@RockChalkinTexas So sorry for your loss.
Texas Hawk 10
9941 posts
@drgnslayr I've already explained this multiple times, absolutely nowhere have I said our guards were lazy with UA in there. Find where I said anywhere if you can. How many times with UA behind them did we see our guards jump a passing lane to try and get a steal and an easy basket? A lot. Without UA behind them, the guards can't take those risks they were taking. Taking fewer risks by definition is toning down the aggression. Absolutely nowhere have I said anything about the guards slacking off either with or without UA in the game, only that the defense will likely take fewer risks without UA behind them when thise risks don't work.
@HawkChamp Never said or implied that. Having a rim protector doesn't mean you can play matador defense, it means you can take more risks jumping the passing lane and going for loose balls because there's someone to bail you out if you don't get the ball.
@DoubleDD I never said the guards were only aggressive with UA, just that they tended to turn the aggressiveness up a couple of notches and could take more chances with UA protecting the rim. When LL and Bragg are in, the perimeter guys do take fewer risks because the don't have UA to bail them out. With UA out, it will tone down the defense to something that resembled last year's defense which, while good, wasn't as good as this year's defense was shaping up to be.
@jayballer54 Rim protection is a big deal because a rim protector allows the guards to play more aggressive defense because there's someone to bail them out. Now when Josh Jackson goes for a steal and misses, it'll probably be an and one on LL or whoever is in picking up that foul.
Cite all the numbers you want, KU's guards are now going to have to tone down the aggression because they don't have someone to bail them out now. This injury will change how KU plays defense the rest of the season and that's not a good thing.
Losing UA significantly hurts KU depth in the paint. He was KU's enforcer down low and opponents were afraid to drive to the hoop on UA when he was in. KU is losing their best rim protector who allowed JJ, Mason, and Graham to dial up the pressure on the perimeter to 11 because there was somebody to back them up when they didn't get the steal. LL is a decent shot blocker, but he's not going to deter opponents from driving on him.
KU is also losing their best rebounder by far. UA was/is a T-Rob type elite rebounder and nobody else is close to UA as a rebounder. LL is a slightly above average rebounder and Bragg while improved, is now about the same as LL as a rebounder. This is where Lightfoot could prove huge for KU. He's got potential to be a really good rebounder for his size, but he still needs work. Coleby is also going to have to do some work now for KU on the glass because he will be needed to provide minutes.
I think losing UA is a huge blow to KU because he brings elements to the table that nobody else on KU can offer. I still think KU can win the title this year, but it will be extremely difficult to do so especially if KU runs into an elite rebounding team deep in the tournament.
I was really looking forward to seeing him in person the next 2 games. Yes, I'm in Vegas now and I'll be in Ft. Worth next week.
@JayHawkFanToo To be fair, one of those two does have a very significant influence on Self.
KU picked up commitment #17 today from Wichita LB Cooper Root. KU beat out KSU to land Root. We'll see how many more recruits KU can land this class.
There has been 1 coaching change so far on KU's staff. Arizona St. hired Rob Likens to be their new WR coach today (12/20). David Beaty wasted no time and promoted Garrett Riley, brother of OU's OC Lincoln Riley, to QB coach. We'll see what other changes happen, but this one is not surprising considering Likens demotion before the season. I assume at this point that Jason Philips will now coach all the receivers instead of the outside receivers like he did this past season and Beaty will stay as OC for now.
The early signing period came last week and KU signed 8 including 3 new players. If Tom Keegan is right about 16 being KU's limit this year, then KU's class is done for now. The 3 new players are WR Kerr Johnson from Santa Rosa JC, DE Willie McCaleb from NW Miss. JC, and CB Shakial Taylor from Mesa CC.
All 3 of those players signed LOI's along with QB Peyton Bender, CB Hasan Defense, DT JJ Holmes, LB Kyron Johnson, and DE Keyshaun Simmons. All 8 of those guys will report to KU in January and go through spring practice.
I like the cream ones better and is the jersey I usually wear when I go to games now. I wish that KU would make blue versions of each. I also think it'd be really awesome if KU made a version of the "Limestone" uniforms the football wore earlier this year.
@wrwlumpy That's actually my suite since I'm flying out to Vegas on Wednesday for the game.
UNC/UK may be frontrunner for game of the year so far. UK is going to be hard to beat at Rupp next month.
