I feel better now about this team and its ability to make a deep tournament run than I have at any point in this season previously.

Getting EJ back is a big, big deal. We've now got legitimate weapons throughout our rotation and limited role players in the limited roles they should be in. With another few weeks to iron out any chemistry kinks that might exist as a result of our personnel changes, we're going to be very tough to beat come tournament time.

Saturday was promising but I want to see us beat a team near the top of the standing before I pass any judgment. This team feels different with JTT back even with only a 1 game sample. Handle OU and steal a road win Saturday in Ft Worth and I'll have confidence we've hit our stride

IowaBear said:

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Saturday was promising but I want to see us beat a team near the top of the standing before I pass any judgment. This team feels different with JTT back even with only a 1 game sample. Handle OU and steal a road win Saturday in Ft Worth and I'll have confidence we've hit our stride

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And beat the teams we should

Focus on staying healthy and peaking at the right time. Play it safe in the B12 tournament.

Yep. Having Jon back and able to ease in helps open up everything for this team. Toughness, consistent intensity, rebounding, defense in the paint forcing tougher finishes inside, and able finisher you have to respect on the PnR. The 3 ball is just gravy but if he can hit that as well... forget it.

And as you said it allows guys to play their role and not overextend themselves. We've been hoping/asking for guys to do more than they are probably capable of doing due to the roster hole. As Jon progresses this fixes a lot of that.

Also another month of experience for Love and George can only help. From what Jon said, Love is a Davion level of worker so I expect a jump even beyond the Ku game to come.

wongobear said:

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Wow - that was a lot of rainbows and sunshine up our A. Makes me nervous, but in this specific snapshot of time, it does seem like we've got the right timing to make a deep run.

Maybe we can finally win the Big XII tournament?

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I'd prefer we skip the Big XII tournament.

Quinton said:

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Yep. Having Jon back and able to ease in helps open up everything for this team. Toughness, consistent intensity, rebounding, defense in the paint forcing tougher finishes inside, and able finisher you have to respect on the PnR. The 3 ball is just gravy but if he can hit that as well... forget it.

And as you said it allows guys to play their role and not overextend themselves. We've been hoping/asking for guys to do more than they are probably capable of doing due to the roster hole. As Jon progresses this fixes a lot of that.

Also another month of experience for Love and George can only help. From what Jon said, Love is a Davion level of worker so I expect a jump even beyond the Ku game to come.

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I thought George played one of his best games of the season against Tech in terms of playing within himself and not trying to do too much.

When he lets the game come to him and takes good shots, he's a really, really good player. I hope does more of that down the stretch. With a full, healthy roster, we don't need anyone to play hero ball. We just need to play good team basketball.