Added 3 D-linemen this week, 2 x 3stars, 1 2 star. 2 of them are juco.
What I like is 1 5star WR, 2 4star WRs, a 4star RB, a 3-4star dual threat TX QB on the roster. Not sure if aTm’s Quiv Gonzalez was a 4 or 5 star, so I counted him as a 4.
KU currently with the 12th ranked football recruiting class… (may change, of course).
Agree with the various takes above, thanks to all who commented. This season, for KC, seems to be a crossroads or even a last hurrah for many of the veterans. Maclin already cut…
@Kcmatt7 But would you say the Pats O-line is better than KC’s O-line? That was my only comparison. I happen to really like Alex Smith. Is he KC’s only 1st round QB, number 1 in the draft, if I’m not mistaken. So we got him. But what the “heck” have we put around him? Alex was a gunslinger QB at Utah under Urban Meyer.
Trent Green can tell us KC fans what happens in successive seasons when you start to lose your ProBowl O-line, 1 by 1, or 2 at a time. The RBs suffer also, ask LJohnson. He didnt quite have the line that Priest Holmes did. Why exactly did TGonzalez leave KC? He wanted a chance at a SuperBowl. Player personnel decisions…
Trump? Hope he can make good and simply give us all a better deal. Fix some things, actually. And give our enemies the rawest deal possible. I think he can.
Dems? Current far-Left types simply need to stop being butthurt. Hilary cant throw in the towel. What and awful campaign. Go ahead and attack Trumps extended family, and see if those attempts make such Dems “look” better. Trying to take the low road to get to a higher place? Ha, what logic. And I had little issue with old school Dems of a generation or two ago, like JFK or even Carter.
Republicans? Trump is different than them, so some of them find it hard to venture out of their box. Well, the American public spoke. And note to the Dems: You cannot get any more electoral votes from winning CA even if you got 99% of all Calif votes, duh. What a pointless fact that Hilary won the popular vote–of course, but Calif and NY dont speak for every other state now, DO THEY? Find someone in the DemParty strategy committee who decided to have Hilary not set foot even in some key states. Was that a public “snub” by her, before votes got cast? Wow, talk about accidentally falling on yer own sword…what a lesson. And they spent 4x the $ the Repubs did. And they had all major media, except for 1 network. But lets find some way to blame the Russians. Because Russian Red Army barricades kept Hilary’s motorcade out of those key states all thru the campaign, ya…And the Red AirForce kept her plane from landing in those states, ya…
@Texas-Hawk-10 Awesome rundown on the Louisiana guys, thank you! There isnt this type of excitement or recruiting going on at Purple, is there? Snyder doesnt have an audience with LSU/Bama/SEC type recruits, does he?
If Beaty’s shrewdness with his asst coaching hires carries over into his playcalling, this whole enchilada just started to grow some wheels…the jimmys and joes to run those x’s and o’s, so they say.
@jaybate-1.0 Fox News mentioned Dday several times during the day and night. Showed pictures of that day on the beaches.
I played Call of Duty, World at War (old game that never gets old, you get to shoot all the guns, but I dont like the de-tuned Springfield rifle. A .3006 is a .3006 regardless of what gun shot it!). I ordered some dvds about Panthers and Tigers and Shermans.
I absolutely bludgeoned myself by reading of the meatgrinder of the Eastern Front.
War and remembrance. Those who forget, simply must brace themselves for mankind’s limitations, as we’ll keep repeating our usual blunders.
@justanotherfan Hmm, so you think the Texas freshman PG can just come in and run that team, in addition to making the transition to D1 speed and opposition and the big lights? Ok, maybe Shaka found himself some kind of Frank Mason or Devonte…we shall see.
What, no Witherspoon?
No “Spoonie”??
In other news, Frank Mason is busy with his 13 NBA teams’ invited workouts…
@elpoyo I’m sure Hudy tried everything with Lucas. But some kids are fast-twitch athletes, and some are not. At this point, simply judge 6’10 Lucas like any pro-scout would judge him, and thats the point I’m making. Cant make someone explosive if they werent to begin with.
