Unexpected KU Precedents Continue Against Kent State
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@jaybate-1.0 said:
But I was just using an old slang from the movies of the 1940s-1950s for fun
Wanted to profess vocabulary ignorance in a post I made above where I referenced you - I was looking for a fun word to go with prolific and went with “pontificate” thinking that it just meant something along the lines of preaching the gospel. I didn’t realize it also negative connotations, surely not meant that way, I enjoy your posts!
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@Crimsonorblue22 Yah, normally it does. Mason drives and kicks it out to the open wing for the trey. But, they arent doing that enough. At least that seems to be the general consensus on here. One I agree with.
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@VailHawk Thanks for sharing that Vail. I’ve never seen fireworks over a Mountain before.
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Greene. I read a number of posts about him above. Most of which refer to him leaving after this year. I doubt this. I think he is still a sophomore and will be a huge part of our team his junior and senior years. The guy is a 6’8 pure scorer. Just needs to figure out how to play defense and stay out of Self’s doghouse. I think us KU fans are a bit too quick to say “this guy is gone next year” as it has happened a couple of times recently with AW3 and CF. Both of those guys had similar strengths to Greene in that they are 3 point shooters. I feel there is more the Greene than just 3’s though. He can score in other ways and is obviously money from the FT line. His family has Kansas ties (not that this stopped CF) and I just feel he is still a year away from making it all come together. Remember when juniors and seniors were the guys getting time while freshman and sophomores had to sit and watch and learn? It was not that long ago. Releford, T Rob, Darnell Jackson, etc, etc, etc. Some guys just need a bit of time to figure it all out. Obviously I am in the minority but I still see Greene being a KU Jayhawk for 2 more years.
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The issue with Green is that he is one the more one-dimensional player I have seen in a long time. He can hit threes, when he is in the groove and can hit FT all the time; however, his defense and passing, or lack thereof, are a big concern. The question boils down to…does his shooting offsets his liabilities? At this time I would have to say than other than playing as a “designated shooter” on specific situations, his playing time will likely not increase, particularly with Oubre’s recent play.
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Greene is still his own worst nightmare. He helped us win at georgetown, and has hit numerous shots when needed. Then you have basically every other game and what do you get? His defense is his biggest liability and he’s playin 13 minutes a game because of it. Are the concerns valid that he might not be here next year, yes because we’ve seen recently that KU can’t go one year without some crazy off-season attrition. Would it be in his best interest, no he should continue to work hard because his jumper is NBA worthy.
Selden as I’ve said is seriously in a slump. He’s been in it basically his whole time here. His defense can be very good and his understanding of how Self wants things done is basically what keeps him on the court. If graham was available I bet we would see way more Mason and him on the court at the same time. Selden has to hit buckets, I’m tired of saying it but he doesn’t deserve 30 minutes a game if he can’t start making shots. Svi and Greene dont impact the game consistently enough yet to get minutes over wayne. These are the cards we are dealt. The only hope is that Oubre really takes over a big chunk of the scoring and we can live with the inconsistent offense from Selden. Hoping this slump he’s in is going to suddenly go away isn’t likely. I’ll eat all the crow if it was proven untrue.
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Thx for taking a minute to clarify.
The beauty of this medium is we get to make those clarifications.
I hope that our community over time will become more and comfortable with adding, subtracting, and correcting and apologizing, along with all the good cheering and moral support we lend each other. Extending these sorts of curtesies greatly increase ones joy at participating.
Rock Chalk!
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@JayHawkFanToo think we can add practices and wts in there too. We don’t know! I think he’ll get chances, if he’s going all out at practice. I heard he was smart, he sure does some bone-headed things! I swear I could play better D than him! Kinda funny!
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@globaljaybird
Oh, yeah, those were very good and the Uptown really was uptown once upon a time.
Back to flicks, its very personal what moves one and resonates with one. Up until the last two years, Randolph Scott was not my cup of tea. But then I found the Budd Boetticher westerns the he directed for Scott that were written by Burt Kennedy and it was like a light went on that I had been missing something very, very, very important in the westerns. I don’t know how, or why, it happened. I had looked at Boetticher and Kennedy’s work long ago, when I was trying to learn about screen writing, and though I appreciated their craft, their westerns did not thrill me at all.
