What happened to our early season swager?

[jmcat]

why have we suddenly started getting rattled and started sucking soo bad on the road

[waks]

We got full of ourselves. Again.

[KSU176]

What happened to our early season swager?

Early season swagger?  We sucked even worse then.  Mid season swagger maybe.

[tmramrod91]

I dont think its necessarily that we sucked extra bad tonight, OSU came out and played out of their minds. Never lost 3 in a row in IBA, never lost 5 in a row in like 20 years or longer.

We did have a few defensive breakdowns, poor perimeter D, and stupid stupid turnovers

[WILDCAT NATION]

why have we suddenly started getting rattled and started sucking soo bad on the road

They haven't lost it.  Seriously, no reason to freak.

If they don't bring it hard on Saturday, I'll then be concerned, because they didn't "not show up" tonight.

[McGrowlTowelZac]

Its easy to get a swagger from beating up nobodies, but when you get knocked the F@*k out by somebody your size or bigger...the swagger  goes right down your leg

[jmcat]

sorry i mean early on in the confrence like at mizzou and texas

[AzCat]

Would that be the swagger following the 30 point beating by New Mexico or the swagger following the 30 point beating by Cal?

[jmcat]

mizzou and texas are both better than osu

[Joker]

why have we suddenly started getting rattled and started sucking soo bad on the road

For the most part we haven't faired too well playing at intimidating places.

@NM L 54-78
@ku L 70-97
@OSU L 70-84

Tough places for anyone to play.

[jmcat]

Would that be the swagger following the 30 point beating by New Mexico or the swagger following the 30 point beating by Cal?

i said the beginning of the confrence schedul you dumbass

[waks]

@UT is tougher than all of those. They have only lost one in the passed 26 games. And we played well at the RAC (it probably wasn't that tough when we played there though..)

[atybimf]

we lost bill walker.  he REALLY brought swagger to this team.

[AzCat]

Would that be the swagger following the 30 point beating by New Mexico or the swagger following the 30 point beating by Cal?

i said the beginning of the confrence schedul you dumbass

Oh right, my bad.  You mean the swagger we had when we shot right out to that sparkling 0-2 start, squeaked one out against a very average Moo squad, then nearly dropped one to Bayor in Manhattan before tacking on a few late to make the score look a bit respectable.  Riiiiight .....

[WILDCAT NATION]

@UT is tougher than all of those. They have only lost one in the passed 26 games. And we played well at the RAC (it probably wasn't that tough when we played there though..)

@UT is like playing in front of an NBA crowd.

[jmcat]

if we were to play at texas or at mizzou right now we would lose. but ur right assssscat

[AzCat]

but ur right assssscat

JBitch? 

[waks]

@UT is tougher than all of those. They have only lost one in the passed 26 games. And we played well at the RAC (it probably wasn't that tough when we played there though..)

@UT is like playing in front of an NBA crowd.

Tell that to the 25 teams (out of 26) who have played there recently. That doesn't happen by fluke.

[AzCat]

@UT is tougher than all of those. They have only lost one in the passed 26 games. And we played well at the RAC (it probably wasn't that tough when we played there though..)

@UT is like playing in front of an NBA crowd.

Tell that to the 25 teams (out of 26) who have played there recently. That doesn't happen by fluke.

Sure it does, just like Maric scoring like 90 when the Cats played in Lincoln.

[waks]

@UT is tougher than all of those. They have only lost one in the passed 26 games. And we played well at the RAC (it probably wasn't that tough when we played there though..)

@UT is like playing in front of an NBA crowd.

Tell that to the 25 teams (out of 26) who have played there recently. That doesn't happen by fluke.

Sure it does, just like Maric scoring like 90 when the Cats played in Lincoln.

25 out of 26 games are flukes? 

[michigancat]

My three theories:

1)  The loss of Bill Walker.  In Vegas, they were just badasses on the court.  They went for the throat at the ends of those games.

2)  The win at Texas.  It might have made them cocky.

3)  We just aren't very good and shouldn't be surprised at any of the results this season, with the exception of the Texas game, perhaps.

I think it's a combination of the 3, with #3 being the biggie.

