🏀 KuBuckets Archive

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CJ Online -- Jesse Newell: With help from bench, KU tops Wake Forest, 87-78 ↗

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Andrew Wiggins scored 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting, leading the Kansas men's basketball team to an 87-78 victory over Wake Forest on Thursday in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.

CJ Online: Live blog ↗

Jesse Newell:
Welcome to Paradise Island Bahamas, where KU is getting set to take on Wake Forest in the first round of Battle 4 Atlantis.

KU Athletics: NO. 2 KANSAS SHOWS DEPTH IN WAKE FOREST WIN, 87-78 ↗

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Watching a 14-point halftime lead sliced to four, freshman guard Frank Mason stepped up for a crucial three-pointer to restart the No. 2 Kansas offense, who went on to defeat Wake Forest, 87-78, to open its stay in the Bahamas in the Battle 4 Atlantis on Thanksgiving Day.

Kansas City Star: KU holds off Wake Forest 87-78 in Bahamas tourney ↗

Paradise Island, Bahamas — You might think that a weekend getaway on a tropical island would lighten the mood a little at the Battle 4 Atlantis.

KU Sports: Jayhawks win ugly in paradise ↗

The No. 2-ranked Kansas University basketball team lost its previously pristine shimmer. The eye-popping, head-turning, jaw-dropping plays that beat Duke in Chicago were replaced by shrugs, mehs and I-guess-that’ll-dos versus Wake Forest in the Bahamas...

KU Sports: Point guard, Demon Deacons not into moral victories ↗

Paradise Island, Bahamas — Down 14 points at halftime against the No. 2 team in the nation, Wake Forest University men’s basketball coach Jeff Bzdelik knew his team wasn’t through against Kansas...

KU Sports: Kansas bench keys win vs. Wake

Paradise Island, Bahamas — Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self was brutally honest with his star-studded starting five during his postgame speech following an 87-78 first-round Battle 4 Atlantis victory over Wake Forest on Thursday in Imperial Arena...

Post game press conference -- Bill Self, Jamari Traylor and Frank Mason discuss beating Wake Forest ↗

![Tyshawn bumping Kidd ↗](

Here's Jason Kidd requesting Tyshawn hit him (video), and a write up ↗

@careful_you awesome! Nice find

Happy Thanksgiving @JaydocMD and everyone, from Kevin Rubio and Ricky Love!

!ScreenShot2013-11-27at1.27.18PM_original_crop_north.png ↗

Totally unrelated... Someone needs to get on the ball and update Bill Self's site! This page is missing our guys from the last 2 years:
http://www.billself.com/where-they-are-from ↗ ↗

!lpzV1.St.81.jpeg ↗

Series History:

• The Wake Forest-Kansas series is tied at two wins apiece. The teams are meeting for the first time since a 2001 game in Lawrence.
• Wake Forest and Kansas have met twice in the NCAA Tournament, with the Deacons winning in 1984 and the Jayhawks winning in 1994.
• Wake Forest and Kansas also played a home-and-home series in 2000 and 2001, as each squad won at home.

CJ Online -- Jesse Newell: KU Ready to face team its own size in Wake Forest ↗

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Kansas coach Bill Self is ready to see how his team matches up with someone its own size.

Through five games, KU has not yet faced a team with two traditional forwards in its starting lineup … or at least not two big men with height that is typically found in the Big 12...

KUSports: Wake Forest respects, doesn’t fear KU ↗

Paradise Island, Bahamas — Wake Forest University’s men’s basketball players might be young, but they’re not that young.

At least that’s the way coach Jeff Bzdelik sees it....

KU Sports: Two tickets to paradise: Transfer Tarik Black gets second shot at Atlantis title ↗

Paradise Island, Bahamas — It’s not often a major-college basketball player gets a second chance, a “do-over,” so to speak, in a holiday tournament played in an exotic locale...

Kansas City Star: KU Athletic Department chartered 4 flights for KU students ↗

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — In the early 1900s, when a new sport called basketball was beginning to infiltrate new parts of the country, the game would often have to be played in local social halls...

