🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@bskeet

I would say that of all recent teams, this one has more question marks as to who will get playing time. There is a lot of talent and many publication have said that KU might have the best starting 5 next season but, as far a I can tell, the only players that seem to have locked a starting position are Selden and maybe Ellis, depending on the line-up coach Self uses, all other positions are open although you would think that based on pedigree and promises made during recruiting (wink, wink) Oubre and Alexander will likely start.

Point guard: Mason is the likely starter with Frankamp and Graham getting time depending on how much they have developed over the Summer.

Shooting guard and Small forward; In the past, Coach Self has used many player at both positions and depending on the line-up he uses he might do the same this year. Selden is the likely starter at SG and Oubre at SF and then we several players that will get time at these positions including Green, who we all agree has a huge upside, even when his defense is not there (at least it was not there last year), and Svi who might get considerable playing time (at both positions) depending on how quickly he can adapt to the style of play. I believe there is also a good chance that Ellis will see a fair amount of time at the 3, since that is his most likely position at the next level. I can also see Frankamp getting time at the 2, when shooter is needed but I don't see any of the other players (not even Svi) playing PG.

Power Forward and Center: Ellis and Alexander are the likely starters, but this is based on past history and potential and we don't know how much progress the other players have made in the off-season. and some can surprise. As I indicated, I believe Ellis will get time at the 3 and the other players vying for time are:

Lucas; He had a good summer playing overseas; he has solid fundamentals and all needs is having the Wizard of Oz give him some confidence.

Traylor: The dude can ball and has the best motor on the team. He can be a game changer or he can disappear at times, but his heart is always there. I will guess that has made progress over the summer and he will look like t-Rob when we see him next. He needs more consistency and he can be a game changer.

Michelson: Like Lucas, he played some Summer ball but I could not infer much from his performance. He is perhaps the biggest question mark. He could develop into a superior rim defender and rebounder, a "poor's man Jeff Withey" if you will, as his background would suggest, or he might end mostly riding the pine; I don't quite see him as a scorer.

We all know that most coaches, including Coach Self, will end up playing 8 (+/- 1) players, is here is my list of the top 8 players based on current information and not including Summer progress and the position they will likely play and by likelihood of playing time....

Selden - SG

Ellis - most;y PF with a fair amount at the SF

Oubre - SF with some SG

Alexander - PF or C depending on line-up

Mason - PG

Traylor - Primarily PF but might also some C with smaller lineups

Green - Mostly SF

Frankamp - PG or SG depending on line-up and need

Borderline: Svi (SG or SF) and Graham (PG)

Again, this can vary quite a bit depending on the progress players made over the Summer that we have yet to see.

This is my own overview and I could end up being wildly right or wildly wrong...or somewhere in between. I guess that covers all the bases so HEM will no tell me I have it all wrong. :)

P.S. Sorry HEM, could not resist

.22 ammo? Clint called. he said...get real gun...
[Real gun...](

@brooksmd

KU basketball gets more exposure on ESPN than just about any other program not named Kentucky. Look a their web site and you will see multiple daily stories on KU; I am not asking you to believe me, check it out for yourself.

@approxinfinity

You have provided us an amazing gathering place; anyway you want to handle it is fine with me and I am glad I don't have to do it. :)

@bskeet

Probably you have to get and ESPN personality to emcee the event in order for ESPN to broadcast it...which I assume (maybe incorrectly) will be on ESPN live.

@Crimsonorblue22

As far as I can tell there were a lot more people at the end of the game than in previous years; I posted a picture in a different thread. For all fans to stay the entire game you have to win consistently, much like the basketball team does, Remember the better Mangino teams? Most (not all) fans stayed until the end; which is as good as it gets for football at KU.

If you build it they will come, if you win they will stay.

@approxinfinity

No worries here. You have worked so hard to give us a first rate site, I would hate to see the SEO go down because of spammers.

@drgnslayr

Svi has been playing against pro players for the last two years in Ukraine. Granted that the basketball level is not NBA level but grown men with grown bodies in a Euro pro-league will likely be as or more physical than the typical college ball player in the US.

I think Svi will adapt to the physicality of the college game faster than most freshmen.

@kubuckets

A couple of quick comment on items in the story.

