This post isn’t about analysis. This post is about enjoying a basketball game for being great. This will be long, so feel free to skip it if you don’t have that kind of time.

My perception of several guys was altered last night watching that game. Credit has to go to every single guy for playing their butts off last night, on both teams. The action wasn’t always perfect, but guys played extremely hard on both ends.

Both Kruger and Self squeezed every ounce of effort out of their guys. Both drew up some brilliant plays and made some questionable decisions, but they got everything out of their players.

Pack up the Big XII POY trophy and send it to Norman. Deliver it to a Mr. Hield. I went from thinking Hield was a fringe NBA prospect to being sold on him as a first rounder. Dropping 46 in AFH and playing 54 of 55 minutes, basically not letting your team die until exhaustion compromised his talents in the 54th minute of action (after playing all 40 in a wild game against ISU on Saturday). Hield was the best player on the floor. I wanted to shake his hand last night. As Vitale said last night, it wasn’t just that Hield made plays and dropped 46, it was that every single play he made was during a crucial moment. Every play was a must play. And he wasn’t just scoring. He had crucial assists, grabbed some big rebounds and played some tough D. Just incredible in every aspect.

Perry Ellis played his best game as a Jayhawk. Not best because he has never played better. He has. Best because that was the type of game that you need to play if you’re going to be a top player on a top team. He battled in a way that I had never seen him battle. He had his problems against Lattin (I will get to him in a second), but Perry just kept plugging away and made some HUGE plays down the stretch.

Isaiah Cousins has some stones. He was awful Saturday against Iowa State, until he wasn’t and keyed the win down the stretch. He struggled again last night, but then still hit a couple big buckets. He’s slumping right now, but once he gets going again, this OU team will be even more dangerous.

Frank Mason changed how I feel about him as a defensive player. I have no idea how many points he scored, or how many assists, or anything like that. I watched him get into Buddy Hield’s space last night and take on the challenge of defending a top notch player that was red hot (and stayed hot). But Frank stayed right in Hield’s space, and ended up making the two biggest plays of the night to seal the win. I said Frank was an average defender at the beginning of the season. I stand corrected. Frank is above average, maybe well above average. I can’t even describe how impressed I was with his performance on that end.

Kadeem Lattin was big time last night. He kept that game alive with his presence in the middle. He and Spangler are basically OU’s only useful bigs, and I think they both had double doubles last night. Spangler showed me more shooting than I knew he had. I was afraid he was going to be our undoing. The single biggest moment last night may have been when he left the game briefly due to injury. He wasn’t the same when he came back in. Those two are irreplaceable for the Sooners.

Devonte Graham has some Mario Chalmers in him. He wants to be the guy that has to make plays. I hadn’t really gotten to see that attitude until last night, but he wants to be in the BIG moments. It’s clear that Self realized that before I did and that Graham will be on the floor at the end of every close game from now until he graduates. He was relentless last night.

I didn’t even really think Jordan Woodard was that good until last night. He was, to me, the third of the three guards. I was so completely wrong. Woodard was in on everything. He handled the ball. He hit six threes, and I think four of them were on enormous, game altering possessions. Like Hield, he made several must plays. So very impressed.

And finally, Wayne Selden, who has morphed from a running disappointment into a legitimate NBA level performer. Wayne Selden is different. Last year, in the type of game he was having, Selden would have finished with five points on 2-6 shooting with 3 fouls in 26 minutes of a KU loss. The foul trouble would have robbed him of his aggressiveness and he would have just disappeared. Last night, Selden saw Hield going absolutely bonkers and rose to that level. No, he didn’t drop 46, too, but there were moments where Selden saw Hield making plays and went and made a play, too. That’s what the greats do. Hield and Selden raised each other’s level of play last night, and it was a joy to watch.

That was some great basketball. We will do this again in Norman in a little over 5 weeks.

