Posts made by Texas Hawk 10

Tonight is frustrating and bringing out the worst in KU’s fanbase. I don’t understand how some people are justifying Dejuan taking all the blame tonight. He absolutely deserves a piece of the blame for his FT misses, but KU was also 17-30 as a team. Zeke was 3-6, Storr was 0-4, Griffen was 2-4. Harris also didn’t dribble the ball off his leg. Harris didn’t get a 5 second call. Harris didn’t throw away an inbound pass. While Harris does get a piece of the blame, Zeke Mayo gets the biggest piece of the blame for his lack of awareness while inbounding the ball.

@TYOHawk said in Feeling the Fieldhouse magic?:

@kjayhawks it’s even more frustrating when you think about we likely lost out on a future NBA talent in LaBaron. His camp didn’t want him sitting the bench and they know Coach won’t bench Juan ever. He’s held us hostage for years.

Yet last game we got told “he just needs pros around him.” Like no crap every player would look good if they had pro teammates around them.

Dejuan Harris didn’t cost KU Philon. I know the narrative is about him playing PG, but if that were the case, Philon wouldn’t have gone to Alabama to play next to Mark Sears. Philon decommitted a couple of days after Elmarko announced he was returning, but somehow it was Dejuan’s fault, not Self choosing Elmarko. That PG narrative is pure BS.

@wissox said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

I saw this from a couple of days. Bill was none too pleased with Hunter with his latest shenanigans.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/43528357/kansas-self-questions-dickinson-actions-win-vs-tcu

That was some crap you expect in middle school. This is literally the biggest point of emphasis our refs have towards my middle school team, when the whistle blows, you stop fighting for the ball. I’ve had players get T’s because they didn’t stop at the whistle and I’ve had opponents get T’s for not stopping. The reason refs are so strict on this at the middle school level, and I’m sure high school as well is that stuff like fighting over a held ball trying to prove who the strongest or toughest is can lead to fights because players let their emotions and pride take over.

@dmurban More and more high dollar donors are getting the best seats closest to the court instead of students who are being forced up the stands which results in a quieter AFH. Also, losing 1,000 seats doesn’t help as well because I’m pretty sure some of that lost seating has affected how many students are given tickets to games.

@kjayhawks said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@Texas-Hawk-10 your gonna run a line up of 3 bigs for double digit minutes?

Nope, there’s 80 minutes to play between the 4 and 5 spots. Divide 80 minutes by 3 players and all 3 between 25 and 30 minutes is the result.

@kjayhawks said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@approxinfinity said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

“Who starts and who doesnt is irrelevant” is just not true. It matters a great deal, as it impacts the flow of the game and it is a matter of confidence and pride.

I think we may need to dissect what is meant by pushing buttons. It isn’t trivial. Getting players to find their best selves is different from joystick coaching and neutering your players.

I agree I really don’t care if KJ returns and hops back into the starting line up. But if KJ is still playing 30 minutes per game while Flory is playing 11-15 we have a problem between Bill Selfs ears. KJ can defend and be an energy guy maybe even more effectively if he’s not out there so long.

KJ, Flory, and Hunter should all be between 25-30 minutes once KJ returns.

The big hope tonight is that the second half for Storr was the light coming on and not a one off.

Rylan is someone that if he’s not making his 3’s, he’s not worth playing significant minutes that night because everything he does is predicated on him making 3’s.

@BeddieKU23 said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@kjayhawks

Tonight’s version of Storr is what you paid top dollar for. He was always a key and can be but one game against a very average team isn’t enough to trust. Saturday would be a good opportunity for him to play well again

He’s earned more minutes on Saturday at least tonight and KU is going to need Storr to have a similar performance against Houston to be able to beat them.

@kjayhawks said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@BeddieKU23 I’ve said several times we need to ride with both Storr and Griffen at times and see who takes off. We have to have one of them to make a run in March.

And preferably it would be Storr because he’s the one capable of going for 30+ when he’s on.

@DCHawker said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@kjayhawks said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

Storr’s the leading scorer for KU now amd KU has 5 in double figures.

You love to see it

Dickinson actually leading scorer, Storr second…

Not at the time of the post.

Houston beat Utah 70-36 tonight.

Storr’s the leading scorer for KU now and KU has 5 in double figures.

@approxinfinity said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

Is that really what we want? Hunt screening at 3pt line for AJ to shoot a 3? Somehow i think not

Not that version of their two man game. Storr and Hunter running pick/screen and roll should be what they do in their two man game.

