Paschal Chukwu twitter chatter. Looks good for KU



  • I think I’d rather have Johnathan Williams III honestly. Chukwu has a high ceiling, but if he’s transferring because he didn’t get minutes at Providence, there’s no guarantee he would beat out senior Landen Lucas when Chukwu becomes eligible. JW3 is someone who’s always wanted to come to KU and KU probably would’ve gone after Williams had they missed out on Embiid. Toughness and strength are the biggest questions about Chukwu and neither are a concern with Williams. Williams played the entire season on a torn meniscus and would have an entire season to heal from that. Williams is also a quality shot blocker (1.5 per game as a freshman when healthy) and could average double digit rebounds when he becomes eligible.

    It basically comes down to which bigs Self feels good about landing in the 2016 and does he want a more proven commodity with a a lower ceiling against a kid that’s not proven but has a higher ceiling? My personal preference in this case would be Williams because KU will need production in the front court in 2016-17 and Williams has proven for 2 years that he can be a quality player in a major conference.



  • So… Uptown Chukwu up??? How’d that b . Haha



  • The consensus is … go after Chukwa and hope we can get Bolden. @BeddieKU23 makes a pretty compelling case for Bolden. The bird in the hand thing is compelling too. But I REALLY like Bolden. Bolden looks exceptionally talented and has an array of low post moves – that be skill for the uninitiated. Skill rules. Chukwa maybe not so much skill at the moment. @ajvan mentioned a good point … whether Bolden could play the 4. Bolden looks like a pure 5 to me if there is such a thing. To effectively play the 4 in the high/low, you better hit that 15 foot jumper.

    If we land Chukwu, he’s likely our center for two, possibly three seasons.

    Though @Texas-Hawk-10 sure seems like rain the parade, would Williams + Bolden ultimately be the better result?

    I will happily ride the fence and trust Self on this one. I won’t always trust him on his offense, mind you, but this? Sure.



  • @KUSTEVE keep working!😉



  • I despise UK with the best of you, but if Bolden is also a true 5, maybe Self could take a page…ok, maybe more of a paragraph…or a sentence?..out of the Squid’s notebook. Tell Bolden he and Chukwu are gonna tag-team the opposition and beat them into submission with an onslaught of tall talent that will make them both lottery picks.

    Also a nat’l title (but none of the “perfection” crap) since Self is twice the big man coach Cal is.



  • I would say if he wanted to come visit ku anything could happen



  • @HighEliteMajor Like you said, it’s a matter of how the pieces fit together. Can Bolden expand his game to play the 4 and be the high in the high-low? We know Self wouldn’t play a 7-2 player at the 4 because it takes away the height advantage in the interior. Those two pieces together don’t really seem to fit together very well on the court on paper like Ellis and Traylor have never meshed well on the floor because they both do basically the same thing on offense (Ellis obviously being the more skilled). If Bolden ends up being a natural 5, then I do believe Williams would end up being the player to compliment Bolden’s skill set as opposed to another natural 5. If KU does end up with Chukwu, I certainly wouldn’t be disappointed because the kid does have a lot of upside and it’s already known that KU will have front court minutes available for a 2016 recruit and it could end up being more of a matter of which 2016 recruit best compliments the transfer KU lands.



  • @ajvan You mean the Squid should take something out of Self’s big man book. Self’s bigs are way more productive and prepared for the league than Calipari. The only two bigs that standout for Calipari are Cousins and AD. However, they promoted Calipari, not the other way around. Very few of Calipari’s big men really reached their ceiling. If Self had Calipari’s big men, Self would coached the hell out of them. Self gets way more from his bigs than Calipari. The real sad commentary is Calipari lands these bigs and they pretty much leave they way the arrived in Lexington. I’m not saying Calipari can’t or didn’t coach them, but big for big, I’ll take Bill Self every time. He’ll give you more big for the buck.

    I like the idea of landing both Chukwu and Bolden. Why not?

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    Bolden still reminds me a bit of Landen Lucas in high school.

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  • Michael Lickteig ‏@mhlickteig · 3h3 hours ago
    #kubball Lots of reasons for Paschal Chukwu to transfer to Kansas. Great tradtion, great facilities, great coaching, great opportunities.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10

    He would have been the starter this year at Providence. Their Center graduated. Now they don’t even have a 5 on their team because of his departure.

    the 16 class is top heavy and guard heavy. Bolden has been our main Big target with some others. Not a deep class for Bigs like 15 was. Chukwu would gain a lot by getting a year with hudy.



