Yeah, it feels like spin control now. He was having a great year until he got hurt and I think I read he was projected in the first round (I don't follow that stuff because I don't follow the NBA closely).

I don't think I would bail like that personally, but I'm not him, and he doesn't have to answer to me.

Good post and that's where I am at too. I also think your last paragraph has been kind of lost on the KU fanbase. He's been really bad since the game at kstate and is clearly hobbled. He's shooting 32% from 2 and 24% from 3 and he has basically stopped going to the ft line other than some random plays against a Kstate team that had quit. Even if he tries to play through this, this isn't the same guy we had when we beat all of those other good teams. Are we going to remember him far more fondly if he plays thursday and goes 3-14 and we lose by 5? Not really. The situation sucks and it just is what it is at this point.

I don’t think he would have ever been a 1st round pick no matter what he did (NBA teams don’t exactly go out of their way to use assets up on 23 year old guards with a track record of not being able to shoot), but he was shooting significantly better up until mid season and he/his team can sell that his decline in that area was because of the knee now (and not because he just generally still sucks at shooting). Again, I’m skeptical that he will have any success with that but he’s taking his only real shot left at a NBA career of any kind.

Least stressful March in my entire life.

And I'm perfectly okay with it.

Now that NIL is allowed yes he does have to answer to you and any other fan that buys tickets, apparel, and Jayhawk memorabilia.

I mean, I absolutely would, yeah. Showing up counts for something.

I understand the decision but I think he will come to regret it down the road given the impact this will have on the program/fans when his likely mediocre career comes to an end.

Well, if the Jayhawks get bounced this weekend, at least we have the Royals to look forward to next weekend, amiright? ROFL

Nah, he gets to make his decision and move on. I'll keep rooting for Old KU regardless.

I am thankful I switched tv providers so I’m not tempted to watch those losers

Absolutely! I love having a ballgame on, even if the Royals stink. I expect them to be more competitive this season, which won't take a whole lot.

Winning in 2022 makes this season a lot easier to swallow.

I don’t have any ill will toward Giddens. Still not even totally sure why he was kicked off the team. The official story was that he got jumped and stabbed by some punks when leaving a bar.

Met him at a house party and he was cool as hell.

Definitely. BBB will be a blast this year. Small group, no expectations.

BTW, Dickinson dislocated his shoulder a little over a week ago. There’s no way he isn’t playing through some level of pain on Thursday. Hope KU fans will have a little bit more respect for him moving forward (and not just because he’s a great player who would have been even better had we not put one of the worst shooting teams in the country around him).

I hope he’s back.

Play Bidunga at the 4 with Dickinson at the 5.

Maybe get McNeeley and hope Furphy hitting the wall damaged his stock enough to come back.

KJ Adams can be the bench energy big that he should’ve been all along. Grab another shooter in the portal and let the freshmen fill out the rest.

Assume Elmarko leaves via portal. Fine with McDowell as a developmental player with some upside.

On the one hand, winning is a drug I've really enjoyed these last few years with the Chiefs and KU. I always want more. But I'm feeling very, "Que sera, sera" about it.

I always tell the people close to me, my reaction to one of my teams losing is always regulated by my expectations going in. I'm half expecting a loss in the first round, so how can I be upset if it happens?

Thanks for nothing Kev!

Yeah, otherwise it's 3 and very possibly 4 first-weekend exits since 2018.

Granted, most of those years have been spent watching far more Chiefs content through January and into February.

You forgot the title in 2020.

Was just going to bring up 2020. I know it's shallow thinking considering all the chaos and harm that befell so many due to Covid, but man, that 2019-2020 team was a veritable lock for at least the final four. They might've been the best defensive Jayhawks squad I've ever seen, and they could score in just about anyway they needed any given night.

Yep. It got old a long time ago.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bill doesn’t say many things accidentally. If you speak Bill Self he said a lot here. <br> <a href="https://t.co/iI5b3tWDIG">pic.twitter.com/iI5b3tWDIG</a></p>&mdash; The Phog (@phoggg) <a href="https://twitter.com/phoggg/status/1770246083760799875?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

When was the last time we went out in the 1st round?

