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.

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.

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.

@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.

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.

@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.

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.

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 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.

KU finishes the 2016 season at 2-10 with a 1-8 record in Big 12 games. KU still hasn’t won a game outside of Memorial Stadium this decade.

I’ll start with the negatives so I can end on a high note with the positives.

QB play was absolutely awful for most of the year. Cozart and Willis were just terrible and neither one should ever take a snap under center for the Jayhawks again. Based on the current QB situation, I really wouldn’t be surprised if Ryan Willis transfers to a school that better fits him because he was recruited to run the Charlie Weis pro style offense and not the Air Raid.

KU also needs some depth at RB because Herbert and Martin won’t cut it next year. KU needs at least 2 more guys to step up and take some of the load off so Martin and Herbert don’t get worn down halfway through next season.

The OLine play was also very subpar for most of the season, but this was also a very young and inexperienced OLine that will return 4/5 starters from the KSU game. RT De’Andre Banks was the only senior on the OLine and Ribordy, Hughes, and Adeniji are all freshmen or sophomores. The OLine will be better next year simply because they will have another year in the weight room and a spring to work together. Being able to stick Charles Baldwin from Alabama in the OLine (presumably at LT and move Adeniji inside) should also be a big help to the OLine.

On defense, a lack of depth killed the defense this year, but there is no quick fix to that problem. Losing almost the entire secondary is going to be tough, but KU also returns 3/4 of the starting DLine including Dorance Armstrong who’s going to get of DPOY votes this year and should be 1st team All-Big 12 this year. Daniel Wise has also really started to blossom as well this year so that should help cushion the blow the secondary is taking this year.

The other thing that needs to happen is Beaty needs to take a couple of hats off. Rob Likens is a good coach, but he can’t coach QB’s so Beaty needs a real QB coach who has a track record of developing QB’s. Jason Philips as coordinating experience at SMU so I would promote him, let Likens go and bring in a dedicated QB coach/co-OC with Philips. Beaty needs to delegate these responsibilities and just let his coaches coach since that’s what he hired them for. I feel like this issue is common to people who are new head coaches and we’re seeing it with Beaty being too much of a micro manager to reach the level of success he wants to reach at KU. It will be Beaty’s ability to learn from these mistakes that will ultimately determine whether he can keep a staff together long enough to build success.

Now for the positives.

Defense, defense, defense! For those who had been calling for Bowen’s head before the year, this year is why coaches need 4-5 years to determine how good they are. Bowen is now in year 4 of running the same defense and we all saw that despite what the numbers say, this was a good defense this year that kept KU in several games KU had no business contending in. Depth is still an issue and will be for at least 2-3 more years because of Weis, but Bowen has the defense headed in the right direction and with some help from the offense, we could see this defense actually rank in the top 50 statistically in the near future as well.

Dorance Armstrong is special. He is going to go down as KU’s best DLinemen in a very long time, since at least James McClinton. Joe Dineen is just a gamer and I can’t wait to have him back next year. Mike Lee is also going to continue the tradition of KU being DBU. Even during these dark ages, Bowen has been churning out NFL caliber DB’s (Chris Harris, Bradley McDougald, JaCorey Shepherd, and Dexter McDonald) that will be able to add Fish Smithson’s name to that list as well and Mike Lee is going to be the next one in line.

On offense, we have game changing WR’s in Steven Sims and LaQuvionte Gonzalez and adding Daylon Charlot to the mix next year will give KU 3 legitimate weapons in the passing game. KU does need Chase Harrell to step up as a 4th option to give KU a big WR that can go get jump balls because Sims, Quiv, and Charlot are all 6-0 and under guys who are better in the slot than on the outside. Montell Cozart could also be an intriguing possibility as an outside receiver to stretch the field.

I actually do like the QB situation going forward for KU with Peyton Bender, Carter Stanley, and Tyriek Starks as the 3 guys fighting for the starting job. Best case is Starks wins the job because he brings a true dual threat nature to the QB position that Bender and Stanley don’t. Bender is a true pocket pass who was supposed to be next in line at WSU behind Luke Falk. Stanley to me is the perfect back up because he doesn’t make many mistakes and can come in a manage a game and keep the offense moving. KU will also still have Keaton Perry and Deondre Ford as the 4th and 5th QB’s should something insane like 2015 happen again at the QB position.

