IT gets real now
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Texas is en route to becoming a strong, third, title-challenger, along with OU and ISU. I can taunt Shaka, but he is someone that has to be beaten before we can discount him.
The good news is the circumstances of KU’s first meeting with Shaka January 23 greatly favor KU.
KU’s preceding game is January 19 vs. OSU in Stillwater. While Self has had problems in Stillwater, OSU is a relatively weak team this season and that is three full days of rest and playing at home.
Texas, by comparison, plays a pressing WVU in Morgantown January 20, and then on two days of rest and a travel day plays KU in AFH.
KU needs to take that opportunity to beat Shaka and his Horns into the next century to get that relationship off on the right initial conditions.
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I’ve seen ISU and OSU each play one game this year. While I watched, I thought, holy crap, the minutia we worry about as KU fans. Those schools have good players and lousy teams. They will implode, as always, and lose to worse teams at home down the stretch when the pressure starts to mount. The end.
Not even a bold prediction. I’m with JB… watch out for Texas for a change of pace.
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On a related note, anyone watch the Louisville/Kentucky game yesterday and think either of those two teams should be in the top 25?
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Wouldn’t it be sweet to hang a 20 point L on Shaka? Dang, it would feel good.
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No I don’t think either team is very good right now. Valiant effort by Louisville to come back but there wasn’t much of a chance they were going to leave Rupp with a victory. Lee is a big-time player for them but they don’t have much else. One of their freshman stepped up but watching them it just felt like they have 1 really good player and not enough other pieces to beat really good teams.
And did Kentucky ever get lucky hitting a bunch of open/contested 3’s. Ulis had been struggling shooting then makes a couple 30 footers like clockwork. Hawkins the 12th man on their bench made 3 triples… Murray also made a bunch of 3’s on a team that was struggling mightily to make outside shots. It just reeked of a win that happened because they were at home and made some shots they probably don’t on the road/neutral court.
Ken Pom actually says UK is okay in Adjusted D & O… Still early and they’ve only played a few teams with a pulse so far.
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To answer your question its probably in our favor if Oklahoma loses to Iowa St.
But if we assume that OU loses and goes into Allen Fieldhouse 0-1 that could be a real challenge for our guys. I don’t think OU is going to necessarily lose games it shouldn’t but this current group of kids has given KU all it can handle in Allen the past few years. I highly doubt their experienced group wants to possibly go 0-2 to start league play so I could see a team that comes into our house with a chip on their shoulder (on top of always wanting to beat KU).
They also have a tough stretch right after the 1st week of league play. @ Oklahoma St, West Virginia, @ Iowa St, @ Baylor… They could find themselves in a big hole 7 games in. It’s not unrealistic that they could have 4 league loses in the first half of conference play. Which would put them basically out of contention.
I do believe this is the best OU team they have had in many years so I could also see them surviving the early gauntlet with just 1 or 2 loses. They are better than Iowa St and the rest of the league not named KU.
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After reading through these posts, it’s obvious you have some ties to OU. Care to divulge? I mean, there won’t be a burning at the stake or anything, just curious.
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I have a match and some starter fluid just in case.
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@nuleafjhawk That’s a scurrilous charge, imo.
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I hope OU comes in 0-1. They are our real competition. They beat Nova ( ranked number 5 at the time) by 23. They are very good. Still, they lack that great defensive core, which has allowed us to beat them.
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@KUSTEVE My philosophy every year is that when our contenders play, I hope that the home team wins. Otherwise, the road victor, in this case ISU, has a leg up on us. They will be one up on us if we lose at OU. Of course, if you are more worried about OU than ISU…I see why you would want OU to lose. Since I view both of these teams, and maybe WVU and Texas as well, as our competition, I don’t like to see any of these teams win road games.
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Gathers and Baylor concern me, too.
Drew is a slow learner, but he has now had a lot of experience and so could finally be average on the bench!
