🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@HighEliteMajor Your assumptions about the complexity of the spread is not accurate at all, especially in regards to the OLine. Run blocking is always more difficult to execute than pass blocking is, always has been and always will be. The reason being is that in run blocking, the OLine has to have the strength to open up the running lane for that particular play which means the OLineman has to be stronger than the guy he is blocking.

In pass blocking, OLinemen don't even attempt to move down field because of the risk of an illegal man down field penalty. Because of that, in pass blocking the goal is to not give up ground which is always much easier than trying to gain ground. Even if you don't hold your ground, forcing the DLinemen to go outside and having to loop around to get to the QB gives the QB enough time to find his receiver.

@Kcmatt7 Vick was the fuel in that incident because Vick and Calvert were dating at one point and the incident happened pretty soon after they broke up. Vick was with another girl rubbing that new relationship in Calvert's face afrer Vick realized Calvert was there. I said it then and I'll say it again, Lagerald Vick being an a-hole to Calvert is what caused that whole situation to explode.

@HighEliteMajor So you're evidence of Vick being a PG is a quote from Self last season when KU had only 1 PG on the roster. The only reason Vick would've ever seen a minute a PG last year would've been as Newman's back up had Graham gotten injured at some point.

There is zero video evidence to suggest Vick is capable of running point. His handles are worse than EJ's when he was forced to play out of position. Lagerald Vick at point would be an absolute disaster. He is also by far the worst ball handler among the perimeter players who will see relevant minutes next season.

@HighEliteMajor Yes, it's a pass blocking scheme to make the DE's have further to go to get to the QB by an extra step or two which gives the QB an extra second or so to read the defense and make the right read. I know what you're preferred offensive system is and I still don't see it working at Kansas. The triple option is a very difficult system and much more complicated than the spread is. There's very few HS's that run it and very few coaches who know it well enough to run it successfully at the college level.

The spread offense is a very simple offense with the option being the most complicated version of it, because any version of the option is the most difficult to run in college football. There's only a handful of base plays in the spread offense and the effectiveness of it comes from it's ability to exploit any defensive system.

@stoptheflop I don't recall that specific game, but if it was during the late 90's, I believe that was a period of time when UCLA was consistently in the conversation of being a national title contender so it really wouldn't be surprising if that's accurate based on what KU was at the time.

Widening the splits like that isn't a tactic used to beat an Oklahoma or other top program, but it's done to take advantage of the middle of the pack and bad teams like Leach did until Tech started getting the players to fit Leach's system and develop their OLine so they didn't have to take the wide splits.

@nuleafjhawk KU won't find a competent QB because you can count on one hand the number of competent QB's that have come here.

The key at QB for a school like KU is the QB coach. Can he find a unrefined QB who isn't developed enough for the major schools to be interested in, and then refine those skills and make that QB into that competent QB to carry a program.

The other path is the Todd Reesing path and find someone who has all the intangibles already, but is off in a measurable category like height that the bigger schools focus on when deciding which QB's to offer and recruit.

@kjayhawks The option doesn't work well at all with a weak OLine for the same reason any other offensive system doesn't work with a bad OLine, the QB has no time to make the proper reads.

What KU could do to help out this OLine is a trick Mike Leach used at Texas Tech when he was transitioning them from a run first offense to his air raid. He widened the splits between the OLinemen. What that did was increase the distance the DLine had to go to get to the QB which did give the QB more time to read the defense and make the right read.

If Beaty wants to help this OLine out next season, that's what he does and makes the OLine have 3'-4' gaps between players instead of 1' gaps which is normal.

@Woodrow I didn't say QB was Beaty's biggest issue, I said his inability to stick with an offensive coordinator and an offensive system was his biggest downfall.

This has been Beaty's greatest downfall above all others, his inability to stick with an offensive coordinator and an offensive system. Pick which version of the spread offense you want to run and stick with it. I don't care if it's the air raid, spread option, or any other variation of the spread. Just pick one, go through the growing pains of it and recruit players for that system and develop it.

