🏀 KuBuckets Archive

KU Sports: Self says USA Basketball speculation 'not realistic' ↗

One thing Kansas University’s Bill Self and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski did not discuss at this year’s Champions Classic was the possibility of KU’s 11th-year coach succeeding “Coach K” as head coach of the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team.

CJ Online's Kevin Haskin: WSU coping with Final Four residual ↗

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The basketball heritage at Wichita State continues to gain appreciation.

At the College Basketball Experience, the sport’s history is presented in artifacts and displays. It is enriched by the presence of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, which enshrined one of the Shockers’ own over the weekend...

K-State Salvages win in final Puerto Rico game ↗

Kansas State coach Bruce Weber watched some ugly basketball on Friday, when his Wildcats slopped their way through a 27-point loss to Georgetown in the second round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
Weber had an up-close view at some more hideous hoops in Sunday’s final round of the tournament, but fortunately for him and the Wildcats, this time it took place on the other end of the court.

KenPom has us ranked third behind Ok St and Louisville ↗

Rustin Dodd @rustindodd
The best team Wake Forest has played is probably Colgate, who is ranked 243rd, according to http://KenPom.com ↗ ↗ .

Bill Self previews this week's Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas ↗

I don't know if the voice was of Jesse Newell, but it was a great question. And it was analyzed by Jesse in the CJ's article below.

KU's Wiggins getting defensive ↗

“I just wanted to see how I’d do on him,” Wiggins said with a smile. “I think my defense is underrated.”

“I love moments like that, big crowds, big-name people in the gym, all that,” Wiggins said. “I’m confident that we’re going to come out with the win, and we did.”

Is that an alpha dog?

Slow day for news, it appears... please add stories if you find them.

Thoughts from the weekend Jayhawks related:
The article states Tulsa is 0-4 this year. Danny has played a tough schedule thus far.
Duke beats Vermont by 1 at home. That is a shocker. Takes some luster off of our defeat of them?
Roy beats Louisville. The old boy's still got it!
Looking ahead to turkey and basketball. I notice the game is on AXS TV. What is that? Anyone?
Keegen points out KU football has trouble when they go on the road. This is so stating the obvious it's embarrassing.

@wissoxfan83 - with all due respect to Keegan, he probably meant that they have trouble when they go on the " field ".

AXS TV is a Mark Cuban/Ryan Seacrest network that shows the Gene Simmons Family Jewels program 24/7.

Channel 298 in Lawrence on WOW cable
Channel 340 on Direct TV (I sure hope it's part of the package that my in-laws have, otherwise my holiday weekend will be ruined)

AXS is channel 291 with Comcast in Chicago. I believe the Friday and Saturday games are on NBC Sports Network as well.

I think it should come down to Self or Izzo because I can't stand Boeheim, and while I can respect Pops, he sure can be wet blanket. Does anyone else remember Popovich being on the bench at KU when Larry Brown was here. Seems he was here for one year, but I can't find anything to confirm that.

@rocketdog I read it this summer in an SI piece about Popovich. If memory serves correct he was an unpaid assistant and left KU for the head job at Cal Poly pomona pitzer or something like that. When I was a senior we played that school, for the life of me couldn't figure out why we were playing that DIII team, but the article solved that mystery for me. Pretty cool to think that two high stature coaches were here at the same time!

@DanR As for the channel, thanks Dan. I checked my directTV 340 doesn't even register as a channel. I'll figure it out! Oh for the simple days of ABC, NBC, and CBS!

Amazing the spokes from Lawrence.

Guys can do worse than coming to Lawrence for a year or two of volunteer basketball. Too bad those jobs have largely vanished (thanks NCAA).

Makes you wonder what kind of opportunity in coaching all our current players could have after they leave? I guess there isn't much to imagine, since the spokes from Lawrence are mostly ex-players!

Look at a guy like Conner. He may not have what it takes to get in the NBA... but a few years of euro ball, and then back in the USA without money issues and then he pursues coaching.

I'd bet the bank that Conner will one day wear a suit on the sidelines!

Imagine how well he could teach players how to shoot!!

Speaking of spokes, I recently noticed John Robic was an assistant at Kentucky. He was an assistant for Brown from 86'-88'. Funny when I looked up his bio on a UK site, they failed to mention his time at KU and being a part of a National Championship.

Well, one thing Kentucky cannot ignore is that they play their home games on "Adolph Rupp Arena" (KU man). Same thing for the Tarheels, and their Dean (Smith) Dome. The only rogue royalty program is that 1-man show, Duke...and they just got reeled-in by Self's Teenager Truckload. I got a feeling Self is itching to even the 1-2 score vs. John Calipari. Can Kentucky hide the fact that Calipari also spent time as a KU assistant?

Random thought here -- After watching some early season hoops, is it reasonable to think that if KU runs the table the next seven games -- Wake Forest, USC/Villanova, Finals of Tournament, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, and Georgetown -- that we are the best team in the country?

