2019 Recruiting
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@BShark I agree. I think Grimes is going to be around for that year as well. Definitely not sold on him being a OAD. Hurt with 2 years of Hudy will be a NPOY candidate.
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One day I must apologize to Hurt for not wanting him in this class. I think I did say that once. But man his junior film looks really good and with the game the way it is there is no player other then Achiuwa tailor made more for this team
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@BeddieKU23 Yep, he’s a great modern post player.
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Duke is no longer recruiting EJ Montgomery. Wow.
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Would not shock me to see Richards transfer if they land Montgomery and Washington comes back. No room at the inn.
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Kcmatt7 said:
Would not shock me to see Richards transfer if they land Montgomery and Washington comes back. No room at the inn.
They were 2 scholarships under the limit this season. They will be fine. Now from a PT perspective you might be right.
Has anyone but PJ Washington declared for them yet?
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LOL AS I TYPE IT KNOX MAKES IT OFFICIAL
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@BShark Scholarships is not the problem lol. Vanderbilt, Washington, SKJ and Gabriel were all playing in front of him last year. Add Montgomery into the mix and I don’t see where his minutes come from.
Of course UK won’t get roasted that Richards, Gabriel, Vanderbilt and Washington all come back for multiple years despite being top 25 players. Only Self gets that treatment.
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Kcmatt7 said:
@BShark Scholarships is not the problem lol. Vanderbilt, Washington, SKJ and Gabriel were all playing in front of him last year. Add Montgomery into the mix and I don’t see where his minutes come from.
Of course UK won’t get roasted that Richards, Gabriel, Vanderbilt and Washington all come back for multiple years despite being top 25 players. Only Self gets that treatment.
Yeah, what a shitty and tired narrative.
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Vernon Carey will have his top 5 tomorrow. Guessing Duke, Miami, Michigan State, UK, and UNC.
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@FarmerJayhawk If he doesn’t come here I hope he puts us out of the misery now. Glad Porter Jr. Eliminated us early last year when he could have road the hype train
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I agree. Kind of a bummer Self didn’t get to try to sway him this summer.
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@FarmerJayhawk So we’re not a player for Carey?
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We’ll see when he announces his top 5 today. I think the 5th is us or UNC.
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@FarmerJayhawk Nike having KU pushed out before he gets to play for Self on the U18 team makes a lot of sense unfortunately.
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Oh well. We’ll be more than fine with Silvio, JRE, and hopefully Hurt. Not to mention the possibility of Dante.
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Did Carey announce his top 5?
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EJ Montgomery to UK as expected.
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EJ Montgomery to UK means one of their post players is gone imo. It could honestly be any of the posts still on the roster. But 40 minutes to feed 6 mouth doesn’t seem like it is going to work. Honestly, I sort of expect two of them to be gone. None of those guys is going to be ok sitting.
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@Kcmatt7 I mean Tai Wynyard is absolutely gone. Were you thinking another as well?
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@BShark Yea I never much considered him on the roster. After his hole body guard thing, he was never coming back.
I mean, do you see SKJ or Gabriel wanting to come off the bench as Juniors? Or Richards come off the bench as a Sophomore? I don’t think Montgomery committed to UK without the promise of starting. If PJ and Vanderbilt come back, one of them is riding the pine.
We are talking about 4 guys who were 5 star recruits coming off of the bench. I don’t see how everyone stays in that scenario.
Unbelievable that we can’t land bigs when we have guys like Landen and Jamari “in the way” when UK literally has 5 guys with real talent and NBA potential on the roster.
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@Kcmatt7 Yeah you would think these kids want to play. PJ probably stays in the draft, and maybe another defection.
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Illinois got Andres Feliz. Top JUCO PG. Brad has a full platoon coming in.
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@BShark He is a good coach. And I expect him to get Illinois turned around. They just need to let him purge the roster first. It was a shit roster he took over. I would be two year from now, the Illini will be happy with that hire.
Of course he would have to be there two years from now lol.
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I was impressed with Underwood at OSU. Wish he was still in the Big12, but the guy OSU hired seems to have Bill’s blessing (2 gifted w’s imho) and isn’t too shabby so far.
