It always seems like we miss the guys that we all think are surefire Jayhawks and the guys we think are going somewhere else often pick Kansas.
Everyone has been saying Duke for quite a while but we see how they are continuing a full court press right to the end. Doesn't sound like a shoe-in for Duke because of that. I could see him going to any of the schools on his final list. Probably least to Kentucky.
"Before the 1966–67 season, Celtics coach Red Auerbach retired. Initially, he had wanted his old player Frank Ramsey as coach, but Ramsey was too occupied running his three lucrative nursing homes. His second choice Bob Cousy declined, stating he did not want to coach his former teammates, and the third choice Tom Heinsohn also said no, because he did not think he could handle the often surly Russell. However, Heinsohn proposed Russell himself as a player-coach, and when Auerbach asked his center, he said yes. Russell thus became the first African American head coach in NBA history and commented to journalists: "I wasn't offered the job because I am a Negro, I was offered it because Red figured I could do it." The Celtics' championship streak ended that season at eight, however, as Wilt Chamberlain's Philadelphia 76ers won a record-breaking 68 regular season games and overcame the Celtics 4–1 in the Eastern Finals. The Sixers simply outpaced the Celtics, shredding the famous Boston defense by scoring 140 points in the clinching Game 5 win. Russell acknowledged his first real loss in his career (he had been injured in 1958 when the Celtics lost the NBA Finals) by visiting Chamberlain in the locker room, shaking his hand and saying, "Great". However, the game still ended on a high note for Russell. After the loss, he led his grandfather through the Celtics locker rooms, and the two saw white Celtics player John Havlicek taking a shower next to his black teammate Sam Jones and discussing the game. Suddenly, Russell Sr. broke down crying. Asked by his grandson what was wrong, his grandfather replied how proud he was of him, being coach of an organization in which blacks and whites coexisted in harmony."
I hear what you are saying. Diallo is the MUST SIGN guy. But seriously, don't you think we up our chances at signing Diallo by first signing Ingram? Why do you think Diallo is holding off signing? He wants to see where other pieces fall first. He wants to go where he thinks he'll have the best chance at a NC.
Diallo will definitely be encouraged to come to Kansas if Ingram signs. This will make Kansas a clear distinct leader over schools like St. Johns and ISU. If we sign both, Kansas will be in the discussion for a NC, and that will be a year of big time publicity, including on the east coast. That does nothing but help players lift in draft positions.
Nothing sells better than momentum. Ask Calipari. Suddenly, Kansas will be considered having a Top 5 recruiting class and the media circus will begin.
What I'm starting to wonder is maybe there is a secret link forming between Ingram and Diallo.
Self should take one from the Calipari playbook and sell potential NC from connecting the dots to a solid line. So if we sign Ingram, we also sign Diallo. I feel comfortable in saying that we stand a much better chance of signing Diallo if we sign Ingram today.
Connect the dots, Bill, and put your salesman pants on!
Imagine that team? Ingram, Diallo and Braggs being added to a solid team of experienced players. That is the right formula for success!
Even though Duke just signed a star PG... there is so many "ifs" to them being a contender next year, even if they sign Ingram. Kansas has a solid group of seasoned guys coming back, and it should make a better mix having that much quality experience to mix with all the youthful, inexperienced talent.
I know you raise great points. I'm just having a dream here, kind of like my dream to bring John Lucas to Lawrence.
Dreams open up a lofty vision for possible direction. I think the idea of having someone capable in Lawrence ready to take this on in private business is an interesting idea that could also benefit KU hugely. It seems like it might do a lot more good than investing so much in luxury apartments.
I can't pick Wilt or Kareem as one better than the other. They were both phenomenal and are models for all future players concerning their effectiveness. They both had their strengths and weaknesses... did their best to exploit their strengths and perhaps mask their weaknesses.
What makes me curious is how both of these players would do against some of the other great 5s that came later. Think of them in their prime and other guys in their prime, head to head. Guys like Shaq, Olajuwon, Robinson, Ewing, Malone. Kareem might have played some of these guys, but not in his prime.
I'm most curious about Wilt. Hard to say what his power game would have done against power like Shaq? Olajuwon? Kareem lived off of finesse. No one could block his skyhook, especially in his prime. And as he perfected the skyhook, he moved it into most locations in the paint because defenders finally started to realize how to hedge against him and force him away from his spot. Not sure it would have mattered if he played guys like Shaq or Olajuwon, whereas Wilt going against these other 5s made it a direct confrontation.... more interesting match ups.
