**** OFFICIAL 2014-2015 Kansas Basketball Repository Thread

[ArrowheadHawk]

11 straight Conference Championships!

Ranking #9 (26-8,13-5)

Non-Con Schedule (11-2)

Spoiler!

11/14/2014 UC Santa Barbara Lawrence, Kan. W 69-59 (1-0)
11/18/2014 Kentucky Indianapolis, Ind. L 40-72 (1-1)
Orlando Classic
11/24/2014 Rider Lawrence, Kan. W 87-60 (2-1)
11/27/2014 Rhode Island Orlando, Fla. W 76-60 (3-1)
11/28/2014 Tennessee Orlando, Fla. W 82-67 (4-1)
11/30/2014 Michigan State Orlando, Fla. W 61-56 (5-1)
12/5/2014 Florida Lawrence, Kan. W 71-65 (6-1)
12/10/2014 Georgetown Washington, DC W 75-70 (7-1)
12/13/2014 Utah Kansas City, Mo. W 63-60 (8-1)
12/20/2014 Lafayette Lawrence, Kan. W 96-69 (9-1)
12/22/2014 Temple Philadelphia, PA L 52-77 (9-2)
12/30/2014 Kent State Lawrence, Kan. W 78-62 (10-2)
1/4/2015 UNLV Lawrence, Kan. W 76-61 (11-2)

Conference Schedule

Spoiler!

1/7/2015 Baylor Waco, Texas W 56-55 (12-2,1-0)
1/10/2015 Texas Tech Lawrence, Kan. W 86-54 (13-2,2-0)
1/13/2015 Oklahoma State Lawrence, Kan. W 67-57 (14-2,3-0)
1/17/2015 Iowa State Ames, Iowa L 81-86 (14-3,3-1)
1/19/2015 Oklahoma Lawrence, Kan. W 85-78 (15-3,4-1)
1/24/2015 Texas Austin, Texas W 75-62 (16-3,5-1)
1/28/2015 TCU Fort Worth, Texas W 64-61(17-3,6-1)
1/31/2015 Kansas State Lawrence, Kan. W 68-57(18-3,7-1)
2/2/2015 Iowa State Lawrence, Kan. W 89-76(19-3,8-1)
2/7/2015 Oklahoma State Stillwater, Okla. L 62-67(19-4,8-2)
2/10/2015 Texas Tech Lubbock, Texas W 73-51(20-4,9-2)
2/14/2015 Baylor Lawrence, Kan. W 74-64(21-4,10-2)
2/16/2015 West Virginia Morgantown, W. Va. L 61-62(21-5,10-3)
2/21/2015 TCU Lawrence, Kan. W 81-72(22-5,11-3)
2/23/2015 Kansas State Manhattan, Kan. L 63-70(22-6,11-4)
2/28/2015 Texas Lawrence, Kan. W 69-64(23-6,12-4)
3/3/2015 West Virginia Lawrence, Kan. W 76-69(24-6,12-4)
3/7/2015 Oklahoma Norman, Okla. L 73-75(24-7,12-5)
Big 12 Championship
3/12/2015 TCU Kansas City, Mo. W 64-59(25-7)
3/13/2015 Baylor KC, Mo W 62-52(26-7)
3/14/2015 Iowa State KC, Mo W 66-70(25-8)

Fri, March 20 NMSU at Kansas Omaha, NE CBS at 11:15a.m. CT

Players

Spoiler!

New Players
Hunter Mickelson - F Transfer
Cliff Alexander - 5 Star C
Kelly Oubre - 5 Star F/G
Devonte Graham - 4 Star PG
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk - (Not Ranked but equivalent to 5 Star) G

Players Lost
Tarik Black - Graduation
Andrew Wiggins - NBA Draft
Joel Embiid - NBA Draft
Justin Wesley - Graduation
Niko Roberts - Graduation
Christian Garrett - Graduation
Naadir Tharpe - Transfer
Andrew White - Transfer
Conner Frankamp - Transfer

Returning Starters
Wayne Selden, Jr. - G - Sophmore
Perry Ellis - F - Junior

[saphojunkie]

Toughness was a factor, but toughness can't be faked. I think Selden, Greene, Mason, Frankamp - they all showed weakness last year. Which is fine, they were kids.

Everyone just kind of looked to Wiggins sometimes like "Welp, go be Lebron for us thx."

I'm hoping this year's team is going to actually be better. They should be, but I'll stop short of saying they will be. I do like that the new players have a bulldog mentality, and I think Greene and Frankamp are both predisposed mentally to be assassins. Mason obviously is.

Hopefully, just the act of returning and not acclimating will help propel the team forward.

[saphojunkie]

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by sedated

No PG play, Selden banged up and ineffective, Embiid out, Wiggins disappearing in the Stanford game = no sweet 16.

Thanks for the info guys!

Several posts mention PG play. Did you miss out on a better PG on recruitment or did Self think he was fine at the position?

[Chief_For_Life58]

yeah I think we're gonna be better this year with wigs and jo gone. everyone is gonna step up and we've finally gonna have decent pg play. hopefully


it'd be reeruned for jo to come back.even if he does fall there's no way in hell he drops outta top 10, that's a easy multiple million dollar contract without even playing a second on a nba court

[sedated]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Thanks for the info guys!

