Posts made by konkeyDong

@Red.Rooster God bless and godspeed.

@RockkChalkk Gotta say I’m honestly surprised. I hadn’t paid too much attention, but I thought for sure NC State was gonna close with him. Not that it really we were really hard after him.

@BeddieKU23 It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out because Marcus Lee is looking like a 4 year guy, and Humph is likely a 3-4 year kid as well. One of Lee, Humph, Gabriel, Wynyard, or Jones won’t be playing much next season. Gabriel would have been smart to go to Duke.

What is salient, however, is that this is likely to put us in pole position with Jarret Allen. That should be very welcomed news as we’re apparently still lagging Florida State and possibly UNC for Azubuike. We are back on top with Bolden too, but that position is still a little shaky. Bolden is expected to go in the next month or so. Hope we can close on him. He’s my favorite big man in the class. Allen, however, would give us another Bragg-esque presence and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

@wissoxfan83 It’s gonna be real awkward when he forces overtime by hitting a late game 3… on his own team!

@JayHawkFanToo I still don’t buy into your definition of political correctness here. I think I agreed with you on the point that blacks and other minorities are quick to cry racism when facing criticism. Did I not call it a sledgehammer? You’re right that my analogy of the double standard of women being able to get away with hitting men but not each other didn’t match what you’re getting at, but again, it is still the case that blacks are allowed to criticize each other, as are Asians, Hispanics, Jews, etc, etc, including various white groups, so I don’t see where the political correctness element comes in. Everyone is allowed to say certain things about their own group in the same way that everyone is allowed to bad mouth their own families, but it would be considered untoward to speak poorly of another person’s family unless you’re especially close to them.

As for whether or not that is right or wrong, I think that’s up to the individual to decide. If it offends you, so be it, but that doesn’t make you the voice of authority in the matter. And again, demanding that everyone comport to your sensibilities on the issue in order to avoid offense is a form of political correctness. What you describe as ‘demeaning’ one’s own race, another might find harmless, or even empowering.

I’m also quite certain that the phenomenon of celebrities being allowed to maintain their social status in the face of domestic violence accusations extends well beyond the boundaries of race. Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Shawn Penn, and Bill O’Reilly are all white men that have all been accused or found guilty of violence against women and continued to enjoy their star status, and that’s hardly the tip of the iceberg. I think it says more about celebrity culture than about race relations or double standards.

I don’t know for certain that you’re not a minority, but I wouldn’t say it’s just an assumption. I drew that conclusion based on your own choice of words and attitudes and what my experiences have been like. I admit my deduction could be wrong, but I don’t see how it would change the tenor nor the substance of the conversation. That said, you’re nowhere near the least PC person I will or have ever met. I know comedians. They’re the least PC people in the world. You’ve self-identified as a conservative in the past and, in my experience, conservatives tend to be very PC just like liberals tend to be very PC, especially when you get to the extremes of the spectrum. The only difference between the two is that what one describes as politically correct, the other would simply call correct. My saying that black people (and other minorities) need to change their behavior if they want to be able to discuss race issues with white people isn’t political correctness either. You said yourself that criticizing black people is politically incorrect, and there I have laid a criticism upon them. Were you trying to say that white people not being allowed to say things that might offend black people is politically correct? That I can buy.

Finally, if I don’t understand your perspective, there is plenty you can say. You can make an effort to extend dialogue and explain yourself in other terms rather than getting defensive about it. Not that you owe me any such explanation. I’m not here to make demands of you. But if you’re not understood in the way that you meant to be, you’re not powerless to do anything about that. So please, if I have misunderstood you, take the opportunity to explain yourself, if you’re interested. If not, I’ll live.

@JayHawkFanToo said:

I am sorry but the use of that word is offensive whether on lyrics or as a pejorative term. Many prominent African American have spoken against the use of the word in rap music (along with other offensive terms) as it helps trivialize it; even “cool” people such as Jason Withlock have written and condemned the use of the word. It seems to me a double standard that has been tolerated because of political correctness.

For starters, aren’t you the one making the argument for political correctness? You’re saying, ‘I find a word offensive, therefore so must everyone else, and they should modify their behavior to comport to my sensibilities!’ That right there is the Webster’s definition of PC policing. Not every black person has to agree to the terms of its usage in order for it to be okay that a lot of them do. And for those that choose to, I think they’d argue to you that the whole point is to trivialize the word and rob it of it’s power.

Rap music is popular with young people of all races but apparently only black people (oops, am I allowed to say black anymore?) can say the words and not people of others races? That is BS. This would be the equivalents of saying only Hispanic people can call each other one of the many disparaging terms such as wetback, but people of other races could not? I don’t think so. If African Americans want to stop the use of the “N” word, they should start by doing it themselves…“do as I say and not as I do” has never been and never will be a good way to set an example.

Secondly, why do you care about the double standard? Do you want to be able to say the N word? What is it that you think is lost or gained by one group having exclusive rights to a word that is about them? You might as well be complaining that you can’t hit a woman. I mean sure, it’s a double standard, but there’s nothing desirable about regaining the right, and there’s little to fear from being struck yourself (Ronda Rousey not withstanding). Besides, that double standard isn’t unique to blacks nor Hispanics, for that matter.

