🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Looked over the upcoming schedule to see what lies ahead. Anything to avoid looking at another "we're close, pushing buttons, any-minute, any-hour, any-day update" about the S & P saga. So here's the skinny:

6 of the next 9 at home. We should hold serve in every one of them if the past few homes games are an anomaly.

The three games not at home; @WVU, @Trae Young, @the-try-harder-banner-club (K-St). All three road games present difficulties but also awesome opportunities to steal more road victories.

These next 9 games (8 conference) could shape how the streak shakes out for us. KU can really help itself the next month by winning the games it should and possibly gaining road victories of significance. A win in Morgantown would provide a ton of momentum going forward in my opinion. Nobody on this current team has won there, I think we see a motivated bunch. And who knows, just mayyyyybee we'll have 1,2 more kiddos to throw in there. Imagine being one of the teams that we play in the back half of the schedule and not having a ton of tape to scout what could be an improved bunch by February.. Excited to see how this stretch of games at home goes. It looks to be favorable on paper

@justanotherfan

Sounds great in theory. I would love to see some of this incorporated.

Where Garrett is getting the ball he's basically on an island on the perimeter. He gets the ball, man sagged and he's like "okay what do I do now". I can't imagine the staff sees film of this and thinks this is successful offense..

@Jayrawks1

Which basically means they can't do nothing and the NCAA will do what they always do

Self did say they are pushing the NCAA for answers. Whatever that means

Bill Self: No news on Preston or De Sousa. Confident that news is coming soon, though not necessarily today.

Bill Self: No news on Preston or De Sousa. Confident that news is coming soon, though not necessarily today.

Talk about having an entire fan-base on a swivel

Self is up

Jayrawks1 said:

per scott chasen, do I need to give credit here? Im honestly not sure

Your good!

@Jayrawks1

doing the same! didn't have scott on my feed

Jayrawks1 said:

@BeddieKU23 scott chasen is the one who mentioned lightfoot was being interviewed so I guess he is also

thanks for info.

@Jayrawks1

Yeah but how many are getting access before his practice. I'm not seeing any other people reporting being there?

Would seem odd that Tait would be the first to report no?

meanwhile Stokes of Kansas St is out with a foot injury, potentially season ending. OUCH

so what does mid-afternoon classify as? 2-4? 1-3? its fluid..

Matt Tait is reporting...

"Tait said the media will have availability with Bill mid afternoon today."

@Hawk8086

It was funny, almost as if they thought it was really improbable he could make it. Mitch was en fuego in the 2nd half

stone cold steve austin style

@JayHawkFanToo

I was thinking something schematically. Every defense is going to sag on him for the rest of the season unless his shot magically comes around. I saw him try and drive a few times and one ended in a bad shot. I do hope he stays aggressive though as I think he can create good things for this offense.

@JayHawkFanToo

There was also a long stretch of time where USC was the favorite for Preston because of his mother's relationship with the school. Most people thought he'd end up there. Once he ended up at Oak Hill he "opened" up his recruitment up again. At that time he was considering USC, KU, Maryland, UK.

Syracuse got involved late, even getting him on campus and Indiana wanted him. He had plenty of programs after him despite him bouncing schools. When KU missed on Ayton, Preston got a lot of attention from Self and we ultimately signed him after he visited for Late Night. Ayton was the key to how we really got Preston. If KU had signed Ayton Preston goes somewhere else.

If we could go into Morgantown and get a win that would be the biggest win of the regular season right? We have 2 road wins already so we know this team can bring it away from home. I know Devonte and Svi would like to get a W in Morgantown before their career's are over here. Texas Tech I'm sure heard all week long how many times they have lost in Allen Fieldhouse before coming in and torching us. I'm hoping our seniors lead the way next week in getting a gigantic win

@justanotherfan

KU might have moved on from both Williams (accused of sexual assault, charges later dropped) and Quinerly (mentioned in FBI case) due to their off-the-court issues. Recently Quinerly was asked about his recruitment and basically nobody is touching him because of the lack of clarity to whether he'd be eligible or not. Quinerly was supposed to visit KU in September and never did committing to Arizona before making it to campus.