If KU wants to be an air raid offense, Bender needs to be the QB. If KU wants to run a spread option, then Kendrick should be the starter. Carter Stanley isn't a starter and I've believed that since I first saw him on the field. He is an ideal back up QB which is an important role when you have an OLine as bad as KU does because the back up will play.

@jaybate-1.0 Did you see Vick's handles last year, worse than EJ's who was listed as a PG coming out of HS. Vick was also listed as a shooting guard by every major recruiting service. Are you saying that all the recruiting sites were lying to everyone about what position Vick played because the evidence sure doesn't point that way.

@KUSTEVE We were overseeded both years we lost to WSU and Stanford. Realistically, that should've still been a second round match up, but probably as a 4/5 game instead of a 2/7 game.

@Woodrow No, because Self laid out a bunch of conditions for Vick to return and if Vick doesn't meet those conditions, Self will boot him off the team.

Did not see this one coming. Hopefully he can bump his shooting to 40% and be a defensive specialist.

This is a young group, but still plenty of college experience. The concern may end up being a lack of experience in March from the rotation guys. The Lawson's and Moore didn't play in the NCAA tournament at their previous schools and as good as the non conference and Big 12 is, the NCAA tournament is different beast entirely so there's no real way to know how they'll handle that situation. We know Doke and Garrett should be fine because they each handled their first NCAA's fine, but the rest are the question marks. I realistically believe this team can enter the NCAA Tournament with 30+ wins this year. The talent level is there for this as I believe this is the second most talented team Bill Self has ever had at KU behind the title team in 2008.

KU announced their full non conference schedule today and it's a good one. Every team KU plays in the non conference this season made the postseason including at least 5 NCAA tournament teams and possibly a 6th depending on the Preseason NIT match ups.

Oct. 25 Emporia St. (Exhibition)

Nov. 1 Washburn (Exhibition)

Nov. 6 Michigan St.* (Champions Classic in Indianapolis)

Nov. 12 Vermont (NIT home game)

Nov. 16 Louisiana-Lafayette (NIT home game)

Nov. 21 TBD (NIT in Brooklyn)

Nov. 23 TBD (NIT in Brooklyn)

KU will play 2 of 3 among Louisville, Marquette, and Tennessee* in the NIT in Brooklyn

Dec. 1 Stanford

Dec. 4 Wofford

Dec. 8 New Mexico St.* (Sprint Center)

Dec. 15 Villanova*

Dec. 18 South Dakota

Dec. 22 @Arizona St.*

Dec. 29 Eastern Michigan

Jan 26 @Kentucky*

This team doesn't play a true road game until right before Christmas against Arizona St. in a slot that has historically caused some issues for past Bill Self teams. I know this team is young, but honestly there isn't a reason this team shouldn't win at least 11 of the 13 non conference games this year.

NBA 2K will sell more games than Live will because 2K's the better game overall.

@JayHawkFanToo Those men who could potentially be trusted aren't the coaches lining up for the Kansas job, so I don't ever want to see a head coach at KU, Bill Self included, have 100% autonomy within their program. That's asking for trouble in the industry of college athletics.

@JayHawkFanToo You would never give a HC total control of a program at the college level with zero interference from the AD's office. That's just asking for trouble in the long run from multiple directions in regards to recruiting and dealing with donors.

@Kcmatt7 Any big name coaching is not staying at KU long term. If Candle came here and had any success, he'd be at or near the top of the list once Urban Meyer left OSU. There isn't a coach in college football turning down the Ohio St. job to stay at Kansas.

If you want a coach to potentially stay at KU for a long time, an up and comer is not the answer because KU will either be his springboard to a better job or his graveyard as a HC.

The ideal candidate to stay at a place like KU for 10+ years is someone with strong ties to the program (nobody worth hiring fits that bill) or someone in their early 50's that's been a longtime coordinator at a winning P5 program. Think of someone like Bud Foster at Virginia Tech, but about 5-8 years younger. That's the profile of someone who wouldn't leave KU for the next available job.