I still think Wilt would sit at the top even if going against guys that came later and dominated... but it would have been great to see him have to battle harder against guys better suited to challenge his game.
I'm jumping on your "reverse jinx" bandwagon! He is going to declare to NCSU, UNC, Duke and UK.... all of them, today! The media will freak out and so will all these schools.
He wore the KU shirt on Friday just because he felt a bit guilty for cutting KU out of the mix.
I'm leaving my heart out of this and going with my head...
If I'm not mistaken, he was always a UNC fan. Right?
So meanwhile it appears UNC will face some heavy NCAA sanctions... could be tomorrow or could be 10 years from now. UNC also had the "liar situation" that made things sticky. Enough negative has happened here to question UNC as his first pick.
If Brandon is really a UNC fan, could he ever think about going to Duke or NCState? No. That's like asking any of you in here if you want to join up with the Antlers over at the trailer park in Columbia or the Purple Kitty Kats and their 4H meetings.
Therefore... Brandon should be between UNC and an out-of-state school. Kentucky? I seriously doubt that. The only reason a kid goes to Kentucky is when they have the momentum of signing everyone else and the mentality is "come to Kentucky because we are going to win a NC next year!" Kentucky could be NIT bound again next year because Calipari only has one giant leap of talent over everyone else this time.
We've seen Duke put on the full court press and that makes the media side with Duke. Seems if the kid was that flexible to go to Duke, it wouldn't take this kind of effort.
I'm not going to jinx this with my prediction illustrated in %s. I'm only illustrating where my head is on this.
"Q: does UK already have this?"
NO! UK doesn't develop players. They just run a draft agency.
I think it would be a mistake to involve the City of Lawrence or make it anything more than a private business. The one connection that I'm not sure about is Self being a part of it, even if it means landlord. The way to do it is to have ZERO connections to the University. The NCAA has no say in private business. John Lucas has been doing this for years. Kids need more places to go and develop, and to my knowledge BIG MEN have no place to go!
I fear that and hope not.
"Is everybody that drinks alcohol a "Drunk" like everyone who consumes Cannabis is a "pothead"?"
Good point! Lots of good conversation in here. I like keeping it to basketball but I have to admit we needed something in here to keep it going and we were just grinding back and forth on recruiting.
I think this week we'll have a lot to talk about again concerning Kansas hoops.
Good point. Marijuana doesn't turn people into heroine addicts. It just so happens that most heroine addicts have tried pot, alcohol, and even water!
I like the idea of raising tax dollars with it. In the long run, by legalizing it we will end up having fewer users (if you believe what has happened in Europe over the past several decades). Take the big money out of the black market and pot isn't "pushed" any longer. Plus... the mystique is gone. I had been around it for 20 years and I don't even notice it.
I'd rather have the sell of pot benefit road construction than just line a dealer's pocket. Seems every State (including Kansas) is broke now. That bothers me a lot more than pot.
Are there 10 times more addicts using illegal drugs than prescription drugs? I would think it is the other way around, but I don't know those numbers. I just saw a documentary about the drug problems in rural areas and how the doctors out there had started writing pain killer prescriptions too freely and turned a big part of the rural community into opiate addicts. Then the law stepped in and roped the legal sell down and those people then turned to illegal opiates on the street.
The one fact on all of this stuff is that certain people (whether it be because of genetic reasons or other reasons) have a strong addiction tendency to one or more things and it is something very painful to witness and it costs are society a fortune to try and deal with all whether it be directly and indirectly. Very sad topic.
Don't you think the real question is whether or not it is a benefit to our society if people have something they can turn to when they want to "take the edge off?" Does that outweigh the negative side?
There are plenty of people out there that use alcohol and pot in a responsible way and we never hear about these people because they don't attract attention to themselves... they aren't getting in fights in parking lots, filling our medical system with their liver issues, or just being a "wasteoid" on the couch. What happens when you cut off the relaxation method of millions of productive people? Do they just become more productive? Or do they suddenly let things build up inside and vent? I don't think mankind is a machine only put on earth to work. It seems like even productive people need or want to "lubricate" themselves while socializing or doing things like watching movies. If that is taken away, do they turn violent?
Do we always have to bring our culture down to the lowest common denominator?
