🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Nic is an all conference player in a non power conference. He is a mature player. He is a winner that doesn't always look so good, but always seems to be on the winner at the playground. He is a dwarf that forces every one on a team to say there is no opponent too tall to guard, because Nic guards guy 4-6 inches taller than him all the time.

Devonte plays older than his age, but he is a soph and has still not been a starter.. He is normal height: 6-2. Despite the baby face, he plays tough. He can match Nic shooting and passing, but can he defend and attack with as much uncanny edginess and timing? Can he take other players out of their comfort zones, like Nic can? Can he own the x-axis game in and game out? Can he make teammates look in the mirror and say, "If he can, I can!" That is the essence of what Devonte is replacing--even assuming he fully recovers his pop after injury.

Nic was such a strong personality he could step into a team and let Frank stay the PG leader--his usual role, yet also become the psychological cornerstone of the team--the alpha with the street smart swag to let Frank, and Wayne and even Hunter be who they were.

I believe it was Nic and his 'tude that made our guys quit looking to the bench after misses and mistakes, like whipped currs. They played like confident players, mistakes and all.

This is what Devonte has to replace.

Or maybe it's what he can now become.

Like the old war movies in which a tough sergeant that has molded a bunch of boys into men is killed and is succeeded by one of the least likely guys. You know. The Sands of Iwo Jima that every one makes fun of, but that everyone that has ever played on a champion knows is the real model of transference that has to happen for great things to happen. The leader must eventually be absorbed by the lead. The leader so desperately needed must become unnecessary.

Hell yes Devonte and the KU team can replace their diminuitive Sergeant Stryker!

Now each knows what each must become on his own.

This is the real hero myth.

@jaybate-1.0

Devonte will step right in provided he's healthy. He's taller so he's not the liability that Moore was sometimes when matched up against taller guards.

Devonte is more a true point which is the perfect compliment to Frank. His defense will be good, he can shoot and get into the lane. He might not have the attitude that Moore has but I imagine Nic didn't have that as a Soph. either. Who knows we may see him become a vocal leader now that he's got a year under his belt.

I think (if he's healthy) Devonte will step right in to the hole left by Nic. He may be younger, but has more height and talent. Yes... he is younger, but he has also had almost a complete year more of Self ball than Nic had. He is also known more by his teammates.

He is not only an adequate replacement for Nic, he is only beginning to touch his real potential, so we get several more years of his upside being developed in Lawrence.

Nic was great because he filled the emergency hole left by Devonte. Hopefully, Devonte will be healthy and can now replace the hole left by Nic.

@jaybate-1.0 yes!

@jaybate-1.0

Yes he can! And Devonte made the trip and got to witness Nic play and interact both on and off the court.

Hopefully HCBS had dialog w Devonte about this very subject. Or maybe that is Snacks' role?

@VailHawk et al,

I kind of doubt Devonte alone can replace Nic.

It will take all of the team taking on some of Nic's qualities.

Nic is a special human being in the same way Russ Rob was.

Self once said that RussRob didn't always look that good, but the longer you were around him the more you noticed he tended to be on the winning side of the scrimmage, or something to that effect.

There are just some guys that have this peculiar kind of genius that is not always appreciated, or highly compensated in our society, because it is not easily isolated and measured. But there are always one or two of them on a championship team.

Until one works with any kind of genius, it is hard to know what a great mind is capable of. It is hard even to recognize real genius. But once you have been around one, you realize how much more you are capable of, and that a significant part of genius is simply hard work. It is actually liberating to see real genius be stymied, shift gears, scale problems up and scale them down in search of a fitting solution. There is much of genius that "ordinary" persons can emulate and so become much, much more productive in their work. Genius is not worth near as much in one off solutions, as it is in rubbing off on a group to up its collective effectiveness.

Nic has some team dynamic genius.

@jaybate-1.0 Graham has to scrimmage against Mason in practice every day. If you have to guard Mason on a regular basis then I would put my money on Graham being better. Who better to go head to head with on a daily basis than Mason?

Yes. He can and he will. The starting back court of Mason and Graham will be one of the best in the country due to two guys who can handle the ball with ease, can shoot well enough to keep their defender honest and above all have grit and will to win. I can't wait to see the lineup of Mason/Graham/Selden on the perimeter with Perry/Diallo in the post. That is a Final 4 starting 5.

Imagine scrimmages with

Mason vs Graham

Svi vs Green

Selden vs Vick

Ellsi vs Bragg

Mickelson vs Diallo

Use any order you want but it would be a battle non the less during practice each and every day!

