Actually, looking at the schedule, Kansas doesn't have a really good home game all year. Not one. KSU is the best one, and that's pretty meh.

There's about a 50% chance that Kansas doesn't play a ranked team at home all year.

Yep...it's a way worse home schedule than usual. Of course, the way they've played at home, they might lose a game or two anyway.

Does this make you feel good?

Knowing him, probably.

But he's mostly right. Not many real good teams on the schedule this year. I'm kind of disappointed in that. I just figured it's because KU has a lot of youth this year and they wanted to bring them along slowly. That and the fact that the Big 12 is a bit down this year. /shrug

Doesn't really impact me one way or the other. Seems like they would have wanted to schedule somebody worth watching. I do think it's funny that they scheduled Colorado, though.

Maybe Self wants to play more games in arenas and on neutral sites. Playing every game in the Phog doesn’t exactly get the team ready to play at some random gym at the tournament.

That's a good point. Perhaps you're right.

Give it time man, you know KU/MU will play again. It's too important to both schools.

I think it will happen, but I really don't care either way. I always liked KU until realignment started, and their fans became insufferable. Hell, I always pulled for them when they weren't playing Mizzou.

I'm just not as interested in them playing again as a lot of the fans are.

Mizzou just has too many compelling new opponents for me to care. For one, I care a lot more about football than basketball. There are obviously plenty of huge programs on the schedule now, and Mizzou just needs to worry about Mizzou right now. Plus, I went to the last KU game at Arrowhead. The football rivalry ended with a whimper. It's hard to miss a crappy game like that on a neutral site 30 minutes from Lawrence when only a few thousand Kansas fans even show up.

The SEC doesn't care much about basketball, but there are plenty of games worth getting excited about. Arkansas is going to be a lot of fun, and we get three games a year against Kentucky and Florida.

As a Missouri fan, you always get geared up for basketball games against Kansas, but there isn't another team in the conference this year worth watching. It has all the makings of the worst year in the history of Big 12 basketball both in terms of quality teams and exciting matchups.

Wow. That was a really rambling and disjointed post.

Yes, yes it was. LMAO

I find myself doing that when I post from my phone. It takes so long with swype that longer posts tend to turn into a bunch of underdeveloped ideas with little cohesion. Is this what KCnut feels like 24/7?

but you're right... the Big12 sucks this year. The Big 10 is actually looking very, very strong.

LMAO

Big 10 looks like a juggernaut this year.

That 2007 MU KU game at Arrowhead was the best football game I've ever been to. It sure as hell was the funnest. GREAT atmosphere...too bad the teams are never consistently good to really hype up the event. That's what makes a rivalry great...

buffs n Tad are comin into allen to rape erybodi...ROLLTAD

Given that KU has shown its own hypocrisy by scheduling another team that left the Big XII, I have to agree. Eventually it will happen. But, if enough time passes, will it ever mean what it once did?

No... its over permanently....

Not sure its hypocrisy. Did Self and KU say we won't play any former B12 team? I really can't remember if he was talking about MU only, or if he said something about every school that left.

Maybe if MU were to hire a Kansas Alum as the head coach, like Colorado did.

Either way, it's hypocritical. The first scenario would just make add a lie to the hypocrisy.

It is not hypocritical. First, the situation regarding KU's relationship is way different than it's relationship to MU. Second, he never really said never.

"To me it's a great rivalry, one of the best in college basketball without question, but I don't think I would be interested in having a once a year game like I did when I was at Illinois, playing Missouri," Self said.

"I could probably change my mind (but) trust me, we would have no trouble finding another nonleague game to play. I love the rivalry. Playing home and home in the league is great and all those things ... (but) I can't imagine, why would we continue playing?


"If they choose to be somewhere other than with us and with the other schools that they've been a part of and could jeopardize the future of the other schools ... I'm not going to make a commitment now that we'd ever play again. I'm not saying we won't. I'm certainly not going to pretend that we would."


http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...n=ncaab,wp5177

Meh. Did anyone even care that Colorado left?

What did he say about Mizzou that isn't also true of Colorado?

Oh Lord.

Not this shit again.

We're just too frightened engage last year's big 12 champion.

“No one ever held Colorado responsible for them leaving the league. They did something they felt they had to do,” Self said. “There were so many rumors they could be left out in the cold, too. Everybody respected that without question. There are no hard feelings there. With the climate, the landscape at that particular time (summer, 2010), with all the talk about Texas, Oklahoma, A&M, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, all those schools going to the Pac-10 back then … all the talk before that about Missouri and Nebraska going to the Big Ten … Colorado was just making sure they had a conference affiliation. No hard feelings about that.”

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/ju...nds-cu-series/

ROFL

Again, nobody cared that Colorado left. Most didn't even realize they were gone until they didn't show up on the schedules. Comparing KU/MU to KU/CU is dumb.

Funny that he made this statement only AFTER scheduling them. Colorado had been rumored to the PAC for years.

