@BeddieKU23 I hope Doke doesn't play Thursday. But we will need him Saturday. If the D stays active like it has been, I would love to play NC State. Not sure they can actually keep us from scoring, but if we can keep them from scoring that is an easy win.
I would take SHU in that matchup though.
@approxinfinity I thought UVA got one of the worst draws they could have imagined. Basically guaranteed to make it to the Sweet 16, but that matchup looks like hell.
UK got an awful draw. Playing hot red hot Davidson team who can actually play some ball is the right kind of thing to get an upset. If their players can't get up for that game,expect it to come down to the wire. Then they play Zona and UVA back to back to back. They would have to go on a magical run to make the FF.
@wissox they didn't beat the schedule placed in front of them. They got a lucky draw, and played a weak noncon. Can only blame themselves. They know the conference schedule, and they knew the conference would be weak.
USC was 100% a major snub though. Deserved to be in more than a lot of teams. Especially Syracuse. Nebraska deserved to be in more than Syracuse.
@BShark since UK and Indiana after Indiana won the B10 outright and still got a 5 seed lol.
@wissox Nebraska didn't beat ANYONE but Michigan the entire year.
Nebraska did not earn a bid. They played the 291st ranked noncon schedule. Combined with the conference schedule, The 4 quality noncon games they played, they lost. The have only 1 win against teams that made the tournament.
Nebraska did not belong in the tournament and would have been crushed in the SEC this season. They earned nothing. They even got lucky enough that they didn't have to see 3 of the top 4 teams twice. Instead they played Illinois, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Penn St. twice. So that conference record you are boasting about was very inflated.
Alabama is the better team with the better resume. They played the 29th noncon schedule, winning 3 of 5 quality games. They only played 2 quadrant 4 games all season long. They have 7 wins against tournament teams on the year.
The entire B10 learned a lesson this season. Playing dog crap schedules in the noncon and then coasting on a conference record just because you are in a P5 conference won't fool the selection committee. MSU and Purdue are probably kicking themselves that they didn't schedule 3 or 4 more good noncon games. Could have put them as a 1 seed easily.
@BShark Wonder why he is committing so early. Makes me wonder if Cal has a reclass up his sleeve. With Knox and Diallo both leaving they don't really have anyone to D up stud Wings. Whiffing on Langford, Barrett, Reddish and Zion kind of put him in a bind I think.
@wissox Nebraska only had 3 "quality wins" this year. While I think they got robbed from just the "eye test", they went 3-9 in quadrant 1 and 2 games. Their noncon schedule was really weak as well, and they lost all of the ones that would have been good wins. Tough break, but it finally looks like Tim Miles might have some momentum in Lincoln. Return their 4 best players and a few young guys should get much better this offseason which will allow them to be a better and deeper next year. I think they will be a big surprise this time next year.
Bama played a tougher noncon schedule and had a lot more quality wins.
The Big 10 perception really hurt them this season. And the conference members did themselves no favors. Nobody played a tough noncon. And the teams that did either got demolished or made the tourney as a top 5 seed. Over half of the teams had noncon strength of schedules ranked in the 100s I believe. And they lost some really bad games.
@BShark Hope its all over the lockerroom.
Penn played nobody but Temple and Nova. Played Temple tough but got absolutely ran by Nova.
I think SHU wins that game.
NC State worries me because they can flat score. Several guys can shoot. But they play zero defense. Had several games that they hit everything from outside still lost though because they just couldn't stop anyone.
@BShark SHU is a really good team. Didn't realize just how good.
Tough on D. With Rodriguez, they can score pretty well. Their interior passing is very good. I like the matchup though.
I do think we need a Doke at 70% to be able to handle Delgado though. Mitch and Silvio will struggle to stay out of foul trouble by themselves. Stating the obvious, if we hit our open shots we shouldn't have a problem. If we see the same Newman we saw the last week, I don't think it will be an issue. First team to 80 wins.
@BShark watching the Nova vs. SHU game on YouTube now. Haven’t seen them play yet this season.
Thankfully we have practice against 2-3 zones. Vick looked more comfortable in the middle the other night.
Houston is the team I’d be most scared of in the West outside of UNC/Xavier
@BeddieKU23 if they get through A&M.
That team could show up and compete when they feel like it.
@Texas-Hawk-10 didn’t want to play them for that reason.
West looks like they type of bracket something crazy could happen in.
As good of a bracket as you could have hoped for.
@dylans There are still times where Mitch or Doke is trying to avoid a foul and we give up an easy basket because of it.
@dylans Bill will finally be able to tell Doke and Mitch to play balls to the wall. Knowing we have Silvio to come in means that we just gained 5 fouls at that position. So now Mitch and Doke can really play aggressively.
@BShark I don't think it's worth rushing him back. Yea the 2nd game should be competitive, but I don't think bringing back an Doke that is only 70% helps us at all. Especially if he would be close to 100% the following weekend.
@Buster-1926 Not shocked one bit.
@BShark that last sentence left a lot of questions.
Don't rush him back. Doke being gone makes the guards be more in attack mode all the time. They aren't trying to feed the post because Coach said get the ball inside to Doke. They are catching it and trying to score themselves.
It clearly turned Newman into a different player. And after seeing this team gut out 3 wins in 3 days, I'm not sure we need big boy back until the 2nd weekend.
