Posts made by justanotherfan

This one is easy to understand from the player perspective. Harder from the coaching perspective.

Looking at Burnett’s game log, his minutes were all over the place. Here’s his minutes in order by game on the season. 19, 20, 9, 19, 15, 30, 18, 21, 15, 18, 22, 6. That’s a player that has no idea what his role is supposed to be. That is an impossible way to develop as a freshman.

From the coaching side of things, maybe they saw something in practice. Hard to say. But either way, its a bad look. Either Beard misread his talent, or mismanaged him.

There have been a lot of doctors saying we are better off giving 1 dose to lots of people (about 80% effective) than giving two doses to half as many people. Having 80ish-M people 95% immunized isn’t as good as 150m+ 80% immune. 150M can effectively cut off spread in a lot of communities and might save 100k+ lives in the interim.

@drgnslayr said in This is a Second round team if they keep playing McCormick:

I think I’ve been perhaps one of the most critical people commenting on Big Mac. And I really love this guy! He totally brings the right attitude.

But his limitations are well known by everyone we play. His lateral dexterity is awful. He’s a guy that can be taken off the drive by another big guy from the top of the key. So that means… any big can drive or shoot on him facing the basket as well as nail him down low on back to the basket moves. He is part of what keeps us from being a fast team.

I think the spots at the 4 and 5 are still hard to decide and should be made based on upcoming opponent for now.

So if we do go without a real 5 we need to adjust offense and defense to best take advantage of it. We still need ball screens and other tactics used with a real big man. Most of that is an attempt to get the ball handler an advantage by being defended by a big anyways.

The real key to our offense is keeping the ball moving, proper spacing, and plenty of motion (off-ball and driving). This isn’t rocket science.

If we don’t bring energy to a game we will probably lose. Texas proved that.

Having said that… we still need to have a valid big man this season. How do you keep him able to contribute if he rides the bench most of the game. It’s a real dilemma… one that I know Self thinks about.

I think the biggest structural issue with this team is keeping Marcus at point. After he recoups from this injury he needs to be rewarded by putting him back at the 2. Tell him to mentally flush most of the crap he has had to deal with all year at point. Bring back the old Marcus! And though he can play at bigger positions… his natural position is the 2, and he has already proven he can be National Defensive Player Of The Year at the 2.

Braun and Ochi have been good, but a bit inconsistent. See how it works to rotate them in, maybe also in the three-man rotation with Marcus, so he gets well-rested.

I honestly like Big Dave. I think he’s a good player. Unfortunately, he needs to play in a more traditional lineup to be most effective and this team cannot play a traditional lineup and still have their best 7 players playing consistently.

Big Dave was the guy that was hurt the most with Silvio being out this year. If Silvio is still on this roster, we can play him and Big Dave together with a more traditional look, with Mitch backing them up. That team looks a lot different and can play a completely different style than this one can.

Big Dave just isn’t the type of player that is a 4 out center. He’s not a big time shotblocker or power post presence. He’s an effective passer, but he’s more of a face and shoot big than a power on the block player. That’s what makes him effective with another big on the floor. But that’s not this roster.

Trying to force the rest of the roster around him is a bad fit when you have a roster full of guys (Garrett, Agbaji, Braun, Wilson, Thompson, Harris, TGF, Enaruna) that actually do fit together well as cohesive units. It’s not that Mitch and Big Dave are bad players. They just don’t fit with what this roster can potentially do best. The eight man rotation I noted above is effective together in any mix of units. Trying to replace any of those guys with Big Dave or Mitch just doesn’t work.

@KirkIsMyHinrich

And then this afternoon happened…

This KU team has to lean into small ball as its primary style of play. That means maybe only 10-12 minutes per game from Big Dave, and basically no time for Lightfoot and others. That’s just how it is going to be this year, unfortunately for those guys.

This team is just not a great fit for those guys. That’s not their fault, or anything against them as players. They just don’t fit into what KU can do best right now.

KU has to play 5 out to maximize the potential of this team.

@BShark said in Chasing the Steelers:

Holy shit

At first I couldn’t find the Chiefs on the chart and wondered where they were, then…

I think it’s pretty smooth.