KU-Duke could be a strength-on- strength scenario. Duke’s strength is on offense with its receivers and KU’s strength on defense is its secondary.

KU's secondary got repeatedly burnt by SEMO receivers by long passes in obvious passing situations in the fourth quarter. Yes, SEMO was in desperation mode, but I would not, at this stage, say that "KU"s strength on defense is its secondary."

Said the fourth quarter didn’t affect the secondary’s psyche.

It better. The mistakes/lapses are fixable but the secondary cannot go into the Duke's game thinking that they are better than they showed in the fourth quarter; if they do that it will be a repeat by Duke's receivers that will go to town on KU's secondary.

@sfbahawk

I would not worry. I am pretty sure the system keeps track of how many times you login and likely you would not be affected, plus you have a real user name and not a random generated one. The site is up to 1,600 users and well over 1,000 are fakes; you can see why this is a concern. As I understand, the latest Google software looks for sites with suspicious high traffic and it can actually lower the SEO for the site if it suspects it is artificially generated; in short, these fake users can end up hurting the site's ranking.

If the team plays the entire game like they played the first quarter then it would be good match up..

@bskeet

Interesting indeed. However, I will guess that the IP is probably from proxy server running on a zombie computer. There are tools available to track the real IP but those are generally available only to law enforcement agencies, very advanced user and hackers.

As far as I know, the "captcha" approach is the easiest and more readily approach to avoid most bots.

Now, compared to what Arrowhead looked towards the end of the Chief's game this is packed. The only people left at Arrowhead were the player's families.; pretty embarrassing.

@jaybate-1.0

Ginobile had several of those in the playoffs against Miami, but then, he is a superior passer.

@nuleafjhawk

Hard to tell from the choppy broadcast I watched and broadcasts normally do not show empty stands. This photo from the KU Athletic site seems to show a fair amount of people fairly late in the game; a lot more than on previous years where the stands were empty at that stage of the game.

Also, looking at the photo was the first time I notice the track was gone...so much for that.

!KU Stadium.JPG ↗

@globaljaybird

Indeed. I tried many links and just about everyone asked you to download software, a dead giveaway for trojans. The link I posted still uploaded a file but it was ineffective unless executed and my anti-virus quickly identified it and removed it and I was able to watch the game albeit at a choppy rate, but it was still better than not watching it at all. Just in case, after the game was over, I ran scans of the entire system using my anti-virus (Vipre) and Malwarebytes as well...while cursing Zenger the entire time.

As I indicated, you need to be very careful with the free on-line streams.

I still cannot find a defensible rationale for what Zenger did to the KU football and basketball broadcasts. I get it that he wants to get exposure for the other programs but it should not be at the expense of the cash cows. I will guess that the TV audience for Late Night aloneis much greater that the the combined audience of all the minor sport, combined, in one year.

@DoubleDD and @approxinfinity

Maybe it is time to add a "captcha" to the sign up process; minor annoyance to new users and pretty effective defense against bots.

@RedRooster

Looks like the random generated names are back; the site is up to 1,300 users...

@approxinfinity

Is there a way to capture the IP address of the offending IDs (with the current software) and then block the address? I know some forums actually display the IP address of the user next to the user name so it is probably doable.

@jaybate-1.0

The defense played very well for 3 quarters and had 3 interception but got burned for 21 points in the fourth quarter when SEMO was in desperation mode and went into an aerial attack and KU got burned on several long passes, all correctable mistakes. Keep in mind that SEMO scored 77 point in it previous game...I know, I know, it was against Missouri Baptist but still, 77 points would seem to indicates a team with decent offense and not many teams score that many point regardless of which cupcake they play. We will have to see how many they hang next week against #25 Southern Illinois next week to really gauge how good/bad they really are.

I am a little concerned about the offense that scored 24 points in the first quarter, 10 in the third but was shut out in the second and in the critical fourth quarter.

Overall, a great first quarter and average rest of the game but not bad considering it was the first game with bunch of first time players. De'Andre Mann is going to be a stud and so is Avery, I can see why Coach Weis is exited about these two players. I will guess the defense, particularly the secondary is going to be watching a lot of tape this week.

Here is a link to the game. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

Be sure your anti-virus is up to date and enabled.

