Nike-Duke signs long time Nike-Jordan lean Ingram making it five draft choice stack for second straight season at Nike-Duke!!!

Nike-Nike appears to declare all out war on Nike Jordan!

Does this mean Nike-Jordan-UNC is going down hard?

Nike-UK appears to be being slapped down the pecking order by Nike.

Nike-LSU appears to be given preference in SEC.

Nike-Duke appears to be given preference overall.

adidas schools appear increasingly marginalized by Nike juggernaut!!!

adidas KU apparently just used for hype.

@jaybate-1.0 not happy!

Still a couple of top prospects looming on the horizon. If we should obtain both of them, and if Bill should do some major tweaking, O MY!
I know, I know, big IFS!

@jaybate-1.0 Guess we will see how bad KU is going to be hurting this season when Diallo commits to Duke in a couple days.

@Lulufulu

Duke is not in Diallo's final list.

@jaybate-1.0

Need to end this nonsense. Barefoot NCAA basketball will now be the rules of the game.

@Lulufulu

IMHO Diallo and Jaylen Brown are miner's canaries in the adidas recruiting mine. If they go Nike, then it means Nike gas has filled the adidas mine, and the adidas mine may be no more.

Duke won a national championship and beat out unc for local recruit because unc has aligations. they won ingram because they are the popular kid in town

@wissoxfan83

It looks like KU (B12) and Wisconsin (B1G) and UL (ACC) and Indiana (B1G) and Texas A&M (SEC) are getting increasingly lonely on the recruiting trail. They are the adidas crown jewels--the schools that would be adidas stacks, if adidas could find enough players to build stacks with.

This is brutal stuff. If I were going to make a movie of it would be promoted like this...

Right Way Films in association with KUBuckets.com Productions and Barefoot Basketball Productions

presents an @jaybate 1.0 film

"FIVE RECRUITED TOGETHER"

starring...

Rick Pitino
Bill Self
Bo Ryan
Tom Crean
Billy Kennedy
and
America's youth

Executive Produced by Baby Jayhawk

Produced by Joel and Ethan Cohen

Associate Producer: @approxinfinity

directed by Sam Peckinpah and @jaybate 1.0

story by @VailHawk and @wissoxfan83 and @jaybate 1.0

screenplay by Frank Nugent, James Agee, Robert Towne, and Sam Jaeger

Cinematography by James Wong Howe

Special Effects: @JayHawkFanToo

Music by T. Bone Burnett, Marvin Gaye and John Williams

Title Song by John Prine and Bob Dylan

Basketball consultants: @drgnslayr and @HighEliteMajor and @ralster and @REHawk

Costumes and Uniform Designs by Edith Head and @Crimsonorblue22

FILMED IN IMAX

Sound by THX (because the audience is listening)

Shot in Pinewood Studios to minimize coercion and on location in homes, gymnasiums, airports, meat market tournaments, and chain hotels across North America, West Africa, Europe, and Central Asia.

TAG LINE: When the Wrong Way Took Over, Five Said No

Plot: In a college basketball industry caught up in a war between two PetroShoeCo-agent complexes, five college basketball coaches try to keep doing it the right way in order to give college basketball one last chance at redemption.

COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU

(Note: All fiction. No malice.)

@BeddieKU23

Wow, that's a nice tidy version. Thanks.

Its so simple.

There was no need whatsoever for Duke to make those last two in-homes, right?

Funny the NC didn't do the same for UConn, UL, or KU? I don't recall those three adidas schools having the dump trucks back up after their rings.

I wonder why?

Man, I really hate Duke.

@jaybate-1.0 !image.jpg ↗

Edith head, I hope you are not comparing me!

@jaybate-1.0

I like the movie idea! Do the writers get to eat craft service?

@jaybate-1.0

Have you seen Congo: The Grand Inga Project? ↗.

I think Adidas is focusing on rafting these days...

!image.jpg ↗

@jaybate-1.0

2nd visit was to say Hey we got a point guard now, its okay to come out to the world now. BAM 5 days later you have the announcement.

The race was over when Self was out trying to get Tevin Mack & a Juco kid. You don't plan for brownies unless you know your not getting the cake.

The same for Diallo, we're after our 50th option in the post Anton Grady with 3 knee surgeries. Tells you Self is losing him as well.

Rinse and repeat

@BeddieKU23

You assume K didn't tell Ingram about the PG the first meeting. Why? No reason to assume that. And if they didn't know the first meeting, of course the headlines and text messages and a facetime/skype call make it clear faster without the second meeting in home. No, I don't think that quite fits. Duke had four dump truck visits before Ingram signed. KU had none. Duke had far the better recruiting class and returning team for Ingram to play with than KU had before the PG broke, even if we assume things went as you assume. Ingram never had a reason to be waving KU in Coach K's face, unless he were trying to bargain something out of Coach K. But what? A point guard? Duke's backup PG options were better than Mason. KU was in an inferior position, and OKC had just opened up. Coach K had to have known that. But UNC and UK had the horses and the similar brand shoes. KU had Adidas. Brand competition. This appears to have been about much more than a reclassifying PG. But what? Yours was a hypothesis worth trying. . thx for offering it.