This game is having a great finish
@dylans We've had quite a few decommitments this class so I think the JuCo heavy class this year is a combination of thise decommits and recruiting misses this year more than anything else.
@JayHawkFanToo No, if he wins a non major bowl, he gets $300k. Each bonus is cumulative so getting to a bowl game is $200k, winning that bowl game gets him an additional $100k on top of the $200k.
KU is back down to 13 players as Jamie Tago decommitted today after returning home to Hawaii and plans to sign with Hawaii where he originally began his career.
@Crimsonorblue22 I still think Beaty needs an OC and to be an HC. If he wants to double up on responsibility, then making himself the WR coach would be the way to go.
There's two glaring weaknesses on offense to me. I'm not including OLine because their issues are mostly due to youth I believe. To me, the two biggest issues are finding a QB who can keep drives alive consistently and make KU a team capable of scoring 30+ a game. Secondly, our WR's need to learn to block better. Beaty loves those screen passes, but without WR's who can hold a block, too many go for negative yardage.
@Crimsonorblue22 Not that I'm aware of.
Those of you who followed KU football are probably more aware of this than others, but other KU sports have also mentioned Cole prominently this year as well because his mom is an associate AD for academic and career counseling. Any time you heard or saw #TeamCole around KU, it was because of Cole Hayden.
Apparently Sheahon Zenger believes Beaty has KU football headed in the right direction because Beaty signed a 2 year extension today that doubles his base salary to $1.6 million and increases by 100k each season.
I think this is a good move for 2 main reasons. First, it recognizes that Beaty has made progress with this program and anyone who's seen KU football over the past few years knows that KU was much more competitive in 2016 than in recent years and on the verge of becoming a middle of the pack Big 12 team if a QB ever emerges. Secondly, it does put pressure on Beaty to continue this progress because increased salary equals increased expectations. $2 mil/year is why Gill only got 2 years. Had Gill started out in the $800k-1 mil. range like he should have, Gill likely gets 4-5 years because of the expectations related to his salary. Beaty's $800k/year salary in a major conference doesn't bring much as far as expectations go. $1.6 million and up to $2.1 million by 2021 do bring expectations of bowl games with them.
Work keeps me from posting up to date all the time (I'm taking today off), so since my last post, it appears that KU has lost a DLine recruit while adding two more. DT Zacchaeus McKinney who was a HS DT prospect from Weatherford, TX decommitted from KU 9 days after he committed and appears like Texas may now be the front runner for him.
KU has replaced McKinney with a pair of JuCo DLinemen. DE KeyShaun Simmons from a JuCo in Mississippi and earlier this month, KU picked up DT JJ Holmes who is a big bodied (6-2, 330) DT from Hutch CC.
Tom Keegan actually did his best to figure out the scholarship numbers for KU this year and believes that KU will have 16 available scholarships for 2017 and could potentially be up to 80ish scholarship players. That number will likely fall into the 70's due to natural attrition, but KU should be very close to having normal range scholarship numbers after the 2018 class. KU coaches are said to be looking for at least 1 DB to fill one of the two remaining scholarships for 2016.
@ralster With any system, it's about execution first and foremost and then talent second. When Nolan Richarson had his amazing run from 1989-90 to 1994-95 with a national title, 3 Final Four's, and 4 Elite 8's, he had superior talent relative to anything Anderson or Smart has ever had.
We saw Pitino win a title at Louisville using elements of 40 Minutes of Hell with NBA level talent. Any system can win a national title ith the right combination of execution, talent, and a little luck.
@JayHawkFanToo His system is a variation of 4o minutes of hell which made Arkansas a national power and got them title and Mike Anderson used it to make Missouri a consistent top 20 team and got them to an Elite 8. It's a system that can be very successful at this level, but ut doesn't happen overnight.
UT's facilities are garbage. Erwin Center is dated on the inside and is literally a concrete cylinder with no character on the outside. I am really looking forward to whenever they finally build their new arena and get something that looks halfway decent.
We also need to remember that UT is in full rebuild mode because Shaka and Barnes have different styles and it takes time to revuild a roster to a specific style. Shaka will have UT competitive again in a couple of years.
@JayHawkFanToo You need to reread what I said then. Those are guys I said I would take if Self decided to move on after THIS YEAR. 5-10 years from now, I think Haase will be ready in 5-10 years and that he should be next coach at that point
@Crimsonorblue22 I don't remember, but commentary mentioned Self didn't look pleased with it.
