Breaking News on Vick....he's returning to KU for his senior season!

What a turn of events!

www.kwch.com/content/sports/Lagerald-Vic...eason-486993591.html

When Vick announced he would consider coming back to college, I got my hopes up but Self quickly made it sound highly unlikely. I'd given up on the idea but can't imagine a better option for our final scholarship. My, my, my, are we going to be loaded.

I will be watching intently when Vick doesn’t get the minutes he and mama expect. Will he be a problem? I’d say 50/50 he’s a headache.

I’m with you DrJHawker. I truly hope LaGerald has a breakout great year. But I am suspect. I trust that Self knows what he is doing. We were thin thin thin last season which was an immense plus for Vick. This season we are deeper than ever. He will have to earn his minutes. I do hope he shows why seniors are valuable. But my opinion of Vick based on last season is not great. He was a round peg in a square hole but due to necessity he got minutes. He is certainly not without talent. But he does not play within the team concept as much as he needs to. Maybe he got a life lesson he needed. I certainly hope so. His talents can be a difference maker for us if he plays team ball.

When I saw this news come in the other day, I had a total smack-my-forehead, "what-the-actual-______ just happened here?!?" moment. It wasn't April 1st so I assumed it to be true.

Having given it a few days thought, and read a little bit more on it, I'm cautiously optimistic. Here are my thoughts:

>We don't need him...and Vick knows it. This is a big deal as I'm sure that HCBS has all the leverage in the world. Vick tried to go pro and nobody was interested. If he wants to showcase his talents for one more year, he'll have to do it completely on Self's terms. We're deep (ok, we could use an outside shooter), but we were #1 in all the preseason polls WITHOUT Vick. I'm sure that Self has told Vick that he's going to need to EARN his PT and isn't guaranteed anything.

>There's very little downside: we have the scholarship available and it isn't going to be used, so why not use it? Worst case scenario, Vick gets his degree out of it.

>Attitudes don't change overnight. Let's face it, Vick's history indicates some poor decision making over a period of time. While I believe in 2nd and 3rd chances, my own personal feeling is that if people haven't reformed themselves by their 3rd or 4th "chance" the odds of them truly changing decline with each additional chance they've been given. In fact, you almost have to hit "rock bottom" after you've failed that many times. So in some ways, I hope that this draft experience was the soul-crushing "rock bottom" moment in Vick's life that causes him to look at reforming his whole life. Was it? Sadly I doubt it.

Bottom line, I trust Self on this, and I'm confident that Vick will be under a microscope both on and off the court. I find it interesting that his seniority on the team isn't being recognized by allowing him to keep his #2 jersey, and that the staff has publicly commented on the fact that they don't see him as a "leader".

That last part is significant because it's something that Vick can do on his own. He's done the boot camps, he's played for Self longer than anybody. If he can use his experience to a.) give Self exactly what he asks for and b.) pushes the younger guys NOT to make his previous mistakes and buy into the program, he actually CAN become a leader.

My prediction is that he'll show flashes of potential throughout the year, but his attitude (and the friction caused by it) will continue as the season drags on. But I also believe that Self will have him on an extremely short leash and won'd hesitate to put an end to this experiment quite abruptly if it's not working out.

My guess is that the pre-draft workouts were a huge wake-up call that even the most gifted need to work hard in today's NBA. There are so many prospects and so few spots.I hope he can put on a few pounds while maintaining his quickness. He also needs to become a much better dribbler in traffic.