Probably Bradley in 2006

Again...one of Self's worst teams during his tenure.

And yet still a team fully capable of going on a good run had they been fully healthy. Any chance of that is gone now though.

One would have thought Bill would have learned something from 2022 where he also did not seem pleased Remy needed as much time off during the regular season with also knee bone bruise. Had he pushed thru it and not been available during the NCAA tourney we don't win that title.

I like Bill challenging a guy in a meaningful game and in the NCAA Tournament but not in meaningless regular season games. Had we rested McCullar until now Im sure a much greater chance that he plays but also his effectiveness.

I throughly expect us to bow out in the 1st round now without him.

It’s probably something closer to 50/50 now for that. Timberlake and Elmarko are simply dreadful players.

Alright, let's put our money where our mouth is.

How far does KU get in the NCAA tourney this year.

I'm gonna say Final Four.













AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

I hope you didn't believe me.

Ok, seriously. 2nd round.

Lose by 20 to Gonzaga

Ya, I'm going with 2nd round as well.

They beat Baylor and blew out Texas without him. Both teams are far better than Samford.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;The shoulder feels good. Good enough to be out there with my teammates.&quot;<br><br>—<a href="https://twitter.com/KUHoops?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KUHoops</a> Hunter Dickinson <a href="https://t.co/PkAsSKqOah">pic.twitter.com/PkAsSKqOah</a></p>&mdash; CBS Sports College Basketball �� (@CBSSportsCBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSSportsCBB/status/1770566759122178502?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Zing

Much respect Big Dick. Appreciate ya not mailing it in.

Shots fired!

Ouch, nothing like the sound of darts hitting home!

They're the perfect team to split the difference between picking them to lose to a 13 and doing the improbable of going to the SS... it's a pretty easy pick to have them lose in the 2nd round, very likely won't be off by more than one round either way.

Don’t want to see anybody trashing this guy any longer (not that many here were guilty of it).

Put a real team around him next year with shooting and reap the benefits.

I like HD, this team would be absolute garbage without him.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Says a little. Says a lot. <a href="https://t.co/knKQh73dYy">https://t.co/knKQh73dYy</a></p>&mdash; Mike Vernon (@M_Vernon) <a href="https://twitter.com/M_Vernon/status/1770614173166411866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Obvious what some of these guys think of McCullar’s decision.

Yeah, easily bottom tier of B12 without him and certainly not a tournament team.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1jUBbCgMWmE?si=4E9hYvV9F_-UfWk3" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Easy to spew out the company PC line on social media. Alot harder to bullshit in person.

I'm not a fan, but who was trashing him?

Fans on social media throughout the last month or so as if it was somehow his fault McCullar got hurt and the rest of the roster was a disaster.

If we said "absolute garbage" is like a pile of microplastics or used motor oil or a jersey from fanatics.... this team with HD was closer to 49ers Super Bowl 58 Champions shirts.

Still considered garbage by a lot of people, but if you asked someone from a different country, they might tell you there's some value there.

Didn't you say you've barely watched them this year?

I've seen every game. They looked awesome vs Houston in Lawrence (70% shooting vs the #1 D in the country), great against UConn, and very good against Kentucky, Tennessee and plenty of others. When they were healthy and motivated, they could (and did) beat anyone.

The injuries and the Big 12 grind took a toll. A team that plays its 5 starters almost the entire game every night isn't built to kill it against an 18-game Big 12 schedule, especially this year. Depth isn't as much of an issue in the tourney, but obviously with McCullar out, they'll be lucky to win more than a game or two.

Yep, the shitty luck/timing of not seeing them much in their best games has definitely painted a different picture versus anyone who can fondly look back at November.

Several people have mentioned how uninterested they've been in this year's team since even like mid-January though.

It doesn't matter much now though... play hard and show some toughness, and even in a loss this weekend it'll be better than the past few months. Play soft with low effort and that becomes what this team was truly made of as opposed to "well, they just don’t care".

