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Originally Posted by Buehler445
It's a tough row to hoe since the team is so goddamned thin, especially down low.
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It is. Self basically only has five players total he can actually trust this year and they play almost the entirety of every game. Hard to expect much intensity defensively when you don't have any subs. Of course, that's another reason to implement a zone more (as he did in the UK game).
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I think KU can get a few minutes of rotation with Lightfoot and Lucas in there together where you can allow Lightfoot to be a pain in the ass in the full court like they did with Kevin Young. I don't know if Lightfoot is that heady of a player, but he seems to be able to make those opponent-frustrating hustle plays that Young used to pull in the half court. Maybe it is just 5 minutes of token pressure with one trap, but if you can get a possession out of it and not give up any transition points, it can turn out to be a big deal. And unfortunately, that's why Lightfoot and Lucas have to be in there together, someone has to be able to adequately defend the post in transition if the press is broken.
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Don't know whether Lightfoot can handle rotation minutes at this level right now, but you might as well give it a shot. They've got literally nobody else and Lucas will get in foul trouble more often than not on the road.
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Self is obviously schematically better than I am, but I wouldn't mind seeing some of those things come out in some games in case we need them in the tournament. I normally sit right with you and beat the effort drum, but as thin as this team is, it may not be in the cards. You'd like to see the effort early, and against crappy teams, run up a big lead, and sit the vital guys for 10 minutes a game, but it never seems to happen.
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Problem is there are no crappy teams in the B12. Nearly every game this team will play until the end of the season projects to be within 10 points or so, even the home ones (which is very rare)
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RE: winning it all. This might be a different year for us. It is often discussed in here that it takes good guard play in March to win in April, and Self relies too much on post production to win. Well, we can put that to the test. Obviously, guards can still lay eggs *cough*COLLINS*cough*, but this team is set up more to win like the teams that drive the guard conversation. Vick's shot has fallen off, but pretty much you have to defend this team for 50 feet. Plus we are getting production from several different guys. You'd like to see a little more from Svi and Vick, but you've got 3 starters that can get in the lane consistently, Mason is our guy that gets a bucket when you have to have one. I'm not sure you can lean on Lucas if the shots aren't falling, but this team is the anti-Self team that guys in here complain about needing guard play to win.
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It's certainly unlike any Self team I've ever seen. Still think they are much too easy to score on, though, and it's hard to see that changing all that much without a real rim protector and without any bench at all.