🏀 KuBuckets Archive

I think playing style is probably the biggest obstacle for Self. His system isn't freshmen friendly and that's not going to appeal to a lot of people and they have to be sold more on KU than other schools and that takes time to do that. This is one of the drawbacks in being so rigid and inflexible in running his system no matter what. Coach K had this issue until a few years ago and once he started showing more adaptability, the OAD's started headed to Durham. Cal and Roy have always had freshmen friendly systems.

If Self shows the flexibility he did for most of the WUG, he'll start attracting more of the higher end guys earlier instead of the spring. It'll take a couple of years of established system adaptability for recruiting to catch up, but that's what has to happen first.

What's the matter, y'all can't read Korean?

@JRyman You are now changing the premise of this from what it was. Of course making FT's is a good thing, but that's not what this was about. This is about which stats are good indicators of which team won a game without looking at the actual score. In the context of that, FT% is a crap stat wothout how FT's were attempted and made.

You can cite exceptions all you want because they exist, I've never said they don't exist. This is why I said that rebounds are good indicator, not a perfect one (final score is the only perfect one). With rebounds, it doesn't matter how shots either team missed because both teams have the same number of opportunities to grab a rebound.

In regards to Brannen, let's not forget that he's coming off hip surgery and missed boot camp. His conditioning is probably way behind and his flexibility is probably worse than it's ever been.

@JRyman FT% is a crap stat by itself without the context of how many FT's were attempted. Did they go 2/5, 4/10, 8/20? FT% doesn't anything in vacuum without knowing HOW MANY FT's were attempted.

Can definitely see the rust tonight. Rebounding still looks like it could be an issue this year. I think Bragg or Mickelson need to start when the season starts for real next week. Mickelson is the most consistent guy of the 4 non Perry bigs and Bragg has the highest ceiling. KU also really needs Traylor to play like he did as a sophomore to be net positive for KU this year and Landen Lucas is what he is. A solid rebounder who lacks the strength to hold his position of both ends of the court.

@brooksmd That's how other fans felt about Morningstar when he was here. People thought he had been around for a decade.

@JayHawkFanToo Smoke and mirrors are how you win with inferior talent. That's not something special to Gill at Buffalo. The facts are this Buffalo joined the FBS level in 1999 and went 10-69 in the 7 years prior to Turner Gill. That's 1.4 wins per season in 7 years. Turner Gill won 20 games in 4 seasons there which is 5 wins per season on average. Did he make Buffalo elite? No, but he won twice as many games in 4 years than Buffalo had won in the 7 years prior. That's a big improvement no matter how you dissect it because W's are what matter at the end of the day regardless of how they were attained. KU is right now is probably going to be 12-60 in the 6 years post Mangino, 2 wins per season on average. You're telling me you wouldn't take a coach who could average 5 wins per season right now at KU (Mangino barely averaged 6 for reference). I could not care less if KU wins games by smoke and mirrors or by lining up and kicking the other teams a$$. Al Davis said it best, "Just win baby!"

@JRyman FT% doesn't mean crap because a team can be perimeter based and rarely go to the line so even if they shoot a high % it doesn't mean crap because the opportunities to score from the FT line aren't there. Or a team can be a bad FT% team and still pound the ball inside and go to the line 30 times a game and win that way. Yes FT's can impact a game, but that's not usually the best way to see who won. I agree with FG% and turnovers (usually), and rebounds are right there with those two stats. If Team A is shooting really well, then there's fewer rebounds for Team B to grab and Team B is likely to get crushed on the glass and scoreboard because of that. Rebounds equal scoring opportunities for your team while taking them away from the opponent which is why that is a such a coveted skill coaches look for in front court players.

The shot clock is only going to significantly imlact teams like Wisconsin that play at a snails pace on offense and even then, it's only going to mean 5 less seconds of standing around with ball before getting in to the offense.

@JRyman Rebounding is one of the stats along with turnovers that you can look at without seeing what the final score was and be pretty accurate in guessing which team won.

KU's lost 19 games the past two years (same number as the previous 4 years combined) and has only had one abover average rebounder during thise two years and that was Embiid. When you can't rebound, you give your opponents more opportunities to score which gives them a better chance to win. Rebounding may not be the absolute most important stat, but it's pretty close because it's one of those stats you can look at in the box score and be pretty accurate in guessing who won by which team had more rebounds.l and that's not the case with most stats.