Might have to switch Vick and Svi?

@Statmachine

Count me among the skeptical minority.

I still think this team in a best case scenario will wind up like UW the last two seasons.

They don't have enough OAD and 5 star talent to finish against a stack with a good coach.

They could upset a Johnny Jones, or Cuonzo, stack, because Jones and Cuonzo are untested in the finals and .560 coaches.

They could upset a completely green stack, because of their experience.

But if they run into a stack with a nice mix of OADs and TADs, it will be very tough for them to compete effectively.

The stacks will have footers plural.

Diallo has never had to stop footers twice in three days AND rebound AND score AND hedge defend with a wide lane, which he will have to do, if this team were to go all the way.

Going all the way with this team just seems wildly optimistic at this point.

We are talking about a team with a total of one projected OAD center (Diallo), a 5 star senior (Ellis), a 4-star Frosh (Bragg), and a ThreeAD wing (Selden). Among these, Diallo and Selden and Ellis seem likely draft choices, but none of them are every game MUAs, except maybe for Selden. Among the rest of the team there appears not a single draft choice next season and only Vick and Bragg appear likely draft choices out in the future.

There will probably be 6-8 teams with sharply more talent than KU next season. Probably 4 of them will be stacks.

KU has huge question marks around the healing of Graham and Greene.

KU's great WUG team loses its only proven all-conference level player--Nic Moore.

I am glad you are juiced.

And I am not dismissing your optimism out of hand, because you and others were bullish on the team's chances before the WUGs, when I was also pessimistic, and you all were vindictated.

But in the age of stacks, and biased seeding, and biased whistling, which we are still in, it takes a lot of talent to getter done.

But damn I hope you are right.

@jaybate-1.0 Name the 4 stacks? There are not 4 teams with stacks of 5 star talent in the NCAA.

Huge congrats to KU players and coaches: GOLD!

Realistic expectations for KU 2015-16:

1) another Big 12 championship (plan B is a tie)
2) a 30 win season (plan B is 29 wins, including the tourneys)
3) an Final Four (plan B is Elite Eight)

As we discussed at the end of last season, it all depends on injuries/eligibilities, match ups and the maturation/development of a few players. But I really like the depth and the moxy, the mix of newbies and the vets, the evolution of our style and our HCBS.

I like this quote: italicised textitalicised text* I believe it was Nic and his 'tude that made our guys quit looking to the bench after misses and mistakes, like whipped currs. They played like confident players, mistakes and all.

We will be an elite defensive team, with toughness and depth right out of the gate. We will defend, get the 50-50 balls and rebound with more energy and determination than the last two years.

Will the offense loosen up? We will be afraid to shoot the three early in the shot clock? Will we look to the bench for approval / approbation / permission...will we play a little less system offense, a little less high-lo pass and pass and pass some more? Will we run and gun and dribble-drive to shoot or pass? Let 'em play a little freer on O this year coach!

We have got enough shooters and play makers and my prediction is that Coach will encourage a more aggressive offensive "make a play" individual style, and three point shooting than over the past two years.

This will certainly make a few board rats happy!

RCJH!!!

From a pure basketball skills perspective, Devonte can and will replace Nic. From a leadership performance? Not at this time; he does not have nearly the experience Nic has, but in time, I am hopeful Devonte will develop into a true leader

KU BB leaders:

Devonte, Frank and Wayne, all strong and capable of leading by example and leading by body language and words.

Leadership is not an issue this year. Devonte is a leader already (he was chosen by a neutral third party during military training last year as the leader of the group...as a freshman!

Here is the most intriguing question: can we play tough, tight and very physical D but loose, free-flowing O at the same time? How does our main man Coach Self and his staff teach the players to be totally committed to the team concept but not to overpass and overthink on O?

@jaybate-1.0 Ellis was All Conference wasn't he?

@jaybate-1.0 Solid!

@Statmachine

Stacking appears an evolving approach to achieve feasible target benefits of asymmetric talent distribution, if my hypothesis were to approximate reality accurately.

SHORT AND LONG STACKS: >3 OAD/TAD IN ROTATION

LSU
UK
UNC
Duke
Cal
UA
MSU

Notice we are not just talking 5 star talent for Perry was a five star and he is going 4 seasons without major injury as a driver. We are talking about "projected" OAD/TAD talent.

