Kansas lands commitment from William & Mary grad transfer





  • California, William & Mary, Texas, KC, Memphis… I guess we won’t ever worry about reading a post questioning whether HCBS is recruiting the whole country!



  • Did any of you guys even know this guy was on KU’s radar? Does this mean Coleby is leaving or that we know Svi is not coming back? At first glance this is pretty shocking.



  • Posted in the recruiting thread, but thought it could go here as well.

    Also, just to add more information, he played in the Colonial Conference. Sagarin ranked that as the 13th best conference out of 34. And William & Mary was the 4th best team. William & Mary had the 108 toughest schedule out of 351 teams. . So he didn’t play amazing competition, but he could have definitely played worse.

    In the 10 games that Whitman played vs. RPI top 100 opponents:

    0_1493756745437_Whitman vs top 100.JPG

    I think that is about what we should probably expect out of the guy most nights.



  • Yes well the "crootin " thread # 3 is up to 510 responses, so I believe that when we get a new player, he deserves his own post for sure !



  • Bosthawk said:

    Yes well the "crootin " thread # 3 is up to 510 responses, so I believe that when we get a new player, he deserves his own post for sure !

    Definitely.





  • Whoa! Why are we getting this guy? I mean Id much rather have Duval.



  • Maxwell 2.0



  • @Fightsongwriter

    People seem to forget that Maxwell was going to transfer for a DII before KU came along. Don’t think this is the same situation.



  • This adds credence to the Coleby transferring information. Either there is room for Tilmon somehow…Coleby transfers and SVi doesn’t come back…or Whitman ends up on academic scholarship…or Self knows Tilmon isn’t coming. If he doesn’t take a spot that a Tilmon could get…only upside to getting this guy.



  • @Hawk8086

    I’m not understanding why Coleby would transfer ? he looked stronger and stronger late in the season and was a banger - S of loves a banger Bragg and light foot weren’t strong underneath



  • @Bosthawk Me neither. But that’s apparently what is in the wind…



  • Well here is another gut feeling. just as I’ve had this feeling for quite awhile that SVI isn’t coming back -which I still think he is done, either thru the NBA or he is going back home and play , I just think he is gone.

    My gut feeling is Coleby isn’t going anywhere , really wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense for him to at this point , I think where people are hearing this is probably from some fan or two that just in their minds they WANT someone to transfer out and he seems to them would be a good option, they want him to transfer so we can get a scholarship open because they either still feel we can or hope Trevon will come or Tilmon - -more likely then not they still living the pipe dream of Duval coming. So with that in mind they got this going about Coleby transferring and it took off like wild fire you know how rumors go.

    Rumors are kind of like well for the older one’s here if you remember the game where you would whisper something in someone’s ear and have them whisper to the next, and then the next and by the time it got to the end person was NO WHERE close to what you had whispered to the first. That’s how rumors go someone might say something and the next one takes that and tells someone else BUT adds a little something more to spice it up a bit. Then on and on and on. Bottom line I’m not seein it I think he stays right where he is. As we got deep into the season towards the end and started getting a little better physically his game time floor time started going up a little. I think he is smart enough he knows really at this juncture in his career it’s not going to get a whole lot better no matter where he goes. - -Just my feeling. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY







  • @dylans That first video is very encouraging. Agility, finishing through contact with either hand, power dunks, spin moves to either side, and no stone hands. I think we will be quite happy.

    I realize this is only a highlight tape, and it doesn’t show what he can do on D, but the first several plays were against Duke and Louisville. Not like the Conner F highlight reel from HS that got me excited where he shot the lights out in uncontested situations.



  • @mayjay he has a low release point that bothers me. But it is a quick release which will help. He seems like a decent pickup. Best porn stache on the team since TJ Whatley!



  • @dylans I am also encouraged by this video. There is a little bit of Kevin McHale in his post moves, sort of a Collison lite. By that, I mean shorter and lighter than Nick. I still want Svi back if he’s not drafted.





  • dylans said:

    @mayjay he has a low release point that bothers me. But it is a quick release which will help. He seems like a decent pickup. Best porn stache on the team since TJ Whatley!

    Have we ever seen this kid’s dad and TJ in the same place?



  • @BShark That’s a good point!