Jason Candle wouldn't last a recruiting cycle at Kansas if he had any on field success here.

@BShark If half the roster transferred out, is that really a bad thing considering KU was the only P5 offer a lot of those players received?

Keeping Beaty will never yield anything productive. The man can't stick with a plan as evidenced by the changes at OC and system every offseason.

Firing David Beaty does likely mean losing Tony Hull to an SEC program, but that's not a given. A smart head coach will evaluate the current staff to see if there's anyone worth keeping around to provide some continuity for the players. Tony Hull is by far the brightest coaching prospect on this staff so he's the one to focus on.

The next step is that the new HC interviews Hull first to see if their personalities work well together and share a similar vision for the program. If that part goes well, then you figure out what it'll take to keep Hull at KU which likely means promoting him to OC.

Given Hull's background at the high school level in New Orleans and what he's done with the RB's at KU, I think Hull would make an excellent OC in the B12.

You have potentially 3 building block pieces that Hull has brought to KU to build around in Harris at CB who can be a guy that shuts down his part of the field. Williams at RB who can be a 200-250 carries a year type back and a 1,000 rusher.

Then you have Lance Legendre who if he stays committed is someone who could come in and start from day 1 at Kansas and give KU something they haven't had at QB since Todd Reesing.

Losing Hull probably means losing all 3 of those guys and Legendre for sure. Any new HC hire with common sense is going to look at what's already in place that's worth building around and see that Hull is the guy who brought those players in and will give seri plus consideration to retaining Hull in some capacity at KU.

@Woodrow It probably won't happen, but Hull is the one guy on this staff who has boosted his coaching profile and the one guy worth seriously considering retaining on this staff for the next HC. With the recruiting he's done in Louisiana, I guarantee schools all over the place have taken notice of what he's done on the recruiting trail and will be all over him if he's available.

If KU wants to keep him, the next HC will likely have to make Hull the OC to keep him and that pipeline open. You may think that's laughable, but Hull's track record at the HS level in New Orleans and what he's accomplished at KU says he's a guy worth taking a chance on.

@Woodrow Legendre will be completely dependent upon what the next coach does with Tony Hull. If the next coach makes Tony Hull the OC at KU, KU will have a real shot a keeping Legendre.

@dylans Pretty sure Frank didn't start as a freshman. I'm pretty sure Tharpe started when Mason was a freshman.

I have no issue with Perry at 4. At a school like Kansas, team success has to play a factor when judging players. While Perry might have had the most consistent career of the bunch, I'm pretty sure he also lost more games than anyone else and was a key player on a pair of KU teams that failed to get past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.

@BShark Self doesn't typically redshirt freshmen though. The only guys I can think of who redshirt as freshmen were Traylor and McLemore because of academic issues. I believe everyone else who has taken a voluntary redshirt at KU has done it their 2nd season or later on campus.

@BeddieKU23 How many players increase their shooting % when transitioning to a deeper 3 point line?

His outside shooting in Canada does not bode well for Grimes shooting a higher % than he did in HS next season.

@BeddieKU23 39% in HS isn't great. That likely translates to 35-37% at best in college

@KUSTEVE Grimes is not a great shooter. That's by far the weakest part of his game at this point and he'll be in the NBA before his long range shot develops. I'm expecting him to be somewhere around 35-37% season which is decent at best.

@JayHawkFanToo Very good chance that never happens. Better than 50/50, I'd say 75/25 at this point Grimes is OAD. He's already showing up as a projected lottery pick in several 2019 mock drafts.

Considering KU has no scholarship seniors this season, they need some players to pan out and leave early to make room for Hurt, JRE, and anyone else they sign in 2019.

@JayHawkFanToo @Crimsonorblue22 It said tied for national best with 19 returning starters I believe. Not best as in most talented, best as in most.

6 games is what Beaty has to prove himself this season before the new AD fires him at that point or in November after the season is over. KU has a bye after week 6 so that's the ideal time to fire Beaty if KU isn't at least 3-3 at that point.

