Keep in mind that the new contact rules have increased scoring all around; however, the better conferences have better scorers so the scoring has probably gone up more in the stronger conferences. Maybe a better indicator would be the point differential between points scored and point allowed???
As I mentioned before, some of this season's records should and will likely have asterisks next to them.
I would guess Robert Pershing Wadlow had the longest femur...he was 8'-11" by the way...no typo...8 feet and eleven inches.
I bet Niko Roberts has a sore back today...
I am not sure I want to...remove our beaks from their rears...that smell can't be good; maybe the big yellow, size "21" Jayhawk shoe may be be a better option???
There was one that said ...yes, that just happened...(or words to that effect) which would have been very appropriate yesterday when KU had its big run.
Which begs the question, which one is Fred and which one is Ginger? Keep ion mind that Fred was great but Ginger did everything he did backwards...and in high heels.
Withey had a couple of awesome dunks. In this dunk he posterizes Cobbins at OSU
!Withey posterizes Cobbins.jpg ↗
He also had a great dunk over Henriquez at KSU, he also whacked him on the head on the follow through...
There is also the one he threw down against North Carolina. Kevin Young had a very nice reverse alley-oop dunk.
I had to laugh at the announcers a couple of times. Barnes is a good coach with a good record but I am not sure he should be in the conversation for Coach of the Year. Considering the strong challenge KU was going to get from ISU and OSU, and how it is running away with the title, Coach Self would be the better candidate. Unfortunately, and as I have posted before, Coach Self is victim of his own success. People expect him to have great team year in and year out, and even he produces a great season, he does not get credit for that, instead the award goes to coaches like Weber that has success with players he did not recruit.
A Texas Longhorn collapsed at mid court at the feet of the mighty Jayhawk. I like it.
Vegas agrees with you. The line opened ay 11-1/2 ad now it has settled at a more realistic 10.
BTW, Duke opened as favorite at 5-1/2 and it is now 6. In other Conference games Oklahoma opened at 4-1/2 and it is now 5 over Kansas State, WVU 3 over Baylor, OSU 10 over TCU and ISU 11 over TCU.
My comment about fans was not related to the specific foul on Embiid; it was meant to indicate that fans from every team believe their teams get the short end of the stick when it comes to refereeing.
Just testing to see if you guys are awake...:)
If I understand correctly, the conference has weekly conferences with officials where they review the previous games and they are given a preview of the upcoming games. I am sure the KU-Texas game and the lack of foul calls on Texas, particularly the hard fouls on Embiid, has been discussed, and hopefully, the officials will be on the lookout for plays/fouls that went uncalled in the previous game. The refs have the ability to set the tone of the game by how tightly/loosely they call it. One would hope that based on the previous game, the calls will not so one sided. Having said that, I realize that Texas fans are probably saying the same thing...:that's basketball fans for you :)
Yes, have Black, Lucas and even Wesley all over him and either "rough" him up a little or draw fouls. If you get 2 or 3 quick fouls on him, he is essentially out of the game.
Tarik played only 6 minutes had 2 points, no rebounds and no fouls, which is amazing considering that he normally gets one at the scorer's table when he checks in..:)
Ahhh... the KU-Texas game with Vitale's standing ovation when Collison fouled out...best game I have ever watched in person.
I watched the UNC-Duke game and it was good one with a big come from behind win by UNC; I was happy to see Coach Williams beat ferret face. The analysts indicated that this is the first time since the 80s that an unranked UNC team beat top 5 ranked Duke team, so it was good win for them but not one that warrants rushing the court.
The current conference standings:
KU 11-2 games left: TU, OU, @OSU, TTU, @WVU
Texas 9-4 games left: @KU, Baylor, @OU, TCU, @TTU
ISU 8-5 games left: @TCU, WVU, @KSU, @Baylor, OSU
OU 8-5 games left: KSU, @KU, UT, WVU, @TCU
KSU 8-5 games left: @OU, @TTU, ISU, @OSU, Baylor
As I posted before, I believe that a 14-4 or better record would outright win or share the conference title, and this sees to be still the case. From the standings, it looks like only KU and Texas have a realistic chance with ISU, OU and KSU having a possible but highly improbable long shot and it would require a complete meltdown by KU (1-4 on its last 5 games) and UT for this to happen.
