For quite some time there has been a schism developing amongst KU fans. It’s an easy one to see both ways, but it is a divisive and polarizing issue for a reason. On the one hand you have the fans that stand behind Bill Self no matter the circumstance. Their arguments are more than understandable. Bill Self is a phenomenal coach; he has reached the mountaintop in 2008, he’s brought home a record number of Big 12 championships that has put him in company with some of the game’s greatest. On the other hand is the group that is trying to push our fan base in the direction that the vast majority of sports has gone. The direction that utilizes advanced statistics to determine correlated factors to reach the dependent variable that we are constantly pursuing. In our case that dependent variable is a National Championship.

This is a good post and a discussion that simply needs to be had. We’re all excited about the win against Oklahoma, and to be sure this was a great win. People are already making comparisons to the OT victory over Mizery, which, to me, was the final stake being driven through the heart of that poor, sad, pathetic fanbase. Unfortunately, HOW we win is often just as important and telling about our team as anything else. On that 2012 team there is little to dissect in terms of strategy. We played a 6-man rotation. There was little room to second-guess decisions. This team–as has been stated by pretty much everyone–has 11 players that could see extensive PT on just about any team in the country. The topic of discussion here is yet again, the playing time of Landen Lucas and Jamari Traylor.

I have a strong sense of affinity for most posters on here. However, my largest problem is the contingent of fans that believe that Coach Self is infallibly right because he coaches the game and gets paid a lot to do so. I’m sorry, but this way of thinking is sadly ignorant. Again, it essentially says anyone in a position of authority is right because they are in a position of authority. That goes against the very core of what we are as Americans and people living in Democracy. I am not a highly paid professional basketball coach, this much is true, but I can tell you that mistakes have been made by those in positions of authority throughout history, and most definitely throughout the history of basketball.

I am, of many things a historian. I have studied it extensively throughout my life and it is my passion. Robert E. Lee was a brilliant military strategist–much more intelligent than me. But I can tell you that Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg was a calamitous disaster. Possibly the worst decision he ever made. As a graduate student I have taken to studying economics. I’m no genius, nor will I be Chairman of the Federal Reserve anytime soon, but I can tell you that Alan Greenspan should have stuck to his guns when he said in 1995 that we should heed the warnings of Japan where overheated markets were not cooled by the Bank of Japan leading to the real estate-bubble that developed in the late 1980s and then burst in 1989. We experienced much the same in 2008 by the moves set in motion during the 1990s and then the early 2000s. I am no expert, but these disasters were obvious during their development and they’re obvious now. I fear that we may be treading down a similar path this season (of course, this is basketball and as a historian comparing the deaths of brave men, or even the economic wellbeing of an entire society are simply not comparable. However, I feel that you all understand the central point towards which I am pursuing).

Landen Lucas’s player efficiency rating is considerably higher than it has been in the past, yet it is still lower than other players we have on this team. As several other posters have pointed out, Bragg has reached this point, and while Diallo makes head-scratching-decisions, his mistakes are without a doubt correctable. That may be the most infuriating point of this whole conundrum. Diablo and Bragg have correctable shortcomings, whereas Lucas and Traylor have simply reached who and what they are as players and there is little that can be changed or adjusted. Jamari Traylor’s PER is…pretty much the same. Bad. Did you notice that Lon Kruger did not bother guarding Lucas at all? Just left him alone. At the top of the key, near the free throw line, in the post. Anywhere. Flat out ignored him. That is my concern. Lon Kruger simply addressed what we all know to be true: Landen Lucas is not a threat. He knows he doesn’t have anything close to a post move, so we have essentially conceded our offense to playing 4 on 5. This may be crass, and again, I have no problem with either of these two young men as students, people, or representatives of this university, but they are simply not good. IF they were suddenly erased from this team’s lineup I DO NOT for a second think it changes the trajectory of this team, our chances of winning the Big 12, a national title, games against top-tier competition, etc. In my opinion, it just simply would have no effect, other than positives, on this team.

