@mayjay How do you know what you prefer if you have never seen Bill with one of these guys?
And note that we have that type of guy in Garrett. Landing Duvall or TY is important because we may not have any players at that position next season. So landing a stud recruit is actually quite important right now.
@JayHawkFanToo I don't mean to speak for another poster, but I read that just as it would be hard for both parties to get over the breakup. Kind of awkward. Not that Fred couldn't come back and coach in the college ranks.
@drgnslayr Would you take Fred as a replacement for Bill after he retires?
@BeddieKU23 Yea I definitely see what you're saying.
It will all work itself out in the Spring. We need to show Duvall all the love we can, but keep the press on TY.
If TY burns us we will still have plenty of time to sell Duvall on coming here and running a team that is just a PG away from being ready to win. I'd put money on us having a better team than Duke again next year.
It absolutely drives me crazy we can't land a stud PG recruit. The things Bill could do with an Uber athlete at PG... gives me chills
@BeddieKU23 I'm not so sure.
Things have changed for both programs I think. Yea we put the full court press on TY. But only because it looked bleak for TD I think.
It may sound weird, but I'd think our off court issues are a lot easier to explain to a recruit than the on court issues like the ones at Duke. Imagine having to play with some of those guys... not appealing in the least. If we show him a good week (and especially a fun Dollar Night at the Hawk) we could get back in that race.
@jayballer54 Yea I'm sure fans might want Memphis. But if I am the head coach, I'd rather play in KC. Players would be much more familiar with it. And since they are comparable flight prices and travel distances, I'm sure that it wouldn't be a hard sell to the AD on that.
And I wish I had your confidence. Baylor has, for the most part, upped their game against the top competition this year. Drew is doing one heck of a job rn.
@HawkChamp I mean we need to win this one. Whatever you have to do. I would definitely come out in a M2M and see if we can hold them down that way. But, if you have to go zone to win you have to. We are playing for tourney seeding. Especially against another team competing for a #1 seed.
This is the first year the #1 overall seed gets to pick their region. If Baylor ends up there they would more likely than not pick KC over Memphis. Winning this game has bigger ramifications than you might think.
@HawkChamp Didn't they play some zone in that game?
@BeddieKU23 Oh yea. I mean their post defense is just atrocious. Not to mention they are one of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the country. If he doesn't solve the post problem next year, they won't even sniff the tournament.
We need to go zone again. I don't think we have anyone that can guard the post that Landen doesn't guard. But putting him in the middle of a 2-3 would let us have LL guard whoever gets the ball.
Personally, I think our zone is scary. It has 2 quick guards up top to pressure. And if either get the ball it is a layup on the other end. Then we have two 6'5-6'8 uberwings that are long and quick enough to be disruptive, rebound and double the post. Plus, we have LL to rebound the middle and body up the other teams bigs. And finally, our guys need some rest. Because our starting 5 is clearly our best lineup. And we need to play those 5 together as much as possible.
We will see what Bill does. I'm sure he is glad he had a few days to gameplan after the UK game.
I think that they will need to let Prohm go sooner rather than later. He was clearly a home run swing hire that fit the current system and wanted to at least try to keep these guys winning. Instead of looking for a proven recruiter.
I mean if OU can get a Lon Kruger, ISU could have found someone similar.
I think that they will probably get worse every season for a while now. Unless the timing can get right and they can bring back the Mayor. But it would take both of them surviving this season and then getting canned after next season.
@nuleafjhawk Not playing home games that could have easily been a loss or gone into OT. Or getting pushed all the way to the end by a bad UT team, at home.
Also not losing to WVU when they only turn us over 13 times because we played horrible defense and our veteran guards clearly were shook for most of the game.
I know it sounds dumb to say a 19-2 team could play better. But he is right. This team is capable of taking it to another level. We finally saw that the last 25 minutes of the UK game. But it took Bill adjusting and leadership by our vets. Something I have been waiting to see for about a month and a half.
