🏀 KuBuckets Archive

If people were frustrated with the defense last season, then I've got some bad news because the defense won't be better next season.

All the transfers Self brought in this season are somewhere between below average to they make Nick Timberlake look good on defense. Griffin was a part of a defense that was sub 100 in Kenpom's defensive ratings. Zeke Mayo couldn’t keep up with Summit League players on defense so that won't be better, and the day AJ Storr puts effort into playing some defense will be the first time in his career.

That's on top of what we already know about Dickinson's defensive abilities.

Elmarko has the tools to be a good defender so hopefully that part of his game starts to come together and McDowell needs to get better on offense so he's playable for longer stretches.

This is why I'll always say that a strong defense is more important than a strong offense. A strong defense with a weak offense will keep you in more games when the offense is off than a team with a strong offense, but weak defense when the offense is off. That said, you have to be really good at both, generally top 15 in Kenpom's offensive and defensive ratings to be a serious title contender. The anomalies in those rankings for title teams are teams that were strong defensively, but not as strong offensively.

Logan, Novitsky, and Craig Young all signed UFA deals too. Logan to the Rams, Novitsky to Seattle, and Young with Bean in Indy.

Dominic Puni went 86th overall to the San Francisco 49ers.

I was off on the year the Big 12/Big East challenge is ending. This upcoming season is the final season of it as match ups were announced and KU is traveling to Omaha to play at Creighton which should be a monster game as Creighton is expected to be a top 15, maybe top 10, team next season.

@rockchalkjayhawk said in 2024 Portal Madness Thread:

Ugh.

The NCAA will no longer limit the amount of times that athletes can transfer schools. Previously, athletes were allowed to transfer one time and play immediately, but they had to sit out a full year if they transferred schools a second time without a waiver. The two transfer windows are still in place with the new ruling, and players can’t transfer schools in the middle of the year and play for their new school in the same season.

The caveat to the unlimited transfer rule is players must be in good academic standing in order to not sit out after that first transfer.

@approxinfinity said in 2025 Recruiting:

@kuballin10 if we pull acuff and griffen are you prepared to say the staff took care of business this cycle and not second guess that whenever we lose games?

You already know the answer is no because he'll still complain about Harris.

@bskeet said in KU / Duke coming up:

Isn’t UConn at Stores on the sched too?

That game was part of the Big 12/Big East Challenge which was recently canceled. The conferences determined those match ups so KU and UConn would have to come to a deal on their own for a return game at UConn.

So next year, we have Michigan St., North Carolina, and Duke for sure. Add that to whatever November tournament KU plays in which should have at least 1 other top team. There's also Missouri in there. That's half the non conference schedule which will also include at least one game against Arizona, Houston, ISU, and Baylor.

KU's once again going to have one of the toughest non-confernce schedules out there.

@Jayblaze said in Furphy:

Sometimes I think it'd be ok if the top talents from McDonalds and High Schools had a semi-pro league and skipped college altogether. Then we'd preserve college sports with more traditional scholarship student-athletes. Like there would still be plenty of talent to make the games high-level and exciting. It also seems just - to give top-caliber athletes a route other than college to get paid what they deserve while they pursue the NBA without distorting the fairness of our leagues. I'd still be a Jayhawk fan, to be sure, and I don't think my enthusiasm/enjoyment would lose a step like it might as this new status quo evolves.

They did. That's what Overtime Elite was. That was the purpose of the G-League Ignite team. Those entities were specifically created to provide a place for top HS talent to go and get paid before NIL was widespread. NIL forced Overtime Elite to close up shop and is the reason why Ignite is folding after this season.

@jayballer67 Since BYU is a private school, they don't have to disclose the financial details, but he was making $2 million per year as the highest paid assistant coach in the NBA. Young's contract according to CBS is 7 years, $30 million dollars so a little over double what he made with the Suns.

@jayballer67 said in 2024 Coaching Carousel:

BYU got a really , really , good hire for their Head Coach. -Phoenix Suns Associate Head Coach-- -Kevin Young is now BYU's new head Coach. - -Young is the NBA's Highest paid assistant , really good - - had been mentioned in the last couple of rounds for NBA Coaching job - think they will be happy with him - - Not quite sure how BYU pulled that off

$$$ and religion is how they pulled that off because Young is Mormon, but this isn't KU's Kevin Young.

@RockkChalkk said in 2024 Coaching Carousel:

Didnt know K-Yo has been doing so well! I dont follow NBA at all. Good for him.

Not the Kevin Young that played for KU.