Tomorrow KSU plays OU and the loser will be eliminated from consideration, which will leave 4 team with a realistic chance and 2 with a long shot. After the March 1 game between KSU and ISU, another team will be eliminated, so out of the 3 teams with 5 loses, only 1 can possibly finish with 5 loses, assuming that it runs the table. So what are the chances for these 3 teams;
OU - Would have to beat KU, KSU and UT. Highly unlikely.
ISU - Would have to beat TCU, WVU, KSU, Baylor, OSU. Possible but unlikely.
KSU - Would have to beat OU, TTU, ISU, OSU and Baylor, Unlikely.
Of the 3, ISU would have the better shot, but I don't see them beating all 5, particularly KSU and Baylor on the road.
And then there were two...
If UT runs the table including beating KU tomorrow, KU would have to go 3-1 to share the Title. UT would own the tie breaker but it is used only for Conference tournament seeding and they would be co-champions. Other than the KU game, UT would have to beat Baylor, OU, TCU and TTU, all winnable games.
If KU loses tomorrow and wins the rest of the games, they would be the sole Conference Champions.
If KU wins tomorrow, it would have to go 1-3 to finish no worse that tied for the title, 2 or more wins guarantees a sole Championship. So a win tomorrow pretty much guarantees a 10th Conference Title for KU.
Let's hope our team can get it wrapped up tomorrow.
What I find interesting is that when games are played at AFH, the crowd and AFH are always part of the broadcast with announcers emphasizing the sold out arena and the incredible loudness.
When games are played at Mizzou Arena, the cameras hardly ever show the stands and when they do, it is obvious that the place is at best half full, unless a team like Kentucky comes to play and then the larger crowd apparently comes top see Kentucky, rather than the home team. On many games, when they show a player shooting free throws, you can see that most of the seats behind the basket are empty; this would never happen at AFH.
I think is embarrassing how little support their basketball team gets.
I did a Google search and the great majority of references are in post in a couple of forums posted by fans (much like us) and you have to take those with a grain of salt. The first link you posted is exactly that, the second is a semi-generic comment by Jason King with no other information to back it up. The third link shows 3 outlet passes, all in the same game and two of them are very good but the third just about goes out of bounds.
Since the Towson game, he has not had many outlet passes that I can recall; in fact (and I could be wrong) I don't recall any outlet passes during conference play. With a grand total of less than dozen outlet passes in his entire career, I think is premature to anoint hims as " one of the best outlet passers the game has ever had," don't you think? Considering that players such as Love routinely have several per game.
I am not saying that he will not become a good or even a great outlet passer, but with KU's current lack of emphasis on the fast break offense, and his current production record (outlet pass wise), all we can say is that he has great potential, wouldn't you agree?
We are missing that dominant outlet pass NOW! We have one of the best outlet passers the game has ever had in Embiid... we just weren't using him for that!
Likely we have different definitions of what an outlet pass is. To me, an outlet pass is one that is thrown after a defensive rebound to an open player in the front court and the pass is normally at least half the length of the court.
Some people consider any pass that starts a fast break an outlet pass but that is not, IMHO, a true "outlet" pass.
Embiid is a good, maybe even great passer; he is very good at protecting the ball after the rebound and then making the pass to the point guard, which reduces the chance of making outlet passes. He is also good at getting position on one side of the basket and then firing pass to the wide open opposite side, although this has resulted at time in turnovers when the ball is intercepted.
I can't say I have seen Embiid throw many of what I call true outlet passers, so I cannot yet judge how good he is now or will be in the future. Players that are good passers are not necessarily good outlet passers and vice versa.
Kevin Love is probably the best active outlet passer in the game, but the best of all times is probable Wes Unseld, although Jabbar and Walton were both outstanding outlet passers as well, at least among the player I saw play.
Here is a link to a video of Kevin Love's outlet passes...
Link to Kevin Love outlet passes... ↗
Those are outlet passes to me and I have not seen Embiid throw many of those.
We were talking about speeding up tempo and my point was that when you are playing defense you can not speed up the opponent offense unless you make concessions; either let them take open shots or allow them to penetrate, and even then, they can elect to pass and extend the possession time much like Tech did, as they consistently held the ball for alt least 25 seconds in just about every possession...and then made unlikely shot at the end of the 35 seconds.
Of course you can always foul them and send them to the line, but other that at the very end of games, this is really not a good approach.
Too bad that there is not an option where we ca select whose commentary we listen along with the video broadcast. I have tried to turn the radio on and the TV volume down but there is a time differential and also the radio broadcast does not follow what is being displayed on the screen.
