@jayballer54 The fact that Duke even talked to Mark Smith is not a good sign for them though. As far as landing Duval that is.
Duval could still end up declaring Duke and playing overseas. Knox was offered $1.4M to play in China. Wouldn't surprise me to see Duval offered something similar.
@KUSTEVE Duval comes and I think we just run 4 guards again. We would have to with how bad our post depth would be again.
That would average out to be:
- Graham - 33 MPG
- Duval - 25 MPG
- Newman - 28 MPG
- Svi - 25 MPG
- Doke - 22 MPG
- Preston - 20 MPG
- Cunliffe - 18 MPG
- Vick - 22 MPG
- Coleby - 5 MPG
- Garrett - 2 MPG
That would at least by my guess. But he isn't coming. It's too cramped. And somehow we can't land a PG recruit the year after our PG wins NPOY.... Recruiting defies logic.
@justanotherfan That is way too spot on. I was a kicker in HS. I could hit a 50 yarder in practice and warming up. Longest FG I ever hit in game was 26 yards. It is a whole different ball game live. You have to have 3 guys all do nerve-racking things and do them with perfect timing. The snapper, holder and kicker are all nervous. It also didn't help that I was a lineman and my legs were pretty much toast by the end of the game. Pretty hard to get juice on the ball when you've played 4 quarters in the trenches.
@approxinfinity I think once they are 10 games back. At a $127M payroll, I'm sure that Glass will force Dayton's hand sooner than later.
Baseball prospectus has us at a 3.1% chance to make the playoffs... Or the 2nd least likely team to make the playoffs. I think it is probably smart for Dayton to start laying the groundwork for trades right now. If we play this right, we are talking about having another playoff contender in 2 or 3 years.
Moose, Cain, Hos, Vargy, Hammel and Kennedy should fetch us enough prospects to catapult us into the top 15 farm systems. Hererra is under control for next year no matter what, but that makes him very valuable as well. Don't be surprised to see him go. He could potentially fetch 2 or 3 top prospects at the deadline. If we do a full-blown fire sale like I hope we do, don't be surprised if everyone moves. I could see Gordon moved for a mid-level prospect and us paying part of his salary the next two seasons. Esky could even be gone if a playoff contender has an injury at SS. I don't see anyone but Salvy, Duffy and Soler as safe.
Only bright side to this slump is that if we get down by enough games and early enough we can unload our pitchers, Cain and Moose while they are hot for an absurd haul. I actually expect us to drop way back down in payroll next year. Here is what I expect
That leaves plenty of room to resign Hosmer if we choose to. I personally wouldn't at this point... He isn't worth much more than the $12.2M he is making this year. I hope we move him at the deadline.
Next Year's most likely lineup:
Pitching Staff:
- Duffy
- Wood
- Karns
- ?
- ?
The nice thing is that there are some really nice pieces to build on. What we need is to make some great trades for pieces that will be MLB ready in 2018.
Potential trades to look for:
- Moose to Redsox, Nationals
- Cain to the Pirates/Mets/Dodgers/Marlins/Yankees
- Vargas to Cubs/Nationals/Yankees - To get a 2nd lefty in the rotation
- Hammel to Cubs/Mets/Marlins/Yankees
- Kennedy to Yankees
@JayHawkFanToo Reports coming out that he is hiring an agent actually. Not official, but hes apparently meeting with them now.
@wissox I think he is the perfect multi-year college center. Big and athletic. But not so big and so athletic he is OAD. He would put in good backup minutes this year and then be THE guy down low the next.
I can tell you that the silence with Tilmon is concerning to me. If we can't get him on campus we aren't going to be landing him.
Royals - 3rd best ERA in MLB. Least runs scored, worst batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. Dale has about one week to right the ship or it is time he gets the boot. A .206 through 18 games is ridiculous. Honestly, Ned needs to sit Hosmer, Gordo and Moss for a solid week and let them just get mentally right again.
Kicker is becoming harder and harder to find these days. Look at Alabama. This was the first year in forever they have had a good kicker. I actually think smaller schools, NAIA level or DII, have better luck with Kickers. They go troll the soccer team for players that just want to kick and usually keep a backup just in case of any conflicts. KU doesn't have a men's soccer team. And most guys that go to KU that are good enough to be college soccer players chose not to for a reason. So they have no interest in doing it.