As many of you are well-read basketball fans, I’m sure many of you are aware who Diamond Stone is. If not, he’s the 5-star center for Maryland. He, like most freshman, went through some growing pains up to this point. But Mark Turgeon hung with the young man despite his shortcomings. In a short while, Diamond Stone has become a pretty competent post player, putting up 39 points for No. 4 Maryland to erase a 10-point deficit. Can you imagine if we get a fraction of that production from Diallo or Bragg (keep in mind I said a fraction). I’m not lobbying for Bragg or Diallo to play 35 minutes a game, but having them ready by March makes us scary. Landen and Jamari’s ceilings have simply been met. Landen’s 8 rebounds and 5 points in 25 minutes is nice, but does little to impact or improve our chances of winning in March and April, and they are hardly a safety net (I have nightmares of double teams swarming LL and knocking the ball out of his sensitive hands). This is my concern. I want KU to win just as badly as anyone else on this sight, and I hope I’m wrong, but quite frankly the truth seems glaringly obvious to me and I fear, unlike other examples throughout history, we have ample alternatives the sad outcome that we may be sewing for ourselves.

All I ask of the old school fan base is to disenthrall yourselves with the idea that Bill Self cannot be wrong. He has been. Several times. Our season has ended in the past because he has been wrong. HE HAS ADMITTED AS SUCH. You are not being misled. These are not lies. It has happened.

I would have delved further into statistics and things of that nature, but it is my birthday, and I am going out to dinner with a very pretty young lady. Happy New Year to my fellow Jayhawks, and as always, RCJH.

Was the detrimental conduct him being the best 3-point shooter on our team?

I think this is kind of a wild take. We are a year and a half removed from a bunch of kids (that were 3 and 4 star recruits) from the KC area winning a national championship at KU! Two of them are starters on this years team! I’m also pretty sure that Ochai, McCormack, and Jalen Wilson all graduated. Dajuan Harris and KJ Adams will graduate, and if Christian Braun hasn’t already, he will. I hear ya on the transfer stuff…but Hunter Dickinson is the real deal, and seems to have absolutely embraced KU. Did you hear his interview after the Kentucky game? He was rattling off KU history like he grew up in Lawrence. Did you hear Kevin McCullar say he wishes he would’ve played his entire career at KU? I’m thankful that this new era allowed for guys like that to come to KU.

I think you gotta evolve with the times. I understand the frustration with NIL and the transfer portal. But all things considered, the transfer portal especially made it possible for someone like McCullar to even come to KU. They also made it possible for someone like Dickinson to come to KU rather than going to the NBA, where his game doesn’t have a home. It might even allow him to come back to KU for another year.

As others have said, you might be describing a utopia that just never existed. But I’ll also say, this year’s starting lineup features two seniors, a super senior, a junior, and a freshman. Four of the 5 will for sure get degrees from KU. I’ve heard people make this argument before and they’re missing that the scenario they’re describing is literally happening right in front of them. 2022 was that utopian vision of college basketball. A veteran team from the area goes on to win it all. That’s great! That’s why we watch sports. Obviously this year isn’t exactly the same, but there are most definitely similarities.

If you want to be mad at someone, be made at guys like Udeh and Ejiofor who left KU prematurely to step into the exact same situations at inferior schools. Let them be a cautionary tale of this new era.

Later edit: I’d also like to add that NIL and the transfer portal allowed KU football to turn around faster than anyone would have ever expected. Lance Leipold and his staff are performing a miracle in the KU football program right now, but they are helped significantly by the flexibility that the transfer portal allows, and the security that NIL offers.

I’ve been wanting to make this post for a long time. This is what I’ve noticed from reading Jason King’s “Beyond the Phog” and the “Top 100 things every KU fan should know before they die.” And now that I have a break in school, here it is.

What’s made KU so special during Bill Self’s tenure has been Coach Self’s remarkable coaching staff, and quite simply, the bond and swagger that has developed amongst his players that carried over for the first 9 seasons or so of his tenure.