  • @Crimsonorblue22 “Chuck wus the pretty girl”. Better?



  • @KUSTEVE Watch out or she’ll Chuckwu up.



  • Stephen McKinnon ‏@Steve1422 · 23m23 minutes ago
    @ESPNAndyKatz @ESPNCBB Did you guys hear Paschal Chukwu is leaving Providence and that Kansas seems like a front runner-according-2-KUsports



  • @KUSTEVE keep working!!😉



  • @Crimsonorblue22 **CHUK WUllery. **



  • @KUSTEVE Ewww! Gotta be a better one? Do you know how to pronounce it?



  • Bill Self was in the stands at the AAU Super Showcase in Orlando, Fla. back in 2012 watching Chukwu. The article goes on to say the we were recruiting him back in the day. Maybe this is why HCBS is making this young man his #1 priority right now? I guess he liked what he saw back in 2012? heres the link http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/jul/29/ku-self-take-look-class-2014/



  • On 05/06/2014 Paschal Chukwu was ranked #48 on this recruiting site. http://www.courtsidefilms.com/news_article/show/383150?referrer_id=1216585



  • Paschal Chukwu (ESPN #58 In 2014) @ The NBPA Top 100 Camp



  • @Crimsonorblue22 Like Chuck Woolery, only hold the “lery”.



  • @KUSTEVE I know! I meant his real name. I’m enjoying this! You know that though!



  • Mark Sudol ‏@news12ctsudol · 1h1 hour ago
    Could former Fairfield Prep basketball star Paschal Chukwu be transferring to Kansas?



  • With all of this pro KU stuff on Twitter and other media outlets I would say KU is the only real player in Paschal Chukwu’s recruitment. There is little to no talk of any other possible destinations and he was released from the Providence Friars a few days ago. If KU had a contender in this recruitment it would have been posted by now. I think he will be a Jayhawk soon.



  • Since we have the “Designer,” why not the “Architect?” Jean-Louis Pascal - famous Architect.

    Or, from the Beatle’s song, I am the Walrus: Chukwu g’ joob !



  • Go and read his bio. http://friarbasketball.com/paschal-chukwu/ It sounds sooo familiar. I cant quite put my finger on it but I know its sure to come to me soon!



  • @Statmachine

    I am very hopeful we land “the Chu-Chu train.” Just hope we sign him immediately because it won’t take long for the flies to swarm fresh meat. And where there are flies, the buzzard squid can’t be too far behind!



  • @drgnslayr Im on board! I think a RS season to develop and learn the system will produce better results than any OAD border line 7 footer in the 2016 class!



  • @Statmachine

    True dat! Especially when you consider how many other 7’2" recruits are waiting in the wings! (none)

    “Chu-Chu train” is the perfect Self big man recruit. At 7’2" there is no way he mistakes himself as a guard (like Myles Turner did). Someone has to do the “dirty work” of post dominance. For Chu-Chu it is all his for the taking, and a long with it comes a lottery pick and a boat load of money for him in two years! He’ll have an entire season to learn Self-ball without the silly basketball critics knocking his game. And add in one year with Hudy to build another 20 lbs on his frame… maybe 30 lbs if he signs now because he will have TWO summers to build muscle mass before he splashes on to the college basketball scene to steal the show from all the freshmen OADs in 2016-17!

    And don’t forget he will be helping our entire team develop immediately because he will get to practice with the team and teach all our guys how to get a shot over and around a 7’2" beast in the paint!

    I still can’t believe he only averaged 9 minutes a game last year for the Friars!



  • @Statmachine

    Now start thinking about next year’s recruiting… we’ll have a lot of spots to fill, but we will be returning the #1 veteran perimeter game in college basketball and Chu-Chu will be eligible and built for dominance… We’ll be on the hunt for another post player and back to nailing a star SF… something we are famous for.

    We sign Chu-Chu now and even with our player exits for next year, we should be a FF favorite for this coming year and next!



  • Imagine our eligible WUG players having to play against Diallo and Chukwu every day in preparation for the WUG? I can see that duo tearing Ellis and Bragg up lol. And whos going to guard Svi? Its going to be SOLID competition in practice if we land this HUGE 5. Will he officially be the tallest basketball player in KU history?



