🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@Wishawk Ok but how do they compare to other ones over the last 10 years? Primarily ones that have been to the National Championship?

We are still after Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and he is supposed to announce weather he is going pro or going to college on the 21st or something like that.

@KUSTEVE Brovo!

At the end of the season (final 2 games) Frankamp showed promise by averaging 11ppg with 2apg and 0 turnovers in the NCAA tournament. Self said before the Stanford game Frankamp was his guy so I think there was more to it than most of you might think. Yall know Perry Ellis, Wayne Selden, Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre are going to play. I think those guys will start. I know no ones going to agree with me here but that's my starting 5.
I am sure that behind closed doors AW3 has asked HCBS for PT or a transfer. I believe he would have transferred by now if that were the case. That is going to play into the 8/9 man rotation. Traylor and Greene have both provided quality minutes off the bench. 9th man goes to Mason. So if 9 is all I can use then I guess I'm done. The others can just stay home or not even suit up I suppose lol.

@Hawk8086 I don't know if anyone remembers but Frankamp was the leading scorer (14.1 ppg) on the U17 2012 Olympic team with Tyus Jones, Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor, Dakari Johnson, and Stanly Johnson. He split the PG duties with Tyus Jones but it was Frankamp who lead the team in minutes and points. I think Frankamp is our best option when it gets right down to the nut cuttin. If HCBS says we are more loaded than we have ever been at the point then its because of quality players like Frankamp. He will set the bar early and it will be up to Mason and Graham to try to catch up. I dont mind if it takes them another year to reach the national championship as long as they do it.

@BucknellJayhawk3

This time last year there were more High school basketball recruits committed than there are today and I am guessing it has a lot to do with a log jam of talent at every blue blood out there. Kids that want to attend a blue blood but want pt are going to hold out longer to get a better picture of what possibility's might pan out. It used to be come to UK go to the NBA but that myth has been busted so kids are not going to commit as easily as in recent years IMO. Only 10 of the top 50 have committed out of the 2015 class so I think we are still in good shape. When official visits start up like Late night I think we will sign enough kids to be comfortable. I would be surprised if alot of these kids sign before October. Unless UK gets his whole team to declare for next years draft this summer.

@ralster I was getting ready to say kinda the same thing. Taylor or Napier as seniors led their teams to a national championships! Tharpe wasn't going to get us there no matter weather you liked him or not. I do however think that one of the options at PG on our current roster will get us there again. I am just hoping its before their senior year? Historically, teams with freshman point guards haven't had massive success in the NCAA tournament. I believe i read somewhere that only 3 freshman and 3 sophomores have have lead their team to a national championship over the last 20 years or so.

@drgnslayr After reading a ton of news and what recruiting experts have to say about Devonte Graham I am almost convinced that he could be the next Great Point Guard for KU! Man it took some time but I read article after article about how good he was on a loaded Brewster Academy team. His assists to turnover ratio was 5-1 and I have read tons of praise about him being tough on D, staying in front of his man, taking charges (not typical of hs ball), controlling tempo, scoring in transition, having 20/20 court vision, and making plays for other team mates. His coach says he is the toughest point guard in the big 12 (although I'm still not sure he is qualified to make that call) and even HCBS has been talking about how other point guards have started as freshmen during his tenure. Bill Self is already setting him up to be our starting PG in the media. He is even saying that our PG position is the deepest its ever been (No one was saying that a week ago). Even if he doesn't start I was already excited to see how our sophomore's Frankamp and Mason fared next year with the departure of Tharpe? Its hard not to come away excited after reading about this kids ascend to the top of many recruiting analyst's boards.

@ralster Yes even the all mighty Wichita st lost this year. They set some records that may never be beaten? I would assume that what ever blue blood college program Gregg Marshall ends up at will be a force to be reckoned with. Imagine what that guy could do with a bunch of 4 and 5 star recruits? I would assume Duke or North Carolina will nab him within the next 2-3 years.