Wedgie!

@rockchalkjayhawk said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

Dajuan is 100 percent awful today. Bad bad.

His worst game of the season.

If Storr can play with this energy and effort all the time, he becomes that missing piece for this team to make a deep run.

This might be Storr’s best stretch of basketball in a KU uniform.

@BeddieKU23 said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

Double technical. Go to hell ref

Right call though. Both players were blatantly ignoring the refs whistle long past when it was first blown. That’s the type of thing that left unchecked could easily escalate into some much more major later on. I actually agree with the refs on that one.

I’ll take being down two considering the first 10 minutes.

@BShark said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

@DanR said in Big Ern’s Frogs meet The Bidunga Bunch — Game Thread:

I’d be happy to have Zach available

Wonder what is going on there

Groin injury

Storr extended the forearm, it’s gonna get called every time regardless of whether it was a legit foul or not.

This line up can’t defend a high school team.

@BShark said in Mythbusters: Bill Self, minutes, and March:

@Texas-Hawk-10 KU chose not to really pursue Knecht, correct.

That’d be a @FarmerJayhawk question. Unless KU is recruiting a kid from the Houston area, I’m not well connected into recruiting anymore.

That said, I don’t recall ever hearing or seeing anything about KU looking at Knecht two years ago. KU is one of the premier programs out there and I’d imagine that a lot of transfers are going to listen when KU calls.

@BShark said in Mythbusters: Bill Self, minutes, and March:

@Jhawk69 said in Mythbusters: Bill Self, minutes, and March:

@BShark If true (which I am skeptical of) it was a mistake too but hindsight is 20/20. Nobody expected Knecht to be so good and Timberlake to be so bad.

Yes, recruiting misses happen all the time. It’s not supposed to be an indictment. UNC and UConn were recruiting Timberlake as well. Also there is the fact that they had Timberlake basically wrapped up while Knecht’s recruitment was in the earlier stages. My information here is hindsight from the same NBA guy but Knecht said he wanted to go to Kansas. He didn’t get much NIL from Tennessee, apparently.

Timberlake and Knecht committed two days apart so I don’t believe their recruiting timelines were that different. Timberlake was also someone I was always skeptical would be able to transition to high level P5 ball. I don’t remember if I had any thoughts on Knecht at the time because I don’t remember his name being connected to KU in 2023. I don’t think anybody really anticipated what he did last season, but I do remember liking him as a player and would’ve take him over Timberlake at the time. I’m guessing Timberlake being a 6th year player was probably a big factor in why he was being looked at by schools like KU.

@BShark said in Mythbusters: Bill Self, minutes, and March:

@Jhawk69 we stopped recruiting both. Ingram’s visit was delayed and eventually cancelled iirc

As far as Grant Nelson I have a friend in an NBA front office (I know this sounds lame lol) and he said that Grant said in their pre draft interview that he would have came to Kansas if we would have taken him.

Nelson is not a good 3 point shooter so I don’t think he would’ve improved KU’s offense all that much. He was also a fairly late commit in the portal (June) and for KU, I believe it was basically Dickinson or Nelson at that point.

@BShark said in Mythbusters: Bill Self, minutes, and March:

@Texas-Hawk-10 I’m just saying he’s a volume shooter and we already have two players that demand a high volume of shots. Basically there are only so many shots to go around so who would we want Storr taking them from. He is one of the least efficient options on the team.

Of course the biggest problem with Storr is his defense and he was a big part of a bad kstate offense scoring a lot of points.

This is why I keep saying there’s a trade offer with whatever line up Self outs out there. Personally, I’m fine with not playing Storr much because he’s an overall net negative.

But, if Self wants to maximize offense, then Coit, Mayo, Griffen, Storr, and Dickinson is that line up, but it’s also a line up that can’t stop anybody. I’ve been saying since the summer that this was an extremely flawed roster and was given grief over it by many here. There’s not a magic formula line up to fix KU’s issues.

My personal thoughts on what Self should focus on is his best defensive line ups because that will give KU their best chances against better teams. This team doesn’t have anyone who will be in the NBA next season so there is an overall lack of talent right now. A line up of Harris, Moore, Mayo, Flory, and Hunter is KU’s best chance at stopping other teams. Swap KJ for Hunter once KJ is ready to return and that is a very salty defensive line up. Playing games in the 50’s and low 60’s is KU’s best chance at winning.

@BShark said in Mythbusters: Bill Self, minutes, and March:

I’m not sure how you can watch the team with Dajuan off the court and think he is the problem.

