Land Thieves Shooty Hoops



  • I think Furphy being ready for the starting lineup does two big things. It takes even more pressure off Harris to be the 4th scorer. The last two seasons show that if Juan is your 5th guy your good because the 4th guy gets a decent amount of looks and can weather when Harris has his games where he isn’t going to score. Furphy’s skillet is very important to the lineup because he’s a lot different then Jackson. Pretty much every statistic in less minutes Furphy is better. Elmarko just isn’t the answer in the lineup due to Juan.

    The 2nd big thing is the spacing that Furphy can provide on offense and rebounding on defense. Furphy gives you another 3 point threat which is the biggest weakness of this team on that side of the ball. Defensively he gives you another rebounder with plus size because outside Hunter and Kev we don’t have good rebounders. I think this move pays off and it’s what has to happen. Elmarko will hopefully adjust to this new role and find out how he can help



  • Any problems with Kevin’s knee? Seemed to linger the rest of the game. We were playing keep on keeping on all of the first half and OU stayed right with us. At that point I thought they were a very good team.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 said in Land Thieves Shooty Hoops:

    @kuballin10 said in Land Thieves Shooty Hoops:

    @rockchalkjayhawk Self didn’t even think to let Elmarko spell Juan and have him run some point early on in the season. Not properly assessing the roster is on him.

    Kevin is essentially the backup pg and KJ can bring it up much like draymond so we have options.

    Elmarko is so explosive and the only guard that can get to the paint without a ball screen yet he never thought to maybe let him run some at the 1 even after seeing him play while recruiting him.

    The ball and chain that is Juan to Self. Juan’s legacy as the point is this year and next when there are no Remy bailouts. Juan’s getting worse and more lackadaisical with the ball and still doesn’t look to score like he should. The offense with two all Americans is thus a top 40-50 offense due to just that. He’s a ball mover I.e he doesn’t attack the paint and can’t break his own man down one on one.

    You’ve been warned and many are seeing it for the actual scenario versus the red and blue glasses

    Do you ever make a basketball post that isn’t negative about Dejuan? We all know your opinion about Dejuan and you say basically the same thing in every post about Dejuan

    This is why people don’t like interacting with you here. You don’t add anything new or constructive to conversations, it’s almost always something negative about Dejuan. We all know his shortcomings as a player and choose not to harp on them in nearly every post like you.

    How about instead of blaming Self for trying to make Elmarko work a position and role that he’s not used to playing, we look at why Self decided that Arterio Morris ended up being his choice for a 2 instead of some of the other options that were reportedly interested in coming here that didn’t have the legal baggage Morris had. That’s where the real failure of this roster lies, not with Dejuan Harris being the same player he’s been his entire career here.

    Well said



  • @Zabudda

    He’s definitely been a bit hobbled since conference play started.



  • @BeddieKU23 Agree, he also plays loose.

    My hope is that he can learn to guard without fouling.

    I really hope he puts some muscle mass because he gets robbed on rebounds and 50/50 balls due to lack of muscle power strength.



  • @AsadZ

    We are lucky to have him, he’s still super young. Could have been a 24 recruit but we got lucky having a need. Comparable to Svi from a physical standpoint when he came here. An offseason in the weight room and he’s going to be a monster here.



  • Watched the 10 minute highlight video since I couldn’t watch the game. Saw some good stuff from Furphy. While listening to Gurley, I heard him say this about Furphy. "OU player (don’t remember his name) eyes are wide whenever he sees Johnny guarding him because he knows he can score.

    There aren’t many starting point guards in the good old US of A who can match DeJuans resume. "Starting point guard, 2022 national championships. I’m sorry that one dude doesn’t like him, but he’s one my all time favorites. I know he has faults. I love his story.



  • @BeddieKU23 KJ is a good rebounder.



  • @COHawk said in Land Thieves Shooty Hoops:

    @BeddieKU23 KJ is a good rebounder.

    KJ’s still not a good rebounder overall. It’s less of an issue this for him though because KU has Dickinson this season. He has a 10% defensive rebounding rate which is extremely below average for a 4. That number is improved so he’s getting better, he’s still bad at getting rebounds for a player his size.



