🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@BShark Have you seen a KSU game this year? They're legitimately worse than KU this year. Their offense is worse than KU's, their defense is worse than KU's, this is probably the worst KSU has been under Snyder since his first season there.

@BShark Can you at least spell the man's name right?

The Costco "Kirklands" brand scotch is surprisingly good and is quite a bit cheaper than other brands. About $25 for a 1.75L bottle. Definitely worth it for a budget scotch.

@JayHawkFanToo A new coach wouldn't be named until December anyway. I guarantee Long has already been talking to agents to gauge interest among potential coaches, but if it's a current coach and not Les Miles, they wouldn't be able to take the job until December anyway.

This is going to be a throwaway recruiting year with whoever the new coach is basically taking whatever he can get and trying to hit the ground running for 2020 recruiting.

Gassnola has ready plead guilty to the charges against him. He has no reason to cover anything up at this point. He's the one cooperating the most and telling all. Gatto and Dawkins both plead not guilty to the charges against them. They are looking for anyone to to scapegoat to make themselves look innocent and have chosen the flagship school of Adidas basketball.

Do I think Bill Self is totally innocent in this? No, he's always been at least aware of players getting paid and other benefits. He's not naive of that. He's also smart enough to use coded language that can left open to interpretation so there is plausible deniability if the NCAA starts snooping.

@BShark That would largely depend on match ups to me. I don't know how well KJ could handle a physical 4 and with Mitch's added bulk, I'd think he'd be better suited for those types of match ups.

@BShark Lightfoot shouldn't be getting big minutes in big/close games period this year unless Silvio doesn't play this year

BShark said:

If Mitch plays one real minute at the three I will be shocked.

I could see him getting a few minutes here and there at the 3 this season. Definitely not equal to what he will at the 4. I think most of those minutes at the 3 would come due to foul issues though or if Self wants to go with a huge line up. Silvio playing this year would also probably make Mitch playing some minutes at the 3 the best way to get him on the floor.

I think this would also likely be Self experimenting with different line up combinations during the nonconference part of the schedule and wouldn't expect to see Mitch at the 3 during B12 play except in extreme situations.

Woodrow said:

I did a quick search and it looks like from 1995-2005 39 players who skipped college got drafted. Some not even first round. That’s like 3-4 a year. Again, people over grossly over estimating the impact that will have.

Check the difference in numbers pre and post LeBron. The number of players that jumped to the pros after LeBron was definitively higher in the post LeBron era and that's why the NBA instituted the rule. Repeal that rule now and it would probably be 10 or so HS kids going pro per year with maybe 2-3 being ready at most.

2005 had 9 HS players drafted and 2004 had 8 HS players drafted. That's a little under half of those 39 players in the final 2 year stretch of HS players being able to declare for the draft. Most of those players ended up as busts.

I wouldn't touch Butch Jones for the next hire. He's not a program builder. He inherited already established Central Michigan and Cincinnati programs from Brian Kelly.

HighEliteMajor said:

@kjayhawks One thing we haven't discussed -- what if the broad range of other schools are not doing this? I know that seems a bit far-fetched. But what if there are some that aren't in this conspiracy?

You can find those teams at the bottom of their conference standings, if there are any P5 programs that are truly clean.

@JayHawkFanToo Your 4 teams include 3 of the 4 I think will be in. The only that I don't think makes it is Clemson. And the ACC is a weak enough this year that a 1 loss Clemson doesn't make it.

If Michigan wins out, that mean Ohio St. is out of the playoffs. That's basically my logic in how UCF gets in the playoffs this year. So many of those teams still in contention play each other that they will eliminate each other from contention. If Alabama runs the table and wins the SEC title, every other SEC team will have at least two losses. If Ohio St. runs the table, every other B10 team will have at least 2 losses. WVU still plays both Texas and OU. At least 2 of those 3 teams will have multiple losses going into the B12 title game.

You keep saying it's going to take a lot of 2 loss teams, and guess what? That will be reality because so many of those teams still have to play each other.

