🏀 KuBuckets Archive

For those unaware, last night around 1am, Hurricane Laura made landfall in Cameron, LA as a category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph. Shortly after that, Laura rolled through Lake Charles and absolutely destroyed the city with 120 mph sustained winds and gusts of over 130 mph. The one silver lining for the area is the storm surge ended up only being around 9' instead of the predicted 15'-20' surge. The link below is to a local news station in Lake Charles and their live blog of updates on Laura with pictures and videos of the destruction in Lake Charles and surrounding areas.

https://www.kplctv.com/2020/08/27/live-blog-hurricane-laura-updates-swla/ ↗

@jayhawkblue73 said in Philly is a dissapoinment:

@approxinfinity said in Philly is a dissapoinment:

@Texas-Hawk-10 agree with the durability issue and not making him a centerpiece. If Simmons could shoot a 3 it would strengthen your argument. JoJo career .319, Simmons career .083!! Thats rough. Not sure you want to build around that either.

Agee, Simmons is one reason they have struggled in the playoffs , he has no outside consistent shot - - ugly shot , gets most of his off drives , rebounds & dunks. Plus he has had his own share of health issues , he got hurt this year again right before the playoffs against Boston not really a good track record himself. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

Simmons has a much better health track record than Embiid does. Before this season Simmons had missed just 4 regular season games the previous two years. Another difference between the injury histories of Simmons and Embiid is that Simmons issues are not chronic, his injuries have been different to different parts of his body. Embiid does have chronic issues with the same injuries to the same body parts that started at KU.

I would be much less concerned with Simmons long term health than I would be with Embiid's.

@approxinfinity said in Philly is a dissapoinment:

@Texas-Hawk-10 agree with the durability issue and not making him a centerpiece. If Simmons could shoot a 3 it would strengthen your argument. JoJo career .319, Simmons career .083!! Thats rough. Not sure you want to build around that either.

Simmons improved to 29% this season from 3 and will probably end up in the low 30% range most seasons from here on out so the 3 point issue isn't that valid anymore. Simmons will probably never be a high volume shooter or scorer because that just isn't his game as he's never averaged more than 17 ppg and will probably never be much higher than that.

Philly needs to pair Simmons with a high scoring 2 or 3 that can hit 40% from three and be good for 25 a night. Put someone like Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, or Brandon Ingram alongside Simmons along with some shooters to fill out the roster and and Philly suddenly becomes the most dangerous team in the east

I know we all love Embiid, but there's an issue with building a team around him and that's his durability. He's never played more than about 75% of a season so the real question should be is Joel Embiid someone that a franchise should build around knowing he's going to miss about 25% of the season? The reality is Ben Simmons has been the more durable player so far and plays a position of more value even if he doesn't fit the traditional mold of a PG.

If I'm Philly's GM, realistically I'm choosing Simmons over Embiid to build around because it's clear at this point those two can't coexist with each other and I would definitely package Embiid and draft picks to try and get another superstar that compliments Simmons game better than Embiid does.

Don't know any details of the cause, but just saw former KU defensive tackle Isi Holani died Saturday at the age of 24. Holani played at KU from 2016-2018.

@Marco said in Mr. Graham to represent...:

I'm glad that Devonte went to Charlotte.

Charlotte's a trash franchise. MJ was the GOAT as a player, but he's a goat as an executive and owner. 3 playoff appearances in 16 seasons since the franchise restarted as the Bobcats. It's cool to see Graham boost his profile and value this year, but he needs to get out of Charlotte if he ever wants to win anything because it's not gonna happen with the Hornets.

@benshawks08 said in The Democratic Convention! Day 2:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Pretty sure @approxinfinity knows that and also pretty sure everyone knows what he means. One party impeached him, the other voted not to remove him from office. Things have gone swimmingly ever since. Every republican has enabled a president most of them don’t trust, know is unfit, and who is a complete embarrassment because of judges and tax cuts for their rich donors.

Mitch McConnell is just as bad in my opinion minus the incompetence. He is unfortunately dangerously competent at getting his way.