[bigdeal]

We only have legitimate offensive players and our guys just don't like to ratchet up that defense to the level they have to play it.  Our swagger came with Walker, and during the winning streak in conference when Harris was playing with some confidence instead of limiting himself to being a marginal, streaky three point shooter only.  Heck, even Wright was showing some offense.  Now, everyone else is standing around waiting for Hoskins or Martin to score and, defensively, we just aren't attacking...same for our rebounding.  These guys have to really attack and play aggressively on defense and they just haven't been playing that suffocating defense.  Do you remember the last time our defense was singled out by an opponent, or they talked about how physical and tough we are?   

[michigancat]

We only have legitimate offensive players and our guys just don't like to ratchet up that defense to the level they have to play it.  Our swagger came with Walker, and during the winning streak in conference when Harris was playing with some confidence instead of limiting himself to being a marginal, streaky three point shooter only.  Heck, even Wright was showing some offense.  Now, everyone else is standing around waiting for Hoskins or Martin to score and, defensively, we just aren't attacking...same for our rebounding.  These guys have to really attack and play aggressively on defense and they just haven't been playing that suffocating defense.  Do you remember the last time our defense was singled out by an opponent, or they talked about how physical and tough we are?   

Nice post...it seems like we're a lot better when Harris is a slasher instead of a set shooter...

[bigdeal]

Yeah, he struggles with confidence.  He is constantly tinkering with his shot and trying to aim it into the basket now.  If you look at his shot when he was a sophomore until now, he just shot the ball then.  Now, he kind of sets the ball on his right side and tries to aim it in...hence he is short alot of times because he doesn't just shoot with confidence.  He has the ability to put the ball on the floor but he just doesn't attack the rim...at all.  Maybe one penetration turned into a floating jumper a game.  If that doesn't fall, or if he gets bumped, he doesn't try again.  He just plays soft.

[ksu_FAN]

Part of this is teams/coaches figuring out some of Hugg's tendancies and as a coach there are only so many adjustments you can make.  It seemed that Huggs was constantly making changes with how we did things early in the Big 12 season and that allowed us to get some nice wins, but as the season goes on that stuff evens out, especially when you face good coaching like we do in this league.

We have two major inconsistencies on this team; the x-factor of Lance Harris and how/when he scores and the defense our our frosh bigs.  Really, we can bash PG play, but overall this team has done a pretty good job handling the ball and the statistics show that.  However, when we have performances like Colon last night and Harris is shooting less than 40% we are going to struggle.  The fact that we got great games from both Hoskins and Martin last night is the only thing that kept us remotely in the game.  However, we didn't have enough to counter what OSU brought.

And on defense, its pretty clear that the mentality and agressiveness of this team (right or wrong) goes as far the officials allow.  We don't have enough athletes and depth to overcome Martin/Hoskins getting in foul trouble and last night we had both in foul trouble.  

A team is only as good as the sum of its parts and Huggins pretty much did what we could have hoped; took control of the north outside of ku, and likely a split with the south.  

[michigancat]

Part of this is teams/coaches figuring out some of Hugg's tendancies and as a coach there are only so many adjustments you can make.  It seemed that Huggs was constantly making changes with how we did things early in the Big 12 season and that allowed us to get some nice wins, but as the season goes on that stuff evens out, especially when you face good coaching like we do in this league.

We have two major inconsistencies on this team; the x-factor of Lance Harris and how/when he scores and the defense our our frosh bigs.  Really, we can bash PG play, but overall this team has done a pretty good job handling the ball and the statistics show that.  However, when we have performances like Colon last night and Harris is shooting less than 40% we are going to struggle.  The fact that we got great games from both Hoskins and Martin last night is the only thing that kept us remotely in the game.  However, we didn't have enough to counter what OSU brought.

And on defense, its pretty clear that the mentality and agressiveness of this team (right or wrong) goes as far the officials allow.  We don't have enough athletes and depth to overcome Martin/Hoskins getting in foul trouble and last night we had both in foul trouble. 

A team is only as good as the sum of its parts and Huggins pretty much did what we could have hoped; took control of the north outside of ku, and likely a split with the south. 

http://www.ksufans.com/forums/index.php?topic=8742.0

[chum1]

Remember Whitlock's "nice guy" article about Wooldridge and his players?  Given the lack of defensive effort our key players have shown recently, it seems Huggins hasn't been able to find a cure for this.

[cireksu]

bottom line, this group of players are not that good and have won a lot of games going 110%.  When we don't go 110% we lose.  Huggs has said that all season long.  We have zero margin for error, we can't take possessions off.  Last night we made a ton of mistakes and we won't beat anyone worth a damn when we play like that.

[greasd up deaf guy]

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