I do enjoy reading these boards and I love how in depth our boards get and if your anything like me you wish you could somehow call HCBS and give some advice from time to time lol. You can take as much data from Ken Pom or any other statistic from where ever you want and analyse HCBS's past teams until your hearts content but what good does it actually do? I highly doubt he reads these boards to get coaching advice from this infinite pool of wisdom here at KU buckets lol. His system and style of coaching has gotten KU to the top of the big12 and a high seed every year. Our roster has turned over every year and we have even lost all 5 starters and he has still managed to beat the odds and win the big 12 title or at least a share of it. He was hired by KU because of his proven track record, style of coaching, and winning record even while coaching at really small schools. His recruiting and eye for talent is far and away better than most coaches still coaching today. When he left Illinois the 2005 Fighting Illini, (Self's recruits) went 37–2 and fell to North Carolina in the NCAA championship game proving that the guys he recruits are good and stuff. As long as he is at KU our guys will be dancing each and every year so expect some early losses but expect more trophies on the shelf too because as long as we are dancing we have a shot every year. That's why he makes the big bucks!

I find it cute and sometimes funny when everyone drops an early exit knock on KU or HCBS (name one here__) on our boards simply because ALL of the other programs have lost in the NIT over the past 10 years. KU or Bill Self's early losses have not been fun to watch but at lease he made the tourney EVERY year. You will all hear me say this enough to make you all sick but Bill Self is the Key Factor to our success no matter what roster changes take place. However the mental toughness and drive to succeed mixed in with some experience is what is going to be the winning combination for our beloved KU team over the next several years. I honestly think HCBS could take a div2 team and win the Big 12 title on any given year.

The 3pt shooting is something Self has made mention to in the first days of May on the radio. I was listning to him on the radio and he was saying that he was un sure who would be starting at the point but he did say he was toying with the idea of playing a 3 at the 4 for an extended period of time. That would have to be AW3 or Selden simply because both of them are beefy enough to box out a 4 if they need to. I suppose Brannen Greene could pack on some muscle this summer but he would have to hit the gym pretty hard. He is 6'7 and might fit the bill? Either way KU has enough quality 3pt shooters that we could really use them to punnish smaller teams.

@HighEliteMajor Graham for 3 because we have some guys capable of great things to come over the next 3 years atm. Could be like florida and win it 2 years in a row. Or like UK and make 3 final four runs over the next 4 years. Our roster when matured or when our guys reach their college ceiling we will haunt childrens dreams. Cant imagine how bad Fred Hoiberg's kids will cry over then next 6-9 games. Brutal!

@HighEliteMajor I read somewhere back in the day that his brother had a bball scholly and got hurt just before college. Never the less his parrents just let his older brother play one sport so he didnt ruin his scholly and he still got hurt. His parrents then let his younger brother (Zach) do whatever because they shielded his older brother and he still got hurt. I think that family is injury prone. This post is badly written but who cares i am drinkin and having fun lol.

@drgnslayr Oubre and Alexander are both what I consider the alfa dogs, their both aggressive, and no one has to tell them to be aggressive. Add in Selden, Mason, and Traylor even though its a small line up they will intimidate opponents/get all the lose balls and punish teams by driving in the lane taking fouls with a smile (while pounding their chest or ripping off their superman shirts lol). Looking their opponents they just knocked down in the eyes as if to say stick that in your pipe and smoke it! Those 5 have enough mental toughness to crush opposing teams spirits. We have Landen Lucas as a bruiser inside or Hunter Mickelson for a shot blocking presents and Conner Frankamp for that 3pt threat. We have enough bigs to keep our bigs fresh so I'm not too worried about the rotation. Ellis is our sharp shooter that I think will lead our team in scoring and If he doesn't that only means our other bigs are nasty good or more effective! This team has my attention!

@icthawkfan316 If Graham is truely the 3rd best point guard in the 2014 class after Mundiey and Jones then Its his to lose. Some folks are saying he is but I will hold out on who I think starts until the alumni games before I make any forcasts.

