Topics created by joeloveshawks

@joeloveshawks Wow! Welcome back!

I didn’t have an issue with Hill, the other guys acted like Duke was up 20 the whole game and seemed to be cheering them on fairly hard. Oddly enough I enjoy Bilas and Jay Williams, I think they call it as it is. I cant stand Greenberg or Fran. Overall the tournament commentors are light years above ESPNs IMO.

This why people come to Kansas my friends. Dook vs Kansas for a trip to college basketballs biggest stage.

I don’t care about UNC. I care about KU. I want our program to be on top. I want to see FF banners and more NCs. I want fair treatment with players. I don’t want to see double standards. I want our coach to be flexible and better utilize the talent and arsenal available to him and not get stuck with old ways.

@JayHawkFanToo Its a team game and “chemistry is king”… not a single player. He had a magic moment in Toronto, but that doesn’t mean his shot drops next March or if he connects with all the other newbies. “Any player can have a big game… elite players go do it every night!” I’m not conceding anything to a freshman, anywhere. He’s got to prove himself. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. There will be a lot of talented teams out there, and we have no idea if this young Kentucky squad will play like a team or a bunch of stars on their own.

@RockkChalkk I don’t think your drinking the Koo-aid at all. Though I’m starting to think Diallo is becoming a reach. No proof but Nike seems to be pulling out all the stops to get these top kids into Nike schools. I will say kind of love Nike turning it’s back on Coach Cal and UK. I had a feeling Slimy Cal and his arrogant ass would cost him in the end. At the end of the day for Nike it’s about selling shoes and apparel, and Coach Cal is bad for business. HCBS has done it before. Getting gems in the rough of what’s left over, and you’re right He’s done pretty good with transfers. Just off the top of my head Young, Whithey, and Black all turned out to be pretty good pickups. Though Black under preformed a bit he was a presence on the court. I’ll never forget when he backed down the opposing team all by himself. LOL That was classic.

@joeloveshawks No need to apologize. I should apologize! I like the Badgers and whenever someone mentions them I feel like I need to respond which I really don’t need to however! Thanks for supporting the Badgers though!

The NCAA tournament is a single elimination tournament. That means every single game is the Super Bowl for every single team. You win, you keep playing. You lose, you go home. There is no reason that Wichita State should be more motivated to win an NCAA tournament game than KU is. This is Kansas. We want to go to Final Fours and win titles. There is no reason to not be up for an NCAA tournament game, regardless of what name is on the other jersey. Remember, a lot of these WSU players have been to the Final Four and are dying to get back. Most of them were on the unbeaten squad from last year. Their motivation isn’t to beat Kansas - their motivation is getting to Indianapolis. Maybe for the fans, it means something different, but WSU’s players and coaches want to get to the Final Four, whether its beating Kansas or beating Virginia or whoever. For KU, it’s the same thing. We want to get a shot at the Final Four - doesn’t matter if that takes us through Wichita State or through Ohio State. We want to get to Indianapolis. I had a feeling when KU lost the Big XII title game that we would end up bracketed with UK as the lowest #2 seed and Iowa State would move up on the 3 line. That seems pretty fair, honestly. Notre Dame moved up to the top 3 seed by winning the ACC, followed by the Big XII logjam of ISU, Baylor and Oklahoma. I can’t say that we were treated unfairly there because I can’t make an argument that we were more than the 8th best team in the field. We certainly haven’t looked like better than the 8th best team. All I know is that we better focus on taking care of business against NM State, or we won’t have to worry about the Shockers, let alone the Cats.

@joeloveshawks Wow. That was a lot like winning the lottery. I guess. Very cool stuff though - thanks!

Self has a very good record against big name teams in tourney time. With all the down talk of Self lately (a lot of which is deserved), give us the big name schools and watch Self work his magic!

@wissoxfan83 In this age of OADs, what luxury to have a player like Kaminsky for 4 years.

@REHawk The big 12 is shaping out to be the toughest conference again. WVU is 5-0 and just beat #17 and defending champion UConn. The latest Bracketology projects the Big 12 having 7 teams in, which at 70% matches last year’s record percentage. As comparison, the Big 10 and the ACC each has 8 teams but the Big 10 has 14 teams (57%) and the ACC 15 (53%), so the percentage is much smaller. Other conferences include the PAC 12 with 6 out of 12 teams (50%) and the SEC 4 of 14 (29%). Nobody is even close to the Big 12…and the seven conference teams do not even include West Virginia.

