Have faith

I told a friend that I did NOT have much faith in KU making it very far in the tournament.

His response was

"Have faith! Loyola made the Final Four last year"

OK, bring it on!

I think the Big 12 tournament is totally up in the air, and we're in the hunt. Right now, I think Tech is the team to beat and if we win tomorrow, we'll likely play them on Friday. They'd be favorites, but playing in KC can help us. If we get past them, we'll likely have KSU who I think we could beat more easily than Tech.

We could also go out in our first game vs. Texas.

In short, I think the Big 12 will be about who's hot right now, and that could literally be anybody.

For the NCAA I think we'll need a lot more luck. I think we CAN get past the first weekend, but I wouldn't bet my house on it. To survive the 2nd weekend, I think we'd need some "outside" luck.....injury or a lower seed advancing to play us.

All that said, if we can avoid any nastiness with the NCAA this team is going to be fairly ridiculous next year.

I noticed the drifting in Abaji's shooting form at the last home game. I never played BB so I was not sure if I was seeing something that was meaningful. Hope he reads the RCB and realizes what he is doing.

I'm heading to the game tomorrow night. I'm on board and hoping to keep the record alive. (15 years consecutively winning the conference or conference tournament). Not backing off until it can be done. Bring on the Longhorns!!
RCJHGKU!

Hoping that almost a week off has given Garrett's ankle some more rehab time. He hasn't been full speed yet since his return from injury, and rehab time is scarce this time of year.

"... this team is going to be fairly ridiculous next year."
You wrote this above, and I have seen others make similar comments. It seems to me such thoughts are quite overly optimistic. Are you counting on Lawson returning? Dok? Silvio being available? If so, I understand the rosy forecast.
But I am skeptical that any will come back. Even if Dok does, he doesn't seem to be able to get through a season without a major injury. I don't see Lawson in the NBA, but he could easily play pro somewhere, and what else could he prove with another year at KU? And the NCAA is such a bunch of chowder heads I am not holding my breath with Silvio.
So that leaves the four freshmen. All will be better, to be sure, even Grimes, although I am not sure how much better he will be. (I am assuming he won't leave) But will they be THAT much better? And replacing Lawson's 20 and 10 won't be easy. That leaves Garrett, Lightfoot, KJ, and Moore. Maybe there's a superstar coming in that I have forgotten about but that team doesn't seem like world beaters to me. What am I missing or whom am I forgetting?

Ok this is frustrating…I’ve timed out twice trying to post this.

Riverhawk: here’s my logic. Happy to hear your thoughts.

First, I think if we had started using the current lineup back in December, I think we would have won at least 1 and probably 2 Big 12 games, but would have probably lost a few non-con games. Still, I think we would have won at WVU and possibly at Texas or KSU. This lineup, according to the odometer, is still in late January in terms of development.

So here’s how I see the team shaking out next year:
>Dedric: I think he stays. Earlier in the year, I had him 60/40 in favor of leaving for the NBA. Now I see it 55/45 in favor of staying. He certainly won’t get any worse next year and he’s arguably the best player in the league right now.
>Dotson: The guy has developed in to a true stud. Now that he’s getting the rim, he’s filling out as a player with multiple threats. I think by the time he moves on, we’ll be talking about him like we do Frank and Devonte.
>McCormack: Last night proved to me that he’s a prime time player now. He’s crossed over the freshman awkward phase and is playing well last night. He runs the court great, has huge heart, and has finally learned to slow down a little. The BEST thing I saw last night: only 2 fouls. That’s maturity and there were several plays where the David from 4 weeks ago would have picked up fouls where he didn’t last night. He’ll be even better next year.
>Agbaji: ok, he’s been struggling a little lately, but we’ve seen what he CAN do. Imagine how good he’d be now if he had been getting minutes back in December and his current slump happened in January and he was beyond it now.
>Garrett: he’ll never be a shooting threat, but he’s getting to the rim. His defense is excellent and I think he’s taking pride in being the stopper on the team. As long as we can find somebody to shoot 3’s that he won’t ever be taking, he’s a net positive for this team.
>Grimes: This, along with Dedric, is another “risk” in my projection. I have to believe that if the entire basketball press believed this kid to be a lottery pick that he’s got some skills we haven’t seen. I also have to believe that “something” is going on and that he and Self know what it is (home sickness, difficulty adjusting to college, whatever). Finally, I have to believe that having identified the problem that he and Self will fix it over the summer. I also think Self will adjust the offense to play to his strengths. The same thing happened with Perry Ellis and once Perry and Self figured out how/where to play him, Perry’s game took off. All of this combined tells me that Grimes will be much better next year. Then again, I’m the guy who believed that Chenowith was going to finally get things figured out and that never happened. In Grimes’ favor, I don’t think he likes the Dave Matthews band, and I don’t even think they’re touring much these days.
>Dok: Dok will be healthy next year for one obvious reason: he’s run out of wrists to injure. Think about it: he had the exact same injury to each wrist. Unless he grows a 3rd arm to injure, he’s done with this. He’s exhibited no frailty with ankles, knees, feet, hips, back or anything else. He’ll also have a chip on his shoulder. Better buy some spare rims over the summer.

That’s your core group and it’s pretty good. I don’t think DeSousa will be back, unfortunately. I think that very soon, Self and he will realize that the NCAA is letting their calls go straight to voice mail, and once the slow-play on DeSousa discussions becomes evident, DeSousa will head to Europe.

Finally, this also ignores the giant elephant in the room: the NCAA. If they lower the boom on us, a LOT of bad things become possible. Guys will head to the NBA and I think we’ll also see transfers. Worst case, if the NCAA gets really nasty, Self might leave…on his own, or via the boot. I don’t want think about what could happen in that regard, and that would obviously change the calculus pretty dramatically.