Transcript
@NoConfForOldMen: Welcome folks to episode number 74 of the No Conference for Old Men podcast, podcast where three old guys are talking Houston Cougars basketball with just a little bit of 12 coverage added in as well. And proud members of the GoCougars.com network, the undisputed number one Houston Cougars content provider. And we're back yet again with all three old men.
@NoConfForOldMen: Bill Walker, a former player, Tom Lidiak, former coach, and myself, Steve Chang, analytics guy for this episode. And folks, after two consecutive losses for the Cougs at ISU 70-67 and then at home to Arizona 73-67, it's basically gut check time with a quick turnaround trip to KU for Big Monday.
Tom Lidiak: Thank you.
@NoConfForOldMen: The team is now in 12 play and alone in second place in the Big standings. This last of a brutal three game stretch in Lawrence may yet determine whether we can actually hold on to a number two seed come March Madness. So we'll provide some thoughts on what we felt happened in the losses to ICU in Arizona, then provide a detailed preview of what needs to improve to right the ship versus Kansas and then finish up with a preview of the Colorado sorry colorado game is where as well.
@NoConfForOldMen: God, I can't speak. where You know, there's there's actually some interest there since, from my perspective, they have a player we're going to highlight in case we go portal shopping this offseason for a point guard. So let's get started. Tom, why don't you kick things off so I don't ruin the podcast here with, you know, some of your key points on the seventy three to sixty seven loss to isue hilton
Tom Lidiak: First off, uh, fans take losses harder than the coaches and players. You know, the coaches and players are the ones that put the blood, sweat and tears into it all. They have, they have control over, you know, whether the game's are won or lost.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: So, probably a good idea for, for everybody out there to, uh, before you post on social media, maybe, maybe, you know, do a 48 hour, uh, uh, check before you post something because you have more clarity that way.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: you know, when you're emotional, you know People aren't thinking things through and and and being rational about it. But ISU, 14,000 fans. Great environment.
Tom Lidiak: the whole you know I thought we were the better team. I won't say that about Arizona, but I thought in the ISU game we were we were we were the better team.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yep.
@NoConfForOldMen: know.
Tom Lidiak: We had a 10-point lead, and then Emmanuel gets in foul trouble.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: Ryan Monso was at the game and he said, you know, when we got that 10 point lead, you could you could hear a pin drop.
@NoConfForOldMen: Wow.
Tom Lidiak: Matter of fact, my sister-in-law and her husband and her son, her son went to ISU. He's a grad. They were at the game. I had a chance to go, but I had a chance to go that game, but we hit we had a playoff game scheduled and we ended up getting a bye.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: So we didn't play that night. And then, And then, and then by then it was too late. He had already given, he already given the ticket to his wife.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: Uh, so it was going to be, uh, it was going to be me my brother-in-law and his son going, but they they said, interesting comment.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: They said, uh, when we got that 10 point lead, the guy sitting next to him said, I've seen enough of this shit. he anyway And he, and he left.
@NoConfForOldMen: Are you serious? oh my God.
Tom Lidiak: Yeah. So he, so, so i don't I don't know if they let him back in after he left.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
@NoConfForOldMen: well
Tom Lidiak: Uh, uh, But the whole whole thing, 10-point lead, you know, and then we lost it with Emmanuel on the bench. And and and that's – you could copy and paste. It is keys to every game.
Tom Lidiak: E-man, JoJo, stay out of foul trouble.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. I
Tom Lidiak: You could put that copy and paste and put that at the very top.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: you know you can People can blame losses on 100 different things. One is that you can't give up five off offensive rebounds on a missed free throw.
Tom Lidiak: You can't do it. And then the key one was the one where Lipsy came in you know The guy's like the guys's like a midget.
@NoConfForOldMen: no
Tom Lidiak: And you know i think they were up by three at the time. So if we get the rebound, you know we still have a chance to go down and possibly possibly tie it. Another key is...
Tom Lidiak: their role players hit shots, uh, uh, bait may came off the bench and he kind of killed them there for a few series there. Well, I think when we built that 10 point lead, he had some, some misses, uh, early in the shot clock and,
Tom Lidiak: We were able to take advantage of that, but he did hit a couple of big, big shots down the stretch. Heise hit one, the corner that was highly contested. And if anybody watched the BYU game Saturday night, Heise clanked like three wide open shots.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
@NoConfForOldMen: I mean, he hadn't been shooting all that great until our game. So it's crazy.
Tom Lidiak: And yeah, anyway, uh,
.0Bill Walker: there's There is a reason for that.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. ha
Tom Lidiak: And yeah so you look at Bateman's shots that he made, you look at the Heise shot he made, and then our role players, Isaiah had two wide open threes.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: I mean, they weren't even, know, a lot of times you can say, yeah, they were a little bit contested because the guy was flying at him, but it's too late. There was nobody even, there was nobody within probably 10, 15 feet of those two in that left corner that, that he missed, uh,
Tom Lidiak: Ramon had had a missed three-pointer that was a little bit contested, but basically it was open shot. But getting back to Isaiah, you got to make one of those So...
Tom Lidiak: so You know, that's that's the way it is. life Life on the road. People talk about Hilton magic. Well, you know, the magic there was maybe the kickball they didn't call.
@NoConfForOldMen: yeah yeah exactly
Tom Lidiak: That was a key. That could have been a five-point or six-point turnaround. Milo Smith's the front end of a one-and-one.