@HighEliteMajor BGL is not reason Mangino the reason Mangino got fired. Mangino never got along with Perkins (this isn't a secret) and Perkins had to be talked into not firing Mangino after 2006. Their hatred of each other preceded BGL arriving in Lawrence by years. BGL is also not the one who started the investigation, the whistle was blown on Mangino by his own players after the Arist Wright tirade and that's also when Mangino completely lost the locker room. Go back to the fall of 2009 and look fir players going out of their way to stand up for Mangino because it did not happen. Players who didn't outright slam Mangino only talked about the situation when asked directly about it and didn't defend Mangino with any conviction whatsoever.

Turner Gill was the wrong coach at wrong for KU. Perkins botched the Mangino so horribly that KU could only go to the extreme player friendly coach for their next hire without ridicule from the media and that wasn't what KU needed. KU needed someone to bring in someone to restore order to a fractured locker room and Gill was not that man. Turner Gill is a coach whose style fits with a program that has a lot of stability and self discipline already instilled. KU didn't have that at that time. Indo believe goven the full 5 years, Gill would have KU in a place to be competitive because he's always been competitive as a head coach outside of his time here. He won a conference title at Buffalo which was a program that hadn't won more than 2 games in a season since moving to the FBS prior to Gill. He's won or shared a conference title and been in the FCS playoffs every year at Liberty. The man is a good coach who happened into a bad situation that was a horrible fit for him here at KU. Rich Rodriguez went through the same thing when he left WVU for Michigan. A good coach who was a terrible fit for a program that has since landed on his feet. Charlie Weis has done far more damage to KU than Turner Gill ever did.

@DanR Rebounds per minute is a flawed stat to me because it's dependent on players missing shots. If players aren't missing shots, the rebounds per minute are going to be lower because there's fewer opportunities to get rebounds.

Let's say a player goes into a game for a 5 minute stretch and both teams combine to shoot 12/16 from the field and no missed FT's. In that 5 minute stretch, there were only 4 rebounding opportunities total so that would kill everybody's rebounds per minute because there was a lack of opportunities. Personally, I prefer rebounding % because it is simply how many rebounds did you get relative to how many rebounding opportunities were there while on the floor. Back to the 5 minute stretch with 4 total rebound opportunities. If the player grabbed one of those rebounds, then is rebounds per minute would be 0.20 because 1/5 (1 rebound divided by 5 minutes). With rebound %, his number would be .25 because 1/4 (1 rebound in 4 opportunities).

To me, rebounding % is the better metric for determining who the best rebounders are because rebounds per minute includes a variable outside the players control and can distort the pucture. Last year, KU's best rebounder was Cliff Alexander. Here's the rest of the bigs and wings with their rebounding % numbers. (Offensive, Defensive, Total)

Cliff Alexander (13.3%, 19.9%, 15.5%)

Kelly Oubre (6.4%, 19.2%, 12.2%)

Jamari Traylor (9.0%, 11.2%, 9.4%)

Landen Lucas (12.5%, 19.1%, 14.8%)

Perry Ellis (9.0%, 17.2%, 12.4%)

Hunter Mickelson (13.4%, 15.0%, 13.2%)

And because the drop off is so staggering, here's Jamari's sophomore numbers (10.6%, 18.5%, 13.7%)

Looking at the numbers, there were 4 things that really stood out to me including Jamari's sophomore numbers which I would take all of sophomore Jamari's numbers in a heart beat this year because they were not bad numbers and he regressed big time last year from hus sophomore season. The other 3 things that stiod out to me were that KU was just a bad rebounding last team last year no matter how you slice it. A wing player should never be the second best defensive rebounder on a team, that is an absolute indictment of how the front court was at rebounding last year. The next thing is that Perry has regressed as a rebounder every year at KU, and the final thing is Hunter might be a worse rebounder than Traylor when factoring in Hunter's size. His numbers last year were consistent with his numbers at Arkansas as well so Hunter just isn't a good rebounder.

To me, this is where KU needs Cheick Diallo the absolute most is cleaning up the glass. His relentless motor and aggressive nature should make him a great rebounder in the Thomas Robinson realm. He will not be a great scorer or defender right away, but Diallo can be an elite rebounder from the second he steps on the floor in a Kansas uniform for the first time.

@drgnslayr I don't think it's Svi passing "too well" for his teammates. I think as his other skills are developing, he's thinking his passing ability has progressed more than it actually has and he's being careless in regards to trying to make plays that aren't the smart plays because he's trying to show off.