@justanotherfan

What's the solution for a sagging defender besides taking and making shots?

@drgnslayr

In my opinion this whole situation is likely to make Billy sour to College if and when he is cleared. I wouldn't be surprised if Billy and his family decide to leave and pursue their options at seasons end. His mother did say he could have been an instant millionaire overseas. They clearly haven't changed their opinion of him even if the opinion of Billy nationwide has changed. Nobody has seen him play. If he doesn't get to play for KU its likely he won't be invited to the Combine which will leave them with limited options. It doesn't mean he's coming back.

You have to wonder what Billy thinks of KU. He came here to play and get drafted if all went well after one year. Self recruited over him taking Dedric Lawson under the assumption Preston was here for just one year.

KU compliance has held him out of playing for 15 games. KU could have risked playing him and they chose not to. Billy didn't get to decide for himself, KU did. The NCAA didn't say Billy can't play, at least not until his information was submitted to them for review. Do you think Preston believes that KU was right for sitting him? Then his mother gets social media attacks. Can't imagine they are thrilled with the fan-base or the program for that matter.

As far as the NCAA, I'm sure that all the recent attention and headlines are pushing them towards a decision. It did with Diallo after Diallo lawyered up and ESPN talking heads started giving their opinion. Self seems pretty frustrated about the lack of ruling in his comments this week. I can't imagine he pokes at the NCAA without having a legitimate reason to do so. We'll have to see what comes of all this. All we can hope is good news comes today!

@wissox

I think De Sousa and his handler were dead set on getting him enrolled early to jump-start the process. They knew he wouldn't be able to play basketball after the fall semester having exhausted his HS eligibility. From what his handler said they weren't keen on Silvio sitting so long which is why they started making preparations (academically) as far back as August.. It's also speculated he wasn't going to be in College 4 years early.

KU just happened to fall into a situation where him enrolling early was potentially beneficial having been dealt the Preston situation and having an extra scholarship to award for 17-18. If we didn't have an open scholarship or a need for big men Silvio would have been forced to wait until his orginial class, or joined as a walk-on and paid his own way..

Before KU got him on campus and he committed it was speculated he would go to Maryland where his friend Bruno Fernando is a freshman. Maryland could have be in the same situation as KU is now (Maryland is down 2 big men to season ending injury). I'm sure their fans would be just as impatient for his amateurism to be cleared as some KU fans are.

10 ranked teams went down this weekend. We were lucky to not be one of them. Getting a big win on the road helps soften Tuesday's stinker. A +1 as Self said. We need to win both games at home before the inevitable the sky is falling in Morgantown. This weeks games are very important, I think there is some momentum to be gained from winning at TCU and hopefully getting back to our dominate self in Allen Fieldhouse. The last thing you need is opponents coming here and thinking they can really win.

@HighEliteMajor

I agree ultimately KU- Self- is responsible for the situations they get into. Some of it could really be "bad luck". It does seem some things need to be cleaned up in regards to how we recruit, who we are recruiting, who we take a chance on. The standards seem to have gotten lazy.

@KUSTEVE

It's expected that people will say just about anything.

Part of the issue with these cases is the NCAA has no deadline. Makes it easy to blame the NCAA or KU compliance when you have situations like this. The NCAA has created enough problems for itself over the years that its usually going to look like the bad guy in these situations. Someone has to be blamed, the NCAA and our compliance is an easy target. Who's happy with Zenger, that doesn't seem to be popular these days

It sounds as if Self and KU expected answer last week and didn't get anything on either case. He mentioned them practicing 50-70% of reps with 2 bigs in anticipation of having them and got nothing. Whether its full clearance, need more info, need to appeal etc its clear Self is not happy how this is dragging now for Billy. If Preston wasn't a desperate need for this team the narrative would be different. How much press would this situation be receiving if we weren't in complete desperation to have him on the floor?