I was driving to lunch earlier today when a crazy thought hit me. David McCormack could make a case to have his jersey hung in AFH with another strong performance tonight.

Traditionally, KU has retired the jersey of the Final Four MOP.

Lovellette, B.H. Born, Wilt, Manning, Chalmers. All have their jerseys in the rafters.

McCormack gave KU 25 and 9 on Saturday. If he has a big game tonight and is a key player in winning a national title (20 and 12) he probably gets named MOP unless Agbaji has a huge game. We already know Agbaji will be in the rafters someday, but tonight’s game could truly redefine David McCormack’s legacy at KU.

Tonight, McCormack could go from being a really good four year player to an absolute legend. If you were an MOP at Kansas you are a legend, full stop. The list again - Lovellette, Born, Chamberlain, Manning, Chalmers. All KU legends. If your name is on that list, you are a legend.

McCormack has 40 minutes tonight to potentially become a legend, regardless of whatever happens in the rest of his basketball career. He would be part of a championship team, and he would be MOP. Now, he doesn’t have the career accolades of those other guys, but it would be hard to argue against his legendary status because his name would be etched in KU hoops lore FOREVER.

Like I said, a crazy thought. But maybe not so crazy.

I’ve been gone for awhile. I’ve been okay, though. Part of it was being fairly busy with work and family things.

The other part was frustration with some of the topics/commentary that was going on that had shifted from enriching debate to something else.

I saw a particular topic that bothered me. I was about to respond, but I happened to be at home at the time and caught a glimpse of a picture of me and my wife. I looked around the room and saw pictures of family and other reminders of how much I have been blessed and it reminded me of all of the good things going on in my life despite that topic being on an internet message board. I decided not to respond and logged off.

I hadn’t logged on since then for a lot of reasons, not really related to this board or the people on it. Moreso related to being busy, a couple of health scares in the family (all good now, but a bit concerning at the time) and the normal things in life.

I will admit that stepping away from the board helped me gain a bit more perspective.

I probably won’t engage in the political stuff much on here, but I should be back on about basketball more consistently.

@wrwlumpy

There’s a concept in basketball called gravity. It is basically an offensive player’s pull to keep defenders close to them. Brannen Greene has gravity because he’s an incredible shooter. He spaces the floor because if he is outside the three point line and there are no defenders around, you might as well just put the points on the board and run to the other end.

Landen Lucas has no gravity. We saw on Monday against OU that they did not guard him. Lon Kruger actively strategized to leave Lucas open, even near the basket, recovering to him only when he had the ball. That meant that Lucas’ man (Lattin for most of that time) was standing in the middle of the lane, clogging it for any drives. After Spangler picked up his fourth foul and Lattin (OU’s top shot blocker) had to switch to Perry, a player with some gravity, KU’s possessions went as follows:

1. 1-2 FT from Devonte Graham on penetration
2. 2-2 FT from Perry Ellis inside
3. 2-2 FT from Graham on penetration
4. Missed jumper from Mason
5. Layup from Selden
6. Missed jumper from Mason

After that was the turnovers and FTs that ultimately ended the game. After Lattin had to move from the middle of the lane, KU got 7 points in 6 possessions, and the only time they didn’t score was when they didn’t get into the lane.

Lucas, and to a similar extent, Traylor, simply do not have gravity. They may set good screens and get rebounds, etc., but they do not pose enough offensive threat to merit being guarded. I could not believe that OU didn’t guard Lucas even when he was underneath the basket!

Diallo and Bragg and Mickelson can do those same little things, but they can also do big things like make jump shots that force defensive guys to do something other than camp in the lane and block shots.

@BeddieKU23

Oregon is us (or we are Oregon) to a large degree. They run almost everything through Brooks. He and Jackson going back and forth should be some of the best basketball we will see all year. That matchup alone is worth the price of admission.

