Flakes versus Assassins
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It’s quite hard not to look at this team, especially the way they hang tough and gut out games and find ways to hit big shots in crunch time, as a final four team. Stat comparisons aside with our past OADs, JJ is our best OAD simply because even when he is not hitting shots he still makes a difference in passing, rebounding, defense, and just plain serious hustle.
But the NCAA tourney Is a cruel mistress. And we have a huge target on our backs… crazy things happen
I’ve never put expectations on our team (and other teams) going into the big dance because of its crazy fun-house tilt-a-whirl nature, but This may be the first year I will truly disappointed if we’re out before the final four.
A question- does our overall #1 seed give us any breaks? An easier bracket perhaps? Or just that we get the lowest seeded team in our first game?
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@globaljaybird hey you are showing your age!
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Better than Selby in 2012 would have been Ben McLemore who had to sit out the season, with him KU probably beats UK.
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Don’ forget Landen. He has been huge in conference play and made some big plays last night.
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@Crimsonorblue22 Really? Whatever… Kinda appears to me that rejection of this type of appearance has more to do with feminine vs masculine tastes-not age.
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@globaljaybird
I don’t know…the younger generation has completely different tastes and they wear things that people of our generation would not get caught dead wearing. I am sure our parents thought the same way when we wore what we did in our younger years.
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@Crimsonorblue22 I liked Wiggins Draft Night Threads. Number 1 overall pick! I am sure he had plenty of choices on what to wear and made the best choice for him. It was Andrew Wiggins moment and I am sure he wouldn’t change a thing. Embiid should have been the second pick.
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My favorite Self Era Assassins: Chalmers, Collins, Johnson, Mason, and Graham. All of mine were at least 3 year players.
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@KansasComet they all wear “those kinds of suits” and “shoes”
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@globaljaybird Self wear it better!
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@JayHawkFanToo I can recall a Nehru collar & tapered jeans from another life… but some of that stuff is even too flaked out for the entertainment business. We called it “cartoon clothes” when it came from JP’s in Westport or Harold Penners at the Landing… now I am givin up my age for @Crimsonorblue22 Hope you’re happy now !!
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@Crimsonorblue22 He wanted to look and feel like the first pick of the draft!
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@JayHawkFanToo Who is the Shelby guy you speak of? Brother to Tayshawn or Aldridge? Maybe Seldon? Do … not … make … a … typo.
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@Fightsongwriter hopefully your right! But I strongly disagree with Tyshawn not being a killer. You forget his senior year?
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Dang iPad autocorrect. I like the iPad a lot but I cannot get used to the keyboard or the lack of available tools I take for granted on my Windows computers.
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@JayHawkFanToo Look into a Zagg rugged keyboard. It works great, is very sturdy, and has a long battery life. The Keyboard isn’t as big as a computers, but you’ll adjust quickly. Personally I only fire up the computer on rare occasion now as the iPad does almost everything I need.
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Thanks. I do have a couple of external keyboards but I mostly use the iPad when sitting on a recliner or in bed so an external keyboard is not an option. For real work I use what i call real computer with separate keyboard and mouse and, other than portability, no tablet can beat this setup.
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@JayHawkFanToo I’m laying in bed currently. Keyboard works great (this one attaches so the ipad sits just like a laptop. It just depends on what your preferences are. I’d love to be out and about, but a stomach bug has me empty my stomach contents about once an hour. Yuck.
Hope you find what works best for ya!
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I like the overall subject of this thread. But I don’t like to bash any of our ex-players in a comparison of current players.
All players are human and have weaknesses. And this team has weaknesses, too. If March doesn’t work out like we like, then how many of our current players end up on this list?
Tyshawn took a team that didn’t have a single McDs AA to the championship game and the only reason we lost that game was UK had a freak player in Anthony Davis.
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Time to get to the office, anyway, where I have a third monitor dedicated to this forum that I can check while I do actual work.
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@drgnslayr we really don’t have to many I don’t like! Most guys know that coach expects you to play D and team ball coming in. Low bb iq has hurt a few lately.
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Are there KU players, past or present, that you don’t like?
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@drgnslayr I really didn’t care for Brady, but it was off the court stuff.
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@Crimsonorblue22 Chenowith was a jerk too.
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Kirk was a dbag.
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I like this year’s team because I look around and see a bunch of guys that will do whatever it takes to win.
Frank will take over. Devonte is unafraid to take (and make) big time shots (the Mario Chalmers gene).
And then there’s Josh Jackson. Josh will do whatever he needs to do to help us win. He will defend. He will rebound. He will score. He will pass. He will do whatever needs to be done to get this team over the finish line. That’s a characteristic that we have lacked for a few years, but it’s something that you need.
Think about Villanova’s Josh Hart. Does everything for that team. Will do whatever needs to be done to get Villanova a win.
Every championship level team needs a guy like that. KU finally has one, and as an added bonus, that guy is a surefire lottery pick talent.
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Quite an admirable limb walk. Kudos.
And I like your moxie predicting a FF.
But…
It’s tough for me to paint a lot of the former guys with the Flake Brush, because it diminishes their contributions to our winning 84% of our games, 13 titles and a ring that they contributed .
This great bunch of players this year could not have accomplished the great feat of winning a 13th consecutive title had the prior players you describe not gone on some serious and often brutal slogs through hostile terrain and frankly accomplished many things no other programs around the country without long and medium stacks of OADs came.close to accomplishing.
There was nothing flakey about the 2012 team that made it to the Finals and got beat by a 6 OAD stack, and even then came close to stealing a win at the end.
There was nothing flakey about many of our fine teams the last 13 years. With only one or two exceptions they fell short of rings when they met a bad matchup, while battling too many injuries, and having an off shooting, or free throwing night. These are the same things that weed out 63 of 64 teams every years.
It is a misconception that KU has been more prone to early go-outs than most other teams. Coach K’s record of early exits was actually worse than Self’s when I studied this two years back. Coach Cal is not a good comparison, because he played ringers at Memphis and had a several year run of 6-10 OAD stacks. But even his record of early exits includes not even making it to the NCAA and an early exit from the moribund NIT.
Even Nadir Tharpe, despite his limitations and bad choice, helped this team win a title and put it in striking range of a ring.
And though I call attention to Andrew Wiggins’ apparent merchandise protection, especially vs. Stanford, I don’t see how anyone can doubt that despite all that team’s youth and rough edges, had Joel Embiid not gone out from injury, Andrew and he would have lead that team to a sure Final Four and likely a ring.
I like and admire all our players in the Self years. 98% of college players just are not nearly as good as pro players and being younger with incomplete brain development just are more unpredictable.
This year’s team has more maturity than we are used to seeing lately, and it shows in fewer “flakey” plays. It has more good long ballers and ball handlers than we are used to seeing. They have all the good qualities you rightly ascribe to them.
But I have and could again highly praise about ALL our past teams under Self for different virtues and heroics.
There is nothing more dramatic and harrowing and so heroic than asking young men too young to be playing with wily, hardened, mature prison bodies to play out of position and try to win titles and rings when no one believes they can.
KU has had an amazing run of such players that did something none of us did: they got it done and titled under the bright lights.
Rock Chalk to all of them!!!
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@jaybate-1.0 I agree on Wiggs and Embiid! Throw in tarik and a young Perry. Can only dream now.
