🏀 KuBuckets Archive

"Self has since recruited some big-time pro prospects on the perimeter: Xavier Henry, Ben McLemore, Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Oubre, but they all lacked one quality. “They were more shooters and scorers than playmakers,” Self says.

Williams was a playmaker, and in June 2016, Self found the guy to answer the question of what it would have been like had Williams run fist at Illinois. He called Howard.

“Quentin Grimes,” Self said from his seat at a tournament in Dallas. “He reminds me of D-Will, but he will be better.”"

Lots of nuggets in that article but yeah Grimes is really good.

Hmm, fair point. I just think a really good safety/lb could really help change the SB prospects this year.

Kcmatt7 said:

I'd love Landon Collins. If I knew Eli Apple was on the market, I would have traded for him. If this makes the Peterson price go down to a single 1st, I'd consider it.

The truth is that I think the coaches and Veach are probably happy with what we have.

I think Collins could be a great fit. Immediate upgrade at safety and a great pairing with Berry if he can come back. Helps in coverage and the run game.

HEM is the kind of person that would kill hundreds of thousands of people to turn a profit, as long as it was allowed within the rules/law.

LANDON COLLINS GO FOR ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

https://theathletic.com/607267/2018/10/23/another-deron-williams-kansas-quentin-grimes-reminds-bill-self-of-the-former-nba-all-star/ ↗

BeddieKU23 said:

Kcmatt7 said:

@BeddieKU23 You are probably right. And they were already dropping enough games that they couldn't let Richards play through mistakes. Kind of a lose-lose situation for both parties. I do wonder what a year of development will do for him.

Richards is an interesting case. What I saw of him in High School was a big athletic mobile center that lacked a ton of skill. He was massively overranked/overhyped (probably more of a 30-50 range type recruit on current ability at the time) but because he committed to UK and at his size I'm sure they did it to appease the Nike/UK conglomerate.

At Kentucky as a freshman he was the same player and looked like he struggled being coached up the way Calipari goes about things. Now it will be interesting to see what individual player development he received and what he was able to improve on as well as his maturity which I noticed was also a big issue in why he sat at times

Usually this is the kind of big that Cal likes and does well under him. I still think Travis is a weird fit.

RE: Keldon Johnson

“I think he’s crazy,” says Kentucky teammate PJ Washington, half laughing and half looking over his shoulder. “Like, literally crazy.”

“He’s wild,” says fellow freshman Immanuel Quickley, choosing his words carefully with the madman sitting less than 20 yards away. “I don’t think he’s actually mentally unstable. He’s just always hyped. It could be 5 a.m. and he’s yelling.”

Yes, you can watch replays.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25066657/joel-embiid-philadelphia-76ers-says-owns-lot-real-estate-andre-drummond-head ↗

http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2018/oct/22/he-will-he-wont-he-might-2018-udoka-azub/ ↗

http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2018/oct/23/he-will-he-wont-he-might-2018-dedric-law/ ↗

@JayHawkFanToo Thanks!

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Careful you said:

I sort of agree with HighEliteMajor and am not very troubled by the money aspect. The shoe companies and schools and the NCAA get billions and the athletes get little. I tend toward supporting the spirit of the law rather than the letter. I don't see much evidence of harm except the disproportionate wealth for the institutions and the NCAA.

Then you definitely aren't on the same side as HEM, historically. He is very much against paying players last I knew. Unless he has changed his tune but I haven't seen anything indicating that.

Kcmatt7 said:

@JayHawkFanToo I think he comes off the bench. I mean he definitely will be an offensive threat. I just think Cal runs Green, Quickley, KJ, PJ and Travis out there as his starting lineup. With Hagans and Herro coming off the bench.

My starting line-up would be Green, Hagans, KJ, Travis, Richards. PJ will definitely start over Richards though, Cal has something up his butt with Richards.

Crimsonorblue22 said:

I know nova and unc scrimmaged, but didn't hear score.

Nova ROMPED hard. Booth dropped a friggin 40 ball.

WSU beat OSU 57-43

North Texas beat TCU 80-74

Feel free to post any results you find.

Kcmatt7 said:

@BShark I do think he could be an incredible defender. I'll wait on the offense. I mean, I need to see a game or two to really form a good opinion. But this is my preseason hot take haha.

Admittedly I only saw him a couple times in AAU but I was really impressed!

BeddieKU23 said:

By my current estimations, the Big-12 has 17 four star recruits (or higher) committed with a handful of high level transfers sitting out the season. Last year the Big-12 added 18 for this current season. Talent infusion coming into the league

Thankfully KU has enough talent that should stick around to absorb a tough class. No mistake though the streak could easily end next year. Front court additions are so key. I'm not worried about the back court if it's going to be SO Dotson, JR Garrett, RS SO Moore, RS FR/SO Agbaji, RS JR KJ is good enough. The FR likely wouldn't have to play, unless McBride is further along than expected.

Pretty ridiculous for sure.

Yeah, King is going to stay home and go to UGA I believe.

