@drgnslayr "We all really need to see both practices and games to properly assess the potential of our players."
Well, shoot, that would give us way too much information about both the players and how our coaches do things! Far more fun to speculate!
@Kcmatt7 Moose is only 6 feet tall. That would make him among the shortest 1st basemen in the league, at least 2 to 3 inches shorter than average. They like 'em long both for stretchiing to catch throws and for range to cover the line and the hole. I would far rather have Hosmer.
@Crimsonorblue22 @wrwlumpy
I always have liked him. I felt bad for him trying to defend against OU's onslaught. He looked like he might not be the same after his injury. My biggest criticism of him in the past has been that he gives the ball up too early and doesn't seem to look for his own shot enough. But I don't know if he might be getting more confident this season because I only saw the OU game.
@BeddieKU23 Frankly, it would be too easy to transfer lots of goodies to a family and then claim the kid didn't know. If we or anyone else claims "unfair treatment" now when, say, UNC doesn't get slammed, imagine the outcry when bluebloods (where the recruits worth paying for tend to end up) figure out how to have their innocent little waifs commit while those behind-their-backs family members suddenly start driving new cars, taking trips to follow their darlings, and moving into nicer homes.
@wissox Aha! The early bird gets the worm! So, I will do this before @jaybate-1-0 gets his caffeine this morning and revs up the old Conspiracies are for suckers! routine.
@truehawk93 Svi apparently was careful to accept only expenses. In the Euro league, it might be easier to document money transfers and team payments than in more third world organizations and locations. Likely, the NCAA is more familiar with players coming from Europe.
@BShark Yeah, probably not clear.
Meant dupe=duplicate Trae's crazy year
I.e., would there be any fear on Zion's part that having Dotson would not allow Zion to reach his full potential.
@KUSTEVE I am always glad that KU has a rep for trying to follow the rules. The stories told by prior players always paint a picture of the concern by our coaches of how the players develop not just as players but also as quality young men.
With that in mind, I doubt HCBS would work so hard to protect B Preston's eligibility if he doubted his character.
And, since we obviously want to hold athletes to a bright line test of knowing exactly what is legit and what is not, I fervently believe that all of us KU fans report every nickel of our income including gains on sales of cars and other personal property, estimate all our Goodwill donation deductions using actual FMV, and have always made sure to pay all use taxes on out of state internet purchases.
@JayHawkFanToo Might join the Flat Earthers, what the heck. As long as I'm here.
@JayHawkFanToo We used to have a grandfathers clock that had a loose minute hand. Sometimes, but not always, it would slip back down toward the 6 instead of going on up around. It was maddening to figure out when it was right.
Yes, watching that damned clock for hours, waiting to see if the hand slipped, is what sent me over the edge.
No. (to orig question)
@JayHawkFanToo I wasn't just referrng to here. I have read comments telling his mom to just shut up, telling them both to take a hike, and excoriating our compliance department for neither knowing about the car nor getting the investigation settled quickly.
@HighEliteMajor Sometimes he is right, and other times....maybe not so much. Heck, sometimes you are right, and even I am.
@cragarhawk I agree it is perfectly reasonable to assume there is something, and Self's comment seems to reinforce that. It is the inferences that his family is dragging their feet to not comply because they are crooked, and the accusations that KU compliance is screwing up, that I think are based solely on the delay, that I think are unjustified. Flowing purely out of fan impatience, and leading to the anger at her for daring to speak out.
I would love Bill's salary, but I couldn't handle all the crap.
@JayHawkFanToo Informative noninformation.
Loving the pro-Sam comments. Until a couple of weeks ago, our experts here were assuring us that Cunliffe would contribute nothing this year. As @Jayballer54 constantly reminds us, players can improve and can surprise us.
@BeddieKU23 It could also hurt if anyone thinks Dotson could dupe Trae Young. Would OU have room this year for another OAD?
@BeddieKU23 If I am KU's recruiter, I am calling him a bunch after our TT rebounding debacle this week with lots of information about how we will be bigger next year with otherworldly point guards coming in who can feed him. We do not want Zion believing he will be forced into trying to be another undersized post player here. "Really! We have lots of size lined up! Really!"
@cragarhawk There are so many variables in any investigation that any difficulty or complication can thoroughly gum up the works. Self's discussion of this in last night's KC Star article is quite enlightening, and might help dispel the urge to assume that a serious infraction is causing the delay.
