You are correct. starting conference play with two road wins in this year's conference is a big plus...any way you see it. losing at home to Baylor hurts ISU big time.
KSU is the wild card, they play really well but they come just short. The lost a 2 OT game to WVU at home and a very close game on the road to Texas...both games could have easily gone the other way.
...except the Ruskie has gotten smarter and he is no longer giving away money...
In all fairness, the NBA is getting a lot better. They have now very good scouts and access to very sophisticated models to predict "potential." Are they right all the time, no. Do they get burned all the time like they used to? Also no.
If you look at some of the better, more up to date mock drafts, Diallo is now a late first round pick and moving down and Selden is also a late first round pick but trending up. BTW, Labissiere is off the board on a couple of mock drafts I saw; chances are that, barring a much improved play going forward, he comes back next year.
Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of the Nets has spent a shitload of money and he has not gotten much in return. I understand that the unlimited spending era is over for the Nets as Prokhorov has realized that throwing money after bad money is not the best way to build a franchise.
The NBA has a draft and you cannot really establish a pipeline from one school to a team and more importantly, why would he do that? He no longer would have a relationship with UK whose fans probably will hate him after the sanctions finally caught up with UK and Cal, as usual, will stay one step ahead of the law and will likely have plausible deniability...why change something that has worked so well for him in the past?
Tom Izzo...
I would put Texas and OSU at the bottom. I would also place West Virgina at 3, Baylor at 4 and ISU at 5.
Best home wins of the season so far, KU over OU and KU over Baylor.
Best road win of the season Baylor over ISU. The loss exposed ISU as a team with 4 very good starters and no bench and this is going to get worse as the season moves on and the starters get tired.
Is everybody here too politically correct to state the obvious? Devin William's comments are plain dumb... :D
A couple of comments. If I understood correctly the UNLV coach was forced out by the big money contributors that will probably be paying his buyout.
Also, in early (4:00AM) sports radio talk, there was discussion on Calipari and he apparently indicated that there were two teams he would be interested, New Jersey and Sacramento and the non-negotiable cost is $120 million for 10 years.
Why would any NBA team hire him? He coached in the NBA before and he was big flop. His record is 72 wins and 112 losses in 3 years as HC of the Nets; he was also an assistant Coach to Larry Brown in Philadelphia, The main advantage he has in college and the source of his success is that he can, allegedly of course, "buy" players...but then, all coaches can do this in the League, so again, why would you hire Calipari? Maybe because he has shown he is capable of managing a bunch of big egos and prima donas?
BG is difficult to gauge. Until not that long ago he would park himself in a corner ans wait for the ball to come to him and hoist a 3, now he is driving a lot more to the basket when in the past he would have taken a 3, This is s good development because it makes him a more complete player and less one dimensional. Also, his defense had been steadily improving but it seem to have had a setback in the last few games...maybe he just cannot guard the higher level of competition that KU is playing now or it is taking him longer to get there.
I hope he continues to improve since when he is on,..he is deadly from the 3. :)
Very interesting. As an Engineer, I am by definition a numbers person, but number have to be looked at and in context.
As you mentioned some stats for some of the player are somewhat irrelevant, such 3 pt. shooting for Bragg (at this time), since this not an area in which he is really expected to participate actively because of the plethora of capable KU players has in this area; however, this might be valuable in the future when he can become a stretch 4 that is now so popular.
Also, for the players that play only limited minutes, the number can be deceiving, For example, Greene can come in for a couple of minutes, hit 2 quick 3s and his numbers would be through the roof...or Hunter can play 4 or 5 minutes, get 2 or 3 quick fouls and his numbers would go to the proverbial crapper. For players that play regularly over 20 minutes and have played most games, at this stage of the season the numbers would be pretty good indicators, since the stats become much better with a bigger sample. You will notice that noted sports statisticians such as Sagarin and Pomeroy caveat their rankings/models by indicating that it takes well into the season before their models are somewhat stable..
Last , I will mention a quote by George Gallup, of the Gallup Poll fame and one of the foremost statistician of our generation...
"Not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted."
This is very much applicable to players like Traylor whose type of contribution many times cannot be measured but it is very valuable nonetheless.
