@DoubleDD said:
Yet if there was a bench player from last year's team that could, it has to be Brannen Greene.
And Jamari Traylor...
bskeet
4171 posts
I agree that Greene seemed to be more fiery than most of the others. I would say that I saw Selden display some pretty special moments as well. If Alexander is as advertised and brings similar energy and skill.... And if we have solid guard play, we're going to be where we want to be.
This team will have to bring it every game. A good sign would be a non-conference blow-out by 30 or more, where the lead keeps growing and the team keeps their foot on the throat until the final 2 min.
I didn't see that last year.
While we're on the subject... I had thought about creating some alternate themes for the site -- sort of like home and away jerseys -- that could be applied to the site on game days or for other events.
Anyone who thinks this is an interesting idea AND knows enough about CSS styles to assist me, please let me know. I was thinking of creating a Crimson skin and maybe a Blue skin to go with this White skin.
@Crimsonorblue22 I think the reason this came up is that there's a script grabbing these headlines from the two local sites: Journal World's KUSports and Capital Journal's HawkZone.
These get automatically generated on the site whenever the script finds a headline that matches some criteria. For instance, it might be keying off Haskin's byline since he usually does KU articles.
Nice work and thanks again for all that you do, @approxinfinity
Does anyone find it odd that they got Jay Bilas to emcee this event?
No disrespect to Jay, who I think is one of the most competent and listenable analysts on ESPN.
But he's a Blue Devil, for godssake. He was a member of the team that handed us one of our most bitter losses -- in the 85-86 Final Four. Larry Brown will remember that well as will many fans over 40.
Couldn't we find a KU alumni like Kevin Harlan or another talent that didn't have a charged past?
@jaybate-1.0 True.
Here's hoping the whole team finds it's passing gene.
Not sure how others saw last year's team, but I feel like the team didn't have great anticipation or vision and just didn't tend to make plays happen through passing. They relied on superior athleticism (quickness, size, strength..) and superior shooting for their offense.
When I reflect on the great teams of the past 20-30 years, a big part of the success was the cunning, opportunistic kind of play... Those kinds of plays are often spirit-breakers because they exploit a mistake and just the right moment.
Wow.. a picture is worth a thousand words.. That does look different.
Interesting to see how far spectators are from the field. That will be the next thing that people complain about... and the solution won't be as simple as tearing out a track.
This rapid regeneration of spam accounts is really interesting and fascinating. Sounds like about 500 accounts were automatically created... Is that correct?
Would be interesting to see originating IPs from the logs..
hah! Well, feel free to delete with all the others. I created that celebratory user last night when I saw the site user count sitting on 999.
@nuleafjhawk I'd love to see a scatter plot of the active coaches on each of those stats. My guess is that there is a clump of coaches at the extreme top that pull the 'average'.
For instance, the majority of active Div 1 coaches have 0 final fours. There are probably less than 15 that have 2 or more final fours and none that have more than 10. That's a very clumpy distribution and it makes averages kind of misleading.
Anyway, they are all good stats, but we all knew that Coach Self is above average. He's got the best winning percentage of active coaches since he arrived in Lawrence.
I feel like the question in most cases is how close to the top is he?
agree.. a great story well-told, @Jesse-Newell
Great perspectives from all the key people in his life. It takes remarkable determination to change course and then stay on that course for good. Here's wishing Keon much luck in his continued success (and the Jayhawks too!)
Interesting glitch... partially solved. the thread was stuck for me on 21 out of 33. When I clicked the thread-to the bottom button, all the posts suddenly appeared.
I think there may be a glitch with this thread... It comes up in my unread list from time to time, but there are no new entries after a note I edited 2 days ago..
You all probably knew this, but I just realized that Bob Hill is an assistant for the Ukrainian team.
[link text](
@jaybate-1.0 "KU to try 9-man football"
LOL! !PHOF
Here's the page on Paul's site: http://www.paulpierce.net/2014/08/28/paul-jayhawk/ ↗ ↗
And the video (brings back some awesome memories for me):
[The Truth](
Here's the video.. speaks in the universal language of basketball ;-)
[link text](
@Crimsonorblue22 and @globaljaybird
Curious if the video worked when you came to the page. When I came in, the video had an error, so I fixed it -- at least I think I fixed it.. it works for me now, but maybe I broke it for others.
Curious... will this convert anyone on this list to become a Timberwolves fan? Or will you just root for Wiggins, the way I assume most root for T-Rob or the Morri.. etc.?
I'm tempted to fork this part of this thread about our families and service.. It's fascinating and I just want to give it a place to bloom and get comments from others.. Let me know if you agree or disagree strongly..
Also, let me say KUDOs and sincere thanks to all of you and your families who have given service to the country.
My closest connection is my sister who joined the army after KU.
@JayHawkFanToo said:> Link to article and audio...
really hilarious... wow. I can't believe its in Cal's best interest to debate this on the air as a call-in listener... Funny and strange all at once.