It's gonna be Mark Pope

A name to keep an eye on for the UK job now is Mark Pope from BYU who was a senior on Kentucky's 1996 title team.

@nuleafjhawk said in Ben McLemore Charged with Rape in Portland:

Guilty until proven Innocent. That's how we are now. I hope this is wrong - very well could be a case of some woman trying to make a pile of money quickly.

Ben's been arraigned already which means Ben's already had his first court appearance where all of the charges against him were filed. The legal process, as we just saw with Arterio, usually doesn't get this far in rape cases without the prosecutors believing they have enough evidence to get a conviction.

Time for KU to disown Ben McLemore now.

Ben McLemore was arraigned on 4 charges today in Portland including first-degree rape and first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, both A-level felonies that carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The other two charges are two counts of second-degree sexual abuse, both C-level felonies that carry maximum penalties of five years in prison.

If convicted, McLemore could face up to 50 years in prison.

This one definitely caught me off guard because I'm not aware of McLemore having this kind of reputation.

@Gorilla72 said in Arterio Morris:

😖 Hawks could have used him last year and now to hear he wouldn’t have been charged. Insufficient evidence can be interpreted as “innocent”.

Could also mean the victim isn't cooperating with the investigation which is what was happening last year too.

@kjayhawks said in 2024 Coaching Carousel:

@Texas-Hawk-10 so how does that work? I’m not a legal guy at all but could they sue Arkansas and Cal for breach of contract? Maybe the clause is only under firing?

There was no breach of contract. Calipari resigned his job to take the Arkansas job. Calipari had no buyout clause if he resigned. The buyout was only if Calipari was fired. Cal did Kentucky a huge favor by voluntarily leaving UK.

@kjayhawks said in 2024 Coaching Carousel:

First question is who is paying his buy out?

If you're referring to Calipari, there is no buyout on his deal for this move.

@Crimsonorblue22 said in 2024 Coaching Carousel:

I could see Bruce pearl.

Supposedly Barhart doesn't want someone who's had a show-cause penalty before so he may not be looking at Pearl even though that would be good fit for both parties.

Should be announced some time tomorrow. Going to be really interesting to see who UK ends up going after. Gotta believe their first call will be to Dan Hurley. Could also see them going after Bruce Pearl.

@nuleafjhawk said in Other bball games:

@Texas-Hawk-10 a Final Four appearance takes some sting out of those losses

Doesn't change that Alabama was more lucky than good in the tournament and that it took until the Final Four for them to play a legit defense.

@jayballer67 said in Other bball games:

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Other bball games:

@jayballer67 said in Other bball games:

@COHawk said in Other bball games:

@jayballer67 I think there were games earlier in the season where we were fluid and really got up and down the court. Something caused a loss of confidence especially on the road. Were we soft? Probably. Were we a cohesive unit? For the most part no, and I go back to earlier when I said that is probably due to having only a few players who have been in Coach Self's system for 2 or more years. I would think that picking players from the portal has made it more difficult than ever to put together the right pieces.

maybe , and yet herre we see Alabama in the final four, for the first time and they have many portal players. - They seem to have done just fine

Alabama got hot at the right time and got the best possible draw for their team in that they didn't have a lot of strong defensive teams in their bracket, or slow paced teams. Alabama missed playing St. Mary's who was the slowest team in the country, and they avoided Baylor who also played very slow this season. They also avoided an Arizona team that could actually outrun Alabama.

Alabama entered the tournament with more losses than KU did and not really any expectations because they, like Kentucky, had been absolutely atrocious on defense all season ranking 351st in ppg allowed and were actually lower than Kentucky in Kenpom's defensive ratings.

Alabama's run this year is what people mean when they talk about teams having a good draw.

No I know exactly what I meant. I mean they have good motion fluid , they don't have a 7'1 sloth that clogs the middle and creates bad spacing with the players we had this year, I already know they had some luck- - -who doesn't at some point ?- -Just like we did in 88 when w had the luck multiple times when higher seeds got knocked off before we had to play them in our bracket?-- -

Alabama was also just so way much more athletic then us, Hunter was a huge defensive liability on the permiter , Alabama lot better rebounding , yes I know they were small -- just quicker to the ball, better quicker leapers, what's Dickinson's explosion 5 inches ? My God if he could jump worth a dam, the only reason he got half his rebounds was strictly height, not athletic ability, why was he so much better on defensive rebounds then offensive - -his offensive rebounding SUCKED

Thank GOD we didn't play Alabama cause they would of beat our ass and took names later - - much , much quicker, lot faster tempo and with our depth situation you talk about gassed - -Agai sure they had luck of draw- -boto line though Alabama this year was a better team then we were hands down. - -love their movement, fluid none of this clogging up the middle.

