@kjayhawks

Strongly disagree. Smart is a legend in his own mind,

Atlantic 10 doormat? Where did you get the that information? VCU moved to the A10 with Smart as its coach and was there 3 years and then Smart left. He coached for 3 years in the Colonial and 3 years in the A10 Conferences and not once he won a conference title in either conference. His Conference record in his 3 years in the A10 was 12-4 (2nd), 12-4 (2nd) and 12-6 (tied for 4th). After he left VCU, his successor Bill Wade had a 14-4 record and tied for 1st in the conference and made to the second round of the NCAA...and improvement over Smart.

His whole mystique is based in one lucky run that included one win over KU. In his last 3 appearance, including last year with Texas, he never made it out of the first round. Last tournament Texas lost to none other than Northern Iowa...poetic Justice?

With all the resources available to him (largest AD budget in college) and fertile recruiting territory, he is an unique situation to succeed and should be kicking ass and he is not. Granted he has not been there long enough but with the classes he has recruited he will be expected to have big success or else he will be gone.

@ralster

Unfortunately, the younger generations is being brainwashed by academia types that have never held a real job outside the university and are truly clueless about the real world. I have met professors at conferences and I just shook my head at the nonsense they talked. I am an engineer and at one conference I had to ask one college professor...are you actually teaching this to your students? and, have you ever actually been to a construction site...ever? The answers were yes and no which explains a lot. No wonder why so many college graduates come out knowing very little and they have to be re-educated in the way things work in the real world. Not that different than college coaches having to fix all the bad habist taught by incompetent HS coaches.

@HawkChamp

Nope. He just did not play with a sense or urgency.

@jaybate-1.0

Jay Wright would need a complete new wardrobe. His style is pure North East and would clash big time with the ubber casual Southern Cal style.

@Crimsonorblue22

From the ESPN web site ↗...

"The 2016-17 season begins from Honolulu on Friday, Nov. 11, with the fifth annual State Farm Armed Forces Classic, just under a month before the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. ESPN’s Saturday Primetime Presented by DIRECTV crew of Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas will be on hand for the doubleheader – pitting pre-season ranked No. 13 Arizona against No. 10 Michigan State (7 p.m. ET) and No. 12 Indiana vs. No. 3 Kansas (9 p.m.) on ESPN. Reporters Andy Katz and Molly McGrath will also be on hand from the Stan Sheriff Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii with surrounding events at the U.S. Navy Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam."

Doesn't look like we will see Holly Rowe on the sidelines, On a happier note, looks like we get a break from Musburger who will be calling SEC games the upcoming season.

@ralster

Lucas and Graham were way too complacent, in my opinion, and did not play hard because it is assumed they have a starting spot locked, which they probably do...at this time. They need to quit lollygagging and start playing hard or else they will find that Coach Self will not hesitate sitting them down.

I see a 40+ point win against ESU.

@Jesse-Newell : you lost me at...Texas breaks the streak and becomes a powerhouse...dream on.

More likely headline in 2026 is...Shaka Smart's team shines at the NAIA Tournament at the Old Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City, showing once again that he is small time coach. His departure from Texas was attributed to family issues but in reality it was the result of the merciless beatings he took from KU year in and year out; the 50 point humiliation a the new Texas Longhorn Arena was the last straw.

@ralster

Spot on. As I have mentioned before, Bragg is still a big unknown. We have seen flashes of his potential here and there but we have yet to see him bring that potential to fruition. He had the most to prove of any player and he did not. I am cautiously optimistic that it was nerves and big expectations that did it but we need to see big improvement from him soon or else he will spend a lot of time riding the pine.

Same with Udoka, but at least he has the excuse that he is new and very, very young; hopefully he does not become the next Cliff Alexander. We know he is coming back next year so he has some time to acclimate.

The 3 players that help themselves the most were Svi, who seems to finally have come around and looked smooth and comfortable shooting, Vick who is a natural and fearless scorer but was burned badly a couple of time on defense and Lightfoot, who I chose as my breakout player for KU, and was good and aggressive inside but needs to seriously work on his FT shooting; If you are going to go to the line 9 times, you better make more than 3.

A quick check appears to indicate that the teams is heavy in Jrs and Srs. but most of the starters from last year left and their 7 footer did not play much (6 mpg); several kids from the KC area. If KU does not win by at least 40 then we have problems.

@wrwlumpy

Devonte Green led the team with 17 points in 13 minutes. What is the line on how many time announcers will get Devonte Green and Devonte Graham mixed up?