We have had so much turnover since the end of the 2013 (and even 2012) season that it’s been hard to get back to where we’ve always been. That hardened spirit you saw from Tyshawn Taylor, Thomas Robinson, Elijah Johnson, and Travis Releford (the list goes on), that was carryover from Sherron Collins, Mario Chalmers, and Darnell Jackson. That 2008 team embodied the KU spirit. Darnell Jackson said before the Final Four game against UNC, “just let your nuts hang.” That, my friends, is swagger. That’s confidence. Tell me last time you saw a KU team in the past two years play that way, especially away from AFH. Because National Championships are not won in AFH, unfortunately, they’re won on neutral floors. That carryover, that swagger, came from the first Self team with Aaron Miles and Keith Langford. They instilled it into the players that would go on to win the national championship, who in turn instilled it in the Morris twins, T-Rob, even Tyrel Reed (I’m thinking the Mizzou game when I say this). With Self’s recruiting tactics in the last couple of seasons, we’ve lost that swagger. We no longer have that continuation of passing this passion from one crop of players to the next. We’re not Kentucky. We never will be, nor would I want us to be. On the front of UK’s jerseys, it might as well say Calipari. They don’t embody anything. It doesn’t mean as much. I don’t discount their success or what Cal has been able to do, it’s commendable. But it’s not us.

Last year made this deficiency prominent to me. After a loss last season, Nadir Tharpe said, “when I got here, there were guys that wouldn’t let us lose. There were guys that would cry in the locker room if we did lose.” He was right. He could’ve pretty much said, Tyshawn and T-Rob explicitly weren’t gonna let us lose, but you get the idea. Naadir Tharpe and Jamari Traylor are the only ones that carry over the longstanding pride in KU. Tharpe is gone (and while some might be fine with that, I’m not one of them), and Jamari Traylor quite simply doesn’t have it. Andrew Wiggins didn’t have it. Joel Embiid didn’t have it. Perry Ellis clearly doesn’t have it. Nobody on this year’s team has it. Losing that attitude has hurt KU significantly. What happened to FOE? Too Strong? Put ya shoes on? It’s gone.

Another thing that has hurt KU significantly, which has been such a strength has been KU’s coaching staff. Losing Danny Manning and Joe Dooley hurt tremendously. But who have been their replacements? Jerrance Howard. A notorious recruiter of the Chicago-area. But that’s it. This move certainly lends itself to Self’s approach to recruiting in the past two years, but that’s it. There’ s very little “Snacks” brings to the table besides recruiting. Danny Manning turned average post players into giants. Into lottery picks. We no longer have that in our arsenal. Danny was arguably the best player KU has ever had. He knew that. The players knew that. That’s part of instilling the KU tradition. And as for Dooley, look at games from 2007, 2008, even 2012. I watched them all summer in between classes. We ran complicated schemes. Changed our offensive sets, created plays for shooters, dare I say, ran zones. As everyone noticed (except for Bill Self) last year, we could not play man-to-man in 2014. We needed to play zone. We did not, and we lost in the second round to a mediocre team. Players’ comments in the past few games about our “mechanic and robotic” scheme, are frightening. If we as fans notice it every game, don’t you think opposing coaches do too? If we continue down this path this year, we will come short of our potential again. I for one see Dooley’s departure as a possible explanation for the logic-defying ignorance we have seen from KU in the past two years.

My problem with Bill Self is his belief that what has worked in the past will continue to work in the future. If ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Pardon the historical reference, but the Japanese did not change their military tactics leading up to the Second World War, because quite simply, they worked in the past. Why bother changing them? The carnage of the Pacific War was the result. When you fail to adapt, you inevitably fail. Without so many of the pieces that have held KU together in the past, and kept KU at a high level, we are treading towards a downward spiral to minimal success. And for some, a Big 12 championship is success. Not to me it isn’t. We can’t win a national championship with the status quo. We have to adapt and change our ways in terms of scheme. I’m all for recruiting players that will be around for more than a year. By all means! But as someone else pointed out, what in the hell is the point in recruiting elite wings if all you want them to do is throw the ball in the post. Hey, B-Star was great at that. Just go recruit 3 of those, a really good center, and a PG and we should be set…right? It’s not going to work out that way. Play to your strengths. Don’t treat them as a burden. Because this is college. Not high school. You choose your players. They’re not handed to you.

This much to me is obvious.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Hey everyone! Long time no talk.

I think the media that covers this team have their brains pickled by the last 13 years. Either that or they’re just flat out terrible at their jobs.

Going into the first game of the season, it was understandable to be a little cautious about what to expect. I personally found all of those predictions of 2-3 wins to be quite low, but I could at least understand the perspective.

Going into WVU, I could understand expecting a loss. After watching KU take control of that game to win by double digits, albeit due to a pick 6 in OT that was pretty unlikely, those cautious expectations became less understandable.

