🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@JayHawkFanToo No they couldn't because it was going to be a joint ownership between the city and university like Erwin Center. The site they wanted was the old headquarters for the Austin American Statesman. I don't think using eminant domain on the city newspaper would be the smartest idea in the world for a local government.

The biggest reason a deal was never made with any land site was the apathy towards the basketball program which has been in place long before Shaka Smart went there. Even when Rick Barnes had UT at their peak in the mid 2000's, they only ever sold out when it was KU, UNC, or Kentucky coming to town and those fans bought up the tickets.

@JayHawkFanToo UT had a site chosen and the owner wouldn't sell the property to buiild the new arena.

@jaybate-1.0 I would say it largely depends on how much prison time Gatto is looking at. We know he's not of high character so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he starts throwing everyone under the bus to avoid as much prison time as possible without regard for Nike or Adidas affiliation.

@jaybate-1.0 Gatto has ties to Nike. I highly doubt he just started buying players at Adidas so if he starts squealing about what he did at Nike and who was involved there, then there could be some major implications at Nike as well.

@approxinfinity I doubt the NCAA can regulate that. Somebody has to make the uniforms for programs.

Jeff Goodman was saying Louisville should take a shot at Chris Mack from Xavier. No chance of that. Cream and Matta would both make sense because no currently successful coach in their right mind would even accept a phone call from Louisville right now. Get a retread that doesn't have an NCAA track record, weather the storm that's coming because this will probably be an unprecedented punishment in basketball, then go get a good coach after the storm passes and rebuild after.

@JayHawkFanToo Smart had nothing to do with that. UT had been looking for a site for a new arena long before Smart was hired. The search started around 2012 and UT looked at many sites around campus and in the suburbs, partnerships with the city like they have with Erwin, but nothing could ever be finalized.

As far as aesthetics go, Erwin is one of the ugliest arenas in the country. IT is a concrete mausoleum and personality-less on the inside too.

@wissox It's the cumulative effect of having so many major violations in such a short timeframe that'll get them a potential death penalty.

Arizona is also likely to get a pretty steep punishment as well based on the number of players they have involved as well as an assistant coach involved as well.

Gregg Doyle, formerly of CBS (I think), and now in Indianapolis is reporting that Romeo Langford is down to either Indiana or Kansas. I'm assuming the Louisville situation has convinced him otherwise because wasn't Louisville the assumed destination for Langford for a long time?

@Bwag The Adidas exec came from Nike recently.

Everybody needs to remember that Gatto was hired by Adidas from Nike. Based on the magnitude of this scandal, I don't think it's much of a stretch to assume he was doing similar things while at Nike as well.

This also might finally be what allows schools to break away from the NCAA and create a new governing body for college athletics.

Based on everything out there so far, this is clearly not limited to Adidas, but includes Nike and Under Armour as well.

@BShark One of Yahoo's reporters is saying South Carolina is involved as well in this. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/fbi-brings-armageddon-college-basketball-just-tip-iceberg-184524346.html ↗

ESPN's version of the story says Adidas funneled 3 players, but we only know of Brian Bowen to Louisville.

What's the time period for Adidas to funnel players to schools? Does is impact any 2016 players or is it all 2017 and 2018 players?

Self has been talking about retiring around 60 for a long time, his recent comments are in line with what he's said for the past decade or so about he long he wants to coach.

@justanotherfan I don't think McCormack will be a starter anyway. I think he backs up Dedric Lawson. I could see either KJ Lawson or De Sousa starting at the 4 next year. Maybe even Lightfoot.

@Kcmatt7 When and if Baylor wins a game this year, I'll probably move them ahead of Kansas if they have the same win total. The KU-Baylor game is in Lawrence this year so right now, I would probably lean towards KU because KU's offense has been consistently better this year.

We need Lagerald Vick back in the worst way next year. If Vick leaves, all of KU's projected major rotation minute players will either be 1st or 2nd year players in the program. The talent level will be there regardless, but the last time KU had a team that young was in 2013-14 which was the Wiggins/Embiid team. That team was ridiculously talented, but they had no leadership and that's the biggest factor in why they lost 10 games that year. Lightfoot will be around next year, but he doesn't appear like he may crack the rotation next year in the front court so he doesn't figure to factor into the on court leadership that KU could be lacking. This is why KU needs Vick back, he would be the undisputed leader of the team as the lone scholarship senior on that team.

