🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Let's just Gator done tonight

(http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11983246/david-beaty-returning-kansas) ↗

OK well it's in the book. A new football coach has been hired for KU, ties to the program, was an assistant under Mangino for two years, has great ties with Texas recruiting as well.

A bonus is he will save the Univ. some money.

Let's just hope he gets things turned around from where they were this past September.

@drgnslayr Dirk would be the closest I've seen to Bird. He could dribble, back you down, shoot over you, make a pass, create his own shot or drive by you in his prime.

@drgnslayr Agreed.

If you ever watched Creighton play last year Doug Mcdermott never stood still if he didn't have the ball. He was always creating for his teammates and himself. They all made great passes, because he saw passing lanes and got to the right places to make it look easy.

Brady Morningstar was a very underrated passer, he would hit guys coming off of screens, always had to be ready to catch it if he had the ball. He was quick and knew what he wanted to do with the ball.

Anytime you come off a screen, or off a pick and roll you should have your hands up ready to catch it. Even if the ball isn't coming to you, you get defenders trying to jump the passing lane and then you have the back door cut available.

As you said the you have to know the defender wants to get to the ball as well. step into the pass, step into the catch.

The other thing I saw that KU missed vs MIchSt was the cross court pass. Sheldon would have it on one side and Green would be open or Svi on the other side and the whole D was in the paint or towards the ball. A strong two handed over head pass can get that ball over there quickly and make for an easy three.

We used to have to practice coming down the court and all three perimeter players had to swing the ball back and forth, this while the D guys knew it, so you had to pass quick hard and know where your guy was going to be. Once you got in the game, it was slower and easier to do.

Theres a play by Bird when he makes a behind the back pass off the tribble with his right hand, he's on the right side of the lane when he does this. Not sure who was running the floor, but he hit them in stride for a layup.

He was doing an interview a few years back and they showed that clip and called it dazzle dazzle for Bird. He responded that it was the right pass to get the guy the ball in the right place on the court. If he picks it up he misses the guy, if he throws a front word pass it gets tipped. He wasn't showing off, he was making the right play.

Boston was so well coached back then, just ask the Pistons about that inbounds play that went for a layup off the steal.

@Crimsonorblue22 said:

@drgnslayr Greene really needs to not pass it to the guy on the other team that is standing at the top of the key between greene and his teammate. That guy has arms and can move! That pass drives me nuts!

He wasn't the only one in that Michigan St game that did that, there were 4 or 5 passes at the top of the key there were soft and got stolen. Seldon had one and I think Graham had one too.

But yeah strong passes, quick passes, no sticky hands, move the ball by passing unless you are going to drive the lane then dribble.

@nuleafjhawk said:

Speaking of non-sports related topics, does anyone have any ideas or opinions on who KU's next football coach will be ?

It won't be Mike Riley of Oregon State, he just got hired by Nebraska. Talk about laughable and underwhelming.

Win the FT battle, win the Rebound battle, and shoot over 30% for 3pt line.

That's what this KU team needs to do to win Friday.

Well that and solid D, but that's a given.

@Crimsonorblue22 I think the reason the team D as a whole is better than last year is that the guards are not relying on a rim protector that KU has had the past three to five years. They have to play team D and not get blown by and hope for a shot to get blocked.

Plus with Seldon and Svi's D, I think it has had a carry over on the other guys to work just as hard, play as hard.

Someone said this a while back on here, but this is my social media site. I don't Facebook, or tweet.

I KUBucket

I will probably never meet anyone here face to face, and if our paths crossed we would never know it, well except say I was at bar and this guy went on 10 minute rants about shoes and other random things, I would have to ask if his nick name was @jaybate 1.0, or if there was someone that was over analyzing things but with a good cause I might tend to think it was @HighEliteMajor.

But this group of posters is a good group, we all agree and disagree and keep it civil and fun.

If some one is missing for awhile questions are asked, messages sent to find out whats up.

