@BShark To be honest, not sure how interested I am in a 6'7 post player with no outside game... He rebounded well at the JUCO level, but this is a big step up... I guess he could be a nice piece to have as far as defensive versatility. But that is about it.
Kcmatt7
11050 posts
@BShark Can he shoot a 3?
@jayballer54 Should be close to a sell out most games still I think. Last year tickets were gone before the season even started and they weren't cheap either.
@drgnslayr Well, speeding the game up is definitely a huge part of it. There are some games that they are up 30 at half just because their offense is so good and the other team is just trying to keep up, but can't.
But the other part is simply versatility. KD, Green, Iggy Livingston and Klay are all 6'6 or taller and strong enough to guard a post or quick enough to take a guard. Makes it harder to score in transition and under 5 seconds against them. Plus, the length itself completely changes the game. They have done a helluva job building a roster for this.
@BeddieKU23 Really going to have to keep any eye on the Raiders next season! Lots of seniors and then adding some good bench pieces like this make them interesting.
Really interesting read here about a coach completely switching the way his team plays to be like the Warriors. Its about a JUCO and a couple of the guys will be playing at TTU next season.
Illinois is going to steal another bid for the Big 10. Will have won 5 in a row going into the conference tournament and will have a .500 record in Big 10 play now. I think all it will take is one win in the conference tournament for them to be in. Not a team I'd want to play right now. Finally got it to click in Champaign...
@jaybate-1.0 Frank doesn't need to shoot 3's to get his. At this point, he has been so deadly from 3 teams will guard him too aggressively from 3 and he can get to the lane and the line often enough to put up 20.
It is LL getting in foul problems that could cause us problems. And that is where we will need someone to step up. Aaaand that is where I think Coleby steps in as our savior one game in March. He will have an 8 point 8 rebound 3 block game that saves us.
@Crimsonorblue22 Morales was a good patient veteran hitter who had good gap to gap power (A ton of doubles to both the left-center gap and right-center gap) and drew a decent amount of walks. He also understood how to swing with 2 strikes.
O'Brien appears to be an all or nothing hitter. No plate discipline and a horrible approach. More likely than not he will struggle to make a major league roster his entire career unless he gets one of those two things under control. Either he has to walk a lot more and get his OB% up to .310-330 or he needs to learn how to hit based on the situation. By that I mean, with a man on 3rd he needs to hit a sac fly, runners on 1st and 2nd you try to hit the ball to the right side of the field, and for the love of God when you have 2 strikes just make contact.
If he can do either of those things he will play. If he can lean how to do both things he is a potential All-Star. The good news, is that these are mental problems that can be fixed. The bad news is that these are mental problems and he is a 26 year old so they are pretty ingrained at this point.
@globaljaybird Yea I'm not holding my breath on O'Brien. Not only does he not draw walks but he strikes out almost once every single game too. These type of guys crack me up. If you are hitting the ball 70 feet over the fence with ease, maybe take a little off of your swing and make some better contact. I'd rather you hit .270 with 25 HR than hit.220 and 35 HR. But they never do seem to learn...
But, if he does pan out, it would be a great move by Dayton. We have control of him for like 4 seasons I'm pretty sure.
@JayHawkFanToo Oh yea clearly KState and TCU are bubble teams. But I just am not sure either of them can make it 3 games without shooting themselves in the foot.
We aren't going to get a 6th big XII team in are we?
@dylans No I agree. I actually think they should be a #1 seed. But they played cupcakes in the non-con besides UK. And a 14 team conference is only getting 5 teams in... Just doesn't help their case with the committee.
@dylans bad SOS is not helping them. They have no bad losses, but at the same time they don't have those 15 solid wins.
Anyone who doesn't think Snacks deserves to be on the staff seriously underestimates Bill's ability to find good assistants. Howard is looked at as one of the better young assistants in the country. His ability to recruit automatically sets him up for a future HC job and we are lucky to have him. On top of that, I'm confident a man who played 4 years of D1 basketball knows the game well enough to teach players. Especially when working under Bill and Larry, it would be hard to think he hasn't learned a few things.
