Best posts made by Jhawk69

The fact that we are catching flak for resting our starters in a meaningless (for us) week 17 game proves two things

1. We live rent free in other fanbases heads to an unprecedented degree

2. NFL fans are VERY stupid.

Resting your starters on the last week when you have nothing to play for is standard practice and has NEVER been controversial. I don’t even think the nationally hated Patriots were ever criticized for it in the 2010s. I guess we are now the greatest villains in football history BWAHAHA

You are also right about us being plagued by the same issues time and time again. Last year we were plagued by McCullar getting hurt, Arterio getting kicked off the team, and Timberlake being terrible. This year McCullar is still hurt and not playing, Arterio is still kicked off the team, and Timberlake is still terrible.

I almost cannot believe that I am reading posts saying that Self bungled Frank Mason’s development. I would argue that Self’s development of Frank is among the most impressive examples of player development I have ever seen.

It couldn’t possibly be that coach favors the players who help us win games

I think the reasonable thing to do is to take the wins with a grain of salt and go into panic mode over the losses.

I love reading “Bill Self only won the title because he had great players” on one thread and "Bill Self can’t recruit " on another

Is anyone else here confused? During DaJuan’s tenure at KU we have landed a 5* PG in Elmarko Jackson, am extremely coveted portal PG in Remy Martin, and two additional coveted portal guards in Zeke Mayo and David Coit. Where exactly is the perception that we have been unable to recruit guards due to Self’s blind loyalty to DaJuan coming from?

@MoonwalkMafia Landen Lucas was a better player than Cheick Diallo. Jamari was better than Cliff. Bill gave both Cheick and Cliff ample chances. At one point he started Cliff over Jamari for a few games just in hopes it would jumpstart Cliff and help him reach his potential. It didn’t. Sometimes players just don’t perform and need to take a back seat to others with less talent but who are just better players.

None of this is to say Bill is perfect or that he has never made a wrong decision in whom to play. But neither Cliff nor Cheick was benched for a lesser player just because of “trust” or anything like that.

They have had the worst injury luck of any team in the NFL by far this season

It does not matter whether some fans are happy with DeJuan or not. What matters is whether he plays well and helps us win games. He has done that for four years and will likely, as you pointed out, be able to play even better with a decent backup pg to gibe him some rest and some shooters and creators to take the burden of running the entire offense off his shoulders. Some people will not be happy because DeJuan will smartly play to his strengths and set up other people for shots instead of trying to score a lot himself, but like I said it doesn’t matter as long as he makes the team better.

I figured that some of us could use a break from the controversy about a technical foul being called on a technical foul. So here is a reminder of one of the greatest games of KU basketball history even though our fanbase rarely brings it up. Enjoy:

Since winning the title in 2022 we have had:

2023: a season where we won the Big 12 and earned a one seed but got bounced early

2024: our worst season under Bill Self but we lost our best player due to injury and were still ranked all season and never in danger of missing the tournament

2025: mostly TBD but right now looks like a borderline top-10 team that is a long shot to win the title

That is nowhere near bad enough to panic. If you don’t believe me look at the history of every other program in college basketball. If we have a couple more below-average seasons or ever miss the tournament then there might be cause for concern.

If AJ were prone to homesickness he wouldn’t be on his 7th school in 7 years.

I think something everyone needs to understand is that

1. If player A has more upside and talent than player B, it does not guarantee that player A is automatically a better basketball player in any given moment of time than player B.

2. If player A (who is more talented than player B but not as good a basketball player at the current moment) is given a lot of minutes he is not guaranteed to suddenly become a better player than player B in a short period of time.

A couple examples of this are Frank Mason who played slightly fewer minutes than Naadir Tharpe as a freshman and Perry Ellis, who backed up Kevin Young as a freshman. They stuck around for a long time and eventually developed into players that were miles better than Tharpe and KY. But it took time, there is no evidence to believe this process could have been expedited by playing them a few more minutes per game as freshmen.

@MoonwalkMafia

I wasn’t really talking about KJ. The point is that I believe Bill Self’s choices in the past are not evidence of a stubborn will to play less talented but more experienced players to the detriment of the team. He assesses who gives us the best chance to win and plays that player. He doesn’t bat 100 but he is right more than wrong and is right more than any of us on this board.

Regarding KJ, I agree that the defense sags off of him and that that causes offensive problems. But he does some good things to make up for it. Overall, he is a fine but not great player. He deserves a role on this team but probably should not play 30+ mpg at the 4.

Methinks that maybe this game proves that Bill Self was right about KJ and people on the internet were wrong

I do not want DaJuan to average 14ppg because that means he is shooting too much. I do want him to cut down the turnovers and finish better at the rim. Stats don’t matter that much but just for a fun ballpark figure I would like for him to average around 8 points and 8 assists per game with a couple steals and relatively low turnovers.

Should be back to back! Well deserved, congrats Joel!

I suppose if we can only use players we know will be on the roster next year my guess at the starting lineup would be Harris, Elmarko Jackson, Nick Timberlake, KJ Adams, and Ernest Udeh. However, with Udeh’s foul problems he will only be on the floor 10 minutes a game, meaning a more common lineup will be Harris, Jackson, Timberlake, Marcus Adams, and KJ Adams. Of course, this lineup WILL change with the portal so the posts now are meaningless outside of having fun shooting the breeze. Maybe we won’t get our most desired targets, but we will get a couple players who will compete for starting roles.

