I think we’re all missing the larger positive here. The moral fiber of today’s high level D-1 basketball player has never been higher. Here we have Kansas offering them bags of cash as well as homes/jobs for their parents and yet instead they’re taking the high ground and choosing to go to Duke/Kentucky/Memphis for free. The future is truly bright.

It’s Christmas morning everyone. Merry Christmas!

Houston and UConn have a total of six losses. Two are to this KU team. This “no good really bad KU team with the crappy PG, no depth and the PF who doesn’t shoot or rebound”.

What a gift that we get to be KU fans and have a down year like this.

I appreciate the intel I can find here from the little birdies our friends at Buckets know…so thanks to all of you who contribute to that. I only know one birdie…one of my best friends who happens to be the head coach of the only other school that offered Jossell…Dallas Baptist. Here are a few of his paraphrased thoughts:

–Athletic kid. Great teammate. Works super hard. Tries on D. Decent shooter if he gets his feet set.

–Recruiting service had him #73…in Texas…not the nation. This morning that jumped to #26…in Texas.

–Thinks he’s too small and not strong enough to defend at KU’s level.

–5’11’’ shooting guard who isn’t Jeff Boschee or Phil Forte and isn’t much of a playmaker for others.

–Thinks they potentially took him to both get Jethro and to help get Harrison Ingram

–A bunch of low majors came to look and didn’t offer. His HS coach was thrilled that DBU offered…THRILLED.

–Was the backup PG on his AAU team behind a guy who went to Indiana St

–Only got a 3* rating after KU offered and didn’t have any star rating or national profile on Rivals until then

–Said Frank Mason is not a comparison…“Toughness and grit are miles apart”

–My friend is totally baffled by this. Not one other offer besides a local D2 school…and Kansas. He’s not sure why.

–To be clear…my friend LOVES the kid. He’s thrilled for him personally. He also thought he’d be a great D2 point guard.

I just asked him his honest thoughts and he shared them. Not one ounce of negative in his voice so don’t take the above as anything other than his fair evaluation. For sure not crapping on him or sour over losing him.

I’m just the messenger here. I’ve laughed with my friend…HARD…about all of how this has played out. Never in a million years did he think he’d be recruiting against Kansas for anybody. He’s also a KU guy. His dad coached at KU with Ted Owens. He was a student manager the years we were there together (94-98) under Roy. Loves Kansas and wishes the best for Jossell. Just wishes (as a coach) that he could coach him and have him there.

As someone who lives in Fort Collins, CO and watched a chunk of Colorado St last season…the UNC point guard who came from CSU (Kyan Evans) really got paid because of two good NCAA tourney games. Perhaps he’s gotten better in the off-season, but if he’s guarding DP…well, I like KU’s chances with that. He’s also pretty slight of frame so physical play can affect him when he has the ball.

Wisconsin was ahead by 15 with 25 seconds left with all of their walk-ons in the game…and Michigan was in a full-court press. It left Wisconsin in a bad position so their coach called timeout. Howard got mad…told his team to then foul when the ball was inbounded…tried to avoid Greg Gard in the handshake line…told him “I’ll remember that sh**” and it went from there. It’s pretty simple…if Juwan wanted the game to just be over…he shouldn’t have been pressing full court against walk-ons. If he’s coaching his team to play 40 minutes, he’s gotta let Greg Gard do the same.

Then just be an adult instead of a 14-year-old boy who wants to prove how tough he is. I like that Howard said that Gard ‘put his hands on him’ (a two-handed handshake like so many that happen all the time) and that he felt the need to defend himself…all 6’10’’ 250 of him…against the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Spare me.

I grew up in Madison and am a Badger fan. Here’s my take…

–He’s Quentin Grimes. Brown came to UW with really big expectations as a 5-star…especially as he had offers from Ohio St/Michigan/etc. The burden of expectations is hard. He just didn’t improve and less-heralded guys beat him out for a spot and he was frustrated.

–He did play on occasion, but the article linked above that says he was an ‘important part of the Wisconsin offensive line for the last two seasons’ is just complete nonsense. He redshirted…barely played last year…and was a full-blown turnstyle at LT when he played this year. His greatest contribution was in Wisconsin’s jumbo package when he lines up as an extra TE or FB.