I have No problem , none what so ever with a big like Dickinson posting down low, bu my God have some athleticism -Dickinson is vre non athletic - -like I have said all year he is a bad fit for this team, we were alot more fluid before he was here quicker - he is just slow

You believe whatever you want about Alabama to help you sleep at night. There's a reason why Alabama still lost more games than KU did this season.

@jayballer67 said in Other bball games:

@COHawk said in Other bball games:

@jayballer67 I think there were games earlier in the season where we were fluid and really got up and down the court. Something caused a loss of confidence especially on the road. Were we soft? Probably. Were we a cohesive unit? For the most part no, and I go back to earlier when I said that is probably due to having only a few players who have been in Coach Self's system for 2 or more years. I would think that picking players from the portal has made it more difficult than ever to put together the right pieces.

maybe , and yet herre we see Alabama in the final four, for the first time and they have many portal players. - They seem to have done just fine

Alabama got hot at the right time and got the best possible draw for their team in that they didn't have a lot of strong defensive teams in their bracket, or slow paced teams. Alabama missed playing St. Mary's who was the slowest team in the country, and they avoided Baylor who also played very slow this season. They also avoided an Arizona team that could actually outrun Alabama.

Alabama entered the tournament with more losses than KU did and not really any expectations because they, like Kentucky, had been absolutely atrocious on defense all season ranking 351st in ppg allowed and were actually lower than Kentucky in Kenpom's defensive ratings.

Alabama's run this year is what people mean when they talk about teams having a good draw.

@rockchalkjayhawk said in New NIL tournament for next year:

Speaking of NIL…this may be of interest to some.

A California legislator has offered a bill that would pull back the veil on NIL deals.

Would mandate that collectives and other entities provide this basic info to colleges, which then would be made public:

— amount of NIL $$ provided to athletes and their families

— the team/sport

— provide total compensation and value of deals by sport and gender.

— would not require names.

Looks like a gender equity play.

More transparency with anything involving salaries, which NIL essentially has become, is a positive in my book. I would love to see a federal version of this bill so that everyone has to disclose what their NIL budgets look like.

@dylans Edey isn't a guaranteed first round pick this year and wasn't last year either.

@RockkChalkk said in 2024 Portal Madness Thread:

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in 2024 Portal Madness Thread:

As of now we have:

Returning:

Adams, Clemence, Dickinson, Furphy, Harris, Jackson, McDowell,

Signings:

Bidunga, Passmore, Philon

Transfers:

Kugel, Mayo

KU as is has a full roster. This will obviously change as players explore pro options and the enter the portal. It's now a 1:1 as far as players leaving and players KU can bring in.

Thats 12. Full roster is normally 13. I'm guessing the one less is due to the scholarship penalty for one more year that I mentioned, is that correct?

Yes, KU still has to give up 1 more scholarship.

@Crimsonorblue22 Sounds like Arkansas coach Eric Musselman is who USC is targeting.

As of now we have:

Returning:

Adams, Clemence, Dickinson, Furphy, Harris, Jackson, McDowell,

Signings:

Bidunga, Passmore, Philon

Transfers:

Kugel, Mayo

KU as is has a full roster. This will obviously change as players explore pro options and the enter the portal. It's now a 1:1 as far as players leaving and players KU can bring in.

@BeddieKU23 said in Zeke Mayo:

@BigBad

Good thing there's recent examples of Summit players jumping up and being successful.

Mayo isn't Abmas either. I do believe Mayo will do well in his role here, but I don't expect Mayo him to duplicate what Abmas did for Texas this season.

My boy CJ Stroud's getting himself a weapon!! Texans trading for Stefon Diggs!

@MR11 said in KJ Adams:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Agreed, but idk if it is all that realistic for him to go from not shooting at all to being respectable. I feel like him improving his rebounding/defense and then putting high level shooters at the 2/3 will be the most likely scenario needed to get the most out of next years team.

KJ has short arms, his rebounding is never going to be good.

I don't expect KJ to ever be a 40% outside shooter, but if he can develop this offseason into a player that can make hit about 30%, enough to where defenses known it's a possibility, that creates more space in the interior for Hunter.

