Post Banquet Conversation
-
@HighEliteMajor Excellent point!
Self rushed Embiid back from the knee injury vs. TCU, remember? We had a tough stretch of games. Bad, bad decision. We said it then. Then after that stretch, he sat him for a bit. Damage was done.
Focusing on winning during the season, perhaps the focus on the oh so important conference title, cost us Embiid in March. And a chance for bigger things
-
I don’t think it is good to give all these freshmen 30+ mpg in their first year of D1. It is such a big jump from HS in physicality… even big football stock players like Selden get banged up too much.
Maybe Wiggins got advice from his dad to cruise most of the time, but make enough effort and still be the top performer on any given night. Had he put out the maximum effort every game, he’d have burned out by January. I think most of the college players don’t have the luxury of having professional advisers like Wiggins or Embiid. So they must rely on the coaching staff. And ultimately the coaches should be like the mom and dad at school. The kids may be 18, but they are no adults, or most of them.
-
@jaybate 1.0 jb, as you well know, I am not the keenest of X’s and O’s contributors on this site. My coaching was in a very different millieu. However, I do read people and situations well, athletically speaking…I think as well as any poster on this site. Andrew White’s second year minutes appeared to be on the rise until the hip flexor (or whatever). I’m willing to wager that AW3 was reluctant to leap back to action as quickly as Bill Self would have liked. Ergo, another Russ Rob situation, tho of different circumstance. Hardheaded but immensely gifted Brannen Greene was beginning to “get it,” so earned gradual minutes which AW3 might have secured, but for the injury. Tharpe’s mercurial play opened the door for Mason to pounce on available minutes; Frankamp, too, by season’s end. White was lost somewhere down on the end of the pine. I will still be amazed (bewildered?) if AW3 does not transfer. In my humble opinion, he starts for 2/3 of our league squads. (By the way, has any thread yet contained commentary about Royce W. transferring once again, leaving Washington State?)
-
@Wishawk Succinct thinking and commenting re the “mentorship” of our pair of OADers. For a freshman, max effort night after night most probably results in injury or burnout. Even Aaron Miles appeared to undergo senior burnout from seasonlong 35+ minute games (although he hadn’t the advantage of spending 4 years under the trainer tutelage of Andrea Hudy and Co.).
-
@JRyman JR, 2 of the most knowledgeable, verbally gifted and, actually, very best posters on this site bear the social graces of wolverines. Stand your ground, but don’t allow them to get close enough to bite!
-
@REHawk Politely and well stated.
-
As you well know, Coach, there’s no one on here I respect more than you on all aspects of basketball. You have done it. If you think he should transfer, then I think he should transfer. I am dumb, but not stupid.
Your self-adopted player and on your pine for life, jaybate 1.0
-
I recall that Self said he didn’t play White as much in 2012-13 because of ball handling. Selden is a worse ball handler than White.
@HighEliteMajor Are you sure about that? By any measure I’ve seen, not only is Selden a better ball handler than White, it’s not even particularly close. White is significantly under a 1:1 A/TO and takes half as many shots inside the arc as Selden. Selden’s numbers weren’t great, but compared to White, he’s Chris Paul.
-
Don’t want to bore you with this concept of networks/internets as a model for thinking about offensive basketball (or defensive basketball, too, or offense/defense/transition jointly), but you seem someone that might be able to think creatively and effectively about the idea in your spare time sometime down the road if the spirit were to move you. So: in case you missed my short response to you yesterday on the embryonic idea, here is another link. I think I’ve lost too much off my fastball to do the concept justice, so I am recruiting you and anyone else here to take the idea and think more about it. KU Basketball has from its inception always been a hotbed of innovative thinking about the game. There is no reason KUBuckets cannot contribute to KU Basketball remotely.
http://kubuckets.com/topic/940/systems-simulation-and-offensive-basketball
-
“Maybe Wiggins got advice from his dad to cruise most of the time, but make enough effort and still be the top performer on any given night. Had he put out the maximum effort every game, he’d have burned out by January. I think most of the college players don’t have the luxury of having professional advisers like Wiggins or Embiid. So they must rely on the coaching staff. And ultimately the coaches should be like the mom and dad at school. The kids may be 18, but they are no adults, or most of them.”