Nice break down of the tempo. However, KU can control the tempo only on offense. When Tech had the ball all KU could do is play tough defense and by and large they did that, but Tech had a little or maybe a lot of luck. There were several possessions where KU defended well only to have Tech take extremely low percentage, desperation shots that actually went in; in any other game most of those shots don't go in and that is about a 6-10 point swing.
I think what I am trying to say is simpler than that. Do all your thinking, ask all your questions, perfect your technique at practice and not at game time; if you are doing it at game time the results are likely not going to be positive.
I am a fan of John Wooden (the coach) and this was written about him...
"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."
This is what I am talking about. Perry needs to "do his thinking" during practice, and at game time, turn on the beast mode, trust his training and dominate like he has show he is capable of doing.
There are no assists when you penetrate and they did plenty of that, and they did have plenty of trips to the line as well where they made 22 of 30; in comparison TTU made 9 of 14. KU had 16 fouls and TTU had 21, most of KU's fouls were of the non shooting variety while most of TTU were shooting fouls committed when KU penetrated. Even though TTU had only 5 more fouls, KU had 16 more attempts.
A few years back, while doing work for the DoD I had the privilege of briefly witnessing part of the SEAL team training at Coronado in Southern California. What impressed me the most was how much they emphasize training and how they are told over and over that once in action, they need to "trust their training." No time to think in real situations,
I think you have it right when you say that when Perry plays head games, i.e.thinks too much. The split second he wastes is the difference between having an easy shot or having his shot blocked. Maybe he need to think less and just...trust his training. When he does that he is explosive and unstoppable, when he does not...not so much.
He is a happy man...
![1939830_10152271141129532_1262789803_n[1].jpg](<a href="http://i.imgur.com/mgk0cUI.jpg)
" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://i.imgur.com/mgk0cUI.jpg) ↗
I believe I am overprotective when someone questions our players hearts. Although I don't know the players personally, I believe that we have not only great payers but also great individuals as well. and I don't like when a label, hyperbole notwithstanding is attached to them. Enough said.
As far as the 1/3 rule, I am more inclined to the "rule" Fran Fraschllla stated that goes something like this:
Every season a team will have 5 games when it plays out of their minds and will win almost regardless of who the opponent is. It will also have 5 games when it plays poorly and will likely lose; the rest of the games the team will play to its average/mean. The key to a good season is to win those games when you play poorly.
Last night was good example of winning a game when you play poorly. A harbinger of good thing to come, perhaps?
I believe that teams tend to play to their mean the majority of the time. Now, we tend to see some games KU plays as being below that, but in reality they are closer to the mean than we realize. For all the talent KU has, it is also a very green team with 3 starting freshmen. Yes, the ceiling is high and when they are clicking on all cylinders, they are a sight to behold, but certainly this is not the mean for this team at this time. As the season move on, obviously the mean moves up and hopefully by tournament time it is high enough to overcome poor individual performances.
KU is one of those rare, lucky teams where losing any one player would not necessarily doom the season. I have watched a few Kentucky games and if Randle were to get injured, the team's overall performance would decrease dramatically. For all the superstars they have, they are heavily dependent on one player.
Best post of the day. You are absolutely, 100% spot on,,,right on the money...(add any other cliches here)
You not only "get" the big picture but outline it clearly and concisely
My issue was the use of the term "dishonor."
Definition of dishonor:
dis·hon·or [dis-on-er] noun
lack or loss of honor; disgraceful or dishonest character or conduct.
disgrace; ignominy; shame: His arrest brought dishonor to his family.
an indignity; insult: to do someone a dishonor.
a cause of shame or disgrace: He is a dishonor to his family.
Commerce . failure or refusal of the drawee or intended acceptor of a bill of exchange or note to accept it or, if it is accepted, to pay and retire it.
Now, does anyone think that the players that did not have good games fall into any of these categories? I absolutely do not think so.
I understand that some players did not have the games we would have liked them to have. The kids played their hearts out and tried their best and to call it a "dishonor roll" is going too far.
I believe that Coach Self will do all of his college coaching at KU; he has too much of a legacy going to go anywhere else and start again. If he leaves, it will be down the road to NBA team just to prove to himself that he can succeed at that level. If you think is tough coaching the one and done prima donnas in college, in the NBA you are coaching prima donnas that make more money than the coach.
He is one of the top 3-4 paid coaches in college basketball and money would not be a reason for him to leave.
