Coach K to retire after 21-22 season
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@FarmerJayhawk said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
K doing a full farewell tour is the most Coach K thing ever.
Man, the UNC dook rivalry just won’t be the same in 2022-3. Scheyer v. Hubert just doesn’t have the same juice.
These programs just might slip with these different Coach’s , we already started to see NC slipping some and now I think Duke will drop off somewhat also
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@joeloveshawks I read that as “hearing his name consonantly”
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@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
How much longer does Jim Boeheim hang in there?
At least as long as it takes for Coach K to finish his farewell tour. Then he can have the spotlight all to himself when he embarks on his.
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@tis4tim said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
Then he can have the spotlight all to himself when he embarks on his.
So…will Boeheim whine twice as much to fill the void?
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@FarmerJayhawk said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@nwhawkfan totally agree. It’s insane to me neither Duke or UNC reached outside “the family” in any meaningful way.
A lot to think about here.
First… It is damn hard to come into a program after a legend. The expectations are crazy and fans will quickly turn on the new coach, especially an outsider.
Second… It is safer to pick an insider who already knows where the bodies are buried and is willing to keep them buried. Big risk when you bring in an outsider… things don’t go well… and upon departure the outsider decides to expose the graveyard.
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@drgnslayr That first one is still what amazes me most about self. As much as I hate Dickie V I think it was him who told bill not to take this job because he’d never replace Roy. Instead he’s had a more successful career here than Roy himself. We as Kansas fans are very spoiled and we should be careful to remember it. Bill WONT stay forever.
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It’s very hard to replace a legend, whether you are inside or outside the family. Expectations are high. Margins are thin. Every word you say, every interview, every in game decision, every recruit you get (or miss), it is all evaluated against the fantasy of the previous coach. Oh, former coach wouldn’t have done that. Former coach doesn’t lose that game. Former coach closes the deal on that recruit. Former coach… on and on and on.
If Hubert Davis loses 8 games this year, all 8 will be blown up like the end of the world (reminder that UNC went 18-11 this past season). But people will suddenly act as if Roy Williams hadn’t lost a game in his last five years coaching after every UNC loss. That’s just the nature of replacing a legend.
Same thing will happen at Duke when Coach K leaves, and at Syracuse when Boeheim leaves.
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I wonder if Scheyer will be a good coach. Maybe Duke actually gets better. UVA already was dominating the conference. Duke hadn’t won the ACC in 10 years.
2010 Duke, Maryland
2011 North Carolina
2012 North Carolina
2013 Miami
2014 Virginia
2015 Virginia
2016 North Carolina
2017 North Carolina
2018 Virginia
2019 Virginia, North Carolina
2020 Florida State
2021 Virginia
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After viewing your 10-yr history of the ACC it made me think this might be somewhat of an indicator on which coaching style is most-successful… defense or offense-oriented.
It’s 5 - 5 comparing Virginia and UNC with both winning a NC. Hard to imagine another two teams to compare where the philosophy is so different.
I know fans like to see offense… but do they like to see it be just a horse race to the finish line? I get so frustrated when our defense stinks and we can’t stop a team from scoring.
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I think it speaks to building with upperclassmen vs flipping burger boys. You know Roy had 8 McDonalds All Americans over 2018-2020, and he said his team last year was his least talented over? Lol.
For a while it worked when he had less attrition, but you can’t build a return core out of McDs any more, 3 of his 4 from last year are leaving. I think that ship permanently sailed this year. https://www.tarheeltimes.com/basketball/mcdonalds-all-americans.aspx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021–22_North_Carolina_Tar_Heels_men’s_basketball_team
I doubt K and Roy like the challenge of the brave new world of the almighty transfer portal.
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@justanotherfan said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
It’s very hard to replace a legend, whether you are inside or outside the family. Expectations are high. Margins are thin. Every word you say, every interview, every in game decision, every recruit you get (or miss), it is all evaluated against the fantasy of the previous coach. Oh, former coach wouldn’t have done that. Former coach doesn’t lose that game. Former coach closes the deal on that recruit. Former coach… on and on and on.
Anyone in this situation should, of course, consult Squeaky about whether a mock funeral for the departed coach is a good idea for enhancing his own cred…
From the Rockford paper:
Frazzled by constant comparisons of Weber to Self’s coaching, recruiting, personality and even his haberdasher, Weber stepped to the podium with a message.