Lucas’ job in Self’s scheme was to box out, set screens, seal off his man, and get garbage put-backs, lob dunks, and hit FTs. He can be productive (in college), but in a blue collar way. Everytime he tried to push the offensive scoring envelope, he became very unreliable. Yet another description would be that he had the offensive mentality, but not the physical ability or scoring touch.
@elpoyo Oregon proved exactly this:
Lucas was a pedestrian, non-athlete, manning our post. Nothing Hudy could do.
Big guards can shoot over little guards.
Lady luck needed to advance in the Madness. We didnt get it with our 3%, nor with Ducks’ timeclock beating 3s.
Frank Mason and Josh Jackson needed help, which they didnt get. (in that game)
No matter who your team is, pivotal ref calls can indeed affect a game. Either for or against.
Hudy affects conditioning and physique, molding a player with specifics for his position in Self’s system. Guards get different workouts than bigs. But what can Hudy do about mindset and nature of a player? Very little.
Basically you are right OR wrong, depending on what aspect of KU basketball you are referring, based on if Hudy can impact that aspect or not.
But this is silly exercise, since a whole national organization decided she gets this award, not you or me or Bill Self. Hmm, why did they reach that consensus? Just because she’s a girl? Doubt it.
@DoubleDD Great post. I felt it very unusual that a US president (Obama) would actually have “anti-American” views, as you put it. Or maybe a better term would be anti-American-ism. As a nation, we seem to now like to go counter-grain, until we are way, way off course, and have gotten away from our founding ideals. What is the value in getting away from the very ideals that made America, and that defined Americans for generations? Were not perfect, by any means. But deconstructing is an entirely different notion than fine-tuning away our flaws.
I dont understand why Obama kept wanting to convey a tone of being an apologist for American ideals? What made him think he could speak for us like that?
It took the founding fathers’ building blocks about 170yrs to create a superpower, but all of a sudden some kook like Bernie thinks we need to change it all, making no distinction between good or bad, but of course highlighting only the things that need improving. A multimillionaire with 3 houses who suddenly cares about us, eventhough his “ideals” led him to honeymoon in the USSR back in the cold war era. So which part of him is the facade, and which is real?? Even Hilary said you simply cannot promise free-college and free everything. But of course the minions fell for it.
Wasnt there another generation that was all self-happy, peddling self-love, open love, communal love, drugs, peace, flowers, antiwar…? I’m not sure if their contribution to American grit is net-negative or net-positive. I do like the breaking down barriers and brotherhood aspects, if anything, but thats about it.
Keep putting out “alternative” and “countergrain” cultural ideas (to the basic ‘American’ founding ideals), and see how far you can dilute down the fabric of the country. That’s the peril of putting a thousand “change this too” ideas out there. Stated another way: the founding fathers started a whole nation with their ideas, and I’d hindsight “judge” that they were onto something…since it grew and prospered beyond any of their expectations. Other nations have NOT propered like this, oh, but lets wholesale change it, not fine tune its problems. Lets move the entire 3rd world to the US and Western Europe, since our hearts bleed soooo bad for all those sufferring people everywhere. Erase all the borders, right?
How would all the “change” proponents and progressives do if we let them start their own country? Umm, I’m betting on the founding fathers’ concepts, only because they are proven. And they seem to have beaten all the socialists, bolsheviks, monarchies, communists, fundamentalist states, and fascists that we’ve seen over the last few centuries.
Dare anyone to come up with anything better…“change”? Be very careful what you wish for. Dont know what you got til its gone.
The “decline” of America, by the way, refers to the people currently alive in it (who are responsible for its direction), NOT referring to its founding ideals. How could it.
Is there any Big12 team that can break Self’s loud snoring thru the conference season?
@kjayhawks Great rundown. Pretty much agree with all the synopses. Crist and Heaps get a big asterisk, since they had a butt-awful offensive line, and a whole plethora of WRs and TEs that had NO hands. When they werent in fear for their life, their passes would hit the receivers right in the hands…for a quick incompletion. How many drives were killed by 1 key dropped pass?