  • Definitely made a difference starting Furphy (even though he didn’t have his best game). He poses a scoring threat from trey and the rim… that is the most we can ask for putting anyone out there. He is bound to improve as he logs more PT over the season. What he really has to work on his defense, especially off the drive. OU was targeting him.

    Furph won’t be able to add on the needed muscle to defend this season, but there is other ways he can help himself. He needs to spend time scouting his opponents. Learn their tendencies. And do what he can to hedge better to prevent the blow by.

    Also… once he is beat on the drive, he often makes dumb fouls. Instead of doing that… a guy his size with decent hops… he needs to focus on where the ball will release and meet the ball off the shooter’s fingers. Doesn’t always work, but sometimes he’ll earn some sweet blocks and after some of those he’ll earn a little cred with opposing teams.

    He should stay a Jayhawk for at least 3 years, hopefully 4, and will become a real beast after seasoning and severe strength training.


    What a difference a game makes. 2 turnovers?!

    We didn’t have a stellar game but we won the possession battle, and that counted big.

    Our top 4 players have to stay focused. In this game, they focused on less TOs, and we were successful. That’s a great sign to see our guys attempt to improve and succeed. Hunter, a shot blocker? 5! He was definitely going after shots like I’ve not seen him do as a Jayhawk. Good focus, Hunter! KJ continues to collect more rebounds… good focus, KJ! Juan, making less TOs and steadying the ship… good focus, Juan. Kevin… continues to try to do everything, and he did and filled the stat card.

    Bench? I’ve seen enough. We need to bring Zach off his redshirt. What are we really hoping to gain by having him redshirt anyways? Next year will bring many new fruits to this team and you can bet we will continue to add off the portal. I’m doubtful Zach will have anymore meaningful contribution next year over what he could do for us this year.

    Zach would give us yet another option off the bench and already has some experience and talent to bring to this team. I feel like this is crucial!



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 I haven’t seen a post from him in weeks, then remembered I blocked him. Enjoying the boards more.



  • @StLJhawk said in Land Thieves Shooty Hoops:

    @Texas-Hawk-10 I haven’t seen a post from him in weeks, then remembered I blocked him. Enjoying the boards more.

    Great idea! Doink! And…poof he goes!



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 The roster is set that’s on Self point made and moving on.

    Here’s why it’s all about Dejuan. Because he’s been awful this year.

    Hunter is as advertised

    Kevin has taken the step forward offensively

    KJ is a walking double double

    EJ and Furph are freshman and aren’t Wiggins I don’t expect them to “pickup” Juan’s slack…just comically bad lack of bball iq people saying “the bench” or these “freshman” need to makeup for it. If Juan averaged 10-12 a game like I’ve said you all would not say this.

    When in Kansas basketball history has some not top 10 freshman caught flack for not scoring over the freaking 5th year senior catching no flack???

    Braun - way more solid than I thought

    This team goes as Juan goes and he’s been atrocious. He can’t beat his man off the dribble and he gets beat odd the dribble constantly. He’s resorted to trying to tap it out from behind cause he can’t stay in front of his man.

    If he can’t score or look to shoot he has to generate opportunities it’s for guys which he doesn’t all he does is swing it around the perimeter. Since he can’t shoot he needs to D up.

    Last pass first KU point anyone want to compare him to Juan?

    Aaron Miles - 9.3 ppg, 7.2 apg, 3.2 t/o pg

    Juan - 6.9 ppg, 7.1 apg, 2.6 t/o pg

    If Juan played like this nba pass first, d you up, make the other team unable to run their offense while being the attack man on ours….all as Self sold is on then KU would be undefeated.

    Meanwhile Juan is been bad and Self claims it’s other guys faults. He’s blinded to his pet



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 Why do you always dog on KJ? Dude is flat out a stud and attacks all game. He’s never lackadaisical or sloppy he’s balls to the walls 24/7.

    U and his rebounding can take that awful view and throw it out the window. We rebound just fine



  • @wissox Johnny and Juanny aren’t laterally quick so everyone’s mouth waters when they are guarding an opposing player

    Least furphy has the cojones to make it rain and let it fly from deep. Oh and he hustled his cojones off which Self is finally seeing



  • McCollum had 15 at half and ended with 17; who shut him down in the second half? Thought that was a huge difference for us in the second half.



