Interesting read.
Makes me focus back on Kansas. Former owner of the title, "Big Man U", and current team that can't score in the post.
That brings my eyes to Cliff. Cliff is the test for Kansas trying to prove we can still develop big men without the services of Danny Manning.
JoJo was an enigma. But he could have helped gloss over our reputation for a while if he had stayed healthy in March and taken Kansas somewhere.
Cliff, on the other hand, is raw steak. Will he become properly seasoned, aged, smoked and grilled to perfection by Head Chef Bill Self? Or will he be shoved out the kitchen door and served up ground and raw..... beef tartar, anyone?
Cliff needs to stick around another year or two, no question about that. If he leaves this spring for a shot at the league he becomes our big man version of Josh Selby. I bet that kid would like to go back in time and change his decision.
Interesting take on the recruitment of Maker. Bring in Giles for a year and keep him around when Maker comes in. Not a bad idea, but just having quality bigs isn't going to take a team to the promised land. You need guards of equal quality.
And while we are talking about bigs and building a post presence.... let's paint a better scenario for Maker. Imagine if he qualifies for 2015 and joins up with Alexander and Braggs? Sounds like a better deal to me, because he'll also get the assist services of Mason and Graham. Someone has to create the space and feeds to the post.
As much as there might be questions if Kansas can still develop bigs like they could with Danny here.. there exists the same question for Danny at Wake. Can he still develop bigs and also be the head coach? Danny's biggest responsibility at Kansas was to develop bigs. He doesn't have that luxury of time anymore. He has to coach a team. I think that deserves every bit the scrutiny of questioning if Kansas can still develop bigs.
