Marquette game thread

[JacobPadilla]

“(Kalkbrenner) needs to catch it, gather, then tear the rim off.”
-Steven Bardo

Great quote by my favorite announcer next to Raff. Unfortunately it’s been too many games over the past five years Kalk has played like this. Love the kid but too much finesse too much of the time. The effort is there but his style is painful to watch.

Surprisingly good game considering Ash went ice cold.

Ya unfortunately we’ve seen enough to know he’s just not like that mentally. It’s a shame. Appreciate all he’s done and his name will be in the rafters, but I could probably count on my hand how many times Kalk actually played “mean” in big games. Most of the time when we need him in big games he looks either pouty and/or bothered by a smaller big that isn’t scared of him at all and he folds.

19, 14 and 5 blocks, 70% FG against Oregon last year; averaged 19-10-3 on 61% FG in the tournament.
19, 12 and 5 on 64% FG in the BE tourney against Providence.
19, 6 and 5 on 75% FG against Marquette in Omaha.
Outplayed Clingan in Omaha (and in Storrs too, though it was Clingan's first game back).
Dominated the second half against Alabama on a bad ankle (I thought this game put an end to the "soft" narrative, but apparently not).

31, 7 and 3 on 79% FG against NC State; averaged 20-6-2 on 60% FG in the tourney.
Scored 39 points on 84% shooting in two games in the conference tourney.
20, 13 and 2 on 90% FG against Texas (playing sick).
21, 7 and 2 on 75% FG against Arkansas.

Just a handful of "big games" from the previous two seasons.

I'll never understand the lack of appreciation for him from this fan base. Pouty and he folds? What is "playing mean" even supposed to look like? That's a lot of terrific performances for a guy who plays "nice" or whatever.

Marquette did a good job of being physical and forcing him into some tough angles, he just didn't make the shots and perhaps the misses started to get into his head a bit. He had a really bad game. Sucks it happened at the same time Ashworth had an outlier bad shooting game, but like Steven said on the radio, "that's basketball sometimes."

[BirdBoy]

You have to admit that Kalk underperforming this year compared to last year. I hate that I got fooled by that 50 point game.

[NUgradCUfan]

You have to admit that Kalk underperforming this year compared to last year. I hate that I got fooled by that 50 point game.

+1 Feel like previous post is proving my point. Handful of big games where he played noticeably different it feels like. I can appreciate what he’s done for the program while also acknowledging that he does not have a dog mentality. Like a “I’m going to yam it on these guys any time I touch it and no one’s going to stop me.” It’s been 4 years and we can all see he isn’t wired like that despite his physical attributes.

[Chicagojayfan]

“(Kalkbrenner) needs to catch it, gather, then tear the rim off.”
-Steven Bardo

Great quote by my favorite announcer next to Raff. Unfortunately it’s been too many games over the past five years Kalk has played like this. Love the kid but too much finesse too much of the time. The effort is there but his style is painful to watch.

Surprisingly good game considering Ash went ice cold.

Ya unfortunately we’ve seen enough to know he’s just not like that mentally. It’s a shame. Appreciate all he’s done and his name will be in the rafters, but I could probably count on my hand how many times Kalk actually played “mean” in big games. Most of the time when we need him in big games he looks either pouty and/or bothered by a smaller big that isn’t scared of him at all and he folds.

19, 14 and 5 blocks, 70% FG against Oregon last year; averaged 19-10-3 on 61% FG in the tournament.
19, 12 and 5 on 64% FG in the BE tourney against Providence.
19, 6 and 5 on 75% FG against Marquette in Omaha.
Outplayed Clingan in Omaha (and in Storrs too, though it was Clingan's first game back).
Dominated the second half against Alabama on a bad ankle (I thought this game put an end to the "soft" narrative, but apparently not).

31, 7 and 3 on 79% FG against NC State; averaged 20-6-2 on 60% FG in the tourney.
Scored 39 points on 84% shooting in two games in the conference tourney.
20, 13 and 2 on 90% FG against Texas (playing sick).
21, 7 and 2 on 75% FG against Arkansas.

Just a handful of "big games" from the previous two seasons.

I'll never understand the lack of appreciation for him from this fan base. Pouty and he folds? What is "playing mean" even supposed to look like? That's a lot of terrific performances for a guy who plays "nice" or whatever.

