🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Looks nice... but it's all in the details...

In rooms:

A. Over-sized Jacuzzis

B. WIFI extreme sound systems

C. Quality-built smerf basketball rims

D. 7-foot wall mirrors

E. Laundry shoots and maid service

F. High-speed internet with Skype-connected cams and mics

Other areas:

G. All kinds of gaming consoles built in media room

H. Secured VPN and Skype in study rooms connected to study groups and counselors

I. Automated wood pellet-burning pizza oven in kitchen

J. Refrigerated tap in lounge for non-alcoholic beer

NOW... we are talking about recruiting!!!

You can look at Cal's results and from that decide he's a good coach. Or you can look at how his piers rank him, and he's in the middle of the pack.

The one known area of excellence for Cal is recruiting. Who is to say what the worst coach in D1 basketball would do with all the talent Cal brought in?

I'm not a fan of Cal, but I give him credit for having patience... all those freshmen every year must make life crazy. I'm sure he has the right personality to do it, too. His over-animated coaching style appearing to be trying to reach kindergarten kids makes comical basketball to watch, but I bet it serves him well. I don't know how any kid with half a brain would want to be coached like that. I guess it says something about those who sign on.

@globaljaybird - RIght on! To coach in a world without animosity, judgements, egos... just warm, accepting hearts full of love and enthusiasm! For whatever aspects are missing from their lives because of their personal situations, they more than make up for it by being so special in all the right areas! I know I questioned many of my own behaviors and motivations after having that privilege! There is no better position anywhere for teaching what CAN happen on this planet!

Imagine if those attitudes and behaviors went beyond the doors of Special Olympics? The world would be one happy place!

I don't know if this is true.... but it feels like Fred is a bit too focused only on beating Kansas. For example... talk about a trap game in Oklahoma!

I don't think there is any doubt that Hoiberg is a legit coach. He's put ISU on the radar. But if he has a downfall it is his desire to skip too quickly to the top.

It seems he wants to model his team in a Kansas mold without going through the 116 years or so of Kansas legendary basketball that got us to where we are today. He would do better to model his team after Marshall at WSU, who has taken their growth one small step at a time and it has been coming on for more than a decade. For that reason, it isn't totally shocking that the Shockers made the FF.

If Fred keeps pulling fast ones, he'll lose the respect he was starting to earn by grinding out tough seasons and posting modest gains in victories.

"The Mayor" is a good name for him... because he is full of political ambition!

Slow it down, Fred... embrace honorable play and methods... and work hard... before you know it, you'll have a shot at your goals! Respect Kansas, because without Kansas in the B12, this league would quickly become a dog league going nowhere. Respect us and we'll respect you back! It is a win-win situation unless you continue being a trickster!

There are a pile of bones of old coaches from other schools in our league that thought they could pull a fast one on Kansas.... do any of these names ring a bell?

Quin Snyder, Norm Stewart, Billy Tubbs...

Right... they don't ring a bell!

Now look at some old coaches from other schools who do ring a bell, and didn't make a living pulling fast ones:

Eddie Sutton, Henry Iba, Tex Winter, Jack Hartman... to name a few!

Only YOU can decide which pile you end up in.

@jaybate

Because of the outrageous amount of money paid for shoe endorsements... I'm suddenly taking your thoughts seriously about shoe companies. There is just way too much money being tossed around to not look closely at it and expect it's an area where anything is possible.

It seems that Adidas most-effective way to compete with Nike is go with fewer athletes, but many at the top. Sort of a rifle approach instead of shotgun approach.

@HighEliteMajor - You can always worry about our post presence in a few years because anything can happen between now and then. Many of the top prospects in the post starting HS now aren't on the radar yet... many yet to grow another 5 to 10 inches in the next two years. It's just hard to say. After Alexander may come another player like Cliff or Randle who is ready-built. Or a transfer... I still have high hopes for Lucas. He has the best fundamentals of all our bigs now. Who is to say he won't go crazy on Hudy this summer? Put some muscle on Lucas and we have a guy who could compete with anyone! He has already changed his body completely. He was full of baby fat before arriving in Lawrence. The guys who build really useful muscle mass spend a few years developing it and developing their game around it. That is totally different than pumping muscles up in a few months to look good in a magazine.

I don't think people gave Withey enough credit for his hard work in the weight room. That guy added as much real strength as a guy can do (effectively) in just a couple of years. If he sticks with it now (in the pro ranks) he'll become a journeyman player in the league. Those footers who can defend and have real strength rarely leave the league early (unless injured).

