Trae Young
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@Eric-san Back atcha! But life will go on regardless. At my age, I add…“fortunately!”
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Happy he’s staying in the conference either way. Still a win for us.
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@Crimsonorblue22 I would understand if he was waiting until March to see if Graham stays or leaves. But I agree that if he does end up picking OU, it’s strange that it took him this long for him to announce it. Nothing has changed for several months with the pros and cons. Neither coach has sent very many PG’s to the NBA. With OU, he gets to stay home and play in front of friends and family. With KU, he will still be pretty close to home and get to play for a winning program along with many other smaller benefits. It’s a big decision, though, so I definitely don’t blame him for taking his time. I’m sure he was really struggling with the decision. It’s not easy to turn down an opportunity like being the starting point guard for KU.
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Do high school players always announce their decision at their high school? I know a couple of my classmates did when I was in high school. I wouldn’t think he would want to make the announcement in front of a bunch of Oklahoma locals if he was picking KU… Probably wouldn’t get a very good response from them. I would think he would use a different method like twitter if he was picking KU. Just my opinion.
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I thought it was customary for players to call the coaches involved in the recruitment ahead of time to let them know of the decision. I am not reading anything into the call order by common sense would indicate that you call the coaches the will not get you first since the conversation will be likely short and you call the coach of the school you choose last since the conversation will likely be longer…right?
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Wiggins announcement was done in private with no public attending…and no stupid hat ceremony; very classy.
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It’s OU obviously, no sense discussing it anymore.
Kind of a common theme among most KU commits. Heck even Josh just announced on twitter.
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@JayHawkFanToo There are a couple of different ways you could look at it. It would make the most since for him to break the bad news to the other two schools before calling the school that he’s choosing. He also may have wanted to announce some good news in between announcing the bad news. I could also see him calling the school he picked first before breaking the bad news to the other two schools. However, I think we can rule that one out since he called OSU first. I’m not looking too much into it. Who knows why he called the schools in that order.
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I am almost always optimistic about KU basketball but my expectations have been tempered over the years as far as players making an impact right out of high school. We can all say that this kid will come in and be “the guy” to run the point but who knows. We have had quite a few highly touted recruits not live up to national expectations. Josh Jackson has ben phenomenal and lived up to expectations and I think Wiggins did as well. B Mac and JoJo were studs as freshman too. But then we had Diallo, Cliff, Selby, Oubre, Xavier (to some extent)…these guys were top 10-15 recruits. I would not say that we got top 10-15 results. Just saying, we can’t be sure that his OAD year is a success no matter where he plays. Of course I hope he picks KU but we will be fine with or without him. RCJH.
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The big issue is that unless Self lands some more developmental prospects in this class we are looking at starting almost nothing but FR in the 18-19 season. And considering how weak the 18 class is, that’s not great.
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Hard for me to get excited about him when he lists the important items to him, and we have them all and then he picks ou. Ou is not far away either.
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@JayHawkFanToo That’s one of the main reasons why I think he is picking OU. I don’t know why he would want to announce disappointing news (for them) in front of all the locals when he could just do it privately. It seems like he is wanting to celebrate with them. It wouldn’t be much of a celebration if he was picking KU.
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@cjbooth38 but it’s his school not the city? Teammates would back him.
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@joeloveshawks But at this point, we might not have any other options at the point guard position and I really don’t think Young would be a bust like Selby was. Even if we are forced to use Newman as our PG, we would then be short handed at one of the other guard positions. Garrett is not ready to be a starter or to play heavy minutes. Cunliffe would start for us in the second half of the season if Young doesn’t pick us and both Graham and Svi doesn’t return.
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I ask Scott about other options and he mentioned Duval but also Mark Smith.
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@cjbooth38 said:
@joeloveshawks But at this point, we might not have any other options at the point guard position and I really don’t think Young would be a bust like Selby was. Even if we are forced to use Newman as our PG, we would then be short handed at one of the other guard positions. Garrett is not ready to be a starter or to play heavy minutes. Cunliffe would start for us in the second half of the season if Young doesn’t pick us and both Graham and Svi doesn’t return.
Honestly at this point we need Graham to stay.
