🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Starting to trick myself into thinking there is at least a chance Rylan or AJ do get hot at the right time for us. It’s not impossible and about the only hope we have for a run. I’ve thought Rylan was the more likely of the two but won’t be upset if it ends up being AJ.

I would say the d looks meh right now but they are at least trying which we can’t always say about these guys.

@DCHawker said in Wait, KU is playing?:

@approxinfinity said in Wait, KU is playing?:

Seeing a little bit of urgency on the defensive end

Buffs have made 6 0f 7 two points shots. If that's urgency...

I think it’s more that they got outscrapped there for a few minutes and have responded with energy of their own.

Flory bringing good energy even if he is t getting some of the blocks he normally gets early.

Rylan has been the shooting problem today. So many open looks.

@BeddieKU23 he’s made a few today.

@BeddieKU23 he is the only one who CAN shoot. Lol

Can’t dribble can’t shoot can’t play d.

Maybe we can be the 6 seed that no one wants to see in their bracket.

@SlimShaddy54 said in 2025 Schedule:

@nuleafjhawk Were close I've got it- -81 -- ---2

Those safeties are so frustrating.

@dylans Maybe this is a purposeful adjustment to prevent the team from peaking to early. Just trying to stay positive!

I think Rylan is the closest we have to a Remy comp. And Remy DEFINITELY got the quick hook and then also had weird injury stuff.

I don’t think kj has any nba potential. What would he even do on an nba team?

There’s also the old conspiracy that self is holding stuff back for when it really matters. Like maybe he has all of these plays drawn up to get Rylan shots and flory dunks but doesn’t want to show it too early.

For me the flory minutes are the hardest part of KU to take. He has shown that with a full 25-30 minutes of run he can be a guy that gets close to a double double and will add in a handful of blocks as well.

With KU fans it baffles me how for so long the conversation was about how self only cared about the big 12 and didn’t prepare guys to play their best in March. “Would you trade the streak for a title?” Was the constant question. Well we aren’t winning the conference anymore. Does it feel like you hoped it would? lol.

I think this team lacks toughness. I don’t think that’s a hot take. And so self is going to play the guys that know how to show toughness until the others figure it out. Do I think flory was one of those guys? Yes. But clearly self thinks there is more flory can be giving when he’s out there and until he sees it, he’s gonna play the guys he KNOWS have toughness.

People say Remy saved self and got him a title, but self also had an impact on the way Remy played in March. Remy was a better overall player during that run than he ever was at Arizona state. I like to think it’s because self made him earn it. So that when he was finally ready to let Remy be Remy, Remy knew how to do so without hurting the rest of the team in the process.

The optimist in me still thinks there’s hope for that type of development with this team. Self is letting this team struggle even forcing them to struggle so that they will be better prepared for adversity down the line.

That or he’s completely lost the team and they’ll never come back.

@BShark said in KU Mad, Central Florida next on schedule, part 2.:

@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Mad, Central Florida next on schedule, part 2.:

Anybody know why Shak didn’t get any run in the second half? That was weird.

He messes up the offensive plays constantly. He was also bad last night in general. Bill be unwilling to go to him or AJ is probably why we saw that 3 big crap in hindsight.

Not sure which is more frustrating, watching shak and AJ blow up an offensive set by being in the wrong spot or diggy on d just wave exuberantly as he is either significantly out of position or in a ridiculous mismatch. Diggy was the main reason that dude went for 30. Everyone had to help him so much.

I also feel like shak was pretty meh in his minutes vs houston. He looked like he was playing good d, but that dude he was guarding was getting whatever shot he wanted and making them all right over the top of him. Plus he seemed a little loose with the ball more that a couple times. Could he have inbounded the ball better than zeke, probably... Remember how bad Och was at inbounding? Wonder how they practice those situations. Was certainly a mess. Maybe Hunter should inbound on those?

@FarmerJayhawk he took one bad shot in the first half and you could see self tell him at the time out, if you’re gonna take that shot you gotta make it.

Anyone missing kj?