  • @kuballin10 You don’t know how to discuss, you just bully through with your way and none of the rest of us have a clue. Discussion is fine, we do it all the time here and disagree too of course. But you don’t know how. The only kudos I’ll give you is people frequently get pissed off by what you write and you don’t resort to name calling etc, but that’s rarely anyone’s MO here, which is one reason why we’re here.



  • @COHawk

    Good question I’m going back to the film to watch. McCollum is the type that’s going go have days like that, very streaky and gets points in bunches.



  • @COHawk

    It’s an improving skill of his but I wouldn’t call it a strength of his yet. He seems to board in bunches and then disappear at times still, but I’m very encouraged by what I’ve seen this year as far as growth there. There should be no excuse why he can’t get 7-8 a game with his physicality and athleticism. He’s averaged 9.5 boards per his last 4 games so this point of emphasis with him is starting to pay off.



  • @wissox

    I haven’t seen a noticeable difference between Furphy & Elmarko’s defense as far as which freshman gets picked on more when they are in the game. Elmarko gets scored on more but Furphy fouls more and usually in situations where he gets 2 back-to-back where he has to sit after. I think teams do attack both with success in different ways though. I’m optimistic with Furphy’s defensive potential down the line due to size and wingspan. His lateral quickness is something that will hopefully come with a full offseason here (he didn’t have one coming in). Elmarko should also be a good defender in time once he figures out how to apply his quickness and athletic ability. He’s just raw and young.



  • @BeddieKU23 First half he had numerous open looks and hit many of them; second half very few open looks.



  • @COHawk

    Absolutely I’m still going to go back and see if it was adjustment at halftime as team or individual efforts. Remember him coming off a bunch of high ball screens freely in the first half and don’t recall that happening much at all in the 2nd.



  • Wow. Early in the video you see Juan pass up a wide open layup then get blown by. Incredible https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2IrwoiggbV/?igsh=MTBna292eDhqcG04Ng==



  • @kuballin10 Calling Harris awful is a stretch and even harsh, guy is playing almost 40 nights in and out.

    Has his game regressed a bit, yes, but look at the reasons. He has no backup. He cannot be super aggressive so not to get in foul trouble and he has to conserve energy to play almost 40 every game.

    How will we look without him?



  • @FarmerJayhawk enjoyed, ty



  • @FarmerJayhawk

    Man he needs to sit after that video





  • @Crimsonorblue22 That’s a nice read. Since they’re a school that really only cares about football, I don’t think too many of their fans are going to be as nostalgic of it all as Castiglione is being. Going to the SEC, they’re going to play before largely indifferent fans, although maybe a border rivalry in basketball develops with Arkansas? Their timing with the advent of the 12 team playoff is impeccable because the path to the 4 team playoff got much harder in their new league.



  • @AsadZ so is Mccullar and no one is talking about how his play has regressed this year……

    Bill could spell him with EJ or Kev at the point.

    Juan was never aggressive driving the ball in 2022 when we were loaded he isn’t quick enough to beat his man off the dribble.

    The proof is when he drives his body is taking him more towards the corner baseline than towards the goal.

    He’s regressed in all aspects this year when he was supposed to step up and improve. That’s the issue and no one here seems to care……oh the bench needs to score more and we’d be okay.



  • @kuballin10 Did you just claim that Kevin McCullar has regressed this year?



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 Nope

    Kevin is playing the same number of minutes as Juan and he’s taken his game to a whole other level

    So the excuse that Juan’s playing all these minutes he can’t be expected to improve but decline is such a total unfactual garbage take

    Juan played a ton of minutes because remy was injured and no one complained then

    There’s this love fest with Juan I don’t get. If his last name was tharpe everyone else would be saying how he’s (Juan) has regressed very poorly this year.

    Juan isn’t able to shoulder more of the load consistently . He can do it here or there but game in and game out nah. Just need him to be great in the tournament!



  • @kuballin10 In my humble opinion, KU offense flows much better when Juan is PG.

    My issue is with your statement on calling his play as awful. I think it is too harsh and not justified.



