🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@wissox said in NCAA loses more power... again...:

Does the rower, or mid major DI soccer player, or the UMKC volleyball player get paid too? Shouldn't they demand it too? After they, while generally not being as talented as their high level counterparts, are often competing on the same fields and in the same venues.

Just because athletes are going to be paid doesn't end the corruption because programs will exceed allowable stipends in order to entice recruits.

If those people can figure out how to monetize their NIL. Instagram probably won't be the major income source because of how many followers it would take to make decent money there. High level basketball and football are probably where the money is off of Instagram in regards to NIL.

For lower level athletes, the more likely options would be stuff like Twitch, Cameo, and stuff like that. Where it could get interesting and controversial which I would just about guarantee happens is someone on partial scholarship, like most non revenue sport athletes, is someone creating a Patreon or an OnlyFans account and posting nude images because it's just about guaranteed an athlete will go that route and a school will try and kick that person out for that.

@jayballer67 said in 2021-2022 Kansas Basketball Schedule:

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in 2021-2022 Kansas Basketball Schedule:

@jayballer67 Of course Kentucky fans are going to bitch about playing KU. KU is going to be the better team next season and KU has dominated the series recently going 4-1 against Kentucky the past 5 match ups.

This is a made for TV event and KU/Kentucky is the highest profile game possible so it's going to happen as much as possible. Kentucky still leads the all time series 23-10 over KU and I'd love to close that gap as much as possible.

Ya I know about how the series is probably because they have been the better team I would imagine. You got KU fans bitching about playing Kentucky no besides me before you even say. there can be other high profile games in this challenge. - -Again Texas Kentucky would be a great match up. - It's time for us to play someone else - this is yesterdays news

This is a series backed by ESPN who has a huge amount of input into the match ups. ESPN wants ratings and few match ups generate the ratings that a Kansas/Kentucky game does. Games like this are also the best way to prepare for the pressure of the NCAA Tournament because of the amount of attention and media presence this match up generates that no other SEC opponent generates.

@jayballer67 Of course Kentucky fans are going to bitch about playing KU. KU is going to be the better team next season and KU has dominated the series recently going 4-1 against Kentucky the past 5 match ups.

This is a made for TV event and KU/Kentucky is the highest profile game possible so it's going to happen as much as possible. Kentucky still leads the all time series 23-10 over KU and I'd love to close that gap as much as possible.

@jayballer67 said in 2021-2022 Kansas Basketball Schedule:

@BeddieKU23 said in 2021-2022 Kansas Basketball Schedule:

KU will play Kentucky in Allen this year~!!

SEC Challenge right ? - - Dam is there not anyone else to play from the SEC ? Getting kind of old. - - let's play some of the others, YES I know we have but NOT NEARLY as much as they bumbling idiots

Why would want to play an inferior opponent?

KU already couldn't play Missouri because they're already on the schedule or Alabama because that's the likely final of the Orlando tournament this year. The only other option for a top level match up would be Arkansas.

@approxinfinity Lon won't be doing anything with OU. He retired after his son got the UNLV job so he could move out to Vegas. That's the program he's going to be assisting with.

Marcus shouldn't get drafted. He needs to sign a free agent deal as a 2 way player so he can end up somewhere that his skills would be a good match.

@BShark said in 2021 Transfer Talk/List:

@Kcmatt7 said in 2021 Transfer Talk/List:

Hard to be mad not landing him when we dropped bags for Remy and Yesufu.

Only so much budget, this is true. Texas must be sinking a lot of money into hoops right now.

I would consider Chris Beard a top 10 coach and said as soon as he was hired that Texas would return to their early to mid 2000's form when they were a consistent top 10 team and KU-Texas games were appointment viewing.

Nike is going to begin funneling a lot of elite level talent to Austin because of Beard and the UT brand. Kansas, Baylor, and Texas will all be top tier programs and make each other better prepared for runs in March/April.

