@BShark I cannot imagine it, sir, yet… My dad is 84, and lately has been full of phrases like “could go anytime” or “I’m in the red zone of life”, and wants to go over his will for the 6th time in the last 10yrs. Of course all that gives me serious pause to consider just about everything. All the years. All what he taught me. How will I be at his age? He’s still teaching 1 college class now, since many guys love their “routines”, but doesnt have to stand lecturing all day. Goes to the office, does his thing. And tells me the same stories he has been for the last few years. It’s life. Both its richness and its finite nature.

My condolences to you and family. We’re all with you.

@BShark Whoa, and after I posted that, I just remembered that my grandfather passed away at 84…so perhaps being “84” now himself is truly most poignant for my dad. Gosh, it just occurred to me.

@AsadZ I think you have brought to the discussion exactly what needs to be, again a heartfelt thanks, regarding this issue. Your point about Isis doing the most damage to Muslims is exactly where my concern is. My further point was a general one about provocation & justification of some ‘response’ when some nation decides to react or retaliate. Yes, you are 100% correct to touch on innocent lives being lost, as the war machine gets turned on.

So, same question: is that what those few minority jihadists want? Because to answer your other 4 questions: No, I’m no expert on Islam. Thats why I would point to what history shows us how people may respond & have responded when threatened. And I’d be talking as an American with my own family to worry about. Yes, have known several Muslim families, family friends, while growing up. Fine people, medical professionals by training. Father grew up in a country that is 20+% Muslim, so he knows far more about the Koran than I do, never read it, but had a Saudi friend in college (from Jeddah) who was trying to read me passages from the Koran, & trying explain the strife in the middle east (this was back in the mid80s). I welcomed his perspective, but he didnt know how secular & nonreligious I am. Dad is same way, as he is a scientist. Dad immigrated from 3rd world in 1961 (there’s a right way & a wrong way to immigrate, is what we believe…). He didnt come to the US to continue all the old ways & pretend he’s still in the old country. He saw the US as a nation of scientific progress, ingenuity, & of opportunity. His motto & work ethic was taken directly from the WW2 generation. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Assimilate, was his choice. Being from aristocracy in that old country I got to visit once as a kid, we carry our pride within us, wherever we go. Dont need to wear it on our sleeve. I know not everyone can say or do the same.

So, @AsadZ, I agree with almost everything you said. My msg remains regarding the actions of a few radicals, causing phobia, to the detriment of all, wouldnt you agree. @justanotherfan 's post was a beautiful one. My worry for even more innocent civilian lives (as we both have mentioned) is what happens when big nations “react”…we humans have a gruesome history there, not just Hitler, Stalin, Tojo. The US is part of that too. I fear its about to happen again. The displaced millions from Syria are only a sign of whats coming. Pawns in a big power chess game. Its always the poor who pay the price.

Definitely need to get a feel for his playstyle and decision-making, maybe reserve judgement until several games in, or end of nonconf.

Right now, he reminds me of Elijah Johnson v2.0, but if he has some alpha in him, he instantly surpasses EJ by a little bit. If he has a lot of alpha in him, he’ll make us not miss Mason/Josh as much.

More importantly, I’m hoping he has big chemistry and a intuitive “feel” for what Devonte is doing. To have a 2-headed monster at guard, they have to become that and play that way. Iron out the miscomms…

@nuleafjhawk Oh yeah, I’d rescue the mizzou person, because with that act, you just might have changed his perspective about Jayhawks or KU people. And if he truly was drowning, he’ll be thinking about what a jayhawk did for him the rest of his days.

I do small scale versions of this sort of “turn their world upside down”, when wearing ku stuff, I hand out a little KSU token, or key chain, or tiny stuffed WillieWildcat to a little Kstate kid. Just blew up whatever purple-fed hate he’d been learning…sometimes the look on Ma or Pa purple’s face is just priceless, as they now got some explaining to do back at home, lol. Taking the “we in KS sure do appreciate what Bill Snyder’s done”, turns those cat people into…well…quiet mice. Scurry off now.

@BeddieKU23 I like your enthusiasm. I guess your description of a laccadaisical 1st half, followed by the much-needed Self butt-chewing at halftime, followed by a stellar, AFH-tradition-compatible 2nd half…somewhat reminds me of the FortHaysState exhibition game.

What?! Yes, the game where tiny FHSU (nonDiv1) was leading KU in our own badass, big-o-barn, with a few min to go in the 1st half…No player taller than 6’7. I even saw some of those 99yr old KU alums in the front row not knowing what to think for a minute, seems like feathers ruffled a bit. Least of which was Self, who was loading the mental machine gun for halftime with a very long belt…

Not down on this team’s chances, but they lost big heart (Mason), big fire (Josh), and big stats (Mason+Josh). We see how much the 7ft “monster” has to learn, as does our KY-like athlete MickeyD (Preston). But in their favor, we see already that Udoka is > Lucas, and Preston has already shown more than Bragg.