"Yet, "it's no worse than alcohol" is what we hear from the moral equivalency crowd. "
The real crowd for pro-pot says "it is far superior than alcohol"... very different argument. And if you look at the health statistics concerning alcohol use and the devastating impact it has on millions of people, you will understand that from a medical perspective it isn't even close.
I've had to deal with very close friends, many of them, that have had problems from using alcohol and pot. Some using both. I've buried a couple that relied on alcohol. I am convinced there is addiction for both substances, but it is far worse for alcohol. And watching someone destroy his liver is a devastating experience... something you won't experience with a pothead. Also... diabetes is prevalent with alcoholics, too. Another super killer!
I'm not advocating anyone to become a pothead.
"The fact is, our society, our lives, everything else, would be much better without pot or alcohol."
That seems like a true statement, because we don't seem to see a benefit from either substance within our society. But the truth is we don't know if that would be the case, because alcohol and pot have always been in our society, when they were legal and illegal. These substances can be considered "coping substances"... question is... how does our society "cope" when they don't have substances to cope with? I doubt we will ever know this answer because it is unlikely these substances will ever vanish from circulation. Heck... even guys in prison score substances....
I keep wondering... what made Bill Self start pushing harder for OAD recruits?
Was it the loss to Kentucky for the NC in 2012, when we took a veteran team in there against a young team with a star OAD center that made the difference? Or was it the loss of Danny Manning from our coaching core, the guy responsible more for developing players than recruiting them? Why recruit developmental players if you don't have the coach to develop them, right?
I'm not sure which one of these factors impacted Self most, but I'm starting to think it is the later. Before recent years, Kansas and Bill Self buttered their bread with 3 and 4-star guys that stuck around in college long enough to develop and learn his system of basketball, while picking up enough basketball skill to make it at the next level.
And now, April 26th, 2015, we are sitting on the sidelines, waiting impatiently like a high school girl waiting for a prom date phone call. Will it happen? Will we finally land another post player to fill the big hole we've had open in our post for over a year? Who would have thought that when the medical exam came back on JoJo that would be the last big we have in the post for several years?
So why does it suddenly seem a lot tougher for a blue blood school like Kansas to recruit a 5? A school that has sent many tall players to the league in recent years. A school formerly known as "Big Man U."
Is it because our coach has now become too stubbornly focused on only recruiting star (OAD type) 5s and in doing so passes by many gifted 5s just a notch down? Is that really what is happening? Or is it just tougher for Kansas to get big post players with promise because Danny Manning is gone?
Is Bill Self looking for a diversion by investing in a building downtown with Scot Pollard to open up a night club? If so, does that send a good message to his players on remaining focused and disciplined while off the court?
Or is this location a possible small gym where Scott can open up a developmental center for bigs? If so, having to go off campus makes me think Scot would pursue this without being nabbed as an new assistant coach. In doing so, this would offer Kansas players to go all summer and be unencumbered from strict NCAA guidelines preventing players and coaches from practicing ball together through the summer months. This would seem to be even a better scenario than when Danny Manning was at Kansas and had to be careful of his summer contact with players. And we are talking about a lot more than summer basketball. When the practice season does open, a gym that is not affiliated with KU and without Kansas coaches has unlimited access to players, in the fall and right through the season!
Could this be the real "gold" Kansas basketball has needed for quite some time! Could this be the nugget far surpassing the luxury apartments for enticing quality recruits to Kansas?
Oh yeah.... thanks for the reminder!
I have to disagree with you on Wilt having the easy capability to master the hook. I never want to slam Wilt, he is definitely at the top of my list of true legends.... but even Wilt had weaknesses in his game. Really, his one big weakness was touch. He could play so strong and athletic, and he could dance ballet around the basket, but the guy threw bricks at the goal. He had to finish at the rim because... he had to!
I'll never forget how he tried everything in the book to try and get his FT% up. Underhand... standing back several feet from the line... tossing the ball like a ping pong ball. Wilt tried everything, but he couldn't shoot from the perimeter or FTs because he lacked touch. And that skyhook Kareem used was pure touch.
I loved watching both of these greats play and just wished they could have overlapped for a longer period in the league. Their games were so different, as well as their personalities. I can't believe the game will ever have two like these two in the game and in the game at the same time.
