All college kids should be forced into a behavioral orientation class in their first semester. It won't completely cure the problem, but it could help.
drgnslayr
11251 posts
I think his footwork is lacking on both sides of the ball. His position is very specific on foot movement to score and he could use some help.
I'm not trying to be negative on either player... I don't have that height or ever had to deal with the growth spurts they faced to get there. I'm sure there are challenges these guys faced with their size. I just call it like I see it as far as what they lack to reach a higher level.
But in other post fundamentals, he is amazing! I love how he always keeps the ball up high and on a rebound or facing the basket he gets his shot off quick!
I can't ever recall a post player at Kansas with this level of fundamentals (I guess Danny Manning, though I always saw him as a stretch 4). He just needs some footwork help. It will become more prominent when he moves on to G-league some day. I don't see a pathway for him in the NBA without developing handles, footwork, and more quickness. His trey shot is really nice but he has to be the full package in the NBA.
My fav on the Yale game was Juan.
When he turned up his defense late in the second half he finished off Yale. He stopped ball movement from point and he had several key steals. I'm not sure I've ever seen him that turned up before! Maybe it was the level of competition... but Juan's feet barely touched the ground! Kudos also to KJ and of course, Kevin!
I'm a big fan of Hunter, just like I was with Big Mac... but these guys both have the footwork disease! Both should have been taking dance classes for years now!
My thoughts and prayers are with you!
I agree with others in that we aren't at practices and don't know everything pertinent on how minutes should be distributed. But the eye test is clear (up to this point) that Jamari brings energy and optimism to the floor, and that usually translates into him being a part of some big positive plays. We've seen very little of that with Timberlake, in fact, quite the opposite... and we all watch hoping he doesn't give away too many easy baskets while we've lost some of the optimism thinking he's going to get hot on the trey line. He's become very predictable and is easily scouted... they'll give him just enough shooting space so he hurries up on his shot.
I don't like to sound negative... but we haven't seen many shining moments to now. It is possible he can figure out his offense soon... but what about his defense? Meanwhile, we are seeing Jamari play with fearlessness and stepping up in big moments (like an upperclassman).
It is starting to become VERY HARD leaving Jamari on the bench for most of the game!
I like the idea of bumping Jamari ahead of Timberlake on the minutes chart. At this point, it seems like his development is more important for us to make a serious March run.
Indiana basketball fans are great. I've known several. They know the game well and are a class act. Wish they were in the B12! (at least, basketball!) Yes... they deserve quality basketball and I still consider them a blue blood, largely because of their fan base!
What stuck out most was our experience. Did not panic on the road and stuck with it, then turned it up a bit towards the end... enough to win.
I thought we would have blown them out had we run a faster pace throughout the game because this Indiana team has real problems if you speed them up.
Anyways... thumbs up for a big road win!
Very nice post on KUSports:
It mentions our failure to get second shots. Simply... the shot goes up and only Furphy crashes the boards. We've seen him snag several offensive rebounds.
What sticks out is our leading the nation in assist rate. Who doesn't love sharing the rock, except it points to other issues? No one is driving the ball. No one. We had a taste of Kevin driving in a few games, but otherwise, no one. Juan has to drive more. KJ sticks out as our muscle and is capable, but he's also so deadly with that little floater shot.
These are areas we should be able to address easily. The one glaring area that should set-off alarms is how many treys we give up. We will win games as long as teams only shoot 31% (mentioned in the post), but what happens when they are hot? Wasn't this a big part of our drubbing by Marquette?
Are we sinking in our defense to stop the drive? I know we have Juan, Kevin, and KJ... capable defenders. Why aren't they doing a better job of guarding the trey line? Or are they guarding well and opposing teams are shooting more treys because they are running out of shot clock? I'm sure the stat is out there... what is the average possession time of our opponents?
Maybe we aren't aggressive driving on offense, aggressive defending the trey line, or aggressive on offensive boards because our starters are logging too many minutes.