I just don’t see a way to get every single game in. Hopefully everyone gets to 15 or so games, but even that might be a stretch if teams have to pause for longer than the bare minimum of days. The max number of games any team can play during a week would be three - Monday, Wednesday or Thursday, Saturday. The max for any two week period is probably five (a Mon/Thur/Sat followed by a Wed/Sat). That means if more than a couple of games get skipped, there’s not enough time to squeeze in make up games.

The champion will probably revert to the highest winning percentage, provided every team has played a minimum number of games (maybe 12?), but that is for people more important than me to figure out.

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Coaching Carousel:

@COHawk said in Coaching Carousel:

@FarmerJayhawk True, but too often a player is overlooked simply because of size. Not overlooking legions of undersized guys; just saying that size doesn’t mean everything when it comes to recruiting. There are some small guys in pro sports doing quite well after doing well at the collegiate level.

Todd Reesing checked pretty much every box other than heighth when looking at a QB. If he was even 6-0 or 6-1, he probably would’ve been a 4* QB and competing with Colt McCoy at Texas instead of coming to KU. If he was 6-3 or taller, decent chance he could’ve been a 5* or very high end 4* player.

I liked Reesing, but his height wasn’t the only thing that held him back. He also did not have great arm strength. He was top notch on decision making and was very mobile, along with being accurate, but his size and arm strength is what had a lot of recruiting services down on him. Even if he were taller, he probably would not have been a 4* because of that, unless he was a better runner that could have made him a higher rated dual threat.

If KU is to turn this around, the key is to convince everyone that this is going to be a 3-5 year process. We aren’t going to attract the type of talent necessary to turn things around in a single year. A Cam Newton type isn’t walking in to just fix 80% of the flaws on one side of the ball just by showing up in town. So we have to solve those problems recruit by recruit. That takes time. That takes development. And that takes patience.

I would anticipate that not everyone is going to play the full 18, so that’s a starting point.

I would also anticipate that at least one or two games will have teams missing a key player. I think 13 wins probably gets it done, but that doesn’t mean 5 losses. Probably more like 13-3 or 13-4.

Every now and then, I have a debate with my friends about when they would turn off the TV if our favorite team is behind, whether its KU, the Royals, the Chiefs, etc.

2015 Royals - when the other team squeezes the last out.

2019 Royals - down 2 or more after the 6th inning.

2016-17 KU Basketball - down 12 or more with less than 3 minutes to go.

2019-20 KU Basketball - down 7 or more with less than 3 minutes to go.

The differences, of course, depend on the style of the teams. Yeah, the 2019-20 KU team was the favorite to win the title, but they weren’t built to score points in bunches very quickly.

All that to say when we discussed the Mahomes Chiefs, we settled on down 20 with less than 6 minutes to go, and the other team has the ball, with the Chiefs having only one timeout left. We argued about it quite a bit. It was a fun debate. But given what Mahomes has done and how quickly this team can score, anything less than three scores just isn’t that scary.

Two TDs down? Chiefs can tie that game in less than five minutes.

Down 24 after a quarter? No sweat, they can hang a 50 spot.

Need a TD with less than 2 minutes left? Mahomes and Co. only needed 75 seconds against the Raiders.

Being behind is more of an inconvenience than an actual threat.

And for the record, even if Mahomes and Co. were down by 20 with 5:30 on the clock, I’m still not sure I’m turning off the TV, just in case.

Cuffe absolutely explodes off the floor. I had to check his height again to be sure he was really just 6-2.

His jumper is a bit deliberate right now. He needs a lot of reps to clean it up, but as @jayballer67 said, it isn’t broken by any means. I would say Cuffe looks like a bigger, more athletic version of Frank Mason. Frank’s shot wasn’t broken coming out of HS. It just needed some work. Same here, but with the added bonus that Cuffe is bigger and more athletic, so can lean on some of those skills on either end. I don’t know if he will progress like Frank did (that would be a dream), but I could see him being a Day One starter at the point.

Agbaji is a very solid player. I have not necessarily been on board with him being a potential NBA player. I think he’s a four year guy with a chance to stick after a stop in the GLeague. But that’s not a criticism. That means he’s a very good college player as a floor. He’s probably not a star, but you could win a national title with him as your second or third best player. In a lot of ways, that’s what made last year’s team so dangerous. Agbaji wasn’t under pressure to be the top dog (or even the second guy). He’s just really solid.