@DoubleDD Federal government was already in Healthcare before Obamacare and definitely is currently in education.
But, you could argue the reason the cost of both of those has sky rocketed is because the feds got involved, or more involved than they should have.
Education has gone up so much and it is 100% due to the federal government. Once states realized that the federal government will loan out $30k to every student, tuition rates have skyrocketed.
Most of these social issues could be solved at the state level, as like-minded people are more likely to live in the same state. If California wants to provide healthcare to all of their citizens let them.
Federal government is there to help in disputes between states and provide military protection. Most everything else could be decided at the state level.
But, that's just my opinion. You can't make 100% of this country happy. But you might be able to make 80% of it happy if you let states run the show themselves.
@dylans I don't see it as the same. Or even a big deal. They landed a top-10 player mid-season while they had an open scholarship anyways. If he comes back, they landed a stud 5-star that has been in the system and playing college ball for 9 months before he even steps on the court. If he leaves, they are in the same place they would have been.
Newman is different. He would have taken a spot for an entire 12 months and he would have impacted recruiting.
Long version: The Dems have been struggling because they don't seem genuine in what they are trying to accomplish. Entitlements are the only thing they have right now to drum up votes. So anything and everything we can give away they are. And education and healthcare are just two things that are very hard to shoot down publicly.
The reason I feel this way, not too long ago Bill Clinton ran on a tough immigration stance because that was what they country was worried about at the time. He also repealed many, many entitlements and caused unemployment to drop to one of the lowest rates in history. Fast forward only 3 presidents, Trump runs on the same thing and gets ridiculed.
You can also point directly to the DNC choosing Hilary before the primaries even started. She would have won anyways, but they got scared. Because they got scared they made mistakes. And those mistakes kept the Democratic party from rallying around her.
I think that EVERYONE would be ok with free healthcare and free education, but there are more important things to fix first. Lowering the debt has to be priority #1. If we could get our debt down to an appropriate amount, we could do some really good things. 6% of our tax dollars are spent on interest on the debt. I, personally find that to be appalling. Obamacare is $110B all by itself, and only increasing. Or, another 3% of our tax dollar revenue. Entitlements is a whole other things. Medicare, Social Security and Unemployment are literally bankrupting us all by themselves. Throw in wars (Republicans) and then Adding a massive and expensive healthcare plan (Dems) and all of a sudden debt has gone up exponentially. Both parties are to blame.
What would rally bipartisan ship is a real 30 year plan from a party. One that reduces entitlements now and reduces the debt by an enormous amount. If we do that, we can really start to do some good. You talked about how people don't want to do things now for the future. I don't think that is true. I think that people want to do that, but they don't have a party to rally around. I fully agree that we should have free education and free healthcare. Because what is not to like about a smarter, healthier country? But the only way to do that is to save up money first. We can't continue to recklessly spend money like a college kid who gets their first credit card. The truth, we need to cut federal government across the board. Military needs cut, significantly. Social Security needs to begin its phase out. Obamacare needs repealed and replaced with a skin and bones plan that just gets us through until we can actually afford it. (And nothing is stopping states from introducing these plans. Just look at New York state). Unemployment needs to become much stricter. And the entire budget just needs to become tighter.
We also need to increase revenue during this cut. Hammer the budget. Increase taxes on the rich and upper-middle class. Tell them what it is for. Tell them this is for the future. Make sure they know that this money is so that this country can become the America everyone used to be truly proud of. Not the one currently being ran by a celebrity. This is the legacy that they get to leave, if they don't help out now. On top of that, we need to crack down hard on illegal immigration. All we want, is for those companies and employees to pay the taxes they are supposed to. We are talking about billions of dollars in tax revenue we lose because of a relaxed policy on illegal immigration. If we allowed "work visas" for these immigrants and fined businesses more than they save for hiring illegals, we could increase our tax revenue by hundreds of billions.
Of course, this will never happen with current party lines and no term limits. Reps would never be for higher taxes and Dems would never be for cutting out a major future voter base in the American Born children of illegal immigrants...
Anyways that's my rant.
Short Version: Dems aren't genuine in what they are trying to do. Bill Clinton ran a more suave campaign with several talking points exactly the same as Donald Trump. They cheated in the DNC.
