I think Pop is going to be pushing hard for Becky Hammon to take over and get her shot at making history. If I had to put money on it, that’s the direction I think the organization will go. And I don’t think HCBS would leave in the middle of the NCAA investigation. Just doesn’t seem like something he would do.

I’m with D’tae on this one. Yes, HCBS and Long have to say all the right things, but that doesn’t mean KU fans have to be “embarrassed” or ashamed. That’s freakin’ lame.

The punk who stole the ball had it coming from Silvio to volleyball spike his layup attempt. And yes, Silvio deserved a technical for standing over him. That stuff happens every night at all levels of basketball.

And then Silvio was trying to get back on the court when he was assaulted by the crazy KSU bench player in warmups. That dude rushed Silvio and attacked him (wearing glasses no less!! :-D). Silvio was forced to defend himself. Unfortunately, the crazy bench player took the action into the seats behind the basket.

In my opinion, the ONLY thing Silvio did wrong was pick up the chair, which he dropped on his own back once he figured out it was not a good idea. No one took it away from him, as the East coast media on ESPN reported. Jerrance Howard was in the immediate vicinity, but he didn’t pull it from Silvio.

I think Silvio should get five games suspension, max. And that’s it. IF anything else, maybe McCormick gets one game.

Silvio just let his anger get the best of him after being punked twice by two different wildcats. Yes, in hindsight, he no doubt wishes he walked away after power-blocking the guys layup. I totally understand why Self said the things he did in post-game, but I actually think Squeaky’s presser was more appropriate.

@DoubleDD Mueller is just letting Donald stew in his own juices for a while. It’s the best way to keep him in check for now. Mueller knows fully well that it takes 2/3 senate vote to get him completely out. Trump’s striving for full dictatorship. If he were to win the 2020 election, top of his agenda will likely be a constitutional amendment to remove term limits for POTUS. Mueller knows what he’s doing in this situation.
And ironically, the longer Trump stays in office without getting an impeachment, the more it hurts the Republican party. If Donald goes all the way through this four years, the blue wave in 2020 will look like a tsunami compared to the one we just witnessed for the midterm. Republicans need him out of there asap, but they are too intimidated by him to stand up for themselves. Classic budding dictatorship scenario.

I watched most of the Kings/76ers game last night. The Kings were behind by double digits, then Frank came in and dominated the game as the point guard. Dished, lifted his teammates, and also scored a career high of 16. No way the Kings win that game without him. He has some kind of torso injury because he was wrapped and in warmups toward the end of the game. Otherwise, he is their closer and would’ve been in there for the last 5 minutes or so. Funny, I was watching ESPN Sportscenter this morning just to see what they said about the game, because I couldn’t hear the announcers at the sports bar where I was watching, but Frank was constantly in the camera and was no doubt getting compliments from the announcers. But the “highlights” on ESPN didn’t say a word about Frank or show his killer plays. Once again, ESPN was clueless and missing the summarizing that game. Very disappointing ESPN. Frank was a freaking stud out there and toyed with Philly’s guards. And it’s obvious that the King’s bigs love and prefer to play with Frank at the point. Fun to watch!

We need a good quality leaker ala White House staffer to get us some info on what is going on in practice! Did Whitman break Lightfoots nose? Did Dedric throw a punch at Dok? I can’t believe the LJWorld staff can’t find out what’s going on in practice. C’mon Keegs and Tait, get the scoop on Slug-gate!

Looks like Billy Preston stands a good chance to win the starting 4 spot. After the game, Townsend had nice comments for Garrett. He did look good, particularly on defense.

@DanR Dotson totally crushed it in Hawaii and ever since he has been out of sorts (from a leadership standpoint). Remember he and Doke won co-MVP for the tournament. I was in Hawaii for the Maui Invitational, and it was interesting after the game that Doke grabbed the MVP trophy and wouldn’t let Devon have his time with it during the celebration after the game. Dotson made a comment, something like “Doke can have this one”, seemingly conceding the trophy to him because he couldn’t get it back from him anyway.

I’m wondering if that has caused a riff between the two of them. Another thing that has me wondering is I read an article a couple of days ago saying that Dotson hasn’t given Doke a lob since the Colorado game, and that was only one lob, I think.

Maybe there’s nothing to this, but Dotson’s attitude lately is reason for concern. He’s been pretty emotional on the floor too towards other players and the refs. Being verbal towards other players can be a good thing if done from the right perspective, but I’m not so sure Dotson has that nailed down. I also wonder if Doke is becoming the leader of this team now. Agbaji is not taking that on, Dotson is struggling to do it, Garrett is the quiet glue-guy. Maybe Braun will step up? mostly kidding

@FarmerJayhawk Amen to that! Eff Dick Vitale and others on ESPN.

@HighEliteMajor You make Bill Self’s case by stating “It would highly energize our fan base.” That fact doesn’t matter because we already have a highly energetic fan base that sells out every game and travels all over the place to watch the Jayhawks play. I was in Maui for the three games there and KU must’ve held 80% of the tickets for each of the three games. I thought surely BYU, who has a campus on Oahu, would snatch up their fair share of tickets… nope. Jayhawk fans muscled their way in and bought them up, got on a plane, and showed up at the games.

