Games of interest

[ShockerPrez]

Iowa State has had a loooooot of chances and did precisely squat.

Surprised. I had heard good things about them, but watching them play, they dont seem to be very well oorganizedor fundamentally sound.

Credit KU, though. Kind of our issue with always playing teams when they have a bad game last year.

[Rosewood]

That was my first time watching a full KU game this season. Holy crap do they have a lot of raw talent but HOLY CRAP do they do a lot of stupid stuff. If Iowa St. had shot their average from 3 it would have been a KU loss. It wasn't like KU was great defending the 3 shot either. Iowa St. just was cold shooting from 3. (I've seen that enough times -- trust me, I know it when I see it!)

[Play Angry]

I'll let someone else post the games of interest for tomorrow, but I'm excited for that Wisconsin @ Indiana matchup. Might be our best chance all week for one of the four in front of us to go down.

[Dave Stalwart]

I'll let someone else post the games of interest for tomorrow, but I'm excited for that Wisconsin @ Indiana matchup. Might be our best chance all week for one of the four in front of us to go down.

Challenge accepted.

Yes #3 Wisconsin will play at Indiana (11-5) tomorrow night. Wisky will lose. Not because Indiana should win that game, but because this is the year of the Shockers!
Georgia (8-6) will play at #7 Florida, and will hopefully do their best to get Florida off our heels
K-State will get hosed by OU at home tomorrow. You know what...I take that back. I want K-State to win just because this state needs to be the basketball epicenter
DePaul (9-8) hosts St. John's (9-6). If the Catholic school that somehow managed to name themselves the Demons can win that game, they might crack the top 100 for us.

Here's a game of interest:
#5 WSU hosts Bradley baby. Let's play two awesome halves against the Gargles.

UNI (9-7) goes to SIU (5-12) so they can win and lower their nice rpi and allow SIU to lose and improve their rpi...

Butler (10-6) goes to #20 Creighton to knock them off their lame, no-defense playing, hot shooting relying, Gibbless, white, non-athletic high horse
and I'll throw in VCU (13-3) goes to George Washington (13-3) because what the heck.

[CBB_Fan]

KU probably has the probably the #1 and #2 picks in the next year's draft, but Van Vleet as a sophomore has more leadership and maturity than all of KU's upperclassmen combined. If KU had either Baker or Van Vleet they'd be by far the best team in the country. But they don't, and we do. KU will need to rely almost completely on freshmen if they want to get to a Final Four, and that is going to make that road very difficult for them unless Ellis, Tharpe, and Black turn into leaders at some point in the season (Tharpe's performance today notwithstanding). think they have a huge mental advantage of the Big 12 though. Some of that is Self, but I think a lot of teams just psyche themselves out (KState, looking at you).

Anyway, that game is mostly meaningless to us. KU isn't going to catch us in the rankings anytime soon, so it is nice that they helped us out by knocking Iowa State back a little. Hoping Indiana can knock off Wisconsin, since BC failed to finish the upset against Syracuse.

[wsushox1]

Feel free to hate this post but.....

I don't think there is a worse match-up in the country for WSU than KU. Possibly Wisconsin with Kaminsky being a match up problem. That doesn't mean you can't overcome those match up problems. Florida did, and I think there is a fair amount of similarity in the way Florida and WSU play.
Same with Colorado. SDSU got the job done, but they start 6-10 6-8 6-7 6-8 6-5 with great length.

7-footers man....wish EO or Bush were here.

I've seen embiid play 7-8 times in person this year and he's by far the most talented player I've ever seen in person - and I saw Doug's 41 in Omaha and Cle's 39 last year. Not the most skilled player yet.

[CBB_Fan]

Feel free to hate this post but.....

I don't think there is a worse match-up in the country for WSU than KU. Possibly Wisconsin with Kaminsky being a match up problem. That doesn't mean you can't overcome those match up problems. Florida did, and I think there is a fair amount of similarity in the way Florida and WSU play.
Same with Colorado. SDSU got the job done, but they start 6-10 6-8 6-7 6-8 6-5 with great length.

