New writer in town
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@approxinfinity Thank you! Really great suggestions I was actually thinking about doing a First Look at the conference slate for my first post. MY editor said they are lacking on KU postings so I really want to hit that hard. If I can get the right access I think the human interest’s pieces would get a lot of reads. Those have always bee my favorite stories as well.
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@HawkInMizery Good deal man. I get FanSided in my inbox daily. I’ve a friend back in KC who does free lance photography for Chiefs, Royals, BG12, SI, CNN, etc. Jeff has a professional website called moffpix.com. Might be an advantage to contact him. Very nice Christian family man but I’ve had to forgive him for being a Baylor grad ! When I have more time I’ll send you a PM with more details. And - congratulations & of course Merry Christmas.
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Way to represent. I too get fansided daily in my daily in box. How about something on the ones behind the scene, i.e. What does Fred Quarterman actually do? The guys who are behind the bench with water/towels. They have a special bond with the team. How does one apply/get picked to do that?
Off topic but Scooter was finally released from hospital. He means so much to the whole organization and maybe a follow up on him would be good. When will he be back travelling with the team, etc.?
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@globaljaybird That would be stellar! I’m all for making new contacts and meeting people that have share similar passions. I would definitely appreciate that. Merry Christmas to you as well my friend.
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@approxinfinity I read that Carlton proved to HCBS that he had worn that headband forever and it wasn’t just some fad he started a short time before committing in that terrible hat ceremony! I remember Jesse had an article about it back when he was at LJW and coach wasn’t against it but he didn’t want a player doing it to stand out vs. everyone else.
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@RockChalkinTexas I would love to get in on some behind the scenes stuff. I don’t know how much access they will grant me since i’m in an unpaid position for now but you guys are hitting me with some great ideas and stuff that I would really love to pursue. Humanize the program and teams a little more. Great news about Scooter. I bet he’d be really fun to sit down with and pick his brain about the team and his health. I think visiting different Big 12 arenas and doing pieces on their stadiums and the KU bars in those cities would be fun too.
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@RockChalkinTexas i remember seeing that too. He wanted to make sure Carlton was doing it for the right reasons.
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@RockChalkinTexas ah ha! Good old Jesse. That’s funny. I’m really glad that people on our board stuck behind Carlton during the dark days. Calmer head prevailed (i know it kept me optimistic). Did his successful headband negotiations usher in the big hair revolution we see now?
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@RockChalkinTexas I did hear Self say they were hoping he could be at the ksu game.
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I’d like to see an article about how / why some of the best college basketball players in the universe can’t shoot free throws…
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@approxinfinity Not sure Coach likes the “big hair” as he has commented several times about guys needing hair cuts, but I like it. Don’t mess with whatever mojo they think it gives them, right? Heck they got a barbershop now in the hall and only Landen seems to have used it
! Did you see the pic of Frank with braids during a weekly presser a couple of weeks ago? He said he was too embarrassed to wear it during a game. Definitely not his best look.
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@RockChalkinTexas ha. Why wear it in a presser if it’s embarrassing during a game…? Reminder that Frank is still a kid even though he’s the man on the court
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Follow the shoes.
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@jaybate-1.0 you talking about Carlton’s adidas headbands? You think that he’s wearing it to promote adidas?
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If the shoe fits…
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@approxinfinity said:
Reminder that Frank is still a kid even though he’s the man on the court
Truer words n’er spoke!
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@nuleafjhawk hahaha! I would love to know that too we seem particularly inept this year.
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My first article got published. I’m working on a conference preview now leading up to the match up against UK
http://kckingdom.com/2016/12/24/kansas-city-chiefs-should-fans-be-worried-after-recent-loss/5/
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@HawkInMizery Congrats. My Dad had season tickets way back to the Lenny Dawson era and were 29 rows up on the 40 yd line behind their bench. Cold as all get out some games but I came from Minnesota (same town Cole Aldrich grew up in) and born in So. Dakota so am a tough girl. My brother worked for a company who gave him season tickets to the Royals 77-80 and we sat 11 rows behind home plate. I have a picture of Thurman Munson at the batter box looking right at me and that was right before he died. We HATEd the Yankees then didn’t we? Good times at Kaufman were definitely had with my husband.