I think the real issue with players of OAD potential:

Can they play team ball? Do they require special treatment, which, in the process, helps destroy team chemistry?

I think Wiggins is sometimes too unselfish. I'm glad he's starting to push his game more.

And we are now discovering that passing is one of Embiid's true talents! His outlet passes off of defensive rebounds are the best I've ever seen of any big man ever to wear a college uniform! And on offense... he is starting to thrive off of being doubled by looking to hard pass to an open player. That one recent highlight showing him doubled and how he threw a hard baseball pass to the open guard on the opposite perimeter side was as good as it gets at the college level. You expect to see that kind of passing in the NBA, not college ball!

I'm still thrilled we have both Embiid and Wiggins! I just wish we had them longer! Who knows... maybe Embiid stays. Imagine that... Embiid staying? No team in college ball would have the slightest answer for handling Embiid next year.... I'd say few have an answer for him now. The only answer is to draw him into fouls.

And most of those players still left early. How many of those guys did we get the full 4-year ride out of?

As soon as any of them get to draft status, they are gone! So... we only get one year at "all-star" level. I remember how bad the twins were in their freshman year. We didn't know they could even dunk until sophomores.

They can be big duds when not OADs... at least if OADs are duds, they should return for another year or two and start to develop. In the least, the OAD dud is still probably better than the freshman 4-yr development player. I'd rather have the OAD back for year two... (in most cases)

I just think we would all benefit from a NBA rules change making these guys go two years to college, or none at all and straight to pros.

I think our situation will start leveling out next year.... when we have a cast of mostly returning players and 2 or 3 new players, some of which could be OADs, but none for sure.

This is just a tough year for Kansas basketball starting from scratch. But at least we have dreams for this year... so... you could argue that this year has been made more typical than many would have thought. We are looking good for #10 and there is the chance this team could do something in March. I'm pretty sure that makes a typical Bill Self team more than the fact that we have a team full of freshmen (which we were going to have anyways unless he scored more transfers).

I don't think we can really know the best way to go in recruiting until we give this method a try for 5 or so years. You have to have several seasons of it to see if Self adjusts to the changes and to have a decent enough size sample to make a judgment.

We could win it all this year and it still doesn't mean this is the way to go. Maybe we win it all and then end up in the NIT for the next 4 years. I seriously doubt that will happen, but I doubt that will happen regardless what happens this March.

Still... no one knows what will happen... that is what makes this game so friggin' addictive! I'm such a junkie... I'm really pathetic!

Speaking of Embiid....

Here is the twisted view from our "friends" over at USAToday:

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/01/kansas-joel-embiid-had-the-most-picture-perfect-missed-dunk/ ↗

Out of all the highlights from that game showing a positive outcome for Embiid, they show his one miss at a dunk. (and Embiid was fouled)

USAToday isn't news... it's media driven by an agenda.

I never thought we would be NIT-bound this year.

And when looking at Kentucky this year... if something happened to Randle right now, they could have a repeat year of failure in the NIT. Sure... they have loads of talent, but it is undeveloped for D1... Randle was the only guy truly D1 ready. Young is making big gains, however. I don't think they could rebound from a loss like Randle.

BTW: I'm not hoping that happens!

@Crimsonorblue22 - I don't know.... I thought he has recovered? We haven't been receiving medical updates on him. I'm not sure of the details involved in medical RS.

Maybe others in here have more knowledge on that subject and could respond here?

@globaljaybird - I think you have the right nature, sensibilities and basketball knowledge to be a great coach! It's never too late to get back in! My coaching experience is limited... many moons ago I coached in Special Olympics and with the really small guys. Then I left for overseas for 20 years, which expanded my culture and basketball. I'm back now and I hope to get back into a bit of youth coaching soon. I have to admit, the most rewarding coaching, for me, was in the Special Olympics program. I've never had more fun and experienced so much enthusiasm in sports! Those kids totally rock! I wish everyone had their purity and enthusiasm!

@konkeyDong - Awesome analogy.... great perspective on your post!

I think the book is still out on Turner. I see him as a project ahead of Withey at his age. He definitely has more potential than Withey on offense. It really is all about Turner's focus on development... Hudy! Imagine that kid with some muscle!

I agree with you... next year's team is shaping up well... though I'm sure we are still in for some shake ups to the roster.

