🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@BShark Inconsistent at best, incompetent at worst.

Sanders got called extending the arm as well.

@wissox I'm not saying there wasn't a little acting, but Lucas definitely extended his arm which which is what the refs called him for regardless of contact.

@wissox That's one refs have always called. Can't extend the arm like that and get away with it.

@BShark Can't talk about Haase without mentioning that team though.

That's the one team in KU history I would take over 2007-08 team for best KU team ever.

I will also say that I feel pretty confident that the next Kansas Jayhawks coach is coaching on tte opposing bench right now.

Can the basketball get their own version of the "Limestone" uniforms the football team wore in October? Those would be some badass threads!

@Crimsonorblue22 Volleyball does lose money though. Only football and men's basketball operate in the black at KU and that's because of the TV contract. All the other sports at KU operate in the red and are subsidized by football and basketball. There are some schools where women's basketball and baseball operate in the black, but not many of them do and KU isn't among those schools.

@JayHawkFanToo I know how all that stuff works because I was in that industry for 7 years. It's not logistically complicated, it's time consuming and time=money. Horejsi is connected to Allen Fieldhouse and the student athlete training facility which does complicate all of the mechanical systems . It takes time to plan that logistics of it out. Moving roads, not a simple process and it means shutting down the parking lot for McCarthy, Hoglund, and Oliver while that process is going on. It's a logistical pain in the butt which means it costs more money to do all that stuff than the volleyball program is worth right now.

Your math is also wrong about the current capacity of Horejsi. It only has a 1300 capacity right now. With 30 rows currently, that means a little over 40 people per row. Each row has pretty much the same capacity. Adding 16 rows doesn't even come close to putting Horejsi at 3,000. It gets Horejsi to 2,000 at best. To get Horejsi's capacity to 3,000, it has to be about 130% larger. There flat out is not space to do so in its current location.

So again, the cheapest way to get KU volleyball their own facility with 3,000 capacity is to build a bramd new facility which should not be the priority right now. It's awesome that volleyball is having the run they are right now, but they don't generate revenue for KUAC which is a corporation designed to fund the KU athletics department. ESPN and Fox's decision to not support Big 12 expansion means the Big 12 is on its last legs and that KU needs to be looking out for best interests of KUAC in the long run. Once again, ESPN and Fox literally paid the Big 12 not expand so tell how is going to expand when their TV partners are paying not to expand. The B12 is on its last legs because ESPN and Fox made a decision they would rather have 4 major conferences than 5.

Do you know why Chicago became much more of an important city than St. Louis? It's because Chicago embraced rail transportation in tge mid 1800's way before St. Louis did. Railways were built to Chicago and Chicago became the most important city in the Midwest because of that. Failing to be proactive instead of reactive will doom any business in any industry. KUAC is no different. Focusing 10, 15, 20 years down the road should always be priority and getting into a conference that will still be around in 20 years versus taking a chance on the B12 being around in 20 years is simply foolish. Focusing on football amd improving all aspects, including the stadium is a way to make this happen.

There's simply no argument you can make that will convince me that any KUAC project should take priorty over Memorial Stadium right now.

@JayHawkFanToo It would be much simpler and cheaper to build a new building than to relocate a bunch of mechanical equipment and move Horejsi.

Your math is also way off. Adding 8 rows doesn't double the capacity when the rows are the same length. 8 rows makes the capacity still less than 2,000.

Your pool analogy also doesn't work in this case. KU's atheltic department is a corporation that exists to make money. Not planning for the long term is just poor business practice. ESPN and Fox actively telling the B12 to not expand should make KU absolutely want to look elsewher because there is more money in a 16 team B10 which is where this is headed.

This is headed to an 8 team playoff with the conference title games being the quarterfinals. ESPN has deals with the SEC and ACC and Fox has deals with the B10 and Pac 12. Planning for that future is why KU needs to focus on Memorial far more than a volleyball program that doesn't generate revenue for KU.

