Bragg Commits to KU!
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@Crimsonorblue22 " hate " seems kind of negative…:)
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Glad we got this one in the bag. Even though most of me didn’t believe it possible, a small part of me would wake me up out of a deep sleep in a panic thinking about @HighEliteMajor 's recruiting apocalypse.
I’m kind of torn on whether I’d want the rumored package deal including Brown and Ingram or not. For starters, why would two guys who play the same position (Brown & Ingram are both listed as small forwards) commit to the same school as part of some package deal? Seems odd. Also, I like our perimeter guys now, and next year we should be good there even if Oubre leaves. If he returns it could be a special group, similar to RussRob, Chalmers, Rush, & Collins (the gold standard for a perimeter rotation, IMO). And lastly, using 2 schollies on any combination of perimeter players seems unwise at this point.
However, I can envision a scenario (or combination of scenarios) wherein signing Brown & Ingram is a good move. Call it the “perimeter apocalypse”.
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Oubre leaves. Wouldn’t shock anybody if this happens, maybe the most likely domino to fall.
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Svi goes back overseas. I don’t think this is likely, but remember how smooth the guy looked early on? And now his PT has vanished. Probably just due to Self’s shrinking rotation, but just for the “apocalypse’s sake”, maybe Self has a notion that this is a real possibility, and therefore has decided against developing him further. Even if this doesn’t explain his vanishing minutes, it could still be in the cards.
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Brannen’s defense never improves. I’d like to think that by year 3 the guy would be at least a servicable defender, but even if that’s the case…is that good enough? One thing that has defined some of Self’s better teams is that excellent wing defender. If Oubre and Svi both leave and Greene is the de facto starter next year, can we think of a weaker defender at the 3 that Greene during Self’s tenure?
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Wayne never regains the explosiveness following his knee injury. So maybe Greene is a mediocre-at-best wing defender, we still have Wayne right? I like to think he has the height and skills to eventually become a lock-down defender. Well it’s possible he never recovers to the point that he can be the stopper we need against elite wings.
So given these conditions, our perimeter rotation would be Mason & Graham (very good there), Selden, & Greene. Not horrible, but given this I could see Self bringing in OAD Brown in hopes that he provides an upgrade over Greene, and stashing Ingram away for a more long-term solution.
I still think the more prudent use of schollies is to continue stockpiling bigs, with my personal preference being Zimmerman due to his height, with Diallo or Rabb being smaller but very nice consolation prizes. Now how Self convinces more bigs to come if Alexander stays and Ellis back and Bragg coming in, we’ll see.
Regarding Ellis, another musing from my own roster apocalypse scenarios: Ellis may be in line to graduate in 3 years. I don’t know if this is the case, I just know he’s very smart (high school valedictorian I believe). But if he is, he then has the option to go the Tarik Black route and transfer without having to sit out a year. Now what if Gregg Marshal tells him he’ll feature him in his offense, maybe even play him at the 3. Any coach could entice him, I just use Marshal as an example because he’d love nothing more than to stick his thumb in the eye of KU. And while it seems unlikely, I never thought I’d see Self show the door to a would-be senior until last year with Tharpe.
Anyway, yay Bragg!
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@Crimsonorblue22 Yeah I’m happy for Cole. The NBA is all about finding your niche and having the right opportunity, for the non-stars anyway. Cole seems to have found his.
My son is named Cole, so I’ve always kept the avatar as a sort of homage to him (and no he isn’t named after Aldrich. Wish that was the case, but really it’s because his mom is a narcissist. Her name is Nicole, so she named him Cole after herself. SMH).
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Good eye!
I wonder which is easier to take market share from: Nike or Under Armor?
Speaking of Adidas-saw on Espn they just signed a 7.8 million deal with Miami.
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@globaljaybird I hope Zimmerman, Brown and/or Ingram…why not? Let’s keep the roll going.
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@JayHawkFanToo Pepsi?
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@drgnslayr What’s Lyles looking at?
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@icthawkfan316 Cole is playing on TNT vs rockets, now.
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@konkeyDong He’s a whiny little bitch boy on kusports. He has been crying for months we hadn’t signed anyone.
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We already have a ShoeCo war…do we really need to start a Pepsi vs Coke war?
For the record I am more of Ice Tea drinker so no big deal to me.