The two teams UCF really needs to lose are Clemson and Oklahoma. Everyone else they need to lose will eventually lose at least once more.

@JayHawkFanToo and @Woodrow I think enough teams lose to get UCF in as the 4 seed.

I think Clemson will drop one and their schedule is weak enough they won't be able to take that loss.

I think Notre Dame will drop one, but their schedule is strong enough to take a loss.

I think LSU loses to Bama for their 2nd loss.

I think Michigan takes their 2nd loss against Ohio St.

I think Texas drops at least 1 more game, probably 2 and ends up with 3 losses.

I think Georgia takes their 2nd loss against Alabama in the SEC title game.

OU is a wildcard to me. That's the team that keep UCF out.

I think Florida loses to Georgia for their 2nd loss.

I think Oregon will drop one at some point for their 2nd loss.

I think WVU loses 2 more to both Texas and OU.

I think Kentucky loses to Georgia for their 2nd loss.

I think NC State will drop at least 2 more games this year.

Yes, UCF needs help to get in, but Alabama and Georgia can take care of a lot of those 2nd losses the SEC teams.

There are 3 teams in particular that UCF will be cheering against because those are the teams that can keep UCF put and that's Clemson, Oklahoma, and Georgia.

Clemson and OU don't have obvious losses on their schedule so those are the 2 teams that can really impact UCF and keep them out.

@kjayhawks Big 10 still has 2 legit playoff contenders in Ohio St. and Michigan. The ACC has 1. NC State may still be undefeated, but they aren't winning out. 1 loss by Clemson with their weak schedule very likely eliminates them.

@JayHawkFanToo Go look at their schedule again. Cincinnati, USF, and likely Houston in the AAC title game. Cincy will be either 10-0 or 9-1 when that game happens. USF will be somewhere between 11-0 and 9-2 when they play UCF. Houston will likely be either 11-1 or 10-2 in the AAC title game match up. USF and Cincy are both ranked now and UH will likely be ranked by the time the AAC title game rolls around. Ending their season against 3 straight ranked teams will be a statement for UCF and be enough to get an undefeated UCF ahead of quite a few 1 loss teams.

They do need some upsets to happen, but I think those upsets will happen and get UCF in as the 4th seed.

@kjayhawks A lot of the CFP scenarios depend on what happens in the SEC because there are still 5 teams in the picture. The loser of the UGA/Florida game in 2 weeks is done. If Georgia wins that one, then the play at Kentucky the following week and loser of that game is done. The UGA/UK game is the same day as the LSU/Alabama game and if LSU loses, they're done. Alabama would still be in the mix at that point if they lost, but would need an OSU/Clemson/ND loss as well to get them back in the top 4.

Notre Dame is the only other of the current undefeateds that could take a loss and not be done in the CFP race because their schedule is strong enough to take a loss and not be done.

I think CFP ends up being 13-0 Alabama as the 1 seed, 13-0 Ohio St. as the 2 seed, 11-1 Notre Dame as the 3 seed, and 13-0 UCF as the 4 seed. I think the other teams in the discussion would be a 12-1 Oklahoma, 12-1 Clemson and 12-1 Oregon.

@kjayhawks I posted about Colorado before that game got going so that's an important piece of the puzzle out of the way for Texas and OU because now the P12 is out of undefeated teams.

I still stand by my statement that some of those teams currently behind Texas would jump ahead of Texas like LSU and Michigan both did today. These are the teams that I think would jump Texas should they win out. Georgia, Oklahoma, UCF, Florida, West Virginia, Kentucky, and NC State.

Obviously not all of those teams will win out because 3 of them are in the SEC East and Georgia has yet to play either one of them. If Georgia goes into the CFP discussion with the lone loss, that means they will have beaten Florida, Kentucky, and either Alabama/LSU in the SEC title game. That would jump them over Texas. A 1 loss Florida would have wins over Georgia, at least 1 against LSU (possibly 2) or Alabama in the SEC title game. A 1 loss Kentucky would have wins over Florida, Georgia, and either Alabama/LSU. OU and WVU would both jump Texas if they won out because it would mean they beat Texas along the way most likely unless Texas falters before the B12 title game in OU's case. If NC State wins out, they'd be 13-0 so they'd end up ahead of Texas and I've said my piece on UCF and how their schedule likely sets them up at the end of the season.

