🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@DanR When you try to please everyone, you please no one and that's what that principal is trying to do. If I move to another country, it is a realistic expectation that I adapt to that culture and learn their ways, including learning styles, but it's apparently not okay to have the same expectations of those who move here?

@hawkmoon2020 "You can't put anything on the internet that isn't true."

@Lulufulu Some dumb B in Portland that's superintendent of a schools claims it's racist because not all cultures eat bread and therefore being forced to eat PB&J on bread at a publicly funded school is considered white privilege. It's just beyond ridiculous what's considered racist now.

There's probably somebody out there who considers it racist of me to eat fried chicken or watermelon because I'm white ignoring that I've lived in the south basically my entire life except for while I attended KU.

@drgnslayr The hatred isn't there between both schools. My interactions with WSU fans for the most part has been they are either also KU or KSU fans depending on family ties and went to WSU for a specific major, typically engineering.

I also know very few KU fans that truly hate WSU as well. They might not be a Greg Marshall fan, but there's just not the hatred that exists for Missouri.

Even most rational WSU realize KU isn't a real rivalry and never will be because they know it's not in KU's best interest and understand the reason behind it.

There's also a lot of KU fans that don't realize just how few games KU is actually in control of on their schedule. KU has 13 nonconference games on their schedule now with an 18 game Big 12 slate. Out of those 13 games, 4 are against teams for Maui (1 in Lawrence, 3 in Hawaii), the Champions Classic, the Big 12-SEC Challenge, and the game at Sprint Center. That us 7 out of 13 games KU has no control of opponent or location. KU has 6 games to play with on the schedule, each of those 6 games has to serve a purpose, and adding WSU drops that number to 5 and doesn't add any benefit other than bragging rights. It doesn't help recruiting because KU already lands any recruit out there they want. It doesn't help RPI or SOS because KU is regularly in the top 5 or 10 every year, and it doesn't help KU develop their bench. Reasons 1 and 3 are why KU picks the 6 opponents they do and WSU doesn't help either one so there's not a good enough benefit to schedule them for KU.

Sorry, but trying to compare KU-WSU to the UK-UL rivalry is comparing apples to oranges. I think everyone basically agrees that Kansas and Kentucky are top 3 programs all time. Louisville is a top 15 all time program and there could be a reasonable argument for them being a top 10 program. Wichita St. is not in the same ball park as Louisville. UK and UL often compete for the same recruits whereas KU and WSU have only competed over 2 recruits recently and both were from Wichita and KU landed both. The Missouri Valley has never been in the same tier as the American, C-USA, or the Metro leagues that Louisville has been in. Those other leagues Louisville has been in over the years are leagues that regularly had multiple top 25 teams and teams capable of making a FF run such as UConn, Cincinnati, Memphis, and Marquette over the years.

@wrwlumpy Germany's coach would have to either be approaching 80 or in his 80's to have played against Wilt. This is not the case.

Germany's coach played at UNC under Dean in the early 90's. He lost to KU in 1991 and beat us in 1993 which puts him on his early 40's.

@drgnslayr Your last paragraph is exactly my point. Bragg and Vick have talent, but it takes time to refine that talent to where it benefits KU on the court during games.

T-Rob had a great junior season and there is a valid argument that he should've won POY over Anthony Davis. 2 years before that as a freshman, he could barely stay on the court and that was as the 4th option in 2009-10. Some people here I think already see Bragg and Vick as being more polished products than what they are at this point and that's fine, but where were these two when KU was dead legged and gassed against Germany? Even with their fresh legs, Bill Self still favored a completely exhausted Perry Ellis over a fresh Carlton Bragg and a completely gassed Wayne Selden over a fresh Lagerald Vick. That speaks volumes about where Self views those two at this point, and to me that equals Bragg and Vick being 11th and 12th in minutes played when the season is over.

