🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@HighEliteMajor OMG!! Yes I did "rag" on Lucas because although he can get himself open he cannot finish. I must admit that he did score underneath once yesterday with a big on him. I am glad to see that you are now sticking up for him. As for your posts. If it were not for your bashing of Jamari, Connor, and Brady and why Self shouldn't have played them over the past 4-5 years, both here and at KUSports,you could have cut your number of posts by approximately one half. But what to expect, a hater has got to hate.

As per usual you did not answer the question about who looks like the next person to dump on after Jamari is gone. I doubt that I am the only person here who is waiting with bated breath for your pearls of wisdom on that subject.

@HighEliteMajor I guess "or February" is the next "fool's gold". Something to pi$$ and moan about for god knows how long.

Who do you see coming along as the player you will rag on next when the dolt Bill Self plays him? Next year could be pretty bleak for you. No Jamari. No Brady. No Connor. Hopefully somebody will step up to give you something to do. Currently Lightfoot looks like the best prospect what with his crappy ranking. What do you think oh master of the hardwood?

@JRyman Did anyone see that pathetic display of basketball incompetence last night? The Tigers made K State look like a good team or one might even say a great team. The Wildcats are so good that they trailed by three at halftime but rallied for a 93-72 victory over South Dakota. That isn't even South Dakota State who have made the tournament in the past few years.

@drgnslayr The case for NBA big men not playing like those of the past is not nearly as strong as one might think. Although PFs probably shoot 3s more than they have in the past, this is NOT the case for centers. I have gone through the list of current centers and their backups as regards the average number of 3 point shots per game that they have taken over their careers. The only ones who shot more than .3 attempts per game are:

Al Horford of the Hawks at .34 (up to 3.4 this year)

Jared Sullinger of the Celtics at 2.25

Kelly Olynyk of the Celtics at 2.24

Andrea Bargnani backup for the Nets at 3.4

Spencer Hawes backup for Hornets at 1.48

Karl-Anthony Towns of the Timberwolves at .43

Gorgui Dieng of the Timberwolves at .5

LaMarcus Aldredge of the Spurs at .34

Boris Diaw of the Spurs at 1.37

Matt Bonner of the Spurs at 2.47

Draymond Green of the Warriors at 2.42. I am listing Green since he plays center when they go small although most of his attempts are from his PF position when Bogurt or Ezeli are in the game.

With the exception of the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics no other team has key contributors who shoot more than 1 per game. Most of the rest of the centers shoot in the .05 to .1 range. This is not much more than has been the case in the past. I would guess that most of the shots are in desperation at the end of the shot clock. The primary reason for this is that they are not very good (that is being very generous) as most percentages are lower than 20% and a lot have an average of 0%.

@AsadZ Better question. How much longer do we have to read the drivel that emanates from your keyboard? You have contributed NOTHING to any discussion on this board. I would call you a one trick pony if you had a trick.

@drgnslayr So much for fundamentals. In his post game interview Self indicated that Lucas was playing because he is the best person we have for getting position and riding his man from under the basket. That is unfortunately that is true. On the other hand, the purpose of doing that is to put the damned ball in the hoop. I honestly cannot remember him making one shot either this year or last when there is a defender on the same side of the hoop. He did make a shot last night when he was open with no one around.

We seem to always have a problem with bunnies. Perry has his own problems as does Jamari, but at least they can make a guarded 2 foot shot every now and then. Lucas on the other hand is just a waste of an entry pass.

@HighEliteMajor To answer your question I am 69 soon to be 70. Make of that what you will.

@HighEliteMajor So Ronnie defeated the Soviet Union. According to most economists the Soviet Union would be defeated by capitalism and had been on its last legs for decades. Yeah the old boy almost spent this country in the ground and he is a hero. What do you think of book by Bill O'Rielly , a hero to faux news fans, who has claimed that Ronnie was not able to function on many occasions after the attempt to shoot him? Is Billo a liberal?

What is pathetic and sad is your lack of any knowledge of what went on during his term. By the way, his policies and approach would remove him from a sniff of the current Republican nomination. He raised taxes a half a dozen times, signed a bill giving amnesty of illegal immigrants, and had little or nothing to say about abortion and gay rights. Let's not go back to his term as governor of California where he performed similar actions.

You might not like the cut of my cloth (whatever that is supposed to mean) but at least I learned something during my time at KU. Sorry that you cannot say the same.