De Sousa's situation would appear to be a different animal. Just hoping for the best..

http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2018/jan/7/latest-in-de-sousa-preston-situations-pi/ ↗

Self did, however, provide the most specific and clear timeline to date for that to change.

“We should know a lot more tomorrow afternoon on both,” Self told the Journal-World.

jaybate 1.0 said:

@BeddieKU23

It’s Monday afternoon somewhere in the world already!

Where's our down yunder peeps with the news already?

Freshman big's won't be our issue at West Virginia. KU's mental toughness will be stressed to the max as they hack away and force turnover after turnover. Devonte will have to channel his inner BIFM again for this one

Garrett did have a nice game. Some key boxouts and being in the right spot at the right time.

Wish his confidence in his shot was there because the scouting report is out on him. He's open and hesitates to decide what to do and he's open constantly. These are freshman things he just has to work through.

The remedy to him being forgotten on offense could simply be to run more screen action with him when he gets the ball. Re-watching the game there was some stagnant offense when he got the ball on the perimeter and he was unsure what to do because his man was sagging. I'm sure the coaches will see this as well on tape. It can be corrected.

He's benefiting from the minutes though as much as anyone. Every road environment, every pressure situation he's in is helping this young man.

Newman had some plays defensively where he flat out gave up. Whether it was due to his foul trouble its becoming a problem. I replayed the game to check out some things, it would be interesting to see how Self interprets Newman's effort because to the eye it certainly appears he's in more then just a slump.

2nd "soft" game from Vick this week. Also battled foul trouble but it seemed Self was sending him a message as well sitting on the bench for long stretches. I wonder what's going on with him, he's too good to be loafing around for this team. I hope he puts this past week behind him playing at home.

Mitch's 2nd half was by the far the best half of basketball he's ever played. He became confident in himself when he was making plays, you saw the smiles after he blocked some shots. Even the announcers seemed stunned when he made a corner jumper with the shot-clock running down. We've been waiting for a game like this from Mitch all season long. Whether he's capable of giving this team similar type games in the future is something to watch. For one game though, he was the man

Self says they should know something on both by Monday Afternoon. Oh the torture

Self is pissed they didn't have Preston for the tcu game. He was probably under the assumption they would decide by Saturday

It was a tale of two halves for mitch. He played great when it mattered. He finally stepped up in the moment when his team needed him with Doke on the bench. Game mvp. Sometimes a game like that can really turn the corner for someone who is playing spot minutes and struggling with consistency

We will see we are the clear underdog. Have to hope self lit a fire under them

Tremont Waters of LSU hit a crazy 3 to beat Texas a&m

Crimsonorblue22 said:

@BeddieKU23 Doke is emotionally young too! Maybe him and Silvio will hit it off. He seems a lil detached from the others.

Good point. Both from Africa, can see that maybe having some influence

kjayhawks said:

I feel like the next two road games for us, TCU and WVU are must wins to make up for dropping one at home. This will be a tough gmae no question, Mitch Lightfoot maybe the key because the Vlad can stretch defense, that is a tough guard for Doke. Svi or Vick may get him at times too.

Both of their bigs step out and hit the 3 (Vlad & JD Miller). Kenrich Williams is more of a big SF at this point and he's shooting close to 50% from 3 on the year. They also bring in Noi who's around 6'7 and can really shoot it as well. Hamdy is their only big who really operates solely in the post.

Self is going to have to get creative defensively against this group. Doke is going to have to play to his size which is difficult with him hurt right now. I'm not feeling optimistic about the matchup

@FarmerJayhawk

Maybe he is a 2nd round type this year. If that's the case I'm sure he'll return. I just think projecting him back right now is premature when there is over 20+ games left for him to figure it out. He's not as limited as Svi & Graham will be going into the draft who are clearly not 1st round caliber picks. Vick has upside because of his age, his athleticism, his improved shooting, rebounding, assists etc. What would probably separate him from coming back is taking on an Alpha role and not disappearing from games like he did this week. Overall I think he still has the best chance to be a 1st rounder on the roster at the moment.

