For graduating! Makes me just as proud as success on the court.

So I was at my local watering hole the other night watching my Bears and sat by one of my good friends who happens to be a KSU fan, but all around super dude.

Anyway, turns out he’s a regular golfing buddy with one KJ Adams. And he just raved and raved about how good a dude he is and how down to earth he is. Apparently his girlfriend is going to be a PT and also really has it together. He sucks at golf but can hit it a mile lol.

It’s nothing super groundbreaking but it’s good this time of year to hear some feel good stories about our guys.

We good.

Seriously, folks. This team is really, really good. Took some elite level weirdness to lose each game so far. First the inexplicable 28 TO’s against dook without Moss then our dude Marcus goes down early against Nova followed by Dot’s brain fart. First against KenPom #1 dook and then KenPom #19 at their place, and we lost by a total of 3 points. The Dayton win is really good. Our freshmen will only get better, just look at the games Braun and Enaruna had today. Marcus will be back. Silvio will eventually find his sea legs. Self’s teams always get significantly better over break with the increased practice time.

The other thing we have in spades is defense, and it will travel. We’re the KenPom #5 defense, essentially tied for 4th. The offense will come around. I’m certainly an optimist by nature so ignore me if you want to see things on the downside. But!

We good.

https://twitter.com/chasenscott/status/1374211304446103553?s=21

https://twitter.com/jifhawk/status/1374211437250351106?s=21

Incredible Jayhawk. He didn’t always play in situations that were the best for him, but he always played his ass off. He’s going to make life hell for a lot of good pros. Godspeed, Marcus. Jayhawk nation loves you.

It’s easy to sit behind a keyboard and say “player X sucks get him out of here” but stories like Juan’s are why college sports are so great. A kid in Juan’s position wouldn’t sniff a place like KU without sports. The guy in the jersey matters. A lot.

Heard from a KU source today they think they got Tucker

I’m in DC right now to see friends and was at the Kansas Society annual banquet last night where Self was honored as Kansan of the Year. It was a really cool event. Self told the story of how Rep. Yoder and Sen. Moran were instrumental in getting Doke’s mom to the states for the Final Four in 2018. She went from not having a passport or transportation to the airport to Texas in about a week. The event was sold out for the first time in a very long time. The list of attendees was absurd: the entire Congressional delegation, FCC Chair Ajit Pai (from Parsons), Sec. Pompeo, a DC circuit judge whose name escapes me, AD Long, and of course Self.

I spoke to Self and Long for just a bit. I didn’t ask about any player in particular since it was just a cocktail reception and dinner, so just told Self I loved the look of the team, and he “thinks they have a chance to be pretty good.” I told Long I was as excited for KU football as I’ve been in about a decade and he loved hearing that from an alum.

Maybe it’s my background in comms and dealing with press for a living, but am I the only one who doesn’t give a rats ass what the media says about KU and thinks KU shouldn’t take their opinions into account AT ALL when deciding punishment? Sure there’s that out of context photo, but the video is much less damning if people would just watch it (https://imgur.com/a/5znZHdo). ESPN doesn’t run KU. CBS doesn’t run KU. Twitter doesn’t run KU. The state of Kansas runs KU. Tell the press they can shove it with their hot takes and we’ll run the show like adults. Yes, there will obviously be consequences for dumbassery. But suggesting this is the end for Silvio and whatnot is absolutely without merit IMO. Would break all precedent from previous dumbassery and wouldn’t serve anyone but the press’s appetite for blood.

K losing his last regular season, ACCT, and tournament game would be amazing

Lmao that dude is softer than Liberace at the playboy mansion

@Texas-Hawk-10 yeah 1-5 on really good looks. And he got abused on the boards.

@BShark said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@FarmerJayhawk said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@BShark said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@Kcmatt7 said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@BeddieKU23 said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

Perimeter defense and Flory changed this game in the 2nd half. This defense has great potential when they really put it together

We could be up by more. TCU guards have made some thought shots!

Allette is nasty man

Also an early transfer possibility last year but WHEW DRAMA

He’d have Bill back at KU med

Yeah when you get yeeted from Old Dominion for being a problem…

This one showed what happens when you play Bill Self ball. You play unselfishly, you guard, you score.