As @HighEliteMajor said, last year, we saw the foundation that Svi is building off of and it is a very good foundation. He just needs time to build his frame (he's a a good path there) and develop those skills (sounds like that's happening as well). Svi may be the guy that makes people pull their hair out this year because he'll probably be the guy capable of being the best player on the floor for both teams at the same time much like junior year Tyshawn was at times.

@HighEliteMajor At least in Texas, Algebra is considered a freshmen level course and Algebra II a junior level class that is the highest level of math required for non-advanced students. I was a grade level above in math (about 1/3 of people in my class were) so I took Algebra in 8th grad and Algebra II my sophomore year. Also meant we had to take Pre-Cal in HS as well as everybody had to take 3 math classes between their 9th and 12th grade years.

@JRyman Bless your heart does not mean go to hell. It means that person thinks you're a special kind of stupud. I have never heard that phrase used in the context of go to hell.

@DoubleDD Svi has been a projected mid 1st round pick in 2017 since before last year and has been KU's best NBA prospect since he got to KU.

@drgnslayr I don't think it's a kick in the pants if Jamari starts tomorrow. When there's been position battles going on, Self has historically started the person who's looked the best in practice leading up to the game for the two exhibition games.

It sounds like Jamari has had the best week of practice leading up to tomorrow's game so he'll likely start on those merits. If Landen Lucas has the best week of practice between the two exhibition games, he'd start the second one.

The Northern Colorado game will be when we all find out if it's Mickelson or Traylor that really starts next to Ellis.

@wissoxfan83 If only I had a Cheik-el for every pun regarding Diallo's name.

@jayballer54 Sprained ankles take a long time to heal because they are injuries to the ligaments in the joint. Ligament injuries tend to take a long time to feel a 100% after they happen and sprained ankles are no different. I sprained my ankle over the summer and took about 3 months for the swelling to completely go away and to be able run with no pain. Without pictures of his sprain, there's no way to know how bad it was, but these injuries tend to linger.

@HighEliteMajor I didn't figure you'd be able to find that stat since you've never cited it before, but thought I'd ask about it. I've always used Fox Sports to get advanced stats. I'm not sure how far back they go, but it's a really good source for those numbers and in no danger of being shut down.

@ParisHawk One of the things Coach K finally demonstrated in recent years is that he's becoming more adaptable in his system to play to his personnel's strengths. This is an area where Self hasn't really demonstrated much adaptability yet. The WUG provided hope that Self is starting to realize that adapting his system to his personnel is an option and one that also leads to a lot of success as well. We also saw Self revert back to his typical tendencies in the Germany game though so he may not fully be ready to do this yet.

Self has also admitted in the past to not watching the final game of the season which is something that's always bothered me because there's a lot he can learn from those games to apply for the future. He hasn't talked about that in the past couple of years that I'm aware of so he may have changed, but if not, that's an obvious example of something Self could do to improve his coaching.

@JRyman and @HighEliteMajor The back and forth y'all are doing right now is why this site was created. There was/is way too much of this crap that goes on at KUSports and why many of us no longer post on a consistent basis over there.

@HighEliteMajor Nobody is going to dispute that you do have a solid knowledge base, but you do have a tendency to present it in a holier than thou manner and act offended when others use a different way of evaluating a player than you do. Just like you tells others there's different ways to succeed on the court when you question Self, there's other ways to measure a players impact than advanced numbers, but you consistently shoot down their opinions because they don't use the same method you use of player evaluation.

I do think it's interesting that you would use how a murder trial works as an example. You bring up that circumstantial evidence is how a conviction is reached because there's not always empirical data to prove a person murdered another person. Yet you choose to challenge those and try to discredit those who use circumstantial evidence to form an opinion on Traylor because they don't have the time to dig into the stats beyond the box score.

I don't know which site you use to get your advanced numbers from, but there is one advanced number I would be curious about and that is KU's +/- with Jamari on the court. I don't know if any site tracks that stat at the college level, but that is a great way of measuring how a player who's own numbers may not statistically impact positively, but being on the floor just makes the team better. I know Traylor's personal stats aren't great, but when he plays with high energy, the circumstantial evidence suggests that KU is a better team and that's something a +/- stat would indicate.

@nuleafjhawk They were over at the volleyball game watching KU sweep Baylor 25-15, 25-9, 25-16.

