A BANNER HANGING FROM THE RAFTERS?
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Yes, no and maybe.
We need to look at the WUG in context and how player qualify for the tournament. While the KUSA squad was fully amateur, it was by choice and not because the rules require players to be amateurs. Players like McLemore, who is working towards his degree and maybe Tarik who likely is finishing his Master’s or any other players not even associated with KU could have played, but we know that there is no chance their pro teams would let them take that risk. USA basketball chose to send a team based on one school and in this case worked out very well.
Fraschilla is right insofar that we did not play against the top Euro players, but he is dead wrong in his assumption that those are the players we were supposed to or should have played. He is right insofar that basketball at the college level in Europe is not nearly as developed as it is here; however, Fraschilla forgot that after all these are the World “UNIVERSITY” games and the average top Euro pro player has not attended college or is far removed from it. Much like here, it possible that some of the better players were held back by the their pro clubs, but is more likely that most did not qualify as they are either too old or not going to college. I am sure the senior Euro teams are much better…but they would be competing against the LeBron/Curry led US Senior team and not against a college level team.
I am confident that the KUSA team played against THE BEST EURO TEAMS of eligible players…and ringers, and as such it is indeed a huge, huge accomplishment. Maybe a display case at AFH with pictures, uniforms and a copy of the medal is the right way to go; I understand Coach Self has ruled out a banner which is fine with me. The most important part is that the KU led team did our country proud and this event will be forever remembered by all Jayhawk fans…and this is all that really matters
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A hologram of Mason carrying the American Flag displayed in the Allen Museum.
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@jaybate-1.0 Or Gwangju.
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@wrwlumpy Maybe the Post Office could issue some KU Gold Forever stamps. Or the Mint could replace “In God we Trust” with “Rock Chalk Jayhawk” on every coin.
Something to think about…
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I look at this as the REVENGE OF WILT. The coach for Germany was a Tar Heel from the same team that beat Wilt’s Jayhawks in three overtimes. This time the Jayhawks won and it only took them 2 overtimes.
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@JayHawkFanToo But yet our top pros play in the Olympics. The difference being what?
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A long time ago, you had to be an amateur athlete to compete in the Olympics but this is no longer the case and anyone can compete in the Olympics now. The US continued sending amateur team for a while and when that stooped working it assembled the Dream Team that we all know.
The WUG are limited to “university” players as the moniker indicates and the majority of pro players do not qualify due to age or no longer being linked to a school (rules have been discussed extensively in other threads) and the few that do qualify likely cannot get permission from their teams as they are contractually obligated to do…way too much money at stake…remember Paul George? He broke his leg while playing for team USA and the Pacers had to continue paying him his $15M yearly salary. You can see why many NBA teams and players do not want to be part of the Senior team as the risk of injury is great, it takes a great deal of time and they do not get paid…other than the reward of representing the country. Mark Cuban is on the record as opposing NBA player playing for team USA and he is not the only one; many of the NBA top players have declined to join the team.
The Senior USA team plays in the Olympics and the FIBA World Championship which are the top two events. The less prestigious Pan American games attract mostly college players and pros playing overseas, NBA players would not be interested or get permission to play there. Keith Langford, currently playing professionally in Russia and Ron Baker from WSU are two members of the team that is on its way to the Pan American games. In comparison, the WUG are a relatively low profile tournament (at least in the US) and Northern Iowas was selected to represent the US a few years ago which gives you a hint of its visibility here.
Hopefully this answers your question.
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@Crimsonorblue22 OH yah, I guess I wouldnt give my Gold up either but surely KU can get a medal for display, right?
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I was hearing can’t remember where that KU wasn’t chosen to represent the USA in the WUG’s. That is was HCBS that was chosen to be the coach and HCBS chose to take his own team. Any thoughts on this? I’m not sure. Thought I would ask.
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That is not correct. No coach would be so selfish/arrogant as to select his own team…maybe the squid. KU was selected because the overall excellence of the program in recent years. Here is a link…
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I thought as much. Thanks for the ammo, Um I mean link.
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My pleasure.
