@wissox said in My crisis of faith in Bill:
Bill Self had a phase where he recruited some questionable character guys. It really impacted this program, saddling us with the black eye of the half decade long investigation. The dude with the car accident (I’ve repressed the memory of his name and couldn’t care less to learn his name), the dude with the shoebox money (ditto my other parenthesis), Josh Jackson the most talented of all the lowlifes we brought in. The dude who raped the woman. Vick, had some issues, forgetting exactly, Jalen Wilson DUI, and the aforementioned Cliff Alexander, a victim of his own ma if I recall correctly. I might be wrong but Selfs first decade with us was his strongest and we avoided these headlines.
The original post, excellent btw @approxinfinity, and @MoonwalkMafia, was what’s happened to recruiting. Bill Self is still struggling to recover from the black eyes of the last decade.
But part of this is waiting for NCAA to work out the negativity of the NIL and portal eras. We brought in some highly ranked 5 star for next year. Normally I’d be stoked but now I’m just thinking he’s another Grady or Furphy (who had like 1 good game while he was here using us to get to the league). So while maybe the character issue has been resolved, finding loyal guys to the program who see all of the ‘trappings’ that come with being a KU player has been difficult. I laugh at guys like Grady Dick who took the money and play for a gosh awful Toronto team. Must be really fun playing in a boring league in front bored fans. He was getting paid here and would be a huge part of KU lore had he stuck around. Instead he’s an NBA afterthought. Would’ve gotten paid after this year or even his senior year a bunch.
88, 08, and 22 have forever etched themselves into my mind and make enduring these down periods a little less difficult. But I fear the aura of KU ball wearing off a little bit and always look at IU basketball, or Nebraska football as examples of programs that ruled their sport that haven’t been able to get it together since. Anyone see IU fans abandon the Assembly Hall the other day against Illinois before the first half was even done? My worst nightmare for KU right there.
Having met Jalen Wilson and seeing as he has had no other issues I take offense to his inclusion on the bad actors list. He made a childish mistake, atoned for it, and didn’t have another single issue - if I’m not mistaken. His attitude and demeanor improved drastically after that and he became a model student athlete on and off the court.
@KirkIsMyHinrich Huge weekend. Just watched pod cast of ranking of 2026 Kansas players- -just came out with up dated rankings. So far Ku has verbals from # ( 1 0 player J J Dunnigan – - The # ( 4 ) player Hunter Higgins- - & the # ( 9 ) player Jayden Mason
Huge , Huge weekend on this Jr day – the other scouting service has Premer as the # 1 ) player and Dunnigan 2nd - -But he is coming and he is going to be with our three in state commits Higgins-- -Dunnigan – & Mason - -rumor has it we have a GREAT shot at this kid , Synder coming in- -Several big time recruits coming in
The talk has been for some time that we are on the verge of a top 25 class for 26 and been said people saying this is the year that KU has been mentioned for just cleaning up with a great class- can’t wait.- -Thing is long time till December of 2025 going to have to hang on to guys once committed but looks great.- – K ? State absolutely thinks they still can flip Dunnigan I don’t think so
Watch on ESPN nationally and ABC in KC. Streaming on UZZU, Fubo.TV and ESPN+
If you haven’t checked out UZZU it’s a good option for the normally non-streamers. It carries almost ever single game from what I’ve seen - no first hand usage, but my brother in law loves it. $125/year - not just sports either its got to be one of the cheapest tv options.
@Texas-Hawk-10 That sounds really nice. - -I think we will be just fine with him as a Coach sounds like he has done a really good job.- - Probably recruits pretty well too with that kind of record
Agreed with the consensus here, there is probably a negative trump lean but you don’t have to be a liberal to not like the guy. Even that is fairly isolated in the pol channel which you can mute if you want.
I don’t post much but have been around since the beginning and it feels mostly the same outside of jaybate who honestly was hit and miss for me anyway. HEM is another notable missing but he became quite antagonistic on his own so it wasn’t sad to see him go in the end.
