ESPN’s FPI has KU pretty heavily favored against KSU and OSU, a small favorite over Arizona, a small underdog against ISU and Utah, and a big underdog this weekend against Texas Tech.
This Saturday is by far KU’s most difficult remaining game on paper and the remaining 5 are absolutely winnable games for KU.
I would definitely say that KU needs to be bowl eligible after the OSU game to guarantee a bowl game this year.
I’m happy the defense finally proved to be more trustworthy than a wet fart.
Same statement as last week, I trust a wet fart more than this defense right now.
@BShark said in 2026 Recruiting ( Crazy but ):
@Texas-Hawk-10 I believe Mbiya will be gone because of transferring out.
I understand that. My point was that I think Mbiya does the opposite of Flory. If Flory plays to his potential and goes to the NBA after this season, then I believe there’s a much higher likelihood of Mbiya staying because he’d be the presumed starter at the 5 in 2026-27. If Flory comes back for his junior year, then I agree that Mbiya is likely going to transfer somewhere he would be a starter.
@BShark said in 2026 Recruiting ( Crazy but ):
@Jhawk69 I’d be very very surprised if Mbiya is still around. Tiller perhaps more up in the air. Flory I can actually see staying, depends on his draft stock…
Flory is high enough on several mocks that if he backs it up with his defense and rebounding this year, he’ll be gone to the NBA. Mbyia’s status to me completely depends on Flory going pro.
Tiller I think has a better chance at returning because he is a 4 that will likely be playing the 5 this year because he doesn’t have the 3 point shooting yet to project well to the NBA yet as a 4. I think Tiller is the centerpiece to build around in 2026-27 for KU and be KU’s best player that season.
Kansas football will be making history next season. They will play in the first ever college football game to be played at Wembley Stadium. KU will host Arizona St. on Saturday Sept. 19 in London. KU’s previously scheduled game that weekend against Middle Tennessee St. has been moved up to Week 0.
Taylen Kinney is officially a Jayhawk
This is appearing like it’ll be the 7th blown 4th quarter lead for KU since the start of 2024.
Defense needs some stops. Can’t be on the field all game and expect to win.
Oklahoma St. has officially pulled the trigger and fired Mike Gundy this morning.
Florida is the team that’s getting brought up that could potentially make Leipold reconsider things. That’s a program that can win a national title pretty quickly and who I would be most nervous about of they decided Leipold was the man they wanted once they fire Napier after this season.
@wissox said in Beat the Hillbillies:
@Texas-Hawk-10 I understand, but did it cost us yards?
That did not cost KU any yards. Even if it did, defending your QB is worth it from a dirty hit. I’d be pissed off as a coach if my QB took a dirty hit and nobody defended him.
@wissox said in Beat the Hillbillies:
Stupid for KU to push the guy who committed the penalty.
He was defending Daniels after a dirty hit. I have zero issues with what 70 did on that play.
@kjayhawks said in Not paying for ESPN this year:
@Texas-Hawk-10 @FarmerJayhawk maybe I’m off base and little off topic. I just don’t think it’s right that anyone with remotely right wing train of thought for the last decade and half had been silenced outside of the garbage known as Fox News. Could you imagine the back lash if De Niro said F Obama or Biden when he accepted an award. You can’t say blacklisted fast enough. I will move on from the thread. I have spoken my opinion on the matter. I zero issue with the government stepping in to prevent fake news and unjust propaganda.
Thanks for confirming that you support government censorship and are anti-1st amendment.
@kjayhawks The difference between the situations you’ve mentioned and what happened with Kimmel, and Stephen Colbert for that matter is that their cancelations came as a direct result of FCC meddling and interference. The chair of the FCC has already said they’re going after the View next.
The head of the FCC, a government organization, was offended by Kimmel’s monologue and threatened to pull the broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates if they didn’t cancel Kimmel. Nexstar, who owns a lot of the ABC affiliates nationally, caved and indefinitely pre-empted Kimmel.
