Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
What bullshit? McCullar putting his potential NBA career first before this team? Don’t think he could have done much about that.
2 of the last 3 tournaments he's coached in they've been completely embarrassed.... [Reply]
Honestly kind of a loss that embodies our season. Some moments of greatness and feeling like we can really do some damage. Then moments where all of the weaknesses of individual players come out to haunt us. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
If there was ever a Gonzaga team that KU could handle, this is the one. Easily the worst Gonzaga team in nearly a decade, the Bulldogs struggled for the majority of the season and did not even look like a tournament team until mid-February. In fact, their only good wins all season consisted of Kentucky (Calipari-led fraud) and a St. Mary's team eliminated tonight in the tournament by Grand Canyon.
While they are generally a strong offense, they generate FTs at an incredibly low rate (31.4 FTA/FGA, 224th in the country). Most importantly for us, they also shoot a very low amount of threes comparatively (31.5 3PA/FGA, 310th in the country) and start a big who doesn't shoot any. Given that KU has had a season long issue with guarding the 3 due largely to Dickinson's mobility (which popped up again against Samford), we couldn't ask for much more out of this matchup.
On defense, Gonzaga could not be much softer. They turn teams over at a very low clip (16.2 TO%, 235th in the country) and their non-steal turnover rate is among the lowest in the country (6.4%, 326th in the country). They also don't have a shot blocking presence for significant portions of the game which will allow KU to get to the rim at will. Unlike Samford, they also foul at a very low rate which should be helpful for preventing any of our starters from getting into foul trouble.
While they are better than Samford, this is about as good of a matchup in R2 as we could have hoped for. Gonzaga is simply not equipped to deal with a KU team firing on all cylinders. Get ready for the S16.
