Thorne to Illini, Miller to UConn, Diallo and Skal Patois
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All quiet on the Recruiting front for KU.
Thorne chose Illinois because his old Chorlotte assistant had moved to Illini.
Shown Miller liked UConn.
Diallo speaks French and Slal Labissiere does too. The French Connection!!!
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@jaybate-1.0 The French speaking duo at UK is a scary possibility. I am sure Cal will use that to his advantage.
I do think the Embiid factor for us is helpful. There are obvious similarities (including French if he ever wants to ask JoJo questions in that language). Embiid came in “raw” and left the #3 pick in the draft. Would have been #1 if he stayed healthy. That could help us.
Also, does a kid like Diallo look at UK and see what I see? The never ending recruiting. Marcus Lee and Dakari Johnson come in as blue chip recruits and after two years barely play…especially Lee as Cal brings in Towns, Lyles, etc. I don’t think he will have that problem at KU. Although I supposed Alexander did not exactly get the minutes this year you would expect from a top 5 recruit? Maybe I am wrong on that.
Man, it is crazy to think that all of this speculation over Diallo could just turn into another Alexander type season next year if we land him. I am not trying to be a pessimist. Just saying that none of this kids are “can’t miss”. Cliff was supposed to be an immediate impact player and that is not exactly who he ended up being.
I guess I am just being a realist about this entire situation. We may not land anyone else and we already have the guys who are going to play big minutes. We may end up landing Diallo and he will be a good player but not great and will average 8 and 4. You never know.
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@joeloveshawks Joe, ordinarily I am one of the most skeptical posters on this site; but I get excited, thinking about this Diallo kid in a Kansas uniform. Reminds me of a Kevin Young, but with 7’4" wingspan. He is bound to wreak havoc on opponents who don’t doubleteam his movements on the court.
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Kind of makes me think we are done getting big men until Scot Pollard comes on board as an assistant coach.
Just waiting for the announcement any day now…
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@drgnslayr But we can’t be done getting bigs this season. I mean, its best case scenario getting Diallo at this point cuz we missed on everyone else.
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@jaybate-1.0 Im not certain that the duo speaking french would be pull for Diallo to UK over KU. Granted, its got to hold some kindred spirit type feelings if the two are friends but the big picture is Diallo would have a lot more opportunity at KU to showcase his talents. UK lost 7 guys and they are still at 5+ Nike stacks.
KU has zero next level talent at the 5 KU has minimal next level talent at the 4.
KU needs Diallo, Diallo needs KU.
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Let’s look at the positive – If Self does not get Diallo, could this force Self move outside of his bubble and install a system that is suited to the talent on his roster?
It was reported by Rustin Dodd that heading into last season, in October, Self knew we’d have trouble scoring inside. That was literally our downfall on offense.
Now there is no need to wait until October for that announcement. If we strike out on Diallo, the dye is nearly cast. Why not install a system now that is focused on the talents of our roster? There are many to choose from. Perhaps start with Gonzaga, Oklahoma, WSU, or Michigan St., and go from there.
Heading into next season, doing the same thing that we’ve done offensively, would be insanity (as Einstein defined).
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Right now, I’m concerned about the power of negative recruiting. Call it the Kelly/Cliff affect.
Cliff is now the biggest deal, Kelly was the bigger deal.
Imagine the narrative of an opposing coach – Cliff came to Kansas a virtual lock as a lottery pick. Cliff couldn’t adapt to Self’s system. Self couldn’t teach Cliff his system. Self pulled Cliff multiple times from games. Self wouldn’t let Cliff mature on the court. Self was impatient with Cliff. Self publicly criticized Cliff. Self won’t guarantee your role. Self played Traylor over Cliff, and Traylor will be a senior next season. Self values experience. There is Landen Lucas who will be a junior and Mickelson a senior, as well. Cliff was statistically better, but Self wouldn’t let him perform. If you were going to be in college 2-3 seasons, sure, hard to argue with Self, but you have just one season. Kansas hurt Cliff’s NBA chances. How do you screw up the #2 player in the country? Well, Self did it with Josh Selby too. And look at Oubre, Self would hardly play him the first 15 games. Even with Wiggins, they wouldn’t let him show his game. Cliff will now be lucky to be a first round pick. Why take that chance? Why risk your career?
Every possible negative can be spun. This is what I’m sure Self is facing. And I think this is the exact reason why we have struck out on the OAD post men that Self has been so strongly pursuing this season (Simmons, Skal, Stone, Raab, Zimmerman, Jeter). Why take a chance at Kansas?
