Ouch for Huggins
Isiah Cottrell & Jalen Bridges are transferring. That roster is a sad state of affairs right now
Portal up to 450
BeddieKU23
31745 posts
Braun's NIL going in the right direction
Lightfoot has tested the knee out today.
@jayballer67 said in KU Bracket Reveal Thread:
@BeddieKU23 said in KU Bracket Reveal Thread:
@jayballer67 said in KU Bracket Reveal Thread:
Well - - -ummm Avery Johnson has us losing to Providence in the Sweet 16- - -that's a head scratcher , from what I've heard
Avery likes the good stuff my friend. And apparently he took some before getting on set
lmao , ya I think your right - - - Real good stuff
Like found the Bill Walton stash good
@jayballer67 said in KU Bracket Reveal Thread:
Well - - -ummm Avery Johnson has us losing to Providence in the Sweet 16- - -that's a head scratcher , from what I've heard
Avery likes the good stuff my friend. And apparently he took some before getting on set
Looking at KU's path. We are set up well to control our own destiny!!!
1st Round: worst team left in the tournament (Texas Southern #184).
Potential 2nd Round: San Diego St (#2 rated defense) but 5th worst offense (#161). Creighton #126/#17 (Offense/Defense)
Potential S16: Iowa #2 rated offense, South Dakota St #12th rated offense (#223 rated defense). Providence (#48), Richmond (#69).
Potential Elite 8: Auburn #8 rated defense (highest of 2 seeds), Wisconsin (#33), LSU (#19), USC (#42), Miami (#60), Iowa St we know them.
Potential Final 4: The South has 5 of the Top 16 rated teams per Kenpom. This is the region that could really see some chaos.
Potential Finals: Gonzaga, Texas Tech, Duke, Baylor, UCLA, Kentucky would be the most likely matchups..
Some thoughts looking at this bracket via Kenpom Rating, Offense/Defense.
Gonzaga got the "toughest" 16 seed (Georgia St #152). KU plays the best defense of the 16 seeds (Texas Southern #101) however Texas South is also the worst offense (#269) in the Tournament. KU has the worst defense per Kenpom of the 1 seeds (28).
Duke by far has the worst defense of the #2 seeds (44) however its Kentucky that has the toughest 15 seed matchup as Saint Peters (#118) has the #34 ranked defense (only 9 spots off UK's #25 rated D). Their offense (#260) is 2nd worst behind only Texas Southern. No other 15 seed has a metric within the Top 100.
1st round matchups that are a potential race to 50
Seton Hall/TCU (#27/#24) rated Defenses. San Diego St/Creighton (#2/#17). Saint Mary's/Indiana (#9/#18). LSU/Iowa St (#4/#10)
Potential toss up games
Colorado St/Michigan- #34/#32 overall, offense/defense within 1 & 4 spots. Seton Hall/TCU- #41/#38. Boise St/Memphis- #29/#28. Michigan St/Davidson- #39/#40. Murray St/San Francisco- #21/#27. Texas/Va Tech- #16/#22. Ohio St/Loyola- #31/#24
Notable teams Kenpom says are under-seeded Kentucky (#3)- 2 seed, Iowa (#13)- 5 seed, Texas (#15)- 6 seed, UCLA (#8) -4 seed, Houston (#4)- 5 seed & Virginia Tech (#22)- 11 seed.
Notable teams Kenpom says are over-seeded include Duke (#12)- 2 seed, Providence (#48)- 4 seed, Wisconsin (#33)- 3 seed.
If they get up comfortably hopefully he plays most of the 2nd half so that Dave can rest for the 2nd round.
Ah yes the annual ritual of having to find which channel Tru TV is..
24 is far away as well.
Over 400, it's heating up
Very sorry for your losses @nwhawkfan and @drgnslayr and @jessejayhawk
Hopefully this tournament brings some joy your way
Mitch practiced on a limited basis. Would not have played if there was a game today but Self is hopeful he could play Thursday.
So who gets run if Mitch can't go?
@tis4tim said in Ochai Agbaji:
@BeddieKU23 said in Ochai Agbaji:
Named AP 1st Team All-American.
That's a rafter spot then, yes?
Oh yes indeed
Deserving of his own thread.
Named AP 1st Team All-American.
Congrats Ochai, your a STUD. Let's see you add some more hardware to the collection coming up
Struggled with this as well. He definitely has a talented team that plays hard, defends and seems to have momentum.
Couple of CB's for Judah Mintz to Depaul. Weird one..
Out of the LSU class Devin Ree is the one that always caught my eye. Tremendous athlete with size to play that 4 spot. Not leaving the South though I'd imagine
Let's ya know what kind of recruitment he's got going on..
