A message to Jayhawk fans,
Focus.
For years now we have watched highly ranked, and highly touted Jayhawk teams steam into the NCAA tournament only to let us down. This edition seems to be focusing on letdowns early. Texas is a good team, KSU has good players, OSU had a great crowd behind them. Lots of reasons for the games to be close, even for a possible loss. But time and again it is the manner in which the team loses that stands out.
A lack of focus in practice may be the cause. An inability to translate the coaches instructions into game time decisions. Lack of talent. All are possible reasons why the team has shown an underwhelming half court offensive attack. Likely it is each of these, and more, that are contributing to the final product on the court.
Enough fan rants, lets get into some numbers. In the non-conference schedule this team averaged 19.8 assists, 11.4 steals and 13 turnovers a game. Whoa! 13 turnovers per game in the non-conference? That seems like a lot doesn’t it? Let look at the conference numbers to see a comparison.
16 assists a game, 6.3 steals, 10.3 turnovers. The assists and turnovers both dropped 20% in conference compared to the non-con game stats. How do you turn the ball over less against better talent? Focus. But then why did the steals go down by 45%. Big game meltdowns. 3 steals against KSU, 4 against Texas and OSU. Are those guards so very much better than Baylor (9 steals)? How about a well-coached Nebraska team? 21 steals in 2 games. KSU and Texas are better, but not that much better. Its our focus in those games.
And regardless of talent, what team can average 14.2 turnovers per game on the season and expect tournament success? The Jayhawks are second in the big twelve this season in t team assist per game and team steals per game, but wait, we already know that most of those steals cam against inferior opponents. So what does this mean long – term? Lets look around the country to find out. North Carolina has nearly identical team stats for the year, 17 assists, 14.5 TO’s and 9 steals a game. Duke is in TO’s per gam, 13.3 and KU has the advantage in the other 2 categories. Memphis also averages a full turnover per game less than the Hawks, while not matching the assists per game or steals per game of KU. And then there is Tenessee. 19.2 assists per game for the season. 10.7 steals, and only 12.9 TO’s per game. Across the board better season stats.
Ok so that was tough to read, what do all these numbers mean. The numbers tell me that KU has a problem with focus and intensity. KU has a problem getting up for the big game. KU has emotion issues. 20 turnovers against OSU? How do you explain that? It’s the crowd, baby. The energy of Gallagher Iba threw this team off its game, same thing happened in Texas and Manhattan. The stats show that this team is right there, still, with any team in the nation. But on any given night focus gets lost and we can come up with 3 assists and 16 turnovers like we did at KSU.
The bottom line: Focus. 17 assists, 9 steals and 8 TO’s beat Baylor, I think that performance beats the other three teams also. 12-3-16 against KSU 15-4-9 against Texas is not enough, nor is 7-4-20 against OSU. Focus and consistency are the keys.