That lack of outside shooting of any kind from KJ is what caused the biggest issues for Hunter on offense because his man could hang around Hunter for constant double teams. Self tried so hard to make the high-low between them work, but KJ's lack of outside shooting meant he was usually dumping it down into Hunter during a double team.

KJ's defense is fine. KU was playing 2 bad defenders that dragged everyone else down before McCullar's injury and 3 bad defenders after his injury. KU's defense was serviceable prior to McCullar's injury, but that's when KU's defense turned to garbage after his injury.

@DanR said in Assistant Coaches - Roles & Responsibilities:

Rest? These guys are 19-23 years old. Unless they are only sleeping 4 hours a night (which is my guess), they don't need extended periods of inactivity to let their fragile muscles rebuild. I haven't bought this BS excuse from coach since he started rolling it out about 5 years ago. It's been obvious conditioning is trash with various players.

Imagine coaching a guy like Hunter, out of shape from the day he was born, thinking that letting him rest more would improve his conditioning.

If you think players don't need rest to recover, then you clearly have little idea about how the human body works.

@DanR said in Assistant Coaches - Roles & Responsibilities:

New strength and conditioning coach is needed, IMO. Or maybe a new philosophy about conditioning.

Self always says, "well, in the tournament, you have the long time outs and longer half time, blah blah blah." There's no way those guys should have been that gassed half way through the second half--ALL YEAR. I literally haven't seen one other team in the tourney that looked as wiped out except maybe Illinois in the second half vs UCONn.

Getting an extra minute or two to catch your breath doesn't do anything if your legs, lungs and heart are not in shape to begin with.

KU literally didn't have the bodies to give proper rest this year. It's much more than just games. KU's lack of depth also hurt this team in practice as well. Not having enough bodies to give adequate rest in practice also played a big part in the fatigue of this team year.

Flory is frickin' fast

@rockchalkjayhawk Zeke is a very good outside shooter on a pretty high volume. Should be much better at that role than Timberlake was and should be able to play off the ball next to Harris and spell Harris some at the point next season.

Basically, he fills a big need for KU.

Time for KJ to get in the gym and work on extending his range.

This is probably the single most impactful thing any of our returning players can realistically do this offseason to benefit the team next season.

@Crimsonorblue22 said in 2024 Coaching Carousel:

@Texas-Hawk-10 has usc hired anyone?

No, Enfield was just hired today.

SMU has hired USC's Andy Enfield and Oklahoma St. has hired Western Kentucky's Steve Lutz.

Louisville hired Charleston's Pat Kelsey as their new coach last Friday and already has brought two players with him.

Charleston replaced Kelsey with former Louisville coach Chris Mack.

@FarmerJayhawk said in Other bball games:

@wissox and it’s a great double header! UConn USC isn’t getting near the buzz but also has two of the best players in America

3, Aliyah Edwards is also in that class.

@wissox said in Other bball games:

@FarmerJayhawk Not sure if I ever purposely turned on a Womans game, but tonight I did, on purpose! Mulkey wore green making it easier to watch her on court antics.

That outfit is pretty tame from what she normally wears on the tournament.

I think NC State is getting ready to be having a very good day in basketball with both teams making the Final Four today.

Filipowski just fouled out with 5 minutes left.

Jeremy Roach is a brave man trying to take a charge from Burns.

DJ Burns is in beast mode right now!

And there's a Duke whistle leading to a technical against NC State's coach.

Edey with 40-16 to lead Purdue to their first Final Four since 1980.

@jayhawks2010 said in 2024 Portal Madness Thread:

Don’t get the Riley kugel thing. We are a top 5 program all time, top 3 active coach, huge NIl group, top adidas school. We are landing a guy that didn’t even average 10 pts at a big time school. Sure he has upside but why is Ku reaching on a guy like that. Self and staff really blew it last year in the portal. Lets hope they figure it out this year

KU also needs depth and guys that can come off the bench and Kugel seems like a solid bench piece that can sub at multiple spots. If this is who the staff is expecting to replace McCullar, then it's a bit disappointing, but if he's being brought in with the idea of him being a 6th man type player, this is a solid pick up.

He's not McCullar good on defense, but he is a plus defender.

@BeddieKU23 said in 2024 Portal Madness Thread:

@Crimsonorblue22

Doesn't excuse the case he had hanging over his head when they took his commitment. It was even unclear if Morris would play at all, be suspended etc during the summer before the trip to the Bahamas. I still don't understand what Bill was thinking here and never will

This is who you know should really be pissed about KU signing because this is who really kept KU from potentially signing someone like an LJ Cryer or other 2's that could've made a real difference this season.