@jaybate-1.0 "Highest Big Man 3pt% Ever to Be Disrespected: 50% by Mitchell Lightfoot"
No, the highest big man 3 pt percentage that should have had us all wondering what could have been if only he had been set free is Pollard's, who made his only attempt ever in college on his Senior Night. And never attempted one as a pro.
We could start Fran Bingo!
@dylans You really don't want to egg a KSU fan's house anyway, because they will just go lick it off instead of slithering all the way to a dumpster....
@JayHawkFanToo Unlike everyone else who ever exuded confidence and didn't come through? The issue isn't whether he has succeeded. Has he said or done anything since that press conference resembling disrespect, or will we continue to condemn and hate him for a 6 second quote?
@JayHawkFanToo "The entire mystique of Smart is based in one lucky NCAA run that included a win over KU, that is it."
And yet our fanbase continues to be obsessed by his comments in a single news conference nearly 3 years ago. His "lucky run" was a career-marking accomplishment, as demonstrated by KU fans' constant whining about our fewer-than-we-should-have Final 4s. That he thought his style would do well in the Big12? Oooh, he must be a bad bad man to think that!
Yeah, I am seconding @wissox with this: our obsession with beating Shaka due to his comments when hired reeks of pettiness solely attributable to not being able to let go of the loss in 2011.
The Lightfoot cheering section was just heard muttering something about the self-appointed realists spewing a lot of "buts" regarding events that seem to never have happened and "what ifs" about players who aren't here. And then a REAL voice sounding a lot like HCBS points out that he is currently playing Mitch and says he plans to continue playing Mitch. That damned cheering section, knowing so little about reality....
@KUSTEVE Those books in the Bourne series didn't get me the way his standalone paranoia novels did, like The Matarese Circle, The Parsifal Mosaic, and The Osterman Weekend. Read 5 or six of those and you won't ever trust anyone again--or when you do, and seek their help, they end up dead.
@JayHawkFanToo When college is free and I could be part of a blueblood bb program, I would do anything possible to make it last 5 years or longer if possible!
Oops--we lost the final game that year, 2013. This memory is from what Weber said before that:
"The Wichita Eagle’s account of Monday’s KSU pep rally reports that “coach Bruce Weber joked that he had hoped to celebrate a Big 12 championship a week earlier on Senior Day, but poor officiating — referring to KU’s overtime victory at Iowa State — got in the way.”
Reached by the Journal-World for a reaction to that news item, Self said: “No comment.” "
@dylans "ISU fans think every call goes KUs way even if they aren’t playing KU"
PHOF!
Literally true for Squeaky, too--remember when he complained about calls in a KU game when we played someone else in the last conf game, and they tied us that one year he accomplished something in the B12?
@KUSTEVE The link directs to the Starz site, but the only deal offered is free for 7 days, then to the Google Play store where it says it is $8 or $9 per month after the 7 days. Varies by provider, tho.
@BShark As someone ribbed for my curly hair all my life, I long ago lost all patience with would-be clever people--unless they actually said something original. The last time that happened was about 1966....
@dylans If you don't trade or release Smith and use Mahomes, you are giving up two full years of his rookie contract and taking a huge chance on losing his ambition and effectiveness. Few franchise-quarterbacks need to wait until their 3rd year to be ready, and the Chiefs labelled him that by trading up to get him. After he takes over, it will still be a rather rough adjustment period.
I say that as a huge Smith fan who believes he has seldom been properly appreciated or given the type of assets and freedom to show what he can do.
jaybate 1.0 said:
By then maybe we will all be sub dermal chipped and you will go on the dark net and pay 50 NWO CRYPTO UNITS for black market re-flash of your chip to any age you need?
Bitcoin for now, I believe. We in the NWO haven't decided who goes on our currency yet. Torn between Dan Brown and Robert Ludlum, our patron saints who showed the way.
@KUSTEVE You do know, of course, that Bill Self's alleged hairpiece runs neck and neck as a topic for cleverness awards on opponents' comment boards with "Dollar Bill" and "KU has the refs in their pocket"?
@Gunman Great food for thought! I am thinking the technology would also be wildly popular with coaches and fans if used a bit differently: perhaps the refs could get zapped when replay shows a blown call. Pitchers or batters, when they complain about the ump's call when replay confirms it... And Bill Walton, when he takes his shirt off or does something else to disturb, say, 50 % of the audience, all of whom have buzzers.....
@Gunman I have heard almost every commentator criticize refs for following a coach or player while yelling at him when the guy is walking away. Here, though, it was weird because Shaka went a ways down the court to confront him in the first place. I thought Bilas would have been right on if Higgins had initiated the confrontation, but since Shaka did, he has to accept the logical aftermath.
But it might be different in my mind if I knew whether my theory is correct that Shaka got charged with a timeout when he didn't call one.
Bottom line: the incident left all of them looking bad: the coach, the ref, and the announcers for not finding out what happened.
When we saw Mitch playing with Dok earlier (just once, I believe), we saw him moving more freely and very capable of executing in both offense and defense. I would even describe him as looking very fluid as he ranged to the perimeter, and moved inside and back out.