Regardless of how one feels about Jimmy Kimmel or Charlie Kirk, this is government influencing censorship and free speech and a violation of the 1st amendment. This is a canary in the coal mine moment for the US in regards to how important our rights are to value and protect, especially the right to criticize our government.
Texas Tech and Utah are currently the two best teams in the Big 12. Tech just looks dominant even if they haven’t played the strongest schedule so far. I would put Iowa St. 3rd best because they’ve at least been able to win their games so far. Then I would put KU in with a group that includes BYU, TCU, Cincy, and Arizona as teams that could sneak into the Big 12 title game with some fortunate results.
Our 4 road games could conceivably include at least 3, possibly all 4 games against teams that finish top 6 in the Big 12 this year. KU has to figure out a way to put away these close games or we could be sitting at 5-4 with @ISU, @Arizona, and home against Utah to get a 6th win and I’m not super confident in that right now.
@Jhawk69 If Perry was a better player, those double teams wouldn’t have mattered. In an Elite 8 game, your star senior can’t disappear the way Perry did. He just wasn’t athletic enough to overcome those double teams.
Perry is too high. He was a below average defender, playmaker, and rebounder. You talk about Marcus Morris in March, but Perry was worse in March. The loss to Stanford, 9 points on 3/10 shooting and 4 points on 1/5 shooting in the 2016 Villanova loss. Those are unacceptable performances from someone who was supposed to be a top player. I would flip him and Marcus.
There’s a reason why he’s one of the guys on this list who never really sniffed the NBA.
@kjayhawks said in Hate Missouri Week. Game chat here!:
Thinking this morning, Mizzou just maybe a ready good football team going forward. Not sure I could name 10 teams that go into Columbia and are favored right now. Fresno beat Oregon State by 2 scores last night and we spanked them. The conference continues to look wide open after yesterday’s disappointing non-conference showing. Iowa state maybe the only clear favorite at this point in the season. WV our next opponent was just beat by Ohio 17-10. We have a lot of winnable games left on the schedule. We must reset and refocus this off week and get ready fro the meat of our schedule.
Fresno got a field goal to go up 2 with 30 seconds left and then a pick 6 to create that margin. They did not dominate Oregon St. at all.
I also can’t say anything about ISU being a clear favorite when their two FBS wins are 3 point wins over teams two teams who right now look like they will finish in the bottom half of their conferences. They have not been dominant at all.
Texas Tech and Utah have looked like the two best teams so far to me, but I also fully acknowledge neither team has played anybody good yet, but Utah did at least play a P4 team on the road and dog walked UCLA. I think now that Whittingham has moved past Cam Rising at QB, they’re going to be back to being really good.
The punt call was absolutely indefensible. You haven’t gotten a stop all day and you give them the ball back with under 3 minutes left? That was so damn ridiculous, but has unfortunately become a pattern under Leipold. His has always been way too conservative in his game management and that absolutely comes from his first head coaching job being at a powerhouse program where that mindset was the right mentality most of the time. He has never developed a risk taking approach and that has been on display over his few years here. The decision in the 3rd quarter to kick a FG instead of going for it on the road isn’t an aggressive mindset, it’s a conservative one that has now cost KU several games.over the years.
Also with the defense, why were our corners playing so deep even in short yardage situations? That allowed Missouri to dink and dunk and control the clock all game long.
Even if KU goes 10-2, wins the Big 12 and makes the playoffs, if that second loss is to KSU, this season is still going to feel like a disappointment since we haven’t beaten either team since 2008 when I was still a student at KU.
@Jhawk69 said in KU Roster for 25-26:
The Arkansas game dispels the notion of Hunter being a good player hindered by a bad roster around him for me. He is a good mid-major big but cannot start on a top-25 team. He can use his size and nice touch around the rim to score in bunches against lesser opponents. But any quality opponent will hold him to an inefficient night on offense and score at will against his defense.
That happened because teams like Arkansas doubled and triple team Hunter as much as possible because they gambled that KJ and Dejuan wouldn’t do anything on offense.
