Best posts made by Lulufulu85

Here is the link. Its a great story!
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1891203-meet-kansas-joel-embiid-a-cameroon-native-blossoming-into-a-top-nba-prospect

And, I purposely spell Joel’s name like that, its a Superman reference of course, The guy is a stud! Just imagine if he sticks around for one more year? I mean really, it could happen. If we don’t win a title this year and if JoEL thinks he can learn more and get better at KU. Then the likelihood that we win the title in '15 is greatly enhanced. With what we will have returning and coming in, we could be even better next year. Pre season #1 type stuff.

Our KU team this year is very young and still inexperienced. They are still “soft” in areas they would never be normally. Releford telling them they are Soft defensively, not going after 50/50’s and all that. I agree. Most, if not all of us agree. They have a long road ahead of them to reach those goals of toughness and killer instinct that every team in the Self era has had before them. I hope that Releford’s words spark them, make them mad, get them going. They need that extra spark this year, from a former player and excellent defensive presence that is Travis Releford. I love it when former players come into the locker room to chat with the current team. It has got to be humbling on some level for the current ones to hear that from the alums.
To switch gears a little bit, I took a peek at Kenpom just now and much to my surprise KU has a top 15 ranked defense and offense. It seems they are making progress because it wasn’t long ago, when they were outside the top 20 in one or both of them. We cant really say it is because they have played a couple of easy games either. If you look at the top 20 teams in Kenpom right now. KU’s Strength of Schedule is way way better than any of them. The next best one against KU’s is literally double what KU’s is. In order for KU to climb up the rankings once again they absolutely need to cut down on the TO’s and fouls which should happen as they get more and more used to the rule changes. They also need to get a chip on their shoulder, they need to get pissed that Travis called them soft, they need to dive after lose balls and rack up the floor burns. Im not a betting man by habit but I will wager that the conference play will bring out the best in these guys. They don’t want to be the ones who let the streak go.
RIght now, I cant say for sure if they will win the conference and go far in the NCAA’s. But I sure as hell hope they will. They have the tools and the talent to do it.

Most of you have probably seen this already but here it is again anyways.

Taking a stroll: Self said he took a long walk Sunday, prior to the Ice Bucket Challenge. During his stroll, he pondered the makeup of his 12th KU team.

“I know I’m going to like our speed. I know I’m going to like our hungriness. I think I’m going to like our aggressiveness,” he said. “The only thing that will be different with this team is, we’re used to having size. Our standing height is by far the smallest it’s been in a long time.

“But we also won a national championship (in 2008) starting two 6-8 guys (Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson), but we had 6-11 (Sasha Kaun) off the bench. We won a lot of games when Wayne (Simien, 6-9) and Christian (Moody, 6-8) were our two big guys. But still that hasn’t been the way we’ve been successful of late. So we’re going to have to adjust and do some things defensively I think will benefit our personnel and maybe some things offensively to open the court more to allow our guards maybe to post more.”

I think it exciting and interesting how Coach feels about this team so early in the season. He is saying positives about their aggressiveness, hungriness and speed. The latter being not so much of a surprise but to show such fortitude this early says good things to me about the 14-15 season. All those guys coming back knew they underachieved last year and they got to " nut up or shut up this season" Quote from Woody Harrelson in Zombieland. They are smaller this year but they will all be fast and they will all be hungrier on defense this season. They learned the hard way last season. You dont play great D and learn how to be a wolf pack, your not going far in the dance. The 2008 team was an absolute wolf pack on defense. If this years guys can aim for that level, they will be much much tougher to beat.
Can we just start the season already? I Need my college basketball!!

Anyone ever get an ear on what happened to this guy? We clearly have some good basketball minds here but man, I miss reading his stuff.
I still read articles on the kusports site but I don’t post there anymore. Seems the traffic has slowed quite a bit there too. Shame. It was a great place for basketball fans to get all they want during the season and to contribute their own thoughts. Btw, those 10 question survey things really suck, a lot. everytime it asks for a typed answer I always insert a random curse word.

Who’s gonna watch the first preseason game tomoro, and where will you be!? I cant freekin wait people. Im gonna go to Johns upper deck, downtown KCMO by the P&L. Coincidentally its the night before my Bday so Imma be partay ING!

