Best posts made by BigBad

stoptheflop said:

Newman, not Graham has become the leader of this team. on a

Totally disagree with this. I have been hard on Devonte this year on this board. I called him out for not being a leader and chucking up dumb shots and making horrible decisions at times.

He has actually learned that there is more to being a leader than leading the team in scoring. Yesterday he settled the guys down, didn’t force stuff against the zone too much, and made great decisions, including finding the hot hand Newman.

He’s become a better leader than I thought he could and it’s been great to see.

My son and I made a last minute trip from Ohio for this game. Our first time back since 2020 senior night. It was an awesome night in the fieldhouse. Such a great environment.

So far this trip is UNBELIEVABLE. Visited the Fieldhouse this morning and did a walk up tour so got some good pictures by the floor. While My son and I were looking at the Naismith rules an older gentleman and his wife approached us.
He then told my son “that’s my granddaddy”. It was in fact Jim Naismith, James’ grandson. Crazy! Then before we left the Fieldhouse we actually ran into Dok(e) and my son got a picture! We still have the game to look forward to!

After this weekend, if one of these two men win the title, that man will be labeled the best coach in college basketball. If its Jay Wright it’s because he is perceived to have ushered in “small ball” to college basketball and won 2 championships in 3 years. If its coach Self then a second championship validates his insane regular season record over the last 15 years at Kansas.

The are both in their mid 50s and will probably reign another 10 years. Izzo has had his media darling image tainted with all the MSU issues and he hasn’t succeeded lately in the tournament. K and Roy are both in their twilight years.

All of this is just media fodder, but it can define the perception to casual college basketball fans. However I would suspect that just like us, Villanova, Kentucky, Duke, UNC, and Michigan St, wouldn’t trade their coach for any of the others regardless of perception.

Bosthawk said:

I’m worried about all the self-can’t-get-past-elite-8 posts coming if we do lose. Should be a tough tough game. And yep if we hit our shots, we should be

But So far, This has been a great season, let’s face it! Win or lose, been a great ride for me at least.

This is what REALLY REALLY pisses me off. In coach Ks 34 years has he once developed a 3 star player? Has he ever not had the most talent? He has NEVER had a season where he didn’t land a McDonald’s All American. He is now the biggest one and done guy. In the past 16 seasons Duke has been either a 1 or 2 seed 12 times yet only made it past the sweet sixteen FOUR times. Despite all this talent EVERY year he never gets called out for “choking”.

Bill Self has just developed back to back 3/4 star high school guys into first team all Americans. He ROUTINELY does more with less. The fact that he completely maximizes the talent almost always means a tournament “upset” will happen because Kansas earns seed beyond their talent. VIrginia did the same thing this year. Yes the accomplished things to be a 1 seed but at the end of the day their talent(not a single nba guy) isnt really 1 seed quality.

I know most here hate Kentucky the most. I don’t have enough hate left for anyone after Duke.

Rock Chalk

I want to exorcise all the demons…

• Beat an 11 seed in Elite 8… avenge VCU

• Beat Nova in Final Four… Stick it to Jay Wright

• Beat Duke in the Final… avenge 1991 and send K out a loser

@nuleafjhawk My 11-year-old son was on the verge of tears and acting like a punk at halftime. I told him to stop or he was headed to bed. Man that would suck to have gone to bed at halftime!!!

• Coach K’s first final four-game in 1986 beat Kansas
• Coach K’s first championship in 1991 beat Kansas
• Coach K’s last game LOSES championship to Kansas!!!

This is a MASSIVE low point for me with this transfer/NIL stuff. If it is like this yearly I’m going to have a real hard time watching this.

Was a great game to be at!!

In politics people demonize “the 1%”, in basketball people want entire systems changed to accommodate the 1%.

https://twitter.com/kutweetsandnews/status/1511760027878666246?s=20&t=oQyhLSbedHgHZrKSgYE1rA

https://twitter.com/Mike_Schmitz/status/1524384347662348288

Saw this on twitter

I live in Ohio, and I’m sorry, but it’s become obvious to me that a LOT of Kansas fans under 30 are spoiled brats. I think the fact that they are also Chiefs fans makes this worse. They haven’t really experienced losing, so they can’t handle it. Mix the age, the keyboard warrior mentality, the media-driven modern win it all or you are just a loser narrative, and it’s a mess.

