The Designer likes Bragg
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He agreed with those who have compared newcomer Bragg, 6-9 from Cleveland, to Ellis.
“Definitely. He is a real skilled player, strong, pretty quick, quick on his feet also,” Ellis said. “I definitely see some similarities. He is learning real fast. He’s starting to get more comfortable. I can see it as time’s going on. I’m excited to see what he does.”
You know with all the talk about comparing Diallo to Jo Jo, some of us KU fans just wrote off Bragg. A diamond in the rough? Or is this kid hungry and is going to stake his claim? I know, I know every KU recruit needs at least 3 years to be good (just appeasing KU nation). Yet we see kids all over college basketball do wonders in their first year of College ball. Why not at KU?
What I love best about Bragg is he doesn’t have to be the man. It seems Lucas is making big strides, and Diallo is going to be nasty (yes I’m calling it). Not to mention the great Ellis.
OH yea Bragg is going to see minutes. Yea it’ll be off the bench, but he’s going to see minutes.
Does it make me a bad KU fan if I hope he’s not too good? As I would like him to come back for at least a second year.
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@DoubleDD I am Just happy we have 3 McDonalds all Americans in our front court with quality/experienced depth! Our guard situation is solid so no matter how the season shakes out KU will likely be a 1 seed going into the tournament. Lets hope everyone stays healthy and cross our fingers for at least a final four run! The End
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I know I sound like Mary Poppins right now, but I love this team this year. Is it the best team ever? Hell no. Yet with UK and Duke in a totally rebuild mode. UNC wandering will they play in the tournament or not. KU has a perfect storm. With the down year of the elite, WUG games, a solid returning team, and a solid recruiting class has me singing a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
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@DoubleDD The WUG is going to help so much! Getting in a solid month of reps plus ALL of the practices we normally get leading up to the start of the season is a HUGE blessing and should have our newcomers up to speed well before conference play! Throw in a few set plays HCBS is dreaming up in preparation for the 24 second shot clock should be useful too! I cant wait for the season to start!
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@DoubleDD If I paid you a fair amount, would you please retract the “perfect storm” statement? We suck as a “PS” team. We are pretty good at coming in under the radar though.
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I’d argue that 2008 was a perfect storm team. A perfect storm of experience with everyone returning from an E8 team except Julian Wright.
Wright’s departure creating the perfect rotation for Self - three primary bigs (Arthur, Jackson, Kaun), four primary perimeter players (Chalmers, Rush, Robinson, Collins) and two extra bench guys that could slot in if necessary (Stewart on the perimeter, Aldrich in the post).
If Wright stays, it’s likely that Aldrich doesn’t play much (if at all) and he probably doesn’t have that incredible half against UNC. If Rush doesn’t get injured, he’s gone, which means that KU team is playing Rodrick Stewart or Tyrel Reed as the fourth perimeter guy instead of lottery pick Brandon Rush.
Everything had to happen perfectly. The NCAA tournament was a perfect storm, too. KU didn’t face a seed higher than 8 until the Final Four as Davidson took out #2 Georgetown (a team that had Roy Hibbert and could outsize KU) and #3 Wisconsin (a team that could slow down the game with defense).
KU also benefited by being opposite Memphis. Memphis was destroying teams. Other than a close call in the second round, Memphis won every game prior to the title game by at least 15 points. Instead of having a week to prepare for Kansas, Memphis only got 2 days. That’s significant.
KU also drew UNC in a game that I don’t know if Roy Williams was honestly ready to coach.
All in all, everything broke right for KU, from Wright leaving to Rush staying to the way the bracket went, everything turned out just right for KU. That’s the perfect storm.
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Andrew Baker @abaker6sports · Jun 14
The 2015-16 Kansas Basketball team being introduced at the Bill Self Boogie. Great time for great cause. #kubballGo to this guys twitter and watch the video! The guys look like their having fun and Brannen Greene appears to be moving around just fine!
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@justanotherfan I guess we have different ideas of a what a perfect storm is, and that’s ok. I was thinking more along the lines of a juggernaut hurricane that gathers “steam” as it goes along and by the end of the season it’s a category 5 hurricane wiping out everything in its path. I felt that the 2008 team was good, and they did very well in the tournament (although a BIG scare by Davidson) and the championship game was not looking very good at all until the overtime.
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@nuleafjhawk Agreed. It’s just hard to build a team with the combination of talent, drive and intensity coupled with the right set of breaks and health to roll through an entire season.
By my definition, we see one probably every 2-3 years. By yours, we might see one once 5-10 years - the last two probably being Florida in 2007 and Kentucky in 2012.
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Some things that stood out to me in this thread.
