@justanotherfan

Good post.

The degree rule also impacts non-minority agents.

I know this ends up becoming an issue going into the finer details where statistics end up being the reason it becomes “racial” and it is concluded that minorities are impacted in a higher percentage than non-minorities.

I definitely believe sometimes rules and such like this are put in place to intentionally impact minorities in higher rates. I also believe that many times these things do not have intention behind them (like this NCAA rule) and we (as a society) have to decide where the line is drawn because you can extend statistics use and inject it into every element in life.

It’s nice to keep emotions down and talk about things openly. It’s the best way to get to a positive understanding/resolution!

@BeddieKU23

I feel like Zion was just too big a prize to come along and not have corruption surround him. He was a “must have” target. Could possibly end up being a “game changer” in the ShoeCo war like Jordan was. That is yet to be seen. But this big business couldn’t just let him go his own way without their influence. Simply not possible.

If connections to Zion were not interested in taking money secretly you can bet ShoeCo agents were driving by these people and throwing cash money darts out the window at them. Anything necessary to swing Zion their way.

Since the money dart concept probably didn’t happen, I’m pretty sure the connections “played ball” to an underground money exchange.

I’m not easily convinced it could ever be proven that Duke directly or indirectly became involved in any of this. But what bothers me is that when any evidence is sniffed out even remotely connected to Duke, those fires quickly get suffocated with wet towels. The sheer magnitude of the protective wall around Duke is part of the corruption here!

Hahahhahahaaa… now this is the jovial attitude we all need! If the world crumbles, the world crumbles. As long as our season schedule isn’t interrupted…

@nuleafjhawk

If you find your island maybe I can be your neighbor on a nearby island? We will invest in a big satellite dish together so we can still watch Jayhawk ball!

I wonder… I wonder… how much damage is caused by overplaying the race card? I think minorities sometimes are avoided because of the fear that a race card will be played, and the fear is coming from very non-racist people but they fear they will make some kind of communication goof that will land them in the doghouse.

I’m a person of color and I feel free to discuss this in here. Does everyone in here feel comfortable talking about race? Doubtful… and understandably so.

And when people feel repressed it is likely resentment will follow. Just ask any person of color.

I grinned when I read the following:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2849409-ncaa-amends-agent-rule-after-criticism-from-lebron-james-rich-paul-more

What this told me is the NCAA may be responsive now to public criticism. They didn’t used to flinch under public scrutiny.

I’m thinking if we get smacked with infraction penalties for their current investigations while Duke remains off their radar screen (especially after our allegation concerning Zion), we should create a large scale protest.

KU has fans everywhere… but what is more important here, Duke is probably the most-hated team in college basketball! Every D1 fan that isn’t a Duke fan feels like Duke gets a special treatment, from on the court (refs in games), to NCAA tournament seedings, to getting a pass on recruiting allegations.

Does anyone here think Zion’s family was NOT paid for him to attend Duke?

@HighEliteMajor

Solid post! Ultimately… someone is going to have to step up and guard someone. We start relying too much on help defense, which to some degree enables players to not stick in someone’s grill, there will eventually be a breakdown somewhere because players are playing away from their man in order to help.

In the least, players have to get out and contest some shots. Then we can talk about other ways they can help.

Defense is mostly hustle, positioning, communication and having one collective mentality.

Every defensive scheme has weaknesses. It’s up to the defense to limit those weaknesses, and sometimes mask them, too.

And after players are in our system for a few years they should be able to think on their own and adjust their positioning some during a game to reduce where we are being exploited. It shouldn’t require Self calling timeout every time we need to tweak our defense slightly. This requires our players having developed their basketball IQ.

Think back over some of our bad defensive games. In those games we would get smoked at the same exploit over and over again. Even though Self is a true HOFr… he can’t know everything happening out there. Players have to take responsibility to fix much of the problems themselves. Often, it just means positioning slightly different, or running a fake to steal the ball, or moving feet more to avoid a switch, etc.

None of this is rocket science. But these guys are young, and they are playing in front of thousands of people and the pressure is on! I complain a lot… but I am usually amazed at how well these kids do under the circumstances. That doesn’t mean we loosen expectations and stop pushing them.

All of our scholarship players will get some early season minutes… minutes where they can prove themselves.

If Braun stays healthy, he should be one of our quicker developing players. Hard to say how quickly he can make an impact at this level but I wouldn’t count him out of anything.

Taking a developmental strategy, players like Braun and his attitude and hustle, he should be given plenty of opportunities to prove himself and earn minutes. Reward those who totally buy in to Selfball. The carrot needs to stay in front of these guys to help keep them motivated and advancing quicker.

My only prediction right now on Braun is that he will become a big-time contributor at some point. The “when” is up to him!

@KUSTEVE

No doubt… our perimeter defense over recent years has stunk.

I’m not sure what our guards are being taught… but they need to guard space less and guard players more.

This is part of that “developmental program” I’m talking about. Teaching players how to hedge. They need an education in “close-out timing” and then apply the proper hedge spacing.

We guard a lot of useless space… space where nothing is happening.

Players need to realize where that space is and the importance of getting out of that space.

When you see defensive breakdowns, often caused by offenses with proper spacing and good ball movement, there are defenders standing in that useless space. Standing! So the defense isn’t 5 players at that moment guarding… usually 4 or 3 defenders. That’s called a “breakdown.”

Players need to move their feet more and quickly travel through the useless space to get where they can defend. Stop standing where they are actually not even counted as being a defender anymore.

This is the sort of situation that drives guys like me crazy. I’d love to see real defense at Kansas! The only way to get there is to season players with the right coaching to develop their skills as players and as a team.

I know I complain about this. Kansas and Bill Self offer one of the better coaching situations in college basketball today! We just need to be geared a bit more towards coaching versus recruiting. Then let the recruiting catch up as our reputation grows in development. I’m not hearing enough from players bragging about how much they learn at Kansas and we aren’t seeing it enough on the court.