Seeing other top teams play, and seeing some stub their toes, I don't think there is a better team in the nation.

If KU runs the table then yes. I was just looking at their schedule and was like dang the whole no days off thing came to mind. Every team until conf play is a possible turny team. I almost LOL when I saw your post HEM because its hard for me to imagine KU running the table for 7 streight against the compitition we will be facing. KU's tallent is superior 1-5 but Self wasnt playn when he was puttin this years tallent together and making them play elite compitition to prep them for the final 6 games. As if the Big 12 wasnt enough our non con schedual is crazy!

Ya KU's non-conference schedule was considered the most difficult in the country by ESPN. If KU runs the table, then it means they are probably playing good basketball and maturing, which is more important to me than 1 or 2 in the AP/Coaches poll. So Colorado, Florida, and New Mexico all have quality big men in the form of Josh Scott, Patric Young, and Alex Kirk. I will be interested in seeing how Embiid plays in those games.

KSU will set THE record for going from co-champs (BigXII) to CHUMPS, as they will finish below TexasTech. TxTech has Tubby Smith, while KSU has Brucey Weber. (Point-plankn' : KSU point guard CHOSE to walk the plank & jump ship rather than be handed the keys on a silver platter).

This season, Im afraid, the Sherrontagon-O-gloom, Tyshawntagon, Elijahgon.... has hit its Naadir, running right into our Masonry. We have a habit of leaving Chalk-dust in our wake. Or shake (harlem).

KenPom's rankings are all over the place. I like Jeff Sagarin's better, 3 conference teams in the top ten and KU #1...

Sagarin Rankings ↗

This season, Im afraid, the Sherrontagon-O-gloom, Tyshawntagon, Elijahgon.... has hit its Naadir, running right into our Masonry. We have a habit of leaving Chalk-dust in our wake. Or shake (harlem).

That's good stuff ralster. The Jayhawks record in Manhattan since the early 80's is truly remarkable. I called in and told Jason Whitlock on his radio show in the mid 90's that it's no longer a rivalry when one team dominates the way we were dominating. He said I was crazy and of course it's a rivalry and tried to make my comments sound over the top. And we just kept winning at their place. Seems to confound all the laws of in-state rivalry... uh... laws.

Of course I hope I'm wrong, but I think we will stumble at some point in the early going.....one of the road games or maybe in KC.
KState looks like they are really going to struggle... not good for Weber.
The top of the B12 continues to look tough. OU played well against MSU. We've seen what the Clones can do and OSU is as expected. Baylor will be Baylor......talented enough to impress in some games, but overall inconsistent and not a threat in the B12 race.

I have been following the games of our upcoming 'name' teams, and Gtown is ranked in the 30s (at best) and is lacking in post presence. New Mexico is NOT the top15 team they were last season, and also they are falling fast. FL remains to be seen, as I dont have a good feel on their trajectory yet. Regarding the Jan.11 matchup with KSU...methinks T.Gipson will simply foul-out, after spending much of the game on the bench in foul trouble. Southwell is no McGruder. Angel Rodriguez jumped ship, they are rudderless. And Spradling is absolutely NO Brady or Reed. We also have some improving to do prior to ISU, OSU, Baylor, OU. Also cannot sleep on TxTech or TCU as they have decent coaches.

@JayHawkFanToo KenPom's rankings are supposed to be predictive, rather than Sagarin's, which are supposed to be reflective. KenPom's rankings tell you how you should expect a team to play as the season progresses, hence why the rankings on KenPom do a very good job when sorting through the NCAA tournament, while Sagarin's do a good job in early season matchups.

That's why Sagarin has Iowa State ranked so high, while KenPom isn't nearly as bold on the Cyclones. Sagarin sees ISU's two top 25 wins (BYU and Michigan) and rockets the Cyclones up the charts. Because KenPom is predictive, it shows that Iowa State and Michigan are roughly even squads, and since ISU was at home, they would be expected to pull out the victory, thus no huge reward for ISU. It also shows that ISU is expected to be slightly better than BYU, even when factoring in the road environment (a 1.4% adjustment), meaning that you would expect a narrow ISU win (Cyclones won by 2).

I like both and would expect that the KenPom ranks will start to normalize in a couple of weeks once all teams have 8-10 games under their belts.

@justanotherfan Very clear and informative explanation of the difference between KenPom and Sagarin. Stiff I never knew, anyway. Thanks

@justanotherfan. Close but not exactly. Sagarin has 3 ratings including one that is a predictor and you can use whichever one you want depending on what you want to interpret or predict. The Sagarin rankings get better as the season progresses and the teams are linked.

If KenPom is a predictor, then why is it has Duke ranked #28 (it was 70 something before yesterday games).? Maybe they are not top 3 but they are definitely top 10 and maybe even top 5.

All these rankings are highly speculative and heavily dependent on sample size and, at this point in the season, a more subjective human ranking is probably better. As the season progresses, they all become better with the bigger sample.