With few or no fans, home court advantage means nothing, so there’s less of an intimidation/momentum factor for home teams. We could see some really weird results.

Also, with guys maybe missing practices/games for COVID reasons, you never know who is unavailable.

Put all of that together and you have a really unpredictable season. I think midmajors could make some noise.

Weber is not a strong recruiter and he has a tendency to alienate some of his best players at times. That was his problem at Illinois. That is his problem now. He can have great years, but cannot sustain that because he will have lulls in recruiting and lose guys to transfer. It’s a vicious cycle. He was in a similar position a few years ago before Dean Wade and Barry Brown basically saved his job. He will need something similar next season, but I don’t see that type of talent on the roster now (guys likely to break out) or coming in via recruiting.

In a normal environment, I would guess KU finds a way to win this game by 7. But with COVID and all of the changes in protocol, you can’t be sure what a team will look like in any given situation. Creighton may show up not ready to play, or absolutely ready to go, or somewhere in between. I have watched several games where it looked like one team slept through a half of basketball. I don’t know if its the smaller crowds (or no crowds at all). KU may show up ready. They may not.

Individual players may not be 100% focused if there are family situations, especially in a COVID world where you could find out bad news at any moment.

@Kcmatt7 said in After 5 games- Discussion:

@justanotherfan I’d like to see Braun be the ball handler at the end… We saw Garrett against NDSU and it was not pretty. Was hard watching him get blocked like that over and over and over.

I keep wondering if Garrett is 100%. I still don’t think so, despite what tests and coaches are saying.

@jayballer67 said in How long ? -- - How long till it gets called:

@Crimsonorblue22 said in How long ? -- - How long till it gets called:

There is no vaccine for kids yet.

and that’s sad

They have not done a vaccine trial for children. It is possible that the current vaccine(s) could work for kids (all three, or any of the three). They just haven’t been tested yet.

Under normal circumstances, that would have been part of the testing trials, but since they are working to get this out ASAP, they have worked to clear it for adults immediately, then work on the issue with kids, which seems smart because you can start distributing vaccines now rather than running a U18 trial and delaying the release of the vaccine.

This team is probably better offensively, defensively and on the glass with Wilson, Braun, TGF, Agbaji and Garrett on the floor than with McCormack or another traditional big. If I am Self, that’s the lineup I am hoping can eventually be my main 5 to close games with. Switch everything defensively, swarm and trap, whoever rebounds pushes and everyone else run and spot up, with Garrett acting as a cutter or working from the dunker’s spot on the baseline.

I would probably be shooting for a starting 5 of Harris-Agbaji-Garrett-Braun-Wilson. This team needs Harris’ steady hand to start the game. Probably finish with that group, but switch TGF for Garrett eventually for shooting purposes.

At this point in the season, who are the best players on this team?

Wilson has been the top player. Agbaji and Braun have probably been the best two after him. Harris makes this team work with his distribution skills. Garrett is still the top defensive player on a variety of guys even with his health issues.

And then… Thompson has had some flashes, but almost needs to play exclusively with Harris on the floor to get him comfortable. TGF is starting to get his explosiveness back. He may have passed Enaruna and McCormack.

Either way, this team is best with 5 perimeter players on the floor. McCormack is probably only good for about 15 mpg. KU may have to stagger Harris and Garrett’s minutes quite a bit, or play Garrett as a nominal 4 man on offense, running the baseline. Right now, the pieces to this puzzle just don’t fit very well.

But players, given their age and health, will be among the last to get vaccinated. College students overall will be among the last to get the vaccine since older adults, health workers and those at higher risk will be among the first to receive the vaccine. That makes it hard for the vaccine to really benefit sports unless they allow athletes to move up the line.

The only problem with that is that we don’t have a lot of doses to go around initially, so it doesn’t make sense to prioritize lower risk populations.

@Marco said in Eventually:

@AsadZ Who could argue with that? But to @justanotherfan 's point, how old would Wright be then?

I think Wright is actually older than Self. I know they are about the same age, so even if he’s younger, it’s not by much.

The idea of Aaron Miles from @Crimsonorblue22 isn’t bad. He’s in the right age category, not too much older than Case. My only hesitation is that Miles seems to be on a pro coaching path rather than college.