There has been a long standing social convention that members of a group, especially a group considered a minority, are allowed to use certain words and phrases or express ideas or tell jokes about the group that might be considered derogatory when uttered by outsiders. This extends to white people as well, or at least it used to when whites weren’t considered homogeneous. My father is full-blooded Sicilian (as is pretty much his entire family), and his complexion is white as can be. Still, when he was a young man there were towns, neighborhoods, and institutions where he was either not welcomed or might encounter open hostility because he wasn’t the right kind of white. The Irish, Polish, Slavs, Germans, Jews, and Catholics have all faced that kind of discrimination in this country’s history, even those white as snowflakes. Each of those groups also developed their own jokes and language based on reclaiming elements from that derision in order to render them harmless. I’m sure everyone here has heard an ethnic joke regarding at least one of those groups at sometime in their lives. And as each of those groups became more a part of the mainstream, that element of the culture began to fade because it wasn’t needed any longer.

Finally, it’s not as if black people are okay with other black people using the N word in all contexts either. The first time I visited Las Vegas, I was waiting for a bus, having finished breakfast, when a homeless black man went up to another black man, who was waiting to go home from his night shift (I would guess this guy was a cook or some kind of custodian because his uniform was dirty), and started asking him for money. The homeless man kept talking about how they were N words (with an a) and how N words stick together and this and that, but the guy didn’t want to give him any money. The homeless man started getting belligerent, and finally started saying that the man wasn’t an N word with an a, but an N word with an er because he wouldn’t stick up for him. The guy then became enraged and started shouting at the homeless man for being a shiftless N word (again with an er) and for being the reason the word existed in the first place. At this, the homeless man slunk away the bus stop and went down the next couple blocks to beg from the people at that stop, having been thoroughly humiliated in front of the rest of us, none of whom were black ourselves.

Anyway, I’m not trying to single you out here or silence. But I genuinely don’t understand your perspective on the matter. Again, you seem to want to rail against being PC, but what you’re demanding is political correctness. There’s no two ways about that. I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that the term racist itself has become something akin to the N word to us. I mean, I bet you most white people wouldn’t even blink at being called a cracker, and most kids (white or black) have probably never even heard the word honky before, but call a white person racist and that’s about the worst thing you can say about them.

The thing about it is, it’s true to some extent. That isn’t to single out whites. I think everyone has racial prejudices. It’s kind of impossible not to. Nobody gets to spend time with people from every part of the world and learn about their culture and values, so we invariably retain some short hand or misconceptions based on our limited experiences. I think the combination of the inability to recognize that fact and get over being criticized about it is a big part of why race relations haven’t really improved in this country for the past 30 years. Minorities want to talk about racial issues and their experiences vis a vis race with white people, but white people are so concerned with that extremely toxic label that, even knowing in their hearts that they harbor no hate for others, they don’t want to engage and chance that word sticking. If we’re ever going to get past it, I think it’s incumbent on both sides to change their behavior. Whites need to stop either putting their heads in the sand or blaming minorities that racial problems exist, and minorities need to stop wielding the R word like a sledgehammer to silence those with differing viewpoints and be willing to engage whites on their own terms if they really want dialogue.

This turned into way more of a rant than I intended it to, but I really do want to hear what you have to say, so please consider this a hand extended in camaraderie and not an open palm meant to chide.

@Lulufulu It’s the original rules of basketball. It was quite a different game at its inception.

@brooksmd I have never understood and continue to be perplexed by “love it or leave it” arguments. You’re saying if you don’t like a situation you should never try to change it? Like all those people joining the Tea Party protests should just shut up and go home or get the hell out of the country? If you don’t support gay marriage, too bad, American has spoken. Move to Uganda? Even in the private sector, I saw a woman on twitter who was getting balled out by complete strangers because she had the audacity to voice the opinion that maybe “slutty” Halloween outfits aren’t appropriate for 4 year olds and Wal-Mart shouldn’t be carrying them. There were people actually arguing that she should “let the market decide” as though an individual telling a company what they will or will not support with their dollars is somehow not a part of market economics!

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a two-way street. Nobody has to employ you if they don’t want to, and nobody has to be employed by someone who doesn’t meet their needs. If you can agitate enough to get pink napkins and your employer values you enough that they’re willing to acquiesce to that demand, more power to you. If you go to war with your boss over something trivial and you’re fired, that’s on you as well. But wanting change and vocalizing that to power is hardly any kind of crime. After all, if it wasn’t for a bunch of guys in triangle hats and wigs making demands and protesting for change, we’d all be subjects of Queen Elizabeth still. I’m sure you wouldn’t go back in time and tell George Washington to take a hike, would you?

@drgnslayr Jeff Borzello certainly likes our chances with the big dog.

@Lulufulu I would say the only way Diallo ends up staying is if he winds up eligible, but his draft stock slips. To say that would not be the happiest of circumstances is an understatement. If he maintains a late lotto draft projection into the summer, there’s very little he’d gain by returning. The only way it could come out in his favor is if he develops at an Embiid like rate after the draft.

The most important thing is that Bolden appears to be trending towards Kansas again, at least according to the rumor mill. The only thing that could really throw shade on that is Giles somehow not committing to Duke, but does anyone actually see that happening? The only major front court player Duke looks likely to lose after this season is Brandon Ingram (depending on whether you count a SF as front or back court and depending on how K plays him, since he’s fond of 3s as 4s) as Jeter doesn’t even show as a 2nd rounder in most mock drafts, and with Delaurier already committed, Giles would take away anything but scrap minutes in the post.

