I like hating on K-State as much as the next guy but specifically looking to K-State to feel better that says a bit about how we feel about KU right now haha.
It is a good thing they are bad though because losing to them and MU in the same season would be depressing (*knock on wood)
He also likely gets more NIL money as a redshirt player vs recruit
@kjayhawks Agreed, and honestly am ready to forget the loss if it means the team is more motivated this weekend and hangs an extra 30 pts on them
Jaun it is kind of understandable, he doesn’t have the size/strength to bump a defender and still stay on balance to reliably finish his shot. Agreed it might help him a bit but I don’t know that we want to rely on those plays for offense.
KJ/Storr though, 100% need to be driving and getting to the line more though.
First road test of the season, looked a bit rough. Just have to see if the team can learn from it since we’ll have a lot tougher road games in conference play.
@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.
Yeah KJ has his offensive deficiencies, but man does he make up for them with the rest of his game. Also nice to see Griffen step up a bit in the 2nd half after really struggling in the 1st.
Only negative from the game was that Hunter, even outside of the ejection, was playing a sloppy. I know he was getting hacked, but can’t let that seep into your decision making. I remember one specific possession where he got swiped at at the top of the 3 pt line and you could tell he was rattled from it because he immediately tried to drive and back down his man which isn’t his game at all. When that didn’t work he settled for a 15 ft fade away contested jumper with probably 15 sec left on the shot clock. Freshman level play there.
@Texas-Hawk-10 yeah that sums it up well for Storr, he has the measurables to be in the NBA so if he was already a plus player that can positively contribute to a championship level roster in college, he would have been a 1st rd pick last year. Just letting him play free has been done before and it didn’t get him there. There can be things to knock Self on with his coaching, but his treatment of Storr/Remy is not it.
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.
Counter argument to this: if Bill lets the players get away with mistakes/sloppy play, he is telling both that player and the rest of the team that there aren’t consequences for bad plays. You also want to give the players feedback on these mistakes so that they don’t become habits. Typically the sooner you get this feedback, the more impactful it is from a learning standpoint. Maybe letting the play a little more free flow helps in the short term, but it is always going to be better if you do so with proper muscle memory/habits built up. Maybe that means some players take longer to gel, but seems like trading short term gains for long term growth to me.
@nuleafjhawk Flagg is almost 100% gone, he already is showing he won’t be a bust in college so would take a decent injury/regression to keep him out of being the #1 pick and even then should be a lock for top 5. I can’t remember the last time someone projected to go that high came back to school. Maybe marcus smart? But even he was a few tiers lower of a prospect compared to flagg.
A note about the defense, it feels like Self generally sticks to a simple man scheme early in the season. As the team gels, I would expect him to add in different looks especially on ball screen coverage. If Hunter is getting seriously cooked, I could even see Flory closing out some games as soon as Bill starts to trust him. Potentially even offense/defense substitution situations late in games.
@kjayhawks that’s putting a lot of stock into exhibition games with partial rosters to be making such surefire predictions. Lots of ball to be played still so lets enjoy the ride a little before putting this team in a box.
Know it was Washburn and they are undersized, but the rebounding percentages were pretty good. Not going to say that rebounding is a strength based off that, but also don’t see any cause for concern there yet.
Also would take it in a heartbeat if KJ is averaging 6 rebounds per 24 mins. That is roughly double his rate last season.
Yeah know it is just Washburn, but doesn’t look like the offense is going to be an issue this year at least. I only caught a portion of the game but seemed like anytime we could get KJ driving, good things happened. Wouldn’t be surprised if he averaged close to 5 assists this year
Those comments on Storr aren’t the end of the world, everyone knew that him taking bad shots and playing bad defense wasn’t going to improve the team. This confirms that Self is trying to improve his decision making and holding him accountable. Now its a toss up whether that will work or not, but is better to try and fully actualize his talent.
@drgnslayr yeah we don’t have McCullar on defense, but he really didn’t play healthy outside of the first half of the season (and we looked pretty good when he did).
