Best posts made by Texas Hawk 10

@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.

@kuballin10 said in Puerto Rico!:

@mayjay lol no doubt I’m starting early.

Last year it was Joe should play more or actually year before that and then last year he showed he doesn’t have it.

This year we have the horses and both Morris and Elmarko are better nba prospects for a reason.

Gotta trust Bill

Being a better NBA prospect doesn’t equal being a better college player right now. Dejuan Harris is a better college player than Morris or Jackson right now because he is a much more polished product than either of those two.

There’s also a reason why Yesufu ended up in the wastelands of Pullman, Washington. He’s an undersized 2 with a low BBIQ that’s never met a shot he didn’t like that Self never should’ve offered.

Constructing a championship caliber team isn’t necessarily about the 5 best players, it’s a bit the 5 right players and Harris brings a lot of other tools than scoring to the table. Having a real post threat now means that Harris can focus on his defense and running the show and not worry about having to score like last season. I wouldn’t be shocked if Harris averaged 8-9 assists per game this season with the supporting cast he has.

Good to see Udeh still helping KU win games, lol!

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.

KU had a bad season by KU standards.

Look at what KU accomplished with 7 first year players in the program.

26 wins, 12 conference wins, 3rd place finish, runner up in the conference tournament, and a top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

99% of D1 programs would call that a great season. At KU, we call that a bad season. The last time KU did not receive a top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament was the 2000 tournament.

Think about that, KU has been a top 4 seed for 19 straight NCAA Tournaments. There’s only 6 other NCAA programs that have ever made that many NCAA Tournaments in a row (UNC, Duke, Arizona, Michigan State, Gonzaga, and Wisconsin) and none of them were a top 4 seed every season.

KU’s down season is still better than any other blue bloods down season. UNC and Kentucky have each missed an NCAA Tournament this decade.

KU’s valley’s are most programs peaks.

@BeddieKU23 said in Wackos at Waco Game Thread:

I’m on record with I didn’t want him back and it certainly messed with Yesufu that he was back. That was noticeable

It didn’t mess with Yesufu. Remy being back had nothing to with Yesufu still not understanding how to guard in Self’s defense. It may not have visible on TV, but there were multiple times in Yesufu’s limited minutes that he was badly out of position on defense and had to have others point to where he should’ve been. Same on offense as well. He was in Ochai’s spot several times and had Ochai and Harris having to direct him where to be on the floor on offense.

I know people want to shit on Remy for his flaws and give Yesufu a pass, but Yesufu still doesn’t know the system well enough on either end to be given extended minutes and isn’t a good enough player to overcome not knowing the offense or defense yet. People here generally accept it takes multiple years for a PG to learn and operate Self’s system at a reasonably high level. Harris is in his third year running the system whereas Remy and Yesufu are each in their first year.

Remy has been a bust here, no question about that, but I’ll never understand why people think Yesufu was going to come in and duplicate his two best games at Drake on a nightly basis while ignoring that he wasn’t a starter until an injury, and was an inconsistently high volume shooter who had quite a few games last year where he took more shots than he had points.

Ryan Kalkbrenner will miss the Round of 32 game for Creighton, that’s big for Kansas because he’s one of the best shot blockers in the country.

@BeddieKU23 said in Chip and Pace...:

I agree pace is a big factor with the Moore injury. I think it was anyway. Nova just grinds, plays slow and that’s how they have managed to get this far with basically 6 guys. If we could punch them in the mouth early with pace it will be tough sledding for them to come back.

The biggest key I see Saturday will be points in the paint. Dixon is their only big, they do not have a sub for him. Samuels is like Wilson in that he plays inside out. Dave, Jalen, Mitch. The advantage is use them enough to open the wings to driving to the basket. Pound the paint again on this nova team. No shot blockers, poor rebounding team at both ends.