The situation with UK is similar. Poythress and Labissierre are gone, but Wynyard (who will join in time for the KU/UK game), Hump, Lee, and Willis are all likely to return. Add in Gabriel and Killeya-Jones, and I think Cal will have a harder time attracting another top post prospect now that platooning is so passe. The one guy that looks like he might try his luck there right now is Jarret Allen.

Udoka Azubuike is going to be a tough fight, however. It’s not that he’s not winnable, but he’s giving UNC and NCST real consideration, and the Florida schools are hardly out of the running. As much as I’d kill for an Azubuike/Bolden front court, I’m not going to hold my breath on that happening. In fact, a Bolden commit could well turn off Azubuike (even though Bolden wants to play the 4), simply because of the minutes UNC and NCST can offer. The aces we have up our collective sleeves at this point are, of course, Stormin’ Norman and Lightfoot, who’s putting in the work.

As long as we land Bolden, I think we’ll come out okay, even if we miss on other preferred guys. Self almost always comes up big on the proverbial waiver wire when we’ve missed on other recruits. Tyshawn, the Morris Twins, Henry, Young, Black, Mason, Graham, and Vick were all rabbits Self managed to pull, and if he keeps bringing what he was last night, we’ll no doubt be adding Mickleson to that list of late-signing impact guys we’ve poached in the Self era.

@Texas-Hawk-10 To be fair to Germany, they did a really good job of stopping the break and slowing the tempo, especially in the 2nd half. In basketball, it’s always easier to slow things down than to get them sped up. That said, we really will need to develop some viable half court options beyond trying to get the ball to Perry every play. Luckily, with more ball handling in the back court, I think we’ll get more of that free flow in half court sets as well.

@drgnslayr Lucas’ lack of strength has been the single most frustrating thing out of all our post players. Ellis not having a turnaround J is number two. We know Traylor just hasn’t and isn’t going to develop BBIQ at this point. Ellis isn’t ever going to be a true 4. But Lucas could at any time bulk up his upper body and use his talent for rebounding to become a Rico Gathers type player. Why, with Hudy at his disposal, has Self not pushed in that direction? I cannot fathom it, myself.

@HighEliteMajor If Diallo clears, I still think he’ll be an asset in the half court. He’s likely the best rebounder on the team on both ends, and he’ll add value pushing the tempo and cleaning up missed shots. Bragg is definitely the better option in half court sets, though. The one concerning thing I saw from him in the WUG was too much willingness to settle for the 15-18ft J. If he becomes aggressive getting to the rim, and meets Self’s standards for D (which wasn’t a really strong point for him in HS), then I think you’re spot on about the affect he can have on our offense.

Herard, it sounds like, will indeed be a lock for MSSU now. I was favoring KU for the pick because Norm gets coffee, and coffee is for closers. If he’s not closing, though, Herard will wind up with Howland. That’s not the end of the world, of course. Norm has been back to see Azubuike, and it turns out he and Lightfoot hit it off in a big way on the visit. UNC and NCState pose real challenges there, but I think that’s why you’re seeing KU back off Herard. We’ve also made up a TON of lost ground on Bolden, and he is by far our most important recruit.

Whether he clears or not, Diallo is more than likely gone. Even though he only projects late lotto, he’ll have more to lose by returning to KU than by throwing his hat in the ring right now. Even more so if he fails to clear. Exposure will just magnify his rawness, and as he gets older, that will make him less attractive to scouts. His upside is his greatest asset.

Over the summer I posted what I thought an ideal recruiting class would look like and who I liked for each spot. Here’s my revised version based on who we have left:

PG: None - Fox is all in on UK. KU would be the pick otherwise, without a doubt, but UK exists and Cal is still there, so that’s what we’ve got. In the end, it will only matter if Mason or Graham has a good enough season that they can make the leap, and if that happens, I think we’ll be partying like it’s 2008, so who will care if we miss on a replacement?

SG: Rawle Alkins - A solid combo guard and likely McD’s AA. He’s picking late, so if we lose both Selden and Svi (or any other combination of back court players), we have a really good shot at landing him. He’s a NY kid and Norm’s the man, especially in the Big Apple.

SF: Josh Jackson - He’s deciding late too and his recruitment is up in the air. A slightly less athletic, slightly better shooting version of Wigs, landing him would be a big coup and the reason to keep Townsend around. For a while MSU and Maryland were generating buzz, but I think it’s settled back to Arizona being the leader. He’s a guy we can land regardless of how Selden and Svi plays out.

PF: Bolden - Like I said, we’ve regained our mo in this recruitment. Giles is picking Duke. There’s just not going to be any surprise there, and that will kill Bolden’s opportunity to be the 4 (if it ever existed, since K is known to play 3s there a lot). We can offer Bolden starting minutes in what amounts to a 2 PF front court offense and that’s going to swing things back in our favor. If Snacks did the work, that will buy him a reprieve, but if another coach had to step in and salvage this relationship, Snacks gotta go! Jarret Allen is a viable alternative.