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Kcmatt7 said:
@BShark He is a good coach. And I expect him to get Illinois turned around. They just need to let him purge the roster first. It was a shit roster he took over. I would be two year from now, the Illini will be happy with that hire.
Of course he would have to be there two years from now lol.
Yeah the Illini fanbase is insane.
Frazier and Nichols are solid players coming back. I like a lot of the pieces he has added. Dosunmu we all know as he was in the next recruitment tier for KU this year. Jones is a very athletic wing with enormous potential, he should contribute defensively right away. I like the post player they got from Georgia (THE COUNTRY) but he will need time to season/develop. Feliz is a much needed additional ball handler. Haven’t seen enough of their other two recruits to comment on them.
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Gabriel was coming off the bench for them this year, so I don’t see that being an issue for him next year.
Wynward was suspended last year anyway, and had discussed transferring, so he was on his way out as well. Washington is leaving. That leaves SKJ and Vanderbilt (got hurt, so he’s probably coming back), plus Richards, Gabriel and Montgomery. They also have Jemarl Baker coming in (missed the whole season with injury). He should help with their shooting issues. UK has the advantage that Calipari has shown that even guys coming off the bench can get drafted, so guys aren’t going to be as worried about starting as they would other places.
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dylans said:
I was impressed with Underwood at OSU. Wish he was still in the Big12, but the guy OSU hired seems to have Bill’s blessing (2 gifted w’s imho) and isn’t too shabby so far.
Next year is going to be very rough for both the Okie schools. If Bill loses to OSU next year I’ll be fully convinced LOL.
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@justanotherfan It’s a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy though. If Self had a completely stacked roster like Cal he would have bench players drafted more often too.
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Wynyard was injured (back) and out for the year and got suspended on top of that. Kid seems to be a walking headache and not worth the aggravation.
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Self has had McDs AA’s come off the bench for him (or barely play). That’s what hurts a kid coming to KU. Look at a guy like Sam Cunliffe. He’s not a guy that was in line to be drafted by the NBA, but he played 74 total minutes this season. Once Self decides he’s not going to play you, you just don’t see the floor. And that’s on a team that was desperate for depth. And Cunliffe still couldn’t get off the bench even when this team was struggling.
If you’re a recruit and you see that, it makes you think twice. That’s Self’s style. He’s going to cut his rotation down and play those seven or eight guys. Calipari will keep a larger rotation, and will play nine or ten guys, so it’s easier for him to stack a roster. KU has a pretty loaded roster next year, but I guarantee that only eight of those guys see any kind of time. That makes it less attractive for more guys to come, particularly if you know that there are veterans in front of you, since Self has a tendency to go to those guys.
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Kcmatt7 said:
EJ Montgomery to UK means one of their post players is gone imo. It could honestly be any of the posts still on the roster. But 40 minutes to feed 6 mouth doesn’t seem like it is going to work. Honestly, I sort of expect two of them to be gone. None of those guys is going to be ok sitting.
I agree there. Someone is going. Washington is going through the process with a bum thumb I believe. Needs surgery but they are putting off until after combine. Have heard Gabriel could leave to pursue pro contract somewhere. Vanderbilt is a wildcard. Would seem Cal recruited over him with EJ
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@justanotherfan I just don’t see PJ leaving. He is a skinny 6’7 PF that can’t stretch the floor at all and is a liability defensively. I just am not seeing the NBA intrigue. If he doesn’t leave, I just don’t see how Cal can keep 6 guys happy. No way no how. Especially when 2 of them are Juniors. Gabriel isn’t going to want to come off of the bench for his entire career. He was a top 15 recruit. Same for SKJ, he was a top 25 recruit. Vanderbilt is not coming off of the bench or playing fewer than 25 minutes without becoming a lockerroom disaster. Richards camp isn’t happy I’m sure. He went from a projected lottery pick to the last Big off of the bench at the end of the season. I don’t know what they are thinking, but I am sure that they won’t be happy playing only 14 mpg again.
At the very least, PJ is leaving you may be right. But he isn’t on a single mock draft I have seen. If he comes back, you are telling me that you really believe Cal will be able to keep 6 top post recruits happy on the same roster with only 40 minutes to split?
