I don't want to bragg, but it is Christmas time for Jayhawk basketball...
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Bill Self: “I don’t want to bragg, but this Bragg kid is unbelievable! He will make a great team mate for all you unsigned elite recruits out there!”
The final days are here, and Bill Self is running his full-court press. He is sitting on Santa’s lap and perhaps he has a long list only because he has backup gifts listed if he doesn’t get a couple of the big gifts he wants.
This is Christmas time for Jayhawk basketball. This is the time of year when suddenly we wake up one morning and Santa has come with a gift or two under the tree. It is an exciting time, especially if we’ve all been good boys and girls and Santa feels generous this year.
We all know what gifts are at the top of Bill Self’s list. What we don’t know is what gifts are at the bottom. Does he really insist we have two or three new gifts under the tree this year? Would he settle for a gift with missing parts on a one-year back-order? Or what about some of the hand-me-down gifts that are used and properly broken in?
Will this be a year where Santa comes really late, after many of the fans have proclaimed him a scrooge this year? Or a year where a big gift comes but later we find damaged and unusable either by injury or ineligibility?
Our goal is to have a better result than last year, hopefully much better. We lost two quality players to the draft. One of those players came on strong, the other didn’t make much of an impact. Otherwise, we have everyone back. We’ve added Bragg and he may end up offering us as much good as Oubre did. It won’t take too much from another player to offer what we lost in Alexander. When you consider the rest of our team gets another year of experience and manhood under their belt, we should be a better team next year. We should improve on our overall record and we should go further in March. A big factor in our results for next year will be decided now, if Santa ends up feeling generous!
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Self will be beyond fortunate to land one of the remaining blue-chip recruits. Thorne seems like more of a contingency plan, but one that I would be happy to accept if Self whiffs on Diallo & co.
IMO, the biggest factor for success in 2015-16 will be how well KU’s current players recover, rehab, and improve. We can’t expect Bragg to make a huge impact; very few freshmen big-men have under Bill Self. Hopefully, he’s able to produce similar numbers as Alexander and guard the post with some success. That, essentially, makes next year’s team the exact same as this past season’s, sans Oubre. Greene’s rehab and Svi’s improvement are obviously key. As is solid, dependable play from Traylor and Lucas.
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@drgnslayr I’m all for Christmas in April, but to me - the BIG gifts are:
Perry Ellis, SR.
Jamari Traylor, SR.
Wayne Selden, JR.
Frank Mason, JR.
Landon Lucas, JR.
Devonte Graham, SO.
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, SO.
*** Brannen Greene, JR
^^^ That practically makes me giddy !
Any other acquisitions are just friendly elves.
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@nuleafjhawk This is a first for me - replying to myself…
I didn’t mean to scorn Brannen Greene - I just didn’t know what his physical status would be, but after two minutes of thinking about it - I HAVE to put his name up there as well.
Brannen Greene, JR.
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You’re right, could be a nice mix of experience and a few, hopefully a few more newbies.
The only problem with our returnees is there’s no reliable inside presence there. Maybe Lucas will develop big time with the increased role that he is going to see. I’d like to think so. He showed some flashes when he had to start filling in for Cliff.
Should we find someone else that will contribute immediately among the players we’re still recruiting, well, we could be looking at a special season.
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Ah, yes, Christmas! And leering around the side of the lighted tree, The Grinch…John C. Grinch!
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John C? The Greasy Grinch that Grimed Christmas?