C: Azubuike - Backing off Herard, we’re pretty much all in on this kid although, as with Bolden, Allen is a viable alternative. Norm’s doing the work. I don’t know if he’s put up a time table yet, but he’s either near or at the end of his visits, so I imagine he’s not going to drag things out. Azubuike, like Bolden is a 2-3yr kind of kid. Udoka has great strength and good athleticism, though he should probably drop a little more weight to improve his mobility so he can defend like a true 5. He needs to add back to the basket moves as well.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Honestly, my KU pick is more a vote of confidence in Roberts as a closer. Howland was a fantastic recruiter at UCLA, but head to head, I’m gonna pick Norm every time.

Between KU and Mississippi St. Lots of MSSU buzz, but I still think the pick will be KU.

Amended 10-31-2015: I now think the pick will be MSSU.

@HighEliteMajor said:

Rules are rules, follow them.

You don’t actually believe this. Rules don’t exist simply to satisfy themselves. Rules are formed with an intent, and when a rule fails to meet that intent or, worse yet, impedes it, then exceptions should be made or, depending on the scale, the rule needs to be amended or struck down. More importantly, the NCAA doesn’t believe that rules exist solely to be enforced or they wouldn’t bother having an appeals process to begin with. The NCAA Eligibility Center’s purpose is to ensure that incoming student athletes are both truly amateur and ready to take on the rigors of college academics while participating in athletics. Everything about Diallo’s situation indicates that he meets the requirements of those interests. Hell, Frank Mason, who had to take an extra year at a military academy in order to qualify (which is why he didn’t wind up at Towson), was less college ready when he signed with us than Diallo is right now.

As for your hypothetical, what if we take it at face value? Suppose, as a freshman, Diallo was taking an algebra class in Mali that wouldn’t meet American standards? So what? Education doesn’t work like those old fashioned Christmas lights where when a single bulb burnt out, the entire strand went dim. It’s a process of accumulating knowledge and skills, then building on that foundation. No matter how poor any of the classes Diallo may have taken in Mali, he still got enough of a foundation to build an education that, in this scenario, would seem to have been good enough. After all, in order for him to graduate from an accredited American high school, he’d still have to pass a higher level algebra course and therefore necessarily have the skills that this yak milker was tasked to provide. What difference, in your mind, can it possibly make if he’s already demonstrated aptitude? As for an American kid not getting that consideration, asserting it doesn’t make it so. Proof?

Now I’ll freely admit that I’m biased here. I’m a huge fan of Diallo from following his high school career, and I went through a similar situation in high school myself. Whether it was my fault or whether I was misinformed by my guidance counselor, I don’t recall, but somehow I missed a required typing course and didn’t get signed up for it by the 2nd semester of my senior year. About a month before graduation, I got called to the academic administrator’s office and informed that I missed a requirement, but would be allowed to walk if I made it up in summer school. Not in the least interested in prolonging high school, I informed the administrator that there wasn’t any point in making me take the class because I could already touch type over 65 words per minute (not incredible, but more than good enough) and that it would be equal parts a waste of time and money just to make the monkey dance. The administrator considered this, then got up, pulled out a chair in front of a computer terminal, and had me type while she dictated scripture to me (this was a private school). We printed it out, she checked for typos (it wasn’t perfect) and counted the words. In fifteen total minutes I managed to get back 15 days of my life and left the office with a typing credit and a P for a grade.

Was that fair to the other students? Maybe not, but it wasn’t any more unfair than making me spend two hours a day typing ‘see the brown fox run’. So I say there’d hardly be anything on Diallo’s Malian transcript that you could find that would constitute a ‘good reason’ to preclude him from college athletics. And though I have my biases, I don’t think you’re inoculated from bias either.

@jayballer54 If Mitch can pull in Azubuike or anyone else for that matter, there’ll be no doubt that his signing was “worth it”.

I wonder how much the Jarrett Allen/Marques Bolden split is a matter of opinion vs real knowledge. The only chatter I’ve heard of Bolden seriously considering UK has come from UK homers. Everything else has been Duke or KU. I also have no idea where he’s getting KU as in 2nd place for Allen other than reputation, and the fact that he’s visiting this weekend, but that could just be my ignorance.

I will say, between the two of them, I actually feel better about Allen simply because Norm has taken over his recruitment and Norm has been closing the past couple of years (Diallo, Bragg, Oubre, Embiid, Selden, Greene, Mason, and I believe Graham too were all Norm Roberts projects).

@BeddieKU23 said:

Can we afford as KU to take on a project as opposed to a High 4 or 5 star potential OAD. Remember signing Lightfoot can mean his scholarship is used just on him for the next 5 years… Just a thought

There’s an easy question to answser: YES!

For one, you only need 7 quality players to have a championship caliber team. More than that and there are diminishing returns on depth. And every top team takes and keeps developmental guys on scholarship. You absolutely need to if you want to have any continuity year in and year out in the OAD era. Remember, the one year that UK failed to make the NCAA tournament, let alone the Final Four, out of the last 5 was the year where there was basically no carry over. They had a lot of 5 star kids, but there was only seldom used reserve Jon Hood (coming off an ACL tear) back from prior seasons. That particular humiliation changed the way Cal recruits. He is no longer laser focused on OAD guys, and has tried to get multi-year guys to put around his stars.