@BShark said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@Kcmatt7 said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@BeddieKU23 said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

Perimeter defense and Flory changed this game in the 2nd half. This defense has great potential when they really put it together

We could be up by more. TCU guards have made some thought shots!

Allette is nasty man

Also an early transfer possibility last year but WHEW DRAMA

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Mythbusters: Bill Self, minutes, and March:

@BShark said in Mythbusters: Bill Self, minutes, and March:

@Texas-Hawk-10 KU chose not to really pursue Knecht, correct.

That’d be a @FarmerJayhawk question. Unless KU is recruiting a kid from the Houston area, I’m not well connected into recruiting anymore.

That said, I don’t recall ever hearing or seeing anything about KU looking at Knecht two years ago. KU is one of the premier programs out there and I’d imagine that a lot of transfers are going to listen when KU calls.

Yeah, he was such a bad defender on a really bad Northern Colorado team and there were concerns about his athleticism. Hindsight is 20/20 but he didn’t have that impressive an offer list

@wissox said in 2024 NFL Season:

@dylans I think Caleb Williams hired him actually from what it appears.

I’m stoked! Dennis Allen as DC is a really smart play as well. He flamed out as a HC but is a really good coordinator.

@kuballin10 said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

@Jhawk69 Cliff wasn’t some significantly worse defender

Jamari was good for a chase down lebron block but he was poor in half court and zero threat offensively at the 4 spot (sound familiar)

The excuse of oh he will pick it up in his second year is trash. You have a long armed athletic big and if you can’t teach him to semi defend in 4-6 months you aren’t good at your job. It shouldn’t take that long to teach defense to a stud high school big who had lateral quickness.

Hey speaking of that 4 man not being a threat to score let’s add some more proof….

That year ended in….you guessed it a rd of 32 double digit loss 78-65 to wsu of all teams

Our team had Mason, Graham, Oubre, Selden and Ellis - didn’t get the talent together to score but rather “make guys play worse than us”.

Better to just focus on you playing your best consistently….

When you start to really dig in it gets ugly with all the talent we’ve had.

I heard Tony Bennett of the Midwest and it’s legitimately true as of today. Consistent, won some conference titles, flame out early a lot. Got 1 legit Title with the 3 year guys returning in 2008.

2022 guys returning and the portal miracle. Other portal years aren’t even coming close which is the frustration

Perry wasn’t a threat to score? Wow that’s a take. That team was also ravaged by injuries by the end. Wayne and Perry were hurt. Cliff had his family issues. The guy that Bill refused to play (BIFM) played 34 MPG that year. Cliff was an absolute foul magnet. He never played man defense in high school (he was the middle of the 2-3 back line) so every minute was a learning experience. As such, he messed up A LOT.

There’s so much revisionist history around Remy, Cliff, and Cheick it’s impossible to have a conversation. The underlying facts aren’t debatable yet people shoehorn their narratives anyway. Cheick’s advanced stats in league play weren’t even that good. And one thing around Landen. Doke passed him a handful of games before he got hurt. Can folks do basic research before popping off? Who would you have played at the 5 other than Landen against Oregon? Dwight? We steamrolled the field before running into Nova in 16.

The Tony Bennett comp is laughable. Bill hasn’t gone a season without a tournament win (barring crazy circumstances) in 20 years. Bennett hasn’t won a tournament game in 5 years.

ISU and Zona losing helps us a lot in the league race

@Crimsonorblue22 said in KState game thread:

We can’t play two negative guys at the same time. Gotta sub one guy at a time. What r your thoughts about rylan?

He was definitely a mixed bag. The one drive and turnover was absolutely awful but he did have the nice assist to Hunt. TCU is a better matchup for him.

They play mostly smaller around old friend Big Ern so it should be a good AJ/Griffen game. I really like our guards vs. theirs as well. Allete is the loosest cannon and Shak/Juan will really bother him. Reynolds is a lot better but those two guys are really their entire offense.

I’m a little disappointed in the effort. I didn’t have as much of a problem with playing time (except that stretch with Kease and Diggy) but there were way too many lapses. Giving up 45 in the second to an absolute garbage team is straight bad. Gotta clean that up before Wednesday.