Battle of the beatens?

[Ameroogie]

Saturday in Columbia...even without Walker, I think we match up very well against Mizzou.  Their early season brilliance (against teams of questionable talent) has worn thin and they've been exposed in Big XII play.  A road win for us, particularily in this point in the season, would be huge.

I'm going...looking for tickets....

[michigancat]

http://ev9.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS%3AMISSOURI%3AB07%3A15%3A&linkID=missouri&shopperContext=&caller=&appCode=

I think we can win - I wouldn't predict a win, but it could happen.  Hopefully, a week of preparation will have them ready for full court pressure.  No one's really tried to press us at all this year, the way the games have played out, there hasn't been much of a reason to.

[ksu_FAN]

Their pressing may play to our advantage if we can break it and score easy buckets in transition.  If we don't give them easy buckets I think they'll have a real tough time scoring in their half court offense.  The thing I hope we can use to our advantage is we have bigger guards that hopefully can get the ball over MU's press.  We'll see how that goes.

This really is a huge game for both teams after ISU has seemingly gained control for that 2nd spot in the north.  A win here is almost a must to salvage any chance at the NCAAs which seem slim right now anyway.  This stretch of winnable games will make or break this season.

[sys]

i agree.  mu is very beatable, even on the road.  i don´t see mu being able to score enough to win, unless ksu gives them transition buckets.  i don´t see that happening after the team´s performance against tech - and a week for huggins to beat that theme to death.

ksu could have a rutgers ugly type game and still win - i just don´t think mu will be able to score on ksu.

[WildGunman]

I hope they practice breaking the press with basically only 4 players because I don't want to see Wright with the ball in the open court trying to make a pass.  Chances are, if he does make a pass, it will be right to MU.  Wright needs to go down to our scoring end and wait until the press is broken...maybe cherry pick some garbage points.

I would advocate leaving him on the bench, but I wan't his defense in the game.

Who should pick up Hannah in this game?

Oh, and make sure someone always picks up Lawrence in transition.

[pissclams]

I don't see how we "match up well" with them at all.
We've got a bunch of guards who really don't handle the ball very well which will make their press that much more effective.
Assuming we get lucky and break the press, advance the ball up the court and get to a 2-1 situation, we got a bunch of guards who don't play crap for transition offense and will either send the ball sailing into the antlers row 32 or pass the ball directly to MU's lone defender.

[pissclams]

Furthermore, if I was Huggins, I'd give Hannah all the looks he wants from a zone.
We can beat them if we lock down the paint.

[chum1]

I don't see how we "match up well" with them at all.
We've got a bunch of guards who really don't handle the ball very well which will make their press that much more effective.
Assuming we get lucky and break the press, advance the ball up the court and get to a 2-1 situation, we got a bunch of guards who don't play crap for transition offense and will either send the ball sailing into the antlers row 32 or pass the ball directly to MU's lone defender.

I agree.  And not only are we not good with handling the ball, we're not good at passing either.  Mizzou will have tons of steals.  We will have tons of deer-caught-in-the-headlights looks.  

[michigancat]

I think we're better at handling the ball than we seem.  That makes no sense when I type it, but perfect sense in my head.

[ksu_FAN]

We have to play great defense in the half court and rebound.  We have been a pretty solid team on the offensive glass, but we've got to take advantage of those opportunities.  And when MU is the halfcourt we must make it really hard for them to score.  ISU shot 40% and had 21 TOs in their win in MU, but they hit the offensive glass and held MU to 38% and had 13 offensive rebounds.  We can play that kind of game and win too.

[sys]

we are a better ball handling team than yall suggest.  and a fair number of our players are better in a helter skelter game than they are in the half court.

further more, mu fouls a lot.  ksu has done well when they get to the line frequently.

http://kenpom.com/sr.php?team=Kansas%20St.&y=2007

http://kenpom.com/sr.php?team=Missouri

[pissclams]

What teams have we played that pressed us hard

[Dan Rydell]

we are a better ball handling team than yall suggest.  and a fair number of our players are better in a helter skelter game than they are in the half court.

As evidenced by our three straight turnovers in transition to start the TTech game after winning the tip or causing Tech turnovers?  Sorry, not buying it.  There's a reason Wooldridge never let these players run.  Has anyone else noticed they have no idea how to handle a fast break?  It seems that most of the time when we have a +1 or more advantage there is absolutely no passing.  Whoever brings the ball down drives himself, never makes the basket, and if he's lucky, draws a foul.  Huggs expressed frustration over our break offense himself after Tech, saying that they practice it all the time, and still these guys act like they have no clue.

