The Bench Theory
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My theory is we don’t develop the bench because it results in losses while we’re doing it. And it works 99% of the time. The only time it doesn’t work is when we play 3 straight games. My evidence is a 14 point loss to Tenn, and the 100 point loss we just suffered to Texas. Go with your best 7 to 8 guys- that gets you to 80+% wins. It means you have speed bumps in preconf tourneys and the title game of the B12. Yes, I know it didn’t stop them last year. But last year, the B12 was not the behemoth it was this year. We just played 3 tournament teams in straight days.
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I think the bench can develop during practice. Imagine what kind of pressure those new guys must feel, to play in Allen Fieldhouse in front of all those fans, and on ESPN all the time in front of the entire country. I really think Bill is trying to save them from embarrassment, in addition to winning games. I heard him once make a comment about that. He knows the players feel the pressure, especially when they are new and clueless. They can develop during practice, in a less public environment.
I know I sure prefer to be stupid in private than in public.
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@tundrahok said in The Bench Theory:
I know I sure prefer to be stupid in private than in public.
You might be an exception. Social media has exposed milions of people whose abject stupidity is now on display, and whose idiocy we would not have been cursed to see before this century!
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My theory is our bench just sucks this year because the staff missed on some evals/guys didn’t develop. It happens.
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Yep that’s really it. We have guys that are not where they should be and that’s going to impact next yr as well
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@mayjay That’s why I’m not on social media! Try to keep my stupidity to myself.
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@BeddieKU23 said in The Bench Theory:
Yep that’s really it. We have guys that are not where they should be and that’s going to impact next yr as well
It’s why I think we see a lot of roster churn. Too many guys that are not “KU level”.
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@BShark I hope you are right
Joe, Clemence, Martin, Cuffe plus everyone else leaving for the league.
Got the good recruits coming in and need 2-3 studs in the portal.
We are the hot name right now in - Bill has to capitalize. He pulled Adam’s from Cali - keep it going and get 2-3 more titles
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@kuballin10 said in The Bench Theory:
@BShark I hope you are right
Joe, Clemence, Martin, Cuffe plus everyone else leaving for the league.
Got the good recruits coming in and need 2-3 studs in the portal.
We are the hot name right now in - Bill has to capitalize. He pulled Adam’s from Cali - keep it going and get 2-3 more titles
Yes. I could see Bob/MJ leaving too but they aren’t guys that would be forced out. The four you listed are definitely guys that need to go.
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I think Bill has always been big on his 7-8 man rotations. Last season Remy and Mitch came off the bench even Coleman-Lands at times to give a spark. I think both Joe and Udeh have shown in some moments they can be useful. Just have to hope the best is yet to come.
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People Leaving : -Kevin - - -Grady - - -Jalen : - probability ? - -Zach - -Cam possibilities ?: - - - - Kyle - - Bobby - - MJ Probably not : - Joe - - -No Way: - - -Ernest & Zuby
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@BShark I’m good with Bob leaving. MJ needs to call Russ Rob and see what gutting it out gets him
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@kjayhawks no 3 games in 3 days
Our starting 5 and udeh are solid. Joe is blah if he hits 2-3 shots call it good.
As Bill said last year our studs gotta carry us (och, Dave and Braun).
Jw, Gradey, Juan gotta be great or we will lose second round
No loss is ever good but this one didn’t sting as much. Matchups in the tourney and teams get beat early (think Auburn last year I was sure their size and athleticism would dominate us and Miami beat them).
Just 2 game weekend tourneys with a day of rest and a HOF coach. He likes this squad with a healthy Kevin and we got as good a chance as any team!
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@kuballin10 said in The Bench Theory:
@kjayhawks no 3 games in 3 days
Pastries for thought: Our worst two games of the season by far came in this scenario. Depth is less important in the tournament unless we run into foul trouble.
Agree with this post in general. Think we can lose any game after the first one (which hell the first one is technically possible but I don’t see it happening).
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Since February, KU is 69/223 30% from 3. Not good
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We are fragile because we need to have some success from 3 to open up our offense. If the guys can find their shot from deep in March, we can make a run. If not, it will be an early exit.
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Gradey!
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@kuballin10 there’s never been anything since he’s been here that leads me to believe Pettiford is KU good. He looks like a backup pg for like East Carolina…
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@TYOHawk agreed he appeared like he had Frank driving abilities his frosh year got hurt and now just looks like he can’t even dribble
Hope he transfers
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Our bigs issue was partially because we had too many undeveloped bigs at the same time. To be fair, they all received some early minutes so no one received enough minutes to develop more or show more potential. Ernest is now the man largely because Zuby was out.
We can look at it like we weren’t thinking ahead by not developing our bench, or maybe we were looking too far ahead by trying to keep bigs happy enough to stick it out here and not enter the portal.
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@kuballin10 said in The Bench Theory:
@TYOHawk agreed he appeared like he had Frank driving abilities his frosh year got hurt and now just looks like he can’t even dribble
Hope he transfers
This is so baffling to me. It really looked for a bit like he was going to be the next downhill guard that could get to the bucket on his own and be that guy with a little development. Boy has it gone the other way.
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I think Bobby and MJ are both struggling. The game is moving too fast for them right now so they play out of control. Maybe they lack what it takes… or maybe they are just suffering through a confidence issue.
Instead of blasting the players, I’ll stay out of it and let our coaching staff figure this out.
