🏀 KuBuckets Archive

2017-18 Big 12 Preseason Honors
Preseason Player of the Year - DEVONTE' GRAHAM, KANSAS
Preseason Newcomer of the Year - MALIK NEWMAN, KANSAS
Preseason Freshman of the Year – Mohamed Bamba, Texas

Preseason All-Big 12 Team (^Denotes unanimous selections)
DEVONTE' GRAHAM, KANSAS^
Jeffrey Carroll, Oklahoma State^
Vladimir Brodziansky, TCU
Zach Smith, Texas Tech
Jevon Carter, West Virginia^

Honorable Mention
Manu Lecomte (Baylor), Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. (Baylor), Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (Kansas), Malik Newman (Kansas), Kameron McGusty (Oklahoma), Trae Young (Oklahoma), Kenrich Williams (TCU), Mohamed Bamba (Texas), Keenan Evans (Texas Tech)

The All-Big 12 Preseason Team is selected by the conference coaches, who could not vote for their own student-athletes.

Kansas Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year Selections
1996-97 – Jacque Vaughn
1997-98 – Raef LaFrentz
2004-05 – Wayne Simien
2006-07 – Brandon Rush and Julian Wright
2009-10 – Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins
2017-18 – Devonte' Graham

Kansas Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Selections
2008-09 – Mario Little
2013-14 – Tarik Black
2017-18 – Malik Newman

good for Devonte. Hopefully he can deliver

I hope he takes real ownership of this team and he steps up big. The tools are there, he just needs to stay focused and confident.

Says something about this league that Vlad the Impaler and Zach Smith are preseason first team, lol.

BShark said:

Says something about this league that Vlad the Impaler and Zach Smith are preseason first team, lol.

Well to be fair neither of those guys KU can guard with their life

BeddieKU23 said:

BShark said:

Says something about this league that Vlad the Impaler and Zach Smith are preseason first team, lol.

Well to be fair neither of those guys KU can guard with their life

Dead.

Fair though. Honestly no one in the league guarded him last year. He's not a terrible player but all league says something about the league but also maybe about modern basketball too.

If Udoka can get his ft% up to like....60...which is a tall ask then his production and advanced stats like ORTG should have him in the conversation for actual first team B12. He was a defensive monster last year before his injury and he didn't even know what he was doing yet. Just being tall and camping in the paint last year had him markedly better than Lucas defensively if you extrapolate.

BShark said:

If Udoka can get his ft% up to like....60...which is a tall ask then his production and advanced stats like ORTG should have him in the conversation for actual first team B12. He was a defensive monster last year before his injury and he didn't even know what he was doing yet. Just being tall and camping in the paint last year had him markedly better than Lucas defensively if you extrapolate.

The way Doke shoots the ball 60% is never realistic for him. To think that they haven't tried to change his shot by now is stupid

Zach Smith averaged 12 and 7 last year. If he can bump that up a shade (thinking 14 and 8) that's probably good enough for first team all conference. 14/8 is legitimate all conference territory, particularly since he also blocks a few shots and gets some assists. He's been all conference honorable mention the last two years, so this is a pretty logical step.

Vladimir Brodziansky averaged 14 and 6 last year, with 2 blocks to go with that. An argument could be made that he could have been all conference last year. I could see him averaging 16 and 7 this year, with 2.5 blocks. That's not a huge leap for him and if that's the case, again, those are all conference level numbers.

I doubt Udoka averages 16/7/2 this year (if he does, this KU team will be unstoppable). Udoka may not even average 14/8/2 this year. More likely he averages 8/10/3. But that's still not matching what either Smith or Brodziansky will likely do.

@BeddieKU23 Yeah. At this point I don't care if he underhands it. You have to get him out of the sub 40 range. Especially if the other team has enough big bodies to just hack him once he gets the ball in the paint. He is far too valuable defensively to not play during crunch time (especially when KU is ahead), so it's a real conundrum.