The one thing these players have shown over the years is that they're decent at breaking the press.  That should help against Mizzou.  But if we get Akeem in the open court, then lord help us.

[sys]

As evidenced by our three straight turnovers in transition to start the TTech game after winning the tip or causing Tech turnovers?  Sorry, not buying it.  There's a reason Wooldridge never let these players run.  Has anyone else noticed they have no idea how to handle a fast break?

one game and revisionist history.  pomeroy keeps detailed stats on how teams play for a reason.  that reason is so that fans can check those stats to see if their impressions of how their team is playing bear any relation to reality.

[Dan Rydell]

As evidenced by our three straight turnovers in transition to start the TTech game after winning the tip or causing Tech turnovers?  Sorry, not buying it.  There's a reason Wooldridge never let these players run.  Has anyone else noticed they have no idea how to handle a fast break?

one game and revisionist history.  pomeroy keeps detailed stats on how teams play for a reason.  that reason is so that fans can check those stats to see if their impressions of how their team is playing bear any relation to reality.

Fine.  Akeem should be point guard for this team. 

Edit:  Also, stats don't tell the whole story.  Akeem fumbling the ball down the court may not result in a turnover all the time, it may just allow the other team to get back on D.  Lance failing to pass the ball on a fast break may result in only a block or a foul being added to the box score.  Where it hurts is in the lost opportunity for an easy basket.  Could you show me where Pomeroy's stat for "lost opportunity for an easy basket" is?  TIA.

[chum1]

Is our ball handling good enough to help us overcome our god-awful passing?

[WildGunman]

I think it'll be a nice accomplishment if we can start by getting the ball inbounds without turning it over.

 

[catzacker]

I think MU wins by double digits.  We aren't playing with any kind of confidence or identity and it's on the road.  If Akeem had his typical game (like he did against TT), we'd be looking at 3 straight double digit losses.  I don't think we'll handle pressure very well, although A&M played very aggressively in their style of defense, it'll be a different kind of pressure from MU.  Also, who is going to guard Hannah?  I think he goes for atleast 20.   All that being said, I wouldn't necessarily be that surprised if we won.  

[sys]

Fine.  Akeem should be point guard for this team. 

Edit:  Also, stats don't tell the whole story.  Akeem fumbling the ball down the court may not result in a turnover all the time, it may just allow the other team to get back on D.  Lance failing to pass the ball on a fast break may result in only a block or a foul being added to the box score.  Where it hurts is in the lost opportunity for an easy basket.  Could you show me where Pomeroy's stat for "lost opportunity for an easy basket" is?  TIA.

i don´t advocate that akeem run point.  but the fact that both wooldridge and huggins have given him some latitude in that regard tells us that he is a pretty good ball handler for a 3.

blocks are turnovers.  lost opportunities show up in the offensive efficiency category.  and if you look at our season-long stats, as opposed to stats from the tech game, you can see that ksu is decent at getting easy buckets, and at not turning the ball over.  last year they had an extremely high assist to bucket ratio as well, so i have a little trouble believing no one can pass.

on the other hand.  their 3 pt % is among the worst in the nation.


edit - i was spacing on the blocks thing.  was thinking of charges/off. fouls.  obviously, blocks don´t count as turnovers.  they do contribute to off. efficiency though.

[ksu_FAN]

Its always funny how a couple games color the memories of fans.  I don't necessarily see a win, but I don't see a blow-out loss either.

For 1, TOs balance out.  Against various styles of play we have forced our opponents into more TOs than us nearly every game this year.  We play pretty good defense ourselves.

Like most of our games this year its going to come down to this; can we hit the open shots we generate and can we avoid giving MU a bunch of 2nd chances on offensive rebounds?  I think we'll defend them fine, we're going to have our share of TOs, but so will they; I'd guess both teams will have around 20.  Its going to come down to Martin, Harris, and even Stewart being able to knock down some shots.  There will be ugly moments in this game, but I see it coming down the last 5 minutes.  Let's see if we can step up and win one.

[chum1]

Sometimes, some fans are just more placable than others.  We should have routed the worst teams we played and should be able to handle this Missouri team fairly easily.  As everyone admits, we're not anywhere near there.  We should be much better.  Our ball handling should be much better.  Our passing should be much better.  We shouldn't be saying things like, "well, we were decent against some of the worst teams we played, so I think we've got a shot."  And we really shouldn't be okay with saying that.