And it’s not just UK. UNC, Duke, Arizona, Ville, UCLA, MSU, and UConn all have low-ranked (we’ll call this guys who were not consensus top 100, even if they cracked the rankings somewhere)/un-ranked players filling out their rosters. UConn even won 2 NCAA titles with guys like that (exception, not the norm, I know) playing major minutes. Here’s a list of the low/un-ranked players currently on those teams (walk-ons not included)

Arizona: Elliot Pitts, Kadeem Allen, Ryan Anderson, Mark Tollefsen, Dusan Ristic

UCLA: Bryce Alford, Noah Allen, Gyorgy Goloman, Alex Olesinski, Ikenna Okwarabizie

UConn: Sam Cassell, Jr., Shonn Miller, Phillip Nolan, Amida Brimah

Duke: Sean Obi, Antonio Vrankovic

UK: Mychal Mulder, Dominique Hawkins, Derek Willis

Louisville: Trey Louis, Damion Lee, Mngok Matiang, Anas Mahmoud, Matz Stockman

MSU: (It’s actually faster to name who is consensus top 100 on scholly) Matt McQuaid, Deyonta Davis

UNC: Nate Britt, Stilman White, Luke Maye

I’m definitely happy to add Lightfoot in the same way I was happy to add Jamari. I think he has potential to be a really useful player. I think Jamari did too. I wasn’t under any apprehensions about Traylor, though. I never saw him as the next TRob or McMorris, but I thought his ceiling would be that of a Quincy Acy: High-energy guy that adds value with trash man buckets. Clearly that hasn’t happened with Mari, but oh well.

The guy I’d compare Lightfoot to wouldn’t be Sam Dekker, though. Dekker actually finsihed the rankings as a 5-star, top 15 guy coming out of HS, even though he got snubbed on the McD’s AA invite. Lightfoot more closely resembles our own Kevin Young: High energy, high BBIQ. I was thrilled when we signed Young because he was a guy that obviously knew how to play even if he wasn’t a top talent. And that was borne out when he was nearly as productive as Darnell Jackson on a team that didn’t have half the quality of penetraters or shooters.

Lightfoot has more time to add a face up game and the ability to attack off the dribble, so his ceiling should be higher than Young’s. I’d even venture to guess that he’ll finish HS as a consensus 4 star, probably in the 70-80 range. The question is whether or not he develops. And it’s that question that is really the rub. When Manning was on the staff, you knew our big guys would improve because that’s what Danny does. I love Norm Roberts as a recruiter (and he has been killing it for us when no one else has), but it’s not hard to notice the drop off in how bigs have improved under Norm vs Danny. Self really needs to re-evaluate what we’re getting out of Snacks.

Although I’m not the only voice in the fire Snacks chorus, I’m thinking of starting a fire Townsend chapter. It’s not that I don’t like him as an assistant, but as a recruiter, he hasn’t been cutting it. Yes, he was lead on Wiggins, but as much as I loved having Wigs with us, we’d have done just about as well without him. Other than that, his west coast connections have dried up big time. Young was the last west coast impact player Townsend brought it. Withey was the last top 50 west coaster to commit, and only by way of transfer having been the 2nd choice. Beyond that, you have to go all the way back to what, Giles? The fact of the matter is, we haven’t recruited Texas well, we haven’t recruited Chicago well, and we haven’t recruited Cali well in too long a time. Norm’s kept us afloat with his east coast and south east pipeline, but if we want guys like Lightfoot to be more icing and less cake, we need to sort out that problem and sort it fast.

@Crimsonorblue22 I’m in wait and see mode with Bolden. At least from what he says, it sounds like Self was all over damage control during the visit. If @jaybate-1.0 is right and Townsend had to step in, it could spell the end of Snacks at KU. The only thing that worries me about the story and about what I saw over the visit is that Bolden was basically attached at the hip with Giles, and if there’s a force that’s going to pull one of the two towards a destination other than what it looked like would happen at the beginning of the summer, then I think it will be Giles pulling Bolden to Duke, not Bolden pulling Giles to KU. If he really doesn’t show in Durham or Lexington this weekend, though, that will speak volumes because you’d have to be pretty damned hyped to make that kind of trip. The best thing, of course, would be a return trip to KU for a game next month ahead of his current December timeline for an announcement.

@ParisHawk Truth is, we didn’t do much for Wigs, but honestly, that was job number 1: Do no harm. Most of the OADs that come through any program aren’t coming out significantly better than they came in. The biggest challenge in handling those kids is not turning them into draft duds. Despite the two big black eyes we’ve had with OADs, we aren’t the only program to fail to make hay with top 10 players. Even Cal, the poster child for OAD basketball, has had several let downs, especially recently.

The fact remains, though, that Cliff’s situation has hurt us on the recruiting trail the same way Selby’s did. And like with Selby, what should be a big and relatively painless recruiting haul has turned into an uphill battle. The best way to right the ship will be to improve Diallo’s stock if he’s eligible. If he’s ruled a partial qualifier, that still gives us the chance to improve Diallo and take credit (though that could totally torpedo NC hopes for this season, unless Mickelson can really be a starting calibler big).

As for why we aren’t killing it with the 20-50 guys, I think there’s two things:

1. Self is overconfident in his recruiting. He clearly sees himself as on par with Cal, K, and W, but the fact of the matter is, although he does recruit very well, he’s not quite at their level (although Roy has slipped a little lately). I can’t imagine why we’re spending the time and money on a guy like Giles, who has next to no chance to pay off, when a kid like DeRon Davis is a state away, has great potential, and would give us the opportunity for another Robinson/Morri-esque quill in our collective cap.