One of my biggest pet peeves when discussing government is people not understanding what an impeachment actually is because far too many people in this country assume an impeachment automatically means the president is getting removed from office which isn't the case considering none of the three presidents that have been impeached has been removed from office.

So when I see someone using the term impeach in an incorrect context the way @approxinfinity did, I'm usually going to correct it because I'm not going assume the person automatically knows what it means or that everyone who reads it knows what impeachment means and what the process involves.

@approxinfinity Trump was impeached, he wasn't convicted though. All an impeachment means is that you have been charged with something. He was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and was acquitted of the charges by the Senate when the case went to them for trial.

@FarmerJayhawk The TO margin was a huge factor in 2018 in KU being as close to a bowl game as they were. KU's offense and defense simply aren't good enough to give teams extra possessions and expect to win games when they are the least talented team in the conference. Since KU doesn't appear to have a game changer at QB, a game manager is needed to keep possession as much as possible.

I'll take the optimistic approach over the Charlie Weis pile of crap approach any day.

Biggest thing for me at QB this year is to be Peyton Bender like and protect the football. Bender's ability to protect the football was the biggest reason KU was a handful of plays away from bowl eligibility in 2018.

@approxinfinity Virtual for now. Parents who picked in person for their kids starts after Labor Day and then I will have in person and virtual and will be even more exhausted. Virtual requires a lot more time than in person and a lot of people don't realize that.

@approxinfinity said in Ok so here is a Question on this boring day:

@Texas-Hawk-10 you left out Embiid though

My school started classes on Monday with only 7 days of in service prep. I'm lucky that post was as coherent as it was, lol!

Paul Pierce is the best by a mile. Danny would probably be #2. Hinrich and Collison are probably in that next group. Of Bill Self era Jayhawks, it has to one of the Morris Twins. Wiggins is in the discussion, Graham looks like he could enter the discussion if this season isn't a one hit wonder. McLemore finally found his fit here in Houston.

I know Sasha Kaun won a championship, but that was near the end of his career and he didn't really play a big role on that Cavs team.

@kjayhawks I've read some people think Baylor could struggle a lot this year too. New coach, lost most of their defense, and obviously no spring practice with KU playing them early could be a recipe for an upset. I don't think it'll happen, but the ingredients on Baylor's end are there to be upset.

@stoptheflop There's not going to be any change as to what time and what channel KU plays on this year. The only game in the air is probably the Coastal game and that's going to largely depend on how many other games are happening that day and if any of them are any good. ESPN and Fox still have the right to Big 12 games so they will still use the same process as normal to decide which games are broadcast on which channel.

KU/Coastal isn't an attractive game so expect it on ESPN+ at 6pm or FSN at 11am and not in a prime TV spot. The B12/ACC have 15 total games scheduled for 9/12 and that number will probably go up when Baylor gets their non-conference game scheduled and if there are still any ACC teams that need a non-conference game, so don't expect KU/Coastal to be a very attractive game. KU will get their one contractually obligated prime time game probably against OU or Texas since those are schools that will still pull ratings regardless of opponents.

I will say this, 0-10 is a very likely possibility with a lot of uncompetitive games. The defense is going to struggle this year and without a QB, teams are going to stack up to stop the running game so it's going to be a long season on offense as well.

@stoptheflop TV revenue may drop this season because teams are playing fewer games year so I wouldn't be surprised if conferences get a pro-rated amount of TV money this season.

Ohio Valley has become the final FCS conference to postpone conference play until the spring. Like several other FCS leagues, the OVC is leaving the door open for their teams to play 4 non-conference games this fall.

This means that all 14 FCS conferences have now postponed their conference games until the fall. Because most FCS leagues are allowing non-conference games, we'll likely see a few FCS teams get non-conference games against Group of 5 conference teams.

KU has officially announced they have swapped home dates with Coastal Carolina and now CCU will come to Lawrence on Sept. 12 and KU will make the trek to South Carolina in 2021 for now.

Southern and Southland conferences each announced today they will not play conference games this fall which leaves the OVC as the only FCS conference that has not pushed football back to the spring. I'm guessing that announcement will happen in the coming days at this point.