And I'm with you on Tharpe needing to be a better defender. He can learn to be a great creator on offense, but if he turns right around and gives it all back on defense, what is the advantage we have with Tharpe?

Hard to say, this early, if next year's team will have anyone go OAD. It's just too soon to predict. A lot of that is perception and media buzz.

I'm thinking... put yourself in White's shoes. The guy worked his tail off last summer... hustled through early practices... and is now taking pine every game for 40 minutes. It is hard to believe a guy in that situation could stay motivated....

On the other hand... maybe Self is tooling him for a late season surprise element!

Imagine all that energy going on inside White. All the time he has now to visualize game situations to come. A chip the size of Mount Rushmore must be building on those manly shoulders he developed last summer....

Self makes White the "monster under wraps" and White is improving even at a higher rate now than in the off-season.

Could it be? How could teams scout us properly?

We unleash the beast in the last few B12 games... where we put the exclamation mark on #10!

I highly recommend everyone read that last article on ESPN.... especially the comments section, in the middle... some tasty bantering between a UK fan and other fans. The UK fan believes Cauley-Stein is better than Embiid. Priceless delusion from the True Blues crowd.

@jaybate -

"This could be Greene's, or AW3's game to shine in."

Or will AW3 even get a minute of play? I can't believe he's been shut out of minutes now for so long. It gives me the feeling he may be a mid-season transfer. I hope I'm wrong.... but it seems odd that a guy like him has been MIA for so long.

@nuleafjhawk - I'm hoping Self has smacked the troops around after that SDSU home loss.

"Boys... we simply don't lose at home! That's not Kansas basketball! Go in AFH this afternoon, when it is quiet, and listen for some old reverb cheers from our history in that building. Those cheers aren't for losses."

@globaljaybird - It seems funny... Cal telling his guys to remain poised and in control, while he remains animated and with a terrifying look like his family is trapped in a house fire. It just doesn't add up... but for those who aren't really UK fans, it is extremely comical to watch! I catch most of the UK games and I'm never disappointed on the entertainment value.

Thanks for the link! Man... did that guy fly high or what?

@ParisHawk - Gosh.. without losing more to OAD or transfer, we have already landed the two available scholarships. And we will have a team with mostly non-freshmen next year.

If we are snagging one more player... at this point, is it almost easier to land another OAD for "icing on the cake" or land a development player who will be behind someone next year and might always be behind someone if we land more OADs in future years?

It almost seems easier to fill one more spot with another OAD. The more OADs we send to the NBA early, the easier it is to recruit more OADs and harder to recruit developmental players who may never get real PT. That's just my opinion... total theory BTW.

Is the OSU game a "trap game?"

OSU has already dropped a game, and they've lost Cobbins, their major post presence.

Do we take the Cowboys for granted now? We've had 3 impressive B12 victories... time for cruise control?

Or will our guys get a taste of OSU before this game in the video room and get fired up after watching Smart's back flip in AFH?

Are we ready to play consistent, game after game?

After the last few games I kind of forgot we are mostly freshmen.... but the facts remain the same... we are mostly freshmen!

@nuleafjhawk - I'm a basketball nut... so I DVR games about every night. My wife thinks I'm a lunatic. She's probably right.

I caught the Kitties' game, too.

Did you see how Arkansas beat Kentucky? The OT slam at the buzzer? It was un-friggin-real! 3 Kentucky players just standing under the goal while a high-flying Razorback shot in and had one of the greatest slam dunks of all times! It's worth a watch today on Sportscenter... and if you can't find it there, it surely must be online.

Totally hilarious... watching all those future NBA players standing flat-footed and only being a spectator to the highlight! I can imagine them thinking, "that should have been me!"

BTW: Did anyone in here watch the UK - Arkansas game last night? It was hilarious watching Cal be Cal. He's so friggin' animated and his coaching style looks like he is coaching 5 year old kids in biddy basketball.

The commentators constantly mentioned Kansas. I guess Kentucky watches our games... and Cal mentioned to his team that they need to have the same composure we had going into Ames. The commentators kept mentioning that, and also mentioned how we beat Cal at Memphis.

We are in our own little bubble... but outside of Jayhawk land, we are starting to get more attention all the time (again). I like us being almost off the radar. Our players can focus on basketball instead of TV cameras.

Imagine if we had just gone for second tier players this year?