My PTSD from last season is watching games at the end of the season when he didn’t play. It would be nice for the newcomers to get near McCullar’s level of defense, but we really just need them to be better than Timberlake/Furphy.
Feels like outside of that interview there has been nothing coming out about how the early practices are going this year, and that was basically just the Zeke was impressing and Storr needs to buy in. Anyone heard anything they care to share about how the other new pieces are looking?
Agreed with the consensus here, there is probably a negative trump lean but you don’t have to be a liberal to not like the guy. Even that is fairly isolated in the pol channel which you can mute if you want.
I don’t post much but have been around since the beginning and it feels mostly the same outside of jaybate who honestly was hit and miss for me anyway. HEM is another notable missing but he became quite antagonistic on his own so it wasn’t sad to see him go in the end.
Can definitely understand it for Ballo, his game is not likely to stick in the NBA and so wants to maximize his earning now. Similar to Hunter leaving Michigan, though Ballo didn’t have the same level of offers from contenders
@Texas-Hawk-10 while definitely not on his level, Griffen generally gets the “good” defender designation. We also won’t be playing Furphy/Timby/Elmarko at the 2/3 for 40 mins a game like we were at the end of the season, so even Storr should even be an improvement there.
@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.
Sucks but as a backup he shouldn’t be getting enough minutes to need the preseason conditioning at least. Just hope that being an upper classman helps to pick up the playbook/on court chemistry quickly
Would likely have Flory and him for 2025 then. Would love this just as it means getting back to Bill’s early years where he had a few years to coach up the bigs instead of the years with Cliff/Cheick where we see flashes, but not consistency.
What happened to T-Rob playing? (Just catching up that on these games so apologies if this has already been addressed)
I understand that the money is important but I think KU football gets lost in the SEC.
I’d agree that maybe 250-500 of those seats were not good seat, but I dont remember there being that many seats in the corners. I would bet there are some seats that aren’t too bad that are being lost. Now is a lose of ~500 okish seats a big deal? Probably not terribly so but it still stinks
@dylans said in So, Kansas Reinstated the Border War (for the Chiefs):
By that definition your grandpa’s elevator was a huge failure. No doubt he borrowed some money to build it, repaid the loan and successfully operated it for many years. However the money he accumulated came from the local community and so his success meant someone else local lost, therefore it was an economic failure under these terms. - a ridiculous statement that I believe in no way, but it seems to be your argument against the star bonds.
I don’t care to add to either side but lets keep a clear mind here and not argue in bad faith. Whatever hypothetical loan you are talking about would not have been paid back with taxes and can’t be compared to the star bonds.
Just sounds like a lot of politician grand standing. Would be fairly surprised to see a move when the Chiefs would have been happy with the $800m renovation. Chiefs are just trying to get leverage on the city for the next vote/MO proposal which probably would have passed already if it wasn’t weighted down by the royals stadium deal. Even if they have to drop the funding split to 50/50 to get it to pass, that would only be a $400 million cost for the chiefs vs the reported ~$550 relocation fees the the Chargers/rams are reported to be paying. Maybe the Chiefs wouldn’t have as big of a fee since they are staying in the same metro, but it hardly seems worth the hassle and negative publicity and I can see the league feeling this way too and not even approving it.
@rockchalkjayhawk still have mayo who will hopefully be able to make the P5 leap and be an decent backup PG. If not, then year we are back in the same boat.
It also probably means we are relying on some 10-15 mpg from one of Passmore/McDowell which could be ok, but that is likely a downgrade from Elmarko getting those minutes.
@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).
Yeah figured that might be the case! At least ROTC would still give some good life experience, so better than working a random summer job even if the military route doesn’t pan out
Know that the money would be impossible for the admin to pass up, just speaking for my viewing experience. Only good things from that prospective is that we would get to beat Missouri 3 to 4 times a year again and the kitties would be fuming about being left behind.
