🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@justanotherfan Releford.

@wissox I was an original Royals fan until they decided to fleece the fans, and run out a triple A team instead of a major league team. And I lived in Houston for years, so it was a natural fit for me.

@wrwlumpy Nice....

@wissox How 'bout my Astros????? Aren't they a powerhouse?

Tristan is 17, right? Since shooting is a skill, he could develop that skill, right?

@BShark I have a lot of respect for Boynton. I thought hiring Cunningham's relative ( brother?!?) was very smart.

@BShark Scratch him off the list. We don't need a shot hog.

[

[

@dylans Dante Bichette won me.... almost single handily....$3,000 one year. I'm playing his son in my FanDuel lineup tonight.

@Marco He could end up being 6'9", and with those ball handling and shooting skills, the sky is the limit. Plus, I think having him and his mom on board might be helping with these other MoKan players. He seems to be very popular with the other guys.

@Marco The team is simply raving about him. i don't know if that translates to playing time, but it's a good sign nonetheless.

Big Dave...20+. Moss....25. Braun is the mystery meat in all this. Ball handling skills, passing skills, excellent shooting skills. No doubt defensively he has a long way to go. Maybe he redshirts....maybe he only gets two minutes at the end of games off the bench. Maybe we have a night where Moss is 0 for 8 , and he comes in, and hits an important 3. The guys this summer keep raving how tough he is, so maybe he's not going to be overwhelmed as much as we're thinking.

They have 4 starters averaging double figures, with Marcus having the 2nd most minutes on the team, and the 2nd highest scoring average. That will send a few of you into orbit...lol.

Good stuff. It should make for lots of great debate.

http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/jacksons_journal/2019/jul/26/a-look-at-early-statistical-projections-/ ↗ ↗

@HighEliteMajor dude...

@Kcmatt7 Great stuff. Lots of good questions there. I am going to predict we will be a top 3 defensive team. A dominant defensive team. I think we'll score enough to win, but maybe not enough to make us happy. I also think this will be the toughest team we've had in a long, long time. Mentally tough. Physically tough. I think our shooting will be good enough to win. I think it helps having Doke back to make easy buckets. National championship good? That's really the big question, isn't it? I think we're all hedging from last year's not so wonderful season. Understandable. I think we're national championship good. Bill sure looks like a much better coach when they hit their 2nd year. Anytime Bill has experienced players, he does well. UNC won a title a few years ago barely shooting the 3- they simply killed everyone on the boards. So, it can be done.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Moss played with Devon growing up. I think he'll adjust.

Tucky is not going to be that great this year, and didn't want to be embarrassed.

@BShark WHAT IS THIS?

@HighEliteMajor You're right. It could be 2008...or it could be 2007. Two great teams....two different outcomes.

@drgnslayr That article blew me away. Just the stark difference Ochai described between last year and this year...that within itself tells you all you need to know about last year AND this year.

“Our summer’s been way different, especially from last year,” said sophomore guard Ochai Agbaji. “It’s just a different vibe. A lot of guys, we’re going after each other every day to make each other better and I think that’s something that’s going to make us better later on in the season.”

@drgnslayr I think our recruiting this year was fantastic. The longevity factor is real high for this group. Not any of them are going to the NBA anytime soon. None of our recruits will start. They are going to really soak it up, and be our core for the next several years. It's a beautiful thing to recruit a class w/o a OAD, isn't it?

@Texas-Hawk-10 Ahem...mature....like Doke? like Silvio? See how we're swerving back into my original point about maturity and experience? As to Kevin Young, the comparison was about physique- not necessarily anything else.

@drgnslayr If Enaruna is playing the 3, he might not see a second of time this year. I thot he had a path to a few minutes at the 4, but playing the 3...imo...means no way, Jose. Too much room at the inn. And i'm still left wondering how he'll defend either 3 or the 4.

Swagger and muscle. Mental toughness. Last year, I felt there were times when we lost the game in the first 5 minutes. We have a more grown up group this year that won't be pushed around by anybody this year.

The B12/SEC matchups have nothing to do with last year's standings. LSU, which finished first, is playing Texas. Tennessee? It's like a bye week for us.

@Texas-Hawk-10 You could also say his frame was close to Kevin Young. I went back and watched his videos, and he looks like a 3. He's skinny as a rail. He'd get mauled in the paint. Not sure I saw the quickness of a 3. This looks to me to be a red shirt all the way.

@Texas-Hawk-10 That's the first time I've seen Enaruna as a 3. How's he going to defend the 3?

@jayballer73 Tucky is trying to duck us.

@FarmerJayhawk where did you see that?

@approxinfinity Hubba,Hubba...

