sure but it turned out to be brilliant.
Same thing was happening again tonight.
The way I see it is we are the epitome of "sus".
If we can snap off 1 more win tomorrow then the ENTIRE season will be a success in my eyes.
Can we lose and then go on a magical run? Most likely not. If we lose tomorrow we likely have 1 game left, maybe 2 if we are lucky. 3 if something crazy happens. I personally don't see it.
Henri is playing great ball, but we all know what happens when this team is presented 2 6'11" Skilled Bigs. Even if they are small school.
We also know what happens when we are faced with some 6'8" 250lb stronk bois vs Henri. Tobe is just not that much of a Himothy to shut that down. He has moments, but isn't that coordinated.
We are consistently getting these 10pt leads and then blowing them. Tonight was 15 and then we imploded. A little bit of wonky behaviors.
Refs literally hate us. Never seen anything like it.
Tommy has been able to navigate it and this post really is all about giving Tommy some credit.
I hope he can earn his flowers tomorrow. He consistently has been a Conference Tournament Coach.
These 3 games are stronger to win than say "Liberty", "Illinois", then going out to Auburn. Or even if we were to make the Elite 8, there is no real meaningful banner for that. None that anyone besides Me and maybe a couple others give credit for around here.
It is pretty obvious that if Tommy can get this team to the Elite 8, but lose, that he is dog shit that can't get over the hump to a Final 4 ---- Which I vehemently disagree with. It would be very cool to not be sent home on Day 1 to "Liberty" flaming out.
Quote from: Naterade on March 14, 2025, 03:01:25 PMCrazy to think that you could say Love played his best game and only scored 11 points, but you can definitely make argument. His court vision and playmaking were on full display. Del Orso started out playing great on ball defense, fighting over the top of screens and almost made an incredible play by stealing the ball and tossing it down the court for a would be fast break dunk. Townsend was obviously the hero tonight. His best two games of the year were these last two, if he can keep it up that adds a whole new dimension to our offense. It allowed Awaka to not contribute much and still we got the win. It was great to see us increase the lead late and control the game. And of course KJ had a classic whiffed wide open layup only to make an incredible steal the very next play. Henry stayed balanced and went up strong against Dickinson and that was freaking awesome. My favorite play of the game was Carters block in the fast break layup. That was an incredible difficult thing to do without fouling.
Townsend has had his 2 best games these last 2. I don't know if he can make it 3 in a row, but Dell Orso's style can translate in the catch and spot-shoot role. Tommy saved his best for last in my opinion. We are rolling with it.
Caleb Love had his 2 best games back to back as well.
Basically everyone has.
These are the "wins" that this team should have been able to claw to achieve throughout the regular season. We were just Jekyll and Hyde.
This is why I really hope we can Finish Our Story this Season with a win tomorrow. It may not mean that much to a couple people here. Houston has never won a Conference Title in the Big 12. Obviously neither have we. I think they want it as much as we do.
We played our best game of the year vs Houston in McKale and came up short. The wheels fell off after that. Had we finished that game the way we finished Kansass and Teck's Ass Teck, I think we would be staring down the barrel of a 2 seed right now.
However, we are here and this is Now.
SO WHY NOT TRY TO WIN THE WHOLE FUCKING ENCHILADA?
A Big12 Banner will Validate us as having a Great season all things considered and then we can let the chips fall as they may.
I truly do want to give Tommy his flowers for this season and now it is up to Tommy and the players to grab the Brass Ring vs a Houston team that has been a bugaboo since Year 1 of Tommy's tenure taking us out as a 1 seed when they were a 5 seed.
It's time we give them some payback and then see what happens come the Madness.
This is the LAST thing we have full control over.
Quote from: |ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ| on March 13, 2025, 09:52:00 PMQuote from: arxpert on March 13, 2025, 09:35:08 PMFootnote: If this team is willing to leave it's feet on a close out on the perimeter we should be fine. Almost every time we get lazy closeouts where we put a hand up, but don't actually get vertical it seems like the opponent will make the 3. They stopped hitting those 3's when we jumped off the floor.
The problem with that is that we have certain dudes who jump straight into guys and foul them instead of contesting the shot on a fly-by.
Right on cue, JB Smoove chipped in lol
Quote from: |ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ| on March 15, 2025, 01:13:56 AMQuote from: |ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ| on March 13, 2025, 09:52:00 PMQuote from: arxpert on March 13, 2025, 09:35:08 PMFootnote: If this team is willing to leave it's feet on a close out on the perimeter we should be fine. Almost every time we get lazy closeouts where we put a hand up, but don't actually get vertical it seems like the opponent will make the 3. They stopped hitting those 3's when we jumped off the floor.