I mean... ya'll aren't Patrick Mahomes defending a championship, not giving a shit shouldn't be brushed off when they could be a 2 seed right now, looking at a 15 and 7/10 instead of an 11 and 5/12. Much less this thought that McCullar
doesn't want to hurt his chances in the draft. Hopefully the rest of the team cares tonight. :shrug:

You're not a KU fan? I thought you were.

I haven't seen a team that doesn't give a shit this year. I have seen them give a more extreme effort vs the Houstons and UConns than WV or UCF, but that's only natural. Especially when you're talking home vs road. Also, when all 5 starters have to play 30+ min, they really can't go 110% all game every night.

And yeah, a lot of KU fans have complained this year, but there are a lot of spoiled/entitled KU fans. Says it all that people are freaking out over a 4 seed that would have probably been a two if they stayed healthy, with maybe the best set of wins in the country.

Bill Self just tweeted out on game day defending McCullar from social media critics (when really it was a situation he created with his own words). This team is fully cooked. LMAO

Not so sure it's an effort issue. They are just the most untalented and worst shooting team I've seen Bill coach. Nobody can reliably hit shots, they have one super athlete that is useless outside of 8 feet from the basket, and a one dimensional point guard.

It’s a “having 5 playable D1 players” issue more than anything, which became mostly 4 over the last month and is now 4 in the tournament.

There are obviously issues among their playable players too that you allude to, but the overarching issue is a lack of depth overall. We saw that play out during conference season.

Oh, if you're asking because I said "ya'll", that was pointed at the team, but can see why that's confusing.

Yeah, a 4 seed is still pretty good and some fans are definitely too spoiled with 1 and 2 seeds. For me and I think others though, we're really used to seeing a toughness out of the team that hasn't been there much during conference play.

And I do think a lot of fans (including myself) underestimate the grind and exhaustion and may even miss identifying the real issues precisely due to being spoiled with great teams... much like the 2018/2019/2020 Chiefs offense, they make something that's actually really ****ing hard look easy for a few years and then when they drop back down to earth we all wonder WTF is wrong with them.

This is KU's NIT year compared to the down years of the other blue bloods and hopefully they go down swinging.

Soft.

Absolutely. This was very true when I watched them get their asses whipped by BYU by a bunch of YMCA looking mofos.

Everyone should have been prepared for the depth issue though. Morris was dismissed just before the season, reduction of multiple scholarships, Clemence redshirting....the only way depth wouldn't have been a problem is if Timberlake (jumping from Towson to the Big 12) and Jackson (raw freshman) both killed it.

Oh come the **** on man. That is some true spoiled fan shit. Watch the game. Watch us go down in flames. Or live to fight another day

It's march madness and we're like underdogs or something!

That one reads like the kind of post I’d expect out on Rupp Rafters. Dark times for this program.

I'll watch as long as I can stay awake.

Hell, it's the first day of March Madness... I didn't order OK Joe's and won't be decked out in KU stuff on the edge of my seat for two hours, but WTF would you be doing... keeping an infant alive?! Shit.

I bet our resident kentucky fans will be super nice to us if we lose tonight.

LMAO

I deleted my post but Pablo was too quick on the draw for me.

I SEE EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME ON CP

They have their own problems. Oakland beat Purdue.

Close enough for me, they're ****ing going down!

They have their own shit to worry about right now.

Gonzaga looks pretty good

Just like last year when Purdue lost to a 16, maybe everyone will be so preoccupied by this game, they won't notice KU lost...

Down goes Kentucky.

Coach cal ROFL

How old is this Gohlke guy? He looks 32.

It never gets old.

That said, even if we have "excuses" to not win tonight, I reaaaallly don't wanna see Kansas lose against mutha****ing Samford.

Somebody get Timberlake off the floor

I hate watching DI teams play like a middle school team. Smoke and mirrors.

Making our 3s early. Don't get my hopes up.

Attack their ridiculous press every time, don’t pull up in the half court.

A lot of easy baskets. As predicted.

I remember them destroying another Alabama team that loved to press years back... it was a thing of beauty.

Why are they stopping play when we were moving forward?