"This is a funeral. I’m going to throw a funeral. It’s the end of Bill Self,’ ‘’ Weber said that night. "It’s over. There’s no more comparing. He’s gone. No more talking about it. I’ll be honest. I’m fed up with it.’’
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We really need to have laugh emojis in here. Damn… you gave me a smile that will carry me all through the weekend! Thank you!
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Thank you! I wanted to post what you posted but thought people are sick of me preaching the same old thing.
I don’t see much of a future for “revolving door” teams… like Calipari’s teams. Heck… seems to not even have the turnover like he once did but I’m not sure about that. I think his sales pitch of “I’m the guy to get you to the league” has largely worn off as players and their parents are wiser.
To me it seems like every year less skilled underclassmen are trying to jump to the league. Maybe if they start receiving more $ while in college, that will help keep some of them in school longer.
The idea that a kid dominating in HS will be an NBA-quality player after a year in college is just plain nuts, except for the very few exceptions.
This all points back to my approach of going after assistant coaches that are masters in development and looking for development players.
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Defense oriented teams are going to be less volatile because defense is something you can make work, more or less, regardless of personnel, especially in high school and to some degree college.
Defense first works best in middle school and high school because the talent level of offensive players is generally not high enough to completely upend what you are doing defensively. Even in college, most players can’t just overwhelm you with individual offensive skill. That’s why you see so many defense first coaches that are successful at the collegiate level. If you can coach defense in high school and college, you have a good baseline for a winning team.
But that introduces something most won’t admit - the majority of the winningest college coaches are poor offensive coaches. That’s why so few college coaches can succeed in the NBA. They do not have the game planning and creative chops to create something new when the defense takes away their first couple of options.
Recall Roy Williams’ last championship team. They ranked 100th in 2P FG%, 154th in 3P%, and 176th in FT%. They were an average or worse shooting team. The only reason they scored at an above average rate is because they led the country in offensive rebounding, which meant they attempted the 4th most shots in the country. They were a pedestrian offensive team that beat people on the glass and was solid defensively (mostly owing to the fact that they were also a top 25 defensive rebounding team). That is a winning formula in college.
Virginia is consistently a very efficient (but slow) offensive team that is among the top 10 in defense (usually top 5). You can do that without NBA talent, and as the talent in D1 basketball has fallen (and will continue to fall), a really good defensive team will be more consistent because there will be fewer and fewer truly dynamic offensive players in the college game.
Look around college hoops. How many truly great offensive players were there? Not many. Probably fewer than 15. And for many of those guys, they were either surrounded by below average talent, or they were coached by a below average coach.
A few months ago we were debating why Trae Young didn’t have as much of a positive effect on OU as Cade Cunningham did on OSU. One thing I did not note, that I realized as I have been watching the NBA playoffs is that Trae Young also benefits from having more talented teammates surrounding him. Having great shooters and lob catchers on the floor with him elevates his offensive game, and allows him to elevate the skills of his teammates. In college, Trae Young wasn’t surrounded by multiple deadly shooters that could space the floor. Watching him with Atlanta, it’s clear they have done a great job of getting him those types of teammates. That level of offensive talent doesn’t exist on any college team, so focusing on defense at the collegiate level makes sense.
College is also a lousy place to develop for the NBA, honestly. The teammates usually aren’t good enough. The coaching philosophy is different. About the only benefit is that you play a full season with quite a bit of structure and routine, which can be helpful if a player has never had that in their development. I think that’s why we will see the most NBA ready talent moving towards the GLeague and other development paths as things continue to progress.
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@justanotherfan said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
In college, Trae Young wasn’t surrounded by multiple deadly shooters that could space the floor.
We talked about that a lot! Including comparing Trae to the early Nate Archibald years in KC where he could have had even more assists had other players been able to catch and shoot, and more points himself if his team had significant other threats.
At OU, Trae got the rep of ball hog but the reality was that he seemed better shooting at a high rate, even if out of control, than the guys fumbling his passes or not being able to finish.
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@justanotherfan Here’s the issue with taking an approach like Virginia’s. Because of their slow pace, it leaves them very vulnerable to upsets in in the NCAA Tournament and they’ve only made it past the 1st weekend 3 times under Bennett in 11 years. His system works great in the regular season, but doesn’t lend itself to March success because their margin of error is so much smaller than other top teams.
This is also part of Self’s issues in March as well because he tends to prefer a slower tempo with fewer possessions in a game that can keep less talented opponents hanging around. Self’s more successful tournament teams tend to be the ones that played at a faster tempo and created more possessions for KU to exploit KU’s talent advantage over inferior opponents.