Jesse's provided another great analysis of the team...
Newell: KU basketball's disappearing stat ↗
Steals figure to be even more valuable for KU this season, as the Jayhawks don’t appear to have a dominant shot-blocker inside following the departure of Joel Embiid.
Adjusted defensive efficiency from KenPom.com is considered the gold standard when judging a team’s effectiveness defensively. The following chart shows KU’s national rank there compared to its national ranks in block percentage and steal percentage each year (the lower the line, the better the defense).
@icthawkfan316 said:> You mention the references to our streak during television broadcasts. Outside of KU fans, who do you think that impresses?
This is a fair question.
I suspect the conference championships are more salt in the wound of our conference-mates than a point of admiration nationally.
The things that are probably most impressive to those outside of the B12 bubble are (in this order):
- Number of recent players now in the NBA and their corresponding draft ranking
- Overall winning percentage of Bill Self at KU
- KU's historic winning percentage and rank (#2) in all-time wins.
- KUs 3/5 national championships
- the shoe company (nod to Jaybate)
@wissoxfan83 said:> we improved by losing Missouri!
how I wish a Google search for "addition by subtraction" would give results that included Missouri leaving the Big12... That would be as good as the search for "Missouri National Championships"
Agreed.. He was one of a kind. One of my favorites... He'll be missed, but what a legacy he leaves behind -- laughter, happiness.. When he performed, he seemed to have a tap to an energy source that was twice as big as the normal persons'.
@nuleafjhawk not a fan of those Killer B's. ;-)
@Lulufulu85 yeah, that's the other thing that Vermonters have that folks outside of New England don't realize -- really good dairy.
Enjoy the maple syrup and the Ben & Jerrys! I spent a couple years in Burlington between my undergrad and grad degrees in Lawrence.
After grad school, I moved to Boulder. Now I live in the Bay Area...
Burlington, Berkeley and Boulder all are beautiful and quintessential college towns with just a few more hairy armpits than the average campus.
Somewhere btwn 3 & 4
@BonoboCongo Hard to know. He certainly had a poor game in the championship... and Germany appeared to be good competition.
But Svi was named MVP of the tournament (despite his team losing the finals), so that's an acknowledgement that must be one of the best players in Div B.
Fantastic! That's great news!
Svi led Ukraine to the finals in a 65-64 win over Finland with a 22 point /10 rebound performance. He led his team in both categories..
Ukraine vs Germany in the finals
I think a bucket on coach self would be good.. And what do you think about one for each of the scholarship players?
Also, a bucket with info about live media coverage of games (TV, Radio, internet.. game times, etc.)
@nuleafjhawk This new version of the site has a feature that lets us 'fork' threads...
It's intended for when a new discussion breaks out within an existing thread.. or if a thread goes off topic in the middle.. and lets us move the discussion into it's own thread.
It's kind of a moderation thing.. Not sure we'll be able to keep this up, but I appreciate your patience while I explore/experiment/learn about the new features.
So I forked your post and several others that seemed related from another thread and created this new thread. Yours is the lead because it was kind of the catalyst for the discussion. ( I think I can change the order and make a different post as the lead if you want...)
I'm interested if this is helpful/useful or if it's too disorienting, so please let me know.
Yep.. I think we can remember more games where we were unlucky than where we were lucky.. Although, that could be clouded by the fan in all of us.
So, here are a few games I would submit where we were "lucky"
2012: vs Purdue: We trailed the entire game. I think we only led for 30 or 40 seconds of that game. I will never forget the amazing fast-break by TT and EJ and the steal and jam by EJ in the final minute of that game. EJ gets a lot of crap, but watch the last minute of this game and know that without him, we bow out in the round of 32 instead of being National Runner Up.
2012: Final Four vs Ohio State... very close until the very end and we trailed a lot of that as I recall.
2012: vs Missouri - After trailing by 19, we tied and then got the no-call on the block at the end of regulation and then Mizzou's final shot rolled in after the buzzer in OT. Until Tyshawn hit a 3 in the first minute of overtime, we trailed or were tied all of the second half and the final 6 minutes of the first half.
2008 vs Memphis.. how can anyone forget the amazing series of events that had to transpire just to get us tied at the end of regulation in route to the National Championship.
@DoubleDD said:> Just curious as my NBA knowledge is a lacking. Has any NBA team traded away an NBA star or great before they became great or a star?
Good question! ....ask and ye shall receive
Bleacher Report: NBA Draft 2013: Top 10 Regretful Draft Day Trades of the Past 20 Drafts ↗
This is a list of draft day trades only... So this kind of trade (Wiggins for Love post-draft day) would not show up on their list... Still there are some interesting ones..
Among them:
- 2006: Bulls Trade LaMarcus Aldridge
- 2008: Grizzlies Trade Kevin Love
- 2001: Hawks Trade Pau Gasol
- 2006: Suns Trade Rajon Rondo
- 1998: Bucks Trade Dirk Nowitzki
- 1996: Hornets Trade Kobe Bryant
This is a topic that comes up repeatedly.