Without budget cuts, and increased revenue we will never be able to afford free healthcare or education. It is both parties faults between Republican wars and Democratic entitlements.
Can we start a 3rd party? We can be the Bucketeer party. Both Red and Blue.
@BShark I don't think UK goes after or lands Baker if they felt good about Knox. At least that would be my guess.
That Mizzou team could be very talented, and yet be a very selfish team with little to no ball movement.
@justanotherfan just a small correction. Bledsoe was ranked #23 on Rivals. Idk what is going on with the ESPN rankings, but he was definitely a top 100 guy.
@justanotherfan My question, do you think he did everything 100% clean from 2002-2010? Because you are right, now his list is so long that you would be dumb not to consider UK if you were a top 25 recruit. But it really all started with Rose. Who they knew cheated. And then Evans came. And then he landed 3 players without a visit the next season who all turned into max contract players. And at that point, he had 'proven" he knows how to manage top 10 talent. But, that first question is an important question. At least in my book.
@JayHawkFanToo It's almost unbelievable. Maudro has gone complete dictator from what I'm reading.
Protests are getting violent.
@brooksmd I totally agree. I just thought if people were struggling with the scrolling function, at least there is a fix.
So there is a feed on the main menu now, but it stops after a certain number of characters. I read it as you have to strike while the women are hot. As in attractive. It was just humorus. That's all.
But I do agree with your post.
@KUSTEVE Any updates for us?
@JayHawkFanToo On the preview your post reads like this (laughing):
"As the expression goes…you have to strike when the iron is hot…and the women"
@mayjay It appears as though you cannot. And I think we are probably better for that. I could see that function really upset some people.
For those who are having trouble with the scrolling, you can "Paginate" the layout now instead. So instead of one long string, you can have pages of shorter ones.
Apparently we need an "Old Person" skin. You might put in a request for that @approxinfinity ;)
@dylans I honestly didn't see the quick reply until I switched my skin.
Great 5 year run. But nothing special without a one Derrick Rose. Who committed without a visit. And should have never played a single game of CBB.
Oh and John Wall, Bledsoe and Cousins all committed to UK without a visit. No red flags?
Calipari does an amazing job with young players. At the same time, Cousins, Wall, Davis, Towns and Rose would have been special players regardless of where they went. Just look at their ratings out of High school. They were pegged NBA stars from age 18. But, if you think a coach who has had 2 final fours vacated at two separate schools, and then goes to a University who has been caught paying players and hiring shady coaches in the past isn't doing something illegal to obtain recruits than we can just stop now and agree to disagree.
I like the Yeti one.
@justanotherfan You have to ask, how did he get Rose? He helped to rush him through the process and get him eligible. Rose had fudged grades AND a fake SAT score. Before the season started Memphis knew both of those things. And still chose to take him and play him. On top of academic issues, they flew his brother to every single game for free. He committed 3 major violations that Cal knew about.
Next, you have to ask, how the hell was he going to land Wall, Cousins, Bledsoe AND Xavier Henry in the same class AT MEMPHIS? Memphis. A Conference USA team with a good but not great basketball history. It wasn't like his first 5 years he was making deep tourney runs or anything. He wasn't putting guys in the league left and right. Something changed. Give any D1 basketball coach the talent Cal has had and they would have the most All-Stars too. Something is going on. It's just well hidden. And now at the point that it just looks like UK is an NBA factory. Fool me once...
@BeddieKU23 I do think it will be harder for a PG to have a bad season. And if he did, maybe we wouldn't be interested anymore... But something about that Bama program is strange to me. I know Avery has NBA connections, but he hasn't shown anything now in two years. In fact, basically the same record his 2nd year and an easier schedule. Didn't have a great record in the pros either... But to steal two guys away from us two years in a row is a huge surprise to me.
I don't believe it either, but there are ways to get a player to come...
Sexton miss really hurt. If he has a bad year at Alabama, I could see a Newman situation happening.
Really wish we could have landed Troy Brown....
@BeddieKU23 When teams start landing players for no reason, you know that SOMETHING is going on... I'm not saying it isn't legit, but I have to say it sure has a strange smell to it. Sort of how UK can land 21 top 25 recruits in a span of 5 years... And how Calipari has had sanctions brought on his two previous schools. When things seem to good to be true, they usually are.