According to Rivals
Frankamp - 34 (7 Position ranking)
Mason - 76 (17)
Graham - 36 (Some are saying he is the 3rd best after Mundiay and Jones?)

Bill Self said in an interview today that he would let Selden try for the Point guard spot as well. I have to say that having all these guys being good ball handlers makes me overjoyed after having sloppy play from EJ Tyshawn and Naa. Not that they sucked but the turnover rate was really out of control at times! Hopefully we are past that with this bunch?

@JRyman Alot of the times players do not get the exposure that the AAU guys get if they are not playing because of injury or financially their family cant afford to send them to camps etc. I don't know the case for each instance but Myles Turner hurt his ankle between his sophomore and junior year and didn't play so when he hit the AAU circuit last summer he out played almost every big and his ranking blew up.

Devonte Graham had a strong season for Brewster, helping the school win the National Prep Championship. He got a lot of attention because scouts were there watching other players and took a notice to him and Poof he jumped in the rankings.

Look at Embiid, He played behind Dakari Johnson and had to transfer schools so that he could get a starting position as a senior. Then he was invited to the Jordan Brand Classic and had a good showing. He went from un ranked to the #1 center out of high school.

High level coaches get involved in these guys because they are good, but the exposure has to be there for them to get noticed in most cases.

@truehawk93 No need to call off the recruitment of Turner or Graham lol. Just sayn we have alot of good/great pieces that I think any coach in the country would be happy with. Self did lead the Golden Hurricane's to their first-ever Elite Eight appearance with lesser tallent on the roster. Point is we are stacked!

I get frustrated when everyone wrights off the current roster because they haven't seen them play since viewing their highlight reels a Few years back. Back when we were watching the highlights we were sure talking them up.

I know everyone is all worried about the recruitment of Myles Turner and Devonte Graham but seriously we are so stacked with depth and experience I think we have the complete package for making a huge run next year either way. I think we are getting too worried about the tallent comming in and not giving the tallent we have the opprotunity to flourish like Robinson, Withey, Releford etc.

Naadir Tharpe will bounce back and forth between 1 and 2. Hunter Mickelson was ranked number 55 and the 8th best pf in the same class. He set some shot blocking records as a freshman at Alabama and should see the floor more than anyone might expect. Self loves his shot blockers. That's 2 ESPN four star top 100 recruits with 3 years of exp going into what should be their senior year.

If you remember Perry Ellis was a McDonald's AA out of high school in 2012, he came in with Landen Lucas, and Andrew White. That's 2 ESPN four star top 100 recruits and one McDonald's AA with 2 years exp.

Everyone remembers last years heavy weight recruiting class. I cant even imagine how badly Bill Self is ready for summer school to start so he can get back to work on these guys. Wayne Selden, Conner Frankamp, and Brannen Greene are all returning. That's one 5 star McDonald's AA and 2 more four star recruits with a year under their belt.

Regardless of who else comes into this class Bill Self has already added 2 more 5 star McDonald's AA that Fill the holes left by Embiid and Wiggins. Kelly Oubre and Cliff Alexander are both in the top 10 and are both considered to be OAD talent. Those are some big shoes to fill but Self has plenty of quality/depth in those spots and should be able to find something that works.

That is a McDonald's AA participant at the 2-5 accompanied by 6 other ESPN top 100 four star recruits (coming out of hs) with experience coming off the bench and a point guard that can do this

I told my friends and family that next year was our year before this one even bagan. I still believe that the next 2 years will be much more enjoyable for me to watch. The remedy for getting over our last loss is to think about next years team. Heck in about a month our new freshmen will arrive to enroll in summer classes and we will have our alumni game. Back to the grind in about a month guys. I am ready!

