Vick gone

Taking a leave of absence I hear. Uh oh.

Story https://kuathletics.com/news/2019/2/7/mens-basketball-vick-to-take-leave-of-absence-from-kansas-basketball-team.aspx

A bit of a mixed blessing. Good Vick can be a tremendous asset. Bad Vick is more of a liability. I have no insight into the machinations inside the team dynamics. But it is my statistical assessment and my subjective assessment that Vick more often than not did little to make this team better. I know it is politically correct to love all Jayhawks and I have zero zilch nada animus for Vick and truly wish him well. But I was growing weary of his “me first” play and his complete lack of maturity and leadership. Similar to how I felt about Elijah Johnson after his senior season.

And there was this quote from Vick's mom:

"We need him here for a couple weeks," La La Vick told The Star. "I need him. There's a lot going on. It'll work out."

www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/sto...nce-personal-matters

Personal matter. Privacy respected. Enough said.

Vick is a Jayhawk, and whatever his play is on the court, good/bad/ abysmal, you hope everything is okay off the court. I hope Vick can comeback for Senior night. Go home LV and take care of the personal issues, and hope you can comeback for a proper KU sendoff.

www2.kusports.com/news/2019/feb/07/lager...nce-ku-basketball-t/

How can we miss him if he never goes . . .


RC

This doesn't surprise me. In fact, I almost posted after the last game that I wouldn't be at all surprised at all of another "shoe dropped" that wound up separating Vick from the team. The way Self benched him the other night spoke volumes, and Self's comments yesterday only reinforce the fact that Self has had enough of Vick. Sadly, I don't think we'll see him again and I wonder if he'll even come back for senior night. Sadder still, I don't like where his trajectory is headed for his own personal future. Sad all around, and I think this closes the book on Vick and KU.

Mom says they need him at home, but I can't help but wonder if a judge or courtroom doesn't need him home. Just conjecture on my part.

I wish him well and hope that he figures out his life.

Moving forward, I actually think this could help us. The fact of the matter is/was that when we were in trouble in games, he was somebody that we relied on to help. His play, however, proved unreliable, particularly in pressure situations. The team now knows that he's no longer an option. Somebody else will need to step up. Maybe this forces Grimes to finally "flip the switch" or perhaps Agbaji is that guy. Looks like Garrett is out for at least one more game, but other than that the "drama" has left the building. It's very possible that the remaining crew will coalesce and take on an "us against the world" attitude. At minimum, with a predictable level of expectations for everybody, I think Self's gameplanning has a lot fewer variables to input into the system. That's can actually be better than trying to plan around somebody who as unpredictable as Vick.

Of course, there's a remote chance that Vick will return in a couple weeks, but honestly I question if we'd be able to (or would want to) re-integrate him back into the lineup if he came back for the last 3 or 4 games of the year.

Onward and upward guys.

Gosh, NotO, I sure hope he at least comes back for senior night. There have been a very short list of seniors over the years I was not sad to see be done and go. But spending 4 years of the grind of being on the team, they deserve absolutely to be appreciated and honored on senior night. Vick absolutely deserves to have that honor and appreciation. My personal frustration with Vick is solely due to his apparent lack of proportionate contribution to the team on the floor. I know he has had a few minor indiscretions that were made public. BUt as far as I know he has represented KU adequately as a student-athlete. It is simply my opinion that given that he is the lone senior and leads the team in minutes, his win share is disproportionately low. Of course it is complete conjecture but had Vick decided not to return last summer and Agbaji had played from day 1, i would conjecture that we would be at least as good and likely somewhat better at this point. Having said that, there is no denying that we likely won a couple games on the back of good Vick. I sure hope his life trajectory is good and that the problem is not the direction but the turbulence of the path.

Just thinking about the possible outcomes here. We have 8 games left, 4 at home. Final home game is March 9th (Senior Night). That's almost exactly a month away.

I guess it's a matter of time. The longer he's gone, the more the team advances away from him, and the less sharp he becomes (not practicing, conditioning, etc.). I think if he's gone a week, he can find his way back. 2 weeks, and it's much tougher. At 3 weeks, that would be missing 6 of 8 games and I'm not sure it would be worth it for Self to bring him back for one road and one away game. Maybe he plays as a reserve.

With all that, it makes you wonder where he'll even be in relation to the basketball program on March 9th. I agree that as a senior who played here for 4 years, he's earned the honor based on what we know right now. But I can also recognize that there would be some awkwardness coming back if you were no longer on the team and showing up to be honored. I suppose we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.