@jayballer54 There's absolutely some positives with this team that give legitimate hope for the future. Let's start with a class breakdown. KU has currently has 19 seniors, 37 juniors, 16 sophomores, and 41 freshmen listed on the roster (only 17 have previously redshirted). This obviously doesn't take into account who's scholarship and who's not, just who's listed on KU's roster. With 113 players on the roster, that's right around 50% of the roster that's walk ons based on KU having 63 or 64 scholarship players. With the class break downs, KU won't have balanced class numbers until 2018 when the current sophomore class filters out thanks to Uncle Charlie's JuCo philosophy. Realistically, 2017 is the earliest KU will be ready to contend for a bowl game so I don't expect any of the current juniors to be around for when KU starts seeing the fruits of their labor show up in the win column.

Now on individual players and position groups. Ryan Willis has a very bright future. He has a lot of positive traits that will make him a possible NFL draft pick one day. He's aggressive, he has good mobility and pocket awareness, and a big, pretty accurate arm. He still needs to develop the ability to move through his progressions, but that's a skill that comes with experience so it remains to be seen how that skill develops down the line and will be the ultimate decider in how his career plays out.

I'm getting tired so I won't go into much depth with the rest of the team, but there are 2 units in particular that I'm excited to see develop in the future. The receiving corp and the DLine. KU has had 15 different players catch passes this year including RB's and TE's and 8 of those 15 are either freshmen or sophomores and don't include guys like Chase Harrell or Quincey Perdue who appear to be redshirting this year.

The reason I'm excited about the DLine is because they have 14 of KU's 20 sacks on the year (those 20 sacks are currently top 50 nationally). 7.5 of those sacks are from freshmen DLinemen and 11.5 overall are from freshmen and sophomores in the front 7. That level of production is going really help KU's secondary out in a couple of years from now when they develop and learn how to play coverage.

So while there's definitely question marks with this team going forward, OLine being the single biggest question mark, there's definitely a solid foundation for Beaty to build on with these current freshmen and sophomores.

@HighEliteMajor We saw what these guys were capable of in Korea when Self let them play fast without calling a bunch of set plays for them and it was really effective. We all saw what happened in the Germay game though when Self reverted back to the high-low and nearly cost KU the game. We all know that just like last year, this is a team who's built pretty much the opposite way of how Self prefers to play so if he can resist the urge to run a lot of sets and let his guys play a free flowing up tempo game and take advantage of their superior athleticism, KU's going to be a really good team capable of running a lot of teams out of the gym.

@HighEliteMajor When Self's recruiting the true low post spot, whether the player is a true 4 or a true 5 doesn’t matter because they have the same function within the offense. D-Jax and Landen Lucas were/are used in the same way that Cole Aldrich and Jeff Withey were. Only difference in their roles were the letter next to their name. That's why the 4/5 distinction has no bearing on how Self recruits the low post position.

@jayballer54 I don't viable scenario in which Herard starts next year unless Bragg leaves early (and there's no reason to predict now). Assuming Bragg is back, there's also not a reason to believe Herard would play ahead of Landen Lucas. KU's also not done recruiting and is probably going to land one of the three of Allen, Bolden, or Giles with KU, UK, and Duke each getting one of them. Bolden is most likely to head to Lawrence and is a better player than Herard. So right now, Herard figures to be the 4th in the front court rotation at best. That doesn't even factor in Cheick Diallo's situation.

Miss St. doesn't have near the competition in the front court because they don't have near the talent KU does so there's a lot less potential competition for Herard to compete with at this point.

@jayballer54 The 4/5 distinction has absolutely no bearing on how Self recruits. A true 4 or 5 are interchangeable in Self's offense so if Self backed off of Herard, that had no bearing on it. There's a lot of statements out there that Herard wants immediate PT and thay he sounds pretty entitled. KU can't guarantee a lot of PT for Herard, but MSU can offer a lot more PT because of theor front court situation. This probably has a lot more to do with why Self backed off Herard than his position did.

My mom and all of her siblings are Pitt St. alums. I used to go games there when my mom would go up to visit her family since they live 30 minutes away from Pittsburg. This is also the only basketball game my mom will actively cheer against KU in basketball.

@wrwlumpy You forgot a PSU alum a lot of people here would be familiar with. Current Texas St. and former Texas A&M, Alabama, and TCU coach Dennis Franchione.

