March: Post-Season News Headlines Digest
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@icthawkfan316 I respectfully disagree man. We know nothing about how Mickelson can play. He may surprise us all and be a huge factor off the bench like Withey was. I have heard that Mickelson can be effective on the offensive end as well as on defense, so we shouldn’t automatically call him a non factor if he brings good rim protection (which he will) and some decent offense to the table. We also don’t know if Embiid will be gone after this year. Everyone says he is gone but Im not buying it. I think the big guy loved his college life and has some unfinished business here. I think he wants to come back another year. I mentioned before about how he can heal his back and get stronger with Hudy and ALL of the resources that KU medicine brings to bear. KU is among the best medical schools and hospitals in the nation.
I also don’t think we lose that much replacing Wiggins with Oubre. Yes Wiggins was the best freshmen we have had at KU since probably Paul Pierce. But, Oubre is very good in his own right and it seems to me that the kid has a bit of a killer instinct edge to him. I have only seen a few videos and I follow him on twitter but he doesn’t seem scared to get down and dirty or to come out with swagger and emotion to fire the team up. I hope I am right.
Alexander is a beast. I agree that he could be a slight drop off from Tarik simply because Tarik was a Senior, he was a man, not a kid in a man’s body like Alexander is. But, the kid is going to be good.
Most of what I am saying is that we wont have much drop off next season if Embiid sticks around and I think he will. If he doesn’t well then Turner, Alexander, Mickelson, Traylor and Lucas will have to step it up. Im betting they will.
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@nuleafjhawk ALmost forgot. I really think that when Conner and or Mason show Coach Self that they are the better option at PG, Coach will HAVE to pull Tharpe to the bench. He has to if it gives our team the best chance at winning. I agree Coach is a stubborn guy. He hates making adjustments in game to give us the best chance to win. Case and point, the Stanford game. BUT that said, during the off season and pre season I really believe Frankamp will show Coach that he is our starting point guard. Mason could do the same but my money is on Conner. The kid was a stud for us during crunch time in the tournament. Its very likely he will continue do to that and get better. He starts over Tharpe by the 5th or 6th non conf game next season, if not earlier.
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@icthawkfan316 It remains to be seen if Oubre actually will be a defensive downgrade from Wigs. Both are about the same height and length. IMO Oubre would have a slight edge over Wigs by the way of his mentality. I think he may show us that he has a killer instinct. I think his personality on his twitter feed suggests to me that he is not a soft spoken kid like Wiggins is. That suggests to me that his on court presence will be stronger and he will come out ready to fight every game. By no means am I saying that he will be more talented than WIgs or that he will beat Wiggins KU freshmen records this year BUt I do think his personality will give him an edge that Wiggins doesn’t have yet. Again, its speculation but isn’t that what we are all doing right now?
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At this time it is hard to tell whether the Embiid, Wiggins, Black would be better than Turner, Alexander, Oubre since we have not seen what the 3 later players can do. They can surprise us and exceed expectations or they can turn out not to be as good as advertised.
However, you need to look at the bigs line up in context and would have to add Michelson to the mix, since he is a new player. Michelson is a proven shot blocker that probably has gotten a lot better in his red shirt year. In this context, and assuming that the new players develop in relation to their current rankings, the new group might have the edge because of the additional player in the mix.
Now, when you add the fact that the returning players will have one more year of experience, one could make a convincing argument that next years team is potentially better; after all, inexperience was a big issue this past season.
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Adding an article from Grantland on Wiggins, Embiid and Parker.
###Grantland: Does Andrew Wiggins Want to Get Rich or Get Better?###
Look at it logically. Parker and Wiggins can get paid next year, sure, but they’ll be on crummy teams with no one to teach them how to be a man. No Coach K, no Bill Self. Nobody to teach them how to lead. Their games are incomplete now, but in the NBA, they’ll be playing an 82-game schedule and they’ll have more plane flights than practices. With no time to work, chances are that the holes in their game will stick with ’em for years. As their careers progress, there are some skills they just won’t have, and it’ll cost ’em come contract time. Or if not contracts, maybe it’ll cost ’em championships. It all ends up looking like the marshmallow test for a bunch of 19-year-old superstars.
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@bskeet wow! Thanks. Hope nobody overlooks it. Very interesting, I keep wondering what is going on in these kids heads right now. Gotta be confusing.
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@Crimsonorblue22 Good point… I added the link in my previous post so folks don’t have to scroll to the top if they don’t want to…
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@bskeet Great find! I found myself agreeing with many of the points he made. I’m glad he pointed out some of the obvious few are willing to discuss here.
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@Wishawk so how do you think parents advise these guys? Ben had to go, or he would be here.
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@Crimsonorblue22 I can’t advice others’ kids, but I told mine to put all his effort into what he thinks are his goals. Now I know he doesn’t hear me as well as he should, but I made sure he heard me enough times. He is no athlete, but I hope he achieves more than I did.
