@Crimsonorblue22 Haha, its 80 here in Houston and I have my A/C going right now. Stay safe on the roads out there.
And to all a Rock Chalk Thanksgiving!
Texas Hawk 10
9941 posts
Lived there in 2008-09. Opposite side of the wall my bed was on were the toilets. Thursday-Saturday nights sucked when I didn't go out because I was usually very aware of when someone had too much to drink or had digestive issues. That part absolutely sucked. Dating a female RA on the floor was pretty nice because my room was where the alcohol was and was never reported or confiscated because that would've been taking her own alcohol as well.
5 games for $165 considering Selby's suspension of 9 games was for about $6,000 in benefits? I'd also like to know how exactly a legal guardian can give their kid they're guardian of an impermissible benefit. Does that mean that Self isn't allowed give Tyler whatever it was Drame "gave" Diallo?
It'd be nice of the NCAA to give an actual explanation instead of blowong smoke up everyone's backside.
@jaybate-1.0 Diallo isn't eligible to play until Dec. 1 against Loyola.
@jaybate-1.0 Why? Vandy has great depth and has played two blowouts so they haven't expended much energy either. I've been off work all week so I've gotten to watch a lot of teams play this week and Vanderbilt is very good team, they've been one of the 3 or 4 best teams I've seen this year with Michigan St., Iowa St. and Kentucky. If you ask me 10 teams I would pick as legitimate Final Four threats right now, Vanderbilt is on that list of teams. They have three 7 footers who all play big minutes and are all really good. Damian Jones is a projected lottery pick and will be the best player on the floor for either team tonight and Luke Kornet is a kid who could easily develop into a lottery pick next year.
Vandy and Gonzaga are the two best front courts in the country and we've all seen how much KU has struggled against teams with good size in the post in the past couple of years. If Self insists on feeding the post all night, it's going to be extremely difficult for KU to win this game tonight.
@jaybate-1.0 Vandy is in the same boat as KU, two blowouts that mean they're as rested as can be just like KU. I also don't see KU beating Vandy with bad ball either because of Vandy's depth. KU has to be able move the ball and Mason and Ellis have to take advantage of that ball movement.
@KUSTEVE I don't think that's a big deal because Diallo probably wouldn't have played tonight anyway, at least not any meaningful minutes tonight.
This huge for KU because Diallo will alleviate a lot of KU's rebounding issues. It also helps that KU doesn't have a super difficult game until conference play starts after tonight. Harvard, Montana, and SDSU are all solid teams, but none should be huge threats to KU. Diallo will help KU play faster and be able to take better advantage of their athletic advantage they have over everybody but Kentucky left on the schedule.
@BeddieKU23 I never said anything about this situation being right or fair though. The NCAA is pissed they couldn't nail Cliff so they're taking it out on KU by "suspending" Diallo.
@wissoxfan83 They're also a very big team with three 7 footers who play big minutes. On paper, this is a bad match up for KU because this is the type of team that has historically neutralized Perry in the past. Vandy is also a really deep team as well so KU doesn't have that edge either. This is going to be much like the MSU game in which KU cannot get dominated on the glass.
Self has talked about playing Perry at the 3 this year, this is the game to pull the trigger on that so KU can have Lucas and Mickelson in the paint fighting for rebounds. This should not be an easy game for KU and we should see how much Self has learned about this team from the MSU game.
@ralster Figuring out the actual % of 3 point FGA isn't hard because you only need 2 numbers for that (FGA and 3 point FGA). The actual hard work is in figuring out where that number is relative to the rest of the country.
That said, in one of the post MSU threads, someone posted a link to an article that talked about that number. 5 years ago (the last Final Four team), KU attempted 33% of the total FGA from 3. That number went down each year to a Bill Self era low of 28% last year despite KU being a top 50 3 point shooting team last year at 38%.
The concerning thing about that stat is that KU was also a horrible shooting team inside of 5 feet last year. KU left a lot of points on the floor last year because they didn't take near enough advantage of their 3 point shooting ability. The way this team shoots, KU needs to be north of 35% of their total FGA from 3.