@JayHawkFanToo Is that all? How about Iran/Contra. That was a pretty sight. Selling munitions to the same people who were calling us the "great Satan" was a master stroke. It seems that breaking the law by sending the proceeds of those sales to the Contras was just dandy. It was during his term that the middle class started its' slide into its' current economic state. I could go on and on but to no affect on someone living in a state where the Laffer curve is thought to be the cat's pajamas by the current governor.

And not to be too picky but you might want to spell your hero's name correctly.

@JayHawkFanToo When thinking about all of the fantastic things Ronnie would do to ISIS remember Lebanon. After losing hundreds of men there he then attacks Grenada to show what a military genius he was. Right up there with Alexander, Napoleon, and Caesar. Let's get real!!

@ralster I had a college history teacher who thought that nationalism was one of the world's biggest problems.

@Statmachine "Fools gold" is a phrase applicable in may areas of sports. Hitting 3s (or layups against a team committing unforced turnovers) can give one the illusion of playing well even though other areas of the game, such as defense, are not up to snuff. As an example, I bowl a lot. I am very inconsistent in picking up spares but I can get hot with strikes. Four strikes in a row can result in a good score even after missing 3 spares. The strikes are "fools gold" if I think that I am bowling well because of them.

@JayHawkFanToo Of course minorities can be racist. Frequently they are most virulently so against other minorities.

Although I would prefer not to hear the "N" word in rap lyrics, the context makes the difference in communication. If a friend or teammate greets you with "how are you doing you old bastard" you are most likely not going to go to battle with them. That is not the case if when walking down the street some stranger says to you "you old bastard".

@JayHawkFanToo It would appear to be hard to make the case that Self is against shooting three pointers if the team shot 44 of them in one scrimmage. That is more shots than the most fervent devotees thought would ever be seen in a 40 minute game. Although 40 minutes is less than the length of a normal practice, I doubt that the practices have more than 40 minutes of actual scrimmaging.

He may not be able to totally control the three point shots in a game, but there is no way that three pointers are attempted in practice unless he wants it that way.

@jaybate-1.0 Back in the day (50s and 60s) NBA players didn't lift because they were afraid of getting "muscle bound". I seem to remember a SI article about Bob Pettit of the old St.Louis Hawks talking about this.

@REHawk Until Svi starts hitting in games 2 names will come to my mind when he misses a three. Luke Axtell and Jeremy Case were two people who could supposedly drill 3 after 3 in practice and nada in games. Hopefully he can do things in games to back up the praise being heaped on him both here and by HCBS.

@JayHawkFanToo The NBA has allowed a zone defense for the past couple of years. The zone that is allowed is slightly more restrictive than that in college. There is a defensive 3 second call which is made if the defender spends more than 3 seconds in the lane without guarding anyone. Most teams use the zone every now and then but none use it a lot because of the ability of players to shoot it apart if played too much. Teaching a zone defense should not have any downside for those that want to play in the league.

There might be a case to be made about a team like Syracuse which plays it exclusively.

@drgnslayr A pull-up jump shot generally results in a shot of about 15 to 18 feet. I thought that there was general agreement among the cognoscenti here that this is the worst shot imaginable. All we should be shooting are threes or layups. It is absolutely amazing that what is popular here one day is shizz the next and vice-versa.

Right behind Mickey Mantle as my favorite Yankee from the 50s and early 60s. One of the best bad ball hitters of all time.

@HighEliteMajor You are totally correct. English for some people can be confusing and I guess that you fall into that category. Prior to the second TTU game Frank made 68 attempts at a 3 point shot (follow this closely) in 24 games for an average of 2.833 attempts per game. After that game he shot 30 3 pointers in 11 games for an average of 2.72 attempts per game. If frank had shot at the same rate after TTU as he did before he would have taken 2.833 times 11 shots for a whopping total of 31.16 3 pointers attempted.That is slightly more than 1 shot over 11 games. Do you think that the number makes your case stronger? Really?

As I pointed out Wayne made 1.8 of the teams fewer attempts per game. Your reason for his doing that is no more plausible than is mine. Bill Self may indeed have mandated fewer 3 pointers per game. We will never know unless someone writes a book or does an interview about the subject. His mandating, however, has never been your chief concern. You have based most, if not all, of your points on the subject of the "fools gold" remark at the press conference. This supposedly demeaned the team's accomplishments thus far in the season and lowered their morale to the point where it affected their shooting. Why the sudden change of tactics? Is the job of arm chair psychologist becoming too difficult.

