@truehawk93 KU doesn’t have to be the best team in the tournament, just the better team on floor 6 times.

@loyolstud88 Blue blood killer is cute, come back when you beat one.

@Kcmatt7 Self knows exactly how to coach young guards. They just don’t become finished products right away. Mason and Graham each took until their third years to become elite guards.

KU and Beaty need to do everything in their power to keep Tony Hull because as long as he’s at KU, that pipeline KU now has into New Orleans is going to stay open until for KU until Hull is no longer here. Louisiana is just an entirely different culture from the rest of the country and these guys aren’t joking about the family atmosphere having a huge influence on their decisions. I know @wissox and anyone else including myself who have spent a significant portion of time in Louisiana will 100% back up this claim about the loyalty of Louisiana people being accurate and Hull has the loyalty of HS coaches and players all over the New Orleans area specifically.

Landing Tyriek Starks was the beginning. The connection with Hull was made during this recruitment because Starks played at Warren Easton under Hull. Reggie Mitchell then leaves for Arkansas and KU has a need for a new RB coach. Beaty takes a calculated risk by bringing in Hull in an attempt to get some players out of Louisiana. Almost immediately, Hull gets commitments from Mike Lee and Malik Clark (Clark is also from Warren Easton) and then gets Lee to enroll a year early at KU. In his 1st year, Hull also lands Travis Jordan and Takulve Williams both from the New Orleans area as well. In a little over a year on the job, Hull brings in 4 Louisiana players, one of whom gets a chance to play early. Getting players from Louisiana to visit KU is a big enough deal which hiring Hull allowed KU to at least talk to players in Louisiana. Seeing Mike Lee emerge on the scene however is a game changer for KU in Louisiana. Without the success Mike Lee had last year, KU does not land any of the Louisiana recruits that committed yesterday, at least not early like they did. They probably go home and tell their younger teammates about how nice KU is and that keeps the line of communication open with Louisiana prospects for Tony Hull. Lee’s success is a game changer because it shows these kids that they can come in and be successful very early on at KU instead of having to sit and wait behind other 4 and 5 star guys at LSU.

If Daylon Charlot comes in and has early success and if Tyriek Starks wins the QB job, the floodgates will be fully open for KU to talk to any recruit in Louisiana they want to and to have a legitimate chance to sign those players as well.

What KU did yesterday in getting commitments from Jason and Harris (3rd and 4th best players in Louisiana with offers from LSU, Alabama, and basically everybody in the SEC) is something that has definitely caught a lot of people off guard including everyone who follows KU football. We knew Hull would allow KU to talk to some players out of Louisiana, but to actually land commitments from players the caliber of Jason and Harris is something I don’t even think Tony Hull thought was possible at this stage in the game.

Don’t be surprised to see KU land possibly 3, maybe even more recruits out of Louisiana this year. Warren Easton has a couple of 3 star prospects who we know Hull has a relationship with and there’s a DE out of Baton Rouge that KU is the favorite to land.

Man who run behind car get exhausted

Man who walk through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok

Man who eat many prunes get good run for money

Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cathouse

These are just for you @jaybate-1.0

TCU is significantly better than any 16 seed KU will face. Whatever league KU’s 16 seed comes out of, TCU is good enough to go undefeated in that league.

Lightfoot is also playing way out of position as well. He’s being forced into being a low post player on both ends of the floor when he’s never had that role before. The guy is a stretch 4 and is being exploited in major mismatches because he’s never guarded the position before.

Clay Young has been better on the defensive end because he was a post at his JuCo even at his size. He understands the role and what’s required of the role much better than Lightfoot does.

I’m not going to rip in Lightfoot for this because none of it is his fault. He didn’t make Coleby transfer, he didn’t make Whitman transfer, he didn’t make Preston sit out because of a car. We all know Lightfoot isn’t ready for this role, but he’s the only option at this point.

This situation is why Self is trying to get DeSousa enrolled early and it’s why Sosinski was added to the team. KU needs to work on developing Sosinski over the next 3 weeks which KU only has 3 games during that stretch. Work him into the rotation this week, let him make his debut against Nebraska, give him some big minutes against Omaha as a trial run, and if that goes well, let him sub for Azubuike against Stanford and see how that goes before Texas on the 29th.

