Florida Gulf Coast combo guard to WUG



  • This guy probably won’t light it up but he’s a senior so he probably won’t hurt us either.

    Thanks, Joe Dooley.

    http://m.kusports.com/news/2015/jun/20/florida-gulf-coast-guard-julian-debose-added-kus-w/



  • I think we discussed this possibility a bit a ago, as well as the possibility of a Wake player link. Makes perfect sense.



  • I saw this kid play a couple of times while he was at Rice. There is a reason he’s playing at the level he’s at and not a major conference team. That said, since he’s played a season under Dooley, he’s at least familiar with the concepts Self will use. He’ll likely be the 5th or 6th guard on this roster and should be able to help out the team.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 well that’s not encouraging!



  • Sounds like what I call, in recruiting for my rec league team, a “net neutral.”



  • @ajvan If we’re comparing DeBose to Graham, Graham is miles ahead of DeBose. This is a net negative for the roster. DeBose is a below average shooter (43% overall and about 33% from deep), average at best defender, and a below average rebounder for his size. At the the end of the day though, Self needed a body and hopefully Julian overachieves from his body of work while playing with KU and Nic Moore.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 is that the best we could do?



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 He’s a cut below Graham for sure. I’m thinking he’s likely the kind of guy who can come in for a few minutes and give someone a blow without hurting the team.

    Definitely no Graham replacement.

    Maybe he won’t see the court unless someone gets injured.



  • Christian G must have been busy



  • @Crimsonorblue22

    Most athletes stay on Campus in the Summer and take classes in order to lighten the load during the Fall and Spring Semesters. They usually get jobs working at the various basketball camps and get to improve their physical conditioning. It could be difficult to find eligible players that do not have their time already committed.



  • @JayHawkFanToo he was kidding. Pretty sure he’s gone too.



  • “including 31.7 percent from three (33 of 104)”.

    He sounds like a perfect inside out guy!



  • @JayHawkFanToo wouldn’t u drop everything to go? I would. Passport would be important.



  • While I can think of FAR better players than this guy from his offensive stats, he could be an athlete who plays solid D, we can hope. 31% trey gun is not great. His 4.3rpg numbers interest me the most, and maybe he is a slasher. May play like soph/junior Tyshawn, and is the size of Elijah Johnson. Maybe @Texas-Hawk-10 's comment about “there’s a reason he played at Rice/FGCU, and not a major D1 program…” could be all the general ‘scout’ we need?

    The reason we don’t just go to a competitor’s players is that it would basically give the KU playbook to the competition to have such a kid practice with us. Self isn’t that dumb. Of course I thought of Buddy Hield, but he is Bahamaian, like Coleby (can’t play for USA), but more importantly, we aren’t given Kruger any more secrets. Tyrel Reed is too old, as he left the same year Selby did. (Could have used both against KY’12). Xavier Henry wanted to, but cannot because of injury recuperation…

    McLemore could, theoretically, as he is in classes at KU, finishing his degree, is young enough, but his NBA team likely wont allow it for risk of injury.



  • This WUG thing, has sadly become a 2nd-rate experience-potential, as we are taking 2 “outside” guys, 2 KU frosh newbies (Vick and Bragg), and cannot use 4 other guys due to nationality (Diallo + Coleby) and injury (Greene + Graham).

    What hurts this free summer practice ball developmental golden opportunity is losing Green + Graham. 2 of our BEST 3 shooters, and Graham simply an all-around force on both ends of the court.

    Personally, I’d have taken NO outside guys, and just done it with Jayhawks. It feels a bit peculiar that they (WUG) picked KU to represent the ‘best tradition of US college basketball’…and we have 2 non-program guys + cannot take 4 of our own jayhawks. Sucks actually.

    All I can speculate is, with a 24sec shot clock it will fall on our veterans to run Self’s stuff (gotta know IT to run IT), or else it will be dribble-drive, schoolyard ball…in which case I’m still betting on Frank Mason.