@wrwlumpy I don't like our matchup against Oregon or UCLA. Kentucky scares me as well if they were to meet us in the elite 8. Would mean they were playing well. Don't like WVU because the game completely depends on how the refs call the game.
I would love to play Arizona, Purdue, Butler and Florida State. We matchup well against Zona. Purdue doesn't have the guard play to keep up and Lando can actually body up with Swannigan. Butler is good but not the Butler of old or Brad Stevens at the helm. But they are hot at the moment and that is always scary. And Florida State can't win a road game. So I'm definitely not scared of them.
Everyone else I feel is a 50/50 ball game.
@Blown They have a solid 5 days rest after the tournament if we make it that far. If we win it, all it proves is our lack of depth isn't even a real problem.
@drgnslayr The front office really set them back to the point where now, they don't have a lot of other options. They let Iguadala and Vucevic go for Bynum (or nothing) and that killed them.
What should be 76ers roster:
- PG - Jrue Holiday
- SG - Nik Stauskas
- SF - Andre Iguadala
- PF - Ersan Illyasova
- C - Nikola Vucevic
That team could make the East playoffs...
@JayHawkFanToo Part of it is about how much you can get for your money. If you draft a stud that is 19, you can get 3 contracts with him before he is 30. With the first 2 contracts usually being on the cheaper side. A 23 year old you only get 2. And it is much easier to retain players on your own team than get a free agent in the NBA. So if you are building through the draft you want to get a player that will be with your team for 11 years instead of 6 or 7. And the draft is set up to go for superstars because you are the only one with their rights (which is why you have seen the foreign players start to go up. Draft and stash is the best value in the NBA). When you can get a Frank Mason, Ron Baker, Harrison twin type as an undrafted FA every single year. It is a superstar league and that is what teams draft for.
All of this applies to everyone except the Spurs.
@BShark How do you feel about him? Combo or PG?
@Texas-Hawk-10 UCLA wins out and they get the #1 in the West. Don't see any way they wouldn't
@BeddieKU23 This could still play out beautifully for us. If UCLA is a 1 seed then man could that be a life-saver. That would allow the 3 top pac-12 teams to be in the West and could ship the Zags to the Midwest.
Having the "South" region in Memphis is a huge help to keep away Duke, UNC, UK, UL and WVU. I expect those two regions to be rough. Midwest could legitimately be KU, Gonzaga, Purdue, SMU.
Personally, I see our region being the easiest as long as UCLA can hold on to the top seed in the West.
@BeddieKU23 Groce finishing out on a high note it looks like... Could go on a 6 or 7 game winning streak here late. He does that and IU is all of a sudden a 21 or 22 win team who went 9-9 in conference play and they would be looking at the bubble. But they have to beat MSU. They do that and he is definitely back in Champaign.
@HighEliteMajor Typically gets charged as a felony and then dropped down to a misdemeanor on a plea deal. They don't overcrowd prison for this type of behavior. Or give young people felonies if they can help it. Makes it hard to get a job and ends up costing tax payers waaaaaaay more money down the line. I had a buddy do something similar and he got his down to a misdemeanor and off his record 6 months later through a diversion program. Except his wasn't eye witnesses or he said she said. The cops actually saw him do it in person. The DA probably thought, with the evidence, they could only get a conviction of a misdemeanor because he couldn't prove JJ did $3k worth of damage and both parties could have brought in an "independent appraiser" and disputed the value of the damage done. Misdemeanor guarantees a conviction.