What Self said in addition to a few things pointed out here is that ML knows the system well and does his best, but hasn't had much opportunity to show what he can do.
In other words, playing the 5 he is horribly overmatched. He ain't Dok, but he has had to be pseudo-Dok for 95% of his minutes on the floor. Self clearly believes having another big opens up Mitch to be the cog he should be.
So, it isn't "Free Silvio!" or "Free Billy!" It should be "Free the Mitch!" so he can eventually be, BIM.
DoubleDD said:
Last game he went after his missed shots. He knew He missed his shots. This kid is the only kid we have that can get to rim when ever he wants. He just has to learn to finish. And that is a fact.
Finishing will come more consistently when he isn't thinking about a hurt foot. That comes with more experience of learning to play with it, and hopefully as it gets better, too. He still has less than one season actually playing in a system as demanding as Self's. I see improvement in game after game, and I believe we will see him as equivalent to, say, Jr-year Selden by the end of the year.
The problem for most of us as fans, I believe, is that we are always tempted to make final predictions and conclusions based on small sample sizes--usually just the last game. The season needs to play out. There is little reason to give up on anyone or think we have seen anything near full capability by this limited point.
The comment came in response to a question about how his style would translate to the Big 12. "It translated pretty well a few years ago in San Antonio."
Never bothered me in the least. He had one game as a frame of reference. People had been questioning whether his "havoc" style had legs. He can be allowed 4 seconds of pride.
Now he has more games of reference, and the havoc style does not seem to have had legs.
His best chance of success is with a freakishly long big guy who is not part of any havoc style. It will be interesting to see if he adapts.
@dylans Good ideas, provided we had access to layups, easy or otherwise.
@truehawk93 I wasn't disagreeing at all. I was just trying to make an ironic comment about those thieves within the larger context of centuries of invasion and occupation around the entire world! I have little exposure to Oklahomans in general, except in reading about the Dust Bowl and how short-sighted political, agricultural, and economic decision-making helped them destroy their environment and created the "Okie" exodus.
@truehawk93 No, I meant that making 3 ptrs is considered the key to pulling someone out of a zone. Just odd to see a switch to zone when outside shooting (by a quick team especially) is easier than against a man defense.
@truehawk93 I am not sure he is really that stupid, but I never before heard of a team switching from man to zone to try to defend against 3 ptrs killing them. Isn't it usually the reverse?
@truehawk93 Soooooo, not that much different from most of the rest of the country, then?
@dylans It might not be conventional wisdom, but it might be wise to run clock on the road when you have a team with hardly any subs, your best shooter has 3 or 4 fouls, and your best big guy has 3 fouls and a bad back.
The block on Svi could only have been not goaltending if the trajectory of the shot would have missed the basket by at least two feet!
@HighEliteMajor I like Bilas too, but like all commentators he gets into repeating clever phrases that should have only been said once not repeated ad nauseam (like a "funny once but not twice" for anyone who ever read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.) Last night it was the bad-shot-as-turnover comment. Fran does it more than anyone--Hey look, everyone! I was really clever!
I actually wondered why no one ever figured out, or at least announced, what caused the problem leading to the T. It looked to me like a timeout was granted to Tex, but Shaka looked mystified as if he never called it. If so, Higgins might have heard someone from the bench area and thought it was Shaka. And if that happened, he was even more at fault.
@HighEliteMajor Considering your oft-expressed opinions of refs in general, and of Bilas, did you have a moment of cognitive dissonance when Bilas bashed Higgins? Which dislike takes precedence here?
@Lulufulu @jaybate-1-0 I always thought whistle assymetry had to do with the way my grandfather breathed those last few years....
@whipperboy73 He may not have mentioned another aspect of our low FT attempts: opponents have attempted 42 more FTs than we have this season.
Other years: KU basketball ornament, KU Jayhawk figurine wearing a Santa hat wearing a #25 KU Jersey holding a bb, KU magnets for the car.... Who would know she only became a Jayhawk by marriage?
@KUSTEVE Alas, IMG lost 73-71 to Oak Hill in the championship of the Chik-fil-A Classic on Saturday.
But Devin Dotson was named MVP of the other Division tournament (they had two) as he led his team to the title:
http://chick-fil-aclassic.com/2017/12/23/chargers-outlast-gray-collegiate/ ↗
@JayHawkFanToo Just for the sheer entertainment value because I would be the owner of the Globetrotters.
@JayHawkFanToo The thread asks who we would prefer this year. It doesn't specify NBA, so I want Mugsy.
Mugsy--no one was more fun to watch!
@JayHawkFanToo In the same damned car he cannot drive straight?
@HighEliteMajor I think the appeal comment was more a reference to those test scores that have recently been obtained. The NCAA looks for test scores that are commensurate with a student's prior academic achievement, and won't grant eligibility if a student's test scores are way out of line (high or low). Whether there is a minimum acceptable score is not at issue in this level of review, unlike school acceptance cut-offs.
Since our new player is also submitting to scrutiny of his foreign classes, there may be heightened scrutiny of how his test scores correlate to his transcripts. I think Self was just trying to anticipate potential roadblocks that schools have seen come up with foreign players where the NCAA does not have lots of similar students and schools against which to compare, not suggesting there were unaddressed problems.