The problem with that is that we have certain dudes who jump straight into guys and foul them instead of contesting the shot on a fly-by.
Right on cue, JB Smoove chipped in lol
To be fair, I don't have a problem with 1 foul like that per game early on. Not late/down the stretch in a close one, but if we are rolling early we should establish a toughness and grit that says to opponents that we are going to contest what you do today, not just slide our feet and put an arm up. 9/10 of those you just jump like a wild man right by the player - not into the player, but if someone the size of Carter for example is leaping out at you maximumly extended it is going to be hard to trust your muscle memory or you will get run off the 3pt line. We seem to be able to trade 2pt shots with the best of them. It is when we let a team get the confidence and go off for crazy 3's that usually gets us rattled most.
The team has Heart and Determination, but there is a certain type of fear that creeps in when we play teams that bring the same toughness and intensity.
There was a moment around the 13min mark in the 2nd half where Caleb Love did his patented "walk to defend" and just let the Houston player take his wide open 3 and swish it. Like the many times we have seen Love not wrap up someone and allow an easy layup and the countless times this team refuses to leave it's feet to force the opponent off the 3pt line.
KJ Lewis had some give up moments as well. It was tough to watch us fall apart in that small stretch where we went down 10pts or whatever because if we just didn't get mentally broken we would have punched back enough to keep control. We did chase down the deficit and with 5 minutes left we acted like that was all we needed to do. Get a few stops, convert a few buckets. We missed some valuable Free Throw opportunities. You just cannot beat the best teams when you aren't on their level in the game within the game aka the mental fortitude portion of the matchup.
We typically lose to teams that have good 3pt shooting performances whether it is all game or in a Half.
We played our hearts out, but when the chips were down and we took that lead with 5 minutes to go, we got lured into some bad choices, stopped working the ball inside. Let Houston get away with everything they do defensively and it started with unnecessary 3s and bad floor spacing which really speaks to not having the correct players on the court.
I get it, we got tired. Tommy refused to put Dell Orso and Townsend in the game (Townsend could have handled the physicality), but I will never understand why he refused to have Carter in the game opting for Awaka and Henri. It disabled any chance we had of a Mismatch offensively and especially when considering no one could stop Carter's 3pt shot on Houston it crippled the options we had.
And if you have a few plays drawn up for a spot shooter like Dell Orso you need to at least try them. Getting scared because he couldn't keep up defensively isn't an excuse. All Delly needed to do was make sure no one took a 3pt shot on him. Getting banged into with an elbow is an offensive foul in every game except this one. He didn't try to flop to his credit, but at the end of the day that's a lack of Heady IQ
We had the lead and momentum at the Half. We figured out how to play them. They adjusted. Then we actually did adjust back, but there was no point in starting the 2nd Half the way we started the First Half. Definition of insanity right there.
Again, we got tired... They were tired too. No excuses.
Our mental lapses were worse than theirs.
IF you want to know why we don't have what it takes, just look at how hard we played for this result. This was our Superbowl and Houston was shorthanded, but they were coached better and beyond that, they just refused to quit.
Hopefully we can win our First Round game. Carter and Henri have likely played their way into the First Round of the NBA Draft.
Arizona played hard. The "excuse" is that we played a basketball team that only lost ONE game since December. They're physical, talented and experienced.
Love was caught out of position but KJ never half-assed a play. Townsend is valuable on offense but Houston's ONLY easy buckets in the paint came when Trey was isolated in the lane. That never occurred with Awaka or Veesaar.
Regardless, this team is going into Selection Sunday with confidence. Matchups can trip up any program but Arizona has been solid since they arrived in KC and we'll hope that they get enough rest, prior to next week's first round game.
Houston is a good team and maybe one of the most composed in the nation. I thought we matched their physicality, played good enough to win, but every 50-50 situation went Houston's way. Additionally, I don't understand the rules of this game anymore... Carter Bryant gets hit in the nuts and called for a foul lol what a joke. I'd be surprised if Carter leaves, it's clear his defense would get absolutely cooked in the NBA. Hope he expands his bag and gets more disciplined on defense for his sophomore year at UA.
Veesaar must have bet on Houston bcuz he fouls with 9 seconds to not make AZ cover 6.5 :/
Quote from: Blafresh on March 15, 2025, 09:25:45 PMHouston is a good team and maybe one of the most composed in the nation. I thought we matched their physicality, played good enough to win, but every 50-50 situation went Houston's way. Additionally, I don't understand the rules of this game anymore... Carter Bryant gets hit in the nuts and called for a foul lol what a joke. I'd be surprised if Carter leaves, it's clear his defense would get absolutely cooked in the NBA. Hope he expands his bag and gets more disciplined on defense for his sophomore year at UA.