Just listening to comments from the NCAA these days and you can't even connect them to the old NCAA. They've taken some recent hard knocks in the court room, in public opinion polls, and are now viewed as somewhat vulnerable (compared to just a few years ago when they ran a completely fascist power system). They still have a long ways to go and there is still the chance that something better comes along and starts shifting the power over to a fairer system.
Let's not forget the federal government's role in all of this. I believe the NCAA's leash has been tightened considerably over recent years. It wouldn't surprise me if they have had "behind closed doors" meetings with the justice department involving secretive negotiations.
Okay... I'm not surprised and the DOJ and NCAA have been holding hands quietly for quite some time. Here's just a few snippets showing who wears the pants in this relationship:
Feds to NCAA: Why no playoffs? ↗
NCAA, Justice Department letter excerpts unsealed in scholarship case ↗
"What would Calipari do as a coach if he wasn't holding a stacked deck? See what happened when he lost Nerlens Noel. KY got a 1st round bounce out of the N.I.T. Now, you'd think that even after losing a future NBAer, almost any Div 1 coach could come up with enough to win their 1st round NIT game??"
And how many McDs AAs remained on that team after they lost Noel? Seems like they still had 4 or 5 AAs. Didn't they drop their NIT game to Philip Morris (I mean Robert Morris)?
I guess what I want to know is can Rick Barnes still recruit in Texas, now that he is with a non-Texas school? I tell you, it isn't easy pulling players out of Texas.
Isn't it about time we form a KUBuckets "handler team?"
We get out and start talking to recruits. We can't directly recruit them to a school beyond the scope of any of the AAU handlers or ShoeCo handlers (so we can direct recruit). We have the freedom of not forcing players to a ShoeCo or to a player's agent. They are more likely to trust us since we aren't trying to get a piece of their dollar action, just their court action.
Why couldn't we do this? We are not affiliated to KU in any way, shape or form. And we only accept handlers that do not make direct contributions to the university.
Gosh... imagine the brain trust we could put together. And how we could show young players some of the ropes very quickly.
Even if this player develops quickly... I'd take two years of this guy over just about any OAD unless it was a freak like Anthony Davis.
What would happen if we went "all in" on Bolden right now?
We stick around Dallas and put the pressure on, far more than any other blue blood program. Push and push and push and get this guy to sign his LOI now. Let him know we believe in him as the Kansas basketball future.
Seems a lot less work than just hanging out with him and sharing attention with all the other schools... then letting this kid go down to the wire and then what? We continued to hold out a big space for him to fill?
Sign him now and bring Hudy to the signing and have her give him a strength training schedule for his summer. The kid will come back stronger next year and will have already started his transition to D1. Meanwhile... he can be tweeting and connecting with his future team mates and developing chemistry and desire to be a badazz Jayhawk in two years!
We already know we will have a monster hole to fill when this guy is a freshman... so why wait? Close the door before his class mates hammer down on him to stay in Texas. Let him know the advantage of not having a media circus around him his senior year because he needs that year to start his transition to D1. Then he can come into D1 and play immediately and be an impact player.
I would treat this recruit like he is eligible this coming season... with that same recruiting intensity because (actually) RIGHT NOW is the time we need to make a dent in that big hole coming our way!
What would be really awesome is to find a couple of quality 3 to 4-star players that grew up together and have played their whole lives together. They should know each others game inside out. Then the coaches need to realize that connection and build something around it (to some degree). I always wondered if we could have developed more of the natural chemistry between the twins. They also say twins know what is in the mind of each other. Makes me wonder if that is part of their sales pitch to play on the same team in the NBA.
I'm sure you have played some of your later years ball with a player or two from your youth and found some of that natural chemistry. It is almost impossible to make a TO because you know exactly where the other guy is going, how he likes his passes, etc... and he knows exactly how you throw the ball, and your exact timing when the ball will leave your hands...
For other guys to be put together and form that, you are talking about some real magic. I think if I was playing for Kansas right now, with the summer upon us, I'd want to lock on to one or two players and play every day all summer together. Build that connection.
I'm really not a coach so I don't know what the best schemes are to run with D1 players... but I know that if you can KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) guys should be able to think less and focus more on feeling it. It seems we need guys feeling the play more and less thinking.
Yes... I remember. And it was arrogant that we thought we could handle it in such a simple way. I believe this was the straw that broke the camel's back and made us actually invest in a proper in-house compliance program.
