🏀 KuBuckets Archive

What could be better tonic than washing the Shlocker loss away with a gold medal in the WUG ? Could anyone have written a more perfect script for Wayne Selden to go from this ...

http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2015/apr/10/wayne-selden-announcement-seems-unnecess/ ↗link text ↗

TO THIS ..

“He’s been superior to everybody,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of Selden. “He played to his athletic ability. Shot selection was terrific. And, of course, he only played 38 or 39 minutes. He and Frank, we couldn’t take them out with Nic getting in foul trouble. Yeah, he played great.”

Mason added: “I have a lot of confidence in Wayne. He’s showed it all tournament. He’s been the best player here so far. Hopefully he can keep that going tomorrow and get the gold.

Hunter Michelson a.k.a. THE RED FURY. Banished into a "cryogenic state" ( tip of the cap to the great one for that one), he emerges from the phone booth in his Superman costume, ready to kick Euro butt. Playing like a three legged man in an ass kicking contest, his constant hustle has been pretty darn amazing. I don't know if it's because of intl rules, and he goes back into the deep freeze or not, I just know he's playing pretty damn good right now.

Landen - Talking about re-writing an obituary - rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated. His effort the last two games was a Jayhawk effort...maybe seeing Hunter get some ink woke him out his "cryogenic slumber" ( tip of the cap to the great one for that).

Jamari - Unredeemed so far. Maybe Jamari is hurt. Maybe Jamari is in the toughening box. Maybe Coach broke up with him as his pet ( I apologize in advance for that cynical remark). Maybe Coach is preparing Jamari for the regular season. Would love to see a Jamari redemption in the title game. He won't get it in 6 minutes playing time- if he gets 6 minutes tomorrow, it would seem that somebody is trying to prepare a certain somebody that he won't be hitting the court much this year ( unless Traylor is hurt).

BTW, I don't believe for a second that Perry is operating at 100%- he looks sore...it looks like to me he is grimacing. He doesn't look as fast as last year. Anyone else care to wildly speculate?

@KUSTEVE PHOF !!!

According to the **It's the Jayhawks against the world ** article, KU may be on USA Redemption Tour. Folks are watching to see if sending a single team like KU to WUG is a good strategy.
http://mobile.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/07/660_182248.html ↗

@KUSTEVE

Nicely done. Like you, every time I start to think who will be the starting big, the other does something to send the analysis back to square one. Mickelson seemed poised to take over the position and then Lucas has arguably his best game of the tourney to put himself right back in contention. Traylor seems to be the odd man out for the time being, although -if I remember correctly- was in towards the end of the game to play defense; maybe this will be his role in the upcoming season.

These games have helped more that we even realize, not only building team chemistry but also helping players compete against top players they are not familiar with, something that will be very helpful in view of the tough schedule ahead. I really like the leadership that More has provided, I am sure Mason has learned from him; I wish we could keep him but Devonte should be a more than capable replacement.

There are several other single school teams representing the USA as well and are listed below with their current records...

Men baseball - California State University Fullerton, 2-3

Women soccer - Colorado College, 2-4

Men water polo - UCLA, 5-2

Women water polo - Stanford, 3-1-3

No question that KU is doing the best. Other than KU, only the UCLA men's polo team has a winning record.

I think Jamari has just been out-smarted in this tournament. All of these teams will make you pay for making poor decisions or for lacking the proper anticipation.

I hope this is a wake-up call for Jamari to work on his basketball IQ. I'm not really sure what the best methods would be for him to try to improve his, but this is now (by far) his biggest weakness in the game (IMHO).

Hunter is a pretty smart guy and has adjusted the fastest and most of any of our big men. Landen is starting to come around. He is starting to address his frustration level because the first step in him becoming effective is to play with the wits he possesses when not too emotional.

Jamari isn't on the right page. The game is moving too fast for him. Everything he does appears to be slow and telegraphed. And since his game is slow here, he doesn't match up well against all of these guys that are 5+ inches taller than him.

@drgnslayr Jamari needs another Tarik. They were dynamite together, weren't they?

The amount, or should I say the lack of actual ESPN coverage other than ESPNU's broadcast of our Jayhawks representing Team USA is very disappointing. Especially since they're playing for Gold tomorrow morning. I checked my mobile ESPN and they had nothing about it. But there was an article about Duke getting a recruit for next next year.

@Kip_McSmithers figures!

@Kip_McSmithers

I caught that, too.

You would have thought it would be at least a bit of a media event because it is the only real basketball going on, and it was USA vs Russia, playing to advance to the Gold medal game.

I guess if they jumped in now and gave coverage, Americans would be asking them... "why didn't I know about this tournament sooner?"

What most people don't understand is how news (and sports news) works. There aren't many real journalists left (or reporting done). Organizations get their news off the AP wire. So if no one posts the story (like WUG) then it doesn't get picked up. None of these organizations have enough interest to invest in coverage from Korea.

Sounds ridiculous... but chances are that few (if any) sports media groups even know WUG is going on now.

@KUSTEVE

"Jamari needs another Tarik."

I think Jamari needs another Danny Manning as an assistant coach. Imagine the help he would have received over all his years at Kansas if Danny was still with us?

The Woman's Team USA is playing vs Canada right before us for THE GOLD too! Wouldn't it be great to get both?

@drgnslayr I have tweeted several guys @espn and Mark Packer about being 5-0 and got nothing. I will rub it in to Seth Davis, Bilas, Fraschilla, etc. when we win tomorrow!

@RockChalkinTexas

In other news...Jack Harry posted that the USA men's and women's basketball teams believe they are "entitled" to the gold medals and as usual...nobody cared...:)

@drgnslayr

well put, Mari has looked to me to be upset with his role in these games (or lack of). But his play besides 1 game I believe has been uninspiring. He turned the ball over twice when he had scoring opportunities on offense in the last game. One travel & dropped fast break pass from Vick. Rebounding which everyone including Self has mentioned has not improved.

If the Season started today, you'd couldn't reasonably make a case for him being any higher than our 6th big. Which with Diallo & Bragg in, and an improved Hunter it was already going to be hard for him to be relied upon in the same capacity as the past 2 years. It's nice to know that if times get tough (injury to another big/ foul trouble/ small ball) that Mari can be used. Hopefully he uses the rest of the summer after today's game to continue to work on his game.