Jamari Traylor is one of those players who like Escobar on the Royals, the numbers don't necessarily paint the most accurate picture of. Escobar's numbers don't add up to someone who should be hitting lead off as the announcers have mentioned all throughout the playoffs, but the Royals for whatever reason have been a better team with him hitting lead off.

I think Jamari is a similar type player with a similar type impact on the team. His numbers don't say he should get many minutes, yet those numbers don't show his true value to the team because added value isn't something that can quantified. @HighEliteMajor, I think area of your analysis I don't always agree with is that you tend to depend too much on numbers as gospel which don't always paint the whole picture. When Jamari plays with energy, I fully admit that isn't always the case and when that happens he shouldn't be anywhere near the floor, but when he does play with energy, KU is has always been a better team and he should be playing 15-20 minutes per game because it becomes diminishing returns after that point for players of his type, but occasionally he should play more when his actual production is there.

He's a guy that analytics guys like you who swear by advanced metrics hate (as a player, not a person) because his production says he shouldn't play much, and eye test people love him because he's an active player who impacts the game in ways that don't show up on any stat sheets. I've always been more in the middle on this issue as there is absolutely a place for advanced stats in basketball and I use them on a regular basis, but there's also still a lot of value in the eye test as well and the eye test on Traylor says he impacts the game more than the stats say.

@HighEliteMajor Fields like the legal, medical, engineering and other white collar jobs often come down more to who you rather than what you know in regards to who gets hired at the higher paying firms. I've dealt with a lot of PE's who didn't have a clue what they were doing when they would design an element of a building and I would have to redo their design so.it could function in the real world. After dealing with an design firm across multiple projects, you start realizing which of their PE's kniw their stuff and which ones don't have clue what their doing. It also became a pretty common theme to find out those PE's who were terrible at their jobs usually had a dad, uncle, or family friend in the industry that got them their job. A lot of those types of fields frequently have incompetent people who cruised through school in the bottom half of their classes and didn't put in the work because of who they knew in that profession. There are many public defenders and small town laywers who are way better at their jobs than people at bigger firms, but are in that position because they didn't know the right people.

Your views on issues like that are something you really need to take a step back from and reexamine because it is very flawed and distorted view from what reality is.

@Lulufulu Here's the thing though, Self doesn't care what someone's official position designation is. We've seen him start basically every combination of stretch 4, true 4, and true 5 during his time at KU. It doesn't surprise me that Jamari is in the lead for the other starting post spot because Self loves him some Traylor.

My main issue with that is that Perry and Jamari games aren't complimentary to each other. They have basically the same game and occupy the same spots on the floor. Self can't run the high-low with any efficiency or effectiveness because neither are good low post players. If Self lets them play a much more perimeter oriented offense, then that duo would have a chance to work with spacing the floor and letting the guards attack off the dribble.

If Self wants to run the high-low with those two though, he's gonna have big problems.

I still don't see a Herard decision impacting Bolden or Allen, but it would likely ensure Azubuike goes to Florida St. They're two different levels of players who would fill two different holes on the team. Bolden or Allen are each good enough to come in and atart immediately next to Bragg while Herard or Azubuike are guys that would come off the bench behind Lucas mist likely. I think some people are making too big a deal of the position distinction. KU won the title in 2008 with a true 4 and stretch 4 starting and reached the 2012 title game with a true 4 and true 5 starting so Self can get the job done with whatever combination in the front court.

@HighEliteMajor It cost me way more than $2500 a year at my community when the other costs if attendance were factored in such gas, and outside resources needed for projects not on class syllabus. Factor in those costs and it was about $4000 a year to attend. Grants covered those costs and when I transferred to KU, even with the grants, scholarships, and money saved from working, that still only covered a little over half the costs of attendance.

I drove a 1992 Isuzu Rodeo with a busted window, no heat or A/C, and no grill. You talk about being happy with old piece of crap car, I had one in college and they are not cheap to maintain, but it becomes a cycle to where it becomes impossible to actually save money because any extra money went into keeping my running so I could get to work, and get home. You give ideas on how to get college, I've been there, stacked classes in one day, up all night writing 10-15 page papers, getting 4-5 hours of sleep if I was lucky, wake up and work all day, get home, up all night finishing homework from the night before, a little bit of sleep if I was lucky, and back to class. I had a non-existent social life because I was either in class, at work, or in the stacks in Watson or Anschutz at night, and on the occasion I had a free weekend, I was in Junction City visiting a cousin and babysitting his kids and he'd pay me for that.