Hard to believe Kansas, with its post centered offense, got none of those guys. The power of negative recruiting. After the negative, others have selling points:
From St. Johns, you will be the star here. The focus of our team. You’ll play 30 minutes per game guaranteed.
From UK, look at our system, and our results. Four final fours in five seasons. Constant ESPN exposure. We are America’s team. Look at our draft picks.
From ISU, look at our system. You’ll fit right in. We run, that’s your game. We will exploit your strengths. The space we create offensively will let you attack.
Of course, this is ignoring all the positives Self can throw at him about Kansas. It’s a battle that we are losing right now. But getting Diallo changes that narrative and gives Self a big win. It now all comes down to Diallo. There is no way to dress it up, though … if we miss on Diallo, this was a disaster. But it ain’t over.
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@HighEliteMajor For my nerves, and for the rest of you all too, I hope it does end soon, and in a good way. Dunno if I had this much anxiety for a recruit to pick even with waiting for Wigs to pick
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I think your point is sound.
But Self already made the change to the new offense that fits the insufficient talent: BAD BALL
And though we disagree with it, BAD BALL, by going slightly around .500 down the stretch without a credible 5, without a credible 4 (due to a series of injuries), without a healthy 3 (Oubre’s knee kept deteriorating until he simply would not put it at further risk of playing 100%), with an intermittent incompetent 2, with a point guard that had lost his pop, with Greene on a bum hip that obviously wrecked his mechanics the last third of the season (hell, his completely screwed up mechanics–especially the hopping one foot jump shot–plainly visible even before they announced the injury, and with out any other credible 3 point shooting down the stretch (due to a not at all usual team wide slump exacerbated by injuries, regardless of the origins one might assign speculatively), proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to have produced a vastly better record than either playing it Self’s traditional way, or adopting Fred’s pro sets, would have yielded. We would almost certainly have won only 1-3 games with Fred’s pro sets, given the shooting slump and the injuries to our best trey shooters (Mason, Greene, Perry and Oubre), and likely would have gone winless with the abject lack of talent inside. So from a practical, what did we have to work with standpoint, despite you and favoring running action outside to get treys in large numbers, Self’s BAD BALL proved wildly successful at .500, not a failure at all.
Further, though we would prefer the three point driven offense, you to a greater reliance, and me to an XTReme reliance on the trey, by the last two weeks of the regular season and the entirety of the tournament, most teams had resorted heavily to drive ball, and some, like Fred, actually simply copied the entirety of Self’s BAD BALL scheme for extended periods of games. Even 9-stack Duke labored with Bob Knight’s rule and spacing driven motion offense, and had to resort to drive ball and cheap shotting whenever it finally came up against a good team, which biased seeding assured it would not do until the Final Four.
And then there was UK’s former Princeton on Steroids–the offense once known as the the Dribble Drive Mostion offense of ball screen threes, drives and pitches into the footers. Ha! Cal anticipated everyone slowing UK down with Drive Ball all season and so he pre-empted them by making his 10-stack of draft choices play as the slowest team in recent memory. Whenever the going got a little tough, Cal gave his draft choices cement tennis shoes and turned it into his 4 footers against the world. What amazed me most, was that even Cal gave up on the dribble drive off ball screens when it got really tough. He went to a six man rotation with drive ball dishing to centers.
We may not like it, but Drive Ball, started apparently by Bo Ryan, who started out relying on the trey a great deal, has morphed into a Drive Ball where 20 treys are about average, and 15 are not unusual, and Self’s broader system of BAD BALL incorporating Drive Ball with 10-15 3ptas, and focus on total disruption of flow on both ends of the flow with half court offense and defense, rather than on strips and blocks, appears likely to be the next path forward in basketball.
What Shabazz Muhammad said UConn did to the superior team–get small leads by either shooting a trey or driving the iron, and defend them with driving for as many slow down possessions as possible without risking TOs, or treys, and just driving the rim from wherever on the floor you have an MUA, until they opponent catches up, is the future of college ball, so long as talent asymmetry persists in the form of ShoeCo-Agent complex talent stacks at one program in each Power Five conference.