I think you are right on the button!
If we could get Self to use more of his bench, we could give players more rest in every game and then they can play harder in spurts.
Funny how through many games and parts of the season it seemed that our team lacked hustle… but our guys definitely took on their fair share of bumps and bruises. Even Self talked about the guys needing some healing time now and then.
I wonder if many of our slow parts of the season were more about the guys being banged up?
I’ve never understood why we work so hard to recruit depth, then we don’t use it unless we have a dire emergency. We could be running presses all game and forcing teams into our tempo and then tire them out only because we have depth and we use it every game.
-
Another award for Alexander
http://www.studentsports.com/basketball/2014/04/16/cliff-alexander-named-mr-basketball-usa/
-
Another interesting article
http://kansan.com/sports/2014/04/17/top-10-moments-from-a-decade-of-triumph/
-
Gosh… I somehow missed your post until now.
Right on!
In this way I think Self needs to modernize. He’s still treating basketball like it is the same game he played at OSU in 1982. Back then it was the mentality to play through injuries and “man up.” The game has totally evolved since 1982. Players are trained and coached up to a much higher standard, and with the addition of all those heavily trained fast-twitch muscles comes a different level of injury, because the joints haven’t evolved past 1982, but the tendons and muscles have. That translates into players running faster and jumping higher (evolution of the player), but it also means they take a heck of a lot more battering on their joints not even from contact with other players, only their own contact springing off the floor.
I’ve had to adjust my own thoughts on the game in recent years. Because I’m near the same generation as Self, and I played for decades, usually 7 days a week. So, naturally, I did play through most of my injuries. But I didn’t have the athleticism of today’s players. I wasn’t springing 45" off the court for a rebound. I couldn’t make all those hard cuts they make today. A modern player against me in my day would run circles around my game… just like they would of Self’s game.
I’m positive today we are dealing with more hair-line fractures, partial ligament tears, spurs, and what not because these kids are putting their joints through so much more stress than us old timers did with our joints.
No way most modern, competitive players can play all those decades of basketball like we did. I came out of the game with a major injury, but that came after 30 years of full contact basketball played almost 365 days a year. It appears a certain amount of reduced athleticism helps longevity!
Self should play more players and distribute minutes a big broader. That will create better depth for us in March, but will also help reduce injuries for our starters. We can be competitive using more players, and then run them harder with presses and aggressive play. That should counteract any decline in play because we are playing more minutes with lesser talent.
-
I agree, Selden is a much better ball handler than White. What Self said about White at the time was:
“He’s getting tougher,” Self said. “Andrew’s getting tougher. He’s a competitive kid. Andrew’s going to be OK. You look at our team. Does Andrew deserve from a talent standpoint to play more? Absolutely. No question. But you look at our team, what’s our biggest need?”
Better ball-handling and passing.
“Now you’re putting in a guy who doesn’t do that as well as some other guys,” Self said. “If we were more consistent handling and passing the ball, Andrew White would be playing more. But that’s not really Travis’ forte. That’s not Ben’s forte, so it needs to be Elijah (Johnson) and Naadir (Tharpe’s) forte.”
To me it means that, at the time the comment was made, White was not able to handle the ball well enough to create his own shot or pass the ball well enough to create scoring opportunities for other players, in other words, he is/was just a shooter. At KU he plays that hybrid SG-SF position much like Releford did, although Releford was a much better passer and rebounderl. Many outstanding shooters, such as Reggie Miller and Ray Allen were not know for their ball handling but for the ability to receive the ball and shoot effectively from outside and use that threat to penetrate when needed. Hopefully this summer White can improve his ball handling and passing skills and get meaningful playing time; if he can become a consistent threat from the outside without sacrificing to much in other areas, he could well be a significant contributor…or he can transfer to Wake Forest and play for Manning.
-
I’ve never understood why we work so hard to recruit depth, then we don’t use it unless we have a dire emergency. We could be running presses all game and forcing teams into our tempo and then tire them out only because we have depth and we use it every game.