Kcmatt7 said:

@BShark I still think they are crazy young and don't have anyone in that bunch that I'd be scared of. They return 3 players from a 11 loss team (and should have been 13).

I just fail to see where they improved. They are roughly the same at the guard position as last season, imo. But now they have a much thinner in the front court. I mean they had 3 guards drafted last season. Two were lottery picks. I don't know that they won't be lucky to get that good of play out of this year's group. Especially out of the PG spot.

I think Reid Travis is more the product of a "best scorer on a bad team" than him being really good. I think PJ is a 6'5 PF with no outside game. I think Richards might actually be there best post. But Cal hates him. I think EJ will struggle to adjust to the speed of the game. I think Green is meh. So, unless one of Herro, KJ, Hagans or Quickley is going 18 ppg, that team is going to struggle to score.

Keldon Johnson is the answer. He is an incredible talent. One of my favorite players in the entire 18 class.

https://bvnwboysbasketball.weebly.com/varsity1.html ↗

In case anyone wants to go see Braun play this year.

BeddieKU23 said:

@BShark

I've been trying to figure out Xavier's scholarship situation. They should have about 8 guys back next year but have signed 9. Last time I checked that didn't make 13. What is going on?

Lol, they have 5 commits. They are keeping 8 like you said (11 guys and three are grad transfer srs) so they are now full up.

KyKy Tandy to Xavier.

@BeddieKU23 Fran is like Rothstein, a mouthpiece for the coaches.

Silvio is a starter caliber player that would come off the bench. That's a game changer.

Kcmatt7 said:

I seriously think UK loses double digit games this season. Overrated. They don't even have a player that would have made 2nd team. Maybe not even a 3rd team.

Unless one of those freshmen guards is John Wall they are going to struggle to score, imo.

I disagree with this a lot, actually. This UK team is absolutely stacked. They are going to run away and hide in a quite good this year SEC. It would be a blunder by Cal if they don't, imo.

I like KU's front court better, but I'd consider trading guards with UK.

mayjay said:

BeddieKU23 said:

I'm sure Duke and UK fans will be sending death threats to the writers for not including Zion & the entire UK's starting 5.

Duke fans are probably shocked Grayson Allen isn't the perennial preseason POY.

Duke fans are seriously stunned and shocked they aren't #1 in the preseason poll. Despite basically only having 4 good players.

@BeddieKU23 He was pretty bad and soft offensively most of the year. Seems like he was hot or cold. He could get 15, but he also had games with 0-2 points regularly. Might just be a confidence issue as he had some games with 15+ minutes and 0-2 shots attempted.

Apparently Trice is pretty athletic. Overall they are hopeful that they have 3-4 D1 capable bigs. Which includes Wade, Mawien and Trice. They aren't sure who the 4th one will be, moreso just hoping that between Love, Stockard and Shadd that one of them emerges as a competent player that doesn't kill you when he goes out there.

BeddieKU23 said:

BShark said:

BeddieKU23 said:

BShark said:

BeddieKU23 said:

K-St should be a Top 25 team all season long. I'm not a fan of Bruce but he has 8 guys he knows he can rely on. If the JC transfer Trice can provide a role as well he's 9 deep and none of them are freshman. That's about as good of a situation as Weber has ever had. They should have great chemistry and the defense should keep them in games.

Trice is their 2nd best big according to my grape friends.

Tell them to lay off the kool-aid, that doesn't take much considering their roster. That would be like telling us telling them Mitch Lightfoot was the 2nd best big on the team last year. (No offense to Mitch)

To be fair they also aren't sold on Mawein.

He went all NBA Jams on us last year. Can't say I'm underestimating him again

The Mitch Lightfoot played 21 minutes game!

Things are going to be a lot different this year in regards to interior defense.

@Woodrow @mayjay Ironically, the answer there somewhat might have already been on the roster. I need to see more of him but I like how O'Daniel played against the Bengals.

Peterson would be an absolutely massive upgrade over Scandrick.

BeddieKU23 said:

BShark said:

BeddieKU23 said:

K-St should be a Top 25 team all season long. I'm not a fan of Bruce but he has 8 guys he knows he can rely on. If the JC transfer Trice can provide a role as well he's 9 deep and none of them are freshman. That's about as good of a situation as Weber has ever had. They should have great chemistry and the defense should keep them in games.

Trice is their 2nd best big according to my grape friends.

Tell them to lay off the kool-aid, that doesn't take much considering their roster. That would be like telling us telling them Mitch Lightfoot was the 2nd best big on the team last year. (No offense to Mitch)

To be fair they also aren't sold on Mawein.

BeddieKU23 said:

K-St should be a Top 25 team all season long. I'm not a fan of Bruce but he has 8 guys he knows he can rely on. If the JC transfer Trice can provide a role as well he's 9 deep and none of them are freshman. That's about as good of a situation as Weber has ever had. They should have great chemistry and the defense should keep them in games.

Trice is their 2nd best big according to my grape friends.

mayjay said:

@BeddieKU23 "Guardian" for that jerk and Silvio's clown is clearly a misnomer.

Unfortunately you sign up for handlers and guardians when you recruit African kids.