If you look at our top 5 scorers on ESPN they are Ellis followed by Wiggins, Selden, Embiid, and Mason. Wouldnt it just make sence to start those guys? I remember how dissapointed I was this time last year with Ellis and how he came out swinging in march. Ellis only averaged 13 min a game for the year and these guys are getting more time and more reps on the floor. I am hoping around the first of the year these guys are able to punnish their big 12 foe's!

Our starters are poor from 3pt range, and our defense sucks right now. Self needs to bring Black and Tharpe off the bench and give Greene, Frankamp, or White more minutes. With no threat of outside shooting we are going to get zoned to death this year. We already knew alot of this before this game but its true.

We need to play White and Greene more because we cant buy a 3...

This years going to be filled with alot of ugly wins like the 2 they got this week. They played bad, I mean bad! I felt like I could have played better for most of the championship classic. I dont know what to say other than I sure hope they turn things around soon because I cant watch much more of this.

I think Self needs to make some adjustments and soon. Embiid needs to start, bring Lucas in for all of Traylors minutes. White needs more minutes than he's getting, take away about 8 minutes from Tharpe we need some 3 pt shooting. If we cant stop teams we gotta out score em and Self needs to get it in his head that these freshmen are not going to play good defence for 40 minutes.

Yeah you can bag on me for the Lucas comment but he's putting up some pretty good stats for only averaging 4 minutes.

If KU runs the table then yes. I was just looking at their schedule and was like dang the whole no days off thing came to mind. Every team until conf play is a possible turny team. I almost LOL when I saw your post HEM because its hard for me to imagine KU running the table for 7 streight against the compitition we will be facing. KU's tallent is superior 1-5 but Self wasnt playn when he was puttin this years tallent together and making them play elite compitition to prep them for the final 6 games. As if the Big 12 wasnt enough our non con schedual is crazy!

I hate to say it but Why are we not talking LUCAS??? I remember when Wesley and Young were fighting for minutes I used to scream at the TV when Self would put in Wesley over Young. Lucas is an inch taller than Black and 2" taller than Traylor and has better production than both of them. He just needs to get comfortable on the court. He averages more points and rebounds than Traylor only averaging 1/4 the minutes and trailing Black by a point. Self needs to put him in for some significant minutes to see what happens. He was the #1 basketball recruit out of Oregon or something like that? I think Self would benefit more from developing Lucas than the other 2.

I was actually hoping that someone had something to say about Self's next 2-5 years. In my openion he should make it to the final 4 two times in the next 2 years. How many more top 10 guys can he recruit to KU? How the number of top 50 guys comming in will increase his over all win %. I just like to see what yall think becuase my openion is unrealistically high lol.

I know its early but I checked out every RPI ranking I could find today and KU is in the top 10 of every one of them. I noticed that KU is also the only AP and Coaches poll top 10 in the top 10 of every RPI list. To me it means Selfs young team is playing well early even if it doesnt seem like it. I know everyone is saying (myself included) that they have a lot of room for improvement but since everyone else is playing equally as bad I think I like where we are at this early in the year.

Tarik Black is on the team as well. If I were Self I would say to Traylor, Landen, and Michelson that if they graduate and PT is still an issue they can do exactly What Black has done right? Correct me if I am wrong? They did attend classes during their RS year right? They should have the conditioning and training to do well at most schools.

@JMamba5 is Jaqual lyle. Cliff Just tweeted this.

Cliff Alexander‏@humblekid116m
@JMamba5 Come join the family bro rock chalk!!

Good read. I had spent some time writing a similar post and then saw yours and didnt want to embarrass myself. You should get paid for your stuff. I just spit stuff out to see what people think? I cant spell poop with a turd in each hand either. With all that said I think Self has positioned himself with Lyle and Turner for a spring signing with both of them truely crossing their fingers Selden/Embiid enter the draft. If that happens and we sign both of them and yes thats a pretty big IF. I am sure someone leaves for more PT. Then again our team seams pretty close and I am sure Self tells them Robinson was a top 50 guy that waited till his JR year for PT and was drafted in the Lotto. You never know how things play out and how long Self can keep recruiting like this? I mean If you were in his shoes are you going to turn down Lyle/Turner if you have schollys? NO

Jaquan Lyle decommitted quite a while back. I just dont see Self bringing in Lyle until he is absolutely sure Selden is NBA bound. Same with Embiid/Turner. I think Self and KU have positioned them selfs well to replace anyone else leaving for the NBA.