2. Self is a really good recruiter. And although that seems counter to what I’m saying above, Self does get a good share of elite talent, and those top 20-50 guys aren’t going to want to throw in with KU if they’re going to get buried on the bench. That’s why this year should be relatively easy. We have tons of minutes opening up and a post guy in that range should get the opportunity to establish himself early and not have the next big thing play over him. But Self needs to make those guys a priority. Right now we appear to be doing that with Herard, and I think it’s going to pay off from the way things sound. He’s not visiting Cal anymore, and they were in his final 5. He wants to take a final visit, but the way his handler is talking, it’s just because he grew up poor and is basking in the luxury while he has it. We’ll see, though.

If Cheick is being allowed to practice, that puts his likelihood of full clearance very very high. There is a small chance he could be declared a partial qualifier and, with Big 12 rules, that’d screw us. But short of getting the final alles klar, the is the best news we’ve received since he committed.

@Jesse-Newell I guess another one is does he think we’re close to closing with any of the Late Night invitees or should we hunker down until after the post season in terms of getting recruiting news (I know he can’t talk about specific recruits until they’ve signed).

@Jesse-Newell What adjustments has Self made or is anticipating making in regards to all of the rules changes this year (beyond what we saw at WUG with a shorter shot clock)?

@wrwlumpy Has anyone ever waited until they reached legal age to imbibe for the first time?

@RockkChalkk There are only 3 names that cause me to visibly shudder when I see them on a commentating crew: Knight, Raftery, and Vitale.

Knight is a master of the game, but he frequently mixes up players and repeats comments. Basically every shot he’s ever seen could have been improved with a head/ball fake. He was moved to the SEC beat a couple years ago. I don’t know if he’s still announcing games, but it’s better if he isn’t.

Raftery is not a master of the game, nor of color commentary. “Onions!” and “man-da-man” have to be two of the stupidest catch phrases ever uttered by a grown man. The former is probably especially cutting to me because he used if after Ali Farokhmanesh buried us with an ill-conceived 3ptr in 2010. #NeverForget

Vitale, also a failed coach, is nevertheless an extremely warm, caring, and good man. I hate his voice and his even stupider catch phrase. Still, I do have a roundabout appreciation of him thanks to Grantland’s Mark Titus, who has turned Vitale’s frequent Andy Rooney-esque asides into a regular and highly entertaining diversion in his college hoops power ranking articles. That, and in real life, Vitale is such a wonderful human being, I think he deserves all of the success he’s had as a spokesperson of sorts for college basketball, even if I don’t care for his delivery.

@nuleafjhawk Can’t they both be bad? I will always love what Larry Brown did for this program, but making KU nationally relevant again came at a high price. Brown cheated in order to get his program where he wanted to, and that can’t be denied.

The only asterisk I’d put next to the 88 title run, however, is that it was indeed a genuine miracle. Whether or not there was dirty pool in attracting Danny Manning, that title wasn’t won by assembling a juggernaut of ill-gotten talent and steam rolling the competition. It was won through actual heart and perseverance and a whole boatload of luck. But we didn’t get there by cheating. The games were played honestly by players that deserved to be there.

The real concern to me with the Cal/Brown connection is, if one disciple of Larry Brown demonstrably tainted by his errant ways, are all of them? Is the apple of Bill Self hiding a rotten core behind its blotched-red facade?

@Crimsonorblue22 As much as I love Larry Brown and what he did for Kansas, I think he’s got a checkered enough history of recruiting problems and we’ve dodged enough bullets over the past few seasons that I’d rather look elsewhere for Snacks’ replacement (provided Snacks doesn’t close on Bolden).

@Jesse-Newell Having now watched your video, it was both an interesting insight to how Self views the game, and a very informative piece as well. Still, more about Diallo.

@Jesse-Newell More Cheick Diallo news please!

@drgnslayr Actually, Emmanuel Malou was drawing attention from high major programs, and KU did indeed offer him days before he declared for ISU. I’m not surprised it didn’t show up in Rivals or ESPN, as they do a pretty bad job of keeping things current, and it was over before we really even got started.

Malou was already pretty much a done deal since the Clones had been working on him for a couple years and he’d played some ball in Des Moines. Still, he isn’t your typical JuCo prospect. He’s seen as a guy with a shot to be an NBA role player. He handles the ball very well for his size, and can score at all 3 levels. Imagine Georges Niang, but with athleticism and length. Either way, I imagine KU would have been pretty happy with him, and ISU is getting a guy that could really cause us some grief on occasion. But we’ll see.

At any rate, Bolden is the prize this season (at least in my mind) as Cheick was last season (again, in my mind, and damn, let him play already!). Some mix of Azubuike, Herard, Allen, and Lightfoot could fill in the rest (and, of course, Giles, but let’s be real), but man, oh man, we gotta get Bolden.

@MoonwalkMafia That’s my biggest fear. If we don’t get word by the end of next week, it ain’t happening.

@drgnslayr I don’t think landing Azubuike would impact Bolden too much. Bolden wants to play the 4 in college, and even at the 5, I can’t imagine he’d lag behind the behemoth, who is still quite raw. There are just too many post minutes opening up not to be able to accommodate both.