    At least we get to see Ellis and Selden establish/re-assert their dominance, and we absolutely must see Lucas and Hunter play big mpg+ big, starring roles, as uneasy as that may make some of my fellow board rats here. This is Self ball. If they cannot deliver, they’ll be trashmen only, and it will be Act3 of the Ellis/Mason/Selden show…who will have no choice but to deliver.



  • @ralster Joe Dooley compared him to Travis Releford which I can see that as a poor man’s version. He’s not great at any one thing, but he’s a solid low major player, but his skills just aren’t on part with the scholarship players on the roster and we’ll see that pretty quickly. I’m sure Self would’ve loved a better player, but there were major time constraints and Self basically needed the first player who was available.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 Good info and insight, thanks. We can hope that Mason and Selden have matured to provide that court leadership to put a lesser-talent player in a position for a score (we can make him look better than he is), which Self’s best teams were able to do. 2008’s AAA-rated guard trio of Robinson, Sherron, Chalmers made it a habit of making Kaun and Jackson (for example) look good scoring easy buckets. And I’ve seen that missing ever since they left, as Sherron alone was less of a force distributing or defending, and neither Tyshawn or EJ were quite to the caliber of the 08 team’s level of guardplay (other than their champgame Tourney run…).



  • Off on my “guardplay” tangent: I do think Mason is every bit the scorer Sherron was, and may be as good of a defender, although Sherron got banged up as an upperclassman. Mason needs to consistenly make his teammates better, which, frankly is the only area that VanVleet is better than Mason. Mason for most of the season, was over 50% on treys, which is ridic.

    And I think Devonte Graham is an absolute home-run darkhorse type “find” by Bill Self. To actually come in as a frosh and run the team, I think even soph Mason learned a thing or two from Graham.
    Being given the “natural leader” tag after an evaluation by the USMarines, I consider a powerful endorsement of Graham, and we saw that play out throughout the season. We actually missed him from the lineup when big Josh Smith of Gtown injured Graham’s toe and caused him to miss 1 mo.

    However many “impact” freshman Self has had at KU, simply must include Graham in that list, and likely in the upper half of such a list.

    Look for the “real” full-strength KU Jayhawks this November coming to an arena near you, hopefully. Stay healthy at WUG!



  • What with Jayhawk injuries and foreign born players on the roster, this is not the best of all summers for the USA to appoint KU as a national representative to the World U. Games. Gotta hope the outcome does not turn out to be an embarrassment for the program and a subsequent deterrent to future recruiting. I can see opposing coaches braced to highlight any of our failures in their own recruiting pursuits, if, indeed, we should stumble away with a 9th place, as did N. Iowa a few years ago. On the other hand, this is an excellent opportunity for some of our marginal contributors to win game experience. The WUG opportunity did not appear to garner any topnotch recruits for us this past year. So the entire hoopla must be looked upon with something of a ho-hum attitude by the American basketball community. On the grand scale, probably more positives than negatives for BIll Self’s squad and his own personal professional status. Win or lose in South Korea, ROCK CHALK!



  • @ralster

    You forgot Svii isn’t playing either. I agree. The Universiade is pretty much a waste with all of the injuries and foreign players which means this team won’t get to gel much like the UK team last year



  • @ralster The WUG is still more good than bad. Like you said, get Mason/Selden/Ellis on the same page now and this fall and next spring we’ll be in great shape to win a LOT of games. Add Bragg and Vick to get some court time to get rid of some of the jitters, and Lucas/Mick/Traylor to solidify their roles and we’re still in a better position than without the games.

    Plus, I get to go see a KU BB game next week!