@NoConfForOldMen: again right yeah
Tom Lidiak: You know, ramon takes Ramon takes an obvious charge. That's that's not called. C-NAC gets scraped scraped across the eye. You know, Heise earlier in the game got swiped in the eye, and they even went to the review to see if it was a flagrant one.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: Chris makes that layup and gets swiped by Heise and loses a contact, and there's no there's no review. You know, so, you know, no Hilton magic there.
Tom Lidiak: game.
Tom Lidiak: just, we, we had, we had them by the balls and we, we, we just didn't finish the job.
Tom Lidiak: You know, uh, we got to get more, we got to get more from what we're getting from the bench.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah,
Tom Lidiak: I don't know if that's, if we're ever going to get it this season or not. Uh,
@NoConfForOldMen: that's a good question. think it.
Tom Lidiak: So i' i'll let I'll let Bill talk about his his take on it.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: But I've got to live with people up here. I live in a rural area of Northwest Iowa. So we have a lot of lot of farmers who are a lot of ISU grads. And i got as soon as the game's over, I got three text messages from them.
Tom Lidiak: I didn't even respond. you know It's like, you know what am I supposed to say? you? know f you
Tom Lidiak: you Anyway, go ahead, go ahead Bill.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead, Phil. What's your players take?
.0Bill Walker: Interesting week. Steve actually, and it kind of plays into what Tom was just talking about. I was going to ask for your indulgence and just summarize both games at once and so that I could address some of the sheer lunacy that i that I've heard and read all week, and especially after
@NoConfForOldMen: hey
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: yesterday not from all ronnie and rob but from virtually everyone else and some of the some of the the the terms are just so inane that they're laughable uh god iowa state is a game in which as you mentioned we are up 10 in the second half and we lost
.0Bill Walker: best comment, and that's I'll focus on that. The best comment was that Calvin should have put Sharp back in the game and not let him sit for 15 minutes with with four fouls.
.0Bill Walker: When I questioned the poor coaching by Calvin... it it was It was then amended to he should have been put back in with seven minutes.
.0Bill Walker: He'd hit a couple threes and we win. Yeah, Yeah, Sharp did get put back in with four minutes left, but apparently missing those three minutes absolutely killed our, and the term was flow, or his flow, and and that's why we lost.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: yeah not a word about are not rebounding ISU's five missed free throws. And as you mentioned, Tom, three of which, the last one, of course, but three of which were were by their six-foot point guard, Lipsy.
.0Bill Walker: Nothing about five second-half turnovers versus forcing only three from them for the entire game.
.0Bill Walker: Nothing about Heise, and I commented a second ago on that, but, oh, and by the way, Mercy, that that was a hell of a dunk.
.0Bill Walker: But losing losing sight of Heise, completely losing sight of Heise in the first half and allowing him to hit two open threes early and and get the you know not only a rhythm going, but his confidence up so that he could hit that dagger, that contested dagger late.
.0Bill Walker: And, you know, there's that. Oh, boy. Milos at the line a third time, second this year, one and one late that he missed.
.0Bill Walker: And that preceded Heise's shot, which which killed us. Also, Yuzan, for some reason, he was, he he would get the opponent on his hip, he would take a dribble or two toward the basket, and then he'd retreat.
@NoConfForOldMen: And come back out. Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: He'd absolutely retreat, and he dribbled himself into double teams several times, and you know, I'm
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: I'm sitting there. I'm just bewildered. I'm like why not get the ball to the hoop? You're a good passer. When they bring, obviously likely a big man over to help, you can, you can either go up and draw contact or you can dump it off to, to, you know, well, who knows if it's Tuggler cause he's only playing less than half of every game, but,
Tom Lidiak: Bye.
@NoConfForOldMen: thank
.0Bill Walker: Oh, geez. And then finally, Harwell. And Tom, you mentioned him. yeah you know I'm not sure if it's the knee, the other other yeah the utter lack of confidence or both.
.0Bill Walker: but But this doesn't bode well for for both our bench, others included, but or our team moving forward.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: You know, there were, as you alluded to, Tom, some really poor calls in this game. Unfortunately, that's Big 12 officiating, especially on the road.
.0Bill Walker: And, you know, based on other games I've watched, it's it it's not specific to us. and It's commonplace. You bottom line, we're up by 10 in the second half. and And due to some of the the player problems, not time management by Kelvin, we gave away this game that we should have won against a really good team in an extraordinarily tough place to play.
Tom Lidiak: Hey guys, before, but see, before you get into your, uh, your stuff, we had several of the assistant coaches, at least two. i think it might've been Hollis and, uh, Anthony Goldwire.
Tom Lidiak: This in the summer, remember, or fall, right? Fall when we interviewed them on the podcast, they said, shooting would be a problem.
@NoConfForOldMen: shooting yeah they did yep yeah
Tom Lidiak: They, you know, uh, both those guys did and they they were seeing it, you know, in the summer and they were seeing it in the fall. They, you know, they're there with those guys every day, you know, and and so.
@NoConfForOldMen: yeah
.0Bill Walker: It is a problem, but it's but it was a problem last year, and it and it's been a problem most of the past few years. But there are three things that we've we've always done, and I'm going to get into that in the Arizona game, that that the have allowed us to overcome that.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: Rebounding, defense,
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. defense Yeah. mean, this
.0Bill Walker: And protecting the ball, winning the turnover battle. And we do not do that right now.
@NoConfForOldMen: was,
.0Bill Walker: And and like I said, I'll i'll get into that.
