Anyone hear anything more about our recruit offer with Darryn Peterson? #3 recruit of 2025, guard. He's an Adidas NIL player and it has always been thought he would go to Kansas. His desire is to play PG... would Self run two PGs like he did before? He's talented but is it a good idea to upset the apple cart for an OAD?
drgnslayr
11251 posts
We are still searching out guards. I think Self is traumatized over how little depth we had this past year so he is going to go back to earlier recruiting strategies of signing extra depth. Remember back when we had too many guys with skills? It's a balancing act. It's also a crap shoot, depending on the future health of the team. I just hope he has a plan for these guys and not just trying to sign talent. He's moving quickly in the portal. Not sure that's a good or bad thing.
I have a close friend who is a big fan and grad. Surprise isn't the right word. She thought they should have played better earlier on in the season. Talk about a rivalry... wow. Pack fans don't like being called "underdogs." It's what they always heard even after Jimmie V's nattie. Of course... the fan base is going absolutely nuts! Beating Puke to get into the FF... couldn't have been drawn up any better!
I'm 100% Wolfpack! Love how they handed it to Puke! Love being an 11th seed!
They can win it all. Teams get hot... They are hot!
Should be epic!
I constantly harped on David McCormick's lack of footwork.
Watch a much bigger guy with great footwork to know what I was talking about... NC State's DJ Burns.
It's like he's dancing on tiptoes out there!
GO Wolfpack!
Yes, UCONN is legit. The reason why is clearly Hurley's coaching ability. His guys are disciplined, well-educated on the game, and they come ready to play each and every game. He also recruits players who buy into his strict play before committing to their LOI.
I'm for NC State... GO Wolfpack! Hope they beat Puke!
Here is an idea. We get Thiero in here. Hope he can improve his trey shooting to give another weapon, but even without a high trey %, Thiero is an absolute beast and he plays physical and drives the ball. We need physical guys who drive!
Suddenly, with KJ and Bidunga we have EASILY the stoutest team in America! Remember Thiero this past season? He ate us up.
A huge sigh of relief... it's over!
I believe this ended up being Self's worst year and will be for his Kansas career. Now on to brighter pastures!
NCAA behind us... Recruit! Recruit! Recruit!
Halftime comments:
- We need Furph to play well in the second half. He's usually only a first half player.
- Juan needs to keep pumping treys.
- Tighten up ball screen defense. Come on, fellas... that was pathetic in the first half.
- KJ needs to be more assertive. He's getting the ball inside the FT line. Shoot midrange or drive the ball.
- Nick... keep it going! A+
- Hope we can maintain energy throughout the second half.
@jayballer67 said in Bracket chat:
Coach said they have 10 players that average at least 10 minutes a game, and they will play 12 players, they aren’t worried about what the score is, they want to see how many possessions they can get. Coach said they make you go and make plays.
Saying they press everywhere and by the time you get set you probably going to be down to like 15 second and you aren’t going to be able to have time to run your play - -That’s where it comes they make you go make plays.
A big key is for us to defend tight and force TOs. This is a team that TOs a ton. If we do that, we will have plenty of easy runouts and they won't be able to press. Also... without Kevin we don't have enough scoring on the floor. TOs and runouts is our easy path to victory... anything else will probably be a dog fight and our chances reduced.
One thing... we will be fresh! I like our chances!
If we don't have a chip yet... maybe now?
I think we need more than a reasonably healthy Hunter to beat Samford. We might even be better without Hunter since he can't guard the trey line. That is... if they come out with ice in their veins. If they do, we need players like Elmarko, Nick, and Furph to come ready to play defense and guard the trey line. No more floating around in "no man's land" pretending to play help defense. Juan needs to disrupt and get some steals for easy runouts. Kevin? I expect he will play regardless of how he feels because he needs to closeout his college days on a positive note. KJ? Here is another game built perfect for him to dominate, but will he?