Veesaar must have bet on Houston bcuz he fouls with 9 seconds to not make AZ cover 6.5 :/
You can say Jaden Bradley bet on Arizona by trying the 3pt shot at the end too, but he half assed it, so he probably took Houston. In the end it doesn't matter. Just another story of the same where Arizona can play ANYONE's game, but we can't make anyone play our game... Except Kansas. They somehow chose to play loose, up and down against us and we made them pay for it. No one else lets us play "our game"
Also as I have come to realize since early in the year, most teams would love to force us to hit 2 shots to earn 2 points than just give us an open look for a 3 or a 2. We do get our share of layups, but it's all Iso-Ball.
There are rarely any set plays with Awaka or Henri in front of Caleb or Carter as a screener and we get off a clean 3 like I see with basically every other team that is well coached.
Tommy's best attribute is having a play from out of bounds/out of timeouts. That's basically the only time he or his assistants can draw something decent up.
We played a good game, but good can't beat Houston. That's just the way it is.
March Madness is the great equalizer. Who knows who we will have to see in the Dance. I am just hoping to make it through the first game. After we lost to Houston earlier this year in the same way, we ended up on a Skid losing a shootout to BYU and such. So now it's a 1 game season and we will find out how much this team wants to keep playing or if their spirit is broken.
Quote from: KansasCityCats on March 15, 2025, 08:01:41 PMArizona played hard. The "excuse" is that we played a basketball team that only lost ONE game since December. They're physical, talented and experienced.
Love was caught out of position but KJ never half-assed a play. Townsend is valuable on offense but Houston's ONLY easy buckets in the paint came when Trey was isolated in the lane. That never occurred with Awaka or Veesaar.
Regardless, this team is going into Selection Sunday with confidence. Matchups can trip up any program but Arizona has been solid since they arrived in KC and we'll hope that they get enough rest, prior to next week's first round game.
I'm not taking any moral victories. We emptied the tank vs Houston in some ways, but Tommy held back in others. That type of game isn't where you rotate 8 guys when you don't have the types needed. In the end we can say they did as well as they could and it wasn't good enough.
March Madness is the great equalizer. Who knows who we have to play, but the Coaching has to be better. The body language moments, the mental lapses. Watching an opponent get hot and not stopping the momentum in time with a timeout. That stuff is on Tommy. He definitely knew how to Yell at the team yesterday, but there is no excuse for Carter not getting at least 6 3pt Attempts with 4 Good Looks and 2 tough looks where he makes one that surprises people. He was the only mismatch and Tommy still went with his system. I don't care if his stat line said he had a few turnovers. Some of them were not his fault. He had 6 rebounds in a limited action. He may have ended up being the reason we won the game if he were in there instead of Awaka. He will never learn to squeeze the rebound harder if he is on the bench. If we were destined to lose, then Carter learned nothing he didn't already know in that game.
Also, if this were a game that Mugging, Thugging was the theme and no one was getting 20-30 FTA, then Tommy has to tell his guys to play just as dirty down low where Nothing was being called at all. Not abandon his own players because they didn't know how to play a Man's Game in the trenches/Post.
No one will question Love, Lewis, or Bradley running in via Iso for layups, but we Flinched on the FT line. Missed some Front-End's of the 1-1's which is a real strategy.
Make a team have to make 2 shots to earn 2 points.
That is a real strategy and teams use it against us. When it is neutral courts and high pressure you can definitely expect to miss some FTs in that manner and a Front End miss is EQUAL to a Turnover/Loss of Possession. So maybe just acknowledge that for a change because it is a way that heavily combats what we do. Especially when the opponent is weaponizing it by choosing who they want to foul.
This plays into when I say Caleb Love just walks over to a wide open shooter because he feels "beat". No. You can't have that happen. If you foul a 3pt shooter at worst it sucks and they make 3 Shots to earn 3 points with 13min to go, but they could still miss one, two, or even three no matter how good they are and that would make the whole sequence worth it. The fact is Arizona needs to make teams earn it. Not just give the shots away and then try to go too fast. Houston took advantage of that early and often.
Walk before Run in games like this where the Stubborn opponent isn't going to play your game.
Bryant didn't play poorly but he couldn't create open looks, which is the reason he took four threes (and two were way off). He tied for the 5th most minutes (despite not starting) and would have played more if Houston didn't kick him in the nuts (thanks for the no-call, officials).