Top college teams going forward need to be uptempo teams that are above average defensively to exploit their talent advantages.
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@mayjay did he pass?
I must have been in the rr.🥴 I do remember dtae “D”ing him up the 2 game.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 right? Like Wilt wasn’t courted?
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@Marco said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@Texas-Hawk-10 right? Like Wilt wasn’t courted?
Different eras. I guarantee Wilt was paid to come to KU, but it wasn’t Nike or Adidas paying to funnel him to KU.
Coach K and Roy’s retirements will not see the needle move recruiting for KU because the people funneling players to Duke and UNC work for Nike and those bagmen will continue funneling players to Nike schools, which KU is not. Adidas bagmen are not going to funnel elite talent to KU again until the IARP ruling is handed down and we know what KU’s punishment will be.
The down turn in KU’s recruiting happened to begin with the 2019 class which lines up with when the accusations against KU first started popping up. Since then, only 3 top 50 players have committed to KU, and one of those players is already gone.
KU will not have a single 5 star recruit on the roster next year and that has nothing to do with Duke, UNC, or Kentucky’s recruiting. The NCAA investigation is what’s impacting KU more than anything else right now will continue to until a verdict is handed down.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
The NCAA investigation is what’s impacting KU more than anything else right now will continue to until a verdict is handed down.
Is that because top shelf talent is shying away from Kansas or is it because Self and crew finally realize it just isn’t worth it recruiting most of those “basket cases?”
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@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
The NCAA investigation is what’s impacting KU more than anything else right now will continue to until a verdict is handed down.
Is that because top shelf talent is shying away from Kansas or is it because Self and crew finally realize it just isn’t worth it recruiting most of those “basket cases?”
Top talent isn’t coming to KU right now. In the 2021 recruiting class, KU offered 15 of the top 30 players in the 247 rankings. In 2020, KU offered 16 of the top 30 players so it’s not a matter of Self no longer pursuing those kids because he definitely still is, they’re just not coming to KU right now largely because of the pending sanctions.
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To be honest… I’m glad.
I’d like someone to study our past 10 years and from all the various situations we’ve been in… how much of the trouble came from 5-star recruits, versus the rest of the pack?
Do you know?
I’m pretty sure this info right here will change some minds about landing top tier.
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Party poppers and streamers!
Time for the media darling and god to go the fuck away… And stay there.
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@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
To be honest… I’m glad.
I’d like someone to study our past 10 years and from all the various situations we’ve been in… how much of the trouble came from 5-star recruits, versus the rest of the pack?
Do you know?
I’m pretty sure this info right here will change some minds about landing top tier.
The biggest issues have come from two players, Cheick Diallo and Silvio DeSousa. Both are international players from relatively poor countries that immigrated to the U.S. and lived with guardians or essentially a foster family from their same nation.
The Billy Preston and Josh Selby situations are so common that I’m not really worried about KU going after those kids. Kids in a similar situation to Diallo and DeSousa are who I would steer clear from in recruiting.
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Yep… and now I forgot the other guy’s name… big man from Chicago. He zero’d out for us, too.
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@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
Yep… and now I forgot the other guy’s name… big man from Chicago. He zero’d out for us, too.
Cliff Alexander and he didn’t zero out for KU. He was coming on really strong at the end of his freshman season and seemed pretty intent on coming back at the time for a second season.
His situation is also why I’m not overly concerned about KU recruiting American kids who are being guided by agents and parents. We all know that his mom took money, but because she was advised on how to do so, the NCAA couldn’t prove anything because of how restricted they are when it comes to accessing financial information.
The movie Blue Chips is pretty good at showing how that process works except instead of coaches and boosters cutting deals like it was back then, it’s the runners for the apparel companies doing it now.
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@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
Yep… and now I forgot the other guy’s name… big man from Chicago. He zero’d out for us, too.
With NIL the Cliff situation would’ve been above board most likely, unless they do some weird restriction to only group licensing. And I’ll be honest that whole cycle was unbelievably dirty at the top holy crap. The Jones/Okafor/Cliff love triangle was WILD.
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@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
The NCAA investigation is what’s impacting KU more than anything else right now will continue to until a verdict is handed down.
Is that because top shelf talent is shying away from Kansas or is it because Self and crew finally realize it just isn’t worth it recruiting most of those “basket cases?”
