@truehawk93 KU doesn’t have to be the best team in the tournament, just the better team on floor 6 times.

@loyolstud88 Blue blood killer is cute, come back when you beat one.

@Kcmatt7 Self knows exactly how to coach young guards. They just don’t become finished products right away. Mason and Graham each took until their third years to become elite guards.

Marcus Garrett has signed a free agent deal with the Miami Heat. The last two Jayhawks who played with the Heat won NBA titles (Chalmers and Simien) so maybe Garrett continues that trend.

@kuballin10 said in Puerto Rico!:

@mayjay lol no doubt I’m starting early.

Last year it was Joe should play more or actually year before that and then last year he showed he doesn’t have it.

This year we have the horses and both Morris and Elmarko are better nba prospects for a reason.

Gotta trust Bill

Being a better NBA prospect doesn’t equal being a better college player right now. Dejuan Harris is a better college player than Morris or Jackson right now because he is a much more polished product than either of those two.

There’s also a reason why Yesufu ended up in the wastelands of Pullman, Washington. He’s an undersized 2 with a low BBIQ that’s never met a shot he didn’t like that Self never should’ve offered.

Constructing a championship caliber team isn’t necessarily about the 5 best players, it’s a bit the 5 right players and Harris brings a lot of other tools than scoring to the table. Having a real post threat now means that Harris can focus on his defense and running the show and not worry about having to score like last season. I wouldn’t be shocked if Harris averaged 8-9 assists per game this season with the supporting cast he has.

Good to see Udeh still helping KU win games, lol!

KU and Beaty need to do everything in their power to keep Tony Hull because as long as he’s at KU, that pipeline KU now has into New Orleans is going to stay open until for KU until Hull is no longer here. Louisiana is just an entirely different culture from the rest of the country and these guys aren’t joking about the family atmosphere having a huge influence on their decisions. I know @wissox and anyone else including myself who have spent a significant portion of time in Louisiana will 100% back up this claim about the loyalty of Louisiana people being accurate and Hull has the loyalty of HS coaches and players all over the New Orleans area specifically.

Landing Tyriek Starks was the beginning. The connection with Hull was made during this recruitment because Starks played at Warren Easton under Hull. Reggie Mitchell then leaves for Arkansas and KU has a need for a new RB coach. Beaty takes a calculated risk by bringing in Hull in an attempt to get some players out of Louisiana. Almost immediately, Hull gets commitments from Mike Lee and Malik Clark (Clark is also from Warren Easton) and then gets Lee to enroll a year early at KU. In his 1st year, Hull also lands Travis Jordan and Takulve Williams both from the New Orleans area as well. In a little over a year on the job, Hull brings in 4 Louisiana players, one of whom gets a chance to play early. Getting players from Louisiana to visit KU is a big enough deal which hiring Hull allowed KU to at least talk to players in Louisiana. Seeing Mike Lee emerge on the scene however is a game changer for KU in Louisiana. Without the success Mike Lee had last year, KU does not land any of the Louisiana recruits that committed yesterday, at least not early like they did. They probably go home and tell their younger teammates about how nice KU is and that keeps the line of communication open with Louisiana prospects for Tony Hull. Lee’s success is a game changer because it shows these kids that they can come in and be successful very early on at KU instead of having to sit and wait behind other 4 and 5 star guys at LSU.

If Daylon Charlot comes in and has early success and if Tyriek Starks wins the QB job, the floodgates will be fully open for KU to talk to any recruit in Louisiana they want to and to have a legitimate chance to sign those players as well.

What KU did yesterday in getting commitments from Jason and Harris (3rd and 4th best players in Louisiana with offers from LSU, Alabama, and basically everybody in the SEC) is something that has definitely caught a lot of people off guard including everyone who follows KU football. We knew Hull would allow KU to talk to some players out of Louisiana, but to actually land commitments from players the caliber of Jason and Harris is something I don’t even think Tony Hull thought was possible at this stage in the game.

Don’t be surprised to see KU land possibly 3, maybe even more recruits out of Louisiana this year. Warren Easton has a couple of 3 star prospects who we know Hull has a relationship with and there’s a DE out of Baton Rouge that KU is the favorite to land.

Man who run behind car get exhausted

Man who walk through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok

Man who eat many prunes get good run for money

Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cathouse

These are just for you @jaybate-1.0

TCU is significantly better than any 16 seed KU will face. Whatever league KU’s 16 seed comes out of, TCU is good enough to go undefeated in that league.

Lightfoot is also playing way out of position as well. He’s being forced into being a low post player on both ends of the floor when he’s never had that role before. The guy is a stretch 4 and is being exploited in major mismatches because he’s never guarded the position before.

Clay Young has been better on the defensive end because he was a post at his JuCo even at his size. He understands the role and what’s required of the role much better than Lightfoot does.