We can share our thoughts on this years team, our memories of games, places, players, each other, life, and well whats on our mind.

Thank you all for being Jayhawks

hear hear.

I had to post the whole thing for everyone here. It is one of if not the most moving speech I've ever heard, and once you've really listened to it, when you read it you feel the power of it all over again.

I've used this speech in my own life many times, I think any sports fan that has ever had any health issues probably has. There are great lines in it, great messages in it and it has so much soul in it that it will move you to tears.

If you ever get to watch the 30 for 30 on ESPN about the NCST national title team and when his players talk about him, and about the last time he was at NCST it will knock your your eye sockets for another loop.

@DoubleDD Just keep drinking a little more

Thank you, Thank you very much. Thank you. That’s the lowest I’ve ever seen Dick Vitale since the owner of the Detroit Pistons called him in and told him he should go into broadcasting.

The I can’t tell you what an honor it is, to even be mentioned in the same breath with Arthur Ashe. This is something I certainly will treasure forever. But, as it was said on the tape, and I also don’t have one of those things going with the cue cards, so I’m going to speak longer than anybody else has spoken tonight. That’s the way it goes. Time is very precious to me. I don’t know how much I have left and I have some things that I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I will have said something that will be important to other people too.

But, I can’t help it. Now I’m fighting cancer, everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how’s your day, and nothing is changed for me. As Dick said, I’m a very emotional and passionate man. I can’t help it. That’s being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we kiss, we love. When people say to me how do you get through life or each day, it’s the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.

I rode on the plane up today with Mike Krzyzewski, my good friend and wonderful coach. People don’t realize he’s ten times a better person than he is a coach, and we know he’s a great coach. He’s meant a lot to me in these last five or six months with my battle. But when I look at Mike, I think, we competed against each other as players. I coached against him for fifteen years, and I always have to think about what’s important in life to me are these three things. Where you started, where you are and where you’re going to be. Those are the three things that I try to do every day. When I think about getting up and giving a speech, I can’t help it. I have to remember the first speech I ever gave.

I was coaching at Rutgers University, that was my first job, oh that’s wonderful (reaction to applause), and I was the freshman coach. That’s when freshmen played on freshman teams, and I was so fired up about my first job. I see Lou Holtz here. Coach Holtz, who doesn’t like the very first job you had? The very first time you stood in the locker room to give a pep talk. That’s a special place, the locker room, for a coach to give a talk. So my idol as a coach was Vince Lombardi, and I read this book called “Commitment To Excellence” by Vince Lombardi. And in the book, Lombardi talked about the fist time he spoke before his Green Bay Packers team in the locker room, and they were perennial losers. I’m reading this and Lombardi said he was thinking should it be a long talk, or a short talk? But he wanted it to be emotional, so it would be brief. So here’s what I did. Normally you get in the locker room, I don’t know, twenty-five minutes, a half hour before the team takes the field, you do your little x and o’s, and then you give the great Knute Rockne talk. We all do. Speech number eight-four. You pull them right out, you get ready. You get your squad ready. Well, this is the first one I ever gave and I read this thing. Lombardi, what he said was he didn’t go in, he waited. His team wondering, where is he? Where is this great coach? He’s not there. Ten minutes he’s still not there. Three minutes before they could take the field Lombardi comes in, bangs the door open, and I think you all remember what great presence he had, great presence. He walked in and he walked back and forth, like this, just walked, staring at the players. He said, “All eyes on me.” I’m reading this in this book. I’m getting this picture of Lombardi before his first game and he said “Gentlemen, we will be successful this year, if you can focus on three things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers.” They knocked the walls down and the rest was history. I said, that’s beautiful. I’m going to do that. Your family, your religion and Rutgers basketball. That’s it. I had it. Listen, I’m twenty-one years old. The kids I’m coaching are nineteen, and I’m going to be the greatest coach in the world, the next Lombardi. I’m practicing outside of the locker room and the managers tell me you got to go in. Not yet, not yet, family, religion, Rutgers Basketball. All eyes on me. I got it, I got it. Then finally he said, three minutes, I said fine. True story. I go to knock the doors open just like Lombardi. Boom! They don’t open. I almost broke my arm. Now I was down, the players were looking. Help the coach out, help him out. Now I did like Lombardi, I walked back and forth, and I was going like that with my arm getting the feeling back in it. Finally I said, “Gentlemen, all eyes on me.” These kids wanted to play, they’re nineteen. “Let’s go,” I said. “Gentlemen, we’ll be successful this year if you can focus on three things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers,” I told them. I did that. I remember that. I remember where I came from.

