🏀 KuBuckets Archive

It's only a dead period in sports for ESPN which just will not make baseball a priority. I agree that these lists help pass the time, but baseball has been and always will be my favorite with NCAABasketball a close 2nd. Nowadays the two sports seasons end when the other is starting up so there's basically about a week in very early November when there's neither going on.

It does seem strange to not include a KU player. My other bias really wants Frank Kaminsky represented. Not sure how a National Player of the year doesn't make it, just like Frank Mason, who should represent KU along with Nick Collison.

@patoh3 IDK, next year I'll be 60 at draft day. I might have to accept reality that it might be time to move on to the Y senior league!

@Gorilla72 I didn't get drafted....again.

2001-02 is not being discussed but as I look at it, they indeed deserve to be part of this discussion. Lost to Ball St. in game 1 at Maui, then just rolled only losing twice til the loss to Maryland, eventual champ in the final four. They featured 3 future long time NBA players, no wonder they won a lot of games. If you look at their schedule it's a thing to behold as they went over 100 points 11 times. Somehow their low was 54 against Oklahoma, eventual FF team also with Kelvin Sampson as the coach that played stout defense. The slight blip against Ball dropped their ranking to 8th, but after winning at #4 Arizona never were ranked worse than 4th all season. Wow, how did that team not win it?

96-97 was a juggernaut and I don't mind losing this argument. I just think the 85-86 version isn't discussed as much because some of ya'll were just little kids at the time! They were 2nd the first three seasons, and then ranked 1 the rest of the season. Double OT loss at Missouri only loss. Losing to eventual champ takes the sting off slightly, but most don't remember that Jerrod Haase had a sore/broken(?) wrist for that Arizona game, tried to go but couldn't play. That hurt a lot.

85-86. Started ranked 5th, never left the top ten, 2 losses to Duke, the other in MSG. Also lost at #9 Memphis and as they always did back then lost to Iowa St in Ames. That was an unranked loss, the others were top ten losses. They beat Louisville twice, featured NBA players Danny M, Ron Kellogg, and Greg Dreiling. Calvin Thompson briefly played too in the league.

@dylans Yeah I wouldn't argue 08 being the best Self team. That destruction of UNC was breathtaking. I also think if Wayne Simien was healthy in 03 that team goes on a UConn like run, or the way 'Nova did in 18 and we'd be talking about them as a GOAT like status. Poor Wayne couldn't keep healthy and it derailed his NBA career as I recall.

@approxinfinity It was so unexpected, yet we'd played Duke close in the loss at home, played OU close twice during the regular season, had beaten KSU near the end of the season, but lost to them again in the Big 8 tourney, so we kind of new we could at least hang with anyone in front of us.

Funny thing too is that even though we were unranked we got a 6 seed and played 18th ranked Xavier in the first round! Xavier must've been pissed about that seeding. Xaviers best player was Barry Larkin's brother the HOF Reds shortstop. Then Murray State, an upset winner over 3 seed NC State (whom we had also beat during the reg season) nearly knocked us off with Danny preserving the win late.

They were preseason #7 that season but had a disastrous trip to Hawaii losing to the BIG Iowa and Illinois. That was a good Illini team but Iowa must've been really good as they were ranked 11 when we played them and they waxed us. We dropped out of the polls in the middle of January, and then lost five straight. We suffered the first home loss in my time at KU against Mitch Richmond and KSU, then lost to Oklahoma at home and our next home game we lost to Duke. Suddenly we had a 3 game home loss streak, but the 3 teams that got us at home you may recognize as our last three opponents in the tournament and we certainly avenged those losses!

@Texas-Hawk-10 I do remember at Late Night they did a little lip sync thing with the Kansas City song with the line Kansas City here I come. It was a nod to the FF being played just down the road. I don't recall thinking yeah right as they were singing. I thought we had a chance, but then the season started!

@dylans Obviously it's an unprovable argument. 86 team beat the national champs twice! 97 team lost to the national champs! I know 97 was awesome and I surely would lose this argument a lot of times, but I also might win it a number of times too.

Funny thing is the 08 team, while super tough and resilient, paled slightly compared to the others mentioned. I don't think the 22 version was the best of the best KU teams either! But they both won praise the lord and are legendary teams.

I still really kind of think the 86 team was our best team, at least since I've been paying attention. Great combination of veterans and young guys, great guard, great center, Danny, great shooting, would have love to see that group with a 3 point line, strong bench. Preseason #5, never higher than #9, and had won 16 in a row before being beat fair and square in the FF. @bskeet, the Marshall injury was tough and came near the end. But we had 4 guys foul out. Pretty significant factor as well.