Weis simply found out he had no infrastructure (o-line and WRs and TEs) to actually run his offense, eventhough he went and got not 1 but actually 2 number 1-ranked QBs (out of h.s.). Put Tom Brady behind the KC offensive line and see what happens…oh, and give Tom Brady someone like Dwayne Bowe to throw to.
Weis had never seen a football team as bad as KU’s, so he truly didnt know what to do. Trying to copy Bill Snyder showed how out of his element Weis was.
@Kcmatt7 Game manager Tom Brady. I agree he does that well. But, man, this last super bowl, he literally made every clutch play he had to, one after the other. There was no margin for error, and Brady delivered. But look at his offensive line. I wish Alex Smith had that type of offensive line. Bet the KC RBs wish they had an A-level offensive line.
Agree on all comments about the defense. Its aging. This year is literally the last gasp for the aging stars on KC D, 1 year to try to go deep in the playoffs, and test these new talent aquisitions. Personally, we saw a VERY porous defense once Derrick Johnson (MLB) went down. The backups really didnt look much better even after 6-7 games of playing time and coaching-up.
Just seems different than the Patriots off-season moves. We still hunting for pieces. While Pats go get exactly the pieces they needed.
@HighEliteMajor Ha! Love the sarcasm. Also agree with no sure-fire formula. The mid-major land mine: Self keeps scheduling very good mid-majors. The elite program danger. We’ve played Duke and KY alot recently. Only sure-fire thing would be how to get a team playing to peak effectiveness for 6 games straight, especially those last 4 against very good competition. Self’s mentioned it over the years, if he or any coach knew how, they could bottle it. Brad Stephens doesnt even know, nor does Mark Few. Nor does Coach K or Calipari. Roy’s team won a NC despite having an ugly offensive night, but actually played D. Go figure.
Royals get their own category, but no Chiefs category?
What about KC letting Jamaal Charles become a Bronco?
Will this be the year Alex Smith gets an NFL caliber offensive line?
The big drama will be if Lonzo gets passed up (initially) in the draft, going a bit later than expected. Daddy Ball will squirm. Lonzo will look his usual stone faced self.
Balls to the Wall. Accept whats coming, daddyB.
Interesting to see how DG will lead, now that its not just for a Mason-breather. I’m remembering Elijah Johnson’s assassin role behind Tyshawn’s lead role, yet couldnt do the same as lead dog all by himself the following year. But I think Devonte is different and has his own mojo. He can play off of Malik’s “alpha” and still assassinate. He does need to get better at attacking like Frank.
Is that asking too much? Mr.Mason attacked better than any guard under Self, with the closest others being Sherron and Keith Langford, and maybe senior year Tyshawn. DG, to me, seems about a half notch below Tyshawn in his rim penetrations.
As in most years, we look good on paper, and have some depth. Some of it is unproven. Svi’s return is a big piece, dynamic player, who Self wants to become more aggressive.
4 guards: DG, Newman, Svi, Vick.
4 bigs: Udoka, Preston, Wm&Mary guy, Lightfoot.
Other bench depth TBD (to-be-developed), and its all gravy after the above 8.
Frank, Jayhawk nation will always be here for you! Will always be pulling for you.
Daddy Ball a perfect example of cheap attempt at pot-stirring, to simply cause hype. What he has no feel for, is when all the attention starts to turn into bad PR. Yes, daddy, everybody is talking about your son, but now some are even starting to go counter-grain, simply because of daddy’s absurdly positive grandiosity about his son–now they looking harder for Lonzo’s bad qualities. Human nature for people to try to shoot down a chest puffer. Cut him down to size.
This guy managed to insult MJ and LeBron both, said something about LeBron’s kids.
Do you like demolition derbys? Sit ringside for this one. A family affair.
@JayHawkFanToo Yep, I’ve bought a lot of KU gear over the years (of adidas), that was non-adidas. Any trip into a Rally House sports store, you can see all the other licensed brands selling KU gear.