Just to be on the safe side, you will have to cut and paste the link or copy it to your browser...

http://www.wiz1.net/channel56 ↗

The site will tell you that you need to update the media player and regardless of what you press it uploads a file. My aniti-virus asks me if I want to discard it and I says yes. There will be a countdown message a the top that tells you that add will closed in XXX seconds. When the time is over click on the screen and the adds will be gone but one error message stays displayed. You will notice a small "X" in the center of the window, click on it and the error message will go away and the controls at the bottom become operational and you can now maximize the screen and watch it on your big screen like I am.

Again, be careful and do it at your own risk. Good luck.

BTW, KU looks like a team on fire and it is kicking butt.

@nuleafjhawk

I am in Olathe and Surewest/Consolidated Communication does not carry the Time Warner sports channel that broadcasts the KU games, and ESPN 3 is blacked out in Kansas, same situation if you are on AT&T. So, a good portion of the Kansas City metro area is left out, Funny that Missouri residents can watch all KU games and Kansas residents cannot. I can watch every single KSU and MU basketball and football game but the same is not true for KU games. ..in return the entire country can watch the KU women's rowing, cross country and golf teams...un-frigging-believable.

If I ever meet Mr. Zenger, I would ask him very calmly, while I get my foot ready for second kick to the 'nads, why in the world did you that for Mr. Zenger?

Now I need to find an East European web side that will broadcasts a pirated ESPN3 feed.

@KUSTEVE

I am not sure there is a simple answer as it depends on which freshmen you are talking about. Players like Reed whose fathers is a basketball coachs and had been exposed to good coaching and had solid fundamentals about the game picked it up reasonably quick; however, players that did not have competent coaching prior to KU seem to take longer. Like any other system, in its simpler form the hi-lo is not that complicate but in its full implementation it gets complicated quickly and takes time to learn all the variations/options; the more experienced the teams is the better the hi-lo works...again, this is also true for other systems but perhaps more so for the hi-lo.

@kubuckets

And thanks to Mr. Zenger's vision, I can watch just about every other team play on TV...except KU :(

@HighEliteMajor

First, I will start by saying that I don't believe Coach Self or any other coach for that matter is perfect and does not mistakes, they are not and they do make mistakes and grow large egos; however, I have an issue when just about everything Coach Self does is second guessed, even when his record indicates he is doing it mostly right and not the other way around. You have indeed said that you would not trade Coach Self for any other coach, and yet all you post about him is criticism and not "just tweaks" as you wrote; you can see why there is a disconnect between what you say you would do and what you actually post, don't you? This is the reason why have asked you (more than once) who do you consider a good or superior coach, better than Coach Self anyway, and you have yet to answer; maybe no coach meets your lofty standards.

I thought about writing a long, long post refuting every red herring argument you have thrown into the discussion such as...

***You say when you "... are playing against a better team, chances are that you will lose regardless." Really. That is another indictment of coach Self, right? Somehow, we have found ways to lose to inferior teams in the tournament over and over. I'm sure UNI, VCU, Bradley, Bucknell, Bradley, et. al. would be considered "inferior." ***

Did you actually read what I wrote? "Chances are" implies a likely but not an absolute outcome, and it is valid any way you look at it. The entire gaming industry has been created based on that principle. Yes, inferior team do win but that is by no means the norm; this is why it is called a...guess what...an "UPSET." If KU plays all the teams you mention 2 out of 3 , or 3out of 5, or 4 out of 7 or any other series of games, I am confident KU wins all those series; by the same criteria, KU does not win in '88 either. Perhaps this is why I do not place the emphasis you do in National Championships since, IMHO, winning one involves a much larger dose of luck than winning a regular season Conference Title does. It stands to reason why most sports other than football (logistically not feasible) opt for a series of games to decide winners rather than single games and take most of the luck out of the process.

Again, I could refute every point with a coherent explanation...but why? The good posters of this board have probably had enough of the subject and every thing that can be said has been said ad nauseam, not only in this thread but many others before, wouldn't you agree? Members are smart enough to have their own opinions and likely have had enough of ours.

Having said that I guess it is time for us to just agree to disagree and leave it at that..and this is my last post on the subject.