We think of these things as just asking for some info and documents, then submitting it to the NCAA. But just figuring out who to contact, how they should be approached, and what to ask can involve numerous hours of background investigation, interviews, and acquisition of other documents. Strategy and legal advice sessions all have to be squeezed into normal staff routines, which for a bb team includes trips to games almost every week, and recruiting visits more often than we realize. There are also inevitable media sessions and meetings with supervisory school admins who don't want to be left out. And all that is just what is involved in the school, and doesn't even address the need for followup after followup as people don't have what you want or don't want to provide it and require persuasion. When the information gathering becomes complete, there is another lengthy round of legal involvement in the preparation of affidavits, with many possible exchanges to get every T crossed and I dotted while everyone tries to make sure there is no unexplained fact, unidentified name, or unexplored avenue.
Then there is the the hint we received from @RockChalkinTexas that they are trying to acqquire funding to pay for the car. Title tracing, loan applications, employment and pay histories, credit checks (and perhaps cleanups), proof of sources of funds for months if not years--all that can be a mess, especially in a nontraditional family where unmarried folks have lived together for years and shared expenses. And people and banks and car dealers do not always respond when you want them to. It took my car dealer 5 and 1/2 weeks just to send me my tags and regis to replace my 6-week temp ones, despite my calling them weekly, and I finally got them only 2 days before going on a cross-country trip. What is important to our fans may be a lower priority to third parties, assuming they cooperate at all.
And then the NCAA is going to take time to go over everything with their own magnifying glasses.
Self says the amount of detail they have had to gather in an effort to anticipate any issues is staggering. Anyone who has conducted a financial investigation knows that finding out what happened can be the easiest part. Being able to track it all down and prove it without leaving any stone unturned can be, simply put, the biggest pain in the ass you have ever experienced.
@Kcmatt7 Clemson is at least ranked now, so it isn't as silly a move as people were calling it last summer. But they did lose in the FB semifinal, so the campus is not as afire as it has been the past two years. And who knows what these guys think is important?
Zion Williamson to announce his decision on January 20.
Not really anything new in this article. A video not worth watching of a slo-mo dunk with talkover "Trust me. The best is yet to come" and "Jan 20" superimposed. Plus some info on his season so far (has not played since Nov 21 due to bruised foot).
@KUSTEVE @BeddieKU23 It seems to me in recollection that we do not have any passing to the high post. That used to be an integral part of our offense, allowing for guard screens and those pick and rolls to the basket. The weave, when used, goes nowhere and fizzles into nothing more than a waste of time. The perimeter is only looking to pass to Doke when he might have a scoring opportunity down low. No passing through the high post who could find an open shooter when the D collapses to him, or feed someone driving either down the lane or on the baseline. This leaves us literally two dimensional--with little ability to mix up our offense and confuse the D with all those choices out of the weave.
Of course, as I said, this is just my recollection. But if I am correct, I do think a bigger and stronger guy than ML coming in to spell Doke, or to play with him, will open up lots more passing opportunities from the high post. ML is not strong or long enough to do it in a 4/1, and Doke still does not seem to have developed any game beyond 6 feet (except for those touch fouls at the women's 3 pt line).
Edit: We tried LV there one or two games but only to bust the zone.
@JayHawkFanToo You don't have any evidence they didn't do things right, so why speculate so extremely. When we do have info, have at it. Impatience is not an excuse for jumping to conclusions. "Must have done something wrong" is a bit much.
@truehawk93 Social media being what it is, and internet bullies being as they are, I am sure there have been lots of nasty comments flying her way. Asking her to stay off as she tries to follow KU and her son's progress is not realistic or fair. If she is correct that she has done everything possible to cooperate, anyone could understand her frustration. Unfortunately, many people who are subjected to internet trolling do not have the luxury of trying to step away without cutting themselves off from everyone.
@Jayballer54 As I recall, a number of NEngland fans were in a serious dither after they got stomped by the Chiefs at home in Game 1 this year. "Brady should retire" "Billicek doesn't have it anymore" etc.
Things even out in the course of the season. Thank you for posting an effort to calm people down. It is sports, we will lose and every time will hate losing, but losing a game or even the Streak is not worth losing our minds or our dignity.
DanR said:
I'm shocked she (and Billy) stayed silent this long, so I'm way more on her side than the rest of you, I guess.
My earlier comment was not intended to mean, I should have said, that I believe she is hiding something bad or anything. I just never see the big follow-up explanation that always gets promised. Billy's situation, I suspect, involves complications that could well include gifts from relatives and nonrelatives.
