🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Love it!!!!

Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

• Benjamin Franklin

I don't even know what a point guard means anymore. Everytime I think we have recruited a point guard, he converts into something else by Summer.

I thought EJ was a point guard when we recruited him. He turned out to be Combo.

I thought Tharpe was the return to the old Roy-type point guards (ala Miles and Vaughn), pass-first PG. Then it turned out he wasn't.

I thought Frank Mason was the ball-handling maestro PG. He apparently is Combo.

Now I thought we had Graham as the PG, but turns out he is 'lead guard' - whatever that means.

I'm confused!

I was initially thinking that if AWIII has to sit out a year anyway, why not redshirt here and then play 2 seasons. But with more than even chances of Greene and/or Oubre coming back, why take that chance?
It is the right move for him; Wish it was different because he is exactly the type of guy that I love seeing in the Jayhawk uniform.

Best of Luck Andrew!

@JayHawkFanToo Graham. because ummm ummm his uncle said that is better than Chris Paul.

Ok, I kinda see it now. It's slim pickings in 2015, so we're hedging now. If we land Alonzo, someone will have to transfer again due to over crowding. Ugh!

If we are pursuing Turner and Graham at once, then I'm guessing either of the following headlines (or both) coming out soon.

White transfers and/or Naadir is off the team.

Ok. I'm confused.

To borrow the terminology from HEM, how is no-rank Graham going to be the answer NEXT year, ahead of the options we already have?

If this was Tyus Jones, then I get it. But Graham won't contribute for atleast a couple of year. By then, I'm hoping we can land an Elite PG.

Funny that PG Malik Newman's tape did not have a single pass as a highlight. The only high school mix tape of a guard that has ever impressed me is below:

Still hoping for the miracle that he can turn into a PG...

@JRyman Yeah, that's what I meant. I think he is letting them run and jump and increase the number of possessions in the game now to let Athleticism decide the outcome. I think we could have done that with our team this year, but what's done is done I guess. On to next year...

@REHawk You know that is what is baffling me the most. Even as late as the SEC tournament, Kentucky's pg play was horrendous. There was no passing, ball reversal, no inlet pass to Randle, or any semblance of organized basketball whatsoever. It seemed completely unraveled. That is why I thought the WSU defense will completely shut them down.

However, credit to Calipari that he just let his athletes run around and use it to their advantage in the tournament.

@JRyman Well let's go out on a limb and assume no 'vacating' :)

My thoughts exactly.

My tolerance of a champion (can't say rooting), in order:

Wisconsin

Florida

UConn

Kentucky

I hear you nuleaf! it's making me sick seeing this happen...again!

So, simply put...
How many of you would trade KU's season straight up with Kentucky's?

I certainly would. Final Four is better than any conference championship.

Heck, I would trade the last three years worth of seasons with Kentucky right now. A championship, A Final Four (could be more...ugh!) sandwich with the NIT Robert Morris egg in between.

We belong among the elites of basketball (UNC, Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, UCLA) that is evident with the total number of wins, final fours, history, etc.

However, we stick out like a sore thumb when you look at the number of National Championships.

If Florida wins this year, we will have exactly same number of Championships in the last 62 years, that Florida has in the last 8! That UConn has in the last 15.

The underachievement has spanned over multiple decades and coaches, so it has to be some sort of a statistical anomaly. I am hoping the Universe balances this out over the next several year and get us to what our average should compared to other parameters that we excel in.

I was hoping last year would be the start due to veteran seniors and a lotter pick. It didn't happen. I was reminded that talent trumps experience.

I was hoping this year would be the start due to the number of pros (potential super stars) we had on the team. It didn't happen. I'm being told experience beats freshmen talent by some.

2011 we seemed to have the best blend of both. It still didn't happen. VC-frickin'-U happened!

Sorry for the rant. Just bitter right now. Feel like throwing up every time I click on ESPN.com (due to habit) and see the tourney coverage.

@drgnslayr What if Davidson made that last shot in '08? What if Derek Rose made that free throw in regulation?

How would we view Self without that title? It's funny how a single bounce of the ball has life altering implications.

I think Self needs to find that hunger and get his teams play with passion 90% of the time. The lack of energy is a common theme in all of Self's teams of the last several years, including the '08 team during several games that year. We seem to come out flat and then try to climb out of a hole for the majority of the game.