@kubuckets

Th receiving corps is much improved and experienced, and if Cozart can deliver the ball reliably, that is a 3-4 game swing right there. No question that losing the top two RBs is a serious blow, but this was the only position where KU was deep and if the up and coming players perform as expected, the running game should still be decent.

@nuleafjhawk

Welcome to the dark...I mean the right side @nuleafjhawk

@drgnslayr

Sorry slayer but I believe you are getting the gist of what I wanted to convey wrong.

What I said was...

"Behind every successful businessman there is a wife telling him he is doing it all wrong."

and NOT...

"Behind every successful businessman there is a wife telling him when is doing wrong."

See the difference?

What I was trying to say is that successful people are always being told they are doing it wrong (and not just by the wife) and yet they are successful by not paying attention to them; if they would listen to all the unsolicited advise from all the unqualified people (including the wife), they would not be nearly as successful; in fact, they would likely not be successful at all.

Likewise, you can even see in this forum where some posters (who have never coached even grade school kids) are constantly second guessing Coach Self and claiming he is doing it all wrong, by playing or not playing certain players, or using this or that offense or defense, or playing too fast or too slow, or being too inflexible or pulling players too quick...you name it, and yet he continues to win...consistently, oh well, I am glad he does what he does and does not listen to the "armchair quarterbacks" or whatever the expression is for basketball (Lazy Boy PGs???) and continues to win consistently, including conference titles. I will guess most of us feel the same way.

@Statmachine

He wore number 23 against the Philippines.

@RedRooster

Thanks for the quick update. Did not realize the game was on until it was over. Fran has always been a fan of the KU programs and his comments are usually usually positive. He was a pretty decent coach and I am sure he misses the action, but his job with ESPN gives him good access to all thing College basketball with none of the aggravation that comes with being a head coach.

@drgnslayr

Maybe Marving Martian is still around...

P.S. For the younger posters that is the green Cadillac convertible BUD used to drive.

P.P.S. BUD stand for Big Ugly Dude, which was Scott.'s nickname.

@drgnslayr

I think you missed the "successful" part. If he is doing it all wrong how can he be successful? Likewise, if a coach, such as Self, is doing it all wrong, how, in God's green earth, can he win consistently and average 30 wins per year? Just sayin' :)

@globaljaybird

Pollard was arguably the goofiest player ever to play at KU but he was a stud!!!

@nuleafjhawk

100% unlikely but very entertaining. :)

@globaljaybird

I thought the short Mohawks were now popular; maybe a call to the Diesel is in order? :)

@HighEliteMajor

Of course you don't agree; I would be truly surprised if you did.

Actually it is mostly the players not executing the plan. The coach can simplify the offense and make game time changes (up to a point) to compensate for a superior defense, but when either the players are just not executing the plan or the shots are not falling, there is nothing the coach can really do. What could have Coach Self done when Sherron goes 0-6 or Tyrel 1-7? or or Ellis and Traylor miss bunnies from 2 feet away? or Markieff keeps turning the ball over? It is not like a coach can jump in and play, and some have even tried that..

Cal gets involved... ↗

...and it still did not work. In the end, it is usually the players not executing the plan as outlined by the coaching staff and this is either due to lack of talent, which the coaching staff has probable already taken into consideration, or lack of effort and/or concentration which the coaching staff can do nothing about. Also, when you are playing against a better team, chances are that you will lose regardless, as I explained in my previous post. Coaches do the bulk of the work before the game preparing the players and at game time simply make the needed adjustments. Coach Wooden, universally acknowledged as one of the top coaches of all time did not like to call time out during games because he considered that if players did not learn during practice, a time out during the game was useless. This is an excerpt from a review of his autobiography:

"Those who were close students of Coach Wooden's can tell you that he was famous for a peculiar coaching tendency: he rarely called timeouts. It might be tempting to dismiss this as a coincidence since his teams were often so dominant, but this simple explanation would deprive others of an important lesson. Coach Wooden rarely called timeouts because he believed that his job was to teach his players how to prepare, then to prepare them thoroughly for every game. Once the game started, he largely left it to his disciplined army of athletes to figure things out for themselves, often times even when they found themselves in a spot of bother."

You wrote...

And don't say it's the players. Because if it were simply the execution of these otherwise predictable offenses, then coaching would not matter.

