NCAA still clueless...
justanotherfan
3643 posts
BShark said:
@justanotherfan Agree. I hope we see it a fair bit.
@Kcmatt7 REAL TALK: would bill win the B12 with Moore, Garrett, Agbaji, Mitch, Dave? And some kind of bench presumably.
I don't know that he could win it with that group, but I bet he could finish top 3. You would have to hope Big Dave could average 12 and 8 because I don't know where the scoring would come from on that team. Moore would be in double figures, but efficiency would probably suffer. Garrett would have to score more. I guess Agbaji could be a scorer, but that seems a year too soon.
They would have to be tough defensively because they would struggle on the offensive end.
But I still think they would finish third in the League because Self would figure it out.
BShark said:
The Lawson bros definitely have that Morrii synergy thing going on. Any line-up with them as the two post players is a hell of a "small" line-up w/ a lot of length and rebounding.
Also, tons of athleticism with that as a small lineup. Potentially unguardable.
Woodrow said:
I think it is funny that people are acting like if they were in the same position as Kanvanaugh they would just sit there and be calm. Is that the ideal situation sure. However, when people are attacking you and everything you have worked your entire life for then sometimes emotions get the best of you. That is life. I am going to go out on a limb and say that has happened to everyone. Obviously not on this platform or scale but it is human nature. It is just another example of liberals nitpicking every little thing. As I said keep doing what you are doing and let me know how it works out. See last election.
As for Serena it is not remotely even close to the same situation. 99% of the people in sports agree she was getting her ass kicked and threw a tantrum. These two things are not even in the same realm of being connected. Keep reaching.
If I get stopped by the police and falsely accused, you better believe I am expected to maintain my composure, even though my livelihood and freedom would be in jeopardy if I am wrongly accused of a crime.
Judge Kavanaugh was not in jeopardy of going to jail because the statute of limitations was up. He wasn't even necessarily in a position to lose his current federal judgeship. The only question was whether or not he would be elevated to the Supreme Court, and he lost his composure.
So YES, I absolutely expect him to maintain his composure, particularly as a professional with DAYS to prepare (this was not in the heat of the moment). He knew he was going to be in that hearing and he could have (and should have) chosen his words and decorum to fit that situation. That is what is expected from people within the legal profession, and as someone being elevated to the highest court in the land, that is an automatic expectation.
I would bet he would not find it acceptable for a defendant to come into the Supreme Court yelling at the justices even if they were falsely accused and were appealing. They would be expected (and required) to maintain an appropriate level of decorum while in the courtroom, REGARDLESS of what they were accused of. I have seen people physically removed from hearings for behaving the way Judge Kavanaugh did.
We should not expect less of a SCOTUS justice.
He's on the court now, so it is irrelevant as to whether he conducted himself appropriately in his hearing. But it does very clearly show a double standard that you are applying, unless you think it is appropriate for defendants to scream at prosecutors and judges in the courtroom when they actually are on trial for their freedom and livelihood.
If so, as I said before, we disagree on that point, but you would not be applying a double standard, so you would be consistent in that respect, which is understandable at least.
Yes, I think it's worse to spark a bar fight than yell at a referee/umpire as a competitor during a sporting event.
Yes, I think it's worse for a federal judge to yell at Senators during a Senate hearing than it is for a competitor in a sporting event to yell at a referee/umpire.
Perhaps we differ on that. If so, you are obviously entitled to your own opinion on that.
Woodrow said:
🐦 View Tweet?s=21
They also ran a story on Kavanough throwing ice!
Throwing ice that sparked a bar fight where someone ended up in the hospital and someone else went to jail.
Kavanaugh showed his temper and character in his hearing when he started yelling at Democratic senators. Last month, some on this board mocked Serena Williams for being a loser and throwing a tantrum at the US Open when she yelled at an umpire.
!0_1539095889640_upload-57a99f5d-8f22-411d-9e89-54e05c1ffa9b ↗
Oh wait, that was you. Hmmm...
Guess tantrums are okay for SCOTUS justices, but not for pro tennis players. Noted.
UCF was left out last year when they went undefeated, then beat Auburn on New Year's Day. If they go unbeaten again, some of the voters will move them into the mix, particularly if there are only one or two unbeaten teams left.