I feel like the biggest issue for this team is a lot of the pieces don’t fit well together. Too many non-shooters but also Storr doesn’t make much sense on a roster with Zeke and Hunter.

Zeke and Hunter aren’t the issue with Storr’s game, it’s KJ. Storr is a driver and KJ not being a perimeter threat is what clogs the lane. Even though Hunter has sucked from 3 this year, teams still have to respect that Hunter can make that shot. We even saw it during the KSU game that Hunter and Storr’s games are compatible with each other on offense.

But, the overall roster composition this year is bad. There’s not a line up that’s a good balance between offense and defense. Harris, Moore, KJ, Flory, and whoever was a great defensive line up as we saw, but they struggled to score.

Harris, Mayo, Griffen, Storr, and Dickinson should be a great offensive line up, but it’s also a line up that can’t defend at all as we’ve seen when there’s only one good defender on the floor.

I’m much more optimistic that next season won’t see those issues with Jackson, Peterson, Flory, and whoever at the 3 and 4. I don’t think Tiller will play the 4 in college. I’d love to have Griffen back next season at the 3, but we’ll see what happens with him in the offseason. I’m good with Storr moving on to wherever because I don’t see him being a great fit with a really young team.

@kjayhawks It was generally trending that way starting around mid January after the first couple of Big 12 games. Cliff also played at the 5 spot quite a bit so there were times they were both on the floor together. Overall though, starting around mid-January, Jamari’s minutes were trending downward while Cliff’s were trending upwards.

@drgnslayr said in KState game thread:

@Texas-Hawk-10

Yeah… hard to imagine having the Zuby/Udeh tandem in the paint now! Maybe Self could have run his original hi/lo with those two!

I honestly wasn’t that bummed about losing Udeh. I think Hunter a better overall player than Udeh. Zuby was always the player I liked more because he was a better overall athlete that Udeh and could eventually play the 4 for Self.

@Jhawk69 said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

That year Traylor, Greene, and Frankamp combined to play 957 minutes. All of these minutes came off the bench. I would argue, that giving a substantial part of these 957 bench minutes to Andrew White III would have made him a part of the rotation. There are others who, bafflingly, disagree with this. This is the last statement that I will make about the feasibility of giving Andrew White rotation minutes 11 years ago.

I would have liked to see AW3 get rotation minutes, as he proved at later stops that he was a hell of a player. Oh well. Sometimes things just don’t work out and that is fine.

Jamari Traylor was never part of the discussion until this post you just made. Traylor was the 8th man and 4th big in that rotation. He also had zero affect and White’s minutes that season because they didn’t play the same position or sub for the same players. Traylor subbed exclusively for the 4 and 5 that season season while White exclusively subbed for one of the perimeter spots.

You’ve also been ignoring the fact that Frankamp dod not play in 8 games that season because Self chose not to sub him in and that Brannen Greene did not play in 7 games because Self chose not to sub him in. Even if White got all of Frankamp and Greene’s minutes, that still leaves about 25% of the games he would not have played in because Self didn’t play more than 8 players in those games.

@approxinfinity Greene was also anticipated to be the better player as well over White. White was the 69th ranked player in 2012 in what was a down recruiting cycle for KU. KU’s 2013 class was an all timer with Self landing four 5 star recruits including Greene and KU’s best player out of that 2013 class wasn’t even one of the 5 stars, it was their lowest ranked player, Frank Mason.

That 2013 class featured Wiggins, Selden, Embiid, and Greene as 5 star players, and Frankamp and Mason as 4 star players with Mason barely outside the top 50 in that class.

It also never helped White’s case for minutes here that he wasn’t a good 3 point shooter at KU. That made it easier to budget him out the door.

@approxinfinity Andrew White was never the better overall player between himself and Selden. His role at KU was always going to be coming off the bench playing lesser minutes because of who was ahead of him. Transferring was the best decision for White because he wouldn’t have had his cup of coffee in the NBA staying at KU.

None of this means White was a bad player because he wasn’t. It just means that the mid level 4 star recruit got recruited over by a pair of 5 star players who were better overall players than White and there wasn’t a pathway to starters minutes for him at KU until potentially his senior year.

Let’s say White never transfers and sticks at KU for his last two seasons, what’s his path to becoming a starter? Let’s just acknowledge that White was never going to start over Selden and Ellis, so for what would’ve been his junior season, his competition for minutes was Kelly Oubre, Greene, and Svi. I could easily see him playing over Greene and Svi, but I don’t see him staying in front of Oubre all season. That would probably put White in the 20 mpg range his junior season and going down as Oubre kept developing.

