🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@JayHawkFanToo So you would take Shepherd as a sophomore who would probably average Ellis's sophomore season numbers best case scenario over 16 points 10boards from the #1 PF in the 2014 class? IF and its still an IF, Big Cliff goes #1 or even top 3 in next years draft he brings more publicity to KU than Shepherd. Added bonus either way you look at it.

@HighEliteMajor when UK played in the NIT they had about the same record as our team last year and they didn't win there conference. If Nole was healthy experts that year said they would have been in the field of 64. So HEM are you saying that UK has just been lucky the last 3 out of 4 years? How lucky will they be this year with all the talent on their roster? Are you also saying that HCBS is not capable of corralling and getting a team of OAD's to gel? I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised and you will come to embrace the OAD culture after a few titles...

@KUSTEVE Some times no matter how much you practice talent out does you. Lucky for Lucas, Mickelson, and Traylor they all should have enough credits to graduate and potentially be free agents next year if we sign 3 bigs and they are not feeling good about their role as quality substitutes.

@justanotherfan I hope HCBS is selling the fact that we get unlimited practice time next summer for the university games and recruits 3 OAD's to represent the US and to get a jump start on the season. I hope he is out there selling KU and the USA telling them that if they choose KU they WOULD win a NCAA championship with 3 OAD's and a deep talented bench!

When sports evolve so should coaches. Coach Cal has dominated recruiting and has been to 3 of the last 4 final fours doing so. Embrace the OAD era or become out dated. Its like your old lap top, it still gets the job done but there are computers that are so much better. HCBS is smart enough to see how coach Cal is getting it done over at UK and will make coaching changes or system changes to WIN championships. Bragg wont sign with KU because he and his parents know he will be recruited over if he stays longer than one year. I would imagine the rest of our roster is getting anxious knowing that most of the top 25-100 guys have signed with a school but the top 25 are all waiting to see what the others are going to do. Most of these top 25 guys walk in to KU and start over the guys that have waited their turn. KU will land a few of these guys and pretty much anyone we sign will start. HCBS system is evolving so he can WIN point blank. The old way of doing things aren't enough to get the job done any more. If you think that coach Cal isn't going to the final four this year then you are delusional. So weather his system of coaching works with OAD's or not he has to evolve or we play second fiddle to UK for a long time.

Last years team was soft. The players said so, coaching said so, and their record reflected it. I think it begins with HCBS coddling his outstanding recruiting haul. It all started with shortening boot camp to 1 week. There was a different mind set and the players and coaches settled for mediocre. I think HCBS and staff learned from last year and we all know boot camp has been returned to the normal 2 weeks.

Jamari Traylor averaged 16.1 mpg, 4.8 ppg, 4.1 rpg, .8 bpg and shot .667ft%

Landen Lucas averaged 4.9 mpg 1.5 ppg, 1.4 rpg, .3 bpg and shot .500ft%

Hunter Mickelson averaged 16.6 mpg 5.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.2 bpg and shot .800ft%

1st of all I feel bad for Traylor this year because he is not an upgrade to Alexander or Ellis. He however plays the same position as them. Lucas and Mickelson BOTH have 2 inches and 20 lbs on Traylor. They both have trimmed off some fat and both did well in athletes in action this summer. After sifting through tons of info I have come to the conclusion that Mickelson WILL get the nod for first off the bench. I remember HCBS saying that Mickelson was a poor mans Jeff Withey only because he is not 7' tall. CJ on line reported that his vertical jump has increased by 5 or 6 inches since he arrived at KU. HCBS also stated that his shot was good all the way out to the three pt line. If all of this is true then he should lead the team in blocked shots and play more minutes than the other 2 because he brings something to the table we lost when Embiid left last year. Not only that his FT% is really good for a big man. If you give the guy 20 minutes he is going to average 8.1 ppg, 7.2 rpg, and 2.1 bpg and be 5th or 6th in scoring.