If you have seen/read the interviews with Landen, the kids is pretty smart and his Basketball IQ seems to be good also. Now, his body seems to be a tad slow but maybe it will improve; at this time his bulk is quite a welcome addition.
No doubt that when Wayne starts hitting the defense shifts to him and opens up for Perry.
...more importantly, does anyone think KU wins this game last season? The improvement in confidence and chemistry is off the charts good. This team can win the close games even when it is not playing well.
The mock drafts are all over the place at this time of the year and it will be the end of February before they start to resemble reality; many of the sites have not even upgraded their ranking since the beginning of the season
For Example ESPN has Labissiere still at #4 but nbadraft does not have him listed in the first two rounds, which based on his recent play seems warranted; Selden is listed at #29. Personally, I believe Selden is a solid first round and if he continues to play like he has, he might work himself into a lottery pick, particularly if KU makes a deep run at the Dance.
As you mentioned the C5 players bring different skill sets that Coach Self has been using well. For example, against OU, most of the damage was coming from the outside and Mickelson plays best close to the basket and when he steps out he either fouls or gets caught out of position; Traylor is a lot more mobile than Hunter and can stretch the defense out much better than him.. Against teams that have more traditional back to the basket players, I suspect Mickeslon will see more playing time.
Last night, Tech's huge center Odiase started going outside and hitting long, awkward jumpers which made it necessary to use a player that could step outside on defense and Traylor is the better suited player to do this.. Bragg played more than expected and Diallo still has the proverbial deer in the headlights look; I am still waiting for the switch to click in but right now it appears to be set firmly on off....which is too bad since he is the last piece needed to make this team truly superior.
...well...you are the forum's de-facto mom and have to keep us, unruly kids in check...
Yes Mom... :)
LOL. Good One...:D
Way to take things out of context. First, I never said I don't have faith in KU, I do and I believe that it will win the Conference and hopefully the NCAA as well. Second, I never said Buddy would be a super star, those are your words, I simply disagreed with your statement that...the odds are against Hield "making" it in the NBA... which I explained to you in detail and you could not refute and instead posted a link that actually backed me up...oh well...who really gives a rat's ass...
Not if KU plays like it did tonight. The only decent team Tech has beat is Texas which turns out is the conferences new door mat.
Shaka has been a disappointment so far. Anyone that though he would be implementing his full speed ahead brand of BBall is wondering what happened to it...
A very famous Jayhawk said it best...nobody roots for Goliath...looks like the refs feel like they need to help any teams that plays KU...it is getting effin' old.
For the younger posters, the famous Jayhawk was none other than Wilt Chamberlain
Win pretty, win ugly, a win is win is a win...this is as much as I can say abut this game...and last year we probably lose this game.
That was an ugly a$$ half of BBall...Gotta do better than that. Looks like the 3 is not there tonight. Get ready for a 20 part post from Hem... :(
I bought ten...I hardly ever buy them, last time probably a couple of years ago. If I win...Party in Olathe....
2 fouls on Hunter...
A team with a 4-5 road record might well win the Conference this year...the Conference is ubber tough this year...
I am...back and forth game. What ever happened with Shaka's helter-skelter type of game? Texas seems to be playing plain Jane, run-of-the-mill ball...
Baylor wins at ISU. Still early but if you don't hold serve at home your chances to win the Conference go down fast. Are ISU's fifteen minutes of fame starting to fade?
Every player that has been signed (or not) by any and all schools appears to get nominated...there are 800 players nominated...who recruited them has no bearing that I can see. I imagine many of those nominated might not even be playing Division I basketball. Like I mentioned, players are nominated by their own schools and not by an outside organization so it is really something school do for their players...
Baylor with a 6 point lead over ISU with just over 2 minutes to play. If Baylor wins it would be big for them and a big loss of ISU.
If properly cooked, tongue is a true delicacy. The secret is to pound it first (have to know how to) and then remove the skin; it comes off pretty easily if properly pounded. Cook it until tender in your favorite sauce and eat with new potatoes or long grained rice. Works best when you have other similarly cooked meats in your plate so you can have the different flavors and textures; I like chicken and pork.
Did you know that the Chiefs have not lost a single game since the Royals won the World Series?
Winning is contagious... :) :) :)
You have to order the Nomination Combo Pack...
