🏀 KuBuckets Archive

cbssportsline (Gary Parrish) is reporting that Holberg is on his way to Chicago today to work out details; announcement could come tonight.

@globaljaybird: I did not realize when that hwy had been built at that cost. We spent a week in Durango some years back, and we did ride the passenger train at Silverton, although we booked at the beginning of our week there. It was early May, and, driving to Durango, my wife and I stared at each other when we saw a sign up in the mountains that said "Wolf Creek Pass is open today." We saw sun, rain, sleet, and snow on our way through that pass. I especially liked The Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

@globaljaybird $1M a mile is what all highways cost back in Pennsylvania. I-376 from the city to Pgh Intl Airport was redone so many times that when Al McGuire was in town to call a college game, he said to an interviewer, "That road into the city from the airport--someone is stealing money from you people." I laughed at that quote and never forgot it. Also, got a BB reference into the thread.

@HighEliteMajor : Is Bolden a true center, or could he play PF while Chukwu is on the floor? Of course, both could progress faster than anticipated, but even 2 yrs of Chukwu and 2 or 3 of Bolden would be worth it, don't you think?

@Crimsonorblue22: Since Joel is under contract in the NBA and did not play at all this season, Embiid's handlers (or whoever) would seem to have made a sensible decision. Who knows? Maybe Coach Self was the "whoever".

Mr NEWMAN: Welcome to Howland Ball, where the forearm is considered to be part of the ball.

Anyone hear how the surgery went? Saw the thread title and realized that today is the day.

@jayballer54: On April 2nd, I opened an article on cbssports about LSU installing purple turf. I groaned, because I hate that colored turf that Boise St and Eastern Washington have. Then I read a couple of paragraphs before coming across the name of the owner of the turf installing company -- Art Vandalay, President of Vandalay Industries. Then, I checked the date of the article.

Now Bruce can build from below the ground up.

Am I correct in assuming that those are extrapolated numbers? Whenever I check the game stats, it appears that T-Rob is coming off the bench and playing about 14-18 mpg, which is still more than he got in Portland and a lot more than in Houston. His numbers in those minutes look good. One of my favorite Jayhawks.

@jaybate-1.0: I kid you not. I just posted the following question on another of your threads about 5 minutes ago, not having seen this one (presumably you were composing this one at the time):

"I know it is against NCAA rules to give benefits as inducements to the HS athletes, but are there specific NCAA regulations against schools/recruiters/coaches giving money to AAU coaches, to foster their relationships (i.e., to keep the pipelines open)?"

@jaybate-1.0: I know it is against NCAA rules to give benefits as inducements to the HS athletes, but are there specific NCAA regulations against schools/recruiters/coaches giving money to AAU coaches, to foster their relationships (i.e., to keep the pipelines open)?

@VoyagingJayhawk: Final Fours are a fairly normal occurrence at Michigan State.

I read in the Star that Brownbag did his doctoral work at KU. That could harm KU's reputation!

@jaybate-1.0: Back in the old days in the NFL, 1950s), when somebody cheap-shotted one of your players, it was treated like a HBP in baseball: You sent in a third-teamer, and the retaliation usually cleared things up summarily. If the refs wouldn't correct that, then Mr VanVleet should have found himself about 4 rows behind the cheerleaders. Either the thugs you are playing against get the message, or the referees are forced to deal with it in the ensuing melee. If you use a player who might not otherwise get into the game and he is ejected, he has served his team, er, platoon, well.

My wife says that, as fans, we can say nothing publicly about this w/o looking like whiners, but she thinks somebody wanted this outcome, and they got it. When you are playing a thug, you cannot turn the other cheek. Hard to imagine this happening with a team that had T-Rob or the Morrises. Retaliating in this fashion is not retaliating per se; it is just showing "how much you want it."

I too was sent back to find the bully and to challenge him. I did and had no problems with him after that.

@drgnslayr: A few years ago, WVU kept Kentucky out of the FF. They aren't frightened of anybody. Remember, Hatfield-McCoy was a WV-KY feud.

drgnslayr: While watching a recorded installment of Rick Steves' travels in Europe, I paused and said to my wife, "Did I just see what I think I saw?" She said, "I think ya did." I rewound, and there, as Rick is doing voiceover of his tour through a museum set in the home where Anne Frank's family hid for two years, is a little kid wearing a Jayhawk T-shirt! Amazing.