It’s so important to know where you are. I know where I am right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it.

I talked about my family, my family’s so important. People think I have courage. The courage in my family are my wife Pam, my three daughters, here, Nicole, Jamie, LeeAnn, my mom, who’s right here too. That screen is flashing up there thirty seconds like I care about that screen right now, huh? I got tumors all over my body. I’m worried about some guy in the back going thirty seconds? You got a lot, hey va fa napoli, buddy. You got a lot.

I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get your emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm,” to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality.

Now I look at where I am now and I know what I want to do. What I would like to be able to do is spend whatever time I have left and to give, and maybe, some hope to others. Arthur Ashe Foundation is a wonderful thing, and AIDS, the amount of money pouring in for AIDS is not enough, but is significant. But if I told you it’s ten times the amount that goes in for cancer research. I also told you that five hundred thousand people will die this year of cancer. I also tell you that one in every four will be afflicted with this disease, and yet somehow, we seem to have put it in a little bit of the background. I want to bring it back on the front table. We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children’s lives. It may save someone you love. And ESPN has been so kind to support me in this endeavor and allow me to announce tonight, that with ESPN’s support, which means what? Their money and their dollars and they’re helping me-we are starting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. And its motto is “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” That’s what I’m going to try to do every minute that I have left. I will thank God for the day and the moment I have. If you see me, smile and give me a hug. That’s important to me too. But try if you can to support, whether it’s AIDS or the cancer foundation, so that someone else might survive, might prosper and might actually be cured of this dreaded disease. I can’t thank ESPN enough for allowing this to happen. I’m going to work as hard as I can for cancer research and hopefully, maybe, we’ll have some cures and some breakthroughs. I’d like to think, I’m going to fight my brains out to be back here again next year for the Arthur Ashe recipient. I want to give it next year!

I know, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and I said it before, and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.

I thank you and God bless you all.

@drgnslayr taped to the back of my locker was a poster of Chuck squeezing the ball and it read, "The Meek shall in inherit the Earth. But they will not get the Ball!!"

I loved mixing it up with the bigs, I usually guarded guys bigger than me and out rebounded them, got in their minds I could block their shots or steal the ball from them. I also like to post them up and out maneuver them. I loved Charles Barkley's game. Learned a few post moves from Kevin Mchale too, per my dad. But I was never afraid of going down low or taking right at them.

@drgnslayr said:

@justanotherfan

. He should watch old footage of NBA players, like Sir Charles Barkley.

The Round Mound of Rebound. Under sized, but was explosive and could get rebounds and loose balls. He could get back to the rim quickly and he even blocked Shaq in an all star game.

He worked hard to play the game, and if you watch any of the Dream Team, they talk to Jordan about the '84 Olympic team, when Barkely got cut by Bobby Knight, no one thought they were safe of making that team. Jordan had respect for Barkely because he worked so hard to be as good as he was.

@wissoxfan83 "Man, after watching Pellini over the last few years as a Badger fan"

Then you had to be tremendously happy when the Badgers ran wild against his D. That's the funny thing, he is supposed to be a Defensive guru.