@BeddieKU23 I’ve got to disagree with you on this one. Bolden taking an unofficial means he’s spending money out of pocket. Why fork over $600 to visit a school for a weekend if you’re not giving them serious thought? Kids reschedule officials all the time. With AAU being basically a year-round commitment these days, any number of things could have come up, and Bolden is gonna be a busy kid. As long as he’s willing to come on campus, we have the opportunity we need.

@BeddieKU23 It all depends on whether or not he shows at late night (which he is/was planning on attending unofficially). If that doesn’t happen, we’re toast. As far as I’m concerned, Jerrance Howard has one job this season: land Marques Bolden. If he can’t do that, Self needs to show him the door.

@HighEliteMajor said:

Your position, as I read it, basically, is that if the school taught core classes that were inadequate, then Diallo should be cleared because he was (presumably) ignorant of the deficiencies, correct?

That’s not quite it. What I’m asking is, regardless of whether Diallo knew, should have known, or was completely ignorant and prevented from being able to find out that Our Savior might have a problem in the eyes of the NCAA, what should the goal of the clearinghouse be (setting aside, for the moment, what it appears to be today), and how should that affect him?

If the goal of the clearinghouse is to only admit players who are academically prepared for college, then I think it would take an extraordinary reason beyond what we can say we now know in order to disqualify Diallo. In all respects, again, from the outside looking in, he appears to be ready for that aspect of participating in college athletics. If the goal of the clearinghouse is to weed out institutions that don’t adequately prepare players, then there is the question of whether or not a player who is (or at least appears to be) prepared should be penalized for the institution’s shortcomings, or if that specific player should be given a pass based on their own merit?

I’ll freely admit that Diallo’s situation and that of those who also attended Our Savior for a lesser time isn’t a 1 to 1 situation, but I don’t quite buy it’s apples to oranges. It might be Granny Smith to Braeburn. After all, most of the classes that anyone takes in HS that are in any way college preparatory usually happen in their junior and senior years. Would you find it reasonable to conclude that a person wasn’t ready for the rigors of college based on a puff class they took as a freshman or sophomore provided the classes they took thereafter met the standards?

I understand that there needs to be some sort of rules and some sort of enforcement. I understand that member institutions agree to the rules and enforcement mechanisms are a condition of membership. And even when those things come out to bite us, I don’t have a problem with that. Comparing Diallo to McClemore, however, I can clearly see why the NCAA had doubts about Ben’s potential as a college student (I mean, just listen to him speak. Yikes!), and I can’t really argue that they didn’t make the right choice in that case, even though it potentially cost us a national title. But what is the point of investigating potentially mitigating circumstances if you’re not going to consider what I would hope would be the most important criterion?

I’m also not one to stomp my foot and expect everything to be absolutely fair and equal 100% of the time. You’re right, the reality of the moment is what it is, fair or not. Still, that doesn’t oblige me to censor my opposition to the status quo (should I come to oppose it), nor should I be made to accept it in the face of what I think it ought to become. Hopefully the NCAA will see things my way, and give Diallo the benefit of the doubt based on his own merit, regardless of what they decide to do with Our Savior and future prospects from that school. If they don’t, however, as I stated, it will take a reason beyond what I currently know (or at least think I know) for me to be satisfied with that outcome.

@HighEliteMajor said:

I guess my position is that if Diallo doesn’t qualify, then there is probably a very good reason.

I certainly can’t speak for @BeddieKU23, but I think the phrase very good reason is the crux of the issue. From what we know right now, which admittedly is arguing from some level of ignorance, it certainly doesn’t seem like there is anything inherently wrong with Diallo as a student. He has good grades. He has completed some college level courses. Even if the course work that he did at Our Savior wouldn’t necessarily be up to the standards the NCAA would like, the potential lack of quality doesn’t seem to have impacted Diallo as an individual student.

In that case, is it fair to penalize him (especially when others who attended the school, although not as long, were granted passage)? Do we regard students as part an parcel with the schools that they attend or do we evaluate them directly? If Our Savior is guilty of malfeasance, what is Diallo’s culpability and how do they (the NCAA) come to that conclusion? I am not asking those questions rhetorically. I just think they’re fair questions to ask, and I don’t know what the answer ought to be, regardless of what it is. I also don’t think it is inherently selfish, even if it is beneficial to us as fans, to think that Diallo’s situation merits qualification (which I do). I would probably hold that opinion regardless of where he chose to go to school simply because I admire him so greatly as a player.

Now if something else comes out about Diallo and the folks that have attached themselves to him, I’d be with you about disqualification. I certainly wasn’t upset at the NCAA when Cliff Alexander’s family engaged in Verhalten verboten and got him disqualified. That was totally on them. It’s just from the outside looking in, this doesn’t seem to be anything comparable, so if Diallo doesn’t qualify, a very good reason is precisely what I’ll demand.

@approxinfinity Your link is from two seasons ago.

As far as I know, KU hasn’t had any significant contact with Thon since they initially backed off when he tried to reclass for half a year.

@drgnslayr The ABBA record was a stroke of genius.

@drgnslayr You made my day, man! Did you do the photo shop yourself? Either way, I had to pick myself up off the floor. Well played.