With that said, Rick Stansbury is no slouch. Turned Mississippi State into the real deal while he was there. Has a .629 winning percentage as the head coach at MSU and one year at WKU. That's not bad. Especially at schools you wouldn't expect much better than a .500 record.
@mayjay Thats pretty simple. Sometimes I wonder where my head is at... I even have two monitors at work.
Is there a way to have my post area be half screen again so I can reread what I'm replying to?
@BeddieKU23 Only thing, he can shoot. Although he didn't have much of an Assist to turnover ratio. HAVE to land a guy who can play PG in 2 years though. Just in case.
@BeddieKU23 10 man rotation was rough last year.
@JayHawkFanToo We were never favorites for Duval. Not from day 1. If we land him, amazing job Bill. But he has been assumed Duke bound since before Devonte was staying and actually presumed to leave.
As I stated in my previous post, part of the reason that we recruit, and can land such highly rated recruits is going on behind the scenes. Adidas signs almost every single Jayhawk that makes it to the league to an endorsement deal. We are the face of Adidas in college basketball. So some of these top rated players know that if they spend their one year here they have a deal in place.
All of those guys landed Adidas contracts immediately after they declared for the draft. The only one who singed with Nike was Thomas Robinson. I'd say that is no coincidence. In fact, there were rumors of Wiggins shoe deal before the season. http://nesn.com/2013/10/report-andrew-wiggins-has-180-million-shoe-deal-with-adidas-waiting-for-him-when-he-enters-nba/ ↗
Let's just say that probably had an influence on him choosing the 'Hawks over Florida State or Kentucky...
And, we have recruited MoKan Elite when they have had any real talent. Pretty sure we just watched more than a dozen games played by Trae Young. Also recruited Carte'Are Gordon. We offered MPJ. That would be 3 players on that same MOKan roster...
Anyways, this is my last post on the subject.
@dylans Do you really believe if we switched brands it would erase all of our history that has made us a Blue Blood?
Also, we are still recruiting against Indiana, UCLA, NC State and Louisville for those small number of recruits. Isn't it more likely that we are able to find more players that fit our system out of 70 players than out of 25? Look at UNC. Are they still a blue blood? Yes. Have they been one of the top 5 recruiting? No. But they pick from who fits their system and keep them for 4 years and have now won 3 championships in 12 years. That is the model everyone wants isn't it? Solid recruits, that fit to our system, and stay for 4 years. I think that is what Nike would provide us.
@JayHawkFanToo if only it was that simple... That is about as naive of a way to think about today's recruiting as it could be. But then again, I don't expect you to understand. It would require you to open your mind that more is going on than just 20 percent of kids "prefer" Adidas and 70 percent of kids "prefer" Nike. The truth is, we don't have a shot with close to 70% of eligible recruits. Part of the reason that we have a shot with the top tier recruits is because they know that they will get paid either way. And, there is a ton going on behind the scenes. Adidas and Nike reps get involved and give out unofficial endorsement deals for X amount if they go to an Adidas or Nike school.
Can you explain our inability to sign top tier MOKan Elite players? Or the "coincidence" that any player that gets drafted from KU ends up with an Adidas contract? Or that a player who plays for a Nike AAU team 9/10 times ends up at a Nike school? Or that a kid who plays for an Adidas AAU team is 8/10 times ending up at an Adidas school? Just preference?
If you think it is that simple, I guess we can just agree to disagree.
@JayHawkFanToo Have they threatened to yet?
@JayHawkFanToo I guess I'm missing your point. But I also think we are looking at this two different ways. You see it as everything is proportionate.
I see it as, we are missing out on having a chance with 70% of the top recruits in the nation. You also aren't factoring in the location of the players. Recruiting to the middle of Kansas is hard enough as it is. Add in the fact that we only have access to 25% of the available players. Of those, who actually fits our scheme? How about our position need any given year. That 25% starts to fall pretty quick.
@Crimsonorblue22 Des Moines or Tulsa being the most likely first weekend sites.
@Crimsonorblue22 Yea regional in KC again.
How about something exciting about next year? We have another favorable route to the final 4.
Tourney sites could be:
- First weekend - Wichita
- Second weekend - Omaha
- Final Four - San Antonio
Getting a 1 seed is very,very important again this year.
@justanotherfan Parson's injury sealed the Grizzlies fate long ago.