@jaybate-1.0 I like the analogy … but let me twist it a little bit. Last season, sure, it was the X-1. Fast, lean, built for a certain type of flight. The 2014-15 version of the Hawks, though, are more akin to the A-10 Warthog. Conceived and commissioned to do the dirty work. Not pretty, not flashy … simply carnage left in its wake. Mason pilots a Warthog, while Tharpe sat in a malfunctioning X-1. Mason has an attitude and aggressiveness that is befitting of Self-ball. He had the one critical year of seasoning. What I believe we will see from Mason is not only a PG that can penetrate and dish, but a guy that can get to the rim and finish when necessary. When all is said and done, I think we’ll see a guy shooting 37% from 3, nice A/TO ratio, and double figure scoring. Self recruiting a replacement pilot. Lots of motivation to keep the plane in the air.

@JayHawkFanToo I like your post on “all offenses are predictable.” I think this conversation came about after I mentioned us being predictable. What I was really getting at was how defenses can quickly learn how to play the simplest form of our offense… which is to take 3 guards on the perimeter, and throw it back and forth rapidly to see if the defense bounces back into position. We are looking for a passing lane and a guy to pop open. There are many variations we run through that offense. Or let me say… we CAN run through it. Where I get frustrated is when we use very little of that offense, and our guys are standing flat-footed for most or all of the shot clock. It doesn’t take a lot of great defense to guard this offense. I’d like to know how we get in those ruts? If I’m yelling at my TV during a KU game it is usually on our offensive game when guys just stand around. No matter how much these kids get taught, what really should happen is players learn to create on their own. Maybe they will use specific schemes drawn up by the coaches… but players have to be proactive and create their own opportunities. Even better… players learn to communicate with each other on the court to create as a team. What I liked about Embiid (when he was healthy) was his ability to create in the low post. Self and staff didn’t teach him those moves. A big part of all of this relates more to players playing aggressive. Many of us have been critical of Self pulling players too quickly. Sometimes the focus is too much on structure, when it should focus on creativity. When we play bad it is usually because we play too tightly in a structure, where there is no breathing room. Where guys don’t want to be the one who flubs the play, so no one steps up and we have 3 guys on the perimeter, standing flat-footed, throwing the ball back and forth while our post guys are jammed up in the post. We all know what I’m talking about. Compare our offense to ISU. Typically, in their periods of bad offense they still have guys making cuts and setting screens. Sometimes they have a sync problem but they still have movement. It really clicked on me when I was watching the show “The '84 Draft” and they were talking about Jordan breaking loose from all the structure at UNC where he could finally play his game and flourish. Granted, I don’t think we typically recruit Jordan-quality players, but there is some truth to that and the stiffness of our offense. I have a hard time recalling KU players that were really cut loose to score. I think I would probably go back to Keith Langford. I truly miss Keith Langford and what he brought to Lawrence. Had BMac stayed, he might have picked up more game to become a real threat like Langford was. Same with Wiggins. But then, Self would have had to let off on some structure. He’d have to push these guys to do some creating on their own. The NBA is mostly very predictable basketball. Offenses are run off percentages. And the guy that can best score at a rapid clip will be given the ball in his favorite spot with a clear out. It is a team game, but the isolation breaks it down to one-on-one. The game gets pretty boring without some of that play. The game can also get boring without any team offense. It usually works best to mix it up. Some of the most dynamic offense of all times came from some of those Laker teams with Magic, Kareem and cast. They did manage to create some level of unpredictability because they had so many weapons, and all those weapons liked to score on their unique spot on the floor. For the reason, it was tough for teams to defend against it… especially trying to help out with team defense.

