🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@DoubleDD Given my age I can't remember if anyone here has indicated that they have seen Diallo play in a couple of games other than all star games. If so, what did you think of his skills to do things other than stuff the ball and have a very big motor? I vaguely remember that we had mix tapes of JoJo. The amazing thing is how those tapes showed the subtle nuances of his footwork. NOT!!

How many mix tapes has anyone here seen that shows the finesse level of the player? These tapes show dunks and blocks for bigs. If he can shoot, they will show some of that but the emphasis is stuff and block.

If anyone here doesn't think that "want" is as important as anything, you didn't see the Warriors and Cavs play tonight. The more highly skilled and finesse team had their lunch eaten by a team that wanted it more. With the exception of LeBron the Cavs are a bunch of cast offs and role players and yet here we are with them leading the series 2 to 1.

We will find out in a few months if Diallo has offensive skills. Until we see him playing against D1 and international talent we really don't have a clue about his present skills and even less about what he will look like in March.

@JayHawkFanToo He also just resigned.

@Lulufulu Archer Daniels Midland. They and Cargill control most of American agriculture.

@drgnslayr GS score a lot of points shooting 3s. They win by playing defense. The Warriors have always been able to score however they didn't use the 3 as much. The difference between the days before Jackson and Kerr became the coaches and today is that they now play defense. Cleveland got a lot out of James and Irving on offense but they got nada from they rest of the team. They also have a much better bench than they or others have had in the past. A lot of what happened in overtime Thursday was due to the number of people that they threw against the Cavs best players throughout the game. James and Irving both played ridiculous minutes. Both Curry and Thompson were able to spend a lot more time on the bench.

As for Bogut, a lot of their offense goes through him when he is on the floor. He doesn't score a lot but he is one of the best passing big man in the league. He is also the rim protector. If you watch a lot of Warriors games, when he is on the floor the other team tries to take it to the basket less than when he is on the bench. He is much better than Ezeli at doing that. If you want someone with absolutely no offensive skills other than dunking try Andre Jordan. If he isn't close enough to touch the basket, he can't do a thing.

The Warriors obviously shoot a lot more 3s than does KU; however, the key thing stressed by both Kerr and Self is the necessity that the ball doesn't stick. When they are playing well, which wasn't the case in the first quarter Thursday, they shoot, drive, or pass very quickly after getting the ball. Just to make HEM mad you will even see them running an outside weave a couple of times each game. The horror!!

@jaybate-1.0 ISU may become irrelevant on the national scene and also as a challenger for the Big XII title. KU has always had a problem winning at Hilton. I have watched or listened to someone for ISU going off for 30-40 points too many times. We seem to have better luck in other Big XII arenas.

@DoubleDD Players who can score down low are key to Self's offense. Players who want to score down low are the key to Self's offense. My point is that they have not historically been taller than 6'9". In fact, @sfbahawk indicated that at the pre-draft combine Withey measured 6'10-3/4". That's even better. The numbers I used were KU numbers and as has been the topic of more than one thread those numbers are usually inflated.

Who said anything about a guard heavy team? Try pinning that on someone else. It wasn't me.

The argument of some is that it is critical to get Chukwu because he is a footer. Past history does not support that claim. You obviously aren't too excited about Coleby. I don't know whether he will pan out or not. Self must think so or he wouldn't have signed him. What I do know is that he meets Self's profile of big men. If you look at the builds of his bigs, Coleby is closer to that than is Chukwu. It doesn't appear that Coleby will have to spend as much time with Hudy as would others. JoJo was very impressive as a freshman. He was a very good learner and his footwork was amazing. One of his biggest problems was his lack of strength. He could be moved out easier than some.

I would love to have Chukwu on the team but his presence is not critical. I cannot imagine that Self will lose any sleep in the next couple of years if he goes elsewhere.

@DoubleDD Since 2001 Bill Self has had 14 players taller than 6'9" on his teams at Illinois and KU. Of those only Embiid and Withey were footers. At Illinois only 2 of them contributed, Cook and Augustine. At KU he has had Kaun, Giles, Niang, Aldrich, Withey, Markief Morris, Lucas, Embiid, and Mickelson. Of those Kaun, Aldrich, Withey, Morris, and Embiid. were important contributors. That means that since 2001 Self has had 7 contributing players over 6'9" with only 2 footers.

There were obviously other front court players who could score down low but they were 6'9" or less. Self needs players that can score down low; however, it is not clear that he needs footers. Would it be nice to have bigger studs. Of course. Is it absolutely necessary? NO. Of course we have won only one NC during that time. On the other hand, when we did cut down the nets the only player on the list, Kaun, came off of the bench.