Folks: Think of Robert Duvall's character in The Natural. That's who the Bimbo is.

@ jayhawkbychoice: I like your name, because it made me realize that that is what I am. I came aboard during Roy's first season when he explained to sportswriters how being HC at Kansas was a great job, even after the sanctions. i heard what he said and thought about it and realized that Kansas was the program I wanted to root for. Also, I kind of felt like a midwesterner, even though I lived back east.

In 1991, I sat down to watch the championship game, feeling certain that Duke was going to win it, but knowing, no matter what, I was rooting for Kansas.

And every year, I pick the Jayhawks to win it all, even when I know it's not their year.

@jaybate-1.0: Thank you, Mr. Gerber.

Yeah, different is one word for it. Different. Like Richard Pryor's Doberman Pinscher. A guard dog with anxiety.

@wrwlumpy: I got my degree at WVU back in 1971. I had not heard that factoid about snake handling Pentecostal churches in WV. I always assumed that Tennessee was the capitol. The issue of snake handling was, in fact, the first question I had when I first attended a Pentecostal church in Pennsylvania. Knowing that so few of them do that, I feel a bit embarrassed by it now. But it does not stop me from having a joke at my own expense.

As for opposition to slavery, I was told at my first football game in 1966, that that was the reason for the cheer, "WEST -- BY GOD! -- VIRGINIA!"

I have not been back there for a while, so I don't know if they still use that cheer. In the mid-60s, boys wore sport coats to the games (with boutonnieres on their left lapel) and gave their dates a corsage. A quaint tradition that had pretty much gone away by the end of the decade.

WVU had their protests against the Vietnam conflict back then, but it was still a campus where the leaders of the SDS were on civil terms with the Army and AF officers who ran the ROTC. I rather liked that the VP of Student Affairs could engage a student leader outside of the student union (the Mountain Lair) to ask if his parents had seen him on TV in the midst of a protest rally. I happened to overhear that exchange, and in the jaggedness of the 60s, it gave me a good feeling to think that regardless of what was happening across America, things weren't going to blow up too badly in Morgantown.

The last time that WVU went to a Final Four, they knocked off Kentucky. They've beaten Duke in the tournament, as well. I think they are a good replacement for Mizzou, although their depth of talent in football is still getting to where it needs to be for the Big XII.

@nuleafjayhawk: I noticed the same thing the moment Fraschilla said it. I said back to the tv screen: We didn't have to choose. We got both. HA!

@JayHawk FanToo: That is my beef with Zenger--not only that he sold out the local fans for the potential faraway family fans of minor sports, but that his mentality had to be that of a mid-major AD who did not seem to realize the eliteness of the program he represents. Chancellor BGL really ought to be looking for a first rate AD for our very first rate foundational BB program!

@jaybate 1.0: I honestly believe a lot of it has to do with the difference in Cal's and Self's approaches to the game. Cal tells the recruits they will have to work hard, but I think his way is to extend the AAU game for them, while trying to get them to play some D. Self tells recruits they will have to work hard, but he doesn't necessarily let them on the court until he has seen them begin to fit into his system. Self's way seems much more restrictive to me, and I wonder if any number of highly rated recruits don't just find it easier to join Cal's ever-changing stable of talent.

Barry Switzer once said that if you give money to a player, you don't own the player. The player owns you. If anything like that goes on at UK, it is well away from Cal. The vacated FF appearances at UMass and Memphis touched the schools but did not touch Cal. In the case of Memphis, Cal said that he asked the NCAA whether the player would meet the NCAA eligibility requirements, which is a lot like something the Tudors would have done -- provide an answer to the wrong question being asked. Cal never asked whether the student had actually taken his own SAT, did he? And nobody could tell if he knew the answer to that question, or if he had even asked that question in the recruiting process. Thus, Memphis never played against KU in the final, but Cal moves right on to Kentucky.

@JayHawkFanToo: I'm guessing UK fans don't hold their noses and look the other way; they just celebrate the over-the-top-UK way.

@jaybate 1.0: "sacred wood" -- Love the reference to TS Eliot.

