Keegan's Bluff
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@Lulufulu Another way to state the situation is: This year it will still be bigs-by-committee, although unproven, this year’s “committee” is better than last year’s, on paper. They still havent played as a unit yet.
Personally, hated to see Coleby transfer. Not because he’s a savior, but because his 12-18mpg, potentially, could have been very useful as a 25% piece of post play. He would have sub’d for Doke. Lightfoot subbing for Preston. But now, we try to fit in the Wm&Mary guy in that committee.Anyone that saw what happened to Lucas vs Oregon will realize one of our most fundamental problems with last year’s team. I dont have to “sell” Lucas short. He already proved my point.
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IMHO, Whitman is an upgrade over Coleby. Obviously Coleby did not think he could beat Whitman for playing time so he did the next best thing and is transferring, likely to a school with less competition.
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Did anyone else noticed that Seth Davis was laid off by SI with another 4 writers? Tough times to be in the sports reporting business.
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@JayHawkFanToo guess we’ll see in about 2 and 1/2 months.
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@JayHawkFanToo It could be that Whitman adds a little more all around versatility, eventhough he may give up some athleticism compared to Coleby. In the videos I’ve seen of Whitman, I’d agree he looks more versatile than Coleby showed. Also, maybe he avoids the 3 fouls in 7min that seemed to be Coleby’s trend.
An unrelated point, is this B-grade revolving door, ala KY, but with retread players, not freshman MickeyDs. A B-grade knock off of KY? Or maybe this is just Self navigating the changing landscape of recruiting. A dizzying amount of transfers, even in college football. Look what Beaty is dealing with as well. Or maybe wheeling and dealing…
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@JhwkrRedLegs yeah, I don’t see how the disadvantages to pulling these high talent and/or high skill transfers could possibly outweigh the advantages.
We’re talking about a top ten recruit in Newman that Self wanted in the first place, and then got to see a year of in D-I. I think his performance this year in particular will be a bell-weather for future recruiting class compositions. If he comes in and crushes it, I would hope that the matter would be settled that we aren’t taking a recruiting backseat to Kentucky. We are getting the guys we want.
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@approxinfinity Agreed, that would be nice.
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What’s in your cigars Keegs? You see the team half empty. They will be quite the contrary. You think they are worse off without JJ. I think they are better off since having him. He raised the bar and the team is better for it. They may play a little different, but Self is HOF for a reason. Sit back, enjoy your cigar, and watch this team over achieve yet again.
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Do you all really want to “thank” Bill Self for his total smoke & mirrors job with KU’s post play last season? I guess a little bit, just because of the Conf Title…or do you give the credit to Frank & Josh?
Thx Bill, greatest wool pulling since Wooden went undefeated and ringed with no one over 6-5 starting!!!
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@jayballer54 If Doke is even half the sponge that Joel was at KU, he’s gonna be One and done. BUT, that’s an awful big sponge even being half of what Joel was. So, two and done might be more realistic. Who knows? We will see. I agree though. I think KU is primed for another excellent season next fall. As we all know, the Big 12 runs through Lawrence.
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The big question for me is, do we gain from Whitman instead of Coleby? At first, I was certain we didn’t. The more I processed it, the more it makes sense. Coleby was never going to play along side Doke, while Whitman certainly will. Whitman can score down low in a variety of ways, which has become a very rare occurrence for some time now ( excluding our dunks. we always get dunks ). Coleby wouldn’t have been able to help if Preston doesn’t make the grade, so to speak. Whitman allows us to go big all the time. Self used to post up Perry with mixed results- now he has a 4 that can finish. Now we’re not having to rely as much on a freshman ( Preston ).
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@KUSTEVE Spot on. If you watch enough on Whitman the kid id fluid like to finish has good foot work in a variety of ways, he is for sure more mobile then Colby probably run the floor better for sure. - I think he will be able to back Dokie & Preston either way OR he may even move in the spot over Preston at the 4 I think we are going to be ok. - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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I agree with Keegan that JJ and BIFM arent replaceable, but I still think we could be a better team, honestly i thought we were better in 2016 than 2017. How could we better better? Well low post scoring for the first time since Emiid left( who was hurt when it mattered). I love LL and always will, we need 4 or 5 year guys but he doesn’t start on 3/4s of Self’s teams here. I honestly think Doke could double LL’s production, which would pretty much be 15 ppg and 15 rpg, with Whittman or Preston and Lightfoot improving we will have better subs for the post (Bragg, Coleby and Lightfoot were all good for about 3 games a piece to be honest). Our PG wont have to average 21 ppg to make up for our starting center averaging 8. DG can average his 14, Newman can score with anyone and average JJ’s 16, Vick or Svi both can average over 10 which Svi averaged 9 LY, who ever starts at the 4 could average around 12 and Doke around 15 which is collectively the same in terms of scoring(21,14, 9, 16 and 8 is what starters had last year and bench was 7ppg). The defense and rebounding LY was statistically one of worst in the Self era, we let up a ton of points, so i dont really see us getting worse in those areas.
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@wrwlumpy Udunka
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@jaybate-1.0 And Dana Altman pulled back that wool that Self had so deftly crafted, to expose…?
Or was it Oregon’s Bell that exposed us? Or their tall Mr. March guard?
Something undid that wool…
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@kjayhawks Nice breakdown. Believable projections. Hope you are right.
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Relying on outside shooting without an absolutely lockdown defense is a recipe for March upset.
KU was great in many ways but it just did not have a lockdown defense. It could be intense at times, but it just could not intimidate opponents the way some Self defenses have.
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P.S.: And its pretty tough to lock down any where with out a credible rotation of big men in the paint.
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I’m not saying the Udoka is Okafer, but Udoka this season could be a highly productive “only big on the floor.” He can give us rim protection that we lacked with LL. @jaybate-1-0 is right. The lock down defense is impossible without credible bigs. Coleby was not a credible big. Bragg wasn’t either (though he had the talent to be). And LL lacked in the rim protection category. Self’s best coaching job in my opinion with the patch work up front.
This season seems like it might be different defensively.
We will not be as strong on the perimeter, which is not a bold statement. But could we be better?
I don’t think we’ll necessarily be better over the course of a season, record wise, but we may be a team more sustainable in March. Better D.
It’s a national championship season at Kansas, and we expect that, until it isn’t.
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If Self can just find a back up that can credibly guard, rebound and rim protect for the minutes Udoka is fouled up, or resting, Udoka and the rest of the team appear to constitute the pieces needed for being a serious challenger for the Carney ring that would, in turn, appear to necessitate seeding path bias and whistle bias to keep them out of the Final Four. The media-gaming complex has to be hoping Self does NOT find that back-up.
Rock Chalk!
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@KUSTEVE But can Walt Whitman pull off the same moves against Major D1 bigs…that to me is the big question. But I like what I see on tape.
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@jaybate-1.0 Which we did not have this season, like, at all. Lucas was good. Pretty good even. But Lando was no Darnell or Sasha or Cole, or Withey or TRob.
Doke could actually be a beast down low for us.
Anyone got a finger on the pulse of who might be able to add to that?
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@Fightsongwriter He played well against Dook- not as well against Louisville. Of course, Louisville started two 7 footers, as I recall. And Whitman did not have a 7 footer in the lineup to help him, or DG, Vick, Newman and company. I see a poor man’s Collison as reference. The difference in basketball intelligence from Bragg to him…well, it is going to be night and day.
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@KUSTEVE Even if he is just a clean nosed hard worker (with post moves!), it will make an enormous difference.