But then two years ago, they did. AND IN A BIG WAY.
I believe what changed was my getting older and getting a bit disillusioned with the kind of movies made today, where heroes are so compromised. The themes of these westerns relit my love for movies and I watched and studied all six three times each and they have rekindled my love for movies generally.
Decision at Sundown (1957)
The Tall T (1957)
Buchanan Rides Alone (1958)
Ride Lonesome (1959) – also producer
Westbound (1959)
Comanche Station (1960)
I really think these six westerns rank as important contributions to our culture’s art of the 20th Century–they do for me.
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Brannen seems to some extent a casualty of the OAD approach to team building.
Brannen seems likely to be like EJ and Travis. His neural nets are probably a little slow reaching full maturity. This is a crucial dynamic affecting the rate at which all players in this age range arrive as players. No amount of PT, or “development work,” can compensate for neural nets not being fully grown in. If the net is not their, no matter how many reps one gets, there is nothing to burn in. Brannen seems to be doing lots of good things. But he also seems to be doing some bone head things. That is an indicator of incompletely developed neural nets.
Under the pre OAD approach, guys like Brannen could sit a couple seasons, sometimes even three with a redshirt, as Travis Releford did, and then we would watch them metamorphose suddenly between their third season and their fourth and fifth seasons. By the fourth season, with the neural nets fully grown in, all the wildness and unpredictability is gone. By the fifth season, they have polished all of the skills that take a year to work on, once you have the neural nets sufficient to burn in with a year of reps. It lead to incredibly competent players that you could count on game after game for a season or two.
But now, especially at the wing position that Brannen plays, Self drags in 1-2 OAD wings each season. And they have to play. And so whether Brannen ever gets a shot or not, will depend entirely on whether Self cannot sign 1-2 OADs each season.
Even if Brannen were to stay for a 4th season, or redshirt, for a fifth season, it would be very easy for Self to bring in an OAD and have to play him, regardless of how polished Brannen eventually became.
OADs HAVE TO PLAY, WHETHER THEY ARE READY OR NOT, OR THE OAD SPIGOT GETS VALVED TO OTHER PROGRAMS THAT WILL PLAY THEM READY OR NOT.
This apparent truth probably underlies why Self no longer throws rouge smoking jackets to guys at high traffic positions, like 2, 3, and 4.
By high traffic, I mean positions where he can realistically expect to drag in 1-2 OADs each season.
Why give a guy a red shirt and develop him, if you are going to have to play OADs ready or not?
As a result of having to play OADs, you really can’t afford to carry Red Shirts. You need all of your scholarship players contributing during the steep learning curve of the OADs you have to play. You have to have guys playing the 3 while Oubre is getting ready to, and then you have to sit them the rest of the season, for Oubre to play. You cannot afford guys on red shirt getting better. You need what little experience they have at the beginning of every season and then you have to shaft them with benching, because then you have to play the OAD/TAD.
Tie goes to the OAD.
Self made clear Brannen’s next best shot. Its is to come in and push TAD Wayne Selden for minutes. But notice that Self said we’ve got to get Wayne a little more productive by Svi and Brannen pushing him. Oubre is now our 3, unless he blows it.
Brannen is not competing for a starting 2 role. Brannen is being offered the chance to push Wayne to the point that Wayne plays well enough to keep Brannen off the floor permanently, too.
Brannen appears to be a smart young man. He appears to understand what is being done to him. Conner Frankamp understood the same thing. Conner and his dad just decided that that was not the best thing for Conner’s mental health and for his basketball playing future to fulfill that role for Self–to be a “pusher” of OAD/TADs with no chance to ever start consistently. That, I believe, was what Conner meant when he said he loved it at KU, but they just have so many guys here. That was code for Self has committed to basing the program on OADs and if one is not an OAD, then there is no other role on the team, if one is behind an OAD, and Self made clear that Conner was NOT a point guard, but a 2 guard, and so Conner would always have been a “pusher” for some OAD/TAD at the 2.
