🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@globaljaybird Vick was out due to a scratched eye, I think it happened in practice yesterday. No basketball for a couple of days per the medical staff.

@drgnslayr interesting take, that could definitely make a difference. In my opinion, our one missing piece is a great big man coach. The team hasn't been the same since Manning left. Snacks' talent was supposedly his recruiting and we can all see that hasn't panned out. I think we need to bring in a coach that specializes in Big Men. I think that is what we are missing the most.

Good lord, I was going to come on here and go on a rant but @HighEliteMajor pretty much hit most of what I was going to say. This loss is on Self, no doubt about it. He needs to study the tape, look in the mirror, and recognize that he is not doing a good job with the talent he has. There is no reason we should have lost that game last night. His choice of players on the court and not utilizing his bench is inexcusable. Lucas cannot finish at the rim, its so disappointing to see a guy that has good size fail to improve one bit in three years. How is that possible? He must have hit his ceiling. Regardless, its killing the team to have him in the game because he cannot score, cannot defend, and leaves us playing 5 vs 4. Bragg and Mickelson should have been used way more than they were. There was a video clip where someone was interviewing Self and he said something like "we have 11 guys that think they are going to get significant minutes but the fact is that its not going to happen. We need guys to separate." Why the hell can he not use all of his guys if they are good enough to play?!? Having a deep rotation should be a weapon. Having fresh players in the last 10 minutes of the game would win us a ton of games and more importantly, keep us from ending up in games that come down to the wire where we can lose.

What happened to the press??? Why run the press against weaker teams but not against better ones? It speeds up the game which plays into our strengths. It makes the opponent uncomfortable and gives us some occasional turnovers. When Self has these guys playing fast and keeps them fresh by consistently rotating in players, the team plays great. When the game gets tight, so does Self and that's when we find ourselves in these close games that come down to the wire with tired players in the lineup and end up being a coinflip whether we win or lose. I.e. NCAA tournament, Conference tournament, WUG championship against Germany, etc etc.

Next rant, the halfcourt offense is TERRIBLE. I can't think of a time that the "weave" has actually been useful. For the love of god, why can't we run some real offense. Every once in a while we run a nice backdoor play that results in an alley-oop dunk but not yesterday. We had all returning players on the court and are desperate for a basket and they were running the same entry level weave offense that we run every year that doesn't do anything. So much for having returning veterans and that being an advantage.

Lastly and maybe most importantly, shooting the 3 is not fools gold, its real gold. Its going to determine if we win or lose in most of our games this season. Face the facts. We suck at inside scoring. There is no excuse for not running plays for Svi and Greene. If they aren't in the game we still have solid three point shooters and should still look for threes. We will not win games if we don't hit threes. Self needs to embrace it and change his 'fool's gold' mentality or its going to be much more agonizing season than it needs to be.

I missed it, who did they say that Self thought the best shooter he has ever coached is? Were they talking about Greene?

Chose Kentucky. Everyone is saying it was between UK and KU but I didn't even really think KU was after him that hard.

Give me some more Iron Pyrite!

@Statmachine Bah, I hate hearing stuff like this because it barely tells us anything. I mean, sure I want him to play but "this season" is so vague. Its so unsatisfying. I want to hear that he thinks he is going to play soon or he thinks that he likely won't play soon. That's all. He could sit out for all games except the last one and the statement about playing "this season" is still correct.

There were a few things that made me really happy to see last night.

1) The pace. Most of the game the players pushed the pace up the court as fast as possible, running the fast break. I don't think we played all that great on defense but running the court and getting easy buckets in transition erased so many mistakes and I believe had us up 16 at half. There were a bunch of times where our guys missed easy shots near the rim but that's ok, they will get better at finishing as the season goes on. As long as HCBS keeps this philosophy and lets the guys practice it during the non-con and softer early part of the schedule, things will be running like a well oiled machine during the conference schedule. The fast pace will mean we need more players in the rotation which works to the team's strength too because we have the depth to do it. Guys like Vick will be needed and have shown that they can handle it. We will blow out many more teams this year playing like this.

Also, it may be worth noting that this style of play will play right into Cheick Diallo's strength as this is what he is great at. Maybe, just maybe, HCBC is trying to fit the offense to his players strengths this year which is something we have been begging him to do for years.