@FarmerJayhawk said in The "crap on Biden" thread.:

🐦 View Tweet?s=21

I'm generally a big Crenshaw supporter and do plan on voting for him again this year because I do live in his district and actually live just a few minutes from his office.

He's someone I can easily see becoming a star in Republican Party and be a presidential candidate in a couple of elections, either 2024 or 2028.

FCS level conference Big South has postponed until spring which leaves the FCS at 3 conferences that have yet to cancel/postpone (Ohio Valley, Southern, and Southland conferences).

The Big 12 released their conference schedule this morning. Games will begin on Sept. 26 and conclude on Dec. 5. I did not see any non-conference games on any schedules yet. @FarmerJayhawk any word on what KU is looking to do to fill their +1 game? Are they trying to swap home dates with Coastal Carolina or are they looking at a different opponent?

@DanR said in The "crap on Biden" thread.:

I think Harris is GREAT. I would've voted for her in the primary if she'd still been on the ballot in KS. All the people I know to the left or right of me can't actually say specifically what they don't like about her... it's always about something someone else might think "Well, black guys aren't going to vote for her because of her AG record..." Too progressive (no specifics), not progressive enough (no specifics). I honestly don't know know what that is about...mostly that comes from guys but a few women too, so I don't think it's a fragile male ego thing.

She's tough. She's smart. She has a sense of humor (indicative to me as having a soul). She mows people down who are ass-clowns, OK--That's what I want.

Who would have been a better pick? Warren? Whitmer, Jim Webb?

Kamala's got a lot of the bad Republican traits in her. Her criminal justice history makes a lot of Republicans look like they're criminal sympathizers and has been called out on her hypocritical claims as California AG. Her views on the healthcare system are also pretty right leaning. Once a lot of democrats start digging into how she votes and how she acted as AG, she's not by a section of democrats.

@FarmerJayhawk said in 2020 CFB Updates:

Big 12 is FULL SPEED AHEAD 🎉🎉

Is Nebraska gonna return home for a year?

At least this should bring Maya Rudolph back to SNL this fall. KU superfan Jason Sudeikis should also be back this fall to reprise his Biden role.

One of John McCain's biggest regrets was caving to the GOP and picking Palin over Lieberman.

I can easily see this decision backfiring big time on Biden and costing him the election.

Kamala's Wikipedia bio is interesting right now.

"The political positions of Cuntmala Harry are reflected by her United States Senate voting record, public speeches, and interviews. Kamala Harris is a Communist senator from California who has served since 2017. Harris was named as the presidential running-mate for Communist candidate Joe Biden."

UMass can also be added to the list of cancellations as they have postponed football until the fall. C-USA member Old Dominion has also cancelled football this fall.

We're now up to 4 of 10 conferences that have cancelled. C-USA AD's of course have voted their support and intentions to play football this fall, but it's ultimately up to university presidents to make the call as they have final say in all leagues.

Sun Belt sounds like they're going to do whatever the SEC does.

AAC AD's also voiced their intentions to play this fall.

Big 10 and former Big 12 member Nebraska still wants to play football and is exploring options to play including playing in another conference this fall, Big 12 being the most likely since they are a former member.

The PAC 12's decision to cancel all sports for the 2020 calendar year affects 2 possibly 3 KU non-conference games. KU had games scheduled for Dec. 19 against USC in Lawrence and Dec. 22 at Colorado. KU's preseason tournament this year is the Wooden Legacy in Anaheim where UCLA was one of the teams involved.

@jayballer67 When conferences say cancel football in 2020, they're not referring to the entire 2020-21 academic year, just the fall 2020 semester. Barry Alvarez did an interview either last week or a couple of weeks ago talking about the financial impact would be on Wisconsin. He said Wisconsin has a budget of about $140 million this year for the entire athletic department. Cancelling football outright was going to cost the school well over $100 million in lost revenue. Playing a 10 game season in empty stadiums was going to cost the school about $70 million.

This is why the MAC, and FCS level schools have already said that their goal is to try and play a full football season this spring so they can attempt to recoup as much money as possible and avoid dipping into their athletic department reserve funds as much as possible.