I’m also high on the OLine. I think 2018 is when we’ll the OLine really blossom, but KU is returning 4/5 starters next year and 2 were freshmen and 1 sophomore this year so they were very young. KU also gets Charles Baldwin the Alabama transfer next year along with Bragg and McCauley who each played quite a bit this year as well so there’s potential with the OLine to start taking some big steps forward in the very near future.

I believe KU’s schedule next year in the non-conference is SEMO, Central Michigan, @Ohio so KU should a decent chance at starting the year 2-1 next season as I think KU will be to the point they can beat a SEMo team that went 3-8 this year and a CMU team that went 6-6 and should’ve been 5-7 if it wasn’t for the refs screwing up the end of their game with OSU.

I also think Baylor is going to struggle next year, KSU is sliding into irrelevancy, we’ve gotten closer to beating TCU every year since they joined the league and an OT loss or KU win is the trend there. That’s not even factoring in ISU and Texas Tech who should both be near the bottom of the league with KU next year. I can see KU winning anywhere from 4-6 games next year dependent upon the QB situation and either Bender or Starks being the clear cut winner or at least both of them clearly being ahead of Stanley.

KU football is trending upwards and next year is when we’ll see KU finally end the road losing streak against someone (Ohio, TCU, and ISU being the most likely games) and also not finish in last place like they have all but one year post Mangino.

@elpoyo Why pass on a walk on and who the hell cares what his skin color is? He gives KU another body for practice and a full 3rd team for garbage time minutes.

This is a kid who’s likely passing up an opportunity to be on scholarship at a much smaller school and actually get meaningful minutes to pay his own way and maybe play 50 minutes over 3 years at KU.

@approxinfinity I don’t think it would be a bad idea to make 2-3 people moderators that can shut things down when they get out of hand by either locking a thread or bans, temporary or permanent, if necessary. I don’t know if you could directly give them the power to do that or they tell you what needs to happen in a situation like that, but I don’t think it’d be a bad idea to have multiple moderators that way if one of them gets involved in something, there’s still at least one other impartial person involved.

I’ll also add that when you’re discussing 400 years of racism in this country, of which it was legal for about 350 of those years, it’s not going to be a very positive conversation for the most part.

From what I’ve seen of elpoyo on here, he seems to have quite a bit of troll in him.

@HighEliteMajor I’m the exact opposite on feeling bad for Selby and Embiid. I don’t feel sorry for Selby because all of his problems were self inflicted because he was too stubborn to realize he needed a second year of college. I do feel bad for Embiid because his issues haven’t been self inflicted. His foot issues are the result of him just being bigger than his body can handle and that’s something that has ended many great big men’s careers and Embiid appears to be the latest victim of this.

@drgnslayr If you my honest opinion right now, here it is. Defeatist attitudes like yours are exactly what’s wrong with Kansas football right now. David Beaty has coached 2 damn games here and people are already calling for his head or completely giving up on the program despite everyone knowing ahead of time this was a year where 2 wins would’ve been considered a great season. Anybody who thought this was a quick fix doesn’t know a damn thing about football. Is Kansas football the easiest job in the world? Absolutely not and people like you who take the attitude you’re taking right now are why KU is one of the worst programs in the country. I obviously don’t have enough money to make significant changes to the football program, but whenever I do donate, it is specifically for the football program because that’s where the most help is needed, yet KU donors have their heads too far up their own asses trying to make a name for themselves with KU basketball to realize that KU football is what’s going to determine which conference KU basketball plays in 10 years from now. People at KU care so little for football that the football program couldn’t even raise the money to build the suites on the east side of the stadium in 2008 right after they won the damn Orange Bowl.

So if you wanna bail on KU football, you go right on ahead an do so. Just don’t be one of the ones bitching about KU basketball not being in a major conference 10 years from now.

@JRyman and @HighEliteMajor The back and forth y’all are doing right now is why this site was created. There was/is way too much of this crap that goes on at KUSports and why many of us no longer post on a consistent basis over there.