Honestly, I don't see Texas winning out to begin with. I see them dropping 1 maybe even 2 more games if they make the B12 title game. I think they lose in Lubbock and if the make the B12 title game, I think they lose to OU.

I think the CFP is going to end up being undefeated Alabama, Ohio St., UCF, and a 1 loss Notre Dame with Alabama and UCF in one semifinal and Ohio St. and Notre Dame in the other semi final.

Laugh all you want about UCF, they survived a horrible weather game today and have the schedule at the end of the season to boost their resume big time. UCF ends their season against a Cincinnati team that will either be 10-0 or 9-1 depending on their USF match up. They end the regular season against USF that will at worst be 9-2 going into that game and possibly 11-0 if they beat both Houston a d Cincinnati which would likely have them hovering near the top 10. Their AAC title game will likely be against a Houston team that should be 10-2 at worst, possibly 11-1 if they beat USF which I think they will and would be solidly in the top 25 at that point.

UCF is most likely ending their season against the other 3 best teams in their conference which will all likely be ranked at the time they play UCF and a couple of those teams may well be top 15 at the time of those games. UCF has the schedule set up perfectly for them to get in the playoff if some losses by other teams happen.

@kjayhawks If LSU wins the SEC and Bama finishes with 1 loss, they'll both be in the playoff. Same deal if a 1 loss SEC East representative beats an undefeated Bama in the SEC title game. Alabama has to lose twice unless Clemson, Ohio St., and Notre Dame all won out which would put a 1 loss SEC champ in with 3 undefeateds.

@Woodrow Texas would still need help even if they won out which I don't see happening. They'll still need Geogia, Florida, LSU, and Michigan to drop a second game. If any of those teams finish with 1 loss (meaning they win out), they'd all be ahead of Texas in final rankings. Texas also needs UCF to lose, they need Colorado to lose, they would need Ohio St. to lose, and they need Notre Dame to lose, probably twice depending on who the loss is to.

Texas still has a lot of work to do because there's other teams behind them with much harder schedules left that can jump them (or end up undefeated like NC State). I wouldn't be at all surprised if Texas only moves up to 7 and both Michigan and LSU jump them this week.

Big 12 is not making the playoffs this year.

@kjayhawks Today put them at 3-4. They'll have to beat TCU, KU, and ISU to get to a bowl game. The TCU and ISU games are both on the road so that makes it pretty challenging for them to get there.

I don't see them getting the 3 more wins they still need to get to bowl eligibility because their offense is statistically worse than KU's this year.

@kjayhawks I don't see KSU getting to a bowl game this year. They're not winning in Norman, and they can't score enough to hang with Tech. That means they have to beat TCU and ISU on the road along with KU. KU might end up being their only other win this year and I wouldn't even guarantee that this year if they turn the ball over against us because that's a team that's struggling more than KU to score points.

Malzahn has always come across as an underachiever to me. He's only had 1 really good season at Auburn with his own players, and that was last season. I know he took Auburn to the title game in his first year, but he couldn't back it up and Auburn has been a middle of the pack or worse team every year but last year.

To me, Malzahn is a slightly better version of Charlie Weis and I don't think he'd ever really get KU turned around.

Long needs to do what he has to do to get Les Miles because Miles can get KU going in the right direction.

@Lulufulu There's a lot more than two teams worse than KU right now. KU is still a bad team, but nowhere near last season bad. This team won a road game and beat a P5 team out of conference this year. The defense led the nation in turnovers forced going into this weekend. They've also been a lot more competitive so far in B12 play than people anticipated.

To say this is one of the 2 worst teams in D1 is a joke because this KU team has beaten 2 FBS teams so clearly there's at least 2 teams worse than KU.