Kliff Kingsbury isn't getting fired this year, Tech AD announced that after they beat down Baylor. If Kingsbury can't get Tech to 7-8 wins next year, he's likely gone next November/December.

The guy I would love to see Beaty take a run at bringing as OC/QB coach is Sterlin Gilbert, who was Charlie Strong's OC at Texas. Offense was not UT's problem and Gilbert is a very good OC who is attainable for KU.

@JayHawkFanToo You cannot enlargen Horejsi because their physically isn't the space to do so. There's Allen Fieldhouse one side and the student. Getting volleyball a facility that seats at least 3,000 would require a new building which means either a completely new facility or razing Horejsi and rebuilding it. Neither option is cheap enough to put ahead of Memorial Stadium.

The Big 12 is going to die when the current TV deal is done, doing everything possible to get into the B10 absolutely has to be tge top priority right now which means focusing on football and getting Memorial renovated.

Still don't think expanding Horejsi shoupd a priority right now simply because it's not a revenue sport.

All fundraising efforts right now need to be focused on Memorial Stadium because football is a revenue sport and the Big 12 is on its deathbed right now. Keep building football up amd renovating Memorial and put expanding Horejsi as the next priority after Memorial Stadium gets the renovations it desperately needs.

All I have to about Kap is that I lost any respect I had for him when he said he didn't vote.

All this talking about wanting change and when he has an opportunity to elect new officials in Sam Francisco that have similar beliefs and he chooses to sit on his ass?!?!?

Don't complain about stuff when you pass up the biggest opportunity you have to facilitate change.

You want change, find a candidate who you believe in, publicly lobby for that candidate to win whatever office he's running for, then go out and vote for that guy. Kap has no room to complain about anything after that admission becuase he chose to sit on his butt and not do anything.

@HawkChamp OSU finishes top 4 this year. Underwood is a great coach and OSU has enough pieces to finish top 4 in a down league.

ISU is Monte Morris this year and when they play teams that know them, they're lack of depth will be exposed.

@JayHawkFanToo Weber killed the Chicago pipeline to Illinois that Self took full advantage of while there and any competent recruiter could have kept going, that's how bad a recruiter Weber is.

Weber is a great mid major type coach where recruiting is much less important, but at P5 schools where you have to recruit to survive, there's a reason why Illinois got a little worse basically every year and why KSU has fallen off a cliff. Even most KSU fans hated the Weber hire so when KSU fans are smart enough to realize Weber was a bad hire, that's saying something.

Kansas, Baylor, West Virginia, and Oklahoma St. are the 4 best teams in the Big 12 I've seen so far. Scott Drew's defense tends to be more effective in the nonconference because a lot of teams don't see a zone very often. Baylor's defense is less effective in the Big 12 because everyone has a long history of scouting against it. They should be a top 4 team and make the NCAA tournament this year, but they're not special.

ISU and Texas look like tournament teams, but nothing special.

TCU will good in a year or two and will be a difficult game, but they're not tournament good yet. KSU will be bad thus year when they play some good teams.

I haven't watched Texas Tech or Oklahoma yet, but Texas Tech will probably finish last and OU should still be solid because Lon Kruger is a really good coach and have OU in the mix for an NCAA tournament bid.

I think the Big 12 can still get 6, maybe even 7 teams in the NCAA tournament this year although KU, Baylor, and WVU look like the only 3 teams that can make it past the weekend.

@JayHawkFanToo Recruiting is a big part of what makes a coach good and Weber is a terrible recruiter. You cannot be a good coach when you suck at half your job.

Nick Saban was 62 years old and didn't want to start over at Texas. It was never about money because Alabama is one of tge few schools that can match Texas financially when it comes to football.

I will also say with 100% conviction that KU football would be in a much better place today had Turner Gill been given 5 years instead of 2 followed by Weis who had absolutely no plan or vision on how to make KU a good program again.