Bloggersodear.com: Nice overview of all the teams in the tourney ↗ from a Wake Forest perspective

Opposing defenses will need to focus on Ellis and let the cards fall where they may with the other guys. If Ellis gets hot in Atlantis, this tournament could be over before it ever gets started.

@ralster you made a compelling case for scorning the Iowa State fanbase! Still dig the Mayor's program though.

Low attendance, bothering MU players since 2011.... ↗

Anyone have any links to some stats on how former Big 12 teams are faring in football/basketball before/after leaving?

Guess OCs are like eggs.. if you can't beat em, poach em!

@highelitemajor you can drag the photos straight from your folder onto the reply window

Yeah, I saw another story about it that detailed some of the things they yelled... stuff about a player needing to cover a bloody wound because he has AIDS, or yelling "raise your hands if you think Hurricane Katrina was a good thing" during a freethrow, and similar stuff. Kind of puts Hilton in perspective :)

!Atlantis ↗

CJOnline's Jesse Newell: Jayhawks ready for 'business trip' ↗

LAWRENCE — A few days ago, Bill Self had one of his players’ parents email him to ask when the team’s free time would be for its upcoming Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in Nassau, Bahamas.

“I said, ‘This is a business trip. There's no free time,’” the KU coach said. “‘You have the free time, not us...’”

KU Sports: Bahamas drama? Self says tourney ‘competitive,’ but KU heavy favorite ↗

The 2013 Battle 4 Atlantis has been described by ESPN as a tournament that “features the Kansas Jayhawks as well as a handful of solid and/or ascendant programs.”

Jayhawks, fans arrive at Atlantis resort ↗

Paradise Island, Bahamas — It’s hard to hide a seven-footer outfitted in Kansas University gear at a resort teeming with college basketball fans...

!Lucas ↗

KU Sports: Landen Lucas battling for minutes ↗

Kansas University’s basketball big men — Tarik Black, Perry Ellis, Joel Embiid, Landen Lucas, Hunter Mickelson, Jamari Traylor and Justin Wesley — engage in some spirited battles at practice...

CJOnline: Self searching for defensive identity ↗

LAWRENCE — With a new lineup and new hand-checking rules, Bill Self believes his team’s defense is still in the process of figuring out what it does best...

KUAthletics: Preview of KU vs. Wake Forest ↗

Battle 4 Atlantis Continues
No. 2/2 Kansas (4-0) continues its participation in the Battle 4 Atlantis when it faces Wake Forest (5-0) Thanksgiving Day at 2:30 p.m. (Central) at Imperial Arena in Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas...

@Parishawk "won with brio"..nice! So.. the hard part is that I don't have an iPhone and I can't confirm/fix the problems you're having if I can't reproduce them. I'll have to get my hands on an IPhone. I also want to make sure its not a spotty connectivity thing, or something specific to your phone. Can you try it on other people's phones? Also, do you notice it craps out more when you're off of wifi?

@crimsonorblue22 I was going to ask if someone using their iPhone could confirm if they have the same problems. Do you see any of the problems Parishawk has mentioned, crimson? Thanks man.

KU Sports: Self says USA Basketball speculation 'not realistic' ↗

One thing Kansas University’s Bill Self and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski did not discuss at this year’s Champions Classic was the possibility of KU’s 11th-year coach succeeding “Coach K” as head coach of the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team.

CJ Online's Kevin Haskin: WSU coping with Final Four residual ↗

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The basketball heritage at Wichita State continues to gain appreciation.

At the College Basketball Experience, the sport’s history is presented in artifacts and displays. It is enriched by the presence of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, which enshrined one of the Shockers’ own over the weekend...

K-State Salvages win in final Puerto Rico game ↗

Kansas State coach Bruce Weber watched some ugly basketball on Friday, when his Wildcats slopped their way through a 27-point loss to Georgetown in the second round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
Weber had an up-close view at some more hideous hoops in Sunday’s final round of the tournament, but fortunately for him and the Wildcats, this time it took place on the other end of the court.

