TREPIDATION FOR NEXT YEAR.
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I’ve been watching the last six games of the year prior to the loss in the Elite 8. Before the tourney loss, KU was averaging over 90 points per game against UC-Davis, Michigan State and Purdue. The other three games on my DVR were Oklahoma at KU, TCU at KU and at Baylor. Oklahoma was ahead by 10 in the second half. TCU was ahead in the second half and we beat Baylor by one with a Landen Lucas free throw. Oklahoma got better last year with a young team that played almost the entire season without Woodard. They have added Trae Young and will be much better. TCU and Jamie Dixon have changed the status quo for Basketball in Texas. They have become the # 2 team in Texas behind Baylor. Dixon has already signed a 4 star Center and a 4 star Guard to go with Fisher and Brodziansky. Baylor will always have the tallest zone in the conference. Huggins teams are always full of coachable unknown 4 stars. The Big 12 this year was tougher than the two top teams in the Big 10. The Big 12 will be even better next year. Having said all that, What do we know about our team for next year.
Devonte and Vick are the only known commodities that we know will be back. We have to wait on Svi, and if he does return, he will make whatever we have, better.
Udoka was a monster against Duke, but that was really the only breakout that we were given a chance to see. We do know that he played in spurts but became tired after 3-4 minutes and had to sit. He missed most of being able to practice with one hand in a cast or unmoveable glove. He’ll be stronger but did his development suffer?
Colby is our next known player that seemed to regain his legs during the NCAA Tournament when Self had completely given up on Bragg. He knows the offense and defense and his stamina and leg confidence will increase.
After that, we know that Malik Has played before, that he has great skill’s and was a highly ranked High school shooting guard that wants to play point. Here is the rub. In the many, many games that KU played last year and were behind, it was Frank Mason that took over each game and willed us to win. Can Malik do that for us? Josh turned out to be the very best one and done ever to play at KU. We knew that after the Duke game.
Lightfoot, who was the High School POY in the state of Arizona was a teenage beanpole that could gain minutes. If he does, all credit for his success will have to go to Hudy. Hudy should get a lot more credit for many of last year’s wins with our superior stamina at the end of each game.
Billy Preston looks like a good Freshman player that will add more rebounds to our line up. We’ve only seen videos, which has shown in some instances that he does have a similar temperament to that of Josh. Many on our site have expressed a fear that he might not qualify.
Garrett looks like someone who will get many minutes as a Freshman and we know he was the Texas High School player of the year, which makes us hope that Texas has better players than Arizona.
Then there will be Mr. Cunnlife who looks like a movie star, a Conner Teahan with greater earlier skills than the great Senior walk-on. There are other signee’s probably, but once again that is the speculated unknown that we must go through as Jayhawk fans. Last year, we had a much better idea of how good we were going to be and had a greater misguided idea of how good the conference was going to be. I hope, like Korea, that the Italian games in Rome and Milan will be televised this summer.
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I understand your concern, but if you had put up a chart like that after last season, it would have looked like this:
We had two guys coming back that played quite a bit (Mason and Graham), a guy that struggled to get significant minutes at times (Lucas) and then three guys that were basically secondary subs (Svi, Bragg and Vick).
Who knew for sure that Svi and Vick could step into much, much bigger roles this season? Vick played 5 times more minutes. Svi more than doubled his minutes. Lucas added 50% more minutes.
The question isn’t known entities. It’s talent. We know that Newman and Preston are superbly talented. That replaces Frank and Lucas/Bragg right there. Garrett can replace Vick’s role, and Vick can replace Svi’s role if Svi leaves. The only question (a big question) is how to replace Josh Jackson.
I think we will be okay, though. We have enough weapons coming in to be okay. The ceiling will be determined by how we answer the Josh Jackson question.
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@justanotherfan How’d you get your deletion lines straighter than mine?
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How about something exciting about next year? We have another favorable route to the final 4.
Tourney sites could be:
- First weekend - Wichita
- Second weekend - Omaha
- Final Four - San Antonio
Getting a 1 seed is very,very important again this year.
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Up until they lost in the tournament, Duke fans and Media apologist Knew that Duke was finally going to be a good team, they never got to that point. Neither did we. We have Bill Self and somehow we know that he will get the best out of each player that listens and wants to get better. Yes, in the past, he has been known as a stubborn man with a system, But with Devonte and another ball handler like Malik and Vick, we will be alright as the Bigs settle in. Maybe next year the defense will be as great in the first half as it always was last year in the final minutes of most Conference games. In all my many years of watching KU, I have never seen a defensive flurry like the last 3 minutes of the West Virginia game. We were fast but we were thin. In order to play with just the seven players, if there wasn’t a fast break, the team took a breather as they walked with Frank to start the offense.