Their key guy will be Dorsey. He and Graham should matchup, although it will be interesting to see what happens when Vick is in the game. Had Dorsey not gone to Oregon, it’s likely he would be at KU and Vick would be somewhere else. Vick has to know that, and probably would like to demonstrate that KU ended up in the superior position.

I expect a huge game from Lucas, oddly enough. He struggled last night, but he remembers that Villanova game and I don’t think he wants his career to end like that. Lucas double double to the tune of 14 points, 15 boards.

I think the Big 12 suffers from one major issue - the schools in this conference other than KU often suffer from a good coaching not having elite players, or elite players not having a good coach.

Huggins is a good coach. WVU has good players, but not any elite ones. That hurts come tourney time. Last year Lon Kruger had a lottery pick. He rode that team to the Final Four. This year he has nothing. We all see what happened.

Jamie Dixon is a good coach. He’s at TCU. No NBA talent there.

Hoiberg was a good coach at ISU. Can anyone think of any lottery picks that he had?

Part of that is that the Big 12 conference footprint doesn’t have a ton of basketball talent aside from Texas. There’s just not a lot to draw from as far as local NBA caliber talent.

That makes it really difficult come March. The Big 12 has lots of really good college teams, but you have to raise the talent level to match that on the coaching side of things (the Big 12 has, top to bottom, probably the most coaching talent of any league). Who has the most talent in the Big 12 consistently? KU of course. Is there any surprise we dominate the league? We have the most talent and generally speaking, that is a huge difference.

Let’s look at the three major games (McDs, Jordan Brand and Nike Hoops Summit) and check the rosters to see how many are committed to Big 12 schools:

McDs - 2, Billy Preston (Kansas) and Trae Young (Oklahoma).

Jordan - 2, Preston and Matt Coleman (Texas).

Nike - 1, Lindell Wigginton (Iowa State).

Think about that for a second. Out of the players considered elite, the Big 12 has four (4!!!) that are committed to play in the conference.

Flip over to the ESPN 100 recruiting. Let’s look at the top 50 players.

Zero top 10 recruits heading to the Big 12 so far, although 4 top 10 players are still uncommitted.

2 top 20 recruits coming to Kansas (Preston) and Oklahoma (Young).

Coleman (ranked 27) heading to Texas.

Wigginton (ranked 42) going to ISU.

That’s it for the top 50.

Here’s the rest of the hundred - 58 (Terrance Lewis to ISU), 61 (Marcus Garrett to Kansas), 66 (Jericho Sims to Texas), 68 (Zach Dawson to Oklahoma State), 74 (Royce Hamm to Texas), 89 (Derek Culver to West Virginia).

10 players in the top 100 are heading to the Big 12, with two each to KU and Iowa State, three to Texas and one each to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and West Virginia.

The SEC has 20 top 100 guys going to 9 different conference schools.

Pac-12 has landed 18 going to 9 of their schools.

The ACC has 16 going to 9 schools.

Even the Big 10 has 12 going to 8 schools.

6 schools in the Big 12 split 10 top 100 guys. That means nearly half of the conference is missing any top 100 talent. Three quarters of the Pac 12 has top 100 talent. The SEC, ACC and Big 10 are all bigger, but they have 8 or 9 schools getting top 100 talent, which means the top of their conferences boast more talent (although the Big 10 is pretty thin talentwise, but we saw what happened to that conference in the regular season).

Simply put, the Big 12 isn’t getting enough talent into the conference, particularly at Oklahoma, Iowa State and Baylor, 3 schools that have done well enough recently enough to compete for recruits. You can’t expect to compete at an elite level if you lack elite talent. Just ask the Big 10, the conference most comparable to the Big 12 in terms of incoming talent, about how that’s working out.

I think Davis was trying to make a very simple point. Here’s a coach that knew going into the game that his team was going to be overmatched by KU. He was asked a classic coachspeak question about picking your poison, and he replied in a simple way that conveyed both his respect for KU’s talent, and his frustration at not having an answer - “they all poison”.

