🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@joeloveshawks

I don't agree.

Wigging had 14 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assist, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 0 turnovers and 1 foul. I would call that pretty darn good game.

Selden did not have as good a scoring game as he has lately but he still finished with 4 points, 3, rebound, 5 assists. 1 turnover and 1 foul and played superb defense against Haslip, which is what he was asked to do. Again not great but pretty decent stats.

Embiid had a sub-par game and played only 17 minutes because of foul trouble and still managed 5 point , 7 rebounds and 1 block.

Again, not great performances but I don't believe they "looked bad" either.

@drgnslayr

There is a principle in economics called Occam's razor. Basically, It states that when there are competing theories, the simplest one is usually the correct one.

@Crimsonorblue22

No, I did not see it but the topic is often discussed when a players flop and get away with it. I w ill have to do some Googling and find out if it is allowed.

@Crimsonorblue22

It was my understanding that the review could be used to determine if the foul was common or flagrant but not to reverse the call. This is the advantage that floppers have, because once the call is made, it cannot be reversed...at least this was my understanding, but I could be wrong.

@AsadZ

There is no way that Coach Self would play Embiid, or any other player for that matter, unless he is fit and ready to play. Playing an injured player is unprofessional, unethical and could open KU and Coach Self to potential liability. He is not that kind of coach or person.

Joel is finding out what is like to play the toughest schedule in Division I basketball. Unlike other players that have had qualified physical trainers since they were young, he did not have this type of training and he has not built the endurance that comparable players have.

HS seasons are typically 20 games total and he has played 22 games already with opposing players climbing on him like he is a jungle gym and refs not calling fouls, and there are still at least a dozen games left (hopefully more) to play. All of this has taken a toll and he is just plain tired; it happens to a lot of freshmen, particularly those that started with below average conditioning like he did. Also, the bigger the player the faster they tire.Once the upcoming games become easier and the conference title is all sewn up. Coach Self will probably rest him more to let him catch his second wind in time for post-season play. It is really that simple.

What a nice and classy gesture.

Looks like it will be a good day for the Football program. Good to see hat the majority of signees are now coming from HS and not JuCo. Interesting that many of the players chose KU over much bigger name schools; perhaps the lure of potentially more/earlier playing time made a difference.

7th ranked class in the conference is an improvement; one decent season and maybe next year we could move up to 5 or 4 and start to really competitive.

@FarSideHawk

That is pretty funny...

@dylans

You are correct, for some reason I forgot that caveat.

As I posted before, Coach Self is a master of making adjustments. Heslip hit the first four 3s he attempted and went scoreless after Coach Self adjusted the defense.

Trust thy-Self

All in all, a very good bounce back game, a very workman performance by the entire team. Tharpe had a great game and the rest of the players had solid all around games.

This game places KU back solidly in the lead for the conference title, with the softer (hopefully) portion of the schedule ahead. Beating Texas at home would almost ensure the title. KU has 5 home and 4 road games left with the tougher games being at Oklahoma State and Texas at home. Texas has 4 home an 5 road games, with tough road games at OU, KU, ISU and KSU; definitely a tougher schedule . All in all, KU has the more favorable schedule moving forward and a t this time, the conference title is KU's to lose.

Don't forget the game starts ta 6:00 PM Central time...

@JayhawkRock78

Too bad Ed Hightower retired. He was drama queen but he officiated the finals in both '88 and '08...so he was good luck for KU.

@Crimsonorblue22

One of the things I used to admire about Coach Roy Williams is that no team would beat us in the second half; he could always make adjustments to correct the problems. Coach Self is a better version of this. If you look at the 5 games we have lost this year, we have won the second half of all those games (tied with Colorado); so obviously he knows how to make the adjustments he needs to do.

Early in the season there were people here second guessing him and saying basically that he no longer knew how to coach. Of course he adjusted, got his players to play Self-ball and prior to the Texas game, KU was playing better than anyone else in the country. Undoubtedly UT was setback that exposed weaknesses, but he will adapt and adjust and will continue wining games at a better rate than any other coach in college BBall. He has done it before and he will do it again. I don't think he will ever encourage or condone flopping.