@HighEliteMajor Nobody is going to dispute that you do have a solid knowledge base, but you do have a tendency to present it in a holier than thou manner and act offended when others use a different way of evaluating a player than you do. Just like you tells others there’s different ways to succeed on the court when you question Self, there’s other ways to measure a players impact than advanced numbers, but you consistently shoot down their opinions because they don’t use the same method you use of player evaluation.

I do think it’s interesting that you would use how a murder trial works as an example. You bring up that circumstantial evidence is how a conviction is reached because there’s not always empirical data to prove a person murdered another person. Yet you choose to challenge those and try to discredit those who use circumstantial evidence to form an opinion on Traylor because they don’t have the time to dig into the stats beyond the box score.

I don’t know which site you use to get your advanced numbers from, but there is one advanced number I would be curious about and that is KU’s +/- with Jamari on the court. I don’t know if any site tracks that stat at the college level, but that is a great way of measuring how a player who’s own numbers may not statistically impact positively, but being on the floor just makes the team better. I know Traylor’s personal stats aren’t great, but when he plays with high energy, the circumstantial evidence suggests that KU is a better team and that’s something a +/- stat would indicate.

Landen’s foot is the issue with his dip in play. Sit him until Stanford at least (including practice), that gives him 10 days off to rest his foot or Self could probably even get away with resting Lucas until conference play starts and Stanford would probably be the only game KU would be in any kind of danger of losing.

I think Bragg is still learning how to play with his new body because he added a lot of muscle and he’s still playing like the kid who got shoved around by everyone last year. I think it’s just a matter of time before the light comes on for Bragg.

Udoka is going to be inconsistent because of his age, but in games where he goes full on beast mode, that’s going to be fun to watch.

Coleby and Lightfoot are going to be guys who get DNP’s on occasion because neither one at this point are capable of contributing significantly in long stretches. Lightfoot looks like he has Kevin Young potential, but with regular roster depth and talent, that’s an energy guy off the bench.

KU has had a brutal travel schedule that I’m sure has meant they aren’t practicing as much as Self would like and now that KU will be in a more normal routine (they aren’t sleeping in different beds until they play UNLV in a month). Now is when we should start seeing the real development happen.

@Lulufulu Are you comparing Jackson’s defense to Rush as a freshman or junior? Junior Rush was better than Jackson is, but Jackson is a better defender than freshman Rush was though.

I think what KU did today is what Self would like to do every game. Build an early, and be able to allow the team to play a slower tempo and blow teams out. I know we’d all like to see KU win every game by 20+ and have Tyler Self and the rest of the EoB guys a few minutes a game, but that’s not going to happen with this team.

Self is going to have to rest guys by having KU go on short spurts like 8-0, 10-2 or something similar instead of the 20-5 type runs we’re accustomed to. It takes less energy for these short spurts and this team is good enough offensively to keep opponents at arms length without losing. It’s basically the same philosophy Self used in 2012 when KY and Teahan were the bench and KU won a bunch of close games.

So basically, I think Self is buying rest by getting KU up into a 12-15 lead range, then take some possessions off and let teams get back to within 4-5 points, rinse, and repeat.

@stoptheflop Keeping Kentucky out of their transition offense was much more important because they struggled with their half court offense all night long. KU was not going to win a game against Kentucky in the 80’s or 90’s. Keeping the score in the 70’s and lower was what KU had to do to win. Self sacrificed offensive rebounding all night to get his team back to prevent Kentucky from getting their transition offense going.

Here’s all I have to say about Josh Jackson. Big time players make big time plays in big time games.

I’m of two minds on this issue. My first issue would be where would KU be in the pecking order for Nike?

My second issue would be are we talking short term or long term here? Short term, Nike would be preferable even if KU is 4th or 5th in the Nike chain. Long term, I think Under Armour might be a better option. American company who’s putting emphasis on basketball right now. There’s also much room to grow and KU would likely be the face of UA college basketball with UCLA. KU would be 4th at best with Nike behind UK, Duke, UNC, and possibly Oregon for funneling players.