Several posts mention PG play. Did you miss out on a better PG on recruitment or did Self think he was fine at the position?

IMHO (and I could be totally wrong), PG is the hardest to recruit, possibly because there aren’t a ton of “true” PGs in high school, most guards are scorers who have to learn to be a “true” PGs in college.

Looking back, a lot of the really good college PGs weren’t top 15 guys, they were in the 20s-50s. They just ended up being the ones that developed the best.

That being said, Self and company have even been getting those guys recently. Tharpe was in the 90s IIRC. Graham was unranked coming out of high school (although in the 30s after the year of prep school). I believe Mason was pretty low as well, I think the 80s?

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by sedated

IMHO (and I could be totally wrong), PG is the hardest to recruit, possibly because there aren’t a ton of “true” PGs in high school, most guards are scorers who have to learn to be a “true” PGs in college.

Looking back, a lot of the really good college PGs weren’t top 15 guys, they were in the 20s-50s. They just ended up being the ones that developed the best.

That being said, Self and company have even been getting those guys recently. Tharpe was in the 90s IIRC. Graham was unranked coming out of high school (although in the 30s after the year of prep school). I believe Mason was pretty low as well, I think the 80s?

30's/80's/90's?

Why can't you get a top ten PG? Obviously from my uninformed point of view, Self can recruit top 10 talent. The problem is not the coaches ability to recruit or the school can't land top recruits. So what's the issue? Do top 10 PG's chose other schools because PG's are not usually successful at Kansas?

[sedated]

Self's offense is to work the ball inside first and play through the bigs. Whereas Calipari has marketed himself with his "dribble drive" offense and just letting his guards go and create. The freedom to showcase yourself is important to top recruits who just want to improve their stock for the draft.

Self's philosophy gets us the best bigs because they want to be showcased as well.

But my previous post still stands, PGs are more of a lottery ticket than any other position. Sherron, despite being a McDs AA, had to develop from a scorer to a point. Same with Tyshawn. Same guys make it, some guys dont.

[Baby Lee]

http://deadspin.com/joel-embiid-has-...oot-1593364462

Originally Posted by RMJ=H

I have a really great tweet on this. Let me post it.
_______________________________________________

No seriously, here it is.

_______________________________________________

God damn it kinja. what the ****?

_______________________________________________

Oh, never mind, everyone. I figured it out: embiid is broken.

[Lzen]

I think sedated explained it well.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by sedated

Self's offense is to work the ball inside first and play through the bigs. Whereas Calipari has marketed himself with his "dribble drive" offense and just letting his guards go and create. The freedom to showcase yourself is important to top recruits who just want to improve their stock for the draft.

Self's philosophy gets us the best bigs because they want to be showcased as well.

But my previous post still stands, PGs are more of a lottery ticket than any other position. Sherron, despite being a McDs AA, had to develop from a scorer to a point. Same with Tyshawn. Same guys make it, some guys dont.

Makes sense.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

I got a question for you guys. Not trolling.

I watched a lot of games last year. They didn't seem to play as a team until later in the season.

With Embid and Wiggins on the team, why didn't the team perform better this year? What's the general consensus on the under performing last year?

With Embiid on the team in March, I suspect they still would have made the FF. That's how much his impact was (probably the biggest in NCAA) and how much he covered up for the team's flaws on both ends. Without him there, they just didn't guard well enough to accomplish that. The term soft came up a lot (which wasn't surprising considering their eldest players were two guys who didn't play defense in Tharpe and Ellis and the rest were all freshmen). PG was a serious issue as well as Tharpe only played at his best for a short stretch during the season.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

They never really bought into Self's defense.... the normal stellar defense that leads the nation every other year was 'only' top 25, even with Embiid. Embiid could almost make up for the difference by himself, so of course missing him was huge on both ends. And of course experience matters... KCC posted a turnover margin stat through the years, and it showed the steady decline from 2005-2008, jumps up the next year, declines again, etc. Obvious stat is obvious.

The frustrating thing is I don't know how you 'fix' something like Wiggins' performance in the tournament.... experience would obviously fix it, if that was an option, but it's definitely frustrating watching some young kids on other teams shine after watching that game against Stanford... but, different expectations for different kids, and shit happens.

Yeah, their 3 worst years in TO% relative to the rest of the country were 2006, 2009, and 2014 (all very young teams that lacked experience and execution ability). And, of course, after Embiid went out, they just weren't the same team. Without a force on both ends that they relied on all season, it was too much of an adjustment for the rest of them. It took Wiggins having ridiculous games (at WVU, B12 tournament game v OSU) just to stay competitive on some nights after that. Unfortunately, he just didn't have it that day against Stanford and a loss was the outcome.

[Mr. Laz]

Coach John Lucas ‏@CoachJohnLucas1 1h
Kansas recruit Kelly Oubre looking good as advertise. One of top wings here. Will be immediate impact @ KU
#LeBronSkillsAcademy #kumbb

[Bowser]

"Advertised", coach.

[Bearcat]