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.

@Woodrow said in Mikey Williams:

Wasn’t Mikey the consensus #1 player in his class a few years ago? Now I see where Rivals has him as #20… Has his development just stunted or what? Seems like he was a can’t miss prospect and now maybe not so much. Not saying he wouldn’t be a great get, but it just seems like some of the shine has come off of him.

I think part of it is that he stopped growing. You have to be pretty incredible to be the consensus #1 player in your class at 6-2. Just looking back over the last several years, Cole Anthony and Collin Sexton seem to be the only guys under 6-4 to be ranked in the top 5 since 2017.

If Mikey Williams was 6-5, he’d be top 10 for sure, probably top 5. But smaller guards just don’t have as much upside unless you’re Derrick Rose (high school) athletic or Kyrie Irving skilled.

@Crimsonorblue22 said in Big 12 Expansion:

@justanotherfan do you think our ncaa championship game viewership is a good judge of that or not? https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2022-04-05/2022-di-mens-basketball-championship-game-sets-single-game-viewing-records

I don’t. The NCAA championship game usually has good viewership. You had a great game with two high profile programs. That should have high viewership. This wasn’t Texas Tech-Virginia. This was KU-UNC. I don’t think that necessarily translates to NIL, but it does help the overall college basketball market.

@drgnslayr said in Big 12 Expansion:

@justanotherfan

Where will our kids be making their NIL? Maybe I’m off here… but won’t it be for selling carpet in Kansas City? Or BBQ? Won’t that be more localized $$$? Like… would Och be making money on his image in Michigan? I am thinking the big $$$ made from moving to the Big10 won’t be going to the athletes.

You’re right, they will be making money locally. But answer this - where can you make more money? Selling carpet in KC or selling carpet in Chicago? Advertising for a restaurant in Wichita or in Dallas? See where I’m going. The Big 12 footprint doesn’t have a lot of pull in the larger metro areas, so NIL $$$ will depress slightly. If you’re an athlete at UCLA or USC, you have all of LA at your fingertips. That will pay more than something in Lawrence. That’s the challenge.

@Texas-Hawk-10 if streaming is the future, again, will Jayhawk TV get as many subscribers as a network dedicated to Texas or USC or Cal? If not, the money just won’t be there because Kansas is a smaller state than a lot of these other places. That’s just the difficulty with the new deals out there.

With NIL, $$$ are key to recruiting because NIL $$$ are going to mean everything. If we fall by the wayside conferencewise, we probably won’t be able to compete for recruits in basketball, and that will make it hard to make consistent runs in the NCAA. We have crossed the threshold in the NCAA in terms of $$$. Either have $$$ and have success, or not have $$$ and fail.

Without Texas and OU, the Big XII is kind of straddling the line between a power conference and a mid major, to be honest.

Who’s the Big XII’s best athletic department without UT and OU? Probably Baylor or Oklahoma State? KU is too weak in football to be the premier department in a conference. Iowa State and K-State are decent, but not a top flight department. Houston and Cincinnati are stepping up, but could be good for the conference. BYU will always be solid, but the question remains on whether they will be a good fit long term.

The conference slips a bit in football, quite a bit in softball/baseball/track. Basketball is probably the only sport where the Big XII doesn’t take a bit of a hit. The next commissioner is going to have to make sure no one takes a step back, or that could start a slide towards mid major territory.

It would have to be a big, and that rotation is still crowded even if someone like Martin were to leave.

MJ Rice actually reminds me a bit of HS Lance Stephenson from a game standpoint. Stephenson wasn’t an elite shooter, but was just so strong that he could create space just by being there. MJ is kind of the same way. He’s a capable enough shooter (not like Dick, Braun, Agbaji), but he will be a problem on both ends because of his strength and athleticism. And in the open floor, even at the college level, most guards won’t be able to handle him.

Remember, Ochai Abaji is 6-5, 215. Rice is 6-5, 225, and he hasn’t started college weights and conditioning yet. I don’t think he starts this year, but teams should not sleep on him. There will be an MJ Rice game this season.

Richardson may still come. I wouldn’t rule him out just yet.

Baseball, softball and track and field are the sports that would feel the most immediate impact from UT and OU leaving the Big 12. Obviously OU just won the NCAA softball title (5 titles in the last 1o years). UT was OU’s opponent in the softball final, so there’s that. Texas and Oklahoma both also advanced to the college baseball world series.

Texas’ track and field team is one of the best in the country (was ranked #1 this season), although both Baylor and Texas Tech have very strong programs. OU is a top program as well (definitely top 25, probably top 15 or 20). That said, Houston and BYU are comparable to OU in track, so the drop off isn’t huge there.

Texas is a top notch volleyball program on the women’s side. OU not so much.

Oklahoma is ranked #1 in men’s golf. Texas is in the top 10. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech are both in the top 10 also, so not a huge drop off, but that’s two top 10 teams leaving.

Texas is one of the top programs in the nation in swimming and diving (notice a pattern here?). Oklahoma is strong in gymnastics.

Essentially, losing Texas and Oklahoma means the Big 12 is losing one or two of its strongest programs in just about every non-revenue sport. There are strong programs still left in some of those sports, but losing the competition of Oklahoma and Texas could hurt recruiting, particularly in baseball and softball, where the Big 12 has to compete with the SEC directly (and the SEC just got MUCH stronger).

I doubt the Kansas Board of Regents would allow KU to go to the Big Ten without KState. Lots of politics that go into that sort of move.