Two things we have to focus on to win... First, win the possession battle. We should be able to win the boards if Hunter plays or not. Then its about turnovers. We need to protect the ball while swiping balls from this team known to be turnover-prone. Then turn those turnovers into runouts. Second, guard the trey line... all the way through the 30-second clock. These guys aren't used to playing at our level. Guard hard and watch their trey line % drop!
If we come with energy and effort, we should smash Samford.
Volume shooter... 38% from trey. Possibilities... but we definitely need a known D1 perimeter shooter who can go get his points. Would be nice to get at least two guards who can muscle up and hit treys with a known background. Definitely need high athletic abilities!
I still think Furph returns and we lock down McNeeley. Hunter, Harris and KJ returns.. we add the needed athleticism of Flory Bidunga at the 4/5. Elmarko? Thinking he leaves if we recruit over him (shouldn't be hard to do). Jamari... 50/50... not sure he makes an impact.
We are bleeding for a superstar shooting guard who is consistent from trey, can go 1 on 1 off the dribble, while still being pass capable. Someone who has master handles! Actually... 2!
We need big results from the portal this year!
I have high expectations after getting the NCAA crap off our back!
Just for the archives in here... the Big 12 awards are now in for this season.
Dickinson and McCullar - All-Big 12 First Team
Dickinson - Big 12 Newcomer of the Year
"Dickinson was the Big 12’s leading scorer (17.56 ) and rebounder (9.61) in league games. He ranked second in field goal percentage (134-260/.564) and fourth in blocks (1.44). In overall games, the 7-2 senior forward was the top rebounder and only player to average in double-figures (10.84) as well as the second-leading scorer (17.97). Additionally, he posted the best field goal percentage (235-427/.550) and brought home six Big 12 weekly awards, three each as Player and Newcomer of the Week."
Both McCullar and Dickinson are now finalists in national awards.
"Dickinson, a 7-foot-2 transfer from Michigan, is a finalist for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced on Friday."
"McCullar is a finalist for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award. "
"Both Jayhawks’ are one of five finalists in the country for their respective awards."
https://www.ksnt.com/sports/kansas-jayhawks/dickinson-mccullar-named-finalist-for-national-awards/ ↗
And one click away you can read about the 5 most overpaid coaches in college basketball. Calipari was listed. Self was not!
Hard to know what the emotional impact will be on Hunter (and still some degree, Kevin) moving forward. Even if Hunter is healthy, it may take a while to reset on his shot. Or maybe not. Kevin may not go diving hard for balls because of his knee.
Both guys risk a lot if not 100%.
I don't think Self will be risking the health of guys that are questionable... in the conference tourney or NCAA tournament. Beyond that.. we can play freely without burdensome expectations. If we suddenly get healthy... we might actually play with a chip.
I'm openminded to what happens moving forward.
Yep. Good description. Been through it with a teammate who dislocated his shoulder during a tourney and he played the next day because it wasn't severe. I was the one who popped his shoulder back... it felt weird to do it but he was screaming in pain and it was pretty obvious what had to be done. Not necessarily the case with Hunter. It could be little or even require surgery.
I'd be happy to have both!
I've been connected to IU fans and they (as well as most of the college basketball world) think McNeeley is coming to Kansas now.
It may be a good/bad news situation because the thought is he will be replacing Furph as he leaves for the draft.
https://theathletic.com/5325254/2024/03/07/indiana-liam-mcneeley-decommit/ ↗
Read the last paragraph.
It's great finding shooters... but I'm not sure McNeeley can create for himself. We really need at least one uber athlete that can do that. Still... he's a deadly set trey shooter! Nothing stopping us from adding him and also going after a guy who can create.
There is a negative idea going around in here that we won't be a better team next year. I'm not one of those people. With the NCAA in our rear view mirror, I'm confident Self will be heavy loading our team again!