Unlike fall enrollees, there has not been the normal amount of time for all of this to have been submitted since this possibility really only started being seriously discussed mid-semester with test scores still being awaited. There is absolutely no reason to think the staff has not done everything it could in as expeditious a fashion as possible.
ditto double sigh....
@jayballer54 Anything critical I heard or read about KU after our losses paled in comparison to what I saw posted here.
Done here. Have a peaceful holiday!
@jayballer54 My post was meant to reassure you that KU was not as singled out as you thought. If that inflames, I do not see how.
@jayballer54 Gary Parrish dropped the TarHeels 10 spots to #15, and Lunardi dropped them to the 3 line on ESPN. We are on the 4 line and at 18 now, I think, on CBS.
I have read analyses citing UNC's new players not meshing as a major flaw. By contrast, analysts are focused on our lack of another go-to post player as revealed in our losses, a factor much discussed by us fans as well. Team cohesion can be addressed with practice and more games. Roster issues for us will hopefully be ameliorated, but the rankings are based on where we are, not what we hope will happen.
I see no excuse-making by anyone for UNC's loss and do not see any anti-B12 bias involved--the number of conf teams ranked (6, by Parrish) seems to disprove your complaint. And Parrish's lead article today is about TCU's big improvement.
You were already quite incensed anticipating all the bias you wrote about, so I do not know if any of this matters, but I think you might want to at least reassess your expectation.
@HawkChamp Do you have a site where someone is posting the NCAA quote? The NCAA website for eligibility has the phrase that says they close today for the break, but it says at 5 pm, through Jan 1.
!0_1513958277574_Screenshot_2017-12-22-10-56-58.png ↗
But someone may have a different ref worth checking?
@HawkChamp The NCAA website says it closes at 5 pm today.
@DoubleDD I don't think Reagan gets the credit for budget surpluses 7 years after leaving office. I have heard people argue with good reason that the Republican Congress should get credit, but never have I seen anyone suggest it was Ronnie. His debt increases in his early years were mammoth.
Google gives us this "Fact Check: Who was president the last time the budget was balanced?
— The U.S. government suffered budget deficits every year from 1970 through 1997.
— Democrat Bill Clinton was president in 1998, when the government finally recorded a surplus.
— There also were budget surpluses in 1999, 2000 and in 2001. 2001 was the last year the Clinton administration proposed the budget."
The fact is, it was a bipartisan effort that gave us several years of surplus. A lesson for both sides that is woefully ignored today.
Researching this was interesting. The original article by author O'Brien was on Aug 5, 2010, on the Sun Times website. It said Davis was likely to go to UK and alleged that rumors were that the commitment cost S200,000. That was removed from the website that day.
The next day, Davis Senior's lawyer threatened to sue. O'Brien contacted him for a comment, and he said "Thanks for ruining my son." UK denied the story.
On Friday, the paper published a new O'Brien story that had the new quote about 3 alleged sources from other schools saying Davis Sr. had been seeking the 125 to 150 thou, but not alleging anything more about UK in particular.
The University issued a statement the next week threatening a lawsuit, noting the family and school denials, and seeking a statement specifically retracting all allegations and rumors as not based on credible sources.
No lawsuits were filed. No retractions, either.
A few years later, O'Brien wrote a retrospective about Davis in which he mention that "the Sun Times" had written about the Davis recruiting rumors in 2010, never mentioning that he himself wrote those articles.
Conclusion: I think the Sun Times very cleverly changed the allegation from the UK commitment to general allegations that the dad had sought money from other schools. This converted the original story to a Cam Newton story, and eliminated any allegation about UK specifically. Had Daddy sued, that would have opened his bank records to scrutiny. Whether he received anything illegitimate would have come out. The school no longer had any great harm it could assert, so it had no incentive to sue anymore.
Kuddos to Sun Times lawyers for a brilliant non-retraction/double-down that has still left everyone using those stories as their sources of alleged well-known payments to Davis.
I suspect Daddy got something at least, and he has gone quietly into a wealthy retirement.
Amusing aside: I came across this quote on a Louisville board's 2014 recap of the Davis rumors:
That . . . sums up the Calipari era at UK. I'm coming to this realization: if that's what it takes to land the #1 class all the time and to make 3 final fours in 5 years, count me out. I'd rather wait another 27 years for a championship than see the university from which I earned two degrees do business that way.
I didn't do any follow-up to see what that poster has said following the unveiling of UL's prostitution based recruiting, or the latest scandal that has cost Pitino his job!
@BeddieKU23 Oh, nothing snide to you! I was only elaborating because of Debbie Downer's proven inability to recognise that Wiggins is important to the team's success even when he does not post big numbers.
@BeddieKU23 Still, they won, which is the important thing. He still had the only +/- among the starters. I would guess Wiggins wouldn't mind keeping The Chicken happy so long as they win when he has a few mediocre stats.
@BShark Widely known? I like sources, nice credible verifiable sources. Anything less for a statement like this is speculative, possibly slanderous or libelous, rumor.