@NoConfForOldMen: yeah i mean this is
.0Bill Walker: But all that has overcome shooting in the past, and and it's not right now.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, no, I mean, it's a different team. it It is, it does feel a bit odd, quite honestly. I mean, this was a tough back and forth game for the Cougs. We fought hard, kind clawed to keep things somewhat much close in the first half, made a great push after halftime to pull ahead, where, quite honestly, guys, it almost felt like we could blow this game wide open at that point.
@NoConfForOldMen: Then, you know, that so-called Hilton magic reared its ugly head, you know, that phantom kickball call on Jojo, you know, and Tom, as you highlighted, that could have been, right? That could have possibly been probably a five-point turnaround, but six, it could have been six, right?
Tom Lidiak: Because because they hit it they hit a three.
.0Bill Walker: It was.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, they hit a three. But my guess is we had a clear path. It would have been a layup, right? More likely than than a three-point shot. But that was a killer, you It really completely turned the tide at that point. From an advanced analytics perspective, both teams basically hit their norms from a shooting perspective. And these are two really tough defensive teams. And so that that says a lot about how how things were going for both teams. Offensively, Kingston carried the load with Emmanuel supporting when he was on the team.
@NoConfForOldMen: On the floor, we actually performed quite well on that side of the ball, given and the team we were playing in the hostile environment. Only thing on offense that we didn't do particularly well, as you guys had highlighted, was offensive rebound.
@NoConfForOldMen: But even on that front, we were still you know able to deliver more than ISU did on the offensive rebounding side. But it was... Definitely on D where we just weren't able to bother ISU shooting. Overall, they shot the ball to their norms. They were elite you know shooting coming into the game. They hit a remarkable 41% of their threes.
@NoConfForOldMen: The guy that had been shooting all that great just killed us you know with high C going three for three. Statistically, though, the glaring issue we had on defense was not being able to force turnovers, right?
@NoConfForOldMen: And that's been our our strong suit all year
.0Bill Walker: Yep.
@NoConfForOldMen: and And this was actually an ISU team that wasn't the best at at being careful with a ball. And so it was a little bit shocking. But for our game, they were able to keep things under control, only turning the ball over on a stellar 5.3% of their possessions. I mean, that's like...
@NoConfForOldMen: That's like us, right? In terms of how careful we typically are with with the ball. For our team, Flemington Sharp were the only key contributors, you know, from a statistical perspective. Both were over player box score plus minus plus 12 for the game. The issue has been the case this entire season, and you guys both highlighted, our bench was unable to consistently contribute with only Socko as a positive contributor. And Heisey, guys...
@NoConfForOldMen: Now let's get to the, at least for me, it was a bit more heartbreaking was the 73 to 66 loss to Arizona who's playing without Pete. And then we found out afterwards Buries was also under the weather.
Tom Lidiak: And Aristote didn't play either.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, that's right. He didn't play either.
Tom Lidiak: Even though he hasn't been like a major contributor, but he's another bench piece.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, he gets minutes though, right? So, and Bill, why don't you kick things off with your players view on the Arizona loss at home?
.0Bill Walker: Yeah, Burry's was so under the weather. Why did he why did he play 31 minutes? Yeah, I just saw today watching the Olympics that that one of the top cross-country skiers in the world had flu-like symptoms and and didn't participate at all in the Olympics.
@NoConfForOldMen: Really? Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: but bur But Burry's burry played minutes, so yeah lloyd Lloyd mentioned that he was ill, but 31 minutes.
.0Bill Walker: Anyway, Arizona, the the comments get even more ridiculous. We played like shit. Arizona's elite and we're not.
.0Bill Walker: We can't even beat an undermanned team at home. And best of all, the vibe... was that we we were not ever going to win this game and we were outclassed.
.0Bill Walker: Oh, and this, despite the the the individual said that every single call, not not most, but every single call mysteriously went against us.
.0Bill Walker: Okay. First of all, uh, we were We were way, way outplayed to start the game,
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: which which caused the entire first-half deficit. this this was not This was clearly not due to playing horribly. This was due to being completely overhyped for the game.
.0Bill Walker: Tugler gets that that opening rebound and and throws it. I mean, Manute Bolan still couldn't have caught that that pass.
Tom Lidiak: Thank you.
.0Bill Walker: Just launches it into the crowd. Every single shot that we took for the first five and a half minutes was long. it wasn't They weren't short. like like we We didn't have legs. They were long because we were hyped, and you know that's what happened.
.0Bill Walker: you We got down. We again, in the first half, lost the turnover battle, but we were only down five at half.
.0Bill Walker: Yet, we're outclassed. Second half, the D clamps down.
.0Bill Walker: We start hitting a few more shots, and we take the lead. We've got the lead late. Unfortunately, down the stretch, we stopped hitting shots.
.0Bill Walker: They hit 100% of their free throws. And, yeah know, we end up losing a close game. And this was with the referees.
.0Bill Walker: And by the way, why was that one guy who looked like he could be Calvin's great-grandfather on the court blow blowing so many whistles?
Tom Lidiak: Because he's tired.
.0Bill Walker: Jeez.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yes, that's exactly my point too.
.0Bill Walker: No, my point.
Tom Lidiak: He doesn't.
@NoConfForOldMen: When I texted you I didn't want to
Tom Lidiak: Oh, yeah.
.0Bill Walker: No, I'm not asking why he's he's making the calls. I'm asking him why he's on the court to begin with. you know And, and of course, that leads to 100% of the officials' calls mysteriously being called against us.