I have been doing some research on Hunter and Lucas. After looking at some stats and doing my usual comparisons that were totally not apples to apples and finding anyone at the same position rank and such was hard enough but trying to find someone coming off the bench was nearly impossible or should I say not consistent enough to make an educated guess. I should have something put together for you guys come tomorrow morning. All of this depends on the MPG left over from Cliff, Ellis and Traylor.

I have been working on refining my formula for a few hours now to figure out a logical way to predict talent progression year to year for specific players. What I found is that when comparing apples to apples Chandler Parsons is a crab apple and Perry Ellis is a Peasgood's Nonesuch apple (the largest apple normally weighing about a pound). Yes what I am saying is that Chandler Parsons is a poor mans Perry Ellis. I went out and gathered information using ESPN's top 100 again to find guys that played the same position as Ellis, were the same height, and approximately the same build and weight. I also have been looking at other recruiting boards and NBA evaluations.

Perry Ellis
9th positionally ranked PF, 35th overall on the ESPN top 100.
6'8" 220 lbs 4 star graded a 96
Sophomore Stats 27.8mpg 13.5ppg 6.7rpg

Chandler Parsons
9th positionally ranked PF, 44th overall on the ESPN top 100.
6'8" 220 lbs 4 star graded a 96
Junior Stats 31.0min 12.4ppg 6.9rbg

Okaro White
10th positionally ranked PF, 36th overall on the ESPN top 100
6'8" 180 lbs 4 star graded a 95
Junior Stats 30.1mpg 13.6ppg 6.8rpg

What I found is that Ellis's Sophomore numbers are better than these NBA'ers Junior season numbers (if there are any scouts on this page you should up his draft stock). Now I am going to have to start looking into fitness trainers and their effect on developing talent more rapidly. Thomas Robinson was the perfect example of a big that was coached up and went from late 1st/ 2nd round draft pick to high lotto. Ben McLemore is another example. So was it his strength and conditioning trainers or coaches? Has Ellis reached his ceiling or is he going to bring his game to another level? Now I need to go look at Bmac and Trob and place put them against their peers to figure out the KU bump for my formula. Any ways I am still working away and thought I would update you all on my progress and PLEASE chime in and let me know if there is something you think could be relative to my research/formula. Thanks

@jaybate-1.0 I see what you are saying but I was using this theory assuming these guys start or play the majority if the minutes for their respective positions. If any one of these guys do not start the numbers used here are not going to work. I have been thinking of averaging in the returning players points per minute from last years numbers into my formula and finding players that are the same standing height amongst other factors. When I finish I believe it should paint a pretty realistic picture of what to expect.

I will TRY to put something together this weekend. From what I have gathered our bench should be good for 30 ppg. I will post something later this weekend. thanks for all the feed back.

@justanotherfan I was going to do the entire team but found it more time consuming than I wanted to bother with. I might have some time this weekend to add in some of the things you mentioned and refine my methods. Glad you added your 2 cents!

I did this on a different program and now the font is all messed up and I am at work and do not have time to fix it so please excuse the mess. It looks nothing like what you see when I go to edit it either lol. I will try to fix it later. Sorry

This is my best shot using the Statmachine way of thinking to come up with next years starting 5 and stat lines. Lets start off using the 5 star freshmen, the supposed OAD's, the ones who HCBS knows he has to let play to keep the OAD train stopping in Lawrence KS. Using their ESPN top 100 ranking to asses how they should do comparing them to others close too or just like them in previous ESPN top 100 rankings. Lets start with Cliff Alexander the #1 PF on ESPN final 2014 class rankings. Dusting off the history books shows us how the past #1 PF's have fared to determine how Big Cliff's season SHOULD look by taking an average from the 3. I know some of you are scratching your heads but history can be a useful tool to help shed a little light on the unknown.
Comparison
Julius Randle 30.8mpg, 15ppg, 10.4rpg .
Anthony Bennett 27.1mpg, 16.1ppg, 8.1rpg.
Anthony Davis 32.0mpg, 14.2ppg, 10.4rpg.

Cliff Alexander 29.9mpg 15.1ppg 9.6rpg.