The Big 12 champ will likely have at least one loss. The Pac 12 champ will have at least one loss. If Ohio State doesn't run the table, the Big 10 champ will have a loss. Either Alabama or Georgia will have a loss. And then there's still Notre Dame.
If UCF runs the table, they will get a spot, or there's a chance the non-Power conferences revolt. The Power 5 need the other conferences for non conference purposes.
That said, UCF probably won't go unbeaten. It's incredibly hard to go unbeaten one year. Going undefeated two years in a row would be crazy.
When I am defining Kavanaugh as conservative, I am doing so based on his rulings, which are heavily conservative. I am not basing this on talking points or the politics involved in the hearings.
There are several websites out there that predict SCOTUS rulings by examining all of the justices previous rulings and score them based on that. Kavanaugh consistently scored as the most conservative or second most conservative judge on the D.C. circuit (his former court).
Kavanaugh scores as more conservative than Scalia ideologically (in the chart below, Scalia would have landed just slightly to the left of Alito and Gorsuch).
!0_1539024334699_upload-9c146888-3243-4aa9-9c8b-c0eca01848fb ↗
That chart is the one I was referencing earlier. The article ↗ that I pulled that from is actually from this summer, so it pre-dates the political fallout from the accusations. Even then, the estimation was that while Kavanaugh's writing style was similar to Alito, he was probably more conservative than both Alito and Gorsuch, and his record suggests he falls only slightly left of Thomas.
As you can see from the chart, he's pretty far to the right, more so even than either Ginsburg or Sotomayor are to the left.
Again, if you want to cite a centrist, it was Kennedy (slightly left of center). Roberts is more moderate, but certainly on the conservative side of the spectrum.
Kavanaugh was expected to be either the second or third most conservative judge on the bench, depending on if his rulings land closer to his ideology score or his writing score. Either way, he would not have been a centrist. Perhaps his rulings land him in the cluster with Alito and Gorsuch - solidly conservative, but not extremely so like Thomas. That's still not centrist.
I will repeat - I am not saying that Kavanaugh having a conservative record is a bad thing for him specifically. I'm just saying that you cannot say that a judge with his record is a centrist because that is flat out untrue.
Call him what he is - a conservative judge.
I think Dotson is being "slighted" because a lot of people know that Self likely starts Moore at the beginning of the season. I tend to agree with that.
However, I think Dotson takes over as the starting PG sometime in December and the team takes off from there. Dotson is just so good, and I think the has a chance to take the team to a different level on both ends, particularly defensively with his size and ability to switch on the perimeter to guard bigger guys.
Once that happens, Self unleashes this team and they leave a path of destruction through the Big 12 a mile wide.
The problem is that we have lost the ability to look at things objectively.
On another thread @Bwag said Kavanaugh was more of a centrist. That's flatly untrue. Kavanaugh is conservative. We can argue about his fitness and have differing opinions. We shouldn't be debating whether or not he's conservative, because he very clearly is. However, saying that Kavanaugh is a centrist moves the lines because if Kavanaugh is viewed as a centrist, it makes justices like Alito and Roberts look more liberal, and makes progressives like Kagan look like extremists.
Think of it in terms of a weightlifting class.
If the average person in my weightlifting class can bench press 100 pounds, someone that can bench 75 pounds is a little below average, and someone that can bench 125 pounds is above average. That's simple enough. That also means that someone that can bench 150 pounds seems pretty strong and someone that can bench 200 pounds is basically Hercules in that group.
If you move the averages, though, things change. Let's say my group now is a bunch of NFL linebackers. The same guy that looked like Hercules because he could bench 200 pounds in the 100 pound average group now looks like a weakling surrounded by NFL guys that are benching 250+ pounds with ease.
I didn't change the strength of the guy that could lift 200 pounds. He can lift the same 200 pounds. I just changed the comparison. He went from being well above average to being well below average.
The GOP is doing the same thing. They are changing where the middle is perceived to make anyone to the left of that seem extreme, thereby pulling the country further right by arguing that the middle is actually tilted heavily towards conservatism.
Big 12 probably does miss the playoff.
WVU is the only undefeated team left in the conference, and they probably lose to both Texas and OU.
OU would have to run the table from here on, and beat Texas in a rematch in the title game.