Huggins DUI in Pittsburgh now. 🐦 View Tweet?s=20

@Texas-Hawk-10 Ok, I thought the 'category' was Bill Self players who won an NBA title!

@mayjay I’m living rent free in your head obviously!

Kieff won a championship as well. Darrell Arthur is a part of the Nuggets office staff so he just won a ring too!

@Texas-Hawk-10 If we don't suffer the first appearance of the Coach not OK whistle at the 86 FF, then we play Louisville in the championship, a team we'd beaten twice that year and maybe prevent Billy Thompson from being on that list.

@benshawks08 Yes, I just saw that they won last year. TBH I'm happy whenever a team wins that's from the middle of the country. So tired of east coast and some west coast media. The worst treatment of the midwest is the USGA has zero midwestern US Opens scheduled until 2034 at Oakland Hills in Detroit, and then not another until 2051. USGA goes east coast west coast east coast west coast.

Alexander chose KU over Wisconsin? What in the Sam Hill is going on here?

Miami looking to lose their final 4 teams, the Panthers most likely and hopefully the Heat tonight. Good for that city, but tough to go 0-4 where the spotlight is shining brightest.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Hmm, I'm amazed. Would have guessed it was further. Don't know what the drug cartels are doing right now and how safe it'd be to make a drive like that. Of course driving here then you have to deal with the Chicago cartels! Just kidding on that.

It was really interesting that besides Phil who is wildly popular, the guys who went to LIV who also are the most known guys who left the PGA generally had a bad reputation. Koepka, Poulter (fun loving but kind of a jerk), Dechamblis, Garcia, Bubba, Na. Don't want to paint with a broad brush too much but seemingly aging golfers went there. As someone pointed out it's not too hard to blame them. But i really dislike those guys now as it watered down the PGA which I still watch, and only have taken a curiosity peak at LIV stuff.

Here's what these guys did. Dechamblis, a super long driver made history by going for the green on a par 5 by driving the ball over a lake instead of hitting it well back of the green. It was fun to watch, and amazing to see him have a pitch to the green on a par 5.

During the Masters 53 year old Phil Mick made a legit run at winning the thing. CBS' guys held back their excitement because of Phil's LIV ties. Take away LIV and it's a huge story. I'm not that sharp and so while watching I was puzzled why they weren't getting more excited.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Mexico is right next door to Houston, just drive down there for the game!

Awesome game for Christian!

@approxinfinity Bit of a long story here but here goes. I was hired in 2000 to teach at a rural Wisconsin school. They asked me if I could coach soccer as they were starting a new program. So I started my career as a varsity assistant coach. The head coach was someone who knew little more than I did.

A man named Mel stepped in and offered to help. He was a soccer dad who went full bore into learning. His rep was so immense that he actually interviewed at UNC as an assistant coach for their women's team! I learned so much from that man and it's allowed me to stay in soccer for over 20 years now. TBH, I haven't gone full bore into it like him, so I'm in no way an expert, but competent enough!

I coach soccer at my junior high. 2 teams simultaneously actually as we have a boys and girls team. So from early March to the end of May is a marathon of activity from managing 35-40 inner city kids academic and behavioral lives to ensuring refs show up, busses are scheduled, uni's are distributed, and yes, even the coach is responsible for measuring and lining the field! It's quite fun but exhausting, and sometimes involves sitting at school well after all the kids have gone home waiting for Leslie's mom to show up! 7 wins, 4 losses, and 1 tie combined, plus 2-0 in coed games to accommodate one school that could only field a coed team. So really 9-4-1 final record, not too bad.

Girls are totally raw but one scored 29 goals for me over the last two seasons! Needless to say she had some ability, but had never been coached so it was fun. Boys were more experienced but generally streetball type players that we see in basketball. Flashy moves, but team concepts lacking quite a bit. If I was the cheerleading sponsor or the boys or girls basketball coaches I would have made more but only had to coach one team, which is a discussion for the next contract negotiation. Equal pay for equal work!! But all that aside, I love doing it, love yelling at kids to spread out, attack from the outer edges, drop the ball backwards, defense push up, let that kid be offsides, don't go cover them!

This is the non-glamorous side of soccer.

I like it.

Just an aside, last years final four was so anticlimactic to me. I really couldn't have named one player from any of the teams except Beddie mentioned above. It's really what's great about College Basketball I guess some would say and the parity that NIL and easy transfers have brought on. Doesn't happen in college football which is the absolute opposite and so boring now that a four team playoff has resulted in only a handful of champions in recent years. The last 6 NCAA tournaments has resulted in 6 different champions. No repeats since Florida.