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It’s funny… but many other D1 fans are suddenly pissed about KU being in WUG… ONLY because we won! Boo-hoo! Hatemongering and envy, raising it’s ugly head.
I read all the tearful complaints on the UK website and how that would give KU a huge advantage this year. They didn’t seem to mind it last year when they thrashed our young team in November after their preseason season.
There are some nasty rumors going around.
This is just one more accolade we can keep in our arsenal to use against bozo fans from other schools who like to attempt to insult Kansas and our fans.
Why should these elite fans waste their time with us lowly Kansas fans? Kentucky… Duke… you have your recent NCs. Take a squat on your NC trophies and rotate. Just leave us alone. Unless… maybe you are targeting us because you know the TRUTH. And the TRUTH is your programs are great but they aren’t Kansas. Our court is named after the founder of basketball, who happened to be a JAYHAWK. And we play in the greatest building in college basketball.
We are hidden from mainstream sight. You have to cross a lot of wheat fields before you find AFH. You swim in a sea of sports media wonks who jump all over a new story about which player has diarrhea. Great. RUN with that! Out of site, out of mind. Don’t follow Int’l ball unless it is your team.
But hey… go do your thing, we could care less. You will always be just an afterthought to the peach basket history and everything that followed in Lawrence. If you were a real fan of the game, you would respect that instead of taking childish pot shots at us. I know if I grew up in the bluegrass state I would still visit Lawrence to experience AFH and the rules and the history. Why? Because I’m a BASKETBALL fan!
Many of these same people even showed their true lack of patriotism by hoping for a USA loss because the team was Kansas. “Fair weather patriots!” Always willing to attend the victory marches but last in line for enlisting to go do the dirty work that creates the victories and maintains the freedom of our nation! Really… throw our country under a bus because Kansas was the representative? I doubt many KU fans would have been pulling for Germany to beat Kentucky or Duke representing the USA. I know I’d still support the country some of my family members DIED for in wars!
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@wrwlumpy Germany’s coach would have to either be approaching 80 or in his 80’s to have played against Wilt. This is not the case.
Germany’s coach played at UNC under Dean in the early 90’s. He lost to KU in 1991 and beat us in 1993 which puts him on his early 40’s.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Instead of team, I probably should have said “University.” I didn’t mean to imply that he played for Frank McGuire in 1957.
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@JayHawkFanToo At 46 I assure I’m well aware how the Olympics were “a long time ago.”
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@JayHawkFanToo One thing that chaps me about Franchilla and others is this business about the Pan American games having a negative influence on the competition. There were four teams from the Americas: Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile. Other than Canada and Brazil who else may have been impacted? Does anyone know how many of their better eligible players are playing in the Pan American games?
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Let’s hang a banner on KU BUCKETS >>>>> photoshop, anyone?
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It needs to say “WORLD Champions” and someone needs to post it on all the UK sites… just stir the pot again.
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@brooksmd typo, you mean 46!
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@drgnslayr @FarSideHawk has a great one on here!
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Oh yeah… just caught that. Nice!
Just add in “Big Blue & Crimson Nation” just to twist the dagger!
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We are talking apples and oranges. The teams you mentioned will likely send their senior “B” teams to the Pan American games. It is very likely that with few exceptions, most of the players in their senior teams do not qualify for the WUG anyway, since they are probably over 25 years old or have no active ties with a University; the US is probably the only country that does not send the senior team since it would be impossible to get permission form the teams to participate; top foreign players in the NBA such as Varejao, Barbosa, Splitter, Scola, Ginobile, Barrea, Arroyo…to name a few… are also likely to skip the Pan American games for the same reason, although I understand that Anthony Bennett will play for the Canadian team. Many of the better Canadian players such as Wiggins will play with the Senior “A” team in the FIBA Americas Tournament in August in Mexico City to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio; here is a link. Same with other countries such as Brazil and Argentina.
The Pan American games as well as the bigger tournaments draw the better/older players; the WUG is exclusively for college players. Like I pointed out before. the different tournaments draw from different pools of players and Fraschilla is foolish to indicate that KUSA did not play the “better” players in Europe. KUSA was not supposed or expected to play the "better " players in Europe, only the better “university” players in Europe/world and it did…and it won!!! Trying to diminish what the KUSA team accomplished makes him look petty.