Moved up to the #1 player in the class

https://247sports.com/article/kansas-signee-darryn-peterson-will-finish-as-the-no-1-ranked-prospect-in-the-2025-class-248504078/

@hawkmoon2020 After the 2007 debacle where we were a #1 seed and UCLA a #2 seed in SAN FREAKING JOSE, I dont ever want to hear a complaint about a “home game” if ou are the LOWER seed!

We were a 1 seed and got screwed!

Refs were not great but they didnt cause the guys to have such a bad shooting night.

STOP HAVING GAMES IN FOOTBALL STADIUMS!!!

The shooting atmosphere is horrible.

He’s a junior and he is the type of player Self rides HARD. He has all the athletic tools and lacks on the one that doesn’t take talent, effort.

BeddieKU23 said:

Newman made every FT down the stretch, he was clutch.

I loved how Malik wanted the ball in his hands in the last seconds. Not scared to shoot those FTs.

I’m calling it now, Lightfoot will help on defense this game.

I still cant believe fans of Lance Armstrong were surprised he was using PEDs. People that were that naive must not have been paying attention to the whole sport where EVERYONE either tested positive or admitted doping. College basketball is the same thing and anyone who thinks their team is clean is just as naive. I live in Dayton Ohio and have known several players and others associated with Wright State over the years. Believe me it happens EVERYWHERE.

This team won its last game in a Kansas uniform. Not many teams can say that!

Thought I’d add some of my favorite pictures from the trip. Sad that it was the last trophy this team earned but glad my son and I were there.

If you’ve never coached you will never understand why Coach Self isn’t high on Remy. Coaches keep a running tally on winning vs losing plays. With that, they calculate internally a ceiling and floor for the player and base trust on all of that. Remy defensively has a low ceiling right now. He’s the type of player that would need a couple of years minimum to get Self. The Remy/Harris situation seems very similar to Sherron(freshman)/RussRob. At different times we need one and sometimes we need both. Without Sherron’s explosiveness, we don’t win in 2008. The difference now is that Jalen, Christian, and even Och are more inconsistent offensively than the 2008 guys.

This look by Danny is so awesome!

I have basically no interest in minor league sports. Especially one that changes the entire roster yearly. What a complete mess this has all become.

@TYOHawk said in The portal.:

We are partly in this position we are in because Bill was loyal to mediocre players who should’ve largely been recruited over. I don’t care if they stay 4 years if they’re bad players. I consider Joel a Jayhawk just as much as I consider Jalen Wilson one. It’s easy to tell these kids to turn down millions for our satisfaction but that’s not reality.

Does anyone consider this: DeJuan and KJ came to Kansas BEFORE NIL. DeJuan was a kid Self didn’t really want anyway. He comes from a horrible upbringing and does not have the academic background. Works his butt off in a redshirt year and then helps Kansas win a title. KJ is another hard worker who lost his mom to cancer while at Kansas.

Yet some of you act like its insane for Bill Self to show loyalty to two kids who basically represent everything he believes in.

If we had the 2008 team this year 90% of the young dumb fanbase would be crying about Darnell Jackson and Rus Rob. Coach is stupid man! he needs to play Sherron and Cole more or they will transfer! At least that argument would have been about actual studs on the bench. The idea that Flory and Coit/Moore were somehow going to take this team to the promise land was fools gold anyway.

@BShark said:

The EE is a problematic round for Bill.

Self MAXIMIZES the talent. This team had NOTHING inside on Offense…NOTHING. And we still win Big 12 and make elite 8.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Marcus Garrett will get more minutes than most people expect. From all his film he just seems to have that controlled aggression that is required for freshman to play for coach Self.

I always get excited about the first national televised game of the year. You never know which newcomer will be a “gamer”. Every basketball team always has guys that just seem to step up in spotlight games.

I’m leaning towards Malik tomorrow.

I dont remember the circumstances in which Dwight Colbey left. Sure seems we could use his inside muscle with our lack of depth.

@BeddieKU23 He’s played like he’s had one all season…

Why would anyone who has watched this team all year be worried about a 10 pt deficit?

HighEliteMajor said:

This game was won on the defensive end. And defense like this just doesn’t happen. Two months ago, who would have believed that this team, in this moment, would win with defense?

The fact that Malik Newman who couldn’t stay in front of anyone in the beginning of the season maned up on Allen on the last shot and was in his face the whole time was EPIC!

It really symbolized this team and how they bought in.

Duke’s entire starting five are possible NBA first round picks. We sent them home! Who cares about predictions.