This not the first time a KU player has won gold at the WUG and the previous players didn't get their names on a banner so the precedent has already been established regarding the WUG.

@DoubleDD Tell me where Carlton Bragg's minutes will come from this season? He was already 5th in the rotation, Self never took him off the bench late in the 4th or OT against Germany, and this was without Cheick Diallo in the mix. Factor in Diallo's minutes, and that equals Bragg playing mop up minutes for the most part.

I will also say that there is a much higher chance of KU returning the entire backcourt in tact in 2016-17 than there is of Carlton Bragg being OAD. We also saw in the Germany game that Lagerald Vick is not someone who is going to get any crunch tike minutes this year barring significant foul issues. The kid can make a shot, but Brannen Greene is a better shooter and better defender at this point. Lagerald Vick in 2015-16 will only play spot minutes and his 2016-17 minutes are entirely dependant upon at least 1 guard declaring early for the draft in 2016.

@DoubleDD Spots minutes is out of the equation for being a rotation player and if KU does return everyone in the back court, Vick will be outside the rotation looking in for 2 years.

And yes, the NBA, like every sport drafts on potential. That said, there's potential and there's NBA potential which are two different types of potential. Carlton Bragg is the former, he is T-Rob 2.0. It will take at least two, maybe years for Bragg to transform from potential to NBA potential. The are three things Bragg needs for his potential to become NBA potential. The most important is minutes, the second is to fI'll out his body, and the third is to be able to play any kind of defense other than getting shoved around. He was 5th in the bigs rotation in Korea and adding Diallo to the mix will push Bragg to 6th. The 6th big in Self's rotation doesn't play in every game and will probably average under 5 mpg. He might get more minutes and handful of times in blow outs and the right match up, but don't bet on Bragg playing big minutes this year. Year 2 is where Bragg projects to really be able to start to shine and why he may end up being 2AD instead of 3AD or 4AD like other KU bigs ranked in the same area Bragg was. He will get to start as a sophomore and be counted on for big minutes as a sophomore, this is where we likely see him go from having potential to NBA potential.

This is shaping up to be a special year for Kansas basketball. Recruiting is also going to be crazy to follow early on as right now, KU could potentially lose up to 7 players to the draft and graduation. I think 4-5 ends up being the number, but going off of previous what happened in Korea combined with previous projections, it could get up to 7 players gone.

The front court needs to be the heavy emphasis because KU is most likely looking at replacing 4 players in the front court. I know some still think Bragg is a possibility, but that thought needs to end now. He will be a good to great 2-3 year player for KU, he's just not going to be a OAD player. Bragg's body and game really reminded me of T-Rob in Korea. Great motor and we can see the potential, but it's going to take a year or two for his body to fill out enough to show off that potential. I do sincerely believe he will be a lottery puck one day, that day just won't be in 2016.

The back court is going to be really interesting to follow in recruiting this year. Svi is the only projected back court player to be drafted in 2016, but Selden's performance in Korea is certainly going to have him on NBA radars going into the season. Self has almost always used a 5 man back court rotation which likely leaves Lagerald Vick out of the equation this year and possibly 2016-17 as well if KU doesn't lose anybody in the back court after this season. How hard Self and staff go after the guards in 2016 will be the biggest indicator of how many, if any, guards Self expects to lose when the new year starts.

Recruiting should be fun to follow because of the uncertainty of the status of KU's guards moving forward

The chop play is good, but too often it was the only desperation play Self ran in end game situations. I know there's a lot of variations to that play based on the defensive look, but it had become pretty ineffective last season because teams have learned how to defend it. Mixing chop with the 4 flat and occasionally running the chop out of the 4 flat look adds variety to end game situations and makes it harder to scout what Self will do in late game situations.

@jayballer54 I tend to pay no mind to that group of fans because the vast majority I've dealt with over the years are far and away the most delusional fan base in the country. I just don't see them being a top 5 team, or even top 15 team this year. They have a good back court, but their frontcourt is an absolute mess. Poythress is going to be playing out of position, Marcus Lee has been a complete and total disaster so far, Skal should be good, but they just don't have any frontcourt depth and there's a lack of talent there as well.