Even then, the SEC is getting two spots unless the wheels come off because they have the top 2 teams, plus six other ranked teams in conference, meaning any conference loss won't look bad in comparison.
Notre Dame will get a spot if they stay unbeaten. The selection criteria guarantees ND gets in if they run the table.
Clemson and Ohio State are both still unbeaten, and since the Big 10 was out last year, they will be in this season. It's just hard to see how the Big 12 gets in unless WVU runs the table from here on. Even then, I doubt they get in front of enough people since they are ranked sixth right now. Even a 1 loss Georgia or Alabama stays ahead of them right now.
KU would miss De Sousa's rebounding and energy. He's probably the best rebounder among the Doke/Big Dave/Silvio group.
That said, KU would still be tough because the best 3 players on the team are probably still Grimes, D. Lawson and Doke, and they are all healthy and eligible.
Bwag said:
@justanotherfan Kavanaugh is probably more a centrist or barely center-right. You'll gonna love it when Amy Barrett is nominated to take Notorious RBG's spot when she finally slips off into that final sleep. What's the over-under on days until that, and will it occur while sitting in session?
Unfortunately, that's just not true. Kavanaugh is fairly conservative.
Fivethirtyeight ↗ has a judicial score that determines how liberal or conservative a judge is, based on their past rulings.
To no surprise, Justice Sotomayor and Justice Ginsburg are the most liberal on the current court. However, Kavanaugh is only slightly to the left of Clarence Thomas, who is easily the most conservative judge on the SCOTUS, and well to the right of Gorsuch and Alito, both clearly conservative justices.
Perhaps Kavanaugh will be more moderate on the court. There is a history of justices moving more to the middle once they get to the SCOTUS, but even then, he probably is to the right of Gorsuch and Alito, and still well right of Roberts (who himself is barely within the moderate quadrant).
It's been more than three weeks since rumblings of the allegations became public, and two and a half weeks since Dr. Ford came forward. Had the GOP pulled the nomination then, they could have still put forward someone to confirm before the midterms.
Allegations surfaced on Sept 12. Blasey Ford came forward Sept 16.
If the GOP does an investigation to see if this allegation has legs, they can still decide by the 20th that they want to pull the nomination. Trump nominates someone new on the 24th, and the GOP provides documentation that same day (or soon after).
Remember, many Republican senators didn't want to proceed with Kavanaugh anyway because of his huge paper trail from his time working in Ken Starr's office and in the W. Bush White House.
If they pull him and nominate someone with a less voluminous paper trail, he or she could have been nominated, vetted and a vote scheduled for three weeks from today.
Would the Democrats have liked this new pick? Probably not, because it still would have been a conservative. But it would not have been as politically troublesome as this has become. There was an easier path than this.
Without a replacement in place, I don't know how this helps recruiting. We all know that the interim will not get the job, so its somewhat pointless to commit to the interim coach.
Why Kavanaugh? That's the real question for Republicans here. It's not like Kavanaugh is the only conservative judge that could be nominated to the Supreme Court. There are at least two dozen justices out there with the type of background, as well as being very conservative in their rulings, that they could easily take Brett Kavanaugh's place.
The GOP could have asked the President to pull the Kavanaugh nomination the instant the allegations surfaced and confirmed another conservative judge, even without any Democratic votes because the GOP has the majority. Instead, they insist that it has to be Kavanaugh despite the issues that have arisen, and despite the backlash it is causing, and despite his own handling of this.
When Clarence Thomas faced harassment allegations, you did not see him fly off the handle and go on an explosive, angry rant during his confirmation hearings.
Again, I ask simply - Why Kavanaugh? The GOP wants a conservative court. There are other judges that would be just as conservative, and some that would likely be even more conservative than Kavanaugh. If the goal is simply a conservative majority on the court, there are probably 20 other judges out there that could accomplish that goal.
So why Brett Kavanaugh?
That Mitchell memo has one key flaw that no one on here is discussing - Mitchell only evaluates what Dr. Ford said
If Mitchell were truly approaching this like a prosecutor or investigator would, she would have also included analysis of Judge Kavanaugh's statements and behavior during the hearing and subsequent interviews. She did not.