Odd as this may sound, Jacque Vaughn is probably too old to really consider him for the KU job after Self. He’s already 45, which isn’t old, but Self is probably going to coach 8-10 more years, which puts Vaughn in his early to mid 50s when KU starts looking for a replacement (assuming Self retires in his mid 60s as he has suggested in interviews).

If KU wants someone that will stay for 15-20 years, they need to look for someone that will be no older than 47 or 48 in 2028, which means that person is, at most, 40 right now.

Everyone, say hello to Jeremy Case, currently the video coordinator at KU, former player and national champion at KU, son of a coach (father is an assistant at Middle Tennessee State). Case just turned 36, which puts him in the perfect age bracket for this job. He was an assistant at both SE Missouri and Houston Baptist, so he has some D1 sideline experience. I would not be surprised if Case eventually leaves KU again to go and be an assistant (or maybe even the head man) at a smaller D1 school so he can get his feet wet running his own show before returning when Self decides to hang it up.

That’s just my guess.

@Kcmatt7 said in Washburn Game Thread:

Big Dave for 26

Tonight is as good a chance as he will have all year to get right. If not tonight, when?

@jayballer67

K-State probably doesn’t have double digit wins this year. I can’t see more than 3-4 wins in conference for them.

I’m not sure Gethro will be in the mix. This team is better playing small, and Gethro isn’t so talented that he is screaming to get on the floor immediately, so there’s no real point in burning the shirt just to play him 8 minutes a game.

If TGF was playing a little better (still looks behind due to missing time this fall) he could be another guy that could help inside with his length. 4’s and 5’s would have no chance guarding him on the other end, and he could do okay in spot time handling post defense. Unfortunately, that’s at least a few weeks away, but could add some upside to this team. That would help spell Wilson, and Big Dave will still play some, so teams cannot go full bully ball on KU. The big thing is that, even when he’s in, Big Dave has to understand that he isn’t going to be force fed the basketball. That’s not his strength, and not the strength of the team overall. He has to be active, and that’s where he can get his touches and shots.

@Kcmatt7

Big Dave is the wrong kind of big man for this particular team. This team needs a screen and lob big man, not a post up big man. A screen and lob big man would open up the paint for back cuts and drives, with the threat of misplaying the PnR always there to give an easy alley oop dunk every once in a while.

Harris needs to be on the floor as much as possible because the other guys all flourish off the ball. I’m not saying Harris should play 35 mpg, but he should be getting 28 or so because his ability to play the point helps make the other guys better. Garrett is a good stop gap PG, but he is not enough of a creator to be a fulltime PG. Harris is, and should play that role.

This team should be playing 5 out the majority of the time. That is unfortunate because that means Big Dave probably only plays 15-18 mpg, and that leaves no real role for Lightfoot at all. Even against bigger teams, KU’s advantage this year is in spreading the floor, not trying to match size for size.

Having a lineup with Wilson or Enaruna as the biggest guy, then with some combination of Garrett, Agbaji, Braun, Thompson, Harris, TGF is the best look KU can have. The rotation should look something like this:

Harris and Garrett: 25-30 mpg, with Harris on the higher end, Garrett on the lower end, and Garrett only playing about half his minutes with Harris.

Wilson, Agbaji, Braun: 22-25 mpg, with Wilson closer to the 25, Braun and Agbaji closer to 22.

Enaruna, Thompson: 18-20 mpg, with Enaruna on the lower end, Thompson on the higher end if he’s hot or needs to spell Harris or Garrett if one or both is in foul trouble.

McCormack, TGF: 14-18 mpg, both probably closer to the 14 mark than the 18 most nights. TGF could move up a level if his defense improves.

Lightfoot and others: minimal

It will be hard to get through the full season without at least a few hiccups. Not every school is positioned like KU to isolate their basketball teams in a single dorm. That means more exposure. You would also need to essentially “bubble” everyone (managers, coaches, training staff, etc.) that would otherwise come into contact with the team to avoid exposure. With cases going up so fast in so many places, chances of avoiding exposure for 15 different people is pretty tough if they are having contact with outside individuals.

Someone I know that works in the medical community told me that they are not expecting a vaccine to be available to first responders until early Spring at best, which means it probably won’t be available generally until mid to late summer at the earliest. The other thing we don’t know is how long immunity lasts post vaccine. Flu shots last 10-12 weeks. If this is at all similar, that means we need a shot roughly every two months to protect the population. That’s six doses a year. Multiply by the population (350M in U.S. alone) and that’s over 2B shots needed in a year.