2) The press. Its a great thing, especially for our team. We have the depth to keep guys fresh. Our defense is shaky and the press limits the amount of time we actually have to play half court D. It speeds up the pace of the game which is good for us too, see item #1. And it creates turnovers. Just look at the first possession of the game last night. It doesn't have to be a full press but enough pressure to make the opponent uncomfortable. That will create turnovers. It worked against us all the time last year. Hoping we use it to our advantage this year.

@Barney They must have fixed it, says Kansas Jayhawks from what I can see.

Warning: If you do not like conspiracies and/or only want to read posts based off of facts alone then please do not read any further...

Ok, this Cheick Diallo eligibility issue keeps getting more and more fishy to me and has me wondering if there is something far deeper at work here. They want to see SIXTH grade work now?!? They needed 2,000 pages of his homework turned in for review?!? This sounds ridiculous to me. Why have I never heard of any other case needing this stuff reviewed by the NCAA? I played D1 college sports and nobody ever told me to make sure I save all of my homework in case the NCAA needs to review it.

Sounds like the lawyers are going to get involved and I suspect the curtains will be drawn by the NCAA. Perhaps this could be the start of an unveiling of something deeper found within the NCAA and their staff. There have been several postings in the past few years on this board alone that have insinuated that there may be some questionable activity going on. Just off the top of my head, I recall seeing postings about Cal and how he has suspiciously recruited so successfully, how he has escaped NCAA punishment while the schools and teams he coached got the hammer instead, also UNC and their soft punishments for academic fraud, favorable calls for Duke during games, purposeful matching of specific teams in the tourney (i.e. KU vs WSU), etc etc.

We've seen corruption throughout history within almost every sport. There has been corruption within FIFA and cases of bribery both for position elections as well as locations of the World Cup. Corruption has been found in Boxing, cheating found in Baseball, Refs bought out in the NBA, etc. If all of these other major sports can have weak links or ways that corruption has infiltrated their ranks, wouldn't it be reasonable to think that its possible that it could happen with the NCAA too?

Is it possible that the NCAA has a special interest for certain teams to do well and other to not?
Is it possible that shoe companies not only steer recruits to certain schools but also seek to find ways to punish those that defy their "options you can't refuse"??
Is it possible that UK or a UK booster helped push the Skal case through by means of financial compensation?
Is it possible that this same bribe was taken it a step further and has attempted to put the brakes on the Diallo review because they see KU as a top threat to a UK title?

Furthermore, does anyone know why the NCAA is tax-exempt? They make over a billion dollars in revenue a year and even after deducting their "expenses" they still have tens of millions of dollars that go into their massive endowment. I guess this is a topic for a future post.

@Barney see what?

Terrific post. #7 is exactly how I have felt and I couldn't have written it any better. Ive been saying this for years. If Self gets these guys playing 1000 mph and using their superior athleticism to their advantage I think we have a great shot at another NC. Add Cheick to the mix and we'd be practically unstoppable playing this way. Back in '08 we were beating the opposing team down the court for a layup AFTER they just made a basket on us. Its easy buckets. I believe its the reason we are always in so many close games in recent years, we have made it easier on our opponent by playing slower and not using our superior athletes to our advantage.

@HighEliteMajor I respect your opinion but I definitely do not think that Jay Bilas is trying to destroy college basketball in the least bit. I think his intent is to improve it. The way I look at is that rules are great when they serve a purpose. The purpose for the NCAA's rules should be to eliminate players that exploit systems to skip through high school (I.e. basketball factory) and disallow players that violate their armature status. For Diallo, most indications are that there is a hangup on an entry level type of course that isn't NCAA approved. So for example, he could have taken a simple high school algebra course, done well, understood it, but there was something missing from the curriculum that the NCAA says its not a valid course. Now in this same hypothetical example, he could be taking college calculus right now, doing well and passing the course, but the NCAA may deny him eligibility to play NCAA sports because of this high school algebra course.

I look at the NCAA's set of rules like a fish net. When this net has holes so big where players like Skal (who's situation is so far in left field) get through and players like Diallo get hung up, the net is no longer serves its intended purpose and something needs to change.

BRAGG with a monster dunk!! Nice.

dunk it!

46-28 at half. Closed with a 9-0 run.

Very impressed with Bragg

@brooksmd New TV probably has an Apps section. Can you get the ESPN App on there?

I'm streaming ESPN3 thru my XBOX onto my TV. Just learned today you could do that. :smile:

@Statmachine Rebounding has been terrible

Bragg is the key to this team. If we win it all he will be a huge reason why.

Mine too. Mick should be starting imo.