Just to put the progress made this season in perspective, KU was only about 3-4 plays from winning 4 games this year. Literally if one play against TCU (any of the missed FGs) and 2-3 plays against ISU this year are different and KU is 4-8 (3-6) this year.

Learning how to close out games is something this team needs to learn how to do and hopefully they start learning next year and win some of those close losses next year.

Lucas has some kind of foot/ankle injury. He was wearing a boot while the team was in Hawaii.

@JayHawkFanToo KU has an offensive lineman named Charles Baldwin and WR names Daylon Charlot who Saban was not happy about losing

@jaybate-1.0 The issues with KU's depth are the result of Charlie Weis dismissing a lot Gill players and replacing them with JuCo players which threw KU's class numbers completely out of whack. Beaty is doing a good job of bringing in mostly HS players with a few JuCo kids, but not enough to throw the class numbers out of whack.

This is where the biggest difference between football and basketball recruiting is. It takes years to build up quality depth in football because of limits on the number of recruuts that can be brought in each year while basketball doesn't have that limit. Beaty is building depth through his recruiting and the walk on program, but it simply takes time and there's no shortcuts or quick fixes to that problem.

@kjayhawks Here's why I'm getting on the LB's. I don't have the same level of expectations for Loneker that I did for Roberts. Loneker went to Baker out of HS and Roberts went to South Carolina under Spurrier. Marquis Roberts is flat out a better player than Loneker and why Loneker was a 3rd string guy when the season started. It'd be like expecting a kid fresh out of college to run a company better than a guy with 2o years experience, it's just going to happen.

Injuries are part of the game and why KU's depth were a big part of their late game struggles. I just can't throw blame at a 3rd string kid forced to play before he's ready due to injury because there's a reason why someone is a 3rd stringer instead if starting and it's because he's not as good as the starter so there will almost always be drop off in production when you bring in 3rd stringers for a long duration like Loneker had to this year.

@jayballer54 The kid played one game because the starter got injured. Hardly enough evidence to decide if the kid is a bust or not. This is also a kid Mike Leach desperately wanted back to follow Luke Falk at QB so if Mike Leach thinks Bender was good enough to follow Falk, that should be the evidence this kid has talent instead of basing it on one game the kid played.

@jayballer54 Bender went to JuCo because of grades, not ability or character issues.

Conference title games are being set up today.

In the Power 5, 2 of the 4 are set and the B1G appears set as well unless MSU makes an all time comeback.

The ACC title game will be Clemson vs. Virginia Tech in Orlando.

Clemson will be in the Playoffs with a win over the Hokies probably as the #2 seed. Clemson and VT did not play in the regular season this year.

The B1G title game will be Wisconsin vs. Penn St. in Indianapolis. Wisc./PSU did not play this year.

This one will have all kinds of Playoff implications. Wisconsin and PSU should be sitting at 5 and 6 in the CFP rankings when they come out and the winner should get a Playoff spot, but each team has 2 losses and Ohio St. only has 1 loss (to PSU) and beat Wisconsin head to head this year which should make the CFP committee have a very interesting discussion about how much winning a major conference championship matters because we could see PAC12 champ Washington get left out of the Playoff behind a 2 loss B1G champ and 1 loss Ohio St. who won't even play for their conference title.

The SEC title game will be Alabama vs. Florida in Atlanta. Alabama and Florida did not play this year.

Alabama should win this one because Florida's offense sucks and that would give Alabama the #1 seed in the CFP.

The PAC12 title game will be Washington vs. Colorado/USC. USC beat Washington and UW/CU did not play.

Washington will be in for sure thanks to their win over WSU yesterday. Colorado is playing Utah later tonight in Boulder and a CU win puts Colorado in their 1st PAC12 title game. A CU loss will put USC into the PAC12 title game. Washington's lone loss this year came against USC while Colorado's 2 losses came against Michigan and USC. Even if Washington wins the PAC12 next Friday, it's possible they get left out of the CFP because of Ohio St. Colorado's hopes of sneaking into the CFP were dependent upon Michigan winning the B1G which didn't happen this year. They would likely need Virginia Tech to upset Clemson along with beating Washington to allow them a chance to sneak in as the 4 seed.