Depth is like insurance, you hope you never have to use it but it is comforting to know that if you ever need it…it is there.
-
@JayHawkFanToo To add to your statement, you have to be able to move without the ball. YOu have to be able to use screens, run angles, know where the open spot on the floor is and where it is going to be when the D shifts.
You brought up Reggie Miller, he moved without the ball and could come off a screen catch and shoot. More recently Doug McDermott, he was constantly moving, if you switched on a screen he’d post up smaller guys, but he found open spaces on the floor where teammates could get him the ball.
Being a spot up shooter in todays game is risky because defenders are quick and long.
-
@drgnslayr I don’t understand the sudden disgust with OADS or with freshman getting so much playing time–as if this were something new. As far back as 1994-95, Raef LaFrentz averaged 23.6 mpg. Later averages were: Paul Pierce–25.4 mpg; Kirk Hinrich --21.3; Nick Collison–22.8; Drew Gooden–20.8; Brandon Rush–31.7; Mario Chalmers–26.3; Sherron Collins–22.3. There were other freshmen who had substantial playing time who I have forgotten or not mentioned.
Neither Coach Williams nor Coach Self refused to play freshmen because they were looking at a “big picture.” They were not playing because neither coach felt they contribute enough at that time to help win more games.
I don’t recall so many complaints about the way those freshmen were used. But now that a season in which some expected better results in the tournament came to a disappointing close–there are a number who jump on the bandwagon and essentially declare it to be a problem with the way Self is using freshmen. Just doesn’t make sense.
-
@HighEliteMajor I agree with you assessment on Self playing Embiid way too soon. Self can see he wasn’t 100%, so why risk further injury when March run was round the corner? Also, I do not agree with Self’s “toughening” philosophy of playing injured players. Tyshawn, Elijah, Selden all played with injuries and didn’t they play 1 & 2 during their career at KU? Is this a reputation that Self carries and perhaps why he can’t get 5* PG to come to KU?
Another observation - did you ever notice how Naa’s eyes were drooping last year? His eye lids would hang down & cover half of his eyes, and that looked so strange. I noticed again, but as the season went on his eyes looked normal - except a few times. It looked so weird (i.e. those with bad face lift strange) that I made a mental note. Any thoughts on that or is it my vision?
-
How coaches handle injuries is a huge pet peeve of mine, especially for non-professional players.
Playing hurt in high school or college may endear you to a coach, but it could have longterm effects, either on your personal health and well being, or on your future earning potential should you be fortunate enough to have the talent to play professionally.
Perhaps this goes back to my own personal experience. In high school I had a pretty significant high ankle sprain. I probably should have been on the shelf for at least 2-3 weeks, but, because we already had lost a couple other starters to injuries, I was asked to play. Being a team player, I agreed and played on an ankle that was roughly the size of a grapefruit for basically two weeks. I finally started getting healthy and guess what - I was benched in favor of the guys that had been sitting out because I had not been playing at the top of my game due to the injury because I could barely run or jump.
If I had to do it all over, I would sit for at least a week, probably two in order to get healthy. There was no reward for “gutting it out.” I just provided a bridge until some guys got healthy, then fell out of the rotation for a month, even though I was healthy and playing well by that time. Still, my coach pointed to some of my early season performances that were uneven as a reason for cutting my minutes (one of the reasons I haven’t spoken to him in almost 15 years).
I think guys should sit if they aren’t healthy, especially early in the season. Playing when you’re dinged up in October won’t help you, because you aren’t going to get better playing or practicing every day. Hopefully Selden hasn’t caused any lasting damage to his knees by playing basically the entire season on a bad wheel.
-
@drgnslayr “Self should play more players and distribute minutes a big broader. That will create better depth for us in March, but will also help reduce injuries for our starters. We can be competitive using more players, and then run them harder with presses and aggressive play. That should counteract any decline in play because we are playing more minutes with lesser talent.”