KU has only two players that were "projected" as OAD/TAD players: Diallo and Selden. Injuries derailed Selden into a 3AD, but healed he now seems ready to fulfill his OAD/TAD projection. But this count is not about fulfillment of projection. It's about projected OAD/TADs.

Hypothesis: There appears a move away from three long stacks of 8-9 OAD/TADs to 6 or 8 short stacks of greater than 3 OAD/TADs that appears geared to put two short stacks in each tournament region, perhaps as a less conspicuous, more sustainable, and more effective means of dominating all four brackets.

Three apparent long stacks last season--UK, Duke and UA--and an apparent favorable whistle netted only two of four slots in the FF; that's only a 50/50 probability of a title without the refs and with a lot of uncomfortable appearances and top talent sitting on benches. Very heavy handed.

6 to 8 short stacks seems more an odds maker's approach, doesn't it?

The ideal would be 2 short stacks in each power five conference feeding into 2-3 short stacks in each tournament region.

The short stack approach hinges on channeling more talent away from the challenger brand and spreading talent a little more thinly to get more coverage of the top and bottom of the bracket; i.e., the 1 and 2 seeds of each bracket.

The hypothetical object would be to rely less on refs to shape outcomes, which could be an embarrassing and sometimes hard to conceal corruption of the process that could discourage betting over time.

Let probability and the seeding structure do the heavy lifting.

The asymmetric whistle should be used sparingly.

But it's all hypothetical, of course.

@jaybate-1.0

Since peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are now consider to be racists ↗ can calling players a "stack," as in pancakes, also be considered racist?

I am just kidding, of course...although many wacko liberals might actually take offense with the term...just sayin'

@JayHawkFanToo

An interesting question for which, alas, I have no pithy, insightful answer.

But as I am always able to strike new phrases, and in fact enjoy doing so, if someone wishes me to quit using stacking on grounds it disrespects someone's race, color, creed, etc., I will of course oblige them.

I have never felt it a burden to call any persons struggling to escape oppression by what ever names and modifiers they prefer. Anything to help another human being get free always rubs me the right way. If it helps them get beyond their predicaments inflicted on them by society's less virtuous aspects, and it costs me nothing but changing a word, or turn of phrase, I would feel like a really uncivilized alias were I not to oblige.

Rock Chalk!

@JayHawkFanToo

P.S.: I can't recall where I heard this, but I find the sentiment increasingly prescient: "Instead of Wacko-Liberals, substitute ' Wacko-Conservatives and Wacko-Liberals Carefully Funded by the Same Private Oligarchy Advocating Deindustrialization of America and De-institutiing of American Civil Liberties Using as Justification Whatever Crises Real or Contrived Are Available at any Given Moment Followed Eventually by a Coup d'Gras of Massive Currency Devaluation and Theft of America's Publicly Owned Resources and Infrastructures'" Its a little wordy, but some how captures things memorably despite itself. :-)

jaybate I would debate you about this topic but I am in a foul mood and would come off looking like an ass. Marital Bliss is all I got to say about that!

@jaybate-1.0 To some degree, I think one could easily argue that Svi and Bragg should be considered TAD players. That would put KU at 4.

@jaybate-1.0 Kentucky isnt a footer stack this season. Wisconsin lost their best big man. UNC is going to be uber talented and experienced but not a footer on that team. Duke? I dont think so either, although they will be tough again. LSU should challenge UK for the SEC crown with their class.
What we do know is that the trio of Lucas, Mickelson and Ellis were able to beat two teams with plural footers. Plural 7+ footers at that. So any team that has a footer this year, should be old hat to KU by then. They can handle it. They have proven that they can handle a grueling 8 games in 10 days and wont give in even while running on fumes.
I say bring it. Im sure KU says bring it. They can and will beat teams with footers again next season.

@JayHawkFanToo I consider myself very socially liberal, yet open minded enough to ask why is a PBnJ considered racist? Dont all kids like PBnJ? Its not racist at all!! What it is though is un American! Who bashes PBnJ?

@Lulufulu Some dumb B in Portland that's superintendent of a schools claims it's racist because not all cultures eat bread and therefore being forced to eat PB&J on bread at a publicly funded school is considered white privilege. It's just beyond ridiculous what's considered racist now.

There's probably somebody out there who considers it racist of me to eat fried chicken or watermelon because I'm white ignoring that I've lived in the south basically my entire life except for while I attended KU.

"CAN DEVONTE REPLACE NIC?"