To which I say your statement makes no sense....if coaching does not matter, then who do yo think teaches the players how to play the selected offense (and defense), predictable or otherwise? Should they just handed them a playbook and turn them lose? If that is the case, why is KU paying Coach Self more in one year that most will make in a lifetime? Obviously most see a lot of value in what Coach Self brings to the table and feel he earns every penny.

We have all been posting here enough to know how we all think and it is apparent that you are not a fan of Coach Self. I am curious who you consider a good or superior coach? Maybe no one?

There is an expression in business that goes something like...behind every successful businessman there is a wife telling him he is doing it all wrong. We can extend the concept ot sports and say...behind every successful coach there is an army of fans telling hims he is doing all wrong....of course reconciling the 30 wins per year Coach Self averages with inferior coaching is really a bitch, isn't it?

BTW, I wrote the above with no disrespect intended or implied. It is just my opinion and as Dennis Miller used to say...I could be wrong.

Other schools have similar restricted "boutique" type forums that fly under the radar and do not attract the usual assortment of trolls that ruin the experience. I believe this is done by design.

There is no question that the basketball IQ for member of this forum is well above the average of the basketball fandom population at large. Also, many of us have very different opinions on different subjects but, by and large, the content and arguments are of high quality and presented respectfully; this is by far the best part. If you ever wander into the comments section of ESPN stories and most other forums, the first thing you notice is that after a few post it tends to degenerate into a name calling/insulting slug fest with no redeeming or informational value; UK fans seem to be the most opinionated, close minded and least knowledgeable; perhaps (and hopefully) they have a forum similar to this forum where the better informed fans post. In comparison, this is an oasis of knowledge and civility...what else can we say or want?

All offenses are predictable. Think about it.

Let's start with coaching. Most coaches will stick with one style of offense or variation of it based on the available personnel. and while occasionally they will show a different look, they will eventually come back to their bread and butter. In math and other sciences it is called "regression toward the mean" and basically says that given enough occurrences of an event, the result will gravitate toward the average. For example, a player that averages 12 PPG will have games when he scores 20 point and games where he scores 4 points, but if you plot a line of the individual scores it will be a straight line with scores clustered on both sides and the line and the line stays flat if the player has a steady performance or trends up when a player improves throughout the season, but the scoring will again regress toward the mean/average. A more common example is the coin flip. If you flip a balanced coin 1 time you will get either a head or a tail making the result 100% for one outcome, if you flip the coin a few more times your result initially might be heavy on one side but the more times you flip the coin, the closer it will get to a perfect 50%-50 distribution; very predictable. Offenses are not that different, the more you see them, the more predictable they become and this applies not only to the offense but all aspect of play. This is the basis for what Fran Fraschiila says that throughout a season, every team will play 5-6 games well above average and 5-6 game well below average and the rest it will play to its average, in other words they will win/lose the games they are supposed to and the key to successful season is to find a way to win those games where you play well below average; this is where coaches earn their money and make the biggest difference.

Now, every team spends a lot of money and resources reviewing film of opponents, Why? because teams are predictable and by reviewing past performance you know exactly what they will do...or try to do. If teams, and by extension players, were unpredictable, reviewing film would be a waste of time.

After a team has played a few games, you know who is the go-to player, who is the scorer, who rebounds, who bring the ball up the court, who distributes the ball and what scheme they use. All very predictable. Look at the great players, such as Kareem, who were very predictable; whenever he got the ball near the basket, defenders knew he was going to turn sideways and unleash the sky hook, they knew it was coming, they prepared for it, practiced defending it, try to stop it and he still scored. Or Iverson and the crossover; defender had seen it thousands of times, practiced defending it, knew exactly when it was coming and still got a "broken ankle;" not even this player could do it when Iverson was on...

[Iverson crosses over Jordan...](

Very predictable and yet very difficult o defend.

The part that makes the game unpredictable is how well or how poorly the team executes the plan. The key for a defense is to disrupt the execution and make the offense play below it average. You know what the other team will do; you just need to disrupt their plan enough so they will play below averages. KU has had a knack lately of playing below average at the wrong time. @Ralster cited some examples such a Sherron going 0-6 or Tyrel 1-7 that illustrates the point.; had these player (and other) just played to their average, KU wins those games since it was the better team with aberrant performances.