The timing does seem a little convenient, but you would be surprised how easy it is to get court cases moved around if you keep in communication with the DA and courts. They don't want to mess up your life and will work around it if at all possible. Especially if you have a good lawyer and he can prove that a court case on a certain date could drastically effect someone's life. A chance to be playing in front of a hundred scouts and improve your draft stock is something that they would work around for him. They even do it for normal people. Expected birth of a child during that time frame, huge business trip out of town that could cost you money, etc. If JJ does go to court, I doubt he will, then it is only fair to him to do it after the season. Precedence has been set on this many many many times by other professional athletes.
Although I do agree, it looks terrible and embarrassing and nobody familiar with how the court system works will understand that it would be normal procedure for any single one of their players to have court after the season in a case like this.
@KUSTEVE They will offer a plea deal in a matter of days I would think. Or just let him deal with it at the end of the season. Might get suspended a game or 2.
@HawkChamp You realize that I said that people are rarely charged without enough evidence to convict them? 95% of the time, when you are charged you did the crime.
@HawkChamp They aren't trying to derail the players. They are doing it to themselves. And it is ignorant to think otherwise. He committed a freaking crime. Nobody made him do it. Or framed him. He did it. And I say that because they don't press charges unless it is highly likely that the person committed the crime or that they can at least convict them of said crime.
@Crimsonorblue22 I don't even know... I didn't see anything posted about him leaving I guess. :grin:
what happened to the old strength coach?
I like this hire though, he seems more than capable. And young and full of energy. Kind of what this team has going for it.
@drgnslayr I'll just agree to disagree. You and I have two very different versions of what we would like to see.
@drgnslayr I'd rather miss out on the 30 for 30 series than see a rush job on it. The story isn't over. And, if it is really worth telling it will get told one way or another.
A little early isn't it? Wait until we have the streak to ourselves. And really it should be a 30 for 30 about Bill. And it should wait until Bill is done coaching. Because he will deserve his own documentary after he wins a few more championships.
@wissox It is more like a coincidence for you to get arrested for this. He got a ticket. Didn't go to court. He got pulled over again and because he didn't pay a ticket he had a warrant and got arrested. More common than you think. And harder to get caught than you think. My dad is a cop, and he was laughing about it. He probably wouldn't have arrested DG either. Just called him a dummy and to go to the courthouse and get it fixed. Or made him go home and write a check and watch him mail it in. Either way, this was an unnecessary headline.
@justanotherfan Idk that I agree with that. You may put a ceiling but you are also building a floor. Once you build the floor then you can reach here and there. But you don't want to go back to being a laughing stock. I'd be happy to be a 5-8 win team every single season. Where at least I feel like we could win any given weekend. Reaching for the stars is what got us in this mess in the first place. Competing for recruits against UT, OU, Nebraska, Baylor, TCU, LSU, etc. is not going to be something we do well. But if we build a program and stick to it for an extended period of time maybe then we can earn some respect. And turn that respect into some additional recruits. Lets become the best football program in our own state before we start trying to recruit with the big boys out of state. And start dominating the in state recruiting battle.
To me, that would be a big step. We need to be the team landing Jordy Nelson's and Tyler Locketts. (KU and KState were the only two seriously interested in both of these guys). That alone is a major step forward from where we are.
@HawkChamp Maybe... !U0F0vK4.jpg ↗
@BShark Imagine a whole season of hearing that voice everyday... I'd want the season to be over sooner if I played for him too.
Weber needs to go. Can't keep guys there. Can't recruit. Dude needs to be done. They won't ever be more than they are right now under him.
Suspend him the rest of the Big XII season.
And Frank, JJ and LL. I'm sure they were involved in this somehow.
@JayHawkFanToo Thank you for the insight!
@elpoyo In the NBA, a season without a championship is a failure. To win an NBA championship you have to win 16 games. And can play up to 28. That is over half of an entire College season. So yes, not winning the championship is a failure.
A championship in college is not how to measure the sport. Especially with the massive amounts of cheating that goes on due to the size of the sport and the number of teams. UCLA's run has basically been debunked and proven to be a sham. UK having dominant teams under Rupp for most of the 50s was a huge scandal as well. Then you look at UNC and Louisville and what they did to land recruits, during time periods that they won championships.