Even before Moore’s injury, this is why I preferred Villanova over Houston. Houston was far more capable of exploiting KU’s weaknesses than Villanova was. Villanova is a good match up for Kansas because a lot of their weaknesses are KU strengths.

If we beat Villanova, does KU get to hang a Big East championship banner this year too since they’ll have beaten 3 of their top 4 in the NCAA tournament this year?

This team has a real chance to repeat if they stay healthy.

@kuballin10 said in Land Thieves Shooty Hoops:

@rockchalkjayhawk Self didn’t even think to let Elmarko spell Juan and have him run some point early on in the season. Not properly assessing the roster is on him.

Kevin is essentially the backup pg and KJ can bring it up much like draymond so we have options.

Elmarko is so explosive and the only guard that can get to the paint without a ball screen yet he never thought to maybe let him run some at the 1 even after seeing him play while recruiting him.

The ball and chain that is Juan to Self. Juan’s legacy as the point is this year and next when there are no Remy bailouts. Juan’s getting worse and more lackadaisical with the ball and still doesn’t look to score like he should. The offense with two all Americans is thus a top 40-50 offense due to just that. He’s a ball mover I.e he doesn’t attack the paint and can’t break his own man down one on one.

You’ve been warned and many are seeing it for the actual scenario versus the red and blue glasses

Do you ever make a basketball post that isn’t negative about Dejuan? We all know your opinion about Dejuan and you say basically the same thing in every post about Dejuan

This is why people don’t like interacting with you here. You don’t add anything new or constructive to conversations, it’s almost always something negative about Dejuan. We all know his shortcomings as a player and choose not to harp on them in nearly every post like you.

How about instead of blaming Self for trying to make Elmarko work a position and role that he’s not used to playing, we look at why Self decided that Arterio Morris ended up being his choice for a 2 instead of some of the other options that were reportedly interested in coming here that didn’t have the legal baggage Morris had. That’s where the real failure of this roster lies, not with Dejuan Harris being the same player he’s been his entire career here.

This week is the first time in 3 years that KU has not been ranked in the top 10.

Think about that, we have people being doom and gloom about the future of this program because we aren’t currently a top 10 team.

Just don’t lose to Samford amd keep our longest in the country streak of winning a first round game alive and I’ll be fine with whatever else happens this tournament.

AAU is what’s wrong with basketball in the US right now. It doesn’t prepare players to succeed at higher levels and mostly serves to bring out the worst in players and coaches. There needs to be a major overhaul of prep basketball so that kids are learning skills that will gp them in college and the pros and so the coaches and players can be held accountable when they act like whiny little babies.

Christian Braun is just the 5th player to ever win an NCAA title and NBA title in back to back seasons. And the 34th player to ever win an NCAA and NBA title.

KU got a commitment today from the D2 Remington Award winner for best center in D2.

@clevelandjayhawk My favorite part is that Self says Diallo forces everyone to play at a higher tempo. This is the area where Bill Self has never taken advantage of the talents of his team at KU. KU is annually more athletic than all but a handful of teams out there, but we frequently see Self prefer to play games in 50’s and 60’s which allows inferior teams to hang around and have a better shot at upsetting KU. I would love to see KU regularly play in the 70’s and 80’s and take more advantage of their athleticism and play at a faster tempo.

@BeddieKU23 said in 2021 Transfer Talk/List:

The top 7 is still not an athletic bunch. JCL fills a big off the bench microwave scorer type.

The backup 4 is interesting because its either a guard or a freshman. Braun at the 4 is an interesting thought unless his aggresiveness goes way up… Those two freshman have different skill sets. So intriguing to see.

Self didn’t do much to address the athleticism of the team, but this is a team that will put up a lot of points which was the biggest issue last season. This is a team that will be able to flat out score the basketball and is constructed to maximize the 4 out look.

The main rotation could also very easily end up without any of the freshmen in it. I think Cuffe is a near lock to redshirt and I wouldn’t be shocked if KJ redshirts as well.