Looking rusty

2 fouls in less than 2 minutes for Lucas. smh

Lucas starting

@VailHawk I bet in total its over $10k

Sweet pic. Whats the over/under on how much all that ink cost???

I haven't followed this one close enough to post a prediction. His supposed #1 reason for choosing a school is interesting though, he wants to go where he has the ability to play right away. If he is looking for a school that will guarantee him a starting spot and 30+ minutes then I highly doubt he will be coming to KU. I just don't see the coaches giving him that guarantee. However, if he is looking for a school that has a great opportunity for a young big man to EARN significant minutes then KU would be a great option due to the departures of 3 seniors and most likely Diallo which leaves a big man void.

If he wants to work hard and earn his minutes then I hope he comes to KU. If he wants entitlement to the minutes and guaranteed a starting spot then no thanks.

@JayHawkFanToo Because there is something wrong with the standards they have created if the scenario Skal has been approved for is more acceptable than the situation that Diallo has.

The story with Skal is crazy and the fact that he was cleared is truly absurd. I have a feeling that Diallo isn't going to be. NCAA is a joke.

@Lulufulu I haven't seen anyone mention it yet but did you guys catch it when Diallo was asked how long he thinks he will be at KU and he responded with something like "I don't know, can't think about that now, maybe 4 years. I don't know." I know its very very very unlikely that he stays all four years especially when he sees the money he could make but the words came out of his mouth. So to now quote Lloyd Christmas.. "so you're saying theres a chance!?!" Haha, its fun to dream sometimes.

@Texas-Hawk-10 I never said that you said it was an indicator his clearance was coming soon. Just making conversation. :sunglasses:

btw, the new article today said that KU is still submitting requested info to the NCAA. It sounds like there has been some back and forth, additional requests, etc. and its not that the NCAA is sitting on their hands and taking their sweet old time reviewing it. I think that's kindof some good news.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Right. So my point is that the NCAA wouldn't make the effort to send KU a letter if they were going to be making a ruling soon. I take it as a timetable move and not a gage on how likely he is to be cleared or not.

I might be the only one but I don't view the ruling to be able to practice necessarily as a positive. Sure its good that CD won't fall too far behind in team activities but how come everyone else they ruled on thus far has been given the green light or the red light? Why is Diallo different? I sense this may be an indication that this could drag out for a long time before we hear anything and is just a way to buy more time.

I happen to like Bilas a lot, kind of surprised to hear there are so many out there that don't. Curious now, who is it that you guys like the most as an announcer/analyst??

@Crimsonorblue22 can you please post a link to where you found them on twitter? curious to find out more.

@Lulufulu I just felt myself wiggle a little bit...

Hope its true!!

@Lulufulu With Diallo eligible, I totally agree. I even made my futures bet in LV on the team a few months ago because I was that confident in them. This was obviously before the Diallo news and before UK started pulling rabbits out of hats with the reclassified recruits. But still, if CD is cleared I like our chances.

@wrwlumpy Vick has some hops!

The scariest part about this is that KE did an extra year of HS because of the uncertainty at that time and STILL was not cleared. He originally was part of the 2014 class and reclassified to 2015 because of the eligibility concerns. Yikes.

@JhawkAlum Ok, I can see how you interpreted that. I know what articles you are referencing and I still think it only applies to some players. You could very well be right but based on my experience, the way I have seen this sort of thing work is where tutoring would be required for a player if his GPA drops below a certain level or if his/her grade in a particular class drops below a certain level based on early feedback from professors. So if you fall into this category, then tutoring may be required for a class or two or whatever. Self disciplined a player for being late to his tutoring and didn't start him because of it but I don't think that we can conclude from this that all players are subject to mandatory tutoring. We just know that some players have mandatory tutoring.

Man, you know its a slow day when this is the topic at hand.

@JhawkAlum Are you sure about that? It probably varies from school to school. I am a former SA and tutors were not required. It was more of an as-needed basis. I find it hard to envision KU telling Perry Ellis former valedictorian that he needs to use a tutor.

@JhawkAlum That's easy to answer imo. At least for me, one reason I keep tabs on them is because KU is #2 in all-time wins, right behind UK. That in itself will have people always comparing the two. Not to mention that the two schools are constantly battling over the top recruits every single year. Lastly I have a dislike for UK because of Cal. Just don't like the way he does things and that draws my attention to them sometimes.