Well said. Otherwise, why have a depth? Plus, if we play more players, wouldn’t that mean our opponents would have to spend more time on scouting reports in March when time is limited? Maximizing internal resources for highest return is the coach/leader’s job. I like Self, and modifying his strategy a bit won’t hurt - UConn grabbed its 4th with lesser talents, 2 NC in less than 5 years ('11, '14) while we got 10 B12? Hopefully Self will be glad to sacrifice the B12 championships for another NC or two or three or more. Think he can do it, if he modifies a bit - like dropping Combo Guards and going after PG! oops, my March memory is coming back…
-
@drgnslayr I agree our team looked like one with the deepest bench at the beginning of the season, but somehow we couldn’t find enough players to step up starting January. It may be they were banged up or maybe Coach Self’s philosophy of not allowing players to learn on the job really hurt what he tries to accomplish. He needs to manage the personnel better and maximize all available resources. It’s probably not a comparable situation to professional soccer. Look at Ozil of Arsenal. Arsenal had many stars, but the manager didn’t rest his star player early during the season and got him burned out. Now Arsenal is struggling to make top four in the Premier League. Had he managed his players better, Arsenal might be strong toward the end of the season and challenging for the title in England. I think there is some parallel between Arsenal and KU. Both have great coaches and great players, both have very consistent performance and great regular seasons, but somehow both under perform at the end of the seasons.
-
@HawksWin Developing a bench is a good thing, but when the talent gap between the starters and the bench is vast, it makes sense to play your best players the most minutes. This is not a point made regarding the prevention of injuries, but more to your other points about the benefits. I mean, you point to UConn, do you think Kevin Ollie was sitting Napier, Boatwright, & Daniels in lieu of bench players? Napier - 35.1 mpg. Boatwright - 32.4 mpg. Daniels - 29.0 mpg. Compare that to KU’s top minute garners - Wiggins - 32.8 mpg. Tharpe - 29.4 mpg. Selden - 29.2 mpg. Kentucky had 4 players (all freshman) average over 30 mpg. Wisconsin had 3 players average over 30 mpg and one average 29.8 mpg. Florida had two players average over 30 mpg, and their third leading player in terms of mpg averaged 27.9.
The point being what seems to work across all systems is playing your best players as much as possible. KU had 8 players average double digits in minutes played. So did all 4 Final 4 teams. Arizona had 7. Syracuse (who spent time this year ranked #1) had 8. Michigan St. - 8. Duke - 7. Virginia - 8 (barely, one player just above 10 mpg). The average seems to be playing 8 players. The only exceptions among top teams I found were Wichita St., Louisville, & Michigan all had 9 players average double digit mpg. Wichita St. can be explained by playing a cupcake schedule in which they were routinely blowing opponents out, which gives you the luxury of going down the bench one further. Louisville can be explained by their system, which both tires guys out more from their relentless play and also gets players in foul trouble quicker. Michigan seems to be the aberration.
So the argument really is that some want Self to change his system. I myself have been in favor of mixing in more traps, presses, zones, etc. But not as a complete system change, but as a change-up. I don’t think this requires a major philosophical shift in terms of minute distribution. In KU’s two most successful season’s under Self how many has he played? In '08 we had 8 players average double digit minutes, and the 8th was Roderick Stewart with 11.6 mpg, many of his minutes coming early in the season while filling in for Rush. And in '12 we had an iron man team, with only 7 averaging double digit minutes. Kevin Young averaged 11.4, while 4 starters averaged over 30.
Despite all other adjustments suggested, I think the problem we had this past season is staring us right in the face: Tharpe - 29.4 mpg. The argument can and has been made that Self should seriously cut those minutes next season and that we must have a capable point guard. Everything else discussed - distribution of minutes, style of play, OADs being ill-suited for success in Self’s system - is secondary, and really we cannot begin to diagnose if any of these other issues being discussed are genuine issues until the problem of point guard is addressed.
-
@icthawkfan316 You got it. I don’t understand why the other issues are mentioned unless and until the pg problem is addressed. Fixing them won’t take care of the problem. Unless that is addressed, next year is going to be a big disappointment as well.
-
Most every coach including Self always indicate that their goal is to have a rotation of 7-8 players and no more. It takes time and effort to have the players learn to play with each other and become aware of the little things that make the team work like a well oiled machine. If you start playing more than 7 or 8 players you introduce variables that decrease the efficiency of the team as a whole.