Maybe we have to go backwards through the stat lines and consider how many minutes are starters are logging. At this early time in the season, too many minutes just means our guys are playing tired. As the season progresses, the symptoms shift to more possible injuries and guys showing seasonal wear that goes beyond healing with a couple nights of rest.
I think Self is going to have to be more creative giving our starters a blow.
Offensive woes point to two areas: poor perimeter shooting and not enough low-post scoring.
Hunter needs to put on his big boy pants and fight harder for inside position and then when he gets the ball, stop holding it and go right into a scoring motion.
Perimeter shooting... hope we improve over the holidays by developing better spacing and passing. I know our assist to points is very high but it doesn't tell the whole story or we would be leading the country in offensive efficiency.
I think a lot of this rests on Juan's shoulders. He is our PG and playmaker. It isn't fair to blame him.. it is just a case of our offense settling in better. Christmas break should be the time when our guys can stop focusing so much on the next game and start focusing on running better offense.
I'll know we are in good shape when Hunter has the ball around the FT line and he feeds Juan under the basket for an easy 2! That means we've worked hard all the way around on offensive efficiency!
Anyone have news on an inside track for us picking up another player at mid-semester? I guess pulling Clemence off of RS status isn't the answer. Hope he is busy sucking down pea protein shakes every day and sweating out strengthening workouts.
I think most of the basketball analysts from around the nation have us pegged pretty well. We need that consistent 3rd scorer. Losing Morris left a huge hole because he was the perfect fit of scorer/athlete and could defend well.
Most pleasant surprise - Kevin! He's really dialed it up a huge notch. He's like a big Mason... willing to take it in on anyone and risk his body for a bucket. A+
Hunter - He's a little too timid. Needs to fight harder for position and we need to set him up better. Our offense is Self's traditional hi/lo... but that traditional hi/lo was built for 2 post players. We sometimes (not always) need to clear out an entire side of the court except for Hunter so he won't be double-teamed. He's such a good passer he can kick it anytime he wants, too. He needs to do a better job of fighting for position and then getting a good shot off. He should be able to get his shot on anyone, including 7'5" guys. We need him to be a constant threat, not on and off!
Juan - He hasn't had a great season (for the most part, except UK). Too many TOs. I just don't think he has adjusted yet to this offense. He gets sped up and anxious. I think we will see a huge breakthrough with Juan over the Christmas break.
Elmarko - He is coming on and I like what I see! I'm just not sure if he can maintain his confidence throughout the season and into post-season play.
Furphy - A nice surprise. He's going to have a monster game within a year or two as his body develops. He's just not strong enough now to stop many driving guards.
Timberlake - Big question mark. He hasn't adjusted to playing tougher competition so he is out of his comfort zone. Because of that, he is playing sped up on his shot, hence the poor shooting. I'm not sure there is much more we can expect out of him on the defensive end. He needs a lot of help in placing his feet... otherwise known as "hedging against the drive." He needs to learn the driving tendencies of all players he will face this year and then hedge against their strengths.
Parker - More than expected! He still has room to develop even more!
KJ - He's going to work himself onto the NBA draft chart before he's done... or if not, get some serious tryouts. That mid-range floater is deadly and just what we need! He's a great compliment to having Hunter.
Jamari - Has great potential. Hope he sticks with us after this year but I understand he has to go where he can play. He needs minutes to develop. He's a guy we might recruit over and then he's gone. For now, he can be a good spark off the bench.
I think the key is how we use Hunter tonight. If their footer isn't fast, maybe it's a night where Hunter gets several 3-pt shots. If he's hot, keep with it. Otherwise... maybe we go down low and Hunter tries to draw fouls.
I'm expecting them to play quality perimeter defense. Someone for KU HAS TO DRIVE THE BALL! Kevin has really stepped up this year on his driving... I'm not sure of the guard matchups, but it will probably determine who needs to do what.