Brannen is in the position of being a “pusher” now. It is a thankless role for a scholarship player once highly recruited. Self is basically indicating he can be a “pusher” at the 3, or 2, as long as he stays at KU.
Brannen will play some.
But it will tend to be when he can “push” an OAD/TAD.
Frankly, if I had been Brannen’s advisor, I would have told him to transfer to WSU along with Conner. At WSU Brannen would get to compete straight up for a real starting position, same as Conner. He might not beat out his competition, but he might.
The fact is at KU, Brannen will never beat out an OAD/TAD for any position ever…even when the neural nets are grown in.
His only chance, Conner’s only chance at KU, too in the OAD era, would be for Self to fail to sign an OAD/TAD for him to “push.”
The collateral damage, as the Pentagon likes to call it, of the OAD/TAD phenomenon is brutal to other players.
Good as Frank Mason is, if Self brought in an OAD point guard, Frank would have to “push” next season, as surely as Brannen has to “push” this season.
And if Self brought in two OAD point guards next season, Frank Mason, good as he is, would be reduced to “pushing” two.
In either case, it would look like Frank were playing early, but what he would really be doing was buying time for the OADs to be ready.
Sad.
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@jaybate-1.0 pardon me, my neural net is still developing!! This year the OAD’s have not been starting. BG had a chance, he earned it and then he blew it off. If he was still scoring 17 pts, he’d be playing. Of course he needs to get to weights and play D. I get your point, but the best guy plays. If BG played like he did in his 17 pt game, he might be a TAD?? As far as CF goes, he defense was horrible and he couldn’t hit anything til the end. I’m w/Self about defense. Neural net is flaking out!
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@jaybate-1.0 In your reply to rehawk about all that is good I’m surprised you failed to mention your new traveling drawers you discovered this year.
And re old movies, my wife would be happy if the only channel we got was Turner Classic Movies. Last year for my birthday she treated me to the Christmas show and dinner at the WWII museum in New Orleans. (If you haven’t been you should put it on your bucket list.) But the dining area had posters of many actors and actresses from that era. She knew who all of them were.
And thanks to my new TIVO Roamio it’s saving every old western it finds for me to watch. At the rate its going I may never catch up.
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@brooksmd if you lived in ks you might have all winter to catch up. Crappy weather coming, good time to stay in and watch movies
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@Crimsonorblue22 That’s one reason I don’t live there anymore. Well that and my wife. lol Trying to get my sisters to move down here.
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If you are 23, or less, you are not thinking with a fully developed brain. There are gaps that no amount of reps will burn in. A partially developed brain may be able to do some things and not others. It varies person to person in terms of limitations. The implications of this are huge through out society, not just basketball in the OAD era. It will take our culture 50 years to even begin to deal with it meaningfully. Probably some Eurasian country will do so first. But the neuroscience is in on brain development. It is empirically verified. You may be a year ahead, or a year behind, but 23 is it.
Next, there are five classes of players in D1 now:
a.) OAD/TADs;
b.) pushers that will leave;
c.) pushers that will stay;
d.) OAFs; and
f.) walk-ons
Travis Releford was lucky he came before Self’s decision to cornerstone on OAD/TADs. It is probable that he would not have ever become more than a pusher. Self would have been through 4-5 OAD/TADs on the wings by his fourth season, when he was finally ready to play. And he would have faced an OAD/TAD his fourth and fifth seasons he would have had to be a pusher for. He would never have gotten the corner stone role his fourth, or fifth seasons to become the player he became under the old system. He would have been too busy pushing, at whatever positions on the perimeter that Self had an OAD that needed pushing.