Kelly Oubre #4SF on ESPN final 2014 class rankings. Again using ESPN history to see how the past #4 SF's fared and taking an average.
Comparison
Wayne Selden 29.2mpg, 9.7ppg, 2.6rpg.
Sam Dekker 22.3mpg, 9.6ppg, 3.4rpg.
Dorian Finney-Smith 22mpg, 6.4ppg, 5.0rpg.

Kelly Oubre 24.5mpg, 8.5ppg, 3.6rpg.

Sophomore Connor Franckamp the #10 PG on the final 2013 ESPN class rankings. I found it a lot harder to find kids the same exact ranking. It appears that the guys ranked inside the top 50 that aren't starting their sophomore year transfer and normally it just doesn't work out very well. These guys were all ranked somewhere between 25-50 and were starting their sophomore year. I also think Mason could pull off these kind of numbers. I guess it just depends who worked harder this summer and who HCBS likes better.
Comparison
Peyton Siva 31.2mpg, 10ppg, 5.7apg.
Phil Pressey 32.1mpg, 10.3ppg, 6.4apg.
Quinn Cook 33.6mpg, 11.7ppg, 5.3apg.

Conner Frankamp 32.3mpg, 10.6ppg, 5.8apg.

Because I had a much harder time finding #4 SF sophomores ranked in the top 15 that stuck around 2 years. I had to use the SF ranked nearest to Wayne Seldens to came up with this for Sophomore Selden.
Comparison
Sam Dekker 29.8mpg, 12.4ppg, 6.3rpg.
Deshaun Thomas 31.4mpg, 15.9ppg, 5.4rpg.
LeBryan Nash 31.9mpg, 14.0ppg, 4.1rpg.

Wayne Selden 31.0mpg, 14.1ppg, 5.2rpg.

Junior Perry Ellis the #35 PF just like Selden, is harder to compare because things are not apples to apples at this point but I am still going to try. I'm sure Juniors from the top 50 that stick around for 3 years are a hand full for almost anyone to handle. Perry Ellis is no Robinson but their rankings and position are close to the same and they both stayed until their Junior year.
Comparison
Johnny O'Bryant III 30.0mpg, 15.4ppg, 7.7rpg.
Dwight Powell 30.4mpg, 14.9ppg, 8.4rpg.
Thomas Robinson 31.8mpg,17.7ppg, 11.9rpg.

Perry Ellis 30.7mpg, 16ppg, 9.3rpg.

These numbers and data should give us some Idea what our starting 5 should produce next year. The contested PG spot is the only question mark but the better of the 3 will play and could produce a stat line like the one I listed. I know that anyone can poke holes in my theory/research but I think the data suggest that 4 of our starters could average double digit points and we probably have the best/deepest bench in the country outside of UK. I like our odds!

I looked up all of the U16-U18, pro team and a few tournaments he participated in and his FT% was about 75%. I didn't include his 50% FT shooting from last month lol. Could have something to do with his growth spurt from 6-6 to 6-8 in shoes?

Each time Brannen Greene played double digit minutes last season his production was great. In the 7 games he played double digit minutes he averaged 10.7 minutes and 5.4 ppg. Give Greene the 32.8 MPG Wiggins left behind and Greene averages 16.55 ppg (last year). I believe Sophomore Greene could average more points than Freshman Wiggins or Freshman Oubre (if he is afforded the opportunity). One would think that with a full year in the KU system Greene would have a better all around game including defence (over Oubre) but I suppose only time will tell. If history has anything to do with who gets to start I would put my greenbacks on Greene (write that down lol).

Since no one is talking about our new walk on I thought I would start a thread!

@konkeyDong Stephen Zimmerman removed KU from his list according to verbal commits. The Big's pool is getting awfully shallow!

coverage of the Ukraine team.

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He ends up with 12 pts 5 boards, including a nice high speed transition layup right after a dunk at 1 hr 20 min mark.

