🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Please allow me to elaborate as to why I believe that Frankamp is better than Graham.

Devontés biggest strength is probably his ability to handle and pass the ball well. In the ncaa tourney 2 years ago CF showed that he had the ability to do that just as well as devonte. I believe he had something like 7 assists and 0 turnovers in the 2 ncaa games we played.

Then there is defense. DG is not a bad defender, but I think that Conner is just as good. While being less athletic he is a very crafty defender who always finds a way to stay in front of his man and annoy the cap out of the offense.

Finally there is the matter of scoring. This will be used as the tiebreaker in my analysis. While Graham is a more versatile scorer I believe that Frankamp has the advantage overall for one reason. Both Frankamp and Graham will be forced to play an off-the-ball combo guard position. This favors CF. Graham is more of a point while Frankamp seems to play the 1 and the 2 equally well. He has superior ability to try to run through screens and try to get an open look from three. If both players were going to run the point for their respective teams I would say that Graham is better, but that is not the case. Most of the time they will both be playing the 2.

I think it's possible that WSU can be better. They routed KU last year and have 3 starters including their 2 best players returning. Plus they have a pair of quality transfers coming in in Frankamp and Anton Grady. Then again in the WUGs ku played with a toughness and a defensive ability that they did not show last year. Here is how I think the starting lineups will compare.

Frank Mason > Fred VanVleet

Devonte Graham < Conner Frankamp

Wayne Selden < Ron Baker

Perry Ellis > Evan Wessel

Cheick Diallo = Anton Grady

The Selden vs Baker matchup is subject to change if Seldens play from Korea carries over to the season, but Baker has proven himself in the college game more than Selden at this point.

Bottom line these teams are fairly evenly matched and arguing for either side cannot be considered rediculous.

@Statmachine don't forget Mykhailiuk

My personal opinion on this:
We have a nine man rotation. I know Self would prefer to have eight but there are just too many good players on this team.

PG: Frank

SG: Devonté

3G: Wayne

PF: Perry

PF: Diallo

Key reserves: Greene Svee Traylor Lucas

I am going to boldly predict that Bragg doesn't Crack the rotation but has a breakout year as a soph. It happened with Aldrich who was as highly recruited as carlton.

Zing! Zong!

In the previous two posts I meant "ball handling" where is says "panhandling". Autocorrect is not being nice to me.

Where I said "panhandling" I meant "ball handling".

I have been thinking about Carlton Braggs role on next year's KU team. He will have Perry, Jamari, and Landen to compete wuth for playing time. We are also on the trail of blue chip PF/C recruits Thon Maker, Cheick Diallo, and Stephen Zimmerman. I believe that we will get one of those three players. I do not have any inside info on the recruiting of any of them, so I am just going to confide in 247s crystal ball and assume that we get Cheick Diallo for the sake of argument.

I have also been thinking about Brannen Greene's role on next year's KU team. Withholding a miracle, Brannen won't start, but he will be one of the first players off the bench. Some of you see where I am going with this. Brannen has had some bright spots, and I believe he has a bright future. He has a beautiful stroke, good size for a guard, and is not without athletic ability. I do not believe that Brannen is a good player. He could sure use a red shirt year. He could work tirelessly in becoming a lockdown defender. He could also work on his handles, and on being able to drive past players to create penetration and make opposing defenders pay for getting up in his grill. After his journey of self improvement, he could unleash an epic Brannen 2.0 in the 2016-17 season. But he cannot redshirt because we will need him as a backup 3 guard next season. We cannot have Svi be our only guard off the bench, even if he does get a lot better. But there is a way to fix this problem: we give Brannens minutes to Carlton.

It is not impossible. If we start Frank, Graham, Selden, Ellis, and Diallo, then we could have Svi back up the 2 spot, Carlton back up the three, and have Traylor and Lucas back up the 4 and five, while always keeping in either Mason or Graham to play the point.

This may never work, as I have never seen Carlton play, but from my understanding he is a good shooter who is projected to play a stretch four in the college game. I also hear that he is rather quick and very athletic. If he has the shooting touch then he can score from the 3 spot. If he has the athleticism then he is just small enough that he can defend it at 6-9. He probably leaves a little to be desired from a ball handling, driving and passing standpoint at the three, but I cannot imagine him being much worse than Brannen at any of those three categories.

For comparisons sake, I believe that this would be similar to UKs use of Trey Lyles or Texas's use of Johnathan Holmes at the three due to stacked frontcourt.

