What to Expect at the Champions Classic?



  • @tundrahok yes to both! First with assists and only the third all time.



  • Pretty cool list of players! Thx, guys. That’s a pretty dang big deal! 🤩



  • After Reeves decided to engage Dajuan with a little cocky crap we outscored them by 17



  • Well, got home late from an out of town trip, so had to DVR the game. Zzz.

    I sure as hell thought this was gonna be a sky is again falling note. Surprise, surprise! 🙂

    Happy for the win, but sure as hell did some cussing along the way.

    The Kentucky players sure looked like top tier athletes. Not all, but most. We had a very hard time covering the 3 pt line. Another poster said something earlier that I was also wondering about…why were we doubling and trying to recover to the typically wide open Kentucky shooters? Odd coaching when Kentucky had no big of concern. That seemed the main problem to me for awhile.

    I guess the big question is how much more leash does Timberlake get?

    And wholly F*ck! What a crazy choice to put McDowell in for the first time that late! Wow.



  • @Crimsonorblue22 said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    Anybody notice Self is much calmer?

    And Coach looks so much better physically. Hey, what was up with the BS comment Calipari made to Coach during the half court interview at the start of the game about 2 championship games? It seemed to me Cal was trying to take a shot at Coach and Coach seemed surprised or unprepared for Cal’s comment.



  • I could look at Hunter’s line in the box score all day. What a game. But, I’m drawn to the line of KU’s Ironman, Mr. “I’ll shoot when the team needs it.” Juan played 38 min, went 5/6 from 3 and scored 23 frickin pts when KU need it.



  • This was quite the thread.



  • Does KU not have the conditioning or the will to defend hard in the first halves of games? Kentucky took wide open 3s all first half, hitting 10. But, only made 2 3s in the second half. Why oh why is my team always down by several possessions at the half of big games? Like Coach Self, this shit is hard on my cardiovascular system.



  • Wasn’t there some people on here bad mouthing Hunter before the year?



  • @Woodrow yeah i totally was. He didn’t present himself well at Michigan at all. Good thing he made a very wise decision coming to KU where we transform thugs into princes.



  • @Woodrow I badmouthed his character but also said at the same time he is a great player and I’m glad he’s with us.



  • @wissox I badmouthed everyone on the team when we gave up an 11-3 lead and got behind by, what?, 14 or so later on? Badmouthed them, their families, neighbors, pets, girlfriends, pretty much everyone they know.



  • @tundrahok said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    @Crimsonorblue22 Sorry, I thought you were asking if Kevin’s was the first triple-double by a KU player. Blocks didn’t become official stats until 1985, so Aldrich had the first certified triple-double by a KU player in 2009 (with apologies to Wilt and Born, at least). Withey’s was in 2012. Have we had any since then? I don’t remember any. Maybe Kevin is the first with assists? Pretty cool, regardless.

    Not official but Born did it in a championship game for goodness sake. 1st triple double at KU.

    Kansas center B.H. Born recorded an unofficial triple-double in KU’s heartbreaking 69-68 loss to Indiana in the 1953 championship game when he totaled 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 blocks.

    Wilt had one against Colorado in ‘57 (probably several more idk) 40pts 13 reb 12 blocks.

    Cole Aldrich posted the first official triple-double in Kansas Basketball history with 13 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocked shots against Dayton in the ncaa tournament

    Kansas senior big man Withey went insane for the No. 10-ranked Jayhawks (nov ‘12), recording the second triple-double in school history with 16 points, 12 rebounds and a school-record 12 blocks in a 70-57 victory over San Jose State.

    McCullar - 12pts 10 reb 10 assists. First triple double with assists I guess is the 1st people were talking about.

    This all happened, just like the final four in 2018. Doesn’t matter if it’s official to a true KU fan.



  • @stoptheflop game of runs. They could’ve driven all day. We had the early lead, we got to sped up and our wheels feel off. TO’s! Bad shots!



  • @Woodrow said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    Wasn’t there some people on here bad mouthing Hunter before the year?

    Did not notice, I was too worried about the resident rapist.



  • Hunter always give credit to his teammates and Self! 🫶🥰



  • @nuleafjhawk That’s cold man. Their grannies? Their cats? Heartless…but necessary because who cares about those things? We are about victories so never ever feel bad about doing what it takes to light a fire.