I also think this will be a rare season where we Self go with a 9 man rotation because the talent level dictates that. Remy Martin, Yesufu/JCL, Agbaji, Wilson, McCormack is the likely starting line up. Yesufu/JCL and Braun will for sure be seeing big minutes off the bench. Cam Martin makes the most sense as McCormack’s primary back up. Clemence and Lightfoot possibly get situational minutes behind McCormack based on match ups. Dejuan Harris is likely in mix as Remy and Yesufu’s main back up, but is the most likely to be squeezed of Self sticks with his more normal 8 man rotation. The biggest reason I think Harris plays quite a bit though is his defense as he is by far KU’s best on ball defender next season.

I agree the back up 4 is the biggest question mark right now and if that’s the biggest issue with roster composition, that’s a great place to be. I do think Zach Clemence and KJ Adams will be given every chance to earn that spot and I’m hoping Clemence wins that role because he is a natural fit as a stretch 4 that can shoot over defenses. If Clemence and Adams aren’t ready, I do believe it’ll be a combination of Agbaji and Braun filling those minutes behind Wilson at the 4 spot.

This is definitely one of the deepest rosters on paper Self has ever had and I’m excited to see how the rotation shakes out.

@HighEliteMajor Just drop the holier than thou, I’m smarter than you crap. That’s why people call you disingenuous. You make your points in ways that you come across as a smug, arrogant, a-hole who assumes he’s the smartest man in the room. Try showing some humility instead being a condescending jackass to people.

Whether or not the way I’m characterizing you right now is truly your intent or not, that is the tone that comes across on here and it doesn’t accomplish anything productive to try and prove you know more than Self.

For someone who claims to agree with 90% of what Self does, you sure as hell critize him for anything that doesn’t line up with your opinion and appears to be way more than 10% of the decisions Self majes you take issue with. I haven’t read your macri/micro thing yet, but I can make a pretty reasonable guess what’s in it. I might be reaching here, but I would guess you didn’t talk your opinion vs. Self’s.

We all know you live in the macroverse of player development at the expense of a few more losses throughout the season. We also know Bill Self lives in the microverse of trying to win every game at the expense of player development at times. Your criticism of Self for having a different view and approach to coaching philosophy is like a Christian expecting a Hindu to live by Christian teachings and then critizing the Hindu for not living up to Christian standards.

KU has hired TCU’s Doug Meacham as offensive coordinator and receivers coach. This is a big get for Beaty because Meacham had a huge hand in the installation of the Air Raid at TCU with Boykins. Meacham was also one of the names that was popping up on people’s wishlist when Beaty got the job. Meacham has plenty of experience with the Air Raid at TCU and Houston as an OC and at OSU as passing game coordinator.

This is a homerun hire for KU at OC.

I said last year that Bragg simply wasn’t strong enough to be a good rebounder and his numbers last year backed that up. He was a terrible rebounder relative to his size last season. This year, he’s added muscle and he no longer gets rag dolled in the paint and he’s become a good rebounder.

On offense, he’s still playing like a 6-8, 220 lb. player who’s afraid of contact and short arms a lot of his bunnies instead of the 6-10, 240 lb. player he is today that’s more than strong enough to play through contact and finish strong. Whenever that starts happening for Bragg, that’s when he’ll start becoming a potential lottery pick.

I’m glad he’s no longer a softie on defense, but I’ll be even happier once he’s no longer a softie on offense and starts playing like the biggest kid on the court which he’ll be most of the time he’s on the floor.

This is a link with a bunch of different charities in the Houston area to help with different needs in the recovery efforts here. Houston food bank is in there, some homeless stuff, Texas Children’s Hospital is in there, pet and wildlife stuff is in there, just a variety of different organizations that provide varied services.

List of 18 different charities in the Houston area

Here’s JJ Watt’s link

I know this isn’t everything, but it’s a good list of charities with a variety of causes if there’s one you feel a special attachment to.