Portal likely to hit 400 today.
@DanR said in KU Bracket Reveal Thread:
Who survives the South? Arizona seems pretty average in that region with Tennessee, Illinois, Nova (and TCU too the way they're playing)....
I have a hard time picking Arizona far without knowing if their PG is going to be back. They have enough firepower to get by round 1 but that 2nd round matchup against Seton Hall who plays in the 50's, low 60's or TCU who can match Arizona's rebounding skill is not the kind of matchup you want when your not 100%. Arizona has looked Final 4 good recently but I wonder if that injury is about to change what they can do..
Whoa
IN
And my 3 brackets will be perfect since I have KU winning it all
Agree and Self's record on the short rest is not nearly as good as it is when he's got multiple days to prepare.
At least neither potential 2nd round matchup is a team with offensive firepower.
Believe Creighton has had to slow tempo because they have injuries. Only played 7 in the conference tournament. Top 20 defense per Kenpom so them or San Diego St will be like playing Big-12 teams.
Agree on the Providence stuff the more I've looked into it. 11-2 in games decided by 5 points or less but coming off a bad loss to Creighton where they got drubbed by 27. Kenpom has them #1 on the 'luck' factor which might play a part in their #49th ranking.
The other exciting first round matchup, Murray St vs San Francisco. Either coach could be in Power 5 or somewhere much bigger then they are currently after this. Murray St lost 2 games all year and San Fran was a surprising at-large bid behind Zaga/St Mary's.
Portal probably be at 350 by end of day.
KU ends the regular season #3 in the AP Poll. Let's finish #1
The Zags followed by Arizona are the worst matchups for KU (also the teams most likely to face KU in the final 4/finals in hypotheticals). Their big's are just different than anything Dave's had to face in conference play & when he faced a top big in Tschiebwe he was a non-factor. Guess that will be a problem to deal with if we make it that far. At that point it would be a GOOD problem to have
@Crimsonorblue22 said in KU Bracket Reveal Thread:
Who did the others pick? My grill was on fire! 🔥🔥🔥
Laphonso Ellis picked KU in final 4 losing to Arizona. Seth is a hack so who cares (he didn't pick KU of course). Reece Davis picked someone else as well.
Don't think any of the CBS guys picked KU from what I saw. Watched the bracket brakedown and they had a slobbefest over Iowa/Wisconsin and Auburn being a Top 4 team (they haven't played like one in at least a month).
I'd like to see Mitch at least test out the knee Thursday and see what level of comfort he's got. Should be able to coast by in Game 1 without him but the 2nd round game no doubt we'll need his experience
Hopefully our fans bought up after seeing the bracket. We may not have the majority like in KC but I would expect us to pack in for Chicago. There's also hope Iowa/Wisconsin may not get to Chicago as well. Big-10 hasn't exactly lit up the tourney of late.
Iowa hasn't gotten past the 2nd round under Fran McCaffrey in 5 tournaments. Wisconsin hasn't left the first weekend with Greg Gard since 2016/17 season (also Bo Ryan's players). Something tells me to put money on 1 or both not making it that far.
KU has big alumni base in Chicago and we travel well, no concern there. Self with a week to prepare for anyone is extremely dangerous. I would be surprised if we didn't have a late Saturday tip as well for the 2nd round as long as business is taken care of on Thursday as we expect.
I seem to recall plenty of 1 seeds playing late on the first day imo. I'd rather have the game a bit earlier personally since 10pm tip for easterners is rough for having to work on Friday but I guess I'll sleep when I'm dead. As @mayjay has pointed out he's not sure I even do sleep at this point.
First round Foe:
Texas Southern- Kenpom #188 (2nd worst team in tourney), #270 offense, #107 defense, #128 tempo
Schedule- Lost to Oregon 83-66, L -Saint Mary's 67-58, L- Washington 72-65, L NC St 65-57, L BYU 81-64, W @ Florida 69-54
Texas A&M CC- Kenpom #243 (worst team in the tourney), #287 offense, #181 defense, #73 tempo
Schedule- Lost to Texas A&M 86-65, L Minnesota 79-71, Notre Dame 83-73
Texas Southern does not have a player averaging 10ppg as 8 guys score from 6 to 9 per game. Brishon Gresham played at SMU & Houston previously, 5th leading scorer but leads the team with 2.2 blocks per game. They only average 69 ppg.
Texas A&M CC is led by Isaac Mushilla, 6'5 Jr averages 13.5ppg & team high 9.5 rebounds per game. Lives at the free throw line with 208 attempts (78%) (tied for 10th in all of NCAA). Small team with only 2/3 guys 6'8.
