@BShark @Crimsonorblue22

Definitely still lurking but took a break from posting all my negativity. After last year, I said I was going to enjoy every season moving forward and was getting way too frustrated over a stupid game.

That and my Dad who’s already lost 1 kidney due to cancer has a not favorable report and will find out in the coming months regarding the 1 good kidney he has. Not looking for any pity but it puts things in perspective real quick.

My Dad got me hooked on KU ball when I was 10 he took me to a game and we always go to Lawrence really early I’m talking like 2-3 in the afternoon before a 7 p.m. game. We’d eat at Taco Johns (it’s not the best joint in Lwr by any means but what we do) and then we go to Allen and just walk around as the students are all camped out. Well Wayne comes out and starts just shooting as we are the only people standing on the floor in AFH (students are in the halls outside camping). He asks me to rebound for him and after about 20-30 minutes ask me if it was okay to show me to the locker room in which my Dad of course goes, “go for it!”. I was hooked ever since.

I’ll post another message on my thoughts about the team they are really looking good right now. We have some holes but so does everyone.

@benshawks08 I think Bill in his favoritism will try KJ at the 4. It won’t work and he will become the backup 5. It will drive us crazy because the best scoring lineup will be with shooters around Hunter and Juan with kj as 6th man energy change of pace guy

Bill’s gonna try to fit a square peg into a round hole to start the season to keep everyone happy

Ochai and the miracles my word what arc

They didn’t even try to guard Harris lol

@wissox I am enjoying the fun. I can’t stop laughing at the fact they won when I was so down on them. I wasn’t around for 88 so this changed my entire mindset.

100% agree things have to fall your way and they did. Nova kid hurt, bacot hurt ect we capitalized and made the plays though!

All that but the thread is about next years team which I was referencing how last years March team was different than the entire year. Last years team with a healthy remy is a champ. Without probably lose to creighton or providence easy.

Then with that frame of mind it’s so important to get someone who can score to play the 2 or eat into Juan’s minutes unless he improves offensively (which he could).

I’m happy and enjoying it and still can’t believe they won it!

@BShark @Crimsonorblue22

We are playing REALLY good right now and that is even after the Harvard game. Typically that is a Sprint center loss and our guys still gutted out a 14 point win.

Juan - Absolutely must play as many mpg at the 1 as possible. He was a stud in the IU matchup after coach woke him up. If he could just see 1 three drop I think he starts to average 1-2 a game which just opens things up more for him. He must play the most minutes at the 1 every night. Bobby is not what they’ve billed so far.

Kevin - This is who’s changed this team. He’s an animal defensively just flat out taking the ball from guys even as they drive on a fastbreak. The difference and not sure if anyone noticed but his back injury was THE BEST for him. Here is why: MJ Rice got to get some confidence and score. This put just a little fire under Kevin and all of the sudden he is a WALKING DOUBLE DOUBLE. His stroke looks great and with him shooting it like that we have a 3 headed monster with JW, GD and KM.

Gradey - I’ve seen neenyo on 247 talk about him needing more touches and I agree. When a guy goes 8-12 in a game and 5-5 or 5-6 from 3 then he needs more shots until proven he isn’t on fire. He is okay at driving, having some layups under the basket, his pull up game and just any way he can get a shot up in deadly. Neenyo at 247 views the game similarly to me and is as negative but does enjoy a good debate as someone finally analyzed why JW has skills for the nba. I feel as he posts reason and people just say he sucks instead of debating him.

JW - Leader of the team but cooling off of late. He looks to drive but NEVER kicks opposite to Gradey (he does if KM is in the corner). He can mainly drive hard right but man he is GOOD doing it. Dude needs to look to penetrate and kick more but it’s difficult as a coach to say that without making him hesitant. JW needs to keep doing what he’s doing BUT when Gradey can’t miss get the guy more looks. JW and GD need to average the most shot attempts each game. I don’t like seeing 15-17 shots for JW and only 8-10 for Gradey especially when Gradey is so darn efficient.

