@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.

Marcus Garrett has signed a free agent deal with the Miami Heat. The last two Jayhawks who played with the Heat won NBA titles (Chalmers and Simien) so maybe Garrett continues that trend.

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.

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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.

@wissox said in Other games:

Last season of the ACC/BIG challenge as the ACC backed out. Not sure it had to do with the BIG signing with FoxSports or if it was the BIG has regularly won the challenge the last 10 years or so. BIG not doing as well this year and will need to pick up some wins against the big boys of the league in order to win. Curious to see Indiana against Duke.

The ACC didn’t back out. It’s being replaced with an ACC/SEC challenge and it’s because of the B10 no longer having a TV deal with ESPN and the ACC and SEC still having ESPN deals. It also means the B12/SEC challenge is coming to an end this season as well. I would expect the B12 and B10 to start something in the next year or two.

@Jethro said in Anyone concerned about losing Leipold to Nebraska?:

They have to improve the facilities asap. It’s sad that it has to take a coach putting in his contract he’ll leave if they don’t improve the dang stadium. We’re Kansas- we’re not Ft Hays St.

What I’ve argued for years on different sites. Facility improvements are something that need to be proactive, not reactive. We saw a spike in recruiting a few years back when KU upgraded the locker rooms despite still being a mess on the field. With a quality staff and better team, having upgraded facilities will go a long way in keeping KU consistently of the basement for a long time.

It will also give KU the best shot at staying in a P5 league in the future.

@Gorilla72 said in Other games:

I see Houston is #1 on CBS Sports. They’ve played an easy early schedule and only have two ranked teams to play this year, at this point.

I’m going to watch tomorrow’s game. Has anyone watched them? Give me some hints as to what to watch for?

There’s a reason they’re a title favorite this year. Marcus Sasser is NPOY levels of good. They still have a few players from their Fonal Four team two years ago so this team is battle tested. They also have Kelvin Sampson who is a top 5 coach right now. He’s done something even Self hasn’t done in taking multiple schools to the Final Four. This is a team that has a shot to run the table year and are better suited to do so than Wichita St. was a few years ago.

I don’t like our starters playing 30 minutes in this game, even with McCullar out. Yesufu doesn’t bother me playing those minutes because he had to play multiple roles tonight, but definitely would’ve preferred Harris and Wilson being around 25 minutes.

It’s also concerning that in a game like this, Clemence, Ejiofor, and Udeh played a combined 28 minutes and only took 3 shots. It’s looking more and more like tge 5 spot is going to be an even bigger black hole on offense than when Landen Lucas was playing.

Hopefully this was Rice’s coming out party and he can be the spark off the bench KU needs, but the 5 spot should be an even bigger concern after tonight’s lack of offense behind KJ.

Also, didn’t realize Shaq’s son was on TSU.

@Kcmatt7 said in Texas Southern Game Thread:

When does the MJ>McCullar talk start? Because I’m almost there myself

Depends on which end of the floor. MJ is the better offensive player, but McCullar is the better defensive player. Really might just come down to what KU’s needs are on a given night who should get the crunch time minutes.

This is a game nobody should be playing more than 25 minutes unless it’s a bench player. Yesufu needs to be playing a lot of PG tonight especially if Pettiford’s going to be out awhile because that’s the back up right now and he needs to get used to running the show instead of playing off ball because there’s not another option right now. I’d also like to see all the post options play as well with KJ getting the fewest minutes. I’d also like to see Zach at the 4 for a few minutes because that’s the position his game is most suited for. I’d also love to see Rice get a lot of minutes tonight and even get Jankovich some minutes because we’re not far away from a scenario where he may have to play real minutes and tonight should be a low risk game to get him 5 or so minutes with non scout team players.

@BShark said in World Cup thread!:

Canada effed around and found out with Croatia. A game that should clearly dispel the “if the best athletes played” garbage but the people that spew that don’t understand athleticism and aren’t interested in discussion either.

I don’t think yesterday disproves the best athletes thing because it’s more complicated than just that. I don’t think Canada’s best athletes play soccer, hockey is their #1 sport and basketball, especially in the Toronto area where the biggest population pool is, as the second biggest sport.

Also, infrastructure and money matter at national team levels. How many Canadian soccer players are playing over in European top divisions compared to how many are playing in Canada or the MLS?

Compare that to Croatia and how many of their top players are playing in top leagues in Europe?

Canada’s soccer program is where the US was about 10-15 years ago. If they keep investing, they’ll have a chance to advance to the knockout rounds next World Cup because they have a lot of really good, young players. Davies is an incredible player and not even in his prime yet at only 22.

@wissox said in Other games:

Yeah I’m thinking that tournament might be seen as too good. UNC walks away with 2 losses which is survivable for them I guess. But most teams aren’t going to like the potential to lose two games. MSU has to play Portland in a meaningless 5th place game and nearly lost to 5-4 mid-major Portland. Kudos to Sparty for beating Oregon in their homestate, but it makes me wonder how many teams are going to want to travel to the Pacific Northwest and risk two or even three losses.

Meanwhile Indiana holds their own ‘invitational’ and is 6-0 without having played anybody. And like the last 30 years since Bobby left they’re being overrated. But Indiana fans won’t tell you they’re overrated. They think, to their credit I guess, that Indiana basketball is still relevant.

That tournament is two 8 team brackets and not any more loaded than other higher profile tournaments can be. One of the brackets had 4 ranked teams and the other had 3 ranked teams. That’s not uncommon for some of the higher profile tournaments like Maui, Atlantis, or Orlando to have fields like that as well.

I also think tournaments like that early on are beneficial because it really exposes a team’s strengths and weaknesses.

The only game I’ve seen of Indiana this year was their game against Xavier and IU looks like a solid team that should contend for the Big 10 this year and if KU plays like they did against Tennessee, IU could KU off the floor as well.

@wissox said in Other games:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Unless something changed that I’m not aware of we’re still Adidas?

If Phil Knight is allowed to do that should the NCAA allow it? I’m no lawyer but it almost sounds like an anti-trust type thing or something. Maybe the great legal minds here can speak to that.

It doesn’t violate any anti-trust stuff and it’s not set up any different than the other November tournaments. Teams are invited the same way they’re invited to Maui, Atlantis, KC, or any other preseason tournament.