@kuballin10 I'm not sure he prefers this rather than thinks that's the best he can do with what he has right now. He tried to get guards but if you are watching AJ play and thinking he needs to be playing more, I'm not sure we are watching the same games. I believe the goal was for a reduced role for KJ this year. I really do. But he flat OUT PLAYS the only guys who could replace him at that spot. And we ALL thought AJ and Griffen would show they are better players than KJ by this point, but they just flat haven't. I'm sure Self never even CONSIDERED Flory at the 4 when he started the season, but he is determined to put the 5 best players on the floor and according to his evaluations (which do heavily weight effort, defense, and activity), Store and Rylan aren't among those top 5 or even top 8 in AJ's case.

I think the real problem starts with philosophy and talent. I've said this before and it's a tough pill to swallow if statistics are all you lean on, but Hunter is the problem. He gives Self the security blanket that allows him to believe he can still run the stuff he used to get to where he is as a coach. And while Hunter gets his points and rebounds and even assists, his presence in the game takes up so much physical and philosophical space that no one else is going to be able to thrive. The whole goal is to get the ball to Hunter and then see what happens from there. And while he has games where his touch is on, he also takes some of the worst shots that just don't even come close I've ever seen. He is slow. When he gets the ball, it sticks and everyone waits to see what will happen next. Zeke has been the only one who seems capable of not being distracted or dissuaded by gravity Hunter demands. I've argued before and will continue to that there is a reason Hunter has averaged a double double his entire career and never won any game of significance. He can be great, but through either his lack of effort, talent, or energy, seems unable to sustain that game to game. The same could be argued of the other transfers apart from Griffin. Not sure what is going on there.

As for KJ, I think engagement and energy is what Self sees and the only other player that brings those two things to the level KJ does is Flory, Juan, and Zeke (maybe Diggy...). Shaq is getting there and that's why he is starting. If you pay attention, it's not hard to see AJ and Rylan seeming to float through the game. They are getting minutes (though limited for sure) but not really making any impact in those minutes. If they don't do anything in 8 minutes, why should self think they will do anything in 25? KJ has many faults but, floating through a game is not one of him. He does stuff. He makes plays. He impacts the game and that is what Self is referencing when he says we miss KJ.

@MoonwalkMafia said in Looking back at Hilton:

KU's season point distribution (% of total):
- 3-pointers: 26.9% (ranked 292)
- 2-pointers: 61.0% (ranked 4)
- Free throws: 12.1% (ranked 364 - this is dead last)

Had a friend send this to me and I stared at it for 10 minutes like it was a modern art masterpiece (of terrible). This would have been bad in 1996. We cannot win this way.

To not get any free throws while taking mostly 2s is astounding.

At least we didn't give up any offensive magic last game. Due for a little regression back to average on that end. Hopefully, these guys have really bought in to the idea that defense travels.

@drgnslayr he’s been getting outplayed by flory. I wonder if it’s happening in practice and impacting his confidence. I imagine flory and coit pick and rolling Hunter to death with Rylan camping in the corner practice after practice.

While there is some scheming to be done to protect Hunter in The pick n roll (the blitzing of that is the current move) in the end it’s gonna come down to how much Hunter really wants to guard.

And to tack on to the Hunter criticism, he could still be doing more to rebound out of his area and we’ve for some reason not seen him seal a guy up the lane for the easy lob over the top for the lay in recently. Is that a trick bill is saving or just a lack of solid footwork and positioning as the ball swings?

I've honestly been really impressed with how well AJ and Rylan are fitting in even if they haven't had any breakout games yet. They seem like willing passers and while still figuring out what is and isn't a good shot in the KU system, seem to be growing in that regard. Rylan plays D hard if not always super well. He really challenges at the rim when he is coming for weakside help. AJ still thinks going for steals is what good D is but the want to is there. And the fact that we were able to bring in all of this talent and the attitudes seem to be all in line is the real success right now. Doesn't feel like any of them are worried about playing time, shot attempts, or anything like that. Love it!

Probably the most underrated unnoticed play of the game was Juan chipping flag on that play late as they went back to the two man game with the freshmen. Getting him off balance blew up the play and forced them into something they didn’t want. Rewatch it. It was veteran high iq type stuff.

@kuballin10 said in KU vs Duke Game Thread:

@kjayhawks He’s stepping up but wish Storr got more run 2nd half

Bill must have seen something he didn’t like

Pretty easy to see what he didn’t like. Every time he got in a situation where he was guarding flag or the other dude (kneuple??) he went for a steal and was left way out of position and it led to points for Duke.