YES, HE CAN. AND WILL. AND HE WILL BE GREAT.

Sorry for shouting. I get excited about Devonte this year.

@JayHawkFanToo As a Liberal, even I find the PB&J comments made by that Principal quite moronic, and suspect most other liberals would shake their heads in disbelief too. And I won't take offense to your "wacko liberals" comments because 1. I get your humor, 2. you are a Jayhawk brother,and 3. free speech is paramount to this site and our country. However, "extremism" exists among Liberals and Conservatives, and they can be quite scary to those who fall more "centralist" in their politics and practices. That said, your link to Alex Jones' Infowars makes me shake my head in pity because this guy is the King of Conspiracies (most unsupported by facts,) and is quite the "wacko conservative" that many other conservatives find just as appalling. Just sayin'.

Rock Chalk!

@JayHawkFanToo

Politically, I'm an independent. Can't really see eye-to-eye with either Reps or Dems.

I'm not black and I'm not white. On a census form I'm considered "other." I grew up facing some racism. I call it racism because it involved name calling and sometimes getting picked on. But I noticed other kids were also facing similar antics and they were white. So... guess I'll never know if I "suffered" because of my ethnicity. When kids got hateful towards me, I beat the crap out of them! After that, they figured it was better to be my friend!

I know I'm not the only non-white person who is sick and tired of the race card being pulled out on everything. Attacking peanut butter and jelly with a race card makes me consider the source as racists. Overplaying the race card, in my books, makes you a racist. Someone trying to chisel their own gain off of the real issue of race.

I'm glad I'm not white. Because white people can't challenge anything around race without being called racists. I can call out anyone on racial topics without getting called racist. It is truly unfair today.

Most people can only see issues from one side... their side. Things get quickly stirred because of that. When I say "most people" I mean people of all colors. Often today we are seeing white people angry because they simply can't express anything about color or race without the fear of being tagged "racist." That anger is sometimes showing itself now and that angers non-white people because "hey, we are the ones being held down, so why are you pissed off?' It just continues to stir the pot on both sides. And it is all because people refuse to take off their blinders and open their minds to people of a different color, whether it be black, white, tan...

We may end up going back in time to the 60s and 70s... back to race riots and huge tensions and struggle. And why? Race relations have improved drastically from back then to now. But it isn't perfect nor will ever be. But the problem is people closing their minds. It is just as bad on the democrat side as it is the republican side. Liberal or conservative. Seems that many of my friends totally break the stereotypes laid down in media.

Funny (actually not) how today every idea has to be tagged as liberal or conservative. Why? For example, why is medical/social funding to our troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan... why is that liberal or conservative? I'm so sick of both reps and dems I can't stand it. Guess that is why I'm an independent.

Ideas are good or bad or something in between...

I don't care what anybody says. I have many fond memories of eating PB&J sandwiches, and I still enjoy them today. Sometimes I grill them. If you're offended then so be it, and get over it.

That would be like telling me I can't have fries with my cheeseburger. Not going to happen.

Political correctness can only go so far, before a man or women says enough is enough.

Let me try to put this in a basketball prospective. Whether it's the Rebel flag, Fried chicken, Grilling over and open flame (oh yea barbequing is deemed a black thing and racist if white people do it), or eating a PB&J sandwich. They are just symbols, intents and really nobody cares. If they did the top talented Black kids would never step foot on the Kentucky Wildcats campus. As the Wildcats were one of the most racist Colleges in the history of the game. Yet we don't see that do we?

I rest my case.

Anyone see what's happening in Greece? Hear about the Chinese stock market taking a bath? Now...that has my full attention. Other than KU basketball, that is. They're trying to distract us, and get us to fight with each other over ridiculous issues ....while our economic systems are the verge of complete collapse. Our national debt is so astronomically high, the fed office that releases that info hasn't changed the debt clock in 4 MONTHS... and everyone is discussing Brucie Jenner and "racism. " Isn't the first method of overthrowing a country to destroy its economic system? Gee, wonder what kind of despot will grab power in Greece when their financial systems are in ruins. I'm afraid we're fixing to see things and times we have never seen in our lifetime.

Ok, that was depressing. You guys started it. Lets talk who you think will start: I'm thinking Bulldog, Devonte, Wayne, Perry, Diallo ( by conference ).

@KUSTEVE

Yep, It's called the grape fruit method. A ploy used by the government to distract the masses from paying attention to what's really going on. I bet nobody knows our government just signed a treaty with Iran and yet they have 4 Americans hostages ???