This is why I've said all along that TV contracts are too valuable to these schools to outright cancel football this academic year without at least attempting to put together a spring season. The issue raised with a spring season is that in order to have all games completed in a timely manner, games would have start in early to mid February to get a full season in. That's just to give teams a couple of bye weeks during a 12 game season. Weather then becomes a huge factor as well because there's a lot more that goes into travel with football than for basketball and other winter sports.

Because of the amount of money involved, schools will exhaust every option possible on order to have football sometime during the 2020-21 academic year in order to lose a little money as possible.

Dan Patrick is reporting that the Big 10 and PAC 12 will formally announce the cancellation of their football seasons in 2020. I can't find anything on if they plan to play in the spring, but I know Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delaney has talked a lot about a spring season in recent weeks so I would guess that's the direction he's going to go. Supposedly the Big 10 vote was 12-2 in favor of cancellation with Iowa and Nebraska being to two schools opposed to cancellation.

Patrick also said the Big 12 and ACC are each on the fence at this time and that the SEC is still pushing forward to try and have a season and has even discussed adding programs for the year if other conferences cancel with Oklahoma and Texas specifically name dropped.

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby also indicated that the finalized Big 12 football schedule should be released sometime this week assuming the season isn't cancelled/postponed by that time.

@approxinfinity said in The "crap on Trump" thread:

There are 2 members of the house and zero members of the senate that are not Republican or Democrat. If you want to make change I think you start there not throwing your vote away for a 3rd party presidential candidate, a la Kanye West supporters.

How does continuing to vote for members of a 2 party system stop the problems that have been created by having a 2 party system since basically Washington left office?

Obviously Kanye isn't the answer, but voting third party isn't throwing your vote away. It's telling the two parties to "f-off, I'm done with your shit." This notion that voting third party is throwing your vote away is a myth. Is a third party candidate like Jo Jorgensen, a legitimate third party option unlike Kanye, going to win in 2020? No, but that doesn't mean that people who are sick of Dems and Reps should settle for the "lesser of two evils" which was a very common response to why someone voted Trump or Clinton 4 years ago. Baby steps are important though and this election cycle would be a huge victory for the entire country if the campaign to get Jo Jorgensen on the debates with Trump and Biden are successful.

Even if people disagree with Libertarian ideology, just seeing someone in the presidential debates that isn't a Dem. or Rep. would be a huge wake up call to people that there are more than two options out there.

I've been saying postponing to the spring will happen before outright cancellation.

@wissox you can change the font size of webpages if you go into the settings option if you use Chrome as your browser on your phone.

@wissox Using a phone isn't too bad. That's what I primarily use to access and post here. Most of my typos and weird grammatical errors are from either autocorrect or my fat fingers trying to type on my phone's keyboard.

TL:DR version: MWC 8+2, Colorado St. suspending football due to various allegations related to Covid and racism, C-USA 8+4, MAC postponed until spring. A few of ACC and Big 12 teams need new +1 game because of MAC.

FCS will not have fall championship because more than 50% of teams/conferences have postponed until spring. KU and OU potentially need new +1 game with MVFC decision.

The FBS picture is complete in regards to who is playing football this year and how many games each conference is attempting to play.

The Mountain West on Wednesday announced they will go with an 8+2 schedule. Mountain West member Colorado St. has suspended all football operations stemming from reports of lying about Covid-19 results, and accusations of racism and abuse within the program. I would not be surprised if CSU suspended football for the 2020 season as a result of these allegations.

C-USA on Friday announced they will attempt to play an 8+4 schedule like the AAC and Sun Belt.

The biggest new from the Group of 5 conferences is from the MAC. This morning, the MAC announced they are cancelling all fall sports and will attempt to hold their 2020-21 football season in the spring.

I'm not going to go over how the MAC's decision affects the other G5 schools because that would be a long list and none of the conferences have announced schedules yet.

The ACC has announced their schedules already and there are several teams affected by the MAC's decision. Boston College, Notre Dame, and Pitt all had a MAC school as their non-conference so they will need to find new opponents for their +1 game.

In the Big 12, KSU is losing their presumed +1 game against Buffalo and Iowa St. is losing their presumed +1 game against Ball St.