Gathers makes them strong, where we are gerry-rigged.
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Iowa St. Always loses on the road late, so OU needs to lose this one for the easiest road to #12.
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@jaybate-1.0 Horns play UConn tomorrow night. They haven’t really played anyone besides UNC. Tomorrow will be a harbinger of how that team does against a quality opponent.
Living in Austin, I want nothing more than to shut Shaka up. Listening to him on his weekly program where the host sucks up to him is reminiscent to a brown noser at work. Feeds softball questions to him and they have created this belief that they are going to win the Big 12. Time for a payback of all paybacks.
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@RockChalkinTexas (puke)
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My personal taste is for OU. I grew up being an OU football fan and attended many games in Norman. I want OU to beat ISU.
And I dislike many of the ISU fans. Very nasty people who are fanatic enough and hateful enough to be destructive and dangerous.
I said this earlier… I don’t feel good about sending our guys into Ames this year. I fear violent repercussions if we win in Ames. This is the same crowd that screamed the “n” word at EJ… and others and had the nut fan breaching Self’s personal space.
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I fully agree about the safety of our players in Ames. It’s scary to think a fan-base can lose all sense of reality and do the things they have done in the past. It’s actually sickening to be worried about your players safety going into another gym.
Should be a good game. Texas has an advantage playing them at home. UCONN has been a little inconsistent so far, I thought they were going to be better. I would like to see the huskies pull out the win but I think its a tall order going into Austin.
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@nuleafjhawk ummm, not really sure you speaking to me or not- - -but if you are, then ummm you couldn’t be more wrong. I have absolutely zero, zilch nada, nothing, as far as ties to Oklahoma, again if that statement is referring to me. what I DO HAVE is an open mind and logic, I am as loyal as a KU fan as you will ever run across, tust me on that, I’ve actually got myself in a couple of bad situtations because of my loyality, anyone starts talking smack on KU then my blood starts to boil, got kind of a quick temper and maybe not such a good thing with Ku but it just chaps my butt when they start to talk crap on the Jayhawks. Having said that I also now how to recognize good teams when I see them and if your telling e that these teams are choke artists then sorry you are just wrong, period, end of story, I have such a sweet pair of crimson and blue blinders but I am also smart enough to know to be able to see what’s right there in front of us. Oklahoma didn’t get the # 3 ranking because of choking, they have played some good competition in their non con Wisconsin they kicked the hell out of Villanova, the Harvard team we had trouble with at home, they beat worse on a neutral floor, they are for real. If I owa State hadn’t lost long they would of been really tough, not like they still won’t be but ya again no ties here to Oklahoma- - - sorry. ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@jaybate-1.0 LMAO not to worry bud, save it for the summer BBQ. ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@jayballer54 Ok - I didn’t mean it as an insult or anything, lots of us here have ties to other schools. Wives/kids/friends/relatives have gone to other schools. I thought I remembered you saying somewhere that your dad was an OU grad. Must have been someone else! My bad.
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@BeddieKU23 …hot off the presses:
Jeff Goodman ESPN Insider
Texas senior big man Cameron Ridley broke his foot in practice Sunday and will have surgery Tuesday.
The school said Ridley will be out indefinitely.
The 6-foot-9 Ridley, a highly touted recruit coming out of high school, hadn’t quite lived up to expectations from when he was brought into the program by former coach Rick Barnes.
However, Ridley is averaging career highs of 12.7 points, 10 rebounds and 3.4 blocks through the first 11 games of the season under new coach Shaka Smart.
Texas is 8-3 and faces UConn in Austin on Tuesday night. The Huskies are missing center Amida Brimah, who broke his finger during practice Dec. 21 and is out six to eight weeks.
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@RockChalkinTexas wow, bad news! Wanted to beat his ___!
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Huge loss for them. Ridley had been playing very well this year. I’m sure he will be back when we go to Austin in February.