This is not the best comeback. That honor belongs to the 2008 Jayhawks who came back from 8 down with a little over 2 minutes left to force OT against Memphis in the national title game. That game will always be the GOAT for KU comebacks because it was in a national title game.

He’s headlining this class along with Tracy McGrady which is cool for me KU who has lived in Houston for most of my life and have both play/coach in person countless times each.

Doke’s health is the single most important factor in how good this KU team will be.

With Doke last year, KU beat Michigan St., Marquette, and Tennessee. I don’t know if KU wins a title if Doke stays healthy, but they probably win the B12 last season and have a very good shit at another Final Four. KU did reach the Final Four with Doke playing the entire season the year before.

Doke is a unique talent that I believe is the most valuable player on any major conference team in the country. We’ve seen what this team is with and without Doke for 3 years.

RIP Voice of the Jayhawks!

@drgnslayr The issue with not having a couple of reliable three point shooters is that defenses can pack the paint against KU to take away drives. We saw it last year that without reliable outside shooting (especially after Vick was removed from the equation), KU had extended runs where they struggled to get good looks and would have a 4-5 minute stretch where they didn’t make a FG.

I’m not saying this team should jack them up like the teams from 2016-2018 did because KU doesn’t have multiple guys capable of hitting 42% and above on a near nightly basis. This is why Isaiah Moss is so key for KU this year, he’s the guy that can force defenses to be honest because he can knock down 3’s, even if he’s not the most consistent guy. I also think Dotson is the other high minute guy that can knock down near 40% this year. I don’t really know what to expect from Agbaji this year in terms of shooting. It seems like he was pretty good before his shin issues, but I could be off on that. I’ll be happy if he’s at 35% this year. Having reliable outside shooters will also help Garrett out on offense quite a bit because that’ll keep teams from doubling him on drives which is his biggest strength on that end of the floor.

I’m very curious to see how this team looks on offense this year because the possibility of this team regressing on offense is real to me. Moss is a very similar type of player to Vick on offense so that’s a push at that spot to me. Silvio is a downgrade on offense from Lawson. I honestly don’t know if any of the freshmen are going to see significant minutes this year once Self trims the rotation.

Defensively, this team should be much better because Moss and Silvio are much better defenders than Vick and Lawson were along with getting Grimes out of there. I genuinely don’t see the offense being significantly better this year, but the defense should be quite a bit better and make the offense look like they’re much improved.

My one concern with team chemistry is with Isaiah Moss. Not in regards to being a team cancer because there’s nothing to indicate that. My concern is that he wasn’t on campus this summer getting those scrimmage reps with his new teammates building on court chemistry. I know he and Dotson have played together before so it shouldn’t take long for them to click, but he’s never played with the other players and I’d be willing to bet we see some miscommunication early on with Moss because of that. I don’t expect that to be a season long issue, but I think it will be an issue probably until sometime around Christmas break.

I know some will take my being critical of some areas as me being down on this team, but I think this a team more than capable of making a run to Atlanta this year. The only team that I think has a higher ceiling than this team is Michigan State.

The key for this team is keeping Doke healthy. If Doke stays healthy all year, this team will go to Atlanta. Even as flawed as last season’s team was, they beat several really good teams while Doke was healthy. I know Dotson is hugely important as well, but I think Dotson’s more replaceable on this team than Doke is.

@kuballin10 said in Talent Wins Games:

@Jethro said in Talent Wins Games:

Bill Self said KU is going to forget about this one.

“I’m not going to dwell on this one and make it out to be bigger than what it is.” #kubball

The one game he should watch the most tape of he’s going to not even make this out to be bigger than it is.

Yeah makes perfect sense when you are absolutely exposed in any sport or business don’t go back to the drawing board and look to improve instead just keep doing what you’re doing. Genius

What exactly did we learn about this team today that wasn’t already well known about this group? This is a bad defensive team, that’s not new. This team struggles to score against more athletic teams, again, already well established with this group.