  • Read somewhere ripping off Juan’s headband really po’d him off and lit his fire! Thought that was funny.



  • @wissox Zackly!



  • @stoptheflop said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    @Crimsonorblue22 said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    Anybody notice Self is much calmer?

    And Coach looks so much better physically. Hey, what was up with the BS comment Calipari made to Coach during the half court interview at the start of the game about 2 championship games? It seemed to me Cal was trying to take a shot at Coach and Coach seemed surprised or unprepared for Cal’s comment.

    IIRC, Holly said they had played in the champ before, and Cal said twice. Then Cal joked, “I won both of them didn’t I?” and Self laughed and said something like “Defintely not!” I think it was all good natured.



  • @Crimsonorblue22 said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    Hunter always give credit to his teammates and Self! 🫶🥰

    He was very good post game. He’s still himself but Self has definitely talked to him about the nonsense.



  • Hunter has been fantastic as a Jayhawk on and off the court. Lucky to have him.



  • Lots to learn from this game. Particularly some defensive notes.

    Some guys will gain confidence from this. It remains to be seen if Juan becomes more of a scorer.

    I’ll say it again, but the balance of the top 3-4 is the thing that will make this team hard to beat. Those four have to stay out of foul trouble and healthy. Assuming they do, they will be a force for any team.



  • @rockchalkjayhawk said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    Another poster said something earlier that I was also wondering about…why were we doubling and trying to recover to the typically wide open Kentucky shooters? Odd coaching when Kentucky had no big of concern. That seemed the main problem to me for awhile.

    I would guess the doubling was to keep Hunter out of foul trouble and Bill wasn’t as afraid of Kentucky’s 3 point shooting.



  • They weren’t hitting at the beginning of the game. We got out of control!



  • @mayjay said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    @stoptheflop said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    @Crimsonorblue22 said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    Anybody notice Self is much calmer?

    And Coach looks so much better physically. Hey, what was up with the BS comment Calipari made to Coach during the half court interview at the start of the game about 2 championship games? It seemed to me Cal was trying to take a shot at Coach and Coach seemed surprised or unprepared for Cal’s comment.

    IIRC, Holly said they had played in the champ before, and Cal said twice. Then Cal joked, “I won both of them didn’t I?” and Self laughed and said something like “Defintely not!” I think it was all good natured.

    Ya Cal said I’ve won both Championships haven’t I - - Coach sia uh uh NO you lucked into one of them lmao



  • I have a question for anybody that might know. - -What is our record against Calipari now since he has been at Kentucky. I think we are doing fairly well against him aren’t we ? - I know we beat him when he Coached at Memphis



  • I will say this about Kentucky , they are going to be a force later this year to contend with , when they get their 7 footers to go with these other kids as they develop through the year - -they gonna be good. -they could have a legit chance to have run for a couple of years with the kids they got - - only one problem, sure Cal recruits top notch talent - -thing with that, all these kids think they are one and done and don’t really stick around long enough to do that.

    This is kind of one of the reasons I like Coach , he gets those players, really solid that’s in the middle 20 rank maybe 30-even 40 type rank players, kids that’s going to be here 2-3 years and they develop. Sprinkle in every now nd then that 5 star or high 4 - -makes a world of difference. Bill & staff does a really good job of developing players



  • @dylans Good stuff. One of my favorite memories is the game Cole had against UNC during our championship run. He didn’t contribute much in the championship game but helped us get there. I was a little disappointed in his NBA career, thought he was going to have a long run in the league, which he kind of did, but not as a dominant player.



  • @jayballer67 They’re tied 6-6 now after last night but that includes Memphis game as well.



  • @wissox he made good money! Love that guy!



  • @MR11 that wasn’t the case.

    It was 10:37 in the first half and uk threw it in to mccullar’s man who was posting him

    For some reason Hunter who was opposite went to double and kj was left playing 2 guys

    Why Hunter is doubling when his guy is out on the wing isn’t smart basketball and why we double with our slow big man is another wth are we doing.



  • @wissox said in What to Expect at the Champions Classic?:

    @jayballer67 They’re tied 6-6 now after last night but that includes Memphis game as well.