Every plan I have seen is to distribute about 100M shots. If those go to first responders, that’s probably only a year’s worth of doses for that group. Suffice it to say, a vaccine is not coming to save us, or at least isn’t going to save us next Spring.

Questions that have to be answered for this team:

1. Can everyone stay healthy and COVID-free? COVID could keep someone out of the lineup for 2-3 weeks, but also may throw off timing and fitness for several weeks after that.

2. Can the guards/wings figure out their roles and rotation? There are a lot of them, and they have to exist in a world where only 3 or 4 of them get significant minutes. Someone is going to get left out. The only questions are who and why. Depth is a must this year for obvious reasons, but guys that aren’t playing one week have to be ready to play the next.

3. How do the new guys fit in? TGF, Thompson, even Wilson since he barely played last year. It’s unlikely that at least two of those guys won’t have to be very productive for KU to be good, so they need to be on track. It hurts that TGF hasn’t been 100%, but that just means Wilson needs to be ready.

WSU is not going to be an easy job for whoever takes it. Overly high expectations from fans, Koch interference holding the purse strings, and no real way to recruit the type of players needed to consistently compete with Memphis, Houston, etc.

@FarmerJayhawk said in All Politicked Out? Election 2020:

Related observations. I’m always amazed how awful Democrats are at non-Presidential politics. They spent $200 million to lose by 35 points combined to Cocaine Mitch and Lindsey Graham. Well done folks!

Cocaine Mitch is the all time greatest. Keeping the Senate majority is massive. And I firmly believe if you shot Biden up with truth serum, he’d rather have ML McConnell than Schumer. They can make deals and Biden can blame McConnell for anything. And he’d be happy to take the barbs.

The GOP picked up state legislative seats nationwide, which has big redistricting implications.

There was an EPIC polling failure in JoCo and Kansas broadly this year. Someone in the party showed me a poll that had D’s picking up 10-15 House seats and 5 Senate seats. The GOP expanded their supermajority in the state legislature, including a big upset in knocking off Sen. Hensley, who’s been Minority Leader longer than I’ve been alive. Can’t blame anyone but themselves. The GOP just outhustled D’s.

I think Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Schumer should step down from leadership, especially if Senate R’s keep 52-53 seats. They flat blew it.

There is some data out that as it became clear that Biden would likely win the presidency, fewer Republicans (particularly in red states like Kansas, Iowa, Montana, South Carolina and others) were willing to vote for Democrats as Senators. These are people that would have voted for Democrat Senators if they thought Trump would win, but flipped. I think that same trend carried downballot to state races as well.

The Pfizer vaccine cleared another testing hurdle. Probably still months away, but getting closer.

@Crimsonorblue22 said in The other thread pretty lengthy - new one Covid:

Covid, close to home. My bro in laws uncle passed today. 61. Healthy guy. Cattle rancher from s. Ks. Like most rural Kansans, where cases are raising like crazy, didn’t wear a mask. He gave it to his wife and daughter, but they were ok. He’s been in wichita about 2 weeks on a vent. Finally pulled it today. Sad day! So simple to wear one, do it for others. This guy was a very good man.

So sorry to hear of your loss. This is so tragic.

@Kcmatt7 said in Bears picked over Jayhawks in preseason Big 12 poll:

Things Scott Drew has done:

• Take Baylor to their first tournament in 20 years.
• Take Baylor to eight tournament appearances, they had only been 4 times in their entire history
• Took over a program at literally one of the worst times someone could - almost as bad as Bill O’Brien at PSU
• Has had them ranked in 12 of the last 13 seasons. At a medium sized private Baptist college in Wacco, TX where they are at best the school with the 4th best brand awareness. Maybe.
• Gotten them to a 3 seed four times
• Gotten to the elite 8 twice (which is all Self had done when he was hired).
• Had them ready to be a 1-2 seed last year
• Preseason consensus top 3 team

I’m sure the haters will say something but the dude is a winner and an above average acquirer of talent.

Agree with all of your points here, although I wouldn’t want Drew as KU coach. I would argue that Baylor was at an even worse point when Drew took over.