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@drgnslayr I hope it doesn’t come across like I’m bashing Bobby but I can see how it would. I just got some pretty high expectations for him pretty early. I think injuring that hammy over and over again would get in my head too. I could see how it would feel like you couldn’t trust your body to give you the burst you need. His best attribute has been his first step and ability to elevate enough as a little guy to finish at the rim. The last time he got hurt you could see the dejection a frustration that it happened again on a pretty normal basketball play.
I really do hope with time he can get back to playing at the level he was earlier in his career and then grow from there.
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Yeah, not bashing Bobby at all. He hasn’t made an impact off the bench since the beginning of the season and his play recently has been very concerning to the point it doesn’t appear he has the skills to compete at this level. He’s certainly had bad injury luck which has zapped his confidence and ability to play as a backup here. The play he got benched in the 2nd half pretty much sums up his string of luck.
Will be interesting to see where conversations go with him after the season
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Combination of the injuries robbing Bobby plus I do think he overthinks things at times because he is so eager to please Bill. Whatever it is, he can barely even play as noted. It’s just b a d.
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We know our Achilles heel going into March. We don’t have great bench depth. We don’t know if we can count on help off the bench, period.
It was clear in our loss to Texas that our guys were winded after just a few minutes in the game.
We are lucky that March is designed to only have us play twice in a week.
Our biggest issues now are potential injuries and foul trouble.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we can put our best foot forward in March! (and hopefully April!)
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@drgnslayr said in The Bench Theory:
We know our Achilles heel going into March. We don’t have great bench depth. We don’t know if we can count on help off the bench, period.
It was clear in our loss to Texas that our guys were winded after just a few minutes in the game.
We are lucky that March is designed to only have us play twice in a week.
Our biggest issues now are potential injuries and foul trouble.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we can put our best foot forward in March! (and hopefully April!)
Udeh that’s it and he’s only a back-up for the 5. I don’t trust any of the guards/wings.
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Just get past the 1st weekend and I’m happy. Providing that none of Mizzou, KSU, UK or Duke make a FF.
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Same, although I’ll be satisfied being in the Elite 8 game. Self with a week to prepare for any team, that won’t be on him if they lost at that point.
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@BShark I’m not entirely joking here that I think it might be a good idea to consider 2/3 of Udeh’s minutes off the bench be for KJ and the other third for jalen (meaning slide kj to the 4). You then steal 5 minutes for joe subbing for Gradey/kev/Juan and hope they can all just go 35+ minutes.
Kj at the 4 has got to be a better option than Bobby on the floor right now. I don’t see another way to get guys any kind of a breather. Is self really going to play MJ Rice in a tough tournament game?
The other option would be to jump on whichever of ark/Illinois we get early. I’m much more comfortable playing the bench when we already have a 8 point or more lead. They did ok vs WVU and ISU. They didn’t like produce anything but our leads didn’t evaporate while they were in.
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Definitely don’t see Rice playing outside of necessity, that’s where he was with Self before the Big-12 tourney.
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They talking now about how Bench is a different ball game come NCAA time. - -How KU and their bench isn’t nearly the problem aa some trying to make it out to be stating
TV time outs longer, named multiple things a to why not as important. -Brining up last yr how KU didn’t play a deep bench. - -McCormack playing 29 minutes - - Wilson- -34 - Braun played all 40- I think they said Juan like 37 minutes - -Remy only played 7 minutes- -just take on a whole different role in the NCAA tourney
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@Kcmatt7 said in The Bench Theory:
Just get past the 1st weekend and I’m happy. Providing that none of Mizzou, KSU, UK or Duke make a FF.
The team on my watch list is Duke. They have completely kicked it up a big notch.
Filipowski is playing incredible ball. HE IS A GUY WHO SHOULD GO NBA NOW, not Gradey. Lively is killing it on D.
Their potential matchup with Purdue should be fun except Edey will be outnumbered in the post and I think Duke shatters Purdue’s dream.
@jayballer67 Bench isn’t a concern until it is. What happens when we have foul trouble? Injury? Some or all playing horribly and need a spark off the bench? We definitely know KJ has fouling tendencies. And many teams will take advantage of our guys who quickly land 2 fouls by taking it to them.
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@drgnslayr Duke has their work cut out for them round 1. Oral Roberts is legit (old friend alert: Issac McBride really blossomed there). Oral Roberts is putting up the 3rd most points in college basketball…
And I think if Tennessee could have asked for a matchup that they could survive without Zeigler, it would be this Duke team. Tennessee can match up with them big body-wise.
But if Duke makes it to that Purdue matchup, I think you’re right. I actually think Tennessee could give Purdue trouble too, but wonder if they can make it that far without Zeigler.
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@Kcmatt7 said in The Bench Theory:
@drgnslayr Duke has their work cut out for them round 1. Oral Roberts is legit (old friend alert: Issac McBride really blossomed there). Oral Roberts is putting up the 3rd most points in college basketball…
And I think if Tennessee could have asked for a matchup that they could survive without Zeigler, it would be this Duke team. Tennessee can match up with them big body-wise.
But if Duke makes it to that Purdue matchup, I think you’re right. I actually think Tennessee could give Purdue trouble too, but wonder if they can make it that far without Zeigler.
Rick Barnes has made it past the first weekend once in his last 10 tournament appearances. Betting on Tennessee to make a run even if healthy is always a big risk because of Barnes track record.
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I’m a big Barnes fan because he’s such a great human being.
But come March… there is a reason why someone labeled him “the anti-March!”
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Saw something new from Rice in the Texas game as when he was called for a charge and, questionable at that, he just exploded to the rim and slammed it in protest. The fire is there but it’s masked by him.