    I literally lol’d



  • Whitman and Coleby are just about the same size but Whitman appears to be the more polished player and fully healthy to boot. If Coleby transfers out, I can see where Whitman could step right in with no downside and perhaps a better offense. Coleby out, Whitman in, I call at worst a wash and at best an improvement with the extent to be determined.



  • I was hoping a healthy Coleby, in his third season in the system, would have a breakout year. I may have been too optimistic, it’s possible last season was his peak. If so Whitman could be an upgrade assuming he can fit into the system right away. The Italy trip will help.



  • Appears that Svi is not coming back & Self knows it.



  • @mayjay I have to agree. I was really kind of down a smidge at first, BUT and as you say true just highlight tape but, he does look pretty mobile, seems to love to finish strong which I’ve always a little problem with a lot of out bigs - - wanting to finger roll the ball in when in-contested or a little bank shot off the back board. For me? - -I’m more of a chocolate thunder type of guy - -if I bust my butt to work myself free, or make a sweet move to free up - -I wanna take that puppy home and don’t get in my way. As Daryl use to say that’s MY PLAY TIME my reward, and he looks like he likes to flush - -that’s a good thing -seems pretty fluid has some nice moves.

    Would be interested to see if he had any kind of jumper medium Or short something other then a flush or drop step bank off the board don’t remember seeing that might have it just missed it. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY



  • @dylans Scoring with either hand, likes to dunk, by far better moves than Landon, fairly athletic.

    So believe it or not, two names come to mind: Perry Ellis and Jack Sickma.

    Perry was stronger last 2 years and Sickma was taller. Not sure if Walt Whitman will have an out side shot like those guys. And finishing against much bigger height and length and strength will be his greatest challenge.

    But he definitely seems to know how to play and he has some hops.



  • @Fightsongwriter A “poor man’s” Jack Sikma, to anticipate a Bill Self qualifier to your very interesting comparison.



  • @HighEliteMajor THe footwork and old man post moves made me think of Perry and the activity away from the hoop remind me of Sickma. Jack was a big boy tho…much bigger than Walt. If he can knock down a baseline jumper we may have found another hidden gem. Hey, he dunked on Duke!



  • You guys, I still don’t understand why we got this guy. I mean don’t we need a guard more than a big right now?



  • Lulufulu said:

    You guys, I still don’t understand why we got this guy. I mean don’t we need a guard more than a big right now?

    No.



  • Guard rotation is DG/Newman/Vick/Garrett/Cunliffe. That’s really good, mostly proven D1 talent.

    Big rotation was Udoka/Preston/lol/??? This guys steps in and should become the #3 big.



  • @Fightsongwriter Sikma had that weird little pivot back … when you mentioned the step back, that reminded me of it. And here it is

    . Notice the ball nice and high.



  • Loyola-Marymount transfer Kevin Young beat out McDonald’s All-American Perry Ellis in Ellis’ freshman season after averaging 10.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in 30 minutes for LMU in his second and final season there. It’s far from a given that Preston will beat out Whitman, who averaged 10.1 and 5.4 rebounds in 21.1 minutes in his third and final season for William & Mary. A interesting thing to consider, point made by Tom Keegan on KUsports.



  • This is what Coach Self thinks…

    0_1494352887043_upload-47aa95da-40ad-4e57-9c09-a4035542e191



  • Post about him from a W&M grad on the phog. Doesn’t paint a pretty picture, but about what I expected honestly. The worst part though is that he lost his starting spot down the stretch.



  • @BShark Yea doesn’t sound great. He was in foul trouble all the time though. I don’t know if that is the league the play in or his style or what. But you don’t get to play aggressive defense when in foul trouble.

    I am confident he can’t have any worse of a jump shot than Withey or LL. So Bill knows how to work around that. Not that we even need him to make a jump shot with the perimeter we will have around him. Just finish layups. If LL could do that he would have been a 12 ppg player.

    The truth could be that Whitman didn’t fit with the W&M coach. Either personality-wise or schematically.

    If you look at their stats, they weren’t a balanced team and played a slow pace. So they basically played a two man game. And Jack, the most efficient scorer, only took the 5th most shots on the team.

    If LL is the standard for comparison, Jack could be a solid rotation piece. He scored more points in less minutes than Lucas. He also shot a better 2pt% and blocked just as many shots.

    He also had a better box plus minus than the other post who started and took 13 shots a game. He seems like an overall positive addition if you look at what we are asking him to do.


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