Self had room for two pushers to committee at PG, because Self has not been able to land any OAD/TAD point guards, and his last pusher cum interim starter, Naadir Tharpe selfie-destructed. Frank and Devonte got those roles, until Self can get into the gravy train on OAD/TADs at point. That meant Conner, whom you are forgetting Self said would be starting some this season and play 20 mpg, apparently as a pusher at the 2, became the designated pusher at 2, and didn’t want to be that. It was good for Brannen and Svi that CF left, or they would have only seen duty pushing Oubre at 3. Right now, we would be hearing Self say Conner needed to push Wayne, because Wayne was not quite as productive as he needed to be.
What I am talking about is very unpleasant and yet it appears to be how it is.
Good young players that used to develop into some of our favorite full time Jayhawks have no place in the new system. They would just be pushers, never cornerstone starters.
Yes, there will be exceptions, like Mason right now, when Self has OAD recruiting blackouts at certain positions, as exists at PG this season, but very shortly most of the recruiting blackouts will be a thing of the past.
Self will get KU up to the 5 OAD/TAD standard very soon, or Self will move on for someone who can. Self does not have to swim against the current forever. He has the FU money. He has professional options. If Self and the powers that be in Big Shoes cannot come to a similar meeting of minds that Cal, K, Miller, and Donovan have, i.e., on Self getting his fair share of PetroShoeCo OAD/TAD, I believe that will be the end of Self at KU. That may even be what Big Shoe wants. Same with Rick Pitino, though Rick is probably near enough the end of the line he might ride it out.
We live in the age of the OAD/TAD pusher. And they’ve got to be able to push from year two on, or they are destined to transfer to places like WSU.
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I’m slipping. Travel drawers still rock. Another thing that rocks is a really cheap Aeron imitation being sold at Costco for a couple hundred bucks. I have tried everything in chairs over the years, from the ridiculously expensive to the cheapies and frankly have never really been happy. I came close for awhile with an old Grahl split back back in the late 1980s but it got too spendy for what it gave to replace it. Aaron’s started out too spendy, and they were better in conception than in actual use. But like I say, this cheap from Costco that my wife got me is really good. She bought me a spendie one before XMAS and I sent that one straight back.
One more thing I got this year that I love is a forge de Lagiole folding pocket knife. I have always been a devoted Buck 110 guy (just love the American scale, feel and function and would pay five times what they ask), but I finally decided I wanted a really slim folder for traveling. Benchmade makes great knives I have tried, but these survivalist folding knives with blades so sharp they cut diamonds have never been for me. This Lagiole is sharp and a bit hard to get used to the first few times you use it, because the handle is so thin. And it looks like something you might find on Pierre in a French whore house. But the thing really carries easy and comes out of the pocket smooth, and happily rides in lightweight travel pants without making a bulge in your pants like you’re too glad to see someone. Nice knife.
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@jaybate-1.0 maybe you should try one that will give you the bulge, like you are happy to see someone!
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Don’t need that.
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@jaybate-1.0 where do you put Svi?
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Self said it: his purpose, along with Brannen, from here on out is to push Selden.
Assuming he can ever establish his trey ball, I would most like to see him at 2.
But since it looks like Selden will be a 3-4AD, I’m not sure what will become of Svi.
A lot depends on why Svi can’t defend ball screens.
I am hoping he has been injured.
If he has been healthy, then his future at KU is probably as a pusher.
I cannot believe I am saying that, because I was enormously high on him early.
But I so far have not seen him play as if he were able to do much more than push and OAD.
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@jaybate-1.0 another question, still haven’t answered my ISU 3 pt shooting one. So if these brains are hit, concussions before 23, do you think they have a better chance to recover?
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Guess I missed your Q. Come again.
Haven’t seen research on early versus late brain injury. But brain injury is the gift that keeps on giving. Get it. You’ve got it for life.
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@jaybate-1.0 it was where you were talking about shooting 71 3’s. I asked if you knew how many ISU had shot these last 3 years.
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If this oad takeover is going to happen in full force then self will have to dumb down his system and completely change the complexity of it to make it easier for kids to come in and succeed. Do you think it would have taken Oubre this long to get a starting spot and look like a top 10 pick if he was on kentucky? I don’t think it would have, I think he would have been playing better already if it wasn’t for the demands that self puts on young players to learn so much in a short period.