Trust thy-Self.

@drgnslayr

I always say...

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

and more importantly...

If you can't fix it, don't break it.

@Crimsonorblue22

Wel...I think there will be a serious rethinking and retooling of the rule at the end of the season. If the Tournament ends up being as @drgnslayr predicts, there will be a backlash and the rules will likely tweaked closer to what they used to be. In any case, you have to adapt and learn to play with existing rules, otherwise you are at a distinct disadvantage.

If I were a betting man, I would bet that flopping will seriously be reviewed at tend of the season, to the point that, after the game reviews, could result in post game penalties to the offending party. Since you cannot punish the players financially, like the NBA does, potential suspensions for egregious and repeated flopping could be in the future. Maybe you get a warning for flopping and after a second warning you get a one game suspension, or something along these lines.

@Crimsonorblue22

Get used to it; the best is yet to come...

@drgnslayr

Well...he is a drama queen, pop diva and plain "beatch" combined into one. Off the top pf my head, I can't think of a player in recent history whose reputation has taken a greater hit than Smart.

@drgnslayr

Amen to that!!!

Players are starting to take pride in their flopping skills. DeAndre Kane in an interview indicated that he does not mind Smart flopping because he does it himself. Really? and I mean REALLY???

Coming to a College Arena near you, the Marcus Smart flopping show. You saw him successfully flop all over the land and his most recent outing he almost completed a double flop. Come and see him successfully complete a double flop and maybe a historic triple flop. Don't miss the chance to see the standard by which all floppers are judged.

This is what College Basketball has come to...Un-effing-believable.

@Crimsonorblue22

Smart bulldozed over players last year with impunity. This year, with the new contact rules in place, he feels he needs to flop to get more calls. Too bad. He has the talent but lately he seems to want to skate by and let the referees help/bail him out.

@Kip_McSmithers

But, but, but...when you are in the bonus situation (which I believe both teams were). don't you shoot at least a one in one?

I don't know, maybe my recollection is not good and I did not record the game, oh well, I need to project positive energy to tonight's game; so much for OSU-ISU.

Tonight's game should be a good indicator on how well the team bounces back. At the beginning of the season. most of us probably penciled this game as a likely loss, but in view of how the conference play has developed, this is no longer the case.

However, Baylor is a dangerous team. They have height, talent and on a given game, outside shooting. If they get their outside shooting going early, this could be a long evening. The key is to neutralize Heislip outside shooting and Cory Jefferson inside. Use our bigs to pester Jefferson and either draw fouls or send him (and Rico "Suave" Gathers) to the line where he is not that good. Austin is a fairly passive player and I don't think he would take over a game.

A win by Baylor wold be huge boost to their moral and would put us on two game losing streak that would be worrisome. A win by KU and it is right back in full command of the conference and with a somewhat easier schedule ahead. The potential 3 tough games left after Baylor are against UT and OU at home and against a short handed OSU on the road,

@drgnslayr

I fully agree. It remind me of the old days when Big 8 and Big 12 games were called tight and other conferences, such as the Big 10, allowed very physical play. This was a definite disadvantage at tournament time where refs allowed a lot of contact that our Conference teams were not accustomed to and hence ended at a disadvantage.

The other surprising thing about last night's game is that Gallagher-Iba Arena was only 2/3 full at best, and on Eddie Sutton appreciation night nonetheless. The official attendance is listed as 10,132 of a 13,611 capacity. The entire upper sections were essentially empty and looked like the listed attendance was based on tickets sold and not actual butts on seats.

@drgnslayr

Yes, it was a really good game indeed.

I believe the rules now indicate that once the offensive player start his movement, the defensive player cannot get in position to get a charge. Since Kane never stopped moving, Smart had no chance to get in position to draw a charge. This is one aspect of the rule that different referees enforce differently.

