Kansas Can, SU Couldn't Postgame Thread

[dollarbill44]

It’s time. We just gotta play out the string. I knew where we were going with Shafer. The same with Dino. And it’ll be the same for Red.

Either you are truly a soothsayer, or maybe you just think every coaching hire is going to be bad.

 

[Col. Bleep]

Yes...JJ, Kiyan and Betsey were a combined 9 of 38.
Bad shooting and some bad shots.

But the real issue was REBOUNDING.
49-29.

True, some of that margin was Kansas rebounding bad shots.
But with that disparity the Orange could prevail in turnovers 15-2...and it meant very little.
Typically that margin would mean the ballgame.

And free throws will haunt this team all season.
It's embarrassing...and should be.
And Kyle will have to come out down the stretch of some close games.

 

[RedtheGOB]

The problem is that we hear this at this time every season. I remember last year everyone thought we were going to do something because we hung around at Tennessee for 3/4 of the game without Starling, and hung around with Texas and Texas Tech.

You’re not wrong. We’re quickly approaching burn it down mode.

Trying to keep perspective with just the way these 2 games played out but it’s hard. In the back of mind I’m saying all the what ifs.

The whole team is just struggling to get ready to go every game except for basically Kyle who is being left on an island at this point to carry too much water for the rest of the team. Just felt that outside of him the whole team hit the easy button on offense and just wanted to be a star and failed miserably.

I just can’t explain the defense playing so well and then the mess on the other end. They seem to still be able to be in sync and consistently win their matchups on D. Then when it comes to half court offense its a mess.

I feel like we’re trending to be a team that is either just blowing teams out or just losing close ones. Oddly enough I don’t see us getting blown out ourselves which is a huge step up from prior years but there’s also no reward for that.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Regarding free throw shooting. We recruited poor free throw shooters. I just looked at a few transfers and noted their previous season’s free throw percentage at their previous school.

————— Betsey Kyle Kingz
2024-2025. .538 .395 .818
2025-2026. .600 .417 .333

So Betsey and Kyle have shown slight improvements over their horrid shooting last season elsewhere. Kingz though is suddenly seeing to have issues he never had. He was a very good free throw shooter and his shooting has regressed for some reason.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

Fair, but with the portal you can turn over a team easily in a year. We were told this was the roster to do it, and now it appears FTs are going to be kryptonite all year. Can’t close out games if you can’t hit them

We did turnover 90%+ of the roster. Team is clearly better than last year (low bar) and more competitive than most SU teams of the past decade.

It’s also the 3rd week of a very long season. This team will get better.

Right now Auburn is getting blown off the court by Michigan. I can only imagine how bad this board would lose their minds if we gave up 57 in the first half and were down by 28.

 

[Jasoncuse]

This team plays hard and is pretty decent defensively but pretty much sucks everywhere else. Can’t rebound, obviously can’t shoot and there’s really a lack of quickness on the perimeter making it hard to drive and create. Just a brutal offensive team in this day and age.

At least it should lead to a coaching turnover so we can hope for it to get better.

 

[Cuse1055]

We did turnover 90%+ of the roster. Team is clearly better than last year (low bar) and more competitive than most SU teams of the past decade.

It’s also the 3rd week of a very long season. This team will get better.

Right now Auburn is getting blown off the court by Michigan. I can only imagine how bad this board would lose their minds if we gave up 57 in the first half and were down by 28.

Side note: Michigan is a good example of a program who made a great outside hire. Their NIL money also doesn’t hurt lol.

 

[sdhall01]

Let's draw Rutgers and just beat the dog dooky out of them

We didn’t beat the dog dookie out of Monmouth

 

[orange44]

This game gave me a headache!
This could be the worst shooting team in the last 50 years. Can't make anything from the perimeter ... or the free throw line. Free throw shooting is part of the game and it has to be considered in recruiting. Can't have a whole team of brick layers. We're going to lose a lot of games this year because of the free throws.
I give Red kudos for the way this team plays defense. Great. But the offensive end? Massive headache.

I agree. I think the free throw problem is going to translate into 8-10 more losses minimum!

 

[CuseBlood44]

We did turnover 90%+ of the roster. Team is clearly better than last year (low bar) and more competitive than most SU teams of the past decade.

It’s also the 3rd week of a very long season. This team will get better.

Right now Auburn is getting blown off the court by Michigan. I can only imagine how bad this board would lose their minds if we gave up 57 in the first half and were down by 28.

Auburn beat Oregon already and is coming off a run of elite success. They’re also under a new coach this season, and they have the luxury of playing in the best conference which gives them strong SOS and a plethora of Q1 opportunities

 

[RedtheGOB]

We did turnover 90%+ of the roster. Team is clearly better than last year (low bar) and more competitive than most SU teams of the past decade.

It’s also the 3rd week of a very long season. This team will get better.

Right now Auburn is getting blown off the court by Michigan. I can only imagine how bad this board would lose their minds if we gave up 57 in the first half and were down by 28.