At the beginning of the season Coach Self indicated, half-jokingly, that this year he might have a bigger rotation in view of the talent available, but when the rubber hit the road, it went back to the rotation he has always used; not really a big surprise.
As I said, I have heard several big time coaches indicate the same approach, Coach K, Pitino, Izzo, Wright come to mind.
-
@JayHawkFanToo Right. That was the point I was trying to make by illustrating how many other programs have their rotations at 8 players. That while I had never heard any other coaches talk about their player rotations (mainly because I don’t care to follow any other programs closely enough), that you could see the empirical proof that 7-8 is the standard.
-
Agreed. Coach Self is doing what every other coach does.
-
@icthawkfan316 Regarding playing 8 players, I agree and disagree. Agree is because what you illustrated while disagree is because what happened to Selden, Embiid, etc. When a player is hurt, the coach should rest him until he is recovered. While the hurt player is rested, it is time for the next bench player to come on board and learn the ropes. So we still have 8 players in the rotation. I think it is beneficial to the team, the hurt player, and the bench player to rotate. If the recovered player comes back and proves better than the bench player, the bench player goes back to the bench. We gain a healthy player, and an experienced bench player. What’s there to lose? I think without a developed bench, it leaves holes in March. And we leave our fate to chances that all the rotational players are healthy at the end of the season. What if Embiid were rested a month earlier and were available for March? Or Selden in December? I think we’d have much better chance of having Greene, White and Lucas developed as reliable backups for March. And we might go a little further than we did.
-
Truthfully, I did not fully realize until Tournament Time (Big 12 and NCAA) that Tharpe’s mercurial inconsistencies would contibute so heavily to doom what was left of this squad after Embiid was forced to sit. Mason might have maxed out for his freshman potential; Frankamp barely touched his surface potential, delivering startling A/T stats in crunch time. The guy I thought all along needed perhaps an additional 3 min. per game average was Greene, who appeared to be a difficult study for the coaching staff. In my humble opinion, Greene’s potential is off the charts. Too many freshmen for Self to develop and maneuver this season…
-
@REHawk Great thoughts about Greene. I think he’s got BIG potential, although we didnt see him dribble-drive as much as Wiggins. I think Brannen Greene(top30) and Wayne Selden(MickeyD), (& AW3( top50), if he stays) are foundation players for Bill Self, as are Mason(50ish), Frankamp(top30), Traylor, Lucas, Mickelson (top50). I mean thats a collection of 1- thru 5-position players, gathering experience & reps, irrespective of what the possible OADs do. If the OADs want to stay, “great, come join the family” (instead of staying in the guest bedroom x 9mos).
Give me the 2ADs (better) and the 3ADs (best) in Self’s system: Next season is going to be FUN!!
-
@ralster Wigs was rarely if ever on a leash. By the end of Feb. Brannen KNEW that if he ventured far from his box he would submit to another choke collar, way down the pine. I think that Self had best let up on Greene early this next season, allow him to do what he does best: bring immediate Kevin Young-like energy onto the floor while keeping his body in constant motion. He will still race into some mindboggling turnovers, but the upside will compensate. If he and Self can mesh, I look to see Brannen cement his spot in the starting lineup by year 3. If he stays a 4th season, somewhere along the way he will be adorned with a national championship ring and become a first round draft choice. I am as certain of that as I am that Tharpe cannot start and lead the Jayhawks to March and April tournament titles. Naadir might do one hell of a strong job coming off the bench, but he can’t begin to compete against the likes of Napier or those cocky Kentucky twins.
-
@REHawk Agreed. Wigs was given Rush-rules of mpg, including that rare gift of mistake-forgiveness. All others courttime lives and dies by the QuickHook. Even junior Tharpe sufferred the Hook early/often/and most unfortunately, in our final, floundering, headless game against the likes of Stanford: Tharpe had to sit-&-squirm next to Self, while Frankamp valiantly went down swinging. Guardplay and defense woes sunk us early.
But, on the bright side, getting a fiery-red “L” tattooed in your memory in the Round of 32 has a real nice way of motivating young cocky frosh. Now when Self talks, they know. Now they gained perspective and purpose.