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@HawkInMizery COOL!
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Good job!
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@HawkInMizery It’s Ok now since we’re winning - but when we start getting into those nailbiter games it’s going to kick our hineys. Coach needs to spend a LOT more time on free throw shooting with this team.
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Sure enjoyed the Chiefs big win yesterday. Especially that last touchdown, to rub Denver’s nose in it.
I’m a big Chiefs fan, but I just don’t know about Reid’s “system football” for winning in the playoffs. His strategy is largely based on statistics and at time their play-calling gets as predictable as Schottenheimer’s.
I believe Coach Self would be a good person to interview concerning running a tight system in playoffs.
Playoffs require “pulling a rabbit out of your hat” sometimes. Predictable play gets punished because the game is played at a higher level. Season-long metrics can (and should) be tossed out the window because the same old structure will rarely (if ever) win it all down the stretch.
I would like to read a well-written article on the “art of variation” (avoiding predictability). Coaches must address this during playoffs. The counter-argument, especially in pro sports, is that you run the same predictable execution until the other team figures out how to stop it. I’m not convinced that is a good strategy in playoffs (and often during the regular season). I always figure that if you over-use the same plays/structure, by the time your opposition figures it out, you have just played yourself into a big disadvantage. Now your opposition has the momentum, your advantage is gone, and you have no idea if your transition will work, especially against an opposition playing with momentum. Now you are using a “reactive strategy” instead of a “proactive strategy.”
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@drgnslayr said:
I would like to read a well-written article on the “art of variation” (avoiding predictability). Coaches must address this during playoffs.
Great topic! I would imagine the devil is mostly in the details as these situations usually aren’t equatable to something like rock paper scissors. There are clear advantages to certain options even if anticipated, like keeping pitches down and the alternative options are higher risk. So that’s what makes the details fascinating. When do you roll out the triangle and two? How do you adjust if it doesn’t work? How do you manage the psychology of doing something that doesn’t work, like a fake punt that blows up in your face? How do you use time outs effectively to manage psychology? I often wondered about that as I loathe Coach K but always thought he had impeccable timing with timeouts.
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A story on Bill Self’s move to foreign/non U.S. players. Svi, Udoka, Embiid, Diallo, Wiggins are just recent ones. We had a big break from Sasha to all of those guys. I realize that Udoka, Embiid, Diallo, Wiggins and Sasha all played HS ball in the U.S. but do we have a particular reason we have been able to up our game with foreign recruits lately? Is it our Adidas sponsorship? Is it just happenstance? Is it Bill is a good closer on guys that come on the radar out of nowhere and outrecruits other coaches? It sure seems odd, at least to me. We had such a large gap between Sasha and all of those guys and now Bill has either embraced it or it is a completely random set of events that seem to be related and aren’t.
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I am not sure that it happens by design, Like other coaches, Coach Self goes after talented players, the fact that many are now foreign born has no bearing on it. Look at Kentucky, they have had a steady stream of foreign players as well. In the current Team alone you have Mychal Mulder from Canada, Tai Wynyard New Zealand and Isaac Humphries Australia; past teams included Skal Labissiere from Haiti, Jamal Murray from Canada, Karl-Anthony Towns who is Dominican-American. Eloy Vargas from Dominican Republic, Kyle Wiltjer from Canada and let’s not forget about Enes Kanter from Turkey.
Davidson has 6 foreign players in its current roster, Gonzaga, St Mary’s and Santa Clara have large number of foreign players, particularly Australian. Many of these players are not recruited at all but make good members for the smaller conferences. Foreign players are all over college basketball and this is not going to change.
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@JayHawkFanToo I guess you’re proving my point. When did this happen? And has Self leaned into this? Clearly Davidson, Gonzaga St. Marys, etc have all leaned into it because they are trying to compete with the big boys. Has Bill learned that this recruiting these foreign players is what keeps us at that Blue Blood level? It is clearly a strategy by other teams. Is it a strategy by us right now? Or is it just that we have had several foreign players at this time just out of coincidence?