I don’t like Adidas long term because soccer will always be their top priority with them being a German based company. I’m fine with Adidas short term because KU is their flagship program.

If Nike would bump up KU to #2 after Coach K abd Roy retire, I would jump to Nike ASAP, otherwise I think Under Armour is the better long term option for KU to become their top program.

@HighEliteMajor Nebraska was not the first domino, Missouri was. Nebraska may have been the first ones to actually leave, but Missouri is the one who started the whole thing by talking to the Big 10 in the first place. The Big 10 turned Missouri down and offered Nebraska instead. That’s not Nebraska initiating the dominoes, that’s Nebraska being in the right place at the right time to capitalize on Missouri’s screw ups.

Only in your mind is KU the chicken for refusing to play Missouri. Missouri is the one who walked away (changing conferences), they’re the ones continuously trying to bait KU to restart the series (showing their bitterness). KU’s stance is that Missouri made a decision and has told Missouri to deal with those consequences, one of which is no longer getting to play KU in scheduled games. They don’t like it so they are showing their bitterness and short sightedness by begging for a game.

Why would KU want to restart the series on Missouri’s terms in the first place? All that says is that Missouri has the power in the relationship and KU has none. This series will restart on KU’s terms, not Missouri’s terms because Missouri has given up all power in the relationship by acting like spoiled brat that will say anything for attention and KU will not give them the attention they want.

Something I would be curious to see is how many national titles KU would have if KU had the this run in the 60’s and 70’s and the Wooden era Bruins went on their run in this era. Prior to 1975 (Wooden’s final season), only conference champs made the NCAA Tournament so there was much less competition in the NCAA Tournament in the Wooden run. What could KU do in an NCAA Tournament with only conference champs in It? How many fewer titles would Wooden have wokn if UCLA had to run through 64+ teams that weren’t exclusively conference champs?

Everybody needs to remember that Gatto was hired by Adidas from Nike. Based on the magnitude of this scandal, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to assume he was doing similar things while at Nike as well.

Malik Newman traveled on those FT’s, hehe!

Hawks whipped their nuts out loud and proud to swing for all to see tonight! Those were some of the biggest cajones I’ve seen in a very long time from a KU team.

This is one of the most impressive wins by any team in the country this year.

Forde’s Missouri bias is showing. He should be worried Cuonzo Martin and how he landed Porter.

I think I’d enjoy beating KSU for a 4th time this year.

I will hopefully be driving over to San Antonio tomorrow afternoon. I already have my ticket for the game on Saturday so I’m insanely excited about that and got a hotel room in San Antonio for under $150.

@Fightsongwriter Vick is not Keith Langford. Langford was playing for top division teams and occasionally inquired about by NBA teams. Vick will end with 2nd and 3rd tier teams in Europe.

justanotherfan said:

Gorilla72 said:

Lord, please don’t let KSU win the Big XII outright. Their fans will be insufferable!

Probably, but at last check, 14 is more than 1.

This is the same fanbase that made a DVD in football about their “Decade of Dominance” which included just one B12 title while during that same time frame, fellow B8/B12 school Nebraska won 3 national titles in 4 years while playing for a 5th title and Oklahoma also won a national title.

They will be insufferable and make a Blu Ray about this season regardless of what happens in March with them.

Fightsongwriter said:

Obviously other coaches are finding lower tier guys who are good players that eat nails. We get 2nd or 3rd tier elite players with warts. There are a TON of lower tier guys who would die to play at Kansas. Why cant we get a few of these guys? Maybe Bill needs to shake it up and get some new recruiters / coaches. I would give our current assistants a grade of B to B-

The guys with flaws are not improving. And our top players are not as good as the Duke or NC players since 08, except for Joel and he was an accident. Getting spanked in the tournament repeatedly has to mean that there is a crucial flaw somewhere. Wofford lost to KY but they did not get embarrassed.

The flaw in Self’s defensive philosophy is that it hasn’t evolved with college basketball. When Self got started, shooting 50% of your shots as a team from 3 wasn’t common. Basketball has evolved to where that’s fairly common even among major conference teams, but Self still focuses on defending the rim instead of evolving to defend the 3 point line first.