The Big 12 is playing an unofficial championship game in Norman in the Bedlam game as the winner of the OU/OSU game will be the Big 12 champ. OU has an outside chance at making the CFP if a couple of upsets happen in the other championship games.

In the Group of 5, the championship games will most likely look like this:

AAC: Temple/USF vs. Navy, Temple needs to beat 3-8 ECU to clinch their spot in the AAC title game which they should do easily, but if they blow it, the USF Bulls will take on the Midshipmen. USF beat Navy and Navy and Temple did not play this year.

C-USA: Louisiana Tech vs. Western Kentucky/Old Dominion. If Western Kentucky beats 3-8 Marshall, they will play LTU, if not, ODU will play LTU. LTU beat WKU and did not play ODU this year.

The MAC title game will be Ohio vs. Western Michigan. This is the same Ohio team that beat KU earlier this year and Ohio and WMU did not play in the regular season.

The Mountain West title game will be San Diego St. against Wyoming. Wyoming beat SDSU 34-33 last weekend and should be another good game between these two.

Navy and WMU appear to be the two schools left standing for the New Year's Day 6 bid among the Group of 5 teams which goes to the highest ranked conference champion among the Group of 5 teams.

KU finishes the 2016 season at 2-10 with a 1-8 record in Big 12 games. KU still hasn't won a game outside of Memorial Stadium this decade.

I'll start with the negatives so I can end on a high note with the positives.

QB play was absolutely awful for most of the year. Cozart and Willis were just terrible and neither one should ever take a snap under center for the Jayhawks again. Based on the current QB situation, I really wouldn't be surprised if Ryan Willis transfers to a school that better fits him because he was recruited to run the Charlie Weis pro style offense and not the Air Raid.

KU also needs some depth at RB because Herbert and Martin won't cut it next year. KU needs at least 2 more guys to step up and take some of the load off so Martin and Herbert don't get worn down halfway through next season.

The OLine play was also very subpar for most of the season, but this was also a very young and inexperienced OLine that will return 4/5 starters from the KSU game. RT De'Andre Banks was the only senior on the OLine and Ribordy, Hughes, and Adeniji are all freshmen or sophomores. The OLine will be better next year simply because they will have another year in the weight room and a spring to work together. Being able to stick Charles Baldwin from Alabama in the OLine (presumably at LT and move Adeniji inside) should also be a big help to the OLine.

On defense, a lack of depth killed the defense this year, but there is no quick fix to that problem. Losing almost the entire secondary is going to be tough, but KU also returns 3/4 of the starting DLine including Dorance Armstrong who's going to get of DPOY votes this year and should be 1st team All-Big 12 this year. Daniel Wise has also really started to blossom as well this year so that should help cushion the blow the secondary is taking this year.

The other thing that needs to happen is Beaty needs to take a couple of hats off. Rob Likens is a good coach, but he can't coach QB's so Beaty needs a real QB coach who has a track record of developing QB's. Jason Philips as coordinating experience at SMU so I would promote him, let Likens go and bring in a dedicated QB coach/co-OC with Philips. Beaty needs to delegate these responsibilities and just let his coaches coach since that's what he hired them for. I feel like this issue is common to people who are new head coaches and we're seeing it with Beaty being too much of a micro manager to reach the level of success he wants to reach at KU. It will be Beaty's ability to learn from these mistakes that will ultimately determine whether he can keep a staff together long enough to build success.

Now for the positives.

Defense, defense, defense! For those who had been calling for Bowen's head before the year, this year is why coaches need 4-5 years to determine how good they are. Bowen is now in year 4 of running the same defense and we all saw that despite what the numbers say, this was a good defense this year that kept KU in several games KU had no business contending in. Depth is still an issue and will be for at least 2-3 more years because of Weis, but Bowen has the defense headed in the right direction and with some help from the offense, we could see this defense actually rank in the top 50 statistically in the near future as well.