@Texas-Hawk-10 I’ll be at Memorial Stadium, but inexplicably without my seat cushions for my old butt, nor any bags to carry stuff in.
KU football cant win against its’ own institutional bungling.
@kjayhawks Nice breakdown. Believable projections. Hope you are right.
@jaybate-1.0 And Dana Altman pulled back that wool that Self had so deftly crafted, to expose…?
Or was it Oregon’s Bell that exposed us? Or their tall Mr. March guard?
Something undid that wool…
Shaka still has a lot to prove in the conference. So a 1yr freshman center leaves TX for the pros, now to be replaced with another 1yr freshman center. How has balance changed?
@HighEliteMajor Agree on Bragg, and now he picks a party school, AzState, as a place to try to get serious
@JayHawkFanToo Its a worthless discussion. Twist what I said some more and see how fruitful that is. Hmm, no where in my post(s) did I say no one on the KU team did no wrong. Fact is, I actually posted that Self isnt infallible, and nor is Mason. The KU players are exactly the ones that didnt execute, so how can you speculate that I said or even insinuated that they did “no wrong”. In fact, that game is full of KU mistakes.
Ha, at least we now have your “speculation”, speculating on what I must be assuming. The only thing I was wondering, I can summarize in 1 line: was there a halftime adjustment by somebody, Self or not, that created the result we saw? And then there was Charles Barkley’s observation on the halftime booth show about Frank “needing to get his teammates involved”, and that got me wondering what would happen in the 2nd half–before the 2nd half was even played… Then I saw the 2nd half unfold, and simply watched Mason’s production, and what he was trying to do.
I dont need the last word, man. But you can run from the discussion if you want, free country. Truth is, your last post is now speculating on what I “must have” assumed–at least we now have your speculation, but its a cheapie, since our discussion really doesnt matter. I’m more interested in what my fellow KU alums & KU fans think, especially if they gave any thought to what Barkley said in the half-time break. That’s precisely what got me thinking, and only because Frank went more distributive-PG, compared to the 1st half (same game, 2 different halves).
What I dont buy is the “tired legs” assumption on Frank, of all players to suggest that on. Maybe he simply went cold, that’s an OK assumption. It happened to Sherron vs UNI, and the whole team last year vs Nova. But to suggest KU was more tired, especially after the early KC conf tourney exit, simply is with little merit.
I was prepared to live and die by Frank Mason (&Josh). And we died. Of course there’s many explanations for that 2nd half? But isnt this also where we CAN discuss additional speculation? (seen many discussions on petro-shoe-oligarchy, Calipari smoke-there’s-fire discussions…). Eh? What say ye? Did you at least hear Barkley’s comment? Thats what got this idea started, and none of this matters if KU won, and Devonte hit 3 threes, etc. But we didnt. So, not being blessed with alpha dogs every year, what were our alphas doing in that 2nd half? One of them had 4pts. Too good to only have 4.
Again, probably shouldnt take my speculation for actual explanation. Explanation is like reporting on what happened, vs, what I was doing is wondering why/what may have happened, simply to foster discussion. What happened to Frank’s production 2nd half? And why?
Maybe it is unanswerable.
@wissox Good post! It reminds me also of some good fortune also needed. Imagine if we were playing Oregon with Udoka giving us 15-20min in that game? What if Bragg never fell thru the floor this season? We had no post game, other than a smoke & mirrors version (interpret: carefully orchestrated, what we could and could not do with Lucas). But we got exposed in the Dance. Self’s greatness got us that far, but a fundamentally flawed team will get exposed in the Dance, most of the time.
2008 Jayhawks had no weaknesses. But still almost got felled by a bad shooting night vs Davidson. Or even to Memphis.
2012 had no depth, and were slow starting team, comeback kids, and that caught up with them. They likely would have beat any other team than KY.
My biggest focus is trying to understand where each KU team is at as they head into the big Dance. We have to be honest with ourselves about our own team, all the while of course still hoping that we get some luck and some breaks to go all the way and win it all, regardless of what a team’s defects may be in any given year. Because we are a 1- or 2-seed almost every year, I gotta think we will get our lucky run, just about any year now…!