Good evening or morning fellow Jayhawks! I’m back and settling in to my new home in the wonderful state of Vermont. Seriously, its really beautiful here. I just wanted to leave a message and say hello. We are in the dog days of summer still and the next basketball season is a couple months away still but I am just as excited as ever to see our guys play! Not being a Kansan will mean getting espn full court so I can see all the games and, I wont be going to AFH anytime soon. Bummer. But there is always a chance I can catch a live KU game at an early season or late season tournament. MSG is mere hours away from me by train or car! Im thinking of checking out some University of Vermont games when the season starts too but I know it wont be the same. No program can compare to KU. Not even Duke or UNC, both of which I respect a great deal. Yah, I said it. I respect Coach K and Coach Williams. But I digress. I’m happy to be back in here and able to converse with everyone here about the best game ever.

ps. Dig the new format!!!

HEM, I just wanna say that Im glad you are posting on here. You and Slayr both.

I just want to say I am just as excited and impatient for this season to start as I was last season. That said, I think our guys will be tougher this year. Self boot camp for 8 days and then a marine style boot camp for another 2!? Geez, if that doesnt get our guys a toughness edge, then nothing will. Having been through 2 months of Navy boot camp myself, I can directly attest to that one. Coach said since they have zero senior scholarship players this year, they need to be given an extra push to help them develop those leadership traits. I feel good about what coach is putting them through this year before games and practice starts. They will be physically stronger and tougher than last year. I hope mentally tougher as well.
couple more thoughts, The Bruise Brothers continues this year with Jamari and Cliff in Tarick’s place. Frank Mason will, I hope, be like Sherron Collins was his sophomore year.

@HighEliteMajor irrational feeling followed by a mean and irrational post. yes this game hurts but should we be pointing all the fingers at Coach Self? He is one of the best and I am proud to have him. Should we be calling him out for this and calling for him to resign? Come on man. Your a Jayhawk fan, you should know better.

@HighEliteMajor SO HEM, ARE YOU READY TO CALL FOR HIS JOB!!! GO RIGHT AHEAD MAN. You make valid points but if you can do better than Coach Self then be my freekin guest… If not, then stop posting on here. I am sick of listening to your constant bashing of KU and our future hall of fame coach. You have made me and likely others upset with your continued boohooing and trashing of one of the best programs and coaches in the country.

@drgnslayr Man, what would have been possible had JOJO stayed around. He is the first footer at KU that I have seen that can handle the ball and run the floor like a guard. Ok maybe not exactly like, but you get what Im saying. I agree with you though, our team this year is going to be more experienced all around and just as deep. Im not saying they need to play Defense like VCU but man, some intermittent and unpredictable pressure would keep teams guessing and back on their heels.

Yeah, its all speculation at this point. But, thats what makes it fun! This team has a lot of unknowns, even with all the guys that were here last year. A few things are set in stone. This team is loaded, more so than last year. I like Self’s remark about how this team reminds him of 08. I can see that, but at the same time its not entirely accurate. The 2008 team was a battle tested hungry wolf pack. In 2007 they would have gone further if not for UCLA beating them in the elite 8. That motivated them, made them mad, and we all know what happened next. Both 07 and 08 teams excelled on defense. Last year plainly sucked at defense. Even with JoJo being the stud shot blocker and Wiggs being our best perimeter D guy. Will this team be better at defense than last year? Most certainly. But, will it be top 5 rated defense? I think boot camp plus a couple days with the Marines putting the hurt on the team will do wonders for their toughness and molding into a defensive wolf pack. We also know the offense will be spread around a lot more with this team. Nobody will break Wiggs freshmen scoring record for the foreseeable future, or single game scoring record. But, who ever the starting 5 are, they could very well each average double figures, not unlike the 08 team.
I have a good feeling about Oubre and Selden on the wings this season. I also have a good feeling about Frank Mason, I think he can give us a presence like Sherron did in his sophomore season. Im calling him Sherron 2.0. If Coach is saying Greene still needs to buy in on D, then he probably does. Conner is going to light it up from trey this season. The lid will finally come off. With all the praise Coach has given Devonte’ I just don’t buy a freshmen PG starter. I am impressed that he got top honors from the Marines though.
Traylor and Alexander are The Bruise Brothers 2.0 Perry will see his share of playing time but if he doesnt improve on D this year, I bet he gets to ride the pine a little bit more. Lucas seems to be ready to have a break out year and I hope Mickelson gets his chance to shine too. Like I said, this team is deeeeep. Coach could easily have 2 five man teams this year. We all know that wont happen.
If Greene cannot show he can defend, I agree he may get the DSC role. If Mickelson cannot play outside his comfort zone, he may get one too. KU vs UK will be a very very tough game for us to win. But I hope we do.