If the Preston situation gets resolved in a positive manner by that time, then swap Sosinski out for Preston. Either way, KU needs to find a way to get Lightfoot back to the stretch 4 spot because him as a low post player doesn’t work.

Graham absolutely willed this team to victory in the second half today. Really didn’t think this would happen about a month ago.

@Gorilla72 West Virginia is 8-9 this season. They are really bad team this year and they’re going to be without Konate again I believe so they won’t have any rim protection. This is Huggy’s worst team in a long time.

It’ll end up being Dotson eventually. His issue though is that he doesn’t have anyone to teach him how to be a leader at this level. That was also why Mason and Graham struggled early on as well.

When Self got here, he already had Aaron Miles who learned how to lead from Hinrich. Russell Robinson came in and learned from Miles how to be the leader. Robinson in turned showed Sherron Collins the ropes who then mentored Tyshawn Taylor. This is where the breakdown in that line happened. In 2010, KU landed Josh Selby and Royce Woolridge. Selby obviously had his issues and should’ve stayed another season at least. Woolridge was always a project player and never panned out. Woolridge was likely supposed to take the reigns from Taylor after the 2011-2012 season as either a junior or RS sophomore.

The 2011 class was a disaster because Self for whatever reason never had a plan for the Morris twins leaving early even though it wasn’t much of a secret that was a possibility. Still Self landed Naadir Tharpe out of that class after it became apparent Woolridge was never going to develop and Tharpe was supposed to be next after Taylor at the point. The transition from Taylor to Tharpe is where the line of PG’s at KU was broken because of Tharpe’s issues.

In 2012, KU didn’t land a PG and 2013 is when KU landed Mason who spent one year under Thapre who wasn’t a leader in any capacity and KU lost 10 games that year despite having Wiggins, Embiid, and Selden as well.

When Mason took over as a sophomore with Graham as a freshman, that’s when KU had was really hurt because Mason and Graham were having to learn for themselves how to lead a high level college basketball because they didn’t have anyone to mentor them. Mason was under Tharpe for a season, but when the guy who’s supposed to show you how to be a leader gets kicked off the team, Mason didn’t have anyone to teach him.

The 2015 class ended up a disaster with Diallo and Bragg not making it past year 2 (or 1 in Diallo’s case) along with Vick who might go down as the biggest disappointment among 4 players under Self along with Elijah Johnson (I don’t share you opinion on EJ and never will).

As Mason and Graham keep learning and getting better, there should’ve been another PG in either the 2016 or 2017 class to develop and take the reigns after Graham left in 2018, but it didn’t happen so Self had to get what he could which led to bringing in Charlie Moore in 2017 as a transfer and hoping he could land PG 2018 to develop. Obviously, Self landed Dotson in 2018 who’s the highest rated PG Self has landed since Sherron Collins and looks like he’ll be a great PG one day and already is the best freshman PG KU has had since Collins.

The problem though is Dotson doesn’t have a mentor to show him how to take control of his team. Dotson is learning on the job how to lead his team and there will be bumps along the way. KU lost 9 games in Mason’s first year as a starter. This group has 3 wins over current top 15 teams all on neutral courts so the potential is definitely there whenever the light comes on.

Hopefully this core comes back in tact next season and gets 3 years together because I could see a lineup in 2020-2021 of Dotson, Grimes, Agbaji, Garrett, and McCormack being a serious title threat. It’s also not unreasonable or unrealistic to see that line up in a couple of seasons with 4 juniors and a senior in the starting line up.

This group has huge upside, they just have to go through the same growing pains Mason and Graham and that group had to go through because there isn’t anyone to show this group how to lead. Hopefully Self lands another top level PG in the 2020 class that can sit behind Dotson for a tear and learn under a junior Dotson before taking over in either 2021 or 2022.

@wissox said in Games on tv:

Since I was in the dome in 2012, I’ve never seen the game so I’m watching it right now. Still amazed I got to attend a NC game, but at 50 bucks a ticket, it was hard to pass up. That Kentucky team was so good even Cal couldn’t screw it up and won his NC.

It’s still amazing to me how Self’s least talented team by far, Connor Teahan, Kevin Young, and Justin Wesley was bench, made it to the national title game that year. That season was by far Self’s best coaching job.

Right now, ESPN is showing Kobe’s final game against the Jazz. This game featured a pair of Jayhawks with Tarik Black for the Lakers and Jeff Withey for the Jazz.