1st team:
Frank Mason

Juwan Staten

Buddy Hield (poy)

Lebryan Nash

Rico Gathers

2nd team:
Monte Morris

Phil Forte

Isaiah Taylor

Georges Niang

Perry Ellis

All freshman team:
Jevon Carter

Devaughtah Williams

Kelly Oubre (FOY)

Johnathan Motley

Mules Turner

All Newcomer Team
Anthony Hickey

Lester Medford

Bryce Dejean-Jones

Tashawn Thomas (NcOY)

Jameel McKay

COY: Bob Huggins and Bill Self

Thon Maker (#1 in class is 2016) is considering classifying to the class of 2015. Last I checked the crystal ball on 247sports says Ku is the odds on favorite to land him.

Offense:

QB: Michael Cummings (Sr)

RB: Taylor Cox (Sr)

WR: Nigel King. (Sr)

WR: True Parmelee (Sr)

WR: Kevin Thomas (freshman had offers from Neb, Clem, and Wisc)

TE: Kent Taylor (Florida transfer) (so)

LT: Larry Mazyck (Sr)

LG: Joe Gibson. (So)

C: Jacob Bragg (fr)

RG: Junior Visinia. (So)

RT: Jordan Shelly-Smith (Jr)

Defense:

CB: LB Bates (Jr 3 star juco transfer)

CB: Matthew Boateng (So)

SS: Isaiah Johnson (Sr)

FS: Fish Smithson (Sr)

NB: Tevin Shaw (Jr)

LB: Kyron Watson (So)

LB: Jake Love (Sr)

Buck: Ben Goodman (Sr)

LE: Andrew Bolton (Sr)

NT: DJ Williams (rs freshman had offers from ou and Miami of fl)

RE: TJ Semke (Sr)

Special teams:

P: Erik Kahn

Pk: Matthew Wyman

Returners: Derrick Neal, Bobby Hartzog

I cannot find the answer anywhere.

We can destroy Kentucky. Here is why.

1) They are slow. The players they rotate at the 3 are Trey Lyles and Alex Poythress. Both are better suited to play the four but are forced out of posandseldenandat interior depth. oubre and selden will blow by either of them. The Harrison's are a little slow to be PG and SG as well..

2 they don't have good shooters.
Similar to last years Kansas team they don't have any dangerous shooters in there starting lineup. Devin Booker is good shooter coming off the bench, and Tyler Ulis is decent if he gets open as well. But for the most part we can pack in our defense and dare them to jack threes.

3) They are playing a platoon system. This means they will never have their 5 best players on the court at once. Their platoon system will also fail to wear us down because we are as deep as they are.

4) We have Bill Self. Cal is a good coach,but Bill Self is Bill Self.

I just checked Wow! cables tv listings for 7pm on November third and I could not find KU's exhibition opener vs Washburn on any channel. According to the schedule that game is on Jayhawk TV. Does anyone know if I will be able to watch it? Thank you.

Bill Self
Lon
Fred
Huggins
Tubby
Trent
Weber
Barnes
Ford
Drew

Wayne was a 2 who could slide over to the three.
He was recruited as a small forward by many schools out of high school.

Mario and Tt were combo guards.

Neither svi nor Brannen played too poorly, but there are limited rotation spots and they didn't seem as good as cf or graham.
I also think that Frankamp and Graham bring much needed ball handling to the game while svi and bg do not.

1. Frank Mason/Devonté Graham/Conner Frankamp
2. Wayne Selden/Conner Frankamp/Frank Mason
3. Kelly Oubre/Wayne Selden
4. Perry Ellis/Jamari Taylor
5. Cliff Alexander/Hunter Mickelson

Did not make rotation: Greene, Mykhailuik, and Lucas.

@dylans So you do not believe that Mason and Traylor will get minutes in 2016?

My starting five:

Frank Mason

Wayne Selden

Kelly Oubre

Perry Ellis

Cliff Alexander

the key reserves: Devonte' Graham, Conner Frankamp, Jamari Traylor, (Landen and Hunter will battle for the last rotation spot)

I think that Brannen Greene and AW3 should both redshirt.

Here is how I see our lineup for next year:

PG) Mason, Tharpe, Frankamp

2G) Selden, Frankamp, Tharpe

3G) Oubre, Selden, Greene

PF) Ellis, Traylor, Alexander

F/c) Alexander, (Lucas or Mickelson)

We do not need a new PG. People don't seem to remember that Frank was only a freshman. He was also better than any freshman PG Self has ever had. He is better than Tyshawn as a Freshman, better than Sherron as a freshman, and he was 100 times better than Russel Robinson was as a freshman. If Mason makes to improvement from freshman to soph. year that every other PG under self (Robinson, Taylor, Tharpe, Collins) has done, he will not only be a serviceable PG but a well above average PG.

