Played easy teams
jayhawks2010
145 posts
I see Harris at the pg, Adamās at center. Elmarko starting sgā¦. I think we land 2 transfer guards. Both high level guys that start at the 3 and 4. Small potential our 2024 guy reclassifies and battles for the 4 spotā¦ā¦ udeh and zuby back up bigsā¦ā¦. Chris J and hopefully another transfer guard off the bench. Reality self will probably still have Bobby or yesfu back but they should both be goneā¦ Iām pretty confident zach, cuffe will be gone. I donāt see mj rice upside. Heās strong but heās not very laterally quick, heās not fluid with the ball and seems awkward. Shot doesnāt look elite. I rather him transferā¦.. this team lost really bc of no depth at the guard. Bobby yesfu and mj rice were awful this year. One good bench guard would have changed KUs chances
I somewhat agree. I think wilson around that screen had the potential to shoot a 3 instead of drive. I think everyone gets the reasoning for the quick 2 etc. also I think weāve all seen people force a bad 3 point look. Generally speaking I agree though under 15 second you should go 3 if you can get that look. I donāt know how many times they say get the quick 2 but itās not always that easy. The guy misses an awkward drive or it takes too long to get that quick 2. Or they get fouled and miss the free throws from the driveā¦..Ku in general did run the play correctly. Hereās the thing though after you make the shot/free throws, you canāt just let the star player whose made a ton of free throws just catch the ball so easily. Bc you essentially are giving them back the two points. After wilson Made his free throw. Without having to be freed up on a screen their best player just caught the ball so quickly. Poor execution by ku!!!ā¦ā¦ in my feeling with this team they should have gone 3 to tie but oh wellā¦.. also not subbing in a second big on that crucial missed rebound on the free throw near the end was frustrating
Awesome win!
I think yesfu is still potentially a big bench piece. We are offensively limited in some ways and he has some much explosiveness and ability to score that others donāt have. Bobby and jaun are defensive pass first guys and poor shooters. in certain matchups we need yesfu!
Udeh definitely should be the starting center as we move forward. Love kj as an energy guy and defensive bench guy but not the starter yetā¦He really needs to grow offensively to play more.
Grady obviously looks awesome and legit! I thought udeh showed more this game. Defensively he contested the rim and he slid his feet better. Definitely looks like the starting center by half way through the season for sureā¦..
Big missing piece has to be Mj rice. McDonaldās all American yet to play, who is suppose to be a scorer. Yesfu and mj rice; one of those has to be a go to bench scorer for this team to reach its ceiling.
Iām not on the Bobby P train yet. Good on ball defender. I donāt see the elite to the rim athleticism. Doesnāt shoot open looks. He hit one three but so does Dajuan. I feel like he takes up the same role as Harris. I think heās a decent player donāt get me wrong but I donāt see the hype of this potential elite ku guard. More of a great role player ceiling. Russel rob level.
Sure other things are on, nba and nhl. nba does have their time slot on espn etc. but espn, fox, cbs devote a ton of main tv nights showing college basketball. If it had very little coverage/following they would show way more nba games but they donāt. College Bball would be only on espn 2 or plus. Pretty much all Monday-Wednesday on espn, espn 2, espn + etc is college Bball. Almost all Saturday is college basketball. Big portion of Sunday for the big ten is on cbs. Most of the nba is on tnt.
