@BeddieKU23 Jay Bilas has been defending Diallo and ripping on the NCAA over this issue on Twitter. He was also bringing up how ridiculous it is because it doesn’t really do anything except delay a student-athlete’s college playing career by an extra year. Makes the kid pay for something that was out of his hands too.

@jayballer54 Plenty of fans didn’t want to sign Frank Mason either, shows how good some of them are at projecting talent… It was all fanfare for Cliff, all “waste of a scholarship” for Frank, and look who’s contributed more to the program. I think Schnider would be an excellent pickup for the 2nd or 3rd big in the class, provided the staff can land a more dynamic talent for the 1st spot. He appears to have more strength than any big ranked ahead of him besides Azubuike, and it would be great to have either one of them (or both) to complement a more talented scoring big like Bolden in the post.

Other programs have their versions of the Andrew White experience: Semi Ojeleye at Duke, Kyle Wiltjer at Kentucky, etc. Sometimes certain players and coaches just don’t click. White III seems like a good kid and I wish him the best at Nebraska.

The word is out: playing in Allen Fieldhouse provides the home team a significant advantage.

I wouldn’t call LeBron’s Miami teams “all-star” - Dwayne Wade was the only other true superstar on that team. I like Bosh, but he wasn’t always a high-producer, and they never had a real good point guard (sorry but LeBron and Wade made Mario look better than he is). And we’re now starting to see Wade take the path of Kobe late in his career… The success of those teams was largely due to LeBron with Wade as the sidekick; every good team has a good supporting cast.

@Statmachine I think the coaches (and fans) see a lot of synergy with p[aying Mason and Graham together in the backcourt, and from a ball-handling and passing perspective they do complement each other’s games nicely. I think that backcourt duo makes the other 3 players on the floor play better as well. I’m not saying Svi can’t bring many of the same things, plus some others, but the Mason-Graham duo is just so effective and consistent. It’s closer to the 2008 team, where you have two point guard-ish players that keep defenses guessing. Also, like Svi, Graham projects to improve in his second year as well.

@jaybate-1.0 Never underestimate the impact a large booty can have on seated height…

I’ve always considered Selden to be much more of a 3 than a 2. He was listed as a small forward on ESPN recruiting in high school. ESPN commented on his weaknesses with “if he doesn’t grow anymore he could plateau as a 6’4” combo-forward". It sounds like his height is the only thing “tweener” about his game. If he were 1.5 - 2 inches taller though there would be no doubt about what to call him. I feel like the only reason Self has played him at the 2 is because that’s what everyone assumed his NBA position would have to be. I’m with others that think Self would be crazy not to keep him as the starting 3 alongside two ball-handling guards.

@Kcmatt7 Gonzaga has a couple 7’1" 290 lb centers, one of whom (Karnowski) is pretty good. In addition to Gordon and Tarc, Arizona had Brandon Ashley and Grant Jerrett, both of whom are on NBA rosters. All KU needed last year was a big footer who could average 11 and 6 and be a defensive force (Karnowski), and none of the other “5’s” on the roster could manage that.

He might be my favorite center of the Self era. Very strong, smart player. He started out kind of clumsy but rounded into a nice piece of the 2008 team. I think he’ll be good for his projected role with the Cavs (backup center behind Mozgov in a somewhat crowded frontcourt). It’ll be interesting to see how well he moves at the age of 30.

Lightfoot is a promising rebounder, I know the comparisons with Kevin Young will get old but I do see a lot of him in Mitch’s game… Still, Self’s comments indicate he’ll mostly get scrap minutes this season barring injured players.

@kjayhawks Hell, I’ve been out-rebounded by a girl 6 inches shorter who could box out better than just about any guy I’ve ever played against…

Yeah we gotta keep Mason fresh throughout the season. If they keep riding him like that his athleticism is bound to decline, and we’ll hear after the tournament about some “secret injury” the coaches weren’t telling us about…

@HighEliteMajor very strong posts and I can’t say I outright disagree about trimming the post rotation. However, I’m not as convinced as you that keeping C5 hurts the chances of winning the championship. To state the obvious, this team is so much more than the 5 spot. Does it limit the highest possible ceiling? Probably, but not by much. We’re talking 2 months out, and betting on freshmen. One of whom has a fouling problem (keeping the rotation fresh because of foul potential is another discussion, but one worth having). If this were a multi-season plan than absolutely go with the freshmen, but it’s a much shorter timeline than that. And hedging risks with C5 also significantly raises the floor. That could save our butts in March. And despite having a rotating 5 spot, the team has functioned (for the most part) like a well-oiled machine. You have to look at the competition: if we keep playing C5 what team do you suggest has a higher ceiling that takes the ring instead? Plenty of teams have recently won the ring with a solid (like C5) but not awesome center playing major minutes. As you’ve stated, we have the best collection of backcourt talent in the nation. One of the best power forwards in the nation. Sometimes when you’re day-trading, the hot hand is the way to go. And with a group this seasoned, I think chemistry and other factors are less of an issue than you might think. The rest of the team has appeared to adjust for rotating centers just fine. Just my opinion on this, but currently I’m OK with C5. I’ll keep re-evaluating throughout conference play.

@wrwlumpy not that he needs to jump to be able to block shots, or dunk for that matter…

@jaybate-1.0 So what you’re saying is, Self is and always will be a bro through and through. A 50-something, politically correct bro, but still a bro.

Traylor was listed at 6’ 7" coming out of high school, and people who see him in public say he doesn’t look as tall as expected. I think he got the “KU boost” in listed height.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I think people forget that Withey only started getting major minutes in 2011-2012 because they really had no other option. His breakout season the big rotation was: C) Withey - Wesley, PF) Robinson - Young - (Merv Lindsay?). Wesley wasn’t going to start in front of him, and 180 lb. Young was really the only other viable option. I guess what I’m getting at is Withey didn’t really fit Self’s typical mold of big man, and I feel like Hunter doesn’t really either. In Self’s own words, “a poor man’s Jeff Withey”. Self certainly saw the value and effectiveness in using Withey, as he is starting to with Hunter now. But Self does seem to go for the 6’ 8" “tough guy” type of big quite often. I’m not so sure Mario Little wouldn’t have taken Withey’s minutes if he had been on the roster that breakout year.

@JayHawkFanToo I always thought Howard just looked good with the Magic and was always overrated, though injuries haven’t helped his production. He’s also kind of old-school for the direction the game is going, especially without the athleticism of his peak years. Undersized Draymond Green is becoming the new gold standard for centers.

@BeddieKU23 I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little refreshing to see a game without either of those two in it… That doesn’t mean there won’t be games this year when we’ll need one or both of them, I think there will. But those guys can be kind of tiring to watch, and they just don’t have the scoring potential, flash and lengthy athleticism on both ends that the 3 “other” bigs have, especially the freshmen. Even some of their mistakes were fun to watch, like Diallo accidentally jumping over the guy in the paint or Mickelson trying to block an open shooter from behind. Stupid mistakes, but it shows what kind of motor and energy they have.