Go HAWKS!
I'm skeptical because of our play up to now this year. Our defense has been horrible. So we don't score off our defense and we are in a race to outscore opponents. Our half-court offense is based on Hunter scoring, and that's about it, with Kevin having some bright moments, mostly when he creates offense off his defense.
I have ultimate respect for Coach Self, but I'm not buying into some of his current excuses. Our guys are young athletes in shape, and having several days rest should be enough to be well-rested. Mentioning that Juan hasn't adjusted yet to not having Ochai or Christian (from 2 years ago) is giving Juan a soft excuse to not press hard. Our great assist numbers are misleading. With Hunter in the middle it just allows to spread out the defense and always find an open shooter... this creates great assist numbers but doesn't guarantee always great offensive success. When we don't hit outside shots and we don't score off our defense, we rely too much on Hunter carrying the load. Juan needs to be more aggressive... more aggressive driving the paint (leading to his own shot or shot for others) and also taking more three-point shots so we have another deep threat.
It's still early in the season so there is hope, but at this particular moment in time, I'm not seeing a Top 10 team. Beating a young Kentucky team minus their big men, or a Tennessee team that often looks more like a Top 100 team than a Top 10 team, is not assuring me this team deserves a high ranking. Our last game was an eye-opener and claiming we are tired when EIU had to travel into Lawrence to play the game is not a sufficient excuse.
Maybe I'm being harsh... though harshness is what these guys need as a catalyst to take the next step. Soft play now just exposes all our weaknesses on this team; weak bench, weak perimeter scoring, weak guards capable of creating their own offense, major holes in defense. Did I leave out anything? But seriously... if we play inspired basketball, lift our energy up (considerably), things will change! Juan and Kevin are top-notch defenders, and KJ and Hunter should be able to hold their own, and the other mystery spot should be covered okay via several players.
This is a team that can mold into a late March team but I doubt it will happen without taking on some major poundings first and UCONN may give us our second beat-down comparable (or worse) than our humiliating loss to Marquette.
I hope our guys prove me wrong tonight and take a big leap forward!
Nick is a player with little margin for error. He has some hops, but I'd hardly classify him as an elite athlete. So when he's slumping, his entire game suffers. If he can regain some optimism he can rise to the occasion to be the player Self recruited. But he'll have to bring optimism every night and play with a chip. He could actually be a catalyst for this team because they don't possess enough "team chip" at this point in the season.
Hope someone wearing crimson/blue brings a chip against UCONN because Hurley is one of the few coaches that has a permanent chip in his DNA and he knows how to instill it in his players.
This game could go in either direction... might be best for us to take a thrashing to build chip for the rest of the season... like UK gave us in our championship year. It hurt us being preseason #1... boys all thought they deserved it.
That's okay... I was just going to further embarrass myself by not knowing the rules! lol
Ah.... makes sense now though I don't like the rule.
I was always negative towards Shaka because I thought he was just a gimmick-guy who made it too far off just one good tournament run... but after they worked us so easily with x-axis ball I have a new perspective on him. I am wondering if he is an x-axis basketball savant. That game frustrated me as a Jayhawk fan but later I came to the realization his players are taught x-axis... the game is played more horizontally than vertically. Remember back to my x-axis posts? How much of the game is played above the rim? Just a tiny %.
Who is one of our worst defenders? Hunter. Because his lateral pursuit stinks.
Okay... I'm temporarily back from the dead... and I do believe I am dead because on the opening kickoff, the Cincinnati return person called a fair catch and was on the 1-yard line. So... why wasn't that a huge mistake because they should have started their first possession on the 1-yard line. Did I miss some new crazy rule? They got the ball at the 25-yard line just like it was caught in the end zone. No one else objected... the announcers didn't... KU coaches didn't... players didn't.
I tried to upload a screenshot proving my point, but KUbuckets said it's over capacity on images.