KU's offense is by all account is a lot more complicated than most and takes players the better part of a year to become familiar with it and this is why the "one and done" players, so far have not performed to the expected level and why Coach Self had to dumb down the offense. In its full glory, the KU offense is difficult to stop because the many variations and options make it difficult for defenses to prepare for all the possible gyrations...defenses know what is coming, they just have trouble adjusting to all the variations.

Is KU offense predictable? Sure, but then they all are. Just my 2 cents.

@justanotherfan

Keep in mind that the '87-'88 team at UCLA that made it to the Final Four where it lost to Memphis was loaded with players liked Darren Collison, Russel Westbrooke, Luc Richard Mbah a Mopute, Joe Shipp, Nicola Dragovic among others. that team had 2 lottery picks, 3 first round picks, at least 5 players went on to play in the NBA and several other played professionally in the Euro Leagues.

In other words, Love has done well when he has a superior cast playing with him, but when he has had to lead the team, he has not accomplished much; no playoffs in 6 years and the best record the Wolves have had in that time is 40-42 and their overall record in that time is a miserable 153-323. Kevin Garnett was in a similar situation in Minnesota but he led his team to 8 playoff appearances in 12 years and his record with the Wolves is superior to Love's.

@approxinfinity

Quick question...given the choice, would you take a fancier title at work or would you take a nice raise instead?

I will tell you my answer. When I was young and building my resume, I would have taken the fancier title; as I got older and have already established my credentials, I could not care less about the title and would take the raise any day. I believe it pretty much parallels my view on basketball titles.

@HighEliteMajor

I believe you missed my point about the car example. Your assertion is that if you like one particular car you ***CANNOT *** be objective about other cars and you will use faulty logic to make your car be the best. That is not at all what I wrote.

What I meant to say and I believe I did (in bold italics) is to indicate that as much as you like your old car, you CAN still be objective and admit that the newer cars can be better and/outperform it. Likewise. I can like the KU program a lot and still be objective about other programs; THE TWO POSITIONS ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.

@wissoxfan83

Would you trade the UConn program of the last 15 years for the KU program of the same 15 years? I would not.

On a related story...

Bizarre recruiting: Former Oregon signee Ray Kasongo, who was not offered a scholarship by KU after his visit in July, apparently won’t be headed to College of Southern Idaho after all.
According to Zagsblog.com, Kasongo’s bags made it to the Boise, Idaho, airport last weekend, but he did not. A source said Kasongo was intercepted by someone at the Denver airport and taken elsewhere.
“After several hours of panic and alerting authorities, we did hear that he switched planes in Denver and flew to a different location. We are thankful that he is safe but disappointed in his reckless choice. We only want people who really want to be at CSI, and apparently he doesn’t want to be. We wish Ray Kasongo the best in his future,” Southern Idaho coach Jared Phay told Zagsblog.
It’s unknown where Kasongo will elect to play ball.

Wasn't he supposed to be a shoo-in at Indiana? I am glad KU passed on him. I don't believe we have heard the entire story and there is something very weird about this player and his adviser.

@HighEliteMajor

You wrote: "Many teams win national titles without conference titles."

Which is exactly what I said repeatedly is true for basketball; however, if you want to play for the title in football, you better win your conference first or else your chances to play in the title game are minimal.

You are assuming that everybody feels that a national title in basketball is the be all, end all for everybody. It is not. Many of us feel that the teams that win the NCAA are not necessarily the best teams in college basketball. Again, as I have repeatedly mentioned before, you don't have to win your conference regular or post season titles to go to the dance, and if you get lucky for 6 games you are the National Champion.

Let's look at the two teams in question and the titles they won. Can you honestly tell me that the '88 KU National Championship Team was the best team in college that year? It was not even the best team in the conference; it finished a distant 3rd in the Big 8 and it was not even ranked in the top 25 for the last 10 weeks of the season. How about UConn's last year's Championship team? Can you tell me with a straight face that it was the best team in college basketball? It was not even the best team in its own conference where, much like KU in '88, finished a distant third and the highest it was ranked in the last 10 weeks of the season was #18. Now way, no how, no ma'am UConn was the best team in college basketball last year. Again, much like KU in '88, UConn got lucky for 6 games and won the Tournament.