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@Crimsonorblue22 I can’t imagine it would only be students there. Oklahoma fans have been waiting a long time for him to make the decision and I wouldn’t be surprised if the school let outside fans attend.
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@cjbooth38 I agree that it would be great if we land him. My point was really more in the realm of expectations if he does become a Jayhawk. That said, let’s say Graham leaves and we don’t land Young. Will the ship sink?
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I don’t think the ship would necessarily sink… We have too many good players outside of the PG position for it to completely sink. That being said, it would be one of the worst teams we’ve had in a while and we wouldn’t even be a top 15 team imo.
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@cjbooth38 It will be interesting, man. This year we have such an incredible back court. Next year we may end up having a really deep front court if Doke’s hand heals, Bragg re-learns the game of basketball and Billy Preston partially lives up to the hype. Could be back to pound it inside?
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@cjbooth38 We had a lot worse players at a lot more positions the year Nadiir was running point. And they ended up a top 10 team. I’ll hedge my bets that Self can figure out a way to make the roster work and play top 10 basketball.
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If I were Trae Young, I would be really nervous to pick OU. They already have a solid PG this year in Woodard (although he is injured now) and they are still really bad. Does he really believe that he will make more of an impact in his freshman year than Woodard?
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Under Coach Self, KU has replaced all 5 starters before and done fine. Even if Young does not select KU, it will still be a top 10 maybe a top 5 team based on what it has returning. Remember, Coach Self is the Master of last minute miracles so I don’t believe he is done recruiting for next season quite yet.
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I think the real decision here for Trae is whether he wants to go to a predominantly FOOTBALL SCHOOL, or go to a predominantly BASKETBALL SCHOOL.
Even though our football program is about to get turned around, Kansas will always be known for basketball and has invested in plush dorms and training facilities. We have (easily) one of the best strength/conditioning programs in the country that is being used as a model elsewhere.
OU is football, with basketball a very distant second.
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@Kcmatt7 Yeah, I know we’ve had worse players. When I said it would be one of the worst teams we’ve had in a while, I was referring to the past few (3-5) seasons.
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Direct comparison I would say Tyus Jones. Jones was on the National Championship Duke team a few years ago as a freshman. Young is an elite shooter, even better then Jones. Young’s shooting compares to Steph Curry. That is what I see. High praise, he’s a good player.
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Well we’ve all seen what Scott doesn’t know these days
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@Kcmatt7 I think our record would be similar to our 2013 and 2014 seasons (25-10 and 27-9).
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You would think he would want to get away from home and second if he wants to go big, he needs to get bigger. Pretty scrawny looking.
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I agree its not that KU won’t have talent next year, its that there will be little to continuity throughout the roster.
We are looking at Lagerald Vick being the only guy coming back who would have played in every Big-12 game. That’s just scary.
Coach Self wanted a top PG for a reason, going after Young so hard was not a luxury signing its the difference between having an actual point guard on the roster that can be depended on to fill the shoes of Mason departing and Graham most likely leaving as well.
Now its up to Self to pull that magic rabbit out again and find a suitable plan Z at this point. Usually its worked. We better hope it does again
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Seems like he’s too close to his family to leave. Mom didn’t want him to leave as most mothers do. In the end he’s sticking with familiarity. And if all goes to plan in his freshman year he won’t be at OU long enough for it to matter.
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@Crimsonorblue22 I had the same thought about him wanting to get away from home. Even his mom said that she is worried about his development as a man if he stayed in Oklahoma. He needs to learn to be independent. Time to cut the umbilical cord.
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I thought his announcement was at 1!?! So why the pessimism? I’m holding on to a sliver of hope until I’m told otherwise.
Winners play for Self. If a player runs from Self, who wants him?
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@dylans I think it’s because our CB prediction has gone from 58% to 12% within the last 10 hours or so. Seems like some info leaked about his decision.
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because he’s already told the coaches his intentions and that info has made its way out into the recruiting world…
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More to add that I jacked from the thread on the phog. There is also a list of possible transfer bigs as well.
Brandon Goodwin, Florida Gulf Coast: 6-foot-2, 180 lb SG who transferred from UCF after the 2015 season (remember him?). He’s putting up 17/4/4 on 55/40/78 shooting splits.