Doke has his weaknesses, he should return. I just can't get away from what he said when he signed that he wanted to be a 2 year player. Whether that changed when he got injured is the big question. I think it was Self that said he wouldn't leave after this year unless he had a 1st round guarantee which seems very unlikely. We'll see, it would be great to hold onto him for another year and have that depth again

One bad game doesn't change Vick's stock. He's had six 20+ games already, he's rebounded and gotten teammates involved at a higher rate then he's ever. The Tech game was a really bad taste. He simply failed to impact the game in any category. He'll have to put that game well behind him.

So some mock's have Vick in the late 1st, worst case scenario is he's probably an early 2nd type? He's never going to be a lotto pick unless he took the Mason jump as a Sr so coming back is really about just solidifying 1st round status for him. Still a ton of ball left for him to figure out where he stands.

Doke should be back. But the thoughts roaming in my head keep saying he's going to leave regardless

@drgnslayr

Agree with everything you said.

TCU presents a magnitude of issues for KU to deal with. At home, most likely sell-out crowd with a evening tip this is going to be a game we have to bring more energy to the table then them. Energy alone won't win the game but it will fuel the necessary steps to win.

They are actually shooting the ball better from 3 then us now. Desmond Bane has improved a ton. Noi, a red-shirt freshman who comes off the bench would start at Kansas. Kenrich Williams is the best rebounder in the country. They have a ton of size which we don't have. They rebound, which we don't do. They play 9 guys in the rotation, we have 7. It's a game we are outmatched for. Guys are going to have to step up to the fullest capability. Relying on Self "rallying the troops" here

@drgnslayr

I've been waiting for their 15 minutes of fame to end but it doesn't seem like its happening anytime soon. ESPN seems set on covering what they eat for dinner, where they get their dry-cleaning. Heck they were front and center for the younger one's practice in Lithuiana today!!! Seems as if the fabricated drama Lavar created has fooled everyone, he's famous, his kids are famous. Drama sells..

Preston's mom's tweets, that's not good drama. Whether she's right in the matter is irrelevant to the distraction it continues to bring. She called out a fan-base. What if Billy is cleared to play in the home game next week, does he get a roar from the crowd or do people take his mother's comments to heart. I have a feeling the 16,300 would support him with open arms as we do any Hawk. It does beg the question though

@drgnslayr

Lonzo Ball did go 2nd in the draft with as much drama associated to his name as any player I could think of..

I certainly don't agree with his mother's comments making headlines. It's not a good look.

Ultimately the man in charge of our program must make the call on these situations. Billy could have been someone else's problem to deal with..

@HighEliteMajor

The third party angle would make sense.

"she accepted money from someone she shouldn’t have, without Billy’s knowledge, Billy is “innocent” in our eyes, but not to the NCAA."

Also a valid statement. With Self's recent comments it would seem to indicate they are banking on "time served" already. "KU's de-facto hold-out/in-house-suspension" would be sufficient to cover what they found out about the car.

My second thought, why does the NCAA have rules that would penalize the student athlete if they are innocent in any wrong doing, however the parents/family made a mistake. It begs the question whether the NCAA should be in the game of penalizing an athlete for his parent(s) issue. Isn't judging whether the student (Billy) in this case did something wrong more important.. I'm just having a hard time figuring out where the line is in all this

@BShark

That was my thinking in regards to Romeo. It seems any recruit brought in will be a guard(s).

@BShark

Thanks. So Norm watches to keep tabs on a localish player making some noise. I would assume an offer wouldn't seem likely until we know the fall out in the spring

first video i'm seeing good size and frame for a guard and a heck of an athlete. good form on his shot

@BShark

He any good? As in better then his current rank?