I definitely don't think its a complex. Basically, UK has served as the college basketball measuring stick the past several years. If KU stacks up well against them then it usually means we have a shot at a title.

Saw this coming. I'm one of the few here that called this one, was really hoping I would be wrong. Felt it in my gut and my gut has been pretty accurate over the years. I think this is a pretty big loss but definitely can overcome it. BS needs to crank up the heat on JJ!

@justanotherfan Yes its meh to me. I'm not sure what your agenda is here other than trying to get sore knees.

You said: "Someone says Cal can’t win with lower ranked guys. I post information showing that he has already done that at two other stops." Win what? I'm not sure what you are saying. He didn't win any championships at those schools (besides the NIT), his best season at UMASS was a Final 4 which was subsequently vacated. At Memphis his best season was a loss in the championship game but oh yeah, that season was vacated too. So take away the seasons that were vacated and his best result was the elite 8. Meh.

You said: "Someone questions if he can turn low ranked players into NBA players. I post proof that he has done that." Actually, drgnslayr asked for evidence of him taking a 3 or 4 star player and building them into lottery picks which you subsequently posted evidence of guys getting drafted in the second round. Second round is not a lottery pick. So to my knowledge he hasn't done that. Still meh.

You then proceed to fire off a bunch of comparisons to KU/Self which I did not mention anywhere in my response to you. My point was that I believe that many other coaches would have been able to do more with the players that Cal has started (not ended thru development) each season with. To use an analogy, if all the college coaches were in a big poker game, Cal starts each hand (aka season) with a full house. One would think he would win more times with the hand he was dealt than he actually does and I believe that many other coaches could do better than him with his starting hand. Since you seem intent on pulling KU into the discussion, I'd say Self normally starts off with a three of a kind type hand, and yes, I think he has generally underachieved lately with that too.

@justanotherfan Meh. The stuff about turning lower ranked guys into 2nd round picks isn't all that impressive to me. Getting drafted in the 2nd round basically just means that you're one of the top 30 seniors in the country. The kids leaving early typically do so because they are a projected 1st rounder. There isn't much of a difference outside of the top 30 kids in each class, so the guy ranked 75 is not really much better than the guy ranked 35 so it isn't uncommon for a guy in that range to end up drafted in the 2nd round after 4 years of college ball in a major conference.

I think the better question is how many coaches out there would have won MORE than 1 championship the past 6 years with the teams he has had. My opinion is that he drastically has underachieved. He has basically had the #1 recruiting class almost every year, if not #1 then #2, and just one NC. Also, how many other coaches could have done better than a 1st round exit from the NIT tournament with the team Cal had that year? The answer is too many to count.

Skal Labissiere, another top 10 recruit rumored to have eligibility concerns committed to Kentucky in November of 2014, also in the early signing period for his class which does not fit within @jaybate-1.0 's hypothesis.

Perhaps UK had a financial plan in place to purchase his eligibility so this wasn't a concern for them? :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

@jaybate-1.0 First guy I checked out for you was Emmanuel Mudiay and he committed to SMU in August of 2013. I don't know for sure but I recall reading a few times that he had eligibility concerns which ultimately led to him playing overseas. So if that's true, he would not fit into your hypothesis. He was #2 overall in last year's class, or top 10 depending on which site you're looking at, yet was an early commitment.

@HighEliteMajor Very interesting stuff there, good find. It says that the last update was 4/21/15 so it almost certainly was there since then. Hopefully KU's compliance dept picked up on it early enough and CD had a chance to right the ship if necessary prior to graduation/summer school ending.

Looks like there are 17 classes at the school that are listed as rejected by the NCAA. If CD took any of those courses it wouldn't count towards his eligibility. Now, does anybody have access to his HS transcript?? Haha.

A new quote from TF from his twitter feed... relieves some of the doubt that has started to set in. Sounds like he will be at late night and that has to increase the odds for KU. Quote:

With Terrance Ferguson's unofficial visit to Alabama last week the rumors are starting to fly around on every college basketball message board around. The latest rumor is that Terrance Ferguson will cancel his planned visit to Kansas on October 9th for Late Night in the Phog because he's going to commit to Alabama.

Well, according to Terrance Ferguson himself, that's not true.

"I will still visit Kansas," said Ferguson via text to TheShiver.com. "The rumors are getting out of hand. I will never miss out on Late Night," he added.

http://kansas.247sports.com/Bolt/T-Ferg-addresses-the-wild-rumors-38657595 ↗ ↗