🏀 KuBuckets Archive

I just had to post something to say THANK YOU, ROYALS!

They have brought me back into being a MLB fan again, and so they will be filling my down time from Kansas basketball with their skillful play every spring, summer and fall!

Ned Yost, the Royals Skipper, pretty much lets his guys play. He doesn't burden them with micromanagement. He doesn't script them with demands in key situations. He lets them play ball.

According to everything I read and see, his team is, by far, the happiest group of super bonded players in the majors. That is half of what makes them fun to watch... how they support each other and play TRUE TEAM BALL!

Surely there is something our Jayhawks and Self can learn from this.

I know we can't compare the Royals to our basketball team exactly. It is not only a different sport, but the maturity level is substantially lower with our young guys. We know they can't execute at the same level as guys 5 to 15 years older than them.

But can't we try?

We go to March Madness every year, but every year we show up and play stiff. The Royals definitely didn't play stiff in the playoffs.

Is the answer to have more responsibility handed over to the players and do less coaching micromanaging?

I believe there is something to this. And Self said he learned to trust his players more this past summer when they played in WUG.

@drgnslayr "He doesn’t burden them with micromanagement. He doesn’t script them with demands in key situations."

Not trying to be sarcastic or funny - if my boss was like Ned Yost, my life would be one heck of a lot less stressful and more productive.

@drgnslayr I echo your sentiment over the Royals. I think its fantastic what they did last year and this year. Although, I cannot honestly call myself a baseball fan. I did not watch one single game. But, I kept track of final scores and read articles more towards the post season when things got interesting. I like baseball well enough. But, basketball and more specifically College Basketball is and has been a passion of mine for a long time.

I feel that Coach Self's best teams have been more experienced vets with equal balances of talent and athleticism. See '08 and '12. This year is the same way. I have an excellent feeling heading into this season and seeing how Coach Self said straight forward that he learned somethings about this team and himself as a coach in the WUGs, I expect a lot of that to carry over to this season. Our guys are tough as nails and they are hungry to erase what happened to them last season and I think Coach Self will let them play more and micromanage less. I hope he does anyways, if he holds himself accountable for what he learned this summer.

Its time to go bring KU another NC banner KU fans! # RCJHGOKU!!

PS. see how I turned that into a Jayhawk post? lol

Royals fans vs Mets fans at home games.

Mets fans "HARVEY! HARVEY! HARVEY!"

Royals fans "LETS GO ROYALS! LETS GO ROYALS".

Yes it's a team sport. It's not about the name one the back of the jersey but the name across the chest.

I thought it was great that Colon got the winning run hit for game #7! He was sky high and his teammates totally embraced the excitement with him! Every player on the roster played in the series.

I think we have a pretty unselfish crew of players. I hope they can bond like the Royals have. It is a different game. Baseball season so long giving players plenty of time and experiences to bond.

Colon mentioned getting a bunch of help from veteran players. I think that is something we can really use to get the maximum development out of our young players.

Now we are finally back to having some veteran players. @Lulufulu mentioned the mixture of experienced players and talent.

@JRyman
Didn't Royals fans chat "Eddie! Eddie! In Game 1 of ALCS?

@Eric oh man did they? Dang it.

My bad

I'm kind of p'd off at the Mets. If Collins had been a better manager Harvey would have been yanked and they'd be playing game 6 right now. I was pulling for the Royals, mainly because of my friends here who supported my Badgers, but I wanted to see a couple more games!

Interestingly I really hated the Royals at the beginning of the season. Ventura's antics were the source of that ire, but watching them mainly in the postseason was a lot of fun to watch.

But come April, I'm a Sox fan and hope to be seeing them in the playoffs against KC!

Interesting to watch that pep rally today. It was a chance to see some behind-the-scenes leaders. Guthrie and Gomes handled the microphone with style. The young Christian Colon (guy is going to be good! / mature beyond his years) is obviously helping the Dominican guys along...Ventura in particular. Pretty cool.

@drgnslayr You said, "I believe there is something to this. And Self said he learned to trust his players more this past summer when they played in WUG."

Old habits die hard. Self's butt puckered vs. Germany. He reverted to prior form, as @Texas-Hawk-10 has pointed out. I'm cautiously optimistic.

We've got a national championship quality team.

Also, some very great baseball managers did things differently. Tony Larussa micromanaged decisions much more, for example. Both ways can work. The key is finding what works best for each particular team. Yost was absolutely masterful in molding this team. He created confidence by not changing lineups all the time, giving guys certainty, sticking with them, and believing in them in a way that they could take to the bank.