Could he have used proper grammar and said “All of the players at the University of Kansas are talented enough offensively to be considered poisonous to the opponent.”

Sure, but that seems silly.

Remember Jim Mora’s “Playoffs? Don’t talk about—playoffs?! You kidding me? Playoffs?!” rant. That’s not perfect English, but it conveys the point perfectly.

Let’s remember, language is about conveying ideas. Sometimes, those ideas are best conveyed through the use of the grammatical rules because the discussion is in a formal setting. At other times, the formality can be discarded to convey an idea through colloquialism, knowing that the audience will understand the point. This is often done to be humorous or sarcastic. That’s all Davis was doing here.

Postgame picture of Lagerald Vick

I used to be a frequent poster on this website. It was really fun.

Around mid 2018 some of the politics and race stuff started getting pretty intense, and I ended up in some pretty heated exchanges with other posters. I realized that I was becoming something I didn’t want to be and took a step back for a while. Blocked some of the more problematic posters (the right decision for me personally).

I know I post less as a result of that. But it isn’t just that. I also have had a lot of things in my life change (many of them positive, but some negative) that have taken my time away from this board. I wouldn’t change that now.

I used to never miss a KU basketball game. Now I miss two or three a season easily. I haven’t watched every game since probably the 2017-18 season. Life just kind of evolved along the way.

Was the politics stuff messy? Yeah. Did it take me away from the board? For a time, yes. But the bigger thing is that my life changed over that span of time just as much, maybe even more. I miss enough games these days that my analysis isn’t very in depth anymore. I used to know all the recruits, all the players, all the matchups. Now I barely know anyone that isn’t on KU’s team, and don’t even know every guy on the team that well. I used to know each guys high school highlights and could compare them easily. Now I see guys once they get into games at KU. It’s just different now, but I am getting some more time freed up and will probably be on here more, though you won’t see me posting about politics anytime soon.

The big difference between this KU team and so many others is Josh Jackson. Stay with me here because this may get crazy.

Josh Jackson is the most complete player to come to KU under Self. He can affect the game in a million different ways. Already this year I can think of him making big plays with perimeter shooting, rebounding, drives, passing, defense, shot blocking, steals, big time dunks, etc. He can literally do it all.

That should be the difference come March. Jackson can just decide that KU isn’t going home that night when things aren’t going well and whether its defense, offense, transition or whatever, Josh Jackson will make plays because he can make a million different plays to help us win.

Frank and Devonte are carrying us now, but don’t be shocked when its Josh dropping a 20 point, 11 rebound, 6 assist, 4 steal, 2 block gem of a performance at the most critical time you could imagine. He has that talent and that will.

That will matter come March.

Looking at the rest of the schedule, KU should get to at least 9 wins, if not 10. Home for both Tech and KSU, then heading to Cincy for the last game. The hope of getting to the Big XII title game is a long shot since either Texas or OSU has to lose two of their last 3, but if KU finishes third in the conference and is 10-2, I’d imagine they would have a chance to go to a pretty good bowl.

I assume the Big 12 will not have a team in the CFP, which means the champion goes to the Cotton Bowl (I think). Big 12 could get a second team into the New Year’s contract bowls if Texas and OSU win out, with the non champion potentially getting a spot in the Peach Bowl.

That would mean Alamo gets the first choice, followed by Pop Tarts, then the Texas Bowl. If KU loses to KSU or Tech, they could slide down to the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. I doubt they go back to the Liberty Bowl since they were there last year. My guess is the Alamo Bowl takes OU even though KU beat them, and the winner of KU-KState goes to the Pop Tarts Bowl, with the loser going to the Texas Bowl.

Of the last 25 years, the 2002 KU team was the only KU team in honestly thought might never lose. That team was incredible, but not winning the title kind of overshadows that.

The 2007 team gets lost in the shuffle as well because of 2008, but that team was basically as good as the 2008, swapping a bit of consistency for more explosiveness.