@Statmachine that's all well and good but all reports are that he is NOT going to graduate. Also the first day of the summer session is June 9 with a course completion date of Aug. 21. If he is going to play in the WUG which lasts through July 14 he would have to complete whatever courses he needs and then get recruited to play somewhere else. This also assumes that all he needs for credits can be completed in 5 weeks of study. The team that wants him would also have to be ok with him not participating in any summer work at that school.

Let's get real. Unless Hunter decides to give up basketball or go to a D2 school there is no other option.

@Statmachine The only D1 school Hunter can play at this year is KU. With his redshirt year and after transferring from Arkansas he has used up his eligibility. He could play by transferring to a D2 school but that very rarely happens. He could also screw up his academic credits by transferring just before his senior year. All of his courses might not transfer. Would his academic resume look better if he graduates from KU or from somewhere else? Hopefully the answer to the question is KU.

Since the latest update there is a minor problem with the recent posts page. Frequently I leave that page up when not using my computer. In the past it was always fairly accurate with the number of new topics and posts without refreshing the page. Things are inconsistent now. Sometimes the counts are correct but most likely not. There are times when there is a message about there being new posts and click here to refresh. There are also times when the message stays as nothing to read and yet things show up upon page refresh.

Just got mine today. It looks great and the quality of the cloth is quite good too.

@HawksWin You have politics with any group of 3 or more people you condescending twit. What does that have to do with KU basketball? In so far as this particular thread is concerned, what does Marie Harf have to do with FIFA? What does the Clinton foundation have to do with FIFA? You can always go with the "butterfly in Australia waving its winds impacts a barn swallow's movements in Ohio" but get real. Wow!! You have worked with people who negotiate trade agreements, do they like their coffee with or without cream and sugar?

@HawksWin said:

A case in point, idiots like Marie Harf, the State Dept has novice intellectual buffoons like her negotiating trade agreements with experienced thieves of China & Russia. She thinks ISIS just needs jobs, do you think she knows anything about the reality of human nature or how $ runs?

This reads like "grown up and civil"?

I was obviously mistaken about people agreeing that politics should not be on this board. I have never been the first to talk politics although I have answered other people's posts. I don't mind if others want to go down this path. I would suggest adding religion to really keep things hopping.

@JayHawkFanToo Cleveland signed him because LeBron wanted him. Simple as that.

@drgnslayr If Horford really wanted to hurt Dellavedova, he could have "lost his balance" and landed on his head. In the Friday incident with Korver the angle shown most often shows what appears to be a complete accident. The replay that was shown from the back showed that Dellavedova was either trying to hurt him or he really didn't care.

Dellavedova only stays in the league because of his hustle. His 3pt shot isn't bad but that can be said about a lot of players. We will probably see more of this until someone rearranges his teeth.

@approxinfinity A picture of a humbled LeBron James is something which we will never see. It's not in his makeup. Gilbert on the other hand is an idiot and idiots generally don't see their failures.

@drgnslayr I thought about you last night while watching the Warriors playing the Rockets. One of the Warriors shot and missed. Steph Curry came from the left baseline, got his body on Dwight Howard's legs, boxed him out beautifully, got the rebound and went up with a shot. Howard fouled him and he sank 2 free throws.

It was one of the most talked about plays of the game and it shows that correct technique can overcome eight inch height and 90 pound weight advantages.

@globaljaybird What does "heir hawkmiester" mean? Since you responded to my post you must think that I am someone's "heir". Who might that be? Did you mean "herr" since "hawkmiester" has a german ring to it? Or do all of the words in the English language look the same to you?

@globaljaybird You seem to be confusing Al Gore with John Edwards. Hopefully for the world your position on climate change is more correct than your knowledge about former politicians. I doubt it however.

Mostly kids here. Thus far only @RedRooster has me by a few. Feb 12, 1946 another bad February event for my family.

@JayHawkFanToo If you think that the past few KU football coaches contracts were bad, you must not remember the "lifetime" contract that Jack Mitchell got for winning the 1961 Bluebonnet bowl. He was forced out after the 1966 season to be replaced by Pepper Rodgers.

@JayHawkFanToo OMG! That is one of the most rational posting I have seen concerning our prospects for the next year after we have signed a top 10 recruit. Usually people project a NC after getting people like Wigs and Selden or Kelly and Cliff. When this doesn't happen for one reason or another the sky is falling and we're doomed to follow mizery down the drain.