From Wikipedia on the scandal Drew inherited:

“Patrick Dennehy, a player for the team, was murdered by former teammate Carlton Dotson; then-coach Dave Bliss was forced to resign amidst allegations that he had violated NCAA rules by making financial payments to four players and that he made improper statements to the media characterizing Dennehy as a drug dealer.”

For those tracking at home, that’s a current player being murdered by a former player, then the coach attempting to smear the murder victim by saying he was a drug dealer. Oh, and there was also some illegal recruiting going on, just for fun.

And this was a program with ZERO history to go with a huge scandal. Literally no one wanted that job when Drew took over in 2003. They only had 7 scholarship players in 2005. By 2008 they were in the NCAA tournament (first full recruiting class for Drew were seniors by then), and by 2010 they were in the Elite Eight. Baylor hasn’t been below .500 since they have had full recruiting classes (2008 season).

What he’s done is probably the greatest rebuild in D1 basketball. People talk about the rebuild Snyder did for K-State football, but at least he didn’t inherit a scandal ridden program on NCAA probation. Drew’s rebuild is at least as good as Snyder’s, probably even better, though its hard to compare football and basketball because of the differences in recruiting.

Simmons for Kyrie Irving. Pairing Simmons with a guy like Durant, and Kyrie with a PnR partner like Embiid could make both teams much better. Brooklyn would be nasty defensively with the size and versatility of Simmons and Durant. Kyrie would benefit from having an interior scorer to play off of.

@jayballer67

There are definitely some advantages to thinking outside the box like that in the short term. It likely gets KU moving towards .500 or better within a couple of years.

The downside is where you go from there. There is a definite cap on the types of players you can recruit offensively into that scheme. We saw this at Ga. Tech - they were solid basically the entire time Johnson was there - two double digit win seasons in 11 years, and only two seasons without a bowl berth, but generally good for 7-9 wins (six such seasons). That is absolutely better than anything KU has seen in over a decade, but it makes it nearly impossible to change styles without tripping up everything you have built.

I think Philly moves Simmons. He has the more limited upside unless he develops a perimeter shot.

Simmons needs to be surrounded by four shooters. Embiid needs to be surrounded by multiple shooters as well. That makes it hard for them to play together, even though they are both tremendous talents.

If DDot was back, this team could be a 7 seconds or less type squad. Garrett is good, but he is a different type of PG. That is just not his style of play, and would be a mistake to try and shoehorn him into that role.

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Updated 2020-21 Kansas Basketball Schedule:

It looks like there’s still 3 games to fill with 2 of them likely being the Wooden Legacy games and then looking to fill one other non-conference game between Kentucky and NDSU.

Three games in five days seems a little much for college hoops, particularly with trying to space games out a bit for testing to avoid outbreaks between teams.

A lineup with Garrett, Braun, Thompson and Grant-Foster has four guys that did a lot of ball handling in their careers up to this point, but have also all played on the wing, so they can easily switch in and out of those roles. Agbaji, Enaruna and Wilson with those groups seems like a pretty nice fit. Agbaji in particular could allow you to switch everything (Enaruna and Wilson may not have the agility to handle guards defensively).

One other bit of news that is not helpful here is that hospitals are really starting to fill up, especially in rural areas. On top of that, lots of patients are coming in from non-mask counties (mostly rural areas) and taking hospital beds in more populous counties. There is some friction between urban/suburban and rural areas as the sickest patients need ICU attention, but most of the rural areas of the state do not have any ICU beds at all – for example, along the US 69 corridor in the eastern part of the state, there is not a single hospital between Johnson County and Pittsburg (over 100 miles). If we don’t get a handle on this soon, we could see some real tragedies in the rural parts of the state simply due to lack of access to treatment. And I can’t imagine being a hospital worker - do you take the local patient, or the one from 90 miles away? Hopefully no one has to make those decisions, but if we aren’t careful, that’s where we are heading.