  • It’s refreshing to see how thrilled the DeBose kid is to play w/KU! I say we give him a chance.🏀🏀🏀



  • @Crimsonorblue22 I thought it would be interesting to give Codi Miller-McIntyre a chance. He seems like a great kid. But Manning may know something about him that wouldn’t work in Self’s system. He’s a senior this year and would’ve been a great veteran option out of the ACC.

    http://www.wakeforestsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/codi_miller_mcintyre_787075.html

    Self and Co will be fine with Dooley’s guard or we wouldn’t have him.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10

    “If we’re comparing DeBose to Graham, Graham is miles ahead of DeBose. This is a net negative for the roster.”

    Those were my thoughts.



  • @drgnslayr get over it, move forward😉



  • @Crimsonorblue22

    I had to be honest with what I thought on first notice. But… we have to trust Bill knows what he is doing. I think it was slim pickings on such short notice.

    I’m sure this guy will be helpful. I doubt Bill would just take a guy over there if he didn’t think he could help. World ball is a different beast. Very different from D1. Lots of skilled players, but a good American athlete finds ways to compete so I’m not too worried that he won’t help us.



  • @Crimsonorblue22

    Maybe…unless I need those summer courses to stay eligible…



  • @ralster

    The playbook KU will use at the WUG will be very limited since we have two freshmen and two outside players that need to come to speed quickly and several of the rules, such as the shot clock, ,are different so I am not particularly worried about other players learning KU’s playbook.



  • @Kip_McSmithers

    I respectfully disagree. While many of the players will not be eligible to play, they will all be practicing together and developing chemistry and becoming familiar with each other and their games and I see this as a huge plus.



  • @JayHawkFanToo 2nd session, online?



  • @ralster said:

    2008’s AAA-rated guard trio of Robinson, Sherron, Chalmers made it a habit of making Kaun and Jackson (for example) look good scoring easy buckets.

    Kaun didn’t look good until he figured out how to catch the effin’ ball - which happened about halfway through his senior season. Very strange. Result: 6 for 6 against Davidson. Without that, no NC.



  • At least the kid has experience, he’s a senior and a starter from a coach who took what he learned here and brought it with him.

    We got a bad roll of the dice with injuries and ineligibility so no matter what this tournament isn’t going to show the best of this team especially in July.

    I wouldn’t be worried about his shooting #'s, he’s a senior and they tend to always improve especially when he will be one of the scoring options for Dooley. If he’s a slasher that can handle the ball a little bit its a gain gain



  • @ralster said, “Personally, I’d have taken NO outside guys, and just done it with Jayhawks. It feels a bit peculiar that they (WUG) picked KU to represent the 'best tradition of US college basketball’…and we have 2 non-program guys + cannot take 4 of our own jayhawks. Sucks actually.”

    With no Svi or Diallo (or Coleby) and adding two guys from other teams – I agree, this is not what I envisioned.

    Personally, I now think we would have been better off doing a preseason deal in August or September with our guys only. We’ll see how this goes. And the two exhibitions against Canada aren’t even televised. Are you kidding me? We couldn’t pry some TV time away from some lame network?



  • @HighEliteMajor " And the two exhibitions against Canada aren’t even televised. Are you kidding me? We couldn’t pry some TV time away from some lame network?"… Maybe SZ’s price tag was too high for anyone to take serious interest in? Surely he wouldn’t gouge some lame network guy?



  • They aren’t really the University Games, but the college student games. You play for your country, not your school’s country.

    It was always known that non-Americans would not be eligible. It is a bit surprising that Self had more success recruiting non-Americans.

    Without the injuries to Greene and Graham we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

    So I blame the injuries more than our international roster.

    Right now all I care about is no one getting hurt over there: go to the hospital and get MERS, no thanks.



  • @HighEliteMajor

    From a team perspective, this isn’t what I was expecting because we will be short 4 rotation players & 1 transfer sit-out.

    From an individual perspective these games will still give us a glimpse and gauge of progress made by upperclassmen & our young players. So I’m way more in tuned to the individual performances than I’m worried about the team result because so many things are different from what they will be in the fall. Questions I have going into this tournament

    • Will Ellis pick right up pre knee injury and show us he’s our leader on offensive? Will the same aggressive and noticeably more athletic Perry take this team on his back.