Self needs to change to an outside-in defensive philosophy instead an inside-out emphasis.

@jayhawkcsg What reason is there to bad mouth Moore?

He came here, wasn’t a great fit and is now moving on again. Moore didn’t do anything in his two years in Lawrence to embarrass KU or himself so there’s no reason to rag on him not being the player Self hoped he would be. Time to move on and wish Charlie the best wherever he ends up.

Very happy to be wrong on this one. I assumed Silvio would never get his eligibility back due the total amount of money involved in his case between KU and Maryland.

Systemic racism is still alive and well in this country whether people choose to admit it or not. It is still a much bigger problem in this country than either the left of the right wants to admit. The government doesn’t want to change the system that’s been in place for decades because then they lose their power and lose their ability to control inner city culture.

How long has gun violence been an issue in Chicago? How much funding does the Chicago public school system get in proportion to other suburban districts in the Chicago area?

There are lots of issues in inner city culture. I’m sure anyone who has ever taught or worked closely with that community has a lot of personal stories about kids who were smart enough to get the grades and stay out of trouble to be able to attend college, but we’re unable to due to circumstances beyond their control.

At the school I work at, about 1/3 of my students still don’t have internet in their homes or any type of computer including a smartphone or tablet. My school district doesn’t have the funding to provide class sets of technology (laptops or tablets), let alone 1:1 technology like just about every suburban district in the area has. Whenever my district has a training promoting the latest computer based program to “help” those kids play catch up, my first question to those people is always how will that program benefit those students who have teachers that don’t have technology in their classrooms for each student and those students have no technology at home. Their answers are typically along the lines of saying a student can stay after school for tutoring. Seems like a reasonable answer until the variable that most of those students are the ones that can’t stay because they have to go home immediately after school because their parents work multiple jobs and aren’t home to prepare dinner for the younger siblings who can’t take care of themselves. Those Professional Development people typically don’t have a good answer for that one.

Then, when it comes time for standardized testing, these are the districts that typically perform the lowest on those scores. When those districts perform poorly, they lose funding and that money goes to higher performing districts. Here in Houston, HISD (biggest district in Texas and 8th biggest nationally based on enrollment last I checked) has shut down about 15 schools in last couple of years due to a lack of funding.

When the system in place is telling those kids that your school isn’t worth funding and providing you with a safe place to get an education to get out the cycle of poverty, then those kids grow up not trusting that same system, most people act surprised by that.

If the system truly wanted to change and actually make a real difference in inner city culture and make a real difference, states would start giving out more funding to lower performing schools instead of less funding to the point those kid’s schools are closing leaving them fewer and fewer options to escape that situation. Providing a bigger percentage of funding to inner city districts won’t pay off in the short term because change takes time. It’s a long term investment the government doesn’t want to make because the inner city culture is an easy scapegoat for a lot of hot button issues in this country.

Whenever you do hear about a kid making it out of that life and out of the inner city for good, you never hear that they did it on their own. There was always someone to help that kid out whether it was a teacher, counselor, coach, family member, or some kind of mentor to keep that kid accountable to help that kid navigate things no one in their family knows anything about.

Those kids that make are also the same one that are most likely to go right back into that community to pay it forward. As far as a specific KU example goes, Ben McLemore is a perfect example of someone who made it out of the inner city (not on his own) and now gives back because he has the means to. His goal is to be that inspiration for others to make out of inner city St. Louis by providing an easier path for those kids that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.

Warrick Dunn and DeShaun Watson is another great example of what paying it forward can do. For those who don’t know the story, Warrick Dunn’s mom was a police officer in Baton Rogue and was murdered during an armed robbery while she was off duty helping a woman make a bank deposit. After Dunn made some money in the NFL, he began a charity organization that providing homes to single moms and one of those homes went to current Houston Texans QB DeShaun Watson’s family. Does Watson make it to Clemson or the NFL without that assistance? Maybe, maybe not, but the odds increased significantly when his mom received that home and moved out of inner city Atlanta.