.0Bill Walker: Look, Asinine comments aside, we're not the team we were in past years, and and there are things that we have to come to over to to overcome issues versus good teams.
.0Bill Walker: First, with no inside presence offensively, which I've been talking about all year, we need to have to be either consistently better from the perimeter,
.0Bill Walker: and and hit hit a higher percentage of shots, or we need to score in other ways. How do we do that? Well, and we've all alluded to this, in the past, we have created easier points, transition points, off of turnovers.
.0Bill Walker: And We were the ones turning the ball over yesterday. And quite honestly, that's almost, that could almost be the reason that, that we lost the game.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: We, we made stupid passes, uh, lazy passes, and we did not create turnovers from them.
.0Bill Walker: In the last two games, a total of eight turnovers were were committed against us. Uh,
.0Bill Walker: You know, we, if we force some turnovers, which you would think a guard heavy perimeter heavy team would do, we get more transition points. We get more makeable shots.
.0Bill Walker: So being a perimeter team, winning the turnover battle going forward is a must. You know, next and we've also alluded to this.
.0Bill Walker: I hope to God that someone plays a little consistently off our bench because it ain't happening now. Uh, you Steve early on, you talked about how you loved our, our, our depth this year and we all agreed.
.0Bill Walker: Deep, unfortunately, versus productive is different. And what I mean by that is, who's been better? Harwell, Sacco, Mercy, McCarty, and Ramon, five players, or Malik and Javier?
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, no comparison. Yeah. Sacco and Poggio.
.0Bill Walker: They're deeper this year, but... Our bench was better and more productive last year. We're for the most part, a five man team this year. And I'm only saying five.
.0Bill Walker: well I'm saying five because I'm combining Sacco and Tuggler because, because Tuggler plays less than half of every game.
@NoConfForOldMen: soco and
.0Bill Walker: Uh, yeah Look, our margin for error this year is much smaller than in years past. yeah We've talked about having a higher ceiling this year, but I've also mentioned that we've got a lower floor.
.0Bill Walker: Look, we were in two close games. We could have won two close games, and and we didn't. and yeah Both teams were elite, and we've got another just tough battle coming up. and and Look, it's it's the way it is. We're a different team, and and you know that's that.
@NoConfForOldMen: Preston- yeah hey Tom about your your coaches too
Tom Lidiak: As far as those like comments Bill was talking about, I go back to a Scott Skiles quote. you know when Kelvin used to coach with Skiles. As matter of fact, that was Kelvin's first NBA job. and I remember Kelvin telling the story about right if he got hired, how he was riding with Skiles in the car. and It was just like the you know the the NBA was a you know a whole different world.
Tom Lidiak: But Skyl said a comment. Basketball is like church. Many attend, but few understand.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yep.
Tom Lidiak: Let's go back to that. We also got to realize that the teams we lost to, you know, they're not they're not chopped liver. I think they were both number one seeds, right, that that the NCAA revealed yesterday.
Tom Lidiak: Weren't they both Arizona? Was Arizona a number one?
.0Bill Walker: Yes.
Tom Lidiak: Yeah, so Arizona's the number one. Iowa State was the number one. They won't be anymore. But, you know, it's not like we're we lost to TCU or Cincinnati, you know,
Tom Lidiak: As fans, yeah, we want to win every game. you know That's the way fans fans kind of think. But now getting back to the game, you know Kelvin on his postgame after the Arizona loss said, he said if we're a jump shooting team.
Tom Lidiak: That was his that was his comments.
@NoConfForOldMen: Mm-hmm.
Tom Lidiak: And then, of course, you get people that will then criticize him for roster construction. It's like it's you know it's it's ludicrous. It's like this Kelvin is a Hall of Fame coach. He knows what he's doing.
Tom Lidiak: you know He's not not a guy that just you know got lost on the turnip truck. Having said that, you know if you boil down to offensive basketball, you know there's there's two main principles.
Tom Lidiak: And the first one is to get the ball going inside out. And the second one is to get the ball going side, top side. You know you want to move the defense. You want to get a defender going from help side to close out, back to help side, back to close out so you can attack the close out.
Tom Lidiak: Only two ways you can get the ball inside. Well, a couple different ways. You know you can throw it into a post player like we did with Jawan and Josh Carlton. You can get offensive rebound or you can drive.
Tom Lidiak: I think JoJo might have been the player that we thought would be kind of like our Jawan Roberts this year.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yep.
Tom Lidiak: And I don't know if it's because he didn't get any development this summer you know and in September. So he missed like four months of developmental development.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yep.
Tom Lidiak: time i i I don't know. But the bottom line is there's nobody on our roster that we can throw the ball into to either get a one-on-one and get a score or or to draw a double team.
Tom Lidiak: And the one double team we drew yesterday, JoJo threw it right to the Arizona player.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: I mean, it was he threw it right to... yeah know you're going get double teamed. They're going to deny the pass back out. They're going to have you know a guy on two guys on the helpline and they're going take away those passes.
.0Bill Walker: Thank you.
Tom Lidiak: So the guy that's open is the guy most far the way. But anyway, we don We don't have a post player like that. You can post up a guard, you know, like Villanova used to post up their guards all the time. Jalen Brunson, I can't remember the the the the the white guard they had. He was about six one six two You know, he would he would even post up.
Tom Lidiak: But we, you know look at our guards. I mean, we don't have guards that you can just throw the ball into and they can they can post up and demand a double team.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: So there's – you know, so we ended up being a jump shooting team. And that's who we are. You know, we are we are who we are, and that's good enough right now to have us be in be in second place.