This team showed something they haven't shown in 3 years, MENTAL TOUGHNESS. This team put their foot on other teams throats and didn't let up. They didn't quit when they got down late and fought through absolute exhaustion to finish off a pretty good Germany team. I can't wait for KU to add their eastern Euroballer and their sniper on the perimeter and the Energizer Bunny in the paint. This is going to be a special year for Kansas basketball and this tournament has shown that the national title is a realistic expectation for this team this year.

How do you bring up famous Germans on a basketball topic and not mention Dirk Nowitzki?

@HighEliteMajor They may not call it boot camp, but all of those programs have some kind of conditioning program to get ready for the season.

@JhawkAlum KU doesn't have a scholarship to offer and nobody on this team is worth kicking off for someone who will give KU no on court production in 2015-16.

That sucks! Joel Embiid is the most physically gifted big man to come around since Hakeem, but it's looking more and more likely we'll never get to see him play up to that potential. This is the same injury that ended Yao Ming's career and severely limited Bill Walton's career. At this point, I would be happy to see Embiid have a Bill Walton type career.

@wissoxfan83 We did get a key component of the 2008 title team from Russia. His name is Sasha Kaun and he still hangs around the program on a pretty regular basis. I do also enjoy a good vodka and Russia is a pretty good at making vodka.

@Lulufulu Boot camp is 100% necessary. These players are going to lose most of the physical conditioning they gained from this tournament pretty quickly. The failures in March the past 2 years have much more to do with injuries (not caused by being too conditioned) and a lack of execution than anything else. These guys need boot camp because the season is a grind.

@Kcmatt7 21 out of 25 is 90% so 90% of Rivals top 5 have been OAD in the last 5 years. Even using your 60% number still means more likely than not that Diallo is OAD which still means he's a presumed OAD.

@Lulufulu said:

Of course, this is all of it, just pure speculation. But, besides Wiggs and Selden a couple years ago, he really doesn't let his freshmen get out from the toughening box very often.

Tyshawn started and played big minutes as a freshman. Ben McLemore depending on your view on him could fit this category. I would also cite the Morris twins, but that was because there was no other experienced option to put next to Cole.

@Crimsonorblue22 Pretty sure that's John Candy and no he shouldn't be on there. Sean Penn and John C. Reilly are least of Lithuanian descent, but John Candy is not of Lithuanian descent from what I could find.

This tournament was never going to be beneficial from a recruiting/publicity standpoint. If this is an event that's never received much publicity here in the US, why are we surprised nothing has changed in that regard? The fact these games are on ESPN this year is big because Fox College Sports is who used to broadcast this event on tape delay. These games are also happening late at night and middle of the night when most people can't watch, particularly recruits who are busy playing multiple games a day in AAU tournaments

The big benefit of this event was always going to be the month unlimited supervised practice this team gets that nobody else is getting as a team. That is absolutely huge and will pay huge dividends this upcoming season.

The problem with the zone offense is Perry still doesn't flash to the FT line enough to either get an open look from there or forcing the defense to collapse and have someone open. Mason is great at probing a zone and KU is still good at the back cuts, but without Perry being able to bust the zone from the FT line, those other two become much less effective.

Selden has been a huge surprise this tournament. Aside from the change in position, Selden looks like he's dropped some weight to compensate for the athleticism he lost from his knee surgery. He has been the best player in the tournament so far from what I've read.

Hunter has been good this tournament, but I do wonder how well he will do against more athletic teams in conference play. Even last year, he looked good against the less athletic teams and struggled against more athletic teams. The US team is by far the most athletic team in their pool and sounds like in the tournament so we probably won't see if Hunter really has improved as much as he appears to have until he plays against some better college teams.