What coaches preferences for Drive Bal,l and now Bad Ball, are telling us is that without a talent stack, and with so much fouling being permitted, that they cannot run any timed offense, like a Princeton, even any rule and spacing driven offense, like Knight’s motion offense, or any passing offense, like Self’s High Low derivation of Dean’s and Larry’s and Carolina Passing Offense, because defenses can disrupt any timing, and can drive any motion off the spots it seeks to operate from, and can foul any shooter shooting in any impact space created by a passing offense. So: the only thing left, unless you have four draft choice footers, and 5-6 draft choice perimeter players, is to play drive ball, and, as usual, Self has taken the scheme for the rest of us–Drive Ball–to its logical extreme that we did not grasp, so let’s copy Self as usual, until some rules changes free up some other way.
What Self proved at the end of the season with .500 ball is that with BAD BALL you can break even with nothing at all, and if you’ve got the pieces, and they are healthy, it will probably be hands down the statistically optimal way to play, until the rules change.
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This came from ESPN. We all pretty much knew this but its good to get reinforcement about Diallo.
- Cheick Diallo: MVP again
Diallo now has scored back-to-back MVPs in the McDonald’s All American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic, and that doesn’t happen by accident. He is a coach’s dream because he epitomizes hard work. Diallo’s passion energizes his talent as he is in constant motion, with a 7-foot-4 wingspan to score baskets, grab rebounds, block shots and contest shots. He needs to improve his offensive game against a set defense, where he could learn how to post up and make one solid move, and he needs to polish up his free throw shooting. He scores from second-chance points, run-outs, drop-off passes and by screening and rolling to the rim. In the two most prestigious all-star games in the country, no plays were run for him and he walked away with major accolades. His game reminds me of a young Kenneth Faried.
After the game, he had an in-home visit with Kansas. On Saturday, he will meet with new St. John’s head coach Chris Mullin as they will make their final presentation. He could possibly meet with Kentucky on Monday. His decision will be coming soon.
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Yes, but…
Other coaches can say the same thing about UK and just about every other program. Cauley-Stein - 3 years to become good, the twins two years to become marginal second round picks or go undrafted, Poythress 3 years, Dakari Johnson 2 years and so on… and they all came to UK as OADs, and the same thing happened in previous years where the squid player core was not OADs but players with more than one year of experience. On the other hand, freshmen Wiggins and and injured Embiid went 1 and 3 in the draft…see my point? Not every highly ranked HS player pans out in college and not all of them develop in one year either.
No question that after watching Alexander play a couple of games, it was obvious that he was like a fish out of water and his basketball IQ was well below that of other players. Yes, he did well in HS when his superior physicality was enough to overwhelm other players, not the McD All-American types mind you, but the ones that work at McDonald’s after practice. Look at the highlight tape he did after announcing he was declaring for the draft…the entire highlight tape is the one dunk that earned him a “T”. Alexander and Selby are KU’s poster children for staying an extra year or two in college. No question that Alexander would have benefited greatly staying an extra year at KU.
Come on…prospects are well aware of what other players can and cannot do and they are not that stupid to think that, Alexander and his personal/family issues that prevented him from playing at the time when he could have been the most productive, can or should be blamed on Coach Self.
By the way. UK has 18 players in the NBA, Duke 17 and KU?..well…16. Not that much of a difference, is it?
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@JayHawkFanToo Those are good points … I struggle with an explanation as to why guys would not want to play here. Given the focus of our offense, it seems like a post player’s dream. Why would Kansas, of all the schools, miss on all of the big guys I listed?
When you describe Cliff, I disagree a bit. I believe the kid just needed to play and play a lot. The constant yo-yo in and out, and changing of his role, creates a lot of the kid’s uncertainty. The handling of a player is crucial. We’ve had this same discussion on other players.
I’m not sure why he and Oubre would be such fish out of water, and the Duke trio, UK guys, and other top 15 guys seemed to be fish in water (as well as other guys right on that fringe like Blackmon, Ulis, and Russell). When I looked at this at about the 10 game mark, it seemed like on Theo Pinson was struggling like Oubre.
But that all goes to perception and negative recruiting. Regardless of truth, untruth, or validity of explanation, I am quite sure it’s a big factor in our empty OAD boat so far. No doubt that Cliff’s season here didn’t help us.
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We need Diallo for the 4 and 5. And we need a near footer at the 5 to go with Lucas and Bragg to make four for Bruiser Bridge inside. It takes four real bigs to compete with the stack schools and win, or else it takes a super stretch 5, like Kaminsky. Zimmerman was the only possible stretch 5 in this class and it will probably take him 2 seasons to get good enough to dominate (and he’s only staying one). Labissiere seems to lack the touch for a stretch 5. And the guy from Australia going to LSU I have not seen, but he seems to have been the other possibility.
