@benshawks08 100% agree and see what you are saying but doesn’t mean that them leaving can still be a positive for KU. Those are 2 programs that we would have a hard time beating out for B12 champions, so we now have a much better change of winning the B12 and making college playoffs which would have been otherwise unlikely.

I think people are getting a little too caught up in valuing how much money your program is making vs how much you are winning. I know more money means better player but I firmly believe the fan experience is better with a slightly worse quality team that competes for B12 titles than a better overall team playing to be middle of the pack/bottom feeders in the SEC.

Now if in 5-10 years down the line and KU is king of the B12 and then getting walloped in the playoffs every time we make it there (gonzaga type situation in basketball) I may change my mind, but this team has a long way to go before getting there and I doubt anyone is seriously complaining if that is were the program is at.

I will never really fault coach for not giving a player a guarantee they will start. Sell in a role for them, yes. Say we have a spot that is theirs for the taking, sure. But if a someone thinks that they don’t need to perform day in and out to get minutes, than they are going to cause problems for the program eventually.

To go one further, KU was also the better team in the OSU game. This team was a few plays away from being 11-1 and sitting one game away from playoff football. That hurts a bit but also goes to show this is one of the greatest program turnarounds in football history.

You raise a good point with UT/OU leaving there is going to be a power vacuum in football. If Lance hangs around long enough, we have as good of a chance as any to fill that void.

@rockchalkjayhawk Griffen was already a better defender last year than Furph under an offensive minded coach, so would be a surprise if he ends up worse.

McCullar is a big loss on defense no doubt and that probably makes us worse, but I feel like the defense we all remember from last year was when he was injured. Slotting timbies in for the SG comparison and I find it hard to believe Storr will be a downgrade. Add that to hopefully the rest of the bench giving better defensive contributions and I think a top 10 defensive even isn’t a pipe dream.

I’ll back up my optimistic thinking by sharing that barttorvik 2025 prediction has us as the #4 defense (not that I put too much stock into that).

https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php?sort=AdjDE&conlimit=

An update to @Texas-Hawk-10 old post on the history of the matchup:

Kansas and Duke have played 14 times all time. Duke leads the all time series with Kansas 8-6 with 12 of the 14 games being played on a neutral and each time only visiting the other once apiece. Kansas and Duke are tied 3-3 against each other in the NCAA Tournament and Kansas leads Duke 3-1 in the Champions Classic. Self is 4-2 vs Duke while at Kansas.

Dec. 1, 1985- Preseason NIT in New York: (3)Duke 92, (5)Kansas 86 (1-0 Duke)

Mar. 29, 1986- Final Four in Dallas: (1) Duke 71, (2) Kansas 67 (2-0 Duke)

Feb. 20, 1988- Allen Fieldhouse: (6) Duke 74, Kansas 70 OT (3-0 Duke)

Apr. 2, 1988- Final Four in Kansas City: Kansas 66, (5) Duke 59 (3-1 Duke)

Feb. 18, 1989- Cameron Indoor: (11) Duke 102, Kansas 77 (4-1 Duke)

Apr. 1, 1991- National Championship in Indianapolis: (6) Duke 72, (12) Kansas 65 (5-1 Duke)

Mar. 19, 2000- NCAA Tournament 2nd Round in Winston-Salem: (1) Duke 69, Kansas 64 (6-1 Duke)

Mar. 27, 2003- NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in Anaheim: (6) Kansas 69, (7)Duke 65 (6-2 Duke)

Nov. 23, 2011- Maui Invitational Finals: (6)Duke 68, (14) Kansas 61 (7-2 Duke)

Nov. 12, 2013- Champions Classic in Chicago: (5)Kansas 94, (4)Duke 83 (7-3 Duke)

Nov. 15, 2016- Champions Classic in New York: (7)Kansas 77, (1) Duke 75 (7-4 Duke)

Mar. 25, 2018- NCAA Tournament Elite 8 in Omaha: (4)Kansas 85, (9)Duke 81 OT (7-5 Duke)

Nov. 6, 2019- Champions Classic in New York: (4)Duke 68, (3) Kansas 66 (8-5 Duke)

Nov. 15, 2022- Champions Classic in Indianapolis: (6) Kansas 69, (7) Duke 64 (8-6 Duke)

Based on predictive sites, the line for the game should be around Duke -2/-3. Will be KU’s first game of the season where they aren’t favored, so excited to see how the team reacts.