Probably so. But basketball does have more games and more nights throughout the week. Like football has pretty much one day, so a one day game might have more, but what about the cumulative effect of a whole week of games. I get that it doesnāt matter compared to Football but I feel like it still has television value when itās like literally the only thing on outside of the nfl Jan-March. Anyway hopefully it all works out
file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/eb/11/DAB2B33D-7A00-4B04-81F7-45EC6DAFA7D8/Image-1.heic
So we were third in revenue. Way higher then other big 12 teams. AAU membership and we have a lot of the KC market, which sure isnāt huge but still a decent market that the big ten doesnāt haveā¦. I guess I donāt get how Bball doesnāt play into this. So all of these TV deals that are driving this are only football related. Literally one of the most televised things in the winter is college Bball. College football doesnāt carry the whole winter. So the UK vs KU Bball matchups have no value over a mediocre Iowa football team vs ucla football? Like I get getting the best football you can, but duke ku etc have such a Bball following. How would that not drive the needle a bit for the TV contracts, to include KU vs ucla, KU MsU etc
Honestly this team is a good team but not a great one. Letās see what Self can do. Heās rarely overachieved with his teams potential in the tourney. Now partly itās because heās usually had great/top 5 type teams. This team reminds me of like every Izzo team. Good players with only 1-2 really nba level guys. Typically, Look way outclassed against superior athletes but then in the tourney play rugged defense and smart basketball. Grind their way to a final four and everyone is like how in the hell did msu make the final four. But once they are their, they have no real shot to win it all. And typically lose in a non competitive final four gameā¦ā¦ how different do we think about these last 4 years if we actually get to play in that tourney with senior doke š¤
I feel like there is something to it or he wouldnāt have gotten worked up. There has been this weird tension all year. Let the kid ball out. Self is always weird about his rigid offensive system. Obviously self is a great coach but there are a lot of other great coaches out there with completely different styles. Why recruit a kid thatās dominated at this level and not let him play his game. Remi isnāt going to be an elite defender and he is a volume shooter that once he gets hot is super hard to guard. Heās been oddly hard on him. Throw yesfu in the same boat. The kid averaged like 20 points for drake his last 7-8 games. Scores 25 points against that usc team that destroyed us. And today yesfu ran the point mid first half when we were down and brought us back with great breakdowns of the pressā¦.Self gushes about Harris. Who had a good second half but he was in foul trouble and bad in the stretch he was in during the first halfā¦. Self Praises Harris for his passing etc but Harris had 5 assists, yesfu had 4 assists in half of the minutes lol. But he pulls out yesfu most of the year after one mistake. Imagine if yesfu had the same leash McCormick had all year and got to play through mistakesā¦. Still remember self blaming Remi for running the wrong way on the play against Dayton. Maybe Self should take some of the blame for running the most crucial play of the game through the struggling center instead of your all American ochi and remi whose averaged 19pts per game 2 straight seasons.
Gotcha, sounds good. I do feel like with the new climate, with NiL. Losing a kid to the g league is avoidable. It would be very frustrating if we canāt keep 1 fringe top 20 kid but duke and UK will have 3-5 5star kids stay committed. Many of the duke guys are top ten players and would get larger deals in the g league and overseas then mj rice wouldā¦. Thanks for the update
Why all the MJ rice commitment wonāt stick talk. Have there been a ton of rumors?
@Texas-Hawk-10
I guess agree to disagree. I donāt think we attack a zone any better with McCormick. I also believe Garret defends the post about as well as anyone and him and wilson would have defended 4-5 not braun. I believe we turnover other teams much higher, drive better, and play more uptempo. But who really knows bc we never did it.
Dave had a good end to the season and heās not terrible. Heās got some good offensive moves in the post but heās not a good shot blocker, struggles to score against length, not a great shooter past the free throw line distance, and he struggled defending pick and rolls. I think the point was, we got a little over focused on playing through him and against elite teams that wasnāt going to pull an upset.... I felt like we created a ton of turnovers and were more sound defensively with the small lineup. I would have loved to see a full year commitment to an up tempo style with a small lineup. I think that would have opened up more driving lanes for Garret and wilson. Allowed better spacing for improved looks for braun and ochi. Mix in half court trap and zone like Villanova does occasionally.... but Self is an amazing coach so what do I know. I just think the other style had more of a chance to pull some upsets in March. Oh well on to next year!
Heās still a central part to this team going forward. He has great upside still. Iām not writing him off bc of a sub par end to the season. Svi was like that a lot his sophomore year. Look at guys like grimes etc. you have to let some guys grow. Braun is a perfect 4 year guy. Braun is not a nba guy. Heās a perfect role player. And thereās no one out there we are landing thatās better. This team lacked a PG, bench scorer, and an elite center
@Crimsonorblue22
?? Heās not being recruited over. He averaged 14 pts per game and will be one of the best guards in the big 12 next year... and Christian braun is a good player. He will be better as a junior. maybe on a top 5 team, heās more of a 6th man but we are so much worse if those two leave.
Our top 50 rated big guy needs a red shirt year? He canāt be good enough for 15min per game? Thatās super sad if thatās true. I get adding one big guy but itās super disappointing if we go to 2 big guys. I donāt get why self would. Modern game has moved past that. Heās had a lot of success the past 6-7 years playing 4 guards.... also he said in the post game conference about becoming more athletic/ longer etc. neither of those two bigs fit that criteria lol
Thatās my thing though, like why do we need to add 2 big guys. We have 3 big guy recruits coming in. 4 guards and 1 big is a much more effective lineup anyway... I get if we added length with a big time shot blocker but neither of these 2 guys are. What we lacked last year was a PG, but really it was no elite athlete shot creators. Our offense lacked a guy like Dotson, who had the ability to get to the rim whenever.