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@JayHawkFanToo he is a petty, rear kisser!
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I am not sure what happened to him, he used to be a pretty fair analyst. Maybe his kid really wanted to play at KU and was told no and now, instead of coming to the Cathedral of basketball to see him play, he has to go to…well, Norman, Oklahoma…:D
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I think he has just become a product of his age.
I’m 56… and I tend to be more rooted in the same thoughts and my mind is gradually closing. There is still a small crack open, but not much.
I think the same of Bilas. I thought he used to be better. Now I see him playing politics and personal favorites.
I think I have become the same… so no room for me to criticize… though I love to bash these guys when they deserve it!
Maybe hardening of the arteries? Especially the one feeding blood to the brain?!
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Until we see former KU players as commentators, always assume Bilas is playing all situations for coach K. Bilas is smart and tilted toward KU when making alliance was expedient for slowing the UK machine. Now he is clearing KU from the wake.
BILAS IS AN EMBED.
Fool me once, shame on me…
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@drgnslayr didn’t Jordan junebug swing thru accidentally and hit the frail frannie kid?
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The Canadian team in the Pan-Am’s is night and day better than the team we played in Exhibition games. Anthony Bennett former #1 pick in NBA draft, fellow Big 12 past players Brady Heslip & Melvin Ejim. Top 15 recruit Jamal Murray signed to Kentucky & Kyle Witjer among others.
The Brazil team seems to have guys who played in the FIBA tournaments. Greivis Vasquez is playing for Venezula. So it looks like the level of competition in these games is much stiffer.
As @JayHawkFanToo has pointed out very well, whether we played the best of the best from Europe and the world is irrelevant and should not diminish what we accomplished. The WUG don’t allow just anyone to play, if they did we would have dominated even more if we had our missing players (minus the injured one’s). The determination this team showed in the 2nd OT against Germany was amazing.
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Didn’t he bust his nose and give him a boxer’s nose?
Yeah… I would have been happy to have the other teams pick up some of their older pros as long as we could. I know most pro teams don’t want to release their guys but would have loved to see BMac and the Morris twins and Mario back to kick the rears of all these teams.
Dingleberries from Kentucky and some of the media wonks make it sound like all these foreign teams intentionally held back more talented players from playing. It is a competition and filled with competitors. So the best teams possible were built by these countries. If anything, we were restricted to being around 80% KU with just a couple extra players only because we couldn’t fill a roster with eligible players. We were at the disadvantage. The other teams… they built “all star” teams and made it work because all those guys have played together, sometimes for more than a decade.
My only complaints with this tournament was the monstrous advantage organizers gave to the bracket that played one less game. That was a rip off and a clear advantage to Germany.
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Agreed, can’t believe Germany didn’t have to play 8 games as well. There should have been an extra day between games as someone mentioned. Really unfair with the format they had in place with so many games in a short period of time.
It would have been great to have the other 20% of the team but I think it adds to the glory of what this team accomplished. KU fans know these games weren’t easy and it doesn’t matter what other fan-bases think, we know that these games are huge for this upcoming season.
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Keep in mind that this are the World “UNIVERSITY” games and players have to be attending college or taking at lest one class. plus they have to be under 25 years old. McLemore was likely eligible but the twins and Mario were way too old and too far removed from college to be eligible, the same way that many top Euro player were.
BTW, the international organization that runs the games (and not the host country) determine the pools and schedule and it is loosely based on rankings. Germany…and Korea…were lucky to end up in the pool with 5 teams, but I don’t believe it was by design, most likely a late scratch.
Dang @drgnslayr this is the second disagreement today…beer summit?
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@JayHawkFanToo Would have been killer if Ben could have gone to Korea!!
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Yes and no. Yes, he could have kicked butt…but he would have been playing likely the same position as Selden and that would have not been good. Self idea was to help the team get extra practice and More and Debose was all that was needed to replace the injured players and have 12 players suit up.