Not worried about “KY” as in November, especially with this younger than usual roster, they are nothing more than an all star AAU team. How are they much better than the Mcdonalds All American game, at this point? They will become a dangerous athletic March product by, well, March. That’s Calipari’s system at work. Of course the slap on Self’s red face is if somehow that gang of “KY” kids is able to pull off the upset over KU on Tuesday, but really doubt they are capable of that. (But then, do Malik and Doke and Billy P get caught up in the 1-upsmanship of playing other McD guys??). At least we know Devonte and Vick play for real. And play in a real system. The others still learnin’

@AsadZ The only fine logic point I may beg to differ is I’m not sure what point you were trying to make about BinLaden in your last paragraph. Arms deals, arms supplies, go do our dirty work for us…man, thats just old news, that what the CIA does, & has been doing it since the 1950s. You dont think the KGB did the same? I could care less. Because the whole point of killing Osama was because of what HE did, wasnt it? The fact that we gave him free stuff a few yrs prior, means nothing. Are you justifying his actions somehow? Is there any rational explanation for taking out 4000 civilians? His orchestrations and actions were directly taken as an act of war, werent they? Is that what he wanted? Because he lost. And his actions have perpetuated how many more innocent lives being lost?

You can look at things humanistically, or religiously, or however you want. I’m just looking at things realistically. Practically. You know what is frightening and sad, but a very grim reality: many of the people in charge of various big nations & their militaries (the ones who order military action), may NOT possess much knowledge of Islam or the Koran, yet may give an order at any minute…scary thought. What if islamophobia is a factor in their minds? At least OBLaden got what he deserved, by all accounts. Threat elimination might be the new buzzword for this milennia, & I fear for any innocents that get collected in it.

“saw him get absolutely owned”. Well, the TV announcers saw it and commented on it. Bell got (& earned) high praise. Charles Barkley at halftime thought the best plan for Frank Mason was to “involve his teammates more”. Dont know what was said in the locker room, but I see 2nd half Frank and DG “feeding” Lucas, who of course was good at sealing off his man…but once he received the pass, the adventuresome journey down the tortured path of statistical no-return began. My lasting image of Lucas, as a senior, no less, is of sealing his man off perfectly, and going up for a 2ft airball off the backboard. For a 6’10 big who spent 100% of his time near the rim (due to zero face-up range), that’s hard to do. But it tells the story of what Lucas was (as @HighEliteMajor perfectly alluded to), which segues precisely into what’s been missing from KU’s post presence for a few years now. Self tried his best with the hand he got dealt by fate (recruiting and injury to Doke, and fall thru floor by Bragg). And I cannot fault players like Frank Mason or Sherron, even if they have an off day in the Tourney–point being that they proved their greatness. I’d only wish they got the big prize for their own sake, then our sake second…

Yes keep it all respectful. Explain your viewpoint, & since you are doing so in public domain, expect differring points of view. Heck, we can even differ on Self’s philosophies. But I enjoy the other angles people bring up to consider. Rock Chalk. Great site, to try to do this regarding hotbed politics, in these times…

@kjayhawks nail on head about the aggravating inconsistencies in penalties.

@JayHawkFanToo Agree with all you said. I would finalize the thoughts about Lucas with your own phrase: “Lucas makes a convenient target”. Precisely. His comparative lack of attributes does indeed make it convenient. Because we know full well the guards’ off-shooting night was an occasional aberration. Normally they were stellar. The counter example is a game (NC game, no less), where our “guards shot us out of the game”, but no one has ever, ever dogged on Thomas Robinson or Withey in that game. Even if they missed some dunks. We knew what their norm was. We also saw Landon’s norm, in repeat fashion. Removed all doubt. When the guards were flat, Landon couldnt help them. It goes both ways. I do recall offensively limited Sasha Kaun actually saving our bacon vs Davidson (E8) when those “guards were flat”.

@KUSTEVE Ya we cant say much, remember the preface: small sample size. I see a 6’4 athletic guard with an improving 3ball, known as a slasher. I saw him look great vs PittSt, then looked lackluster in the only other game Ive seen him in (point made?), dribbling into trouble and turning it over, against FHSU…and even getting benched to start the 2nd half.

Good god I hope Malik shows me more than EJ did? Let’s also see what kind of D he can play, after a year of Self tutelage. It took EJ 3 years to “get it”.

Man I hope Malik is better, and a quicker learner! TBD…

@jayballer54 Maybe the “deal” is we got the primetime TV slot on ESPNU. Cant complain.