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@Crimsonorblue22 By the way, Ben was not a Freshman. Even if he were, he left as man who took his responsibilities with him. TRob was man who left early to take care of his responsibilities. I’m not a fan of proclaimed OADs, but I’m not against all OADs because they are all different.
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@Wishawk I know Ben wasn’t a frosh. He had to go to take care of his family, but he didn’t want to go. He’s coming back this summer to go to school.
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@Crimsonorblue22 That’s great to hear about Ben…
At one point today, I had an odd thought…
What if Embiid decides to declare – his reasoning is that his stock is already sky-high… his back might get re-injured and that would only raise questions next year.
But Wiggins talks to his brother about the college experience… reflects on the year…and is so disappointed about how he finished that he chooses to return…
I know how unlikely this is… but that would make for an interesting team next year for sure.
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@bskeet crazy, but you never know! I wondered if we might be better off w/Myles in case Embiid would go down w/back problems next year??? As a parent I can’t imagine your son, a boy still, out there w/those big old mature guys. Watched some of the replays w/the heat tonight, not pleasant for young Andrew to go thru. I really don’t know much about their development programs. I would think they will announce soon.
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For those folks who are saying that Embiid needs to go ahead and quickly make up his mind and announce his future intentions, I don’t think you are being fair to Jo and his family. This is quite possibly the biggest decision the young man has ever had to make in his life, and here we have board rats proclaiming “hurry up and decide so we can get Myles Turner.” Quite in line with todays “what have you done for me lately” mentality. You know, the way I see it: JoJo is a Jayhawk, and he means more to me than any potential Jayhawk. I hope Jo takes as much time as he needs to consult as many people as he needs to make the best decision for himself. If we miss out on a prospect because of it, then so be it. I know I wouldn’t rush my own children on decisions such as these.
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RE; point guard talk…Conner vs Frank…
My preference would be Conner WITH Frank 1 and 2. Wayne 3, Ellis 4. We’ll see on the 5 spot. A lot can change, but I expect Jamari to make similar strides in his development and be very difficult to keep off the floor. He’s established his face up 15 footer, next year I expect to see him take more people off the drive with it and I see Bill going back to the 7-8 Man rotation next year: Conner, Frank, Brannen, Wayne, Perry, Cliff, Jamari, (Embiid, Turner, ???). Landen and Hunter will be odd men out for minutes. But I digress.
Conner and Frank give us the perfect combination of caution and aggression; speed and steadiness, drive/collapse/dish.
Of course Frankamp had 0 turnovers in 140 minutes. He would be perfect for Bo Ryan with his slow, deliberate, but cautions and steady pace. He’s not going to make plays off of the bounce, but he’s not going to lose the ball either.
Mason, is the opposite of Frankamp. And once he can get his swinging legs under control, I expect his trey % to improve as well.
One last comment: what is with our desire to label Kelly Oubre the “next” whoever. Why is society obsessed with this fad of having the “next” blah blah blah. Why can’t we just evaluate Kelly Oubre for who Kelly Oubre is? It seems lazy to me. Instead of actually giving explanations regarding skill set and siting specific examples we just say “oh, he’s the next Kobe Bryant” or “next Hakeem Olajuwon” blah blah blah. Guess I can get off the soap box now
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@Blown When you say that Mason is the opposite of Frankamp, do you mean that he had 140 turnovers in 0 minutes?
Just kidding…
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Yep , exactly nuleaf
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Posted on nbcsports 1 minute ago that Embid will enter the 2014 NBA drafthttp://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/27/report-joel-embiid-to-enter-the-2014-nba-draft/.
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@globaljaybird
Boo
I was going to write something witty and funny but now I’m just deflated. I really don’t care that much that Wiggins is gone, but I was looking forward to seeing Joel in the Crimson and Blue for another season. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed watching a KU player as much as him, and that’s saying a lot!
I sincerely hope that 20 years from now we’re talking about his prospects for the Hall of Fame. I wouldn’t be surprised.
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@wissoxfan83 His family friend told me that he would be “very much surprised” if Joel did not enter the draft about a month ago. Here is another link to the scoop-maybe it’s all baloney, but I’m fairly confident it is true.http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/27/4919090/yahoo-report-sources-say-kansas.html
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When you are really injured you have to jump. Can’t give folks another year of analysis. Make them take risk based on less information…
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@Blown I felt the same way too. Far too much money at stake, far & away too much. We can only dream.
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How can I add a picture, I seem to have forgotten cannot find info under “how site works.”
Thank you
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@bskeet Dude’s got a huge point.
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@Blown Unless Hunter just blows us away. He could be our second 5 man off the bench. Jamari could take Perry’s starting spot next season too.