Landen Lucas just isn't strong enough. He has good fundamentals, he just isn't strong enough to hold position on either end of the court.

Jamari Traylor is a guy who gives energy, but never really took the next step after the jump he made from his freshman to sophomore years.

Carlton Bragg is an energy/effort guy now, but is still too freshman weak to play long stretches. He's got a bright future, but he's not going be a consistent player this year.

Lagerald Vick is also going to struggle this year because he cannot play a lick of defense yet. That will keep his butt on the bench this year. He will be the odd man out in the back court rotation this year.

@jaybate-1.0 That's not my point JB. My point is the opposite of what you're saying. I'm saying KU's offense was at its best last with Mason and Graham on the court together because they kept the offense from being Mason running lots of iso. KU's best offensive line up last year was Mason, Graham, Oubre, Ellis, and random big and NOT the Mason, Selden, Oubre, Ellis, and random big line up.

@drgnslayr Coach K only has 2 Final Fours and one other Elite 8 appearance since he took over as US coach in 2005. Duke is a program like KU that measures success by what happens in March and April. Since Coach K took over as US coach in 2005, Duke and KU both have 2 Final Fours, KU has one more Elite 8, and Duke has one more 1st round exit. KU and Duke have been pretty equal when it comes to March and April success which if we consider to be disappointing, I'm sure there's plenty of Duke fans that have considered to be subpar as well (obviously not this year for Duke fans).

@jaybate-1.0 I never said Selden, Oubre, or Ellis were competent ball handlers. Those 3 along with Mason were the 4 primary scorers for KU last season. My point was because Mason was the only competent ball handler of the 4, the offense frequently went stagnant because defenses could focus on Mason and getting Mason out of rhythm took the entire offense out of rhythm. That did not happen last year when both Mason and Graham were on the floor together because defenses couldn't double and trap KU because one ball handler could pass to the other and get an easy basket by taking advantage of the double team.

Like I said above, I don't argue the need for 4 competent scorers, but I simply argue that the need for 2 competent ball handlers on the floor trumps the importance of 4 scorers. There really needs at least 2 of the 3 between Mason, Graham, and Svi on the floor the vast majority of the game (35+ minutes) for KU's offense to run at its best. The reason I believe the need for 2 competent ball handlers is greater than 4 scorers is because it makes opposing defenses pay for trying to trap and double team the offense.

Rio is probably going to be Coach K's final tournament with USA Basketball. Boeheim is retiring from Syracuse a couple of years after that so he won't be involved after Rio either most likely. As big an honor as it would be to become the head coach for USA Basketball, I don't think it would be the best thing for KU basketball. There were a lot of years in which Duke struggled by Duke standards with lots of early exits and low seeds in the tournament. It took Coach K quite awhile to figure out the balance of his responsibilities. If Self were to become the new US coach, he would frequently miss the July recruiting period himself like he is this year and that does have an impact on recruiting. Personally, I'd rather see an NBA coach take over the responsibility of being the US coach.

@jaybate-1.0 If we're talking the maximum efficiency for Bill Self offense, absolutely 4 or 5 scorers, but there has to be 2 ball handlers on the floor. We saw this last year when KU had Mason, Selden, Oubre, Perry, and random big on the floor. That's 4 competent scorers, but only 1 competent ball handler and the offense just didn't run as smoothly as when Graham was in for Selden. While I don't disagree with needing at least 4 scorers on the floor, I do believe having 2 ball handlers trumps the 4 scorers in terms of what a Bill Self offense needs to be successful.

@drgnslayr Self's offense has always run its best with two ball handlers on the floor. He just hasn't been able to do it very often the past 3 years. We saw it more last year with Mason and Graham getting minutes together, but those were rarely extended minutes. This is where Svi becomes very important because he's always been hyped as having good handles and showed that he was competent enough last year to be the secondary ball handler. Having Mason, Graham, and Svi allows Self to play Selden at the 3 more which is where he has been excelling so far.