http://player.tritonmedia.com/entercom/KCSPAM

Man, that cracks me up! LOL! Its right along with the one where he and a few other guys were late for curfew. Coach asked them why and B.Rush said," Coach, because the club was craka-lakin!" Or something similar to that. Freekin hilarious.

Good post HEM. Personally I tend to agree that coach should use a zone more often for those reasons Jesse outlined. Don’t think pure zone all the time is the answer, just enough to limit our fouls and shake up the opponents offensive rhythm. We are about to see how our favorite young team will do after a tough road loss, going to another tough team on the road. KU is more talented but they are younger. They are better but they need to play like it. Wigs needs two halves of NBA caliber game, Perry needs to watch his perimeter D, Joel needs to not foul on fakes and hedges, and all need to keep their turn overs down. Mostly they have done that but against CU, they turned it over too much, they need to use quick ball movement for better shots and someone needs to make more 3pt shots. If they can do all that, they could win at Florida but that’s a pretty tall order.

never doubt Bill Self JayDoc. I do however think this team has a larger margin for error than we all think. That being said, we ARE beating Duke. We will sweep OU and ISU. Road losses don’t look good in the selection committees eyes and I don’t see KU getting anything less than a 2 seed. Well, its what my magic 8 ball says anyways. PS. call me JaynurseRN. Rock Chalk!

Didn’t Self even say early in the season they had practiced zone?

So I guess I am a bit wishy-washy on my total losses this year for KU. I truly believe we will beat Duke. Mostly by the new rules giving us FT’s from Duke’s flopping and body checking, and giving Duke foul trouble. If I think we will sweet OU and ISU this year, where should the 7 losses I think we will sustain come from? WE WILL at least tie for a 10th straight conf. championship. If Rush and Rio &co can do it as freshmen, then this team can Absolutely do it too. Come on guys.

@ParisHawk Absolutely. And that Joel shark quote on the home page? Hilarious

I just want to reiterate that I am sharing these photos with the website and all who visit here. Feel free to do as you wish with what I put down. Caveat, I’m no pro. This is purely amateurism at work here. I’ve enjoyed this hobby for nearly all of my adult life. I hope I can bring some enjoyment and inspiration to others too.

@approxinfinity Hey! That sounds like an AC/DC song. lol

@wissoxfan83 Thanks Wissox. You know, Bourbon street is on my list of to do things before I die.

@jaybate 1.0 Sherron did us right good and he wasn’t much over 5’10. Mason seems in many ways, like a young Sherron.

Link to Wiggins story…

Hope that link works. If it does not, go check the article out on Bleacher Report. Its a good read.
On that same topic, at first I was of the opinion that Andrew should have been able to stay in Cleveland and work with the best player in the league right now. He would have been able to follow LeBron and pick his brain for many seasons, learning all kinds of stuff to make him a better player down the road. But after some thought and reading other articles about opinions to the contrary, I think Andrew could also benefit from going to Minnesota and having his own team to build upon, learn and grow with, mature as a player on his own as the corner stone of that team. Not too dissimilar from Steph Curry or John Wall.
There is no doubt to me that Wiggins will be an All Star, a many time All Star. It just remains to be seen how quickly he can get there and I think having his own team to be the lead guy on could help him get there quicker. It will force him to be The Man and not take a back seat approach to LeBron James in Cleveland. Had Wiggs stayed in Cleveland, and I say this like its already happened, he would be the 4th option on offense. He would have a harder time getting rookie of the year that way. He would also have a harder time growing into his own that way. I’m excited for him to get shipped to The Timberwolves now. I think it could be a great opportunity for him.[link text]([link url]([link url](link url)))

@HighEliteMajor One last last thing, HEM to add to your #3. The lack of 3pt shooting will greatly increase the chances of a round 1 upset. Just like 04 and 05

Great stuff. I’ll miss Robin Williams. RIP Funny man

@bskeet Man, I like that ESPN video on Wiggins. Makes a good case for him being the best. With regards to Kellog’s take on OAD’s, I think Wiggs is the real deal. That being said, I think his parents will be there to give him advice so he can make the best decision for himself. I also think $ will not be a factor in his case. His Fam clearly is very well off. Im happy he is a Jayhawk, short lived as it maybe.