But coulda woulda shoulda didn’t.
The invisible hand of recruiting–what I hypothesize as the ShoeCo-Agent complex–but which others attribute to some god like entity engaged in random runs at schools that are just coincidentally contracted with Nike and are positioned to dominate each of the Power Five conferences–has intervened yet again against all common sense, and cold, calculating logic, and even owl’s bones and eyes of newts tossed on the hardwood floor by a black magic priest, and resulted in the winningest coach the last 5 years, the guy with a ring, the guy at the school with the greatest basketball tradition, the guy at the school with everyone’s favorite arena, the guy at the school with now the best living quarters for athletes in the country, the guy at the school with the best looking cheerleaders, and the handsomest guy with the most charisma and tele-presence of any coach in the game being odd man out. I am expecting someone to argue that it is his breath.
Hmmmm. When are board rats going to wake up and view the asymmetric cream cloud in the coffee. Something appears not only asymmetric in the NCAA tournament seeding and officiating, something appears asymmetric in recruiting and has at least since KU’s 2008 ring team.
Note: I did not say anything illegal was going on.
I don’t believe for a second that what is going on IS illegal. If it were, it would long ago have been rooted out.
Not now anyway.
Improper and unfair? who am I to say? It doesn’t look very fair from outside as a KU fan. But I am not objective. I am a KU fan.
What can be said objectively is asymmetry in recruiting appears hard to argue not to exist.
What I want to focus on is not Diallo as a great player, because Diallo is just one very athletic 6-8 or 6-9 tweener with no apparent outside shot and no apparent back to the basket game that has, like Joel Embiid, not grown up playing the game. He does it with athleticism. Bully for him. I want him on our team. I like athleticism. I like Diallo. But…
Diallo played in an All-Star game in which most of the big guys appeared not to be trying very hard. Did you notice that? Zimmerman could easily have shut everyone down on the court on both ends and he appeared to be just coasting and having some fun. No one was even passing into him much. It was like having a young Lew Alcindor out there and no one passing it to him. He apparently was not there to convince anyone of anything. Nor apparently was Labissiere. Nor apparently were most of the players on the floor. Most apparently were already committed to programs and apparently just playing to make sure the game could generate enough revenue to perpetuate the biased recruiting regime and system of net benefits to players, agents, agent runners, AAU coaches, D1 programs, and the NBA, that appears to be hurting KU’s interests to some significant degree IMHO. What we were watching was apparently what in Bo Ryan’s vernacular might be called a pick-up game of rent-a-players going through the motions with one tweener big–Diallo–trying to put on a show to see what he could squeeze out of the current bidding war he seems to be an object of–among KU, St. Johns, and UK.
This circumstance makes it very difficult to tell how good Diallo was. What if ALL the player had played much harder than they appeared to play? What if Zimmerman had dedicated himself to holding Diallo scoreless and keeping him off the glass? What if Zimmerman had blocked everyone of his shots, or at least most of them? We might all be saying, “we’ve got to do better than Diallo!” The point is Diallo is what is available to KU and KU needs SOMEONE. And so it wouldn’t really matter if Diallo had not played because of turf toe, we would be in this competition for him, because, well, the alternative is Jamari Traylor and Hunter Mickelson.
As always, the question that perks up in me is: what can KU, St. Johns and UK possibly bring to the bidding war for Diallo at this late date that they have not already offered Diallo previously. I mean, according to the rules, they can offer Diallo a scholarship, a set of teammates, a role, some amount of PT and life membership in a team and university culture after he leaves; that is about it. What does he not already know? What can they offer him now, except maybe coaching smiles that have been more recently bleached white for the latest visit than for the last one? Is Diallo really at a point of indifference that can only be decided by whiter teeth?
I am assuming here that everything is legal.
What is Diallo looking for from Self, Mullins, and Cal?
What more can they give him?
Or what ice berg is rumored to be about to sink any one or two of these three coaches that makes a player think, “Well, hey, I’ve got to meet with them again and ask them off the record and confidentially about their roster, and the rumors I have heard that they are going do for this or that?”
What?
Diallo has understood from the moment that Mullins was hired, and from the moment that Mullins hired Slice, that St. John’s was a local Catholic college close to his current home. If these were decisive factors, the decision would already have been made, right?