I expect this team to start showing how good it can be. Coach Self is learning this season along with the players. It is either going to fully come together now for the rest of the season or it isn't. We can't make a final four playing like we did the first 8 conference games. But we can if we play like we did for 25-30 minutes against UK. Where we exploit matchups and make in game adjustments to counter our opponents. This team can't play just M2M. We have shown we will get exploited. This team can't just shoot 3s. We need to ISO certain matchups.
Most games this season we haven't done that. The loss to WVU and the loss of Doke and the loss of Bragg brought out the best in Self. He took a step back and reevaluated this team before and during the UK game and we beat a team favored by 8 points at their place. That is something special. I'm hoping that when we look back at this season we all be able to point to this week where it looked like everything was falling apart when really it was just the turning point that brought our team closer together.
@dylans The lineup has some pop this year. Might be the best home run lineup we have ever put together.
Projected Order
- 1 - Escobar - 3 HR
- 2 - Moose- 23 HR
- 3 - Cain - 18 HR
- 4 - Hosmer - 20 HR
- 5 - Soler - 23 HR
- 6 - Moss/Obrien - 25+ HR
- 7 - Salvy - 18 HR
- 8 - Gordon - 16 HR
- 9 - Merrifield/Colon/Mondesi - 5 HR
What I would really like to see, personally, is to play Cuthbert at 2B. If we are going to switch to this all or nothing lineup, can we just commit to it? Cuthbert could be a .280 15 HR guy at 2B. Adding that to this lineup is scary! Not to mention he is a solid utility infielder. And we don't need a utility outfielder this season. At least not to start it. Cuthbert should start at 2B. He is the only one out of all of our options that has proven he can hit at the major league level.
Honestly, this lineup has the potential to score the most runs in the league. A couple of guys need comeback years. A couple of guys are in contract years. That is a recipe for runs.
Pitching should be the only thing that holds us back this season.
@BeddieKU23 I don't think we will get 7. They say we will get 7 every year and I think it's only happened once.
I don't think we deserve to get 7 in. You just can't lose bad games. And we have teams that have lost some bad games.
@JayHawkFanToo I mean isn't that some of the game planning by another team? And poor coaching to not get your best player going?
When someone has 4 points that usually has double digit points, I tend to think a team challenged someone else to beat them. And it didn't happen.
Allen was limited to 7 shots. He normally shoots about 11.
Naz also only had 7 shots and he usually shoots about 14.
That is where I think it showed both of those teams got out coached. I especially think that when I look at the UT game. They were up the majority of that game.
The ISU game I think was partially bad coaching by not freeing up Naz. But the other part was a bad matchup. Vandy had size to bother ISU on both ends of the floor.
Still, we can't be going 5-5 with the SEC. It could have easily been 3-7. Baylor pulled theirs out late and we overcame a 12 point deficit. How embarrassing would that have been?
Time to take a no nonsense policy. Next guy to mess up is gone. Done. Get the ship righted and set precedence. Being good people is more important than basketball. You aren't above the law because you play basketball at Kansas. How can we even defend our program right now? We ARE an embarrassment. Something I never thought I'd see under Self.
@BShark Well, if that happens, it is going to be one dysfunctional program. Let's hope that is what happens.
@BShark Has to get hired first. Is it worth sacrificing the lockerroom, future recruiting and an assistant coach for? Experiment failed at UW.
And the new nepotism rule, I believe, means you have to hire the guy as an assistant coach if it is within 2 years of the kid going to the school.
Just an update and a couple of thoughts.
I was very disappointed in our showing vs. the SEC. We even lucked out that Baylor or WVU weren't matched up against South Carolina. Both of those teams got all they wanted and more. I really don't think the Big XII is as good as advertised. But I guess for KU's sake I am glad. It definitely helps us with seeding in the tournament.
With that being said, I am very happy to see some of the teams finally start putting it together. OSU has hammered TTU and Arkansas in two of the last 3 games. Look to finally be getting it together just in time to take on WVU and Baylor. Hopefully they can steal at least one of those games for us.
UT is starting to get it together. They are a young team and they are missing a leader. Looks like they have started to come together though and really start challenging teams.
TCU has started to regress IMO. They came into league play confident. But a few losses really starts to question the cohesiveness of a team. The look to be on a down trend.