I'm kind of surprised no one posted this yet! Truly happy for him!

http://www.tribundergi.com/haber/en-genci-sviatoslav-mykhailiuk ↗ ↗

I don't know if you all have watched this yet but scroll down past the foreign language and watch the video. What I like most about this is that he seems to be the floor general on most of these clips or he is at least bringing the ball up the court. He seems to have a good court awareness, good basketball IQ, size, and utilizes the back board a lot. Seeing the 3pt line at the NBA distance explains the poor shooting % this summer. He defiantly seems to fit in the 3 guard system HCBS is looking for to share PG duties. He has better ball handling than anyone on our team that stands 6'8" that's for sure! I cant wait to see if he can crack the rotation?

I took a minute to look at Mata, Roy, Cal, Patino, and Self. They have all had their success only difference is most of them had a NIT appearance and most of them had multiple early exits. We all have great coaches and programs and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching KU win over 300 games over the last 10 years! None of these other coaches were able to deliver that to their rabid fan base!

Cal is a recruiter end of story. Without the talent on his roster he is not a winner. Self, Smart, Stevens, and others have made the elite 8 without 5 of the most talented kids in the country on their roster. I also think its funny all of the recient publicity about how Cal wouldn't leave UK, not even for LeBron. LeBron wasn't even on the table when the offer was presented to him. He would have jumped at the opportunity to win at the NBA level no questions asked. I honestly think Self would have gone too. The point is HCBS is not saying he wouldn't leave KU for LeBron.

When do the domino's start to fall? If you were Mamadou Ndiaye or Isaac Copeland and just found out you could be getting paid if you transferred to a different school. Does the NCAA or school have to let you transfer if you or your family are in a financial bind or do you even need a reason? Will the big 5 start to farm the smaller schools for proven top talent? If you were being paid to win like Bill Self is do you start farming today for the top players looking for a pay check? We need a rim protector TODAY so how long before a Coach starts actively farming other schools.

I wouldn't even stop at players. When do we start hiring top coaching/training personnel? These other schools are essentially farm teams now right?

Could Frank Mason or Conner Frankamp have the kind of impact that Marcus Paige did in his Sophomore season? I took a look at different Point Guards around the same ranking as our very own Conner Frankamp to see how he or Mason could stack up and what I saw was actually very encouraging! My reference's were Phil Pressey, Payton Siva, and Quinn Cook. I truly hope our guys make that sophomore jump that these guys did! After looking at other examples of starting sophomore PG's I am actually far less worried about our point guard status than before. You should go check out these examples and put in your 2 cents...

HCBS could be his own worst enemy because he is also recruiting 8 other bigs with a higher ceiling and ranking. I think out of the 3 that you have listed HCBS would tell them that they have to wait because he wants the higher ranked guys. This is why there is a domino effect once top recruits start signing. Not to mention other coaches will remind them about Andrew White and how Bill Self will recruit over them. I think we have to get the best available option to fill in for our departures or we will continue to lose top 50 talent when they have to sit behind a Wiggins or Embiid. HCBS either needs to stick to developing talent or catering to OAD's. I don't think there is a middle ground on this?

Another guy making noise is Svee! The Philippine national team Gilas Pilipinas was crushed by towering, sweet-shooting Ukraine 114-64. Shooting guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk contributed 12 points.

KU's talent level is only 2nd to UK and that's really only outside of our starting 5. I think KU's core is tougher and has what it takes to tear down UK's primadonna cry babies (I mean the Harrison sisters). I see this team competing until April if both Freshmen stay healthy and we have good PG play.

@HighEliteMajor I don't think this kid has had a bunch of exposure. I think there IS something to get excited about here if KU adds Ray Kasongo. I remember when Zach Peters verbally committed to us and how he was the MAN CHILD, the next big thing or the highest ranked PF in his class. After his verbal commitment he stopped the AAU circuit and played football which turned out being terrible for him in both top 100 rankings and his health. Point is Peters dropped completely out of the top 100 due to lack of exposure or talent evaluator's putting their eyes on him during the summer AAU scene. Kasongo has DIV1 talent and has had many programs interested/following him since 2013. I believe if he put those kind numbers up against the best bigs in his class 2 years ago he still can. Self and company will get the best out of this guy. I don't think many of us were excited when KY came to KU but he proved to be a valuable part of our team. Howard was keeping tabs on this guy clear back in 2013 and if the staff wants him I would think they have their reasons. So get excited folks because I say so!