@Crimsonorblue22 said in NBA Draft Entrants:

This could be just a moms wise sense, but I'm seeing Wilson really wrapped up in his gf. I think it could have been some of his downward trend after Christmas. More time with her than team and bb. Just a feeling.

The downward trend with Jalen is the same thing that happens to a lot of players in his situation. He was an unexpected go to player and teams didn't have scouting reports on him. Once teams had scouting reports on Jalen, it was harder for him to because opponents knee his tendencies and weaknesses.

@drgnslayr That's not really the context of what I said. My comment about player development was in regards to it not being Self's job to develop NBA skills in players.

I'm also going to disagree with you about Self's ability to develop players even recently. Just because Self and staff are not training players to use the specific skills you want to see does not mean they are not developing skill sets that work for KU.

A big part of Baylor and Gonzaga's success last season was experience. The core of those teams had played together for 2-3 seasons. KU didn't have that last year as KU was a relatively inexperienced team last season. That's not going to be an issue this season and why KU is on the short list of title contenders assuming Remy Martin shows up. It's very possible the rotation next season sees at least 5 seniors/4th year players and everyone in at least their 3rd season of college basketball.

KU having the 4th most active NBA players should be a testament to KU's player development, especially when less than half of those players were OAD.

3 star WR Xavion Brice decommited from KU after picking up offers from Oklahoma and Texas.

@approxinfinity Self's preferred style of PG doesn't really fit NBA molds and basically nobody is putting C's into the NBA anymore as only 8 have been drafted in the 1st round of the past three drafts.

@justanotherfan said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@justanotherfan Bad take. Bill Self's top responsibility is win games for Kansas, not develop all star NBA players. 5 of the guys listed are still on NBA rosters.

Bill Self and his staff develop players to win games for Kansas, not NBA teams.

I agree and disagree with you on that, @Texas-Hawk-10. I absolutely agree that Coach Self is at KU to win games for KU, and will say that he has done a phenomenal job of accomplishing that.

But when you are talking about recruiting, as an individual player, those guys are looking for the best place to develop for them in the long term. And on that point, the returns are not as strong.

Think of it this way - if you were weighing two different collegiate academic programs, one of which had professors that were consistently published in their field and universally acclaimed as top academic minds, and the other that consistently placed its graduates in top paying jobs, as a student, which are you choosing? Chances are, the program that has a reputation for placing graduates in good jobs because, frankly, the scholarship of your professors won't pay your bills.

Bill Self is a great coach. But I'd argue that of that list I put up, only Vick, White, Johnson, Grimes and Greene should have legitimately missed in the NBA.

Wright was a top 10 recruit. So was Jackson. Same for Selby. And Henry. Oubre, Rush, Selden, Giddens, McLemore, and Newman were all top 25 recruits. Those are guys that should have NBA careers.

If I am advising a wing player and I see that list, I think twice about KU, not because Bill Self isn't a good coach (he absolutely is), but because something isn't clicking on wing development.

And here's the thing - we have seen that, at least while Manning was here, big man development was basically automatic. Arthur, Aldrich, Kaun, Darnell Jackson, Morris Twins, TRob - I could go on. All of those guys developed into the type of player you expected, maybe even exceeded those expectations (in the case of Aldrich, Kaun and certainly Darnell Jackson, I say exceeded for sure).

So I'm not saying Self doesn't develop guys.

We can go through PGs. RussRob, Frank Mason, Devontae, DDot, Tyshawn. Again, the list is darn good on that front.

So if bigs are developing like you would expect (maybe better), and PGs are developing like you would expect (maybe better), where's that same development on the wing? I'd argue KU has had more wing talent than either at the point or in the paint.

Here's where I have an issue with your analysis about the development of wings. Comparing what Danny Manning did to what the wings at KU did/have done at the NBA level because only 3 of the bigs Danny worked with stuck long term in the NBA. KU has had more success getting wings to the NBA and sticking long term than Danny had with post players. There's also not a lot of consistency in a specific program developing NBA wings that stick long term. KU was also tied for the 4th most active players in the NBA when the season tipped off so KU isn't exactly hurting in that department.