We've got powerful motivation coming from multiple sources, and the biggest chip on the planet....the Bill Self chip. He's not going to take losing the B12 lightly. He's not going to take an NCAA beatdown, a first weekend beatdown without massive retaliation. He'll be seriously motivated to have a better season. He has a whole team full of great attitudes ... this is like motivational napalm. The centrifugal force of all those chips laid out for a common goal...to win. This is going to be one of Bill's great teams, imo.

[

Devon's chip came out in the interview. He doesn't like losing. That's a thousand lb chip. He looked that camera square in the eyes said we have unfinished business. Remember when Major Payne got punched by the biker? Remember when he spit the blood out of his mouth, stood up and said " the party is just getting started", and beat him like a red headed step-child? Dotson seems just as determined. This is a guy when you're going into battle, you want a Dotson on your team. He's an EF Hutton- when he talks, people listen. If he says unfinished business, I believe it. The fact that his great year could get him into the NBA is also huge motivation.

The Doke chip is our reward for not having this human specimen in our lineup last year. Last year was the breakout year, and he was well on his way when injury once again knocked him out. This is his year. There's a wonderful God out there that is going to give this young man an injury free year. The force of nature, the man mountain will have his huge year. This is motivation x 3 ... this is the sweet spot for us fans, as we have a player in a spot where he wants to be effective every second he's on the court. This is it. This last rodeo. Do you want the NBA, Doke? Then you better have your best year yet.

The Silvio chip might be the biggest chip of all. Can you imagine how motivated he is to excel? We're going to get his best every second this year. Because there probably won't be a day goes by he doesn't realize how special it is to be on that court in a game. That attitude is just priceless on a team.

The Moss chip is the chip that doesn't look like it fits at first glance. Moss wasn't happy with the minutes distribution, or the fact that the coach's son, a 20% 3 point shooter replaced Moss at the end of games. Moss was a starter, but wasn't allowed to be a finisher. Maybe his inconsistency was too much to bare ... maybe Daddy trusted his son more than Moss ... who knows? But even if there were legitimate reasons to pull Moss, There is no way Moss will ever think it was anything other than nepotism. And that burns a fire inside a man. So he is going to want to show the world what a huge mistake that Iowa made by minimizing him at times. The fact it's a Daddy/Son situation adds fuel to the fire. We probably wouldn't have even looked at Moss except for Devon's connection to him in the first place. Moss played ball for years with Devon's older brother, and Devon as well, so Moss is going to feel right at home. Is it going to help him to be close to Devon...our point guard? Probably not going to hurt. I just have a feeling that this guy is going to be a guy we'll remember. He shook the corncobs off Iowa, and landed on his feet at the right place at the right time. He will thrive in our offense. This isn't beating somebody off the dribble- this is wide open shots created by our offense with space he's never seen before in college. I see stars lining up. I see this guy becoming a beast.

@drgnslayr I'm happy the way it's going now. i think we'll get multi year benefits from this latest crop.

This Berry you speak of...why are so many on here gaga about him?

[

@jayballer73 You have to look past the way he frames the issue and read his salient point. Yes, it would be nice if he learned some phrases like ..."my opinion is" or " I believe", but that said, he is a passionate KU fan, and he participates heavily on the boards. And he is pretty damn sharp in his analysis....

@jayballer73 I think he could be very valuable to us at the 4, man. JW allows us to run a 4 out, where we can spread teams out. JW can slay a big on the perimeter. It also pulls congestion out of the paint, and allows Doke to do that voodoo he do so well.

@BShark It might be a Doke/Dave rotation at the 5, and a Silvio/Jalen/Lightfoot party at the 4. Then you'd have a Marcus/Moss/Agbaji rotation at the 2/3, with Marcus giving Dotson his 3 minutes off every game. Jalen would have more minutes available at the 4 anyway.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Very few of Bill's teams have ever had a scorer as prolific as Dedric. Frank. Can't think of anyone else other than those two off the bat. It's not the norm. No doubt Silvio won't score like Dedric, but I could see Dotson scoring 5 more a game than last year. Doke will get his, and I really think Ochai breaks out in a significant way. If they disappoint, then we have a new version of 2012. They'll be ok on offense, but they will dominate on defense. 2012, we were 23rd in offense on Kenpom...last year, we were 27th. In 2012, we were ranked 3rd in defense...last year we somehow ended up 17th. As bad as we were defensively...17th. Unbelievable. If our defense turns it up like I think it will, we'll be grinding teams into a fine powder.

Now, this is all predicated on good health as you have alluded to in previous posts. But having injury history can also be a positive because it has the athlete taking direct action to prevent reoccurrence. With Ochai, if I had a whisper of a doubt about his health, I wouldn't have seen him take a pass in a scrimmage, and pass the ball between his legs before dunking with authority. With Doke, I don't think we'll see the backboard splitting dunks of the past...we'll see softer throw downs in order to protect his hands.