KJ - Draymond JR is money analysis from Self (he must know a thing about basketball). KJ is becoming great at the pick and roll, he gets off the floor so quick that he’s rejecting 6-10/6-11 guys. Now that we trap stud bigs like TJD (IU game) it shows we are going to be just fine moving forward. KJ is the starter and I’m 100% on board. He needs to learn JW’s hard drive right because no big can guard him from the top of the key or elbow.

Bobby - Needs to penetrate WAY more and look to dish or finish those layups (as he did against IU but was back to average against Harvard). When he’s in the team just doesn’t run the same. The Juan & Bobby lineup I absolutely hate especially when Juan doesn’t look to score. Bobby needs to ATTACK and try a 3 one of these days and he will be okay. Curious how he does next year with some stud guards we have in.

Joe - He’s a good defender but I’m seeing what Bill probably has seen for 2 years now. He’s hit some 3’s in limited minutes so that’s all we can expect.

MJ - Needs more minutes but still lost out there at times. Bill has to let him learn in-game to grow through it. He’s a better athlete and defender (when he knows what he’s doing) than Joe and Bobby. He needs to be the 6th man and scorer off the bench as many have said. His interviews he’s saying all the right things.

Zuby/Udeh - Neither are where they need to be but getting better. Zuby should be 1st big as Self mentioned Udeh was “whipped” 1st defensive possession in the post against Harvard. They are the future though just need to be patient and give us good spot minutes for KJ.

Clemence - Not seeing it and will probably transfer this offseason if I had to guess

IU game was perfection, the guys played great and dominated. IU is a solid team but not as good as their ranking was. I’d love going at Tenn again to see how our adjustments work. When you double the ball you are daring guys to shoot wide open 3’s.

Our D is nasty with Juan & Kevin. Gradey is getting steals (had what 4-5 the other day) and JW pulls more boards than Barkley.

This team can get to a final 4 just need some breaks like last year. We can hang and beat any team in the country.

Ready for this big 12 slate to see how tough we are. Us dominating missery on the road was awesome and after watching them dominate ILL (who’s in a free fall but still) it shows these older guys + stud frosh in GD can get it done.

Self will dominate continuously with the portal. Get older guards like KM and then some good big here or there.

RCJH

@kjayhawks no 3 games in 3 days

Our starting 5 and udeh are solid. Joe is blah if he hits 2-3 shots call it good.

As Bill said last year our studs gotta carry us (och, Dave and Braun).

Jw, Gradey, Juan gotta be great or we will lose second round

No loss is ever good but this one didn’t sting as much. Matchups in the tourney and teams get beat early (think Auburn last year I was sure their size and athleticism would dominate us and Miami beat them).

Just 2 game weekend tourneys with a day of rest and a HOF coach. He likes this squad with a healthy Kevin and we got as good a chance as any team!

@approxinfinity Yeah Juan’s job is don’t turn it over…ATTACK from the tip and score when needed

He’s done these things especially against msu second half.

I also saw him defensively turn it up granted it was Oakland but if that’s the Juan we get against Duke…mark it down - we will win

Juan and Shak/Diggy are good 1-2 punch at the pg spot

Juan isn’t my favorite pg clearly and he’s be baddd at times but for this team with 30 mpg instead of 35-38….he can easily be what we need!

Zeke was easy to peg because he can win one on one and get his shot off at anytime (even against tourney teams). He’s better defensively than @Texas-Hawk-10 said and his rebounding has been outstanding

Zeke’s a baller and effects the game even when his shot doesn’t drop

@FarmerJayhawk Geez if we lose Ingram to unc and Hunter to uk……this place is gonna be a dumpster fire

7-1 Williams will give Dave problems - he’s the size Dave can’t score over and Dave was a BEAST TONIGHT

Jalen meet your nba version Paulo - good luck hope you D him up like Svi on Bagley

Where we win: Och goes off like tonight

Braun the same can’t wait until second half but he was huge let em hang

Remy stay hot from deep

Hope they miss

Last but not least Harris just shut down roach. Harris played like an all American tonight can’t believe I’m typing that.

That story was a tear jerker and yes, he isn’t a score first but I see what Self sees

Rock chalk they are 1 game away win or lose what a season for a team I loathed and has now stood up in every way …they AINT SOFT!

