Jayhawk Central

Tharpe played terrible tonight. He couldn't shoot (has he ever?), made some dumb plays/turnovers, committed a couple stupid fouls, and was bad, very bad on defense. While we wouldn't have most likely needed that last shot by Tharpe if Tharpe made just one or two of his 6 3-point attempts and/or if he could have ended up with more assists than turnovers, but I will give him a pass tonight for making a game winner. That shot kinda erases all of his bad play for the night. However, I still think we need to ride EJ at PG and hope he gets out of his funk as Tharpe just isn't talented enough to take this team far in March.

I don't know if it was really "awful" all night... I thought we saw a lot of positive things, certainly in flashes and not always consistently. First, McLemore was willing to create off the bounce and attempt contested shots (they didn't fall, and it seemed to affect his shot and thinking all night). Second, the energy and attitude were really quite great all night. Johnson was smiling all night long, and the team got after it on the glass unlike they have all season. Third, we completely abandoned jump shots for drives for about the first two-thirds of the second half. Fourth, Johnson was willing and able to get into the lane often for the first time in a long time.