As for my being a jackass, I humbly apologize. I truly did not understand your drive to maintain exclusivity here for that label. What is very easy to follow is that you believe that no one (and this includes Bill Self) knows as much about basketball as do you.

@HighEliteMajor I appreciate that you are trying to make a point and that sometimes reading things the way you want might make this easier. My statement was "why did Frank Mason make 2.8 attempts per game". He made 2.8 attempts per game, not as you misread it 2.8 makes per game. To make an attempt is NOT the same as to make a basket!

My reference to Selden was to make the point that of the major shooters of 3 pointers he was the only one who made sufficiently fewer attempts. If I remember correctly (and I do) many posters were calling for Wayne to be replaced by somebody, anybody in fact. It is not as if he took fewer attempts while maintaining his shooting percentage. My explanation for fewer attempts due to concern for his misses is every bit as plausible as is yours that everyone on the team was frightened by Self. You also seem to forget that although Wayne improved his 3 point shooting by 4% he did do from a not too impressive 32,8% the previous year in which he hit 42 out of 128 attempts. Could he have foretold the future about the "fools gold" comment by shooting so poorly? He improved from 2014 to 2015 and will hopefully do as much or better in that regard this year.

As you state the team attempts dropped by 4 per game. 1.8 of these fewer attempts can be attributed to Wayne. It is a bit strange that you want to exclude the attempts in the Baylor game to make the average worse. If the team felt demeaned (from your previous post) by "fools gold", why did that not happen in the game immediately following the remark? By the way, I do not buy into the bad ball argument to anything approaching the extent that jaybate does.

You have still not explained why Brannen Greene, the best shooter on the team, took more 3 point shots after the remark than before and why did Bill Self give him as many minutes after as before. As @DanR pointed out, he is a young man with no lack of confidence. BG was the main driver for your remarks up until my post. I agree with @jayhawk 007 that way too much has been made about the comment.

I reread your past posts. I wasn't impressed then and I am less so now.

@HighEliteMajor During your watching and participating in sports has it been your observation that players do more of what a coach doesn't want than they do what he does want? Supposedly the "fools gold" comment caused Brannen Greene to shoot very poorly (which he did hitting at 17% after TTU ) and yet he shot 3 pointers at a clip of 3.09 per game after TTU and 2.7 per game up to and including that game. Bill Self told him in an animated fashion that the team was supposed to drive the ball more and yet he shot 3s at an increased rate. Has it also been your experience watching Bill Self that players who don't do what he wants get playing time? In fact, he averaged 14 minutes per game before and after the remark.

If the team felt that the coach didn't want 3 point attempts, why did Frank Mason make 2.8 attempts per game before the remark and 2.5 attempts after? That would be hardly what a team leader does. Wayne was the only significant 3 point shooter whose attempts declined a lot. He went from 4.`6 attempts per game when he was shooting at 43% to 2.16 attempts when he was shooting 11%. Of course that couldn't have anything to do with a player with less than the largest self confidence realizing that he is not helping to win games shooting like that.

If Bill Self hates 3 point shots, why did he have Svi shooting 3.08 attempts per game for 32% until after the Kent State game when his playing time dropped like a stone? I suppose that if he had hit 43% he would have still imitated an assistant coach for the rest of the year.

And this is after KSU students had to sign a sportsmanship pledge before getting their student tickets. No profane chants. I guess the Octagon of dumb will be silent this year. What a bunch of bozos.

@DoubleDD Back in the day there were a lot of manufacturing and other jobs in which a person could make a good living without having a college education. Those jobs are mostly gone either off shore or they have been automated. Technical education has been deprecated with school budget cuts. These fast food and others of a similar nature are all that are left for a lot of people.

@JayHawkFanToo They have always played defense in the NBA. "They don't play defense" and "only the last 5 minutes count" are two phrases usually uttered after the phrase "I don't watch NBA because". If someone doesn't watch something than how do they know? I watched JoJo White at KU. He was an outstanding defender. I saw him embarrass a projected All-American guard to the point that the guy could hardly get the ball over the half court line. I was ecstatic when he was drafted by my favorite NBA team, the Celtics. I was amazed that at the beginning of his career the only question raised was "can he play defense well enough".

The defense played was much more intense than it is now. What is now a flagrant 2 was a hard foul. Also remember that when there were 8-10 teams in the league you played the same people over and over. Part of the amazing thing about Wilt's statistics were that they were generally garnered against other very good centers with an occasional Ray Felix thrown in.

