UMass, Take 2

I am at a loss for words after staying up to watch that Texas Tech game last night. Thinking back, I am not sure that we could look any worse. The game was worse than UMass because we were supposed to have "broken through the wall." The Jayhawk faithful witnessed our potential against Mizzou and OU. And now, we have witnessed how bad we can really look.

It is difficult to pin the loss on one particular person. If anybody can be mostly absolved of blame, it would be Bill Self. We had PLENTY of open looks and stifled their offense with a change to zone. The calls from the bench were spot on. However, when Sherron Collins goes 3 for 19 (1 for 10 from deep) and Cole Aldrich goes without a field goal and a rebound for almost the entire first half, it's tough to win a ball game. On top of that, our on ball defense was pitiful. How does Brady Morningstar let Alan Voskuil make 9 of 14 threes and go for a career high 35 points? That could be Coach Self's one question mark: why didn't he put Sherron on him for a while? In my opinion, the loss boils down to our star performers not perfoming.

I realized that I may seem harsh to pin the majority of this loss on Collins and Aldrich, but that's facts, Jack. The reliable role is what the two of them have fallen into, and, for the most part, they have embraced it. I'm not saying we needed 25 points and 15 boards from Cole or 30 points and 10 assists from Sherron. A slightly under average game would have done just fine. Maybe Cole makes a LAY UP early in the second half to tie the game at 43. Then, who knows what happens? Our team gets energized and storms past the Voskuil Raiders. Or, maybe it wasn't our night, and they would have finished it off anyway. I know that everybody can't be on every game, but come on, everybody off on the same game? I'm sorry. The responsibility to pick up a down team falls upon its leaders.

The good thing, however, is that I still feel like we played hard. I am confident that Coach Self will have them ready for Saturday in Allen, and I look forward to finishing off a great season with an out-right BigXII regular season championship. Thanks Missouri.