At the FCS level, there was a lot of announcements yesterday that will likely push all FCS conferences into a spring season as the Big Sky, Missouri Valley, Pioneer joined the Ivy, Patriot, Colonial, NEC, SWAC, and MEAC conferences that had already postponed football until the spring. That current leaves the Big South, Ohio Valley, Southern, and Southland conferences that are still planning on playing this fall. Without an opportunity to play for a national title this fall, I would expect those four conferences to follow the other 10 FCS conferences in postponing fall football and attempt to play this spring.

The Missouri Valley did say that their change only affects conference games so in theory Mo. St. and SIU could still play their scheduled non-conference games which include games against OU and KU respectively, but I can't see that making much sense logistically.

KU still has a decent option to fill their non-conference slot by swapping home dates with Coastal Carolina should SIU opt out of the KU game, but we'll see what happens there.

The ACC has released their schedule for 2020. The only two teams still looking for a non-conference game are Clemson and North Carolina. We should have all answers about teams final schedules in a little over two weeks as the NCAA set an August 21 deadline for different levels to decide if they will have an NCAA championship this fall. If more than half of the school's at a specific level have less than half their schools playing this season, then there will be no NCAA championship for this year.

For example, if less than 50% of FCS level schools don't compete this season, then there would be no FCS football championship this season.

Lethality has never been the biggest issue with Covid. It's only focused on because it's the extreme thing that will gather headlines. The reason why Covid is as serious as it is, is because of the severity of symptoms a lot of people experience that require hospitalization. This is why the CDC's original goal was to flatten the infection curve.

The media here hijacked the message and used fear mongering tactics to misrepresent figures which has led to a lot of people to ignore warnings because the lethality rate of Covid is lower than a lot of other similar diseases so many people assume Covid is less dangerous because of the lower lethality rate.

Had our media stayed focused on emphasizing the severity of symptoms, I believe we'd be in a much better place as a nation than we are now. When I talk about the media, I'm not singling liberal or conservative media because both sides are just as of misleading the public about Covid and it's true dangers.

I'm just making this as a catch all for college football news even if it doesn't directly involve KU.

In the last 24 hours, UConn became the first FBS program to cancel their 2020 season. Because of UConn's transition to back to the Big East, 2019 was their last season in the AAC as a football member so they were going to be an independent this season. Not being in a conference or having a TV deal like Notre Dame or BYU means they were going to take a big financial hit this season regardless so this saves the school quite a bit of money.

The Big 10 has announced their 10 game schedule for this upcoming season that will begin Labor Day weekend. The most notable thing about their schedules this season is that Ohio State-Michigan is not the final game for either team. Instead, they will play on October 24.

This last piece is potentially relevant to KU because it gives KU some more scheduling flexibility. The Sun Belt has announced that they intend to play an 8 game conference schedule with up to 4 non conference games. This is relevant to KU because one of KU's originally scheduled games this season was a road game at Coastal Carolina. The Sun Belt's decision now means that game could still potentially happen if KU's game against SIU doesn't happen since the MVFC has yet to officially announce anything about their football plans for 2020. Should the MVFC opt out of playing in 2020, Coastal Carolina remains a viable option for the Jayhawks. In order for that game to happen to potentially happen though, it would have to be moved to Lawrence because the Big 12 announced all non-conference games must be a home game for the Big 12 team. This may not be a big issue for KU and CCU as this is a 3 game series with 2 in Lawrence and 1 in SC. KU and CCU could probably switch home dates of the remaining two games in the series of needed. We'll see what happens with the MVFC though and if KU needs to look towards CCU as their +1 this season.

I've also seen the AAC is supposed to announce their plans for football in 2020 sometime today as well so we'll see what happens there. As of now, the popular opinion is the AAC will copy the Sun Belt with an 8 game conference schedule and up to 4 non-conference games. As I was in the middle of typing this, the AAC officially announced they will have an 8+4 schedule same as the Sun Belt.

The Mountain West is also expected to announce their plans for 2020 sometime in the near future. Their expected plan is an 8+2 model to accommodate Air Force's rivalry games against Army and Navy.

