@sfbahawk New article on ESPN says that the 9 game ban can start immediately and does not need to wait until ACC.

Wow, what a blast it was to watch that game last night. Its been a while since I enjoyed watching a game that much. My comments/reactions:

1. Finally, we won the opening tip off! As long as Mari is still taking them, he should make that a focus of his to win that for us every game.
2. First half was blah. Team was flat but you could tell that Self's rotation wasn't focused on trying to push us to a lead. It was more of an attempt to get deeper into the bench early in the game while it was still close.
3. Traylor: I agree with most on here that he has improved this year and he shows flashes. My opinion is that he is at his best when he is fresh, he seems to get tired quick and that's when he gets lazy and his game falls off. So I am ok with him in the game for 2 minutes and then after that I'm ready for the others.
4. I hope HCBS keeps working a deep rotation and does not feel like he has to trim it down come conference play. Keep using the bench, keep pushing the tempo. I am so excited to see how fast KU plays, it reminds me so much of the 2008 team out there. There are so many players that can be the high scorer on any given night, its too hard to stop everyone. Also, beating the other team down the court for a layup after a made basket is absolutely tremendous. If they keep that pace up I think there is a great chance that we hang another banner this year.
5. Seems the press has been abandoned for now. Would like to see it employed but as long as they keep the pace at full throttle on offense running the break we can win without it.
6. CD was exactly what I expected. He showed flashes of greatness. He also showed flashes of inexperience/rawness. I think coach needs to get him as many minutes as possible in December and get him some experience before conference play. At this moment, I think Bragg is the better player for KU in a close game scenario. I would rather have Bragg on the court than CD. As @benshawks08 posted above, nobody is really talking about him much but he has been tremendous too.
7. Vick has a bright future. The guy has big time hops and can defend well. He showed he can score well too at the WUG. If he gets enough work in December and gets familiar with the systems, etc., I could easily see him being a key to a win a few times this year if Frank or Devante get into early foul trouble and we need him to step up.

I forgot to mention, if you are Allen and Bolden, and you see the huge hole at big man, it has to be enticing ESPECIALLY considering that KU is returning perhaps the best backcourt in the country. That has to be worth something and hopefully what Self uses as a big selling point to these guys.

I hope you are right. Looking at the current KU roster, there is a very real chance that there are some HUGE voids left after this season. Is the aforementioned recruiting apocalypse upon us?

We definitely lose:

1) Jamari Traylor
2) Perry Ellis
3) Hunter Mickelson
4) Evan Manning (non-scholly)

I think the odds are likely that we lose:

5) Cheick Diallo
6) Wayne Selden
7) Svi Mykhailiuk

There will be a huge hole at Wing and with our Big Men, that's (6) scholarship players! We return Greene at wing but adding a Josh Jackson would be huge. At big man, we return rotation guy Landen Lucas, unknown and coming off major knee injury Dwight Coleby, low ranked, unknown, and seemingly undersized recruit Mitch Lightfoot, and hopefully Carlton Bragg who will be a big piece next year. That's it. I think Self needs both Bolden and Allen. If he only gets one, it will be interesting to see what he does. Also, if he doesn't get Jackson, who will we play at the wing with Greene? Is Vick considered a wing? I was thinking he was more of the third guy in the Mason/Graham positions but maybe he will get a shot. Hopefully its a busy spring signing for KU, we need some guys in the fold ranked in that #15-40 range that will likely be here for a few years.

I highly doubt that he is reconsidering his decision to attend Alabama. I'm not quite sure why these elite recruits are still choosing these mid level schools with average coaches. I think its one of two reasons:

1) PT is more important than winning.

2) If they do care about winning, (meaning winning an NCAA championship, final 4 appearance, even a conference championship) they have been drinking too much of the cool-aid fed to them during the recruiting process. Its clear that its not going to happen... lets take an early look at last year's examples..

Cal: After finishing 8th out of 12 last year in their league, they landed two top 10 recruits. They are currently 4-2 and on a two game losing streak yet they have not even played another ranked team.

Miss St.: After finishing 12th out of 14 in their conference last year, they landed a top 10 recruit which many claimed to be a top 5 guy. They are currently 3-3 even though they haven't played a ranked team yet. One of those losses came against the perennial doormat of the Big12 in Texas Tech.

LSU: After finishing 3rd in their league they landed the top overall recruit and have been at the top of the hype train all offseason. Unlike the other two teams listed above, I actually think this team will make the NCAA tournament this year despite their current 3-2 record (also yet to play a ranked team) and two game losing streak.

So... lets take a look at TFerg's Alabama choice. How are they doing so far this year?