Who thinks that Detroit got where they did by now playing defense? When MJ is mentioned as the best ever one of the main arguments is that he was all defense year after year. That was 30 years ago.

Don't remember if anyone mentioned it, but Selden got an entry in this week's Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" for his performance in the WUG.

@JayHawkFanToo I find the player rotation by Few to be unlike anything I have seen in college or the NBA. Normally the best players start. Sometimes a player is better off of the bench or the coach wants to bring in an energy guy or a great shooter to take advantage of the normal substitution pattern or he wants someone to steady the less talented bench. This is usually limited to one player. The starters with some exceptions finish the game when it is close.

In these games Few starts the college kids and but it is the pros with sometimes one college kid who finish and who play the most important minutes. What is he trying to accomplish with this rotation?

This reminds me of the stories of the "House of David" basketball teams of old. They were even before my time. One of their claims to fame was that all of the players had beards or staches. They were a part of a religious commune.

@JayHawkFanToo This is an interesting analysis, but there is a minor flaw. All plays are not created equal. Most teams will play faster given a good opportunity. A steal for a layup or pressure defense leading to a turnover with a 3 on 1 or a 4 on 2 opportunity will result in shorter plays. This means that the average play time has shortened but the normal offensive time has not. As an example, Virginia will go for an easy basket given the opportunity, but all things being equal they will slow it down and run their offense which may take most of the clock. 30 seconds means that their normal offensive time will be slightly shorter. Things also change during the last 2 to 4 minutes of a game when a team with a reasonable lead will let some of the air out of the ball.

It is these "normal" offenses and end of game situations where the shorter clock will have an affect. You are correct about 80% of the plays where it will have no direct affect. There is also a small psychological affect when players feel a bit more rushed. This can be seen now when the clock goes under 10 seconds. That is really a lot of time but players frequently don't think so.

@jaybate-1.0 There may not be any lions in Phillie, but given the comments to that article there are a bunch of d-bags.

@Lulufulu It's more of a constant than taxes. If we don't make money we don't pay taxes. KU will be playing basketball after we are dead. When that happens I hope that KU has a 3 who can take it to the hole.

@JayHawkFanToo One thing that chaps me about Franchilla and others is this business about the Pan American games having a negative influence on the competition. There were four teams from the Americas: Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile. Other than Canada and Brazil who else may have been impacted? Does anyone know how many of their better eligible players are playing in the Pan American games?

Overall the Euro players seemed to be more skilled shooters and because of the rules they are much more willing to bang than are many D1 players. Part of that is their being 2-4 years older. I have no idea where they are in their conditioning cycle, but but the people we saw were not nearly in as good a shape as was KUSA. Can this be attributed to their being more truly all star teams? Germany seemed to be the only team that didn't wilt in the fourth quarter, but they played one game fewer than did the others.

The thing that Lucas seemed to learn at WUG was his need to bang if he wants to see the floor. He has been the best of the bigs for sealing his man and getting open for the post feed. His problem has been that he then misses the bunnies that result. He went harder to the basket and is more willing to accept being hit. He also seems to have more confidence. He has also become proficient in not being stripped of the ball after getting a rebound. He is a far cry from TRob in that respect but he has progressed.

Hunter is a better offensive threat than Landen, especially on the offensive boards where he showed a good progression in his timing of tips. He is a better shot blocker but mostly off of the ball. He showed little proclivity as a rim protector in the sense of someone who can stop a penetrating driver. He also seems to have a good increase in his confidence level. He is not afraid to put up a shot up to about 15 ft.

The tournament has had a very positive affect on the confidence of both of these players. How they compare to Diallo is still to be determined, but I am more confident now about their position than I was before Korea.

@drgnslayr Ok, but why then are half of the fouls that are called the kind that you would be embarrassed to call in a "call your own" pickup game? I know that a lot of games are called inconsistently but some of this is rather goofy.

@drgnslayr It's hard to know what a foul is. One minute they call a picky touch foul 25 ft from the basket, and the next someone is hammered big time under the basket and nothing.

My favorite play is the push off by the ball handler followed immediately by a foul called on the defender for being the the same zip code. Nic and Frank seemed to get called for that a lot.

One thing I have noticed is that if there is any chance that the other team will get an advantage in the open court someone will intentionally foul. You know it is intentional since they immediately raise their hand and no one complains about the call. This has happened numerous times in all of the games we have played.

maybe Nike put the word out.