@justanotherfan Bad take. Bill Self's top responsibility is win games for Kansas, not develop all star NBA players. 5 of the guys listed are still on NBA rosters.

Bill Self and his staff develop players to win games for Kansas, not NBA teams.

@drgnslayr Absolutely KU needs to keep going after top level talent regardless if it's a HS kid or transfer. The talent level last year was bad by KU standards and we saw what happened when KU went against good teams away from AFH last year and it wasn't pretty.

Yes, KU is a legit top 3 team and national title contender this upcoming season as long as Remy Martin eventually pulls out of the draft and in a lot of years this is a preseason #1 caliber team.

It's very possible none of the freshmen play big minutes this year and Cuffe and Adams probably should redshirt this year along with Pettiford if his foot injury keeps him out of camps and early practices where he'd be learning the system. Even if healthy by then, I don't see Pettiford playing much this season because the backcourt is absolutely loaded this year.

The reason why KU is considered a legit top 3 team and title contender this season is depth and experience. Jalen Wilson and Dejuan Harris could end up being the only underclassmen in the rotation next season as sophomores and each of them are third year players who have redshirted. Zach Clemence is the only freshman that has a chance at rotation level minutes next season at the 4 spot behind Wilson.

@Marco said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@FarmerJayhawk said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@Texas-Hawk-10

Yep... and now I forgot the other guy's name... big man from Chicago. He zero'd out for us, too.

With NIL the Cliff situation would’ve been above board most likely, unless they do some weird restriction to only group licensing. And I’ll be honest that whole cycle was unbelievably dirty at the top holy crap. The Jones/Okafor/Cliff love triangle was WILD.

You know, honest question here. I really thought that Alexander was going to be a star, and so did everyone else. And it's not like be played against non-competition in Chicago. What, just a bad dude or what? And what happened to him?

Cliff came to KU as a presumed OAD player. He struggled early on, the light started to come on for him towards the end of the regular season, but his draft stock had dropped to the point where Cliff sounded like he was planning on coming back for a second season which he definitely needed. Then in late February, a newspaper reporter published a story about his mom taking a huge "loan" and KU held Cliff out at that point. The NCAA had a slam dunk case against KU, except they could never get the loan documents because of legal reasons and Cliff was basically forced to off to the pros a year before he was ready.

Had KU had Cliff for a second season, KU probably wins the title instead of Villanova because Cliff probably would've started at the 5 over Landed Lucas all year. It also would've meant KU never had to go through the Cheick Diallo drama because KU would've stopped recruiting Diallo had Cliff come back.

Cliff and Josh Selby are the two biggest what if's of Self's tenure as far as what could've been with teams the following season. With a second year Cliff, KU's likely starting line up in 2015-16 would've been Mason, Graham, Selden, Ellis, and Alexander with a bench of Svi, Greene, Traylor, Lucas, and Bragg.

If Josh Selby had returned for 2011-2012, KU might have had enough to beat Kentucky and wouldn't have had to take Naadir Tharpe. With a returning Selby, KU could've moved Tyshawn off the ball and either had Elijah Johnson or Travis Releford coming off the bench and had a second perimeter shooter because that team couldn't shoot for shit.

Silvio DeSousa put his name into the transfer portal today. He'll be a grad transfer wherever he ends up, if anywhere. His trial is supposed to start in early August.

@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@Texas-Hawk-10

Yep... and now I forgot the other guy's name... big man from Chicago. He zero'd out for us, too.

Cliff Alexander and he didn't zero out for KU. He was coming on really strong at the end of his freshman season and seemed pretty intent on coming back at the time for a second season.

His situation is also why I'm not overly concerned about KU recruiting American kids who are being guided by agents and parents. We all know that his mom took money, but because she was advised on how to do so, the NCAA couldn't prove anything because of how restricted they are when it comes to accessing financial information.

The movie Blue Chips is pretty good at showing how that process works except instead of coaches and boosters cutting deals like it was back then, it's the runners for the apparel companies doing it now.