Both Bragg and Diallo have a lot going for them, but we will know after seeing them play with the rest of the team and whomever else we may still get.

@drgnslayr I obviously didn't make myself very clear. This does not have as much to do with people's expectations of Wigs as it does the argument between those who believe in the "eye" test as opposed to the "analytics" test. His scoring and athleticism easily pass the eye test. That's good enough for me but not for the analytics people. That is why I asked if Jesse Newell has written anything on the subject.

The topic has been discussed a lot on this site. This is something that is closer to home than most examples of the argument.

@wissoxfan83 The article did give him somewhat of a break because of his age. I would think that the analytics gurus may now come up with "age adjusted" versions of the various terms (VORP). How about multiplying by .6382 (or maybe .6385). By the way, there are college versions of some of these terms. Different values are used in the equations.

Many people here have congratulated Andrew Wiggins on becoming the NBA ROY. Others, such as myself, didn't post because what we would have written was already posted. However if you are a believer in advanced analytics someone else should probably have gotten the award.

According to link ↗ he could be considered a bust. Using the "Value Over Replacement Player (VORP)" analytic Wiggins had one of the worst seasons by a Rookie of the Year winner since 1973-74, which is as far back as the statistic can be calculated.

So what do people think? Is he is or is he ain't? Has Jesse Newell expressed any opinion on this? I generally don't put much credence in the concepts behind the article but many people do.

@Lulufulu She was on House with Hugh Laurie for 2-3 years. House referred to her as "13". Her character unfortunately had Huntingtons as did Woody Guthrie.

@HighEliteMajor I'd say that the team was probably better with Cliff in the game rather than Jamari for 10 to 15 minutes over the course of the season. I think the problem was that you extrapolated the few minutes that Cliff looked good over what would be the season. Unfortunately for the team and Cliff those were rather spotty minutes.

If Cliff would have done this and if Cliff would have done that he would have been better. But he didn't do those things. Self knew what he could get from Jamari. He never knew from one time to the next what he could get from Cliff. If you want to blame Self, blame him for recruiting Cliff and not for not playing him as much as you think he should have.

@HighEliteMajor This gives me a chance to ask something that has bothered me for the past few days. When is enough enough? How many bad shots should Self allow a good three point shooter to crank up before taking him out? How many times does an athletic big get to wander about as if they didn't know what to do, before they are pulled?

How is a shooter to get better if they are allowed 3 or 5 or 7 bad shots in a half? How do they tell the difference between good and bad? If the big is consistently out of position, how do they know what the correct position is? If a coach treats a half-assed effort the same as a great effort, what has the kid learned?

What have the other kids on the team learned? Why should someone hustle if not hustling gets you the same thing? Why was Cliff going to magically improve if he didn't really have to do so to get time on the court?

You have stated a multitude of times that Self hurt the KU basketball team by playing people like Brady and Jamari. Why did he do that? Is he just a poor judge of talent? Stupid? Stubborn? Ah, stubborn. That is obviously the answer. Maybe the powers to be within the athletic department (actually the people who donate the money to make it run) should have someone lay a 2x4 upside of his head and knock some sense in and stubbornness out rather than paying him $5 mil a year.

Actually a broader question is why is college basketball populated by so many coaches who are unable to beat someone with the obvious inadequacies of Self? I guess the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

@globaljaybird I remember sitting about 5 rows back under the south basket at AFH for the 68 regional. Vernon played against Elvin Hayes in the first game which we unfortunately lost. He then had to go against Wes Unseld in the second. He more than held his own against two really good centers who went on to great careers in the league. Vernon then played defensive end for the 68 Orange Bowl team.

@Crimsonorblue22 You don't get Maui tickets without big bucks Williams fund donations. Small gym.

@jaybate-1.0 Roy was death on Donovan. Back in the 90s they could supposedly not stand each other. This was because of some run ins that Donovan had with Dean Smith if I remember correctly. The picture painted about Donovan at the time had him as a rather slimy character. Sort of like Cal before Cal was a somebody.

I guess someone's sainthood depends upon who you talk to.