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Should also be noted that Montgomery can slide up a position and play the 3 a bit (can shoot and handle), so that unclogs the interior some because if you only have 4.5 guys, that gives you more options.
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@justanotherfan No he cannot.
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Is nobody curious how Bryce Drew went from Valpo to Vandy and somehow turned himself into a top 5 recruiter after two not great years? I just saw he was in play with Montgomery at the end still. If he pulls the Langford coup, my goodness. Just haven’t seen anything like it.
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@justanotherfan Cunliffe was severely overrated (money helps) and Hurley was done with his act. Sometimes, it’s not the coach.
That said Cunliffe is saying the right things now. He’s been terrible in games obviously, and I’ve seen it mentioned that he isn’t any better in practice.
I’ll be very interested to see if he toughs it out at KU. He, like Preston, has been a kid that quits and moves on when the going gets tough.
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@justanotherfan I do agree with your overall point about Self’s playing rotations though.
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Kcmatt7 said:
@justanotherfan No he cannot.
Cal is dumb enough to play that big though, he’s done it before.
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Wonder if UK is going back to “platoons?”
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@FarmerJayhawk lmao
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@BShark I sure hope he’s that dumb. Best way to ruin a team with the perimeter play they potentially have would be to not use it lol.
He is the biggest f-ing hypocrite too. He would do it and then play at a pace slower than ever after just this year talking about how he hates when teams play slow.
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Preston was never going to play at KU, so it is no surprise that he left. That’s not a case of the going getting tough. That’s a case of coming to the end of the road.
As for Cunliffe, I wouldn’t say he’s been terrible. I would say he’s been uneven, but hasn’t played enough to really grade out. Now I have not been at practice, so I trust if other people say he hasn’t been good in practice, he hasn’t been good. Cunliffe had a five game stretch where he played 20 minutes, 9 minutes, DNP, 9 minutes, 11 minutes. That’s 49 of the 74 minutes he played all season in five games (including a DNP). In that stretch he shot 9-19, had 22 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and two turnovers. Those are not great numbers, but they are not so bad as to be unplayable. Cunliffe didn’t play more than six minutes in a game after that, and, after playing in the next two games, never played in back to back games after that. It’s basically impossible to evaluate a player when they play that little.
I wouldn’t fault Cunliffe if he were to transfer out. He didn’t play last year (wasn’t really given much of an opportunity) and he likely won’t play next year. Dropping down to Division 2 would give him an opportunity to prove himself and have a chance for a pro career overseas.
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@justanotherfan Wasn’t referring to KU with Preston. The kid was at 3 or 4 different high schools, I forget the total. Preston’s mom is pretty much psychotic though, so it’s hard to fault him too much.
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I really like Cunliffe’s potential. As a solid role player in the future. Kind of put him there with Moore. I hope he finishes college here and never starts and is just a really solid sub for two years. He needs to redshirt this season though if Ochai isn’t at least.
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@Kcmatt7 Yeah if Cunliffe sticks around and another guard is added (likely) that is 7 guards/wings not even counting KJ. That screams someone should redshirt. If Cunliffe really wants to stick around he could be a candidate.
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Kcmatt7 said:
Is nobody curious how Bryce Drew went from Valpo to Vandy and somehow turned himself into a top 5 recruiter after two not great years? I just saw he was in play with Montgomery at the end still. If he pulls the Langford coup, my goodness. Just haven’t seen anything like it.
It definitely raises suspicion.
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Just noticed on Twitter, Jalen Romande Green at 4:40 PDT “blessed to receive an offer from the University of Kansas.” 2020 shooting guard. 6’5” SG out of Fresno CA.
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I don’t know whether either of these developments will ultimately make the difference but I have been seeing and hearing that UConn’s new assistant coach has a good relationship with Precious Achiuwa and they are pushing for him hard.
Another one, Matthew Hurt. With Mike Miller being hired at Memphis who has a relationship with Matthew and his father they could be getting into his recruitment
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@BeddieKU23 I think KU will prioritize Hurt over Achiuwa. I’m hopeful that Hurt commits early. JRE too actually.