If I understand correctly, Tyler Self will red shirt this season, meaning he has 3 more season of eligibility. I don't believe Coach Self would leave until Tyler is done.
I did notice that for all of KU's ballyhooed schedule they own two victories over teams that are currently ranked, Duke and Iowa State.
Meanwhile my other team Wisconsin has victories over 5 teams that are ranked, four of them are ranked ahead of them by the way. One asterisk, when we beat Florida, FL was missing several starters who I think were back by the KU game.
By the way KU beat ISU twice so that would make it three victories, right?
In any case, your premise is misleading. KU beat many more teams that were in the top 25; in fact, it won 4 in row at one time, as it was widely reported. You cannot take away wins against teams that are currently not in the top 25; they were in the top 25 at the time KU played them.
Teams go in an out of the top 25 particularly the ones near the bottom, such as Oklahoma or Kansas State, where one win might put them back on the top 25 and one loss might take them out. At one time Oklahoma State was in the top 5 and definitely worthy of that rank; now they are not in the top 25, so does this mean that they were not a top 25 team when KU played them? I think not. At one time the Big 12 had 6 teams in the top 25 and now it has only 3, a result of the strength of the League (top rated) when in any given day, any team can beat any other team. To a lesser extent, this is also true for the Big 10.
A better indicator would be to use the top 50, since this would account for teams that at one time were top 25. According to Jeff Sagarin, KU has 10 wins against top 50 teams; this is 2 more wins than the next teams Arizona and Syracuse that have 8 top 50 wins each.
Taking Crimson and Blue colored glasses off...:)
@jaybate 1.0
Since you directly addressed my post I will directly address yours as well.
First, it is Simien not Simeon.
Second, the rules are created and amended to include not exclude players deserving the honor. The rules, as currently written, are pretty much in line with those from other Elite programs and pretty much cover accomplishments that are self evident and do not need subjective judgement.
More specifically, what rule would you add or change to allow Rush Jersey to be retired? Was he the best player on the '08 Championship team? Many would say yes, and many would say no...subjective judgement...and someone else already posted that Arthur was the best player in the '08 team. Was he the Most Valuable/Important player in the '08 team? Again, many would say yes and probably the majority would say that either Chalmers (particularly in the Championship run) or RussRob (who was the team quarterback) were more valuable; again a subjective judgement. Was he the best freshman ever? No. Does he hold any KU record? None that I can think of.
If the rules are changed for Rush, how about for other equally deserving players. How about the most valuable walk on ever, so Dr, Moody can get his jersey retired..or most points against our hated former rivals to the East? Best freshman ever? Where does it stop? There is a reason why once you start making exceptions it becomes a slippery slope. The rules are there to separate players with truly elite accomplishments from excellent players but not truly elite, making exceptions diminishes the value of the honor bestowed upon those very few players.
I don't have a problem with the rules a currently stated. I loved Rush at KU and I check the Utah Jazz score every night to see if he has gotten his career on track, Having said that, is his career at KU that much better than many other equally accomplished players that he alone needs an exception? The answer is obviously no.
I get it that you think that he was the best player in that team, but again many do not think so. KU will not and should not retire a Jersey just because a player is a fan's favorite. If that were the case, then let's get ready to retire Kevin Young and Jeff Withey's jerseys, since they would likely be in the top 5 in any fan's most favorite player lists...Withey, by the way, holds the record for blocked shots in the NCAA tournament, no small feat, and has one of the very few triple doubles ever by a KU player, but I will guess his jersey will not be retired.
According to the Kansas Men's Basketball Media guide:
"The original criteria for a retired jersey included KU players named college basketball player of the year, most valuable player of the NCAA Tournament or being named a four-time All-American. The list was expanded in 1997 to include Ray Evans, who holds the distinction of being an All-American in both football and basketball."
"The criteria was expanded prior to the 2002-03 season to include consensus first-team All-Americans, two-time first-team All-America selections and Academic All-American of the Year."
Also, the 5 year rule applies, i.e. 5 years must elapse from the time the player leaves KU to the time he becomes eligible. We can Expect Cole Aldrich Jersey retired in a couple of years; he was Academic All-American Player of the Year.
I never felt there was tension between Coach Self and Rush, Rush has been back to KU several times since the '08 championship season.