The season isn't over so the awards haven't come out. Preseason awards are the most current acknowledgment for who is best.
Anyways... you don't sound like a Jayhawk fan. Might you be a purple kitty?
Stop it. You don't understand awards. Big 12 Awards happen after the season, and before it's preseason awards.
Are you really a Jayhawk fan?
@kjayhawks said in Remember the Chiefs?:
We don’t have the best of anything on our team.
100% FALSE. What are you smoking?
Big 12 Men’s Basketball 2023-24 Preseason Awards
Preseason Player of the Year: Hunter Dickinson
Preseason Newcomer of the Year: Hunter Dickinson
Preseason All-Big 12 First Team: Hunter Dickinson, Dejuan Harris Jr.
Preseason All-Big 12 Honorable Mention: Kevin McCullar Jr.
Current Big 12 Scoring Leader: Kevin McCullar Jr. (19.5 PPG)
Current Big 12 Rebound Leader: Hunter Dickinson, (12.4 RPG)
Current 2nd Place National Rebound Leader: Hunter Dickinson
Named to the Wooden Award Late Top 20: Kevin McCullar Jr.
Finalist for Jerry West Award: Kevin McCullar Jr.
Naismith Award's Midseason Team: Kevin McCullar Jr., Hunter Dickinson
2024 Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Watch List: Dejuan Harris Jr.
Big 12 Most Improved Player of the Year (2023): K.J. Adams Jr.
Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year (2023): Dejuan Harris Jr.
2× Big 12 All-Defensive Team (2022, 2023): Dejuan Harris Jr.
Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Semifinalist (2022): Kevin McCullar Jr.
I'm probably leaving out a few things.
Calm down, people. If any non-KU people are reading this page their laughing.... and rightly so. What this page really shows is we are spoiled rotten fans. We are crapping in our shorts because we are a 3-seed. Sure, we aren't used to that. We also aren't used to being in this position of being a team that has been beaten up by the NCAA for almost a decade with their b*llshit fake case where they somehow know more than the DOJ.
Self has vented frustration and it's mostly where he shows relief because he'll be able to recruit better again.
The idea of firing Self says everything. It's starting to feel like Alabama football in here. I remember reading all those crying fans wanting Saban's head on a stick because he only won 6 NCs. This is the type of crap that starts making a HOFr want to quit.
We have a team literally glued together based on only one idea; sign the best individual players we could get. Few top tier players want to play at a school in the cross-hairs of the NCAA.
Concerning this team... moving forward... anything is possible. We know we aren't winning the league this year. What are our chances in March? Not so different than other years. The luck of drawing a good path in March will be crucial (as usual), and it's all about us being healthy and playing good at the end. We could easily get knocked out in the first weekend, or go on a nice run. It's the same for the rest of the D1 teams. Anyone can win and anyone can lose... just ask Purdue last year.
We never recovered from losing whats-his-name, the Texas guard who had off-court problems. Imagine if that didn't happen and he had the year many of us felt he was capable of.
Everyone ragging on Juan. Seriously, people. You aren't happy because he doesn't just shift into a different player to meet our current needs. Had we kept the Texas guard Juan would be having a stellar year... doing what he's good at... assists.
Let's remember this entire season... not only the dud games like UCF. Has any other team won as many big team games as us? I guarantee you, no one wants to draw Kansas in March Madness.
The real problem we have is lack of consistency. This team can beat the best and lose to the worst. Yes, Hunter's perimeter defense is awful. Yes, KJ has limited offense. Yes, Furph's magic trey isn't dropping right now. Yes, we get limited points out of Juan. Yes, Kevin's trey isn't falling. Yes, our bench is the weakest we've ever had under Self. I think it's our weak bench that has hurt us the most, especially creating consistency issues.
