Enjoying the military deflections.
Concerning post rotation… all our bigs deserve minutes and will have to be maintained to some degree all year to keep them from rusting and to keep the intensity building in the post all year. I’m afraid the biggest “victim” in the rotation will be Lightfoot. In a perfect world, he would deserve more minutes this year to help him develop for the future.
Landen looks like he is turning the corner on his early season funk. He had a solid game against Davidson, and was starting to really settle into his role during Nebraska.
But I don’t see this as one of our best rebounding post teams. Rebounding will be a job by committee all year, and I’m not talking about “board members” only being post players. We have too good (and athletic) of guards to have them take plays off on the rebounding side. Everyone is going to have to step up and rebound. This may be our best rebounding guard squad since Bill came to Kansas. I don’t think we can stress how important this area is going to be for us all year, and may actually be the area of our game that makes the difference in March.
Defense and rebounding are driven by synergy. Either we get together as a squad on hustle and focus or we melt away into mediocrity as a team because even though our offense is good and fun to watch, our offense alone doesn’t stand a chance to go far in March and would be hard pressed to even win #13 in conference play.
I’m optimistic about this team NOT because they are so fun to watch (but enjoying that aspect). My optimism is high because I think we have a great group of guys who GET IT! I think this squad understands that it will be defense and rebounding that will make us unstoppable.
That second half against Davidson… I haven’t seen that kind of defensive intensity in a KU uniform since 2008! No one in college basketball is going to keep up with us as long as we bring that kind of defense. And the rebounding was much improved, too.