Tom Lidiak: But the Arizona game just, i don't know, had – I don't know what the what what the deal was. you Sometimes you just have to give credit to the other team.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: This is Tommy Lloyd's toughest, most physical team he's had in his in his era. He mentioned something his press conference that he's lucky to be in the Big 12 and coach against Kelvin Sampson because coaching against Kelvin has made him a much better coach.
@NoConfForOldMen: Better.
Tom Lidiak: and i'm And I'm sure it's the toughness issue because we used to joke about Arizona being software than putup softer than than –
@NoConfForOldMen: Soft. Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: Dog shit on August afternoon. You know, they we made fun of them for for being soft. You can't say that anymore. They have a nice they have a nice. uh blend uh post presence you know you got a waka you got pete you got mo crevas and then you have guards uh you know they don't shoot many threes but they can make threes buries can make a three they'll also can make a three uh bradley jayden bradley people don't realize this jayden bradley as a freshman started for a final four team he was a starting point guard for alabama so they have a
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: they have a great squad that has, uh, that has, you know, the perfect pieces. I think they might even play better without Kola Pete. I don't know. They, uh,
Tom Lidiak: Karchinkov, that guy is a hell of a player. They had him, I think, at the four, and Sanak, Chris had trouble guarding him on the perimeter, just like he had trouble with Justin Jefferson. you know, I would say kind of isolated, you know, Chris on the on the perimeter, but the Karchinkov, he was a problem.
Tom Lidiak: Del Orso, but last year, he last year when he got on the court, I felt great because he, I mean, he, yeah, defensively, he was soft.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, exactly. we abused him.
Tom Lidiak: I thought offensively, I thought he had trouble getting a shot off. And, you know, if it was contested, he wasn't making it, but he's like a whole different, whole different player this year. i don't know if it's the cable blood factor where you get rid of him and it's addition by subtraction or what the deal was, but,
@NoConfForOldMen: Very
Tom Lidiak: They were tough defensively. you know, they rebound well, they seem to be connected. They, they seem to be a connected team. Uh, you know, so bottom line, we, we, Arizona was better than us yesterday on on that particular day. What's today, February 22nd. So on February 21st, Arizona was better than us. Now, if we get them in the big 12 tournament, maybe that's a different, different story, but you know, we'll have to, we'll have to get better. better. Um,
Tom Lidiak: yeah lot A lot to unpack there on on the game.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: I know of H fans are or are disappointed because Kelvin, has he's a victim of his own success. He's raised he's raised the bar so high that you know we happen to lose two games to two really, really good teams.
@NoConfForOldMen: No kidding.
Tom Lidiak: Who knows? Arizona might be the national champions. You don't you don't know.
@NoConfForOldMen: Could be.
Tom Lidiak: you know i think they beat Duke already, right? Yeah. did you I know Arizona had a tough, tough pre-conference. They had like five top 10 teams, I think, on their schedule.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: I could go on and on and on about this, but that's what I kind of see it right now. And just leave it to Kelvin, Hall of Fame coach, you know, to, you know, he he he knows he knows what we're struggling with.
Tom Lidiak: Bill mentioned the bench. Uh, I just, it's, it's, it's hard to say this point in the year, who's, who's going to step up. Uh, we are who we are.
Tom Lidiak: Uh, the players are who they are. Uh, uh, people say, you know, play mercy more, but then I, then I see mercy just getting blown off the dribble. Uh, his guy just took him right off the dribble and got the guy got to the rim and, uh, you know, I don't know.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. Exactly.
Tom Lidiak: Uh,
.0Bill Walker: Well, Calvin even said right now, Mercy and Isaiah are not complete players.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: Mercy clearly on the defensive end and and Isaiah on the offensive end.
Tom Lidiak: Oh,
@NoConfForOldMen: Offensive end, yeah.
Tom Lidiak: I was want mention that crucial situation. Arizona had a baseline, you know, underneath baseline play. And Isaiah was guarding Del Orso and he let Del Orso get loose for that three. And that was a huge three.
Tom Lidiak: And he got hit with a pick. And in that case, you get in his hip pocket and you make him curl that and he curls into your help.
@NoConfForOldMen: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Tom Lidiak: But if you don't get in his hip pocket, you're going to get nailed by the screen, and that's what and that's what happened. And you've got to make him curl that. You curl it, he curls right into Sacco, who was he you know the the last screener.
Tom Lidiak: But he got loose, and you know that's that's that's life when you play freshman, though.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: it
@NoConfForOldMen: No kidding.
Tom Lidiak: and It is what it what it is. You know, how many games have we won this year? We're, what, 23, 24 games? We could possibly win 30 again this year.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: And like I said, Kelvin has raised the bar so high that, you know, we're still second place in the Big 12, the best conference in America, and we're we're still – You know, we're still second place.
Tom Lidiak: So, you know, you as fans, were you know, we're we're disappointed, you know, but
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: you're we're going be all right.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, yeah we're we're more than all right. But like you said, the standard is so high, everyone's thinking, right, us included, right, national championship contention. And these were two top contenders, top defensive struggle, which would normally mean good things for us.
@NoConfForOldMen: But quite honestly, I thought Arizona kind of did what we normally do to other teams. And they were just a little bit more physical and hard edge than we were for the game. If you look at the advanced analytics, neither team shot to their norms. And with a lot of missed shots, both teams fought hard for offensive rebounds with, again, neither team able to hit their norms there either. But offensively, though, I thought we were passive you know a little bit in the first half, but figured some stuff out early in the second that got us the lead.