We were just "x-axised" by Marquette. I've never been a big fan of Shaka, but I give him credit for developing his own brand of x-axis... think I'll call it "hyper x-axis."
Thanks. I'm mostly trying to stay out of people's way... throwing in a little coaching on my son's bball game. He's kickin' butt and taking names.
You're the man I drink Wisckey with! :)
Thanks.... typical summer garden... rabbits got more tomatoes than me!
I'll try to keep reading the board and throw in my 2 cents every now and then. I think its a good thing to have some turnover here and bring in new blood to post. Everyone has read my "x-axis" concepts... repeatedly. Perhaps with my extra time, I'll hunt down Jaybate. Might even drink a protein shake and search out HEM! lol
I'm sure someone in here noticed (lol)... I'm officially retired from the keyboard. I may come back now and then to read, and on infrequent occasions, comment.
I'm in good health, just needing my old butt to be focused on other things moving forward. I've had a nice run with all of you... it's been great!
Concerning that Marquette game... they were turned up. Shaka has the right guys to play his kind of ball... sped up and have the other team speed up, too. The only difference is, KU doesn't spend time practicing sped-up basketball. It's what Shaka does and if you sat in on his practices and Self's you would see his philosophy of playing with energy, which is the keystone to his coaching philosophy.
Other teams have fast athletes, too... we may get another minor dose of that today and we will see how the team reacts.
Just better hope we don't draw Marquette in our bracket in March. I don't see how we combat that, especially without having more bench.
Carry on, RCJH!
I give up. KU is screwed next year. Back in a year... adios!
Aimaq was out for 80% of the season with injuries and the other 20% can hardly be judged in a completely failed TT season.
He's 6'11", 245 lbs... not even in the same conversation with 6'6" Adams.
This conversation is ridiculous.
KJ, Udeh, and Zuby... none have back to the basket offense. ZERO! All commit constant fouls and haven't defended well. I can't believe I have to defend what was right in front of us all year.
All kinds of players are entering the portal. All you guys just give up on the 5-spot thinking quantity equals quality.
Self is a genius. How he used KJ this past year was amazing on his pick and rolls around the FT line. KJ's deficit is his defense at the 5. I don't agree that he couldn't be used on the floor at the 4. Might not be our best option but if it can be done, Self will figure it out. I could see our legit 5 setting a high ball screen to create a mismatch while KJ circles the baseline and low post to go 1-on-1 against the other team's 4. KJ can guard a 4 and has his 5 backing him up.
@kjayhawks let's face it... Kevin's offense can be ugly. His shot form is odd and his dexterity can sometimes be questioned. But if you go back and look at tape, our defense completely sucked without Kevin. Most of what he did doesn't show up in stats. He was the weakside monster for all 5 positions. Even Marcus Garrett didn't quite give us that. He was only 1 through 4. With Kevin, it allowed us to get away with murder... like having KJ at the post, Gradey getting smoked, and even JWil not getting it done on D.
We have to have an answer for the defensive hole Kevin leaves behind. Since there are no more Kevins out there, it will be by beefing up our defense with others and the first glaring spot is at the 5.
I 1000% disagree.
We are the only upper-tier school in D1 with a 6'6" center. It had to work in a jam, but now we have time to fix it.
Actually... you forgot we have Zach, too. REVISE: now in the portal!
The chances of us landing another defensive monster like Kevin is zero.
Our best shot at a decent year is to snag a legit 5. Zuby or Ernest, one, should head for the portal.
My only "unless" is if we see major development out of one of those bigs between now and November and I just don't see it happening in a few months.
There aren't many options at the 5, but I would at least consider the guy from TT. At least he has years experience in the low post and can score back to the basket. We have no legit 5 to teach Zuby and Ernest how to low post score.... further slowing their development.
No one loves KJ more than me... but realistically, we've been murdered at the 5 all year. He averaged only 4.3 rpg and had zero interior defensive presence.
