I love the faces on the crowd behind our boys. People whom I'm sure live dignified successful lives looking like 10 year olds screaming their heads off over a basketball game!
wissoxfan83
3027 posts
@drgnslayr I'm banking on her not ever visiting this site!
@Lulufulu85
True Lulu, I was thrilled to be able to attend that game. It was my first sighting of Jayhawks in action since I graduated in 88 and frankly, even though we lost, it was a great experience and memory.
@drgnslayr I'm banking on her not ever visiting this site!
Happy Valentines to my true love ....Jayhawk basketball. If my other love is reading this, you will be my true love again hopefully sometime in early April. If it happens in March I will be grumpy for a few weeks, just like every year besides 1988 and 2008.
Jesse Newells effective three point percentage speaks to that. A 2 point shooter has to make 9 shots to score 18 points while a three point shooter has to make 6. Assume they both take 12 shots. The two point shooters 75% is the same as three point shooters 50% in terms of output. Now when you put it like you did when the 2 point percentage is nearly double the 3 point percentage then it makes sense to shoot the two.
@HighEliteMajor I love seeing numbers like that. It'd be interesting to see.
Tait's analysis of the 3 ball is interesting to me. I think he looks at our 3 point shooting as a negative, but it actually is a higher percentage than the last two years, we're just shooting less. And we're shooting it less because our overall FG% is among the highest in the nation. Why shoot jumpers when we have about 5 guys who can consistently pound it home from point blank range?
Another interesting number from the last three years. A pretty good shooting percentage from 3 land four years ago, near 40%, resulted in a disappointing finish to the season against VCU when we couldn't buy a shot from the outside.
I can't begin to grasp what it is like to be good enough to play ball on a DI team, let alone at KU. I hope guys like Justin who don't get a lot of playing time grasp the benefits of a free education for five years. They live a charmed life. Travel to exotic places every year. Adulation from fellow students. I have two in college, one to enter next year. My wife and I didn't pass on the necessary genes for them to win athletic scholarships unfortunately. So when I hear of a guy like Melvin Watkins from DePaul who drops out of school in his senior year I just shake my head. What a fool, but thanks Justin Wesley for helping make our program great!
@drgnslayr I wrote my post before reading yours. He's our Rupert, exactly what I was talking about! Great minds.....
We need a Rupert. Who or what was a Rupert? The Nazi intelligencia decided the most likely landing spot for the invasion was at the narrowest part of the English Channel. Makes sense right? The Allies assembled a fake army on the shores of England, a mass of people as large as the real invasion force. The Germans could see them over there and were convinced it was coming.
Rupert was a fake soldier parachute. The night of the 5th/morning of the 6th of June the British flew over the French coast near Callais and dropped 100's of Ruperts. They were equipped with machine gun recorded noise. The Ruperts successfully distracted the Germans away from Normandy making that Hellish landing a little less Hellish. 6 incredibly brave soldiers leapt with the Ruperts to try to continue the charade with recorded noises etc. 4 never made it back home, their fates not even known to this day.
So who is our Rupert? It's kind of hard to have a decoy with only 5 men on the court, but it's got to be one of these guys we've been pining for all year. White, Frankamp, Green (maybe his cover is blown after the other day), somebody has got to be able to command the attention of the defenses from our bench from the circle. Otherwise the hedges become less penetrable and we'll be left to wonder what could have been with our team.
Great post by the way JB, enjoyed reading it.
I overreact at times, so here's my overreaction to last night. We are Kentucky. We have stockpiled a bunch of draft picks who are using us to get to the NBA. I'm tired of Wiggins. I'm tired of Selden. I'm not tired of Embiid because he's the only one of our supposed OAD's who has actually looked like he is trying to help this team win instead of trying to impress the scouts in the audience.
Again, I overreact at times, ask my wife! so this is my overreaction from last night.
I work with kids from the inner city. I don't know where Marcus comes from, but I see reactions like that frequently from kids when provoked. He was provoked from that man who is old enough to know better. To see the reaction of the women around him just adds to my suspicions. And I in no way say Marcus should have shoved him no matter what was said. But I hold to it that the man should be punished in some way, even if it's moving his seats up away from the court.