KenPom has us ranked third behind Ok St and Louisville ↗

Rustin Dodd @rustindodd
The best team Wake Forest has played is probably Colgate, who is ranked 243rd, according to http://KenPom.com ↗ ↗ .

Bill Self previews this week's Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas ↗

I don't know if the voice was of Jesse Newell, but it was a great question. And it was analyzed by Jesse in the CJ's article below.

KU's Wiggins getting defensive ↗

“I just wanted to see how I’d do on him,” Wiggins said with a smile. “I think my defense is underrated.”

“I love moments like that, big crowds, big-name people in the gym, all that,” Wiggins said. “I’m confident that we’re going to come out with the win, and we did.”

Is that an alpha dog?

Slow day for news, it appears... please add stories if you find them.

test

Thx for the font edit approx.-how did that happen originally? Or as an apologetic Mr Hallmark might say; "I did THAT?"

No sweat. So, 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.

@nuleafjhawk Love it nuleaf. You've been on a roll recently! I debated several times using one of your MOTD quotes for the frontpage, but it seemed to violate some rule of honest reporting.. I might just attribute one to you :)

Yeah, the table didn't work, for the record :)

Tundra,

I believe Dooley flipped off Nick Fazekas (sp) from Nevada.

He told Nick Fazekas to go F himself.

@HighEliteMajor -- great timing on this thread. Here are my predictions.

White over Greene

I think we should go with White over Greene. White has paid his dues, and Greene can do so as well. Next year we'll need both heavily if both stick around, assuming Selden and Wiggins leave and we don't recruit another wing after Oubre. Rewarding White is the right thing to do, not only for his great attitude and obvious work ethic, but in terms of what message this conveys to the rest of the team. He also looks like he's settling into the role, and capable of drilling contested threes, and getting out on the break effectively with the rest of the guys.

JoJo over Black

Agree with HEM that JoJo needs to start now. He needs as much experience as he can get this year as a super-athletic super-raw big, and with the level of production we're already getting out of him, there is no downside. While starting JoJo may disappoint Black, this is not nearly the same thing as rewarding Greene the rotation spot over White, because JoJo and Black were both recruited to play here for one year (assuming JoJo goes league) and neither have paid their dues in our system. I see it as a fair position battle that has already clearly been won by JoJo.

Naadir over Mason

As for Naadir and Mason... I think as the refs adjust to ignoring the new foul rules throughout the season, Mason's advantage driving the ball will be somewhat negated. He most definitely pushed transition better than Naadir in the Duke game, but I see Naadir improving in that regard. I think he was holding back a bit that game. Naadir obviously has put in his time, and would be a no brainer if we didn't have a team full of kids acting like relaxed veterans. At that point, Naadir might be looked to more for leadership. But we aren't in that position. Naadir appears to be the better shooter over Mason and his ability to can the open three when needed helps his case. I think Naadir will be given every opportunity to keep his starting job, provided he continues to speed up his ability to get the ball downcourt on the break. If he can't or won't do this, he'll get the hook.

Frankamp vs Greene

Assuming White's won the battle for first 2/3 off the bench, I think you're alluding to the fact that Greene gives us what Conner gives us, plus a few inches, HEM, when you say Self should put Conner on the bench. I've said the same, and I would continue to agree, except that Conner seems to be getting more comfortable letting it fly pure, while Greene has some indeterminate doghouse issues. I'm still waiting to see what the ceiling for drilling a 3 off the bench in spot minutes is for these 2 guys. Was either expecting something more? Either may plateau or regress, or either may improve beyond the other. I agree with @Parishawk on this position battle, that there is no rush.

@Jesse_Newell Awesome Jesse - I added it to the main post.

!Allen Fieldhouse Nov 22 2013 ↗

CJOnline -- Jesse Newell -- Lob city: KU basketball races past Towson ↗

"LAWRENCE — Just before tipoff, as they were bouncing on the bleachers to pump themselves up for the game, a group of about a dozen KU students held up white letters in Allen Fieldhouse’s northwest corner.