Even the 2012 team that made it to the finals, played exceptional defense in the last 5 minutes of the game to win 4 of the 6 games they played that tournament. It could have easily ended in the 2nd round too.

@nuleafjhawk I concur 100%. That is what I loved about Wichita State this year. They played with the same passion every single game regardless of the opponent. I understand Jaybate's theory about amping up and playing flat, but what I don't understand is why we can't ever seem to string even two games in a row with high energy level.

And we were like this last year too when we probably had the oldest starting five in the country.

So in back to back years, we proved that we couldn't win with experience and we couldn't win with talent. Experienced talent doesn't happen anymore in college basketball, so where do we go from here?

And the freshmen pros at Kentucky beat the #1 seed, just to rub salt in the wounds today....ugh!!!!

Watching Wichita State play Kentucky, exactly as I envisioned it. Wish we could have played with that type of energy each game. Even our veteran team last year didn't have this type of energy night in night out.

@konkeyDong Going to inside wasn't our strength today. We went to 3 pointers with 30 seconds left. Just saying we should have gone to it with 2 minutes left.
Also, we never seemed to develop a perimeter game all season to complement the inside game which made us one-dimensional and ineffective against length.

@konkeyDong You are right, a lot of layups missed, but besides Tarik we weren't very effective inside against their bigs. Self should have adjusted with drawing up plays to get the snipers open after the 5 minute mark or atleast the 2 minute mark.
This game should have been won.

@HighEliteMajor Self is just so darn stubborn! Has to keep going inside even when it's not working. He did that several times during this season. A season where we had at least 4 good to great 3 point marksmen (Tharpe, Frankamp, Greene, and White).
This is so frustrating! Having a team with potential NBA stars and losing in the second round.

Hoping WSU kicks Kentucky out to make this day 1% better.

@icthawkfan316 Yes, Conner's presence helped a lot. But just as you mentioned the affect on Naadir going from sophomore backup with no leadership responsibility to starting PG role, don't you think it's better to let Conner keep coming off the bench and limit Naadir's minutes if they are damaging.

Changing a veteran PG mid-tournament is just too risky I think.

It's funny how last year everyone was saying the same thing about EJ and that Tharpe should be running the point. He was composed and made better decisions than EJ. Don't understand how he could regress after another year in the system and getting so many minutes.

I think Tharpe will still be needed for us to go far this year. Starting Conner at this point will not solve our PG problems. Naadir has played good in some games this year. Let's hope he has a few more of those, even if it is from the 2 spot shooting some 3s.

HEM, I like the idea. Please call in to Bill Self's show and plant this seed in his head. Otherwise, I'm sure Black will be starting.

I really like Titus. He is hilarious. Under the Kansas paragraph, Loved the way he casually inserted Travis Ford's name in the sequence of legendary coaches. I literally LOL'd.

@drgnslayr Yes, I agree. I have seen a few Kentucky games, not all. But it seems like the talent edge that was believed to be Kentucky's has somewhat tilted towards Kansas.

PG - Clear edge was on Harrison, and it still maybe due to size, but Naadir has closed the gap.

SG - Selden hasn't set the world on fire, but neither has the other Harrison.

SF - I haven't seen James Young play much, but he has had some break-out games, so not sure if Wiggins still has an edge here or it is even.

PF - Randle has been a beast, and you have to give him the edge over Ellis I think.

C - This has been the biggest rise on Kansas's side. Embiid has surprised everyone and gets a definitive edge over either WCS or Dakari.

As a team, Kansas seems to have come farther than Kentucky, but they are coming around as well.

Bench - not sure. Kansas is doing well, but don't know enough about KY

Coaching - Maybe bias, but have to go with Self.

@drgnslayr Off topic, but would love to see you do a mid season comparison KU vs Kentucky players like you did with BBall2012 before the season.

Wonder how you think our talent/team compares with them after seeing them through 20 games.

My apologies for replacing THAT image with this one...but thought this was funny:
!29y1aom.jpg ↗

@AsadZ Exactly! That's what I was wondering, hence the allusion to Self being stubborn with going inside. I kind of see where @Jaybate is coming from on the last couple of minutes from a tactical perspective.
However, as a strategy, perhaps Self should have become more perimeter oriented on offense, earlier in the 2nd half, as well changing things up defensively (press/full-court pressure) to snap the team out of their lethargic approach. Perhaps even putting 5 subs in to bring in the energy to get the starters' attention.