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@JhawkAlum Bragg seems to have great court awareness as to where the cameras are.
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Howling!
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@JayHawkFanToo Nestea is Coke and Lipton is Pepsi, so I see no relief in your preferred beverage.
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Home brewed?
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@JayHawkFanToo LOL
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“I wonder which is easier to take market share from: Nike or Under Armor?”
UA just represents “anti-Nike”… so UA players can float into UA or Adidas without a problem.
It’s like a general election. It’s kind of like the tea party tends to vote republican. Tea party and republicans are “anti-democrat” so the flow stays between themselves.
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Helpful analogy. Thx.
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I hope you are taking some satisfaction in what you have set in motion here.
The community keeps growing little by little and finding its way.
Tip of the hat to ya.
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@icthawkfan316 We can keep this apocalypse thing alive. Of course, Bragg could always de-commit, right? I mean, there’s no LOI until May. And perhaps there are different levels of “apocalypse.”
But man, I can’t be more pleased. Heck, I dedicated an entire topic to Bragg being the “perfect recruit.” I’m a happy guy with this commitment.
I love your Ellis speculation – a little food for thought. But I see Mickelson as gone, gone, and gone (assuming he graduates after his fourth college year). I don’t see Lucas leaving. It would be pointless unless he graduates after three. He would lose a season as he burned his redshirt. Why not stay and be able to play, then do the graduate transfer thing too? Lucas won’t be a PT factor. Traylor back. So one spot opens with Mickelson.
Zimmerman would be awesome, but it seems we’re behind on him. Diallo seems like the better bet. But Traylor would still start --> I’m kidding. Kind of.
The question is, could Ellis hold his job? And that circles back to your wacko speculation that doesn’t seem so wacko. Could Self have the same conversation? A weird coincidence, but Self’s comments about Tharpe and Ellis, last year and this year, are kind of similar about their importance, and what we need from them. But I still don’t see it.
What I do see as a possibility is what we saw last night – Self preferring Traylor and Cliff. Heck, Self benched Ellis for stretches last season, in favor of Traylor. We discussed that in the off season. Could Ellis lose his starting job? Bragg, Diallo, and Cliff next season? Fun stuff.
The Svi thing does have me a little worried. I was of course the nattering nabob of negativism when he signed (worried about him displacing guys, then leaving). Now I’m completely on the guy’s bandwagon, sure that he’ll start next season. But the decrease in P.T. and the inferences that he’s homesick, cause me some concern. I had penciled him in to take Selden’s spot next season. But there’s no real way Selden turns pro now.
Lots of drama upcoming, for sure.
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just wanting to say got a nice catch today, I posted on other sites that I thought Bragg was ours to lose. 247 sports. com shows us in the lead for Malik and Brandon don’t think its happening but never know GO HAWKS
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don’t think Zimmerman will commit, think probably end up going to UNLV home town type of kid, and gut tells me Malik will end up in yep you guessed it Kentucky but I would either love Malik or Jaylen. anyone know when the late signing period is?
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Geez im really slow i guess. Finally found out where everyone went… Horrible element going on over at kusports. Had my fill. Anyways. Hello all. Super excited to get Bragg!!!
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@cragarhawk welcome!!
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Thank you. Glad to be here with those whose opinions I enjoy reading
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The Rodney meltdown has me over here as well. I have been a member here for a bit but have not utilized this site until now. Enough is enough from both the .com and the .net. Ridiculous.
Great pickup for KU to add some depth in the bigs. I agree that this may signal the end of the Mickelson era at KU. It also seems pretty apparent that Perry Ellis is only going to have success against smaller, less athletic players and that we need more size and aggressiveness to counter against bigger, stronger opponents. Not sure how Ellis ended up at this point. He really doesn’t seem to have progressed past where he was last year.
I would love to see KU pick up Zimmerman as well but I just don’t see us being ahead of either UK or UNLV. I do keep trying to remind myself that Bragg has made numerous statements fawning about the UK platoon system and still chose Kansas but Zimmerman and his mother especially seem to spend a lot of time raving about UK and Cal.
With Selden’s struggles I wouldn’t mind seeing a player like Brown or Newman sign. A guy that can flat out fill it up from outside would be a perfect complement to this team. Greene has shown signs of it but cannot keep his mind right off the court and on defense to keep him on the floor for significant minutes.