As others said, the vast majority of entry level jobs don't pay enough to pay off loans in a timely manner and it's almost better at this point to declare bankruptcy right out of college and deal with because it's off your record before your done paying off student loans. There's a reason why there's a record number of people moving back in with their parents because they can't afford their own place out of college and to pay back their loans on a current entry level salary.

I'm going to guess based on your previous posts that you're about a generation or two older than myself, and from my personal experience, a common assumption among towards my generation is that we are lazy and unskilled and unwilling to learn. There's definitely people that fit that description, but the vast majority are not lazy and not unwilling to learn. The unskilled part is partly true because people are expected to learn everything without solid foundation to build upon. When you're thrown into a job and expected to have a high level of production and efficiency or lose your job, that's not a positive environment. There's too many businesses out there that don't do new hire training and just throw people to the wolves.

I don't know what kind of business you own or how many employees you have, but I do have a suggestion that would help out a lot of people that were in a position like me throughout college and coming out of college. I'm sure you have at least one position in your company that requires a college degree such as an accountant. It doesn't specifically have to be an accountant, any position that requires a college degree. Find a person who has an interest or aptitude for that position in high school or early into college that you know, agree to hire and train them after graduation, and help them pay for their education. Set up conditions they have to meet while in school such as maintaining a certain minimum GPA, have to be a first generation college student, agree to work for you after graduation for a certain number of years so you see a return on that investment, or whatever conditions you want that are reasonable. I know people that have done similar deals in the past where it's usually 2-3 years or for however long the student was in college at the time an agreement was made. It's not necessarily something that happens every year, but once every 2-3 year cycle when those peoplemove on to better paying jobs up the corporate ladder. Doing something like this, you're helping a person attend college who might otherwise be able to, you're easing the financial burden on their family, and you're providing a solid foundation for them to build their professional skills on once they start working for you and preparing them for their future jobs.

The government's screwed up, nobody can reasonably deny this, but there's absolutely stuff you can personally do to help ease that burden of others because you have means to do so. It's absolutely a form of charity, but it's also something that helps you out in the long run as well and has a CYB in it that protects you from someone trying to take advantage of the situation.

@blackmild33 Says the guy who said Lightfoot was Arizona bound. I've lost track at this point at how many times you've been wrong on these statements over the past few months.

@HighEliteMajor I think you're still missing the point here. I'm not using these examples to justify any one specific person covering my cost of attendance, but if you think a post secondary education (college, technical, or trade school) isn't a necessity for many people in this culture, then I have some news for you.

I'm in no way advocating for our government to 100% foot everyone's post secondary education, but it is absolutely in their best interest to provide what assistance they can if they want society to function in the future. There's no possible way to prevent people from taking advantage of the programs such as these and Jesus says that and also that this people will answer for their actions.

I am curious as to why you don't deem post secondary education to be a necessity in this culture.

This post is going to get into Christian theology so just a heads up to everyone who doesn't believe or agree. Those who know my posting habits know I rarely get into the political and religious discussions that happen here because they are almost always unfruitful and turn ugly and personal. That's not my intent here, but this is an issue I've felt passionately about and when I see a fellow Christian make statements like these, I do believe it is my responsibility to call it out when I see another Christian make comments that don't line up with the Bible. Posts like these are very rare from me on sites like this because religion and politics are not the focus, but I feel convicted on this one so bear with me on this guys and it doesn't mean I'm going to call out everyone on stuff like this because I know a lot of people on here aren't professing Christians and don't live by these standards.

@HighEliteMajor As a Christian, you are a hypocrite because all Christians are hypocrites, including myself, because we all fall short of the standard of perfections set forth by Jesus. Now let's take a step back and look at the big picture, because I wouldn't expect you to specifically help me because you don't know me personally, but is that really relevant to the discussion.

In Mark 12, Jesus is asked to greatest commandment and Jesus responds with love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself, there are no greater commandments than these.

Now the question becomes who is your neighbor, which is exactly what a lawyer asked Jesus. The answer for Christians is in Luke 10 where Jesus tells a story of a man who was beaten and robbed to that lawyer. A priest and a Levite both pass the man and did nothing, but a Samaritan stopped and tended to the man's wounds and brought him to an inn and paid the innkeeper and pays the innkeeper some money upfront and tells him if the charges are more he will pay the extra next time he's back. Jesus tells the lawyer to be like the Samaritan because the Samaritan saw a need and helped that person without expecting to be reimbursed for said help. So according to these two passages, it can be determined that everybody is your neighbor regardless of whether or not they are same religion or have the same beliefs as you.

