The good:
- 3gorr is the best player we’ve seen since Jimmer. Court presence, vision, passing is terrific. The dunk to end the half was epic.
He just takes your stress level down when the ball is in his hands.
- Fouss is old reliable. Love that guy in the post and feel very confident in his ability to finish with his back to the rim.
- Fouss made some Khalifa-esque passes today to cutters in the post. This is definitely an improvement on his game vs last year.
- Baker started to settle in a bit more in the role of PG when Egor was out. He started to show some of the craftiness that we all want to see from him.
- Richie as a more assertive offensive threat is really fun to watch. He’s just way more dynamic on the O side of the ball vs last year and it’s awesome.
- KY is passionate: I watched from home but there were a couple times where KY showed a LOT of emotion on the sidelines. Kalani style reactions. 1) when Bosko made that tough layup in the 2nd UC called a TO and KY gave bosko a huge chest bump. 2) when Egor hit Keba on the dunk in the closing minutes, KY did a really big fist bump - he was psyched.
- Crawford’s on the ball defense is tough. Super pesky defender and brings a toughness to the opposing guard that we don’t really have outside of him right now.
- Keba a beast on the boards and can finish around the rim. The ESPN+ announcer made me laugh when he said “he dunks like he’s an angry man.”
- Kanon is so good / long that he creates real matchup problems for the opposing team. I like it when he takes guys on the baseline with his back to the hoop - that 15 footer fade is deadly for him.
- Some great defensive hustle plays: most notably the kanon pinned block on the backboard and the Richie strip from behind, saving an easy dunk.
The bad:
- Egor off the floor. He’s just so good that the flow just died when he was off. Crawford added insult to injury with consecutive turnovers (he settled in later and yes, he’s a true frosh). Will be good to have Dallin Hall back in late Nov. Crawford and Baker will likely shoulder the load in the meantime.
- kind of a follow-on to the above but our offensive rhythm / flow was really rusty / stagnant at times. This will obviously get better with time but the chemistry outside of a couple tandems (Egor to Keba, etc) is a WIP.
- free throw shooting. 14-26 though it kinda felt worse. not gonna cut it in close big 12 games.
- Many on the team were sloppy with the ball / turnovers at various parts of the game. Need to close things out more confidently. Be smarter / more in control.
- Knell just wasn’t hitting open shots tonight. Some games you feel it some you don’t. I’m not worried but we need him to hit open shots when he gets those looks.
- Some tough shot selection from the team at times. Catchings / Bosko are both studs but had some notable forced shots tonight. May have been some others but those come to mind.
- just some really bad defensive break downs in the second half that led to wide open 3’s. Gonna need to sort that out before conf play.
- We struggled against their quick guard play. A bit of a concern of mine as we get into Big 12 play.