KU has very specific rules as to when a Jersey is retired and hung from the rafters at AFH. Coach Self does not have the authority to break the rules or make exceptions. The Chancellor or the Board of Regents might be able to to change the rules but I just don't see them getting involved. If and when Brandon meets the requirements as currently defined, then and only then his Jersey will be retired and hung at AFH.
I can probably make a decent case to retire the jerseys of several players I liked, and I am sure many forum members could do the same for other players, and if this was the case we would have more jerseys hanging from the rafters at AFH than a Kansas Sampler superstore. Having your jersey retired is not about making a case for a player we liked, it is about excellence above and beyond that we expect from all players that step on the hallowed ground we call AFH; very few achieve that status.
Let me put it this way...perhaps Wiggins and Embiid are more gifted players with higher ceiling but Ellis is the "Most Valuable Player."
I don't know about you, but many of us have posted in the past that Ellis is the most important player in the team. He is consistently solid and rarely he has a bad game.
Second best dunk of the night; had he nailed it the first time he might have had a chance. I don't care for the current format, it is really no improvement from previous formats. I would have like to see the top 3 finishers duke it out in a 5 dunk contest.
KU has already played a wwinless (in conference) TCU this year at their place and won by 22 points; it should win at AFH easily...even without Embiid.
Couple of links...
and an older one ...
Needless to say, Yael T. Abouhalkah is not a KU Basketball fan.
In short, the State Legislature does not think that taxpayers should back the bonding that was going to be used for the project in addition to private money; they feel that it should be all private/donor money. In view of how many taxpayers were left out of the Metro Sports contract and unable to watch football and basketball games, while the residents of the state to the East of us could, I am not surprised there is a backlash. I am sure legislators heard from irate constituents about the deal with Metro Sports.
As I mentioned in another post, the conference teams have done dramatic switch from the start of conference play. The teams I wanted to play the least were OSU, ISU and Baylor and now, they are the teams (along with TCU) I would want to play the most. On the other hand, the teams I was least afraid of were TCU, Texas Tech. and West Virginia; with the exception of TCU, the other two teams along with Texas are the ones I would not want to play now.
TCU will not be a problem, KU beat them by 20+ points at their place and it should win easily at AFH.
Texas Tech. is playing well with consecutive wins over OU (in Norman) and OSU and we have two games left with them; two tough games for sure. West Virginia destroyed ISU at home and played KU fairly close the majority of the game at AFH; it will be a tough game in Morgantown.
The Texas game will be interesting. I am sure the KU staff is going over the KSU-Texas game video to figure out how KSU was able to jump all over Texas and likely use a similar approach.
On different but related note, is there any coach in Division I worse that Scott Drew? Next to KU, Baylor has the most talent in the league and yet there they sit next to last with a 3-8 record.
I saw that. Still nothing in his twitter account.
I have mentioned a couple of time before that in the last few games Tharpe has been passing wide open 3s and taking instead short floaters from the paint; maybe he is taking the advice to drive more too much at heart.
Teams that play man to man will always commit more fouls, particularly with the new contact rules. With the current rules, RussRob and Releford, arguably the best lock down defenders we have had in recent years would have fouled out in the first 10 minutes. The team is still trying to figure out how to play tough man to man defense, Coach Self's preferred system, without fouling out; because of his freakish athleticism, Wiggins seems to be the only one that is playing tough defense outside without excessive fouling.
As I also mentioned in another post, Wiggins is going to have, sooner or later...hopefully the former, a breakthrough finishing at the rim and his shooting percentage will go up; he might not be getting field goals but he is going to the line consistently from where he is very good...except the Kansas State game.
There is a site that rates the "bracketologists" based on how close they predict the field and seedings. Lunardi has a huge platform with ESPN but when it comes to predicting the brackets, he is average at best.
Wichita State has to remain unbeaten to get a #1 seed. Their schedule (regardless of who wants or does not want to play them) is what it is. One loss and their chances of getting a #1 seed are pretty much gone...although Gonzaga with 31-2 record and better schedule got a #1 seed last season, and did not do them much good as they lost in the second round (I guess they call it now third???) to...of all teams...Wichita State. With the current system, anything is possible.
Games that 3 weeks ago looked as sure wins, no longer look that way.
Texas Tech beat OU at Norman, and at one point they were up by 20 points after beating OSU the previous game. KU has two games left against them and they no longer look like "gimmes." WVU trashed ISU last Saturday and the game at Morgantown seems a lot tougher now. Add the game against Texas at home and looks like KU will really have to earn the title. No easy games in the Big 12.