Acts 20:35 also says, "In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Proverbs 19:17 says, "Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed."

Matthew 25:35-40 says, "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

James 1:27 says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

Philippians 2:4 says, "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."

There's plenty of more verses on the matter, but you get the point. It is the responsibility of Christians to help those in need as the need arises, not at our convenience or only when we have excess to give.

It is also well understood that America was established with Christian principles in mind. If a country was founded on Christian principles, then it becomes that country's obligation to help those in need which is what many of these social welfare programs are trying to do. You brought up those who cheat the system and there are absolutely people who cheat the system, but where in the Bible does it say that you shouldn't still help those people in their need? I would direct you to these pair of verses.

Matthew 5:42 says, "Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you."

and

Galatians 6:7 which says, "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap."

It's not your obligation to care about motive, if someone is cheating the system, they will answer for that at some point in the future.

You also say that my college education is not a necessity, I will disagree with that seeing as my profession I am currently training and studying for (teacher) requires a 4 year bachelor's degree for admittance to an alternative training program since I didn't major in education in college. Are/Were your kids teachers necessity to you? I ask this because I assume you would prefer your kids learn from someone who is certified to teach the subjects they were teaching your kids and to do that requires a bachelors degree at a minimum to get certified. Moving on from that, you say you own your small business which I assume means you deal with lawyers, accountants, and other white collar professionals on a regular basis. Were there educations a necessity to the operation of your business?

I don't disagree that our government has many issues in regards to how it's run, but that's no different from how the Roman Empire was run and Jesus has some advice for that as well.

Mark 12:17 says, ""Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." And they marveled at Him."

Jesus doesn't say screw the government, he told people to pay the government what's theirs without any qualifiers. The tax collectors and those who are responsible for the disbursement of those monies will answer to the actions, it's not your job or mine to specifically tell them what their actions should be. If you don't agree with their actions, vote them out of power and vote for someone who will do what should be done.

I'm not doing this to try and show you up on this issue, but it's something that's very personal to me because I was in construction for the past 4.5 years here in Houston before getting laid off because of the oil crash and dealt with many immigrants who came here seeking a better life and was convicted to do what I could to help them. I obviously didn't make enough to help everybody with everything, but I did what I could to help and I couldn't, I tried to direct them to places that could help their needs. Because there aren't many new construction jobs opening up at my skill level and I've always enjoyed helping middle school and high school students so becoming a teacher was something I was led to move into.

The last passage that I think is relevant to this discussion is 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

You may not like or agree some of these verses say, but if your truly want to be more Christ like and you beliefs don't line up with what Jesus and the Bible teach, then you need to take a step back figure out how to figure out why your views and philosophies aren't in line with what the Bible says because it appears to me that some of what your saying really doesn't line up with what the Bible teaches people about social issues that are current hot button issues in this country.

I was called out by my former boss on this issue as well one day because I was complaining about illegal immigrants which is a huge issue in Houston because Houston is the primary corridor for them coming to this country from most of Mexico, Central and South America. We got into discussions on many of the points you brought up and the passages he showed me and we talked about really enlightened me on my personal views being in direct conflict with what the Bible teaches.

While you say my college education is not a necessity is technically true as far as I know, that statement along with your statements on the government's responsibilities also reflects an attitude that is in direct conflict with what the Bible says, and when that happens, it should be pointed out so you can be better reflection of Christ to those you interact with.

I'm also saying this as a reminder to myself as well because I've been where you're at opinion wise and got called out and rebuked on it by someone else who's in basically the same position you're in as a business owner with kids in school.

@HighEliteMajor I believe you have xlaimed to be a Christian before, have you not?

@HighEliteMajor I'm calling you out on being a hypocrite in regards to grants for college considering your position on other stuff. The Pell Grant system was designed to help kids from lower income familes be able to afford to attend college. There are thousands of people out there (like me) who wouldn't have been able to attend college without those grants. I came from a family where my dad died before I got to college and my mom made under 35k a year. I also went to community college first to lower the total cost of getting a degree. Should I have not received assistance because I came from a single parent family without a large income?

@jaybate-1.0 Why does it matter if Schneider is a man or woman? If he was deemed the best fit for the opening, then hire him. If the best candidate to fill the men's opening when Bill Self moves on is a woman, then hire her. I know Tennessee approached Pat Summit for the men's opening on at least one occasion and she turned the position down.