TTU looks like a solid 7-10 seed that I sure wouldn't want to play.
KSU has dumbstruck me. No idea who they are. Should have hired Underwood while they had the chance.
ISU had the most disappointing performance over the weekend. I know it is hard to play at Vandy. But man, that is a bad bad bad Vandy team.
OU is just young. Woodard being back helps. But not enough. They'll sneak in another big win though.
I really really hope we can find a way to get 7 teams in this year.
Thoughts on the Brandon Moss signing?
Personally, I think it is a spectacular move. Cheap verteran player that should fit will in the lockerroom. And he is very dangerous against Righties. I'm sure the plan is to platoon him at DH. Bet he puts up a career average this season. He also gives us outfield and 1B depth.
@Crimsonorblue22 Idk, but the more that comes from his camp the more I think he is going to struggle. Daddy is too involved. Trying to make a big show of nothing. Announcing the date he will be announcing? Are you f***ing kidding me? Commit. Go play hard. Pray and thank God you were gifted the athletic ability to be able to play basketball for your career. And more likely than not, retire a very wealthy person at a young age.
This "look at me" crap drives me absolutely bananas.
@BShark Looks like it's heading that way. Let's hope for that team to just completely lose all heart and close out the season on a bad streak.
We should be feeling the same way about Romar and UW. The actual Husky basketball fans want him gone.
I'm definitely not saying we should hold our breath for either, but those are two situations to keep an eye on. I'm sure Bill is ready and waiting to pounce on both of those guys if the opportunity presents itself in April.
@BeddieKU23 Think Tillmon will be back up for grabs? As long as he doesn't think he is a OAD, we could use another big body behind Doke.
Big XII did not have a good showing at all today. Some embarrassing losses.
@brooksmd looked like strategy was to foul Bam anytime he got it deep. It worked.
@BShark I'll take Shaq's kid. He has the genes to keep growing. A 7'1 athlete is nothing to snub
@kjayhawks @BeddieKU23 I understand it seems like he is off the tracks. But the first incident wasn't really his fault. He put himself in a bad situation, sure. But he was found innocent so lets not hold the first incident against him.
This is more of the fact he has been playing like crap. Neither of you would say that if it was Frank or DG or JJ. Bragg is part of the KU family and we need to support him. I'd rather us slap him on the wrist and keep him on the right path then just say screw it and let him go completely off the tracks. We don't even know what he did. So how is it fair to judge him?
@BeddieKU23 Selective yet aggressive. We need to add some multi-year players. Who knows what the roster could look like after next season.
I think we match up well with them. I'd put Svi on their 4 and JJ on Monk if we want to disrupt him or we can go the route of putting JJ on Briscoe to keep him out of foul trouble and to help eliminate how well Briscoe rebounds.
I've watched about 10 UK games this year and I would definitely be ready to go zone against them on makes. Press the inbounds pass so they can't run and force them to run a half court offense. They only have one real shooter. Willis and Gabriel can shoot but can be streaky. I'd pack the paint and make them shoot to win.
On offense, we should be able to do whatever we want. We need to go at Bam immediately and try to get him in foul trouble. Could backfire on us by getting LL in trouble himself. But, worth the risk. Getting Bam out early forces them to go to Humphries and LL can own him all day long. This is another matchup JJ should be able to go for 20 points or have 10 assists. We need to exploit his mismatch. Svi needs to be more aggressive this game and Frank and Devonte can't get shook if they pressure us hard.
I'm excited for this game. If we can go steal one in Rupp, well, Christmas will have come very, very early. This is also a very important game for our chances at landing in KC.
@jaybate-1.0 We had a D1 stud play QB for us in HS. He would cramp up by the end of almost every game. Found out he had high blood pressure and he was just so muscular that it was actually causing him to cramp. Could be something similar. The continued cramping is definitely a concern. I'm still not convinced it is an injury as much as something with his internal system just not getting the job done.
Could be his diet. Either he could be getting too much salt or not enough salt. Could be he is predisposed to sweating more. Could be he just added too much muscle for his body to carry without getting dehydrated.