@Crimsonorblue22 3rd game in 3 days so I don't know. It helps that KU has had 2 blow outs to not rack up the minutes, but Vandy has had 2 blow outs as well so they should be pretty rested. On paper, Vandy is a team that can give KU all kinds of trouble inside because of their size. If this isn't a match up that suits Hunter over Lucas, then there isn't one on KU's schedule.
KU has to draw their bigs away from the basket to keep the paint from getting packed in. Ellis hitting an early 3 from the top of the key would go a long way in doing that.
How many games did Cliff miss? Because that's how many games Diallo is going to miss.
Vandy is a very big team and has a lot of people that can shoot. They are the kind of team that can make life miserable for KU around the rim.
KSU wins a national title in anything.
@DanR No, that's what the NCAA told Zenger yesterday. It's on KUSports if you don't believe that.
Today, Davis announced this will be his final campaign as the voice of the Jayhawks. Jayhawk football and basketball games just won't sound the same without him.
Some of his career highlights as a KU broadcaster include calling 8 of KU's 14 Final Four's including the 1988 and 2008 national championships, 6 of KU's 12 bowl game appearances including the 2008 Orange Bowl that capped a 12-1 season.
You will be truly missed by Jayhawk Nation Bob and personally, I'd love to see KU on senior day this year, hang a banner right next to Max's in the south end of AFH to honor Bob's 32 years of service to KU.
@jayballer54 Allen and Bolden absolutely would be competing with each other for minutes next year. The 4/5 distinction is irrelevant in Self's system. The more relevant factor is high post and low post players. Both Allen and Bolden are low post players and would be competing with each other along with Coleby and Lucas for a starting spot if all 3 are at KU next year. Bragg and Lightfoot are the two high post players for Self next year.
None of Bragg, Allen, or Bolden are OAD's at this point so having those 3 would be similar to when KU had the twins and T-Rob manning the post for them.
I keep seeing people talk about cramps at Maui. That's not an issue anymore because they finally put air conditioning in Lahaina.
http://www2.kusports.com/documents/2015/nov/22/kus-letter-ncaa-regarding-cheick-diallo/ ↗
It's pretty damning against the NCAA. Apparently, it's not a couple of classes the NCAA has issue with, it's 10 of them. The NCAA apparently told KU that only 6 of Diallo's 16 core classes were recognized by the NCAA and 3 of those 6 were taken during Diallo's first year at OSNA.
After reading this and seeing that there are more cases like this out there and have been in the past as well, I think we may see a class action lawsuit against the NCAA in the pretty near future, especially if the NCAA keeps dragging their feet on this matter which they seem hell bent on doing.
Since KU has already pretty much given the NCAA the finger by making this case as public as possible, I think Self should play Diallo because the NCAA doesn't appear to have a leg to stand on at this point in regards to Diallo's eligibility and go ahead and make that a double bird to the NCAA.
@globaljaybird Glad to know you're such an open minded individual.
@dylans Tom Izzo was very much interested in the KU job in 2003 and was the second choice had Self decided to stay at Illinois. Given his track record, I don't think many people would've minded him patrolling the sideline in AFH. KU was and still is a program that will attract the elite of the elite coaching prospects because KU is a top 5 job in the country.
As for MSU fans reactions to losing to KU in ORLANDO last year, they weren't freaking out because Izzo regularly loses some early season contests and his teams get better from those losses. That's been Izzo's history for 20 years so when it happens, it's not a big deal.
As for why people are mad about KU losing to MSU, it has nothing to do with MSU. They're a top 15 team and will be very good again this year. People are mad because Self said he learned a lot from the WUG, but he hasn't changed at all and the biggest culprits in that loss are the same issues KU has had for the past 2 years that lead to first weekend losses on the NCAA tournament.
When someone says they've learned to adapt to a new style, but when they're feet are put to the fire and revert back to their old ways, people are going to feel mad about being fed a load of crap and buying into Self's statements of change.