This team is tired. Anyone can see that. So the same people who think Self needs to go probably also blame our guys for not being in shape. All I can say is we have more uneducated posters in here. How many of you guys played basketball that ran at this pace? It's not something you can imagine until you've done it. I'll prove my point by pointing to the world's best basketball platform, the NBA. Our starters are playing more minutes than most top NBA players, and they play a 48-minute game spread out over more time. More timeouts, too. And we do not have all the benefits the NBA has with 365-day training, diets, etc. Plus, there is a reason why people say the NBA doesn't play defense. These guys are pacing their seasons. That's why I don't watch NBA until June.
You have to start talking less and listening more. Watching games closer. BYU had the perfect game plan. They ran a grueling offense. Probably averaged 8 picks per possession. They beat us down. They knew we didn't have a bench.
The smart move forward, as a fan base, is to support these guys and accept whatever happens this year. We are limited more than usual with this team. Push players to do better but be respectful. Don't have typical insane expectations with this team. They may just surprise you in the tourney. Maybe.
I hear what you are saying. Perhaps it's just with some of our guys on this team. Every player is unique on conditioning, even when going through a conditioning program.
Earlier this year I questioned Furph's ability to go for 30+ minutes. I think his conditioning has actually strengthened as the season comes to a close. He has a bit of a high school player's body... but he's definitely improved (including improving his defense against the drive). I'm expecting him to be a completely different player (stronger) by next fall, if he comes back!
If he builds his body this off-season he's pretty much a shoe-in high lottery pick next year, regardless of the talent in the draft.
One thing is for sure... I guarantee... KU fans in AFH will remember BYU. And so will our teams. I'll be surprised if they ever win again in AFH!
I remember when UT throttled us in AFH after TRob's mom died. Remember this?
https://jj.kusports.com/news/2011/jan/23/texas-snaps-streak-jayhawks-cope-loss-thomas-robin/ ↗
Since this game every Jayhawk fan wishes everything but death to UT when they come to Lawrence!
Absolutely correct! If our offense showed up we won easily. But a big reason why our offense didn't show was because we were winded. They usually ran their shot clock down to almost zero, and we had to fight through screens that entire time. How much energy did we have left when going to our end to score?
You are right that we didn't disrupt their offense enough... it was everything we could do just to keep close to their guys. The one way we could have disrupted their flow would be to anticipate screens coming and have either of our defenders step into the screen paths to disrupt it.
We really needed Kevin in this game. Then we have two defenders (Kevin and Juan) capable of disrupting offense.
Oh shizzzz.... the Cuse game! How could I forget?! A new term was coined from this game... "Hacka Hunter!"
Except they ran at least double the on and off ball screens we run. Their offense was crazy active and it paid off. We fought hard on defense but it's hard to make it through a 30-second shot clock when teams run stuff throughout the clock.
We were totally gassed the second half. Made it hard to run offense when our guys were so winded. They had more endurance than we did. Perhaps because they only had one player who put up 30+ minutes while our starting 5 were 30+!
To be fair to Hunter... part of his "attitude" comes from getting banged on every play and rarely getting calls his way. It's the price for having his size.
Instead, he should embrace the contact and learn to use his size better to position down low. It's an automatic 2 when he can get low positioning and it's always there if he is willing to fight for it.
Not sure what he is thinking about a career after KU. Shooting 3s is fool's gold for him. No team wants to sacrifice his size and down low scoring to add another trey shooter subpar to other options.
His technical helped encourage BYU. No doubt about it.
Still... I'm awfully glad we have Hunter because without him this year we are a 500 team!
If I look at the BYU game and pick underperformers... I'd tag Hunter, but also KJ. KJ is another one of our guys who needs to better embrace contact and use it to his advantage. He has improved (dramatically) this year... but it's still not where it needs to be because he is such a brut stud athlete. If he wants a shot at the NBA, he'll have to design his own unique game style and it will be about being physical.
Outside of Juan's 4 TOs... I didn't have an issue with his game. He had a few nice aggressive scores in this game, too.