David McCormack was also not much of a physical player and was never a good defender as well, but because he had a much better supporting cast on defense, Self was able to hide McCormack’s shortcomings on that end of the floor. Mayo, Griffen, and Storr were nowhere near Braun, Agbaji, and Wilson on defense and therefore, Hunter’s bad defense couldn’t be schemed around the McCormack could.
The last 2 years were a struggle because Self went for big names in the portal instead of the best fits. I know Hunter catches a lot of grief, but he absolutely was a perfect Bill Self 5. The only reason his poor defense is held against him so mich is because he was usually surrounded by at least 2 other bad defenders on the floor as well. Dejuan and KJ were the only players that played consistently that we’re considered good defenders.
AJ Storr is an extremely talented offensive player, but he needed to be in a system where he could be on the ball more with a coach that likes to run iso because that’s his strength. Rylan Griffen had never played in an offensive system with structure to it and he never picked up the nuances of Self’s motion offense and was frequently out of position because of that.
On paper, I love the roster composition this season so much more than the last 2 years and I think as long as Self’s health holds up, I believe this team has a legitimate chance at making a Final Four this year. On paper, this could become one of the best defensive teams Self has ever had. Every player brought in that’s expected to play big minutes has a reputation of being above average to elite on defense.
There are some valid concerns about the offense this year, but I think that’s being a little it overhyped. Nobody on KU is an elite shooter, except maybe Rosario, but I believe the only one I would consider a bad shooter is Council. Tre White has gotten about 3% better each year from 3, all 3 years at P5 schools, so I don’t see a reason to believe he can’t shoot close to 35% this season.
By no means do I believe KU is going to lead the Big 12 in 3 point shooting, but I believe they’ll be good enough that teams have to guard them on the perimeter opening up driving lanes for them as well.
@stoptheflop said in Other Football Games of Interest:
Really glad college football is back-even though we all know the problems. Most of the games this weekend are like our Wagner game, but Texas v. Ohio St Saturday 11am on FOX, WOW. And Sunday 6:30 on ABC Notre Dame v. Miami. I can’t wait.
There’s several great games on paper this weekend aside from what you mentioned. LSU vs. Clemson is a top 10 match up, Alabama vs. Florida St., Tennessee vs. Syracuse.
They’re making this look easy right now.
@stoptheflop Looked close to a sellout. I’d guess somewhere close to 40,000
Should be an easy game. Don’t expect to see the playbook opened up too much. Just get out of this game healthy and get ready for war next weekend.
@AsadZ said in FRESNO STATE BULLDOGS:
I’m impressed by DL and DE
WRs looked good
Got to clean up penalties
Penalties have pretty much always been an issue with Leipold. That’s just going to be a reality with this team.
Offense looked good, defense was great after the first drive, and KU needs to cut down on penalties, but too many penalties seems to be life with Leipold.
KU Volleyball takes down Vanderbilt in 5 sets. This was Vanderbilt’s return to volleyball after 40 years.
If anyone needs something to hold them over until the football game starts, KU volleyball is currently on FS1 against Vanderbilt. KU dropped the 1st set, but has a big lead in the 2nd set.
In an alternate reality, KU’s 2012-13 starting line up could’ve been Elijah Johnson, Bradley Beal, Ben McLemore, Otto Porter, and Jeff Withey. Still a little weak at PG with EJ, but KU was runner up for both Beal and Porter and had KU landed both, that’s a hell of a starting 5.
@Jhawk69 said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@rockchalkjayhawk But Zuby gives you stats that are almost as good, plus is a better defender, plus would have cost us less NIL money that we could have spent elsewhere.
During the 2023-24 season, Zuby averaged 4 and 3 while oy playing 11 minutes per game. Udeh averaged 4 and 5 while playing 17 mpg his first year at TCU in 2023-24. Neither player was ready to step up and contribute that year. KU still needed an impact big for that season. Even if those 2 stayed and KU never lands Hunter, it doesn’t do anything to address KU’s biggest offensive issue the last two years, KJ Adams and the 4 spot. Neither Zuby, nor Udeh are 3 point threats so they don’t do anything to address the spacing issues KJ created at the 4 spot.