@NoConfForOldMen: But that cold final 12 minutes really killed us there. And from a player's perspective, I'm not going to highlight any of our kids since no one really stood out for the game.
@NoConfForOldMen: But as you guys had both mentioned, for Arizona, my God, just like the last game, another bench player showed out bright against us for the second game in a row with Del Orso ending with a player boss score plus minus plus 21.1. And our bench, as you guys also both highlighted, though, you know, Saco contributed some good deep, but was basically non-existent for us for another game.
@NoConfForOldMen: And you're exactly right, Bill. I've, you know, I've kind of lauded the depth that we had coming in. you know, to the year that we could conceivably play a lot more players.
@NoConfForOldMen: But the issue has been they actually have not developed to be contributors like we all anticipated, right? mean, every year we've had questions on the bench, but someone has or a couple of individuals have always stepped up and we have not seen that yet.
@NoConfForOldMen: And we're kind of running out time at this point. And so now we've got a trip to Lawrence where they should be revving to go after losing a shocker on Saturday at home to Cincinnati.
@NoConfForOldMen: Tom, why don't you get started with KU on big Monday? What's your coach's take what we need to do against KU to try to, know, basically, you know, do something here.
Tom Lidiak: Yeah, there there was a point i forgot to there was a point I forgot to mention in the Iowa State-Arizona game, and and Bill mentioned it too, is that in the past, we were very good at getting incidental buckets.
Tom Lidiak: You know, these are unscripted buckets.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yep.
Tom Lidiak: You know, like and how you get them? Well, you know, you get you get deflections and steals.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: You get defensive rebounds. And Kelvin mentioned this in his postgame, you know, is that, you know, you know to get out and run, you know, you got to, you got to get, you got to have those things. You got to make stops, get defensive rebounds and then, you know, and, and push the ball and, and try to get some easy buckets.
Tom Lidiak: That's not happening. So that's one thing I think in KU is we're going, you know, and Emmanuel, if if we're not getting turnovers, you know, don't foul then, you know, it's, it's, a but here's the keys again, copy and paste.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. yeah
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: Tuggler sharp got to stay out of foul trouble. Uh, Kingston hasn't been in much foul trouble, you know, most of the year, but he got in a little foul trouble, uh, against Arizona. So copy and paste, Emmanuel Jojo stay out of foul trouble.
Tom Lidiak: So we don't have to go to our bench, which we right now don't have, uh, uh, so that's a key, Kansas fans, I'm sure are going to be stoked and it's probably going to give them,
@NoConfForOldMen: yeah
Tom Lidiak: You know, they're just going to come in there with their, like their hair's on fire. So we can win this game. I hope Darren Peterson plays because I don't think there is a good with him.
Tom Lidiak: I think they're a better team there. know, they have better chemistry without him. So i hope he plays. And yeah, it's got stop Melvin council junior in the open floor. Cause he'll just get it and he'll just drive it until you can't stop them.
Tom Lidiak: And then, you know, you're, You should go up there and try to block a shot that opens up offensive rebounds for, uh, by Dunga. They seem this Kansas team is not as talented as Arizona.
Tom Lidiak: So, You know, it's it's tough to win in Fog Allen, but Cincinnati proved it proved you can do it.
@NoConfForOldMen: I know.
Tom Lidiak: and and And we know Cincinnati has been a really good defensive team, but they've had problem scoring in the past.
@NoConfForOldMen: yeah
@NoConfForOldMen: Scoring.
Tom Lidiak: But they scored 84 against KU, and I watched all that game, and it wasn't a fluke. they They were hitting shots. And, you know, yeah.
@NoConfForOldMen: They've been on a hot streak as of late.
Tom Lidiak: Yeah, ever since Wes Miller apologized to the fans, they've I think they've won like four in a row.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yep.
@NoConfForOldMen: They have.
Tom Lidiak: Yeah, it's – I wouldn't say this is a must win because, it you know, in the back of my mind, it was always possible that we could win – we could lose these three games and still and still go far in the tournament because in the tournament you're playing it on a neutral floor and we're kind of built for March.
@NoConfForOldMen: Did all three. Yep. Yep.
Tom Lidiak: and that we don't get blown out on the road. You know, we win at home, and that usually bodes well for teams teams in March, as opposed to a team like Iowa State, who is great at home, but they've already lost four in the road. You know, in my opinion, that's why in the NCAA tournament they haven't gone very far.
Tom Lidiak: But personnel-wise, Melvin Council, Jr., when DP's not playing, he's he's their key. I think he's the leader of that team.
Tom Lidiak: You have some other players. You know, Bidunga's a really good the lefty. You have El Marco Jackson. He's a former five-star. You have Jamari McDowell. I know I'm missing some guys. Oh, Tiller, the freshman.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, he's really good.
Tom Lidiak: Yeah, he's he really shoots the ball well from the perimeter. Really, really good three-point shooter. So we can't give him a lot of open shots. Yeah, Fog Allen, Monday night, big Monday. What what else can you say?
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: Who wins? lens
Tom Lidiak: Bill, you had to say it, right? I think i think we do, and I think it's it's just going to nail-biter, a white knuckler like Al McGuire used to say.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: i just I just hope the heck we don't lose three in a row The who?
