What We Mean When We Talk About “Fast”
Tom Keegan’s lede from today’s Lawrence Journal-World:
Faster, faster, faster. Play faster. Will you please play faster?
Too often this season, it has been difficult to sit in Allen Fieldhouse and not repeat that thought.
As the table below shows, except for showing some mercy to an undermanned Dartmouth squad, Kansas has played at a faster pace than they did last night against an undermanned Winston-Salem State squad. The difference last night was that the Jayhawks just scored more efficiently than they have in any other games in the Fieldhouse so far this year.
| Opp | Pace | KU PPP |
| N Arizona | 75.1 | 1.21 |
| Oral Roberts | 75.3 | 0.92 |
| Towson | 75.5 | 1.15 |
| Dartmouth | 64.4 | 1.27 |
| USC | 71.9 | 1.00 |
| Winston-Salem St | 71.2 | 1.30 |
Unless I missed an outbreak of people using the phrase “at least they played fast” following the Oral Roberts loss, or, “It’s a nice win, but I wish they’d played faster” following the Florida game (62.5 possessions per 40 minutes), I think it’s safe to say that when it comes as part of a complaint, faster = score more.
* Have the Phog Blog come to you! * Subscribe to Comments
3 Responses to “What We Mean When We Talk About “Fast””
Leave a Reply
Comment Policy:Be polite.You must be logged in to post a comment.
December 20th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
There’s nothing wrong with playing slow, and I think the team will have to bring their bring their best slow game in order to beat South Carolina.
The problem is when they play slow for long stretches. For the last 6 games before yesterday, they were averaging just 66 possessions per game. That isn’t getting it done. I think ideally this team should always get the possessions in the 70’s at home, and only go below 70 when they have to play a tough road game.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:39 pm
I kind of agree with the fast pace and the KU squad. They seem to just play basketball when they are getting up and down the floor. When they just pass it around the perimeter and force passes into the interior or pass up open threes they start thinking. When they are running they don’t have time to think and it really shows thier athletic advantage over most teams.
ROCK CHALK
December 22nd, 2006 at 4:18 pm
We need to run to play our best. Everyone on our team can and does play better when we run except Sasha. We have one of the most athletic teams in the nation, so why not use it to our advantage? Plus, Self has a terrible zone offense and like Hawk said, all we ever do is think way too much. We need to get out and run and gun, not only is it way funner to watch but we play better when we do. If we still had Roy we would be putting up 90 a game and probably look a lot better doing it.