@DanR The one thing I heard Dickie V say during the MichSt game was that at Kansas you have to earn your playing time. We've all thought that here and there on the boards, but to me it sounded like Vitale asked Self why he wasn't playing and got that answer. Maybe I'm wrong, but I lean that way, you have to earn it, be it a high flyer scorer, rebounder extremist or defender of the ball.

@drgnslayr said:

We discussed this before... the meltdown of street ball.

I blame this on "White Men Can't Jump", every loud mouth chump thought they could then play, and two and this will shock everyone, but one person really hurt the game of basketball as a team game, Michael Jordan.

Remember the Lakers v Celtics v Pistons, those were all teams, Bird and Magic didn't need to join a big 3, they had 4 All stars/HOF's on their teams already. MJ played clear out ball, one on one moves. He was so talented he made it look easy, made every kid want to be like him. That was great in their driveway against their little brother, but then they tried that crap on the real court and whoops.

Let's face it by the time MJ and the Bulls won a title he was finally on a team, surrounded by a post player, a second scoring option and a shooting guard.

The Big 3 or Pierce, Garnett and Shuttlesworth, again changed the game, now James, Wade and Bosch did it. Now they are trying it in Cleveland, they don't have the guys who want to be teammates there, they all want to be the man. OKCity had their chance and got rid of their third wheel in Harden.

I know I have went off the rails a little, but lets face it, the Spurs and the team play they play works for basketball. It might not be flashy or the in thing to do, but to me it's what the game is about. Five guys working together, competing as one.

OK OK hit the brakes on Bo, living in the fishbowl of Nebraska football, this is not the guy you want to run your program.

He has big time loses, not just loses but 40 and 50 pt loses. He is unapologetic when his teams lose. He says "they, did't execute" or "they didn't get it done", He throws the players under the bus.

He won't go and shake hands with the fans, nor does he care about the fans. It's about Bo.

At Nebraska they use the 9 win as a base line, because that's what Osborne always did, but Tom only played 11 games a year, not 13. Bo has always lost at least 3 games a year. Never took Nebraska to a BCS bowl game or won a conference title in his tenure.

Marino might have been mean, but Bo is a bully, to the press, the fans, the students and his players.

If you want a coach that just got fired look at Muschamp, he has ties to Texas for recruiting already.

Maybe he just wanted to player closer to home?

@Crimsonorblue22 a couple of weeks since?

I know when I flew 18 months ago it really messed me up for about 36 hours.

Now when we were in Estes Park this summer I was OK, except when it came to being in shape for hiking at that altitude, but no headaches.

I met a guy who played college football and while returning a punt got KO'd on the tackle. He moved to Phoenix because of the weather conditions and altitude. He hates the heat, but since it changes very little it helps him continue to function.

@JayhawkRock78 Look at a lot of the earlier Euro players to play in the NBA, they were a lot younger and were playing at an elite level.

A lot of Euro players start at a very young age with club teams and are taught to play everywhere on the floor, when they get here they are very skilled.

With that being said todays athletes have more AAU games, than they did 10 years ago let alone 20. More specialized camps, not just individual or team camps, but they have Big man camps, and shooting camps and so on.

@wrwlumpy Can't believe you didn't grace us with Erin Andrews.

@Crimsonorblue22 Concussions are usually worsened by air travel, the cabin pressure can really mess with your head after a concussion.

A Dr. will tell you not to fly 24 hours after getting a concussion usually unless you are under medical supervision, because of what can happen. Blood clot, stroke.

So I would guess that the plane ride to Orlando may have brought up some issues Green had, be it headaches, blurry vision, or fatigue.

@wrwlumpy Remember when Perry got knocked loose goose last year and tried to shoot a free throw? He was timid for about two weeks after that when he was in the paint.

This team doesn't really remind me of any past teams.

This team has depth, a lock down defender, multiple bigs, shooters, and toughness.

Mari played heads up when he was in the game, I believe he was the one that called the TO when Perry was on the floor getting piled on.