Marquette did a good job of being physical and forcing him into some tough angles, he just didn't make the shots and perhaps the misses started to get into his head a bit. He had a really bad game. Sucks it happened at the same time Ashworth had an outlier bad shooting game, but like Steven said on the radio, "that's basketball sometimes."

well put Jacob, I think a lot of what people critique Kalkbrenner for is just that they want/wish they had an 80's style center who could post up and score at will in the way the game used to be played, but while Kalkbrenner isn't that kind of offensive player in the post, the reality is that isn't that game anymore, and those centers really don't exist anymore. And many of the types of players they think they want, shoot a much lower percentage and have other glaring limitations in their game that Kalkbrenner doesn't have

Has Kalkbrenner had some poor games. Certainly, as most players do during a long career - Nebraska and Marquette were the 2 poor games so far this year, but he's also been playing, likely his best basketball this year, especially when you take into account that we are a team with only one ballhandler at the PG spot, and no real 2 guard at the moment, making it more difficult for us to feed the post when we have good matchups in the paint

Kalk's a rare player who's pretty much improved his play in most available metrics across his entire career: ppg/40 up from Freshman year from 17 to 21.1, rebounds back up this year to 10.0 /40, He's blocking fewer shots now, but with far fewer fouls than as a freshman. TS% at .700 despite usage going up several points over the years. Yes, he didn't finish well against Marquette, but he's one of the best finishers of all time in college ball. He's a truly premier player and that isn't even taking into account the way he changes the game on defense

I think some people would be more impressed by a couple of big dunks and a lot of misses rather than a guy who finishes at a 70% clip year after year

[JacobPadilla]

You have to admit that Kalk underperforming this year compared to last year. I hate that I got fooled by that 50 point game.

+1 Feel like previous post is proving my point. Handful of big games where he played noticeably different it feels like. I can appreciate what he’s done for the program while also acknowledging that he does not have a dog mentality. Like a “I’m going to yam it on these guys any time I touch it and no one’s going to stop me.” It’s been 4 years and we can all see he isn’t wired like that despite his physical attributes.

He's tall but not very explosive. He's put on a ton of muscle throughout his career and has gotten much better about using his body, but he's not going to be overpowering guys consistently. I'm not sure where you see the physical attributes that say he should be dunking on guys every time he touches the ball. He has 37 dunks this year (more than a third of his total field goals), which is in the 72nd percentile for frequency. Last year it was 73 dunks, 78% percentile in frequency. He dunks a lot as it is.

I saw a whole lot of "dog" in him in that Alabama game, and the Kansas game. No other 7-footer in the country over the past two years has played as many minutes with as much responsibility on his plate as Kalkbrenner has; I don't know what to call that but it takes determination and mental toughness for sure.

And those games weren't him "playing noticeably different." He's had plenty of other great games. You just said he rarely showed up in big games, and I was showing plenty of examples to prove that isn't true at all.

Also, to BirdBoy's comment, his numbers are almost identical to last year, and the 49-point game (plus his entire career) is why teams have shaped their entire game plans around limiting his touches as much as possible. He certainly hasn't played his best at all times this year, but nobody does that.

[JayPak]

The Jays were better with King on the floor tonight.

King needs more run.

[JayPak]

You have to admit that Kalk underperforming this year compared to last year. I hate that I got fooled by that 50 point game.

+1 Feel like previous post is proving my point. Handful of big games where he played noticeably different it feels like. I can appreciate what he’s done for the program while also acknowledging that he does not have a dog mentality. Like a “I’m going to yam it on these guys any time I touch it and no one’s going to stop me.” It’s been 4 years and we can all see he isn’t wired like that despite his physical attributes.

The guy who is wired like that is King.

[Chicagojayfan]

You have to admit that Kalk underperforming this year compared to last year. I hate that I got fooled by that 50 point game.

+1 Feel like previous post is proving my point. Handful of big games where he played noticeably different it feels like. I can appreciate what he’s done for the program while also acknowledging that he does not have a dog mentality. Like a “I’m going to yam it on these guys any time I touch it and no one’s going to stop me.” It’s been 4 years and we can all see he isn’t wired like that despite his physical attributes.

The guy who is wired like that is King.

I guess it's good that he's "wired like that"... just too bad that he's clearly much, much worse at all the basketball playing stuff when compared to Kalk

I prefer results, not posturing. Kalkbrenner produced massive results for the Jays and has across his entire career

[section221jay]

Obviously you'd rather have a Kalkbrenner than not. But the reality is he isn't a guy you work an offense through. He is deadly when there are guys like Baylor and Tre on the court. When the opposition knows they only have to take him out and dare the rest of the team to hit 3s...that's what they will try to do. See the nebraska game and a few others.

He is not a dominant big man on the offensive end. It's not a dig...it's just not who he is. This roster (i.e. lack of playmakers around him) has done him no favors.

[section221jay]

And King isn't the answer. If the other parts aren't greatly improved next season Fred is just going to be a big body out there fouling out in 20 minutes. Next season looks pretty grim without a couple home runs in the portal.