@Kcmatt7 said in Jayhawk tackles Buffalo:

To the AP Poll - RANK US YOU COWARDS

I’d rather they rank Baylor tbh.

@MR11 said in Early season feedback on kuballin’s off season analysis:

Counter argument to this: if Bill lets the players get away with mistakes/sloppy play, he is telling both that player and the rest of the team that there aren't consequences for bad plays. You also want to give the players feedback on these mistakes so that they don't become habits. Typically the sooner you get this feedback, the more impactful it is from a learning standpoint. Maybe letting the play a little more free flow helps in the short term, but it is always going to be better if you do so with proper muscle memory/habits built up. Maybe that means some players take longer to gel, but seems like trading short term gains for long term growth to me.

I feel like this is a take I've not heard a lot of but seems right on the mark. He lets the guys he trusts play through their mistakes because they've already had that feedback at some point and he trusts them to recognize that they made one while with new comers, they need to know what the mistake actually was. Immediate feedback IS key to learning so if they are tough enough to actually take some coaching it could pay dividends down the road.

And if Titles is all it is about, wouldn't it be better for the best players to be peaking at the end of the year rather than early? Use the early non-con to make sure everyone knows the expectations and then work to get to a spot where they can play more freely WITHIN the system when it really matters. I don't think Self is taking a short sighted approach trying to win meaningless games. He is looking long term at what will make the team most likely to be able to win the games that matter later.

I do feel like he was TRYING to give AJ more of a run last night but dude couldn't catch a break with the fouls. None of them looked like obvious, have to call em, kind of fouls, but thems the breaks. I think I saw AJ talking on the bench saying he'd never fouled out before but I may have read the lips wrong.

My suggestion for a new title:

An Exhaustive Examination of Former University of Kansas Jayhawks and Their Dynamic Journeys Within the Complex, High-Stakes Environment of Professional Basketball in the NBA: A Longitudinal Analysis of Talent Development, Adaptation, and Influence Across Seasons

I feel like I at least saw good effort from May and Griffen so far on that end, and Juan is a good defender. There was even a play or two vs. NC where Storr got switched on to Davis and it didn't end terribly. The tools are there, they are learning how to try hard on that end, I'm hopeful the perimeter D will be at least OK this year. Now, when Hunt gets involved? It's over. He just has no ability to move his feet or use his height or anything helpful on that end other than the occasional rebound. I know he puts up decent rebounding numbers but I'm not sure I've seen him actually go GET a rebound. He is tall and stands near the basket.

Where I have been impressed with the improvement in Hunt is on his off ball movement in the post on offense. He has learned how to seal up the lane better than last year and that has led to some easier buckets for him on that end. And with the spacing the guards can provide this year, you can almost book 8-10 easy layups off those lobs to the corner of the backboard after he has sealed his man up the lane.

I am going to have to agree with a point from @kuballin10. The comment about the guards is troubling. We are at game number four counting the exhibitions and we’ve already played the “best/fastest” guards in the country twice. The problem is that every guard is going to look great if they can get Hunter in a ball screen with the current scheme.

Something has to change there and I’m nervous because I don’t have much confidence that anything will.

On the other hand I am pumped for Flory. He made some plays no one else on the team is capable of making. Got some big boy rebounds, showed a little post move, played with a big time motor, and even a few dribbles on a down hill drive. With normal officiating he’d have ended that game with 3 or more blocks.

Anyone catch that KJ had 37 minutes?! I thought his minutes would go down this year? I was told his minutes would go down? I’ll be honest, I’m rarely upset watching KJ play.

I can see how people didn't want to vote for Harris. Lots of valid arguments against her for sure. I will never understand how someone can look at anything Trump has said or done and in good conscience vote for him. Clearly too many people like me working for Harris. Because it did seem like the big play was, "you're not gonna vote for that guy, right?"

@BShark The individuals at all of those places are great and helpful. They all WANT to help people, but the systems are set up to make that as difficult as possible. I could see how cutting out part of that system might actually be easier if not maybe a little more expensive (when you factor in years of premiums I doubt it is).