After an early season embarrassment loss to unranked Dayton 80-48, their current 4-2 season is at a historic high right now as they have defeated two ranked teams in a row for the first time since 2006! (beat #20 Wich St, and #17 ND). Wow, almost 10 years since they have last done that. I guess these are the kinds of things one can expect to celebrate at one of these type of programs.

Of course its still early and teams can get hot late and go on a run but its rare. The early indications that I see tell me that these schools are not changing very much from previous seasons based on these star recruits joining the team.

@drgnslayr Can you post the cliff notes version when you're done please?? haha

I can see people having wrong expectations for the kid considering the hype, but only because they aren't familiar with his game. Expect to see a Kevin Young type of player but HULK-ified. He's bigger, longer, faster, stronger and doesn't ever seem to get tired. He isn't going to be the next coming of TRob. He isn't going to shoot the ball like Cole did. He is a guy that is going to do damage around the rim by rebounding, put backs, blocked shots, etc.

I do expect that he will have struggles, especially with staying out of foul trouble, jump shooting, and things like that. Regardless, I truly expect him to be a difference maker when he is on the court because his strength is where the KU team has its biggest weakness. I'm very excited for Tuesday!

DialloFreed #WhereCanIGetAPairOfThoseSocks

!CD.jpg ↗

Below is from BG's twitter. I'm glad he is still all-in here at KU, looking forward to seeing him back out on the court and draining those threes!

!Greene.jpg ↗

Not to pile on too much because I actually think Traylor is a good "glue" guy for the team in the locker room, in practice, etc and don't want to kick him too hard... he seems to be pretty likable by his teammates. However, is it just me or does anyone else out there get really worked up that we have not won an opening tip yet this year? For some reason it really gets under my skin. Especially against Chaminade where JTray had such a big height advantage on the other guy. C'mon man.

Disclaimer: I know for a fact we have lost at least 4 of them, I don't remember what happened in game #1 though. So someone may come on here and correct me if I'm wrong.

@jayballer54 Meh. I happen to think that the #7 recruit in the nation should have an immediate impact on the team. Just like you don't think its fair to expect that, I don't think its fair to emphatically claim that it isn't happening. Why can't it? Our big guys struggle around the rim, is it such a stretch to think that CD with his size, length, and motor won't give us an immediate upgrade?

I fully believe that Self does not intend to play Diallo much from the start. I also fully expect that Diallo will not give him much of a choice because he will be so much better than the other guys we have. Sure he is raw but he can run like a gazelle and is going to be an animal on the boards. Let the tres go up and if they miss big CD will clean it up.

I heard it was self reported by Drame. Payed a cell phone bill and gave him a ride to Walmart. Definitely deserves 5 game supension. I mean, the punishment should fit the crime and the crime was pretty extreme.

No its not fools gold, its real gold. I think Self is starting to see it. I'm so glad he didn't try to resort to BAD BALL tonight. Embrace the three pointer, and push the pace on the floor. Keep playing GOLD BALL and we will win many more games this year than we would otherwise. And much easier wins too for that matter. We shot 50% from three tonight! Thats awesome. Just need to loosen up the rotation a little bit more, get Bragg and Mickelson more involved, Svi and even Vick as well.

ps, nice to see WUG WAYNE back tonight. Hope he is here to stay.

RCJH

Good game. I hope we don't see them again in March.

I HATE THAT STUPID WEAVE PLAY!!!! UGGGGHHHHHHH

@VailHawk Bragg showing why we've all been pleading for Self to play him more.

@wissoxfan83 If you come across a large sum of money i'll take it off your hands if you don't want it! haha

@KUSTEVE nomnomnomnomnomnomnom

WUG WAYNE IS BACK! :sunglasses:

Zone didn't last long.

YESSS, they are playing zone now. Much better for us.

What if we went the ISU type of lineup and started Svi instead of Traylor? Its not like our bigs rebound anyways. They can't score either. Wonder how that would work out.

The threes are keeping us in it.

@wissoxfan83 Right, don't get me wrong, I would prefer he didn't take any shots but to say he should never shoot would have sounded a little unrealistic. He has some nice drives sometimes and can finish occasionally in that way so I thought 4ft was a reasonable line to draw, lol.

@ZIG It was!! Unbelievable. He literally should never be shooting outside of 4 feet from the hoop.

I like having Bragg in there but he needs to be more under control when feeding the low post. I made a note about that last night. He is a little too quick and isn't seeing the pass first.

Make their big guys run the court. If they want to bring in the trees then they will get run off the floor.

Here we go, pace heating up a little bit...

Lucas with the ball open at the top of the key but can't do anything with it. Thats why you need Bragg or Mickelson in there. To take and make the open shot.