@BeddieKU23 said in Self talking about the team:

Just a thought but if we expect this years team to be good imagine next year if everyone returned with the free year. I don’t expect Marcus would come back if he has a great season but who knows at this point. Even if he leaves the roster looks good if everyone stayed. I have no idea what to expect from this season but with so many guys eligible to return that are likely too next season really feels like the year that this group could be magical

There may be some incentive for Marcus to return to KU. He doesn’t have a good fit in the NBA unless he improves his perimeter shooting substantially. He could be a dominant college player with his current skills - potentially an All American type - but a non-shooting wing player just doesn’t have much attraction at the next level. If he is interested in doing some graduate work, it may be to his benefit to stay in Lawrence.

@Kcmatt7 said in Josh Allen Gonna Derek Carr the Chiefs:

What is good?

Here is a list of starting QBs I would rather have for the next 5 years than Josh Allen:

• Mahomes
• Rodgers
• Wilson
• Stafford
• Ryan
• Burrow
• Murray
• Jackson
• Watson

That’s the list. Josh Allen is a top 10 QB asset right now.

Is he elite? No.

Is he good? Meh.

Is he bad? No.I think this is definitive.

I looked at this list for a while and tried to find something wrong with it. Brees? No. Brady? No. Bridgewater? No.

Derek Carr is meh. So are Jimmy G, Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins, and Ryan Tannehill.

Phillip Rivers and Roethlisberger are both washed up.

Baker Mayfield is hit and miss. Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones are mostly miss. Kyle Allen is a poor man’s version of those guys. Dak may never be the same after his injury. Cam Newton hasn’t been the same since his injuries.

Maybe Joe Burrow or Tua work out, but there’s no reason to get excited about either of them.

@Kcmatt7 is right. Josh Allen is a top 10 QB in the NFL. If you didn’t truly appreciate Patrick Mahomes before, re-read that last sentence.

I am still not convinced that Josh Allen is actually any good.

Prior to this season, he was a 56% completion rate guy, with a QBR under 50.

For comparison, Lamar Jackson, the most dynamic dual threat QB in the game, has never had a season with a completion rate under 58%, and has QBRs of 46.3 (rookie), 82.3 (MVP), and 76.8 this year. Allen has only been above average this season - QBR of 87. Allen threw more INTs as a rookie (12) than Jackson has thrown in his entire career (11).

I guess my point is, are we sure Allen isn’t just a more mobile version of Daniel Jones with some better weapons at his disposal this year?

NFL teams are always looking for explosive playmakers (the good ones, anyway). He will have a legitimate shot. Too bad it didn’t end like we were all hoping it would, but with the way things are going right now, it was inevitable that someone would be leaving midseason to deal with a family health issue. I wish him, his mother, and his family nothing but the best.

This has been coming. With more coaches (and particularly assistants in football, since that is who does a lot of the recruiting) leaving with no penalty, it was only a matter of time before they allowed a one time transfer for student athletes with no penalty. It may restrict from transferring within the conference, but beyond that, you could see quite a bit of movement.

I think this could also lead to more issues of mistreatment and such coming to light. Often, guys will not make waves because it could cost them scholarships or transfer opportunities, so things don’t come out for years after.

When the allegations first came out, I wasn’t sure. But I think the thing that is most telling is that several of his most prominent former players - guys like Fred Van Vleet, Ron Baker, Landry Shamet - haven’t said a word in his defense that I can find. That’s pretty damning, because if they don’t even have an interest in publicly defending him, he’s probably sunk. If one of them were to come to his defense, he might be able to save himself. If not, he’s in too deep.

Schools are going to have to do a better job of keeping an eye on abuse of student athletes. This doesn’t rise to the level of what happened at Michigan State, obviously, but it’s a pattern that cannot continue. We saw it at KU with Mangino (the real reason he had to go). Schools are putting themselves on the chopping block if they don’t get these types of things handled. Marshall may be out permanently.

TGF being hurt makes it tough to really assess where things are at. His versatility can solve a lot of problems for KU because he has the ability to do a little bit of everything. He can guard 1-4. He can handle the ball. He can shoot it. He’s a very solid rebounder. But if his injury lingers, we may see something in that skill set compromised (i.e., if he can’t run and jump, his defense and rebounding (and maybe shooting) could suffer.

I see Wilson as a fill in the blanks guy, maybe even a deluxe fill in the blanks guy. He’s basically a guy that can give you whatever you need on a particular night. Of course, this is dependent on him staying healthy as well. I’m not sold on him as a shooter, but if he is shooting it well, that could boost the rest of his game (it’s just easier to play well when shots are going in).