@kjayhawks said in All of a Sudden:

@BShark yikes I hate to hear that buddy @benshawks08 id love to do that if I had any money, great way to help. I got to middle class and then they taxed the hell out of us so it’s like lower class now lol

Oh, I wasn't saying PAY the bills. The "fun" thing about our current healthcare system is that it all revolves around insurance companies making as much money as possible and paying as little as possible for any actual care. So, in my case, I've spent about 80 total hours on the phone in the last year either with a healthcare provider or the insurance company making sure the bills we've been sent are accurate and have actually had the insurance fully applied, initiating appeals when insurance denies coverage 2 months after the service had been provided, following up when bills that were under appeal went to collections even though the weren't supposed to, resolving issues where insurance says they've paid but we still get a bill, or where the healthcare provider says they've sent it through insurance but haven't, etc. A good hunk of that time is just waiting on hold and telling the same story over and over again until you get bumped up to someone who can actually do something about it.

But we literally got an $8000 bill that I said, uh, shouldn't insurance pay for that, and the hospital said, yeah probably, we will re-send it to them, insurance said, no we won't pay for that, I said why not it was necessary care, they said, oh yeah you're right, we will pay for it, then we got the same bill again, and I did that all over again, then the bill went to collections so a fourth party entered the chat, until finally, last week, this bill from December of 2023 was finally resolved and as it turned out, we never actually were supposed to have had a bill in the first place. That was about 15 phone calls each lasting 30-90 minutes.

What I was trying to say was if you want to help someone going through serious medical stuff is to offer to take one or two of those phone calls for them. Sit on hold and retell the story over and over again until someone can actually fix it. No money necessary, just some time and patience that is often running short for those going through tough times.

@BShark said in All of a Sudden:

@benshawks08 he doesn't have insurance but I am actually handling all that stuff in general for him as he is autistic. I got the ball rolling on leave of absence from his job, medicaid etc

Good luck with all of that. Don't forget to take care of yourself through all of this.

If anyone is looking for one of the nicest thing they can do for someone in their lives going through traumatic/serious medical issues, may I suggest offering to call insurance/hospital/billing etc. on their behalf to argue one of the many things insurance will reject, or even approve but you still get a wrong bill anyway, etc. Sitting on hold for half an hour for someone to get a $8,000 bill just erased can be a pretty good way to show you care! Most places will talk to someone who is not the patient if you just get the patient to agree to let you speak on their behalf.

Food is always great to...

Good luck to you and your bro @BShark.

@nuleafjhawk said in All of a Sudden:

@wissox In my mind, Harris didn't play into the equation at all. It's about why does America want to elect a degenerate, perverted convicted criminal? What makes that right? How does that reflect on us?

Until this morning, I naively believed that there was more good than evil in this country. I was wrong.

This is where I was the first time around. At least this time my whole world view isn't being flipped upside down so there's that for a silver lining. I had a strong feeling she wouldn't win. When the strategy became, lets see how many republicans we can get to endorse us, instead of actually championing any kind of progressive policy, I figured it was over. Feel like there are a lot of folks who find it easier to say they don't support Trump at this point but when it comes down to it still don't want a democrat in office, or a woman for that matter.

I think Self remembers the pieces to winning in 22. A big who you could throw it in to and get a bucket, a point guard who could distribute the ball and initiate offense, hit an open jumper if dared to, and three wings who could shoot, slash, and rebound.

Those pieces are all possibly there, but will all depend on how they develop and commit to the pieces where they may not be strong. KJ is a bit of an oddball here in that for what it's worth to me, watching him play is so much fun because of the way he plays. He does have limitations though that impact the overall cohesiveness and effectiveness of the team on both ends. He called the 21 team unathletic and then brought them all back and somehow they played more to their athleticism.

Defense will be this teams "athleticism." Can this team learn to guard at the level necessary to win a championship? He's now had significant pieces of this team get beat on the pick n roll for about 3 straight games dating back to last season, so hopefully he has their attention. Traditionally, Bill has been best at teaching guys to defend. I've heard over and over again on this board and others that he just needs to get guys who can shoot/score and then teach them to defend. Welp, we will see if that plan is actually viable.

Side note: What would @kuballin10 be saying if Juan didn't score 26 in the Arkansas game? Lol.

@PharmacyHawk Insurance companies might not be good for the actual healthcare people receive? SHOCKING!

Nothing like getting a letter two months after getting a medication, test, or procedure stating oops, that wasn't actually approved. It's so frustrating from the outside, I can't even imagine how taxing it is on those dealing with it everyday for so many different cases. Funny how often the jobs where people are trying to help other people are not only undervalued financially but also consistently made more difficult by people only trying to help themselves.