Not a KU game, but involves a KU legend. 5pm Central today, ESPN is showing game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals so you can watch Paul Pierce win his only NBA Championship while earning MVP honors for the series.

ESPN is showing this game to honor Kevin Garnett’s HOF induction which was announced today along with Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant. ESPN will be showing other great games from Kobe and Duncan on ESPN throughout the day today for those interested.

@nwhawkfan said in Games on tv:

Later the ref who made the call said it was so close on the line that if Jo Jo had worn different color sneakers he might have called the shot good.

My main gripe with the movie (like every Disney sports movie) is that they’re so busy trying to create a feel-good atmosphere that they can’t get the details right. Like the mention of “Division I basketball,” a term that didn’t exist back then. And KU playing in white-and-red uniforms?

Very little about that movie is historically accurate. At least 90% of the details in based on true story movies are made up.

These are the three most egregious errors about the team specifically that the movie ignores. Don Haskins got hired by Texas Western in 1961. Texas Western had already broken their color barrier before awhile before Haskins ever set foot in El Paso. There were already 3 black players on the TW roster when Haskins was hired including Nolan Richardson.

Second egregious error to me was that all of the black players recruited after Haskins were in the same recruiting class. Some were, but not all of them. Harry Flournoy and Orsten Artis were seniors, Bobby Joe Hill and Neville She’d were juniors, and Willie Cager, David Lattin, and Willie Worsley were sophomores. This was still at a time when freshmen weren’t allowed to played on the varsity team so none of those players were actually freshmen.

Third egregious error. Portraying TW as a school coming out of nowhere to win the title. That team was a title contender 2 years prior in 1964 and an NIT team in 1965 when the NIT was still a loaded tournament and TW was a top 10 team for a big chunk of the 1965-66 season.

There’s plenty of other fabrication in the movie, but those are the 3 biggest ones to me. It’s a good movie, but twisting reality is not a problem unique to Disney when making a “based on a true story” or sports movie.

Friday Night Lights was not a Disney movie and there’s almost nothing about that movie that was historically accurate.

@drgnslayr said in 2020-21 Season: Will it happen?:

What are your thoughts on the coming season. Will it happen? I have my doubts. I think the only way it can happen is if we either come up with an effective vaccine or an effective treatment to reduce to death count. Please… if someone has some positive light… shine it here!

I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s delayed or cancelled at this point. Singapore which was on top of this before just about anyone else and was to the point of easing restrictions has had to go back in quarantine and social distancing.

Until there’s an effective treatment, vaccine on the market, or we know more about re-infection rates, stuff is going to keep getting pushed back.

@bmensch1 said in Best College Player to Wear Each Jersey Number:

Doug McDermott over Iverson…or Chris Paul???

Bob Lanier over Wes Unseld or Reggie Miller???

and one of the top 3 basketball players of all time is bill russell with his number 6.

This list is COLLEGE ONLY. They did not include any number that ended in 6-9 so that’s why Russell is nowhere to be found and I have him 6th on my list. This list is also ONLY college years, not professional. McDermott played all 4 years while Iverson and Paul only played 2 years of college basketball. Speaking specifically on college careers, McDermott had better college career than Iverson or Paul. Their NBA careers are obviously a different story.

@drgnslayr said in Best College Player to Wear Each Jersey Number:

@Texas-Hawk-10

Wow… Pete Maravich over Michael Jordan!

This is college only, MJ was a really good player at UNC, but he wasn’t MJ yet. Pistol Pete averaged 44.2 ppg for his college career. Is still the NCAA all time leading scorer by over 400 points and has the 1st, 4th, and 5th most total points in a single season. Just imagine how far out of reach that record would be if freshmen were allowed to play back then, he’d be pushing 5,000 career points.

MJ obviously had the better teams and better NBA career, but Pete Maravich is a top 5 all time college basketball player and MJ isn’t. My top 5 college players would be Walton, Alcindor, Chamberlain, Robertson, and Maravich in that order.

Here’s all their choices for each number.