Let’s say at that point that White then decides to stay for his senior season at KU which would’ve been the 2015-16 team. There is an open starting spot that season that ultimately went to Devonte Graham so that would be the battle for White because we know he was never starting over Ellis and Selden. Would White have been able to beat out Graham for that starting spot in 2015-16 if he stayed all 4 years at Kansas?

So again, Andrew White was never a bad player, just someone who was here at a time when Self was at his peak in recruiting and White was stuck behind players who were just better overall than he was so he made the correct decision to go elsewhere to give himself the best chance to reach the NBA which he did.

@SlimShaddy54 Worthless and useless do not have the same meaning so that means somebody failed you in life since you don’t know the difference between those two words. Udoka Azubuike was also useless outside of 5’ from the basket, but that doesn’t he was a worthless player. It simply means his skill set was non existent more than a couple of step away from the basket, same as Udeh.

Your also using Udeh’s career high in points to claim he’s better than Zuby when Zuby is averaging 14.5 ppg this season. What category that’s relevant for their positions is Udeh better than Zuby in? Also, St. John’s has also played Baylor this season and Zuby went for 22 and 10 that game

Zuby is averaging 14.5 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 2.0 bpg, 69% FT shooting on 6.3 attempts per game and is at 62% shooting inside the arc and 57% overall while playing 29.7 mpg.

Udeh is averaging 7.4 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.5 bpg, 54% FT shooting on 3.9 attempts per game and is at 61.7% from the field with no outside attempts.

If you’re going to keep arguing the guy averaging 7 and 8 for a mid to low tier P5 schools is better than a guy averaging 15 and 8 for a 1st place P5 team, then you truly need to readjust your evaluation abilities because you might be the only person who would take Udeh over Zuby at this point.

@Jhawk69 said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Selden, Wiggins, and Ellis were starters. White didn’t need to start to be part of the rotation. He could have played off the bench without usurping any of those players. That is a basic and objective fact and I am surprised I have to explain that.

Self used an 8 man rotation that season. 4.5 back court players and 3.5 front court players. Tharpe, Wiggins, Selden, Ellis, Embiid, Mason, Black, and Traylor. Ellis is the 0.5 for each level since he was the 4, but mostly played on the perimeter. Mason, Black, and Traylor were the rotation players off the bench that season.

Embiid, Ellis, Black, and Traylor’s minutes that year were very close to 80 minutes per game so that was the front court rotation with Landen Lucas getting some spot minutes whenever Embiid was injured.

Mason primarily subbed for Tharpe and Selden with those 3 combining for 76 of the 80 minutes at the two back court spots. Wiggins was at 33 mpg that season basically leaving about 7 minutes per game for the wing spot and 4 more back court minutes for a grand total of 11 extra minutes per game of spot duty. Frankamp got the majority of those extra 4 back court minutes since he was a back court player and not a wing. All three of Greene, Frankamp, and White brought the same skill set to the table, outside shooting. But none of those three were very good at that skill that season. Greene shot 33%, White 32%, and Frankamp 31% from 3 so the one skill each was supposed to bring to the table was something none of them were able to actually do that season.

@Jhawk69 said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Those three players combined to average 20 mpg. Give all those minutes to AW3 and he is part of the rotation.

None of them played every game, that’s the point. Frankamp didn’t play 8 games and Greene didn’t play in 7 games. White only played half the season. Andrew White wasn’t going to magically play 20 minutes per game if he stayed healthy and took all of Frankamp and Greene’s minutes. Even if White had stayed healthy, he was never going to get rotation level minutes because there were a combined 15 games that season that Greene and Frankamp never checked into. Again, Andrew White’s competition for minutes that season were Andrew Wiggins, Perry Ellis, and Wayne Selden.

@Jhawk69 said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

@Texas-Hawk-10 I would have played him over Brannen Greene and Connor Frankamp

Neither played that many minutes and didn’t steal time from White. All 3 played spot minutes and none were part of the rotation. Frankamp didn’t play in 8 games and Greene didn’t play in 7 games that season and none of those DNP’s were injury related for Frankamp or Greene.