But maybe Self wanted it to end that way, to get the team to start working on its kryptonite (as Newell calls it).

I'm not too worried. They are still among the handful of top teams in the country, and will continue to get better. Still was frustrating to watch this game.

Random thoughts...

1. Boys against Men. Got beat up and rattled. This was a game for the Bruise Brothers, the Finesse Brothers (Perry and Joel). But Perry and Joel better toughen up.

2. Officiating: Embiid got body slammed, no call?!. Selden's And-1 became a charge?!

3. Was Self being stubborn or trying to make a point while losing a game? Less than two minutes remaining with a double digit lead, and we keep sending our smalls inside to run into the wall. Why not spread out the shooters and attempt threes?

Self always says he doesnt like to press because it leads to easy baskets. Why does it never lead to easy baskets for us?

I have a feeling that NCAA will put us in the same bracket. Maybe that's who Marsha is trying to get the attention of.

Kentucky also got Dakari Johnson, who was Embiid's teammate and rated higher than him, number 1 center by most.
We were actually still recruiting Dakari even after we got Embiid, most likely because Embiid was considered a 2-3 year project and Dakari an OAD.

I agree with your last line.

Prediction of K-State game:

Wiggins explodes for 25pts, 12 rebounds, 2 blks, 3 assists, 2 steals

Says after the game: "The coach talked to me before the game and told me to just go and play and stop thinking."

Seriously though, I think he has been going aggressively to the basket, but it's just not falling for him, which is probably what's frustrating him and making him appear disengaged.

The good news is that he is really attacking and making some insane moves to the basket. Remember last year, when Perry would make moves to the basket, but the ball always seemed to rattle out. Eventually it started falling for him.

It will for Wiggins also. He is not going to live up to the hype, as that is just not possible. But I think he will become that differentiating factor for us in March that we have been hoping for.

@TheCoge i saw the same. Greene atleast had a minor reaction, half-hearted clap, but Mason showed nothing and it was literallynat his feet.
Perhaps ticked at playing time, but I hope they learn to be more involved in the game and back each other up.

As much as Rio complained about his playing time last year, i miss his energy and invisible cereal bowl on the bench this year.

As much as I love Selden, I really think he would be better off coming off the bench, and Greene or White starting at his spot or at least getting more minutes than him.

@nuleafjhawk I was scared like StupidMichael even with the Chiefs up 38-10. Lin Elliott's ghost still haunting me.

Don't know what to think of this Jayhawk team. If the switch will ever turn on for it to be a special season, or just the usual average KU season (which would be great, if we were KSU, but we're not).

Let me know if not talking to your wife helps things. I may try it too.

Missing bunnies

Not Boxing Out

Couple of really bad calls

Another loss in this frustrating freshmen heavy season

Defense was decent. Offense was horrible

Bring on the conf season.

@jaybate good to see you on board. I saw the title and read the first sentence (before seeing your name) and thought that sounds like Jaybate and sure enough it was you.
Looking forward to the exchanges and pontifications through this exciting season.

By the way, I was going to paste a Chalice here but can't figure it out.

I think we can afford to not recruit a backcourt player for a year or two unless it is a cant-miss athlete. Lyle is not that.

I'd rather trim the roster a bit and reward the good recruits already on the bench that will turn in to very good to great upperclassmen.

I don't want to see transfers and chemistry disruptions for same level players that we already have on the roster and who are getting better.

Even if Selden leaves, I don't want Lyle or Vaughn to come in. I think we have the depth in Backcourt to cover better than any freshmen will (unless again it is an elite elite player, and even that I don't feel too strongly about)

@drgnslyr I've always been a fan of Bilas because he seems to be the most rational and impartial guy. I like his expertise and his candor against NCAA. Having said that, I was appalled today and couldn't believe this was Bilas. Especially, when he called out Wiggins throwing the ball in frustration but completely ignored the defender's intentional swipe at Wiggins head.
I hope this was an anomaly because I really do like him. Today was unforgivable.