Love was arguably our best defender this season, alongside KJ. He has the occasional lazy "walk down the court" moment, which is frustrating but he's primarily a lockdown defender, regardless of matchup.
Quote from: KansasCityCats on March 16, 2025, 05:20:32 PMBryant didn't play poorly but he couldn't create open looks, which is the reason he took four threes (and two were way off). He tied for the 5th most minutes (despite not starting) and would have played more if Houston didn't kick him in the nuts (thanks for the no-call, officials).
Love was arguably our best defender this season, alongside KJ. He has the occasional lazy "walk down the court" moment, which is frustrating but he's primarily a lockdown defender, regardless of matchup.
2 were off? 2 were On and Unguardable with his length. The difference between us and them is they get in the face of every shooter while you condone our players walking up on closeouts casually just giving the shot away. Meanwhile whenever we did contest a shot they missed most of them hence our 3 primary comebacks in the game. Then Tommy went back to the bad lineups and gave away all the hard work earned in the opening 5 minutes of the 2nd half repeating the same lesson learned in the 1st half except he shouldn't have done that, telegraphed, because Sampson had a response for the line change adjustment this time and it led to the 10pt deficit that was unnecessary. When we regained the lead with 5 to go, then Tommy opted to lean into Henri and Awaka which ended our chance to stay in the game for good as KJ Lewis was necessary to sustaining it and Sampson shut the water off on the drives for layups.
Carter would have risen up for a 3pt shot and hit at least 2 in the clutch.
I know for certain that whether he made them or not it would have forced players out of that lane and made space for the layups.
Awaka needed to be benched with 5 to go and Tommy got scared. Flinched. And we scored like 2 or 4 points the rest of that game to their 7 or 9. I lost count. It was there for the taking just like the first game.
I have been done with giving out Silver Stars for trying hard, but losing and I am not up for handing out a Purple Heart for killing our season with the same mental lapses in Coaching.
Leaving the same five players in the game for 40 minutes isn't sustainable when you're playing a third game in a three day span.
Awaka's ability to keep the Cougar frontcourt out of the paint was his only purpose, and it was pretty successful.
Bryant's airballs weren't close but fortunately didn't affect his confidence. He definitely deserved more looks but it was obvious that he wasn't 100% after he took a cheap shot (with NO attempt to review from the officials).
Regardless, Houston was the better team and I'm sure the staff is focusing on our matchup(s) in Seattle.
Quote from: KansasCityCats on March 18, 2025, 02:26:34 PMLeaving the same five players in the game for 40 minutes isn't sustainable when you're playing a third game in a three day span.
Awaka's ability to keep the Cougar frontcourt out of the paint was his only purpose, and it was pretty successful.
Bryant's airballs weren't close but fortunately didn't affect his confidence. He definitely deserved more looks but it was obvious that he wasn't 100% after he took a cheap shot (with NO attempt to review from the officials).
Regardless, Houston was the better team and I'm sure the staff is focusing on our matchup(s) in Seattle.
If Carter was knocked out of the game then he should have laid on the floor dead. If Tommy held him out on purpose due to a shot to the nuts then that is a brand new level of soft that I do not accept.
No excuses overall. It was the wrong way to coach the matchup. If Houston loses in March Madness I guarantee there will be X's and O's involved.
None of the above. Carter was in serious pain but convinced Lloyd to put him back in the game, as soon as he gathered his composure. He wasn't the same player when he returned...with good reason. The kid is tough.
There is a perfectly good excuse: we played a team that lost one game since December. They're a favorite to win the National Title and Arizona played them tough. If we replicate that performance over the next few weeks (which I doubt will happen), we would likely get a rematch with UH in the Final Four.
Quote from: KansasCityCats on March 18, 2025, 04:43:07 PMNone of the above. Carter was in serious pain but convinced Lloyd to put him back in the game, as soon as he gathered his composure. He wasn't the same player when he returned...with good reason. The kid is tough.
There is a perfectly good excuse: we played a team that lost one game since December. They're a favorite to win the National Title and Arizona played them tough. If we replicate that performance over the next few weeks (which I doubt will happen), we would likely get a rematch with UH in the Final Four.
That team barely won tonight vs Purdue because the refs got a call blatantly wrong giving Houston an extra possession where they hit a 3pt shot... they won the game by that 3pt shot in the end.
Sometimes you just have to punch the kid back in the nuts (in an intelligent way). Go up like Draymond. Start something. We can't always be the nice guys. That's what I learned from this season.