I concur with your lineup but I think Svi can be a wild card. Everything I've been reading says the kid is coming to play.

@KUSTEVE Agreed, and during the Non Conf...I think we see Mason,Devonte, Selden, Ellis aaannnnd! Big Mick! the Big Hunt! He starts until Diallo can handle it but still will get his minutes.

@Lulufulu

My post had a link and it has been all over social media.

@hawkmoon2020 @drgnslayr

I used to consider myself a solid Republican/conservative way back when, but over the years I have become more fiscally conservative and socially moderate.,,although to the younger generation I am still an old fashion prude.

While in the overall balance I am more conservative when it comes to parties I have grown disenchanted with both which I consider not too different and now I am beginning to lean Libertarian, particularly in view of the massive intrusion of the Federal Government in our private lives, a process that has increase dramatically in the last few years.

Because of the work I do and access to information not readily available to the average person, I am frankly floored by how much the government intrudes in our lives and privacy is non-existent. If the citizens of this country knew how much information the government collects on all of us and how much control it has, I believe we would have a second Tea Party. What we have learned from Snowden is only the tip of the iceberg. If you want your digital information private, you need to keep it in a computer not connected to the outside world; once you connect to the internet and even when you don't send the data out, you can be sure that sooner or later it will be compromised.

While discussing politically incorrect food, anyone that has or knows children that have tried the new school lunch know what an abysmal failure its has been. Kids now refuse to eat the food and the majority of it ends up in the trash; my own grand kids now bring their lunch to school instead of getting what is offered by the school cafeteria. Many School District are dropping out of the program ↗ and risk losing federal aid because participation has plummeted, waste has increased and more importantly, disadvantaged student for whom the school lunch was the main meal of the day stopped eating food that no one likes.

I am personally curious as to why Michelle Obama has the authority to do this since she holds no government position that would giver the authority to do it and she was not elected to any public office either. If you think this was bad, get ready folks, it gets worse. Apparently Mrs. Obama now believes she has the authority to decide what our fighting men can or cannot eat and now the US Navy is under the dietary whims of the first lady ↗...you really can't make this stuff up... :(

@JayHawkFanToo

I grew up as a fiscal conservative, and not much has changed there. I am socially moderate.

I became disenchanted with my Republican party during Reagan. He spent us into horrific record debt to build military. Because of his popularity, even though he brushed off fiscal conservatives, he was able to entice more social conservatives into the party. That was the beginning to the end for me and what was my party.

BTW: fiscal conservatism doesn't mean NOT spending money for needed programs or slashing funds or attempting to not pay for things on a government level. Fiscal conservatism is about spending money wisely, with prudence.

@JayHawkFanToo said:

you really can’t make this stuff up…

Are you kidding? Of course you can make this stuff up:
http://m.snopes.com/navy-food-changes/ ↗

@DanR good to know!

@JayHawkFanToo

For more information, see Snopes.com article: http://m.snopes.com/peanut-butter-jelly-racist/ ↗ .

@DanR

While Michelle Obama was not "officially" responsible for the new diet, the directive to the Navy came from the White House.according to many sources, and I don't believe the president, a known smoker, is necessarily into health eating, so guess who started the whole thing. The first lady has no authority over the school lunch program but there is absolutely zero doubt that she is the one behind that program implementation, right?

Snopes is very good at debunking the simpler stories, but they depend uniquely in "available/official" information and of course...Google; they do not necessarily look farther than that and they have been proven wrong on many occasions. I have looked up Snopes in the past as well as many other sites that claim to debunk urban legends and I personally seldom depend on just one site. When in doubt Google it and look at different sources and form your own opinion Not big deal either way, we can all draw our own conclusions and I respect yours all the same; just because we have different "opinions" does not mean that either is right...or wrong, just different, right?

@hawkmoon2020 My question has always been...who is watching Snopes? Are they the next "Politifact" ( a democrat front group pretending to be an "unbiased" truth detector ). No answer is required - just curious..... ;).

@JayHawkFanToo
Totally agree that one should seek multiple sources for information in order to determine the real facts, quotes, circumstances or context. I certainly try to. Especially in this day and age of "media," where there can be a lot of misinformation and out right lies on the internet . . . like this one: "The problem with internet quotes is that you cant always depend on their accuracy." -Abraham Lincoln, 1864 LOL

And yes, sometimes we can draw different conclusion given the same facts, so it's all good. I have no problem agreeing to disagree, and am always open to info that may debunk what I thought I knew.