Economically, there is no benefit to playing WSU. It’s not going to create more donor funds or get existing donors to give more than they already are.

HCBS is doing such a good job of filling AFH and winning, that until that changes, he’s right in saying that we don’t benefit from playing WSU. If there was some recruiting benefit, maybe, but there just isn’t.

Marcus Garrett had 5 assists in 6 minutes last night! That dudes playing time has got to be on the rise. I didn’t see the game, but if anyone did, please report on how he did. Hopefully it wasn’t all garbage time because of being a pre-season game.

Hopefully Ramsey Nijem gets Cam absolutely ripped for next year. If so, he would be a beast down low with also being able to shoot the three. I’d bet we will see quite a transformation in Cam’s physique by Spring.

As of 4:45pm Monday, Vegas has MSU winning by 4

@Marco Yeah, good points. It’s my perception that Self can often times over-coach guys on what a “good shot” is, i.e., don’t take that three-pointer until the end of the shot clock, and only if your toes are just behind the line, etc., such that I think it can get in a guys head and reduce his three point percentage. We’ll see once the season gets rolling if Cam remains a good 3 point shooter and if he feels like he can shoot at will, or if he goes cold and turns down open looks early in the shot clock. I’m hoping he endures Self’s coaching with regard to his shooting. Rock Chalk!

Coach Self might start players because of seniority and loyalty, but my “crunch time” 5 would be:

Remy (for swag and offense) Yesufu (for passing and defense) Agbaji (for solid defense and 3 point shooting during high pressure situations) J-Dub (for rebounding and defense - not shooting) Big Dave (for offensive versatility and rebounding)

Honorable mention CB: CB tends to underperform in big games against tall athletes. He’s gets his rebounds, but that shouldn’t be his game. He needs to have more swag and be reliable at knocking down big shots in big games. I think his crunch-time minutes need to go elsewhere because he is now an upperclassman and he hasn’t shown the ability to perform come tournament time.

Honorable mention Harris: I love Harris’ game, being so smooth and crafty, but unless he can prove himself during the season that he can be reliable in March, then those crunch-time minutes need to go to Yesufu. Yesufu has already proven himself in March and shown he has the fortitude to handle the pressure of the NCAA tournament.

Honorable mention Martin: Martin is intriguing but it remains to be seen if Coach Self will be able to tolerate a big man shooting threes. It’s something he has never really embraced and over the years has made snide remarks about KU bigs that want to step out beyond the arc. I just don’t see Coach Self changing his colors unless he’s the only one with the hot hand in crunch-time and we had to go with him. Plus, I think Coach Self will inadvertently over-coach the shot right out of Martin.

Marcus Garrett had 5 assists in 6 minutes last night! That dudes playing time has got to be on the rise. I didn’t see the game, but if anyone did, please report on how he did. Hopefully it wasn’t all garbage time because of being a pre-season game.

@tis4tim Well said. The last couple of teams have been soft and individual players have disappeared when the going got tough (Braun, Wilson, even Agbaji at times, and Big Dave when he was up against big and athletic power forwards).

This year’s team should have plenty of suitable backups. I think an earlier post said that if anybody gets an attitude (or goes soft) they will be sitting on the bench. If that doesn’t motivate some of these incumbent players with NBA aspirations, nothing will.

I can’t wait to see this team play. And I’ll be disappointed if the roster is the same as last year with just a replacement for Garrett. Let’s see these new guys earn and take some minutes!

Isn’t there a mole living under the Allen Fieldhouse bleachers (picturing Gollum from Lord of the Rings) that can report on what’s going on at practice this week? C’mon Tait, this is your chance to bring us a real story about KU basketball. Or a perfect opportunity for Tom Keegan to make a reappearance to AFH.

@Kcmatt7 Good point Matt. I think Harris can actually shoot, he just doesn’t because he’s trying to carve out minutes as a point guard. I think he’s something like 3 for 5 from 3. He also has a good floater.

Garrett can be a much more effective scorer in the 3 role. I think Self needs to tell Harris and Garrett specifically what their roles are… “Harris, you are the point and I want you to bring the ball up the court every time if possible.”

I think our biggest problem now is role confusion. Once that it defined, scoring will come more easily for these guys. My two cents anyway…

@Kcmatt7 That lineup would be awesome to see!! That’s some serious height! Why not, let’s see how they do.

I’d love to be sitting in the bleachers for practice this week and see who’s taking Self’s comments seriously. There might be an injury or two in practice this week.

@BeddieKU23 I like that starting 5! It’s interesting to get opinions from other people’s perspective. Like you, I think my list would differ from Self’s, but here it is…

Starters: 1 Harris, 2 Agbaji, 3 Garrett, 4 Lightfoot, 5 McCormick

Order off the bench: 5 Wilson, 4 Enaruna, 2 Braun

Closing minutes in a tight game: 1 Harris, 2 Agbaji, 3 Garrett, 4 Wilson, 5 Lightfoot (Harris only if he’s handling pressure well with ball handling, and Lightfoot only if he is stout on D, otherwise swap for Enaruna)