@JayHawkFanToo Amen

@JayHawkFanToo

Gee! This took about 3 minutes to do. This is like getting Facebook notices from friends about some terrible thing circulating on the net. A simple internet search shows otherwise.
I am quite sure, however, that nothing will change your mind and that's ok because it is after all your mind.

http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/gov-biggest-drug-problem.html ↗

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-prescription-pills-are-by-far-the-biggest-drug-problem-in-america-2014-4 ↗

http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/senate-report-prescription-drug-abuse-one-of-biggest-drug-policy-threats-facing-us/ ↗

http://blog.naturalhealthyconcepts.com/2014/09/18/painkiller-abuse/ ↗

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/world/americas/us-priority-on-illegal-drugs-debated-as-abuse-rises.html?_r=0 ↗

@JayHawkFanToo The biggest drug problem in the country today is the addiction to prescription pain killers. The "best" of the pain killers are opioids. They are also the most dangerous from an addiction standpoint. Opioids are a class of powerful drugs that includes morphine, heroin and brand names such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet. A doctor prescribes OxyContin, as an example, and the patient becomes addicted. People are now turning to heroin because these drugs are very expensive and after a while they cannot pay for the legal variety.

Now the question is: what does this problem have to do with pot? Aunt Mildred is buying street heroin to feed her addiction originally caused by an automobile accident. The thought of buying pot never occurred to her but there she is. How could this possibly have happened as she never ingested cannabis? Well unfortunately it happens every day to many people.

Why don't we stick to basketball which everyone here knows something about?

@Lulufulu Unfortunately the "greatest player of all time" is usually the greatest player at whatever time it is. Many are now pushing LeBron. Who knows who it will be in 10 years. How many people today know that Oscar Robertson averaged a triple double one year?

@HawksWin The wikipedia definition of opium:
"Opium (poppy tears, lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Opium latex contains approximately 12% of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids for medicinal use and for the illegal drug trade. The latex also contains the closely related opiates codeine and thebaine and non-analgesic alkaloids such as papaverine and noscapine. The traditional, labor-intensive method of obtaining the latex is to scratch ("score") the immature seed pods (fruits) by hand; the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue that is later scraped off, and dehydrated. The word "meconium" (derived from the Greek for "opium-like", but now used to refer to infant stools) historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from other parts of the opium poppy or different species of poppies."

Wikipedia definition of cannabis:
"Cannabis, commonly known as marijuana and by numerous other names is a preparation of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug and as medicine. Pharmacologically, the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC); it is one of 483 known compounds in the plant, including at least 84 other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) and cannabigerol (CBG)."

Can you see any difference between these definitions? If you cannot, I would suggest that you sue whomever supposedly educated you. I have no desire to get into an argument about the pros or cons of cannabis. What I also have no desire to do is have people who obviously know nothing about a topic expound as if they do. Do you have any medical expertise?

I would also suggest that you spend some time improving your obviously poor grasp of grammar.

Why on god's green earth do you think that pot is affecting players ability to learn Self's tactics and strategies? Other than a bleary picture of Tharpe, why would you imply this?

@jaybate-1.0 He has already partially gone to the NBA. A few years ago he accepted the head coaching position from the Orlando Magic. He had signed a contract. After a couple of days he decided that he wanted to stay at FL. The Magic let him out of the contract.

@HawksWin You do know that marijuana is not the same as opium, don't you? You are obviously a student of Chinese history so you must know that the opium war was fought because the English wanted to sell opium to the Chinese and they did not want it.

Maybe you should try gardening. Don't chop off your foot with a hoe.

Maybe this is what we need to get good players. Go KU hotties!!

http://www.complex.com/sports/2015/04/a-bunch-of-kentucky-basketball-fans-are-licking-devin-bookers-car-and-no-one-knows-why ↗

@drgnslayr So which shoeco stack is pumping up LSU? Who is driving the truck that is dumping all of these players in Baton Rouge? Has the LS:U coach made a Faustian deal with the shoe devil? Inquiring minds want to know.

@jaybate-1.0 What you question and postulate makes sense in a rational world populated by rational people. However I don't think that your basic assumption is correct. For better or worse this is not a rational world populated by rational people. What could Diallo be offered now that wasn't before? Who knows? He has family, girl friends,hangers on, etc. He has people like Self, Calipari, and Mullen (who has held executive positions in the NBA) who have developed skills over the years convincing people that they should come with them.

They are looking at what seems to them to be the most important decision of their young lives and we wonder why they dither in their decisions! In my own career of over 40 years I have accepted positions, signed employment contracts and backed out for one reason or the other. I might be considered a world class flake but for the fact that I have seen other people that I have worked with do the same things. These were people in their thirties, forties, and fifties. We are talking about people whose frontal lobes are not yet fully developed.

Why would a shoeco representative blowing smoke up his a$$ be any more persuasive than his girl friend, mother, or best friend since the third grade all of whom have their own desires.