Mellinger at the Star was doing that the other day. It reminds me of tv networks calling a race in NH because one candidate got the first 8 votes. I hate the irrational possibility that puffing KU might jinx the team.

Has Jack Harry retired yet, or will he still go out and say KU won't win it again? That's what I like to hear; it offsets the (potential) jinxing of the team by those who say we have it won 11% into the conference schedule.

I think as many recruits as possible should be offered. Bill Self recruits people who have the potential to play pro ball; I don't know what he and the staff tell the recruits, but I expect he is honest. Both Beal and Wall said in interviews tonight that their coaches guaranteed them nothing. I think if Coach Self thinks a player has pro potential, does it really matter if he is a OAD, a TAD, or horror of horrors, a 3AD? I mean, what, 5-7 of the NC team got NBA contracts. Sasha landed an NBA contract, but asked out of it to play in his home country. Wiggins and Embiid are perfect examples: Wiggins was expected to be a OAD, and he was. When Coach Roberts spotted Embiid and pointed him out to Coach Self, they thought he would be a project. At that point, he was ranked about #100, and would have seemed to be a 3- or 4-year player, but after he committed to KU, he shot quickly into the Top 10. At that point, I was thinking TAD, but he turned out to be a OAD. Wayne was projected as a OAD. If he develops, should it matter if he stays even 3 years, as long as he develops and gets to the NBA? Coach Self has said he expects Brannen Greene to play in the NBA. If it takes 3 years for him to develop, should that be discouraging to him?

With the juggling of multiple good players, many may wonder if they will have the durability for the NBA schedule, but many first and second year players have spot roles off the bench, giving them a chance to adjust to the rigors of a pro season.

@jaybate 1.0 Are you Vivek Ranadive? If so, is the team in Sacramento or playing on the road (like Minneapolis)?

@wissoxfan83 Fan: No doubt MM caught lightning in a bottle with some good recruits. Don't forget, though, that season, the team started 5-0, before Perkins started his witch hunt to get Mangino; from way out where I sat, it seems the team divided, and it would have been an incredible coaching job to have pulled them back together. (I also wondered what part the FB-BB fight may have played.) No doubt, those on the team who were against the coach would not have wanted him to finish with a bowl game, and Perkins appears to have lacked the spine to fire outright the most successful coach at KU in many years. For the AD to have sacrificed the program (which he did) in order to avoid a tough decision, is to me unforgiveable. Perkins may have engineered our appearance in the Orange Bowl (otherwise,we'd have appeared in the Cotton Bowl) but I think he deserved to go before he did.

@drgnslayr I will second your wish that Andrew wind up with SA. Don't know how long Pop will be there, though. Could Self become Spurs coach at that point?

How long could Minnesota control Andrew's future if he is traded? Could he be a RFA after 3 or 4 years?

@icthawkfan316 Since Cavs have not signed Wiggins yet, what would happen if, say, Wiggins' agent got him a decent contract overseas for a year? Would T'wolves make the deal? If so, for how long would they hold the rights to Wiggins? With no contract, could Wiggins make some money this year in Europe and get re-drafted next year?

Having signed with adidas, would he even be able to sign with a Euroleague team?

I'd like to add one more opinion before the thread closes. I believe our consternation involves a combination of early outs (3's shouldn't lose to 14's and 1's shouldn't lose to 9's, etc), the number of early outs in a given period, the overall lack of NC's compared to other elite programs, and the national perception that KU underperforms in the tournament. As someone pointed out, no one questions Coach K's credentials when he loses to a 14 in the first game, or that he has lost early a couple of times, recently. Why would they? He has coached Duke to 4 NC's.

As fans of an elite program, arguably the program that fathered the the other elite programs, we certainly know the Kansas tradition is valid, but here in the hinterlands, we may be suffering a bit of self doubt. In 2008, KU was the fourth of the #1 seeds, but I was confident that that team would win; I just didn't expect we would beat UNC by so much. It should have been obvious we had a good chance, but we are in the middle of the country, and the reporters wanted to enjoy Rick Pitino's patter (Q: Are there any weaknesses on the Carolina team? A: Well, Roy's not the best dresser. )

KU does not need to beat its breast. It just needs to keep playing top tier basketball. There are still NC's to be won. Why shouldn't Kansas win some of them? Why not, indeed.