On the other flop that was called a personal foul, I am still not sure what happened. The referees went to the monitor and then OSU in bounded the ball from the sideline when they were already in the bonus situation and should have been shooting free throws; was the foul call rescinded? Go figure.

How about this statistic from last night's game:

The game went 3 OTs so there were 55 minutes of play and 275 available minutes.

ISU played a total of 8 players but the top 6 players played 259 minutes and Niang fouled out and did not play the 3 OTs

OSU played a total of 8 players and the top 6 players played 271 minutes.

Talk about short benches. I am sure the players are glad they have until Saturday to recover and they are both playing the two bottom teams in the conference. This is not good at tournament time when you play every other day and an injury to a starter can be devastating.

@wissoxfan83

Baylor wins not because of Scot Drew but in spite of him. Over the last few years, Baylor has had as much or more talent than just about every team in the conference and they have almost always managed to underachieve. Baylor plays better when Drew is suspended and the Assistants are running the team.

@drgnslayr

I don't know it is just me but it seems that in most of the games I have watched lately. regardless of conference, the home teams seems to get an inordinate amount of the borderline and sometimes not so borderline calls.

Nowadays, there is an Internet stream for most every game, and I expect the NCAA would have even more options. This how I got to watch the KU games that were blacked out early in the season. You just have to be careful as many of the sites are nothing more than virus factories.

As @JRyman mentioned, I believe that CBS streams all the games, you just have to sign in to their site but it not a big deal. I am not sure what is the protocol for early round games that other networks broadcast.

@Kip_McSmithers

It was double flop and yes, he should be given a technical...

Smart's double flop video ↗.

The other flop near mid-court was called initially a foul on ISU but I apparently the call was changed after review because OSU in-bounded the ball from the side, when play resumed, but they were on the bonus situation already and should have shot free throws.

I believe it was Kane that said he had no problems with Smart's flops because he does the same thing.

The new contact rules and the flopping are making a mockery of the game and greatly affecting teams that emphasized defense like KU; no wonder Coach Self was adamantly opposed to the new rule.

Do you think that the NCAA will adopt an NBA-like rule and review flops after the game and issue penalties after the game?

It is the time of the season where teams start top get thin. Stevie Clark is gone from OSU, Arizona lost Ashley for the season and analyst have seriously downgraded their chances in the tournament.

Did any one watch the ISU-OSU game? OSU got the benefit of a lot of calls and Smart did his share of flops. One in overtime was so egregious that even the announcers were laughing and calling it "acting," which is a polite way to say flopping, which they are probably discouraged from using.

Smart and his flopping is quickly becoming a cartoon character and by extension an embarrassment to the conference. He is spending so much time flopping that his actual game has suffered. With his talent he should be one of the top players in the land, instead he is quickly becoming one of the most disliked players in the conference. I can't think of another player since Jason Sutherland that is disliked as much as Smart is now.

@Wishawk

The home cooking, refereeing wise is pretty apparent in conference play. ISU got a couple of [pretty bad calls against OSU and Smart had his share of flops. The one in OT near the end of the game was so outrageous that even the announcer were saying that he was "acting" which is a polite way of saying flopping.

@Crimsonorblue22

Spot on. It's all about match ups. Tarik's game indeed does not work well against fast forwards the extend the field and can make 3s. We had the same situation a couple of years ago with Withey and MU, who would play a 4 guard lineup that made Withey and to a lesser extent even TRob ineffective. Tarik is a slow, inside banger with no outside game and no speed to chase mobile players. As Coach Self said, he could have played against ISU but it would have been a nightmare trying to chase Niang.

As per Jesse Newell:

"Self said Black scrimmaged against teammates during Thursday’s practice. “He looked the best he’s looked so far,” Self said."

Today's game is different, Texas has some big bodies up front and play the type of game where Tarik can contribute; it should be a good test for our own front line. Having all players available would be great, but again, Coach Self will not play any one he thinks is not physically ready to play.