I’m not going to rip in Lightfoot for this because none of it is his fault. He didn’t make Coleby transfer, he didn’t make Whitman transfer, he didn’t make Preston sit out because of a car. We all know Lightfoot isn’t ready for this role, but he’s the only option at this point.

This situation is why Self is trying to get DeSousa enrolled early and it’s why Sosinski was added to the team. KU needs to work on developing Sosinski over the next 3 weeks which KU only has 3 games during that stretch. Work him into the rotation this week, let him make his debut against Nebraska, give him some big minutes against Omaha as a trial run, and if that goes well, let him sub for Azubuike against Stanford and see how that goes before Texas on the 29th.

If the Preston situation gets resolved in a positive manner by that time, then swap Sosinski out for Preston. Either way, KU needs to find a way to get Lightfoot back to the stretch 4 spot because him as a low post player doesn’t work.

@benshawks08 said in Bill Self on potentially hiring a GM…:

Doesn’t Peterson need to be “on ball” too? Is anyone good “off ball”?

Seems like that’s a big part of our problems this year. AJ needs the ball in his hands, Hunter needs the ball in his hands, and if the ball isn’t in Juan or kjs hands they are actively not guarded so better get the ball in their hands, and if Rylan doesn’t have the ball in his hands he just kind of floats to the corner and waits (this has been a little better the last few games).

I see why we all love flory.

Peterson can play off ball just fine amd at his size, he may well end up off the ball the NBA as well.

@drgnslayr said in Bill Self on potentially hiring a GM…:

@Texas-Hawk-10

I hope you are right about Elmarko!

Elmarko was put into a bad situation his freshman season. He wasn’t intended to be a starter or play off ball. That all changed when Morris was kicked off the team. Elmarko is an on ball player and should look much better and more natural running the point next season.

@drgnslayr said in Bill Self on potentially hiring a GM…:

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Bill Self on potentially hiring a GM…:

Zach Clemence, Elmarko Jackson, and Jamari McDowell

We are putting next year’s team with these 3 as leaders?

Now I’m worried.

I was watching Houston tonight. Every one of their guys are athletic and want the rock down the stretch. Until we can fill a team with guys like this, we are going to get beat down in games against teams like Houston.

I don’t want to post the full section of that article because it’s behind a paywall, but it’s essentially saying these are three players who have been around the program and can show newcomers what it means to be a Jayhawk under Bill Self because they’ve only ever been apart of Bill Self’s system in college. Jackson and McDowell will be entering their 3rd year in the program and Clemence his 5th so they’re going to be the veterans of the program that will be responsible for setting the tone and culture for next season. Flory, Rakeese, and Tiller have only known Bill Self’s way so it should be harder for players not originally recruited to KU to become a negative influence within the program and not meet program standards or not be held accountable for not meeting program standards.

Essentially KU will have more KU guys going through the offseason to keep incoming transfers from gaining too much influence in the program.

With Elmarko, he’s got a chance to be one of KU’s two or three top players next year amd hopefully become a leader next season both on and off the court.

Obviously not the cleanest game, but that wasn’t what was needed to be seen tonight, but the biggest thing was KU’s energy and effort levels were high throughout the game. At this point, this team will go wherever Hunter carries them to.

We’ll find out tonight if the OSU game was a one off or this team turning the corner to make a run.

I just want to see them come out and play with energy tonight.

@benshawks08 said in Biggest game of the year thread:

That’s still 9:00 mountain time? What the hell? I’d get it if it was full west coast pacific time because a game starting at 8 isn’t unheard of but 9 seems late add in the central time of 10:00 and it just seems silly.

The old Pac 12 After Dark time slot.

@kjayhawks said in Biggest game of the year thread:

Is Shak hurt or what?

Mentioned a few games back, he’s dealing with a foot injury. That’s why he had been playing reduced minutes recently, nothing to do with being in Self’s doghouse.

We saw what a fully healthy Shak could do on defense and how much that energized the team.

Today was encouraging. Whether it was a one off or something more remains TBD. We didn’t look like this against Colorado 11 days ago though and Colorado is a much worse team than OSU.

I mentioned it in during the game, but this team will go as far as Hunter carries them. When he’s active and engaged like today, everyone else feeds off that energy. When he plays half-assed, pretty much everyone else plays half-assed as well.

Can Hunter have a Remy-like run to end his KU career and change his KU legacy? It was about this time 3 years ago that we were wondering if Remy was even going to play for KU again, but that’s rarely brought up because of his run to end the season. That doesn’t necessarily mean Hunter has to win a title, but making a run in the B12 Tournament, making it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament would do a lot to change Hunter’s long term legacy here.

This team goes as Hunter goes. When he’s playing motivated, KU is damn near unstoppable.

Already in the bonus, nice!