And no, Beaty should not have been fired after game 1 because it wouldn't have accomplished anything significant. They weren't bringing in a new head coach until after the season, it wasn't going to change any recruits minds, it wasn't going to change Beaty's buyout amount. Jeff Long is putting together his plan and isn't going to make a move just to make a move. Beaty will gone after the Texas game, a new head coach will be named within a couple of weeks before that and the staff will likely be finalized in early January while trying to cobble together a recruiting class for this year.

This is the beginning of the end for Beaty.

@Woodrow There's more ranked teams on UCF's schedule than there are on Clemson's.

@Woodrow An undefeated UCF gets in over all those teams.

This is who would get in with 1 loss over an undefeated UCF. Alabama, Georgia (probably), Ohio St., Notre Dame, Michigan, LSU, Florida, and Kentucky.

Everybody else that's currently undefeated or with 1 loss would need help from other teams to get in over an undefeated UCF if those other teams ended up with 1 loss.

@Woodrow Not as many as you think because of how many undefeated and 1 loss teams still have to play each other. A lot of those teams are going to end up cannibalizing themselves.

I won't argue that there's probably 12 or so teams that if they won out would end up ahead of UCF, but I will argue that most of those teams won't win out because they still play at least one of those other teams.

I will also argue that there are some teams that just simply can't afford a loss because of how weak their conferences are this year. The ACC, B12, and P12 are all way down this year and I don't think a 1 loss champ in any of those three leagues gets in over an undefeated UCF at this point.

@Woodrow I think both you and @Kcmatt7 overestimate the number of teams going undefeated this year.

Also, UCF's path isn't as difficult this year as last year. They need some help, but their division in the AAC is strong enough with Cincy and USF being ranked and UCF's final two games before the AAC title game, probably against a Houston team that could be ranked by December that gives the Knights an ideal schedule to end the season strong and leave a good impression if a few other teams slip up.

I won't say UCF makes it to the playoff, but they have a better shot than some other teams right now.

@justanotherfan The B12 needs a lot of help. Multiple losses by Notre Dame, Georgia, Clemson, and Ohio St. They would also need losses from UCF, Penn St., Michigan, NC State, Washington, Colorado, Florida, and LSU.

If WVU runs the table, that list becomes much shorter to get in. OU probably doesn't need quite all of that, but Texas does likely need all of those to play out along with running the table to get in.

The talent gap between KU and the bottom and mid tier teams in the B12 is not what most people want to assume it is.

There's only one position group where it just hasn't clicked yet and it's the most important position group in football and that's the OLine. This OLine is better than they were in week 1, but they're still by far the worst OLine in the B12.

I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the turnover at the OLine coaching spot, but if whoever's coaching next year can get average play out of the OLine, KU can have a good offense.

I think we see the team take a huge step backwards next year because of losing basically the entire defense, but that can be somewhat negated if the OLine play is halfway decent.

kjayhawks said:

@jayballer73 I’ll agree to disagree with you buddy. I think we are 4-2 right now with the right coach.

This team is 5-1 with the right staff. Nicholls, Baylor, and today are all wins.

B12 is not making the CFP this year.

Don't look now, but Oklahoma just tied the game.

@kjayhawks If there was an OLine. QB play really hasn't been that bad this year for the situation they have with the OLine. The OLine play has prevented any type of running game from getting going which has hurt the passing game as well and allowed teams to stack the box. A good OLine opens up play action and would give Bender more time to throw which he's been solid when given time this year.

Crimsonorblue22 said:

Weiss didn't get the time?

Weis was a disaster from the get go. I will say that I agree that Gill got screwed over. That transition away from Mangino was never to going to be quickly and there were a lot of issues in the program because of Mangino. Gill needed the time to filter those players out and get his own guys in.

I will say that based on today, I don't think this will be Beaty's final game.

That was probably a pick, but there wasn't an angle that didn't show the ball all the way so I get staying with the original call on it.