I hope ochi isnāt gone. This team gets significantly worse if ochi is gone. Also from what Iāve seen, auburn is the front runner for ty ty. Not sure why we need another mediocre big guy in Christian bishop. This transfer portal is loaded and we are going to end up with cam Martin and Christian bishop?? Seems super underwhelming!!
McCormick was a mixed bag this year.
Positives: he showed upside on his back to the basket game with hook shots with either hand. Heās a great free throw shooter. His shot looks ugly but free throw distance and in heās pretty good.
Negatives: struggles to score over length. His shot mechanics donāt let him really extend out to the three point line. He is an average passer but not great. Defensively he is a below average shot blocker as a center. Not as quick on his feet as he should be for someone his size. Which leads to struggles in pick and roll situations. Average rebounder.
McCormick will be better next year but heās not an nba talent. He will have big games against lesser opponents but against nba caliber big guys he will struggle
Not a bad player but for us to be elite we need some elite players around him
This would be a huge signing if we could land him!
I donāt understand how the NCAA had a year to prepare for this and didnāt plan to have a 14 day period of team bubble isolation after selected teams made the field. Some reason college basketball canāt figure this out. Every other sport has been smooth sailing. itās not just ku but Virginia maybe too, and easily could happen to others. They had no plan in place to figure this out if this happened, no flex schedule etc. fingers crossed we can go and our players remain safe
All this talk about Baylor! we will see if they can sustain success and continue to add top 25 ranked guys. Heās had talented classes before and theyāve been good but not great. Drew got lucky virtually all of the fringe nba level guys he had stayed and ku lost a guy like Devon.KU is a top 5 team, if not drafted, Devon stayed! Grady dick is a top 50 player, and someone that would stay 3-4 years. If we add consistent top 75 guys we will be fine. Also the moment this ncaa thing resolves, which I would assume by this summer we will know. There little recruiting advantage disappears, unless we really get hit for 3-4 years on reduced scholarships and tourney bans
Itās fun to read about the ku band. As a member of the band for 4 years itās always good to know how much the band is appreciated. As of last year they still played āin the stoneā and many of the other songs listed in this post. Rock chalk!
@Texas-Hawk-10
Come on man. You seriously donāt think they all know who the nike and under armor guys are? Kentucky, world wide Wiess? They all talk they know whose who. They sit at all of these AAU things together. Still have yet to hear coaches specifically call Self out from big blue blood programs lol
We know every program essentially is doing this stuff. I donāt get how no one caught in this adidas thing isnāt dropping info on others... most big name coaches not connected have been widely quite about calling out the other coaches directly. Like why havenāt big name coaches directly called out self, when we play their teams? Bc they all do it too. We know duke and UK do it. If ku gets slammed, why wouldnāt they drop the info on Nike guys. Just strange!
I think youāve got to get the personnel in the right spots. Garret is ok at pg, and is someone better on the team at pg then him probably not. But we do know garret is much better playing the 4 spot or at least off the ball then PG. Due to that, itās time to move him and get him where heās best at....Wilson needs to be unlocked. Heās struggled recently. I feel like itās bc early in the year he did his most damage at the 5 spot but still we need to get him going more.... McCormick I would rather have us go 5 guards but if we donāt and do play him, then his job needs to be screens and rolls. No more featuring David as a consistent post up option. It doesnāt work against good teams and heās not an elite scorer. If he plays more of the landen Lucas type roll then ok..... Harris to me helps to speed us up and improve our defensive stealing ability, so Iād start him.... Tristian has defensive mistakes but his offense is a nice spark of the bench. To me heās the first guy off the bench...... weāve got to increase our playing tempo. And run and gun more. This team has 3 great defenders and 2 elite shooters. Turn up defensive pressure and run more
I donāt think heās transferring heās starting to get minutes off the bench and is a needed scoring option off the bench. He will continue to mature. If only self would go 5 guards, oh well. The one who should transfer is TGF. He is the deepest on the bench, I donāt see it changing. He literally canāt dribble and his shot is not smooth.
Starting line up needs to be: pg Harris, sg braun, sf ochi, 4 spot garret, 5 spot wilson.... mix in Thompson, lightfoot, tristian. McCormick only for specific situations
Playing 5 guards gets garret off the ball and back into what he played last year. Heās better offensively when he can catch around free throw line and start driving. 5 guards Stops McCormick killing offensive drives and being a defensive liability on pick and roll.. Any decrease in rebounding or inside scoring would be greatly outweighed by improved pick and roll defense, increased steals, and improved offense.... McCormick is not a good rebounder, not a shot blocking presence, and not a great offensive threat. Plus he doesnāt realize heās more landen Lucas level and needs to do the little things well. He takes way too many shots and bad looks.