@SlimShaddy54 said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Udeh not worthless now, that’s for sure & I’ll stick with my theory, you can stick to yours. – I wouldn’t have a problem witheither

Where did I say Udeh was worthless? I said he was useless more than 5’ from the basket and there’s plenty of evidence of that. Remember the games where Doke was rendered useless because he couldn’t do anything outside of the paint? That’s Udeh. If Udeh was wearing a KU uniform and played 28 minutes against Houston and didn’t attempt a single FG, didn’t get to the FT line, amd only had 4 rebounds, this site would’ve had a meltdown over stat line (and yes, that was his stat line when TCU played Houston a couple of weeks ago).

Udeh, like Doke, is able to be taken out of games because he has minimal skill more than 5’ from the basket.

@approxinfinity Who are you playing White over during his sophomore season? Are you playing him over Andrew Wiggins? Are you playing him over Perry Ellis? Are you playing him over Wayne Selden? Those are the 3 guys White was competing with for minutes.

White wasn’t a bad player, he just wasn’t better than any of those players. And really, Wayne Selden is why White left because he wasn’t going to jump Selden in the rotation. White made the right decision to transfer out because he was never going to reach the NBA ar KU playing behind Selden.

@SlimShaddy54 said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

Kind of hard to deterime some one’s worth in their Freshman Year and not being able to get time on the floor much. was that way for Udeh and Zuby both.- - -Now they getting their minutes and seeing the results

I disagree with this. It’s not hard to see the potential even in limited minutes. At KU, Udeh was useless on both ends once he was more than 5 feet from the basket. He was a slightly better rebounder than Zuby, but Zuby was always more athletic and the better defensive player.

I remember perfectly clear that there were plenty of people arguing with me that Udeh was the better player and he was the one we should’ve fought to keep and I never bought it. Now, it’s bearing out that Zuby is indeed the better overall player over Udeh.

@approxinfinity said in KState game thread:

@Jhawk69 i dont think we can have an elite defense with KJ and Hunt on the floor together. Not against good teams. So, in my mind, the only way to accomplish an elite defense against those teams with KJ on the floor is with Bidunga at the 5 for rebounding and rim protection.

I dont think of KJ as an elite defender because of deficiencies in those areas, unless paired with someone who is a plus in those areas.

We can have a good defense with KJ and Hunter together because we’ve seen it before KJ’s injury. Shak Moore is why the KJ/Hunter paring can be good on defense. It allows Hunter to be able to play drop coverage and be a rim protector.

@rockchalkjayhawk said in KState game thread:

@BShark said in KState game thread:

On rewatch, I understand why Rylan didn’t get a ton of run. He was very slow getting back in transition after rebounds etc…

OK, so having watched Rylan play so far this season, doesn’t he seem like an awkward athlete?

He has as a smooth, fluid shot, but otherwise he seems to be fighting his body when he runs around.

Dribbling is not a strength.

Rylan is a catch and shoot player. I don’t know how this narrative that the 4th best player on Alabama was going to come in and suddenly transform into a star player. His best games for KU have been when catch and shoot has been his first role and he plays off of that.

@drgnslayr said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

Just watched Udeh and TCU take down Baylor at Baylor. Udeh went for 18. Can’t believe we let him slip away.

Not even the best big that left KU that season. Zuby averaging 15 and 8 with 2 blocks per game for a 16-3 St. John’s team that might be the best team in the Big East this season.

Zuby > Udeh and I’ve been saying that since their freshmen season here.

@MoonwalkMafia said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

@Jhawk69 I don’t disagree with you. I told you at the beginning, I think Self saw the writing on the wall. Which is why he started Cliff his last 5 or 6 games. Whatever it was. But I just can’t abide this idea that Jamari was the better option. Really, I was just trying to highlight the stubbornness that has held KU back at times.

I noticed nobody took issue with me bringing up how ridiculous Self’s “fools gold” comments. Do people remember that? It was crazy!

Jamari was a junior and Cliff was a true freshman. As the year went along, Cliff started developing as he was adjusting to the physicality of D1 basketball. I don’t think anyone is genuinely trying to say that Jamari was the higher ceiling player, but for most of the season, Jamari did have a much higher floor than Cliff. As Cliff developed, his floor got higher and that’s why he eventually moved into the starting line up towards the end of the season.

@MoonwalkMafia Brady was hardly the only KU player with a bad game against VCU. Reed went 1-7 from three. Markeiff Morris had 8 turnovers. KU as a team was 15-28 from the FT line. That loss was a complete team effort, not just Brady.