@FarmerJayhawk Wow, spectacular!

I really think Jethro's on to something here. Besides the Big Dipper this is the most prominent constellation. If you're uninformed about such topics the constellation is also known as the Hunter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(constellation) ↗

Since I play a science teacher in real life I should mention one of Orion's most prominent starts, betelgeuse. It's huge, like really big. If you dropped it into our solar system one edge would touch the sun and the other would touch Jupiter. Earth to sun is 93 million miles or one Astronomical unit. Jupiter to sun is 5 AU's. It's really big. It's the left foot of Orion and so Hunter has a really big foot. When you see its light it started traveling to earth 500 years ago. Imagine!

@mayjay What, is Higgins your son or something? Did he contribute to your election fund?

Vegas and Florida in the Stanley Cup finals. Hope the stadium refrigeration systems are working well in arenas with 90's-100's outside!

How does this universally disliked ref have numerous final fours on his resume?

Strange world in hockey where the power lies at least professionally in the south. Stanley Cup will likely be Vegas vs. Florida (Miami). Tampa has won multiple cups. Meanwhile original 6 teams like Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Rangers have gone decades without winning a cup.

Two Miami area teams in the Final Four this past season, the Florida Panthers are in the Stanley Cup Finals, and of course Christian Braun is most likely facing the Miami Heat in the NBA finals provided they can finish off the Celtics. All of you KC area fans have had a decent run with the Royals WS win a few years back and the Chiefs, and of course the Jayhawks bookending those wins with titles of their own.

Me? Glad I got the Jayhawks because it's been slim pickings otherwise.

@DanR I looked up that course in Mofitt. Has high ratings on UDisc.

@DanR I had a rotator cuff that only permitted me to do backhand throws. Got hooked, and one day rotator cuff cured, somehow, someway? Tied my career low today, -6!

He was a great player, hated seeing him against us as a Sox guy and all the other Sox killers the Royals have had through the years.

@BShark It's an interesting list! Weird, but nice that there's lots of ways to compete for the non athletic types. Glad to see there's a disc golf championship. I've gotten into that sport the last few years.

@nuleafjhawk I don't think you have to subscribe to twitter to open up a tweet, but they're the 2022 Meat Evaluation National champion. Pretty heady stuff!

We like to gloat about our banners hanging in AFH, well give credit where credit is due:
🐦 View Tweet/photo/1

47% FT shooter the last two seasons. Yikes!

Duke had no one enter the portal. I don't know the answer to the question, but someone here might. Why? And why a bunch for us?

The guys I don't understand leaving are the guys like Udeh, and Zuby who played regularly as freshmen and had a bright future here.

Although I don't like to admit it in a case like this I think @mayjay is right. The coaches who adjust and focus on the system guys are the ones who will be the next batch of successful coaches. Something tells me Bill Self is one of those guys.

Twitter surprised at the decision to go to Indiana.

Could be heading to a semifinal round with a Jayhawk on each team. Braun, Grimes, Joel and Wiggins all still in it. 6ers just frittered away a lead laying over dead in last four minutes. They'll have to win game 7 in Boston to make it.

@FarmerJayhawk I know I could look it up but who is Grant Nelson? Is he a candidate to come?

I hate this crap. And if Hunter goes down with an injury at some point we're basically screwed. We've become Kentucky with a bunch of unknowns/sort of knowns.

@coolfool13 The funny thing is I hate what it's doing to all the non KU's of the world. We're gonna get our guys via recruiting and the portal. But some guy ends up at a solid mid major, like Dayton lets say, and plays very well, and suddenly he sees greener pastures and bolts leaving the solid mid major fans sad and depressed.

It's interesting that language generally is getting more and more coarse. Disney proudly allows the F word on a new movie for the first time. Some singer on Jimmy Kimmell or Fallon, I forget which, says "F.. Jesus Christ", a comment that gets applause and laughter and no rebuke from the host of the show, even though nothing makes my skin crawl more than when I hear that phrase used. If I objected I'm sure some would tell me to put on my big boy pants or maybe even say the same thing to me in return. Yet some language, like what Huggins used, is increasingly parsed and removed from public use. I'm fine with that too as I realize it's an offensive term to use and people generally think of it that way. So if we're cleaning up that language in our culture, why is it getting way more permissive in the other direction? Questions to ask and discuss.

@stoptheflop The opportunity cost of Hunter Dickinson. We lose a kid I was excited about.