Furph let it all hangout and he was good, just not his best shooting night. Hard to criticize a player who hustles like Johnny!
BYU is an unorthodox team. It's a team we needed to prepare uniquely for and I think it showed that we didn't do that. It is very untypical for us to prepare a unique game plan for the opponent we play. It's part of Self's style to just stay running our type of game regardless who we play. I can't recall another team we've played in years that brought this style of offense to AFH. Not even Princeton.
Nick didn't shoot well... but he still played a physical, tough game and I give him cred in this one.
Elmarko shows signs but still needs a lot of work. He may have a tough time next year earning minutes if he doesn't step it up a big notch.
Damn! It's always ugly to lose at home, let alone to an unranked team. Venture to say, we got their best shot. They were coming off a horrible game with the kitties and no one can convince me that the kitties play better defense. For the most part, we played decent defense but did often give up the open trey at the end of the shot clock. We have not played another team who ran so much offense... on and off ball screens. They ran and ran and ran. A perfect test for our defense. If we had a couple more days to rest before this one, I feel sure we would have won.
I do feel like others... that Hunter is the guy we should be squeezing more from. The missed FTs were costly. But more... we should be able to feed him in the post freely. I know we don't have the greatest trey shooters, but good enough, and especially if they are wide open. I don't blame Hunter for most of the problem here. It's the offense we run and we need to clear out low post area for Hunter to go 1 on 1.
Yes.... didn't mention how fresh we looked! I think with our remaining schedule we can have decent legs. If we can play a high level of ball and pull leads in games, our starters can get a little more rest.
I think our previous issue with bench depth is starting to go away.
First... other teams we play are getting tired now, too.
Second... we are getting better minutes from Nick... even Elmarko and Parker are looking better. Elmarko didn't score in the Texas game but he dished 4 assists (including the best assist in college ball this year). His +/- was highest on the team at +18!
Furph has definitely solidified as a contributor, too!
Who would have thought that our team, extremely low in the depth department, could lose arguably our best player (Kevin), and then play better than when we had Kevin.
This is the case. And WHY did we play better? Because the rest of our team didn't have Kevin around to lean on. Everyone had to step up. And with these last few games we are seeing a team where most everyone is playing their best basketball. Super shout out to Nick! He's a gutsy performer! He's becoming a different version of The Furph! How I can make such a claim? Look at the stats in the Texas game. 19 of our 27 FTs were shot by either Furph or Nick!
If you can believe this... I'm happy Kevin will sit for the BYU game. Let him recover and give us another developmental game without him!
If we can stay healthy now... (and get healthy)... I'm becoming a lot more optimistic about March!
I feel sorry for Bill Self.
He's still at the pinnacle of his career and now it's become this -
He deserves better. College basketball deserves better. Fans deserve better.
But reality is reality.
So now he'd rather have a 5-star 1-year player than a developmental 4-star player. We've discussed this ad nauseam before.
I only have one question left. What about PG?
Many of you have been up and down on Harris this year because Harris has been up and down. He's not a scoring guard.
But is this the last time we get the services of a 4-5 year pg?
My only advice... we continue to find undersized, talented pgs that have little or no chance of jumping to the league early. Then we spoil him with PT, NIL $, and even throw in a girlfriend or two (haha). Anything to keep him here!
It's no wonder college basketball is full of upsets this year and how few teams can win on the road. I believe if we had one or two more top-rate players, we would easily be on that top line this year. And don't count us out in March! Even though we have little depth, at least we have some seasoned players, especially at pg!
I'm disappointed I didn't make it on any lists. My pullup jump shot on news boards is phenomenal! lol
@kjayhawks 100% agree!
The Furph is definitely showing he is capable of taking his game on the road. Talk about filing a stat sheet!
15 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals.
Comparing athletes through different time periods isn't fair. The competition was different and the training techniques were inferior in the early days. Even diet and lifestyle so different.