If playing with the most draft choices on a team with an opening for him to play as much as he wants to play were paramount, then his decision to sign with UK would already have been made. Cal always has slots. And he reputedly often is very frank about the role a player can expect in that slot, whether or not he follows through on his frankness. Meeting again with Cal is not going to help you measure his likelihood of fulfilling his frankness. If you doubted his words before, you’ll have reason to doubt his words now, right?
If playing for the best coach with an experienced back court, a stretch 4 returning, a desperate need for Diallo to play 30 mpg, and a reputation for telling players they have to earn their minutes, were all litmus tests, then Diallo would have signed the minute that Perry decided to stay.
So: we may have to infer something else is being offered. But what?
We have to assume it is something legal.
We have to assume that the folks involved are too sophisticated for the reputed old Tim Floyd satchel of cash approach, when he was courting O.J. Mayo for USC some years back.
It just doesn’t seem plausible that Chris Mullins and the Fathers are going to go to the wall safe and bring out the Samsonite brief cases with the laundered bills, and saying “forgive us father for we have sinned.” I believe Mullins and the Father would deny they would ever stoop to such a thing to win a basketball. And I have no way of knowing if they would deny it if they in fact did get out the Samsonite, but as I said, I am assuming nothing illegal is going on, so I don’t have to make any judgement about that hopefully far fetched possibility.
Likewise, no one has ever even hinted that Bill Self is paying players. No one not trying to smear him anyway. He’s never left a single program with vacated seasons and a backed up recruiting septic. And he’s been at ORU, Tulsa, Illinois and KU.
And to give John Calipari his due, outside the one reputedly unretracted story by a Chicago newspaper claiming a UK player reputed to be unibrow was once offered six figures to play for UK, no one that I recall has ever argued that Coach Cal is dumping bundles of Hamiltons in bridle leather satchels made in the old country in the hands of UK recruits either. No one has ever to my recollection ever tagged Chris Mullins, Bill Self, or John Calipari with a single infraction that they were found responsible for. Not one. And Self and Cal have been coaching a long time now. Cal has left a trail of vacated seasons, but to my knowledge the dots never connected to him.
So: what exactly is the bidding war about?
What new completely legal thing is Diallo being offered at these recurring meetings to be weighed by him, so that he can make the best decision in his own best interest?
I just don’t know.
I can see why the coaches would partake in a ritual where nothing new was being offered, because it buys them and their programs media coverage even if they lose.
But what is in it for the player and his family?
No one is saying that Diallo and his family are starved for company. No one is saying that they are hungry enough to need to wait for Self to bring some of Cindy’s latest batch of chocolate chip cookies. No one is saying that John Calipari is the kind of teacher that just imparts so much wisdom at each meeting that a young man would be a fool not to keep making him come for visits so he could pick his brain about how to play on the low block. No one is saying any of that.
All I know is that some schools and coaches are contracted with one ShoeCo and others with another.
And I read about coaches, like Rick Pitino, indicating that agents and agent runners and AAU coaches are in some hard to grasp way channelling players to some hard to estimate degree more to some schools contracted with certain shoebrands than to others contracted with other shoe brands. And that whatever it is that may be going on behind what seems an opaque veil, the NCAA reputedly finds it legal at least in the cases Pitino was reputedly referring to.
And I know that the repeated coverage of Diallo dragging out his decision helps brand him and bring him to more persons’ attentions through the hype machine of the mass media. I suppose this could improve his Q-rating, if he has one yet. I suppose this could help develop him as an endorser down the road. But seriously. How many people are going to remember any of this 12 months from now? Even in this world of appearances and hype, isn’t 99% of what we remember about a guy still what he does on the floor? I mean, right now, if Andrew Wiggins had gone to the NBA, and wound up in the D-League, I would hardly remember Andrew Wiggins more than Russell Robinson. In fact, I would remember him less. He would just be a guy that came through and protected the merchandise for an early out season. Its only because he is making it big in the L that I can get juiced about him.
Think about Dakari Johnson on UK. He was once so hot that Joel Embiid went to another school to get out from his shadow. Dakari was who everyone wanted. Now I completely forgot that Dakari was on UK’s bench. The bench is anathema to a player’s media presence. How might Johnny Cochran have put it? If you don’t play, there is no way.
So: maybe Jay Bilas will take a crack at explaining what is being offered to Diallo down the stretch that he has not heard before?
And it has to be legal, Jay.
We live in the legal era.
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@jaybate-1.0 some great pts!
