@benshawks08 100% agree and see what you are saying but doesn’t mean that them leaving can still be a positive for KU. Those are 2 programs that we would have a hard time beating out for B12 champions, so we now have a much better change of winning the B12 and making college playoffs which would have been otherwise unlikely.

I think people are getting a little too caught up in valuing how much money your program is making vs how much you are winning. I know more money means better player but I firmly believe the fan experience is better with a slightly worse quality team that competes for B12 titles than a better overall team playing to be middle of the pack/bottom feeders in the SEC.

Now if in 5-10 years down the line and KU is king of the B12 and then getting walloped in the playoffs every time we make it there (gonzaga type situation in basketball) I may change my mind, but this team has a long way to go before getting there and I doubt anyone is seriously complaining if that is were the program is at.

I will never really fault coach for not giving a player a guarantee they will start. Sell in a role for them, yes. Say we have a spot that is theirs for the taking, sure. But if a someone thinks that they don’t need to perform day in and out to get minutes, than they are going to cause problems for the program eventually.

To go one further, KU was also the better team in the OSU game. This team was a few plays away from being 11-1 and sitting one game away from playoff football. That hurts a bit but also goes to show this is one of the greatest program turnarounds in football history.

You raise a good point with UT/OU leaving there is going to be a power vacuum in football. If Lance hangs around long enough, we have as good of a chance as any to fill that void.

@rockchalkjayhawk Griffen was already a better defender last year than Furph under an offensive minded coach, so would be a surprise if he ends up worse.

McCullar is a big loss on defense no doubt and that probably makes us worse, but I feel like the defense we all remember from last year was when he was injured. Slotting timbies in for the SG comparison and I find it hard to believe Storr will be a downgrade. Add that to hopefully the rest of the bench giving better defensive contributions and I think a top 10 defensive even isn’t a pipe dream.

I’ll back up my optimistic thinking by sharing that barttorvik 2025 prediction has us as the #4 defense (not that I put too much stock into that).

https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php?sort=AdjDE&conlimit=

@dylans said in So, Kansas Reinstated the Border War (for the Chiefs):

By that definition your grandpa’s elevator was a huge failure. No doubt he borrowed some money to build it, repaid the loan and successfully operated it for many years. However the money he accumulated came from the local community and so his success meant someone else local lost, therefore it was an economic failure under these terms. - a ridiculous statement that I believe in no way, but it seems to be your argument against the star bonds.

I don’t care to add to either side but lets keep a clear mind here and not argue in bad faith. Whatever hypothetical loan you are talking about would not have been paid back with taxes and can’t be compared to the star bonds.

@BeddieKU23 not a medical opinion by any means but greg gurley was on a podcast where he thought Bill was probably back to about 80%

Would likely have Flory and him for 2025 then. Would love this just as it means getting back to Bill’s early years where he had a few years to coach up the bigs instead of the years with Cliff/Cheick where we see flashes, but not consistency.

@stoptheflop Nothing wrong with a little speculation as long you keep in mind it is just that. We definitely don’t know for sure this is the same girl in all 3 cases and don’t know who committed the vandalism either. Interesting that this happened over two months ago and no charges have been filed even though there are witnesses.

Effort is needed but just as important for defense is intelligence. Knowing the scouting defense and where to be positionally is why average 4 yr athletes can be better defensive players than the majority of one and dones (i.e. the Brady Morningstar Effect). Effort gets you 90% of the way there, but a good offense/coach will recognize when a team is overextending and out of position because they are trying to do too much.

@Zabudda Furphy seems to be a better cutter than Gradey was so if teams guard him aggressively, he may be able to still exploit that. Even if not, that still would occupy the opponents best defender for the game and give everyone else a better matchup. That’s still good for a guy that was the 6/7th man a month ago.

Hunter is still over 40% from 3 from the season even with the 0-7 recently. Offense has looked good lately and I think we are looking for things to complain about if that is the concern right now.

Problem recently seems to be that the starters are playing so many minutes that the defensive intensity takes a hit. I worry about that less in march when the stakes are higher, but this team definitely plays down to their competition. That will make winning the b12 difficult.

@nuleafjhawk Flagg is almost 100% gone, he already is showing he won’t be a bust in college so would take a decent injury/regression to keep him out of being the #1 pick and even then should be a lock for top 5. I can’t remember the last time someone projected to go that high came back to school. Maybe marcus smart? But even he was a few tiers lower of a prospect compared to flagg.

A note about the defense, it feels like Self generally sticks to a simple man scheme early in the season. As the team gels, I would expect him to add in different looks especially on ball screen coverage. If Hunter is getting seriously cooked, I could even see Flory closing out some games as soon as Bill starts to trust him. Potentially even offense/defense substitution situations late in games.

@kjayhawks that’s putting a lot of stock into exhibition games with partial rosters to be making such surefire predictions. Lots of ball to be played still so lets enjoy the ride a little before putting this team in a box.

Know it was Washburn and they are undersized, but the rebounding percentages were pretty good. Not going to say that rebounding is a strength based off that, but also don’t see any cause for concern there yet.

Also would take it in a heartbeat if KJ is averaging 6 rebounds per 24 mins. That is roughly double his rate last season.

Yeah know it is just Washburn, but doesn’t look like the offense is going to be an issue this year at least. I only caught a portion of the game but seemed like anytime we could get KJ driving, good things happened. Wouldn’t be surprised if he averaged close to 5 assists this year

Those comments on Storr aren’t the end of the world, everyone knew that him taking bad shots and playing bad defense wasn’t going to improve the team. This confirms that Self is trying to improve his decision making and holding him accountable. Now its a toss up whether that will work or not, but is better to try and fully actualize his talent.

@drgnslayr yeah we don’t have McCullar on defense, but he really didn’t play healthy outside of the first half of the season (and we looked pretty good when he did).

My PTSD from last season is watching games at the end of the season when he didn’t play. It would be nice for the newcomers to get near McCullar’s level of defense, but we really just need them to be better than Timberlake/Furphy.

Feels like outside of that interview there has been nothing coming out about how the early practices are going this year, and that was basically just the Zeke was impressing and Storr needs to buy in. Anyone heard anything they care to share about how the other new pieces are looking?

Agreed with the consensus here, there is probably a negative trump lean but you don’t have to be a liberal to not like the guy. Even that is fairly isolated in the pol channel which you can mute if you want.

I don’t post much but have been around since the beginning and it feels mostly the same outside of jaybate who honestly was hit and miss for me anyway. HEM is another notable missing but he became quite antagonistic on his own so it wasn’t sad to see him go in the end.

Can definitely understand it for Ballo, his game is not likely to stick in the NBA and so wants to maximize his earning now. Similar to Hunter leaving Michigan, though Ballo didn’t have the same level of offers from contenders