@Wishawk
Here's what I meant by that. Lets say he drops down to the 2nd round. He will have cost himself a lot of money and people will say for years, not just KU fans, but all NCAA fans, will say, "remember Marcus Smart". It could have been a knee injury, or just even a lack of production, but he is heading towards that. So our players will look at it and say wow, I can cost myself a lot of money by staying around and having something bad happen.
@Jayhawkfantoo Obviously fans everywhere act poorly, even at KU, although I can't think of any current examples. Players do need to understand this even if they're still young like Smart. However, when a fan's heckling causes the loss of a star in the league, and I hear he may be kicked off the team, then that's bad for the Big 12 and college hoops in general. Heck, it's bad for us when we play them again. A weaker OSU means we don't gain as much by beating them. That idiot fan hurt the league with his idiocy. Punish him.
http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/double-chin-music/2014/feb/8/marcus-smart-needs-professional-help/ ↗
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Good read by Keegan on Smart's meltdown.
@dynamitehawk I had typed the same thing (and consequently lost what I typed) about the fan. He ought to have his tickets revoked. What a disgrace.
As for Smart, is he hurting our chances of retaining some of our potential OAD's? He will become the poster child of why players should go pro if this costs him a lot of draft day money.
@drgnslayr Give me a minute to look Bitcoins up and I'll let you know!
@drgnslayr I take cash or checks or gift cards
What I hope to see during todays game: (Olympic version)
Coach Self do one of those flips the cheerleaders do after a made basket.
@Jaybate do two of those flips the cheerleaders do after a made basket.
Bob Huggins try one of those flips and land flat on his noggin.
The sun shine through the windows of AFH onto the crowd and someone take a picture of it and post it here.
Before attempting a FT Joel grabbing a mic and telling the world that he will stay and kill Wildcats and Longhorns and Cowboys with his bare hands.
Wiggins dunk and leave change on top of the shot clock while dunking.
Make a new crossover sport with an Olympic theme, basketball players on ice skates.
Make another Olympic themed sport, replace the basketball with a curling stone.
Yet another Olympic themed event, basketball players on luges, we could call it The Biggest Luger.
Joel set the basketball world on fire with the first ever Triple Triple.
JamTray attempt a Triple Axel on a dunk.
Tarik Black attempt a fore check on a WV layup attempt, oh wait, he does that about 4 times a game.
Huggins and his players sitting in the kiss and cry room, crying.
Tonya Harding have her goons attack Huggins.
Mogul skiing down the steps of AFH.
Judges add style points and degree of difficulty points to shots made.
Ski jump ramps down the bleachers with players flying across the court and dunking themselves.
Looks like a good read, no time now, but thanks for reminding us that we are in a conference with great coaches 6 of whom have coached teams to the final four.
Not positive you could call BMac a snub for the rising stars thingy. He is averaging 7 a game, shooting 37% and his stock is dropping. His playing time is slipping with his play. On the other hand, this is only his 2nd season of ball since HS, so his future may be bright.
I saw this line on the KUSports story on the Jayhawkers movie. Someone there wrote wondering if the movie will feature Wilt's 20,000 trysts! I hope not, but it sure sullies my memory of Wilt.
As far as who's the most talented team, I know I don't care. If it's Kentucky fine, whatever, same if it's us. It's who's holding the trophy in early April that I think both fan bases care more about. It is nice to know we are in such high regard however.
I look forward to afternoon games at AFH when it's sunny. The sliver of sunlight streaming through the windows adds to the aura of the place. It looks great on TV when I see it and brings back memories of such a wonderful experience I had going to the gym 30 years ago. I don't know if it's annoying to the high priced alums who the sunlight falls on mainly, but I know I look forward to seeing it. I hope it's sunny tomorrow.
@RockChalkinTexas
Even if Bill Self doesn't get coach of the year honors, it still goes back to my last point. The goal is to compete for championships. KU will do that year in and year out no matter who is paying attention.
@jaybate 1.0
I whine about east coast bias all the time, but every once in a while I try to look at it from the perspective of the businesses that operate the media.
If said business, say SI has to sell magazines, are they going to decide to write stories of lesser interest to the most buyers? Maybe or maybe not. They've got to make money. Therefore SI puts Tom Brady on the cover the week the White Sox won their first World Series in 88 years, a year after the Bosox won their first in 86 years and were featured on the cover 3 straight weeks. It sucks for the rest of us, especially us White Sox fans, but it's a fact of life.
