I was on the treadmill the whole game last night trying to work all the turkey out of my belly. But I think it was a mistake. The treadmill probably belonged to Wiggins and Selden. I think Coach should give them the Rush treatment from now on. I firmly believe Coach wants to win every game, but he clearly didn't help his team to win this one. He probably didn't want the young team to coast to victory and get the bulls eye of No. 1 ranking with the No. 1 recruit. He wanted the team to labor and he wanted to see who would show the mentality of an alpha dog. He wanted to see toughness, fighting spirit, and the want to from his star players, Wiggins, Selden, Ellis. But other than Mason, none showed much of a fight in them. The Nova players clearly had more energy, and showed more desire in winning the 50/50 balls. They were more active on the defensive end.

Nova played the half course trap for a long time. And I don't believe Coach didn't recognize it and have the several plays in his sleeves to beat it. But he let them labor. Greene was open and the ball was swung to him, so he launched a three, but he got yelled at. Why? Greene showed in the past that he was quite capable hitting this type of shots. And it wasn't his first touch in that offensive sequence, so it couldn't be considered an early three. So Coach must have dictated that the ball must go through one of the bigs, or the star freshmen, Wiggins and Selden. And he was pushing all of them to show the willingness to drive. Neither Wiggins nor Selden showed enough of that. I think our star players have too much of the similar qualities and personalities. They are too nice and too quiet. They must come out of their shells, otherwise whey won't be very successful on the college level much less in the League.

If last night was within Coach Self's master plan, he successfully demonstrated to his players that their ranking meant nothing. Their physical abilities meant less than they mental strength. The players must come together and become a tough team mentally.

Thanks, Jesse.

http://cjonline.com/blog-post/jesse-newell/2013-11-29/five-minute-scout-villanovas-interior-defense-should-challenge-ku ↗ ↗

:)

Rehash an old link from 11/27, and apologize if it was already posted here.

Kansas City Star Rustin Dodd's, KU's Andrew Wiggins has potential to become defensive standout ↗

And I think we already knew that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My son is home and now I have a way to watch KU vs. Villanova on the computer. :o (inlove)

http://stream.nbcsports.com/liveextra ↗\/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC Sports live stream ↗

Let's go, Jayhawks!

By the way, NBC Sports live stream uses the latest Flash and works well with IE. And it is HD quality, so it works well for the big screen TV if your PC or laptop has a HDMI port.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And thanks for all the updates for us who couldn't watch the game! (beer)

Arrrgh! (banghead) :s :x

TV LISTINGS — KU’s 2:30 p.m. game Thursday against Wake Forest will be televised on AXS TV. According to its website, the station is only available to AT&T U-verse subscribers in Topeka.

If KU wins against Wake Forest, its next two games on Friday and Saturday will be televised on NBC Sports Network, which is available on Cox and AT&T U-verse in Topeka.

No game for me this week?! I'm not going to say anything to get my post deleted. :(

Courtesy of @Approxinfinity

In markdown syntax the pound key (#) has a different purpose -- you can use the pound key before and after a section you want to make big and blue. One pound before and after is the biggest, and each additional pound before and after makes it progressively smaller. I believe five pounds before and after is back to normal size (but still blue). This is how bskeet makes the pretty headers when he posts the stories.

To make a word bold, place 2 asterisks (**) before and after the words.

To make italicised text, place 1 asterisk (*) before and after the text.

And to make one big, bold and italic.

Thanks @tundrahok

Courtesy of @tundrahok
/topic/74

To watch ESPN3 in the blackout area, you may download an extension for Firefox called Modify Headers,

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/modify-headers/ ↗ ↗

And courtesy of Phog.net's poster, GenerousGeorge
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2487&t=11250787 ↗ ↗

Install the extension.

1. Click the Firefox icon in the top left, then go to Add-ons
2. Click the extensions tab if it's not selected already
3. Click on Headers in the Modify Headers box
4. In the dropdown box, select Add
5. Type X-Forwarded-For in the Header name box
6. Type 66.58.144.0 [I AM USING 12.17.139.0 an Alaska IP address I found with google] (or any other IP from the non-blacked out area) in the Header value box
7. Click the Add button
8. Make sure that the new entry has a green dot next to it
9. Hit OK and close out of the Add-ons manager tab
10. Hit alt to bring up another menu at the top of your Firefox window
11. Go to View > Toolbars > Add-ons bar
12. Check that the icon for the Modify Headers extension is red and not gray (it should be at the bottom left of your window)
13. If it's gray, click the icon to start it
14. Open up ESPN3 and you should be good to go!