At 6'6"... might as well call him a guard. We played most of the year with 5 guards on the floor.
If we go without Kevin and have KJ in the post this year we will get completely murdered! Watch some tape... Kevin was the weakside help for KJ 99% of the time this past year and it helped keep us in games, also helped KJ from fouling less.
College sports have become musical chairs.
Schools changing conferences and all targeting the same chair.
Players entering the transfer portal escape their commitments.
What a complete clusterf*ck!
@Crimsonorblue22 said in 2023 Coaching Changes:
@BShark they’re more into wife beaters, chokers, player beaters, random guys in the parking lot in his space beaters, coach beaters, and must have alcoholic, trashy wife!
It must be hard to find a coach with all those great qualities! Guess they will just have to live with boring Mills! :face_with_tears_of_joy:
I'm surprised... they were lucky to get Mills.
I read some of their blogs after they dumped Brown. Wow! They were thinking Pitino was coming their way! lol
Now some are already second-guessing Mills because he comes from ORU. What the heck did they expect? They continue to not realize how lucky they are.
They crapped on Brown. Look how many players they lost because of no NIL and who made it to March... we faced one with Arkansas. Alabama...
Hard to look at that and not see the possibility of race playing into it. They screwed him without a NIL program after he took a team over that was PTSD from Marsha... and won league and COY! He went into summer with like 1 player.
I wonder what they have to pay Mills? They are now paying 3 coaches!
Here is what I posted last year after our championship... I can still stand by this, and do. Especially pushing Kevin.
!Screenshot 2023-03-22 at 1.37.53 PM.jpg ↗
As I said all this year... our offense feasted off of our defense. When we ran slow half-court offense we weren't great. What made us great was a faster offense fueled off our defense.
I pray to God we don't make the mistake we can just load up on offensive players and expect a good season. We will 100% fail. Again.... mark my words for next season and lets all go back and read this again.
KJ deserves a ton of credit. But he's at the bottom of Big 12 defensive 5s. Not his fault! Our biggest defensive Achilles heel all year was low post scoring and scoring off the drive or pull-up in the low paint. Our second issue was rebounding. KJ isn't a rebounder.
We will be a ton better next year if we solidify the 5. Period.
I know we all want to see KJ on the floor. If we had a legit 5 Self would still find a way to use KJ. He's been carving out space for himself on the floor.
Right.... with the best defending PG in the country!
And the best all around defender in the country!
They were mixed in with some of the poorest defenders in our conference.
We are down to Juan.
We couldn't get the rest to step up on defense all year. I'm not sure why. KJ I give a partial excuse because of his size.
Consider Kevin leaving 2 defensive holes because he played like having 2 good defenders out there (when you consider his weakside help).
I'm the guy who defended the Kevin transfer last year with few else believing.
Self won't have a good defensive team if everyone except Juan needs to learn basically from zero!
You can mark my words right here for next season. Just like I swore on Kevin being a major score.
I'm praying like everyone else that Ernest and Zuby are completely renovated players next year... but I'm not counting on it. They are both green like St. Pat's Day!
True.... but all I'm saying is we better be focused on finding defenders or forget a 20+ win season next year. No friggin' way!
If it was me... I'd start with a legit 5!
I'm 99% sure we wouldn't have won 20 games this year without Kevin.
His loss will be evident next year, unless we bring in real defenders.
In Kevin's tearful last interview he didn't close the door on a return when asked. I bet inside he wants to come back. He's not a lottery pick or probably even a pick in the first two rounds. Why wouldn't he come back?
Maybe Self pushes these guys out even though we would be a better team? Got to make space for the new bloods?
@wissox said in KU Offseason Chef Bill Cooking Thread:
I’ve never heard anything definitive from Gradey. I’d guess he probably is, but his 2nd half soured some and he just might be the type who sticks around for more.
If he leaves his legacy is he was our only starting 5 starter who didn't make double digits in the game that knocked us out.