I know that pulling Harvey would have won the game for the Mets is the prevailing school of thought.......but the Royals had lit Familia up like a Christmas tree in his two prior outings (even without Murphy's error in game 4 they still strung together a lot of hits) and did so again when he did come in for Harvey in game 5..

The Royals just didn't seem like a good match up for Familia.....so I don't know that it is a given that they wouldn't have gotten to him too if he had started the 9th inning in game 5.......despite what the east coast experts and media who always have to have a goat to pin it on have to say.

The thing I love about KC fans is exactly what we saw last year after we lost game 7 and this year after we won game 5......we love our team in good and bad.

While it is nothing new, I thought the way the NY media vilanized Murphy, Harvey, Cespedes......after they carried the Mets to the World Series ........was in poor taste.

@SoftballDad2011 kc media and fans would never do that to our royals! That's who we are. Special team!

@Crimsonorblue22

I believe that is true.

But I wonder if we as KU fans do just what the Mets fans did?

@SoftballDad2011 good question!

@SoftballDad2011 I never have - never will. Others do and that is their right but one must remember they are kids and stuff happens that we as fans can not control.

Can't wait for tonight!

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@drgnslayr

Sheahon could learn to hire good coaches and then not fire them before they have had a chance to develop a team. Board rats might be forgetting Yost was almost s-canned before the Royal's first Series run. Someone at the Royals had a pair, ignored the fan outcry against Yost, told ownership Yost was his guy and risked his own career to keep him. Yost and the Royals turned the corner.

Bad teams have to be bad for awhile, until they figure out how to win.

Never should have fired Gill, Sheahon.

Never should have hired Charlie, Sheahon.

Stick with Beatty, Sheahon, even if it gets you fired.

Getting fired occasionally trying to develop something good is part of the risk of leadership.

Yost risked getting fired trying to turn the Royals into something special. Someone stuck with him.
They are special.

It doesn't always work.

But it never works unless a boss and his subordinate are willing to RISK FOR GREATNESS.

@jaybate-1.0

I agree with your assessment.

I also believe that fan support is largely driven by expectations .

When winning is new, it is easy to feel and show the love.

When you win 83% of your games the bar is raised and the prevailing expectation becomes disappointment if you don't win the last game of the season.......regardless of how many games you won earlier in the season.

While that is normal, I just hope the annual expectations for KU BBall don't ever cause us to forget how good we have it.

Always ok to hope for more, just don't let it tarnish the perception of what you already have.

@jaybate-1.0

I agree with your words about management sticking to their guns and letting a coach take the time to build.

But I don't believe it would ever happen with Gill or Charlie. Both seemed to be working in the wrong direction. Gill, especially, created a horrible team environment. Discipline had completely shattered and when that happens it takes a new staff to get it back.

Hard to grade Beatty yet. He walked into a tough situation. Word is that his biggest strength is recruiting, and football success is largely based on recruiting. I have to admit I haven't been keeping up with Kansas football this year. From the soundbites I have caught it was very positive. Beatty spoke openly about strategies and how he is building a long-term winning structure.

We have to start somewhere. I just hope if Beatty does start to turn our program around we can keep him here. I don't know enough about him to get a feeling about that. I'm sure others can weigh in on that to better comment.

@SoftballDad2011

I am not sure pulling Harvey would have won the game. Harvey was pitching great and had a chance to pitch a complete game in the World Series. Perhaps not the best decision but certainly a defensible one.

@JayHawkFanToo I agree completely. We'd already touched up Familia .. two blown saves to that point. It is certainly defensible either way.

@JayHawkFanToo and @HighEliteMajor

I missed getting my reply to @wissoxfan83 in that post.........

.......and to that end my point was I didn't think simply pulling Harvey would have won the game after our success against Familia.

@SoftballDad2011 Yep, I think you are right on there. KC isn't the best match for Familia.

Turns out the KC wasn't a good match up for the Mets, either.

I've been mostly out of the loop on baseball but I did get to see some games while in the US recently, including the Series.

I was always taught that you needed defense up the middle to win big. Think Frank White at second base, Amos Otis in center field in the '80s.

For the Mets, Murphy was a disaster at second base. I saw that and thought "How did these guys win the NL?"

Pitching isn't everything if the offense manages to at least get the ball in play and the defense breaks down under pressure.

@ParisHawk and... Don't forget, the best bull pen in the league!

@drgnslayr

Had my doubts about Gill, but he turned the corner to 9-5 at Liberty, same as he turned The corner at Buffalo. It looks more and more like he was the victim of a smear campaign run during one of the lean rebuilding year, rather than a program careening out of control.

Hypothesis: A new regime was desperate to consolidate control over the program in order to dictate who would get the then looming stadium renovation contracts. When the economy and realignment issues derailed stadium renovation, it turned out he was fired for nothing. Tragic.