0: Frank Mason (Kansas)

00: Tony Delk (Kentucky)

1: Jalen Brunson (Villanova)

2: Russ Smith (Louisville)

3: Doug McDermott (Creighton)

4: Larry Johnson (UNLV)

5: Jason Kidd (Cal)

10: Otis Birdsong (Houston)

11: Jerry Lucas (Ohio State)

12: Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati)

13: Wilt Chamberlain (Kansas)

14: Johnny Neumann (Ole Miss)

15: Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse)

20: Chris Mullin (St. John’s)

21: Tim Duncan (Wake Forest)

22: Elgin Baylor (Seattle)

23: Pete Maravich (LSU)

24: Rick Berry (Miami)

25: Danny Manning (Kansas)

30: Stephen Curry (Davidson)

31: Bob Lanier (St. Bonaventure)

32: Bill Walton (UCLA)

33: Lew Alcindor (UCLA)

34: Austin Care (Notre Dame)

35: Kevin Durant (Texas)

40: Calbert Cheaney (Indiana)

41: Glen Rice (Michigan)

42: Bill Bradley (Princeton)

43: Mychal Thompson (Minnesota)

44: David Thompson (NC State)

45: Raef LaFrentz (Kansas)

50: Ralph Sampson (Virginia)

51: Michael Doleac (Utah)

52: James Worthy (North Carolina)

53: Artis Gilmore (Jacksonville)

54: Marques Johnson (UCLA)

55: Dikembe Mutumbo (Georgetown)

The Athletic did a cool story where some of their writers picked the best college basketball player wear each jersey number was. The limited their decisions to players who played post WWII and only jerseys that end in the numbers 0-5 so there was no Bill Russell since he wore 6. KU actually had the most players as the best to wear a specific number with 4 players. They also did an honorable mention for each number as well. Frank Mason was their choice for 0, Wilt for 13, Danny for 25, and LaFrentz was the pick for 45.

Other KU players that were honorable mentions were Thomas Robinson and Drew Gooden for 0. Nick Collision for 4 and Paul Pierce for 34.

The number 4 was one of the most stacked numbers as evidenced by Sherron and Devonte not even being honorable mention. Their choice for the best 4 in college history was Larry Johnson while the honorable mention players were JJ Redick, Chris Webber, Kenyon Martin, Andrew Bogut, and Victor Oladipo along with Collision. I can’t even really argue against Sherron and Devonte being excluded because all of those players were NPOY’s during their careers.

As for 34, they went with Austin Carr which I can’t argue against.

They also didn’t do a specific spot for 00 but mentioned it with the 0 group. Darrell Arthur and Greg Ostertag. KU would have a pretty formidable line up with just the players to wear 0 or 00 in the last 25 years. Their choice for the best 00 was Tony Delk.

A couple of numbers I disagreed with was 15 where they picked Carmelo Anthony. I would’ve gone with Kemba Walker for that one. The other one with a lot of debate was 35 where they picked Kevin Durant over Danny Ferry and Chris Jackson. I would probably go Ferry, Jackson, Durant for that number.

Most of the debates were actually over the honorable mention players not included which I was surprised Derrick Coleman wasn’t even honorable mention for 44. A lot of people had issue with that oversight.

It’s an interesting read if you have the subscription to the Athletic.

@kjayhawks said in Trouble:

@Texas-Hawk-10 so Beaty sucks a little a bit less, a loss is a loss. We were still down numerous scholarships after both. I’ll agree Weis crippled the place Beaty just didn’t do much to help.

Beaty did a lot more than you’re willing to give credit for. You constantly ignore the fact that KU was never going to fix the scholarship situation in one recruiting cycle because of how bad Weis messed it up. Not only did Weis get the total numbers in the garbage, he messed the balance in the class sizes as well. Go back and look at the senior class sizes under Beaty, it alternated between sub 15 senior classes and 25+ senior classes. Beaty did a pretty good job of fixing that issue. The next recruiting cycle was always going to be the one that fixed the total numbers. And you can go back and check my posts on this topic over the last 6 years and it has not changed. I have said for the last 6 years that it was going to take 2 full recruiting cycles (8-10 years) to completely fix the mess Charlie Weis left behind.

That’s ultimately why Beaty was hired, his $800k salary to start with is evidence of this, was to fix the scholarship situation and if he got wins that was a bonus. He took KU from a joke of a program to a program that was knocking on the doorstep of a bowl game. Despite my “hard on” for Beaty, I’ve never said he was the man to finish that job, and as soon as Miles finds a QB, he will be able to get KU back into bowl games.