Joel will be fine. There is zero chance Coach Self would play him unless he believes he is fully fit to play.

On a different note, UK is playing Mizzou today; talk about mixed feelings. Since both losing is not an option, I decided that Mizzou winning is the lesser of two evils; it gets us closer to UK in all-time wins and makes the SEC weaker.

@icthawkfan316 @globaljaybird

The truth is that all coaches try to recruit the best possible talent and hope they fit in the scheme. Some players will obviously choose a program based on where they think they will have a) a better chance to start/play and b) a say in the decision making process normally reserved for the coaching staff.

Where they land makes a big difference on the player and the team .The going thinking is that top players will have better chance to start and have a say at Kentucky where they are pampered and given their own dorm and not too many rules apply to them. KU, on the other hand, is viewed as the place where the coaching staff runs a tight ship, freshmen do not start and you have to earn playing time by learning defense first. Of course the myth that freshmen don't start at KU no longer applies as we have 3 freshmen starting this year and will have at least 2 next year.

The laxer the rules the less chance of having a cohesive team with good chemistry. Kentucky losing in the NIT is a good example of a team with no cohesion and only individual goals. One of the better example of cohesiveness and chemistry is the KU '08 championship team, that worked like a well oiled machine and had great on and off the court chemistry and the team goal was more important than the individual goals.

An extreme example of dysfunctionality is the UNC team prior to Coach Williams, when players parents were having meetings and making demands of the coaching staff and the Athletic Department led by Dean Smith threw Matt Doherty, a former UNC player that gave up his job at Notre Dame, under the bus, I believe that Deans Smith stealing Coach Williams from his own Alma Mater while stabbing Doherty in the back was sad end to a great career. I don't begrudge Smith for stealing Coach Williams, we all knew he would be going home some day; it is the way he went about it that still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

@drgnslayr

This is what I found for the John Lucas Camps:

John Lucas Camps ↗

And even for the individual player development, it seems geared up to pre-draft training for college players.

Individual Player Development ↗

I remember this because last year I was helping a friend, whose son is a very skilled basketball player, look for potential summer camps.

Addendum:

Google is your friend...Tyshawn did go to the John Lucas camp but it was a pre-draft camp after he was done at KU...

Tyshawn at Lucas pre-draft camp ↗

Mystery solved.

I don't think it is that simple. As much a we dislike Gotlieb, he has a fair following with other fan bases that love to hear him bash KU. If he would be bashing UK instead of KU, many of us would not dislike him as as much.

Like any dominant individual or group, the mere act of being on top makes a lot of people dislike you. Take LeBron James. By all accounts he is clean cut, stays out of trouble, does not go breaking the law, or beating up women contributes to charity and the only negative thing he did was the famous, or should I say infamous, "decision," which, by the way donated the money to the Boy Scouts of America. Regardless of what Cleveland fans might say, leaving the Cavaliers was a business decision than any player in his situation would have made. In spite of all the good things he does, he is still the most hated man in sports.

As similar case could be made for WSU Coach Gregg Marshall. While we KU fans, and to a lesser extent KSU fans, dislike him a lot, his message about playing KU and KSU has a big audience outside the state. I have family and friends in the East and West Coast and the ones that follow basketball often ask why is it that we don't play WSU? particularly after its last year's Final Four appearance.

In the end, it comes down to dollars and cents. If CBS feel they make Money with Gotlieb on board, they will keep him. As soon a he stops producing revenue or affects the network negatively, he will be gone. Unfortunately at this time the audience has little choice; if the game is on CBS you do not have your pick of announcers, you either listen to him or turn the volume down and listen to the radio. Clark Kellogg, and Ohio State graduate, was even a bigger homer when he was allowed to do the KU-OSU games and there were zero consequences.

It looks like lately Gotlieb has burr up his &*%^ when it comes to all things KU; I am not sure what brought this up as I don't remember him being that way in the past. I imagine that the Conference contract with CBS covers who will be announcing conference games and short of a formal request from the Conference, which I seriously doubt it would happen, things are not going to change.