@BShark too many regular season NBA games to be a good product is the main problem. Players take off games since playoff seeding can be a crap shoot, so really just playing for home court advantage which isn’t as important as players being healthy.

I generally agree with your sentiment but we have to check our biases with this. A neutral observer could watch a random NBA game vs a random college basketball game and I bet most would say the NBA game is more entertaining. College ball just has better intangibles and better tourney format which puts it over the top for me, but we are also usually watching a top 10 team play. I don’t know that I would say the same thing if I grew up in Boston a Celtics fan who went to a non basketball power college.

Kind of a leap to get that from what I said, we already dropped a home game and Houston doesn’t have to play at ISU, so winning the regular season B12 is not likely no. But I also don’t think it would be a massive upset if they did (~10% chance based on betting odds does seem about right).

I didn’t even say they will for sure be good enough to compete for a F4, just that is won’t take miracle for this team to improve to that level. They have shown they can hit that level of play in spurts, but do need some improvements in execution/consistency.

Honestly the main thing I worry about with this team is facing a team that can exploit Hunter on defense, because that is always going to be there.

@dylans man Greene definitely on my top 5 what could have been KU players list. Had the stroke and height to be one of the greatest spot up 3pt shooters of all time but couldn’t do anything else even to an average level to stay on the court.

Feel like with a Jaun/Shak/KJ/FB/HD lineup no one scores on either end

Yeah unless there are major rumblings about a player being unhappy, I’m not going to put too much stock in speculation of who is gone and who is back. Every comment here over the offseason was that Jamari was going to be gone and he is still with the team.

Get Darrion and KU might be preseason #1 again lol, but sounded like BYU money is on the table for him so I’m not holding my breath

Edit: reread your post and may have missed what you are saying. KU is involved or signs pointing to him heading back to Tech now over BYU?

Always a little hesitant about expecting much from a reclass prospect in 1 year, but just saw it work out for Flagg and Stokes is rated just a small tier below that as a recruit.

Definitely sounds like a ceiling raiser though and makes this a pretty complete team with top tier talent/athleticism at the each of the G/W/C positions. Not going to say no to riding with that.

@dylans haha not that there should be risk in using it, but I’m pretty sure it does not qualify as legal

@BeddieKU23 said in The portal.:

If he was healthy there would be more to talk about with him. Unfortunately, he came to KU early from the HS ranks still recovering from a major ankle injury, never got cleared during the semester and now has had surgery recently which is going to put him out another few months. So, we are talking about a player that has missed now at least 1 full calendar year of playing basketball and will be out until early summer. I think it’s just wise to say until he can actually play that nobody has any idea, not even the coaches. You’d hope he could be a serviceable 3rd/4th big next season but even that seems like a stretch. I’m not sure he’ll be a focus for the upcoming year. TBD I guess.

Yeah fair assessment and very well could be the case. Even if Tiller is the 2nd big on the roster I can see wanting to have a good rotation option behind him as Flory can be foul prone and don’t want to be left with just relying on Tiller.

I am hoping a backup 5 role is a reasonable expectation for him though so it allows us to put energy/NIL on shoring up our wing position over using a big chunk of that on a 3rd big.

@SlimShaddy54 does Tiller not qualify as a 2nd quality big? Know he is a freshman but seems like he could be a serviceable backup 5. Granted I don’t know much about his game but his scouting reports all sound like a better fit for the 5 over a 4.

@drgnslayr I have a suspicion that Self always makes the we don’t practice zone comment to the media so opps don’t prep for it and he can pull it out in must win games to switch things up. Not that I think they practice it a lot, but I bet he runs zone scenarios before games he thinks he can use it.

@BShark IDK if this is included in that 3 million but honestly assumed most of his NIL money was coming directly from Adidas with them nudging him to KU.

Feel like Flory needs to be watching tape of the Houston bigs cause he can be a monster on the offensive glass too

@drgnslayr A stretch big at the 5 is a little overrated IMO. Can be nice to have but I’d rather play a center that can set a good screen and get downhill off a P&R to pressure the rim.

@BeddieKU23 said in The portal.:

We’ve been recruiting Nigel Pack, Kyan Evans and Rodney Rice so far. Any of the trio would help. There are a few other prospects I like in the portal but best to stick with what KU has been linked with. Seems we are clearly hunting a ball handler with playmaking ability.

Does anyone know how Elmarko has been looking lately since he was supposed to be close to fully recovered by end of March? Not that I think we should stop at 2 options for ball handling, but it would make me less nervous about getting a starter level player at this position if he is back with a full offseason for improvement.