Looking at the visit schedule this month. They are getting VERY aggressive with top talent now. KU always has great visits so given that nobody has been able to do them in 15 months, strike fast and hard.
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All of these are interesting stories. What I care about is how much did they produce for us on the court? Especially versus what they cost us in drama… taking attention away from the game itself. At least we got a return out of Jackson and Wiggins. And once they start becoming valuable to us they are gone and we start from scratch. I agree with the case that perhaps having one of these guys fill in a role we won’t have otherwise could potentially put us over the top for a NC. At least that is an argument that can be made with some clear path.
How much time is our coaching staff wasting away recruiting top tier? And when we don’t score one or two? Time might have been better spent digging deeper in the pool for a rough cut diamond with more potential and will be around longer. Or how about a 3 or 4-star guy who fits nicely and will be around longer? This is one of the classic discussions held in here and as time goes by I tend to think the recruiting of top tier talent is a bad decision.
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@FarmerJayhawk said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
Yep… and now I forgot the other guy’s name… big man from Chicago. He zero’d out for us, too.
With NIL the Cliff situation would’ve been above board most likely, unless they do some weird restriction to only group licensing. And I’ll be honest that whole cycle was unbelievably dirty at the top holy crap. The Jones/Okafor/Cliff love triangle was WILD.
You know, honest question here. I really thought that Alexander was going to be a star, and so did everyone else. And it’s not like be played against non-competition in Chicago. What, just a bad dude or what? And what happened to him?
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@Marco said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@FarmerJayhawk said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
Yep… and now I forgot the other guy’s name… big man from Chicago. He zero’d out for us, too.
With NIL the Cliff situation would’ve been above board most likely, unless they do some weird restriction to only group licensing. And I’ll be honest that whole cycle was unbelievably dirty at the top holy crap. The Jones/Okafor/Cliff love triangle was WILD.
You know, honest question here. I really thought that Alexander was going to be a star, and so did everyone else. And it’s not like be played against non-competition in Chicago. What, just a bad dude or what? And what happened to him?
Cliff came to KU as a presumed OAD player. He struggled early on, the light started to come on for him towards the end of the regular season, but his draft stock had dropped to the point where Cliff sounded like he was planning on coming back for a second season which he definitely needed. Then in late February, a newspaper reporter published a story about his mom taking a huge “loan” and KU held Cliff out at that point. The NCAA had a slam dunk case against KU, except they could never get the loan documents because of legal reasons and Cliff was basically forced to off to the pros a year before he was ready.
Had KU had Cliff for a second season, KU probably wins the title instead of Villanova because Cliff probably would’ve started at the 5 over Landed Lucas all year. It also would’ve meant KU never had to go through the Cheick Diallo drama because KU would’ve stopped recruiting Diallo had Cliff come back.
Cliff and Josh Selby are the two biggest what if’s of Self’s tenure as far as what could’ve been with teams the following season. With a second year Cliff, KU’s likely starting line up in 2015-16 would’ve been Mason, Graham, Selden, Ellis, and Alexander with a bench of Svi, Greene, Traylor, Lucas, and Bragg.
If Josh Selby had returned for 2011-2012, KU might have had enough to beat Kentucky and wouldn’t have had to take Naadir Tharpe. With a returning Selby, KU could’ve moved Tyshawn off the ball and either had Elijah Johnson or Travis Releford coming off the bench and had a second perimeter shooter because that team couldn’t shoot for shit.
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@Marco said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@FarmerJayhawk said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@drgnslayr said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
Yep… and now I forgot the other guy’s name… big man from Chicago. He zero’d out for us, too.
With NIL the Cliff situation would’ve been above board most likely, unless they do some weird restriction to only group licensing. And I’ll be honest that whole cycle was unbelievably dirty at the top holy crap. The Jones/Okafor/Cliff love triangle was WILD.
You know, honest question here. I really thought that Alexander was going to be a star, and so did everyone else. And it’s not like be played against non-competition in Chicago. What, just a bad dude or what? And what happened to him?
He played in kind of a whacky system in HS. I don’t think they ever really played man defense. It was a strict 2-3 zone and he barely left the paint. It took him a loooong time to adapt to Big 12 competition and Self’s system. Clearly the talent was there. He started the last 5 games he played. Advanced stats were good. I agree with Tex, he would’ve been very good the following year.
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@FarmerJayhawk was at the rowdy game against osu! Fun times
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@Crimsonorblue22 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@FarmerJayhawk was at the rowdy game against osu! Fun times
Same! I was in the last year of my master’s and about 4 rows behind the basket when Cliff got T’d up for the flex lol
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I’m curious… what is your position on recruiting top tier guys? In your opinion, is it worth it?