KU's defense took a huge blow to the secondary over the weekend as Karon Prunty announced he's transferring away from KU.

@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@Texas-Hawk-10

To be honest... I'm glad.

I'd like someone to study our past 10 years and from all the various situations we've been in... how much of the trouble came from 5-star recruits, versus the rest of the pack?

Do you know?

I'm pretty sure this info right here will change some minds about landing top tier.

The biggest issues have come from two players, Cheick Diallo and Silvio DeSousa. Both are international players from relatively poor countries that immigrated to the U.S. and lived with guardians or essentially a foster family from their same nation.

The Billy Preston and Josh Selby situations are so common that I'm not really worried about KU going after those kids. Kids in a similar situation to Diallo and DeSousa are who I would steer clear from in recruiting.

@FarmerJayhawk Do you know if KU is planning on full capacity for basketball games this upcoming season or will it still be reduced capacity?

If it's full capacity, I'm making every effort to fly up for the Missouri game for my birthday weekend.

The official non-conference schedule has now been released, the only game not announced is the Big 12/SEC Challenge game which I'm guessing is either Kentucky or Florida in Lawrence.

Nov. 3- Emporia St. (Exhibition)

Nov. 9- Michigan St. (Champions Classic, New York)

Nov. 12- Tarleton St. (Allen Fieldhouse)

Nov. 18- Stony Brook (Allen Fieldhouse)

Nov. 25-28- ESPN Events Invitational (Orlando)

Dec. 2- @St. John's (UBS Arena)

Dec. 7- UTEP (Kansas City- T-Mobile Center)

Dec. 11- Missouri (Allen Fieldhouse)

Dec. 18- Stephen F. Austin (Allen Fieldhouse)

Dec. 21- @Colorado (Coors Events Center)

Dec. 29- Harvard (Allen Fieldhouse)

@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

The NCAA investigation is what’s impacting KU more than anything else right now will continue to until a verdict is handed down.

Is that because top shelf talent is shying away from Kansas or is it because Self and crew finally realize it just isn't worth it recruiting most of those "basket cases?"

Top talent isn't coming to KU right now. In the 2021 recruiting class, KU offered 15 of the top 30 players in the 247 rankings. In 2020, KU offered 16 of the top 30 players so it's not a matter of Self no longer pursuing those kids because he definitely still is, they're just not coming to KU right now largely because of the pending sanctions.

@approxinfinity said in Call your Shot on Agbaji & Wilson returning:

@Texas-Hawk-10 I never considered Curry's minutes would be impacted by Agbaji. Interesting.

Not his minutes, his roster spot. When JCL committed, that put KU at its scholarship limit. In order for Agbaji to return, someone who is committed for next season would have to play elsewhere, and since Curry was low man on the totem pole, he's kind of being forced out to make room for a potentially returning Agbaji.

If Agbaji does eventually decide to return to KU, which sounds like is pretty likely at this point, KU would have to make room for him because Self took JCL on the belief that Agbaji was gone.

@Marco said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@Texas-Hawk-10 right? Like Wilt wasn't courted?

Different eras. I guarantee Wilt was paid to come to KU, but it wasn't Nike or Adidas paying to funnel him to KU.

Coach K and Roy's retirements will not see the needle move recruiting for KU because the people funneling players to Duke and UNC work for Nike and those bagmen will continue funneling players to Nike schools, which KU is not. Adidas bagmen are not going to funnel elite talent to KU again until the IARP ruling is handed down and we know what KU's punishment will be.

The down turn in KU's recruiting happened to begin with the 2019 class which lines up with when the accusations against KU first started popping up. Since then, only 3 top 50 players have committed to KU, and one of those players is already gone.

KU will not have a single 5 star recruit on the roster next year and that has nothing to do with Duke, UNC, or Kentucky's recruiting. The NCAA investigation is what's impacting KU more than anything else right now will continue to until a verdict is handed down.

Is KU charging Charlie or his parents to live in McCarthy since the family already paid for the building?