–There were veiled comments by coaches about needing to ‘work on technique’. If you read between the lines, it seems like he either wasn’t coachable or wasn’t picking up what he was being taught. He was given tons of opportunities to earn a spot, but didn’t do it. UW even moved their starting LT from last year inside to guard so Brown could play LT…and he got beaten out.

–The ‘incident’ was that he apparently knocked a freshman DL out cold after a practice fracas was supposedly over. I don’t get the sense that he would’ve gotten tossed from the team based on this alone, but there isn’t much out there on what else may have been happening behind closed doors.

Hopefully a change of scenery and realistic expectations follow him and he has success at KU. He fits the stud LT profile athletically and size-wise. For some reason it just didn’t click at Wisconsin.

For those with an Athletic subscription, here’s a cool story from before the transfer about him working through his battle with diabetes…https://theathletic.com/3492957/2022/08/09/logan-brown-wisconsin-badgers-diabetes/

I grew up in Madison and claim (along with @wissox) the Badgers as my second team. There are a couple things here…

–Every program has meetings like these. The fact that Gard met with them and listened for well over an hour without responding is some evidence that he’s not ruling with an entirely iron fist.

–The tape was significantly edited to make Gard look bad. The meeting was over two hours long with dialog going back and forth, but the only parts that were leaked (37 minutes worth) were the parts where the players aired their grievances.

–The meeting ended with Gard taking full responsibility and no dry eyes in the room according to one of the seniors that was in the room.

–There is some smoke that it was an assistant coach that wasn’t retained that could be who leaked it. It’s all the more hairy with that as that coach is the all-time leading scorer at Wisconsin (Alando Tucker). Imagine Danny Manning doing this and you have an idea.

–There have been rumblings for a few years that Gard isn’t the easiest guy to play for. Some former players have rallied behind him, but all of them had Gard as an assistant coach and not the head guy. We all know that oftentimes assistant coaches are more of the friend while the head coach is the authority. There are also rumors about past assistants leaving because of his leadership style and some former players that potentially steered recruits elsewhere because of the style Gard demands that they play. Lots of hearsay, but smoke nonetheless.

–Last season was a really frustrating one for the team and its fans. They were preseason top 5 after winning the B1G the year before and returning everyone…including 7 seniors and all 5 starters. They REALLY underachieved and there were a few individual players who took massive steps back in their development. That’s alarming at Wisconsin as they are largely a developmental program rather than a 5* recruit chaser. I don’t think that frustrations were real only at Wisconsin last season, but this does give a little more insight into the players mindset in all of it.

None of this is helpful for the program, the coaches involved or the players involved. The reality now is that the validity of the program is in question…the head coach’s care for his players is in question…a beloved Badger legend is under suspicion for throwing this bomb calling his care for the program into question…the players who left are now all likely seen in a unique light and many are calling them ‘soft’…and while no one has jumped into the transfer portal ‘yet’ (hopeful that won’t happen)…having the dirty laundry out there like this is just not the dream.

I watched the Final a few days ago for the first time since April and came away with one thing for certain…KU got 20 unbelievable minutes from their point guards in the 2nd half. Harris was square in the middle of everything during the comeback and Remy hit huge shots and had the big block in the final minute on Love. As I remember it, I will spend almost no time thinking of Harris’s brain fart with four seconds left as much as I’ll think of how great those two were late…and KU needed both

This feels like a new problem to solve in college sports. There’s another space to argue the merits of NIL, paying players, or player movement. It’s one thing to recruit talented players (from HS or the portal). It’s another to ‘stay old’ and have good culture guys who can also play and develop. The reality of trying to find the right mix on a team each year seems like what KU’s coaching staff hasn’t figured out…especially this season.

While I obviously don’t know what happens behind closed doors, all of us can see that guys like Storr and Dickinson aren’t ‘KU guys’. Effort issues. Little to no defensive intensity. Body language is garbage. There’s a reason we loved guys like Travis Releford, Thomas Robinson, Devonte Graham…they fought. They played hard. That used to be the KU culture and it seems lost.

