@JayHawkFanToo That is really crazy. I was quite surprised the other day watching KSU and Texas Tech. Both teams looked solid. Those were 4 games I expected to win easily and now I realize that they will be real tests.
Bad news for OSU today. They think Forte will be out for the season. That may make them one of the easier games on our schedule this year.
KU wins because we have superior talent, more depth, a better coach and the best home court advantage in all sports.
Amazing game. Lots to love. Only concern is Greene appearing hurt. Any thoughts?
@KUSTEVE Totally. We could have a 6 headed hydra!
@wrwlumpy I watched one UC Irvine game this year. The guy is a beast and if he catches it low enough on the block he can't be stopped. That said he is so big that he can't play for very long and he is going to be super tired trying to run the floor with KU. I think he averages like 20 minutes a game so he better do his damage while he is on the floor as he won't be in the game 1/2 the time.
We are pretty well oiled if it is a game of comparisons with other top 10 teams. So far this year I have not seen any team that moves the ball better than KU and I have not seen a team that has the depth that KU has.
UK looks like they lack depth. Duke looks weak in the post. Michigan State showed last night what they have when Valentin is out. UNC has been playing really great basketball the last few games but I just don't see a "great" team this year. I expect all of the teams I have mentioned to have 5 or 6 losses on the season. I think the well oiled Kansas Jayhawks will have less than 5. We have all the tools.
@nuleafjhawk I agree. At 5-5 they have 20 games left in the regular season. Let's say they go on a really nice run and win 17 of those 20. That still leaves them with 8 losses and probably only a couple of those over tournament teams. Hard to believe that is an at large bid. All that said they will probably win their weak ass conference tournament and then get into the dance and make a huge annoying deep run.
@JayHawkFanToo so you think they are a tournament team this year?
@drgnslayr Good points.
Regarding Wichita State and the chances of playing them March...they better figure out a way to be in the NCAA bracket before worrying about another game against KU. They are currently 5-5. They do not play 1 team ranked in the top 25 for the rest of the entire year. How is this an NCAA team if they don't win their conference tourney? Look at what the committee thought of their amazing team last year when they gave them a 7 seed.
@justanotherfan Good thoughts on Collison. Sometimes I forget how great he really was. Averaging 18 and 10 on a team packed with other great players is a truly impressive stat line. I appreciate seeing all of the comparison numbers between him and Perry.
I am not sure that I fully agree that college is not a great place for development. It may not be for everyone but it certainly is for others. T Rob certainly blossomed in college. Releford developed into a hell of a player after a red shirt. Withey was two totally different players from early to late college. Non-KU players like Kaminsky, McBuckets, Russ Smith, Napier, etc. I think part of the issue with college is all of the rules about when you can practice and for how long. Once you are in the NBA it is a job. You play all day every day and against the best in the world and you are bound to get better. The team has millions invested in you and either you develop or you go play in Turkey.
Perry is interesting. I fully agree with you that I thought he would be dominant by his senior year and so far he is pretty much just the normal Perry. Super steady. 8 points on a bad night. 18 points on a good night. 5 or 6 rebounds. Not many TO's. Steady and consistent but certainly not dominant (I kind of expected Perry to be Valentine this year) and certainly not an NBA lottery pick. Maybe he will get lucky and land on an NBA team that simply needs him to fill a role but his lack of specific position and lack of talent on defense makes me think Perry will be another McD's All American who ends up playing over seas.
@jaybate-1.0 I am glad you brought this up. The last few seasons in college basketball have included a large number of freshman who were NBA ready during their only season in the NCAA. Wiggins, Towns, Okafor, Parker, etc. The freshman this season are simply part of a less talented group than what we have grown accustom to over the last few years. Simmons at this point of the year is head and shoulders better than the rest of his class but even he is not good enough to carry his team to many victories (6-4). Jamal Murray at UK has probably impressed me the most outside of Simmons. He had a great game against Duke and over the weekend I believe he hit 7 3's and had 30 points in a loss to Ohio State. But who else has been a Durant/Melo/Beasley/Julius Randle type player?
I actually take this as a breath of fresh air. Maybe we will be able to see a few of these kids develop while in school? Mr. Diallo is of course #1 on my list of 18 year olds I would love to see back in a college jersey next year. He just doesn't seem remotely ready for the pros and to my eye only a handful of freshman appear OAD caliber. There is a lot of season to play but as of December 21 this seems to be the year of the sophomore-senior in college ball and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
Hunter really showing why he should be a starter.
@BeddieKU23 Great point about the "junkyard dog" guys. I fully agree. Niang is not a typical big as he does a lot of damage from the perimeter. The other 3 guys are not classic back to the basket studs. We are not talking about Karl Towns or Okafor from last year. I am certainly not saying that they are not great players. They all are. I just think we will be able to contain them with our 6 headed monster. So many fouls to give.
If Greene plays anywhere close to this level and Svi plays at his current level it doesn't seem like much of a contest to me. Greene really doesn't play any D but is Svi that much better on D? Svi looks lost on offense again. I thought the Chaminade game was his coming out party but he hasn't been able to hit anything since. I would think Greene is the first wing off of the bench without question due to is offense.