So, if our offense is just ok, then we still have a shot at 2012 type ceiling, where we won close games until the championship game. They weren't pretty, they had their moments where scoring was a real challenge, but that team was a defensive nightmare for other teams. Just like we'll be. Now, we are discussing a Bill Self team, are we not? The originator of "Bad Ball". Bill prefers a 65-60 game more than a 85-80 game anyway. He's been itching to get another big in the lineup for years. Hi-lo, baby...it's where it's at. No more " Four Out Fools Gold". That change can make the offense not flow as well, so it's not like your offensive concerns are unfounded. But, Bill likes it like that...grind it out, out rebound them, out tough them, defend hard ... that's his calling card. I don't think we'll be nearly as offensively challenged as you think, but if we are, we've got the right guy at the helm to make it work.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Dave has a ways to go as a big. But, when I hear Coach Self raving about him the way he did this summer, it tells me something is happening enough for the coach to say "hands down" the most growth in the summer. Maybe some shooting range, maybe some improved ball skills, maybe some better rebounding. These players aren't stationary bicycles- they grow...they improve.

I think you've been crooning over Dedric's 19ppg so much, you aren't realizing that his points will be replaced. They are always replaced. Might not be one guy picking up the slack, but I guarantee you Bill's offense will always score what they normally score. In fact, because we have to make up for one big scoring guy, that makes our offense more diverse, and harder to defend. After Perry graduated, we all said where are the points going to come from now that Perry is gone, and we managed. We wonder every year where the points are going to come from ( unless we have returning top scorers), and every year, Bill manages to figure it out. It is why he is in the Hall of Fame.

Maybe it's a hodgepodge of 3 point shooters that carry us when we need it. Maybe it's Moss one night, Dotson the next time, and Agbaji the next. Maybe our frontline allows to us play more aggressively, and we pick up some cheapies off our defense. Cheapies we weren't getting last year because our defense sucked so badly. Maybe the improved rebounding allows us to have more possessions than last year, and so the "live and die by the 3 when they pack in the lane and we shoot badly" meme doesn't hold as much water. Maybe the question isn't "how is KU going to score" as relevant as "how are we going to score on KU"??? . Remember, there's more than one way to skin a wildcat.

@Texas-Hawk-10 I think Silvio gets 20 minutes a game, max...simply because of what silvio lacks- a mid-range game. They interviewed Coach Self a few weeks ago, and asked him who had made the biggest improvements of anyone on the team this summer, and he said...hands down it was Dave. He said there is absolutely no question that Dave was our best big shooter by far. Dave could make the Silvio worry moot. And I think he will. Now, you'll probably fire back that Dave is not all that and a bag of chips, but you won't convince me otherwise. In fact, I think you're going to be surprised how good Silvio looks, too.

You compared Moss to Vick, and then missed the boat on the most important difference between Vick and Moss: Moss ain't gonna quit on the team. Advantage Moss.

Saying 3 point shooters are streaky is like saying that water is wet. We could say that about Devonte, Malik, and Svi. One would have a good game while the rest couldn't hit the broad side of a barn that night. Very few times did all three just murder it in a game. My point is that we have guys that can make 3s. Moss will never be as open as he is in our offense. In the Iowa offense, he had to create every shot. He's going to die and go to heaven being fed the ball being completely wide open. Maybe Ochai is injury prone, and never gets there. But, maybe he manages better this year with full awareness of the symptoms, and knows when to back off better than he did the first time it happened. Maybe he manages 25-30 minutes. I'm betting 35% or better from 3 because he can flat shoot. I like JW too. McBride...Braun are no slouches....and one of these days, Marcus is going to put it together. Then you add the best basketball coach in college, and you have a formula for a deep run.

@HawkChamp Ok, I was wrong. Moss shot 33 of 67 from 3 in B10 play, which is only 49%...not 50%.

@HawkChamp I could be wrong on that. I'll calculate it tonight, and give you an update. But as I recall, he shot much better after he started playing more minutes.

@justanotherfan He was hurt the first 7 or 8 games of last year, and played sparingly, and his shooting suffered. No doubt he's had his erratic moments, but he isn't the only shooter we have.

@justanotherfan Moss 42%. Dotson 36%. Agbaji - 30%. I don't see a problem with our perimeter. No way Agbaji shoots less than 35% from 3.

@Fightsongwriter Rush was a wing- Moss is a guard, so they don't play the same position. That said, you would never mistake Moss for Rush. Rush was a cut above.

From Frank to Devonte to Devon - that's an embarrassment of riches. We are really blessed with these kids.