Becoming a high energy 5 guard team makes this team more dangerous long term!
@BShark
Yeah you could be right about jossell. I guess it will depend how he looks against maybe higher level guards. Do you think heās much shorter then mason or sherron Collins? He definitely was unknown from a recruiting stand point. On one hand you want to trust the coaches bc they have found some sleeper kids but then they also have the merv Lindseyās and rio Adams type guys theyāve recruited so who knows lol.... I like Thompsonās approach. From watching him play he seems very driven. Exciting to see!
Hey everyone I know itās early, but what are your thoughts on the freshman/newcomers so far!
Here are mine so far:
Harris (Iām including him since he didnāt play last year): looks like a 4 year guy and a mix between russell Robinson/Aaron miles. Team seems better when heās on the floor. Improved defensive pressure and ball movement. He needs to get his shot to be at least Russell Robinsonās level and continue to work on drive moves/floaters. He never has to be a scorer but he has to keep defenses honest.
Thompson: looks like a 2-3 year guy. Needs to develop his body and fill out his athleticism . Seems focused and has a good work ethic. I donāt love how his elbow wings out on his shot but the mid range looks pure. Reminds me of rip Hamilton. By the end of the year his scoring will be key. Defensively he doesnāt seem bad but not exceptional.
TGF: a little disappointing so far. NBA athlete and has shown good rebounding and shot blocking ability. His ball handling is holding him back. He can drive but he loses the ball too much or canāt complete the dribble smoothly. Havenāt seen enough of his jumper yet. Disappointing how raw offensively he is. He will be here another year for sure. I like 5 guard lineup look this year and I rather have him be the back up 15 min a game center in the small lineup.
Gethro M: wow he has the body type of a ku age Embiid, But he is so uncoordinated. I knew he was raw but heās so much further away from being a contributor then I thought. Not sure if he will last at ku but I could be wrong and he might take a huge leap forward
Latrell jossell: not talked about really, very little video on him, we were his only serious offer at the time, many on here have discounted him. He hasnāt played much but my goodness he looks so much better then I thought. I sneakily think heās being held back some to keep him hungry for more. The kid has reportedly the best shot on the team and thatās saying something with ku having Braun. His shot looks pure. He has good speed and heās stronger then I thought. He looks like he has a good handle and can pass. Iām not saying I think he should be starting or playing huge minutes necessarily. But man he does look more like frank/Devonte then a guy people assume will just be recruited over. Obviously we need to see him play more to really know.
We get the lead. McCormick comes in and blows an easy board. Why self
Why is McCormick playing to start the second half!
This isnāt KUās best team under self but the NCAA tourney is a crap shoot. There are plenty of teams every year that have talent and if they get lucky could win it. KU has had top 5 teams go out early and weāve had 2012 team, 2 seed make a run at the title. This team has less odds then last year but itās all about who you play. Letās say we end the year ranked 9th and we struggle against good front courts. We get hot in the tourney and never play a team with a good front court we could win. Silly to write this team off after two games and a more experienced Gonzaga team beating us. We have so much youth on this team from guys that will impact the team (Harris, braun, wilson, tristian, Thompson).
@Kcmatt7 lol i know! Itās shocking how much sense that makes to just play the 5 best people!
No one is saying you have to totally throw away the idea of McCormick playing but if he doesnāt play better you have to make the change. This team can be a top 10 team playing 5 guards.
@Texas-Hawk-10
I feel like you didnāt watch the series. Lakers play davis at the 4 normally. Against the rockets they couldnāt do that and had to stop playing their centers. Davis went to the 5 and had a mismatch but he is also a modern big guy who can step away... if you watched the series you know that the best line up plus to minus ratio was the Rondo, LeBron, Morris, Caruso pairing. With either kuzma or davis in the game... yes a legit center who can stretch the floor is better, but if you donāt have it on your team, 5 guards is an option. Rockets still had a great season, but lost to a better team... looks like so far you were wrong on your Wilson take to start the season. He looks like he will have an impact this year.
Rockets only lost when the lakers switched to small ball and stopped playing davis at the 4. They got worked when they played Howard and McGee. Lakers were just better at small ball lol.... this team can absolutely win playing small. They have several 6ā5-6ā8 guards. No reason to think you need a big guy. Sure there will be a game that Dave or Mitch will help but the best team ku has is playing small
I feel like people are over reacting. Gonzaga is a legit team and it was the first game. We replaced our two biggest scorers and our best player is playing a new position....