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@jaybate-1.0 Excellent post … What do you think is being offered? From KU’s end, I think it’s a starting spot. Has to be. Self has a rep for not providing a guarantee, but at this stage, how do we land Diallo without that? Could part of the deal be a sweet adidas contract upon graduation? Surely not …
Interesting on Dakari Johnson. That guy would have been much better off choosing Kansas. My bet is that he would have been a two year guy, turning pro right now, but in a much better position. He would have been the unquestioned starter at the 5, and it would have been post feed heaven. And I think Kansas would have been much better off record-wise (No Embiid or Cliff).
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Just saw Duke has another in-home visit with Ingram after already meeting with him this weekend. Is that writing on the wall or what?? Where’s Self’s 2nd in-home…
Not trying to assume anything but it does say something. Plus UCLA out with no schedule visited.
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@Lulufulu Sure, we all know that, but does Diallo know that?
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@jaybate-1.0 What you question and postulate makes sense in a rational world populated by rational people. However I don’t think that your basic assumption is correct. For better or worse this is not a rational world populated by rational people. What could Diallo be offered now that wasn’t before? Who knows? He has family, girl friends,hangers on, etc. He has people like Self, Calipari, and Mullen (who has held executive positions in the NBA) who have developed skills over the years convincing people that they should come with them.
They are looking at what seems to them to be the most important decision of their young lives and we wonder why they dither in their decisions! In my own career of over 40 years I have accepted positions, signed employment contracts and backed out for one reason or the other. I might be considered a world class flake but for the fact that I have seen other people that I have worked with do the same things. These were people in their thirties, forties, and fifties. We are talking about people whose frontal lobes are not yet fully developed.
Why would a shoeco representative blowing smoke up his a$$ be any more persuasive than his girl friend, mother, or best friend since the third grade all of whom have their own desires.
My God, we discuss why KU uniforms should change one way or the other to attract 18 year old kids and then wonder why it is they do what the hell ever it is that they are going to do.
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@BeddieKU23 It might mean that K’s last visit didn’t go quite right. It may be that Ingram told him something that encouraged K to return since he wasn’t quite ready.
If Ingram was choosing Dook, he wouldn’t need another visit. Coach K is desperate to land Ingram at this point. Ingram has indicated that he is leaning KU due to being friends with Bragg. Coach K just had a couple of friends in Okafor and Jones leave. He knows the power of friendship. No, I don’t think it’s a good sign for K to have a turn around visit. I think Ingram gave him some doubt for choosing Dook. Ingram has been Dook for a very long time. Coach K is in championship mode. Also, Ingram said, staying close to home is NOT a factor at all in his choice. This tells me, he’s looking to leave the state. His friendship with Bragg and leaving the state statement is telling to me.
Coach K is panicking because he had Ingram in the bag and Bragg, Self, and Roberts have all but signed him. Here’s to being right…
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If you any of you are banking on Brown or Newman, FORGET IT. I’ll be very happy to be wrong, but all the “experts” have them both going UK. Calipari is recruiting like his job depends on it going all out on Cheick. He’s desperate for bigs because all he has is Labissiere at 6-10. He also has Poythress, Lee, and Willis all returning? He’s stacking his platoon yet once again. He’s not even sniffing Ingram at this point. He only has one big at 6-10. I don’t think Diallo is going to give UK much thought with Labissiere, Poythress, Lee, and Willis returning.
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Ingram was all UNC before the scandal hit. His mentors are Stackhouse & Bullock, both former Heels. They could still land him if Tokoto does sign an Agent, the 3 spot in his home state and dream school just became available. Duke has done what they can to keep him as well with a depleted roster.
If the ShoeCo has any influence then he’s KU bound. Being that he was an Adidas kid and didn’t play in the Jordan Brand game because of that. Duke & UNC are obviously Nike…
We will know our fate Sunday, but if we got dragged into the last hour in this saga just to lose to an in-state school he should eliminate us before hand.
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“If Self does not get Diallo, could this force Self move outside of his bubble and install a system that is suited to the talent on his roster?”
Diallo is being courted by the ISU offense. Imagine that. And I haven’t heard him peep a word about the hi/lo.
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@drgnslayr On the Jordan Brand broadcast, one of the color guys … Simon or Biancardi … said that Diallo really liked ISU’s offensive system. As you said, “imagine that.”
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Well, there are two HUGE factors which Diallo could be weighing: How much playing time. At which position. I’ve borne the feeling that Bill Self pretty much bent his standard stance regarding non-guaranteed minutes when it came to sitting down with the Wiggins clan. Which coaches are telling Diallo, Ingram, Brown and Newman WHAT?