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Anyone notice that Cliff says point blank that he talked to Jaquan Lyle last night and that he is going to KU? Just around the 1:50 and 4:00 min mark? He also says its a pkg deal.

I dont know? Even if Self wanted to go pro what team is going to offer him a 10 year contract (security blanket)? If he were to lose that gig who is going to hire him? Would someone fire their headcoach at a blueblood school to give him his easy to recruit/cookie cutter plush job back?

I think he likes how things are going and I dont know that he would jump without a Huge contract which I dont see? He also looses something like 5m if he leavs KU early. I just hope your right and he leaves the spurs soon!

I know everyone here thinks Embiid needs to see more minutes. I agree but I also agree that Self had Black come to KU for a reason. What would the rest of the team think of Self if he benched Black? All of these transfer worries everyone keeps pondering would probably start to happen. I think if Embiid stays for another year that would be good but if not Hunter did set a shot blocking record for most blocks from a freshman in a year. Recruiting is not over and with the ammount of tallent that will come in next year and the returning players I am sure Self can mannage to win another couple of games. He is pretty consistant dont ya know?

During a 5 year span from 2007-08 to 2011-12 Self had amassed a whopping 6 ESPN top 50 players. Just take a minute without going through the ins and outs of the entire roster players transfers ages etc. Starting in 2007 with Cole Aldrich, Xavier Henry, Thomas Robinson, Elijah Johnson, Josh Selby, and ending in 2011 with Ben McLemore. These guys were not all in the starting rotation and playing major minutes at once. During that 5 year span they all had a great supporting cast, and were obviously well coached. Bill self averaged nearly 33 wins a season, appeared in 2 National championship games winning 1, an Elite 8, a Sweet 16, and was eliminated in the second round. Funny thing is that last Bill Self team was a 1 seed and chosen to win it all that year. I will take another 5 years like that!

I chose that duration of time because it is Self's recent body of work and leads right into this new team. Self has really made some recruiting strides over the last 2 years and has put 7 top 50 guys on 1 roster Perry Ellis, Andrew White, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Wayne Selden, Conner Frankamp, and Brannen Greene. These guys are fighting for minutes and sharing time on the floor with each other.

So now with two more top 50 guys coming in next year so far and presumably 2-3 leaving. More talent on the floor than he has ever had and exceptional replacements starting to sign with KU. How high is coach Self's ceiling and how much better can he get? My answer is its a good time to be a KU fan!

I dont smoke but I found your answer here. http://webehigh.org/austin-tx-texas/ ↗

"Austin is a homegrown scene, much of the the budd is unique and extremely potent. If you’re smoking pot in Texas, you couldn’t be any where more hospitable and resourceful than Austin."

Dumb and Dumber! LOL I will have to go check out your post. Clever Kip.

I just thought I would share some humor while waiting for the 3 o'clock hour! All these rumors are really addictive. Trying to find leaks with any relevance is like searching for bigfoot!

LOL! If Self wanted another pay raise he would have taken the blank check from Boone Pickens! People here in TX are not very educated on KU or Bill Self.

http://www.hornsports.com/texas-basketball-rumors-recruiting-updates ↗

This message was a duplicate I cant delete.

My prediction is UK Drops the first game to UNC Asheville later on this week. UNC Asheville has some size and is going to be a far better apponment than either Division II school UK has faced this year!

After seeing UNLV loose to Dixie state a Division II school, Duke trailing Division II Drury at the half, and the UK's fab 5 squad only had one guy in double digits against a Division III school. Aaron Harrison was 3-10 with 2 assists in 26 min (ball hog). I am starting to feel alot more comfortable with our team and our chances early on with the amount of depth we have. The Duke game had nearly 40 PF's, Louisville's exhibition last Tuesday included 64 fouls, and five Kentucky Wesleyan players fouled out. Our guys can go out there and play knowing they have fouls to give.