What path do you think is best for Kansas… Focus on top tier, revolving door, like a Duke/Kentucky? Focus on defense heavy teams, live UVA and one can argue Syracuse (recruiting for players fitting his zone)? Focus on offense… like a fast-pace Roy team? Focus on more well-rounded, like Nova?
How do you rate Self and the job he’s done?
I appreciate your efforts in here and respect your opinion.
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@drgnslayr Absolutely KU needs to keep going after top level talent regardless if it’s a HS kid or transfer. The talent level last year was bad by KU standards and we saw what happened when KU went against good teams away from AFH last year and it wasn’t pretty.
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Seems pretty self-defeating to decide not to go for top tier if you have a chance. “Hey, everyone! We only deserve less!”
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Did we have an All American on our last two teams that made the Final Four?
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Thomas Robinson and Devonte Graham were first team All Americans.
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Doke was a McD. I think he was the only left on either roster.
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I think Dave was a McD as well.
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@rockchalkwyo he was, but Dave wasn’t on that 2017-2018 roster.
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There’s a YouTube Channel out there called Stunted Growth. It’s an interesting look back at some failed recruits and guys that were college stars that did not make the leap to the next level. Anyway, the channel has several videos on former KU players.
Julian Wright, Wayne Selden, Kansas City’s Rush Brothers, Cliff Alexander, Josh Jackson, JR Giddens, Thomas Robinson, Sherron Collins, Billy Preston, Josh Selby, Xavier Henry, Malik Newman, Andrew Wiggins and Ben McLemore all have videos.
I find the videos interesting (the guy has tons of content on the page of lots of former hyped recruits and college stars) because the creator takes time to look at why a particular player did not succeed, be it injuries, coaching changes, off court issues, bad advice, choosing the wrong school or whatever.
It’s also interesting because this guy actually played college ball and tells his own story of how he stunted his own growth with a lack of work ethic, coaching changes, transfers, etc. that ultimately short circuited his career. I don’t always agree with him, but I enjoy the perspective.
I post it here because that list of KU top level recruits happens to reveal a very troubling pattern - it is very wing heavy. Of the 13 players I have listed there, only Robinson, Alexander, Preston, Collins and Selby were not projected as wing players at the NBA level.
So why can’t KU develop wings?
It’s not for a lack of talent. Besides the guys listed above, KU has had top 100 recruits Kelly Oubre, Svi, Elijah Johnson (although you could consider him a PG if you want), Quentin Grimes, LaGerald Vick, Andrew White III, and Brannen Greene all come to KU since Self arrived.
That’s a lot of wing talent to have come through with only Wiggins becoming an established starter in the NBA, and only Oubre, McLemore, Svi and Jackson being regular rotation players.
Why doesn’t KU (particularly under Self) develop wing talent more consistently? That’s a question we have to answer, because top recruits are asking that same question.
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@justanotherfan Grimes was a miss by the scouting industry. It was pretty clear from the jump he wasn’t a top 10 player and needed a lot of time to develop. Vick and Greene both had more than their share of mental health issues at KU. I believe they both have diagnosed issues. Injuries were a factor with Elijah, and he didn’t develop the skill to make up for it. White just wasn’t a good enough athlete.
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@justanotherfan said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
So why can’t KU develop wings?
Why doesn’t KU (particularly under Self) develop wing talent more consistently? That’s a question we have to answer, because top recruits are asking that same question.
I pretty strongly disagree with this entire premise.
Also we keep landing guys. Gradey Dick will be here in 2022 to replace NBA draftee Ochai Agbaji.
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@justanotherfan Bad take. Bill Self’s top responsibility is win games for Kansas, not develop all star NBA players. 5 of the guys listed are still on NBA rosters.
Bill Self and his staff develop players to win games for Kansas, not NBA teams.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@justanotherfan Bad take. Bill Self’s top responsibility is win games for Kansas, not develop all star NBA players. 5 of the guys listed are still on NBA rosters.
Bill Self and his staff develop players to win games for Kansas, not NBA teams.
I agree and disagree with you on that, @Texas-Hawk-10. I absolutely agree that Coach Self is at KU to win games for KU, and will say that he has done a phenomenal job of accomplishing that.
But when you are talking about recruiting, as an individual player, those guys are looking for the best place to develop for them in the long term. And on that point, the returns are not as strong.