Going into the game against Houston, I understood thinking it would be difficult to win that game. But here’s where I started to think that there was some abject cognitive dissonance going on in the KU media. To those that expected a 48-31 KU loss I ask this…did you watch Houston at all prior to the game on 9/17? I did. I was at least curious to know what our upcoming competition looked like. Houston mustered about 350 yards of total offense, in a game that went into double overtime mind you, against a Texas Tech team that gained around 500 yards in total offense. TTU’s backup QB threw for over 350 yards alone against Houston. Their backfield also had a respectable day against Houston.

Now, I don’t write for the LJW, or host a radio show on WKLN, but wasn’t TTU one of the games most people circled as a possible win for KU? Houston probably should’ve won that game, to be fair. But I don’t understand how we think that TTU was a possible win but Houston was a certain loss. Is it because it was on the road? Houston averages 25k fans a game. That would be good enough for dead last among P5 schools (that’s lower than KU!). KU players said after the game that it felt like they were playing at home. Chalk me up as genuinely confused why that game was considered an automatic loss.

The same sort of brain dead lazy takes appear to be rearing their ugly heads again for the game against Duke this upcoming Saturday. I can’t tell you how many 31-28, 37-31, 34-31 predictions I’ve heard coming into this game. Just like with Houston, I ask, WHY? Duke is easily the second worst team on KU’s schedule. They have played the third easiest schedule in college football against some truly, truly terrible competition. Temple may be the worst team in all of FBS football, Northwestern might be right there with them, and NC A&T, for as terrible as they are, ran for 217 yards against Duke! That’s over 5 yards a carry! KU on the other hand is averaging 7 yards per carry against much tougher defenses (at least I thought, right?). This is where I think the “JD is due for some regression” talk to be absurd. KU is successful because they don’t need JD to throw the ball 60 times to win. They have a mobile QB (who’s leading the team in rushing, I might add), along with 2 solid RB’s in Hishaw and Devin Neal. When JD has had to throw he’s been incredibly efficient. But I’ll just offer those rushing statistics as a freebee. That should be an obvious one for you guys and I’m not sure you even bothered to look. Oh, also, NC A&T converted 8/14 on third downs. That’s really bad for a Duke defense that I’ve been told is good against a winless opponent…KU is converting on 69 (nice) percent of their third downs.

That’s just one of Duke’s opponent’s too! They easily could’ve lost to Northwestern, or at a minimum gone to OT before Northwestern fumbled the ball at the goal line with an opportunity to tie the game! The same Northwestern team that just lost at home to Southern Illinois, I might add.

To your credit, most of you are picking KU to win against Duke. But even from there, I don’t really understand where the predictions for the rest of the season are coming from. I’ve heard Scott Chasen say, “I have this team finishing the season at 5-7 or 6-6 [after beating Duke 31-28].” Uh….what? You have KU going 1-7 down the stretch? Why? I know the Big 12 is good, it’s one of the reasons why KU has struggled to get the program back on its feet—because the Big 12 is such a bear; there is no Vanderbilt, Boston College, or Colorado to pick up free wins…but come on! Oklahoma is the best team in the Big 12, I think we’d all agree. But after that…? KU has probably looked the second best, and they’ve even played a tougher schedule than OU! I was told that Houston was a really good team that’s gonna win 8-9 games? I also think WVU is a better team than people realize.

The issue here, in my opinion, is this unwillingness to accept that KU is a good football team. I honestly think 8 wins is possible. I have no idea why in the world KU can’t beat Iowa State or TCU. I have no idea why KU can’t beat Texas, K-State, or Oklahoma St. And hey, who knows, maybe KU surprises us like they did last year against Oklahoma and Texas and picks one up on the road that nobody sees coming.

There was an account on Twitter that caught a ton of flack for saying that Matt Tait’s writing about KU football is overly pessimistic and lazy. I not only agree with him, I also think that it applies to the media around KU football broadly. Even some fans! Matt Tait famously said “1 win is more likely than 4, and 2 wins is more likely than 3.” Dear god what a bad take. Basing your entire analysis of this team and this season on the fact that KU has been bad since 2010 is just downright bad. Trust what you see.