No, he would probably be on my 3rd team but I only posted 1st and 2nd.

Now that the Big 12 Season is over, I will post my superlatives:

1st Team:

Marcus Smart (I don't want to put him here, but I have no choice)

Deandre Kane

Andrew Wiggins

Melvin Ejim

Joel Embiid

Second Team:

Juwan Staten

Markel Brown

Buddy Hield

Johnathan Holmes

Ryan Spangler

POY: Andrew Wiggins

Freshman of Year: Joel Embiid

Newcomer of year: Kenny Chery

6th man of year: Phil Forte

My Projections for NEXT years first team:

Juwan Staten

Marcus Foster

Buddy Hield

Georges Niang

Joel Embiid (Ryan Spangler or Johnathan Holmes if Embiid leaves)

For the entire college basketball season it has been said that the best freshman point guard in the nation plays for Syracuse. Tyler Ennis was a five star recruit, and a McDonald's All American, with offers from prominent colleges such as UCLA, Memphis, Illinois, Cincinnati, and defending national champion Louisville.

Ennis has helped the Orange to an undefeated start to the season, while starting at arguably the most important position on the floor he has averaged 12.0 ppg, 5.4 apg against only 1.4 topg, and 2.5 spg.

Then we have the challenger, a freshman who nobody talked about before the season started, who unlike Tyler Ennis, is not undefeated in his college career, but has helped his team bully it's way into the AP polls. This person is named Marcus Foster. He was a three star recruit, with offers from Kansas St, Cal, Creighton, Oklahoma, Lehigh, and SMU. While these programs are respectable, they are not Louisville or Syracuse.

Foster was not a McDonald's All American. He did not play in the Jordan Brand Classic. Few people who were not Kansas St fans had never heard of him before November. Some casual college fans still do not know who he is, and yet he is putting up numbers on par with Ennis. The freshman averages 14.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg, and 2.0 apg against 2.3 topg. He has also been credited for having excellent defense, and is high on the list of why Kansas State holds its opponents to 60.8 ppg (good for 19th in the country).

Have our Jayhawks already faced the best freshman point guard in the country? I would love to hear what others think.

For my starting five the first player I would take would be Doug McDermott simply because he is the best player in the country.

Next I would take the best point guard I could get. Marcus Smart probably is the best, but I do not like him so I will instead go with Shabazz Napier from UCONN.

Then I would take Embiid because he already may be the best center in the country and he will continue to improve.

Now all that is left is to take good wings. I would first take Jabari Parker. Then I would take Lamar Patterson.

So this would be the starting five: PG: Napier, SG: Patterson, SF: Parker, PF: McDermott, C: Embiid.

In my opinion beating Oklahoma is going to be very important if we want a chance to win the conference because:

-Norman is a game that any team in the Big 12 could lose, getting a win their would give us a slight edge for now against ISU, OSU, UT, and Baylor.

-It would help our confidence. after OU we have to play KSU(#25 in the AP poll), @Iowa St (#9), Oklahoma St (#11), and then Baylor (#7). I would like to come out of that 4 game stretch with one loss and I would love to come out undefeated. But to get momentum going we gave to defeat Oklahoma.

How good is Oklahoma? I do not know. They did beat Texas and hung around with Michigan State, but they lost to Louisiana Tech and let teams like TexasA&M play close with them. I do know that they are good enough to give any team a run for their money in Norman.

Do they?

@KirkIsMyHinrich I don't see Lyle beating out Oubre or Greene for the starting wing spots. Heck, I think it is more likely that our starting guards are Mason, Tharpe, and Oubre.

This brings to mind the question of who will be our rotation bigs next season. Here is who I think we will have:

Ellis, Traylor, Mickelson, Lucas, Alexander, Turner

We will have to narrow this down to four for our rotation. If we do not land Turner I think it will clearly be Ellis and Alexander starting with Traylor and Mickelson as the backups. If we land Turner it becomes a lot more complicated. We would have to see if Alexander of Turner is better and also would have to kick Mickelson or perhaps Traylor out of the rotation. Then their is also the possibility that Perry Ellis leaves or that Joel Embiid stays. What does everyone else think?

I think it is safe to say that the battle for starting QB next season is between Jake Heaps, Montell Cozart, and TJ Millweard.