BYU is going to be an interesting case this year as well. As of now, they have 5 games with the potential to lose their game against FCS opponent North Alabama pending the Big South's football plans for 2020. With needing to fill out anywhere from 5 to 8 more games, I would expect BYU to pop up some more MWC, AAC, and even Big 12 schedules as long as there is flexibility in when a non conference game happens.

The MAC and C-USA haven't announced anything and I haven't seen much about either league and their rumored plans for 2020.

That leaves Army, Liberty, New Mexico St., and UMass.

Army so far has lost 4 of it's 12 games as they were scheduled to play a pair of FCS teams that have cancelled, UConn who cancelled today, and OU who was scheduled to play at West Point this year. As said above about a potential KU-CCU game, the Big 12 is not allowing non-conference road games this season. I would expect Army to look towards the MAC, AAC, and C-USA primarily to round out their schedule this season.

Liberty as of now, is still attempting to out together a 12 game season. They've officially lost 2 games and have 3 more against ACC teams in limbo the school is trying to solidify. If Liberty can end up keeping those 3 ACC games, I could see them trying to play a full schedule this year with a combination of mostly AAC, C-USA, and Sun Belt schools. Liberty does have two other games in jeopardy as they still have another FCS opponent and UMass on the schedule.

NMSU has officially lost 3 games to this point. They're a school that could manage to cobble something together based on their proximity to Big 12, Mountain West, and C-USA schools.

Last of the independents is UMass. UMass has currently lost 3 games and has 3 others against the other independent schools. If they get a full schedule, regional G5 schools will probably be the way.

There was talk a few weeks back of the independents playing a round robin or possibly double round robin schedule if the P5's went conference only. With the ACC and Big 12 being the only P5's doing a +1 model this year, there's only 25 available P5 non-conference games this season. Out of those 25 available games, the schools that will most likely have have a need are FSU, UNC, OU, WVU, TCU, Tech, KU. The schools without an asterisk all currently have an FCS school scheduled, but I'm still pretty skeptical of there being an FCS season so those schools are probably making back up plans, or at least should be. TCU and Tech both have in state opponents as a road non-conference game so we'll see if the B12 switches course and goes the ACC route with the +1 and allows in state road games.

@FarmerJayhawk Those schools still operate in the red. And the MVFC still hasn't officially announced anything about football yet, just their other fall sports being delayed. Financially, it's better for most of these FCS schools, if not all of them, to not have a football season because SIU specifically usually loses between $2.5-3 million per year on football.

@kjayhawks said in State of the Roster:

Wonder if the conference will let us play SIU on the 29th. I think it would be safer because it gives us 2 weeks before the conference would start. Meaning if we had a positive test, we could still be ready

Big 12 said mid to late September so I'm guessing they're looking at either September 19 or 26 to start, depending on how many bye weeks they want teams to have. That would mean that KU's first two games are probably going to be changed since KU is supposed to play Baylor on Sept. 12.

I also still wouldn't be shocked if it ends up being a conference only schedule in the end for both the B12 and ACC because I just can't see FCS football happening this year with the amount of testing they'll have to do and those programs already operating in the red.

KU's originally scheduled game against Harvard on Dec. 29 that was cancelled because of Harvard not playing has been replaced by Stephen F. Austin. SFA is a damn good low major program and just last season upset then #1 Duke in OT at Cameron.

@benshawks08 said in Players Coming Back:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Agree, my issue was with your statement that it “wouldn’t be a huge sacrifice” as for some folks it really might be. And if there’s a significant portion of kids that choose not to play especially at smaller schools adjustments will need to be made. Already seeing major star baseball players opting out and rightly so of their employer can’t provide a safe working environment. Can’t imagine most colleges will be able to do any better than the MLB.

If you're going to quote me, at least use the full sentence to apply the correct context instead of cherry picking a part of the sentence to fit your argument. KU is a school where most players end up playing professional basketball so if these kids want to continue to pursue that dream and goal, sacrificing 6 months of their lives to make that happen is not as big deal when talking about being able to provide for their families long term.

I'm also not talking about players at smaller schools because very few of those kids have a future in basketball beyond their college careers. At least 2/3 of KU's roster will play pro basketball somewhere in the world so they have much more at stake in regards to their professional careers than some nobody at Directional State University and missing a season can have a big negative impact on their professional hopes.

