2013 - 2014 College Basketball Season

[chingon]

Jack Harry didn't attend Mizzou.

Are you sure that's a requirement for being a Mizzou fan? Sure-sure?

[chingon]

You're fired...

From what? Board commenting? Cool.

[KCtonic]

Jack Harry didn't attend Mizzou.

Are you sure that's a requirement for being a Mizzou fan? Sure-sure?

He definitely is always looking for controversy, but I as a Mizzou fan don't consider Jack Harry a fellow Mizzou guy any more than jayhawks want to claim Bob Fescoe as a fellow jayhawker. It sounded like he said gayhawk to me, but there is no way he will get fired. At most suspended briefly. If that ESPN guy that said the n word didn't get fired, I don't see how this gets Jack Harry fired. I would be fine if he just retired - not just for this incident.

I still am offended by your earlier comment by the way

[chaglang]

Chalk this up to a just another Mizzouchebag showing his ass.

Jack Harry didn't attend Mizzou. He's not even from Missouri.

But don't let that stop you from using the occasion to unveil a wildly clever anti-Mizzou epithet.

We'll just chalk it up to unhealthy obsession.

He's got a pretty well established reputation in the sports journo community a being a longtime Mizzou flak slash KU baiter.

[longviewmo]

KU and K-State both have a 6-3 record right now. Granted one of those teams hasn't played a ranked team, while the other went 1-2 against teams that are now ranked.

[KCMax]

KU is terribly frustrating. But its not panic time. The team lost 3 games by Christmas in 2011, and they ended up in the national title game. With so many freshman, its going to take time to learn Bill's way. With OSU, ISU and Baylor playing so well, we could have a really fun conference season though.

[grovester]

I agree, unwatchable at the moment, but not unfixable.

[Highlander]

KU is terribly frustrating. But its not panic time. The team lost 3 games by Christmas in 2011, and they ended up in the national title game. With so many freshman, its going to take time to learn Bill's way. With OSU, ISU and Baylor playing so well, we could have a really fun conference season though.

In the Florida game, it was the worst ball movement that I've seen KU display in years. The team is not the sum of its parts and with the starting five already showing up in mock drafts, they may never really get there. The bigger problem with KU is the guard play; they seem turnover prone when pressured and susceptible to traps and not great shooters. Most the outside shooting has come from Wiggins.

Whatever happened to Black? Is he injured or is he they KU equivalent of Mizzou's Kenau Post?

[KCMax]

KU is terribly frustrating. But its not panic time. The team lost 3 games by Christmas in 2011, and they ended up in the national title game. With so many freshman, its going to take time to learn Bill's way. With OSU, ISU and Baylor playing so well, we could have a really fun conference season though.

In the Florida game, it was the worst ball movement that I've seen KU display in years. The team is not the sum of its parts and with the starting five already showing up in mock drafts, they may never really get there. The bigger problem with KU is the guard play; they seem turnover prone when pressured and susceptible to traps and not great shooters. Most the outside shooting has come from Wiggins.

Whatever happened to Black? Is he injured or is he they KU equivalent of Mizzou's Kenau Post?

He comes in to pick up fouls, then sits back on the bench. That is what he does.

I agree, no rhythm, no flow to the offense, no leader out there, no sense of what to do on offense. Just maddening. Bill is one of the best at what he does, and he's had NBA players here before, so I'm not too worried, but they do need to get their act together.

[chingon]

[
In the Florida game, it was the worst ball movement that I've seen KU display in years. The team is not the sum of its parts and with the starting five already showing up in mock drafts, they may never really get there. The bigger problem with KU is the guard play; they seem turnover prone when pressured and susceptible to traps and not great shooters. Most the outside shooting has come from Wiggins.

Whatever happened to Black? Is he injured or is he they KU equivalent of Mizzou's Kenau Post?

Ball movement and offensive set rotation are both glaring problems, but not as glaring as the issues on D. Which is what "happened to Black", neither Black, nor Self more generally, have been able to adjust to the new foul calling rules.

[chingon]

Back to basketball;

Clarkson>Wiggyns

Hahaha. You know how we all know you don't know anything about basketball?

You need to stick to vague trolling, sophomoric (highschool sophomoric, that is) homophobia, and thread litter...you know, play to your stengths.

[bobbyhawks]

While the stars certainly aligned from a recruiting standpoint, they have certainly not aligned from a scheduling standpoint. This is as difficult a December through January run as I can remember at KU. It could be exactly what this team needs, but I don't know if it is better to build confidence vs. some cupcakes or to Mich. St. your way through the early season by playing quality opponents. Kenpom.com, to this point in the season, has KU with the 11th toughest schedule in the land. Not counting #5 Villanova and #19 Duke in November, the December-January schedule for KU includes 10 of 13 games vs. top 50 opponents, and 5 games vs. top 25. Their Feb-March schedule only includes 3 of 11 games vs. the top 50. The rankings are still very fickle, so grain of salt and all.

As for turnovers, last season was KU's worst turnover team since 2009, and Self's 3rd worst overall at KU. This season's team is on pace to eclipse them all (#250). One of the things I hope KU fans can look forward to is that the gadget defenses will be pretty consistent all season long, so KU will actually have a lot of practice against triangle and two, or varied zone defenses. There is definitely a blueprint right now for how to play us, and we will have trouble all year if we don't get better at preventing and forcing turnovers. On both sides of the ball, turnovers (or lack of forcing them) are our biggest problem. If we forced more turnovers, it would fix a lot of other problems we have on defense. We are #280 at forcing turnovers, and KU's historically amazing FG% defense suffers a bit from that. Also, we allow far too many quality looks from 3. KU fans are waiting for things to click like they always seem to, but there is a very real possibility with this team that the defense just never measures up to a standard Bill Self defense.