@approxinfinity It would be a very tough decision. History shows, GMs going after skilled size, because that is rarer, but history has also shown that it is very risky.

If Wiggins and Embiid continue to develop at this same rate, and there are no injury red flags with Embiid, I would bet on Embiid as the #1 pick.

Awesome read! Love his competitiveness and how far he has come along.
Boy, Coach Self doesn't hold back with his players. You have to be tough to respond back positively when he challenges your manhood.
If Wiggins and Embiid play up to my hopes, they may be the 1 and 2 picks in the draft, after winning an NC of course.

I dont know if i would trade all 9 for 1 more NC. Maybe for 2 NCs.

However, i would trade the streak and half the conf titles for one more NC.

Ive said this before. There are three years that were 'ours' and we missed. 1997, 2003, 2011.

I would give up the streak for one of those years. All 9 for two of those.

Seriously hoping the universe makes up for those misses by overcompensating in the next few years.

I kept looking at the bench to locate White and his body language, and not seeing him there got a little worried. Later found out about his injury, but I'm still worried about him leaving.
I really like him and think he is exactly the type of guy we need in his junior and senior seasons. He needs to stick around.

With Oubre coming, we will be in the same situation next year, and worse (for White) if Selden stays and/or we pick-up Vaughn.

I really hope Self is doing a full press recruitment of White right now, because a 3rd through 5th year White will be more valuable than any Freshmen we could get.

Great Discussion above. Enjoyed all the points.

My three takeaways from the game:

1. Finally some decent crisp ball movement.

2. Though Wiggins couldn't get the ball to fall through the basket, he played like he should and attacked the rim.

3. Embiid. Wow. 'Nuff Said.

I said in the last post, that I wasn't going to panic even if they lost at Florida. That was before I watched them play that first half. I am hitting the panic button now.

If they played like the second half and still lost even with a bigger margin, I wouldn't be concerned. But I really expected them to look better at this stage than they showed, and if they haven't made that type of progress, then I am worried what the final product is going to look like. It will be better, but my expectation was FF and NC. Not anymore.

Random Thoughts:

1. Hated the rainbow passes throughout the game. Didn't accomplish anything except allowing Florida defense to as it pleased.

2. Perry Ellis needs to have 10 field goal attempts minimum every game. Period.

3. Love Selden. In fact, during his recruitment, he is the first guy ever that I fell in love with after watching his high school highlights (usually never put much stock in those). Then I kept hearing all summer that he was the best freshman. I'm disappointed. I think Greene starting would bring more to the table at this point.

4. Remember when we used to run a set play for Tyrel Reed at the end of half for a three pointer? Is that not in the play book anymore? I didn't see one set play for our so-called sharp-shooters! If you have guys that can shoot and you need to come from behind against zone, why wouldn't you?

5. Defense finally showed some teeth in the second half, but offense was just as pathetic and rhythm-less throughout, barring Wiggins-in-the-zone cameo. I've never been a fan of Self-offense, but I loved his defense-creating-offense. With new rules and freshmen, perhaps that's not going to happen.

6. The only calming thought: We had four seniors and a lottery pick play worse against TC-flippin'-U much later in the season. So may be there is hope for this bunch...

I'm ok with Black starting for the next few games, until Embiid improves his fouling rate as well.
Him coming off the bench has been providing a nice spark and keeps some of the pressure off of him as well. Plus he is playing majority of the minutes anyway.

The hope is that Embiid continues to progress at this rate and by conference season, he is playing 30+minutes without foul trouble.

Speaking of fouling, and in reference to another post about Zone defense, does anyone know if any of the "Self-style defense oriented" teams (Michigan St., Louisville, other Big10 teams) have adapted to different strategy/philosophy this season?

Jayhawks, at this point, are exactly who I thought they would be. Actually, we all thought that before the season began. We all said that they are young and have a brutal schedule and will lose a handful of games.
Guess what, that's exactly how it's playing out. They lost a very close game to a team that had this game circled since last year. They will get better, just like they do every year. Sure the concerns about 3% and FT are valid, but I think they are a side effect of the team not playing together to plan yet.
I saw a lot of improvement in this game compared to Bahamas.

By the way, if they lose again at Florida, I'm still not hitting the panic button---not until January at least.

Enjoy the ride.