@globaljaybird All 3 players had the same ruling in the same year so you can't separate the 3 when discussing Anderson's situation. Anderaon was the only one who didn't have the patience to wait around to become eligible. McLemore and Traylor each could've transferred to other schools in conferences that allow partial qualifiers to play immediately just like Anderson did.
@drgnslayr Who's the really bad team in Maui? Chaminade? Or do you think KU loses theor second round game to UCLA or UNLV? Wake Forest is probably the worst team there and they're on opposite side of the bracket.
The way the bracket is set up, KU very likely gets to the finals against either Indiana or Vanderbilt. If it's Indiana, it really depends on theor 3 point shooting becauae that is their basic gameplan and they are a really good 3 point shooting team. I haven't watched Vandy in a long time so I don't know what Stallings is running these days to know how KU matches up with them.
@Bosthawk Entitlement combined with frustration and a lack of common sense.
Until a major ankle injury ended my football career, I was a D1 football recruit. Mostly FCS schools with a couple of Sun Belt and C-USA programs, but mostly Southland Conference programs. When you're at that level as an athlete, you're used to being the best player on the field/court and when you start competing at the D1 level, you're no longer the best and some people handle that better than others. Greene doesn't appear to be someone who has handled that transition very well.
@globaljaybird The NCAA is not who kept McLemore, Traylor, and Anderson from playing that year. The NCAA ruled all 3 partial qualifiers and the Big 12 doesn't allow partial qualifiers to play. There are conferences that allow partial qualifiers to play so your beef with those 3 is not with the NCAA but the Big 12.
@DinarHawk You might want to check you sarcasm filter, it seems to be malfunctioning right now.
@KUSTEVE That is my thinking. Cliff and his mom did very little to cooperate with the NCAA so the NCAA is doing little to cooperate with KU in regards to Diallo.
@jaybate-1.0 You keep saying give Self a long stack and he'll win a ring (I don't doubt that), but also talk about the embargo diverting recruits elsewhere. How does Self get a long stack when the embargo prevents that?
When you have a blockade around you, you have to find a new strategy that will work. In this case, going after the 25-75 kids that aren't part of the funneling is how to do that, but those kids are no longer Self's top priorities. The twins, T-Rob, Cole, Tyshawn, EJ, Ellis, Releford, and so on are the kids Self needs to focus on because they aren't big enough priority players for the embargo to have an impact on.
Our odds of signing him are better than they were on Monday. That said, he could still commit tomorrow if he wanted to, but he'd have to wait until the spring to sign his LOI.
@SoftballDad2011 College basketball is a results driven business and KU's results are trending in the wrong direction. I don't care about winning the recruiting class rankings, I care about winning in March and April and adding banners to the north end of Allen Fieldhouse.
@JayHawkFanToo You wanna know something else about KU's past 10 years. KU has lost more games in the past 4 years than the previous 6 combined. KU has lost more Big 12 games in the past 3 years than the previous 7. If you want to keep trending that direction, then that's your business. Personally, I'd rather KU not trend backwards like they're currently doing.
Honestly at this point, I think Self just needs to completely cut ties with Greene and give him the boot. This is the third time he's been suspended at KU and whether it's a drug test or mouthing off to Self, this has gone past the point of being a mistake to being a pattern of poor decisions. Yes Greene is a great shooter, but at what point does his stupid crap like this become a net negative to KU? In my eyes, it's at that point now and I do believe KU would be better off in the long run by cutting ties with Greene.
@SoftballDad2011 Actually, our classes haven't been fine. KU's W-L record and tournament performances over the past 2 years should be proof enough that something is wrong. If you're happy with 10 loss seasons and struggling to get past the 1st weekend of the tournament, then you and I have very different levels of expectations of success.
@drgnslayr If Aaron Miles is ends up being the one who replaces Howard, it would largely depend on how good a recruiter he is. I do think we would see and immediate uptick in PG play if Miles was allowed the time with the players an assistant coach is.