  • You go to war with the army you got, not the army you wish you had. I don’t see the point in bashing Juan. He’s a good point guard that is not score first and we would be screwed if he got hit by a bus.

    Beyond that, you can wish in one hand and poop in the other and see which one fills up first.

    This is why Bill Self is a hall of famer. He works with what he has and doesn’t trash his players and look to next season. He always thinks theres a way to win it all with the current roster and he is always looking for it.



  • @approxinfinity PHOF!

    You make Bill Self sound like Prof Harold Hill: “I always think there’s a band, kid.”



  • @mayjay said in Land Thieves Shooty Hoops:

    @approxinfinity PHOF!

    You make Bill Self sound like Prof Harold Hill: “I always think there’s a band, kid.”

    Yes, put that in your double bell euphonium and smoke it.



  • @AsadZ Bill has no other choice unless he’d let EJ play point which won’t happen.

    So saying the offense flows better with Juan well yeah we have no clue how it flows without Juan.

    Juan is the best pg on the team

    For the offense to flow better Juan needs to shoot 4-5 threes a game. Our offense metrics with two All Americans is atrocious for a reason and it’s very easy to spot when watching the games.



  • @approxinfinity Is it bashing to say a player who is one of the leaders of this team is underperforming?

    He’s not playing well that’s evident.

    Of course no coach gives up they work with what they have and adjust to try to win a title.

    I’m saying the key is Juan and not the bench or some fifth starter stepping up. It’s been juan and always will be Juan that’s why the stat of when he scores like 12 or more we are darn near undefeated……he’s the key cog and his play is bad.

    Did he practice the three all summer to then not shoot during games? Did he get slower on defense because he’s bad 1v1 defensively unlike the title game…go back and watch night and day different.

    You guys can hem and haw about all these other people that need to step up (literally this board just says the bench and fifth because everyone else besides Juan has been a stud and as advertised this year).

    Eventually you all will see the light that Juan has regressed but if he can start playing better we can make a serious run in March.



  • @mayjay Wow, fighting fire with great American culture! I like it!!



  • Originally I was calling for 40 points combined from Hunter and Kevin plus 20 points combined from KJ and Juan and with 15 points combined from the two guard and bench we would win about every game. Now we need 25 from KJ and Juan to win. With Hunter and Kev baby currently being Self’s top scoring duo ever we are actually lucky to just need 35 combined from KJ, Juan and the great unwashed. Furphy has already shown he will be aggressive in getting and taking his shots. Of course it will be a pick up the slack if one of the above has an off night. Yup.



  • @kuballin10 all I hear is you complaining. Benching Juan is fan fiction. Nothing you are saying is compelling me to question anything I know about this team, and then you say “oh you’ll see”. What has EJ shown us that suggests he should start over Juan, and is that your proposed solution here? We are #3 in the country and comparable to other Bill Self teams in near every metric afaik. What exactly is your insightful solution here?



  • @approxinfinity I’ve never said to bench Juan that’s crazy talk. He’s the starting pg.

    I’ve said:

    1. shoot the 3 more and attack

    2. Play better on ball D

    3. shoot the frigging 3 he’s got a good shot

    4. Let EJ play point 5-7 minutes a game to spell Juan. He’s looked more comfortable with the ball in his hands



  • @kuballin10 all of these things are reasonable, the questions they bring up though are:

    Why doesnt he shoot the 3 more?

    Im sure Self approves of the unguarded 3.

    What are the consequences when he doesnt shoot it? Bench him? Are you sure EJ possesses enough of Juans abilities to make benching Juan in a dogfight an option? I dont think so. Is confidence an issue if you start benching him?

    I just dont see EJ being anywhere close as effective as Juan at the 1, so you can see hes our dude, and theres a low threshold to where repeatedly complaining about the things he doesn’t do just has no actionable soluiton and sounds like complaining and dogging Juan. And prognostications of doom are annoying. Theres nothing else we can do until Elmarko grows and i trust Self to know when that is. He was right with Furphy and every other dude that has grown on this team. We dont get to see practice. Have some faith, however it goes.



  • @kuballin10 I should qualify that.

    VAGUE prognostications of doom are annoying.

    But its not new to this board by any means.