@hawkmoon2020

...and on that, we agree. :)

@hawkmoon2020 "You can't put anything on the internet that isn't true."

@Texas-Hawk-10 said: Some dumb B in Portland...

Really? Dumb B? Perhaps you should get out of the south a little more.

Also, read the original article again and try to find two brain cells to rub together to understand the point she was making. (hint: it's not about the pb&j)

I sure am glad that we stuck to the topic on this board! CAN DEVONTE REPLACE NIC? Can we all move the stupid bickering about PBJ somewhere else? Maybe you can find a comment section on a Jiffy web site and talk all day about creamy or nutty?

@Statmachine well, to keep it on topic, it's like this.

Nic Moore grew up making a kick ass peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and Devonte Graham comes from some place where they don't eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He grew up making breakfast burritos. Bill Self has a choice to make about leadership... should he judge Devonte Graham's leadership abilities by having him lead the team in peanut butter sandwich making or... (this will blow your mind!!!) find another way to judge his leadership skills based on what he knows? Keep in mind that this is an exercise in leadership (or writing capability in the original case), not actual peanut butter sandwich making.

What's really great about this assignment if you're a teacher is... wait for it... both Nic and Devonte have a unique opportunity to learn about leadership by contributing their own life experiences and talents. Everyone wins.

Except overly-sensitive people who got their fee fees hurt, thinking it's about sandwiches. And neanderthals who refer to a woman as a "dumb B".

The end. See you in a few months.

@DanR When you try to please everyone, you please no one and that's what that principal is trying to do. If I move to another country, it is a realistic expectation that I adapt to that culture and learn their ways, including learning styles, but it's apparently not okay to have the same expectations of those who move here?

Ladies! You're both pretty!

Now to the real issue, I have a tough time buying into Graham will be great this year. I believe he will be solid, but to expect anything more than a Sophomore still learning to lead and become more consistent might get disappointed.

@Statmachine

Marital bliss?

I have always believed that it is akin to "the pursuit of happiness"--an ideal that inspires us to get better, but which is in reality always just over the horizon.

Be strong. Being the daddy to a family and a relationship often requires admitting another human being cannot be fixed and is a deeply flawed person momentarily battling the ghosts of their parents by substituting their mate momentarily.

Go fishing.

Or substitute savaging my post for further conflict amidst the quest for marital bliss.

Fishing is more fun, though.

Rock Chalk!!!

@DanR

:-)

Not to long in a travel out to the west coast. I visited a Cuban family. Not fully aware of the in's and outs of their culture, I made the mistake of eating IN and Out Burger before stopping by. Huge mistake for you see the man's wife insisted that I eat dinner. I realized my situation right away. It would have been disrespectful to not oblige her. So with my gut busting I eat some of the best Cuban food in my life. And damn near puked.

My point is you don't change you're way of life or pass laws to change ones way of life to keep peace. What they did in Portland is dumb. A PB&J sandwich is like apple pie it's part of the American culture as anything.

You know as adults we can go out to eat and if we see something on the menu we've never had or don't like we don't ask the owner to change the menu. Yet we want to ban PB&J's because some kids with a foreign background never had them? Really?

@DoubleDD

Ah, ok. Thx 4 clarifying.

@DoubleDD

"A PB&J sandwich is like apple pie it’s part of the American culture as anything."

I like what you said there.

The last time I checked my watch, this was still the United States of America. It is a country built on diversity. PBJs are an addition to our diversity, not a statement about race. I'm sure some people didn't grow up eating PGJs... so let them eat breakfast burritos or apple pie or whatever. But in a public place, something has to be chosen to be on a menu. Truth is... kids of all ethnic backgrounds tend to like PBJs. We can replace PBJs with Haggis, to please some of the Scots. Let's see how successful that will be...

@drgnslayr : You just reminded me of the SNL sketch about people eating at the new, trendy restaurant that served Scottish cuisine: Dan Ackroyd was the server ("That'll be two Haggises.") Don't think I could "stomach" the dish, but hey, I've never gone hungry for more than a few hours at a time. And maybe, back in the day, Scots may have learned to like it if it was readily available; it does have oatmeal in it, right?

@jaybate-1.0 Absolutely can Devonte Graham replace Nic Moore: Devonte was rock solid against WSU in crunch time (just didn't get much help other than from Mason.) And that's as a frosh. He is 6'2, more athletic than Nic Moore, and has a WAY better shot than Nic Moore. Not to be too critical of Moore, but Devonte in Yr2 will surpass Nic as a Sr.