“Lobrence, KS” they spelled out..."

**Jesse Newell's stat recap : Kansas excelling at shot selection ↗ **

"KU can be deadly in transition ... if it's able to get a stop on the other end first. Though the Jayhawks had just three steals against Towson, they still were able to crank up the running game thanks to one of the team's biggest strengths: defensive rebounding..."

Kansas City Star Post-Game ↗

"But there was something else on the box score, something that spoke to Wiggins’ unselfish sensibilities. The Jayhawks had put up 88 points — and nobody had taken more than eight shots..."

KUSports -- Kansas unstoppable in rout of Towson ↗

"Nobody was talking about an undefeated season or anything crazy like that after Kansas University’s fourth basketball victory of the 2013-14 campaign — Friday’s 88-58 taming of Towson in Allen Fieldhouse."

Keegan: Keegan Ratings -- Wiggins #1 ↗

Keegan: Wiggins provides more than highlights ↗

Bedore: White produces off bench for KU ↗

Bill Self Post Game Interview ↗

Box Score ↗

"Towson 16 42 58

Kansas 49 39 88..."

Thanks for answering a bunch of our questions rapid-fire, Jesse!

@Jesse_Newell Having trouble commenting on the live blog... Does it not show comments until its game time?

If for whatever reason we can't get onto the CJOnline live blog we can always convene in www.kubuckets.com/chat until we get it straight.

!Picture of rules ↗

Link to the story ↗

I know that this posting is playful ribbing, but I want to voice support for what Fred Hoiberg is doing in Ames and feel like he conducts himself and coaches his team with class. This certainly is not as bad as EJ's ball punch, or Tyshawn's point planking, or the Morrii's airsoft shooting, or countless other boneheaded mistakes by our guys. This was a spontaneous response by a kid after probably getting heckled all game. I think his apology was well constructed, and shows signs of appropriate handling by the team and the player.

That being said I hope we spank them when we see them, obviously, and maybe steal their coach when Self leaves. EDIT: Did you know Hoiberg's contract has a 2mil buyout if he goes to another college team, but only 500k if he goes to the NBA? Hm.

Liked @Jesse_Newell's article, but I'm struggling with the thought that we would want teams to shoot a higher percentage of 2 point shots. We certainly would want to contest 3's better than we have to date, but I don't know that we would want opponents to shoot less 3's. There's a kenpom article that came to mind from last year, so I tracked it down. I guess maybe he's gone back on his findings, as on the main page, the article summary is now stricken through, but here's the link. ↗ ... His synopsis is that 3 pointers are a lottery. I think maybe he struggled with the qualitative element of the 3. If its a good three, or if its a good shooter, it may not be a lottery. But if it is a lottery, do we try to take that away, or encourage it and contest it?

We're always ranked extremely high in 2 pt defense. But maybe theres something to the thought that we'd be better off baiting teams into 2s with a monster like Withey roaming the paint than letting them huck 3s on us. I would think more attempts in the paint would only come if the opposing coach/players believe they can score there better than from 3. If thats the case, improving our perimeter defense would cause the number of attempts to decrease, but that doesn't mean we would WANT it to decrease, necessarily. In my mind I'm picturing contested 3's clanking out.

I'll take either one, or both, joyfully :)

Jesse, can you please email me at approxinfinity@gmail.com? Want to get your work email so we can coordinate if need be. Thanks!

@Jesse_Newell Thanks for the follow up Jesse. Sounds great. I started the thread for Q&A. Will check out the links you sent tonight.

We're really excited to have Jesse Newell answer a few question for us before tomorrow's game, and we're going to hop over to his live blog at game time, for those who are interested.

Starting this thread for anyone who wants to ask Jesse a question or two. Jesse will check out the questions a little before game time, knock out a few of them, and then provide us a link over his live blog.

Take it away guys!

