Posts made by milehighhawk

Tarik Black is a great guy, but next to worthless on the floor. As a senior, we should be able to count on him to provide leadership, but that’s difficult to do when you’re missing bunnies and riding pine with foul trouble. It’s clear the new rules have been giving him fits.

Tharpe really grinds my gears. The one play that drove me nuts yesterday was on defense: Wilbekin has the ball just behind the three point line, and Tharpe is “guarding” him, but has his head on a swivel looking around for potential screens (I would guess)–Wilbekin just drains it, and Naadir didn’t do much to contest it. Add to that the host of questionable decisions on offense, and the bad -and-one, and it’s not a good trajectory.

I’m not sure what’s happened to Perry the last few games. I certainly expected a little more from him given his start to the season. I’d add Selden to that list as well.

The bright side is that we’ve identified a weakness early in the season & will likely crack the code of attacking a Zone defense earlier than we would have otherwise.

The other great outcome (besides the comeback effort) is that Wiggins asserted himself, particularly during the last few minutes. I don’t think anyone can question that he wants the ball in crunch time–and that he seems to have that Chalmers-esque clutch factor in his favor.

Still a lot of hoops to be played, and I’m sure the team will enjoy playing closer to home.

Jesse - two questions:

1. Have you ever seen a more uncivil site than kubuckets.com?

2. (My actual questions): How many games until Embiid starts & Is it too early to perhaps lower expectations for Black? I see him as a relatively “unskilled” big body that has been hurt by the rule changes on D.

Thanks!

The whole “greene slamming doors” rumor posted on KUsports.com stemmed from the night he went to the hospital. I forgot if it was on that site or Rivals, but people reported hearing doors slamming in AFH right around that time.

Zero clue if the door-slamming was Greene or related to his injury situation somehow, but that’s where the rumor came from initially.

Also - great to see Jesse here. In addition to adding the TCJ to my list of news spots to go to, I’m looking forward to potential Q&A here!

At this point, I’d tend to lean toward not redshirting anyone, but Frankamp is the only clear choice–if anyone were to do so.

truehawk–I’d actually disagree that Mason could still redshirt. It’s technically true, but Self already announced Frank will start in the first game.

I can’t see the logic in redshirting Greene. The biggest reason is I see him as a two- or three-year player, rather than a four-year guy (assuming he progresses). On the other hand I can’t see Frankamp as much other than a great four-year guy. At this point, Greene doesn’t seem to need as much time/space to find his shot relative to Frankamp.

So my inclination is to not “redshirt” anyone, but if we did, Frankamp would be the only real candidate.

Question – does a basketball redshirt function in the same way that a football redshirt does, in that a coach may announce someone is redshirting…but it just means that player is eligible for a redshirt status by not playing? My point being, if – God forbid – one of our guards went down with an injury early in the season, we could, in theory, still wind up deciding to “burn” the redshirt by playing the kid, correct?

Ooh-Bray

LOOK AT ALL THIS INCIVILITY!

I didn’t realize Wiggins scored 21. I was trying to guess while walking back from scrimmage, and figured about 14. What impressed me most was his defense, particularly at the beginning of the day. Oh, and if you blink, you’ll miss him finding his way to the rim.

I had pegged Ellis as the leading scorer this morning, and to me at least - he’s still the most likely candidate to lead the team in scoring this season.

Selden did a lot of little things but was more quiet than expected. He did have the highlight of the day though: Wiggins had the ball on a 2-on-1 fast break and gave Wayne a nice oop.

Andrew White III was the most pleasant surprise for me. He had a couple nice steals->dunks, a couple of putbacks, and just made plays.

I thought it was interesting that the first (of three) scrimmage(s) featured the Starting Five, along with White and Traylor, against the rest of the team. Given that, and the way he played in Late Night & this morning…I’ve gotta think he’s earned PT this year rather than a RS.

Nothing too unexpected from Frank or Connor - both looked liked they moved well with the ball. Frank had a couple nice pick & rolls where he found Ellis late. Connor hit 2 of 3 threes, I believe. Brannen Greene was okay, but nothing to write home about.

Another mild surprise for me was Hunter Mickelson. He played like he belonged. Had a couple nice buckets and a block, seemed to move around okay & I think will really bring something to the table next season–or at least more than people might expect.

JoJo is raw, but not for long. I could see him having some issues with foul trouble this year. Got whistled a few times, and had one possibly ill-advised hard-ish foul by coming up from behind Greene on a fast break. Brannen hit the deck and limped off to the sideline & didn’t return.

Who else? Naa and Tarik held their own. Looked good but nothing out of the ordinary…

That’s about all I’ve got. It was nice to see the crowd go nuts when Okafor entered the gym.