I feel your pain.

@ralster

Spot on. I watched the UK game and saw the same things you did. What strikes me the most is that the team seems to have an absolute lack of chemistry; they might end being a good team based on talent alone, but likely will not be a great team.

@MoonwalkMafia

Interesting how uninterested the students seem to be. If they announce that Coach Self will be at the Student Union, they could sell tickets and it would sell out in no time flat.

...and the KU Student Union would become the loudest Student Union in the country :)

@drgnslayr

I could be wrong but I seem to recall the John Lucas Basketball camps are geared up for pre-college players. Maybe something along the lines Pete Carrol Big Man Camp (minus Pete Carrol, of course) could be a better fit? I believe there are several NBA players (different positions) that have summer camps geared up to specific positions.

@drgnslayr

Here is an interesting link from Massey, which I believe has one of the better models, that lists the probabilities for the remaining games:

Probabilities for remaining games ↗

KU is favorite in all remaining games except the Oklahoma State that is listed as 50% or a tossup.

@icthawkfan316

Although OU does not have a lot of talent, Spangler has been on fire lately; he has been playing extremely well as has the team, it does not hurt that they have a very good coach unlike Baylor that has a lot of talent and a poor coach.

I am not sure you can maintain a program at a high level without good recruits from high school. The transfer model at ISU was supposed to be a rebuild-mode approach (a lot like our own football team) but I am not sure it is a long term strategy. The main problem with ISU is the short bench. I have a hunch that the NCAA will want to strictly enforce the new contact rules at the tournament, which means more fouls and more players fouling out. It would help teams with deep benches like KU but it would not be good for teams like ISU.

If Smart stops being a drama queen and starts playing straight up basketball, I can see OSU doing some damage in the tournament.

Good article with lots of players and coaches quotes...

Nice article ↗

@drgnslayr

Coach Self's philosophy has always been that everything starts with defense. Having the offense take front place is a change. Knowing Coach Self, defense will continue to improve and by March the team will be running on all cylinders. The upside of this team is scary high.

@drgnslayr

The first 10 minutes of the game were the best KU has played all season and I kept thinking...that is a Championship caliber team. If KU can consistently play 4-10 minutes segments like the first 10 minutes last night, I just cannot see any team that can stay with them.

@justanotherfan

The BIg 12 is absolutely brutal this year. Other than TCU and Texas Tech. the rest of the teams have a very good chance to make it to the dance, except perhaps for Baylor which is in complete disarray and free falling.

Baylor has as much or more talent as any other team in the Conference except for KU, and yet they have lots 6 out of the last 7 games with the only win at home against TCU. After missing the tournament last year, is Drew's job in jeopardy if they miss this year as well?

A few assorted thoughts...

Before the game, radio analysts (610AM) were calling Embiid's injury a knee tweak rather than knee strain. Looks like the severity of his injury was exaggerated in some circles, perhaps Coach Self was playing mind games with Hoiberg as a response to the Kane injury.

Tharpe's stock is going up and Mason down. Mason was a volume shooter in HS and is still having problems shedding the me-first attitude. He was 1-5 and none of his shots were what was need at the time; even the very timely 3 he made was not what Coach Self was looking for and after he made, it Coach Self turned around and laughed.

I thought Perry would have a good scoring and rebounding night and he did have a good one indeed. I have been trying to think of any other player in recent memory that uses the backboard as well as he does and I cannot think of any. Anytime he is within 5 feet of the basket, he will almost always bank the ball off the backboard instead of shooting a short, straight jumper; this makes it difficult to block his shot, since the first impulse of most blockers is to cover the line between the shooter and the basket, but when he banks it, he effectively goes around the blocker. Nice.

Neither team used the bench extensively. The top 6 players for ISU played 192 out 200 available minutes; for KU, the top 6 took 181 minutes. Likewise the scoring contribution for both sides was negligible with ISU bench outscoring KU bench 10 to 6 as per ESPN score box. I will guess this is the lowest production from the bench for KU this season, although I do not have the actual figures.