Yes. Word is they want two first round picks though, so it's hard to say if anyone can get him.

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/20/18003792/saudi-arabia-mckinsey-twitter-khashoggi ↗

Interesting and concerning stuff here.

mayjay said:

@AsadZ I think we need to follow the great Christian leader Pat Robertson's lead on this one. Weapons sales are Biblically mandated for any great nation and far more important than principle. I mean, since journalists are the "enemies of the people" there should be nothing wrong with stamping out a few. Plus, those damn Yeminis have too many school buses and kids anyway, so selling the Saudis more missiles is a much greater priority than any moral imperatives of actually following one of those 10 Commandments our society desperately insists we need posted in schools.

The sad thing is I could see this being a serious post, from someone else. Not saying anyone here of course...

BeddieKU23 said:

@JayHawkFanToo

Where will Silvio get the money to reimburse the alleged $2500?

I suppose he could ask his corrupt guardian.

I mean where did Darnell or Selby get the money? I don't think it will be an issue.

wissox said:

Will this trial effect our team at all? Can we lose DeSousa or anyone else still? Will Duke lose Zion? I'd assume that'd impact them. After Arizona's very well publicized outing of the deal that got Ayton to their school last year right in the middle of the season without repercussion I'd be a bit miffed if we lost guys. What's the informed take on this question?

So far, the only thing that is known as fact, or at least testified under by the guilty party in court is that Silvio was given $2500 for some online classes.

If we assume the NCAA only acts on that, I imagine that would have to be paid back and Silvio misses some small number of games. KU/Self could take a more cautious approach and just sit him all season.

Hopefully we find out within the next few weeks.

JayHawkFanToo said:

@justanotherfan

Considering the players he had he did not do as well as expected in his third year at Tennessee and so he bolted. The 3 year pattern seems pretty established. Without Jontay MU is back to the middle of the bottom half of the SEC which will be stronger this year

He wasn't welcome back at Tennessee.

justanotherfan said:

If you don't have KU, UK and Duke (the three most talented teams in the country) in your top 5, you're doing it wrong. I can't blame people for putting Gonzaga and Nevada high because both of those teams return guys that legitimately could have gone to the NBA.

After that it gets murky because you have some teams that return talent, but can't overwhelm you with that talent, and teams that have incoming talent, but not enough returning.

I agree with the consensus here that KSU will be good. They will be deep and can continue to play their style. If Wade, Brown and Sneed are healthy, they can score, and they will be very good defensively. The challenge for them will be being the hunted rather than the underdog. KSU won't be getting slighted by anybody going into the season. Can those guys keep a chip on their shoulders when they are properly regarded?

I think Duke's depth is murky. Self has shown you can do well in the tournament with little depth.

Their starting 5 should be pretty amazing and as much as I think this is a buzz word, positionless outside of Tre Jones who is clearly the PG.

Once you get past Jones, Reddish, Barrett and Zion, it's a bunch of meh. Now I do think Barrett is NBA allstar good so he can absolutely hard carry them to success. But I can see arguments for possibly placing some teams that aren't KU/UK (the clear 1/2) ahead of them.

@justanotherfan Martin had some dudes on that 13-14 UT team. Him leaving Tennessee was always a bit weird though. There was that bizarre petition to bring Bruce Pearl back and whisperings of racism about the UT fan base/boosters.

JayHawkFanToo said:

BShark said:

Anyway for those that don't want to check. WSU #72 Kenpom and AAC coaches voted them 8th in conference. AP voters have them #7 in the entire country. I'm not sure we have ever seen a discrepancy like that before.

I believe you have last year's ↗ ranking. AP voters ↗ DO NOT have Wichita State ranked for 2018-2019

That makes much more sense.

Marshall and WSU are a perfect couple.

@BeddieKU23 A couple of "real guys" for the post is my hope. :D

Crimsonorblue22 said:

@BShark WSU beat osu in a scrimmage

That was a really bad scrimmage between two bad teams from what I've heard. 57-43 final that WSU won and yes a full 40 minute game.

OSU worst team in the B12 by far.

Anyway for those that don't want to check. WSU #72 Kenpom and AAC coaches voted them 8th in conference. AP voters have them #7 in the entire country. I'm not sure we have ever seen a discrepancy like that before.

The difference between the AP poll and Kenpom plus the AAC coaches poll with Wichita State is freaking wild.

BeddieKU23 said:

Kofi Cockburn schedules an official visit to Uconn. So far its his only official scheduled. Could be a good sign for them

Wondering who is going to be available for KU after missing on guys. Might have to play the decommit/grad transfer game.

JayHawkFanToo said:

If you have a chance, read the Boston Globe 3-part story on Aaron Hernandez, it will give you a different and very negative view of Urban Meyers.

Oh believe me I don't need this article. Meyer is GARBAGE.

KSU is really good. Legit top 15 team that should see the 2nd weekend of the NCAA tournament. Wade, Sneed and Brown are dudes that I'd take for KU any day. 2nd best team in the Big 12 imo. They got to the EE basically without Wade who is without a doubt their best player.