If KU is 3-3 at that point, give him the season to try and reach a bowl game and if now, he's gone.

@justanotherfan D2 schools don't offer full athletic scholarships to begin with, and D3 schools don't offer them at all. Athletes who go to D2 and D3 schools aren't going to those schools for athletics in the first place, they're at those schools for academics because they have no professional athletic hopes except in very rare cases.

What usually happens at those levels is a kid realizes that athletics takes up too much time and they start suffering in the classroom so they quit their sport to focus solely on academics.

Kids who go to those schools are usually doing so because they are within about 4 hours from their homes and it's a chance to keep playing a sport they love while getting a college education.

@approxinfinity With the way Nova shot, I don't think the outcome changes. Maybe a 10 point loss instead of 17 or whatever the final ended up being.

@justanotherfan I wouldn't fully get rid of the transfer rule. I would change to where kids can transfer without sitting only if the coach of that program left the program. If the kid is transferring for other reasons such as playing time, that kid still has to sit a year unless it's one of the already established exceptions such as a grad transfer.

@HighEliteMajor I don't think it would have. Nova was too hot early on and KU was too ice cold the first 10 minutes of the game that I don't think Bamba would've made enough of a difference to keep that game competitive.

@JayHawkFanToo What does the US FIFA rankings (a complete joke by the way) have to do with how popular soccer is here in the US? I live in a city with an NFL, NBA, MLB, and MLS team. Texans are by far the number 1 team in the city followed by the Astros, then the Rockets, then the Dynamo lag well behind those three despite being the most successful team of the 4 since moving to Houston in 2006 having won two MLS Cups, and playing for 2 other MLS Cups and being playoff regulars. They're still 4th in Houston despite the huge Hispanic population here where soccer is the top sport.

The Dynamo are one of the teams that in theory should be a bigger draw than they are giving the historic success of the franchise and the demographics of the city, but I've been to plenty of games where it's been about 60% capacity in an 18,000 seat stadium because people still care far more about the other 3 pro teams in the city.

@JayHawkFanToo Basketball isn't a priority sport in Panama. It's at best the 3rd most popular sport behind soccer then baseball.

It's same issue with soccer in this country. Soccer is at best the 4th most popular sport in this country which is why the US has always struggled to compete against world powers and and significant factor in why the US failed to qualify for the World Cup this year.

Basketball just isn't a priority sport in Panama like soccer or baseball is there. Until that changes, very doubtful, Panama will never improve in basketball.

@JayHawkFanToo Bamba wouldn't have made a difference against Nova for KU.

Mo Bamba is going to be a top 5 pick, going to Texas didn't impact his stock at all.

@BShark Depends on which Dedric is shooting those 3's. Freshman year Dedric was solid for a big man at 35%, it if he's shooting it like he did his sophomore year at 27%, that's going to cost KU games and I don't want him venturing out there at all.

@Woodrow There's actually a pretty high chance he goes to LA. LeBron also mentioned wanting to stay close to family. He already owns 2 homes in the LA area, including a $23 million mansion in Brentwood he bought in December. This will likely be the final contract he signs and since his oldest son appears to be a pretty highly regarded recruit, setting up in LA with all the prep schools in the general vicinity, including the Las Vegas area prep schools, makes sense from what LeBron has actually said will influence his decision.

The Lakers also have the cap space this offseason to sign 2 max level players. The Lakers have $20 million more than any other team so they could sign both LeBron and Paul George without much issue. There's also talk that if the Lakers sign both of those two, they may make a run at trading for Leonard as well to give themselves a core of James, George, Leonard, Ball, and Kuzma.

The Rockets are a more complicated scenario, but after what Daryl Morey pulled off last summer to land Chris Paul, don't doubt that he can work his magic again this offseason to swing something to land LeBron if LeBron wants to come to Houston. The key to any scenario involving the Rockets landing LeBron centers around the Rockets dumping Ryan Anderson's $20 million contract. Morey will do anything to get rid of that albatross of a contract which is probably the worst deal he's ever made.