@drgnslayr Thanks Drgn

@drgnslayr YES! When Brannen did that I was thinking DejaVu with Sherron in the title game! That was awesome to see again. Way to go Brannen! Keep it up!

@JRyman I agree with you also. Clearly Lunardi has no clue what he is doing. He’l probly just blindly picking schools, fill in the blank type. No Way the selection committee puts all 3 Kansas schools in the same bracket. Wont happen. On the chance that KU gets a 2 seed and Wichita gets a 1, I can see that happen. We’ll beat there asses too. That said, I also don’t want UNC in our bracket this year, I am tired of it. I like Roy, I like UNC. I hope they do great in the tourney this year as a way underseeded team. But, just not in our bracket this year please?!

@dylans Im deeply sad. I agree. no more College ball for me til fall. Like I said before I really hope Embiid realizes he has unfinished business here and comes back. I know we will be better next year. But that’s not much of a consolation right now.

@bskeet We will absolutely be better next year!!! More experience, less youth. Just as much talent. The guys returning will be hungry and tough and ready to be hard nosed winners. It was like this in 05-07. Its a process. We have to ride with it despite the pains of loss. I don’t like the losses any better than anyone else does. Imagine how Wiggins and Tarik feel!? Those guys just played their last game as a Jayhawk. Wiggins had a great season come up short and Tarik had the same thing. Its heart breaking. I sincerely hope Selden stays and Embiid decides to rehab and get stronger this summer with Hudy. With Alexander and Oubre in next season too, with what we have returning, which will be a hungry and tougher team. WE WILL DO BETTER NEXT SEASON.

@wissoxfan83 Good post as usual Wissox. I too am highly optimistic about next season. If Embiid stays, which I think he will, just a gut feeling, I will be elated! But, if he goes, we will be just fine. I don’t know much about Alexander other than he is supposed to be a Beast in the post. I trust that Bill will curb any ahhh personality issues with Cliff just the way he did with the Twins and TT. Not worried about that at all.
Increased pressure on Coach to make a deep tourney run next season? Absolutely. I also kind of agree with Drgn and HEM when they mentioned this loss was more on him than the players. He just does not like to make in game adjustments to give who is on the floor the best chance to win, or to switch line ups to do the same. Case and point Naadir as a Junior was out played by Conner Frankamp a Freshmen! Conner should have played more than 25 min and Coach should have adjusted better to the defenses that Stanford threw at them. But, one thing I disagree with them on is that had Embiid been healthy and been able to play, we would have won anyways without in game adjustments. We would have won. I cant hate or bash on Coach too much because like you said, he has a ring, he has a runner up and he has 10 straight conference champs and 7-8 other tourney titles. The guy wins a lot. He just needs to win another title for KU, asap. Personally I think that if Embiid comes back, the title is ours for the taking.
ps. ive no idea if Harris comes to KU or not, I just heard he was leaving.

@wissoxfan83 Nice! Yah, I’ve got Wisconsin picked to win this one too.

@icthawkfan316 Good post man. I am intrigued by Graham also. He sounds pretty solid for a PG. If the kid can pick up Coach’s system, can he be like Hinrich or Russell? If so, lets have at it. The best option I think is from within though. Frankamp and Mason played better when they were in games, at least most of the time. Frankamp really impressed me late. If Hudy can pack 15 - 20 lbs of muscle on the kid over summer, I think he is our man. We’ve already seen good things from Conner, we know what he can do. Or atleast some of what he can do. Same thing from Mason. Bottom line in all this is, we need Tharpe to stay on the bench next year unless he can grow a couple inches, get much stronger and be able to get back on D and move laterally quicker than his match up next season. How likely is that happening? shaking my head

@BeddieKU23 I dont buy that Coach will sit Oubre. That kids got major talent. Not Wiggins but a stud on the court for sure. He may play more small ball this year because we dont have the size we did last year but Im betting our starting 5 will be Mason or Frankamp, Selden, Oubre, Ellis and Alexander. One thing about Coach that is predictable is how he runs the team line ups year after year. Experience trumps everything but when you have a freshmen talent like Oubre, or Wiggins or Rush, they dont sit, they start.

