Danny Manning, Bill Self, Player Development, Scot Pollard...
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I keep wondering… what made Bill Self start pushing harder for OAD recruits?
Was it the loss to Kentucky for the NC in 2012, when we took a veteran team in there against a young team with a star OAD center that made the difference? Or was it the loss of Danny Manning from our coaching core, the guy responsible more for developing players than recruiting them? Why recruit developmental players if you don’t have the coach to develop them, right?
I’m not sure which one of these factors impacted Self most, but I’m starting to think it is the later. Before recent years, Kansas and Bill Self buttered their bread with 3 and 4-star guys that stuck around in college long enough to develop and learn his system of basketball, while picking up enough basketball skill to make it at the next level.
And now, April 26th, 2015, we are sitting on the sidelines, waiting impatiently like a high school girl waiting for a prom date phone call. Will it happen? Will we finally land another post player to fill the big hole we’ve had open in our post for over a year? Who would have thought that when the medical exam came back on JoJo that would be the last big we have in the post for several years?
So why does it suddenly seem a lot tougher for a blue blood school like Kansas to recruit a 5? A school that has sent many tall players to the league in recent years. A school formerly known as “Big Man U.”
Is it because our coach has now become too stubbornly focused on only recruiting star (OAD type) 5s and in doing so passes by many gifted 5s just a notch down? Is that really what is happening? Or is it just tougher for Kansas to get big post players with promise because Danny Manning is gone?
Is Bill Self looking for a diversion by investing in a building downtown with Scot Pollard to open up a night club? If so, does that send a good message to his players on remaining focused and disciplined while off the court?
Or is this location a possible small gym where Scott can open up a developmental center for bigs? If so, having to go off campus makes me think Scot would pursue this without being nabbed as an new assistant coach. In doing so, this would offer Kansas players to go all summer and be unencumbered from strict NCAA guidelines preventing players and coaches from practicing ball together through the summer months. This would seem to be even a better scenario than when Danny Manning was at Kansas and had to be careful of his summer contact with players. And we are talking about a lot more than summer basketball. When the practice season does open, a gym that is not affiliated with KU and without Kansas coaches has unlimited access to players, in the fall and right through the season!
Could this be the real “gold” Kansas basketball has needed for quite some time! Could this be the nugget far surpassing the luxury apartments for enticing quality recruits to Kansas?
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What I hear from my acquaintances in Lawrence is that Pollard wants to open a sports bar there…
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@drgnslayr I have wondered about this same thing myself. After Danny and ohhh, the other one that head coaches at FGCU, after we lost those guys, it seems we took a hit in the development part. This thing with Pollard and Coach Self downtown. I hope its a gym. That would be soooo awesome. Scot could help our bigs develop low post skills without any limitations basically. That would be truly amazing. And, just to shake things up a bit, Scot could bring down any other X Jayhawk to help out. Think about Hinrich or Aaron Miles or Collins helping out our guards there. Our future bigs can also learn ball handling skills and vice versa.
That would be next level stuff there.
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Now this is some serious sleuthing!
Congrat 007!
The tell tale should show up on a planning proposal, zoning app or bldg permit that combines sports bar with a fitness center/athletic club.
Q: does UK already have this?
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If this could actually be done it would be tremendous but the NCAA probably has some rule against it or everyone would be doing it. Could it be done under City Recreation with maybe local high school kids as well so it wouldn’t look like an arm of the University.
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@Lulufulu FGCU=Joe Dooley.
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“Q: does UK already have this?”
NO! UK doesn’t develop players. They just run a draft agency.
I think it would be a mistake to involve the City of Lawrence or make it anything more than a private business. The one connection that I’m not sure about is Self being a part of it, even if it means landlord. The way to do it is to have ZERO connections to the University. The NCAA has no say in private business. John Lucas has been doing this for years. Kids need more places to go and develop, and to my knowledge BIG MEN have no place to go!
I fear that and hope not.
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The property ion question is not even close to being the size need for an athletic facility; anything other than a sports bar is just wishful thinking.
More importantly how do we know if Pollard would be a good teacher/instructor? TTBOMK he has not coached or instructed anywhere and just because he was great college player and played in the NB does not automatically qualify him to be one. Perhaps the best center ever (I know Wilt is in the conversation) Kareem Abdul Jabbar has been trying for ever to coach and other that some sporadic work as an assistant and one stint as a head coach of a Minor League team, the best he could do was assistant in a HS team in an Indian Reservation.
Again, I am not saying the Pollard would or would not make a good instructor, I don’t know and none of us know…I would think that if he is capable and willing thre is abig chance that KU would hire him or alt least he would start there as a volunteer. I seriously doubt Coach Self would invest money on such an unknown quantity. A sports bar on the other hand seems like a sure thing in a college town…that is what Larry Brown did.
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I know you raise great points. I’m just having a dream here, kind of like my dream to bring John Lucas to Lawrence.
Dreams open up a lofty vision for possible direction. I think the idea of having someone capable in Lawrence ready to take this on in private business is an interesting idea that could also benefit KU hugely. It seems like it might do a lot more good than investing so much in luxury apartments.