From Sasha until Embiid, Wiggs and Svi, we hadn’t had any international players that I can remember. That is a decade. Then we have 3 and have added two more. Seems to me like Bill is leaning into this foreign player influx.
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I think you missed my point; it has been happening all along. All coaches go after top players and some happen to be foreigners and some years have more quality foreign players than others…not really anything new. Now, some programs (Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara) emphasize overseas recruitment since they cannot compete against elite programs and foreign players can be a good solution. don’t believe this to be the case for the elite programs, they simply go after the top players regardless of nationality. Keep in mind that other than Svi, all the other foreign players at KU played HS here.
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@JayHawkFanToo I didn’t miss your point. They are all over. Got it.
But why did we have a decade without one? They weren’t the top players? Or we just didn’t go after them?
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@RockChalkinTexas Born in SD and lived in Minnesota. That is as good as it gets. I of course am prejudiced since I have a similar pedigree. The Vikings were good back in the day because they played outdoors. When you have to wear snowmobile clothing to a game you are in some real weather. Where abouts in SD are you from? Unless it was Sioux Falls or Rapid City we may be the only people who have heard of it.
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- 2004-2005 Kaun, Galindo, Niang
- 2005-2006 Kaun
- 2006-2007 Kaun
- 2007-2008 Kaun
- 2008-2009 None
- 2009-2010 Henry (Born in Belgium)
- 2010-2011 None
- 2011-2012 None
- 2012-2013 None
- 2013-2014 Wiggins, Embiid,
- 2014-2015 Svi
- 2015-2016 Svi, Diallo, Coleby
- 2016-2017 Svi, Coleby
Now, how do you figure a decade without one? Even if don’t count Henry, it makes 5 years without one in the most recent 13 years…
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@sfbahawk I’ve heard of a place called Peer, South Dakota! Can’t find it on a map.
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I have been to Pierre, South Dakota…I liked it…
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@HawkInMizery how 'bout that Chiefs game?
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@RockChalkinTexas We hated the Yankees then??? I still hate the yankees lol! You had some awesome seats! my season seats are not nearly as good. I’m glad you got to experience so much with your husband
I’ll bet you guys had some great times during that run.
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@nuleafjhawk I definitely agree really hope they are heavily working on that over the holiday break.
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@drgnslayr I completely agree about Reid’s system not being good for the playoffs. Being from Philadelphia and being an Eagles fan in addition to a Chiefs fan it gives me a unique perspective. He always had great regular season success in Philly but shat the bed multiple times in the playoffs.
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@Crimsonorblue22 That was an awesome game!!! I came home cold and wet but totally worth dipping on work for the night to be there. Still gotta write my story to recap that game as I was too intoxicated and full of joy to even think about typing last night haha.
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You guys have come up with some wonderful ideas! I’m going to start working on getting in with the right people to make some of this stuff happen. I don’t know how quickly it will come but i’m the person to never say die or quit on something. I knew this would be the right place to ask to get some ideas going. I really really appreciate you guys and gals.
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@HawkInMizery I thought Reid gave us an awesome Christmas present!
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@Crimsonorblue22 yes he did! That TD from Poe was such a kick in the teeth tot he Donkey’s and i Loved every second of it though I wish we would have saved it to use against NE or PIT since the game was already decided. I would have preferred kicking the raiders right in the mouth like that. I hate the Donkey’s but not as much as the Raiders.
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@sfbahawk It was Sioux Falls. My 2 older brothers hawked food and drink during the Fran Tarkenton era and during Twins games with Harlam Killebrew. My cousins on my Mom’s side still are in Sioux Falls. My cousin played for Nebraska when they were the Big Red machine 1969-1971 and was a DT 275# 6’10". Won the Outland Trophy, was Kodak all american and got drafted by the NY Football Giants, played 3 years but slipped at a pool party and hurt his knee and foot so bad that the doctors said he would be crippled if he ever got hurt so he walked away from the game. Saw all his Big 8 games and in 1970 when they went to the first Orange Bowl. There won back to back championships. That was when Nebraska was good with Bob Devaney as coach and Tom Osborne was OC. He was one of the first “blackshirts”. Played with Johnny Rogers and Rich Glover.