@bskeet The Chile game is not on TV or ESPN3. My guess is because it's the one US game in pool play that's not at Dongkang.

Would you look at the butt on that.

Yeah, he must work out.

@Kip_McSmithers Self wasn't feeding us crap with that. The age cutoff for this tournament is under 25 as of Jan. 1 of this year. Those guys turned 25 before the cutoff date.

@brooksmd Don't they basically just shove all the guy parts inside to create the lady parts?

@JhawkAlum This has always been Self's attitude during the summer international trips. He uses these times to install some the offense. Since Self doesn't have 4 of his projected rotation players available right now, there's not a lot he can really do at this point as far installing new stuff without having to do it a second time when Diallo, Graham, Greene, and Svi are available. Self's just having fun because that's about all he can do with this group the way it's comprised.

I'm guessing the CBA (Chinese league) would stack up pretty well against some the top European leagues. I'm guessing China didn't send the best team they possibly could have for this tournament for whatever reason.

@ajvan Vick may have been the high scorer, but most everyone had between 13 and 9 points so it was very balanced.

@Kcmatt7 Carlton Bragg has skills, but he doesn't have a body that allows him to show off those skills yet. He's been physically dominated by players (Perry) who aren't known as physically dominating players in practice. He was also reportedly dominated physically by Canada. You also have have to consider that he's playing behind Perry Ellis who will play 30+ minutes per game this year. Something else that also supports that Bragg won't be OAD is that KU has had plenty of PF's come through under Self that have been ranked about where Bragg has been ranked (Morris twins, T-Rob, Ellis) and all of them have been at least 3 year players.

So, I say with greater than 98% certainty that Carlton Bragg will have a sophomore season for the Kansas Jayhawks.

@HighEliteMajor There's one big thing you're missing on Williams when only using his sophomore stats. He played all of last season on a torn meniscus in his knee. http://www.theonlycolors.com/2015/4/8/8372081/hold-that-roster-johnathan-williams-iii-looking-at-msu ↗

His rebounding numbers improved even with a bad knee so it's not an unreasonable guess to believe that his rebounding numbers would make a jump when he's healthy. Also, go back an look at his block rate as a freshman when he was healthy. It was much higher than his sophomore year. One other stat that you did not bring up which is huge for earning PT under Self is defensive ability. Williams had by far the lowest foul rate of the 3 players (3.5 for Williams, 5.5 for Coleby and over 7 fouls per 40 minutes for Chukwu) which means he's the guy that stay on the court for more than a couple of minutes at a time and not pick up 2 quick fouls. One other reason that I've always preferred Williams is that he can play BOTH post positions. Coleby and Chukwu cannot. Williams is a respectable 35% shooter from deep so Self could have used Williams in either post position in the high-low and because a defender would have had to respect Williams ability to knock down a 3 pointer. Coleby and Chukwu are both exclusively low post players. The versatility of Williams in the high-low offense is the wildcard with him that Coleby and Chukwu do not bring to the table. That torn meniscus kept his numbers down quite a bit and I think when 2016-17 rolls around, Williams is going to have the best season of the 3 players Self targeted.

@Lulufulu Top 15 recruits are not the near OAD locks that top 5 recruits like Diallo are. I feel pretty confident you could count on one hand the number of Rivals top 5 recruits that have been multiyear players since the OAD rule went into effect

@Kcmatt7 Dwight Coleby averaged 5.4 ppg and 4.8 rpg playing 16-17 mpg as a sophomore. His per 40 minute numbers are only slightly better as a sophomore than Chukwu's were as a freshman. Neither player would provide the immediate boost to the front line Williams would have. Also, Landen Lucas will not be the only returning front court player next season. Carlton Bragg will also be back next year. The guy is very skilled, may still be growing, but he is still pretty thin and gets pushed around way too much. He is a kid that will need 2-3 years to fill out his frame enough to be a great college player.