    Oh ok thanks. I am off some I guess I thought since he was at Kentucky w had done better then that against him. - It’s ok were still batting 500 against him then lol



  • Woke up still very happy we pulled off that win.

    Hunter was nutso awesome. Dajuan was very aggressive, which we’ve been waiting for. What a shooting night! But, no offense to Dajuan, but if he’s our main threat from deep, we got problems.

    I think my boy Furphy will become a 3 pt threat this season. Form looks good. Elmarko didn’t look awful shooting it. KJ did! 🙂 Dunno what Timberkake’s deal is. Does he just need to get used to big boy competition? If he can’t shoot, I see no purpose for him hitting the floor at all. Liability. I was high on his athleticism in highlight reels, but that’s not shining at the moment. Sorry, approx, but it pains me to watch McCullar shoot!

    More Jamari! More Furphy!



  • RE defense: Bill signed up for being a bad defensive team when he took Hunter. It is what it is and the entire 3 man combo of HD/KJ/PB will not be good defensively when you have two of them in the game. On the bright side we can and are doing super cool stuff offensively despite not having strong shooters.

    Also bad is relative, Bill has lofty standards.



  • I like lofty.



  • Anyone know what Reeves said to DaJuan that lit the fire?



  • @wissox Cole is my all-time favorite ex Jayhawk in Self era.

    By the time Cole came to the league, 5 spot had evolved in that Bigs need to be able to score away from the basket and shoot at least a modest % on trey. Unfortunately, Cole lacked in this area and could not contribute.

    Imagine if Shaq was in the league today? Could he survive?



  • To answer the question on what to expect at the champions classic. I’m gonna say expect to win 89-84, Hunter has 20 plus points and rebounds, Kev probably goes for a triple double. You heard it here first folks.



  • Watching the 2nd half again and goodness did KJ get screwed by some bad calls or what? Early in the 2nd half he has equal position with a blue shirt guy for a defensive rebound. Ref calls it on KJ, then of course the really really really bad call that Bilas pissed off all of Jayhawk Nation so much on. I felt bad for the kid. The call he fouled out on, not sure I remember it being too bad.



  • @BShark KJ, Kev and Juan should be good defensively. Hunter can board really well and we just need that fifth spot to not suck.

    3 and D from a long and athletic guard like mcdowell sounds good



  • @wissox I did as well. What did you think of our comeback from say under 16 timeout to when we took the lead?

    Furphy was on the floor but Bill must have really thought he sucked

    The plus minus for Timberlake was atrocious and he shouldn’t be first guard off the bench



  • Timberlake can go fly a kite for all I care



  • It wasn’t Furphy’s night. Imagine a teenager, recently arrived from another country, on that stage. He seemed overwhelmed, and his stats reflect that (no points in 12 minutes), especially after what we saw in Allen. We know Self values experience, and I’m sure he thought his balding slow old guard could handle the pressure a bit better (mentally) than a kid who oozes talent but needs seasoning. Furphy will get there.



  • @wissox

    Agree some bad fouls called on him that were very questionable. He does seem to get into foul trouble and was hoping he’d improve on that this year



  • @tundrahok

    It also appeared that the matchup wasn’t ideal for him either due to Kentucky having a bunch of guards. He couldn’t defend their speed and it was noticeable. Looked sped up otherwise. He will get there



  • @kuballin10 You ought to just go apply for the job. Your non stop weak takes on Bill Self and DaJuan Harris are ruining what should be a fun time and season for this team.



  • Lay off Timberlake guys… Yeesh - give him a chance for god sakes. There will be games where he will pour in 3’s, hit clutch shots, make big time pressure free throws… you wait and see.



  • I think Timberlake and furphy battle for the first guard off the bench bc we do need someone who can provide the scoring punch. Timberlake hasn’t been great so far but he has to have a chance for a little longer. Which ever guard doesn’t win that spot needs to be behind McDowell. We can’t play furphy and Timberlake combo that much against good teams. It is too much of a drop in speed. We need a second guard to be athletic play good defense etc. I also think McDowell can be like Garret and against a lot of matchups he could fill some Adam back up min at the 4 bc we can’t really count on Braun to be that guy.



  • Braun needs to be center back up min that’s it


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