We were still replacing our starting 5 from last year. Is our only way of judging this team if they win a NC? I'm pretty certain if we snagged lower quality players we wouldn't be winning #10 in the B12.

So we do have a Calipari-like team this year but that was more because of losing most of our team last year.

I am of the opinion we will not lose all three of Wiggins, Embiid and Selden. If true, that means we have at least one of those guys back for at least one more year.

And of Greene, Frankamp and White... I'm pretty sure at least 2 of those guys will be back.

Mason and Tharpe will be back. Lucas and Traylor will be back. Mickelson will be back.

Even if we lose 2 of our 3 potential OADs and we lose 1 to transfer, we are going to be stacked next year with what we have and what we bring in. As of today, we have two guys that look like they'll start as freshmen. So it is hard to imagine next year's team being nearly as young as this year's team.

However... the fact that we brought in several potential OADs and had to replace our entire starting lineup... this was a good year to test the waters with the Jayhawk Nation with a Calipari-like team to know for future reference if we want to dive in this deep.

My sights are on #10... and if we win that, and nothing else, I'm satisfied. Of course, I'd like to see a March run and hardware in Lawrence.... but we have a long ways to go to be competitive in March. I'm not holding my breath.

Out of all of Self's teams... this is the true "rebuilding year." I can't think of another one of his teams where he had to replace the entire starting 5.... actually starting 6 (Kevin Young).

This is not a common year for Jayhawk basketball... and that was no matter who we recruited.

@HighEliteMajor - I'm glad you continue to post on the differences between the top tier players and those just below.

We've had so many discussions about this... and it really has to be talked about continually because more complexities are realized every time we do.

What about Turner? Do we get Turner because we got Embiid, or would we get him if we hadn't landed Embiid? Or do we want another guy that could end up going OAD?

I don't know... but it seems like now we've thrown our hat into the OAD arena, and there is no turning back. If we don't continue to land OADs now, it will be assumed that we hit another slump.

Perception is a big part of all of this... no matter how you look at it.

I think most people are glad we have Embiid now, and are thinking if he leaves after one season we'll replace him with another top big. Heck... if he doesn't get replaced by someone new coming in we do have some quality guys coming up that could nail down the 5, though maybe only Lucas is a true 5.

I still don't know what is up with AW3? Is he done for this year? Could he be a mid-season transfer and we hear of him leaving in the next few days? It just doesn't seem to make sense that he hasn't picked up any minutes lately. This is the guy that was praised for his off-season work ethic with Hudy. This is the guy that was praised for early practice hustle. The word has come down that Greene is going to start getting some minutes (when possible)... and now Frankamp is finding a few minutes on the court.

I know all of us get man-crushes on our players and hate to see them transfer, but maybe it should be that way. Maybe it is just one more method of using discipline with players. And it is, for sure, a way to offer up another opportunity to someone who is in a situation that could be better at another school.

I know most fans don't understand that a scholarship is only for one year. There is no commitment beyond a year. It just seems natural that players stay 4 or 5 years (unless they turn pro sooner). Transfers seem to indicate troubles on a team.

With the recent story released about Merv... isn't it now obvious that players who transfer out of Kansas usually still made the right choice by coming here in the first place?

I think the transfer issue unfairly demonizes Self, and people get this idea that he's not looking out for the best interest of the player. Self does look out for players, right behind driving to win as many games as possible for Kansas. That comes first, and closely behind comes player nurturing. That is the proper priority because without winning, Self is gone from this job. We didn't hire him to be a social worker.

It is truly sad that we only have Embiid and Wiggins for a couple more months. I wish players were forced into playing two years or going straight to pros from HS. The OAD situation stinks... but it is what it is, and we are forced into an OAD world!

I love to see players staying 4 or 5 years! I miss Releford right now!

@JayHawkFanToo - I totally agree. Neither of those teams had played anyone tough yet so they had gone unscathed early on.

Deep down I respect Fred's competitiveness. He has a tough job trying to recruit at ISU and will always be swimming upstream against us. But let's face it... if Fred hadn't come along then ISU would be a cake walk for us. It is good for the league (and good for us) to have all teams in the B12 competitive.

But I'm going to dish on Fred sometimes for trying a little too hard to win. I think their strategy for this game backfired. He has a better team than what we played... definitely better from behind the arc. He had them working on flops right before we played instead of staying in rhythm on their 3-pt shooting. And when teams go for flopping and trying to win by fouling out their opponents, they get away from the game and games can get ugly. I'm glad we kept our cool. Embiid kept his cool (though few may challenge me on that). They were baiting him all game. I'm so glad he made them pay for that!