Mark my words.

Mason + Graham certainly equal Tyshawn + EJ, and may possibly surpass them. Watch! If their collective and individual D can improve, then they may get near the duo of Chalmers and RussRob. But those '08 guys were incredibly efficient players. The standard was set by them.

@ralster I agree!

mmm. I'd like a PBandJ sandwich now. Unfortunately my child is deathly allergic to Peanuts so no PBJ's here. Guess I'm not a racist, whew.

On an aside when shown pictures of a Mexican girl and black girl and a white girl and aked the difference between them, my 5 year old says the Mexican girl is wearing a bracelet, the black girl has a red shirt on, and the white girl has a pony tail...

Devone has the size that Nic will never have. Will Devonte demostate the leadership qualities of Nic? KU Needs the deadly tandem of disruption on the perimiter (think RussRob and Chalmers feeding off of one anther). I'd love to see the perimeter defense ratchet up this season and Devonte is the key.

@ralster

I agree. From a pure basketball skill perspective Devonte is more that capable of replacing Nic, as I have posted before; he is not only the better athlete and shooter but considerably taller as well. However, the biggest asset that Nic brought to the table was leadership ...and that comes not only naturally to some people (and not others) but also takes experience to develop it.

Wasn't Dg the proven leader from last summers boot camp?

From a pure basketball stand point, if I recall correctly, Nic is a first team all conference player his junior season at SMU.

From a pure basketball stand point, Devonte has to first get to where he can start.

Next he has to get to where he can be a starting point guard on the team, so that he can bring that level of skill to sharing point guard duties with someone like Frank Mason.

Next Devonte has to make third, or second team All Conference.

Next, Devonte has to make first team all conference his junior season.

And all of this is BEFORE he can even get a chance to be BETTER than Nic.

I like Devonte.

I like that he is taller than Nic.

Other things equal, it is better to be taller than shorter in basketball.

Alas, Devonte is also taller than Nate Archibald and Calvin Murphy.

Devonte might also be taller than Steve Nash and John Stockton.

Jason Kidd was taller than Nate Archibald.

I think Jason Kidd was a helluva ball player. But I would take Tiny over Jason regardless of era and regardless of height. I would take Stock over Jason, too, though they might have been the same height.

As @drgnslayr says: about 80 percent of the game is played from 6 feet 6 inches or so on down to the floor on the x-axis. And a really good x-axis player is good at forcing an even higher percentage of action down onto that x-axis.

We ought not put Devonte Graham behind an eight ball. He can sure be a good replacement for Nic. We are fortunate.

But as I wrote above some time ago now, Nic is going to have to be replaced in bits and pieces by the contributions of several players.

And by the time Devonte were a junior, wouldn't we all be thrilled, if he were first team all conference, like Nic?

@jaybate-1.0 Nic Moore was American Conference POY as a junior if you really want to set the bar for Graham's development in 2016-17.

@Crimsonorblue22

Being a leader at boot camp and being a leader at game time are not quite the same. Much like in the military, many officers that are good leaders at boot camp are not very good leaders in combat.

@jaybate-1.0

First team All Conference in the Big 12 >>> First team All Conference in Conference USA

Third team All Conference in the Big 12 = First team All Conference in Conference USA

@Texas-Hawk-10

Thanks for the clarification. And I do. :-)

@JayHawkFanToo

First, I guess we both have to stand corrected by @Texas-Hawk-10 and start saying "American Athletic Conference." (AAC)

Next, this conference is significantly better than I realized, when I took a look. It includes: Memphis, Temple, 'natti, and UConn. The last three would have been tough match ups for KU last season and the 'Natti had a darned good team.

Nevertheless, I am down, as some Alphabet generation used to say, with valid indexing.

My thinking is your formalization of indexing is helpful, but probably needs a little fine tuning for the anomaly of last season, when Nic was AAC POY.

Most years, your AAC < B12 inequality holds strong. But to be fair in indexing, I have to admit that I watched the 'Natti last season and they were VERY tough. Likable? No. Tough? Very.