@brooksmd swimming

@bskeet Both locatetv.com and my Tivo schedule listing for espnu on Tues July 7 show USA playing Serbia at 8:00 pm (pdt). This is also what is shown on a schedule I took off of one of the threads here. What gives?

@JayHawkFanToo If anyone is using Tivo and you have it on your lan then you can move it to your computer using Tivo desktop and then convert from Tivo format to one that can be uploaded. The file is huge if you are using HD.

@JayHawkFanToo What bugs me is the decline in the correct usage of "to", "too", and "two". But that is nothing compared to the use of "there" or "their" or even "they're" as synonyms.

A number of people here have indicated that Cliff can make it in the NBA if it is based simply on basketball skills. Why is Cliff better now or show a higher ceiling than does TRob? Many here including myself think that TRob was on the of best players at KU in the past 5 years or more. He has been traded all over the place and appears to be hanging on by his finger nails. If he can't make a good career, how can Cliff?

@drgnslayr How do these questions square with the belief by many here that OADs "protect the product" by playing at only 3/4 of their normal intensity level.? How, in fact, does a someone playing at that level not get outplayed by someone with only 90% of their talent, but who gives 100%? Why would an NBA gm want someone who has demonstrated that they don't want to play at full speed? Most of the people in the NBA draft rooms have 10 to 30 years of experience watching people play basketball. Are they really that stupid or don't they care?

There are almost no NBA analysts who think that Kevin Love is going to play for any team other than the Cavs next year. Opting out is a charade. It is strictly for business. Those who can opt out including LeBron simply want to sign 2 year deals and probably with the same teams. The big money is going to come in the 2017 season when a new TV contract will kick in. At that point a max deal now will seem like chump change.

The CBA also expires in 2017 and the players want to get more than the 51% that they get now. No one is going to sign big free agency contracts now. Any agent who would recommend signing big now should be shot.

@HighEliteMajor Are the numbers available from this link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/) ↗ miniscule? They might be for Rwanda but for a civilized society. Really?

@drgnslayr Curry has also had injury problems in the past. In his first 2 seasons he had serious ankle sprains. He is only the fourth best paid Warrior now because he signed a 4 year contract a couple of years ago which undervalued him due to the possibility of him not being able to play consistently. Luckily he has been ok the past 2 years but whenever he has any ankle tweaks the fans hold their breath.

@REHawk One thing that has not mentioned as far as I remember is that Wigs plays on a particularly bad team. This is a team that was not playing for anything that required a winning record. He is also playing for a coach who is currently not on even a warm seat unless they stink for a couple of more years. This means that the coach can let Wigs and other rookies on the team do things that help them develop that he could never have done at Cleveland after LeBron came back. The Wolves were never expected to win very many games and they did not disappoint.

KU is not remotely in that situation. As much as we talk about allowing loses to help develop players, every loss no matter when in the season is viewed as a disaster . Bill Self obviously does not like to lose. The fan base is the same if not more so. Every loss is dissected on this and other KU boards as if the world as we know it is about to end.

@jaybate-1.0 I strongly disagree with your statement that " tons of guys that can do what Curry does". If that is the case, please name three. Curry is generally compared with Reggie Miller and Ray Allen as the best of all time. Reggie has been out of the league for 10 years and Ray is as close to being out as you can get without retiring.

@justanotherfan Bill Self doesn't think 3 pointers are "fools gold". What is "fools gold" is hitting a couple of 3s early and then clanking 3 or 4 more not necessarily good shots because the player thinks that they are "hot".

As an example, in the finals and in the semis Golden State has faced people who like to shoot 3s. When J. R. Smith hits an early 3 my response is "oh crap" because when he is hot he can kill you. On the other hand, against the Rockets if Josh Smith took an early 3 my response was "hope it goes in". The reason being that when Josh hits one early he is going to keep cranking and in general the result is a long rebound. That early 3 by Josh is "fools gold". It looks nice and shiny but it causes more problems than not. Of course Josh sometimes gets hot like in the sixth game against the Clippers but that is not generally the case.

@drgnslayr Wayne had his minutes trimmed some toward the end of last year. When Self played both Devonte and Frank he substituted Devonte for Wayne. This seemed to be particularly true late in the second half of games.

@ralster JR was called a thug on one of the threads a few days ago. Do you agree with this characterization?