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OU and ISU have very good starting lineups but unlike KU they have very short and limited benches. In a Conference as tough as the Big 12 is, you better have a deep and dependable bench. edge t KU.
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@nuleafjhawk no need to apologize, didn’t takin git that way but just really trying to emphasize , stress no ties what so ever, my father didn’t go to college but hey ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@RockChalkinTexas jumpin- -gee- - hossa- - fats, its really unbelievable amount of players that’s getting hurt so far this season across the land, keep my fingers crossed, that really puts a hurt on Texas, what’s normal re-coup time on these things? I may be WAY off base but isn’t it like 6 weeks around there probably way off base just asking. ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@jayballer54 It was his left foot. Haven’t heard how long. Indefinitely is longer than 4 weeks for sure.
Shaka Smart says timetable for Cam Ridley’s return will be known after Tuesday morning surgery.
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From Jesse on Dec. 24th: KenPom rankings.
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@nuleafjhawk My dad is the OU fan, not an alum as he graduated HS in '71 and was promptly shipped off to Vietnam. My personal feelings on OU are that I hope they go 36-4 at this point with their 4 losses all coming against KU in Lawrence, Norman, KC, and then Houston. I was also planning on going to their playoff game against Clemson has it been in Dallas, but since it’s in Miami, I’m not shelling out for airline tickets and hotel for that.
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I would like to see the Sooners open league play with a home loss. At this juncture, I view them as the most likely squad to tie us for the championship. As they are still ranked above us in the Coaches’ Poll, an early Jan. loss, esp at home, might set them back on their heels to allow nagging doubts to affect subsequent play. Only negative to that scenario, it is hard to imagine them losing 2 in a row, even tho their second game is at AFH. Sooners return a seasoned unit containing a topflight player, something which historically seems to haunt Bill Self teams. Solid experienced coaching, too. So long as Hield and Cyclone Niang remain healthy, those two teams present serious challenges to our Jayhawks. Deficit for Iowa State: coaching turnover.
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…and speaking of Ridley’s broken foot, that injury should loom huge for developing New Texas. How does a guy that big come back quickly from a broken foot?
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Well, I knew SOMEONE had OU ties!! Lol.
My own personal opinion - if you can afford the game/airline tickets and hotel you should do it!! How often does a person get to see a game of that caliber?
Go Dawg Go !!
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@RockChalkinTexas I spoke to a friend of mine who was in the nursing profession, and she said if it was bad enough for surgery then really bad break probably looking at 8-12 weeks. ROCKCHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@nuleafjhawk I live Houston and have friends in Dallas which eliminates approximately $1,000 for flying 2 people to Miami and 3 nights in a hotel, and eating out expenses. That’s a pretty significant price difference without factoring in tickets which I would not have been paying full price for in Dallas unlike Miami. All in all, the Cotton Bowl would’ve been about $12-1,300 cheaper for me to attend than the Orange Bowl.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 I certainly understand that - I think I’m going to go to KU’s next bowl game. I hope it’s in Hawaii. I’ll sleep on the beach!
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@nuleafjhawk I’m going w/u!
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@jayballer54 I like the way you think man. Iowa state isnt as big a threat to us with Naz Long out and with The Mayor gone. Lets face it, Coach Prohm might be good but I really doubt he is equal to or greater than Hoiberg. I have great respect for Hoiberg but I hated facing his teams. The jury is still out on Prohm, on how tough he will coach but Im not as worried about him.
If Iowa state can steal one game against OU then it makes life easier for KU. We will hold sway at home in The Phog and steal some games away from our tougher opponents like OU and ISU and Baylor this year. Not all of them but they should win enough road games to give us a fighting chance at winning the conference out right again.
SIde note, and one I love to mention; We are going to absolutely destroy Kaintucky on 1/30/16. Judgement day will be upon those soft blue kitties in the form of 16,300 wild rabid fans breaking sound noise decibel levels.