[phxcat]

KU is terribly frustrating. But its not panic time. The team lost 3 games by Christmas in 2011, and they ended up in the national title game. With so many freshman, its going to take time to learn Bill's way. With OSU, ISU and Baylor playing so well, we could have a really fun conference season though.

In the Florida game, it was the worst ball movement that I've seen KU display in years. The team is not the sum of its parts and with the starting five already showing up in mock drafts, they may never really get there. The bigger problem with KU is the guard play; they seem turnover prone when pressured and susceptible to traps and not great shooters. Most the outside shooting has come from Wiggins.

Whatever happened to Black? Is he injured or is he they KU equivalent of Mizzou's Kenau Post?

He comes in to pick up fouls, then sits back on the bench. That is what he does.

I agree, no rhythm, no flow to the offense, no leader out there, no sense of what to do on offense. Just maddening. Bill is one of the best at what he does, and he's had NBA players here before, so I'm not too worried, but they do need to get their act together.

He has had NBA players before and he has had 1 and done's, but has he ever had more than one one and done on the same team before? This year he may have three. His championship team was made up of veterans. The one and done's he has had did not live up to their hype. This team resembles a Kentucky more than a Kansas team in that department. Calipari won a championship that way two years ago and then failed to make the tournament the next. I really don't see where Self's pedigree can lead us to an assumption either way because he is currently in uncharted waters for himself, and I could really see this thing going either way.

[chaglang]

^That probably depends more on the personalities of the players than it does Self. The last time he had a situation like this was Chalmers/Rush/Wright in 2005. Rush thought he was going to be a 1 and done, Wright left for the NBA the following year, and multiple sports journos have stated that Chalmers was kind of a prima donna his whole career at KU. That team also dropped 4 of 6 in November and December. They eventually got it together, won the conference, and things were fine until Bradley happened.

[bobbyhawks]

The one and done's he has had did not live up to their hype.

It depends on whose hype you are referring to, and if you are referring to college hype or NBA hype. If hype can be measured in rankings, then the numbers tell a different story.

Xavier Henry was ranked #8 by Scout (#3 ESPN) in HS and drafted 12th, which is actually pretty great considering the influence of Europe and Soph-Jun-Sen's. As an NBA player picked #12, he is only just now showing any worth, but has averaged 9.4 points for the Lakers which I think is probably around average for a 12th round pick.

Josh Selby was way overrated and never seemed to buy into the program. Point takent there. He would have made more money staying at KU for another year.

Brandon Rush took a while to get going, but an NBA career average of 9.0 points per game and 3.6 rebounds is probably at or above average for a 13th round pick. Rush led KU in scoring for 3 consecutive years.

Ben McLemore was ranked #17 in HS, was KU's leading scorer, and was drafted #7. He is averaging 9.4 points as a rookie.

Most guys aren't Carmello Anthony or Kevin Durant. Those guys, along with the likes of John Wall, Mike Beasley, Greg Odon, etc., in the consensus 1-2-3 position, are the only real comparison to a guy like Wiggins. Self has never had one of those guys before. Wiggins' 16 and 6 is far from a faceplant start, but he still clearly has a lot to learn. He is not Michael Beasley or Kevin Durant dropping 30 and 40 out of the gate, but I'll be surprised if his stats don't move closer to 20 and 6 in the next month.

Long story short, I think Self's one and done's have been about on par with those in other programs. Some have fallen short (Selby) and some have exceeded expectations (McLemore).

[Highlander]

The one and done's he has had did not live up to their hype.

Long story short, I think Self's one and done's have been about on par with those in other programs. Some have fallen short (Selby) and some have exceeded expectations (McLemore).

I hate the one and done era. I don't blame coaches for going for the "best" player available but it's kind of tough to watch as a fan (the player's can hardly even be associated with the school) and most of the season is crappy 1 on 1 basketball with suspect defense with the hope that something gels before the tournament comes around. Obviously, the players are generally high caliber (I don't think Selby was - he was average at best) but I've also seen some clear lack of hustle and sense of urgency this year while watching a couple of Kentucky games (they defend if they can block the shot - but not if it requires hustle) and even noticed Wiggins cherrypicking in a couple of games. It's almost like some of these guys are so into their own hype that they treat the college game as a place to hang for a season before the big NBA contract comes their way.

[KCMax]

Its funny, but the two one-and-dones that KU has had recently have, if anything, been accused of NOT being aggressive enough. Ben McLemore was an enigma, and Wiggins doesn't seem concerned with involving himself in the offense much at all. I'd love to see more "1 on 1" action out of him, but he disappears for long stretches.

[aknowledgeableperson]

"some of these guys are so into their own hype that they treat the college game as a place to hang for a season before the big NBA contract comes their way."

Basically that is the way it is. Would love to see the NBA change the draft. Years ago teams had seven draft rounds. Don't expect that many but maybe one round for players who completed one or two years of competition. A second round for players who completed 3 or 4 years of competition. Then a third round for foreign players and those Americans who played foreign ball instead of college.

[KCMax]

"some of these guys are so into their own hype that they treat the college game as a place to hang for a season before the big NBA contract comes their way."

Basically that is the way it is. Would love to see the NBA change the draft. Years ago teams had seven draft rounds. Don't expect that many but maybe one round for players who completed one or two years of competition. A second round for players who completed 3 or 4 years of competition. Then a third round for foreign players and those Americans who played foreign ball instead of college.

What exactly would that accomplish?

[aknowledgeableperson]

A player could decide if he likes his chances in one draft or stay another year. Already has that option but he would be competing with other players at the same level instead of all players in one draft. Or go ahead and play foreign ball, and make some money, instead of college ball.