Is Greene getting ready to check in?
@Crimsonorblue22 I remember my first 30 and 20 game.
People may think this is a joke but I would like to see B. Greene get a start when he gets back from his suspension in 2 games. Maybe not game 1 but shortly after. I think this may bring him back into the fold and could be a sort of olive branch. I really feel Greene will be key if we are going to make the run we all want to. Hey, at least he can hit FT's.
@wissoxfan83 Agreed. FT percentage is a big issue. I have been shocked at how many FT's Perry and Wayne have missed. I expect this from Diallo and Lucas but Perry should live at the line and should be hitting easily 75-80%.
Which brings me to this. I love Perry but is he somehow allergic to dunking? Last night there was not one guy on Loyola who could stop Perry. Perry mad multiple opportunities in the lane where he went up soft and did a layup or tear drop or finger roll. Whatever you want to call it. I'd love to see Perry go up strong. He is a total stud and could be one of the best players in the country but if he plays soft against Loyola I get worried about Texas, OU, Kentucky, etc.
@mihawk Fully agree. Darnell was a stud his senior year. The starter on a National Title team. Kaun was really key off the bench. That was what made that team so special. There were really no holes. Great guards. Great wings. Great post and tons of depth.
If Landen ever comes close to being as good as Darnell or Sasha I will be more than thrilled.
@BeddieKU23 I really can't imagine that Diallo won't start by the UK game. If he is a top 10 recruit and lives up to even close to that billing he will play circles around Lucas and Bam Bam. Personally I would take losing a few early games if it means more minutes and growing pains for Diallo and Bragg. These are the guys who have the highest ceilings and give us the best shot to win a National Title along with Perry in the post.
@globaljaybird I was just thinking that. They now have as many losses this season as they had all last year. Maybe they will print t-shirts.
@DinarHawk totally agree.
@Hawk8086 good point. I love Perry and he is going to be great this year but it was another example of him struggling against length. He is just not himself when the opponent is that tall. Luckily we have a lot of weapons outside of Perry. Great win.
@Lulufulu Lucas should get less minutes. Diallo should do everything he does and more. Really thrilled this kid gets a chance to play!!
@BeddieKU23 This may be just me but I don't think Tom Crean is much of a coach. Since he took over at Indiana he has had only one really good team. I don't see him running any KU team out of the gym.
Lots of negative talk on the board since our loss to MSU. I just wanted to see what people think. Is the sky falling at other top tier schools as much as it seems to be at KU? I know that we all feel we should win every game (including myself) but we are pretty spoiled. Tons and tons of wins under Coach Self and 2 final fours. Not a bad run.
UNC just lost to Northern Iowa. They are the consensus #1 team in the country this year. Seems like a far worse loss than MSU to me. UNC has not been to the Final 4 since they won it all in 2009. This includes a few very early exits in the NCAA and two post season defeats at the hands of Bill Self and KU. How are UNC fans handling this recent streak of what they would consider unacceptable results?
@DoubleDD this is a serious question. Not an argument. Who would you prefer coach KU that would actually take the job?
@HighEliteMajor Great post as always. I agree with most if not all even as a guy who thinks Bill does very little wrong. Hard to argue with some of the evidence recently that Bill is stubborn to a fault.
The one thing that bothers me the most about the "missing bunnys" is not really that the other team is playing great defense. It is that not only are we missing them (or in Landen's case air balling them) but we are not drawing much contact. We shot incredible from the line but our bigs just don't get many And 1 opportunities as they never try and dunk. Is it lack of athleticism? Is it lack of motivation? Do they truly believe like Bobby Knight that a dunk is "only worth two points"? I was at the game. UK fans were going absolutely nuts and a lot of it was based on exciting plays. Dunks. Oops. Duke got flustered due to all of this dunking. KU fans were comically quiet. Why? Part of the reason is we played a boring game of layups and jumpers. Perry putting in layups. Where are the out of bounds oops to B Mac? The back door dunk to T Rob? The outlet pass to Julian Wright? My only answer is that we don't have the horses and that our post play and small forward play is simply inferior athletically to our previous squads who threw the ball up for dunks on a regular basis.
Sorry for my vent on dunking but it has really been bugging me. UK is going to dunk in our face in AFH in January as they play above the rim. Just trying to come to terms with it early.
@JRyman Thank you for this post. I asked on another thread if we had a dunk in the MSU game and I don't believe anyone responded. Did we have 1 dunk? If so, does anyone know who it was and when it happened?
@Texas-Hawk-10 I would not call Bill insane.
Incredibly stubborn? Yes.
Super nervous in crunch time? Yes. So nervous that it negatively impacts his own players and they play nervous and "not to lose"? Yes.