Jonathan Stark, Murray State: 6-foot-0 PG who used to play for Tulane, but transferred. Averaging 21p/3.6r/5.3a per game on 43/42/83 shooting splits.
Mark Alstork - Henry Caruso - BJ Johnson - Isaac Nielson -
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@BeddieKU23 There are definitely options on the transfer market. We don’t even need a guy who can score at PG. We need a guy who can pass, knock down a wide open 3 and play solid defense. Nothing special, but a solid experienced guard. I’m confident we will land a guy who can at the very least do that.
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I wonder who Towson has recruited this year at PG?
Hmmmmm…
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@dylans Pretty sure when “the oklahoman” is running a live stream countdown for his announcement…safe to say it’s etched in stone to the Sooners
http://newsok.com/multimedia/videos?live=MaMSh3lV1NQ#gsc.tab=0
chalk him up to my Al Freeman category…where 2 times a year (sometimes 3) I’ll watch and briefly pause for a moment and think “you dumb bastard…look at you wearing that trash jersey and getting another loss when you could have actually had hope and aspirations of winning a national title and not have to endure the torture of living in waco (or norman, or stillwater)”
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@bmensch1 where is al freeman?
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Guard for baylor…Was down to Nova and KU (in 2011 I think)…committed to UCLA…de-committed from UCLA and Drew got him to Baylor. He was a prized commodity at the time.
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@bmensch1 he hasn’t played the last 3 games because of “team rules”. That’s what I meant
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We’ll see what options are actually available. I don’t think anyone other then Keene is all of that exciting at the moment.
I do think you need to have someone running this team next year that is more than just nothing special. Not many top programs get away with their floor general not being as good as the guy on the other side. Frank Mason and Graham are not “average”. The last time we settled for average we had Tharpe. The College Game today requires that your guards are your best players. Newman/Vick should be great combo options but we need more than 1 guy who can shoulder leadership/ ball-handling duties.
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@BeddieKU23 Has Self been in contact with these players or is this just a list of players he could reach out to if he wanted to? Wouldn’t they have to sit out next year if they transferred to KU at this point in the year?
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Just a list of possible kids that could be on the graduate transfer market. I’m assuming most of these kids either transferred or red-shirted at some point which would in theory put them on track to finish their last year somewhere else. We probably won’t know for sure until late March what kids would be good to graduate and go.
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@BeddieKU23 I’m thinking more the Alex Smith version of a college basketball player. A guy that will take care of the ball and let the talent around him take over. Between Newman, Doke, Preston and Vick, scoring shouldn’t be an issue. Getting these guys the ball in a position to score is the more important thing.
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@BShark let me say this as simply as I can, and you already know this, and why Scott would even BEGIN to mention - -we ARE NOT getting Duval plain and simply he has that Duke blue ribbon all over his body. - -This recruiting season has been pretty much a bust -Are we for sure even for sure on Preston? - -has he got all his academics in order to where he is clear? - - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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Scott is an idiot, that much is true after yesterday
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@joeloveshawks your counting on Bragg coming back?- - your counting on Preston having all his problems cleared up? Bragg may want to venture elsewhere after the season he has had start fresh, and haven’t heard for sure one way or another on Preston. - - - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@BeddieKU23 pulled up our current roster. - -doesn’t look to great - -decent but could be very interesting. - -The one’s for sure that will be back: - - -Vick , Cunliffe , Newman , Coleby , Azubuike , Lightfoot let me ask you, if you were an opposing team playing KU next yr would you feel scared? - -intimidated? - - -Not me
I put these names cause these are the one’s WE KNOW will be here, we have no TRUE idea on any others. I mean sure we have the possibilities of - - Graham? - -maybe - - Svi?- - maybe - -Bragg? - -Maybe - -Preston? - -WHO KNOWS.
I personally don’t like our chances with either Graham OR SVI if nothing else SVI goes back to Europe and plays there, - Just not feeling it with Devonte. - - Bragg - -after all he has gone through this year, off the court issues, and lack of playing time, I just think that he maybe looks elsewhere for a fresh start. No idea if Preston has his academics cleared or not
I’d would say Graham 85 % not coming back – SVI 100% gone- - Bragg 50/50 & Preston 70/30 % he makes it. - - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