JoJo just has to remember... when teams are pulling his chain... the way to get back at them is to play determined, by the rules, and knock'em the he11 out!

"Besides, the teams do much better jobs on scouting during the conference play."

Nailed it, @Wishawk ! I sometimes think that favors young teams because they usually haven't shown all their potential yet, so the scouting can't be totally accurate. Guess it matters if the young team has plenty of upside and are constantly developing plays and individual moves yet to be seen.

It does seem like our defense is playing better. I don't know how much of that is because the team has been out of school and received so much coaching or the fact that we entered B12 play and our guys are taught how to play based off of scouting.

Probably both reasons! We gave up a few easy hoops (but not many) and we had too many fouls... but we held ISU on their home court to 70 points off of 31.4% FG. Obviously, they shot bad, but surely we deserve some of that credit. I know Embiid heavily impacted that %... so did Wiggins... Traylor... Black... Selden and even Tharpe!

If you throw out all our TOs and fouls... we would have held them down in the 50s!

It's a high day in Jayhawkland when Tharpe sticks to his man!

Ha... good typo catch! "Brown points".... let's see... what else could it mean?

When I was a kid and heard "brownie points" I thought it meant points you could cash in with mom so she'd make brownies. I try to hold on to that thought every time I experience the term.

Maybe that is why I made a typo. Who is cooking brownies on draft day?

"Jayhawks spoil Big Monday for Kane, Cyclones"

Awe, nowwww..... did we spoil Kane's injured ankle Big Monday?! Sure didn't notice a limp until his team was soundly beat and he was going for sympathy after he didn't get his phantom foul call on Embiid.

I'm starting to dislike that guy, and it shouldn't be that way. He has plenty of talent and should just play the game straight up.

That kind of phoney showmanship won't earn him brown points come draft day either!

I love it when the camera angles over to the bench when Embiid has to sit because of fouls... his look is absolutely menacing!

Yeah... I caught Embiid laughing it up, too. And since you mentioned it, I wonder if Fred played that card!

Most fans in here know of my earlier post where I outlined the season ahead in hopes we'd all realize this team would take some time to learn to play solid ball.

The beginning of the year I had as at HOT HOT HOT... because young players came in with plenty of energy and excitement, and were playing with their HS virgin games... untouched from D1 influences. We all knew this to be temporary.

The next step was COLD COLD COLD as players had to be stripped of their past rhythms, ideas and bad habits. We took on 4 losses to tough teams, but the end result was graduating from the "School of Hard Knocks." I'm not sure we have learned all the lessons we need yet, but there is still plenty of basketball to be played this year.

Up until now, I had us in the COLD COLD COLD bracket. This team had to string together several decent games before getting out of the cellar. We needed to see a trend in play that showed us this team learned some lessons and was starting to apply some of Self-ball.

They have accomplished that goal, and deserve to be moved to WARM WARM WARM. Under this description we should continue to rack up plenty of victories, but we still have the potential to lose games easily, sometimes by surprise, by having cold shooting, abundant TOs, and from playing poor defense. Look at our great win in Ames last night. We showed so much potential and it looked as if we dominated this game, but we still only won by a few and had our luck run down at the end, this could have been a heart-breaking defeat. We will always remain vulnerable while listed as WARM WARM WARM. Playing at this level also requires our first experience with playing some quality of defense. We are playing better defense now... it's still a long ways from making us a contender in March (or even guaranteeing another B12 title), but at least it is clearly improving from what it was just a short time ago. All that gym time right now is starting to pay off!

Our next leap in development should push us to WARMER WARMER WARMER, and at this stage we should have several complete beat down victories behind us. At this level, we should be a solid team at closing games out. At this level, the window for losing should shrink at least in half because we will have confidence and energy at the end of games and knowledge and execution for ending them the right way. During this phase, we should also become more efficient at fixing problems in real time during games.

I hope we can reach the level of HOT HOT HOT this year! If we do, it will be almost impossible for us to lose. At this level, we need to have a history of play where every player in our rotation has had previous games where they stood out and helped us seal the victory. Everyone should know what they have to bring in order for us to win, and the games will get harder and the pressure tighter... but we will know what it takes. That is extreme play and high expectations for a team this young. It is rare for a team this young to get to this level of basketball, but this is what it will take to close out March play with hardware returning to Lawrence. We shouldn't even think about this now because we are a long distance from being a team owning this label. We have to take every game one at a time and earn all the lessons along the way if we hope to reach HOT HOT HOT and have a shot at a National Championship!