@jaybate-1.0 Hmmm ... that could also be said about the firing of Mangino just months after our current, astute chancellor was hired.

@HighEliteMajor

I think its notable that Mangino just got canned at ISU and nobody has touched him as a head coaching candidate since he left KU. Add to it his history of incidents involving verbal abuse and just generally not getting along with people, and its easy to see why Mangino would be a tough hire anywhere. Mangino was out of football from 2009 until he was hired at Youngstown State in 2013. That's a huge layoff. He wasn't doing TV. He wasn't doing radio. It's just that nobody hired him. That speaks volumes about the type of person he is, in my opinion.

Meanwhile, Gill was immediately hired after leaving KU.

I don't think that means Gill is a better football coach than Mangino. That is still debatable. I do think it means that if you're a college, it may be easier to deal with Gill than Mangino as a coach.

I do think @jaybate-1.0 has an interesting point with Yost. Yost was on the brink of getting fired at the end of the 2012 season. Fans were calling for his head, but instead the Royals gave him an extension. Since that extension, the Royals have the best record in the American League. Oddly enough, Yost has a losing record with the Royals for his career (currently 468-469 not including playoffs). He was legitimately bad his first three years, but has been just as good his last three. Had KC not been patient, they would probably still be a mediocre club, either about to fire another manager, or still figuring out what direction they wanted to go in.

KU football is the same in many ways. There's some history, but the last several years have been poor. Like the Royals of the late 80s and early 90s, KU has gone for the quick fix, just like the Royals when they were signing free agents and trying to piece together another quick playoff run. That lack of focus led to KC drifting for 20 more years, as KC went through 8 managers between Howser and Yost. No Royals manager led the team for more than 4 full seasons. It was a revolving door that had many reboots, but never a clear direction.

As I have said many times, Beatty deserves a full term - 4 years - to see if he can get this turned around. I'd be willing to give him a fifth year if he's making any positive progress, even if he hasn't made it to a bowl by then. If this Royals squad has shown anything, it's that you have to stick to a plan, even if many people don't believe your plan is working, or even that it is any good. Had the Royals abandoned the plan after 2012, they probably would have been hailed throughout baseball, but they would not be World Champions right now.

@HighEliteMajor BGL is not reason Mangino the reason Mangino got fired. Mangino never got along with Perkins (this isn't a secret) and Perkins had to be talked into not firing Mangino after 2006. Their hatred of each other preceded BGL arriving in Lawrence by years. BGL is also not the one who started the investigation, the whistle was blown on Mangino by his own players after the Arist Wright tirade and that's also when Mangino completely lost the locker room. Go back to the fall of 2009 and look fir players going out of their way to stand up for Mangino because it did not happen. Players who didn't outright slam Mangino only talked about the situation when asked directly about it and didn't defend Mangino with any conviction whatsoever.

Turner Gill was the wrong coach at wrong for KU. Perkins botched the Mangino so horribly that KU could only go to the extreme player friendly coach for their next hire without ridicule from the media and that wasn't what KU needed. KU needed someone to bring in someone to restore order to a fractured locker room and Gill was not that man. Turner Gill is a coach whose style fits with a program that has a lot of stability and self discipline already instilled. KU didn't have that at that time. Indo believe goven the full 5 years, Gill would have KU in a place to be competitive because he's always been competitive as a head coach outside of his time here. He won a conference title at Buffalo which was a program that hadn't won more than 2 games in a season since moving to the FBS prior to Gill. He's won or shared a conference title and been in the FCS playoffs every year at Liberty. The man is a good coach who happened into a bad situation that was a horrible fit for him here at KU. Rich Rodriguez went through the same thing when he left WVU for Michigan. A good coach who was a terrible fit for a program that has since landed on his feet. Charlie Weis has done far more damage to KU than Turner Gill ever did.

@Crimsonorblue22 That's the great part of being from small town America ( the mid west) )knowing that you lose with character. tip your cap, & enjoy victory with an element of humility & reverence. These young men trailed in the ninth inning in 2 of these series wins & in the 8th inning of another. they did hammer Familia pretty hard a couple of times, but they continually kept the ball in play & pressured every defense in every post season game, coming from behind time after time after time. The ROYALS scored 50 plus runs after the 8th inning in the post season and their opponents tallied 11. The caliber of ball they played, they may well have beaten anyone this year. In this post steroid era they play a brand of fundamental ball that the HR hitting mashers were just not able to compete with. & are making the metrics guys shake theirheads in dis belief. This simply is the year to call the ROYALS of Kansas City as the Comeback City ROYALS.

@SoftballDad2011

It's obviously a question that never can be answered, but with a well rested bullpen, he could have brought in any reliever even if it was just to get one out. I've seen lots of managers waste bullpens this way, but it would have been appropriate in that situation.