  • @drgnslayr as soon as we fill this last scholarship I will be forced to move on to next year lol.



  • He doesn’t look that skinny to me. He looks a lot like JoJo.



  • @truehawk93 Yeah, totally agree. I was saying, tongue in cheek, that Self should stockpile some post talent the way Calipari did last season. It might be tough to get both Bolden and Chukwu on the floor at the same time, so…maybe a little two man “platoon?” (I had to grab a barf bag after I typed that word.)

    No doubt, Kansas is BIG MAN U. Any rep UK has in that dept is smoke and mirrors.



  • @hawkmoon2020 There you go - we’ll call him the “Walrus”…( after Hudy adds 50 lbs onto that lean torso).



  • @drgnslayr the Chu-Chu" train. Love it!!!



  • @drgnslayr @KUSTEVE The Chu-Chu Train.

    We have a winner.



  • @ajvan I was so hoping Self would play TROB with both Morii, but alas, he never did. It was always 2 out of the 3. Would he play both footers at the same time ( Bolden/Chu-Chu)? That would be a sight, wouldn’t it?



  • KU is likely going into 2016-17 with Carlton Bragg and Landen Lucas in the front court. Those two have a skill set that compliment each other. Bragg is similar to Marcus Morris and Ellis in that he’s a face up player and can play in the high post. Landen Lucas is more of a traditional low post back to the basket player. Whoever KU gets as a transfer should determine what type of front court player KU targets the hardest in 2016 because that person should be a back to play the opposite front court role the transfer does.



  • @ajvan That last sentence is tongue in cheek, correct? I despise UK as much as the next guy, but they have a much better track record with bigs than we do over the past decade. Davis and Cousins are all-stars, plus Randle, Noel and Kanter, and could even through in Patterson and Jones. Alas, our bigs in the NBA haven’t sniffed an all-star game. Kief might one day and we’ll see about JoJo, but I don’t think there is much question that UK has produced more productive NBA bigs than we have.



  • @DCHawker Sadly, there’s no question that UK bigs outperform KU bigs in the NBA. Towns Jr looks like a guy who will continue the trend.

    Like we all know, UK is a destination school for OADs who want to hit the league with a splash.

    However, I’d still argue KU is BIG MAN U in its own right, thanks to the marginal post players Self & co develop into studs. If he can reel in a few more bigs with upside like Embiid & Diallo, our guys may start making NBA all-star squads instead of “just” becoming journeyman role players.

    You dig? 😉



  • @ajvan OK who comes closer to ROY 2016 Embiid OR Towns?



  • That’s a tough one. I see Towns having the better NBA “body” right now, so I give him a slight nod. Too many what ifs at this stage for both.



  • embiid.jpg towns.jpg I don’t think Towns has a better body but lets say he did? Towns can not move like Embiid.



  • I sure hope it’s Embiid! Lots up in the air right now, but if Joel’s physical therapy has run its course and he comes in at 100%, my money is on him.

    Towns didn’t show us anything resembling a Dream Shake and post bullies are a dime a dozen in the league.

    Towns could develop into an NBA star, who knows. But I think Joel will be better. (@Statmachine I mentioned Joel in my original post bc I think he & Diallo are the type of guys who can vault KU bigs onto the all star lists.)



  • Back to back ROY from KU. Sounds good to me!



  • Duke Nukem?

    Step aside.

    Here comes…

    Chuke Wukem!!!

    Sign now and I won’t make any Blaise Pascal references, okay, big guy?

    The team has serious chops if Self signs this guy.



  • @HighEliteMajor said:

    would a true center like Chukwu on the roster compromise our ability to land Marques Bolden?

    No.👬 👬

    This is the international emoji for four footers.



  • @Statmachine Embiid!



  • Loos like UConn is trying to get involved.



  • @DCHawker

    "I despise UK as much as the next guy, but they have a much better track record with bigs than we do over the past decade. "

    They should… their bigs were all McDs 5-star AAs!

    How many of our bigs were McDs 5-star AAs? Any of them?

    You can’t compare apples to oranges. We’ve taken guys much further down in talent and given them a career in the league. I count that more than UK babysitting guys a few months that would be in the league even if they just went to school at UK and didn’t play ball.


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