UPDATE: Here is the link to the game provided by Jesse below:
http://cjonline.com/blog-post/jesse-newell/2013-11-22/live-blog-ku-vs-towson ↗ ↗

Not sure if I'm submitting a comment correctly on the blog. If for whatever reason we can't get onto the CJOnline live blog we can always convene in www.kubuckets.com/chat until we get it straight.

"If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?" - Steven Wright

"Computers are useless. All they give you is answers." - Pablo Picasso

Hi there @Jesse_Newell! Great seeing you here. Love the idea of Q&A sessions and I'd be happy to hop over to CJ with whomever else wants to check out the live chat for the next game, if everyone is on board. I'd like to see what the format of the chat looks like, and was wondering if it would be cool if we cut and paste the chat log after its done on our board, with a link back to the original chat if you have it on your site. In addition, maybe you could take the Q&A sessions with us and post it over on the CJ if that makes sense for you.

Really excited to buddy up, and I've been thinking about how to automate the story postings here to update with links to stories on targeted sites in real time. It's probably a longshot, but you guys don't have a public API for that by chance do you?

@drgnslayr I really like your ideas on the Q&A format. I don't know what level of effort Jesse will be able to put in right prior to the games, so I don't know if we want to timebox it in that regard, but I do like the idea of building up a list of questions, and Jesse can cherry pick the ones he thinks yield the most intriguing responses. i do see your point that is he has the time to do so, before the game might be great as it would feed into the conversation of the game.

As for Jesse responding right below each comment, I'm beefing up my ability to modify the site, but this particular change is not going to happen fast -- I've now built my linux virtual box, and today I researched and installed extensions that will help me develop in node js, and I've been looking around in the nodebb solution beyond the layout elements, but there will be a learning curve, and time and effort restrictions for me. So, trying to set realistic expectations. I do intend to try to nest comments, but it will probably take a while to get there, because that is a philosophical shift from everything the board currently does around notifying / updating threads, and I want to be careful.

That being said, I think we can alleviate confusion on what he is responding to if Jesse uses @ to address people, and the quote button on the left of the reply to reiterate the question. If he does this answers after an accumulation of questions from which he cherry picks, I think it might be easier for him to write a few more consolidated posts. This might be a more relaxed approach for Jesse, but I'd like to hear what @Jesse_Newell thinks about the format too.

Not weird at all, but wishful. Speaking of weird, last night I dreamt I was starting my first day of classes at Bucknell. After my first class, I stepped over some people playing violins on a flight of stairs, and went into a small building with a friend, where we met up with Tom Izzo. As I walked and talked with Izzo we climbed over the people playing violins again. He was on his way to a party. I asked him "You know, you're 6 and 4 against Self?" He laughed and said he wasn't aware of that. I told him "I told Bill that and he said he wasn't aware of that either". He laughed again, then got in a car that drove off. Then I called my wife and told her where I was, and I woke up.

We had amber growlers of beer at a work party yesterday here in VA. I looked at the bottom of the bottle. Sure enough, it was made by Grandstand.

@wishawk @careful_you you're right CY... Thanks for sharing this wishawk.. it IS great. I need to smell the roses. "hmm.. how the hell do we get this to render in markdown syntax...", was the only thing that crossed my mind when you posted this, instead of "wow, this is great info!". I tried markdown syntax for a table and it didn't work.. so I dont know.. but for now, let me just enjoy it as an image :)

!Embiid ↗

Link to KU Sports game summary here ↗

KU Sports: Embiid shines vs. Iona, with father in the stands ↗

Dressed impeccably in suit and tie, Cameroon military man Thomas Embiid sat proudly in Kansas University’s parents’ section Tuesday night, watching his son play basketball for the very first time.“I am very proud of Joel,” Thomas Embiid said...

Keegan: Ellis spectacular in his own way ↗

Playing in a basketball program that conceivably could have the first pick of the NBA Draft for the next two years — freshman Andrew Wiggins this year and Joel Embiid the next — it’s easy to find something new and exciting to talk about on the way out of Allen Fieldhouse, easy to leave the Perry Ellis conversation for another day.