I have been looking everywhere for Ray Kasongo stuff and found out some good info. I will have time to put it to pen and paper later. He was followed and had interest from UK and KU just to name a few blue bloods but it appears that no one wanted to pull the trigger on an offer due to the countries top Bigs holding out longer than usual. He had very little exposure until he played in a few big games towards the end of 2013. Looks like HCBS and company are rolling out the carpet for him too. Wiggins will be in town and I bet we sign him before he makes his other 2 visits.

@justanotherfan well he is projected to go high lotto. The last 2 that went high lotto we Julius Randal 15pts 10rb. Then it was Anthony Bennett 16pts and 8rb. His production is going to have to be somewhere close to those numbers if he is going in the top of the lotto.

In general I don't get too overly excited about specific guys but having the #1 PF in the class is significant just looking back at the top PF's in each of the last couple of classes has got me excited (not that that's a big deal or hard to do). Julius Randal, Anthony Bennett, James McAdoo, and lets throw in Andrew Drummond just because I believe Alexander will spend some time at the 5 for us this year. I have high hopes for Alexander this year... Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Hungary is up by 6 at the half. Svee is leading all scorers on the Ukraine team with 7 pts 4 boards.

This just in
http://www.straighthoops.com/whos_your_five.html ↗ ↗
KU is in their top 5 starting 5. I am not sure if we ever had 4 projected 1st round pics in a draft before. Having Selden and Ellis primed for a breakout season and 2 supposed OAD's all of which can ball some with lower ceilings some higher but all playing at possibly the same level at the same time this could be awesome! As long as our OAD's pan out I think we are golden! Does anyone have any input on weather Alexander is even close to the same level of intensity or as talented as Julius Randal?

@Wishawk Yes I meant the University games but you still medal in them as far as I know lol.

@nuleafjhawk I want that and the Olympic gold next summer! 2 records no one else will have!

@HighEliteMajor I believe that 9-10 players will average 10 minutes at least to start the season. It keeps all of them happy until after the first of the year and then there is a smaller possibility anyone transfers. Then he can justify the reduction of pt if needed using individual stats. During cup cake games our 8th -10th guys will get extended play and take away from those that are not lotto picks. Self will have to keep them filling out a stat line to keep the talent train going.

@bskeet Remember when Robinson had to get Withey all fired up to get his mental state where it needed to be so they could win games? Someone is going to have to light a fire under Ellis's butt in order for him to go out there and dominate and take control during close games.

@JayHawkFanToo Your right about our draft pics but we did win our conference and when JoJo got hurt that pretty much ended our run. We had only really lost 6 games before that (I believe) which still would have probably been considered a bad year. We also had poor leadership (Tharpe). If your leader doesn't even believe weather or not coach likes him how can he run a team? We have remedied that and all of our role players have a year experience and a summer with Hudy. I believe they're ready to ball!!!

@HighEliteMajor I believe you're right about the rotation with one little exception. Svee is projected to be a top 10 talent and could easily go pro (over seas) if he is not happy about his minutes. Before he committed to a school I believe he said he wanted to play 10-15 min a game his first year and help win some games. I think because HCBS needs him around he gets minutes. Heck he is letting him play over seas at the moment instead of getting in meaningful practice time with the team. Even Wiggins opted out of playing with his national team to get to KU and start working. I am sure it will effect his minutes in November but I think Self will play him because he has to keep his future lotto pic happy so future lotto picks keep coming to late night and signing with KU.

I wish he was ready to be THE MAN too. However I can see any of our Sophomore's rising up to the challenge before he does. He is a worker not a leader but there is nothing wrong with that. I hope I am wrong though.

Still figuring this site out. But I like it so far. Thanks to you my basketball fan page making friend!

@Hawk8086 I believe that when the Morris Twins were at KU we had 10 guys averaging 10 or more minutes? I could be wrong but I am too lasy this morning to check. I could see our rotation at 10 with all of the talent on the roster. That could shrink to 7-8 by the end of march but who knows?