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@JayHawkFanToo Xavier obviously doesn’t count and there is a 9 year gap in recruiting. @Kcmatt7 has a good point. That is not an insignificant gap and it does beg the question if this was a deliberate shift in focus away from international players. I would be very interested to hear the answer to that.
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I wouldn’t even count Toronto area kids among the foreign born because they’ve pretty much all come up through the AAU system like Americans have as well.
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@HawkInMizery Here’s an idea for an article for you. What are the odds of Billy Preston ever playing a game for KU. Given the horrible academic track records of Prime Prep and API, an article about the odds of Preston playing for KU given his academic background would be interesting, albeit possibly disappointing for KU.
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What @Kcmatt7 said was…“But why did we have a decade without one?” which is the question I answered.
As far as why we did not get more players? I believe it is more happenstance than design, some years there are more top foreign players than others and other years top foreign players pick other schools. If you look at the Kentucky roster as an example, you will see a similar pattern, some years they have 3 some years they have none. It is similar to saying why don’t we have more Kansan players? Some years the state produce a Perry Ellis or Tyrel Reed and some years it does not. The team currently has 2 Kansas born player (Self was born in Tulsa) Tucker Vang that has played a total of 11 minutes and Clay Young that has played 12 minutes and have scored a combined 0 points; basically players used for practice and not recruited to contribute at game time…although their practice contribution is indeed valuable. Since Reed, the only Kansas players that were recruited were Ellis and Frankamp who was a low priority recruit since he basically recruited himself to KU. Had Kansas produce more players like Ellis or Reed KU would certainly have more of them,
KU typically recruits from the top 100 players and a few diamond in the rough outside that range, Lucas comes to mind, so the opportunities are more limited than those of lesser programs that basically recruit from the top 1,000. Not a lot of foreigners in that upper range although the number has been growing recently. Now, there are programs like Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s that have made it a point to recruit Australian players and have been very successful with them; KU is not and I don’t anticipate it will be in this mode any time soon. Just my take.
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@JayHawkFanToo There have been kids from Kansas/KC recently that KU never recruited that went to major programs. Willie Cauley-Stein was from Overland Park and Tum Tum Nairn at Michigan St. played at Sunrise in Wichita. There was also Semi Ojeleye who committed to Duke before busting out who was from Ottawa 10 minutes south of KU. I almost forgot about Buddy Hield who played in Wichita as well.
Thise are four guys in recent years from Kansas/KC who KU never went after despite all 4 being pursued by other major programs.
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Willie Cauley Stein made it clear that he did not wantt o go to KU very early on and thus was never recruited. I know several kids who went o school with hm and the consensus is that he was real jerk. Ojeleye was also know to have issues with teammates and that proved to be correct at Duke. More importantly, both players were part of the MoKan AAU team that has a very strained relationship with KU which also prevented players like Alec Burks and Willie Reed from considering KU.
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@JayHawkFanToo Not the point and I’m well aware of MoKan’s history because I’ve probably posted about them more than anyone else here.
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@JayHawkFanToo I mean that we haven’t recruited one.
Henry isn’t a foreign player. We all know that.
And so we went from 2004 to 2014 without recruiting a foreign player.
If you want to debunk me, you should build that same list with foreign players we recruited and didn’t land from 2006-2013.
You also Missed Buke, We have had 3 African bigs land at KU in a 4 year period. That doesn’t seem strange to you? We have only had one (Niang, who was recruited by Roy), that I can remember in my time, and then we land 3 in 4 years. That’s not just something that is random. Either we are recruiting foreign players harder or we have something that really lands with foreign recruits. Either way, this isn’t something that strikes me as ordinary. You don’t have to agree or see it that way, but I definitely am feeling that Self has made a conscious decision to start going after foreign players.