@JayHawkFanToo That post you linked to is from 2011 so the players on the list are not playing college basketball anymore. One other thing I noticed was that the majority of those players were at low major programs so of course they don't get any publicity. I actually was familiar with most of those names from the major conference programs.

I will also strongly disagree with Coleby having more upside than Chukwu. Chukwu was a top 75, mid 4 star recruit and Coleby was an unranked 3 star recruit. A lot of scouts also believe Chukwu is a potential future lottery pick if he continues to progress. There is no such talk with Dwight Coleby. Paschal Chukwu is the better long term prospect and there's no argument you can make to change my opinion on the matter.

@BeddieKU23 You can try and convince everyone Diallo isn't OAD, but when was the last time a recruit ranked as high as him wasn't OAD? You also don't seem to comprehend why KU was late to the party on Williams. When Williams asked to be released, Missouri had a list of a about 40 schools that Diallo was restricted from (mostly Big 10, Big 12, and SEC schools) because they didn't want him going to a potential future opponent. When Missouri got left out of the SEC-Big 12 challenge, they dropped the Big 12 schools from his restricted list and Williams and Self got in contact that day. Fan reaction had nothing to do with Williams not picking KU. Williams also chose Gonzaga right around the time Coleby committed, so Williams did not drag his feet, Self for whatever reason didn't feel Williams was the best fit for KU.

@BeddieKU23 Williams would've had a great chance at starting over Landen Lucas. If the story or Bragg still growing is accurate, that would be 2 players who could play both the high and low post spots in the high-low which KU hasn't had since Morris twins.

My personal though is that Self ended up passing on Williams and not the other way around. Missouri did have the ban on Big 12 schools, I assume because of the SEC-Big 12 challenge, and as soon as Missouri lifted that ban, Self and Williams got in touch with each other and set up a visit ASAP. I think Self was more enamored with Chukwu at that point though and was hoping to land Chukwu instead.

Chukwu has decided to transfer to Syracuse. I can't say I'm surprised given the scholarship situation. Considering what Bill Self said he was looking for with that last scholarship, a big who could play both the 4 and 5, I'm still surprised he didn't get Johnathan Williams III who was supposedly very interested in KU both out of HS and this year. I also would've preferred Chukwu over Coleby because Chukwu does appear to be the better long term prospect.

That said, we don't know why Williams never committed to KU. I don't know if Williams didn't like something about the program or if Self wasn't interested in Williams. Chukwu just appeared to drag his feet too long and lost out on the opportunity to play at KU because Coleby committed really fast after Self showed some interest.

@Lulufulu Greene won't be fine by August, but he should be ready when practice opens. His time line right now is tentatively to ready around Labor Day, but I would guess they may take it easy with Greene until he's for sure 100%.

Selden could play a lot of 3 if Svi's handles are there which was supposed to be a strength coming into KU. Self could rotate Svi and Graham as the second ball handler and could use all 3 at the same time the way he occasionally had Robinson, Chalmers, and Collins on the floor at the same time.

Svi's development is critical because if it's as much as we hope, it will allow Self to almost always have to ball handlers on the floor and let Selden play his more natural role.

Cliff did this to himself. He hasn't taken ownership of the situation and has shown a lack of maturity during this situation. That's a turn off to GM's and Cliff will probably end up in the D-League or overseas.

@JayHawkFanToo What were Shumpert and Smith doing in New York? Franchises in total rebuild mode typically get worse before they get better. My Astros are now seeing the fruits of staying the course of a total rebuild. The Royals are now reaping those benefits. The 76ers are currently in the middle of that process. A total rebuild job in the NBA is 3-4 year process because of the length of contracts.

Then you cite a guy who only knows how to do two things, yell and complain. There is a reason I quit watching First and Ten (I know it's First Take now) and that is because of Stephen A. Smith because he turned the show into a yelling match.