BTW, while looking for Self's quotes on the MU leaving for the SEC, I saw something from the Omaha paper that suggested that the Big 10 is looking at KU and North Carolina. :spock: To that, Bill Self just chuckled.

On a related note:

http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tal...a-state-still/

You're like the ex that just can't believe it's over.

Those rumors were traced back to Kansas by the site shaggy bevo.

I honestly don't care. We lost a lot more often than we won, so I'm certainly not going to cry that it's over. That doesn't make it any less hypocritical, though.

If Self would be honest and say "we aren't playing you anymore because **** you", I'd be totally cool with that.

I was pissed off at Nebraska. Why? Because **** them. That's why.

Well, I'm pretty sure that is what Self was saying to MU. He just couldn't say it like that. ;)

He can say whatever he wants. He's Bill Self. Of course, it would sound more like, "the University of uh uh uh Missouri can uh uh go uh uh uh uh **** themselves".

:LOL:

Source? (That confirms KU started the rumor)

And be accused of treason against this country?

No way would anyone risk that...

I think it was more along the lines of Sheahon Zenger saying, "If you leave the conference, the series is over."

So it is. Pretty cut and dried to me.

I read it on shaggy bevo. That's as close as I can get to giving you a source. I don't think it was even supposedly a university official. Take it fwiw. I'm not swearing it to be gospel by any means.

Shaggy bevo? Really? ROFL

Yes, it doesn't matter that they were on a short list of possible B1G expansion schools, it was a random KU fan that Shaggy Bevo exposed.

KU would most likely be the last school to leave. Someone has to turn out the lights.

Jayhawks practice with bigger point guards
 

Friday, December 7, 2012


By Gary Bedore




A bit tall for the position, 6-foot-8 Kevin Young and 6-6 Travis Releford have played some point guard — yes, point guard — during this week’s Kansas University basketball practices.


Both have fared well at the lead guard position, starting point Elijah Johnson declared.


“I respect Kevin so much just knowing every play coach (Bill Self) called and knowing exactly what to do, not even looking at me to tell him what to do,” Johnson said of senior power forward Young.


“He didn’t really turn the ball over. He got us in the offense. He can feed the post better from being on the perimeter, seeing all the defenders. I thought he looked good, honestly,” Johnson added.


Of senior shooting guard/small forward Releford’s work, Johnson noted: “He knows how to run the point. He doesn’t try to do too much. He gets us in the offense. Once the ball gets to the third or fourth side, he knows to attack and give us something to feed off of.”


Johnson joked that a certain power forward from last year’s team truly would have relished a chance to run the offense.


“T-Rob would have loved that,” Johnson said with a smile, referring to 6-10 Thomas Robinson, now with the Sacramento Kings.


Self has used sophomore Naadir Tharpe at the backup point-guard position during the first seven games. He’s averaged 4.0 points a game with 15 assists to seven turnovers. Freshman Rio Adams has also played sparingly in five games.


“Maybe we should play Rio, but maybe take some pressure off of him (by putting him at 2-guard) and play Travis at the point, something like that,” Self said Thursday at his weekly news conference. “We just haven’t found the one guy that says, ‘Hey, you’re his (Johnson’s) backup.’ We’ve looked at some different things to try to get some guys back there,” Self added, noting Young’s point guard stint only lasted about 10 minutes, despite the fact “he passes it well.”


Self wants Johnson to attack the rim so he can get to the free-throw line. Johnson has attempted just 11 free throws all season, making eight. He averages 10 points a game with 34 assists against 20 turnovers.


“He’s played OK. He hasn’t played great yet. I think there’s another big step he’ll take,” Self said of the senior. “This is not anything unusual about him starting out maybe a little slow and then kind of getting his feet under him and then kicking it in. It’s just different than the way it’s looked in the past because he’s the only handler we have. If we had somebody else we’d put back there and play two guards at once, everybody would be talking about how good our point-guard play is.”


Johnson bruised his left knee — the one he had surgery on last April — in KU’s Nov. 20 victory over Saint Louis. He bruised his right hand after getting hammered on a driving layup attempt Nov. 30 against Oregon State.


“It’s not bad,” Johnson said of his knee. “I feel like I’m getting stronger. I feel I’m taking care of myself,” he added, noting his hand felt fine heading into Saturday’s 1 p.m. home game against Colorado.


“I feel I’m getting to the point I’m realizing I’m the one who has to make the plays all the time, and we’re better off with the ball in my hands,” Johnson said. “The rest of the guards are really there just to help me. It’s my job to get it going and be able to control the ball and have the ball in good hands.”


Johnson said he’s “getting used to playing that role (of point guard) again. I’m studying everything. It’s noticing stuff like I get tired at different times in the game. It’s usually when everybody else is rested and I’m having to control the game, hold the ball so long or make a play or set everybody up and get everybody organized. Sometimes that wears on you. You don’t realize it when you play on the wing. At point guard you have to make sure all five people are in order as opposed to another position when you can think about, ‘What should I be doing?’ and just get out of the way, just feed off what the point guard starts. I have to react to everything. Thinking gets you nervous or causes turnovers,” Johnson added.