    I think we should talk about Big Dave.

    I was one of the guys who did not hold my tongue when it came to saying “Big Dave Ain’t It” his senior season. We talked about Sweet 16 outs, etc.

    I was wrong. Bill Self knew things I didn’t. Dave Mccormack lived his life and I observed it.

    Of course, speculation is what we do. But, let’s be creative about it. Maybe there are wrinkles we haven’t discussed. Thats where a narrative like “Furphy gives Dajuan another shooter and makes his passfirst approach more comfortable in big games” is a more interesting narrative than “Dajuan needs to shoot!”

    It’s like a kids soccer game where theres the one parent screaming “shoot it! shoot it! score score score!” when their kid has the ball. It’s 1-dimensional.

    And I don’t want to single you out, so much as discuss the meta of how we talk about our our players.



  • @kuballin10 said in Land Thieves Shooty Hoops:

    @approxinfinity Is it bashing to say a player who is one of the leaders of this team is underperforming?

    He’s not playing well that’s evident.

    Of course no coach gives up they work with what they have and adjust to try to win a title.

    I’m saying the key is Juan and not the bench or some fifth starter stepping up. It’s been juan and always will be Juan that’s why the stat of when he scores like 12 or more we are darn near undefeated……he’s the key cog and his play is bad.

    Did he practice the three all summer to then not shoot during games? Did he get slower on defense because he’s bad 1v1 defensively unlike the title game…go back and watch night and day different.

    You guys can hem and haw about all these other people that need to step up (literally this board just says the bench and fifth because everyone else besides Juan has been a stud and as advertised this year).

    Eventually you all will see the light that Juan has regressed but if he can start playing better we can make a serious run in March.

    If you watch the games that are played , then you would truly know. You say us people on this board Hem-Haw , dam man there is soooo much more to the value to the game of Basketball then just scoring, it is o multi faceted . If you were to pay attention instead of focusing so much on trying to degrade Juan you would know.- -The people on this board are by far not the only ones that have the same idea as we that are on this board that say how bad we have to have production from the bench, that we have to have that fifth player step up and not just be four core.

    Analyst’s that follow the game, people that do this for a living , people who have played the game , been around the game, former College players themselves , do you not listen to what they are saying also. They say almost verbatim Seth Greenburg a former College Coach , Jay Bilas, Jay Williams, plus many , many others who I happen to think just maybe , maybe have a little mor insight about the game just maybe might be a little more in tune with what we need.- - They to the man say how they worry about our depth/bench- - how we need that fifth player. I think I would have a tendency to lean a little more on their words then yours.- Sure Juan maybe playing some worse, but even him playing at his peak is still pretty good, STILL league in assists at 7.1 that’s a pretty dam good assist ratio, 2nd on the team in Steals behind Kevin , and when he does get beat 9 times out of 10, he still recover and pokes the ball loose from behind.

    You on the other hand just seem so infatuated on trying to down grade Juan, you just can’t seem to be able to comprehend that there is so much more to a PG then shooting and attacking - a LOT more, Juan is a defense/assist first type Pg. not sure if you have seen many of Juans assists, sure he could shoot or drive but umm he has no problem not doing that and passing of to a team mate who has a better shot. I dunno I think maybe I’ll stick with Bill’s Coaching his decisions more then your expertise opinion. I mean seems to be working for Bill & the team, you know Bill right ? - -The guy that was the Coach making decisions that help us to what 14 straight titles? The Hall of Fame Coach ? -The Coach of the year how many times ? - -ya that guy, I think he knows what he is doing with Juan. -The Guy that has only lost like 14 games in 20 years in the Phog, he must be doing something right, must be making right decisions - ya thanks I think I’ll continue to trust him.

    Tell you what you can do though if your not happy with the way he is Coaching or how Juan is playing - - -you can go to his office and relay your dissatisfaction about Juan’s play and tell him your thoughts on what Juan so do and how you would play th team I’m sure he would be more then willing to listen to what you have to say that’s an idea , looking forward to hear how that turns out. Have a good day buddy it’s going to be all right.- - - ROCK CHALK



  • Harris is going to leave here a Top 5 PG in the Self era, perhaps the best when his career is over (that’s still over a year away folks).