@BShark in the KC area, Miege is by far the worst.
@BShark I think we would come in with a chip on our shoulders. I hope they are our 4 seed because we would be motivated as hell to play that game. I think moreso than any other 4.
Doke would eat Morris alive. This team would smack WSU right in the face. They couldn’t even win their own conference, don’t think they could survive the beating they would have taken in the Big XII night in and night out.
I’ll take KU by 8 against WSU if that’s how it shakes out.
@BShark if we have a paper thin D, idk what to call WSU’s. They have like the 97th worst defense lol. Our shooters would light them up.
WSU is overrated even at the 4 imo.
@Texas-Hawk-10 I just don’t think that is a guarantee if we lose.
I think if KU wins today that gives KU the 1 in the Midwest. Today is actually important, as much as I hate to say that about a Big Xii tournament game.
@BShark Still upsets me.
@truehawk93 I find it hard to call Mitch soft when he is being asked to play a position he wasn't ever meant to play. Two years in a row now. He hustles, dives, and takes charges every chance he gets. He blocks shots like a guy 4 inches taller. If you think that he is soft, I couldn't imagine what you think of the rest of the team.
@Buster-1926 I think that Dozier still has an option and will get plenty of ABs in AAA. They clearly don't think Cuthbert is the guy to play 3rd in the future.
I think you are exactly right about trade bait though. If he gets on pace for another 30HR season I think we will see him flipped at the deadline. Same with Duda and Jay. At $6.5M for 1 year you couldn't not sign him. Complete steal, value wise.
I don't mind what they are doing, personally. Ideally, all 3 players repeat their last season's performance, we are 10 games out at the deadline, and we can flip each for a prospect or two. If we reload the AAA system by flipping cheap vets at the deadline, AND we take advantage of 4 draft picks in the first two rounds, this team might just have a few nice pieces in 3 or 4 seasons. This is supposed to be a very deep draft, especially pitching-wise, and the future looks bright.
Finally, as I've mentioned before, TV money and eyeballs are important.
Played pretty decent yesterday for sure. Vick and Malik are more than capable of repeating last nights performances. And, are going to have to if we want make a tourney run.
We win tonight and my confidence factor about getting through the first weekend is going to be through the roof.
@FarmerJayhawk @JayHawkFanToo I expect Newman to go the Selden route even if he doesn't get drafted.
Unless Newman and Vick sign with agents before the combine, I think we see Romeo waiting until May, after the combine and everything is settled. They have been this patient so far, why rush a decision? He can still commit in time to be here the first day that Summer practices start.
@dylans Yea that would have let his comp pick expire and teams would have been much more likely to sign him. Other than he wouldn't have seen a live pitch for half of a season...
This is the best he could get. $6.5M on another "prove it" contract. If he sucks, Royals can part ways with him. If he is great, good for us and he can go try to fetch money again next offseason.
@dylans If I was Moose I would have fired Boras already or told him that he owe's me another $6.5M this season.
I'm not even happy to see Moose back the way he basically didn't even attempt to come back until he couldn't get a prettier date.
But, it does look more and more like the Royals won't field a putrid team. I am glad to see Dayton stick one to Boras and Moose for the way they acted this offseason.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs continue to be a mystery team. Are we rebuilding? Retooling? What is this season's goal? About the only thing I've heard is that they will be bringing in a free agent DL. Otherwise, we have been a mystery of a team.
I hope they go get Sammy Watkins and just let the offense role. Surround Patty with some talent and help him out while he is young. Draft and build a young defense. But that's just my opinion.
Mitch is great because he is just having so much fun. He knows this is probably it for him. So he's soaking it up and loving being a Jayhawk. I don't know how any Hawks fan couldn't appreciate that.
@BShark if Sam, Malik and Vick leave AND Langford commits it looks like we would still have one Scholly to give.
Love Mitch.
Although, Duvall looks like one too... This Duke team is stupid talented. And K has coached them well this year. Would be hard to bet against them right now.
@kjayhawks I will be disappointed if they don’t make it.
Grayson has looked like a legit NBA PG prospect so far this game though. I hate to say that too. But damn, a lot of teams look like they could do worse at backup PG than Allen.
@RockkChalkk I think Langford would commit today if Dad wasn’t running the recruitment.
@StLJhawk tough to play back to back nights too
I went into work 2 hours early so I can leave to watch the game. I'm not giving up. Still have four players that can out score most teams. I expect Lightfoot and De Sousa to be playing on pure adrenaline today, so expect both of them to play much better than usual. And, I'll never count us out of anything as long as #4 is out on the floor.
Hope this puts us securely as a 2 seed in the Midwest then too.
If we can make it through the first weekend all will be fine. This team is talented enough to do that even without Doke.
Let’s see what this team looks like without him this weekend before we jump to conclusions.
Bill should start watching some Rockets film though. Might need to take our 3pt shooting to an experimental level this weekend and see what that looks like. 5 guard lineups where we just run and gun. No open shot is a bad shot.
Doke our for the conference tourney. Should be back though for next week. Still not great. Only benefit I see would be it let’s Silvio get serious minutes and we can see what he’s capable of. If we make the finals without Doke, have to think we guaranteed ourselves the 1 seed.