Braennen Green seems to have a different, more confident swagger on and off the court. While he did not have a good shooting outing, he seemed to have a more active demeanor when playing and when cheering from the bench. In fact, it was nice to see the entire bench on their feet for large portions of the game enthusiastically cheering, a change from some of the lackadaisical attitudes we have seen on the bench at times.

Selden continues to hustle and play hard; looks like he turned on a switch at the beginning of conference play and quietly he is starting to do the things we thought he could do.

As they say in Vegas...ladies and gentlemen, Andrew Wiggins has entered the building!!! What else can be said, he is now playing at a different level and making us think how high is his ceiling...

According to the latest ESPN Bracketology, KU and Wichita Sate are both #1 seeds and KSU is a #8 seed. Michigan and Michigan State are both #2 seed...is Kansas the top basketball state or what. Also the Big 12 is projected to send 7 teams to the dance or 70%; the Big East sent 11 team out of 16 or 69% in 2011; this would be the highest percentage in recent history. The Big 12 is without a doubt the strongest conference in the land. BTW, Baylor is out and Texas is in. Also, Ohio State lost again, at home, to Penn State; I thought they were grossly overrated when they were unbeaten and ranked #3 and they are proving me right.

One last note, KU's class was ranked behind Kentucky for 2013 but it has proven to be the real Number 1, no question about it.

@REHawk

Did you steal my signature line? :)

...I swear them damn shoe whores are getting to be like krap in the pasture...they're just everywhere!

I believe I just stepped on one :)

@globaljaybird

Man, it hurts just to read your post. I had surgery on one shoulder about 25 years ago to remove scar tissue and the shoulder was fully immobilized for one month, at the end of which my arm just fell to my side and would not move; one scary experience. It took a couple of months of very painful rehab before I regained use of my arm. I vividly recall tears running down my face when doing therapy. More recently, I also had surgery on the other shoulder about 1 year ago to remove bone spurs that were causing tears to the shoulder tendons. The recovery was completely different as the surgeon encouraged me to start rehab as soon as possible and the recovery was a lot less painful and quicker, I believe it is likely a result of the much improved surgical techniques currently available.

I have also had 3 kidney stones and the pain of those, although of shorter duration, was a lot worse than the one from the surgeries. If the one you experienced is comparable or worse (and it sound like it) than a kidney stone, I salute you because you sir are indeed a brave man.

@jaybate 1.0

You also are clocked by the anonymity of an alias and certainly are not shy about writing at length on any and all subjects.

Look at the past growth and the future growth projections by Adidas own analysts; I challenge you to find one that will predict "one order of magnitude" growth, let alone "orders" of magnitude as you indicated, resulting form one endorser. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you know what one order of magnitude means. The "order of magnitude" growth model applies only to small business where a firm can grow from $200k to $2M to $20M, but as the size of the business gets larger, it no longer applies; at the level Adidas is, growth is measured in single digits and not orders of magnitude...that is plain crazy

What you are saying is that by signing Wigging Adidas can go from $22 Billion in sales to $220 Billion in sales worldwide. I am sorry but even in their wildest of wild dreams Adidas cannot even imagine that type of growth. It does not make any difference what you factor in, that level of growth due to one individual, or many for that matter, is wholly unrealistic and unprecedented at that level.

I fully understand that you have a propensity for conspiracies and grandiose schemes, but even you have to realize that your projection in this situation are way out of the realm of reality.

I am not saying that Wiggins would not increase sales; depending on how his professional career goes he might well do that, but his influence will be "primarily" in North America and will not be Orders of magnitude worldwide.

As I said, you and I live in different planets on this issue and as I also indicated and out or respect, I will agree to disagree and that is my last word on the subject.

@konkeyDong

That is the quintessential question created by the one and dones. Do you rather have a solid, steady, experienced senior or an exceptional but very inexperienced/immature freshman?

I don't have a general answer to that but would have to look at specific pairings.