    He’s a National Champion & if he can win another in the next 2 years, he will be in the history books among the rarest of company.

    He’s won 83% of the games he’s started so far in his career. He’s got a shot to break the assists record here and will finish somewhere in the Top 10 in steals. He’s on track to score over 1,000 points in his career here, not too shabby for someone that’s a 4th/5th scoring option.

    Above everything else that I’ve written here take a step back and realize what this kid has been through and appreciate how these young men can overcome such great adversity and make it into a positive. What an inspiration. It’s about more than the game. We have a coach that realizes it too.



  • I like the healthy discourse here. We don’t all have to agree about everything and people need to state their opinions and everyone treat each other with a base level of respect. Often, our best posts come from disagreements.

    I think many of us don’t feel like Juan is having his best year so far. It is possible for a reason or more that none of us know. All we can do is grade his play on the court.

    Is there anyone in here that thinks he should shoot less? I’m in the “shoot more” category. More treys. More drives finishing either at the rim or mid-range floaters.

    We’ve read where his teammates and coaches have deplored him to shoot more. I guess Juan needs to feel it before he takes more shots. Maybe we all need to encourage him to work on getting the feeling more!

    I’m not going to tell Juan what to do. I’ll leave that up to Self. However, I will say sometimes I go nuts when I see Juan or other players turn the corner on their defender and have nice scoring space for a 15-ft jumper or open path to the rim, but they then throw it out to someone on the perimeter and we end up fighting hard for a good shot at the end of the shot clock. Those mid-range shots and rim finishes need to happen for many reasons… we leave points off the scoreboard and teams aren’t respecting our driving, so we have fewer wide-open trey shots because teams aren’t sagging in.

    I have faith in Self to figure out our offensive struggles. We certainly looked sharp at OSU, though a big part of that was OSU played a horrible defensive game.



  • @drgnslayr That’s all I’m asking is him to hunt his shot especially from 3 more. Defenders don’t even guard him at times unless he comes in the paint



  • @BeddieKU23 He will have played 6 years so I think there’s a major asterisk by those records.

    I’m not sure he’s even a top 10 pg under Self

    Dotson Mason Graham Sherron Chalmers Tyshawn Miles Remy

    All guys I’d take over Juan



  • @kuballin10

    If I’m looking for points out of our PG I’m totally with you on taking all those previous PGs over Juan.

    But I’m still on board with Self and his desire to have less points from our PG and have him be more the glue guy, assist leader, and defensive specialist.

    Normally, Juan leads the team with assists. Not the case against OSU as Kevin far surpassed him. Kind of makes me wonder if it is easier for Kevin to get assists than Juan if he is our big scoring threat off the drive. Are teams double-teaming Kevin to try to limit his drives and then other guys are wide open and Kevin is good at passing out of double-teams to earn assists? That is a question for everyone because I don’t have that answer.

    I do know when Juan is on his game, he’s a guy who creates offense for others. Seems like he is doing less of that, but maybe we need to look less at Juan and look more at how we are running our offense right now. Typically… our offense just doesn’t happen on it’s own. We are running plays or running schemes with several spinoff varieties that create offense. This is how we create spacing and also predictability on cuts (etc) so we should turn it over less because players are going to predictable places and it is all working well when our timing is on. Maybe this is more of a problem needing resolved by Self and crew.

    I will say… many times in our half-court sets we have to work harder and push it to the limit on shot selection at the end of the shot clock. When we trend with this result we are bound to create more TOs and the guy looking worse through this is our “play guy”… Juan.

    So when Juan isn’t creating assists… he can easily look to be having a bad game, especially if he has several TOs.

    I will say this… he was our main “disruptor” against OSU. He was constantly knocking the ball free, getting a steal, or just making enough of a disruption to keep OSU from running any kind of flow. That is a valuable trait!

    I am like you and I miss having a PG that puts up more points and is a continual threat to score. Guys like Mason were able to always create his own shot and that came in handy sooo often! On the other hand, one of my favorite Jayhawks, Sherron… was counted on constantly to score and we did not have a good offense and were not really a contender when he ran point.



  • @kuballin10 by that standard the 2022 title should have an asterisk.


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