-
@jaybate 1.0 Great pot. I really hope that AW3 stays and finishes his career at KU. I envision a good 3rd year and a great senior year from him.
-
@AsadZ Do you live in Colorado? Funny typo.
-
I haven’t posted on here in a while, but it was interesting to see how much posters have learned from this past year at KU. This past year was experimental, playing with so much young talent was new to Bill Self and also for us, as fans. Our expectations were ENORMOUS for this team, and now they are so much more tempered. This is of course, speaking in generalities, this season is one data point, really. The freshman experiment could work, perhaps with different skills and talents, to produce a more favorable outcome. However, the NCAA tournament shouldn’t be the end all be all, great teams will always lose, any team can get hot at any point and play beyond their seed.
Talking about AW3 staying until the end of his career is exactly what KU needs though, more than an available scholarship to give to a freshman. KU had a HUGE recruiting class last year, Wigs/Selden/CF/FM/BG/Embiid. Holy cow. But I think the real value of this class will be Selden/CF/FM/BG, these guys who can give us a few years, even 4 years. Selden may go after his soph campaign, but he may not. The problem this year was we barely had any seniors who could play (Besides Tarik!). Heck, we barely had any juniors (Tharpe). If each class were to have two or so highly skilled but not NBA ready 4 year guys, I think KU is going to really take off, and also, be more fun to watch because there will be less boneheaded mistake. I will put it out there that I think this will be the worst season we have for the next 3 years (and it wasn’t even too shabby).
Before this season started I didn’t think Lucas would see ANY playing time because of our depth, but there was a need for him. The same will happen with AW3, he’ll be called on. Same thing for many of the bench players. Even Lucas is better off staying at KU. It’s coming together, and I don’t think we have to be as tempered with our expectations for the next few years.
-
@Hawk8086 funny!!! Might be awhile before they get back w/you!!
-
To all those wondering if Bill should play hurt players or not; I say if the long term implications are not dire do it. I know I would rather have seen Embiid play hurt in the tournament than not at all. If you think he would have hurt his draft stock look at the big guy from “The” OSU he was drafted #1 in spite of not being able to play his entire rookie year. He also hasn’t played more than a handful of games any one year.
Now I don’t want to see guys get crippled playing basketball, but if I can go to work the day after chopping my finger tip off they can maybe gut out a mild injury (a broken back is not a mild injury, I know). I work outdoors, but it’s not a contact sport - I understand it’s not a fair comparison. Tyshawn played a few days after minuscus surgery. Brandon Rush played the season after an ACL surgery. Wayne Selden, Josh Selby, Reed, etc. played all year with a bum wheel. Embiid’s parents wouldn’t let him play; I have no doubt he would’ve played (in pain) if he wouldn’t have been held out.
-
@BucknellJayhawk3 Regarding AW3 staying or transferring, I know quite a few people (myself included) aren’t hopeful that he transfers because we want the scholarship for another freshman. I’d like to see him transfer for HIS sake. For the sake of his collegiate career. Look at next year - is he going to get significant playing time? Self recruited over him last year bringing in Wiggins, it appears he’s done it again bringing in Oubre. Greene got minutes ahead of him last year, so you’d have to assume that would be the case again. The point being, barring injury or something unforeseen, the circumstances just don’t look good for him playing rotation level minutes next year. To be a junior who was a top 50 level prospect coming out of high school, junior year should be the latest for being in a position to play those type of minutes. And with it not looking good for next year, should he just hold his breath and hope minutes open up his senior year? Should he really leave himself one year of eligibility to experience a significant role playing college hoops? Some guys don’t mind, because they are KU blue through & through, but most players are competitive and want to play. Andrew could take the lessons & teachings he’s garnered his first two years at KU, transfer somewhere else, sit out a year learning a system, and be ready to potentially star for another team with significant playing time available. I would not begrudge him that. In fact, I encourage it.