And make sure you clear the cache too.

The workaround was confirmed to work by @tundrahok and @JayhawkInMizery

You may verify your own IP at http://www.geoiptool.com/ ↗ ↗

Hey @tundrahok and @JayhawkInMizery Why does the above website still report my actual IP address after I did everything above? Did I do something wrong or does it only fool ESPN? Thanks.

Thanks, @bskeet

Here I found the Univerisity of Kansas Android app ↗

@nuleafjhawk You were lucky. :) I only had the privilege of reading about JFK much later. I'm not into politics either, but I long for the days we were THE economic power once upon a time.

@wrwlumpy I'm listening the station online at work, and it was talking about JFK 50 years ago today.

By the way, 610 radio is also online, and I listened the first game there after @Lulufulu85 posted.

I'm surprised nobody picked up Jesse's excellent scouting report on Townson. Very informative as usual.

http://cjonline.com/blog-post/jesse-newell/2013-11-22/five-minute-scout-towsons-hope-against-ku-hinges-free-throws ↗ ↗

Listen to WIBW Topeka online

http://tunein.com/radio/WIBW-580-s29508/# ↗ ↗

If Turner wants to win anything at OSU, he should have committed last year because Smart is gone after this season. The way Embiid developing, he should seriously look at KU's situation. At 6'11", he will be a nice replacement if Embiid decides to take cash.

To Embiid, Look at all the past OADs and see how much you might gain by going early. It isn't worth it unless cash is all that matters.

Hey @Jesse_Newell I just updated your post to make the links clickable. Thanks.

I'm a big fan of @Jesse_Newell 's technical analysis of the nuts and bolts of KU basketball. He makes a fine mechanic I'm sure. Was he made by the German engineering? Love it!

@bskeet Nice work!

Thanks, @Careful_you I'd always look for this information whenever there was a discussion on the current and past players. So I thought it might be helpful to others too. It's a work in progress and I'm still updating the document. :)

@JayHawkFanToo

@wishawk

Regarding ESPN3, I don't know if the blackout is based on the IP address of the device or where the ATT Uverse account is located. I live in Wisconsin and I don't have any cable TV subscription, but do have Internet service. I have a Xbox and also Xbox Live Gold, and my son is at Madison and has ATT Uverse. So I add ESPN app on the Xbox, and had my son validate the code that links the Xbox Live account to my son's Uverse account. I don't have to have his login info, but simply gave him the code. Once he validates the code on ATT, my Xbox live is granted access to ESPN. And I'm able to watch ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 on the Xbox. I don't know if it makes any difference if I were in Kansas since my local IP would be in Kansas, not in Wisconsin. Just thought I'd mention it.

The ESPN3 blackout is only for the State of Kansas and the Kansas City Metro Area, hence the irritation by Kansans all over the state; it is probably a combination of provider and IP. ESPN3 should not be blacked out in Wisconsin and you should have no problem accessing ESPN3; this is pretty much what the live feed providers are doing, broadcasting the ESPN3 feed that is not blocked to them.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. No, I have no problem watching the games.

I was simply speculating whether ESPN3 decides to block the program based your device's IP address. It sounds like it is based on your local IP. So what I was thinking won't work.

Regarding ESPN3, I don't know if the blackout is based on the IP address of the device or where the ATT Uverse account is located. I live in Wisconsin and I don't have any cable TV subscription, but do have Internet service. I have a Xbox and also Xbox Live Gold, and my son is at Madison and has ATT Uverse. So I add ESPN app on the Xbox, and had my son validate the code that links the Xbox Live account to my son's Uverse account. I don't have to have his login info, but simply gave him the code. Once he validates the code on ATT, my Xbox live is granted access to ESPN. And I'm able to watch ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 on the Xbox. I don't know if it makes any difference if I were in Kansas since my local IP would be in Kansas, not in Wisconsin. Just thought I'd mention it.