I think the reason Self kept him in there is MSU went a little smaller and quicker at the end of the game and Slef wanted someone who could guard the perimeter and move quickly.

Not sure that guarding 15-20 feet away from the rim is Cliff's strong point.

This team has options on both sides of the ball. Svi, Green, Oubre will all get solid minutes come conference time.

The bigs, can all run the floor and can spell each other.

Mason is the the key on offense on how its going to run, I think Graham will learn a lot this year and be very good by the end of the season to spell him as well, without much drop off.

Wayne's D gets better the worse his shot gets. If he's ice cold, his guy isn't going to have an easy night. If he's on, his guy still isn't going to have fun. He is a lock down defender.

@HighEliteMajor On Oubre, is he more of a product of AAU ball where it's run and gun, little D and try and out score the other team, run a motion offense when you are in the half court?

Only got to see him in the KY game and well I won't judge anyone from that game.

Wasn't able to watch the game in Nebraska so oh well, it was Rider.

Glad to hear some good things coming out of the game though. Sheldon's 9 assist, Traylor was second on the team I saw in the stats. Ellis dunked??? WOW who knew he had it in him? He needs to do that a lot more.

Avi seems to slowly becoming a leader on the floor by his actions. Is this true or not?

Greene shooting and shooting well, that's what he needs to get him going, now to just keep him within the team.

All these Big12 teams that are so tough for KU, won't they be tough for the other Big12 teams as well?

Everybody plays everybody twice, so It's not like KU will be at a disadvantage compared to ISU or Texas.

And he is leading the team in assist per game average.

jaybate Morningstar had no eligibility left.

If, and I say if the so called "roster apocalypse" would happen next spring, would it be time to pull a Fred Hoiberg and find guys that are transferring and bring them in? Get two or three years out of them, use Self's motivation to make them better and perhaps catastrophe averted.

I'm not saying I want to see a bunch of run offs from other programs, but get guys who are looking to play and prove themselves (Jeff Withey), not clean up their act. No I don't want those guys.

I have been worried in the past about Self's recruiting, and yet somehow he always surprises me with some really good pick ups along the way. He has never been left empty handed with his recruiting classes, maybe it won't be top 10 talent, but I see a lot of guys on the boards say that he needs to go get 10-30 range guys and build the program around them.

Is it Self's recruiting style with the OAD's or is it money muscle, saying he needs to keep getting big names? Remember Blue Chips? He didn't want to have all those big name players on his team, but the money did.

I know we closed the rebounding gap, but how many times off of a missed FT did we NOT get the rebound?

Ellis was pushed under the rim one time, and another his feet looked like they were in cement as the KY player went around him.

Our guards when they did dish decided to dish to a post player that couldn't do anything with the ball but get it swatted like a fly.

The guards are afraid to shoot and miss from three to be benched, Svi made a few and missed then he was on the bench. Can't play catch up very well if you won't shoot threes, or if you are scared to shoot them you can't make them.

The post players were worried about getting their sh!t blocked, while our guards are afraid to get their a$$ benched.

The good, Traylor and Alexander never quit playing, high motor the whole game. Both diving on the floor and scrapping. Very happy to see that. Now they need to carry that over to the rest of the team.

As a whole it was crappy game for KU, am I worried about this season? No. That Kentucky team this early in the season beats Duke, Michigan St, Wisconsin and Arizona too. Is there a team in the Big12 that will play them closer? Maybe, but it won't be apples to apples, let's face it, Kentucky doesn't care about any other team in the Big12 but Kansas, unless it's in the big Dance.

Ku won't see this much talent all season, not in a starting five let alone 10. OU and Texas and ISU have some solid players, but they don't have 5 like last night. This KU team has a lot of talent on it, more than any other Big12 team, it has the best coach in the Big12.

Take last night for what it was, an early season whooping' in the grand scheme of it all it won't matter come March.