Curry doesn't reopen his recruitment unless the staff was getting messages that Agbaji was leaning towards returning.

I'm also very curious what an Agbaji and Wilson return does to the line up because that affects several players. Yesufu seemed like he was a better fit as a 6th man, but we also know Self likes two capable ball handlers and JCL is not that because he's essentially an undersized 3 so would Self start him at the 2 over Yesufu?

@justanotherfan Here's the issue with taking an approach like Virginia's. Because of their slow pace, it leaves them very vulnerable to upsets in in the NCAA Tournament and they've only made it past the 1st weekend 3 times under Bennett in 11 years. His system works great in the regular season, but doesn't lend itself to March success because their margin of error is so much smaller than other top teams.

This is also part of Self's issues in March as well because he tends to prefer a slower tempo with fewer possessions in a game that can keep less talented opponents hanging around. Self's more successful tournament teams tend to be the ones that played at a faster tempo and created more possessions for KU to exploit KU's talent advantage over inferior opponents.

Top college teams going forward need to be uptempo teams that are above average defensively to exploit their talent advantages.

@Marco said in Going to get real easy for KU from here on..:

@nwhawkfan I didn't say anyone was going away, said that Roy already has and that K soon will be and maybe even Calipari. Now, if you don't think that that translates into our - the NCAA bullshit will soon be gone - being able to sign some recruits then you are all seriously high.

Those are all Nike schools and we're still Adidas. It doesn't change our recruiting very much even once the IARP has handed down their verdict.

@approxinfinity 3-2 under Self. Both Larry Brown and Roy went 1-3 against Duke.

Kansas and Duke have played 13 times all time. Coach K has been on the bench for Duke in all 13 of those games. Duke leads the all time series with Kansas 8-5 with 11 of the 13 games being played on a neutral and each time only visiting the other once apiece. Kansas and Duke are tied 3-3 against each other in the NCAA Tournament and Kansas leads Duke 2-1 in the Champions Classic.

Dec. 1, 1985- Preseason NIT in New York: (3)Duke 92, (5)Kansas 86 (1-0 Duke)

Mar. 29, 1986- Final Four in Dallas: (1) Duke 71, (2) Kansas 67 (2-0 Duke)

Feb. 20, 1988- Allen Fieldhouse: (6) Duke 74, Kansas 70 OT (3-0 Duke)

Apr. 2, 1988- Final Four in Kansas City: Kansas 66, (5) Duke 59 (3-1 Duke)

Feb. 18, 1989- Cameron Indoor: (11) Duke 102, Kansas 77 (4-1 Duke)

Apr. 1, 1991- National Championship in Indianapolis: (6) Duke 72, (12) Kansas 65 (5-1 Duke)

Mar. 19, 2000- NCAA Tournament 2nd Round in Winston-Salem: (1) Duke 69, Kansas 64 (6-1 Duke)

Mar. 27, 2003- NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in Anaheim: (6) Kansas 69, (7)Duke 65 (6-2 Duke)

Nov. 23, 2011- Maui Invitational Finals: (6)Duke 68, (14) Kansas 61 (7-2 Duke)

Nov. 12, 2013- Champions Classic in Chicago: (5)Kansas 94, (4)Duke 83 (7-3 Duke)

Nov. 15, 2016- Champions Classic in New York: (7)Kansas 77, (1) Duke 75 (7-4 Duke)

Mar. 25, 2018- NCAA Tournament Elite 8 in Omaha: (4)Kansas 85, (9)Duke 81 OT (7-5 Duke)

Nov. 6, 2019- Champions Classic in New York: (4)Duke 68, (3) Kansas 66 (8-5 Duke)

How much longer does Jim Boeheim hang in there? Does he retire whenever Buddy leaves the program in 1-2 years?

@BShark I don't see Oats being long term at Bama. I would also expect to see a major uptick in top talent making their way to Austin with Beard there now. Villanova and Michigan have consistently gotten top level guys for awhile now so nothing new there. USC seems to rolling pretty good in recruiting as well as the dominant southwestern Nike program.