And I watched SMU late last season and they were certainly good enough to have had a better than even chance against any B12 conference title threat team. They likely would have finished nearly as high, give or take a rank or two in the B12 last season, as the two teams finished in the AAC. This at least suggests to me that maybe the differences between the conferences were a bit less by the conference seasons than the pre conference comparisons of the past might have suggested. And in particular against the B12 conference champion, KU, it seems either 'Natti, which showed so well in the Madness, or SMU, which got bum whistled out of it, would have had a good chance of winning the B12 last season, or at the very least upsetting KU at least as often as ISU. Those were two very good AAC teams. And Temple was tough. And frankly, the B12 basement has been nothing to write home about for the last few years, despite the roughness of the game permitting them to win a few games by catching top teams injured or on emotional let downs in conference.

The Big 12 turned out not to have been quite so good as some thought last season. I mean, KU's weakest team in a long time won it outright. And Big 12 teams did not show well again in the Madness against non conference teams, when such competition counts most. And though I have hardly studied it closely, I recall someone saying the NBA draft was one indication that the Big 12 teams were apparently not uber talented.

So, when one gets out the indexing logic and tries to apply it, while the AAC tends to be less strong than the B12 most years, last season what appears to have happened was this: The Big 12 was still relatively more talented, especially through the middle, than AAC, but the B12's usual two top teams--KU and Texas--were far weaker than usual, even though early season expectations ran high for Texas (and were disproven). ISU seemed to come on strong, but like most B12 teams, it was a doughnut with a hole in the middle. And it gets sharply more difficult to assign a huge edge to the B12 when it is a conference with few bigs. ISU and KU last season held no huge advantage in bigs over mid majors like 'Natti and SMU in the AAC, or for that matter WSU in the MVC. And the B12's usual large edge in coaching was diminished at least some by LB being at SMU a second season. LB, Ollie, Dunphy, and Pastner (based on his winning percentage anyway), stack up pretty evenly with any four B12 coaches right?

So AAC < B12 is subject to significant variance last season bringing them much closer together than usual, at least in my anecdotal assessment.

It follows then that while in most years your equality of "3rd team All-Con B12 = 1st Team All Con AAC" would tend to hold, last season it probably was more like: "2rd team All Con AAC = 1st team All Con B12."

And when one adds in that when Nic was added to KU's WUG team the team promptly appeared to play sharply better than it had in the past, even without a lot of its players, well, it seems Devonte has some significant shoes to fill.

Further, when you stop and think about it, Devonte has a long way to go to develop into an indexed equivalent of Nic being POY of AAC which might index to "1st or 2rd runner-up POY in the B12.

There is really no way around this: Nic is pretty damned good and Devonte, while he sure seems within striking range of developing into as good of a player over time, has a ways to go.

Without putting too fine a point on it, Devonte has a long way to go-- having not been a starter as a freshman on one of Self's most injury riddled teams, then having gotten injured to point of not being able to play at all at the WUG, and so now having to start his sophomore year having to come back from injury.

Again, my point is not to knock Devonte at all. It is to put him in a reasonably indexed perspective of what he has to replace.

I am very confident that--injury recovery permitting--Devonte will this season be able to replace a piece of what Nic brought and for that we are most fortunate and it may be enough with the other pieces that we will hopefully add--BG, Svi, and Diallo--to make us a very good team in our own right without Nic--maybe even a better one. There is no doubt the Devonte, BG, Svi, and Diallo all operating as D1 capable 20 mpg men would turn this team in a huge force in D1, regardless of the short and medium stacks apparently placed strategically around D1.

But we will need them all reaching solid 20mpg men to really stand out IMHO.

Rock Chalk!!!!

It really isn't fair to compare POY from the AAC with POY of the B12. I think Nic is good, but I don't think he is capable enough to be POY in the B12.

Sticking with the x-axis theme... I put execution skills above height. But of course, if two guys can equally execute, I'd usually take the taller player, and in the this case, Nic's height (or lack of it) really does play out as a negative, because almost every guard out there is going to easily shoot over him. Nic isn't a big leaper, either. Frank, on the other hand, might be short but he gets up over the rim on many of his rebounds. He can go up and fight with some bigs for boards.

@EdwordL

"You just reminded me of the SNL sketch..."

Anything about food usually reminds me of Monty Python and Mr. Creosote. I wonder if mentioning fine dining is racist?

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@jaybate-1.0

I posted this before...

From a pure basketball skill perspective Devonte is more that capable of replacing Nic, as I have posted before; he is not only the better athlete and shooter but considerably taller as well. However, the biggest asset that Nic brought to the table was leadership …and that comes not only naturally to some people (and not others) but also takes experience to develop it.

I am not sure I can add anything else...