The nice thing about it is it doesn't affect our team and its' play. It matters not that ESPN will pay more attention to whichever ACC/Big East team is hot, even if they're a lesser team. We don't have to impress pollsters like you do in football. We will make the dance with a high seed almost every year.
I want Joel to read that so we get him back for another year! I don't really believe what I wrote.
He does read Kubuckets, right?
Random thoughts on the game and Jayhawks life in general.
Slow start concerned me, but Baylor's ineptitude paired with our strength led to the easy win.
Bill's halftime speech must have included some words on protecting the ball because we only turned it over 5 times.
Naadir Tharpe's name hasn't been talked about much as a pro. I haven't heard it anyways. But how many times has he been the best player on the floor for us while the future lottery picks have struggled?
Tarik Black is growing on me. Until about a month ago I wanted to return him to Memphis.
Wiggins can turn a blank in the score column to double digits very quickly.
Ellis disappeared after his great start to the game.
We urge Joel to strongly consider returning to Kansas. He's not ready. He's a chump. He's soft. He's weak. He's only played ball for three years. He'll get chewed up by guys with funny European names Eurostepping past him. He'll have to sit bored on benches. He'll probably have to sweep the floor. And Milwaukee is the odds on favorite to win the lottery meaning you'll go there. You think Kansas is cold in winter Joel? Try Milwaukee, I have, I know. Stay in school, get an education, hang out with those pretty coeds who will idolize you. Oh, and win national championships in Kansas.
Wiggins three at the end of the half was a game changer, maybe.
Self's comment on running more plays like that was memorable.
Near the end of the half we had almost as many turnovers as missed shots.
On Jesse's live chat of the game he started out early saying this was Self's worst defensive team, and we all agreed. On Jesse's story above, he writes how it turned into KU's best defensive effort of the season. I agree. We stymied them after their hot start.
We could win the whole shebang this year or we could lose on the first weekend. This team is hard to tell.
@dylans Can't believe my memory is wrong.
Bill Self might have just said "I don't give a #$%*($# about the NBA right now" to Seth Davis. But i don't think he's leaving.
Why do losses like Texas feel like the end of the earth?
Baylor suddenly worries me. Memory is still fresh of the pounding we took last year in the conference tournament. We love to beat up on Scott Drew but he's been close to the Final 4 twice I believe so he is doing something right.
Heslip raining threes tonight with an amped up home crowd on a team that almost can't lose again and stay alive for a ticket to the dance means there's no rest for our Hawks tonight.
If we shoot 57% against them like we did last time and make 26 of 29 FTs means we will start a new winning streak.
This team is too young to rest on its' laurels. Texas taught us that.
After such a bad loss I thought we'd drop out of the top 10.
I do believe firmly we are as good a bet as any team to win it all.
@Crimsonorblue22
Do you have a link? I'm not surprised, but I don't think we're being quick to judge a kid who has only 3 months into his college career been in so much trouble already.
Not sure if this has been discussed, but I just saw where Stevie Clark of OSU infamy was arrested on a marijuana charge the other night. He's one of their point guards, starter I think? He's been suspended for a total of 5 games up to this point of the season for various infractions. Sounds like the young man is in some need of discipline in his life.
This may effect OSU's lineup when we play them soon I'd suppose.
@Wishawk Could be true, but in my mind I'm thinking when did we have momentum? Maybe the beginning when we were within 2 or 4 through the first 5 or 6 minutes, but after that, I'm not sure.
Interesting pictures, but I don't think we lost because of officiating. We sucked is why we lost.
I read the link with what others are saying what we already knew about KU. I wish they'd shut up because these are freshmen who probably read and see more than we do. I don't want egos to swell, to impede the focus on the ultimate goal which is realistic the way we are playing.
Ralster I was actually at that game! Courtside seats. Kentucky looked very lethargic while LSU was very energetic at the same time.
I saw in Kentucky kind of what we looked like a month ago, except we were falling to highly ranked teams.
I read the link with what others are saying what we already knew about KU. I wish they'd shut up because these are freshmen who probably read and see more than we do. I don't want egos to swell, to impede the focus on the ultimate goal which is realistic the way we are playing.