I'll admit that the continued cramping is pointing to something larger as it has now happened a handful of games.
@BeddieKU23 Dotson doing an unofficial is a good start. Need to get Langford, Williams and Grimes on campus.
Hopefully Doke can be a recruiting tool for McCormack.
We are due for a monster class one of these years. A 3 or 4 guys in the top 50 type of class.
Bill Self: "It's not a distraction. It's a major distraction." Fantastic.
@jaybate-1.0 Spread was -3.5 in favor of WVU.
It was basically a football game. Easily the roughest game I've seen all year. I don't blame the refs for a loss. We didn't match their physicality and the refs call fouls based on your level of physicality. They played rough and we didn't. So they didn't get called on ticky tac fouls and we did. It wasn't that it was unfair. We didn't bring it. And we don't have the bodies to play that style. At least not in Morgantown.
@drgnslayr I think we would have played plenty of 4 guard still. Hard to run the 3-2 when you only have 3 posts and all of them are foul prone.
And there are games that we would rather go 3-2, don't you think? We don't have that option really now...
I definitely don't think I'm as basketball savvy as many of you. So I could be way off by thinking Doke would have been a huge difference maker. But with how big of a disappointment Bragg has been, I can't help but think that Doke would be a game changer.
@sfbahawk The 40 mpg is only to show production at a comparable minute. Would you like me to make the stats 20 mpg? The Numbers will quite literally come out half. And the efficiency stat will be the exact same. The real number is how efficient of a scorer Udoka is. And he is by far the most efficient scorer out of all of our posts.
And Kennedy Meeks is a phenomenal example. He played 16 mpg as a freshmen. All we would have asked Doke to do. Meeks also came on late in the year and had several big games that won games for UNC that same season.
@Crimsonorblue22 just that there are a lot of moving parts. The police issue plus the title IX issue could be a part of why nobody has come out me said exactly what happened.
@Crimsonorblue22 Heard it on 810. KK is actually doing a god job with this. Very factual and not making any assumptions.
@Crimsonorblue22 new Bill Self quote in the story at the Star basically saying the same thing.
@Crimsonorblue22 I would think that is the logical assumption. That is what is saving me from freaking out.
What is the general consensus right now? Do we think it was a basketball player?
I'm honestly a little worried. I originally read the stories thinking nothing of it. That it was just some other guy living in the dorms. And then the more I read the less I feel that way. No comment by the AD. They could easily just deny and get out ahead of the press on this. But they didn't. Then there was the fact it was after finals and more likely than not the place was empty besides the basketball players. I'm not sure of the McCarthy rules, but most on campus living is closed. And it is very expensive to stay on campus over break so the only students that do that for the most part are foreign students.
It just feels like there should be a little more transparency going on with this and I have a funny feeling.
@drgnslayr He would definitely be a benefit offensively over our current post production.
Look at his stats per 40 compared to the other two guys who get PT. I'll even use Landen's conference per 40 stats for his benefit.
Udoka
- PPG: 15.5 on 9 shots. Efficiency of 1.72 points per shot
- 8 FTA per game
- 13 mpg
Bragg
- PPG: 16.1 on 13 shots. Efficiency of 1.24 points per shot
- 4.4 FTA per game
- 15 mpg
Lucas
- PPG: 13 on 8.2 shots. Efficiency of 1.58 points per shot
- 3.8 FTA per game
- 23 mpg
On top of that, Udoka blocks 4 more shots per 40 minutes and alters many more shots which lead to runouts and fast break points. He gets opponents in foul trouble. Putting opponents in foul trouble is a huge offensive plus. It can take a rim protector right out of the game.
Even if you argue that Landen is more effective, replacing Bragg's minutes with Udoka would be a HUGE net positive for this team. Both offensively and defensively.
I don't know what guard wouldn't want to play with a monster on the blocks. A guy that can get blocks and hit them on an outlet pass down the floor for an easy dunk. Or he runs a guy up the lane for an easy stat stuffing assist. And I don't see him being the reason we have to play slow. Look at how UNC runs Meeks up and down the floor. Doke could easily do the same for spurts. Can he play 25 mpg? Probably not. But 15-20 he can play at a fast pace. Doke would be a game changer for this team. I'm not saying they can't win without him because they clearly can. But with him. holy cow.