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@Kcmatt7 2019 kc?
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@Crimsonorblue22 Yea regional in KC again.
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@Crimsonorblue22 Des Moines or Tulsa being the most likely first weekend sites.
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Don’t forget that the NCAA might pull the games out of Kansas like it did North Carolina.
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@JayHawkFanToo Have they threatened to yet?
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@Kcmatt7 As long as the Elite Eight isn’t in KC…
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If California State Schools threaten not play in Kansas, they probably would. I believe the NCAA has indicated it is looking at the issue and I don’t believe Kansas is the only state other than North Carolina. If the NCAA overplays its hand and pulls games from several states, you will see the Federal Government getting involved.
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You really nailed it in your last post. Our defensive flurry against WVU at home in those last 3 minutes was intense.
Where did that intensity go in the Oregon game?
No one in here will ever convince me that Oregon was a better team than us. Not even close.
I think @justanotherfan did a good job of explaining how we still had questions a year ago about this past year’s team, too.
Mark my words on what I am about to say… we are DEFINITELY not done recruiting for next year! I will be surprised if we don’t get at least one more top level player, whether his ranking is at the top now or he is undervalued.
Bill is grinding it out on the trail now. He wants to bag TWO top tier players in case Svi goes. Now, we have Josh’s scholarship to use and I will be surprised if it isn’t taken within the next 1 to 2 weeks. And then I expect he will find a very good player to help our needs if Svi goes. Probably a utility player. The Hutch JUCO guy seems like a logical grab, possibly.
With the loss of our two scholarships for the Lawson brothers, we need to fill every scholarship this year and with talent that will help us next year!
Adding the Lawson brothers actually helps our recruiting now because we gave up two scholarships for guys that can’t play next year… meaning… more PT available for other players, including new recruits!
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KCMO will not be affected by the Potty legislation, but Wichita will in 2018. More politicians have been arrested in bathroom’s than transgender individuals.
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Talking about the Defense in the West Virginia game and the Miracle finish, someone has made an 8-minute video that is chilling and spectacular. the first 4 minutes, you think you are watching another ESPN highlight film, In the middle, it turns into a documentary about the last few minutes. Thank you to the producer of this great video.
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I feel extremely confident that the interior will be better.
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@wrwlumpy thx! Super blessed to see some awesome games. Really going to miss this group, hope the new guys realize what the tradition means at KU!
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@wrwlumpy MERCY, MERCY you are right. - -BOY watching this just gave me chills all up and down, man oh man I am here to say that right there STILL just stuns me. - -Devonte was blistering, Josh’s pass sitting on his butt. - -This is what is amazing there were times when this team was just SO DAMM SCARY GOOD, that’s what makes the loss at the end that much harder to swallow. - -stings -these guys we soo special - - -Thank you so much for the video, - -again like you said really get wrapped up in these things sent chills for sure, almost got me emotional lol. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@drgnslayr - - -Don’t hold your breath anymore on Juiston, - -that ship has pretty well sailed. – With us getting the Lawson Brothers, and NOW Juiston saying he IS NOT taking a visit to Kansas, the Hutch Coach saying that with us getting the Lawson’s - Juiston was very aware of that and with him only having 2 years that this will be of a concern for Shakur. - -With us taking in the Lawson’s that pretty well put and end to Juiston. – -ROC CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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@wrwlumpy Well, lets be honest. Josh has been the best freshman OAD at KU. NOT the best Freshman. I think that distinction belongs to someone named Wilt…or Danny Manning if we are splitting hairs.
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@wrwlumpy Its KU. Of course we’re gonna be good. I’m really not worried. After 14 years of Bill Self, I am learning to just roll with it. We’ll be good. Oh, and I’m betting that SVI comes back.
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@wrwlumpy Awesome. Thanks for sharing
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@Lulufulu I did write out one and done.
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@Lulufulu I suppose that I am splitting those hairs, and I haven’t actually looked up Danny’s freshman stats. BUT…it would surprise me if his numbers were better than Josh’s.
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@Lulufulu Wilt was great as a freshman, but only on the freshman team. His years with varsity were soph and junior.
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Pretty much a wash!