If you want to talk MLB, we're seeing exactly what happens when players aren't willing to make that sacrifice in order to have a season and it's costing themselves a lot of money and if they cancel their season, that's even more money they're costing themselves.

@benshawks08 said in Players Coming Back:

@Texas-Hawk-10 the sacrifice you talk about is going to be so different for every individual. A 5 star recruit at Kansas trying to make a name to get drafted is different than a 2 star recruit just trying to play some more basketball before his knees go out.

Every person has different responsibilities in their personal life. Those they care for etc. for some it’s a HUGE sacrifice.

That's why it's called a sacrifice. If players want to play basketball this year, they are going to have to sacrifice other areas of their lives to make that happen this season. If those players aren't willing to make those sacrifices, then they don't need to play basketball this upcoming season. It's harsh, but that's what's needed to try and make basketball happen this season.

@Marco said in Players Coming Back:

@benshawks08 That is a joke, right?

Why is that joke? I'm assuming every school is going to have some kind of policy like that in place this year as a legal CYA to protect themselves from any potential negligence lawsuits related to Covid.

@justanotherfan It wouldn't be that difficult in theory to isolate the men's basketball team. For this year only, don't let regular students live in McCarthy and have all the players take online classes this year. Doing that, the only time the players would be using a shared space with other students/athletes would be the gym which should be fairly easily to regulate workout times for different sports to minimize interactions.

Until a firm date is set on when official team workouts begin, you can allow the players to go out and interact with others, but once you get to the two week window, then you basically have your own bubble for the players. It'll suck for them to not be able to interact with others during that time, but if they want to increase their odds on being able to play this season, sacrifices need to be made and not having a social life outside of the staff and teammates for 6 months isn't a huge sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.

@BShark That post was also 9 months ago before Jossell's senior season. Being a back up on an AAU team isn't necessarily indicative of where a player ability level is. Christian Braun was also a back up his AAU team. That's not meant to compare Jossell to Braun, just some of the evidence used to say Jossell is only a D2 talent isn't concrete. Also, his interest list wouldn't have more P5 than mid-majors either. Jossell is someone whose talent level appears to fit in well at the mid-major level.

@jayhawks2010 said in K.J. Adams:

I guess I don’t mean that Garrett can’t run the team or create some looks for others but he was such a mismatch at the 4 spot and most of his offense translated from mismatches in drives. It will be interesting to see if he can score at a similar rate driving against quicker guards

Garrett rarely played as the 4 last year on offense. He primarily functioned as the 2 in Self's offense. He was also usually guarded by opposing 3's. Ochai is the one who spent most of his time at the 4 in the 4 guard line up.

@BShark said in K.J. Adams:

Exactly. I am hoping Harris bulks up a little bit. Jossell is a D2 player imo. His jump shot actually looks really nice but it will be hard to him to not get abused on defense.

Jossell is a lot better than a D2 player. KU was the only offer he officially had that I'm aware of, but he had interest from several other P5 schools and some good mid majors. NC State, Texas A&M, and Missouri were other P5's interested according to 247 and Louisiana Tech, New Mexico, and South Dakota St. we're the mid majors interested.

He's a classic example Self seeing him something shiny in a river bend and hoping that Jossell pans out as gold instead of pyrite. Credit to Jossell for stepping up and challenging himself as well, but it's probably a case of produce and shine in practice without getting overwhelmed since he's probably going to redshirt along with Gethro this year or transfer to a mid-major where he can shine.

The biggest concerns I see with Jossell other than his size is he's not super quick and his shot is pretty slow and low. A couple of videos I've watched on Jossell and he struggles at times beating defenders off the dribble which he has to be able to do at KU to be successful. His shot also needs retooling otherwise he's going to get blocked a lot on close outs. He starts at his chest his release is slow.

He's got good handles and good vision and is a willing passer as there's a lot more of his assists in his highlight videos than most players put in there so Self is probably thinking Jossell's going to be a pass first, low scoring style PG.

I can see why Self would take a shot with Jossell, I just don't know if he'll develop enough to effective at KU.