@jaybate-1.0

Your right as well, I just think this decision was a lot easier than we are trying to say that KU was in it until the end. If Self was confident, I'm confident he wouldn't have gone after Mack or Ty Outlaw. That's why I believe Brown is heading to Michigan where his Mom is from. He knows he's not in it so he's already gone off to others.

Duke won a championship, you always benefit recruiting wise from it. They had 4 players on their team a few weeks ago. Now they have 10. Ingram didn't have anyone in his way at Duke. He gets 30 minutes easy. At KU, he's gotta play defense and beat out Svi and Greene. Doesn't sound appealing for an OAD. They had the recruiting momentum as you said, and they were in his backyard where family and communities can love him for 1 year.

Who wants to come to the middle of nowhere for a year? That's why the Jayhawk Towers are being built. To help negate the geographical weakness that KU will always have by giving recruits that "bling" factor. Tradition doesn't sell, branding does. Clearly Duke's brand will always be better than ours no matter how many years we end up better than them. If we want to beat players from other's backyards, we will have to step up the bling game and give them a reason to leave the den.

@Crimsonorblue22 IS that David Bowie?

@BeddieKU23

"Who wants to come to the middle of nowhere for a year? That's why the Jayhawk Towers are being built. To help negate the geographical weakness that KU will always have by giving recruits that "bling" factor. Tradition doesn't sell, branding does. Clearly Duke's brand will always be better than ours no matter how many years we end up better than them. If we want to beat players from other's backyards, we will have to step up the bling game and give them a reason to leave the den."

I'm sure that is part of it. But it hasn't worked this year. We didn't land Bragg because of the luxury digs (BTW, open this fall!) and we've been missing on everyone else.

Look at our program objectively (I know, hard to do) and other programs objectively. What is the difference between us and Duke or UK? We have a HOF coach, we've put a bunch of guys in the league, we've even developed many of them. We've now had some elite OADs going 1 and 3 in the draft. We have luxury digs now. We play in the VERY BEST VENUE in the country. We are located in the sticks, but so is Duke in Durham and Kentucky in Lexington. Actually... we are closest to a major metropolis oozing with culture and nightlife. And none of these schools match our history. Not even close. For criminal activity and racial prejudice, both Duke and UK top us historically and in the present day. Here is a taste: Duke University Students Call For Better Climate For Blacks ↗

So what is different about Kansas? Why can't we grab more elites?

I believe the three key factors are:

1. Poor media exposure.

2. Poor AAU and HS networking.

3. ShoeCo impact.

None of these factors will change unless Kansas makes a concerted effort to improve our status and position in these areas. Kansas always has an uphill battle recruiting because recruits have been pre-sold and directed towards schools like Duke and UK long before Kansas arrives on the scene.

The real problem we have is Self's desire to juxtaposition beside Duke and UK but not address these issues. So we come up short, then we go on a desperate scavenger hunt for players in the 11th hour when it doesn't work. Schools like Duke and UK can easily score top talent even in the 11th hour. It is harder for us. So... instead of us ending up with quality 4 and lower 5-star talent, we end up reaching out desperately at the end for players much lower just to fill a void.

And then there is the issue about development... the white elephant in the room that no one addresses. The one area where Kansas could EXPLODE their dominance over the entire basketball world!

I feel like we lost a load when we lost Danny Manning on the sidelines. And that goes to show just how much of a gold mine it would be if we build a structure for development in our program instead of going off in other directions. No one in here can tell me that we can't recruit a team of 3-4 and 5 star recruits that would seek out a school focused on development ahead of buying into a used car salesman in Lexington, or a dried up rat face in Durham. We are missing the boat every single day when we refuse to acknowledge the reality of what is in front of us. The potential is off the charts.

@drgnslayr

Great post,

You really nailed a bunch of things better than I would have explained them. I believe your 3 factors say it all.

I only mentioned the Towers because its clear that its a recruiting ploy to help lure kids here. We have world class facilities and play in the most historical building in all the land. But even that its hard to pull kids to the sticks as you put it.

3 seems to be becoming an even more important factor with these kids and that ties directly into #2. I don't think anyone would disagree if we went back to Nike. I think the impact of getting away from Adidas would be profound.

@drgnslayr " Poor media exposure "

I agree with what you're saying, but what in the HE** has happened? HOW does The University of KANSAS get in the position of poor media exposure?

Sumpin ain't right

@drgnslayr As you put it, Kansas is "in the sticks." As far as basketball recruiting is concerned, I agree. And it's tough to get recruits from the East coast--or even the Eastern time zone--to commit to play "in the sticks.".

We've gotten a few blue chippers to play here but it seems it has been a small percentage. Since Roy Williams was from the East, it's quite possible he realized that his chances to recruit a kid from that area of the country to KU would be minimal, so he focused elsewhere. He's been lambasted for not recruiting those players, but maybe it's understandable.