I implore KU fans… “dare yourselves to be optimistic. Disenthrall yourselves from the notion that because KU has been bad over the last several years means they are bad now, and bound to return to their losing ways."

I look forward to hearing the talking heads ask next Monday, for the third week in a row, “is it time to take this KU team seriously now?”

KU beats Duke 45-17.

KU’s season point distribution (% of total):

• 3-pointers: 26.9% (ranked 292)
• 2-pointers: 61.0% (ranked 4)
• Free throws: 12.1% (ranked 364 - this is dead last)

Had a friend send this to me and I stared at it for 10 minutes like it was a modern art masterpiece (of terrible). This would have been bad in 1996. We cannot win this way.

@HighEliteMajor I’d just like to add to this. Has anyone listened to Sherron Collin’s interview on the Ain’t No Seats podcast? There’s a part where he talks about what it was like to play with Xavier Henry. Sherron struggled to make it “his” team even though he had clearly earned it: “I didn’t come back to win the Big 12; I came back to win a title. I wanted to be the first player to win 2 in their time at KU.”

Instead, they had to focus on getting Xavier his shots because he had to go the NBA. Because it wasn’t just about Xavier, it was about the direction recruiting was going and Self trying to send a message that, “you can be a OAD and play at Kansas.” There was also Xavier’s dad hanging around the team causing drama. Sherron said once when Xavier had a bad half, his dad chewed his ass in the tunnel. He came into the locker room with tears in his eyes. It all came home to roost against UNI.

That right there? That, my friends, is poison. An absolute cancer. Not saying all OADs bring that sort of drama, but that is the kind of thing you want to avoid altogether.

You think Devonte or Frank Mason’s parents pulled some shit like that? No, they were just happy to be there. THAT is what KU needs to go back to.

@BigBad I don’t know, man. To say that outlook is overly pessimistic is probably putting it mildly.

I honestly think this is maybe the most excited I’ve ever been about KU sports. Have you seen what KU’s volleyball team, women’s basketball, and KU baseball is doing? Not to mention the football program. How can you not absolutely love a guy like Devin Neal? Or Jason Bean? Guys that absolutely love KU. Devin Neal could easily make millions of dollars next year, but I will flat out bet you that he chooses to come back to KU because of how important he is to their success next season–when he will almost certainly become KU’s all time leading rusher.

I think a lot of that comes back to our athletic director, who may already be the best AD we’ve had in my lifetime. Travis Goff is from Kansas, a diehard KU fan, and is working on righting some of the wrongs of the past. Again, you are describing the passing of a bygone era that in a lot of ways is literally happening right in front of you.

If you want to be mad about these issues to the point where you walk away, that’s your prerogative. But you’ll be missing out. RCJH.

Ugh. I’ll never understand this question. You’d take a FF with a shot at the national title with any team. It doesn’t matter who it is. That’s why we play! This is Kansas! We play to win it all. I’ll never understand how this isn’t a no-brainer.

Perhaps the better question is, would you trade the whole streak for, let’s say, 2 more national titles? Sure there are some conference titles sprinkled in there, but certainly not 11 in a row. The answer should be unequivocally ‘yes.’ That makes KU a dynasty. that means 3 national titles in 10 years. THAT is success. THAT is so much more befitting our role in basketball history. Disenthrall yourself with the title streak. They’re all well and good, but if you want to talk about Self’s legacy, going 15-1 in-conference all so you can get run out of they gym by Northern Iowa as the number 1 overall seed is not flattering. Come on, guys.

This is not a new thing.

I’m sure there are plenty of examples of this, but two pretty dramatic instances that I can remember were in 2015 and in 2016.

The first was when we were coming off of years of having a dominant big man (Kaun, Jackson, Aldrich, Withey, T-Rob, Embiid), and in 2015 we just didn’t. We had a freshman who was showing immense promise and Self just wouldn’t give him a chance. He was FIXATED on playing Jamari Traylor and Landen Lucas over Cliff Alexander. Looking back at some of the box scores, it wasn’t just the eye test, Cliff was phenomenal. We would kill for that kind of production this season. Self stayed with Lucas and Traylor. Neither of which could score. Neither of which were greater rebounders. But they were in his circle of trust.