That just isn't the only way to measure success in CBB. Consistency through a whole season is important. Making it to the elite 8 every year should be something we do. But anything past that is gravy. Anything less than an elite 8 is a failure to me, I'll admit that. But asking anymore than that is by no means a failed season.
@mayjay You're the man. Let me know what you find. I'm just scared of the wrong people with the right resources taking over the biggest oil reserve in the world and what that could do. Venezuela should and could be an extremely rich country if it were ran correctly.
I need to start reading more... My knowledge of history is nowhere near what I would like it to be. I've finally hit that age where I actually read and care about world/political news. Is this what people call "maturing?'
@mayjay Yea I would have to look more at the past. I'm just a young whipper snapper so I'm not as familiar with Venezuela's past as I probably should be.
At some point they will be desperate enough to do something. What I am suggesting though, would be a project by our government that we would probably bid out to a company. They wouldn't be able to "nationalize" it because it would be under the United States Government umbrella.
Now the idea is obviously more simple than the execution. But, I mean they are sitting on a gold mine and don't even have the money to extract it. If a stable country doesn't get involved, another one will see an opportunity and pounce on them while they are vulnerable. They are just a few years from literally being bankrupt and not having the ability to offer any sort of defense against a hostile takeover.
@mayjay I personally enjoy the animosity between the schools. Almost feels like we have a rival. I sure don't feel the same animosity between us and KSU. Would be more fun every time we met if there was a little more hatred.
@KUSTEVE Terrible and sad. I'm just so confused how they can't get out of their hole while sitting on trillions of dollars in oil.
Looking at it from purely a business standpoint, why would the U.S. not strike a deal with them for enormous amounts of oil at an absurdly low price. What we could do is hire thousands of Venezuelans to pump the oil for U.S. dollars. A great deal for both parties. As they introduce USD into their economy they can begin to deflate their own money until they essentially get it back dollar for dollar. Sure it might take 10-20 years, but right now they literally have monopoly money.
Benefits the U.S. because we can get out of the middle east oil game completely. If we have Venezuelan oil for crazy cheap, we wouldn't need the them. On top of that, we can use this cheaply acquire oil, funnel it through the federal government and sell that oil to the large corporations at a competitive rate. That money would be used strictly to lower our National debt.
Too bad their government has been very weird about foreign oil companies coming in. And ours is probably too stupid to do something like this. We would rather start a war or assassinate a president and create hostility in an area of the world that already hates Western ideology. And then borrow money from other countries to pay for that war.
@drgnslayr Hopefully Billy is what pushes Carlton to be the guy he is supposed to be. They should really be similar players. Both guys with good size who can stretch the floor.
I think CB's biggest problem is just confidence at this point. He was messing up on and off the court at the same time. He has to be a mental midget at this point. I know it isn't usually Bill's process with players to build them up, but I think Self needs to help CB get some mojo back if we are going to be legit next season.
@jayballer54 Ha well I was just helping you with your negatives column. Couldn't even get a $10 beer if you wanted...
I will say I snuck about 6 beers in most games as a student. It is tough to have to sit there for 3 hours. Now, I'm like you. Just have the dog fetch me beers out of the mini fridge at home.
@Ralph Wayne is putting up 18 a game and shooting 35% from 3. Not bad... Really hope he can make it.
I hope for Mario too, but he has at least had his 6 years in the league and gotten some good money. Probably time to face reality and go play overseas for a bit.
@jayballer54 Don't even sell beer in AFH...
@BeddieKU23 Agreed. I think he will be a good fit.
@BeddieKU23 I think they might win a couple more games next season. Seems like Shaka has figured it out a little more here toward the end of the conference season. A couple wins and a lot of close games that could have gone either way. He isn't that far off.