Mitchell pokes holes in Dr. Ford's memory and points to the inconsistencies revealed there. However, she does not discuss anything that Judge Kavanaugh said, or if there were inconsistencies between his senate testimony and any interviews, or if he offered any contradictions, etc. She did not analyze his behavior and mannerisms during the hearing that she attended.
While this may not have changed her opinion, not including it in the report makes the validity of the report very shaky since she did not include half of what she witnessed with her own eyes. That's an important omission.
Beaty, for whatever reason, has decided to tie himself to Bender as his QB, even though Bender is pretty clearly the worst fit among the QB's for KU's current offensive situation. I don't understand it, but that is the decision that Beaty has made.
His inability to adapt to the talent that he has at his disposal has probably cost him a couple of victories in his tenure at KU - a couple of wins that he could desperately use right now. KU isn't going to be outrecruiting OU and Texas right now, so if the coach cannot capitalize on the talent that is available, he will never succeed.
Texas Tech's defenses were ranked 9th and 10th in the Big 12 during Mahomes' two years as a starter. And remember, KU was in the Big 12 during that time.
Business is no longer national. Everything is global.
For example, tariffs against China (and their subsequent tariffs on US products) means that China will likely import agricultural products from places other than the US. That hurts Kansas farms. It could be a boon for places in South America and Africa, but that will hurt US production and sales.
Almost everything we use has something in it that was manufactured outside the US. Very few products out there anymore are completely designed and manufactured in one country. Having a nationalist attitude ignores economic drivers that dictate that we now live in a global economy. Consumers are free to think and feel that way because most people live in a limited scope of the economy. We are all bit players when it comes to that (unless someone on here happens to be incredibly wealthy). As a result, the places we shop are mostly local - we go to the grocery store a few miles from us, buy gas at the gas station down the street, etc.
However, those "local" places are really just a part of the global economy. As consumers, we don't have to think about it that way, but that does not change the reality.
Unless KU gets absolutely destroyed, something like 55-0 or such, I don't think Beaty gets fired during the bye week. There's no real point. The best candidates are in the middle of their own seasons, nobody on staff that got the job in the interim would be considered as a candidate, and it would destabilize the recruiting situation.
Better to make that decision at the end of the season and be able to actually interview and hire then, than have to wait two months.
My point is that KU has struggled in football, which has led to short coaching tenures.
If KU finally finds a coach that is good, that needs to turn into a long run to start generating some tradition.
Miles probably won't do that, meaning best case he's another Glen Mason, which could be followed by another Terry Allen.
My concern is that often, those successor plans go poorly. Very few coaches that have handpicked their successor have seen that coach do well after they left.
Les Miles is a stop gap coach at best. Even if he were to take the KU job, because of his age, he would probably only stay at KU for 5-7 years, coaching into his early 70s at most. Now, perhaps that gives him time to groom a replacement, but Miles does not solve KU's problem because you have to start planning for the next hire basically the day he starts because he will turn 70 during the 2023 season.
That's why my focus has always been on younger coaches. KU's best chance to get out of this rut is to build a program, and the best bet for doing that is hiring a coach that may stay at KU for the next 15 years or more. While that shouldn't be the only criteria, it should certainly be a criteria. Hiring Miles means you have to nail two coaching hires.
While KSU football is profitable, I am not sure how much they can truly pay a football coach.
Snyder makes about $3.2M a year, which is a very good salary. That ranks him 35th among FBS coaches, which is solidly middle of the road in P5 conferences and in the Big 12 (6th in conference).
While that is enough to attract a non-P5 conference coach, or a coach with KSU ties, it isn't enough to just pile money on the table to make an offer that no one can refuse.
K-State isn't a recruiting magnet. It's not in the type of city that would draw a big time coach. That job is not an automatic winner of a job.
If Snyder leaves, there's no guarantee that the KSU program can recover. There's a chance KSU football goes into a tough down cycle.
That jersey will probably be worth $$$. There's a pretty good history of spelling mistakes on jerseys, and the errors end up being worth quite a bit.
Snyder has fought the talent deficit for years and has been successful more often than not. This year may be different though, because their defense just doesn't have playmakers, and, other than Zuber, their offense is fairly easy to contain. If not for Zuber, KSU is 1-3 right now, and maybe coming off being shut out against WVU.