@HighEliteMajor “This is a national championship season until it isn’t.” Can a comment be labeled a “contraption?” HEM, there is always something clever in your posts. Well done! I think @KUSTEVE nailed it. Will we have guard play competitive enough to win in March? I guess we won’t know until March, and if we do know before then, it is because we don’t think they can cut the mustard. I get a good feeling from this bunch of guys, including our guards. I was a huge TT, EJ and Naa fan… however… there was some kind of funk that started with TT and carried right through with EJ and Naa. It was like an under current of bad juju. It was some kind of low esteem issue that never got resolved. I really thought TT was there his senior year. But what followed with his protege EJ clearly showed me different. And then Naa seemed to be just another disciple of that same esteem issue. I finally feel like that chain is broken. We have a new start. We have players that are not looking back at those guys and ready to follow their mistakes. That doesn’t necessarily mean we have an answer for the Harrison twins. Those guys will be freaks this year! But anything can happen, and that is what I like about this time of year. We can dream about winning in March and we are in position to win another National Championship. HEM got it right… “This is a national championship season until it isn’t.”

@ralster I bet the competition between AWIII and Greene was pretty close. The thing was, even though that competition may have been close, the competition between those guys and Wiggins/Selden was probably not that close. There are 80 wing minutes to go around. If Wiggins is getting 30 and Selden is getting 25, and Self has always shown that he will play 2 ball handlers together at least sometimes, that means 65 of those minutes are gone already and you have two guys battling for the 15 remaining minutes. AWIII was a close second in that battle last year. He’s seen the tape on Oubre. He’s played against Selden. He’s played against Greene. He knows he wasn’t on Wiggins’ level and probably won’t be on Oubre’s. He’s also behind Selden. That means its him and Greene again for that main backup role on the wing. He knows that if he comes in 2nd again this year, he’s back to playing 5mpg, which I am sure is not how he envisioned his college career playing out. Better to take your career on to another school with two years of eligibility than to redshirt at KU, then end up transferring and be in a position like Brady Heslip where you really only have a chance to play for three seasons.

@icthawkfan316 I would love to see a Bill Self team that bombs more 3’s. Last year when the ball when in the air from behind the arc I just assumed it was not going in. This is not really due to a team of guys who can’t shoot…it is partially how Bill coached last years team. He obviously did not like guys jacking up 3’s and is notorious for the quick hook. I feel a big year coming on for both Greene and Frankamp from deep. Both guys have as pure a stroke as you will ever see. They just need to be on the floor enough to get in rhythm. There is a lot of talk above about who the odd man out is going to be and who is going to start and who is going to watch from the bench. Of course there is a lot to be seen but I truly truly hope that both Greene and Frankamp are on the floor a lot. Every year in March I realize how important having guys who can shoot 3’s can be. It was one of many things our squad lacked last season. Rock Chalk.

@JayHawkFanToo I watched the first half of the Summit game, Kelly was active and had at least 2 steals and 2 rebounds. He actually played some defense. I’m not sure if his shot selection was bad. He appeared to be the designated shooter and shot when he was open. It’s interesting looking at the measurements. Even though Cliff is 3 inches shorter than Myles, but the wingspan and reach are almost the same. Cliff Alexander Weight: 251 lbs. Height (w/ shoes): 6’8" Wingspan: 7’3.5" Standing Reach: 9’0” -Cliff Alexander doesn’t have elite size for a power forward prospect, but he has good length and outstanding strength for a player still months away from playing in his first college game. As a point of reference on just how strong Alexander is, his measurements match up exceptionally with Ike Diogu who stood 6’8” in shoes with a 7’3.5” wingspan weighing 255 when he entered the draft in 2005. Myles Turner Weight: 242 lbs. Height (w/shoes): 6’11.5" Wingspan: 7’3.75" Standing Reach: 9’1.5” -Standing just a shade under 7-feet tall with shoes on, Myles Turner measures similarly to LaMarcus Aldridge who stood 6’11.25” with a 7’4.75” wingspan weighing 234 pounds back in 2006. Though Turner doesn’t move as well as Aldridge, he has NBA size and a frame that has come a long way since he emerged on the recruiting radar. It will be interesting to see how much more weight his frame can carry. Kelly Oubre Weight: 204 lbs. Height (w/shoes): 6’6.5" Wingspan: 7’2" Standing Reach: 8’8” -Kelly Oubre has length akin to that of Kawhi Leonard, who stood 6’7” in shoes with a 7’3” wingspan coming into the 2011 draft. Leonard had a more mature frame weighing 227 pounds, but Oubre has the same type of unique wingspan. From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com#ixzz2ysq4kAy2