Also, what’s your early scout on WVU and Baylor?

@BShark Whoa, and after I posted that, I just remembered that my grandfather passed away at 84…so perhaps being “84” now himself is truly most poignant for my dad. Gosh, it just occurred to me.

@BShark I cannot imagine it, sir, yet… My dad is 84, and lately has been full of phrases like “could go anytime” or “I’m in the red zone of life”, and wants to go over his will for the 6th time in the last 10yrs. Of course all that gives me serious pause to consider just about everything. All the years. All what he taught me. How will I be at his age? He’s still teaching 1 college class now, since many guys love their “routines”, but doesnt have to stand lecturing all day. Goes to the office, does his thing. And tells me the same stories he has been for the last few years. It’s life. Both its richness and its finite nature.

My condolences to you and family. We’re all with you.

Deshaun Watson seems to be right up there with future Brady discussions. Pocket poise is unreal. I became a fan of him watching him win the National Championship, and he’s kept right on going in the NFL. How rare a rookie performance. That Carson Wentz kid in Philly isnt bad either.

Patrick Mahomes will shine for KC. But this is Alex’s year. But also, unfortunately, KC is getting exposed, as usually happens when Andy’s scheming starts to get figured out. If Alex Smith has to scramble around with regularity on busted play after busted play, trying to get a 1st down, I hate to say he’s on borrowed time, like every QB is in that situation. It happened to Randall Cunningham, Mike Vick, and all the great scramblers at some point. Limit the risk of such plays. Steelers just revealed the flaws in the Chiefs, and people are exploiting it. And I hate the Steelers. The Cowboys outschemed Andy Reid also. Where were the 3 TE sets when Dallas was sending 2 people at both OLT and ORT at the same time (Romo in the booth saying “nobody can stop it”). Add a TE to each side. I only say that as Ive seen Andy do that before, why not then? Get Alex killed, and we’ll see Mahomes, ready or not. But he’ll have the same poor-D squad Alex does.

@JayHawkFanToo Completely agree with that. Poor shooting days have felled us, and more than once, (by the guards). But look what we are doing, and even what the KU team had to do last year: it’s mostly all on the guards, success or fail? Why? Because they (guards) had to do most of it, which then naturally they take more of the blame if we get bounced, since you can point to their missed atts, etc. But that whole team’s construct can now be judged in proper Selfian context: Compared to other Bill Self teams, we sucked in the post last year. Think of all the things we used to execute with Darnell, Shady, Cole, the Morri, etc…and thats on top of whatever havoc the guards are doing. For example, 2008 with Rush, Mario, Russell, Sherron was a whole ton of mayhem on top of whatever Shady, Darnell, Cole, Sasha gave us in the post. Compare the post play, and as an analytical KU fanalum/fanalyst, what options would you like to have. Sure, Lucas was, is, and always will be a solid Jayhawk. But no need to be sentimental in our final analysis about last-year’s guard-extravaganza team, one that was restricted in what might have been if not for woeful post play (cupcake opponents excepted of course).

My larger point (sorry to pick on Lucas, and also Ellis in the Nova game), is that I missed the dominance of Thomas Robinson + Withey (Thomas Robinson played like an effin lion vs KY, although guard shooting felled us, ran out of time, fell too far behind, 3 missed dunks, etc). Or the Morris twins. Or even the energizer skinny bunny Kevin Young, who unlike Bragg, actually gave a damn, and played beyond his skill.

This is a new year, so Im looking fwd to seeing what Udoka, Preston, Lightfoot develop into by late-Feb. We need every one of them. And just maybe 1 or 2 of them can become something special in the post? Not too much to ask for, imho, for a blueblood fan/alum…

The scariest thing is WHO is going to replace 200+ FT attempts and 47% trey shooting? (And thats just Frank). By extension, that means a lot of fouls on the opposition to earn 200+ FTs, which as the games grind on, starts to deconstruct the opposing team. Welcome to Self’s lessons, young KU players…can this team start doing to opponents all the little things that add up by the end of the 4th period.

Because we like and had gotten accustomed to the 20pt blowouts by the 4th period. Thats the royalty way. Can the kids deliver?

Definitely need to get a feel for his playstyle and decision-making, maybe reserve judgement until several games in, or end of nonconf.

Right now, he reminds me of Elijah Johnson v2.0, but if he has some alpha in him, he instantly surpasses EJ by a little bit. If he has a lot of alpha in him, he’ll make us not miss Mason/Josh as much.

More importantly, I’m hoping he has big chemistry and a intuitive “feel” for what Devonte is doing. To have a 2-headed monster at guard, they have to become that and play that way. Iron out the miscomms…

@kjayhawks nail on head about the aggravating inconsistencies in penalties.