@approxinfinity Long shots equal long rebounds and that means you need guards who can rebound better which hopefully KU's long armed guards could do if teams do try and launch a lot of 3's against KU.

I think with this group of players KU has next year, KU could hold opponents to 30% or lower from 3 considering KU gave up 33% last season.

@HighEliteMajor Dedric was 35% as a freshman and 27% as a sophomore. If Dedric is at his freshman level, then I'm okay with him taking 3-4 3's at the top of the key, but if he's 30% or lower next year, taking that many 3's will only be a detriment to KU.

@HighEliteMajor If he's shooting that many 3's, he better be much higher than his career 3FG% of 30%. If he's launching 150+ 3's at 30%, he's going to cost KU games. Vick averaged about 5 3FG attempts per game last year so that would be 1.5/5 on 3's for Dedric at his current career average. There's no way Self will allow that to ever happen.

@Woodrow LeBron isn't going to Boston with Kyrie there. LeBron ends up in either Philly, LA, or Houston and LA probably is the favorite so LeBron can start setting up his post NBA career out there.

@JayHawkFanToo Warriors are going to keep everyone, this is why KD is opting out so he can make a deal with GS to keep their core together.

Houston isn't losing either of our key free agents either. Chris Paul has already said he's going to resign and they're not letting Capela go either. Trevor Ariza is only question mark, but he would likely be part of a sign and trade if LeBron chooses Houston

@JayHawkFanToo LeBron won't win anything with the Lakers. Even if they land him and Paul George, they're not making it past Golden State or Houston anytime soon.

@justanotherfan Perry Ellis was rated very similarly to the Morris twins and T-Rob. All 4 of those men took roughly the same time to really become impact players and fir the lightbulb to turn on for them at KU. Players from the state of Kansas don't take any longer than comparably ranked players from any other state. You'll always have a handful that develop quicker than normal or expected, you'll always have a few that never develop as expected, but the majority will develop at a similar pace to everybody else rated similarly to them.

@justanotherfan Of the former in state players under Self, only Ellis and Frankamp were top 50 players. Releford was between 75-100, Reed and Morningstar were both sub 150 players. Reed and Morningstar both overachieved in their KU careers relative to their recruiting rankings, Releford did what was expected as did Ellis. Frankamp is the only one who underachieved at KU relative to his ranking.

JRE is by far the highest ranked player from Kansas in a long time and should contribute immediately to Kansas. Harvey is in the Ellis and Frankamp neighborhood where it'll probably take some time to adjust to D1 ball.

DoubleDD said:

Texas Hawk 10 said:

@DoubleDD There's nothing wrong with the idea of Mitch redshirting. This year's front court is going to be stacked, especially if Silvio plays. That would give KU 5 legitimate bigs and that means someone is not playing many minutes.

If that person ended up being Mitch, why wouldn't you redshirt him. When would he have more value, 2018-19 as the 5th big playing primarily garbage time next season or as a 5th year senior in 2020-2021 when he could be a legitimate starter for KU playing 25-30 minutes per game.

You're focusing on the small picture of the 2018-19 season impact of a potential Mitch redshirt, take a couple of steps back and look at how a move like that impacts KU long term.

KU is likely going to be an incredibly young team in 2020-2021 and having a 5th year senior like Mitch on that team would be a huge boost for a group of very young players because he is a great leader and could be a coach on the court type player.

I'm not against redshirting. Yet I don't see how you sit Mitch? A proven commodity versus raw talent that may or may not pan out.

Who's the raw talent Mitch is playing ahead of? Dedric Lawson who won American Conference POY, KJ Lawson who averaged 12 and 8 his sophomore season at Memphis, or Silvio DeSousa who already passed Mitch on the depth chart last season?

If you're referring to David McCormack, they don't play the same position and would have no impact on Mtich's potential minutes.

Mitch is already last in the rotation at the 4 spot next year so redshirting isn't an unrealistic possibility for Mitch next season.