I've been watching the last six games of the year prior to the loss in the Elite 8. Before the tourney loss, KU was averaging over 90 points per game against UC-Davis, Michigan State and Purdue. The other three games on my DVR were Oklahoma at KU, TCU at KU and at Baylor. Oklahoma was ahead by 10 in the second half. TCU was ahead in the second half and we beat Baylor by one with a Landen Lucas free throw. Oklahoma got better last year with a young team that played almost the entire season without Woodard. They have added Trae Young and will be much better. TCU and Jamie Dixon have changed the status quo for Basketball in Texas. They have become the # 2 team in Texas behind Baylor. Dixon has already signed a 4 star Center and a 4 star Guard to go with Fisher and Brodziansky. Baylor will always have the tallest zone in the conference. Huggins teams are always full of coachable unknown 4 stars. The Big 12 this year was tougher than the two top teams in the Big 10. The Big 12 will be even better next year. Having said all that, What do we know about our team for next year.
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Devonte and Vick are the only known commodities that we know will be back. We have to wait on Svi, and if he does return, he will make whatever we have, better.
Udoka was a monster against Duke, but that was really the only breakout that we were given a chance to see. We do know that he played in spurts but became tired after 3-4 minutes and had to sit. He missed most of being able to practice with one hand in a cast or unmoveable glove. He'll be stronger but did his development suffer?
Colby is our next known player that seemed to regain his legs during the NCAA Tournament when Self had completely given up on Bragg. He knows the offense and defense and his stamina and leg confidence will increase.
After that, we know that Malik Has played before, that he has great skill's and was a highly ranked High school shooting guard that wants to play point. Here is the rub. In the many, many games that KU played last year and were behind, it was Frank Mason that took over each game and willed us to win. Can Malik do that for us? Josh turned out to be the very best one and done ever to play at KU. We knew that after the Duke game.
Lightfoot, who was the High School POY in the state of Arizona was a teenage beanpole that could gain minutes. If he does, all credit for his success will have to go to Hudy. Hudy should get a lot more credit for many of last year's wins with our superior stamina at the end of each game.
Billy Preston looks like a good Freshman player that will add more rebounds to our line up. We've only seen videos, which has shown in some instances that he does have a similar temperament to that of Josh. Many on our site have expressed a fear that he might not qualify.
Garrett looks like someone who will get many minutes as a Freshman and we know he was the Texas High School player of the year, which makes us hope that Texas has better players than Arizona.
Then there will be Mr. Cunnlife who looks like a movie star, a Conner Teahan with greater earlier skills than the great Senior walk-on. There are other signee's probably, but once again that is the speculated unknown that we must go through as Jayhawk fans. Last year, we had a much better idea of how good we were going to be and had a greater misguided idea of how good the conference was going to be. I hope, like Korea, that the Italian games in Rome and Milan will be televised this summer.