I'm going to go out on a limb and state my concern that Hunter just isn't the kind of player a winning team can be built around. I know that sounds crazy, but based off of what I saw last year, that's my biggest concern. He takes up a lot of space on the offensive end, and while he scores fairly regularly, there was maybe 1 or 2 games he really took over and dominated and I feel like they were all early on. He puts up numbers, but is he actually making winning plays? Is he a leader that makes a team better than the sum of its parts?

Say what you want about big Dave. He was a clearly flawed player his entire time at Kansas, but his energy and leadership did contribute to a culture of a team that overachieved. I'm not sure Hunter has that. Hope I'm wrong. Culture and interpersonal dynamics of a team really matter and I worry about this years team being.... Soft. And a lot of that starts with your "best player." So either someone else steps up as a leader or we may struggle to win the conference again this year despite the influx of "talent."

@kjayhawks The O line has actually been the best group of the bunch. Not sure how much stock people put in pro football focus grades, but they are far and away the leading group in that with every lineman being in the top 6 of their position for the conference. And that is considering Tackle, and Guard, as a position so really competing against a double counted position group. I'm not explaining that well but listen to the locked on jayhawks podcast and Derrick Johnson explains it better.

@jayballer67 I think the important part was that the big chunk plays weren't always long passes either. It was something that would get someone open and moving into space where they could make an easy pass and catch and then rack up some YAC. But maybe I'm imagining that.

@approxinfinity said in Crap on Jeff Grimes thread:

@benshawks08 matt taits explanation:

Matt Tait
@mctait
·
3h
It was all after the fact. I took it as him saying, if you thought Illinois was the low point, we’ve now hit an even lower point after losing to UNLV & have to really lock in & take nothing for granted to get it corrected. It was a good answer & the players responded well.

Oh so CONTEXT matters all of the sudden?!!?

Uh… what? 🐦 View Tweet?s=46&t=PfvO214bW1XkHtm9eUlx9A

@AsadZ as annoying as they both are, tough to argue with their football prestige and brand recognition. They get eyeballs which equates to dollars.

Do we know for a fact more runs weren’t called and then audibled to pass after getting a read of the defense’s set? They were packing the box so switching to pass was probably technically the right call lots of times even if situationally it was dumb because JD didn’t have it that game. But if you are JD, you can’t be thinking that way. How much license does he get to make adjustments on the fly? Legitimately curious about this.

@benshawks08 said in Let’s talk Illinois:

Worried this is a 2008 type season. All the expectations, but some changes and challenges that haven't been overcome yet. There is still time but that was not supposed to be our first real test. Even still, we failed it.

Some positives are the defense is continuing to show improvement even from last year. That run D was SOLID and the pass D would have been solid statistically without some pretty spectacular catches. The D did the job. Would never have thought the offense would be the issue at this point...

2008-2009. The orange bowl was in 2008 but in my head that is the 2007 season. I see how that might be the wrong way to think of it.

Worried this is a 2008 type season. All the expectations, but some changes and challenges that haven't been overcome yet. There is still time but that was not supposed to be our first real test. Even still, we failed it.

Some positives are the defense is continuing to show improvement even from last year. That run D was SOLID and the pass D would have been solid statistically without some pretty spectacular catches. The D did the job. Would never have thought the offense would be the issue at this point...

There are two things going on at the same time when you think about people in public office. The first, is the type of people who run for office have certain traits and characteristics that may lead them to dirty deeds and corruption. Like the hall monitor in school really just being the kid who wants to control everyone else.

There's also the very real impact that power has on anyone. When a person gets power, their psyche and hence their actions change. There are a ton of studies showing that even the smallest advantages and power structures can lead a good chunk of people into immoral/unfair actions.

With those two things combined you get a lot of people prone to taking advantage of systems and power dynamics having the most access to do just that, and others who may not be as prone to it, following along because that's how everyone is doing it and because human nature tends to lead most people into exploiting their advantages for personal gain.

That leaves very few who have the will and the make-up to withstand those pressures and just be generally good people in positions of power. None of this excuses the corruption and all the rest of what makes so many politicians seem slimy to the rest of us, but can help explain it. It is right and should be our overall goal to find the few among us who are well suited for power, rather than those who just crave it the most.