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. The boards will be unsufferable, right? uh the boards that we got it will be
Tom Lidiak: oh Oh, my Lord. Oh, my Lord. Holy. It's a good thing if we do lose three in a row. We have Colorado Baylor at home the next two, and then we have okla Oklahoma State on the road. –
@NoConfForOldMen: okay yeah so we'll see okay bill how about you what's your take yeah
Tom Lidiak: so in
.0Bill Walker: Yeah, I'm going to be much quicker in this one. Kansas, 27, third in the Big 12, 19 Ken Palm, 43 offense, 19 defense.
.0Bill Walker: Last three, they were blown out at ISU. They beat Oklahoma State by 12. And as was discussed, Tom, they lost at home by 16 to Cincinnati.
.0Bill Walker: But to to address others. They did previously beat Arizona, so clearly they must be elite.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: I would say Peterson playing could be the key, and and maybe could be.
.0Bill Walker: know. could be
Tom Lidiak: you know what i hate bill You know what I find interesting is that he played 31 minutes after Bill Self called basically called him out.
.0Bill Walker: Yeah, he's and he's been playing in the last he's played in the last three, and Kansas lost two of those three, so we'll see. yeah Cincinnati beat Kansas, one, because they out-rebounded them, 40-29, two. They forced 10 turnovers.
.0Bill Walker: two
@NoConfForOldMen: Crazy. see
.0Bill Walker: they forced ten turnovers And three, they held Kansas to 44% shooting, 22% from three on 18 attempts.
.0Bill Walker: Peterson, by the way, was one of seven from deep, despite hitting six of 10 inside the arc. I've gone over the players in the past.
.0Bill Walker: We we previewed the the the Kansas, it was it Kansas, Arizona or Kansas BYU?
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: But
Tom Lidiak: I think it Kansas BYU, yeah.
.0Bill Walker: Yeah, so I've gone over the players. Obviously, Peterson, Melvin Council, Trey White, Bryson Tiller, and Badunga previously. So I'll just keep it to this.
.0Bill Walker: If Sharp defends Peterson even close to how since it did, if we limit our fouls, tough task,
.0Bill Walker: always on the road, but especially at Fog Allen. If we cut down on the stupid turnovers and that we definitely win that battle, meaning we force turnovers from them, then we can give Kansas they're their first big Monday loss in 40 games.
.0Bill Walker: Really tough task. Kansas, seventy one sixty eight
@NoConfForOldMen: Oh, wow. So you're picking Kansas. Okay.
.0Bill Walker: It's, ye you know, with with the fouls that I know we're going to commit, we're going to commit them anyway, but we're going to commit even more because it's at Kansas where they always get the home cooking.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: And just how well they respond on big Mondays, it's going to be it's going to be tough.
Tom Lidiak: Yeah. And somebody, somebody on our bench has to step up and hit, hit a shot.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
@NoConfForOldMen: Contribute. Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: Holy cow.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: Uh, and I just, I don't know. I don't like shitting on players, but I just don't see, you know, Harwell, mercy or Ramone, you know, hitting, hitting shots in fog Allen, uh, you know, when it, uh, when it counts as opposed to Malik last year, who carried us in that, that game, you know, scoring wise, uh,
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
@NoConfForOldMen: yeah
Tom Lidiak: And LJ, you know, I hate comparing teams to last year, but we had, you know, LJ was lj was so good on the road at home.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. yeah
Tom Lidiak: it didn't matter.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: It it didn't matter. and And that's why he's in the and NBA. Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: Well, mccarty McCarty hit a shot early against Arizona. So did Harwell. But the problem is consistency and its consistency on both ends of the floor.
.0Bill Walker: And, you know, that's why our our bench players aren't helping us consistently because it's it's not occurring on both ends.
@NoConfForOldMen: That's the issue.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. Okay. We we got to pick up the pace guys here.
Tom Lidiak: Okay.
.0Bill Walker: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: Yep. You bet. you bet.
@NoConfForOldMen: mean, not to beat a dead horse. I mean, KU is obviously a great team. You highlighted their Ken Palm numbers. Now people seem to forget UH is still holding strong at number six in Ken Palm and we're what?
@NoConfForOldMen: Ninth in adjusted defensive efficiency and seventh in adjusted, sorry. Ninth in adjusted offensive efficiency. Seventh in adjusted defensive efficiency. And KU, they're a good but not great shooting team.
@NoConfForOldMen: They're surprisingly dreadful at offensive rebounding at number two hundred and and fiftieth in Ken palmm And like ISU and Arizona, they can get sloppy with the ball at times as well.
@NoConfForOldMen: So expect us to try to bother them with the pressure.
.0Bill Walker: Did you say Colorado?
@NoConfForOldMen: Did I? Hopefully I didn't. Like Arizona, ISU and Arizona, right? They can be sloppy with the ball. So just like the two of them, even though we weren't able to turn them over, hopefully it'll be a little bit little bit different on Big Monday versus Kansas.
@NoConfForOldMen: Now on D Kansas, they're great at challenging every shot. They're sixth in effective field goal percentage D. Equally effective defending both twos and threes. But fortunately for us, they don't really focus much on turning teams over. They're 243rd in percentage D. So shot selection is going to be key.
@NoConfForOldMen: And, you know, hopefully try to go back to earlier in conference play where I felt like we were a bit more aggressive looking to take the shot early when it was available. I feel like we've just gotten a little bit too stagnant for this young club. Now, based on the metrics, this is projected to be a one point win now for the Cougs based on Ken Palm. The Fog, along with Hilton, has historically been the toughest place to play in the Big 12.
@NoConfForOldMen: Bill, don't you get started kind of with your players perspective on them. And there's this kid on the roster that I really like that I feel like folks need to zero in on, you know, should we start looking at point guards.