Sounds like we are getting Flory, Philon and Passamore. That’s solid and some legit athletes to pair with KJ and Juan.

Get 2-3 top transfers and we reload.

I’m sick regarding Morris. He was legit in Puerto Rico before he got hurt and pathetic he was such a turd towards women and despicable. Not sure why people think it’s okay to ever do that. Disgusting.

Our team took a huge hit without him as morris was like remy he could make plays and he and Juan in the backcourt was crazy good on d.

Hunter and KJ gotta have huge years

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in The portal.:

@approxinfinity said in The portal.:

@kuballin10 I think we will be fine with Flory playing some 4. Not terribly worried about that; Flory can guard anyone as long as he avoids fouls.

Flory, Tiller, and Dessert (if he commits) should not play a single minute at the 4 this season unless any of the have significantly extended their shooting range. All 3 have more limited range than KJ and with the primary offensive skill set of this team being the ability the drive the ball, you can’t have two non shooting post players on the floor together.

Right now, we know Peterson, White, and Flory are starters while Council, Dawson, and Jackson are fighting for a starting spot (probably Dawson and Jackson in reality). This is why Self has been targeting starting caliber 3’s so hard because KU doesn’t have one right now and is a huge hole in the line up.

You and I 100% agree the issue is the guy calling the shots and dictating minutes loves two bigs so much he played 3 bigs at the same time……multiple times last year!

No way would I play any of the bigs on the roster at the 4 - I’d be running 4 guards all day as I’ve always said but Bill loves him some size and will sacrifice skill/ability to score for some height and arm length.

That’s specifically why I brought it up because we all know it will happen if he’s “not happy” with how the guards have been playing in practice. He did that this year with KJ at the 4 and even 3……he did it in reverse when Ernest and Zuby didn’t satisfy his practice itch and then ran 4 guards around KJ at the 5.

I’m starting to think Bill values practice so much in comparison to game results

If Bill attempts to have Flory play the 4 because he’s not happy with the guard play just go ahead and pencil us down for another 5-7 place in big 12, 7-10 seed and rd 32 exit

I’m good with Dessert as long as it’s off the bench at the 5 spot only

@approxinfinity Yeah congrats to her on the promotion but people hoping/thinking Self would pull in a legit gm - this is the furthest thing from it.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Insert Self’s response fart noise as he doesn’t hire a gm but instead Lexi

Self is a total control freak he isn’t hiring a gm and as essentially said that without flat out telling the media

You can see this in the lack of freedom he gives players in his system…this expands to everything in the program

@FarmerJayhawk Haggerty isn’t coming here trust me on this one. I get the whole “things change” but there seems to be a zero chance on this one

@TYOHawk He didn’t treat guys the same and try to elevate the entire team. Valued crappy players with major holes.

The game now is how you handle transfers and the sign of a great coach is they come to your program and take a step forward. In our case, the two biggest ones last year went quite a bit backward and players see this stuff and talk at summer camps, nba combine ect

Self begging for mone…they will push him out much like donors have done at other schools.

He wrote checks with his mouth these last two seasons that he couldn’t cash.

What’s worse is he had jr/sr/5th yr guys these last two years and we still have only gotten out of the rd of 32 once since 2018. So the whole “he can only succeed with 3-4 year guys” was a complete farce with the unstoppable big 3 he rolled out there

Staff doesn’t guard the three or have a clue and Bill just shakes his head but doesn’t make adjustments (ie Hunter hedging for 24 straight months unsuccessfully or D2 being the guy to always have the ball in his hands).

@TYOHawk He’d be the starting pg and move DP to the 2. If you thought AFH looked empty at times this year more so than 2 decades it would be brutal if D2 magically came back

KJ’s recovery is ahead of schedule and Bill is hoping that’s his last starter

@Texas-Hawk-10 You could tell once a runner got on and was bunted over….the dugout knew they had em!

Nothing like a duck fart for the win!

@TYOHawk And staff went opposite like they always do in over correcting. Griffin a shooter to now White who shot his career best 32% last year

Just get Williams and we will be good. I’d rather have Williams anyways as I’ve said