Add: Devonte Green plays for Indiana...

Sounds like Emmert ↗read my post..

@Texas-Hawk-10

The passed on one William Self, so yes, they are that stupid.

@Ralph

We don't know where he is going and it is all speculation at this time. If you read my post post, you can see where KU would be the ideal compromise, big program and yet close to home.

@jayballer54

If he is looking for a big program then KU and UK would be the options.

If he is looking for a program close to home then KU and OU would be the options.

See what I am doing?

@Kcmatt7

"I hope they keep going with their guys and become the laughing stock of the SEC every single season." works for me...

@drgnslayr

KU has a super tough schedule and needs a few gimmick schemes to confuse the opponents and use under certain conditions; it certainly does not hurt to have a few aces up your sleeve.. I guess we will find out soon enough.

@justanotherfan

The shot clock is a non-issue because it was instituted in 1954 or 5 years before Wilt Joined the League in 1959 and has been in effect since then. Both Wilt and Shaq played their entire careers with the shot clock. I am not sure what is your point. The 3 point shot would be more relevant since it was introduced in 1979 and Wilt played his entire career without it and Shaq played his entire career with it and the lower percentage of 3 point FG, resulted in a change in the rebounding pattern.

As far as Oscar Robertson, you can probably check old posts and you will see that I have mentioned him may times as one of the greater and more complete players ever in the NBA. Much like Wilt, Oscar played his entire career without the 3 point shot and with it, his numbers might have been even better. I am not sure what sources you use but most of the ones I check usually have the Big "O" among the greats of the game.

Most of the so called basketball analysts are relatively young and never saw some of the older players like Wilt, Oscar, Jerry West, Bob Cousey, Walt Bellamy, Elgin Baylor, Bob Pettit and George Mikan (to name just a few) play, and what they know is mostly anecdotal and hence they really don't give them the credit they deserve and give the more recent players more credit.

@drgnslayr

This game was scheduled more for the new and backup players to show what they can do and less for the veterans to show what we already have seen them do and what we know they can do. You will notice that both Lucas and Graham had pretty forgettable games while backup Vick and Svi as well as newcomer Lightfoot had good outings. To me, the surprise was Bragg whom I had expected to have a big game but was anything but that. Perhaps it was the jitters of starting and the big expectations that did it; it is very early and I am not worried. The offense scored 92 point so it was not too bad; however, the defense was sorely lacking. Knowing how much pride Coach Self takes on playing defense, I am sure it will be fixed and the next game we will see a noticeable difference.

@stoptheflop

The season has not even started and Coach Self is already being second guessed. SMH.

I would think Coach Self knows more than we do and has a hell of a lot more information to decide when and how long he plays any of the players, don't you?

The team has 7 new players and he needs to figure out who will make the main rotation and actual game conditions are much better than practice, wouldn't you agree? No question that Mason is and will be the engine that runs this team and Coach Self needs to know who are the players that mesh better with him under the different schemes, particularly the 4 guard line up, right? What better time to figure this out than during a non-consequential game designed precisely for that...experiment.

I personally will relax, enjoy the ride and let Coach do what he does better than anyone else...WIN!

Congrats to Zo. he was the one player I wish the Royals could have kept.

Zobrist gets the MVP and now he has won back to back titles with 2 different teams; his stock will go through the roof.

@jayballer54

Apparently Texas is also showing after effects of the game with KU.

@Crimsonorblue22

I would think it is the after effect of that epic win over Texas. I don't know who they are playing next but I bet it will be quite different.and will end 3-0.

@KUSTEVE

Or Memphis choking?

Great teams make their own luck. Great win Lady Hawks !!!

@HawkChamp

12 All-Time at KU is nothing to write home about? SMH.

@kjayhawks

You are waaaaay ahead of me. I am close to 40 pounds heavier than I was in college. Sad face emoji here...

@jaybate-1.0

Ooooh, yessssssss!

Now, was that for my post on Wilt or the fact I cannot dunk? LOL.

@HawkChamp

Perry was not a good rebounder.

Really?

Perry was

4 rebounder in his freshman year.

2 in his sophomore year, Embiid was #1.

1 in his Junior Year

2 in his Senior year, Lucas was #2.

12 KU All-Time rebounding.

Yep, he really was not a good rebounder.

@stoptheflop

Mason was 1 assist away from triple double; I can see why he would want to get one since it not something that happens often. I believe Aldrich and Whitey were the last two players with triple doubles and both did it with blocks rather than assists.