Man, LUCAS IS SO BAD at making layups. I don't know what Self sees.

WTF IS GOING ON OUT THERE!?!?!? Why are we all of a sudden playing at a snail's pace? No more running, no more pushing the pace. They have these huge guys on their team, get them tired by making them run the floor. We clearly can't score inside. Our best shots will come in transition!

DIALLO IS FREED!!!! :sunglasses:

@wissoxfan83 Too soon to tell. :laughing:

Have not seen "The Weave" run at all so far either. Really liking some of the adjustments i'm seeing so far but can't get too excited about it, Self plays this way against lesser opponents but when its a tougher game he tightens up and resorts to bad ball.

Lucas the last big in the rotation tonight.

Well... on second thought...

Wayne came to play

Bragg looking sharp on offense. Just needs to pick up his D.

That inbounds play looked familiar.

I like how we're playing outside in. Looking for the 3 often. And I was pretty chapped about us losing that opening tip again too. How many inches did Traylor have on that guy, 3??

@Kip_McSmithers This isn't just directed to you, but I've seen similar posts from several other people where the premise is that these very good shooters should not have chosen KU and its in part their fault that they aren't getting the playing time they want. Wasn't Bmac a similar mold to these guys? Wasn't he the man when Greene chose KU? I don't fault the recruits at all. Not to mention we have no clue what line they were fed by the recruiters. Its very reasonable to think that Greene could have been told his game is similar to Ben's and led him to believe that they would use him in the same way.

I don't understand how the offense ran so well for Bmac by getting him always involved in the offense but now we don't come anywhere close to doing the same for even better shooters (according to Self). Mystifying.

Seriously, this pizzes me off soooo much. Why the F do these schools put up with this BS? Its about time Self stops taking the 'high road' and gives everyone the lo down on what has been going on. We all knew it was NCAA ineptitude and now its confirmed. We can go back to my conspiracies thread and it might start to sound a little more like a real possibility. I'm glad that Self finally decided that enough is enough and gives the public some material to work with. Pour the gas on the fire and lets get this going viral. #FreeCheick!!!

Q: What is brown and sticky?

A: A stick.

I actually thought BG played decent in the last game. It seemed like his defense had shown some improvement. I'm not saying it was necessarily good defense, but it looked better. At least he is working on it.

Sure, HCBS is pretty stubborn with his ways and its clear he doesn't take well to players voicing their opinions about it. Granted, we don't have any indication on how it all went down. However, maybe he would be more receptive to new perspective on our offense if it came from an assistant coach. I don't want a new head coach, i just want ours to adapt to the changing of the times, to better utilize the abilities of the players he has. HCBS does well in recruiting. He does great with the community and has managed to keep the program in pretty good standing. I think it would be very hard to find a better coach out there to replace him.

I guess its hard for me to blindly back Self on this one without knowing exactly what happened. If it was for drugs/alcohol then its justified. If its for getting mouthy with Self over playing time or the way the MSU game was handled then maybe not. Even though it isn't proper for a player to question his coach, especially in front of the team, he might actually be right and his emotions justified. I can easily imagine him being upset after the game over how the went and he would only need to spend 5 minutes reading the reactions on this message board after the loss and it could have been enough to put him over the top. So maybe its possible that we are indirectly responsible?????

Just joking, but not really.

@Statmachine Wow, he must have done something very bad. That is crazy. Imagine having a sweet Hawaii trip less than a week away and having it snatched away from you due to something you did. What a kick to the balls. If this doesn't hit home with him then I don't know what will.

@Crimsonorblue22 I agree, he did look better than usual last game in the limited minutes he had. But to answer your question... Ben had plays designed and run for him with screeners to run off of and use to free himself up. Brannen doesn't have that. Its comparing apples and oranges. If they ran those same plays for Brannen we might be able to tell if he would work as hard to get open but we don't so we don't really know the answer to that.

@SoftballDad2011 said:

If we want a KU team to rely on the three point shot as our bread and butter, we will have a lot of games like last nite.

Nah, I don't think that's true. Or at least you can't use last night as evidence to support your statement because the team only took 15 threes last night and 4 were in the last minute or two as desperation, heavily contested, heaves towards the basket. If you want the three to be an effective part of your offense, you need to take more than 11 of them and you can't have your best two shooters (Greene and Svi) not take any.

I mean, Self claims that Greene is the best shooter he has ever coached. That means better than McLemore. KU used to run offense to get Ben open threes all the time. I remember him running back and forth on the baseline around screens to get a open look. So now we have a better shooter than him but don't fight to find ways to run any plays for him?