As far as using the 2002 Honda Civic as an example does not make any sense. I own a mint 2001 BMW Z3 3.0Lwith 25,000 miles that I would not trade for any other car. That particular model, engine size and particularly the color had a very limited production and it also has the color matched hard top of which only 5 were made throughout the entire 6 year production run of the car, so it is a very rare combination that is becoming a collector's car. As much as I like the car and as much as I would not part with it, there is no way I would say that it can outperform or is better than a comparable 2015 car; liking the car and being objective are not mutually exclusive.

Apparently most sports writers and publications that have been ranking programs have a view closer to mine in relation to the weight they assign to National Championships and Conference titles. Just because you think that a National Championship is worth 100 times more than a major conference title does not make it so, any more than my belief that the difference is not nearly as much. Once more, just because you believe the UConn program is better than KU does not make it so. We both have opinions and it is exactly what they are...subjective opinions and neither is better or more correct than the other; they are simply different, subjective opinions.

@JayhawkRock78

I know several high school teams in the KC area already use the padding around the helmet during practice, although I am not sure if it is allowed during actual games.

@DoubleDD

There is no question that Love is one of the better players ion the League, even more so now that "stretch 4s" are in vogue. It would be interesting to project what his stats would have been had he played in a different team. I personally believe his stats are inflated, first because he was the go to guy in offense, and two because he a was always trying to pad his rebound even by jumping over his own team mates to get rebounds; he is a superior passer, particularly outlet passer, perhaps even the best currently...Wes Unseld is the best outlet passer of all-time.

Let's not forget that the Wolves are quietly assembling a young but very talented group of players that might surprise. What would it say about Love it the Wolves make the playoff without him, something he could not do in 6 years?

@HighEliteMajor

Isn't it winning the Conference Championship pretty much a requirement for National Title? In other words, no Conference Title, no National Title.

How would you rate Saban if he had won 10 SEC Conference Titles in a row and only 1 National Title? Lower? Same? Higher?

Winning a conference title in and of itself is not that big of a deal, after all every conference has one champion every year; however, stringing 10 conference titles in a row in a major conference is a huge accomplishment and a feat seldom achieved, in any college or even professional sports and it indicates continuous excellence.

What is the difference between a good and a great player or coach or team? CONSISTENCY. Think about it. There have been many players/coaches that have amazed for a year or two, but the ones that are considered great are the ones that have performed at a high level CONSISTENTLY. It is really that simple and it is what makes the 10 titles in a row exceptional; even more so than UCLA's streak that was achieved in a time with little parity and a few dominant teams, or the Gonzaga streak that was achieved in mid-major conference that routinely sends 1 0r 2 teams to the dance. The KU streak was achieved in a major conference that routinely sends 60% of it teams to the dance and great parity in the sport. Keep in mind that 4 of those titles were shared, so it is not like KU played in conference with no competition. like UCLA during its streak and Gonzaga then and now..

I will give you a good example, UConn. The basketball team has won 4 NCAA titles in the last 15 years, pretty incredible. right? But I challenge you to find any reputable publication that ranks the UConn program ahead of KU. I have searched and found at least 2o different publications that have ranked programs over the last couple of year and not one of them has UConn ahead of KU, not one of them.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

@jaybate-1.0

1 - According to this article...

Link to Svi info... ↗

He is taller that 6'-7" as observed when he was on campus last week. The Ukrainian web site has listed hims at 6'-6" for while now, but I am not sure how up to date it is. NBA Draft lists him now at 6'-7"...so he is somewhere between 6'-6" and 6-8', likely in the middle.

2a - What 17 year old would pass playing for the National Team of his country?...or any country?

2b - Maybe he just wants to improve his game and I (and apparently his family) cannot think of a better place to do it than KU...and he was already on campus last week.; so much for delaying coming to the US.A.

The Occam's Razor principle indicates that given several hypotheses/answers the simplest one is usually the correct one.

@approxinfinity

After he sits out this year, he will have played only two full season in 5 years; this is very troublesome. No question that he has tons of talent when healthy, but the issue is...can he stay healthy? Is he on his way to becoming the Greg Oden of football?