Come to think of it, Self did the same thing in 2017 with Cheik Diallo. He hardly ever played more than a few minutes here and there, while Landen Lucas got absolutely bodied by Jordan Bell from Oregon in the Elite 8. Bell had 8 blocks and 13 rebounds over Lucas in that game. It reminded me of Brady Morningstar in the Elite 8 against VCU (hey, another example!). Brady looked like a middle school boy playing amongst men. He didn’t belong on the same court.

The other major example I can think was the 2016 season. That was the year where yet again, we didn’t have a dominant post presence. But we did have some phenomenal shooters. THAT was our strength. But that went against Self’s basketball philosophy. This was the season where Self dropped his now infamous “fool’s gold” line about three pointers. It was maddening. Landen Lucas and Jamari Traylor were yet again our primary 5 men. They were the same players as the year before. I remember we lost at Iowa State and the fanbase was starting to get pissed about Self’s constant criticism of our three point shots. We kept trying to force it inside to a talentless big man. It was like banging your head against a brick wall. And yet, once Self dropped the criticism. Stopped benching guys for shooting threes…guess what? We won 17 games in a row, falling short to a great Villanova team that went on to win the title (I’m stilled pissed they were the two seed in our bracket that year–they were 33-5 for god’s sake…the same record as us!).

My point is, this is nothing new. Self has always been this way. I saw someone say this sort of attitude has probably cost KU a couple more titles. Holding more talented players back because of some BS circle of trust philosophy that plays guys like Brady Morningstar over guys like Elijah Johnson. Landen Lucas over Cheik Diallo. Jamari Traylor over Cliff Alexander. This shortcoming is becoming a flashing red light in this current era. It was one thing when Self was doing this knowing that he had another year or 2 to build some of these guys up. Not only can Self not break a guy down in their first year to build them back up in their second, third, or fourth year for fear that they might transfer, but he sure as hell can’t do it over the course of 6-8 months with a transfer rental.

I love Bill Self. There will certainly be a statue of him in front of the Fieldhouse one day. But I’m starting to get very worried that he can’t be successful in this current era. I hope I’m wrong. Keep in mind, that Dajuan and KJ are holdovers from seasons where the NCAA investigation greatly impacted recruiting. Maybe next year is the beginning of a new era in KU basketball. But the memories of the 2011, 2015, 2017 seasons loom large. Those were good KU teams whose ceilings were lowered dramatically by Self’s stubbornness. With KJ out the next two games, we’ll see if this team can get up off the mat, and if Self can adapt to the situation.

I hope this was as therapeutic for you guys reading this as it was for me writing it!

@dylans said in Ute came to the right place:

The pieces are there, the spark isn’t. That is on the players to find. You either want it or you don’t and some (most) don’t know the effort it takes - I sure didn’t put forth the effort in sports that I thought I did in hindsight. I quit when I got wore out or hurt instead of pushing thru like, not my, but my loved ones life depended upon it. I didn’t have the heart of a sports champion, I hope the team finds theirs.

I don’t want to start a fight on here, frankly I think this is just a really inefficient medium to have a conversation about this. But man…if you think Self doesn’t deserve a whole lot of the blame for this one, I just don’t know what to tell you. (IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT SAYING FIRE SELF)

The pieces very much are not there. Hunter Dickinson is slow and easy to exploit. He has a terrible attitude, is a bad defender, and a sloppy player. He relies entirely on his size (and I think HD is the least of our concerns).

AJ Storr was notoriously an inefficient player. He takes a million shots, which is the only reason he averaged the numbers he did. When you’re a coach with a notoriously quick hook for poor decisions, that’s an odd choice. He’s also switched schools every year since he was 15, so you know he’s probably a poor fit for a school that prides itself on playing for the name on the front instead of the back.

Dajuan is small, can’t shoot, can’t score, and frankly I think is an overrated defender. Did everyone forget what it was like to have a PG that could score? We went from having Miles, Chalmers, Robinson, Collins, Taylor, Mason, Graham, and Dotson. And now we have a guy that’s lucky to average 8 points.

I’m not gonna pick on KJ. It’s not his fault he’s in this situation, and I’m not gonna repeat what everyone has already said. But suffice it to say, he’s a problem. He’s undersized, he’s relied on way too much to play a position that he doesn’t fit. Think about the SF and PF guys we’ve had over the years, Wright, Arthur, T-Rob, Perry, Jackson, Ochai…we’re asking a guy for a lot who’s probably at best a defensive specialist (he’s not that great of a defender, largely because he can’t be at his size, at that position). That’s a steep drop off.