Even cliff hasn’t exactly gotten comfortable yet and a lot of it has to do with the system self runs. If he wanted 4-5 year players that era has left this program because we have seen countless kids who could have benefited by sticking it out or getting a red shirt year. But that’s not how Coach is doing it anymore, he’s over recruiting at positions and repeating.
Right now we are recruiting the best that is out there. Ellis is a 4 year player, cliff is really a PF being asked to play the 5. If we get some combo of Bragg, Zimmerman, Diallo, Rabb, maybe Maker why would cliff stay even tho his stock has dropped considerably so far. He’s stuck behind a good but not great player who he has considerable advantages over in certain areas but would likely never beat Ellis out. Say 2 elite bigs sign and all of a sudden we have 6-7 bigs on the team and no system to maximize it.
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Studies are suggesting that early concussions (particularly those before the age of 16) are most dangerous. Some doctors suggest that if a high school student has a concussion, they should sit out an entire year (12 full months, not a season) to recover properly.
There have been some studies, though not large enough to be scientifically verified, suggesting that trauma before the age of 13 can be absolutely devastating, as the brain may be damaged to the point of non-development in certain areas. There is a possibility that early brain trauma may cause permanent, irreversible damage to the brain.
After the age of 18, the dangers begin to lessen because the brain is much more developed and brain mapping demonstrates that certain functions in the brain can or will re-route if damage occurs. With younger brains, the initial routes haven’t been fully established, so this re-routing may not be occurring.
As I have stated in other places, I had a concussion when I was in high school (about 2 weeks before my 18th birthday, for what it’s worth), so I have spent quite a bit of time researching and following concussion studies and the long term consequences. I got through college and graduate school just fine, so I think I am okay, but I do worry that my own brain has a ticking timebomb buried inside it that may just go off one day. As a result, I spend quite a bit of time doing logic puzzles, crosswords, sudoku and other brain games to see if I can stave off potential problems. I guess you could say I am trying to build some new roads for myself just in case.
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I totally agree with your post, and am also a victim of early concussions. My first two concussions happened at age 12, my first year of tackle football. In my first concussion I was knocked unconscious.
I suffer extreme cases of memory loss. Things come and go, and I am capable of temporarily misplacing vital memory, like the loss of family members’ names. This has been debilitating and frustrating.
I believe sports like football, before kids are mature enough, is just too risky.
Just my humble opinion.
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Your take is one of the most insightful yet on the problems of this conversion. It will take a couple more years to work through.
But we board rats need to remember two advantages Self’s system still offers, even though Big Shoe seems to drive the OAD bus.
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Self’s sets and actions off them are reportedly closer to what the NBA runs than the dribble drive. And the high-low was created to be learned quickly for the 1964 Olympics. Contrary to popular opinion it scales to simplicity quite easily.
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The pros like guys that already know how to guard. So KU guys are marketable if they are even bubble talents like Cole Aldrich.
This apparently gets us an Oubre with a Dad who doesn’t want his son babied, who is willing to make the choice on more than Big Shoe.
But bottom line Big Shoe appears to drive the OAD bus, or perhaps some Big Agency -Big Shoe complex that is still under the public discourse radar.
(Note: I believe nothing illegal is going on. I view this rather as some kind of duopoly strategy and tactics playing out.)
And Rick Pitino contracted with adidas has spoken publicly about Recruiting asymmetries related to Big Shoe.
And Knight has reputedly indicated Cal is not doing it the right way.
And Self is the winningest coach the last 5 years and has a ring and short time Sean Miller at UA gets more OADS than Self and Pitino? Hmmmm.
And one poster indicated some of the summer game folks in the state of kansas reputedly don’t like Self; that I found intriguing (Note: any better than the summer game guys in the Big Apple reputedly liked Roberts? Hmmmmm.)
Self did not ask for this apparently unlevel playing field. But he did sign with adidas. And so did KU. The moment they did they probably should have expected unforeseen consequences in an apparently conflicted duopoly. KU and Self and UL and Pitino took the money and allied with the duopolist with the smaller market share. Now they are trying to make the best of it.