Danny as freshman in 32.9 min per game:
14.6 pts 7.6 rebs 3.2 assts 1.7 steals 1.0 blocks 2.6 turnovers 3.6 fouls
Josh in 30.8 min per game:
16.3 pts 7.4 rebs 3.0 assts 1.7 steals 1.1 blocks 2.8 to’s 3.0 fouls
Danny had zero arrests as far as we know, so on the whole I call his season better.
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@mayjay testing
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@Crimsonorblue22 still blindly typing to myself
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@Crimsonorblue22 nah, I’m here. Sorry
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Had hoped this theme would fix it.
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The biggest trepidation for next season is the defense. I think we have plenty of firepower to use on offense again. If Svi returns, we have the best collection of guards in the country for a 2nd straight year. Defensively we should see better rim protection with Doke but besides Graham we will need to see a lot of improvement from everyone else. Josh & Frank were fine defenders and their replacements are not known for their defense. So Self has his work cut out for him on how he can tighten some things up on that end
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I’m not sure what there is to be afraid of concerning next year’s team. We have experience, size, and pretty good depth. Malik sacrificed a year to learn our system- he’ll be the best redshirt/transfer we’ve had since Mac. Vick breaks out in a big way, Doke will be vastly improved, and Preston has a great skill set. We’ll get the best season of all from Devonte, who will be amazing this year.
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I used Paint on Microsoft to just do the lines. I can’t draw a straight line to save my life, but the computer can do it for me
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I like how next year is shaping up. But there is the “unknown factor.” Frank isn’t heading up this team so some one will have to. Team chemistry is important. I hope we don’t have another year with off-court cr@p happening, too.
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@mayjay HA! nice. thats a great one!
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Don’t worry OP, Malik got chu.
malik newman @iammaliknewman 1h1 hour ago
Still haven’t won a championship in my career lol
️ imma start a new one and finish it
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Preseason games.
University of Kentucky Tue, Nov. 14, 2017 TBAvs KentuckyState Farm Champions Classic Chicago, Ill.United Center TBA ESPN
Texas Southern University Tue, Nov. 21, 2017 TBAvs Texas SouthernHoophall Miami Invitational Host Game Lawrence, Kan.Allen Fieldhouse TBA
Oakland University Fri, Nov. 24, 2017 TBAvs OaklandHoophall Miami Invitational Host Game Lawrence, Kan.Allen Fieldhouse TBA
University of Toledo Tue, Nov. 28, 2017 TBAvs ToledoHoophall Miami Invitational Host Game Lawrence, Kan.Allen Fieldhouse TBA
Syracuse University Sat, Dec. 2, 2017 TBAvs SyracuseHoophall Miami Invitational Miami, Fla.American Airlines Arena TBA ESPN Networks
Arizona State University Sun, Dec. 10, 2017 TBAvs Arizona State Lawrence, Kan.Allen Fieldhouse TBA
University of Nebraska Sat, Dec. 16, 2017 TBAat NebraskaShelter Insurance Showcase Lincoln, Neb.Pinnacle Bank Arena TBA
Stanford University Thu, Dec. 21, 2017 TBAvs Stanford Sacramento, Calif.Golden 1 Center TBA
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JayHawkFanToo said:
If California State Schools threaten not play in Kansas, they probably would. I believe the NCAA has indicated it is looking at the issue and I don’t believe Kansas is the only state other than North Carolina. If the NCAA overplays its hand and pulls games from several states, you will see the Federal Government getting involved.
The cal track team ran at the KU relays
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OK???
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@JayHawkFanToo yeah???
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I am not sure if the law has kicked in yet but I know that the basketball series KU was planing to start with one of the California schools was dropped. Track and field pretty much flies under the radar, Basketball, Football and possibly Baseball will be the real test.
This story sheds some more light and it sounds that as long as state money is not used sports teams could travel. A little more detail in this article where UCLA indicates it does not use state funds to travel but would abide by the law.
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@JayHawkFanToo link didn’t work. Doesn’t make sense that wouldn’t be the same for all sanctioned activities, non sports included. Maybe, they ok’d the t&f team to go to KU due to the fact they could use port a potties!
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It’s a bit hypocritical.
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Who will run the point next year assuming we don’t land Duval? I don’t really see Vick as a PG and his assists numbers reflect that as well. Can DG become a scoring PG like BIFM? I think he can, he only averaged one assist per game less and lead us in assists in several games. From what I have seen of Newman I’m not such DG will need to score more than he averaged this past season. I think DG needs to work on his dribble drive and step back quite a bit, I believe that’s why he is returning and not testing the waters. There are a ton of streaky good 3 point guys to draft.
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Graham and Newman.