Ive been a KU Basketball fan since '88. I love the sport. Basketball has so much more grace and finesse associated with it, so much more strategy. I was happy when KUFB won the Orange Bowl in '08. But I couldn’t give a rats posterior about KUFB now. Especially since they are completely laughable. Maybe if they get to .500 some year, I might pay a bit more attention to it. But seriously, who wants to cheer for a team that everyone knows is going to get beat by 30 points a game?

did a quick search, may have found the real jaybate on twitter. I sent him a message about Ku Buckets. Hope it works.

That’s awesome

I don’t want anyone to transfer!

There is only 40 games in a season everyone. I want KU to get to and win the NC but Im going to guess a bit under that. So Im thinking more along the lines of 32-7

Yah! It was pretty fun. I think I got 46/50.

I just remember KU’s 08 season. 37-3. Biggest win total for KU Bball.

Hell no they didn’t engage like that before. They just wrote their regurgitated story from another site who got to it first or re wrote the same story about Coach Self’s press conference from a different angle. Now, they are actually commenting more often and engaging with the replies. Im still not posting on that site anymore.

actually I meant Sweep, not sweet. LoL shaking my head

agreed. Would be way awesome if we got one this year, then repeated next year. Id be happy with a final four this season and a title the next.
Im trying to temper my expectations here

Ok so after the Ft Hays State game on the 5th of Nov. I bought an official KU Basketball for autographs. I was able to get the whole team to sign it, except for JWes. Apparently he snuck out the backdoor and didn’t do any signing. LoL, I wondered if Coach Self approved the escape or if J.Wes had to run stairs for it.
Anyhow, after Joel Embiid got up to me. I was awed by how freekin tall that guy is! TO me he seems taller than 7 ft. When he came up to me, I handed him my ball to sign and at the same time I asked him if he really did kill a lion when he was younger in Africa. In reference to a tweet he said about doing the same thing. Hehehe, He laughed and dropped my ball on the floor. It was pretty funny. Then after I got the ball back I told him he was the best rapper in the NCAA, which was another twitter reference to something he tweeted about rapping in French. He laughed again and said something to me in his very thick accent. I didn’t quite understand what he said but it was a pretty cool interaction. He is now my favorite Jayhawk.
Frank Mason clearly had something on his mind during the autograph session, he looked upset. Hope he is ok. Wayne Selden was very gracious and kind. I thanked everyone who signed my ball and told them “good game” Wiggins was as quiet as advertised. He was also skipping a lot of fans. Didn’t sign everyones stuff. Cant say I blame the guy, there were probly 400 people just waiting for him. I wasn’t gonna get skipped though and I was very direct yet friendly when I asked him to sign my ball. Naadir is also a very nice guy. He was limping around, I asked if he was ok and he just said his knees were wrapped in ice and he was fine. Tarik said the same thing. Anyone know if either Tarik or Naa are nursing knee injuries or bruises of any kind? Is that a common practice after games for the players? I just hope our two most senior guys don’t have to sit big games cuz their knees aren’t cooperating. I ended up waiting two hours after the game to get everyone’s Sig. It was well worth it too. I looked on Ebay recently and found a Jayhawk 2013-14 team signed ball for $300. I paid about 50 for the ball and waited two hours, Id say that’s a fair trade off, more than fair. There is no way in any circle of purgatory that I am selling either of my KU autographed basketballs ever. I also have one from last year.

Dang it!! Another game I couldn’t watch. I mean, come on! This is stupid. I listened to the game on 105.9 and honestly the commentary from our two local guys is pretty good sometimes. But, how many more games am I going to miss on tv?

Sorry people. My computer is in the shop and I was having problems drag/dropping pics onto here anyways. I tried to email Approx but the file size was too big. SO, Im not sure what to do. I will try again this weekend when I get my laptop back

Nah, I think its just a matter of when Coach Self gets them to really understand how to play his Defense. When that happens, they will be incredible.