In the meantime... good news! We are no longer in the cellar.... WARM WARM WARM is the organic spot we deserve at this period of time.

Rock Chalk, and let's go do it one step at a time!

The only flipping OSU is going to do this year in AFH is hand flipping off the crowd after they get humiliated for 40 minutes!

We'll accept that and not consider it hotdoggin'!

The results of this game didn't surprise me, after I caught on to "The Mayor's" game plan.

Fred is a sneaky guy, I give him credit for that.

His plan started on Saturday, by faking the severity of Kane's ankle sprain. He left Norman on crutches? Really? They going to stick to that story? Even the mushy commentators almost exposed this hoax.

Fred's game plan was to draw fouls and win this game by winning the foul war. They did foul out two of our bigs, and they did go to the FT line for 15 more attempts than us. But they paid a price for taking that strategy... most of the time when teams run this strategy they lose focus in other parts of their game. Even though you could argue 3-pt shooting doesn't relate to drawing fouls while driving or on defense because those are different areas of the game, you can also argue the opposite, and when players have to give extra thought to anything it takes away from their focus on nailing shots. ISU shot a miserable 16% from trey. We had something to do with that because our defense is improving... but come on... many of those shots were uncontested and ISU has a reputation for nailing 3s, even when they are contested.

Everything came into complete focus on this game when Kane drove the paint on Embiid towards the end and blew the shot and hounded the refs for a foul and Embiid didn't lay a glove on him. Kane suddenly acted injured again. I hate that kind of wussy basketball. A play from the Hansbrough playbook (except he often did take body blows). We all know how well that strategy works against Kansas teams! ha!

What a pathetic, whiny game from Fred this time. I laughed when Mush and Fran commented about Fred not liking the contact of the game, and it showed Fred with a whiny look at the refs. Didn't last year's game in Ames end whiny? Iowa is close to Wisconsin... maybe they can borrow some cheese from that State, since Wisconsin doesn't seem to be whining this year!

Solid win in Ames. There were parts of our game that need work, primarily fouls and TOs. Reduce those in this game and it would have been a massacre.

Typically for this award I'm looking for guys to get down on the court and take one for the team. Last night's performance yielded a different kind of hustle. A hustle we have to view the stat sheet to fully understand.

There are 3 guys who share the FLOOR BURN AWARD in this game: Andrew Wiggins, Naadir Tharpe and Joel Embiid. All three brought hustle and tilted the stat sheet so much that the final score (and victory) would not have swung our way without all three of these guys stepping up.

The media is all over Tharpe, and his points. Funny, but wasn't that the same media that said Tharpe didn't need to score this year?

The one single stat that sticks out far above all other numbers came from Wiggins. 19 rebounds! Are you kidding me? And 5 of those on the offensive side, helping us win back some of the possessions we lost on TOs. 19 rebounds is one short of potentially helping two players reach a double-double. And the rest of Wiggins' game yielded results, too, 17 points, 3 assists, 1 steal. Wiggins continued to make finishes that let ISU know how much more talent we have over them. He dominated in all aspects except one, and we'll cover that at the end of this post.

Joel Embiid is a beast. He is starting to earn a reputation for cheap shots and I'm not so sure that is a bad thing. Of course, we don't promote cheap shots at Kansas, but suddenly Embiid has become the poster child for Wichita State's motto: "Play angry!" JoJo became a determined man in the post, and we witnessed some of his best moments as a Jayhawk in Ames. He had a couple of spurts where he took over the game (on both sides of the ball), and it was clear that ISU (and the rest of college basketball) doesn't have an answer for combating JoJo in the post. It makes me hope in every game forward Embiid doesn't commit a cheap shot when all we need is a cheap foul call go against him. It was clear that ISU had a strategy to draw fouls in this game. Sounds good on paper, but not at the expense of angering JoJo! All of college basketball beware: "Don't piss off JoJo!"

Naadir Tharpe deserves plenty of praise for this game. He did an outstanding job of controlling our tempo and running our offense. In the process, he took what the defense gave him, and in doing so he banged down 23 points, almost 1/3 of our points, off of 7-of-9, including 3-of-4 from trey. He also accumulated 4 assists, 6 rebounds and a steal! That is a lot of participation in a game, exactly what you want from your PG, participation!