Norm is someone I wouldn't replace unless there was someone available. It's not that Norm is a bad assistant or recruiter, because he's helped on other players, but there's also better out there. Personally, I'd love to see Self bring in someone he doesn't have a previous connection to that can bring a fresh perspective in on recruiting and on the court.
@drgnslayr Jerrance Howard has never been a good recruiter in spite of his reputation which was made under Billy Clyde at A&M. He also has the marijuana arrest he failed to disclose to Self. That arrest happened in Peoria, Ill. and when you look at the Cliff situation, that story broke out of Peoria, Ill. If believes that was just a coincidence, I'd like to talk to them about investing in some oceanfront property in Lawrence that I own.
We lost Manning and Dooley in back to back offseasons and replaced them with Norm Roberts and Jerrance Howard. Norm was brought in to reestablish a pipeline into the NYC to DC pipeline. So far, he's landed Diallo. 1 recruit in 4 recruiting classes from the area you were brought in to recruit isn't good enough. You can mention Embiid if you want, but when KU landed him, nobody knew he was going to be that good that fast and wasn't a highly coveted player until after KU signed him. KU and Florida were the two major schools after him and both were because Roberts was scouting Chris Walkerwho was on the same AAU team as Embiid.
Jerrance Howard was brought in after Dooley took the FGCU job and has epically flopped in the role. PG has not improved at all and he's delivered 1 recruit in 3 years and that resulted in the Cliff situation.
Jerrance Howard really is the one that needs to go after this year and I really Self is going to put the full court press on Aaron Miles to retire and join his staff and replace Howard.
@joeloveshawks Your post actually kind of helps prove my point. Like I said, Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results. If Bill Self always does the same thing and it leads to same results, shouldn't that be a clue that he should try something different.
@Lulufulu Obviously I don't mean clinically insane. More like repeatedly trying to fit a square peg into a round hole type deal that Einstein would consider to be insanity. Insane is not the word I would pick for the NCAA. I think corrupt and inept would be better terms for them.
What Self has been doing for the past few years with his offensive system and recruiting clearly isn't working. KU has lost 32 games total the past 4 years (not counting this year) and 13 Big 12 games the past 3 seasons. The 32 games is more than the previous 6 years combined and the 13 Big 12 losses are more than the previous 7 years.
Clearly something isn't working and when something isn't working and you keep trying to make it work, that fits the Einstein definition of insanity, so according Einstein, we can conclude that Bill Self has some insanity in him.
@Lulufulu I'm not disagreeing about Mickelson being the better overall player, but Landen Lucas is currently KU's best rebounder. I think Self believes that because Mickelson isn't specifically the best in any one area, that he's not helpful for KU. It could also be because Mickelson is a transfer and Self is being loyal to players he and his staff brought in instead of playing who makes KU the best team.
@ParisHawk said:
So how do we plug this bleeding & get the embargo off our backs?
Every single Williams Fund member tells Zenger: "It's Adidas or me, you choose."
No, that's not how you do it. You do it by stop recruiting the kids that are ranked high enough that come under big shoe influence. Once you get past 20ish in most years, those kids aren't heavily influenced because they aren't projected out to be useful to big shoe. Let UCLA go back to being the top dog at Adidas and let KU have their choice of the 20-75 kids that are UK and Duke's fall backs for when they crap out on kids which happens regularly.
It's happened time and again where those 20-75 kids as juniors and seniors beat the OAD all-stars in the tournament. The current recruiting model has been around since 2007 when the OAD rule went into effect and big shoe couldn't push their chosen ones straight to the NBA and only 2 teams that were OAD heavy have won titles. Kentucky in 2012 and Duke last year. Every other title since 2007 has been won by the junior and senior heavy teams of 20-75 players.
Here's Merriam-Webster's definitions.
1: a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia)
2: such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility
3 a : extreme folly or unreasonableness
3 b : something utterly foolish or unreasonable
Based on Merriam-Webster's definitions, I would say no although a case could be made about 3b.