@dylans B12 needs OU to win that game. They're the only team capable of making the CFP and doing something. WVU is a good team, but they'll drop 1 or 2 games this year they shouldn't drop and lose to OU.

If KU was playing someone other than a top 10 team, they would being winning this game. This is the exact scenario I said at the beginning of the year that it would take for KU to pull an upset in B12 play.

A team comes out flat and commits a couple of turnovers. Problem is WVU is too good that even with these mistakes, KU still can't take full advantage. Had this happened against and ISU, Baylor, KSU, Tech, or someone like that, KU would likely win a game against teams like that.

Offense has been garbage, defense has been bailed out by Will Grier making multiple bad decisions on the goal line. This game should be 42-7 right now.

Too bad the defense is wasting this performance against a team like WVU instead of against someone like KSU or ISU where 3 picks would give KU a shot at winning.

@nuleafjhawk That's not one of those things I like to joke around with because I've had someone try and get me fired from a job before when I was younger by taking something I said completely out of context and trying to say I was bad mouthing my boss at the time. Only reason I didn't get fired was because of multiple people backing my side of the story.

That's just not one of those things I like to joke around about because of stuff I've experienced in the past.

@jayballer73 Les Miles has said he'd be interested in coaching again and there's enough traction to these rumors that's been on his wikipedia page for quite awhile now.

The biggest reason for the speculation is Jeff Long's hiring of Les Miles former Michigan teammate Mike Vollmar to oversee the football program specifically and basically be a liaison between the staff and Long.

Miles may not ultimately take the job, but he is definitely the top target for Jeff Long and is a realistic possibility as of this time.

@nuleafjhawk I just don't appreciate stuff I say being taken out of context to the extent that you did because it's implying that I'm defending a position that I'm not defending.

@nuleafjhawk When you qoute that, what is your purpose in quoting that?

I suspect you're trying to use that quote to imply I'm suggesting Beaty not be fired until after the season ends. If that is your intention, I don't appreciate my quotes being taken out of context in that manner.

@Kcmatt7 I don't mean phone it in as far as game planning and day to day stuff. There's no motivation for these guys to go out and recruit for 2019 knowing they won't be back so announcing a new coach now does nothing to help the recruiting situation to begin with.

2019 is a lost cause recruiting class at this point because there won't be much out there by the December/January rolls around and the new coach has his staff in place. That's what recruits are going to be waiting for any way, not who the head coach is. The assistant coaches do about 90% of the work recruiting players because that's who builds the relationships with the recruits.

@Kcmatt7 Let me ask you something. Let's say Beaty gets canned after the WVU game and announces Les Miles is the new coach on Monday. How does that help anything? The current assistants would be in a lame duck scenario and have little motivation to do anything to help Miles out.

I'd also be willing to bet that just about every potential assistant coach Miles would want to hire is currently employed elsewhere and would not be too inclined to leave their current job midseason and I doubt their current employers would even give Miles or KU permission to speak to them during the season.

Even if Beaty is fired after tomorrow's game, it makes no sense to do anything beyond announcing who the interim coach would be (Bowen most likely) and say that search for the next coach is underway and leave it at that. Even if there is a deal already in place for Les Miles, it would make no sense to announce it officially until after the Texas game when KU's season is over.

The only way for your hypothetical to play out is if Miles hires a bunch of currently unemployed coaches which would not be something that would sit well with many people, including you.

@KUSTEVE I don't think we'd see them in the front court together very much even if SDS is ruled ineligible. KJ will mostly play the 3 this year and when he does play the 4 spot, it'll be in place of his brother, not next to him, but that's assuming Self doesn't decide to play Mitch as the back up 4 if Silvio is ruled ineligible.

@wissox Selig is the 2nd worst commissioner. His contemporary over in the NHL Gary Bettman is the worst. Selig did a lot of bad things for baseball, but he never came as close to killing the sport as Bettman did to killing the NHL. The NHL still is only has a handful of games in network TV and with the NBC game of the week the Stanley Cup finals are only NBC during the weekend.