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Originally Posted by Baby Lee
I'd be considerably less concerned if this entire season hadn't been so concerning all along.
Everyone and every organization is entitled to an off year. But something feels a little 'slipping away' about this year. KU doesn't feel like the big dog with the big swinging dick. They seem vulnerable to every team they play. Then you have the eligibility mess.
Overall it's one game. And even if 2017/2018 is a disaster throughout, it's one season. But with what we've gone through with the Chiefs recently, he picked a bad time to show us even a little of the Wizard behind the Curtain.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Baby Lee
Self is still great at recruiting and developing 2nd tier talent. He's still behind the masters [whether that's because he's trying to stay cleaner, or what] in the 1&D game. Heck, probably our best overall 1&D in Embiid wasn't even supposed to be a 1&D, but still learning the game and healthy for at least a couple years. Explosive talent and tweaked bone structure turned that into an attractive long-term NBA investment instead of a teaching opportunity for KU.
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It feels a little "slipping away" because this team is bad. The only guy that is an NBA talent is Doke and he isn't going until he can do SOMETHING besides dunk.
Bottom line is this: Preston is a go-tard who can't drive. And during the recruiting of this year's class, Diallo was on nobody's radar as even a remote chance of declaring and he's gone. This team looks far different with Preston and Diallo on the floor.
And with NBA type talented kids, that's what you get - Volatility. These high ass recruits have been coddled the whole time and pretty much haven't had to live any life. Consider what Releford brought to the table in terms of being coachable and putting himself on the line out there versus a guy like Xavier Henry. I'm a pretty good sized X Henry fan. He came and worked the defensive end hard. But while they ended up being in the same universe of productivity for KU, the year over year gains were far better for Releford than X. As well as taking a redshirt, defending the 4, some other stuff Releford was a good soldier that you weren't going to get out of X. Now, on the recruitment trail, you don't tell X to **** off and go find Releford, but the dynamics of 1 and done is different than guys that are a tick lower on the talent scale.
With one and dones, sometimes you get Josh Jackson, sometimes you get Josh Selby.
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Originally Posted by fahrenheit
KU's team defense has really suffered the last couple years, too. It's easy to say it's directly related to not having enough big guys, but don't think that's fully it. Honestly, it has more to do with having a shit ton of boneheads on the floor (see Ellis, Johnson, Vick, Selden, Greene, Bragg, a younger Svi)... it brings the level of overall defensive cohesiveness down when the collective IQ levels are lacking.
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They also changed the rules to make it harder to defend on the outside.
Also, the youth system continues to change, especially with bigs. I'm not sure there is a college kid today that is as comfortable working with his back to the basket as I was coming out of high school. Granted I was a no talent, but I could still run a post move. There are virtually no post moves anymore. If you go look at what Arthur was able to do in 08 vs what these kids do, it's night and day.
So the skills these guys come in with is ever changing.