Fans have memories... and they tend to be critical memories. For most of our OAD players they were never a KU guy before coming here.
I'm going out on a limb... and saying he is coming back!
Call me a sucka... but he said he was always KU growing up and he dreamed about this moment. Right now... not much of a dream what went down.
What we need is for him to come back and while he is at it... call Kevin and convince him to return. Then... with our recruiting class we are ranked in Top 5 start of next year (and actually deserve it)!
Then he will make his mark at KU.... he can build his body and become a higher draft pick next year regardless of strength of draft. He spends the summer slurping on pea protein and pumping iron. Look what it did for JWil... consensus All American?
MMMmmmm.... with sour cream and chives! Makes up all the food groups, right? :astonished_face:
Funny how our "not our year" still means winning our conference and having a consensus team All American!
For sure on CB... he's the most enthusiastic guy we've had in a long long time! I just didn't experience as much enthusiasm with the team.... but then... I usually compare it to teams we play and the teams we play are playing us... one of the top teams in America! Maybe that has something to do with the comparison?!
And why aren't our coaches stripping off their shirts after a victory!!! (100% sarcasm) :face_with_tears_of_joy:
I definitely don't want anyone to think I think our coaching sucks... Norm or Bill.
But I have always questioned if we brought enough enthusiasm to games. I've ranted about this for years.
Last year... I felt like my rant was challenged by winning the title and largely being the same as usual... not showing a great deal of emotion.
I still battle with this idea. Is it composure versus enthusiasm? Isn't it possible we have both?
I watched the Zags take down TCU last night and I saw both. Never been a huge Zags fan but I think Few is one of the best coaches in D1.
This gets into an area everyone in here knows me for... I am "Mr. Chip!" lol
@BeddieKU23 said in Alpha Kevin, 2023-2024:
In the next 1-2 years the Covid years will be exhausted, and you’ll see a shift again, I think. Teams are so old because of the covid year and transfer explosion. It’s hard for 18-year olds to compete against 22-25 year-olds which is what we are seeing right now. Coaches have had to adapt to survive.
Excellent point!
Curious what this will mean for Duke and Kentucky and their list of OADs?
Curious how it would have gone if he was screaming and giving a "Self face"... red and blue and swelling like ready to explode! lol
When Arkansas turned it up we didn't respond. Still can't believe we work hard all year then don't respond when getting punched in the face in March.
I don't blame Norm... but I also disagree with those that said this team didn't need Self at the tournament. I think he was worth at least 2 points in the Arkansas game.
We had no excitement in that game. It was glaring.
Definitely will need experience meshing in with our signing class of freshmen. Though... experience doesn't always translate. I'm not going to mention names, but some of our transfers haven't outperformed newbies much and tend to bring with them tendencies that don't fit.
I think next year will be a tricky year for us. Like the newbies coming in... but as you mentioned, we will be lacking experience.
Not everyone is on to Kevin coming back but I can all but guarantee we would be a much stronger team next year with him staying. It's easy to look at his weaknesses knowing he isn't a great outside threat, but he probably saved us more games this year than any other players. Our defense would have completely sucked without him this year and next year it will be a disaster without him.
What I would like to know... and I've wanted to know this for years...
Who in our staff qualifies the athleticism of our prospects? This is the area where we seem to fail often. It's ridiculous that teams like Arkansas can outperform us on athleticism.
Seems we have had problems in this area for years and it has been mentioned before after a failed March performance that we need better athleticism.
Wasn't Rice at Texas a portal grab last year? We sure missed on that one.
Are we strictly left to portal transfers?
Are all decent HS prospects committed? Or how about some mentioning reopening their recruitment?
So we have one less scholarship and haven't we already signed 3 (including the reclassification)?
Where are we in the scholarship count and who isn't invited back next year?
We may not have stepped up as much as last year.
But consider our opponent in the championship game last year. Talk about completely not stepping up! And we were the winner of that game!