This freshmen class, while generally more athletic, is also a pretty low skilled group of players. KJ and Pettiford aren’t really threats to score yet. Pettiford also can’t handle being pressured on offense yet. KJ had 0 rebounds in 11 minutes today so his minutes weren’t exactly positive today. When Clemence has played, he’s the worst defender on the team amd that’s saying something with this team. Yesufu, there’s a reason he didn’t start at a mid major last year and that’s because he’s a very inconsistent player.

I’m not exactly sure what you’re expecting Self to learn about this team that he’s not already very aware of.

@kuballin10 said in Baylor Game Thread:

Post game Bill loves Harris - no surprise always likes the least offensive talented player who tries hard

Side note: Harris was terrific tonight

Joe - not as terrific needs to attack twice as much as he shoots. Defensively was okay but didn’t impact like ISU.

This is my biggest issue with Yesufu and why I’m not on board with handing him the keys to the offense. When he’s on, he’s a great a player, but he’s extremely inconsistent. I honestly didn’t even realize he played almost half the game today because he completely disappeared out there for long stretches.

Harris is the more consistent player and that’s the biggest reason why Self loves him and others like him that maybe don’t have as high a ceiling as someone like Yesufu, but consistently play closer to their ceiling on a much more consistent basis as well.

This is the frustration with Dave too because we all know what his ceiling is, but he’s also been pretty inconsistent this year as well. Even though Dave didn’t shoot well today, I’ll still take this Dave every game because he got to the line a bunch today and made his FT’s and rebounded with aggression.

KU got 17 and 13 from the 5 spot today, I’ll take that every game and this was by far KU’s most complete and best game of the season. Just wish they could’ve kept it over 30 at the end.

@justanotherfan Winning in March is hard as hell. After this season is over, there may only be 1 coach who officially has multiple NCAA titles and that’s Jay Wright. I know, there’s technically two with Pitino still being active. There’s currently only 8 active coaches who have won a national championship. Coach K, Wright, Pitino, Self, Izzo, Calipari, Boeheim, and Drew are the only 8 currently active coaches that have a title. And that number could be down to 7 depending on how this tournament plays out.

Self has 1, Izzo has 1, Calipari has 1, Boeheim has 1, it took Dean Smith 20 years to win his 1st title. Winning a national championship is hard and we have 1 of 8 active coaches to have done so.

Holy hell that 2nd half was something else. 47-15

Y’all have fun tonight, I’ll be watching Christian Braun in person tonight.

Jalen Wilson named AP 1st Team All American along with Zach Edey (Purdue), Brandon Miller (Alabama), Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana), and Marcus Sasser (Houston).

I feel like this was handled about as well as possible by Self. Self wanted to give a talented player a second chance which I have no issue with. Morris couldn’t meet the expectations of Self and was suspended once an accusation was made, then removed from the program once the investigation proceeded far enough that it was determined there was enough evidence Morris likely did something wrong.

Sometimes when you take a gamble, you’re gonna lose, but I hope Self and staff will still give kids second chances in the future.

I didn’t get a chance to see either exhibition game, but here’s what I know about Bill Self in exhibition games. He doesn’t coach those games like he does regular season games. He uses the exhibition games to focus on specific things, to tinker and experiment with different rotations. This is twofold for why he does it. One, he doesn’t want to show what his exact plans for offensive and defensive sets are and two, he may hit upon something he likes that he can keep in his back pocket for the tournament.

As for specific players. It sounds like many were expecting something different from Hunter Dickinson than what he is. He is not the most mobile or athletic guy, that’s why he’s still in college instead of the NBA. I’ve said from the very beginning when he committed that on defense, David McCormack is the comparison player and we will eventually see Self move to the same style of defense the title team ran. He’s also not an elite rebounder, but he is competent in that area and KU will be fine in rebounding.