@icthawkfan316
"Good stuff wissox" = off from school for a third day in a row because of weather, got all kinds of time to sit and ruminate the all important Jayhawks.
2 This is not the first time the bench has not been productive. A week or two ago I noticed it as well. I'm not smart enough to analyze why it may or may not be a big deal.
9 I see what you're saying, but I just wrote slightly because I see 14 TO's as a not acceptable number.
14 I wouldn't mind seeing college hoops adopt the baseball rule. There aren't enough roster slots in the NBA for it to have a major impact on college basketball. I believe the one year rule is an absolute farce however.
@MoonwalkMafia
Ha, 29 points. I guess when I mentally checked off the game as a win, he had 27! I do the Jesse Newell live blog thingy so I'm typing, reading others comments during the game and miss some of the action. I must have missed a bunch of his shots!
I do like your defense of the bench.
@Chris1955 Post your picture so we can tell you what you look like!!
Here's some random thoughts on the game.
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Fouling rules are impacting the game. Scoring is up I'd suspect, although I haven't found hard evidence for it.
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I've been writing about this for a month, but our lack of bench production is a concern to me.
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On the other hand, great production from all five starters is carrying the day.
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Embiid kind of disappeared after his hot start.
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Wiggins had a quiet 29 points.
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ISU has our number, except they don't know how to beat us.
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It wouldn't surprise me if Beed with the feed becomes a catchphrase someday as he could become one of the greatest passing big men ever.
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FT shooting was great.
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Turnovers were down slightly.
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I didn't see this coming after San Diego St. walked off our floor four weeks ago, although in terms of how this team has improved it feels like four months ago.
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Black didn't foul out.
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We are in the running for a #1 seed.
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We are in the running for a national championship.
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I hate the OAD rule. We all want to see these guys for the next four years.
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If they did OAD's back in the '80's would Danny Manning have still been around to win a national championship?
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If I write these stupid things and no one reads it, does it still count on my posts counter?
@Lulufulu85
How much do you think the foul emphasis this year played a role in that? I haven't heard statistics to back it up, but I have a feeling scoring is up this year because of it.
By the way there were very few fouls called in that game. With about 10 minutes left the total combined for both teams was about 15.
300-59 record at KU. Think about that for a few minutes. That's a rate of 30-6 every season if I did my math.
Sports are a game of inches.
"Why couldn't McCovey have hit the ball three feet higher?" That's what Charlie Brown said after the '62 world series ended with a line drive right at Richardson I think.
What if Carlton FIsk's towering fly ball had been inches more to the left?
What if the Titan's player (sorry names escape me) had stretched the ball a few more inches in the Super Bowl against the Rams?
What if Mario's shot had strayed an inch or two to the left or right?
What if Don Denkinger's vision had seen the two or three inches (feet?) between the Royals players foot and first base?
What if the refs saw the inch between JoJo's foot and the out of bounds line?
What if the Butler players half court heave against Duke had been one inch shorter and gone through the basket?
What if whatever missed shots/made shots had changed by one inch in KU's triple OT loss to Carolina?
@MoonwalkMafia
Wow, I am so focused on KU that I didn't realize they were doing so poorly. Why do you think that is, I mean all that talent, and 1-6? Hmmmm.....Maybe the coach?
@RockChalkinTexas
I missed that Baylor lost to them, but I'm glad. These teams are just handing us our championship aren't they?
The guy in the KU hat, Championship T and KU sweatshirt in my lap (you think I want to see KU play in person again!) with an arrow pointing is me! Nice seats huh?
@KUSTEVE It was a fun game to be at!
Had a great time at the Pete Maravich Center watching LSU help KU gain a game in the all time victory list by defeating Kentucky, provided we win tonight that is.(we'll be within 7 according to someone here the other day). Kentucky has a lot of raw talent obviously, but LSU is fairly experienced and their bigs are quite athletic. This led to a pretty good defensive effort, a lot of blocked shots. Randle had a tough game but would have looked good in a KU uniform. Lots of Kentucky fans there just like KU fans show up at non sold out arenas, but they were very quiet. 22-6 deficits will shut those loud mouths up.
I wore my 08 championship T-Shirt. If I'd had the chance I would have asked Calipari to autograph it!