Welcome @Jesse_Newell Always enjoy your writing and analysis. Keep up the good work!

@drgnslayr Imagine the voice of Sylvester Stallone in Victory, "No blisters!" ;)

@BucknellJayhawk3

Anyone else think the starters lacked some energy at the opening of last nights game?

I thought the newbies were simply lost when Iona switched to zone. They probably hadn't practiced against zone defense. Iona was well coached and very experienced. I thought they had many returnees from the last season. And I wasn't surprised our new guys struggled against this experienced team. In the end, our talent won out.

@justanotherfan

• Perry Ellis has strangely become the first option for this team, and he's handling that responsibility brilliantly. His improvement from last season to this is incredible.
  

Perry is super smart. I thought it was a brilliant play when he was trapped by the baseline. Rather than trying to make a difficult pass to a teammate, he shielded the ball with his body and waved the ball just over the baseline. With a slight touch from a defender, he let the ball go out of bound. KU throw in. :)

Hey, Dragon. Didn't our Joel play like a giant last night?

I think he will be a true giant if he kills a "lion" like last night every time!

I wonder if Coach Self is creating a trend here. When Mason is not playing well, he brings Frankamp, White and Traylor in to light a spark.

I think Frankamp might need anti-adrenaline shot when he has the ball and is open to shoot. :) He seemed to have a good head controlling the ball, but his shot is either too weak or too strong. Hope it doesn't take him half a season to settle down like Ellis.

Regarding Greene, I have no inside information, but I'd like to think Coach Self realizes Greene's talent, and want to keep both White and Greene happy by rotating them. Greene played more than White in the Duke game because he was more effective than White. And I believe Greene went in before White in that game too. So this game, White got his chance to shine first, and was effective. So there was no reason to bring Greene in. I wouldn't be surprised to see Greene get in the game first in the next game. Just my 2 cents worth.

I think the Embiid party has indeed arrived early. There is no reason not to start Embiid now. Great performance tonight!

Please stay for one more season. It's too much fun to watch you play!

I put on funny glasses and see a 16 year old giant carrying a 500 pound lion over the plains in Africa. :)

It's not happening.

KU Roster by year in screen print form

2013-2014

!KU Roster by year 2013-2014.jpg ↗

2012-2013

!KU Roster by year 2012-2013.jpg ↗

2011-2012

!KU Roster by year 2011-2012.jpg ↗

2010-2011

!KU Roster by year 2010-2011.jpg ↗

2009-2010

!KU Roster by year 2009-2010.jpg ↗

2008-2009

!KU Roster by year 2008-2009.jpg ↗

2007-2008

!KU Roster by year 2007-2008.jpg ↗

2006-2007

!KU Roster by year 2006-2007.jpg ↗

2005-2006

!KU Roster by year 2005-2006.jpg ↗

2004-2005

!KU Roster by year 2004-2005.jpg ↗

2003-2004

!KU Roster by year 2003-2004.jpg ↗

2002-2003

!KU Roster by year 2002-2003.jpg ↗

Thanks @bskeet for the reminder. Jeff was a transfer, so he wasn't on the KU high school recruits list. But he was Rivals 36 and 8th by position in 2008. I will add him tonight.

It appeared his dad enjoyed every minute on the big stage. Hope he doesn't have the "Carl Henry" syndrome.

@JRyman Best of luck!

@ralster Hunter Mickelson is a Rivals 100th ranked player (17th in his position) out of high school.

Rivals Hunter Michelson ↗

Rivals 2014 BBall prospect ranking ↗

RSCI Rating 2013 ↗

ESPN Recruiting ↗

!KU recruits 2012-2014.jpg ↗

!KU recruits 2009-2011.jpg ↗

!KU recruits 2006-2008.jpg ↗

!KU recruits 2002-2005.jpg ↗

I think one of the simplest and also free photo tool, Picasa will do nicely to reduce the pictures to manageable sizes. It can be downloaded here, Picasa.google.com ↗. Once you have the large picture open in Picasa, click "Export" !Origihal ↗

Then you will get a prompt to reduce the size to anything you want. !Resize ↗

Drag and Drop is supported at least by Firefox and Chrome.