With what's available in the 2019 class (KU already has a player committed), KU will need to have players who will move on after the 2018-19 season. DeSousa and McCormack are multiyear players so they aren't likely factors. Grimes does have OAD potential, Zion Williamson is a OAD, and Dedric Lawson is good enough to leave after 2018-19 so we gotta figure Self is looking at those guys to open up space for JRE, the 3rd Lawson, and some of the other 2019 players.

Most teams have played 3 or 4 games at this point so I think we can have a pretty fair estimation at who's a contender and who's a pretender in the Big 12 at this point. I'll also try to update these weekly. These are my personal opinions, feel free to agree or disagree with it.

1. Oklahoma 4-0 (1-0) - OU may have the most impressive win in the country so far this year with their beat down of Ohio St. in Columbus. They had a scare from Baylor this week, but they held on and I don't see any reason at this point why OU shouldn't be the overwhelming favorite to win the Big 12 this season and make the CFP. I think OU is probably the 2nd best team in the country at this point behind Alabama.

2. TCU 4-0 (1-0) - TCU took down Oklahoma St. in pretty convincing fashion yesterday and so they have to be #2 in the Big 12 at this point and probably the biggest threat to Oklahoma reaching the CFP. Worst case scenario would be for OU and TCU to split which could again keep a Big 12 team out of the CFP

3. Oklahoma St. 3-1 (0-1) - OSU despite the loss to TCU yesterday is still a very good team and still a factor to reach Dallas. OU, TCU, and OSU are the class of the Big 12 this year the Big 12 title game will come from 2 of these 3 teams.

4. Texas Tech 3-0 (0-0) - Even though Tech hasn't played its Big 12 opener yet, they are now 3-0 with wins over Arizona St. and Houston. Despite being close wins, they're still wins and still went 3-0 int he nonconference none of the rest of the teams below can claim.

5. West Virginia 3-1 (1-0) - A closer than the score indicated game with KU and a close loss to Virginia Tech keep WVU from being above Tech at this point.

6. Texas 1-2 (0-0) - UT looked very dominant against San Jose St. and played USC very well and had a chance to win that game. I could see Texas finishing as high as 4th in the Big 12 this year, but I can also see them missing a bowl game for the 3rd straight year as well if they go 4-5 in Big 12 which is a possibility.

7. Kansas St. 2-1 - Their loss to Vanderbilt looks a little bit worse now after their blowout loss to Alabama yesterday. KSU's offense is going to struggle and KSU will probably be finishing somewhere around 6-6 this year because of their near the bottom of the Big 12 caliber offense.

8. Iowa St. 2-1 - ISU might be 2-1, but those two wins are over No. Iowa and Akron, not exactly quality wins. They're the team I know the least about this year, but we should have a better picture of where ISU is after they open Big 12 play against Texas next week.

9. Kansas 1-3 (0-1) - KU avoids the cellar by virtue of having won a game this year even if was against an FCS team which is more than 10 can say. The offense is actually good enough this year to take advantage of opponents having an off day so I can see KU picking up a couple of upset wins this year. Is this the year we finally knock off TCU?

10. Baylor 0-4 (0-1) - I'll be honest and say I did not expect the bottom to fall out for Baylor on the field this year. Anybody paying attention knew it was coming at some point, but probably next year or 2019 was more likely. I wouldn't expect Baylor to recover any time soon so they are likely going to be hanging out in the basement of the Big 12 with KU and Iowa St. for the foreseeable future.

This is a part of Virginia known for churning some of the toughest players in the country.

@jayballer54 It's not just KU that can't tackle, it's everybody at every level. Watching NFL games today, I can't count how many missed tackles I've seen. The reason is because teams aren't allowed to practice in full pad except once or twice a week at every level.

You can teach technique all day long, but when you practice at half speed and don't get to practice tackling at full speed, it negatively impacts learning how to properly tackle.

Never going to happen. Texas couldn't lure Saban away and they would've paid him whatever he wanted.

Les Miles also might be the worst game manager of the past 20 years. His play style would also never work at KU because it's a pro style offense and we know how well that'll work here.

KU football will never attract a successful big name coach and most young coaches trying to make a name for themselves would view KU as a stepping stone job unless they have strong KU ties like Beaty does.

@kjayhawks The offense is better, but we're also seeing why Leach chose Caulk over Bender. Bender has a huge arm, but it's pretty erratic at times and it's led to most of his picks including the pick 6 today.