@Statmachine Cheick must be a really good student. There’d be no way I’d be awake before 10 to tell anyone anything back in college.

@HighEliteMajor If he can do half of what he’s doing below against a good D, I say sign him:

He doesn’t appear to be your typical Juco/filler type guy. Seems to have real skill and good athleticism too.

In the bad news category, it looks like he’s been recruited by ISU for a long time and I can’t blame them. He looks like a perfect replacement for Georges Niang.

@jayballer54 To answer your question, Azubuike isn’t going to be a pacemaker the way Diallo should (I’m losing my patience NCAA), but he’s no Josh Smith either. I think his foot speed is comparable to Jahlil Oakafor’s (not his footwork, mind you). He doesn’t seem to be carrying a lot of extra fat on his frame and when he was younger (and lighter), he actually had pretty good speed for his size, so if it were an issue, I think Hudy could right-size him. Even at 280, he’s got great hops for a big man.

If Azubuike couldn’t contribute much his freshman season, I don’t think it would be due to a lack of athleticism in any capacity, but rather due to his very low BBIQ. In particular, I think he’ll struggle with teams that play small ball when it comes to defense. Still, even armed with just a power game, he should be able to score in the half court because he’s bigger and stronger than most NBA 5s these days, let alone college kids. Imagine Tarik Black with Cole Aldrich’s height and length.

As for Giles, he may yet be key to our recruiting season. If he hurries up and picks Duke along with Wenyen Gabriel (as expected), that should kill any shot they’d have at Bolden who, as @BeddieKU23 mentioned, wants to play the 4 (a spot K really likes to fill with 3s anyway). The only way that would backfire is if K tries his hand at forming a super-group the way Calipari did last season. Given how that ended up backfiring (hurt the draft stock of his returning players, scared off several recruits, and alienated fans somewhat when he both failed to deliver on the promise of a perfect season, then later claimed his goal was to get 7 guys drafted, which he also failed to do), I doubt K is going to go Cal’s route (plus he’s not so arrogant as to plant the notion of going 40-0 in his fanbases’ heads). Either way, Bolden probably has a better opportunity to OAD at KU than at Duke, and since that’s what he wants to try, I think he’ll wind up here (but I doubt he’ll wind up an OAD).

@ParisHawk Glad you brought this up. I followed up on the Fancaster tweet from last week since my deadline for BS detection had passed and it turns out their alleged source isn’t someone with any say in the decision but someone who claims to have seen the transcripts of Diallo and several of his teammates that have cleared. Fancaster claims that their source informed them that Diallo’s coursework is similar to other players who have cleared and that he got good grades, therefore it was likely he would be cleared. The ‘soon’ part was just over-enthusiasm on their part.

I don’t know if any of these claims are true, but either way, the prior tweet certainly overstated what they’re now claiming. The website for Fancaster is mostly just interviews with fans and occasionally celebs or players. The twitter account mostly just retweets stories from other sources. I haven’t made up my mind between this story being truish, but overstated, or simply being a fabrication that they’re trying to back out of gracefully while hoping it works out, but I’m leaning towards the latter. Too bad.

But on the plus side, Diallo may well clear. Goodman did caution, however, that Wilson was only at OSNAS for two seasons to Diallo’s 3.5, so we can’t really draw a 1-1 comparison out of this. Still, it’s a small feather in the cap until we get final word.

@FarSideHawk @Texas-Hawk-10 All I’m getting at is that I feel like Miles had more of a knack for seeing the floor and making the simple play. Vaughn had more wow moments, but Aaron got more done. Aaron also had better leadership skills. And of course Aaron topped Vaughn on the assist leader board which, being the most important stat for a pg, I have to give the nod to Miles. It’s not about hating on Vaughn, who is clearly loved by a large contingent, but I think Miles made the bigger contributions to the program.

@ParisHawk We know he’s not allowed to coach them directly, but he is allowed to mentor and that’s something that can be invaluable if done well.

@Texas-Hawk-10 I like Vaughn, but I’ll take Aaron’s substance over Jacque’s flash any day. As for Howard, pardon the expression, but he’s been on the pot for long enough. Either make something or vacate the throne. If he doesn’t come through on Bolden, I don’t see any reason for him to stick around…

Is there any other former KU pg you’d rather have mentoring Frank and Devonte?

@JayHawkFanToo said:

While formations are being implemented in practice, they are observed bay band personnel from several high locations at the stadium to make sure the design looks correct…even my grandson’s HS band does this.

It’s worse than that. Even a modestly well off HS band director is going to have access to software that they can use to simulate how things will work in real time. This guy knew what he was going for long before he got his band on the field. He either didn’t care or thought he could get away with it as long as it was done with just enough of a wink and a nod.

Now do I really care? No. Hell, I’ll cop to sophomoric side of me finding it somewhat funny. But at the same time it is completely unprofessional and really has no place in what I would hope KSU school administrators would want to be a family friendly environment.

The only thing that really irks me about the situation is all of the playing dumb or “You’ve just got a dirty mind” responses by KSU fans. When I first saw a video clip, I couldn’t tell what the formation was exactly, but what it was doing was unambiguous. Seeing it later with the context of what it was supposed to be, as you pointed out, it still makes no sense without the double entendre. If KSU really isn’t above doing something like this, fine, but own up to it.