@JayHawkFanToo @HighEliteMajor Of the top 50 recruits in classes 2013-2017. (From who I believe their sponsors are. I could have missed 1 or 2 in each class).
Embargo is probably a strong term. But, I think KU lands more higher rated recruits if they are a Nike program. All it takes is some behind the scenes action.
Think of how important the AAU circuit is. You can almost predict whether a recruit signs Nike or Adidas based on his AAU team affiliation. They give these players so much. Shoes, Basketballs, jerseys, travel, etc. How these count as permissible benefits I will never understand. These kids do get paid. And, on top of that, their coaches get paid. And the coaches have a huge influence over these players. How else would it explain KU not landing any local talent playing for MO-Kan Elite? All the other local schools have landed someone from them. OU, MU, and SLU all landed players from that roster. We are getting frozen out of any of the top local talent.
I've also posted a long time ago about why KU recruits the highest rated players instead of trying to land 3 guys ranked 25-50 every year. It is because there is more competition for guys ranked 25+. The guys ranked 1-25 go to blue bloods like 75% of the time. So you are only competing against about 5 other schools and it all usually works itself out based on what teams needs are. BUT, 25-50 everyone is after them. Because now you are at a range that doesn't guarantee PT at a blue blood. But it does at a ton of other schools. So competition is much more fierce 25+. As and Adidas school, you also limit the number of guys that would sign with an Adidas school. So you are looking at maybe 10 players outside of the top 25 that would sign with an Adidas school. And then you have to compete with UCLA, UL, Miami, NC State, and Baylor for those scraps. Bill lands more than his fair share, but KU also spends the most money recruiting in the Nation. It is also why I think Bill has really started to use the transfer market lately. There are more quality players transferring than he can get just from recruiting HS players.
@HighEliteMajor I definitely think there is an embargo based on brand.
For FBS programs, Nike has 68 schools, Adidas has 31 and Under Armour has 15.
Of P5 conferences, Nike has 44 of 65 schools. Adidas has 12, Under Armour has 8. (Russel Athletic has 1).
@BShark I mean its a mess to count transfers. Do you count Bragg, Greene, Frankamp, and AWIII transferring? Sounds like we are about a wash with those.
And I would say that Graham and Frank don't count. Not when we missed on how many players before them? I mean we actually got pretty lucky to land them right? Blessings in disguise.
I would say that Svi didn't count on the rankings and should. He came so late that they didn't update the ESPN rankings for him.
We definitely land enough players to win it all. But to say that there isn't a recruiting embargo is not looking at the numbers.
I have done some math of my own and here is some more numbers.
KU has been the 3rd best recruiters in the country, based on recruit ranking and the number. We have had more than enough talent to get it done. It isn't an excuse. But, I think it would be significantly easier if we were a Nike sponsored team. If we bumped our average recruit ranking up 3 or 4 spots and added one or two players in just the right years, how much does that help? How much does a Deandre Ayton help next years team? How about a Trevon Duval or Colin Sexton? Do we get a look from Kevin Knox? Bamba? I mean it matters. And, just a reminder, we were still a Nike school when we landed the recruits that lead us to a 2008 National Championship...
@dylans I mean I see the top two Nike schools with 44 top 100 kids and the top two Adidas schools with 29. I would be curious to see Nike vs Adidas going 3 deep. And the average ranking of the recruits landed by each school. That tells the real story. If you grab a kid ranked 99th, should that really count. And, many times KU has grabbed a guy, Mitch for example, and he starts outside of the top 100 but then has a jump in the rankings just after KU gets involved. What a coincidence... I'm sure it is the same for U.K and Duke, but Mitch didn't have his ratings jump when just Arizona was in the mix. When KU took notice he flew up recruiting boards.
@JayHawkFanToo Yea agreed. Plus he just looks funnier doing it than others because he is sweating more than anyone in the arena.!0_1492460173516_coach-sweaty-today-tease-2-160318_77f4ba611bffb5e643e8ed6f6e16e764.jpg ↗
@jaybate-1.0 It used to only display like the most recent 21 notifications and then time-out. Several times I went on vacation last year and couldn't read all of my notifications.
@JayHawkFanToo Well he lost out on 5 months of team oriented practices... He was literally thrown into the fire. Hard to say Bill wouldn't have had him ready to play for at least 20-22 mpg if he got to have him all that extra time.