Albert Einstein had his own definition of insanity. His definition is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
By Einstein's definition, I think there could be a very strong case to conclude that Bill Self is indeed insane.
Bill Self is loyal to his system to the detriment of KU's personnel. Bill Self is also trying to fight the embargo to the detriment of KU's recruiting instead of being the king of the 4 stars that he was for a long time.
KU's personnel is in now way, shape, or form capable of running Bill Self's system against elite level programs. We saw MSU take it away from Ellis and KU was helpless to do anything else other than let Mason and Graham drive the rim and try to draw fouls. KU has 5 guys on the roster that shot at least 37% from 3 last year and 4 of those players are starters this year. Mason and Graham were both 43% shooters, Greene was 40%, Ellis 39%, and Selden 37%. This goes back to the fools gold statement of Bill Self not wanting to live and die by the 3. KU was top 50 nationally last year in 3 point FG% and was one of the worst in 2 point FG%. With the roster as constructed, KU's real fools gold appears to be within 5 feet of the basket. Using last year's stats, KU averaged 92 points per 100 two point FGA's. KU averaged 114 points per 100 three point FGA's
Over the summer @jaybate-1.0 hypothesized about what a team would look like shooting a ridiculous number of 3 point shots. This is a KU team built to do that. You put a line up of Ellis, Graham, Greene, Mason, and Selden on the floor, you a line up that shoots a little over 40% from 3. Run a bunch of ball screen, pick and pop, and the chop play, and KU would get a lot of good looks from 3. This would also ideally help the rebounding issue as well because KU can't rebound under that basket and long shots create long rebounds and gives KU's shooters a better chance at getting rebounds and quickly find an open shooter.
As for recruiting, the down turn started with the 2011 class when Self went all in on Kaleb Tarczewski and whiffed and combined with him not anticipating the possibility of the Morris twins jumping early, killed KU's momentum and we're now really seeing the fruits of that class today. This is why landing the top 50-75 guys are important. They cushion the blow of having less than stellar recruiting classes. That 2012 Final Four team was mostly 4 star players. KU's current roster goals tend to be OAD caliber 5 star kids and low 4 star, and 3 star kids to fill in the gaps and almost ignoring the 25-75 kids that were long the backbone of Self's team. This is largely the fault of the assistant coaches. They now tend to target 1 or 2 OAD caliber kids, spend years recruiting them and when they don't sign, they're left scrambling to sign 3 star kids and convincing other players to reclassify other kids to move up a class to fill in for those misses.
It's not the embargo itself that's killing KU's recruiting, it's Bill Self trying to fight the embargo at the expense of the recruiting strategy that got KU to the level they were at several years ago of picking and choosing the kids rated just low enough that the shoe cos. didn't care about them because they didn't have the potential to be the new face of whatever company at the next level. Bill Self needs to get back to building his teams around the 25-75 players with the occasional 5 star player. The recruiting game changed big time in 2007 after the OAD rule was instituted. Since 2007, I would argue that KU has only had 1 true elite recruiting class and that was the 2007 class that had Darrell Arthur and Sherron Collins. If Bill Self is going to insist on running his system, he needs to model his recruiting on the 2008 and 2009 classes. That 2008 class had the Morris twins, Tyshawn Taylor, Travis Releford and Mario Little. 5 guys that contributed significantly during their time at KU and two more guys in Tyrone Appleton and Quintrell Thomas that were recruited over in favor 2009 additions Thomas Robinson and Xavier Henry. 2009 also featured Elijah Johnson
Bill Self doesn't run an offensive system that allows freshmen to shine unless they are a truly transcendent player like Andrew Wiggins was so because shoe co. wants the chosen ones to thrive in college and start building their exposure and brand in college, they get steered towards programs that are more conducive to allowing freshmen to shine from day 1. Bill Self needs to throw up the double bird to shoe co. and tell them he's going back to 2008-09 Bill Self recruiting mode and that he'll see everyone in the Final Four.