The one downside to all three of these players' performance was their TOs. The three amigos shared 17 TOs amongst themselves. If they had played error-free ball it is safe to say we may have won by 20 more points. Our TOs and our fouls putting ISU to the line kept this game much closer than it should have been.

But we can never complain about going into Cyclone country and coming away with a victory, something Danny Manning and Larry Brown never accomplished back on our National Championship team.

Conference Season Tally:

Andrew Wiggins 1

Joel Embiid 1

Naadir Tharpe 1

Tarik Black 1

Wayne Selden 1

@KUSTEVE - Right, we got this... If we play like we did against the Kitties, it will be a quiet crowd game in Ames. There is no reason why we shouldn't smack down hard on the Mayor.

This is a night we need players like Perry to show up ready to mash. Hopefully, Embiid can take advantage of his height, but it will depend if he can stop fouling.

I'm not counting on our 3s tonight, but it would be nice if we could go out in other people's gym and nail the long ball. Whether or not the 3 is there.... we should start from the middle and give the Mayor a big taste of Self's hi/lo. And then go for the long ball. It's like football.... earn respect with your running game then take to the air.

My bet is Kane will suit up and sit on the bench, probably with heat on his ankle. Isn't it about time he flipped from ice to heat? Isn't it 48 hrs after?

I feel for the guy and wish he would have been healthy to run at full speed. He's got some serious game and I always like us to play teams at full speed.

Maybe we'll get a better taste of Kane in AFH... but I'm not holding my breath on him playing tonight. But who knows what his pain tolerance is.

I usually spot a player that has lifted his hustle in a game and those players need to be rewarded. But what about a guy like Traylor who is bringing solid hustle every game? I'm glad you reminded me of his energy, because he surely deserves this award just about every game!

I think what matters most for AW3 is that he continues to develop his game. Whether or not he earns big minutes in the future is up to him and the talent we recruit. But as long as he is building strength and improving his game he'll find a well-paid job after KU... perhaps in the Ukraine! (or more realistic, Europe).

That's what I care about the most for players like AW3. And I hope he snags a diploma while in Lawrence. Those tend to come in handy later, too!

I thought our decorum in here was to be able to put names to comments but not people. I broke the law in my comment.

I wouldn't call myself deranged... but I would call some of my comments deranged, including at least one of them that I deleted above.

We are trying to help @iowajayhawk2005 fit his comments within the boundaries, and he has been trying. If we don't follow the same initiative back...

I'd like to think we can all maintain a reasonable amount of tolerance. I've shown my own weakness in that area in my erased rant... but I'd like to become a better person... someday! ;)

I apologize to everyone and I pulled my comments. That was something better left for myself.

There is a lot of great people in Iowa, and I'm sorry if my rant flowed into a feeling of generalization. That wasn't fair!

I'm a fan of @iowajayhawk2005 .

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!andrewhitespotting.jpg ↗

AW3 isn't MIA... he's in the Ukraine playing world ball!

@HighEliteMajor - Good call, bringing up the low minutes of our perimeter bench guys.

For one, I know Self keeps a good PR relationship with Weber, but deep down, I don't think he likes him. He can say what he does in public, but I think Self took his team out there on the court to give KSU (and Weber) a beat down.

I think it even reflected in Embiid's action that got him tossed. Of course, Self doesn't condone that kind of behavior, but he did have these guys stimulated to play... perhaps the first time since the Duke game.

Maybe it's just because we started conference play and the game was in our building.

I'm anxious to go play the Kitties in Manhattan. I have a feeling that will be one of our better road games this year.

When the B12 season is over... I'm curious if this game with the Kitties is our largest deficit beat down?!

My guess when we play teams like TCU in our own building and we lead by a quarter of a century, we'll be passing out more bench minutes and rounding off the edges on a lopsided score.

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Good God... why didn't he shave his legs?!

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It has been totally unfair to compare Wiggins with Lebron. Wiggins is infinitely quicker than Lebron, and Lebron is totally stronger. Their games are not the same. Lebron probably has 50 lbs or so on Wiggins.

Wiggins better be careful not to get hurt. Every player, especially those with NBA ambition, better remain mindful and not play careless basketball.

We should appreciate the risk Wiggins is taking now. He's making aggressive moves to the hole and tries to finish near the rim. There is huge risk in playing that style of basketball. I'd rather he only do it on occasion.