@Bosthawk said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@Texas-Hawk-10
Damn. Straight.

How many kids now will want to play for Self now that Roy and K (after this year) are gone. Even if it’s for one year. We will be a transfer destination for a lot of good players who want to play under an active HOF guy and under the cathedral roof of Allen field house.

I don't see Self leaning as heavily into the transfer market once the NCAA issues clear up and are in the rearview mirror. That's the biggest reason why KU's recruitment is down right now and why Self is putting more effort into transfers.

@Crimsonorblue22 said in NBA Draft Entrants:

@Texas-Hawk-10 who is staying for Baylor?

Flo Thamba is the only returning starter. Mayer, Flagler, and Tchamwa Tchatchoua are returning contributors. James Akinjo is their biggest prize transferring in from Arizona. Kendall Brown and Langston Love should also see big minutes as freshmen for Baylor.

Baylor is definitely taking a step back next season, but they're still likely to be a top 10 team.

@justanotherfan I don't see that happening in big cities because nobody in big cities gives a shit about small schools and I'm telling you this from experience. The University of Houston is at best the third most popular school in the city behind Texas and Texas A&M and most of the time UH is also behind LSU. Factoring in professional sports, UH is at best the 8th most visible brand in the city so even a local pizza shop isn't giving a crap about a UH player in football or basketball unless they're a future top 5 pick in a sport.

If it's a person at Rice or Texas Southern, nobody in Houston gives a damn about either of those schools. Even with TSU being the top SWAC team in recent years, there's never been any local hype about them.

It would take a special situation for a player at a small school in a big city to have any kind of marketing value even in their local neighborhood because these are mostly commuter schools whose students are loyal to other schools. Most kids at UH are there because they couldn't get into their first choice such as Texas or Texas A&M.

The KU/St. John's game is going to take place at the new UBS Arena next to Belmont Park and will be home of the New York Islanders.

@BigBad said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@Texas-Hawk-10
So Adidas money didn't happen?
How is recruiting going now? Seems Self's style is to throw interest at any and every player out there.
About 90% of these kids don't care ONE BIT about getting a degree.
Fan bases who want it to survive think that paying them will save it.

Watching kids develop and grow as basketball players and people is gone.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to watch but if we have roster turnover every year I'll watch less and less and I wont be alone.

If you think a coach kissing ass in college is a new concept that originated with Adidas/Nike/Under Armour, I can't help you there. College coaching is a sales job that involves kissing ass because that's what sales is all about. Once a player is committed, a coach no longer has to kiss anyone's ass in regards to a player or their family like we've seen in the past 3 years with Self kicking Grimes and Thompson to curb because he was done kissing ass as soon as those kids arrived on campus.

Bill Self has always done a helluva job developing kids who didn't arrive in college as NBA prospects into NBA prospects so if a kid doesn't have the patience to let that system work, then Self and KU don't need those players.

@BigBad said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:

Considering the situation in Boston right now, I'd be surprised if Duke doesn't at least inquire about Stevens interest in returning to college.

NOBODY wants to coach college over NBA anymore. In both jobs, you are dealing with young kids full of themselves. However, with college, you have to kiss their butts, kiss their parents' butts, pay them under the table instead of in the open, lose free agents without a financial negotiation, etc.

College basketball is all but dead......wait until they start paying these yahoos

You keep thinking that. Those young players in the NBA have zero power to influence coaching hires. Zion Williamson has zero input on who the Pelicans coach is at this point because he's not at that level of star power yet. The guys with power to influence coaching hires in the NBA are the max contract guys who make All-NBA every year.

In college, of a player's ego gets too big, they're kicked to the curb. There's a reason Quentin Grimes and Bryce Thompson didn't return for second seasons at KU and it was 100% Bill Self kicking them to the curb because of ego's getting too inflated.

@justanotherfan NIL wouldn't help small schools in big markets. NIL wouldn't help a kid at a place like Cleveland St. regardless of the culture of that school because of the Browns, Cavs, and Indians.