@ParisHawk So landing two players in 4 years is good? Embiid was a hold over from Norm being at Florida. He was brought back so he could reopen the NYC pipeline for KU and he's failed at that, so I would absolutely replace Roberts. If I was Self, I would go bring CB McGrath home from UNC since they're about to get nailed with some major sanctions. If McGrath doesn't wanna bail from Roy, then I'm looking at Calipari's staff or Coach K's staff. Self needs an assistant coach he has no previous ties with so that someone can call out Self when he repeatedly does thing that don't work.
@ParisHawk What about Embiid? I said from NYC and as far as I know, Embiid was in the central Florida area.
@SoftballDad2011 Michigan St. typically gets to the Final Four by overachieving so if KU had a history of overachieving, I would be happy with that. KU is known as a significant underachiever though and that's what gets under people's skin the most.
Why was 1997, 2010, and 2011 so painful? It was because KU significantly underachieved in those years. KU was by far the best team in the country all 3 of those seasons and none them even reached the Final Four. Why is 2012 remembered so fondly? Because KU significantly overachieved that year. That was by far the least talented KU team of the past 25 years and they were a few missed lay ups away from winning a national title.
The most disheartening line in that article has to be this one...
Since the 2010-11 season, no Kansas team has attempted more than 30 percent of their shots from beyond the arc, including a low of 28.4 percent last year.
The reason that's so disheartening is because KU as a team shot 38% from 3 which was top 50 nationally last season. This is a very good 3 point team and Bill Self appeares to be sabotaging his team by not letting them do what they do best and that's shoot 3's.
Somebody needs to tweet or share that article with one of the assistants because Self sure as hell doesn't care about that fact at this point.
@wissoxfan83 I don't know if KU win Maui honestly. They're rebounding issues are that bad. Maybe Diallo actually gets cleared between now and whenever KU flies out.
A loss to Michigan St. isn't concerning by itself because they are a top 15 team. The concerning issue with this loss is that is happened because of the same issues that KU's had for the past 2-3 seasons after it appeared KU had turned the corner on a lot of those issues in Korea over the summer.
KU was dominated on the glass, nobody stepped up to lead when MSU was gaining momentum, Self appeared to completely disregard what he claimed he learned in Korea and fell back into his old ways.
The most interesting/telling comment from the post game was Self saying Mickelson only played 3 minutes because Landen Lucas was more suited to MSU's style of play. That is a really concerning comment to me because when has Lucas ever shown an ability to handle physical play? I'd really love to pick Self's brain on why he thinks Lucas is more suited to physical play than Mickelson is because I jave yet to see a shred of evidence to support that point of view.
As much as people talk about the loss of Manning, I don't Manning was our biggest loss. I think it Joe Dooley. I really hope Self takes a long hard look at his staff and sees that KU is stagnating with his current staff and that he may need to make some changes in the offseason. Townsend is the only one of the assistants I would keep. I would do everything possible to convince Aaron Miles to retire and joun the staff ASAP and get Howard out of Lawrence because I think he's dead weight for KU in recruiting because he hasn't closed on anybody except Cliff. Norm is supposed to have great ties to NYC because of his time at St. John's but all that's yielded us is the Diallo mess.
Stability is a great luxury to have on a coaching staff, but there comes a point where new voices become necessary to negate against stagnation which is where KU appears to be right now.
@REHawk Mickelson no, he should've been in the game and played Landen's minutes.
Bragg is too skinny right now to stick in the post and expect him to do a good job against physical teams. Bragg may become a good defender down the road, but he needs to add weight and learn how to play college defense.
@drgnslayr My mistake on that one, it was @Lulufulu that said Mickelson was by far our best rebounder responding to something you said. That's what happens when you post when you start feelinf tired and need to go to bed.