@JayHawkFanToo “with absolutely no facts to back it up”. Ok, I’ll bite–> 1) Let me first ask you if I really need to quote Webster’s Dictionary on what the word “speculation” means? I used that preface and postface to frame my post. 2) Isnt armchair QB’ing what fans do, after the fact of a loss? But that is not acceptable to you, fan behavior and fan speculation? 3) Only someone actually in the lockerroom can attest to whom spoke what, and what the game plan was, right? That info would have constituted ‘fact’, and we all would welcome such knowledge, as it would literally end the speculation. 4) So, short of those facts, that leaves us to speculate on what might/might not have been said, based on the play we saw in the 2nd half. 5) Yes, closed to within 6pts, so that means any number of combinations of shots made by anybody or coming up with a couple of extra 50/50 balls, or Ducks just missing a couple of shot clock 3s would have meant a possible different outcome for KU, right?
Sorry, but if I’m left to speculate, then I believe more in the grit and the proven unflappability of Frank Mason, and the oft-witnessed facts of him simply not being able to be stopped by anyone all season, so I cannot believe the Ducks stopped his production the 2nd half. Do you actually believe that? You would be assuming something out of Frank, we never saw, and a kid trying to get a shot at playing in a Final Four. If you take the pains to post Frank’s layup miss and 2 x trey misses in those final minutes, what then is your own theory of why KU lost that game? It is fair to say bad shooting night by key players, as we all saw that happen vs Nova last year, I dont have a problem with that.
My speculation (sorry, there’s that word again…hard to digest for some…), isnt about the last few spinchter tightening minutes, although even that is peculiar, since this team had won the majority of their 1-2 possession games, and even some games requiring big comebacks, so the spinchter thing is a bit harder to swallow (but could still happen, who knows?)…but more about what Frank was doing for the first majority of the 2nd half, not the last minutes?
It just begs the question, which has a natural by-product of speculation, especially by some of us fans/alumni. Self isnt infallible. And Mason isnt infallible. Watch the entire game again, see what you think. And give us your speculation. You have mine, which isnt changing.
The lynchpin to my speculation, is that there was way more to Mason than just 4pts in a half. Any half. Any game. Especially that game. So I’m left wondering what happened. Speculating. Nothing more. And nobody is here to insult Bill Self, god why, hall of fame level coach. But even if 2 royalty programs play, with a great coach on each sideline, somebody’s gameplan will work, and someone’s wont. W/L.
Bryce Alford was a highly regarded player in NMex, very similar to Tyrel Reed in KS. His play at the D1 level, was very similar, although he played starter mpg, and his stats reflect it. This isnt to say he’s a shoe-in for a NBA roster, but he proved to be a much better player than Brady Morningstar…(it can be debated).
@JayHawkFanToo Agreed on the 3%, and that’s a team fail, and especially a bad outing for Devonte, but Altman created that specifically with his gameplan on Devonte. Devonte couldnt find another way to score, while Frank has many ways, and was not stopped the first half.
We also had odd, weird 50/50 balls that all seemed to go to Oregon.
@kjayhawks As stated twice in my post, mine is pure “speculation”. You can, however, add the actual fact that we just really didnt see a “tired out” Mason as a senior (other than his flu game), compared to when he was a junior. Plus, due to the TCU debacle v2.0 in the BigXII Tourney, KU, a 1-seed, got way more rest than almost any other March Madness participant, didnt they?
So to call Mason tired out, when we just didnt see that all season is also speculation, isnt it? Never seen him lack “juice”. He did have the banged up elbow as a junior. But he had more help as a senior.
Agreed on KU 3s being off. This is where Devonte really had just a bad game.
@Kcmatt7 Well, the older generations most definitely were more racist. Not just deep South. Even in KS. Especially rural KS.
Somewhat tangential, but this is also why the progressives on both coasts look down on the Midwest/rural areas, as they consider us the slowest to change attitudes, beliefs, values. (For better or worse, of course, hotly debated across several issues, politically speaking).