We will never know what the 2020 team could have been. If they win the national title, they probably go down as one of the most dominant KU teams ever. That group really was robbed of potentially a place in history as an all time type of team. A title puts them up there with the 97 and 2002 KU teams in terms of dominance, but with a title to back it up. Maybe the best KU team of the last 50 years? We will never know what a dominant March run does for their legacy.

That three games to finish is BRUTAL. At Baylor. Home for K-State. At Houston. Better have the conference title more or less wrapped up before that because that is rough. Houston is probably a top 10 team. Baylor is probably top 20. K-State is probably top 25. That’s an absolute gauntlet to run just to get to the Big XII tournament.

Great for TV, though.

@jayballer67

The Booker one was a bad call because he even got his head out to the side to make the hit. He hit him squarely, but legally. I can understand the call on Bryant. I can’t understand the one on Booker.

The McLemore dunk was incredible.

The Selden one against Baylor.

The Wright dunk against Mizzou, though, was the one that immediately came to mind. There’s another one from Brandon Rush against Mizzou that is also really impressive.

There’s a pretty awesome photo of the TRob lob from Taylor against Baylor that makes that dunk even more iconic.

Traylor against Texas on the lob was ridiculous. I thought he was going to get undercut and never even get to the ball. I was absolutely in shock for about two minutes after the dunk.

The McCormack dunk to start the second half against UNC was probably one of the most important dunks in KU history, if not the most iconic. Really gave KU some energy right off the start of the half to spark the comeback.

Mangino was a potential liability to get a complaint for harassing other individuals in the athletic department and on campus. He simply didn’t have any anger management control at the time.

Its also why no one would touch him afterwords. Serious liability at that time regardless of what he did on the field.

I don’t see any real danger in anyone other than Dick declaring. Although I think Dick should return because he needs to get stronger. He was outmuscled too often at the college level. He’s a great player, but he could get really banged up at the next level if he doesn’t get his body stronger to take that punishment night in and night out.

It’s not a mistake for him to leave, but he could benefit from staying another year.

Out of KU’s transfer portal guys, I wouldn’t be surprised if Clemence, Pettiford, Rice and Yesufu are all helping tournament teams next year. All of them are talented and could help teams win. I could see Clemence becoming that sweet shooting big man for a team that gives a high seed fits in the tourney. Pettiford could be a PG that helps a mid tier P5 team get over the hump, or is all conference at a mid major. We already know what Yesufu can do at the mid major level. No surprise if he’s a starter for a tournament team, which was never in the cards at KU. And Rice will land somewhere and may have a journey similar to another transfer from KU in Quentin Grimes.

That doesn’t mean KU was wrong for how they handled them. It doesn’t even make the transfer portal bad. It actually is good. The fit wasn’t good for Rice. Yesufu could have a bigger role somewhere else, which gives him a chance to make money overseas. Same for Pettiford, with an outside chance to be an NBA prospect if he can stay healthy. Clemence wasn’t a Self style big. He was never going to play big minutes, but he could have a career overseas if he wants it. And KU can bring in a new group that fits into what Self wants to do more easily. Win for everyone involved.

@Jethro said in 2023 Transfer Portal:

MJ was gone a long time before he entered the portal. Wish I knew what really happened.

He didn’t ever get a chance. Once he returned from injury he wasn’t part of Self’s plan. That probably cost us MJ, and may have hurt us in the tournament as well.

@FarmerJayhawk said in 2023 Transfer Portal:

Seems like he’s just not a cultural fit in MHK. Tang runs a very, very loudly Christian program, and Massoud is a practicing Muslim. I imagine he’ll head closer to home.

Always seemed like he hit a big 3 late in games for them.

I hope that’s not the reason. There should be room in the program for anyone. As a man of faith, I would hope Tang would respect another man of faith. Not saying he didn’t because I don’t know, but I hope he did.