NIL could help small schools in small markets that have their own TV markets that don't have pro sports or even a bigger college program nearby.

Just thinking locally to KU, Missouri St. is a school that could benefit from something like that in regards to taking advantage of NIL rules. Springfield has their own local channels, there's not going to be much overlap with the Chiefs/Royals/Thunder or from Missouri so MSU would basically have a local market to themselves.

@jayballer67 Gonzaga series starts next season.

Considering the situation in Boston right now, I'd be surprised if Duke doesn't at least inquire about Stevens interest in returning to college.

The official non conference schedule has yet to be announced, but more than half of the schedule is already known including most of the high profile games. KU plays 13 non conference games per season and we know 3 match ups for sure, plus the Orlando games, and the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, and likely an 8th game if a high profile series that was supposed to start last season carries over to this year.

The 3 opponents we know for sure at this time are Michigan St., Missouri, and St. John's. KU also has the tournament in Orlando over Thanksgiving which is 3 more games. KU will most likely play North Texas or Iona in the 1st round with the hope being a KU/Alabama championship game.

That's the 6 known games for sure. The 7th is likely to be a rematch of the disastrous NCAA tournament loss to USC since those schools were supposed play a home and home beginning last season.

The SEC/Big 12 Challenge games have yet to be announced, but my guess there is either Kentucky or Auburn makes the trip to Lawrence in late January.

That leaves 5 games to fill if the USC series does begin this upcoming season and 6 if it doesn't. KU also had a home and home scheduled with Colorado that was supposed to begin last season with KU making the trip out to Boulder last season in road game before Christmas match up so that's a potential 9th game to keep an eye on whenever KU announces the non conference schedule which is usually sometime in summer.

@FarmerJayhawk, you know anything else about the non conference schedule next season?

The match ups for the 2021-2022 Big 12/Big East Challenge were announced yesterday and KU is not going to be involved the featured/most hyped game of the series year. That honor is going to go to a Sweet 16 rematch between Baylor and Villanova.

KU will be making its in all likelihood second appearance at MSG of the year when they take on St. John's.

The other games include an old Big East match up between UConn and West Virginia in Morgantown. Texas will play at Seton Hall, Texas Tech travels to Providence, Butler at Oklahoma, Iowa St. at Creighton, Xavier at Oklahoma St., Marquette at KSU, and TCU at Georgetown.

Villanova at Baylor and UConn at WVU are the two closest match ups to call. Xavier and OSU should also be a pretty good game. KU should roll St. John's pretty easily in that game.

@Marco Recruiting services don't factor transfers into their class rankings otherwise Baylor would be much higher every year. 2 of their starters and 6th man were all transfers so Drew has done a great job on the transfer market over the years.

This isn't an immediate college coaching move, but perhaps sometime down the line. Danny Ainge has stepped down as president of the Celtics and is being replaced by Brad Stevens who will move into the role full time and vacate the bench. It sounds like the move caught Stevens off guard so this could be an opening the door to return to college down the road type situation for Stevens.

Duke or Kentucky are likely to be the next blue blood jobs to open up and I'm guessing Stevens will probably be at the top of their lists if he's still in a front office role whenever either job opens up.

Baylor's Jared Butler has finally declared for the draft. Butler is projected as a late 1st rounder.

Niko sounds like he might be a future Athletic Director at Kansas.

@FarmerJayhawk You don't think KJ Adams redshirts this season? I don't see a situation outside of an injury where Adams sees anything but mop up minutes this season.

Bummed Curry was forced out because I was excited to see where he would've been in 3 years here. His athleticism isn't something that can be taught and I was excited to see his progression and refinement to eventually replace McCormack after he left.

If this is because of Ochai coming back though, Self may legitimately end up going 10 deep this year. Who ends up getting bumped from the starting line up? Yesufu, JCL, or Wilson?

Ochai's return also probably means Pettiford is now a redshirt candidate as well along with Adams and Cuffe.