I posted during the WUG that Nic's biggest contribution would be the impact he had on Mason and Graham...I believe I was correct...YAY!
..
Did you actually read the link you posted?
"This chart is simply the rosters of the NBA broken down to show where each player was drafted (keep in mind these are only the players averaging 25 minutes a game or more). So, the first thing you will notice is that the majority of the players — approximately 82 percent — were drafted in the first round of the draft. To go even further, 90 of those 139 players were drafted in the lottery; and that equates to about 53 percent of all players on current NBA rosters. This shows us the fundamental truth that lottery picks are more valuable and have better outcomes than other picks in the draft."
Again...
"This shows us the fundamental truth that lottery picks are more valuable and have better outcomes than other picks in the draft"
One more time...
"This shows us the fundamental truth that lottery picks are more valuable and have better outcomes than other picks in the draft"
Which is exactly what I said...Never mind, if the source you posted makes my case, then there is no sense in discussing further. :D
Why not? If the exact game is played at OU, would the result logically be exactly the same? :)
I respectfully disagree. half of the teams that make it to the dance by virtue of winning a no-name conference post-season tournament really have no business in the dance; they would lose every single game in the Big 12 by double digits. I would prefer a 32 team tournament without single elimination. or take the bottom 48 teams and have a pre-tournament and the the top 16 join the real top 16 for a 32 team field. Do the top 68 teams make it to the dance? We all know they don't.
How soon before the tournament is expanded to 128 teams and half of the slots are set aside for traditionally discriminated schools or financially disadvantage schools or what have you... I say take the top 32 teams regardless of conference association and have a real tournament with the real top 32 teams.
As long as we win, I don't care whose wish list we play we play into...
Unfortunately it is too cold at this time of the year to grill so depending on the starting game time the food will vary depending on the cook's disposition... :)
March is usually warm enough and the NCAA games get the obligatory grilling feast.
I disagree with your statement "the odds are against Buddy making it in the NBA." and I will tell you why:
If you are one of the many players in college basketball, the the odds of making it in the NBA are against you.
If you are one of the better players in college basketball, the the odds of being drafted and making it in the NBA are definitely better.
if you are one of the superior players in college basketball, the the odds of being drafted and making it in the NBA increase even more.
If you are drafted by the NBA, it means you are one of the top 60 available prospects in the world. and the odds of making it in the NBA improve dramatically.
If you are drafted by the NBA in the first round, it means you are one of the top 30 available prospects in the world. and the odds of making it in the NBA improve even more.
If you are drafted by the NBA as lottery pick, it means you are one of the top 14 available prospects in the world. and the odds of making it in the NBA are such that the NBA will give you a guaranteed contract.
If Buddy is a lottery pick, like it seems he will be, the odd of making in the NBA are pretty darn good, probably much, much better than not making it.
That is my justification; what is your justification to indicate the odds are against him? Frankly, any reasonable person would agree with my justification above...unless you can come up with something to disprove it...
Indeed. Just because schools nominate players does not mean they have a chance of making it. I can understand having 50 maybe 60 players nominated but 800 players ???...looks more like something nice schools do for players and not necessarily realistic nominations.
Exactly. KU won 64-63 (if I remember correctly) a couple of years ago. There is no way Texas Tech wants to make this a game in the 80s.
By the end of the season, I would not be surprised if Mitch is a top 50 players, but at this time, he is not close t being in the top 24 that get selected...at least I don't think so, although I would love to see him there.
To beat KU they would have to slow the game a lot and have a game in the 60s, like they did a couple of years ago (they still lost); a game in the 80s favors KU. Who writes this predictions for ESPN?
Apparently players are nominated by their schools and it really does not mean much at this stage since there are close to 800 players nominated. Here is a link to the complete list ↗...BTW, Mitch Lightfoot is one of the nominees...
I know. I watched and followed the entire process and kept wondering if there was "new" rule I did not know that required 3 feet...with all the new rules that were recently implemented I wondered if there was one I missed...apparently there is not one.
Looks like Larry is on his last coaching stop anyway...
Texas Tech averages 76 ppg and most of that was against inferior competition; the 2 games they played against ranked teams they lost. My question is why/how does ESPN think that a team that averages 76 ppg against weak competition is going to score 84 against the #1 ranked team and a very good defensive team like KU?