Wiggins is still trying to figure out his game. His game is starting to expose itself to him. Wiggins real talent, what puts him above everyone else is....

WIGGINS SHOULD BE ABLE TO CREATE SCORING SPACE BETTER THAN ANY PLAYER EVER TO PLAY THE GAME!

Sorry for running caps... but I think it was worth it to express the truth. Wiggins is lightning fast, but his advantage with speed is easily compensated for when defenders already know what he is going to do. That is why Wiggins is getting contested near the rim. He is taking advantage of that by taking some contact and earning FTs.

Wiggins real strength (that he is starting to figure out) is to work off the dribble, and make sudden veers off his path for easy jump shots. No one on this level (or the next) will be able to stop him once he perfects his moves. He'll be the next Kobe, but with much quicker feet. He'll dominate in mid range... and if he continues to improve his 3-pt shot, he'll dominate from there, too. And he'll always be a threat to take it all the way to the rim.

Wiggins already owns open court play. That's where his athleticism takes over and he's hard to stop... but he has to have more game than open court ball.

Between now and March, I hope he totally figures it out and realizes how deadly of a scorer he can be in mid range. He showed at least one of those moves yesterday. Kobe, move over...

I never understood why Andrew isn't compared more with Kobe? Kobe's game is something closer to what Andrew can mimic (except he can heavily improve on Kobe's best game). Andrew can forget being the next Lebron..... it's not going to happen unless he stays at Kansas for 4 years and becomes a total Hudy freak!

Learn to pull up more, Andrew. Learn it now and score more and save your body!

What a game! The overall energy Kansas brought to this game was excellent! It wasn't easy to separate and award one single Jayhawk for having more hustle than the others. Perry Ellis got after it on the offensive glass, winning us an extra 3 possessions. That's something we haven't seen enough of from Perry, but nice to see him do it in league play.

The one guy who really gave up his body for this win was Tarik Black. Tarik is the winner of the FLOOR BURN AWARD in this game. In his fifteen minutes of action, Tarik scored 4 points, 4 rebounds, 1 dynamic assist and 2 intimidating blocks. But what won this award for Tarik was the two times he gave us his body for charge calls, and got them! It's a tough year to earn charges, especially for bigger players like Tarik. His previous record of winning the charge calls wasn't good, but he stuck with it and he now knows it is possible. This method of winning over a possession may just catch on and help us out this year. Up until now, players feel too comfortable to drive in on post defenders because they know the whistle favors them. Maybe we are at the beginning part of a trend, maybe the whistle won't always bail out over-aggressive ball handlers in the future. With Tarik's size, ball handlers will know what it is like to run into a brick wall on the court!

Tarik sort of lost some fans early in the season, losing faith in his value. He's been stepping up and winning some of those fans back. Let's hope he continues that trend!

Conference Season Tally:

Tarik Black 1

Wayne Selden 1

Now that was a beat down!

@HighEliteMajor -

"Wondering here if Cindy could kindly suggest to coach Self that selecting a three point sniper as regular part of the rotation would be a wise thing to do? We could all pony up and send her a fruit basket or something ..."

...and wondering if while she is at it she could diagram several specific plays they could run for us to nail the long ball.

I don't know why I feel this way... but I'm getting the feeling like Conner is ready to go to work out there and nail 3s now!

"KSU senior Shane Southwell on his opinion of KU: “Discipline and bigs ... they always have really good bigs. Now they have good bigs and good wings. I just think of a good program, they are always one of the better teams in the country, and they always play hard. It is going to be a bar fight.

“It’s crucial,” he added of the game. “I never won there or even got close to winning there. I want to get a win there. It is going to be hard to look back on my life and say I did not get a win in that arena.”"

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2014/jan/11/notebook-self-liked-kus-hustle-wants-more/?mens_basketball ↗

Wasn't it Southwell who blasted Kevin Young's manliness then later had to eat his words?

I kind of remember this:

http://www2.kusports.com/photos/2013/jan/22/248151/ ↗

There is no way in heck we better lose to Southwell... especially in our own building!

We need this one for Kevin Young!

My preference is Knight. I like his delivery and actually would like to see him screaming at refs all over again. It would be really something to see him throw another chair onto the court now since he doesn't represent a team. Who are they going to T-up for that?

I never miss a Bobby Knight game if for no other reason than to see if he has forgotten his own name.