My God, we discuss why KU uniforms should change one way or the other to attract 18 year old kids and then wonder why it is they do what the hell ever it is that they are going to do.

@Crimsonorblue22 Tarik seems to be taking on a "older brother" role also on the Lakers. He alluded to this in the interview the other night. Although he is a rookie he is still 3-4 years older than most of the other rookies. Self appeared to like him for his role in the locker room besides his play. This could be another hook for him.

We all knew that Andrew Wiggins is a great athlete but many argued before the end of last season that he should stay another year to develop his skills. I was in that camp to a large degree. Well after seeing him play the past few nights shows that his game has turned around a lot. He is still a driver and looked better in the open court, but his handles, his mid-range game, his passing and his finishing are an order of magnitude better than last year.

His 29/10/6 against the Lakers was on par with his performances of the past month. The game though was horrific. Some claim that the NBA doesn't play defense. That is bull. But it was true in the Laker game.

He came back the next night against the Warriors and was really impressive the first half. I didn't watch the second half. He was 17/6/9 with all of his points coming in the first half. The Warriors announcers are some of the most dispassionate and non homerish (a new word) I have seen. They were gushing at times about his ability to handle the ball and finish strong. He had a couple of turn around jumpers from 17-19 ft that were guarded very well. He had one play where he went across the lane, sought contact from a man as big as he and put in a clean jumper. By the way, the Warriors are one of the best defenses in the league.

Other than based on his athletic potential, who would have thought that he would have 15 assists in two games while scoring 46 himself. He got picked going to the basket a couple of times but he was generally strong with the ball.

I don't think that he could have developed the skills to the degree he has by staying.

@HighEliteMajor

@JayHawkFanToo You do know that redstate is a website, don't you? A causal one sentence about global warning? You had a similar post on another topic at about the same time. I don't really care what your political opinions are. They are yours. This is not the place to air them.

@Crimsonorblue22 Must be like my taste in pizza and pies. The critical part is the crust.

@jaybate-1.0 Nothing like holes and cereal. However White Castle has the best buns although its been a long time since I had one. Them and Fuddruckers.

@JayHawkFanToo This political crap is getting out of hand. If you want to have people appreciate this drivel go to redstate or some other place occupied by dullards. It is people like you who devalue a degree from the University of Kansas.

@BeddieKU23 I have never bought into this idea that players of any type, OAD or not, shut things down and don't play hard to prevent injury. First of all, they are very competitive. They want to show people, especially other players, that they are the best. Some of this has led to the current state of the game since more and more people value dunks and posterizing the opponent., These players don't appear to be concerned for their health performing some of the dunks that we see on the highlight videos. These kids play basketball. For some that is their life to the determent others aspects of it. I fail to believe that if a player sees an opening to get to the basket either on the playground or AFH, they think "I better not take it to the basket because I might get hurt". Secondly, these kids are kids. They think that they are invincible. Injuries happen to other people and not them.

Although the kids have had people blowing smoke into various orifices of their body, it becomes clear even to the densest of them that NBA players they go against in pickup games are better. When they go to camps run by NBA players it is drummed into their heads that they must work hard to make the league.

There are players who enter the draft because they might get injured the next year. This is different than dogging it on the court. Part of drafting for potential means that scouts and GMs look for people with high athletic ceilings and also the determination to work to get to that ceiling. Why would a team want to draft someone regardless of athletic ability who demonstrates that they are coasting?

There are probably some players who do dog it. These are usually players whose worries include the bus ride from Istanbul to wherever the next game is.

@jaybate-1.0 Most of your previous posts along these lines has a disclaimer that you are not alleging illegal conspiracies. However, by its definition corruption is "dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery". I don't think that refs give Coach K calls because they are paid. They do it because they subconsciously defer to his demands because of his record. UK or UCLA got calls not because a ref was paid but because UK was supposed to win and UCLA is well UCLA.

Until I see proof, I am unable to believe that an organization such as the NCAA, which most people on this site think doesn't have one person working for them that can find their ass with both hands, can at the same time can be in cahoots with refs and TV networks and not be found out.

Look at the statement from John Adams about the replay situation. I find it hard to believe that it came from a sentient being. Who on god's green earth could think that what he said was any excuse for what happened? How could this same person be in on anything requiring the ability to think?

Successful conspirators are not stupid and when working with more than a few people are few and far between.

There are things that can be done around the edges to improve the situation: Uniformity between how games in different conferences are called. The power conferences paying dedicated officials. Replays not judged by the same people who made the original calls. Unfortunately this will improve but not perfect the product.