@justanotherfan But Zach Smith had a very similar JR year to his SO year. You could argue his JR year was worse in some ways.

I agree Doke will not likely touch Vlad's raw offensive numbers. I think Doke can absolutely be a more impactful player though.

I think Newman has a legit shot at first team B12 but they made the right preseason choices there.

I think Newman will kick some rear!

League is down. I don't know anyone who will go to the NBA outside of the 5 or 6 possible for KU and Bamba. So this preseason list is kind of sad.

Kcmatt7 said:

League is down. I don't know anyone who will go to the NBA outside of the 5 or 6 possible for KU and Bamba. So this preseason list is kind of sad.

I agree League is down.

Andrew Jones will play in the NBA.

Jeffrey Carroll as well.

Acuil Jr might intrigue someone at his size and the ability to protect the rim and shoot the 3..

Trae Young, McGusty, Wigginton are probably next year.

Crimsonorblue22 said:

I think Newman will kick some rear!

He is my guess to lead the team in scoring. I really want Hanni to say mamma mia during times when Newman is going off/heat checking.

BeddieKU23 said:

Kcmatt7 said:

League is down. I don't know anyone who will go to the NBA outside of the 5 or 6 possible for KU and Bamba. So this preseason list is kind of sad.

I agree League is down.

Andrew Jones will play in the NBA.

Jeffrey Carroll as well.

Acuil Jr might intrigue someone at his size and the ability to protect the rim and shoot the 3..

Trae Young, McGusty, Wigginton are probably next year.

Yep this is pretty much every non-KU player with a chance that you listed.

I'm honestly not sure how well Doke fits in the NBA now, but I expect him to go pro anyway.

Preston is an NBA player for sure.

Second best KU prospect could be Garrett. If he has the quickness and skills to be a PG.

Vick has a shot, but needs to get stronger.

Graham/Svi/Newman are all Euro careers imo.

Hey! Nobody thought Frank Mason III could do it 👑

@Crimsonorblue22 True. It looks like he could stick, we will see. I'm just giving my honest assessment on it. I think often times most KU fans overblow the NBA prospects of our players.

@Crimsonorblue22

I am not sure I would agree with that. Mason was pre-season First Team All-Conference and he was on all the lists for POY and other awards essentially from the beginning of the season. Half way through the season he started to place some distance with the other candidates and was the runaway leader by the end of the season.

Devonte is in a similar position this year and it is up to him to make the most of it.

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@BShark !0_1507837479590_DL9ZCdSVoAAq5wb.jpg-large.jpg ↗

@BShark

Looking at his numbers a little deeper, He shot much better from three last year - 17-43 last season vs. 4-22 the previous year. That's a legitimate addition to his game (he was 5-19 as a freshman, so the three point shot was something new for him). He had 11 fewer rebounds total last season in 80 fewer minutes. If you even out the minutes, his rate stats remain basically identical there.

His FG% stayed pretty level (.507 as jr vs. .511 as a soph), even though he averaged 2 more shots per game.

All of that suggests to me that Zach Smith improved quite a bit because he had more responsibility last year but didn't really lose anything in terms of efficiency (attempted 50 more shots last season than as a sophomore).

I would anticipate if he continues to have that level of responsibility and remains just as efficient, we will see a similar uptick in production, hence my guess that he would put up a 14 and 8 this year.

Graham won't win POY of the year, sorry he's not enough of a scorer to do so. He will be a first team all American point guard.

kjayhawks said:

Graham won't win POY of the year, sorry he's not enough of a scorer to do so. He will be a first team all American point guard.

Who do you favour over him in this crap league?

@BShark Im saying ether Carter or Newman gets it.

kjayhawks said:

@BShark Im saying ether Carter or Newman gets it.

Could see that. Newman is gonna get buckets. Graham is a nice safe preseason choice though.

@BShark he's earned it

@Crimsonorblue22 Agree.