Center will be the weakest position all year. McCormick will be the guy, unless he just falls flat. He isnāt great but Gonzaga has some of the best big men in the country and I do think he will play a little better. Lightfoot will have a major game or two but he is still lightfoot and is outmatched too much.
Wilson, TGF, Tristian will battle it out for the starting 4 spot. I think it will be 7-10 games before one clearly wins it. Wilson played the best today but I think it will fluctuate for a bit until there is a clear winner.
Garret and Ochi are lock starters and should be the stars of the team.
Thompson and braun will battle it out for the
Starting shooting guard spot. The other will be the main guard off the bench. Braun had a disappointing game but he will bounce back. Thompson looked good and I think he will end up being the starter....
Small chance Self could go Houston rockets and play 5 guards but I doubt it.
We had the best team last year. Itās normal to have a slight rebuild year. Plus, fbi thing has kept us from landing top ten players. We will still be a top 10 team by years end
He had a pretty good debut!!
5 main areas to college coaching
1) recruiting
2) player development
3) gameplan, style play, offense/defense
4) in game adjustment, coaching
5) media, player, fan relationship
To be a good college coach you have to excel at several of these. To be a top 5 coach and a great blue blood coach you have to be close to an A grading on all of those. Scott drew is a great recruiter, can develop players, but his tactical adjustments and game plan are not quite A level. Heās the opposite of a Bruce Weber. Weber cant recruit and is terrible with the media but heās decent in the other categories
Iāve been saying this to buddies for awhile. Honestly even a single back under center type attack with option and triple option with a receiver in motion would be better. Weāve seen Synder at KSU be successful with a funky run style with option and some passing. Ku canāt out recruit all of these surrounding schools in this spread RPO system. Les Miles knows how to develop and recruit defense. A more running style offense will help rest the defense and limit possessions.
Obviously we knew about Preston. Every major program in recruiting with their connections to apparel companies is doing similar stuff...Silvio is the one that really added a lot of fire to the investigation and put us in this position
Silvio will go down as the most damaging ku recruit ever. He was the center of the recruiting scandal that got us in to the mess. At least in Prestons case there was no evidence that we directly knew, he never played a game, and we self reported him. Silvio played and led to this whole turmoil. He was over rated. Barley could jump and had no offensive game. Add in the fact he was the main ku player in the fight with KSU. Heās made this university look bad and damaged basketball recruiting. Iām glad heās gone!
Wilson shot 39% from three in highschool. Shot mechanics looked solid from the little I saw. Too me he has to improve ball handling and driving. His ball handling did not look great last year. I think he will be a pretty good three point shooter by his junior year..... Tristian is the opposite. Great explosive driver but his shot mechanics were not good and that will limit his potential.
I feel like we didnāt get to really see wilson. He had virtually no game time and he didnāt have a chance to develop. Sometimes freshman change a lot over a year. I remember oubre jr really struggling until about conference season and then he was great. Wilson started the first exhibition game over the other freshman, meaning he out played them in practice. Braun looked the best thru the first 2 exhibition games but looked bad against duke and tristian looked like the best freshman in that game. Wilson got hurt shortly after that and braun ended up making big strides and enaruna never made a big impact.... from what I saw of wilson he had good strength and height to play the 4 spot if we played 4 guards. Had the 3 and D potential for a pro career but his ability to drive the ball was my concern. He may not be good but letās not rush at dismissing a top 60 recruit after like 3-5 games lol. People assume Harris will play a lot. We havenāt seen him play at all. We could easily go 4 guards and Thompson/braun could play back up pg and tgf, wilson, and Tristian will get quality mins from a 4 guard lineup.
Letās try a different offense. We have a ton of skilled rbās in this program and we keep running a spread style offense. Weāve been running a version of this since mangino. At least mangino knew how to recruit it. Ku needs to go with a different offensive style. Stop trying to run what everyone else is running. Go against the grain and add more of an option style under center attack with some passing. It will run more clock, limit possessions, helps the defense rest and stop other teams, also easier to teach run block schemes. Under Snyder, KSU was very successful running a slower paced style. Weāve seen other schools adopt this and be successful. Les miles needs to go back to his roots and be a defensive minded coach who controls the clock. We arenāt going to out play all of the south schools on spread rpo offense.
You've got to love how oblivious the NCAA is to UA and Nike lol