The unforeseen consequences seem to track into the issues you raise.
OAD/TAD increasingly seems its own market segmentation triggered by an institution. Each market segmentation is driven by its own dynamics and interests and practices cost shifting on lesser market segments.
In some ways this is not fundamentally different than the segmentation between scholarship players and walkon’s. But it benefits so few and cost shifts onto so many!!
The situation is, as the saying goes, fluid.
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Self is a great coach, I believe his demands for players to learn both sides of the ball and grasp a team game is becoming a lost art. He just didn’t hand Oubre a starting spot like most schools would. Kelly was humbled and now is reaping rewards of Self placing him at a higher standard.
That can be a slippery slope. A lot of headlines were made and a lot of media, high schooler’s probably noticed that Kelly wasn’t getting the PT early. Some kids could see that negatively. Some could thrive on the idea that a coach is going to push me no matter who I am. You just never know what drive these kids have until you coach them.
When I say the system has to change I mean it has to change from Late Night on. UK gets Drake. Drake is a big deal to kids, you get him at your late night your doing big. What have we done lately? The same ol thing we been doing. Trends change, times change sometimes yearly. Trends of package deals are becoming more and more talked about. Ingram, Bragg, Brown, Zimmerman have all talked about going to the same school. That school could be KU, but what are the chances all 4 think KU has the most market appeal over going to Lexington. Nobody in their right mind could honestly believe that. We are a top 3 school, the elite, the tradition, the winning, the NBA players galore. Recruits know they can get to the league no matter where they go. There on mock drafts before they are 16 in some cases.
I don’t think Self should ever change his stance on defense, he’s a great defensive coach and the numbers back that up. Consistently good defense will always lead to productive years and we’ve had that with him.
On Offense I really think he should switch it up. We are still running plays we were running 7-8 years ago. He knew this off-season that this team was going to be his smallest in years but yet the philosophy of banging it inside is still the same. Our PG has improved tremendously, our SG has regressed so far, our leading scorer still has his inconsistencies. We have 3 guys (Oubre, Greene, Svi) who can shoot the heck out of the ball from 3 ball yet only 1 of them see’s the floor at a time. I understand its because of the defensive liabilities putting all 3 out their might create but offensively putting Mason, with those 3 and Ellis/Cliff would be really interesting to see. Give everyone the green light and see what happens. The game has to get easier for KU, more and more teams have gone a more open style because the game has changed. 3 points is more than 2, more shooters creates more match-ups.
I could keep going but I know Self does things his way and not how fans might see it. We win more than we lose, we’ve had an incredible conference streak not seen in a power conference in decades, and we have the elite status that is hard to get and keep. So life should be good right? Let’s hope this team can prove a lot of our doubts wrong.
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I like your take on Late Night.
The trouble is this: is there anyone around the program cool enough to take the next step.
The students have been cut out of the loop.
The life blood of the myth of college basketball is the students enthusiams for it, and the adults feeding off that enthusiasm to support its management and underwriting, and toleration and trust of taking the next step. Cut the students off as well springs of the next step, or eliminate the adults confidence in it being taken, and you will just get MORE deadening commercial updating by PR planners, vetted through university counsel.
As I can recall the birth of Late Night, and its evolution, I agree the teeth of timeliness and relevance have gone out of it.
Regarding Oubre, I no longer think Self was bringing him along slow at all. I believe he had a simple knee injury and he couldn’t play worth a hoot on it. And so Self and Oubre and his advisors, who have to think about making hay at the end of the season, probably had to deliberate and come up with an approach to the injury that did the least harm to his earning potential at the end of the season. Maybe I am wrong, but guys with his incredible talent don’t go from looking like he did to how he has because they get comfortable. That’s just implausible, if you’ve played the game. Wilt Chamberlain could play the game the minute he arrived. Andrew Wiggins could play the game the minute he arrived. These mega talents can play the game from the git go; that’s the whole point of the OAD thing. Oubre could easily be playing in the NBA right now without an injury. He is making a pit stop at D1 to help D1, and to give him a little transition into adulthood.