@DCHawker With no Doke don't have the depth to crank up the defense. Time to just get better at game planning and strategizing.
Play zone against poor shooting teams from the very start or to keep us out of foul trouble in the first half. Double on teams with a good post. Put in a corner trap and use our quickness to get more steals. Throw out a junk defense on teams who have a hot player (Box and 1 triangle and 2 type of thing).
Time for us to play smarter not harder. We don't have the bodies to play harder as we saw last night. We tried to play smarter and went zone and that worked, but it was too late.
@BShark @Crimsonorblue22 I actually think he will be a very solid player in a couple of years. He is plenty athletic and extremely competitive. Let him fill out over the next year and a half and lookout for a Junior Lightfoot. If he can develop a decent jumper I think he could be a matchup nightmare for opposing 4s. The guy is plenty athletic from what I've seen so far to be playing high level division I basketball. Arizona was in on his recruitment too.
@Hawk8086 Yea I thought he put in some decent minutes last night for being a guy that doesn't look like he has hit puberty yet.
@drgnslayr I think he definitely does makes that much of a difference. By the end of the season he would have been a monster. Plus, teams would have had to start doubling him. Look how well we have started to feed the lob into LL. Imagine Doke being the one running guys up the lane now. Last night we had Lightfoot in the middle of the 2-3 zone. Imagine Doke out there instead for all of those minutes.
Doke by the time March rolled around would have been a completely different player than he was at the beginning of the season. The offense would have figured out how to play with him in there and he would have learned how to keep the offense moving. He got better on defense every game we watched and by now woulr be shutting the opponents center completely out of the game.
Doke was an X factor. He was the piece that gave us the wiggle room we needed. We could go 2 posts against a big team. Now we can't. LL could play more aggressively. Now he can't. And we had the biggest player on the floor at all times so no matter what you threw at us in the post, we could have handled it. Now, we obviously can't do that. We miss Doke very very much.
@JayHawkFanToo I don't need more credibility. Big 12 tournament success speaks for itself...
@JayHawkFanToo "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Mark Twain
@drgnslayr I always like when we played really well but were losing at half. By played well I mean we played good defense and ran the offense just fine, but maybe we couldn't hit a 3 ball to save our lives. Or maybe we played good D but they hit a couple of lucky end of shot clock 3's. Maybe the refs missed a couple of obvious calls. Something like that. Because then usually statistics balance back out the second half, or the calls go your way and the momentum, like you said, comes so strong the other team can't hold it off. How many times in the past have we ran away from teams by 20 but were either losing or only up by 2 or 3 at the half? That is what I am waiting for from this team at some point this season. A "signature win." Or as I like to call it, a shove-it win. Where we just show how good we really can be. A game that teams watch the film of and it makes them nervous. We need that type of win.
@JayHawkFanToo Those metrics favor us every year. Last year was the first time that the Big 12 actually showed up in the tournament in what feels like a very long time. Until we show tournament success as a league, we might as well throw these rankings out.
Because I look at the ACC and I see FSU, UNC, Duke, Notre Dame, Louisville and Virginia all as possible Final 4 teams.
Who can you say that about in our league besides KU, Baylor and WVU? And the way WVU has played in conference, I'm not sure you can even say that about them...
These rankings show nothing during tournament time. I hope I eat crow. But I seriously doubt it. Big 12 is overrated and weak. Us winning the championship 12 straight times is evidence of that. Is it impressive? Absolutely. It speaks volumes about our fans and the home court advantage that AFH is, about Bill Self and about our program. But it also speaks volumes about the other programs that they couldn't even beat us in years where we were vulnerable. Take the blinders off and give it the ole eye test. Actually look up and down our conference and tell me who is a good enough team to win 3,4 or 5 games in a row in March? Who would you be willing to put $10k straight up to win a game in the first round of the NCAA tournament? Because all of those ACC teams I mentioned I would in a heart beat.