@Crimsonorblue22 Self has never liked showboating stuff in games. He was visibly ticked about that move.
@BShark So you're saying Penn St. beat Ohio St. because PSU has superior special teams play than Ohio St.? Special teams are part of the game and we've seen plenty of games lost (including some KU games) that have been lost because of special teams. Blocking a FG and getting a good punt return is not a fluke, it's good scouting and prep work.
Michigan peaked in September with their wins over PSU and Colorado, but faded down the stretch, same with Ohio St., PSU has been lights out since October and has legitimately looked like the best team in the Big 10 since mid October. I do legitimately believe PSU is the best team in the Big 10 and that the on field results back that up.
@dylans As of today, I agree that Haase isn't ready for the KU job, but I still believe Haase will be KU's next head coach. I believe Self probably has somewhere between 5-10 years left. As long as Haase stays on his current trajectory, he should have Stanford as a very good program every year. The only concern I would have would be UNC. Roy is going to retire very soon and with Haase's relationship with Roy, him going to UNC is also a possibility and then the question becomes woll he do what Roy did to UNC and turn them down initially. UNC bottomed out hard when that happened and it's possible Haase could do that to KU as well depending on the timing. The timing has to work out with Roy's retirement probably happening in the next year or two for Haase to not be a candidate there because I believe Haase will be a viable candidate for a UNC/KU caliber job in the next 3-4 years.
If Self decided to ride off into the sunset after this year, I would not want Haase yet because he isn't ready as I said, but I believe he is on a similar career path to Self. He may end up having to stay at the 2nd tier P5 school longer than Self.
Again, with Haase in the long term, UNC is the potential issue to Haase roaming the sidelines as KU's next coach. Honestly thougj, I wouldn't mind if KU did steal Haase from UNC at some point so maybe Roy coaches 3 more years, Slef coaches 10 more years. Haase then gets 4 years to show himself at Stanford, he then gets 7 years to show himself at UNC, and then KU can bring him home just like UNC did with Roy.
Should KU come open today, I would look at Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, Chris Mack, Randy Bennett, Dana Altman, or even Frank Martin. Brad Stevens isn't coming back to college any time in tye near future so while he would be an amazing get, it's not happening because KU isn't paying more than the NBA does.
@Crimsonorblue22 @globaljaybird John Higgins actually worked the UCLA/Kentucky game today. Here's the list of games he's worked so far this year which have mostly been games out west. http://natstat.com/mbb/officials/john-higgins ↗
The College Football Playoff selection show is tomorrow and they have a fun on to deal with tomorrow. What to do with Ohio St.? Does OSU get in the CFP over PSU who not only won the Big 10 tonight, but also beat Ohio St. along the way.
Should Penn St. be left out in favor of Ohio St., the CFP committee os telling the entire country that not does winning your conference no longer matter, but neither does head to head matter either.
@DCHawker I don't care. I hope we play Self, Vang, and Young every game because that means KU blew somebody out. I don't care if the margin closes a little at the end because of that.
I wanna see Tyler hit another 3!
@BeddieKU23 Baylor's lead ballooned in a hurry.
I'm shocked Jackson only has 2 fouls now with how the game has been called today.
Looks like a pair of wins over top 10 team for the Big 12 today. This league may not be as down as predicted this year.
@HawkChamp I'm pretty sure Reid Travis was a McDonald's All-American, he's a legitimately good player with NBA upside.
Don't like seeing Mason grab his wrist like that.
@BeddieKU23 Thinking about refs, I don't even think it's the refs that are bad, it's the changing of the rules every year so the refs never get used to one set of rules. Don't change rules fir 3-4 years and watch the officiating get much better and consistent.
@HawkChamp Then don't play defense. The Stanford player screwed up and got lucky. That was a bad call on Svi.
That wasn't a foul on Svi
Good grief Frank!
@wissox Bragg had 1 like @BeddieKU23 said, but I'm glad because that's the worst shot in basketball. And Jackson just missed one.
Josh Jackson is definitely not protecting the goods today.
@HawkChamp Beginning of the game
@HawkChamp Yes, Travis has scored on everyone.
16 points on 8 FGA is pretty efficient, gotta slow Travis down.
That's a Sportscenter Top 10 right there.