The alarms in Manhattan aren't going off yet because they believe Snyder can fix it (and maybe they are right), but he doesn't have many playmakers and he can't scheme his way to victory over teams like OSU, OU and TCU when they have better athletes.
He will beat Baylor and KU because he can scheme his way to wins there, and he will probably knock off Tech and Iowa State as well to qualify for a bowl. But beyond maybe beating Texas, I can't find another win on the schedule for them, and good luck if they lose one of those toss up games against Tech or ISU, or if KU or Baylor can trip them up.
Venables understands that he can't recruit the kind of athletes he needs to compete for national titles to K-State. The worst thing to happen to KSU's hopes to get Venables was getting the Clemson job. He's the second highest paid assistant in the country and can win titles at Clemson. He won't make much more money at K-State, won't have the recruiting resources, and won't compete for national titles. He has no reason to take that job, especially when he could get an ACC or SEC job (Tennessee? Florida? Virginia Tech?) that allows him to build his own program with access to recruiting turf he couldn't even touch at K-State.
The Chiefs defense isn't one player away, even if Eric Berry comes back 100% and they add a guy the caliber of Earl Thomas because there are just too many holes, so I agree that adding two really good players as opposed to one great one is a better longterm move.
Even if they were to add two guys, that doesn't address the pass rush and run defense. The up front guys have to improve. Maybe Justin Houston jumps in the wayback machine or some of the young guys make a midseason leap, but this defense has some serious personnel holes, and the Chiefs aren't masking them with schemes.
And this sucks because the Chiefs have the playmakers on offense this year to go to (and win) the Super Bowl.
Jackson needs to do one of two things
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Re-work his jumper next summer. I'm talking a complete overhaul from his base all the way to his release point. This process will take from the end of the regular season all the way through August. He won't have a chance to do much else because he will be working on his jump shot 4 or 5 hours a day.
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Focus on becoming the best 1-4 defender in the league. He can stick in the league with his ancillary skills, but he would have to focus on turning himself into an elite defender that can guard everyone from Kevin Durant to Lebron James to Russell Westbrook to Bradley Beal to Kyrie Irving to Klay Thompson to Steph Curry to Kawhi Leonard to DeMar Derozan. Literally guard any of those guys night in and night out. That, plus his ball handling and passing ability would make him an above average player, but he would still be a non-star because of his lack of shooting touch.
Snyder sees the writing on the wall that KSU football is heading for a potential down cycle. He's probably done after this season (just a hunch), so he's not worried about the future. KU may not beat KSU this season, but there's definitely a chance to topple them next year in Lawrence.
McCormack looks like he has lost all of the baby fat. This could be a scary group. They at least win the get off the bus trophy.
Perhaps both.
So much for KSU covering today. They are worse than I thought.
Nebraska football is a mess.
Snyder's gameplan is designed to keep KSU from getting blown out, so he should be okay against the spread today. Late KSU score keeps the margin within 2 tds.
Greene looked much more well rounded against HS competition as far as attacking the basket, rebounding, etc.
But that's against HS competition. He wasn't nearly as well rounded in college, and even less so once injuries sapped his explosiveness.
I don't think the world or media could handle those types of fights in the NBA now. There would be an absolute meltdown.
BShark said:
@justanotherfan not sure how many of those guys are KU level. Then again if you had asked me about Braun before his JR season I would have said no way.
I think Raimey could be a WSU, Tulsa etc... level guy.
Xavier Bell I haven't seen play I don't think. Is he on an aau team?
Jonathan Jackson you would have to think ends up at UNC if they want him. At this point, he almost feels like a walk-on for UNC or KU though.
O’mar Stanley looks intriguing.
If you had asked me about Agbaji before his senior seasons, I would not have put him at KU. I was surprised that Braun picked KU as well.
Bell plays for the team Perry Ellis used to play for I believe. They aren't as strong as some of the KC area teams, so he doesn't get as much exposure on the circuit.
Jackson probably goes to UNC, but he could explode. He's got some talent and is interesting to me.
I agree completely on Stanley. Interesting athlete. You can't ignore athletes like that.
Raimey is interesting in that he is talented, but doesn't get the right type of exposure in his HS system in my opinion.