I honestly think the reason why Self plays Lucas and Traylor more is because Lucas is our best rebounder and Traylor is best offensive player. Hunter is probably the best overall player of the 3, but he's not specifically the best at anything so Self doesn't see as much value in Mickelson despite all the evidence from Korea that Mickelson compliments Ellis much better that Traylor or Lucas does.
KU is at a status where they are judged almost exclusively by what happens in March and April, it January and February. KU is 4th in Final Four appearances, but only a 3-6 mark in the championship game.
@DCHawker Did I say Landen was a better defender than Hunter? All I said was better rebounder.
@drgnslayr You actually did say Hunter is our best rebounder so if that's not assuming something, then I don't what is. Even at Arkansas where he was a starter and playing more minutes, Hunter was still a pretty poor rebounder.
@drgnslayr Why do you and so many others assume Hunter Mickelson is our best rebounder? There's nothing out there that supports or backs that up. When you look at the actual numbers, Landen Lucas is KU's best rebounder and there is no disputing that. Here's each of those two stats.
Hunter...http://www.foxsports.com/college-basketball/hunter-mickelson-player-stats ↗
Landen...http://www.foxsports.com/college-basketball/landen-lucas-player-stats ↗
Landen is superior rebounder by any measure you want to use. Hunter had 39 rebounds in 138 minutes in Korea while Lucas had 44 rebounds in 112 minutes. Last year, Hunter had 34 rebounds all season in about the same number of minutes he had in Korea while Lucas had 139 rebounds in a little under 500 minutes last season. Landen was KU's second best rebounder last season and appears on his way to being KU's best this year until Diallo gets cleared (hopefully).
Landen isn't very good at anything else, but he's at least a competent rebounder.
@JRyman I agree with what @Bwag said. What has Self carried over from Korea into the season so far? Right now, it appears not a thing. KU played its best when Hunter started alongside Perry, but now can't find any playing time. Self said Korea was Mickelson's coming out party, so much for that.
Bill Self is in his 13th year at KU and hasn't changed significantly in that time and his stubborness to adapt what worked in Korea to this team is going to lead KU to another 10 loss season and give KU somewhere around 30 losses over the past 3 seasons. This isn't an improved team from last year because Bill Self hasn't improved as a coach and seems to have completely disregarded what worked in Korea of letting his players play in favor of his rigid system that he's going to run come hell or high water and that doesn't work against good team.
@jaybate-1.0 If Mason hasn't developed that ability more than halfway through his career yet, it ain't happening. I don't know if you remember or not, but during boot camp last season, Self brought in a drill instructor and had his players go through a military style training program that was supposed to be team building and force a leader to emerge. The drill instructor that ran program flat out told Self that nobody on the team was a very good leader, but that Graham was the best of what there was. Graham needs to be the QB running the show for KU because he is the best leader according to someone who specializes in developing leaders.
If you want Mason to get out of James Harden mode, then maybe something similar to what Self had to do with Brandon Rush to make Rush start shooting more. Self made Rush spend some quality time with a tread mill every time he passed up an open shot in practice so maybe every time in practice Mason drives and doesn't pass to an open player, he gets better acquainted with a treadmill? Out of everything last night, that was probably the most frustrating thing to me was seeing Greene standing wide open because his man was the one collapsing on Mason and Graham and neither one of them would pass out to Greene for an open 3.
@jaybate-1.0 This team doesn't even have 1 QB on it and that's been the case for going on 4 years now. Who's stepped up at KU and assumed a leadership role post Tyshawn and T-Rob? Nobody.
This is a tailor made Roy Williams run and gun finesse roster that should be running people out of the gym. Instead, Self is insistent on running the physical Big 10 style with a roster that would probably finish 5th or 6th in the Big 10.
I would be curious to see what this roster would do with running Jay Wright's four guard line ups. Graham at the point, Mason and Svi on the perimeter, Selden/Greene as undersized 4's, and Perry as the lone post. This team is already bad on defense and can't rebound to save their lives, so why not embrace small ball until Diallo becomes a factor and KU can play a more traditional 2 post line up with Ellis and Diallo.