As HEM noted, the seeding matters... which means the regular season games matter. So that's fairly well established...
But do Regular Season Conference Championships somehow put teams in a better position to win the NC? What role do they play?
I feel like they do matter, but let's look at 20 years of evidence:
- YEAR --- NC CHAMPION --- CONF CHAMP?
- 2014 --- UCONN ------- NO (Louisville)
- 2013 --- LOUISVILLE --- YES (tie Georgetown, Villanova)
- 2012 --- KENTUCKY --- YES
- 2011 --- UCONN ------- NO (Pittsburgh)
- 2010 --- DUKE --------- YES (tie Maryland)
- 2009 --- N. CAROLINA -- YES
- 2008 --- KANSAS ------ YES
- 2007 --- FLORIDA ------ YES
- 2006 --- FLORIDA ------ NO (LSU)
- 2005 --- N. CAROLINA --- YES
- 2004 --- UCONN -------- NO (Pittsburgh)
- 2003 --- SYRACUSE ---- YES (tie BC, UCONN & PITT)
- 2002 --- MARYLAND --- YES
- 2001 --- DUKE ---------- YES (tie UNC)
- 2000 --- MICHIGAN ST. --- YES
- 1999 --- UCONN -------- YES
- 1998 --- KENTUCKY ---- YES
- 1997 --- ARIZONA ------ NO (UCLA)
- 1996 --- KENTUCKY --- YES
- 1995 --- UCLA ---------- YES
In summary, the National Champion is a regular season conference champion 75% of the time (15/20 years). And if UCONN isn't the National Champion, the likelihood that a conference champ is crowned NC raises to about 90%.
I may be screwing up the statistics, but if not, that looks like a pretty good correlation.
With this kind of data I can see why Self values winning the regular season so much (and why we should too..) And, it appears -- with 10 consecutive regular season conference championships -- we are well overdue for another NC. The odds should be in our favor. In the last 20 years, I doubt anyone has won as many Regular Season championships (haven't done the research on that.)
@justanotherfan said:> If Perry Ellis is the third or fourth best player on this team, they could have a very deep run into the NCAA tournament. If Perry Ellis is the best or second best player on this team, I don't think they can make a deep run.
I like your thought-- and I would offer a twist. If Perry Ellis is as good as the other top three players and they are for the most part indistinguishable from each other -- we will have a great year.
That is- If Ellis, Alexander, Selden and Traylor all average between 10-14 points a game, we'll have the balance that we need from the core. From the guards, we need Mason and Frankamp averaging around 15 pts between them (assuming they split the PG).
We need the bench to contribute about 8-10 points a game (Greene, Oubre, Lucas, Mick and Myck)
That balanced offensive combination would be adequate to make a run at the NC... IF the shooting defense percent comes back to where it was the last few years.
@Statmachine His percentages have not been great. I'm not sure whether his shot selection is the issue or if the defense in the Euroleague is stronger.. Anyway, he is the second leading scorer for Ukraine and I think in the top 5 or 6 for all players in the tournament (meaning, he'd be a top scorer for several other teams.)
When he gets into the Jayhawk system, I suspect he'll need to learn to be judicious about shot selection.
@Statmachine said:> He is a worker not a leader but there is nothing wrong with that. I hope I am wrong though
This is an intriguing statement since Perry is the most veteran player on the team. I know he's quiet and his demeanor is flatline during the game-- he doesn't show a lot of emotion. But he's a smart kid-- valedictorian in his high school class if i'm not mistaken. He's studious but and seems to care as much about being a student as an athlete.
I'm just wondering if there's additional evidence that he's not a leader. We kind of need him to be a leader.. Of course there are different kinds of leaders -- those that are reserved and those that are fiery... Also, could he be the kind of leader that is leading in the locker room and practice floor but when it comes to games, he's working within his talent level (which is substantial, but seems diminished next to Wiggins and Embiid types of talent.)
Anyway, I'm just thinking the dynamic is going to be quite different this year.. The sophomores will bring more maturity and experience in the system. Perry should have some more confidence from his summer... And we've got some great young talent from extremely diverse backgrounds.. I expect two very different kinds of FIRE from Cliff and Svi.
Adding a link to the FIBA EUROPE site where you can follow Svi and Team Ukraine in the U18 European Championship tournament.
SVIATOSLAV MYKHAILIUK - STATS ↗
The thread tools are amazing as well-- we now have the ability to feature a thread or fork a topic.. Very cool
I'm going to try to fork this section to a new thread called Tips for the New KU Buckets site.
Ah.. home sweet home. I think you've done it @approxinfinity !
Beautiful! Works like a charm :-)
(testing the emoticons too! )
Just testing the video embed feature
[video should be here](
@approxinfinity Looks like the videos aren't displaying the way they used to.. Is there a new trick?