.0Bill Walker: yeah
.0Bill Walker: hugh Hughes or Johnson?
@NoConfForOldMen: I'm sorry.
Tom Lidiak: Hughes or Johnson?
.0Bill Walker: hues Hughes or Johnson?
@NoConfForOldMen: Neither one. I was thinking of Hargris, Barrington Hargris.
@NoConfForOldMen: Colorado. We're talking Colorado now.
.0Bill Walker: Oh, I'm sorry. I can't read my writing. I meant Hargris, not Hughes.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, yeah, Hargris.
.0Bill Walker: i I'm either going blind or I can't write. Sorry.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: Okay, quickly. Colorado, 11 a.m. Saturday, ESPN2. They're 15 and 12. They're 11th in the Big 12, about where we expected them to be. 69, Ken Palm. 56, offense. defense.
.0Bill Walker: They've beaten Washington and TCU. If you would consider those big wins, that's Colorado's big wins.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: Uh, they recently lost by 30 at ISU nine at Baylor 39 at tech and surprisingly only four and OT at BYU.
.0Bill Walker: So those are the road games. Uh, and the BYU is a game they should have won. Uh, Four double-digit scores. Their leading score is a 6'1 freshman point guard, Isaiah Johnson.
Tom Lidiak: Thank you.
.0Bill Walker: He's averaging over 16 a game. Steve, your guy that at that I can't seem to figure out reading my writing.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: 6'1 junior, Barrington Hargris, 14 points.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
.0Bill Walker: 54% from the field, 6'1 guard, and 50% from three. So impressive. 6'11 sophomore forward, Sebastian Rancic, 12.5 points, 5.5 boards, but he doesn't shoot well. he He's got to shoot a fair amount to get to his 12 points.
.0Bill Walker: And Bango back, 7-foot junior center, 11 points, 6.5 boards, 1.6 blocks, but everything's inside.
.0Bill Walker: Overall, Colorado's not a great shooting team, especially from three, but they do they can get to the line and do. This is a broken record.
.0Bill Walker: but and Again, shooting a dead horse, but we've got to limit fouls. They commit 10 turnovers per game, which which is okay, but they do force them.
.0Bill Walker: They're not a great rebounding team. If we defend their guards, we limit fouls, and we win the turnover battle, it's a comfortable win, 81-62.
@NoConfForOldMen: Okay. How about you, Tom, from up to just you?
Tom Lidiak: i'll i'll make this I'll make this short and sweet. If we lose to Kansas, the promotion on Saturday is not going to be one piece. is We're going to be sponsored by Gillette, and they're going pass out razor blades so people can slash their wrists.
@NoConfForOldMen: Hey, you're going to be at the game too, right?
Tom Lidiak: Yep, yep.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: And I might, no.
@NoConfForOldMen: Nice. Okay.
Tom Lidiak: of that's That's all I got to say.
@NoConfForOldMen: I mean, like you guys said, bad team, little support. I'm not sure coach bull actually survives after this season. yeah You'd already highlighted the stats, you know, Bill, so I'm not going to go through that.
@NoConfForOldMen: I just want to reiterate for fans that go watch the game. The reason to watch the game watch this kid, right? Harrington, Barrington, Hargress, right? With Fleming, Zuzan likely turning pro after for the season, we are going to need an experienced point guard. Coach has had a tendency to recruit kids he's seen himself live within the conference that he plays in. And if that trend holds true, I believe...
@NoConfForOldMen: You know, Hargress is the one that we need to keep an eye on. Best player on a bad team. So one of these kids that had come up through the ranks, he had transferred from UC Riverside. You'd kind of highlighted in stats, just an incredible shooter, very careful with the ball.
@NoConfForOldMen: Player box score plus minus plus 4.6. So it's about the same as Uzan was when he was at OU. And boy, if they make a coaching change, I'd say keep an eye out for this kid.
Tom Lidiak: Chances are agents have already contacted people. You know, that's, you know, that's going on.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think you're right. So yeah.
Tom Lidiak: and mean, it's not tampering if an agent, you know, reaches out to a third party or whatever, but yeah we know it's all, we know it's all going down.
@NoConfForOldMen: and
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah, I mean, I think we blast Colorado, and I just hope that we can find some semblance of of a bench through these next remaining games.
@NoConfForOldMen: That needs to be the motivating factor heading into March. Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: and And I'll say this, too, about the bench. you know People will say, well, you know, Kelvin needs to show confidence in him. Bull crap. You show – you got to prove it.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah.
Tom Lidiak: You got to prove it to your coach that you can make a shot and and defend and rebound before the coach will give you confidence.
@NoConfForOldMen: Yeah. Yeah. Don't make mistakes, right?
Tom Lidiak: Right. Right.
@NoConfForOldMen: Okay, guys. So that's it for our 74th episode of the No Conference World Bend podcast. Hope you all enjoyed it. And again, would really appreciate it. Folks would follow, subscribe, or collect our podcast on whatever your platform of choice is.
@NoConfForOldMen: We are also available via Dave Campbell's College Podcast Network as our only by basketball-centric podcast or at the gokus.com YouTube page for those that want to watch us in person.
@NoConfForOldMen: We appreciate the continued support from all. Also, please give us a follow on our Twitter account, No Conference for Old Men. Thank you all again for listening, and please be on the lookout next week to download and listen as our next episode drops. Take care, everyone.
@NoConfForOldMen: Go Cougs.