You could just as easily point to the rest of the team and say the same thing. Coit is Charley Moore essentially, undersized, bad fit. Griffen looks like his confidence is shot, and he hasn’t been what was advertised. Shak Moore is fine, but he can’t score. Mayo is fine, but he’s the second scoring option when he should probably be the fourth.

When you say the pieces are there, I couldn’t disagree more. They very much are not. You have 2 scoring options. That’s why we pass the ball so much and it looks like nobody wants to shoot. The roster doesn’t fit. Self was always great at breaking guys down over the course of multiple years, and building them up based on his philosophy. That’s not the situation anymore, you don’t have the time with these guys anymore, and I question whether Self can adapt. I hope he can. He’s the best coach in KU history. But he’s also human. He has an ego like anyone would in his situation. His assistants are largely his friends, I honestly don’t know what they provide. This very odd, very mismatched roster is on Self. It just is. The buck stops with him, and those other factors just exacerbate the problem.

Guys I can tell you, KU will lose every road game from here on out. They will lose at BYU on Tuesday, they will lose at Colorado, and we will get destroyed at Houston. Seriously, place a bet on it. I have! Betting on KU to lose on the road at this point is free money. We’ll probably lose at home to Arizona too.

Guys, things are bad. Bad, bad. You can try to equivocate and compare us to other programs, but we’re not other programs. You can’t have it both ways. Expectations come with the territory.

We are at a crossroads. I do think that a big part of this is the FBI investigation that killed our recruiting. KJ and Dajuan are part of that. They were consolation prizes at a time when we couldn’t get big names. Let’s be honest with ourselves, they would not be playing here otherwise. They are the types of players you throw onto a roster to round it out. Not guys who are multiyear starters, playing a ton of minutes.

The FBI stuff is over, maybe we’ll turn the corner in recruiting now. Peterson is the REAL DEAL. Him and Flory together could be special. You find a few Zeke Mayos to throw around them and we could have a special team. You lose either of those guys and…uh…we might need to have a serious conversation about Self. I genuinely don’t know. We will see.

Is this a serious question? UConn has as many national titles in 25 years as KU has in its entire history. Five of them were in the Bill Self era alone!

@dylans said in If Bill’s roster falls apart…:

Methinks some don’t remember what it was like under former coaches. The level of consistency Bill has had is unmatched.

This is a low-key hilarious take. Former coaches you say? Which one? Roy Williams? The HOF coach who left over 20 years ago? Ya, most people probably don’t remember that. Or did you mean Larry Brown? The other HOF coach who won a national championship at KU…who left almost 40 years ago. Or did you mean Ted Ownes…whose last season at KU was in 1983…over 40 years ago. Ya, most people probably don’t remember that…because it was a lifetime ago.

I don’t disagree with the take…but this is a pretty hilarious thing to say about a program that’s had, what, 8 coaches in its entire history.

@wissox said in Bounceback night What a sight:

get this thing rolling again.

Win on Saturday and I’ll say we’ve go this thing rolling again

Crazy to think how different this season would be if we could’ve avoided an epic collapse or two

@approxinfinity Ah. Seems like a good spot to post about KU’s women’s basketball coach…

I’ve flown out of that airport a million times. I lived in DC for several years, and it was not uncommon to see military aircraft flying up and down the Potomac. But I never saw or heard anything like that at night. Seems like a very bad idea to do military exercises at night in DCA’s flight pattern. Very tragic.

Not sure where else to post this, but had to get this out…I think we can go ahead and fire the women’s basketball coach. That guy is terrible, keeps getting good recruits, and failing miserably.

@Jhawk69 I don’t really know a lot about it, but from I could find it’s interesting that they imparted a bunch of agricultural techniques since Japan is one of the most inefficient agricultural producers in the world.

@Jhawk69 Yes I did! He was my advisor!

@Jhawk69 I studied Japanese and US history at KU. I basically got a degree in the history of World War 2. But I find pretty much anything from about 1840 on pretty interesting. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve been interested in political history. I was always into the military history side of WW2, but more recently I’ve started to enjoy more of what led up to it.