I’m also not sure why anyone was expecting KU to be an offensive juggernaut this year. This was never going to be a highly skilled offensive team, this always going to be a lower scoring team that wins a lot of games in the 50’s and 60’s with its defense. Just like the last 2 years, this will be a team that has stretches where it struggles to score points, that’s not new and won’t change this season.

I’m also not sure why people think Hunter is going to make this team play at a snail’s pace. McCormack was very similar to Dickinson in terms of athleticism and KU was still top 75 in tempo during the title season. We’re not expecting Dickinson to lead the break, but he is an excellent passer and can start the break. His 3 point ability also makes very dangerous on the break because he can be the trailer and set up at the top of the key for a look there to open up other driving lanes if a defender closes out on him.

I also saw a lot of mention last night of Dickinson being double or triple teamed and players not cutting to the basket. I’m betting that was intentional on Self’s part to not show what he’s been cooking up this season because that and inbounds plays are his biggest strengths as a play designer. Dickinson does have a reputation of being a great passer for a bog man so I would be surprised if Self doesn’t have several cuts for players designed and practiced already when Dickinson is double teamed.

I will acknowledge that not having Morris this season will hurt the offense because that was the guy that could create his own shot when the offense breaks down and I don’t believe we have that right now.

There is not a flawless or invincible team in college basketball this season and KU will probably take some L’s early on, or least not look great, while the returning core builds in game chemistry with the newcomers, especially Dickinson since he’ll be the focal point of the offense this year.

And I do still believe that Dickinson will be in the mix for NPOY by the end of the season.

I don’t care if the refs are or aren’t why KU lost today, but holy shit that was some terrible officiating today. When Bill Self stops working the refs during a game, you know it’s bad. KU took 45 field goal attempts, most near the basket and Baylor’s bigs only committed two fouls the entire game? Are you f-ing kidding me?

This ass whooping feels good!

@kjayhawks said in Cougar chat:

@FarmerJayhawk can it get any worse? Like I said we disposing 40 year records here

Also, our worst season in 20 seasons under Self is going to result in a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Since Self has been hired here, this year will likely be only our third 10+ loss season under Self. During that same span of time, Kentucky has lost 10+ games 13 times, including 5 under Calipari. UNC has had 10 seasons of 10+ losses since Roy went home (8 under Roy, 2 under Davis). Duke has also only had 3 10+ loss seasons since the time Self was hired at Kansas. However, all 3 of those programs have missed at least 1 NCAA Tournament in that time frame and Kentucky and UNC have had losing seasons in that time.

How many programs would love to consider a year like this the worst season in 25 years for their school? Hell, KU has only had 5 10+ loss seasons total since we won the 1988 title. Only Duke can make that same claim, but for them, two of those seasons resulted in missing the NCAA Tournament completely and one losing season. It’s been over 40 seasons now since KU last had a losing record for a season.

So many upsets this year in the conference tournaments. UConn is the only 1 seed in a major conference to win their conference tournament. Only 9 teams so far out of the 32 conferences have won their conference tournaments as a 1 seed. There will only be a maximum of 10 regular season conference champs also winning their conference tournaments this year. I don’t know if there’s ever been a year like that before.

Here’s the list of 1 seeds that actually won their conference tournaments: Vermont (America East), UConn (Big East), Charleston (CAA), Oakland (Horizon), Colgate (Patriot), Grambling (SWAC), Samford (Southern), South Dakota St. (Summit), St. Mary’s (WCC). Grand Canyon could join this list tonight if they win the WAC title game.

Best thing about this if KU does end up in the SEC, getting to beat the shit out of Missouri again every year in basketball!!!

KU Women just upset 2 seed and 17th ranked Texas Tech 2-1 in the semifinals of the B12 Tournament. They will play TCU on Saturday for the B12 championship.