In all probability the reason Alexander’s progress has been been start and stop is lesser injuries, too. He’s too good not to come in an beat out Landen Lucas for Chrissakes. This is never about Self holding guys back. He didn’t hold Xavier back, or Josh, back even a little.
Regarding Self and his approach, IMHO, there is nothing wrong with it that a contract with Nike would not cure. He would be wiping up with the same shoe contract as Cal. Period. What Pitino, Self and adidas have to figure out is how to more effectively distribute the talent that leans to adidas already. It is being spread too thinly between too many adidas programs. They either have to get more talent in the adidas lean category, or they have to reduce the number of schools that get the adidas leans.
And it won’t work to go out and bid talent away from Nike IMHO.
Someone has to start a new summer league, which someone is probably already starting to do.
One suggestion I have is to internalize basketball academies from an off campus phenomenon into an on campus one–to embed high school basketball academy programs into the elite university programs themselves, the way high school programs are already being embedded into junior colleges for special students with special needs.
KU and adidas, or whomever KU decided to ally with, need to beat the existing system to the punch and grab the talent before it gets to public high school. Get them into the college campus in 9th grade, shape high school curriculum on campus to accelerate the grooming of these guys socially, academically and athletically in the embedded programs for an eventual seamless transition to a year, or two, or three, or four of college ball. Play year round ball. Take over the summer game and academies. Put it back in an academic setting on the university where the guys will matriculate and play. It will cost some money, but money seems never be an impediment to this stuff.
(Note: all opining and speculating. No insider knowledge of how things actually work.)
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The key to making late night take the next step is to incorporate the things the students like with the traditions.
Kansas is special because of the tradition. It gives AFH it’s mystique and makes it special. Students and players appreciate that. But the history doesn’t make it cool. The history just makes it special.
You have to be both cool and special to come out on top these days. Special is history and mystique. Cool is hip, current, and modern.
We need to make the program hip, current and modern. I like the gray uniforms because it is something different. Maybe for late night KU wears special “late night only” jerseys rather than just the regular practice digs. The skits are fun for the players and students, but adding a special guest would be awesome to make things really pop.
When people think of Kansas, they think of a flat state in the middle of nowhere. That doesn’t attract recruits. When they think Kansas basketball, they think of the history and tradition and winning. That attracts recruits, but only so much. We have to add the cool element to really succeed.
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You are right about the perception of KU and its geographic limitations. Self often points out that KU is always recruting on other peoples turfs because the in-state talent is usually sub-par. I thought Conner would pan out, Ellis will have a good career before he’s gone. He’s got a chance for top 10 scorer in history. But that talent isn’t every year so that’s why Self has used tuff non-conference schedules to attract talent all over the country.
@jaybate 1.0
Not sure we have a single commodity that will take it to the next step. What about bringing Paul Pierce in, let him play in the scrimmage with the kids. Bring Andrew Wiggins in, or the Morris Twins. Or assembling the 08 team for a celebration. Those are what I got off the top of my head. I know Aaron Rodgers likes to go to games, plenty of actors make their way too.
I do wish we had Nike back. Just from a fan’s perspective buying KU gear I always thought the Nike gear was so much better than what we have now.
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I always like to take what I am given, so let’s work with special and cool.
Defining special is ideal market research task. Market research is great at defining what is perceived as special about any brand, or activity.
Defining cool is where it gets sticky. The kids decide what is cool. They know what is cool and what is cool is what is unique and different about their current generation, or two, from the previous ones. Each generation defines itself negatively as NOT what its parent’s generation was about, but that is never something to build on. It is when they define themselves positively about what they embrace and the way they embrace it. College basketball is in real trouble on this count, because it has turned its back on the kids for the money of the adults. Fewer seats for kids in worse locations. Frankly, its turned its back on media, too. It feeds the media talking points and all it wants is to control the message that gets out. That reduction of media to a house organ is a big chunk of why coverage of college basketball has turned geriatric and stale. We could put all ESPN broadcasters in the same cryogenic tank Self keeps Hunter Mickelson and the only one anyone would even notice was missing was Jay Bilas, because Bilas is the only one actually thinking and talking about stuff other than the talking points.