The challenge is seeing these guys against legit talent, but not when teams are throwing gimmicky things at them that makes them alter their games (and makes it hard to evaluate them).
SEC has a lot of good coaches, and unlike some of their Big 12 counterparts, they can recruit, too. That will make that conference tough, possibly for years to come. SEC is so focused on football that they don't always dedicate resources to hoops (one reason why so many programs in the conference are so inconsistent) but they should be tough this year, and could have 10 teams make the field because of the depth of the conference overall, and the committee's tendency to reward P5 teams that are close to .500 in conference if they had a winning non con record.
A couple other local players that KU may have an eye on:
KT Raimey, 6-4 (Olathe East), plays on the same AAU team as Ty Berry. He's a combo guard, though he plays off the ball quite a bit now.
Xavier Bell, 6-4 (Andover Central), another combo guard that, opposite from Raimey, has been playing on the ball more.
Markell Hood, 6-6 (Blue Valley Northwest), wing. He's a strong, physical player. Don't know if he's P5 yet, but he could be something like Agbaji, but likely bigger by the time he graduates.
Jonathan Jackson, 6-4 (Maranatha), guard. He's good, but its tough to evaluate him during the HS season because he plays for a small class school (Maranatha is a 2A school).
O'mar Stanley, 6-8 (Blue Valley West), PF. The lone elite level big man in Kansas in the 2020 class.
It's a shame that Berry, Bell, Raimey and Jackson all play in different classes and likely won't face off.
Other than that OU game, KU needs to be able to stay with everyone in conference, and they need to find wins against some of those lower teams, and maybe upset somebody along the way.
KU isn't as high as their current stats suggest, but they should still be in the middle of the pack in terms of defense. They have some playmakers on that side of the ball, which can cover up some things. It also positions them for an upset - a couple key takeaways against a team like TCU or Texas could help swing that game in KU's favor.
I will give Beaty credit for upgrading athleticism on that side of the ball. But he still needs results to back that up.
Big 12 is getting deeper every day. If Kruger isn't careful, he will be sitting last in the League in 2019-20.
TCU will be strong. Tech will be solid. WVU will be a headache. Oklahoma State is improving. K-State will still have some solid pieces. Baylor will be okay. Texas is shifting to more Shaka at VCU type style, so they will be a pain. Iowa State will have talent. And of course, Kansas is Kansas.
Oklahoma is the only school in the conference that is trending the wrong way in basketball. Everyone else is getting better, so OU looks like they will be surpassed if recruiting does not pick up.
Good write up about the coverage that led to Lee's Pick Six.
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/university-of-kansas/article218593490.html ↗
Doke's one achilles heel is that he doesn't shoot well from the line. If you can foul him before he scores, his efficiency plummets to near unplayable levels. Granted, you can't do that every trip, but that's also why I think KU closes games with Doke on the bench and either Big Dave or De Sousa manning the middle.
Doke can start and play early, but in the late part of games, where teams are more willing to take fouls, he will probably find himself on the bench.
I hope Baylor does load up a bit. It will give KU's receivers some favorable matchups to exploit one on one. Do that a couple times, then hit them with Williams once they back out of the box.
BShark said:
Y'all are gonna like Big Dave.
That pass from Dotson to Big Dave towards the end of that clip is something we will see a lot. Grimes out on the wing keeping his defender honest. Two defenders converging on a slashing Dotson. Dedric keeping his defender honest on the other side of the paint, and an unguarded McCormack getting an easy lay-in as a result.
Dedric averaged 19-10 without much of a supporting cast at Memphis. He commands double teams. He can shoot and handle. In a lot of respects, he's a bigger, meaner, stronger version of Perry Ellis. And Dedric has the benefit of playing with a lot of talent now. He has never had a big man like Doke. He's never played with a guard as good as Grimes. He's never had PGs like Moore and Dotson. Dedric should be DOMINANT this season from day one.
Kendrick can throw. He's not as good a passer as Bender, but he can throw. What separates him is that because he is mobile, he can be more effective as a passer because defenses have to keep a guy spying on him, which means one fewer guy in coverage.
Basically, Kendrick's running ability opens up the run for our backs and also opens up the pass by keeping an additional guy out of coverage. You can safely drop 7 (or 8 ) against Bender.