Here are there college stats for last season:

Heaps: 49%, 1414 pass yards, -162 rush yards, 8 pass td, 1 rush td 10 int

Cozart: 37%, 227 pass yards, 214 rush yards, 0 pass td, 1 rush td, 2 int

Millweard: NA

Now these are high school senior stats just we have some numbers we can use when comparing Heaps and Cozart to Millweard:

Heaps: 61%, 9195 pass yards, 153 rush yards, 45 pass td, 9 rush td, 7 int (Sammamish, WA)

Cozart: No official high school stats (Overland Park, KS)

Millweard: 67%, 2374 pass yards, -52 rush yards, 22 pass td, 0 rush td, 11 int (Fort Worth TX)

The numbers all seem to point toward Heaps, but Cozart beat him out for the #1 QB spot on the depth chart by the end of last year and Millweard has been reported to have been the second best QB on UCLA's team when he was there.

Now here is my guess for next years rotation:

PG) Naadir Tharpe AND Frank Mason split time

SG) Andrew White III / Brannen Greene / Thare or Mason

SG) Kelly Oubre / Brannen Greene

PF) Perry Ellis / Jamari Traylor / Cliff Alexander

C) Joel Embiid / Cliff Alexander / Jamari Traylor

Well, most likely new players will commit to both schools, but as of now this is what the KU vs UK match-up in the classic next year looks like:
PG: Naadir Tharpe (5'11" Sr) vs Tyler Ulis (5'8" Fr, #33 in rivals 150)
SG: Andrew White III (6'6" Jr) vs Dominique Hawkins (6'1" So)
G/F: Kelly Oubre (6'7 Fr, rivals#12) vs Devin Booker (6'5" Fr, #30 in rivals 150)
PF: Perry Ellis (6'8" Jr) vs Trey Lyles (6'10 Fr, #8 in rivals 150)
C: Joel Embiid (7-0 So) vs Karl Towns (6-10 Fr, #11 in rivals 150)

bench: Frank Mason, Conner Frankamp, Brannen Greene, Jamari Traylor vs Brian Long, Marcus Lee

I was sitting around thinking about the future of KU football, and what each position looked like, and I realized that the 2014 team could be pretty good if no one ends up being a huge bust (and I do realize that this is a pretty big if). Here are my projected starters:
Offense:
QB: Montell Cozart (So)
WR: Nick Harwekk (Sr)
WR: Rod Coleman (Sr)
WR: Tony Pierson (Sr)
RB: Darrian Miller (Jr)
TE: Jimmay Mundaine (Sr)
LT: Pat Lewandowski (Sr)
LG: Ngalu Fusimalohi (Sr)
OC: Jacob Bragg (Fr)
RG: Mike Smithburg (Sr)
RT: Dylan Admire (Jr)

Defense:
LC: Jacorey Shepherd (Sr)
RC: Kevin Short (Jr)
NB: Dexter McDonald (Sr)
FS: Cassius Sendish (Sr)
SS: Isiah Johnson (Jr)
LB: Ben Heeney (Sr)
LB: Jake Love (Jr)
LE: Andrew Bolton (Jr)
NT: Keon Stowers (Sr)
RT: Tedarian Johnson (Sr)
Buck: Ben Goodman (Jr)

Special Teams
KO: Trevor Pardula (Sr)
P: Trevor Pardula (Sr)
PK: Matthew Myman (Jr) or Michael Mesh (Jr)
LS: Reily Jeffers (Jr)
Hold: Blake Jablonski (Sr)
Returns: Miller, Embree, Short, Shepherd

link text ↗

From kusports.com

I was thinking that MSU's starting lineup would be as following: Appling, Harris, Valentine, Dawson, and Payne. They would match up against UK like this:

Appling (6-1 Sr) vs Andrew Harrison (6-5 Fr)
Harris (6-4 So) vs Aaron Harrison (6-5 Fr)
Denzel Valentine (6-5 So) vs Alex Poythress (6-8 So)
Branden Dawson (6-6 Jr) vs Julius Randle (6-9 Fr)
Adreian Payne (6-10 Sr) vs Willie Cauley-Stein (7-0 So)

It looks pretty close. It will be fun to see who wins.

My guess: we lose Selden but keep Embiid and Ellis. Here is what we would look like if we landed Jones and Okafor.

PG) Naadir Tharpe- Frank Mason- Tyrus Jones

2G) Tyrus Jones- Brannen Greene

3G) Andrew White III- Kelly Oubre

PF) Perry Ellis- Jahil Okafor- Jamari Traylor

C) Joel Embiid- Jahil Okafor- Hunter Mickelson

This looks like it could be an 11 man rotation, and I am not even including Frankamp or Lucas. We would have to cut it down. Perhaps we would be forced not to play Frank Mason, Brannen Greene, and Hunter Mickelson.

We may as well try some things out with Cozart. I do not think that Heaps is terrible but the offense doesn't seem to be going anywhere with him. Also, we already wasted Cozarts redshirt so there is no reason not to keep using him.