Last night Embiid played way more minutes than Black. Is that a trend going forward? He still looked raw, but he got beautiful hands and foot, an of course a big athletic body. He made a couple of beautiful assists last night. And he even dribbled out of double teams. At this point, I still don't see him going OAD, but there is no telling how much he will improve this season. I think he will need to learn how to post up closer to the basket. Last night he caught the balls far from the paint, so he couldn't do much with the ball. And right now he has no post move and can't shoot free throws. But he was a lot more mobile than Black. I'm very excited to see his development over the whole season, and will be very disappointed if he leaves after just one season here. I'm selfish.

I guess Mason beat the crap out of the national ranking. He didn't play like a 70+ ranked freshman last night. He didn't have much trouble knifing through Duke defense, and Duke does have quite a few good players. Parker is the real deal and I thought he looked like Durant. But team wins over individuals. The final score was no indication of how the teams fought through out the game. We didn't pull away until the last 2 minutes, but beat Duke in just about every category, assists, rebounds, etc.

Ellis was definitely the rock of team last night. It just seemed every time the ball was in his hands, and something good would happen. What a performance!

I think Coach Self deserves a round of applause for the man of the match performance on this win too. I thought he managed the first half beautifully, subbing in all the fresh bodies to maintain the momentum. Then he used his ball handlers to spread the floor, driving and dishing. It was great to see Tharpe and Mason playing together.

Wiggins was clearly frustrated by the fouls, but everybody talked to him and kept him calm. I could see the team had really good chemistry. The season is young and will just get better.

What a pleasant surprise! Loved how Frank Mason played the game. Plenty of poise and driving attack. Perfect compliment to Tharpe and they played really well together on the court especially in the second half. If this game is any indication, we have our point guard position set for the next 4 years. This game feels like a Final Four game. Great win!

@Lulufulu85 You have a photographer's eyes. I get about 10 out of about 500. Looking forward to your pictures.

@HighEliteMajor I'd expect Turner to start over Embiid. Embiid was a Rivals 25 ranked player coming in. And his NBA status is a lot based on his high ceiling/potential, not on his skills. He has a lot of raw talent, but it might not be enough to keep Turner from starting over him. So I think Turner might welcome the competition if Coach Self show him enough love.

Yes! How about showing off your man cave?

@Lulufulu85 Thanks for sharing!

If you had reported the ice packs on Tharpe and Black in the old days on kusports.com before the opener, Jaybate would have exploded with quilts. :o

@Blown And I believe Coach Self likes to play two ball handlers at the same time. Question is will Jones be able to come in as 2 guard while on court with Tharpe?

@bskeet And Myles Turner won't announce until spring. But I don't think it's an issue for Turner to share minutes with Embiid regardless whether Embiid goes or stays.

@JayDocMD I agree it's quite possible we might miss all three.

In my opinion, the competition for minutes against the existing top players is not the most important factor for an elite recruit. See Kentucky's 2012 championship team. But I think it might be difficult for top 5 recruit to come in and play behind a top 70 player even if Tharpe willbe a senior next year. I think the ego won't allow it. So if it is a package deal, Okafor and Jones won't come. And in this case, I'd love to eat some crow if they prove me wrong. But on the other hand, I can't see Okafor and Alexander together either especially if Ellis and Embiid are both here next year. I have a very difficult time projecting Embiid goes OAD no matter how high a ceiling he has. How does he compare to Anthony Davis out of high school? I just don't see him going to the league after playing basketball for 3 years. So not saying it is impossible, but it will be difficult for Okafor and Alexander to come together knowing they will be sharing the available minutes with Ellis and Embiid. But I'd expect Okafor to start over Embiid while Alexander will have to fight against Ellis to get a share of the minutes. Given the fact Alexander is the same height as Ellis, but Ellis has two years of starting experience on him. Alexander might be the fourth big if he does choose KU.

So out of the three, I only see Okafor coming to KU. But we won't know how important Okafor sees the package deal until they announce.

Does anyone have any analysis on Duke's situation? Will Jones be able to start at Duke?

@dylans So are you saying all of them can shoot in practice, but forgot everything as soon as the light came on? LOL

I hope to see more desire from Wiggsy soon. Right now he is too muted.

Are Langford, Collins, and Releford playing somewhere? What about Wright? Thanks.