The arguing about Hunter vs. Zuby/Udeh doesn’t really matter to KU’s success those two years because of the 4 spot. On the court, Hunter was never the biggest issue the past 2 years. His offensive game was tailor made for Self’s system. Self unfortunately couldn’t put a group on the court around Hunter that complimented his skill set. Hunter needed guys that could move without the ball to create driving lanes and open 3’s, but the only two players that could do that were McCullar and Harris. We also know Harris didn’t have a quick shot to take those open looks from 3 he consistently had which was frustrating as Harris was a 37% 3 point shooter for his career.
@wissox Grimm and Arnold were good possession/slot receivers, but neither had great high end speed. Skinner was the best home run threat, but he wasn’t a great route runner and his hands were below average.
@Jhawk69 I really like this team on paper. The last 2 years, I warned multiple times that the season could be a disaster because the rosters weren’t well constructed and the transfers Self brought in didn’t compliment who was already here.
The biggest concern for me this season on paper is the offense. This isn’t necessarily a bad shooting team, but nobody that’s expected to play big minutes is elite either. Rosario is probably the best shooter on the team, but it remains to be seen how well his shooting will adapt to the college game. Outside of him, we have a bunch of wings and guards who all in the 32%-35% range which isn’t elite, but not bad enough to where you can ignore them either
I know some are concerned that Self didn’t hit on a high scoring wing in the portal and there is some validity to that, but I’m not too concerned about KU’s ability to score. Peterson is going to be big time and there’s very little evidence to suggest he won’t be as good as advertised at KU. If KU has 4 or 5 other players in 9-13 ppg range, they’ll be in good shape. Flory is still pretty raw offensively so I don’t see this season being a breakout year for him, but I still think he’ll average a double-double or be very near it. The man is a rebounding machine with good instincts so I think he’ll be fine.
Defense is where we’ll all see drastic improvements and I think this will be Self’s best defensive team post-Covid. Everyone expected to be in the is above average to elite defensively and everybody is good enough to switch. Rosario is the I don’t know much about his defensive abilities, but if the effort isn’t there, he’s gonna be sitting his butt on the bench. I think Flory and Council will be in the mix for B12 DPOY and potentially NDPOY.
We’ve got a good schedule and should know pretty quickly what this team is capable of. I like that most have KU in the 15-20 range because the weight of preseason expectations won’t be there. Obviously, Darryn Peterson is tge most important player and NPOY candidate, but as far as determining how deep KU can go this year, I think the two most important players are Elmarko Jackson and Bryson Tiller. We all know Elmarko was considered a OAD candidate out of high school, he hung around and stay through adversity both adversity both on and off the court which speaks volumes to his character (same with Jamari McDowell) and if Elmarko can play anywhere near that level, that’s going to make KU an incredibly dangerous team to have a backcourt of Peterson and Jackson tearing teams apart.
The other player that’s key to me is Bryson Tiller. He’s healthy and he’s another guy already on NBA radars so if he can be a serviceable back up to Flory and develop enough range to play the 4, then KU would move into legit national title contender territory.
As of right now, I’d say the Elite 8 is tge ceiling for this team, but if Elmarko and Tiller can play near their ability levels consistently, then I’ll call KU a title contender.
Dejuan Harris signed a contract to play in Belgium this season.
8pm and the heat index is still over 100° here in Houston.
@BShark said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@AsadZ said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark He is 26 years old.
Right, it’s pretty crazy that he has eligbility left. Modern times I suppose.
@rockchalkjayhawk I would be rather surprised if that spot was filled. Only so much $ and playing time.
Yea on that roster spot? Seems weird for a major program like Kansas to not have a full roster of players. Times are changing i suppose.