Hard work: Self said the Jayhawks have been showing great effort at practice.



“We play harder in practice than we do the games. That’s what blows my mind,” Self said. “We’ll have a possession in practice, seven guys on the floor diving for a loose ball. And we’ll go through a whole half and not have anybody dive against Oregon State. So it’s kind of a weird deal. If we keep practicing the way we’ve been practicing, I know it’s going to click in and become a habit. It just hasn’t quite clicked in yet.”


Buffs coming to town: Colorado, which improved to 7-1 after Wednesday’s 70-61 home win over Colorado State, is led by third-year coach Tad Boyle, who played two years for Ted Owens and two for Larry Brown at KU. Colorado, of course, was a longtime member of the Big Eight and Big 12 before departing for the Pac-12 last season.


“I have no ill will toward Colorado. They left the league because they had to. I mean, with the league potentially breaking up, they had to jump and take what was available,” Self said. “We certainly understand that. We primarily did it (scheduled CU in a home-and home series) for our fans that live in western Kansas or the Denver area (to see next year’s game in Boulder).”

No one is leaving unless everyone leaves at the same time, dissolving the conference. The grant of rights deal is 13 years of golden shackles.

I didn't mean to imply that, only responding to the assertion that B1G interest was "KU generated". I'm quite happy in the B12, hopefully to become the Bigger 12 soon.

Self is definitely not happy with Tharpe....

Neither are the fans.

Tharpe seems like one of those guys Self took as a backup plan/practice guy. Now we are short on (experienced) guards, so he has to play.

Honestly, I’d like to see a lot more out of Adams early in the season. Adams has looked great getting to the lane and dishing to the bigs, he’s a natural, kind of a combination of Aaron Miles and Tyshawn Taylor. But I know Self HATES playing freshman guards.

I thought that about Tharpe, as well. Then I looked up his Rivals rating. Did you know he was a 4 star recruit? :spock:

Weird isn't it?

He was a badass coming out of HS. Other than his first actual game where he drained a few 3's and got some offense going, he hasn't really be anything but a body.

He contributed tremendously last year.
















To turnovers.

I think Tharpe was recruited, at least in part, to lure top 10 center Kaleb Tarczewski, with whom Naadir was supposedly good friends. Kaleb was almost in Lawrence and then shifted gears in the 11th hour and went to Arizona leaving us with his buddy. I'm sure that's not the whole story, but I seem to remember it being part of it.

Only in the deranged mind of a Mooster would that be hypocrisy. KU can, and will, schedule anybody that they damn well want to. They do not want to schedule MU. They do want to schedule Colorado. Move along, nothing more to see here.


KU does need the football series, as does MU of course (their fans already see that the SEC isn't their level). KU does not need the basketball games.

If MU were smart, they'd have hired Larry Brown. Dude is already like 8-1 at SMU this year. With Haith's players, that guy would be a legit FInal Four threat.

From what I've read, Tarc had explicitly told Bill Self that he was coming to KU. Tarc's AAU coach made the AZ commit happen. Who knows whether it's true, though.

Tarc visited KU seven times and Arizona once. And committed there. I don't care what he chooses, but he did string us along way more than necessary.


Tharpe went to KU because his old HS teammate Tom Robinson was from the same school and helped recruit him.

KU to play ArKansas in next year's B12-SEC Shootout.

:jester:

Apparently they had too many schedule conflicts to make Florida work.

Holy shit! I just finally watched that highlight video. This guy has only been hooping for 1 year? Very athletic, especially for a 7 footer.

WTF? Did anyone say why Tarc's AAU coach would do that?

Nice Start.

Ball so hard

Looks they decided to try today...at least for the first 10 minutes.

Colorado = Too easy, bring on OSU.

I thought he was ranked in the 90s, around the same area as Royce Woolridge.

I could see him being a 4 star based on his shooting ability. He just needs to get better at...everything else.

http://www.stream2watch.me/live-tv/espn2-live-stream


game stream.

fyi Army vs. Navy game today.

First KU game I have gotten a chance to watch this year besides the end of the MSU game.

McLemore looks selfish with the ball. But he also looks awfully talented.

The team overall looks kinda slow- but come March I feel like this team will be a force.

Also: Tim Tebow get the **** off my TV screen!

JFC Tharpe...

Yep, he sucks.

Love that crossover off the foot, huh? horrible.

Self has been trying to get McLemore to play "selfish" like this for a month now. It's a good thing. He's our best scorer by far and honestly one of the most talented players Self has ever had. He's going to be drafted in the top 10, methinks.

Nice. He is talented for sure. Hopefully he continues to play selfish and then is able to get other teammates involved when defenses start focusing their attention to him.

Young has played a really good game today.

Is it possible to look better than a 36 point lead against a candidate for pac-12 champ? Absolutely perfect performance so far today.

They sure have played a great game. Looks like some of that good practice play has finally started to translate to the game.

Ooops.

So this is what happens when this team tries for the first 30 minutes of the game. They could be good.