Carlton Bragg I’d not being overlooked, he’s just less likely to make a significant contribution to this team because Perry Ellis is in front of him and also likely Jamari Traylor. Cheick Diallo only has Landen Lucas and even if Landen starts, Diallo is going to play huge minutes this year. This is why there is more talk of Diallo’s impact this year.
Another thing is Carlton Bragg is not a OAD player. He is the third stretch 4 Self has landed in the low 5 to high 4 star range (20ish-35ish) and one was a 3 year player and the other is a 4 year player. I think it’s a reasonable assumption based on history that Bragg is a minimum 3 year player.
Lastly, I agree that there’s a lot of similarities in Carlton and Perry’s games because they are both stretch 4’s, but I really hope Carlton plays more like Marcus Morris than Perry Ellis. This is not a knock on Perry’s character, but I’ve always been a bigger Marcus Morris fan on the court.
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@justanotherfan I think what I had in my feeble little mind originally was a couple of Roy’s teams, where we (KU) either started the season ranked #1 , or achieved that very early and just blew the doors off of everyone. Please don’t make me say Arizona.
Crap! Too late.
But, Roy or Bill, I’ve always felt (and statistics probably won’t prove me out) that we have underperformed as favorites and overachieved as underdogs.
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The '88 team has to be one the top 3 overachieving teams of all time.
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@DoubleDD I just love the new guys coming in to along with our deep team. There’s a good chance we’re playing 1 freshman at a time next year, which is huge, imo, compared to the last few years, where we had as many as 3? freshman playing at a given time. I always thought one of the advantages that McLemore had ( other than redshirting) was being the only freshman in the lineup, which I thought helped him to play around so much experience. And these incoming freshmen have a huge advantage playing with such a large crew of wiley veterans, not to mention a slew of practice and games in the summer. This team will be a top 3 team from the very first tipoff. I have a feeling we’re going to be laying the wood to some folks like we haven’t seen in a while around here.
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@JayHawkFanToo 2012 too!!
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@KUSTEVE I hope so!!
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UConn at #7 in 2014 and Villanova at #8 in 1985 are the only teams with a lower seed than KU’s #6 in 1988 to win the NCAA Title. The 2012 was a #2 seed.
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If Diallo and Lucas step up, this team becomes dangerous. It was the missing link and is the big ??? mark for this upcoming season.
@Texas-Hawk-10 I think Mister Bragg is going to have us KU fans Bragging before this season is over. Don’t look for him just to be some decoration on the KU bench. The kid has star power. As for being a OAD done does anybody really know? The NBA has taking and declared kids that have done nothing in the college game as lottery picks.
No way does Bragg ride the bench and get just spot minutes here and there. NOWAY. You never know you just might seem him at the 3 with Diallo and Ellis manning the paint. Hey the kid has outside game.
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@DoubleDD or Ellis at 3, Bragg and diallo at 4 and 5?
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Hey we never know? Interesting point though. Ellis did come back to work on his outside game.
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@DoubleDD last year I said, no way. Thinking he could do it this year, maybe.
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@DoubleDD I always wanted for Coach to play TROB with both Morii in the game, but he never would. I’d love to see Bragg at the 3- love that stepback 3 he shoots from downtown. It might be a pipedream, but I like the way you think.
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@DoubleDD You’re right that we don’t definitively know. But history can be a pretty good predictor of the future actions. Perry Ellis is going to be a co-favorite to win Big 12 POY. Barring injury, he will play 30+ minutes per game.
Past action also says Bill Self is loyal to seniors who know his system over more talented freshmen. This is well documented and many discussions have been had about that philosophy. Past action also says Bill Self will not play a stretch 4 at the 3. This has also been discussed many times.
While it’s possible Bill Self breaks habit, I wouldn’t count on Bill Self going against his tendencies.
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@Crimsonorblue22 I’d love to see that line-up! Perry needs to get some reps at the 3 to help his NBA resume.
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@ajvan think self would give him a shot?
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I know Self has talked about Perry playing the 3 in the League and I even remember him saying something about sliding Perry over now and then…the sound byte was maybe towards the end of last season? Someone can corroborate me on that if the words actually left Self’s mouth…I think they did.
That said, I’ll believe it when I see it. :p
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@ajvan yep, me too. I’d try him.
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I would think that one of the conditions for Perry coming back for his senior years was playing time at the SF; maybe he was not promised time but I would think that it had to be part of the conversation.
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Bragg looks like the real deal. Seems to have that effortless attitude of “oh, hell, I’m up here, I might as well slam it.”
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mCLEMORE LIKES bRAGG TOO!
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BMac’s song -