I love Bill and I have always been and will always be happy that Roy left and that we got Bill. He is one of the best in the biz and he is a future HOF coach. My biggest gripe is that after all the games he has coached, all the games he has won, all the talent he has helped develop, he gets nervous. Super nervous 7th grade girl waiting to be asked to dance nervous!!! Look at Bill in a tight game, especially a game we are supposed to win or a game we are starting to blow a big lead. He has the ultimate deer in the headlights look. This happens seemingly in all of our big losses. MSU the other night, WSU, Stanford, Michigan, VCU, etc.. This look of "Holy shit is this happening? Are we really totally blowing it again? No!!!"
Again, I love Bill but if we are complaining about him in an open forum there is my big complaint. His nerves effect our guys. They play tight in tight situations instead of doing what they all do best...just playing basketball.
Let's all try and keep in mind that we beat MSU in an ugly game last year. MSU then went on to make a run to the Final 4 while we flamed out in the 2nd round. I am certainly not saying we are looking like a Final 4 squad but there is 90% of the season left to play and all that we care about as KU fans is how the season ends. If we beat MSU by 15 and then lose to a Mid Major in the Sweet 16 it is a flop of a season. If we lose to MSU after a meltdown in the 2nd half like we did but go on a deep run and a Final 4 then we tend to forget about the early season setback.
@JRyman Did KU as a team have a dunk in the entire MSU game? It seemed like Kentucky dunked the ball 15 times. I honestly don't recall us having 1 dunk. I am sure I am wrong but it is not coming to mind.
@Crimsonorblue22 not sure. I saw them score on Lucas repeatedly and Lucas can't score and Bragg can. That's what I don't get. But hey, as I said, lots of blame to go around when you blow a game you controlled. Seems very similar to our last game against MSU in the Champions Classic??
Lots of blame to go around. I personally blame Landen and/or the guy who made him play most of the game. That and our awesome "I'll let you shoot" perimeter defense. Now I'm going to have a night cap and pretend we just didn't blow another late lead to a team from Michigan.
@Crimsonorblue22 quiet. Also, why is Lucas ever in the game?
@Crimsonorblue22 wish I could. KU fans barely showed up.
@VailHawk KU crowd is ok. Not great. Maybe we turn it up in the 2nd half. It's been a boring game.
At the game and can confirm that UK fans are the worst in all sports.
@wrwlumpy This may be my favorite post ever. It combines my two favorite things on earth...Art and College Basketball.
I also like that I 100% agree. How Jamari gets the minutes he does will never make sense to me. He is the prototypical "energy" guy you bring in off the bench.
@Crimsonorblue22 Thanks for sharing. The 12 point KU victory prediction seems a bit too optimistic. I expect this game to come down to a 4-6 point margin.
@drgnslayr Interesting question and something I have been curious about for many years. Tattoos are expensive when purchased from a tattoo parlor. That is a fact. My assumption has always been that the KU players and players across the country who have tons of ink "got a guy" who is sort of an under ground tattoo artist. I have zero evidence to back up this hypothesizes but I think it seems logical.
The KU guy that comes to mind the most when I think of tattoos is B Mac. We were all very sad to see him leave after 1 year on the floor (and another on the bench) but we all felt ok knowing that he was leaving for the NBA due to a dire family situation. All the while B Mac was one of the most inked players in recent KU memory. How did he afford these? Honestly it is none of my business and I am not passing judgment. I am legitimately curious of how the tattoos ended up on his body if he did not have any money to pay for them.
@Crimsonorblue22 I do. Makes it all pretty easy. All 4 teams travel well and have die hard fans so it is pretty even at the games.
@Crimsonorblue22 on my own. We have about 6 KU guys going and some will be in a box (hopefully me) and some will be in regular seats on the lower level. No matter what it will be great. I had the pleasure of sitting on the floor for our victory over Duke and it was one of the best nights of my life.
I'll be at the game. Hopefully I'll be able to stay somewhat sober through the first game. It is going to be hard to while being surrounded by UK and Duke fans. I wish somehow both of those teams could lose!
Loving our energy and effort. Loving Graham. Still confused why Lucas gets minutes.
I expect one guy to have a big scoring game. I know this team is super balanced and a different guy could lead the team in scoring every night but I really expect Perry / Selden / Mason to be capable of a 2o-30 point night when needed. I expect to see one of those guys in that range this evening!
I'll never fully understand this. The international school factor makes it a little easier to believe that their is some gray area on transcripts but it is very bothersome that they are looking at pre-9th grade records. How did he get into high school? How did he graduate from high school and get into the University of Kansas where he has already taken classes? These are really more rhetorical questions as I am now just beyond the point of having even the most remote understanding of why this takes so long or even occurs at all.
This Cheick situation really has me down in a funk all of the sudden. I have been super positive about him getting cleared from the day we found out this was happening but the more it goes on the more I start to become sort of depressed. I really want to see this kid play in a KU uniform more than anything.
@BeddieKU23 I'm with you. If moving Perry to the 3 means more minutes for Bam Bam / Landen then I'm not at all interested. If it means Cheick is going to be cleared and we will have Cheick / Perry / Bragg in the game at the same time on occasions I'm up for that.
@BeddieKU23 I certainly have not. Honestly I don't watch much NBA if any until the playoffs. 29% sounds about right!