Think of it this way - if you were weighing two different collegiate academic programs, one of which had professors that were consistently published in their field and universally acclaimed as top academic minds, and the other that consistently placed its graduates in top paying jobs, as a student, which are you choosing? Chances are, the program that has a reputation for placing graduates in good jobs because, frankly, the scholarship of your professors won’t pay your bills.
Bill Self is a great coach. But I’d argue that of that list I put up, only Vick, White, Johnson, Grimes and Greene should have legitimately missed in the NBA.
Wright was a top 10 recruit. So was Jackson. Same for Selby. And Henry. Oubre, Rush, Selden, Giddens, McLemore, and Newman were all top 25 recruits. Those are guys that should have NBA careers.
If I am advising a wing player and I see that list, I think twice about KU, not because Bill Self isn’t a good coach (he absolutely is), but because something isn’t clicking on wing development.
And here’s the thing - we have seen that, at least while Manning was here, big man development was basically automatic. Arthur, Aldrich, Kaun, Darnell Jackson, Morris Twins, TRob - I could go on. All of those guys developed into the type of player you expected, maybe even exceeded those expectations (in the case of Aldrich, Kaun and certainly Darnell Jackson, I say exceeded for sure).
So I’m not saying Self doesn’t develop guys.
We can go through PGs. RussRob, Frank Mason, Devontae, DDot, Tyshawn. Again, the list is darn good on that front.
So if bigs are developing like you would expect (maybe better), and PGs are developing like you would expect (maybe better), where’s that same development on the wing? I’d argue KU has had more wing talent than either at the point or in the paint.
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@justanotherfan said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coach K to retire after 21-22 season:
@justanotherfan Bad take. Bill Self’s top responsibility is win games for Kansas, not develop all star NBA players. 5 of the guys listed are still on NBA rosters.
Bill Self and his staff develop players to win games for Kansas, not NBA teams.
I agree and disagree with you on that, @Texas-Hawk-10. I absolutely agree that Coach Self is at KU to win games for KU, and will say that he has done a phenomenal job of accomplishing that.
But when you are talking about recruiting, as an individual player, those guys are looking for the best place to develop for them in the long term. And on that point, the returns are not as strong.
Think of it this way - if you were weighing two different collegiate academic programs, one of which had professors that were consistently published in their field and universally acclaimed as top academic minds, and the other that consistently placed its graduates in top paying jobs, as a student, which are you choosing? Chances are, the program that has a reputation for placing graduates in good jobs because, frankly, the scholarship of your professors won’t pay your bills.
Bill Self is a great coach. But I’d argue that of that list I put up, only Vick, White, Johnson, Grimes and Greene should have legitimately missed in the NBA.
Wright was a top 10 recruit. So was Jackson. Same for Selby. And Henry. Oubre, Rush, Selden, Giddens, McLemore, and Newman were all top 25 recruits. Those are guys that should have NBA careers.
If I am advising a wing player and I see that list, I think twice about KU, not because Bill Self isn’t a good coach (he absolutely is), but because something isn’t clicking on wing development.
And here’s the thing - we have seen that, at least while Manning was here, big man development was basically automatic. Arthur, Aldrich, Kaun, Darnell Jackson, Morris Twins, TRob - I could go on. All of those guys developed into the type of player you expected, maybe even exceeded those expectations (in the case of Aldrich, Kaun and certainly Darnell Jackson, I say exceeded for sure).
So I’m not saying Self doesn’t develop guys.
We can go through PGs. RussRob, Frank Mason, Devontae, DDot, Tyshawn. Again, the list is darn good on that front.
So if bigs are developing like you would expect (maybe better), and PGs are developing like you would expect (maybe better), where’s that same development on the wing? I’d argue KU has had more wing talent than either at the point or in the paint.
Here’s where I have an issue with your analysis about the development of wings. Comparing what Danny Manning did to what the wings at KU did/have done at the NBA level because only 3 of the bigs Danny worked with stuck long term in the NBA. KU has had more success getting wings to the NBA and sticking long term than Danny had with post players. There’s also not a lot of consistency in a specific program developing NBA wings that stick long term. KU was also tied for the 4th most active players in the NBA when the season tipped off so KU isn’t exactly hurting in that department.
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Are we comparing ourselves to other schools? I mean what is the criteria for saying Bill Self doesn’t develop wings?
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I want to see Self put more PGs and Cs in the league. Least worried about wings.