@DoubleDD

I would not call Washburn a totally inferior club, Yes, it does not have the players or talent KU has but it is a good, disciplined and well coached team. In fact, t was the perfect team to expose KU's weaknesses that I am sure Coach Self will fix. KU still has several new pieces that need to be assimilated into the team to develop the proper chemistry; no doubt that Perry's quiet leadership, basketball IQ and reliability were sorely missed. KU has the pieces but it is not quite there yet but no team with this many new pieces is ever ready this early.

@DanR

Lightfoot is as close as we had last night with 4 offensive rebounds and 9 free throws in 9 minutes.

@kjayhawks

I am about 86" with no shoes with both arms stretched and in my younger days and with a good head of steam I could just about touch the rim; standing under the basket standing still and jumping not even close...

@kjayhawks

Well, I am shorter, cannot jump nearly as high and definitely cannot dunk but I was a serviceable hybrid guard in intramural play with a pretty decent outside shot. That's it, that is my story and I am sticking to it. LOL.

@kjayhawks

That is amazing considering that...

Kevin Durant is only 33.5"

Magic Johnson 30"

Karl Malone 28"

Larry Bird 28"

The average NBA vertical leap is 28"...of course these are standing and not running jumps.

@justanotherfan

That video is a very biased view of how basketball was played and assumes that Wilt did not get the physical play of today's game. I will post the following excerpt directly from the NBA site ↗ and tell me if Wilt did not take a physical pounding...you can draw your own conclusions...

Chamberlain's inaugural season seemed to take a heavy toll on him. After the postseason loss to Boston, the rookie stunned his fans by announcing that he was thinking of retiring because of the excessively rough treatment he had endured from opponents. He feared that if he played another season, he would be forced to retaliate, and that wasn't something he wanted to do.

In Chamberlain's first year, and for several years afterward, opposing teams simply didn't know how to handle him. Tom Heinsohn, the great Celtics forward who later became a coach and broadcaster, said Boston was one of the first clubs to apply a team-defense concept to stop Chamberlain. "We went for his weakness," Heinsohn told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1991, "tried to send him to the foul line, and in doing that he took the most brutal pounding of any player ever.. I hear people today talk about hard fouls. Half the fouls against him were hard fouls."

Despite his size and strength, Chamberlain was not an enforcer or a revenge seeker. He knew how to control his body and his emotions and rarely got into altercations. One indication of this was the astonishing statistic that not once in his 14-year career, in more than 1,200 regular and postseason games, did he foul out. Some people claimed he simply wasn't aggressive enough. "My friends would say, 'Hey man, you should throw [Bill] Russell in the basket, too.' " said Chamberlain. "They said I was too nice, too often against certain of my adversaries."

Of course, Chamberlain didn't retire. He simply endured the punishment and learned to cope with it, bulking up his muscles to withstand the constant shoving, elbowing and body checks other teams used against him.

In a virtual repeat of his rookie year, he poured in 38.4 points and 27.2 rebounds per game in 1960-61. The next season he made a quantum leap in his performance. Posting a phenomenal average of 50.4 points per game, he became the only player in history to score 4,000 points in a season.

What is interesting is when he projects recent player numbers to the 1962 numbers, they still don't come close to Wilt's numbers. BTW, the shot clock. or lack thereof, is a non-factor since it was implemented before Wilt joined the NBA.

@brooksmd

” Simmons says during a discussion with his family. “Go buy a No. 25 jersey. You’re going to put me on ESPN. You’re going to make hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars off one person. So I’m going off on the NCAA.”

"hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars off one person"? He sure is full of himself. I do agree that the OAD models is not a good one but Simmons did not have to attend college in the USA or anywhere, he could have gone and play pro ball in Europe or stay in Australia and play there. Playing in the NBA is not a right, it is a privilege you earn by proving you belong. Like any business, the NBA has the right to set whatever conditions it sees fit. The OAD rule is not an NCAA rule, it is a NBA rule. Simmons did not have to play college to play in the NBA, but college gave him the best chance anywhere to prepare himself for the NBA. I am sure the NCAA will be looking at LSU academics and the program might end up paying hefty price for his nondescript stint there. I, for one, am glad he did not come to KU; I just don't see any scenario where Coach Self would have put up with his BS.

I posted before that at this time, Bragg is unproven and really an unknown quantity with a lot of potential; last night did nothing to change that perception.