The part that irks me is the NCAA saying we were on the fence for the death penalty. That was ridiculous. Compare our violation with SMU football... a program that was so filthy the violations couldn't even be bound in a set, you needed to start a library to list it all.
A couple of things... first.. I really like your choice in the post. Bolden tends to go to his left a lot, but he can score with either hand and on either side. Defenders have to play him straight up, no hedging (even though college guys aren't taught how). Another thing, he looks to have very big hands and palms the ball easily. That is a very nice plus for a 5, just ask Okafor.
What we really need to do is get this guy signed up early. If we can get more guys signed early we can actually build momentum in our recruiting. I thought we would get a bit more momentum from signing Bragg, but I guess we needed one more 5-star recruit to be put up there in the mix at the top. Many of these guys like to go where other elites are signing.
Another reason to sign him early is to help keep guys like Shaka off of Bolden. Kentucky will be after him, but I'm going to guess our biggest challenge will be to pry him away from the Longhorns. Texas recruits like to stay in Texas. They tend to be in school environments where the other students have a lot of State pride and they put tons of pressure on their players to stay in Texas. I believe that is why we lost out on Turner. He wanted to appease his classmates.
I'd love to see us sign this guy NOW! Start building the fire under next year's class so we aren't waiting until the last possible second to fill a roster.
The problem with learning offense well enough to execute... every player has to know the variations of every position in every set/play. And that is only the beginning. Then you have to learn the tendencies of every player and combination out there. From that point, players should create some on the fly, and other players should get a sense of what other players are going to do, including what is not in the playbook. Teams can never reach "perfection" or even close, but should only have to reach a certain level of execution where they can raise their offensive effectiveness to win most games against most teams. I really laugh at clowns like Calipari throwing around the word "perfection"... even had Kentucky won out. There was nothing even close to perfection in that team. He might as well have proclaimed himself as being Jesus. He seems to think he has "God-like" goals.
Let's face it, if this UNC scandal happened in Lawrence you would see more hung Jayhawks than Quantrill could ever imagine doing himself.
The NCAA said Kansas was "on the border" of receiving the death penalty after our coaches gave recruit Askew a few hundred bucks (loan) for a plane ticket to get home to his sick grandmother. He didn't even attend Kansas. But hey, Kansas won a NC and we were encroaching on the sacred ground of the ACC and other blue bloods.
Ever since Kansas built a model compliance program the NCAA has had to find other ways to hold us down, like by killing two birds with one stone and putting an underrated Shocker team in our bracket. When will we get the easy Duke path?
I recently heard someone throw out an old term I have not heard since the '70s... "the Colorado Acapulco Golden Buffaloes"... Boulder has been known as a major party town probably my whole life. I wonder if they raised it a notch since the State gave local municipalities the right to sell and possess?
Imagine if Colorado was still in the B12? I bet we always had a stricter team curfew policy in Boulder (and maybe Austin) then other places in the B12. What would it be like today? Players can step in a legal shop and buy without fear of legal problems. But what about school and team policies? I wonder if teams think about it and update their drug policies these days before wandering in the State of Colorado for a game?
And what about the schools in Colorado... Can Colorado athletes lose their scholarships over marijuana use from within their borders?
I spent 20 years of my adult life in a society where pot was legally tolerated and sold openly in coffeeshops. From a societal point of view, after the "buzz" wears off on the novelty (and profits drop off on the black market) use drops below other societies where it is illegal. It does seem like more people use it there because it is visible in public (whereas it is not so visible in societies where it is illegal). Pot is non-toxic. No one has ever OD'd from smoking or eating pot or pot products. There are studies that suggest different impacts on the body over time, none are anywhere close to the toxic effects of alcohol. But there are typical effects from continued use that can be detrimental to one's life. A typical effect is a reduction of motivation in areas relating to productivity. Some users have issues with memory loss and the inability to organize things mentally.
From a recreational perspective if someone wants to criticize marijuana use then they can do so because it tends to slow down productivity and while high, opens up risks in operating motor vehicles, boats, and everything else that can become an instrument of death and pain if not used responsibly. That will remain the argument for those on that side. There really isn't an argument when comparing it as a recreational substance versus alcohol. Alcohol has all the same negatives plus many more. First, it is a toxic substance that brings people to a numb state only through a process of poisoning. Many thousands of people die every year from the physical effects of alcohol. People literally drink themselves to death. It has a much higher rate of addiction, too. It is also a depressant and often has the effect of creating aggression in people. How many people get in fights from drinking? How many from smoking? Right...