-
@icthawkfan316 I totally get it, AW3 is in a tough spot right now. It is unfortunate, if he leaves I wouldn’t blame him either. Maybe he works his ass off again and beats BG for the starting spot his senior year? Maybe not. But for sure he isn’t guaranteed to star with Oubre around, so that is at least one year coming off the bench. I know part of the reason KU reloads every year isn’t solely because the bench guys got so much better from year to year, but it’s because they finally get their chance to get enough minutes to show it. This might be the case with AW3 as well. As a philosophy though, I think having these top 50 prospects sticking around for 4 years would be tremendous for the program, and I think with this frosh class of WS/BG/CF/FM maturing and sticking around for at least a little bit, we have some good years to come.
-
@icthawkfan316 Couldn’t have said it better. I am a big AW3 fan and want the best for the guy. It would have been great to see what White could have done with regular playing time. I’ve heard a couple suggestions that he redshirt this next season.
I would just like to know why he would stay? What’s the rationale?
-
@HighEliteMajor I would just like to know why he would stay? What’s the rationale?
He likes KU. He likes his teammates. He doesn’t want to start over. He likes his roommate. He has a girlfriend. He likes his classes. He likes his major. His mom and dad told him he couldn’t. He respects Coach Self to a fault.
And in the words of Naval Officer Candidate, Zach Mayo, “Don’t you do it! Don’t! You… I got nowhere else to go! I got nowhere else to g… I got nothin’ else.”
Thats just some of my maybes???
-
@HighEliteMajor there are so many factors, and I don’t know what he prioritizes. Maybe he bought into the system and truly believes he’ll have his time to shine if he’s good enough, or maybe even as I type this he is contemplating leaving. If Oubre leaves after one year and we don’t get another 3, we could see him getting some great playing time in 2016, battling it out with Greene. If his overall goal is the NBA, he’ll have to be better than BG to get drafted. At the same time, maybe he does need to go somewhere else and get 30+ mpg for his sake. My perspective is just as a selfish fan who wants to see good athletes stick around. I will add, I see AW3 having a good go of his collegiate career, and won’t just transfer and get lost in the merry go round a la Anrio. What would his transfer options be like? Would he be able to land on a tournament team? What’s to guarantee he would start there and not be beat out for minutes or over recruited? I’m not sure what the transfer landscape is like. What if he also ended up being the star at Washington State University but never got to compete for a national championship? I really have no clue, I have no read on these talented athletes who are adored by tens of thousands of fans.
-
@JRyman and @BucknellJayhawk3 - all very good points.
Connor Teahan could have played at a mid-major and chose to stay here.
With White, though, doesn’t he have a shot at some kind of pro career? Greece, Turkey, wherever?
You both are right … there is clearly more to this if he has made the decision to stay.
I’d like nothing more than for AW3 to stay, and have a breakout season.
-
@BucknellJayhawk3 Right. White was a star in high school and was highly recruited. I would think it likely that he believes that he is good enough to earn significant playing time. Clearly, Self felt that way during pre-season. We look at the situation and see that he was not able to beat out Greene this year and now Oubre is coming. Something will have to change for him to earn playing time. As a competitor, he could likely believe that he can make that happen.
-
@HighEliteMajor I cannot envision Andrew’s turning down a red shirt or a chance to transfer with the hopes of starting two years for another solid program. If he chooses neither, I don’t see him playing more than 5 or 6 minutes his jr. year…unless Oubre or Greene suffers lingering injury. If Perry occasionally is slotted at the small forward position, AW3’s playing time is definitely doomed for another season.
-
@Hawk8086 LOL, Thanks for the assist
-
Jhawks in Europe
http://www.rockchalktalk.com/2014/4/18/5628364/a-look-at-former-jayhawk-basketball-players-in-europe
-
http://www.rockchalktalk.com/2014/4/18/5628364/a-look-at-former-jayhawk-basketball-players-in-europe
So glad to see Miles doing so well, never understood why he never caught on with a NBA team here.
Happy for all the Jayhawks overseas doing well.
-
@Crimsonorblue22 Thanks CB. In a comment under that article, someone asked about Tyrel Reed and Brady “Favorite Topic” Morningstar. Tyrel is studying at KU Med Center, and Brady is starting for a team in Finland.
-
@ParisHawk someone told me Brady was done???
-
Brady is playing in Finland. Maybe ? He was between teams last year!