Black people in this country could vote in elections beginning in 1870. Southern white people didn’t believe that people that had been their slaves until 5 years prior were worthy of that honor and privilege so that created a barrier to vote in the form of literacy tests and poll taxes. The polling administrators were free to waive these barriers whenever they pleased and our legal system said that’s not an issue. If you Google those literacy tests, one of the first one’s to come up is the literacy test used in the state of Louisiana in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It states that the test taker has 10 minutes to complete 30 questions and must get every question correct in order to vote. It claims to be a test at the 5th grade level so I give it to my 7th graders every year during a unit on the Reconstruction era of US history, specifically when teaching them about Jim Crow laws. I have yet to have a student meet the criteria to vote. I didn’t even pass it the first time I took and had to look up a couple of answers to that test. The academic language in that test is absolutely at a 5th grade level, but that test was worded in a very confusing manner to purposely trip up those who were forced to take that test.

Another example here in Texas has to deal the STAAR test which is the name of the state standardized test in Texas. I forget which grade level it was exactly, but it an early elementary question that asked students to identify what a bed was. Seems simple enough right? It’s not because the answer choices were all pictures and two of the answer choices were a picture of a couch and the floor. For inner city kids, a lot of them choose either the couch or the floor. Does that make those kids dumb that chose those answers? A lot of people would say yes, but no, those kids aren’t dumb. When some of those kids were asked why they chose the “wrong” answer, their responses were very telling and showed they weren’t dumb. A lot of them responded that they knew a bed is where someone sleeps at night and that those kids that chose “wrong” didn’t choose wrong, they chose the couch or the floor because that’s where they sleep at night because the don’t have a bed in manner the question was asking.

In this country the decked is still stacked against black people and black communities. Not as stacked as it was 60 years ago, but it’s still stacked against them in many ways people don’t realize.

I have a co-worker name De’Eric. Before becoming a teacher he worked a 9-5 corporate job as some kind of investor or CPA. He was a very successful at his job pulling in over 100k a year (mostly commission). He said didn’t have much opportunity for advancement because he worked for a small firm that was family owned and ran. He was looking to move up the ladder and his current company was supportive of him in that was the culture of that company to help fresh out of college kids who didn’t want to work for one of the major investment companies. As he starts applying to other positions, he’s not getting very many call backs. One of the jobs he applied to that he never got an interview with was given to someone he knew who was much less qualified for that position. He’s still looking and he sees that position come available again a couple of months later so he applied again. That second time though, he changed his name on his resume from De’Eric to just Eric and got an interview a couple of days later. At that interview he asked why he didn’t get an interview the first time around and the interviewer got extremely defensive about the matter, especially when De’Eric brought up that he was a classmate of the previous person who was fired after about 2 months and knew was unqualified for that position. I don’t remember all the details, but it basically boiled down the people at the company he was applying to didn’t like how black sounding his name was.

After that interview is when De’Eric said he made the decision that he was going to become a teacher at an inner city district so he could help young black kids out a d be a role model for them.

@HighEliteMajor, while you yourself may not be a racist, a lot of your beliefs about how things are and should be like the NCAA not changing to adapt to the current culture and needs is showing support for a system that is still designed to keep the playing field unequal for black people.

Black people were oppressed for over 300 years in this country. Trusting a system that has allowed black people to be exploited, even still today in some areas, does not go away in 50 years. It takes time and effort and the system in place in this country is still oppressing black culture.

Do black people in America have opportunity in this country? Yes. Do they have the same opportunities that white people in this country have? Absolutely not.

Can the NCAA help inner city culture by altering their rules? Absolutely, but they choose not to because there’s still quite a few high ranking members who grew up when segregation was still legal and still have a mindset that black people are inferior even if they’ll never admit to it because they’re smart enough not to admit to it for fear of losing their cushy jobs.

Definitely gotta say I didn’t see a near 30 point road win coming out of KU on the road, even if it was a really bad ISU team.

This is an elite defensive team this year. Marcus Garrett appears to be the one that’s stepped up as the leader of this team and they have taken on his mentality.

Back to back road games holding opponents under 50. That’s an elite defense and did I hear Fran actually say KU was the best defense in the country as well tonight?