The history of his school moves was all about his mother seeking a better place for him. I believe she has his interests at heart. As we learned with Diallo, sometimes these kids would benefit from having their own legal representation separate from the school as their interests do not always coincide. Many families cannot afford it, and that could be the cause of big delays.
@Crimsonorblue22 Kids with different last names than their mothers, apparently due to Billy and his Mom's names. Some here seemed to think it has great significance (all those "I could say something but I would get blasted..."--wink, wink--comments) that many basketball players have name "discrepancies." As if there is something disreputable about it, which I dispute vehemently.
I just figured it is pretty normal when stepchildren are involved, with no great significance whatsoever other than blended families are becoming pretty prevalent. The days of laughing at the kids from broken homes should be long over.
You know me--I don't stay silent when someone tries to rally the more-fortunate or better-heeled people to the side of snide.
@HighEliteMajor He isn't going to go with both Dok and Mitch at the same time when they are the only post players he has. So last night has nothing to do with whether he will play Mitch in a 3-2 offense after (if) another big shows up.
@HighEliteMajor "Iām trying not to be harsh here, but this might be one of the truly reactionary, outrageous, and baseless comments made around here in a long, long time."
I don't disagree with you here, but, just kind of wondering what your comment would have been if you hadn't softened it up so much?
All kidding, no malice!
BigBad said:
I'll get blasted for pointing this out....The percentage of college basketball players with a different last name than their mothers has to be something like 75%.
Sounds a lot like my stepsons, but they don't play basketball.
@AsadZ I bet @Crimsonorblue22 would prefer talking about your info instead of mine!
@justanotherfan In sports, in crime stories, and in my own military criminal appellate work, I remember lots of family members making statements about their kids, who are all innocent little victims of some persecution, and how they would explain everything, and the real facts would come out, as soon as they were free to talk about it.
I do not remember a single family member ever coming forward with all that "truth" when cases were over, with suspensions or disqualifications in sports, and with convictions in criminal cases.
Warning: adult humor ahead! Or, more accurately, really juvenile joke ahead!
@Gunman There was a Playboy joke back in the 70's that had someone answering the "Sex: M or F?" question with, "F. I haven't M'ed in years!"
@Kcmatt7 DG handing the ball to their guy at the top of the key was the key image I will take from this game. It looked someone being handed the ball in a pickup game so they could get a mercy basket.
@Kcmatt7 Maybe we should find a wildly popular HS coach in Texas or Fla, hire him after he gets to a championship game, and then get him to bring in his players, and as many of the players he coached against as possible.
@KUSTEVE I was more upset that 6'8" Svi was seldom helping Dok or ML rebound. Missed shots I can handle. Watching your big guys get mauled is another thing altogether.
@Gunman For "Sex at birth" you could have said, "I hope not! That is just sick!"
Crimsonorblue22 said:
@nuleafjhawk eww
I assume he is referencing the little-known fact that Hugh H subscribed to Cat Fancy magazine.
Maybe Newman CAN finish.
@KirkIsMyHinrich And missing the point is missing the point.
@KirkIsMyHinrich 3 comments implying bad reffing. You really think the refs are causing this debacle? They are reffing much better than KU is playing!
@JayHawkFanToo
More of a Nurse Ratched in order to keep everyone in line!
@JayHawkFanToo I misread that as "the pretty face of the franchise."
@JayHawkFanToo Couldn't figure out how I missed that. But, in recollection, Wife has helped me remember that Spring of 2013 in general was spent awaiting the g-son's birth, fixing up their house, and driving my foot-rehabbing son everywhere, and Feb and March were spent getting Mom into the hospital, rehab hospital, and assisted living and visiting her every day. Things settled down a bit for the tourney, but conference season is only a vague blur!
Bob Nightengale says Hosmer has a 7 year offer. But no contract yet. NBC HardballTalk blog suspects it is a low offer and Boras is trying to leverage a better deal from other clubs.
@JayHawkFanToo I missed that, but on looking it up discovered his lone attempt also was on his Senior Night. Obviously channeled Pollard!
@JayHawkFanToo Winner, winner!
@jaybate-1.0 He did ok--11 seasons, plus a stint on Survivor!
@drgnslayr Well, OU is bound to be better without a Franspawn on their bench.
@jaybate-1.0 "Marvin, Marvin...."
Wow, you got me thinking about Scott Pollard in two threads today!
(young fans might not get the reference!)
@drgnslayr Self said he will use two bigs at times to give guards a breather. I think he is playing for March after all. Flog them first semester, "light(foot)en up second semester. Maybe the goal is to reduce the chances of a recurrence of the deadly Devontacramps.