Hard to say how competitive those early athletes would be today if they were in current programs/systems. No real way of knowing.
Ha... I think I did a shoot-around with her once but never played her. Didn't want to embarrass myself! lol
I've been friends with Lynette for 50 years now. She's a class act and is totally appreciative of Catlin as a person and her game. She is especially appreciative of the attention Catlin receives and how she is role modeling for the next great women players.
Unfortunately... because of how this plays out, Lynette will be the player with an asterisk by her name. She's cool with that, and prefers it especially if it helps promote basketball to more young girls.
I'll feel extremely blessed if we go 500 on the rest of our B12 schedule.
Sometimes I sense that... I hope they prove us wrong in March. At least NCAA tourney games are mostly on neutral sites.
SCORING GUARD VS PASSING GUARD
I know what half of you are saying... why can't we get both? To some degree... we can. However, if you get a guard who focuses on passing, his scoring will suffer. You're asking him to emphasize two things at the same time.
If Juan would just take most of those wide-open shots, we would all be happy. He's not a bull-nose Frank Mason. But think back, Frank didn't average nearly as high assists.
Juan needs to take all of those wide-open treys. His trey % is good. And then, he also needs to take some of those mid-range floaters again. Or even better, he needs to stop his drive and take a pull-up jump shot.
If he does these two things, he'll be respected more for his shot and guarded closer. Even though it sounds good, like it will free up someone else, if he is guarded closer he might drop his assist numbers a bit.
There is a happy medium to be found... we all just know he has to take what the defense gives!
We only needed one more point in regulation play...
I had noticed how tired our guys looked and played the entire second half. On every out-of-bounds or free throw they were holding their knees.
Kevin looked completely exhausted... which makes sense because he hustles more than anyone.
@BeddieKU23 said in Unleash the big gun... now!:
As I understand it, Zach is very lucky Bill is who he is as a person/coach/leader and the investment to him being here was about getting Zach back on track with many things outside of basketball.
Agreed... but at this point, who needs the other more? I now think Self needs Zach more than the other way around.
@dylans said:
Zach is Parker+ not Hunter lite. There is no savior in waiting.
I'm not dreaming he's another Furphy. He's another body and I'm happy if he fits your idea of being Parker+. First... any improvement over Parker would be very welcome and show on the bottom line. Second... guys go hot and cold and sometimes just match up better on one team over another. Having Zach as an option gives Self one more tool in his chest. I'm making a bigger deal of this now partially because I don't see Parker coming on more as the season progresses.
How much of a difference-maker did we need in the KSU game? Actually... a guy who gave us one extra point in regulation play would have done it. How many close games are we going to lose this year?
These guys are coming off a tough Saturday battle and had no business playing 40+ minutes and we expect a win. I could already see fatigue before halftime.
It was made worse by being at the Kittydome. Of course, they had more energy!
This Kitty team sucks. I'll be surprised if we don't thrash them by 30 in our building.
Beyond just being tired... this team is quickly earning the reputation of not being a road team. Period.
He doesn't have to be great... if he can hold his own for 10 minutes a game that might be enough.
We just need another option.
I'm not coming down on our guys because it was obvious they were exhausted.
This is a game we might have won if Zach was available.
Come on... Kevin 44 min, KJ 43 min (fouled out)... Johnny tired with 38 and 4 fouls.
This is our season... and the difference between good and great is pulling Zach off redshirt.
How important was this victory over Houston in AFH?
It's the start of our relationship and it let them know how hard it is to win in AFH. It creates a psychological barrier that they have to overcome before they can legitimately contend in our building. Does this sound like BS? Ask Scott Drew. And even, ask Oklahoma.
We want teams in our conference coming into AFH realizing already they are going to lose.
This was a huge start to our relationship with a team that is great every year. Kelvin is a great coach and we are lucky to have them in our conference. He always recruits tough athletes then he coaches them up.