@justanotherfan

I am not sure that comparing Mangino going un-hired and Gill getting that "plum" job at Liberty are the same. I am sure Mangino could have gotten a job similar to the Liberty position, but...why? He was still getting paid handsomely by KU and a position like the Liberty HC position is not exactly a resume builder, in fact, I seriously doubt Gill will ever get consideration from any Power Conference or even mid-major conference after his stint at Liberty.

@Texas-Hawk-10

Gill was a marginal coach even at Buffalo. Read Jason Whitlock's article on the way Gill got his only decent season at Buffalo...pretty much smoke and mirrors; it did get him the job at KU and a hefty windfall. I met Gill a couple of times and he seemed like a real nice man and fist class individual, but IMHO, not major program coaching material. He interviewed with many programs prior to KU, and you can speculate why, but even his Alma Mater Nebraska passed on him. Obviously I am not a fan of Gill the coach but very much respect Gill the person.

@JayHawkFanToo Smoke and mirrors are how you win with inferior talent. That's not something special to Gill at Buffalo. The facts are this Buffalo joined the FBS level in 1999 and went 10-69 in the 7 years prior to Turner Gill. That's 1.4 wins per season in 7 years. Turner Gill won 20 games in 4 seasons there which is 5 wins per season on average. Did he make Buffalo elite? No, but he won twice as many games in 4 years than Buffalo had won in the 7 years prior. That's a big improvement no matter how you dissect it because W's are what matter at the end of the day regardless of how they were attained. KU is right now is probably going to be 12-60 in the 6 years post Mangino, 2 wins per season on average. You're telling me you wouldn't take a coach who could average 5 wins per season right now at KU (Mangino barely averaged 6 for reference). I could not care less if KU wins games by smoke and mirrors or by lining up and kicking the other teams a$$. Al Davis said it best, "Just win baby!"

To be fair, TC brought in Familia in tough spots with runners already on base. Other than the Gordong he gave up, he pretty much did his job and induced weak ground balls. Now Murphy on the other hand....

@wissoxfan83

Yes, we'll never know.

I just got sick of the east coast media jumping to the conclusion and reporting that the Mets gave the game away when they sent Harvey out for the 9th..

@Eric

The Royals put a lot of balls in play in games one, four and five when Familia was out there.

@SoftballDad2011 me too!

@SoftballDad2011
Can't really say what would've happened but it might have been different if Familia was given a clean 8th. He did only give up 2 singles and if it wasn't for Clippard's 2 walks and Murphy's Buckner moment, Royals may not even score that inning.
The 2 runs scored in Game 5 were on Harvey as well.
As an armchair manager, I send Harvey back out for the 9th, the problem was not taking him out after a man got on base.

I agree with you the Mets did not give the game(s) away. It isn't even like the Royals played perfect defense. Hosmer had a couple crucial errors so do the Royals get to take those back? Or Rios having a brain fart and forgetting how many outs there were?
It is pretty sad how quickly the NY media turned on their own players so quickly..

@Eric
Agreed.

How about when Hosmer made the error in game 5 on a high degree of difficulty play and America was lectured on how the gold glover should have played that.

And then Murphy is coddled because there was a lot of side spin on his oops and a much slower made to order dp ball!

@SoftballDad2011
Was that the one that Hosmer tried to back hand catch it?

I remember the media did the same thing with Correa's error too. Blame it on the tough hop... Couldn't possibly be because Correa took his eyes off the ball right media?

@Eric Hoz is the best scooper but he should have gotten in front of that one!

@Crimsonorblue22

Hoz committed the cardinal sin of trying to make a nice play instead of just getting in front of it and making sure the ball stayed on the infield. If he blocks that ball with his body, he still has a chance for the out at first (probably doesn't get it, but maybe) and there's no way the runner goes home. By letting the ball get by, he gave them a run.

The difference is that the Royals were good enough to overcome their mistakes. The Mets were not. In the only game the Mets won, it turned on the play where Morales gets the comebacker to the mound and, rather than either starting the double play by throwing to second or at least recording one out at first. Instead, he let the bases get loaded and the Mets had a big inning.

When the Mets made mistakes, the Royals capitalized every single time. When the Royals made mistakes, the Mets capitalized sometimes, but the Royals overcame those mistakes. That's why they won. Every team makes mistakes, but the champions overcome those mistakes.

@justanotherfan and the best bull pen! Love this TEAM!

@JuliannaZobrist: BLAISE ROYAL ZOBRIST, waited for her daddy to win the World Series & came the day her mommy's single #Alive dropped! https://t.co/40TlljkkT4 ↗

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