Elijah to me is the most overhyped player of that era. Elijah was 36% from 3 to Brady’s 53% in conference play. Elijah had 30% turnover rate to Brady’s 13%. That’s the big one. For a position that has the ball in their hands quite a bit, a 30% turnover rate is unacceptable. Elijah had more total turnovers than Brady in conference play despite playing less than half the minutes Brady did. Turnovers were that team’s achilles heel and Brady was the one guy who didn’t turn the ball over very frequently.

@MoonwalkMafia

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/kansas/men/2015.html

Go look at the advanced numbers. Jamari was the better overall defensive player over Cliff, and Cliff was the better overall option on offense. Jamari had the better defensive +/- and win shares while Cliff was better in each category on offense.

The debate over Morningstar and Elijah is also a ridiculous debate because the advanced numbers show Brady was the superior player by a wide margin that season. The debate that season really be between Elijah and Josh Selby because he’s the guy that played way more minutes than he should have been.

A healthy Diggs and Dell and Houston probably wins this. Texans definitely need to upgrade the OLine because Stroud was absolutely beat to hell this season. This is going to be a fun rivalry for the next however long Mahomes is around for.

KU missed KJ’s energy today. Giving up 74 to KSU who is flat out terrible this season. If they play like this on Wednesday, they’re losing to TCU.

The defense was terrible and KU lost the game after the first media timeout. After KU went up 14-0, KSU outscored them 74-70 the rest of the game.

For me personally, there wasn’t a lot to feel good about today’s game if KJ ends up missing extended time.

@approxinfinity said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

Regarding Cheick and Cliffs playing time, I thought there were reasons we kept them out of some games to avoid forfeiture of wins or some such. Not just because Self deemed someone else a superior player.

Diallo wasn’t cleared by the NCAA to practice with KU until right before Maui that season which put his development too far behind to be made up that season for how inexperienced of a player he was. He also had a shitty handler that was prominently named in the NCAA’s investigation against KU.

Cliff’s season was ended by the allegations against his mom coming out in late February which means KU didn’t have him for the Big 12 or NCAA Tournament. Cliff started the last 6 games he played at KU and was developing into a very good post player after some early struggles and was likely coming back for his sophomore season before his mom ruined his career.

@wissox said in My crisis of faith in Bill:

Bill Self had a phase where he recruited some questionable character guys. It really impacted this program, saddling us with the black eye of the half decade long investigation. The dude with the car accident (I’ve repressed the memory of his name and couldn’t care less to learn his name), the dude with the shoebox money (ditto my other parenthesis), Josh Jackson the most talented of all the lowlifes we brought in. The dude who raped the woman. Vick, had some issues, forgetting exactly, Jalen Wilson DUI, and the aforementioned Cliff Alexander, a victim of his own ma if I recall correctly. I might be wrong but Selfs first decade with us was his strongest and we avoided these headlines.

The original post, excellent btw @approxinfinity, and @MoonwalkMafia, was what’s happened to recruiting. Bill Self is still struggling to recover from the black eyes of the last decade.

But part of this is waiting for NCAA to work out the negativity of the NIL and portal eras. We brought in some highly ranked 5 star for next year. Normally I’d be stoked but now I’m just thinking he’s another Grady or Furphy (who had like 1 good game while he was here using us to get to the league). So while maybe the character issue has been resolved, finding loyal guys to the program who see all of the ‘trappings’ that come with being a KU player has been difficult. I laugh at guys like Grady Dick who took the money and play for a gosh awful Toronto team. Must be really fun playing in a boring league in front bored fans. He was getting paid here and would be a huge part of KU lore had he stuck around. Instead he’s an NBA afterthought. Would’ve gotten paid after this year or even his senior year a bunch.

88, 08, and 22 have forever etched themselves into my mind and make enduring these down periods a little less difficult. But I fear the aura of KU ball wearing off a little bit and always look at IU basketball, or Nebraska football as examples of programs that ruled their sport that haven’t been able to get it together since. Anyone see IU fans abandon the Assembly Hall the other day against Illinois before the first half was even done? My worst nightmare for KU right there.

Most basketball players don’t dream of peaking in college, they dream of playing in the NBA. I’m telling you this from experience with my football career. My dream was the NFL, if I had gotten to play for KU, that would’ve been cool, but ultimately wasn’t my end goal as I would’ve chosen whatever school was going to provide me the best chance to reach my goal of the NFL.

Unfortunately for me, I destroyed my ankle and missed my senior season and all of my scholarship offers pulled. I did have a couple of low level FBS offers from Sun Belt schools and Air Force before my injury.

@MoonwalkMafia Cliff had moved into the starting line up before the NCAA ended his season.