@jaybate-1.0 KU's realistically had 2 maybe 3 opportunities to hire a black coach in men's basketball. It'll happen one day, but hasn't exactly a lot of opportunities to do so in men's basketball and KU does have a good track record of hiring minorities in other sports to where there's not really a reason to believe there's anything questionable going on with KU's hiring practices as far as race goes.

@jaybate-1.0 But none of Self's assistants are white. I really don't see not having a black head coach in KU's past a big deal because of how rarely the job is open, also I don't believe Duke or UNC has ever had a black HC before either for the record. I do believe there will be a female head coach of a men's basketball program within the next decade at a small conference school and it will trickle upwards from there.

@justanotherfan Bonnie's biggest issue wasn't getting talent into Lawrence. It was managing and keeping the talent in Lawrence. KU consistently significantly underachieved under Bonnie, and the number of people who transferred out was abnormally high for a non JuCo program.

@jayballer54 Because it gives people a frame of reference on what a kid's game looks like and what their style of play is like. It's not insulting or disrespcting to the kid to compare his game to someone who came before him because there's a lot of people who haven't seen the kid play and want to know what his game looks like. All does it is provide a frame of reference for people.

Here's another KUSports article talking about Mitch Lightfoot and getting his HS coach's opinion of him. http://www2.kusports.com/news/2015/oct/26/lightfoots-coach-no-stranger-talent/ ↗

Mitch Lightfoot's head coach at Gilbert Christian is Kurt Keener. If that name's familiar to anybody, it's because he was the head coach at Detroit Country Day for 35 years. Detroit Country Day for those that are unaware is the same HS that produced Chris Webber, Shane Battier, and Ray McCallum who are play(ed) in the NBA and were all McDonald's All Americans along with former Ohio St. player Amir Williams.

Keener says Lightfoot isn't as physically gifted as Webber or quite as smart as Battier, but he has the same competitive fire that both have. He also says that Lightfoot is someone that has stepped his game up to his level of competition and has the "Christian Laettner swag" that he's the best player on the court and can do anything. The player Keener actually compares Lightfoot is former KU great Raef LaFrentz.

Overall, it's a good read and Keener talks about his plans for developing Lightfoot's game on and off the court.

The comments from Lightfoot himself are very encouraging to me about his future ability to contribute to KU. It sounds like he realizes he's not the most physically gifted player and knows his ticket is to be a smarter player than others. If he can do that, he can absolutely be a player like a Kevin Young or Brady Morningstar who earned the PT through being smarter players and knowing hiw to play angles and exploit opponents weaknesses.

@Lulufulu If you wanna make comments that are prejudiced and pretty much in line with what cost Mangino the support of the locker room, go right ahead. I'll be right here to call out that crap.

@BeddieKU23 said:

Herard & Lightfoot would be worst case scenario, a scenario I'm petrified by but could see happening.

That's not the worst case scenario. Worst case scenario is only Lightfoot and KU is stuck with a front court of Bragg, Coleby, Lightfoot, and Lucas next year.

@jayballer54 I assume the reason he didn't commit immediately is because he appears to be a pretty grounded kid who wanted to explore all of options and see if KU was still the best fit for him. There's nothing wrong with making sure your dream school is actually your dream school.

My entire family is all KSU alums and I was a KSU fan growing up until HS. While visiting my family for Christmas, I toured both schools and KU was the better fit because it checked all the boxes of what I was looking for in college.

@JayHawkFanToo Why would 33rd ranked true post Herard be scared of stretch 4 Lightfoot? Perry Ellis is going to end up in tge top 10 of KU's all time scoring list barring injury this year and is an All-American and Big 12 POY candidate this year. You really need to take a step backon your projections for anybodythat signs at KU because every player that signs at KU is a future NBA player based on your attitude and talent assessment when that's simply not reality. This current KU roster this year has 3 guys that will for sure get drafted (Diallo, Bragg, Svi), not necessarily this year. 1 that will more than likely get drafted (Selden), and 3 more guys who may get drafted (Ellis, Graham, and Vick). As good as Mason is, he isn't a draft prospect because of his lack of size, but will have to go through training camp to get his shot.

@HighEliteMajor I really don't see Lucas or Coleby being an impediment to signing Bolden or Herard. Bolden is better than Lucas today, and Herard is a 1st year off the bench guy if Bolden signs.