The arena experience is hugely tilted to the adults now too. Adults are a dead end in defining what is cool. If I am a recruit walking into AFH, it and the people look increasingly like a fundamentalist church on steroids and an energy drink. There are also always the cliche six guys with the letters of Kansas on their bare chests with their faces painted blue. The last original, slightly visually edgy thing I saw in the field house was the kids holding up the Curry mural of John Brown. It spoke on several levels in the way only a new generation can think differently enough to do authentically.
In order to save KU basketball as a living myth, they are going to have to move the kids back into the center and let them off the leash again, otherwise we are talking pro crowds with the sound system amped up a little higher.
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It appears that KU and most of the other elite BB programs have a big problem based upon the last couple of posts. I don’t disagree that screwing students in terms of the # of seats or location is bad. The problem is that all of the major programs have become very expensive and with the exception of big 10 teams BB also carries those programs. UNC, Duke, Kansas and UK are pretty much in the same football pickle. A good team every now and then but nothing to hang your hat on over the long run. Where does the money come from. Well in Kansas it does not come from the state. Here and in most places it comes from Williams fund members and their counterparts at other schools.
Not only does the big money come from athletic team supporters but from a small percentage of them who can afford to drop a mil or so here and there. I find it hard to believe that many of those people are “with it” or “cool”.
It has not escaped my attention that most of the posters here (including myself) do not like the ugly uniforms dumped on us by Addidas. I’m sure that our tastes in unis are not that far from that of the big donors. Although the recruits may like dayglo colors I don’t think that the people who build new dorms, new practice facilities and pay a pretty penny for coaches do.
Now we could do away with the expensive things but then the kids wouldn’t like that either. I do not think that things are as bad as many here seem to think. Supposedly we need to do a bunch of things including installing a new offensive package to recruit 5-8 OADs. In reality there are not nearly enough kids with the needed skills to stock more than 3 to 4 schools at the max.
Chicken little was NOT right. The sky is not falling. Part of the problem is that as a group we are too close to the situation. We know almost too much about the weaknesses of this SF or that PF or PG. I feel extremely confident that the real board rats at other schools think that their guy sucks at this or that and how can we possibly beat KU. Imagine how the fans of Baylor, Mizery, or KSU must feel. They generally do not beat us and we do beat them.
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There are a few mega donors that wag the dog for sure. And there is concern about what kind of wider influence through out the $1Billion annual university budget and state legislature such mega donors seek to acquire through the back door of the athletic department.
But there is another big dog on the block now to stay: Big Shoe.
adidas cut a $45 million deal with UL.
Nike and adidas are reputedly waaaaaaaay into schools through contracts with the school and the coach. And the UL deal looks like the elevator is going up.
Big TV + Big Shoe + Big Donor = College Sports, Inc.
Throw in the 800 lb gorilla of Big Gaming operating in the back ground reputedly laundering money for Big Intell and Big Narco and you’ve got a really hunky dory basketball culture.
The sky ain’t fallin’.
The money is risin’!
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@jaybate-1.0 Maybe one movie flippin’ too many you watched was “Conspiracy Theory”… & then again maybe not…Either or, waaaay too much for this old geezer to put on my worry list. SZ & BS have what they have (major unlimited monetary spondeulix) & us peons are left to forage & squander for the bread crumbs that fall by the wayside. So RCJH & all the “Fandom” that goes with it & just ride the wave as long as we can !! Basically the rah, rah bullshit is that we really do have, & value is added as it is… Without TWC in the future, mine & many other’s time is certainly, finitely limited. Plus on top of that, I’m beginning to loose a little interest after the lockout. Just my opinion.
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@globaljaybird
Ok, I promise. No more lifting the curtain on the Wizards. Just rah-rah.
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@sfbahawk I wish I could upvote your post 1,000 times.
