Gonzaga ADV; Bruceketball

[kso_FAN]

1st   Pace   PPP   eFG%   TO%   OR%   FTR
KSU   29   0.89   48.1%   34.2%   40.0%   3.8%
Opp   29   0.92   52.1%   30.8%   36.4%   8.3%

2nd   Pace   PPP   eFG%   TO%   OR%   FTR
KSU   34   0.76   29.5%   23.5%   22.2%   81.8%
Opp   34   1.20   48.1%   14.7%   40.0%   66.7%

Total   Pace   PPP   eFG%   TO%   OR%   FTR
KSU   64   0.82   39.6%   28.2%   30.3%   39.6%
Opp   64   1.07   50.0%   22.0%   38.5%   39.2%

The calendar hasn't even turned to 2013, but Bruceketball and its effects on what was an established K-State basketball program are already in place. I have been more patient and more willing to give it a shot than most (I thought the reaction from the Illinois fans had to be hyperbole, at least in part) and I wanted to give K-State basketball (and therefore oscar) a chance.

Already all that seems gone and this team is completely lost.

It was reemphasized over and over as the game went along and Fran kept talking about the "K-State needing to control pace". This was never a talking point last year with essentially the same team, but something we had heard over and over the last few years when we played teams like Doc's or McDermott's (at ISU), etc. Bad basketball teams with very little margin for error are the ones commentators continually talk about having to "control pace" and we are already there.

This offense is completely broken. oscar has tried to blend in some ball screening to play off of Angel's strengths with his motion offense and its a complete disaster. A group of guys that had come to play decently in a continuity/pattern offense have no idea what to do in Weber's more free flowing, screen and cut motion offense. No one more so than Rodney who has gone from a Wooden watch list player to looking like the 2nd coming of Quentin Buchanan. (tonight anyway).

And that's not the worst part. The tenacious defense and offense boarding and "40 minutes of anger" is non existence. Oh, there is still some short stretches that look familiar, and against the terrible teams we've played we still manage to hit the oboards, but against the good teams we've played we look completely outclassed.

Let's keep in mind oscar had a head start with the trip to Brazil and extra practices and coaching. If anything at this point he should at least be at or slightly ahead of the already paltry expectations fans had for this team. Instead any expectations are crushed and this team is getting worse.

It makes for a bleak outlook on this season, even for the most positive and optimistic of fans.

:sigh:

[kougar24]

Getting worse would be best-case scenario, and you know it. Take heart: #burnitdown has a fighting chance!

It will be painful beyond belief, but the goal is there for the taking.

[Powercat Posse]

Things are bad right now.   Not gonna win any of our 18 conf games scoring 52 points.

In the 3 neutral and 1 road game here in the past few weeks..... we are shooting 36.2% and scoring 60.0 pts per game.  Unacceptable

[sys]

dboarding was never a strength of martin's teams, but it looks like a positive weakness this year.  maybe it just seems the more glaring because there are fewer strengths to offset.  if you aren't going to dboard you should be blocking shots.

[IlliniTillIDie]

You guys are seeing the b.s. machine that has protected oscar for so long.  Franchilla, with a straight face, claims the team has to play grind it out ball, even though they won a tourney game last year not grinding it out.  This is why nobody would say a bad word about oscar to Curry ... because coaches won't say a bad word about another coach to anybody.  Publicly at least ... amongst themselves I'm sure quite a few are laughing their asses off. 

Anyway, this is my last post for a while.  Not trying to pile on, just trying to spread the truth about oscar. 

[kougar24]

We knew the truth about oscar before he ever coached a game here, friend.

[kso_FAN]

So far we've played 4 teams rated 135 or better in kenpom. These are the advanced stats against those 4 teams:

Total   Pace   PPP   eFG%   TO%   OR%   FTR
KSU   64   0.94   40.3%   18.8%   38.3%   26.3%
Opp   64   1.03   49.5%   19.6%   35.3%   33.2%

When you get outshot by over 9% you have no shot to win games against quality teams. And its arguable that Delaware and GW are quality teams. And if you are going to be a poor shooting teams, you better be a lot better at forcing TOs, rebounding, and/or getting to the FT line and we are marginally better at the first 2 and awful at attacking and drawing fouls.

In both the Michigan and Zaga games I had little hope of winning because of how we played; we don't assert anything and are left to hoping something good happens. When Angel/Rod/Will hit some shots we can "compete" for a while, but that offense is simply not sustainable.

[Farley Grudge]

The reaction to the hire by Illinois fans was eerily similar to those of La Tech fans when we hired Wooly. The results seem to be similar.

[kougar24]

In retrospect I'm pretty upset we didn't go ahead and lose to Delaware (then Pitt) and GW.

[kso_FAN]

5 out of the last 6 games we've shot 41.5% or worse.

That is the worst 6 game stretch of shooting for K-State basketball in the last 10 years. There really isn't another stretch that's even close; even the last year of Wooly when things went south, some of Frank's early season struggles, etc. I would imagine you'd have to go back to Asbury's final season to find a worse stretch of shooting.

This team is currently shooting only 42% on 2PT shots, and that's after playing 3 opponents rated higher than 200, 3 more rated 135-145, 1 D2 team, and 2 good ones.