Dorance Armstrong is special. He is going to go down as KU's best DLinemen in a very long time, since at least James McClinton. Joe Dineen is just a gamer and I can't wait to have him back next year. Mike Lee is also going to continue the tradition of KU being DBU. Even during these dark ages, Bowen has been churning out NFL caliber DB's (Chris Harris, Bradley McDougald, JaCorey Shepherd, and Dexter McDonald) that will be able to add Fish Smithson's name to that list as well and Mike Lee is going to be the next one in line.

On offense, we have game changing WR's in Steven Sims and LaQuvionte Gonzalez and adding Daylon Charlot to the mix next year will give KU 3 legitimate weapons in the passing game. KU does need Chase Harrell to step up as a 4th option to give KU a big WR that can go get jump balls because Sims, Quiv, and Charlot are all 6-0 and under guys who are better in the slot than on the outside. Montell Cozart could also be an intriguing possibility as an outside receiver to stretch the field.

I actually do like the QB situation going forward for KU with Peyton Bender, Carter Stanley, and Tyriek Starks as the 3 guys fighting for the starting job. Best case is Starks wins the job because he brings a true dual threat nature to the QB position that Bender and Stanley don't. Bender is a true pocket pass who was supposed to be next in line at WSU behind Luke Falk. Stanley to me is the perfect back up because he doesn't make many mistakes and can come in a manage a game and keep the offense moving. KU will also still have Keaton Perry and Deondre Ford as the 4th and 5th QB's should something insane like 2015 happen again at the QB position.

I'm also high on the OLine. I think 2018 is when we'll the OLine really blossom, but KU is returning 4/5 starters next year and 2 were freshmen and 1 sophomore this year so they were very young. KU also gets Charles Baldwin the Alabama transfer next year along with Bragg and McCauley who each played quite a bit this year as well so there's potential with the OLine to start taking some big steps forward in the very near future.

I believe KU's schedule next year in the non-conference is SEMO, Central Michigan, @Ohio so KU should a decent chance at starting the year 2-1 next season as I think KU will be to the point they can beat a SEMo team that went 3-8 this year and a CMU team that went 6-6 and should've been 5-7 if it wasn't for the refs screwing up the end of their game with OSU.

I also think Baylor is going to struggle next year, KSU is sliding into irrelevancy, we've gotten closer to beating TCU every year since they joined the league and an OT loss or KU win is the trend there. That's not even factoring in ISU and Texas Tech who should both be near the bottom of the league with KU next year. I can see KU winning anywhere from 4-6 games next year dependent upon the QB situation and either Bender or Starks being the clear cut winner or at least both of them clearly being ahead of Stanley.

KU football is trending upwards and next year is when we'll see KU finally end the road losing streak against someone (Ohio, TCU, and ISU being the most likely games) and also not finish in last place like they have all but one year post Mangino.

@Crimsonorblue22 Baylor is a good team, they finished tied for 3rd in the Big 12 and should be an NCAA tournament team this year. Didn't hear anything about Payne, but I'm guessing she's still healing from her ankle injury.

@Crimsonorblue22 UT swept WVU at home today.

KU wins the outright Big 12 title knocking off Baylor 25-20, 25-15, 16-25, 22-25, 15-9 in a 5 set victory.

Baylor takes the 4th set 25-22 closing the set on a 7-1 run after KU had a 21-18 lead. Going to the 5th set tied at 2 and Baylor with all the momentum right now.

Kentucky just upset Louisville at Louisville. Ohio St. just tied it with 1 second left.

Baylor takes the third set 25-16, KU up 2-1 headed into the 4th set.

KU takes the second set 25-15 and is up 2-0 on Baylor now.

@Kcmatt7 You want Stanley to stretch the field when he has consistently shown he doesn't have the arm to make those types of throws regularly. I'd much rather see plays called to the strength of the QB which for Stanley is to move the pocket and give him run/pass options with short to medium depth routes that he can make on a consistent basis. Stanley throwing over the top is going to result in lots of picks and incompletions.