Was a chem so don’t know about aerospace specifics, but the most important thing I would suggest trying to do is get an internship over his sophomore to junior year summer (freshman to soph year summer even better). Doesn’t even have to be in the field he wants to go in, just something somewhat technical and it will give him a leg up on getting his choice of junior year internships which transitions into a good job. Study abroad programs over the summer are a decent substitute for internships since internships can sometimes be hard to get that early. High GPAs are nice, but typically just used as a cut off point so anything above a 3.5 usually doesn’t hold you back. Someone with a 3.5 and 2 years of summer experience looks a lot better than a 4.0 with not much else to show.
IDK how the ROTC program would affect this, as he might not be looking for private employment but would keep his options open in case he changes his mind down the road.
@rockchalkjayhawk I think Elmarko staying makes a lot of sense as long as he is ok with staying for 2 years. Probably getting more NiL at KU than most places, gets to learn under a great coach, and has no current competition for starting PG next year (and if that last point changes, he could always transfer next year)
Don’t mean to interrupt the shitting on kuballin, but was wondering if anyone had a program vibes update on if Kugel’s transfer will get worked out?
@wissox feel like there’s a small chance we take the wins leader back this year even without that happening
@approxinfinity seen around that griffen is rated as an above average defender. Can hope that going from Nate Oats to Bill improves that a bit more.
At least with having lineup depth, there is actually some motivation for the players to play D vs timbies getting to coast for 25 mins a game (Sorry for bringing up bad memories, just still can’t believe how much he played last year).
Another option could be he just got news that Elmarko is officially staying? Can seee him being skeptical he will see the floor much in that scenario.
Noticed Storr already transferred from St. Johns once. Is there a reason to think he wouldn’t have to sit out next year?
Vecenie is usually decent at ranking and think he does a transfer list with CJ Moore. It would be under a paywall though at the athletic though
@BeddieKU23 was this a solid he is 100% staying in or just a likely to stay in? Not that is changes much either way and don’t love hearing that.
May be taking some copium saying this, but there is still a small chance he will still return until it is more widely reported and even then he could get bad feedback and change his mind (i.e. Kev last year where he declared not expecting to come back).
@Texas-Hawk-10 Agreed, but idk if it is all that realistic for him to go from not shooting at all to being respectable. I feel like him improving his rebounding/defense and then putting high level shooters at the 2/3 will be the most likely scenario needed to get the most out of next years team.
I think the hesitancy is valid as the staff supposedly did have concerns about his athleticism, but seems like not enough to be a deal breaker. I agree with you for the most part and I personally wouldn’t expect him to become a starter, but think he can be a solid backup/secondary PG and spell Harris some mins without the offense suffering. If the only thing he does for the team is push elmarko to be better, I would slot this as a solid win.
Agreed, we’ve been burned a lot on 5 star bigs that aren’t ready yet. Plus I am skeptical about any non Joel freshman big playing defense up to Bill’s expectations for a starter
Fair, he seems like a solid addition all in all maybe just not the perfect solution to the roster. Generally agree with what you said about throwing numbers at it, we probably need improvements to come from multiple areas and it might be asking too much to fix the roster with one player (and risk them not living up to expectations a la Timberlake).
@BeddieKU23 I think I am missing on what gets you excited about Kobe Johnson. He seems like a worse version of McCullar (not necessarily a bad thing tbf). He does shoot the 3 a little although not particularly well, so maybe that helps with offensive spacing for Hunter if played over KJ. Is that what you are imagining? Would also be a significant upgrade to our current bench, but I don’t see how him at the 3 solves any of the roster issues.
@nuleafjhawk said in Bracket chat:
IMO there is nothing elite about this team. I’m leaving my crimson and blue goggles off for this one.
Before the injuries, this team was elite at passing and pretty good at 2 pt FG%. If they can get back to that and get just average from 3, there could be something brewing. I’m not expecting much, but prefer to have a little hope so I’m not rage watching the tournament.
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.
Yeah if Furphy is leaving it will be better to have a replacement already lined up than not though! Even then, Furphy could probably slot in anywhere from 2-4 so no reason they can’t play together if he does stay. Might be likey Bill could convince him to stay committed in that case? Not like a Hunter/Udeh situation where both can’t be on the court.