Bottom line, there seem to be several good options out there that KU is in on and has a good shot at. Looks like KU will once again be in good shape heading into next season. Now let’s see if they can muster up the aggression needed to have success this year! So far, so good all in all.
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Welcome to KUBUCKETS! Things get heated here occasionally but posters are a lot more respectful and the basketball knowldege is head and shouldesr above the other site. Enjoy it and post away
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With Carlton Bragg here maybe we can now call it Self’s boot camp at Fort Bragg.
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@HighEliteMajor, @drgnslayr and I were having a very interesting conversation about a month ago about improvement curves. The improvement curve is not continuous. This is the frustration with Ellis. He came in with so much polish and ability, many people looked at his skill level and assumed that he would continue to improve each year at a sustained rate, making him into a dominant four year player.
However, improvement curves don’t work that way. There is a ceiling for each player. Part of that has to do with where their basketball skills are. The other part has to do with athleticism.
Think about Andrew Wiggins. He’s a spectacular athlete, probably the best pure athlete to pass through college basketball in the last decade. That athleticism means that he can be (or develop into) the best defensive player in the NBA. It also means that he can be a high value offensive player. His athleticism effectively uncaps his potential.
Looking at a guy like Jabari Parker, there’s more of a limit. He’s a good athlete, no doubt, but not on the Wiggins level. He’s also much further advanced from a skill perspective. That means that he will be more consistent at this point in his career, but that Wiggins could, in three years, be the far superior player because of athleticism. Parker’s skill level is higher (right now) but Wiggins’ potential is higher because you can learn skills - you can’t learn to jump like Wiggins.
So getting back to Perry. He’s a good athlete. But watch him and compare him to Carlton Bragg. Bragg explodes off the floor. Perry doesn’t have that same level of explosiveness. Perry was much more polished as far as ball handling, shot fakes, etc., but his athleticism actually made him much more of a finished product when he entered college, as opposed to Carlton Bragg, who has quite a bit of growth that he can experience as a basketball player, and can realize that growth because of how good an athlete he is. He is an unfinished product, but a very athletic one, so his ceiling is very high.
I think that’s why I was so excited about him. If there is a guy that could vault into the top 5 of players in this class, it’s Bragg. He’s so athletic that if he just refines some parts of his game, he’s a nightmare on the floor even as a freshman.
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The other night when the live blog didn’t work at CJonline with @JesseNewell I decided to try the live update at KUSports. It wasn’t too bad, but then someone suggested Self take Perry’s scholarship and I jumped over here, started a chat that went well.
Here’s what I miss at KUSports. The articles are good and set up our lively discussions. We’ve gotten away from posting those articles here as discussion starters. Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, although I like our “articles” as well.
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It was a great 24 hrs to be a Jayhawk fan. Tuff win at Baylor, 5 star recruit signs the next day. Maybe more to come in the next few months. Self said his #1 priority was signing a Big and he got it.
I have said since the summer Bragg and Diallo would be the perfect 2 bigs for KU. Both unfinished athletic freaks who bring vastly different skill sets. We’ve got 1 and I’m still hoping that we get the other. I think its important that we get 2 because next year we have Ellis, Traylor, & Hunter all Seniors. We will need to sign at least 2 this year to have enough already in the program to get more in the next class. The 16 class has some good bigs available as well.
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I think we are hoping for Thon in '16. Keep that Canadian pipeline going for us
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@BeddieKU23 said:
It was a great 24 hrs to be a Jayhawk fan. Tuff win at Baylor, 5 star recruit signs the next day. Maybe more to come in the next few months. Self said his #1 priority was signing a Big and he got it.
I have said since the summer Bragg and Diallo would be the perfect 2 bigs for KU. Both unfinished athletic freaks who bring vastly different skill sets. We’ve got 1 and I’m still hoping that we get the other. I think its important that we get 2 because next year we have Ellis, Traylor, & Hunter all Seniors. We will need to sign at least 2 this year to have enough already in the program to get more in the next class. The 16 class has some good bigs available as well.
The other thing that is important in getting Diallo is to keep him away from Iowa State. I definitely don’t want KU to have to play AGAINST him 2-3 times next year. Iowa State will have a tough team next year with or without Diallo. I’d rather us have him instead of play him.