@Kcmatt7 One good throw every once in a while doesn't equal a good arm. Stanley consistently misses his deep attempts pretty badly and are usually under thrown.

Volleyball is playing at Baylor right now and if anybody has Fox College Sports Central, it's on that channel.

KU just took the first set from Baylor 25-20

@Kcmatt7 Stanley doesn't have the arm to stretch the field and why he didn't get a shot until a couple of games ago.

Stanley is a great back up because he can come in and manage games, but he's not going to win games on his own. The starting QB next year either needs to Starks or Bender. Bender can stretch the field like all Mike Leach QB's and Starks brings a true dual threat aspect to the QB position.

Blocking on kick and punt returns has been terrible all year.

This will be the biggest thing that holds Beaty back if he can't delegate and he the head coach.

@Kcmatt7 UT wasn't going two Louisville coaches in a row after Strong. Herman is a good hire and UT will be loaded for the next couple of years with the classes Strong was putting together at Texas before this year. Herman wipp.keep recruiting going because he had UH landing top 40 classes which is amazing for a non P5 program. It's all going to come down to how well Herman's staff recruits Houston and if they can make Houston 50/50 for Texas instead of just about every elite Houston recruit going to A&M or LSU.

@kjayhawks KU does have a second and third stringer starting at LB right now so they aren't going to be as good as Dineen or Roberts. Building depth is a big part of the process and it doesn't happen in 1 recruiting class.

@kjayhawks I absolutely believed LSU offered, but Herman's agent likely told UT that Herman preferred UT over LSU yesterday and that started this quick moving chain reaction

I'm off to do some Christmas shopping, kick some ass today Jayhawks!

@kjayhawks I think Orgeron is a much better fit at LSU than Herman would have been. Orgeron is a native son, the players absolutely love him, and he has greatly improved as a HC since his flop of a tenure at Ole Miss about 10 years ago.

I also honestly think Tom Herman is the second coming of Kevin Sumlin. UT has the pieces to be really good for the next couple of years, but I think he peaks UT at 8-9 wins most years.

That didn't take long, Tom Herman is the new head coach of the Texas Longhorns.

@BShark Gilbert has a strong Texas HS background, coached at Eastern Illinois, Bowling Green, and Tulsa prior to Texas so I think if Herman doesn't retain Gilbert (that sounds like a possibility from what I've read), and Beaty moved quickly on Gilbert, I think it would be possible to land Gilbert.

The problem for Beaty in hiring assistants is that unless there's someone like Bowen with strong Kansas ties (there's not a lot people out there right now), KU is going to be viewed as a springboard job for just about every assistant coach out there to either a coordinator job or position coach at a bigger, better program.

Duval will be lucky if he ever plays a college basketball game. He's the most likely guy, even more than Preston, to not make it through the Eligibility Center this year and be forced to head overseas for a year.

Duval isn't worth the effort and hassle to me.

Texas has pulled the trigger on firing Charlie Strong which means we should hear Tom Herman announced as the next coach at UT some time in the very near future.

I will also say that Texas Tech's beat down of Baylor likely cools Kingsbury's hot seat enough to give him one more year. That means Kingsbury as a potential KU OC is 100% off the table at this point.

With Charlie Strong gone, I'd love to see Beaty take a run at UT's OC Sterlin Gilbert because UT's problems had little to do with their offense and were much more related to the defense. Gilbert helped make Buechele looked very good as a true freshman this year.

Big news, LSU is going to take the interim tag off of Ed Orgeron and name the Louisiana native the next HC of LSU. This clears the path for Tom Herman to Texas with Charlie Strong losing to TCU yesterday and losing what little hope he had of keeping the job.

Definitely a very surprising change on the coaching carousel.

@jaybate-1.0 About as bad as I was, but I also didn't play enough to shoot often just like Young.