Yea this is what gives me pause too with the doom and gloom. As nitemarish as we played offensively. It’s single digits all game and then 2 points late and we know what was last night.

 

[RedtheGOB]

This team plays hard and is pretty decent defensively but pretty much sucks everywhere else. Can’t rebound, obviously can’t shoot and there’s really a lack of quickness on the perimeter making it hard to drive and create. Just a brutal offensive team in this day and age.

At least it should lead to a coaching turnover so we can hope for it to get better.

This is what I can’t figure though. “A lack of quickness on the perimeter” but yet we’re fine defensively. Like how can the two ends of the court be so far apart? The athleticism is there on defense yet offense it’s like well what do we now, lost.

On paper from everything we know from last year is that except for Kyle and Sadiq this team should be BETTER offensively than defensively. Yet so far it’s the opposite. I just don’t get it.

 

[sdhall01]

Certainly a different vibe from last night.

Still, this looks like Red’s best team and I think it will be.

Good chance they make the Dance.

To be fair “Red’s best team” is a loooooooowwwwwwwwwww bar.

 

[AZOrange]

Donnie is pretty banged up FWIW

 

[Hawknate144]

I wish we could play Auburn, Steven Pearl might be even worse than Red, certainly less qualified

 

[jdubs30]

When the 2nd half started, the sideline reporter said asked Red if shooting was the problem and he said the shooting isn’t the issue, it’s not playing with “level 5 energy”.

There still has never been an offensive system under Red - it’s all ISO and 3s and the high PnR.

It’s clear they spent a lot of energy and effort on the defense and I give Red credit for that. I also think the personnel is good enough talent wise to be above average offensively. But there’s plan or movement on offense - and we finally have a real PG.

 

[phil77]

Donnie is pretty banged up FWIW

He was running the same way he was last year so I imagine it isn't great

 

[tptcuse]

Donnie is pretty banged up FWIW

Good lord. That's disheartening.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

Donnie is pretty banged up FWIW

How do you get so banged up after 4 games vs soft competition? Is he just fragile?

 

[syrBossHogg]

This is the best SU defensive team since maybe 2012/13.

This team also makes that team look like the prime Golden State Warriors shooting wise

 

[wiCuse]

Seeing this team without Freeman unearthed an absolute offensive travesty. If he is out for the season or a prolonged time, we are doomed.

Shouldn't be surprised. We have a head coach trying to learn on the job, very similar to the football coaching situation. Hard to win without a track record of winning. Recruiting doesn't equate to coaching. Just seems like Red runs around the sideline substituting people nonstop without an actual strategy or game plan. It's not good .

Tough being a Cuse fan these days

This is a great point. With 5min left, we were down by 2pts and had Kyle on the bench for some reason. We had a very disjointed possession with 3 Timeouts left. You can chalk this up to either inexperience or poor coaching. It's very frustrating to watch Kansas go on a run to close out the game. You can knock Kyle's free throw shooting, but we need his defense and rebounding.

Freeman would help with rebounding and spacing. We really drop off when Kyle isn't in the game. There was no flow on offense today against a much softer defense. Very frustrating game...

 

[Blanko97]

Donnie is pretty banged up FWIW

Well that’s pretty sad. We played cupcakes….

 

[hungrychuck]

To be fair “Red’s best team” is a loooooooowwwwwwwwwww bar.

That’s true.

But this team has enough talent to take a big step.

 

[Sherman20]

Past 2 games:

Kingz 7-19, 2-12
George 5-17, 2-9
Starling 8-21, 3-9

20-57 (35%), 7-30 (23%)

That's basically why we're 0 for 2. We needed these guys to step up, certainly more so given Freeman's absence, and they have all been bad.
We can have all the scheme and coaching discussions, and I'm not saying that's not a problem. But players also gotta play, and many of ours are not.

Yeah. Watching Michigan, it still feels like we have a talent differential from the top teams. We don’t have that superstar go-to guy like Landeborg and we don’t have a top flight center like Mara. Maybe JJ or Donnie will emerge as our star. If Kingz starts hitting 3-point shots, look out. Because he does so many other things, and that will open up more driving lanes for him. Hopefully George will also continue to adjust to a new team and players. This may be a year of improving the talent to closer to where we need to be. But we still have a ways to go. That said, it’s tourney or bust this season.

 

[Sherman20]

This is a great point. With 5min left, we were down by 2pts and had Kyle on the bench for some reason. We had a very disjointed possession with 3 Timeouts left. You can chalk this up to either inexperience or poor coaching. It's very frustrating to watch Kansas go on a run to close out the game. You can knock Kyle's free throw shooting, but we need his defense and rebounding.

Freeman would help with rebounding and spacing. We really drop off when Kyle isn't in the game. There was no flow on offense today against a much softer defense. Very frustrating game...

Kansas has a top 10 defense, per KenPom. They’re not soft.