Texas Southern is coached by Johnny Jones, former interim coach of Memphis, former coach of LSU. First tourney appearance with him.
Texas A&M CC is coached by Steve Lutz, former assistant at Creighton & Purdue who took over in 2021.
!8da78d02-5b3f-4232-abd9-7d8949ada76f-image.png ↗
The past KU teams that this squad compares the best too. Same as last update. We'll see what happens
A good update, updating for after the Big-12 Tournament win and earning another #1 seed!!!!
Some significant milestones on the horizon for KU players the more games we play. Ochai is about 100 points off Frank Mason's single season record for points under Self. He sits in #18th place all time on the scoring list, will very likely pass Tyshawn Taylor for #17th on Thursday & needs 24 to pass Wayne Simien in 16th. 14th place is attainable and hopefully he gets there.
Christian Braun is only 49 points away from 1,000 points in his Jr year. He's already ahead of Ochai's pace (Och had 920 coming into this year) so he's set up extremely well if he comes back for his Sr year to have one of those seasons that get's him into the Top 20 all-time as well.
Remy Martin is 71 pts away from 2,000 for his career. The way he scored in KC makes this feat attainable for him. Remy is starting to play like the preseason Big-12 POY he was tabbed to be.
!8786109f-433f-49ae-ab03-3be70e89f838-image.png ↗
!ed6c35d4-97e4-4315-bab7-ddd547a98924-image.png ↗
Positive movement on the Analytics
If I pick one it would be the St Mary's matchup.
I think Indiana could win their play-in game and beat the Gaels. Having a big time post player helps their chances in Trace Jackson-Davis and their new coach has NBA playoff experience which should come in handy. They looked like a well coached team in the Big-10 tourney if that's any indication of what they are capable of doing. We saw how Iowa looked pretty good winning the big-10, Indiana was playing just as well when they dropped a very close game against them that required a 30 foot banked Game Winner. Seems like this Indiana bunch defends, top 25 Kenpom on D so I think this game will be low scoring (also since St Mary's is top 10 defense on Kenpom). Both teams struggle to score it consistently so it could come down to who has better players, better athletes?
Saint Mary's had a good season and got the big win over Gonzaga. No back to back losses on the resume. This a solid squad with a lot of experience. They also tend to lose early as they have 6 first weekend exits in their past 7 tourney appearances. Their only S16 run was on the back of having Matthew Delladova who played in the NBA and won a championship. I've seen St Mary's play and they don't have NBA guys. This is the lowest seed the Gaels have ever received and personally I think they are over seeded. Now that doesn't mean much for this game but I could say they are the weakest 5 seed out there due to the conference they come out of. The WCC got 3 bids so it seems like this was a stronger then usual year. They have a 4-5 record against tournament teams. Not exactly the strongest resume for a 5 seed if you ask me.
The big 'If' is Indiana winning the play-in game. I see that happening due to the momentum gained in the Big 10 tournament. Notre Dame at times showed they were decent but I would feel a lot less confident about them beating Saint Mary's then Indiana.
Baylor the first 1 seed to lose. Providence as a 4 seed to be upset by South Dakota St. I think UVM can beat Arkansas & St Mary's has a tough matchup if they face Indiana
9:57 Eastern Time start on Thursday. Last game of the night
Bilas has us in the finals against Gonzaga
Nobody on CBS liked us lol
@BShark said in KU Bracket Reveal Thread:
@bskeet said in KU Bracket Reveal Thread:
Both Iowa and Providence are talented and playing their best right now.
Providence is kind of mediocre they just won a lot more close games than normal. The kind of thing that evens out over time.
Providence had an absurd record in games under 5 pts. Something like 13-1
Love our bracket. The 2nd round game will not be easy. Both teams defend well. San Diego St is not a gifted offense but plays extremely slow tempo
Iowa after how they played this week is a tough matchup. Shoot to 100
@bskeet said in KU Bracket Reveal Thread:
Also complaining a little bit about playing a Texas underdog with their first NCAA Tourney win under their belt in Ft Worth.
First 4 games in dayton
Expected #1 in the Midwest. Will be interesting to see what the 8/9 game looks like
To talk everything about the bracket thats about to drop.
Rock Chalk
@BShark said in Bruce's Obit:
Georgia is hiring Mike White from Florida. Wow.
Sounds like Florida fans wanted him gone. Crazy
@mayjay said in EMPEROR OF BASKETBALL:
I think y'all need to look a little harder at that NOA...
Yeah its badd
Arizona wins the Pac 12