@bskeet I have been following him during this event. His shooting has been poor from the 3 but someone mentioned that the 3pt line is at the NBA 3. He has grown a few inches this summer as well. During his time on the pro team he played for in the Ukraine his shooting was average and he wasn't THE guy. I do have to mention he is still averaging 17+ points a game and is only playing around 23 minutes.

When reading all of this media seperatly you dont get the full picture of just how talented we are and how great this team could be. I know people dont like all the preseason hype and want to be the under dogs but we are clearly not the under dogs this year! When you put all this info together you will see just how loaded we are and how deep we truely are! Get ready for some good Kansas Basketball fellas!

Sporting News names Perry Ellis the No. 3 power forward 2014-15 ↗http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2014-06-18/top-10-power-forwards-montrezl-harrell-karl-towns-perry-ellis-brice-johnson/slide/3 ↗

Sporting News tabs Wayne Selden as No. 5 Shooting Guard in 2014-15 ↗ http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2014-06-17/top-10-shooting-guards-aaron-harrison-ron-baker-wayne-selden-buddy-hield/slide/5 ↗

Sporting News names Kelly Oubre the No. 9 small forward 2014-15 ↗ http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2014-06-20/top-10-small-forwards-rondae-hollis-jefferson-terran-petteway-branden-dawson/slide/9 ↗

Sporting News names Cliff Alexander as No. 3 center 2014-15 ↗ http://rockchalkblog.com/2014/06/20/sporting-news-names-cliff-alexander-as-no-3-center/ ↗

Bleacher report predicts Devonte Graham might be the BIG12 Freshman of the year ↗ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2100824-predicting-the-2014-15-freshman-of-the-year-in-each-major-cbb-conference/page/7 ↗

This 2015 mock draft has Oubre going 3rd, Alexander 6th, Selden 7th, and Ellis going 27th ↗. http://www.nbadraft.net/nba_mock_drafts/consensus ↗

NBA.net is saying we have the best starting line up in all of college basketball! ↗
http://www.nbadraft.net/forum/pre-seaon-top-20-projected-starting-line-ups ↗

This 2016 mock draft has Svee going 7th, Brannen Greene going 11th and Hunter Mickelson going in the second round ↗.
http://www.nbadraft.net/2016mock_draft ↗

Cliff Alexander was ranked #2 and Kelly Oubre was ranked #17. Jamari Traylor and Wayne Selden just missed the cut for the 50 best players in college basketball ↗ http://thebiglead.com/2014/07/17/50-best-players-in-college-basketball-for-2014-2015/ ↗

This addresses 9 of our guys and I would expect to see all 9 in our rotation next year. WIth so much High Praise and positive news about Kansas Basketball how can you not be getting excited?

@Crimsonorblue22 Looking at Svee's stats dont come close to doing him justice. His highlight's are good but he is really fun to watch. I think he will fit in KU system well because he is terrific off the ball screen. He can drive it from the 3pt line alot like Wiggins without getting stripped lol.

@HighEliteMajor In Love's rookie season he only averaged 1 assist and had 30 some games where he had no assists. How on earth did he play all of those minutes without an assists? He averaged 25 minutes a game times 30 some games and played 750 some odd minutes without an assist! He should have been ran out of the NBA right? Its a good thing you weren't watching his assists HEM or he might have never made it in the NBA. Just a bit of fun HEM not trying to ruffel anyones fethers.

@RockChalkinTexas http://u18men.fibaeurope.com/enDivB/default.asp ↗

This year he is averaging 30.43 points per 40 minutes. If you look at everything per 40 minutes he would have 6 boards 4 assists and 4 steals to go along with his 30pts. Not a bad line if you ask me?

Last year on his U16 team he averaged 36 minutes and his stat line was pretty good. 25.2pts, 8reb, 3.4ast, 3.3st, and .8bs over 36.8 minutes. His production has been about the same for a couple years. I cant wait to see this guy in crimson and blue!

SVEE played a bit over 19min and was 6/13 today and finished with 16 pts 3 reb and 1 asst killing Scotland 81 to 34.

Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk scored 19 pts for an 82-61 win over Portugal on his U18 national team today.