I wasn’t expecting to well up in tears for someone I hadn’t personally met, but I did. I’ve been to four funerals of friends and family this year and was able to stay composed, but this hit me harder than expected. @RockChalkinTexas apparently holds a special place in my heart. I enjoy my bucketteers; don’t any of you dare leave!

Everyone stay safe and healthy as possible this holiday season!!!

@wissox said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

Bill Self had a phase where he recruited some questionable character guys. It really impacted this program, saddling us with the black eye of the half decade long investigation. The dude with the car accident (I’ve repressed the memory of his name and couldn’t care less to learn his name), the dude with the shoebox money (ditto my other parenthesis), Josh Jackson the most talented of all the lowlifes we brought in. The dude who raped the woman. Vick, had some issues, forgetting exactly, Jalen Wilson DUI, and the aforementioned Cliff Alexander, a victim of his own ma if I recall correctly. I might be wrong but Selfs first decade with us was his strongest and we avoided these headlines.

The original post, excellent btw @approxinfinity, and @MoonwalkMafia, was what’s happened to recruiting. Bill Self is still struggling to recover from the black eyes of the last decade.

But part of this is waiting for NCAA to work out the negativity of the NIL and portal eras. We brought in some highly ranked 5 star for next year. Normally I’d be stoked but now I’m just thinking he’s another Grady or Furphy (who had like 1 good game while he was here using us to get to the league). So while maybe the character issue has been resolved, finding loyal guys to the program who see all of the ‘trappings’ that come with being a KU player has been difficult. I laugh at guys like Grady Dick who took the money and play for a gosh awful Toronto team. Must be really fun playing in a boring league in front bored fans. He was getting paid here and would be a huge part of KU lore had he stuck around. Instead he’s an NBA afterthought. Would’ve gotten paid after this year or even his senior year a bunch.

88, 08, and 22 have forever etched themselves into my mind and make enduring these down periods a little less difficult. But I fear the aura of KU ball wearing off a little bit and always look at IU basketball, or Nebraska football as examples of programs that ruled their sport that haven’t been able to get it together since. Anyone see IU fans abandon the Assembly Hall the other day against Illinois before the first half was even done? My worst nightmare for KU right there.

Having met Jalen Wilson and seeing as he has had no other issues I take offense to his inclusion on the bad actors list. He made a childish mistake, atoned for it, and didn’t have another single issue - if I’m not mistaken. His attitude and demeanor improved drastically after that and he became a model student athlete on and off the court.

Worst case scenario- KU in line for the number one overall seed, plays no games due to a pandemic. Leaving nothing but what if’s for all.

@BeddieKU23 Yes, Kelly should’ve stayed another year, but I’m still upset that Paul Pierce left early.

I love that Bill Self is being blamed for tuning out a roster devoid of post talent and yet his team is playing the best basketball in the nation, undefeated, and ranked #2.

The warts will show, but Bill is doing a masterful job once again.

Wow. Hope he figures life out quickly. He’s blowing a couple once in a lifetime opportunities.

Just realized Buckets turned 10 years old last October!!! Thanks to all who have helped make this site entertaining!

As a Chiefs fan, Mahomes is payback for watching other teams do that to our D for years.

Win at all costs and the fans cry about not looking to the future. Sit Cliff and lose tonight with an eye on the future and fans cry. It’a a good thing KU basketball coach isn’t an elected position. The man has done nothing but win games at a historic rate. KU is 14-3 with a freshman and sophomore dominated line-up in what has been the hardest schedule in the nation. I’m estatic with the win loss record, but think there is much room for improvement in play. That’s what has me excited, KU will be better in March and even better next year.

If Bill manages to win the conference title this year it will be quite the feat with 8 teams in a 10 team conference having been ranked in the top 25. That means 8 teams have been rated in the top 7% of all college basketball. KU will have to earn this championship!

@drgnslayr said in Power Forwards/Stretch 4s of the Bill Self era peak offseason pt 4:

@dylans That was exactly my opinion from the beginning… when AI was in it’s infancy. But now it has grown into a toddler and becoming more useful. Beware… the terrible teens are coming! lol

It’s a tool that gets misused. - too many use it as a substitute for a brain.

It looks like Mahomes deep ball accuracy is poor. 1/4 connect. …so throw 4 deep balls per possession, they do eventually connect. I suspect there would be a higher completion percentage on deep passes if they threw more.

Aldrich as a freshman for his game against UNC in the final four.

@nuleafjhawk It’s his footwork. It’s terrible. But Mahomes is the only source of offense. The running backs suck hind tit - Pacheco is terrible, he runs hard right into his own blockers - maybe he needs glasses. Hunt is washed, at this point I might be faster. Mitchell hasn’t even found the field and Smith is more of a pass catcher. The WRs are injured or just complimentary players - Rice is amazing, but unavailable. Worthy is coming into his own, but Kelce may have ruined his career. Kelce is old and slow. Juju is in his 20s and slow. Hollywood is a good 3rd receiver, but as the featured guy he is limited. Remigio is a returner. Brownlee can’t find his way to the field.

Butker lost both those games. If he hits the extra point against the Chargers the game is tied late and goes to overtime. If he makes that field goal against the Iggles that is the margin as well.

Against Philly if Kelce catches that TD KC wins. If Reid doesn’t go for it on 4th down and just punts, that was the margin of the game.

KC will be fine. Mahomes can be better, but he’s the only reason they’re even in these games. The rest of the team looks bush league. Spags better figure out how to hide Chamarri Connors - that guy is a huge liability. Nagy needs to fix Taylor - his penalties are drive killers.

Take Mahomes off this team and they win maybe 5 games.

@drgnslayr said in Power Forwards/Stretch 4s of the Bill Self era peak offseason pt 4:

There must be an AI tool out there somewhere that could compare players… crunch all their numbers and then weight factors of importance. I know… I know… I’m an AI sellout. I’ve just had a very successful business month where I dumped a huge load on the backs of my slave laborers… 3 AI platforms that saved me from doom!

Ugg half the sports articles out there appear written by AI - it sucks. They all sound like a 7th grader plagiarized something they don’t fully understand. On a more disturbing front - I read an article the other day where someone used a language model to try demonstrate why rich folks should pay more in taxes - it had no reasoning behind it other than raw numbers that don’t project forward properly. It’s like when someone cheats to get the answers, but doesn’t understand what they are saying so it’s all wrong, but it’s presented as 100% factual. AI is making people even dumber which I find incredible, I thought we had already hit the bottom - Wrong!!!

@nuleafjhawk said in 2025 Chiefs:

@kjayhawks I was giving him the benefit of the doubt by saying that he’s distracted. The other option is that he can’t pass anymore I guess the Chiefs could always make him the featured running back.

Mahomes deep ball has never been good in my opinion. Tyreek just made such smooth adjustments it looked good. Tyreek would make a great center fielder with his ball tracking ability. I see a little of that with Worthy, but not the field awareness yet. Hopefully Worthy can play close to 100% at some point this year, I’m not sure how his injury will affect his play - could be ugly.

@nuleafjhawk Britney had the audacity to drop a kid out during one of those Super Bowl runs, right during the playoffs! I think he’ll be ok - the guy looks to be in the best shape coming into the season that we’ve seen yet. Mahomes the only thing on the team you don’t have to worry about. You can nit pick for sure, but worry? Nah. This team will be solid by playoffs.

Fuuudge

@rockchalkjayhawk Ugg even a minor shoulder surgery absolutely sucks. Extremely painful and long recovery.

@HoraceZontal No championship in ‘08 without Darrell’s quiet 20 point night.