Its pretty cool seeing some of the Blue bloods on the east coast struggling a little bit early! And BTW UK is only leading 69-58 in their 2nd exhibition game with 7:44 left to play lol! There is no way they're going 40-0 LMFAO!

The game last night was not pretty, not really fun to watch, and KU couldnt get in a rythem. Way too many commertials and it seamed to go on for ever. KU's freshmen looked sloppy but some how mannaged to win by 40 pts. I am even more excited because I can see we are FAR from a finnished product and have so much room for improvement! Just hope that we can rely on tallent alone to beat Duke because our execution is no good this early on and with this many newcomers!

All this red shirt talk is really dumb too! When you have 50 fouls a game being called the typicle 8-9 man rotation everyone is having so much fun predicting will expand to 9-10 man rotation due to foul trouble. In 2010-2011 we had 10 guys averaging 10 minutes or more each game and with these new rules I dont see Self rsing anyone. There were 5 guys in foul trouble last night between both teams. I can see 3-4 guys fouling out during the last 2 minutes of 80% of our non conf schedule and Self putting in our best shooters (you know the rs candidates). We had 25 fouls last night and imagine 2 weeks from now against Duke having 25 or more fouls at the 2 min mark down by 2? I can see a few big reasons for not RSing anyone

Everyone has bad days and Smart himself had a game vs Tech last year where he went for a whole 3 pts (1-6 shooting). He also went 1-6 in his first game last year. Selden shot 50% and had 5 pts. He was trying to get his teamates involved and only took 4 shots! What would everyone be saying if he was 1-6 last night? Get a grip people!

Some of the less talked about things I thought after last night,

I was happy to see Landen Lucas make the most of his minutes and expect him to get more minutes because he is one of Self's bigger Bigs. If he keeps his shot percentage up and continues to rebound like he did last night he will garner more minutes than Traylor. Do the math if he had played 30 min he would have had 12 pts 18 reb. That's impressive!

After the scrimmage in June I expected Greene to be in the rotation and he very well could work his way into the rotation. With the new rules this teams biggest advantage is going to be depth and Self has more than any team in the league!

I think Selden did just fine and I believe that he was thinking about his teammates and moving the ball forward (you can see he what he is trying to do it just looked ugly last night). He wasn't taking a bunch of contested shots. He should have been driving to the basket and taking contact though because he could have benefited from the charity stripe.

AW3 has looked good all summer from the televised events I watched and I believe he will get to start a few games until Selden stops making freshman errors and stops thinking. When Selden starts firing on all cylinders AW3 will have the best seat in the house as first off the bench.

Jeff Goodman of ESPN recently stopped by Kansas to watch Wiggins practice and did not leave impressed. Marcus Smart said Wiggins will need to prove it on the court. During practice Selden guards Wiggins (which is a bigger version of Smart) could that be why he left unimpressed? During the open practice Wiggins dropped 20+ when not being guarded by Selden and was the teams leading scorer. Wiggins and Selden are too long/big for opposing teams guards to handle and with Perry/Black inside KU will dominate! KU is going to embarrass some really good teams this year and I cant wait!

Jeff Goodman of ESPN recently stopped by Kansas to watch Wiggins practice and did not leave impressed. Marcus Smart says he wants Wiggins to prove it on court. I think practicing against Selden (Which is a bigger version of Smart) might be the reason Goodman left unimpressed. During the open practice while not guarded by Selden he dropped 20+ and was the teams leading scorer. Selden and Wiggins are going to be too big/long for opposing teams to handle hands down and with Black and Ellis inside its going to be total domination with plenty of talent to rest our core group! KU will embarrass some really good teams this year and I cant wait for it to begin. Haters gonna Hate...