This group won 3/4 trophies!

Great season for the talent level

@KUSTEVE And as nutty as Billy’s mom appears you’d think she would have zero issues blaming Self and KU.

Self is going back to what he knows…DEFENSE!!! I’d bet anything we pressure like crazy. With added guard depth if you dont guard you dont play…Moore and KJ are horrible on D.

I think Grimes issue is his size. Dude is 6’5 and THICK. I think his entire life he bullied his way around the court when he wasnt faster. Now he has guys that are all as fast or faster guarding him and smart enough to take charges on him. He has to develop counter moves. A pull up mid range would do wonders. Also actually being a threat at 3s would give him the space he needs.

HighEliteMajor said:

Self continues to play Garrett big minutes. Garrett is such a liability on an offensively challenged team. I said that a long time ago. Yesterday was a day where that fact was well apparent. Garrett didn’t lose us the game of course. He had 15 rebounds.

Rewarding effort with minutes is vital for the development of young guys. It shows young guys what it takes to see the floor. If the young guys dont respond with improved effort than it’s on them. It’s a tool Self has always used but this team also doesnt have the depth of teams past. I’ve seen a rise in Grimes effort since Garrett came back from injury. The biggest issue stopping us from peaking is Agbaji hitting a postponed freshman wall. The fact he didnt play games until January just pushed back his freshman wall.

Think about Dave going against Doke in practice for years and all he learned was a jump hook? Did he learn no other moves to get his shot off?

You really have to celebrate the four-year contributors!!! Who knows how many more there will be.

Och can join Clyde Lovellette and Danny Manning as only Kansas players to be a consensus first-team all-American and a National Champion in the same season. Wilt, Nick Collison, and T-Rob got to the final game. Gooden and Devonte got to the final four.

Legendary!

https://twitter.com/ChrisLillyKAKE/status/1511228892266254338?s=20&t=hY3ghCO3Jrsp1lN7YWwlCA

“Lost the edge” yet still makes a final four. He was at the top of his game for sure.

@madmax said in Bye Bye Ernest:

The plus I see is Kansas won’t have down years anymore. No more wondering and waiting for a window to have a great team. Each coming year will be National Champions or bust. How painful has it been going into a year knowing the team has a glaring weakness that inevitably will result in an early tourney ouster.

What proof do we have that Coach Self can navigate this many new guys? The key to his success has always been guys who have been in his system a few years. Self is EXTREMELY difficult to deal with for first year guys. Look how many freshman can’t deal with him. Look how Remi had issues for a lot of his one year. It’s always worked because it was a weeding out process that led to every year having a mentally strong team filled with guys who withstood it all.

People are looking at all the incoming guys and assuming they will all be great. Self’s history proves that about 75% of newcomers will either struggle with his demands and/or won’t earn his trust enough to garner playing time. On top of that we now have only TWO guys left to help the new guys navigate it.

Of course it’s possible Self truly has softened. I just don’t believe it.

@kjayhawks said in BYU Thread:

@BeddieKU23 I’m gonna ask a Honest question here, is this Bill Selfs worst coaching job? This team has 2 all-Americans likely, 3 draft hopefuls and a Cousy award finalist. In 2019 we had no talent and 2015 we had super young talent. I think this team may end up worse than those 2, tho on paper should beat those teams by 25 points.

What has always made Self’s “bad talent” teams still win was the continuity of players in the program who learned to play defense. Even if a guy wasn’t that talented on offense by the time he saw significant playing time he was already molded by Self and co. to bring it on the defensive end and understand team defense. Like Self has always said, “You have to be able to win games while not hitting shots”. Four players(Hunter, Timberlake, Furphy, Elmarko) have played significant playing time this year are first-year guys at Kansas. Add that to the lack of a consistent three ball on offense and this is the result.

Man, this thread…

People bashing Self and somehow it’s all on him?? These fn players get PAID NOW. How about STFU, quit pouting, and do what the coach says? You know the coach who knows what it takes to win.

I made my third trip to Kansas for the UNC game from my home in Ohio this season, mostly because my son who’s 14 enjoys it. The Fieldhouse and Coach Self are the main draws now because the players change yearly in the NIL era so it’s not for them anymore. Seeing Mayo, the local kid, have a great game that night was refreshing. I’ve loved college basketball for a long time, but all of this is getting toxic and tiring. Once Self retires I’ll probably lose interest.

All you "The game has passed Bill Self by"guys…HAHAHAHAHAHAhah