@mayjay Great points on UConn. But what’s your gut feel on UConn now? Are they a destination job? Are they a top-recruit mentioned pick? They seem to me, at least, to be B-tier.
@jaybate-1.0 True. And who picked MJ to be the name and face; to kick off the shoe wars as we know it? What had he done? Or maybe his charismatic look and play made it a no-brainer from a mktg standpoint?
Replacing the 1-man dynamism of Josh Jackson, and the 1-man dynamism of Mason, is the 2-headed problem. We just lost 2 alphas.
@approxinfinity Agreed, that would be nice.
@HighEliteMajor Just my speculation that Self possibly told Mason to involve his teammates. Charles Barkley during the halftime break said something similar, I felt odd about it.
Or, it could have been Devonte or Landen that spoke up, asking to get the ball, as they wanted to help and do their part.
So, whatever happened in the lockerroom, what we saw was a different Mason the 2nd half. Only 4 pts out of that stud is unfathomable. How ironic that nobody all season stopped him, not even Oregon in the first half, yet he only goes for 4pts. I recall him feeding Lucas and feeding 0pts-Devonte, who specifically was the focus of Altman’s gameplan.
Nobody helped Mason 1st half. Josh didnt get much help the 2nd half. And none of my speculation is blaming Mason. At all. I’ll blame Self for switching his soldier (Frank) to an alternative task.
Speculation: In the NBA, would Mason be better than Chalmers was/is in the NBA?
It was a fateful decision by Self or someone in the KU lockerroom at halftime vs Oregon. Mason could have been leading his team in the final four, if he had been, in fact allowed to continue leading in the 2nd half.
Interesting stuff, and to think it all started with Jordan and his Nike’s, soon becoming its own sub-brand. Probably for a while, especially in the 90s and early 2000s, truly the elite was UNC, with their Jordan-Carolina brand, he played for them, and they were/are a Jordan-brand school. Everybody else is chasing. Enter WWWes and his KY connections. But KY is still Nike. And Duke is Nike. Those are the 3 kings: UNC, KY, Duke.
If there’s any carryover mktg from a NBA superstar’s college days, then it may be worth considering as they pick their school choice. Their college mdse may still sell, if its a cool brand, and if they retain the same connection as a pro? Possibly?
Look at all the transfers going on right now in bball and ftball. Self and Beaty both having to deal with that right now. Its given KU ftball 2 x SEC wide receivers now in the Alabama transfer, and LaQuiv Gonzalez, who came from aTm. And a grad xsfer Nebr O-lineman. And 2 QBs, while Cozart transfers, as does the other backup QB.
And Self picked up 31ppg and 18rpg with the Lawson twins leaving Memphis. Literally took half that team’s production because they were mad at Tubby. Tubby not for tele anymore…
@JayHawkFanToo It could be that Whitman adds a little more all around versatility, eventhough he may give up some athleticism compared to Coleby. In the videos I’ve seen of Whitman, I’d agree he looks more versatile than Coleby showed. Also, maybe he avoids the 3 fouls in 7min that seemed to be Coleby’s trend.
An unrelated point, is this B-grade revolving door, ala KY, but with retread players, not freshman MickeyDs. A B-grade knock off of KY? Or maybe this is just Self navigating the changing landscape of recruiting. A dizzying amount of transfers, even in college football. Look what Beaty is dealing with as well. Or maybe wheeling and dealing…
@drgnslayr What we’ve been missing since Perry Ellis (who had his own shortcomings), is a money-man in the post. Prior to this last season, the weakest post starting tandem was 2013 with Withey and KYoung. Both were role players, Withey defensively and rebounds, and KYo the rebounds. That offense had to be highly orchestrated to put those guys in positions for scoring, thus putting a lot of pressure on the guards, which then led to breakdowns, like the whole TopekaY comment and Self blasting EJ and Naadir. In years past you could just give the ball to Marcus or Markieff or Thomas Robinson, and they could get a bucket a variety of ways on their own, in addition the the orchestrated set plays.