Unless, that is, you want to talk about the best player on the team.

Gaels came to win, but didn't predict one ↗

Shortly after Iona’s 86-66 men’s basketball loss to Kansas University at Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday night, Gaels coach Tim Cluess took time to set the record straight.

Jesse Newell's recap from Capital Journal ↗

(Joel's father) "Thomas Embiid had never seen a basketball game in person before, and he’s likely to remember Tuesday night’s game at Allen Fieldhouse for a long, long time."

Box Score ↗

Reactions from the KU Buckets Chatroom:

• Embiid looked unstoppable offensively (7-7) with an array of finishing moves above and around the rim. Black was pretty much ineffective, picking up a few cheap fouls early, and did not play much once Embiid got in. Embiid started the second half. Jam Tray got the late minutes when Embiid sat. Perry was a wiley scorer as well, scoring on a nify reverse layup, among other moves, and showing decent handles in transition.

• Embiid also had several monster blocks on defense, and was definitely the story of the night with 16 points, 13 boards, and 2 blocks.

• Naadir looked great conducting the offense and got the majority of the run at PG, ending up with 10 assists. Mason warmed up, and ended up playing a stretch of a two PG set with Naadir in the second half. This went well, capped off by a lob from Naadir to a dunking Mason in transition.

• Wiggins and Selden both looked good on offense. We're spoiled. They were their regular dominant high-flying selves on offense. Everyone boarded well on defense, but our defense had serious mental lapses early and often on the perimeter as in previous contests.

• All in all, a somewhat quiet victory for us. This team will be lethal if and when it learns how to play defense.

Sweet... The new Youtube plugin Julian published is working... All the videos for this story are now embedded.

Nice, thanks @julian!

[Alexander vs Okafor](

Thanks guys, for keeping this thread active. @globaljaybird Your quote was perfect timing for yesterday -- I was struggling for inspiration when it popped up.

@approxinfinity it would be great if the new posts are still showing at the very bottom, however if they are a reply to a specific post above, that said post could be in a quote box in that message.
That way you don't have to scroll through to see if there were new responses.

@farsidehawk if you hit the quote button on the left side ofthe reply button it does this quoting of the original. Is this meeting the need you're indicating?

@redrooster never know what people know and what they don't, just trying to cover all bases. I'll experiment with Tahoma and Ariel, thanks for the suggestions.

@parishawk Welcome back. Glad we're back to normal. I'll look into the iphone problems. I thought the nodebb upgrade I did would have fixed the problem, because I'm not seeing connectivity issues, but I didn't restart the data store in the upgrade process and its been running for several weeks without a restart (which its supposed to be able to do) but maybe that will be necessary. Will look into it. Thanks for letting me know.

!Wiggins Randle And Parker ↗

Article here ↗

@drgnslayr I'll take another look at that. Don't know that they're tracking the parent/child relationship when clicking on reply button next to a post. It not, it would be nice if I could commit this database change back to nodebb as something an optional nested comment feature could hook into.

!Belmont stuns UNC at home ↗

Wow... UNC hadn't lost a non-conference home game in 8 years...

Link to article. ↗

Markdown table test.

Good luck @JRyman -- hope everything goes well with the surgery and you make a speedy recovery. Don't be afraid to check in even if you feel a bit loopy. Sports fans are by nature, a bit loopy to begin with. We'll be around!

Sure guys. Thanks for letting us experiment. I saved off that dark theme, maybe bring it back next Halloween ;)

@RedRooster I played a little with making the font bigger but it's already at 14 point, and 16 point looked pretty spaced out. I'll keep looking into if there is any way to make the text better.. maybe a different font.

Also, you guys might already know this, but to blow up the font in a browser, you can hold down Ctrl while you use scroll-wheel up on the mouse, then shrink it back with Ctrl scroll-wheel down. This may help. When my eyes have trouble with a site I'll blow up the font a little bit this way.