It is also more than it used to be now. 15 instead of 13. Admittedly it was always a big bigger with walk-ons. The last spots now are essentially walk-ons. Finding cheap players in this era will be important.
It’s sort of more than it used to be. Before it was 13 scholarships with unlimited walk-ons, now it’s 15 players with the scholarships divided up however the school want to divide the scholarships. Current walk-ons are grandfathered in for the remainder of their eligibility and are allowed to transfer if they choose to and still retain that eligibility.
I know Jaden Nickens wanted to play basketball as well and still could since KU has one roster spot open, but he’s not currently listed on KU’s roster so I’m wondering if Self is waiting to see how Nickens feels at the end of football season before adding him to the roster because I believe Self is now done with the 2025-26 roster.
@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
Anybody have the scoop on Jaden Nickens? Will he play both football and basketball?
Right now, it sounds like he won’t be playing basketball this upcoming season based on what the KC Star wrote in their article on Ngala committing.
@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
Hard pass on soon to be 27 year olds!
What the hell is happening with college sports?!
He’s a 1 year rental that’s essentially going to be doing scout team stuff. He’s not someone being brought in to play a big role on the court. I’m fine with players like this because he’s not going to do anything to embarrass the university.
@Kcmatt7 said in Bill Self back in the hospital 
:
I wouldn’t expect the next coach at KU to be without a GM who does a lot of the recruiting negotiating on his behalf.
Recruiting is not the role of a GM at the college level. GM’s handle the business side of NIL for programs that have them, they aren’t out on the road scouting and identifying talent.
This is Rachel Baker’s (Duke GM) job description: In this exclusive position, Baker will specialize in helping players enhance their personal and professional skill sets, capitalize on strategic partnerships, including NIL opportunities, and work to support players in navigating the opportunities and challenges that come with being a student-athlete at the highest level.
That’s her job description straight from Duke’s website
The summarized version is essentially to oversee the non-basketball aspects of the program, primarily focusing on player development, NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) opportunities, and strategic partnerships. This allows the head coach and assistant coaches to concentrate on coaching and game strategy.
Lexi Price does handle some of those responsibilities for KU as the Director of Basketball Ops for KU. Here’s her job description as listed on KU’s website: In her role, Price will continue her current responsibilities with the day-to-day operations of the KU program, in addition to managing student-athlete enrollment, housing, team travel, and coordinating camps and clinics. What’s missing from her role is the NIL/business side of the job which we’ll see what happens as the year progresses if she takes on those responsibilities or not. If not, then the next coach will absolutely need to hire a business manager to for the program that’s responsible for the NIL side of the job.
Recruiting still needs to be the responsibility of the coaching staff and not a “faceless” individual.
@bskeet KT is Self’s right hand man, but he’s not a good enough head coach to take over this program. If he was viewed in that light, he would’ve been the one running things in 2022-23 instead of Norm.
Bringing in Vaughn is very much a head coach in waiting type move because he could absolutely go get an NBA assistant position if he wanted. He doesn’t come back to KU as an assistant coaches unless there’s basically a handshake agreement that he’s going to be KU’s 9th head coach. I’m sure if this is the case, this word will be going around recruiting circles as well to help minimize the chances of KU’s 2026 class bombing because we are in one some very good players with a real chance to land a couple of them.
KU is going to have a lot of roster turnover again next year. Best case scenario, KU loses 4 to graduation and the NBA. Potentially, KU could lose up to 7 to graduation and the NBA. I think the number may well end up being 5.
@drgnslayr The more stents you have, the higher the risk of more complicated health risks occurring becomes and Self is up 3 now I believe.
Bringing in Vaughn now could be a program saving move because there is an increased chance Self doesn’t make through the season now and having a coach of Vaughn’s level on staff is going to be a big help for the program of that situation plays out.
Glad we have Vaughn now. Fully expecting him to coach at least one game this season.
JHX lost to Heartfire tonight. Not surprising since Heartfire was runner up last year and won in 2023 and is one of the favorites this year.
Anybody else see Furphy’s dunk today? Also had 15 points today.