Lucas looked good against cupcakes, or unsuspecting foes in the paint who he could seal off and get a post entry feed, but he also got such perfectly executed plays blocked at the rim by recovering or help defenders who were athletic enough to do it. So of course that happens in March Madness in the E8. You will get exposed. And we have time and again. Stanford exposed P.Ellis in a different manner (couldnt score over length, and didnt have the brawn or the mentality to play as a power4. He a finesse4).
@justanotherfan Your post “oregon didnt kill us offensively with Bell”, only made me think about that game, which was like seeing old footage of a bomber getting attacked in a running battle and then finally going down in a long downward blaze.
Bell didnt kill us offensively, but he F’n owned Lucas. Lucas couldnt do anything. Totally exposed. Athleticism is a currency all its own, Bell possesses, Lucas clearly does not. BigDoke has it (but does he have the conditioning?), eventhough from skillset standpoint, Doke is still raw. But look what Doke did even in 1 game against Duke. Coleby had it–nasty quick stickback dunks after offensive rebounds. A rarity in 5yrs of Lucas. And, make no mistake, Bill Self replaced his “trusty” 5th yr senior in the starting lineup with Doke, only to lose Doke then to the ligament injury. Self made his choice early, which really messed with Lucas’ psyche for a few weeks.
Pedestrian post-play is how I’d describe last year without Doke. Let’s not get started about the hole in the floor that Bragg fell thru, all on his own. Because he did arrive with ability, we saw it as a frosh, even as early as the WUG games. But that’s pretty much on Bragg.
The most vexing thing about that Oregon game was watching the WRONG coached-gameplan for the 2nd half to make hot-hand Mason actually try to dish repeatedly to Lucas in the post. Take the ball out of Mason’s hands to “get teammates involved”. Tale of 2 halves: check Mason’s stats: 17pts 1st half, only 4pts 2nd half, and ask yourself why? When nobody in the nation was able to stop that tank from scoring? Come on, Bill–poor game mgmt–you stopped Frank. Josh tried the 2nd half. Should have been 2 alphas just going to work. Josh needed Frank to be Frank. Bill clearly wanted Frank to become Aaron Miles or RussRob in the 2nd half…(distributive PG), or so it would appear…
Will miss an athletic, fast-twitch banger like Coleby. The Wm&Mary guy may be more versatile, we’ll see. He will definitely have the crowd going with fake 'staches…
@Lulufulu Another way to state the situation is: This year it will still be bigs-by-committee, although unproven, this year’s “committee” is better than last year’s, on paper. They still havent played as a unit yet.
Personally, hated to see Coleby transfer. Not because he’s a savior, but because his 12-18mpg, potentially, could have been very useful as a 25% piece of post play. He would have sub’d for Doke. Lightfoot subbing for Preston. But now, we try to fit in the Wm&Mary guy in that committee.
Anyone that saw what happened to Lucas vs Oregon will realize one of our most fundamental problems with last year’s team. I dont have to “sell” Lucas short. He already proved my point.
BigDoke as a raw freshman took 5th yr senior Lucas’ starting spot. He was already better. Beasted agaist Duke. Now, he isnt expected to be a whole lot better, but if his stated plan was to only be at KU x 2 years, then he needs to put up stats in a major way, and Im sure Self has told him. Just improve his conditioning, and improve his FT%. If he thinks he’s added a face-up jumper, show us.
We need fast-twitch athletes in the post. Nobody is going to miss Lucas or Bragg. I will miss Coleby, as he had some quick & nasty in his game. Billy Preston, as a McDAA, hopefully is play-able as a frosh. Lightfoot with his range and rebounding knack, needs to get stronger and continue improving. Got rebounds, but weak finisher as a freshman. The Wm&Mary guy will obviously be part of the committee, but honestly, just about anybody will be an upgrade over Lucas and Bragg.
Do not forget how totally exposed KU’s post-play was against TCU (without Josh Jackson), and against Oregon.
Do you all really want to “thank” Bill Self for his total smoke & mirrors job with KU’s post play last season? I guess a little bit, just because of the Conf Title…or do you give the credit to Frank & Josh?