Like our board friend @wissox I also follow Wisconsin (grew up there…KU alum). What has been really interesting about their team this year is that the perception after last season was that they would take a significant down turn. Storr (leading scorer) leaving for KU. Their 3-yr starting PG (Hepburn) left for Louisville. Also lost a 3-yr starter at the 4. Instead, there’s been a mix of development amongst returners and the RIGHT GUYS who fit the culture that they got in the portal and the results have been far better than anyone has expected. Maybe they stumbled into it luckily or maybe not. Regardless, it seems like maintaining the culture of a program and finding talent that fits that culture has really helped there.

All of that to say…as long as KU pays mercenaries who come and play for the highest bidder, I find it hard to imagine that they’ll get back to having the culture like the KU teams that we all loved. I also wonder whether having a solid culture and recruiting for fit might be as important as anything in our current climate of college sports.

As someone who lives in Fort Collins, CO and watched a chunk of Colorado St last season…the UNC point guard who came from CSU (Kyan Evans) really got paid because of two good NCAA tourney games. Perhaps he’s gotten better in the off-season, but if he’s guarding DP…well, I like KU’s chances with that. He’s also pretty slight of frame so physical play can affect him when he has the ball.

I imagine that good teams will go right at Flory to get him in foul trouble early. Then they’ll double DP all game and make others beat them from outside the paint. Will be interesting to see how Self schemes offense. Fortunately for him their defense will keep them in most games.

Disney owns ESPN and Hulu. It’s absolutely shocking that they might do something that would perhaps send people from YouTubeTV to Hulu for their live sports. Shocking I tell you

It’s not Leipold’s fault that JD is so inaccurate

A lot of them…but the best of the bunch was KU/UCLA in late '95. I was a sophomore…camped out with my buddies…ended up in the front row under the basket on KU’s end. Jacque Vaughn’s spin move between two defenders to put KU ahead after coming back from down 15+ was right in front of me. Unbelievable. I have a loud voice and I couldn’t hear myself screaming full throat. I also remember Lester Earl being on official visit that day and I told my buddy, “If he doesn’t come here after that, someone else is paying him.” Funny how that turned out.

Also…the next KU home game at the Fieldhouse will my daughter’s first…headed to KU as a freshman from CO. #parentingwin

We’ve been spoiled in that KU has seemingly always had a ‘lead guard’…someone who could both distribute and go get his own with confidence. I think that’s where I’m at with Harris…he’s just a guy…and for sure NOT a ‘lead guard’. He may have fit as a traditional point guard a few decades ago, but in today’s college basketball he just ain’t it.

This feels like a new problem to solve in college sports. There’s another space to argue the merits of NIL, paying players, or player movement. It’s one thing to recruit talented players (from HS or the portal). It’s another to ‘stay old’ and have good culture guys who can also play and develop. The reality of trying to find the right mix on a team each year seems like what KU’s coaching staff hasn’t figured out…especially this season.

While I obviously don’t know what happens behind closed doors, all of us can see that guys like Storr and Dickinson aren’t ‘KU guys’. Effort issues. Little to no defensive intensity. Body language is garbage. There’s a reason we loved guys like Travis Releford, Thomas Robinson, Devonte Graham…they fought. They played hard. That used to be the KU culture and it seems lost.

Like our board friend @wissox I also follow Wisconsin (grew up there…KU alum). What has been really interesting about their team this year is that the perception after last season was that they would take a significant down turn. Storr (leading scorer) leaving for KU. Their 3-yr starting PG (Hepburn) left for Louisville. Also lost a 3-yr starter at the 4. Instead, there’s been a mix of development amongst returners and the RIGHT GUYS who fit the culture that they got in the portal and the results have been far better than anyone has expected. Maybe they stumbled into it luckily or maybe not. Regardless, it seems like maintaining the culture of a program and finding talent that fits that culture has really helped there.

All of that to say…as long as KU pays mercenaries who come and play for the highest bidder, I find it hard to imagine that they’ll get back to having the culture like the KU teams that we all loved. I also wonder whether having a solid culture and recruiting for fit might be as important as anything in our current climate of college sports.

Hunter Dickenson is Alex Rodriguez…a diva who’s hard to root for…and who has more empty statistics than any player I remember. So many points/rebounds against crap teams and in games that are already decided

@FarmerJayhawk That’s what the Wisconsin fan sites are reporting

All I know is this…I’m gonna hug my dog as much as I can before I go to bed. You just never know…