I was impressed with Lightfoot. He rebounded well and went to the line often but did not take advantage of the freebies. He reminded me of a green Perry Ellis that kept missing the basket with his spin move and off the backboard shots until one day everything clicked in place (Big 12 Tournament) and he was highly effective from then on. Hopefully Lightfoot will also find the sweet spot and converting close to the basket. He was so active that it seemed like he was on the court lot more than the 9 minutes he actually played.

Svi looked smooth and finally he seems to be what we had hoped. Jackson and Vick looked good on offense and they are natural scorers that feel conformable on offense but their defense needs work; Vick was faked out badly a couple of times...this cannot happen against the better competition.

@mayjay

I was using my cell phone as a hot spot and ESPN3 started in low res and a few minutes late rit got much better although it occasionally would lose sound or freeze for a few seconds. No complaints from me since i was able to get around the blackout in my area, although is cost me a chunk of Cell data, but with T-Mobile, you can stash unused high speed data and since most of the time I use my phone via Wi-Fi, I have a decent size war chest accumulated that should see me through the first 6 games that have been blacked out in my area.

@Kcmatt7

You should be a politician. You take numbers completely out of context to create a narrative that fits your premise.

You indicate that Shaq was "the team" everywhere he played and this is incorrect. Teams were built for Shaq to play and succeed and when the teams refused to spend more money to provide a superior supporting casts he bolted. His success is largely a result of the teams that were assembled for him; from that perspective there is no question he was very smart. Wilt played in an era where most teams had one or two stars and the rest were marginal players with a couple of exceptions one being the Celtics and the other the Lakers and a few other teams on and off. Wilt was the team and he repeatedly stated that he was expected to score 40 points first and then worry about any thing else. When he was told that he scored too much, guess what? He led the League in assist the next season with almost 9 apg; did Shaq ever did that? Wilt averaged almost twice as many apg than Shaq. Keep in mind that when he played for the Lakers he shot .605 from the field, and he scored from a lot farther out than Shaq whose scoring was mostly from within 3 feet of the basket after he plowed over offensive players, something Wilt was not allowed to do. Can you imagined the numbers and champions he would gave had if he played his entire career for the Celtics like Russell did?

Wilt played 5 less seasons than Shaq and yet he managed to score more points, grab more rebound, get more assist and play more minutes than Shaq...amazing, isn't it? He was not only the superior athlete but a very durable one as well; over his career, he averaged more than 10 minutes more per game than Shaq.

No question that both were great players and both dominated in their respective eras; however, there is no way that Shaq is better than Wilt. I have seen tons of publications that rank all-time players and the better ones invariably have Wilt as one if the top 3 and some will have Kareem ahead based on his all time scoring but you have to take into account that he played 20 years in the NBA to Wilt's 13. Some of the rankings created by younger analysts, not fully familiar with Wilt, tend to rank him lower but still ahead of Shaq.

@Crimsonorblue22

Like i said, Sprint has a great signal around the KC Metro area since they made sure their HQ town had great signal. Other areas, like with other providers can be hit or miss. You can go to the various web sites and they have maps of their areas of coverage including the high speed and the plain one as well.

As I understand, 90% of the people are 90% of the time within 30 miles of their home, so if you have a good home signal, chances are you will be fine the great majority of the time. I travel a fair amount so I need to have decent coverage in the areas I travel more often, T-Mobile has been expanding it coverage and it is decent most everywhere I go unless I am in the middle of a lake bed in a large military reservation on the western part of the country. You have to find what works for you and where you are. YMMV.

@globaljaybird

If it is anything like the Verizon, you have to place it near a windows or wherever there is reception and extend the antenna and then your phone connects to it. With T-Mobile, if you don't have a good signal, you can connect to any wi-fi connection and you are in business.

@approxinfinity

No way. Josh is a keeper and will start unless he quits playing hard...and I don't believe that is going to happen.

@kjayhawks

That was his first college game. Once he settled he did well with a few rookie mistakes in between. He seems very comfortable scoring.

Well that is 1.6GB of T-Mobile data, thankfully I have a big stash accumulated.

It is an exhibition game and Coach Self tried all kinds of lineups and gave plenty of playing time to all players to show what they can do. The veterans played OK and Mason had himself a very nice game. Non-starters that helped themselves the most: Svi, Lightfoot and Vick.

@VailHawk

Nope...

As Mason goes so does the team...

The offense is not bad and we know Coach Self will fix the defense. No worries.

Svi with a solid game

That foul is BS