Anyone know how physical Kentucky is this year? I saw the posterization dunk from the Buffalo player, but can they bang with muscle down low? Sure they have height, but do they have heart and can play physical ball without getting all up set ala Demarcus Cousins?

@drgnslayr "hey go to class for the first semester, then go to the NBA, no classes needed second semester."

Or something like that?

@jaybate-1.0 said:

What could it be?

$$$, cash, dead presidents, mule, green backs,

or in the case of Blue Chips, tractors, apartments, jobs

@KUSTEVE Creighton is replacing a lot from last years team and not just McDermott either. I think they lost 4 starters from last years team. They might be down a little bit at the beginning of the season.

That said, Coach McDermott, has become a good recruiter for that level of school (pre Big East), and seems to be a solid coach as well. Even though at Iowa St. he just couldn't get it done.

I have to ask this question about the players that go to Kentucky, be it they pick the school for good ol Cal or to play for Kentucky itself in todays world, not it's history.

Does KU want a lot of those guys in the Bill Self system? Would the Harrison Twins be guy that would fit the KU mold?

Sure by a talent standpoint a lot of those players would be great to have, but mentally?

@Lulufulu We are cutting cable soon as well, we bought AppleTV and it has the WatchESPN ap on it, but you have to have a cable subscription to use it.

In our research for live sports, it seems that most of the web sites have been shut down by the NCAA or FBI, such as Justin.tv. Others that are out there are basically scams to infect your computer with Malware.

I guess you could tap into your neighbors cable, er i.e. get their login and pw for their cable, so you can use watchespn or espn3. I have no knowledge if this is legal or not and can not say to use it. It's just a thought.

Some of the streaming services also blackout the local market for games online, so depending on where you live KU games might be blacked out.

Let me know if you find any other ways of streaming them.

ps we are waiting until at least Tuesday to cut our cable.

@VailHawk Could he be a great outside shooter, ice in his veins? Or could he be a liability and be cold as ice from outside?

First of all trying to figure out how they classify one as an "expert" on college basketball, Shane Battier is an expert because this is his first year doing it? Or that he went to Duke?

Predictions are a funny thing, Bill Self is predicted to be Coach of the Year, by 1 so called expert, along with Fred Hoiberg and Rick Barnes our of the Big12 while Lon Kruger was picked twice.

Final 4 Teams KU was picked, 4 times, while Gonzaga was picked 6 (Have as many Final 4 appearances as MU and has only been to Elite 8 once and lost.) VCU and OU got one vote each, while Texas had 2. Kentucky and Arizona were picked 19 and 20 times respectfully, while Wisconsin was picked 14. Duke had 9 picks to reach the Final 4.

They also did player of the year predictions, but it seemed pretty spread out. Here's the link for it all, link text ↗

@JayHawkFanToo And Bill Self the Topeka YMCA...Oh wait

@nuleafjhawk @Lulufulu or one that reads "Allen Field House, East Coast" as you wear your KU gear.

@Statmachine You are right, my bad, it read: Elite-level players still considering Kentucky include Jaylen Brown (No. 2), Malik Newman (No. 3), Ivan Rabb (No. 5), Cheick Diallo (No. 7), Caleb Swanigan (No. 8 ), Stephen Zimmerman (No. 10), Brandon Ingram (No. 12), Antonio Blakeney (No. 14) and Carlton Bragg (No. 18 ).

How many elite guys can he have and still make happy? Where will they transfer too when they realize they won't be on the floor getting PT?

@Statmachine I saw that, they have the #1 class again for next year, with the #2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 18th ranked players.

What if his platoon rotation doesn't work this year? Will he even have enough seats on the bench for these guys?

@jaybate-1.0[ ](

@Lulufulu Yeah I think it has to do with adding the pressure to their season. When Cal's mentor and a coaching legend says that, he adds the pressure.

@joeloveshawks said:

I have said it before and I totally agree with #7. I think next year is our year

Don't do it man, don't make us out to be Cubs fans.