Thoughts on Grimes

I enjoy the psychology of the game more than stats, and I unfortunately see Grimes as having almost no self confidence in any phase of his game. I'm hoping he's just a young kid who will need another year to work into the college game. I have to keep reminding myself that these guys are 18 or 19, and despite gifted size and skill, they're still maturing at different rates.

His shots are short from three, from the lane and on freethrows. He's short arming his shots, and guiding the ball.

When he drives from the wing, he'll take two dribbles, hesitate, then immediately stop, back step and look to pass off.

When he does get close to the hoop, he chucks up floaters more to avoid getting blocked than to make a shot, and they often miss the rim entirely.

He is not an active rebounder, which he could be given his size and athletic ability.

And most telling is the lack of life in his face and eyes. I'd be OK if he showed a little frustration even, but he shows almost nothing.

Compare all of that to Ogbaji, who comes in looking to shoot. He aggressively rebounds, and fights on defense. I can't compare their talent as I don't think we've seen 10% of what Grimes can do, but the mental difference is staggering.

I think I'd start Ogbaji at this point. Give Grimes a mental rest, challenge him to re-earn his starting spot. And send him in the game with a short set of goals to achieve - defend hard, get a couple rebounds, and drive to the hoop a couple times. Get him recharged.

I agree. Grimes was much balleyhooed and certainly lived up to the hype in the Michigan State game, but since then he's gone from "pretty awful" to where I'd rate him today, "average at best for a D1 ball player". That certainly doesn't equate to being a starter at a place like Kansas. At the same time, Self must see something in him that we don't. He HAS improved, but is nowhere near what we thought he COULD be.

Agree that a mental break might help. He's in a rut, so something needs to change. Meanwhile Agbaji wasn't planning on playing at all this year, but when the opportunity came up, he grabbed it with both hands.

I think that's the key difference. Agbaji had low/no expectations and was given an opportunity. He literally couldn't fail. If he played poorly, it would have just meant that redshirting him was the right idea after all. If he did well, then it's gravy. He's been swimming in gravy. Contrast that to the mental state of Grimes: very high expectations (too high?) and not coming anywhere close to living up to him.

But yeah, having him come off the bench might be the thing that re-positions him mentally and might free him up. I see no downside in trying it.

A question for the board: we all know selfs success with bigs and point guards but without fully examining history it seems to me hes had a harder time with 2 guards, right? most recently malik last year, and svi’s relatively slow emergence for that matter. wiggins played under potential as did maclemore. henry, selby were massive disappointments. even chalmers took a while to get there. its funny since the twos shld contribute more quickly one wld think than bigs or point guards. perhaps this is just a relative weakness for bill thats at least partly to do with the fact that he was slow to embrace the three. just a thought

I've always thought Self has a very quick trigger with guards taking threes or other shots without having "worked the system" for a few passes and getting the bigs involved.

My take is our shooting guards are more reserved in their shot selections, which translates into less aggression, due to the severity of Self's reaction and getting yanked from the game. Even Svi was erratic until his senior year, when Self HAD to let him loose to shoot.

Self will not allow a good shooter to play unless it's the team "system" first, defense second, and making shots third.

Last year at this time I thought Malik Newman was a total bust!!!

You and me both. It was actually a running joke. If you ever watched the Jerry Seinfeld Show, whenever the character "Newman" did something dastardly, Jerry would just exclaim "NEWMAN!". I started doing that every time he screwed up (bad shot, lousy pass, etc) and it was a pretty frequent thing.

I'm hoping for the same thing with Grimes. I just don't get it. He played for Self in the summer on team USA and was the best guy on the team.

They spent a couple weeks playing internationally this summer and I understood that Grimes thrived. Maybe he's hurt or has something weighing on his mind? He reminds me a lot of Selden, but I suspect he won't stay three years to be drafted in the second round.

Is the PGs and bigs get the best coaching, who has
been the assistant in charge of the wings?

I'm in no way suggesting this is the case with Grimes, but I recall four years ago when I dropped my daughter off at college. As we said goodbye, I saw a 300+ pound freshman lineman - for a FBS playoff school this year - saying goodbye to his parents, and crying loudly while hugging his 300 pound dad.

Regardless of size and skill, these are still young men adapting to a major life change. Some jump right in, some are homesick, some just need to mature a little. All of which can affect their performance.

I just hope Grimes is happy and continues to progress. I think he will. He's too talented not to.