    • Will Selden show us a more consistent offensive arsenal? He’s talked about using his body more, and losing a few pounds to help with his game.

    • Will Mason continue to evolve as a point guard, showing leadership, smart plays with the ball and a commitment to making his teammates better?

    • Will a healthy Lucas show enough improved post play (maybe even a go-to move) to cement his status in the line-up?

    • Where are Bragg & Vick in their development? Bragg has gotten a lot of early praise and I’m interested to see if he can play any lick of defense. Can Vick adjust to the College game after playing against HS kids not even a month ago?

    I think the WUG will be a nice preview of individual development at least…



  • @drgnslyr- Just ran across this quote from Dooley in the Star. It may be an awakening he is not expecting, Warm, fuzzy, or cordial may not be adjectives this kid will translate in describing his provisional verification of KUBB.

    by Rustin Dodd-

    Before Julian DeBose boarded a plane for Kansas, his current college coach — former KU assistant Joe Dooley — offered the following warning.

    “You think I’m a problem? Wait until you meet Bill Self,” Dooley said.

    Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/university-of-kansas/article25138597.html#storylink=cpy



  • @globaljaybird

    “And the two exhibitions against Canada aren’t even televised. Are you kidding me? We couldn’t pry some TV time away from some lame network?”… Maybe SZ’s price tag was too high for anyone to take serious interest in? Surely he wouldn’t gouge some lame network guy?"

    Plus, summer TV is primarily the rerun market… everyone off and preparing for the fall season (television). The viewership isn’t as big but the tv time is affordable and expectations are less.

    “Just ran across this quote from Dooley in the Star. It may be an awakening he is not expecting, Warm, fuzzy, or cordial may not be adjectives this kid will translate in describing his provisional verification of KUBB”

    I think they want to make sure this guy doesn’t view WUG like some kind of International vacation only.



  • @drgnslayr Right on, but you & I both know what it’s like playing for EXTREME hard asses-it damn sure ain’t no picnic



  • @globaljaybird

    Right… no picnic but in the end we are pushed to produce, and I look back with total appreciation for the coaches that pushed me hard.



  • I take it Curry isn’t available.



  • Let’s not lose track that KU was asked to represent the US over one year ago and at that time Coach Self had no way of knowing who would be joining KU or getting injured. Let’s face it, with Green and Graham not injured we would all be looking forward to the WUG with just KU players…who would have predicted the injuries?

    Here is a link with handy information about the process and this one has all the information about the team. As far as I can tell the games against Canada will be on radio but probably not on TV. I understand the WUG will be broadcast on ESPNU or ESPN3, if it is the later, will it be blocked in Kansas like the other games? I would think not since these are US and not really KU games; however, if they are, then Zenger needs to be fired…after he is tarred and covered with Crimson and Blue feathers.



  • @drgnslayr Me too, but at the time I hated his guts…



  • @JayHawkFanToo Isn’t he a KSU grad ?



  • @globaljaybird

    Yes, he is. He really should be at K-State…I need to be able to watch all of the KU games, which I can’t, and less K-State game, which I can…he can go to Manhattan and screw them up for a change.



  • I believe all games are on ESPNU, though some may not be live. If they aren’t live, then they’ll be on ESPN3. I understand that there will be no block of the broadcasts. I called KU today. But got no good answer as to why the Sprint center games aren’t televised.



  • I’m not really expecting the exhibition games at Sprint Center to be quality basketball. Snagged some decent seats, so I’m going to tomorrow night’s game. I’ll be in an off-the-grid cabin on top of a mountain in colorado on Friday, so I doubt I’ll give that one a second thought… although, on the off chance I have cell service, if anyone has a live stream amateur feed on friday, post a url, oK? 🙂



  • @DanR don’t forget to send a pic of your dog! Haven’t seen him in awhile. Enjoy the game!


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