At this point, I would like to see what Stanley could do in this offense because his mobility would bring the zone read into play and with the inverted wishbone formation, that can be a bread and butter play for teams.

@kjayhawks The expression that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink very much applies to this situation. A coach can only prepare a player so much before the execution falls on the player.

Players practice different snap counts everyday. Dorrance Armstrong flinching on that FG is something every defender learns from day 1 and every coach preaches from day 1. Dorrance knows this, he had a mental lapse, not Beaty, not Bowen, not any other coach.

@kjayhawks Not even close to what my original post on the topic was, but nice attempt at putting words in my mouth.

To refresh your memory, my point was mental mistakes like false starts, offsides, ineligible receivers downfield are on the players because those are mental lapses by the player.

Most penalties that result from physical mistakes do tend to fall on the coaching staff because those are poor techniques being used and it's the job of the coaches to teach proper technique.

The Armstrong offsides is a perfect example of a penalty being on the player. He was lined up right over the football, there was absolutely no excuse for him to flinch. From the Pre Wee level on up, defensive linemen are told everyday to watch the football instead of listening to the snap count.

False starts are also ALWAYS on the player because that's 100% between the ears of the player to know the snap count and not flinch when defenders are moving about.

@kjayhawks That Lee penalty is on the coaching because that's a poor technique.

Lee's lucky he didn't get ejected on that one.

@kjayhawks Depends on the type of discipline you're talking about. A coach can tell a player 100 different times in 100 different ways the snap count or watch the football on defense. After that, it's up to the player execute. Dorrance Armstrong flinching on that FG was completely on Armstrong not watching the football. Tovi wandering downfield and his false starts are on Tovi's lack of awareness.

That was pass interference

@kjayhawks Was 77 going down field on 77 or the coaches?

@kjayhawks That's still on the player, not coaches. That's a 100% mental mistake and those are ALWAYS on the player. Physical mistakes are on the coaches because those are poor techniques being taught. Not knowing a snap count is always on the player.

Finally nailed a deep ball!

Bull crap penalty there. Completely missed that face mask.

@kjayhawks How are those two false starts on the coaches? Those were 100% on the LG and he's had 4 false starts today. 4 false starts by one player is not on the coaches, that is 100% on the player not knowing the snap count.

Is Herbert going to make a run at Tony Sands single rushing record?

Quickley officially to UK and McCormack expected to announce tomorrow, most likely for KU.

Front court will be in great shape and should discourage Grimes from UK.

@kjayhawks Gabe Rui and Cole Moos were pretty good too.

KU might be better off with Stanley at QB when his hand gets healthy.

Bender has way too many overthrow and behind the receiver throws this year.

@stoptheflop I know that and as frustrating as this is, KU legitimately needs Beaty here for 5 years regardless of W-L record so he can at least eliminate the scholarship deficit. Firing him after this year just delays that process.

It also wouldn't be smart to change AD's in the middle of this fundraising campaign which means Beaty is probably safe until all the $350 million is raised because Zenger is a great fundraiser even if his coaching evaluation skills are subpar.

I will say though that Clint Bowen needs to be demoted though. He's a good DB coach as evidenced by the number of DB's KU has sent to the NFL recently, but as far as a coordinator, he just sucks. His play calling of rarely blitzing is why we can't pressure the QB and why the secondary is getting scorched. You can't rush just 3 or 4 90% if the time and expect a young secondary to cover all day. KU needs to be sending 5 or 6 nearly every time to help the DB's as much as possible and forcing the QB into some hurried throws and mistakes.

The Charlie Weis teams were much more unwatchable than these teams are.

@kjayhawks No it's not. Not even the worst coached KU team this decade.

Cameras suck today. That's the 4th play they've missed already.

@mayjay It wasn't a 3rd and 1 though. It was a 3rd and 4. I'm guessing the 4th down play was supposed to be a run up the middle though.

Time to find a new LG.

@kjayhawks I was fine with the pass, but the pass type wasn't great. It needed to be a quick hitter like a slant.

With that punt, the ball bounced the opposite direction it appeared it was going to so that was more bad luck than anything else.

@kjayhawks Only thing that salvaged that drive for me is that the FG is the middle ground of results. I'd more more upset if KU didn't convert that 1st down and got nothing out of one of their best drives of the season than I was with that penalty.

Better lucky than good sometimes, like that pass.

Other than that 2nd false start, that was a very good drive for KU and Herbert.