I attended the game with a good friend who is a Youngstown St. grad. He saw the name of Calipari's assistant John Robic who he recognized because John had been the head coach at Youngstown. It turns out he was Larry Brown's assistant for two seasons including the championship. I don't pay attention to assistant coaches apparently because I have no memory of him. Of course with Calipari at KU as an assistant a couple years previously, and it turns out Greg Popovich as an unpaid grad assistant in '86, Larry sure assembled some coaching talent during his years on campus.
If someone could tell me how to insert a picture here, I will.
I need some help. Tonight thanks to a 'winter storm' here in Baton Rouge, I will be able to attend the LSU-Kentucky game. The storm will keep most folks away I'm guessing, since they really don't care about basketball here. This means there will be some choice seats that I will be able to move down to. I need some heckling ideas for Kentucky since I will try to proximate near their bench. @Jaybate, this is right up your alley, help me out!
@HighEliteMajor
I enjoyed this article. I'm not an x's and o's guy like you and some others, so this is what appeals to me.
A few questions. Of the #1 seeds with 6 or more losses, how many of them won?
How many of those were KU teams?
How many of the 6 or more loss teams seeded first suffered from ugly early round losses?
It is interesting as you pointed out how the road was paved with top seeds being knocked out on our way to the '88 championship.
I would love to play Syracuse and exorcise some of the demons.
'95 or '96 Elite 8 They mauled us out of the tourney. We were the better team, Pierce, LaFrentz, Pollard, Vaughn were all on that team I believe.
Early part of the next decade our only good Syracuse memory. We destroyed them on the weekend in the tourney. Afterwards Roy had the monkey off his back press conference erasing some of the 'bad' teams from the late 90s.
2003 also happened.
About 5 years ago we played them in KC in one of those silly early season tourneys and they beat us.
So let's bring them on. And after dispatching them as you predict, let's exorcise another demon and play Arizona, and well, OK, after that, Kentucky for the championship!
I don't have the time, or multiple TV's in my home, to watch much hoops besides KU and Wiscy. Therefore I haven't seen Ennis, and don't remember the KSU kid when we played him. But the number that jumped off the page was the 2 assists per game to 2.3 turnovers. Ennis has a 4 to 1 ratio, which is off the charts.
Some web page named hoopsnerd.com ranks Ennis as the 4th best freshman in the country while Foster is the 32nd ranked player. In fact Stevie Clark, OSU point guard is ranked 14th, interestingly right ABOVE Andrew Wiggins, now there's something to debate! (hoopsnerd was the only place I could find player ranks. Yahoo used to have one right on their main basketball page until they ruined their website.)
When I saw your headline, I thought you were going to say Mason was the best freshman PG. Frank's potential is there, but he's got a ways to go in my opinion, especially in knowing when to pass and not shoot.
@HighEliteMajor
I shudder to think about it, but it probably would have impacted next season. 2008 happened because of a Rush injury (knee? I think) made him come back instead of going pro. If the worst had happened then Joel returns next year.
This year, we have so much talent, that I think we could compensate relatively well.
@JayHawkFanToo I agree with the injuries analysis, but I just don't think he was destined for stardom. He was a two time All American at KU, but there are lots of All Americans every year. His career averages of 16 and 10 are great, I acknowledge, but he didn't have that knack that Danny had to stand out as the best player on the floor night in and night out.
"Republicans buy shoes too." Michael Jordan when asked about why he doesn't speak up on social issues in society.
@oldhwkfan Raef played for 4 different teams, averaged 10 points, 6 rebounds a game. He played 10 years like you said. I think he pretty much maxed out his NBA potential.
Unrelated to this here, but I see that Kieff had a huge game for Phoenix, 27 and 15. Withey's playing more minutes but not producing too much. TRob is developing into a more consistent off the bench player and BMac is getting some PT, probably related to an injury to Cousins. Mario had a big game yesterday too. In other words a pretty good week of production from our alums in the League.
@JayDocMD Not stepping on toes. Just proud of the Badgers, making sure people understand who they are! By the way, they made the elite 8 in 05 when Roy won his ring. We played UNC in that game and lost by four or five, although I think a three ball from half court made it four or five instead of seven or eight. But we were in that game the entire way.