The real question is; do people have the right to numb out? If we don't like people using pot we definitely shouldn't like people using alcohol either.
Do we restrict it all? None of it?
"he'll come up with a better four out/one in scheme -- he need only look to WSU, or ISU, or Gonzaga."
I think we could use some coaching help on how to work effective offense on high ball screens. When you mentioned WSU... the first thing that popped in my mind is their reliance on high ball screens to go on the attack. It works and it isn't rocked science. No need to send your players home with a 600-page playbook that takes them 3 years to learn half of it.
I'll be interested in watching WSU after Baker and VanVleet are gone. Those guys really know how to make the most out of a small area on the floor that blossoms end to a full-blown assault on the defense. Will Marshall still run the same attack without these guys? Or is it mostly his offensive style that makes mediocre players into stars?
We have never really counted on attacks through the high ball screen. We kind of "show it" just to try to position defenders out high so we have room to feed the post.
In my boxing/martial arts days I got turned on to this:
All the Thai boxers used this stuff. Mmmmm... good! Nice and hot!
I was considered a utility player. 2 thru 4. Mostly backup minutes. On very rare occasions I played the 5! Why? Because on certain post players they didn't know how to score on a guy who knew how to use his body in the paint. My specialty was defense and rebounding. On one team we had a guy that was 7'1" and I was the only one who could guard him down low because I'd lower my center of gravity, keep my hand s up high, and just come up with my lower torso and walk him right out of the paint with low body contact! Perfectly legal. Just back off when the guy goes up for his shot and then go straight up to make him shoot over you. Always try to hedge a guy away from the 3/4 sides of the low post because even bad post players can make one off the glass.
I played physical ball and European ball was built for me because they allowed a lot of contact! Flops didn't exist where I was, and if a player went down, rarely would he get a call.
What killed my game is my early growth forcing me into the post as a kid and I continued to develop as a post player, then I stopped growing. I never was a great scorer, definitely not a good perimeter shooter, and because of that I would work much harder on defense. My thoughts were... "if I'm not going to score, then THEY are not going to score!"
After my last operation when I completely tore off my patella, back in the early 90s, I had dribbled my last basketball. I've never been able to maintain a routine since then. The carrot was removed from under my nose and I haven't been able to motivate myself to just go back to that lifestyle, even though I enjoyed working out every bit as much as competing on a court.
Funny... but when you get your body fat down so low you can feel it when you add even 1 lb of fat (or fluid, most likely). I'd get that feeling and I'd go earlier to my workouts. At this level you are definitely in touch with your body!
Everybody gets kicked in here now and then. I'd be happy to show you some of my old KUBucket's bruises...
Sometimes it is worth taking a punch because more people respond.
I still know quite a few people that haven't forgiven Roy for going home. Roy is home, we just had the good fortune of being able to rent him for a while. Timing is everything, and at the time Roy was the man for the job.
Someday Bill will leave and chances are people will be upset. The longer coaches stay it's like a long marriage. Over the years people tend to develop both anger and joy in their relationships, making them very confused. But the common thread is all the attention from years of drama. And with attention comes magnetism. When someone departs a magnetic relationship... well... you know....
Speaking of Svi... I hope he isn't living off the typical European spaghetti diet this summer and the kid is eating lots of hormone-feed beef!
Gosh... where are all those recruits who were dying to play WUG ball this summer? Didn't they see the lovely travel brochures from Korea?
I'd like to know how many of our current players have an Adidas background? Anyone know?
I have to say that I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the struggle to land a big man on a team pretty stocked with good experienced players with an excellent coach that has sent a lot of players to the NBA.
I think @HighEliteMajor nailed it with us passing over 4-star players trying to land OADs. We've already seen what a crap shoot these guys can be.
Now is the time we need to land a few solid 4-yr players because in two years we will graduate: Frank, Wayne, Brannen, Landen, and will lose let's say 2 more OADs that year. If we don't build a base of more returning players we will be right back how we were 3 years ago losing our top 6 players. We are just now getting out from under that and can finally mount a team this coming year that isn't one of the very youngest teams in college basketball. And who knows if Devonte will be a 4-yr player the rate he is improving.
It seems that we have thrown all logical basketball structure out the window just to recruit the glamorous OADs. We'll never be squat without having a solid base of returning players.