7-footers man....wish EO or Bush were here.

I've seen embiid play 7-8 times in person this year and he's by far the most talented player I've ever seen in person - and I saw Doug's 41 in Omaha and Cle's 39 last year. Not the most skilled player yet.

On the other hand, Wichita State's lack of a go-to center means we have 15 fouls to give; we can be a lot more aggressive. KU's weaknesses are that their centers are incredibly foul prone and their PG play is weak, and we could probably make Embiid sit out for long portions of the game and dominate theirs guard. KU is best at scoring off of steals, and very few teams control the ball like we do.

Marshall has also played a lot more zone this year, which has been fairly successful against KU so far. I think we have the tools to be successful against them.

[wsushox1]

On the other hand, Wichita State's lack of a go-to center means we have 15 fouls to give; we can be a lot more aggressive. KU's weaknesses are that their centers are incredibly foul prone and their PG play is weak, and we could probably make Embiid sit out for long portions of the game and dominate theirs guard. KU is best at scoring off of steals, and very few teams control the ball like we do.

Marshall has also played a lot more zone this year, which has been fairly successful against KU so far. I think we have the tools to be successful against them.

I totally agree with every point you just made. You have to get KU's bigs in foul trouble. As well as Tharpe. The point guard issues at KU are not as big as they once were. Tharpe has been playing great for Kansas, but I think he is very foul prone. Get tharpe in foul trouble and KU's offense comes to a screeching halt. Mason is a decent back-up, but he's not a pass first PG. Fred could get Tharpe in foul trouble fairly easily. Despite all of KU's athleticism I think they get beat off the dribble pretty easily. Above all else, we would just have to make shots and rebound and capitalize off of KU's turnovers. I'd also switch defenses frequently. I think coach would seriously consider going Big-Big-Early-Ron/Tekele-Fred for stretches as well.

I'm done talking about Hypotheticals, even though I love to try to break down teams strengths/weaknesses and how best to exploit them.

[ShockerPrez]

I was thinking that FVV and Baker would have a dig field day on Embiid. Embiid is great, but I was thinking the way we dig on big men would drive the big guy crazy.

Ellis and Early would be epic to watch.

I think FVV and Tharpe would be good too.

[WuShock16]

"Tekele, you've got Andrew Wiggins...(extended pause)...it should be an interesting night for him."

[shock-it-to-me]

I wonder, is this an unusual year for so many undefeated teams to be left at this point in the season?

[WuShock16]

I see that in last year's January 7 poll, there appeared to be 3 unbeaten teams left and all had lost that week. Two years ago, there were 3 unbeatens in the January 16 poll and then two of them lost, Murray State going on a couple more weeks. So, this year isn't totally weird yet. If we get to February with all four unbeatens still intact, then things get interesting.

[im4wsu]

I totally agree with every point you just made. You have to get KU's bigs in foul trouble. As well as Tharpe. The point guard issues at KU are not as big as they once were. Tharpe has been playing great for Kansas, but I think he is very foul prone. Get tharpe in foul trouble and KU's offense comes to a screeching halt. Mason is a decent back-up, but he's not a pass first PG. Fred could get Tharpe in foul trouble fairly easily. Despite all of KU's athleticism I think they get beat off the dribble pretty easily. Above all else, we would just have to make shots and rebound and capitalize off of KU's turnovers. I'd also switch defenses frequently. I think coach would seriously consider going Big-Big-Early-Ron/Tekele-Fred for stretches as well.

I'm done talking about Hypotheticals, even though I love to try to break down teams strengths/weaknesses and how best to exploit them.

I don't disagree with anything either CBB or whushock1 said. The key, critical and most important factor is to stop KU from its high-flying dunks. Make them play half-court and they become a more normal team. That has been the secret of the killer-B's and UNI and others from conferences that actually play team defense. Don't turn the ball over and get back and defend.

[Play Angry]

Halftime- DePaul 38, St John's 38

Halftime- Wisconsin 35, IU 34

[bunck]

61-57 Indiana under 6 left.