Lathan to Kansas. Just read that he entered the portal AFTER playing in WVU’s bowl game. That is a GREAT sign.

Back in the old days this would have been a good class to grab some 4-year program guys that we can develop patiently. Unfortunately there is no point in doing so anymore as they will transfer away

I don’t know if I can agree that Lance is running a borderline shit show. Even with last season not going how we expected he is still way ahead of schedule. But yes, KU fans are comically entitled when it comes to basketball.

Read a GEM of a comment on Rupp Rafters: "If this would have been UK, we would have been buried.

DEAD. AND. GONE."

Yeah, UK and coach Cal are completely clean. The NCAA definitely hasn’t been turning a blind eye to them or anything.

@FarmerJayhawk Those who believe strongly enough in the philosophical views of Fyodor Dostoyevsky could be said to “like adversity.” However, this all comes down to which specific emotions that one registers qualify as “liking” something.

Olympics start on Saturday

In an ideal world, Flory comes back next season and Tiller is our backup 5, which would give him time to toughen up and develop before playing a more major role in the future.

@kuballin10 We don’t have to go off of anyone’s memories. We have the box score. DaJuan played 27 minutes, got three steals, and played a big role in holding UNC’s backcourt to 1-13 from three.

Bill benched KJ for a long stretch in the second half then used him situationally at the end of the game. He got a steal and drew a foul (both of which were mitigated by officiating errors). I am also disgruntled with KJs overall play today, but I am not really sure what more one would want from Bill in that regard. Benching KJ and then correctly using him situationally for a couple minutes is about all you can ask for.

We had a good team in 2023. We won a brutal Big 12, were in the top 5 all year, and were a one seed. Using an early tourney exit to try to say otherwise is an illogical argument. Anyone can get bounced early.

We sucked last year.

We will have to see how we play this year. We have had highs and lows already and it is too early to say. My guess is that we are better than last year but far from being one of Bill’s best squads.

@kuballin10 2019 Doke injured, 2023 Self hospitalized, 2024 McCullar injured. The seasons where we are at full strength we tend to do well.

@kuballin10

“@Jhawk69 responded with sarcasm and zero comments about the actual defensive methods”

To clarify, my comment about taking wins with a grain of salt and panicing over losses was not a response to you or directed towards anyone in particular. It was meant to be a lighthearted joke about the tendency of sports fans to panic too easily.

Have a good day and let’s hope for a win vd ASU tonight.

I am happy that we played well twice in a row.

One game at a time. For now, the Cincinnati game is all that exists.

People complain about Bill’s minutes distrubutions for 2 reasons

1. They do not understand the difference between talent and impact on the game.

2. They do not understand trade-offs.

I talked about talent vs impact above. I will explain tradeoffs here.

There are certain traits that fans want to see in their teams basketball players. If players have such traits, they think that those players are good. If not, they think they are bad. But, these few traits fans judge are not the only traits that impact a game. So a player lacking in a desired trait might be exceptional in other traits. If this player is given minutes instead of someone who has a more desired trait but does not have other traits, it is a trade-off. You trade one skillset for another. Because there are no perfect players, and because every player has different traits and abilities, all playing time decisions involve trade-offs. A coaches job is not to roll out a perfect team, but to analyze the trade-offs and get the best one possible. This will inevitably involve the sacrifice of certain traits being on the floor.

Many of you will claim that this is obvious, but it is clear that not all of you understand it well enough to incorporate it into your opinions of our players and of how our team is managed.

@BeddieKU23 Well, we are clearly a better overall team with KJ on the floor than off. 28 minutes is not excessive. 35+ is. If Flory and Hunter are playing great then I have no problem with KJ playing fewer minutes. But if not then there is nothing wrong with 28 minutes from KJ.

If anyone else here loves a good novel, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is excellent. The tv mini series by the same name is very good and well-acted too. Then the novel Blood Meridian is very powerful though too dark for some people.

As for movies, I really like Unforgiven.

When it comes to shows, Longmire is great once you get into season two. The novels it is based on are also great.

@kjayhawks Done and done

I think the problem is that it is ESPN+

Pretty terrible seeding throughout.

@Gorilla72 Yes. But Daniels missed too many open throws today. If not for that we probably blow WVU out

With Doke gone, our perimeter scoring will need to pick up the slack. Our 3 ball has got to be much better next year than it was last. I’m hoping Bryce Thompson can help out with that. If anyone happens to know or have any theories about how good a shooter he is please share!

It really is amazing how many of our fans know basketball better than Bill Self

I know this is probably stupid and is definitely a knee-jerk reaction to 1 game, but a little part of me wants Yesufu to start taking Remy’s minutes. I know Remy is probably the better player but it seems like we need Yesufu’s defense more than we need Remy’s offense. Thoughts? Am I as crazy as I feel?

We now have a punter. Based on stats alone he looks like an upgrade over Greaves.

@BeddieKU23 We play down to Yale-caliber opponents.

It’s almost as if no longer being a joke of a program is appealing to recruits

How will I remember to shop at the local Russell Stover Candies without the AFH scoreboard reminding me?

I would really like to see us go after Brandon Mahan from UCF. Just entered the portal and was a very efficient scorer last year.

@wissox I think Hunter didn’t get fouled but they called it as a makeup since they didn’t call the one DaJuan drew

“Self loves (player X)” translation: (player X ) is a very good player and Self, because of his elevated understanding of basketball, recognizes this and chooses to play him accordingly.