Look at this thread... full of girls, gold and diamonds... and promises.
Time to pull out the big weapons... video games!
I've never exposed my height in here... Kind of makes me feel naked. It is part of our mystery when posting.
I will say that by the time I stopped growing, I would be considered either a 1 or a 2 in college basketball.
I calculated my weight to be 2.78 lbs per linear inch of height.
When I later cut out my training I immediately bulked to 3.05 lbs per linear inch of height.
I never got in the tank to have it checked but I'm guessing my total body fat in my prime was down to around 6%. I read that 5% or lower and you start losing performance for most sports and I never lost enough essential fat to have endurance issues. I'm guessing my total body fat now is up to around 20%... lazy old man!
Think my maximum bench was 305 or 310. Can't recall my squat.
My typical day involved 1 to 1 1/2 hours in the weight room. 3 hours of solid basketball training. And every night I had a 1 1/2 mile course around my house and I'd run it twice at full speed and time it. That was my typical day, 7 days a week. Sometimes it varied but not much. I rarely had a day when I didn't train. It would zap my energy to stop.
I'm thinking we could give Kevin a mohawk and send him to court for a name change... he would have new, 4-yr eligibility and we'd be done recruiting for this year!
True... and when you gift over any money to an individual or family it tends to just create an enabling connection that doesn't stop after the first donation. Every dollar just builds a thicker connection line for more money in the future.
Being charitable is a great attribute, if done wisely. If done improperly, it throws hard-earned money away that ends up enabling people to make the same mistakes that got them there or even increase their mistakes to the point of being deadly. For example, many drug addicts... if you want to kill them, give them $10,000 and they'll buy enough drugs to kill themselves. A frequent event is for a parent of a drug addict to die and leave them some money, which seals their doom.
Lots of old writing and the only pertinent text in that article is the last sentence:
"Even a so-called better job — I don’t know what job would be better than the one I have right now.” - Bill Self
He's definitely earned my respect... now!
"Don't you think that if you were in that situation you would take as much time as possible to make that important of a decision?"
At that age, I probably would have reacted quickly and screwed up... unless a parent was with me slowing me down. I'm sure Diallo has someone older to help him slow down and think it out carefully.
I'm proud of all these guys!
Lots of lonely years, just me, a basketball and some weights.
From what I read, I'd be happy just to fill one of those scholarships with these guys and then hope for a late catch... something Self is probably the best in the country at doing.
I can't ever recall having a girlfriend during most of those years... and I was built like the Hulk. Maybe the odor clung on and didn't wash off from a shower.
There was the guy in the Plaza in KC, down by Barnes & Noble that won the court case to stay and panhandle people right outside their door. The Star investigated the dude and found out he wasn't homeless at all and had a nice place and drove a Cadillac. I think he was pulling around upper 5 figures from that location annually.
I don't think Self could be easily persuaded to go pro. He knows it is a different ball of wax and he has the best job in college basketball. If he did decide to jump, I'd see him at SA if and when Pop leaves. Big if.. SA management has the patience needed to give a guy like Self a real chance at the next level because his philosophy isn't too far off of Pop's.
Biancardi has a dead simple job... he just writes "will stay close to home" on all the unknown recruits.
"Brings back memories of two weight rooms. The nice one at AFH annex (which is now upgraded to state of the art) and the grungy one under the steps at Memorial Stadium."
I always did my lifting in a grunge hole.
Had a guy once tell me that you will get improved performance from lifting in grunge holes that always have the same smell because you develop a pavlovian response upon hitting that odor upon arrival and your body already starts responding properly with adrenaline. I think it made logical sense and I needed to support my reasons for working out in a dump.
BTW: Rock on, Frank!
I remember one summer in Vegas. Super hot evening and I'm walking downtown (this is already a bad story). Saw a young gal wearing a trench coat. I thought maybe she was a flasher. She was beside me as we stepped off the curb to cross the street and it sounded like all the change in Fort Knox chinged in her over-sized pockets.
I'm a sucker for a woman with kids begging... but all those old guys I might as well just go to the liquor store and buy them a bottle to save them the energy. Forget it!
I think I'll have some business cards made up with Weber's name and number to hand out. Guess I'll have to give them a quarter for the call. Is a payphone still a quarter? Who knows... maybe I recruit them the next player to hit a last second shot and beat us. Maybe. Maybe not.