Time to lace 'em up!

Ok, it's Fort Hays State, not Duke. It's exhibition, so it doesn't count. That's all just fine. The leaves are falling off the trees, the air is cool and crisp, and basketball season is (un)officially starting tonight.

Too bad that Dotson got stepped on by DeSousa in practice, but I imagine we can handle FHS tonight with him resting. Looking forward to getting to see some of the newbies and start connecting names to faces. Also interested to see if any of the sophomores benefited from the last days of the Hudy era (particularly Agbaji and McCormack).

Is it gonna be a blowout? Probably. Will it be sloppy? Absolutely. Will Self turn beet red and yell at a player or two who aren't approaching the game with the seriousness he demands? Bet on it. Will Self talk about how awful we looked in the post game press conference? Yep.

Still happy to have forked over my 5 bucks a month to the folks at ESPN so I can stream it.

In other news, there's a really dumb article over at KUSports today ( dumb article ). The premise is that KU distributed a flyer to local businesses telling them that they could be considered boosters if they violated a number of practices. The author states that Adidas in fact became a booster by providing apparel to players, having season tickets, promoting KU BBall, etc.

The author seems to have missed the most obvious difference: If a local t-shirt shop starts giving players free t-shirts, or if a local diner makes some kind of side deal where Devon Dotson is getting free sandwiches for endorsing their food, it's a violation clear and simple. Adidas, however, is an official corporate sponsor which means that they have an official agreement with the university where they probably get an allocation of tickets, have the ability to give players apparel, and do a lot of other things that would qualify them as a "booster" if they didn't have a contract with the university to do these things. But they do. So thanks KUSports for once again missing the obvious.

Going to the game with daughter #3. Will try to provide some insight. Should be interesting on three points since it looks like Dotson and Moss are out.
1. Who runs the point? If Garret, how does he do?
2. Who can hit from outside with Moss out.
3. Will Mitch play? Indicating that he redshirt.
Interested to see how any of the freshmen do.

Yes! Games! It is doesn't matter to me if they don't really count. As you pointed out and I concur. I am interested in seeing who plays and where. Who can make shots. We have historically struggled to really take advantage of our inside dominance as much as we should. What I mean is our post players have not put up the gaudy numbers you would expect against smaller teams. Will that trend continue? I hope to see the team work hard and enjoy being a team.

Garett played well at point guard and seemed to get more comfortable as the game went along. Will be a very good back-up to Dotson

Jury still out on the 3 point shooting. We have lots of kids that can drive the ball. Moss should help if his hamstring heals.

Mitch played but it now appears that he can still redshirt until the regular season starts.

Some other observations.

Silvio is a very good rebounder but not as athletic as I expected. His ups are not great.

Braun is going to be a player.now is listed as coming from Burlington, KS. Enaruna does not have an outside shot yet but boy can he defend and drive. Wilson is also very long and athletic but shooting is erratic.

I think that this could be an excellent team. The body language between the players was extremely positive. Last year from the first game on, you could tell that there were some issues and it never seemed to get better. I thought last years team was dysfunctional. Did not see it with this group.

Tyrel Reed was also from Burlington, right?

Hoshi, calling last seasons team “dysfunctional”is like calling the pope catholic. Last years team was the poster child of dysfunction. Between Grimes and Vick, you had 2 world class misfits (not so much a pejorative as a statement of proper fit into the Self/KU mold). On top of that, you had the De Sousa issue, the Azubuike injury which both radically upset the team dynamic. Then to top it off, you had very talented star (Dedric) who was loathe to provide any dynamic leadership, two guys forced to play minutes whose style was really not suited for the Self/KU style in Moore and K.J.. well Moore’s style was actually quite well-suited to the Self style, he just never performed well for whatever reason. you were left with a team leader who was a sophomore who couldn’t hit the ocean from the beach (Marcus) and the other team leader who was a mere freshman and a redshirt one at that. Way too many drummers marching to their own tune. This season, Marcus will be more firmly entrenched into a valid leadership role as will Ochai. The freshmen are always a crap shoot but from what I’ve seen and heard, we will have a fairly cohesive group and they will have clear leadership. The main person I will be watching for signs of dysfunction is Silvio. Not that I suspect he will be a problem. Rather, his situation would rattle any of us to the point of driving us to have something to prove which could work counter to the optimal team dynamic.

As an interesting aside, Jeff Gueldner posited that McCormack should redshirt and Mitch should play this season. That is especially interesting noting Self’s postgame comments regarding the ineffectiveness of the bigs working together and their inability to defend smaller players when we play 2 bigs. If Self is leaning to playing 2 bigs in limited minutes, a redshirt seems sensible. The Gueldner idea of redshirting McCormack vs. Lightfoot is quite interesting and not without merit. I had not seen or heard anyone else espousing that view.

My noting the dysfunctional nature of last year's class was before all the injuries and other crap happened and based on what I was seeing very early in the season. I think in the first two exhibition games I turned to my daughter and made the comment, "we have a problem". I'm not always right on first impressions but last year I was right on. This team really takes pride in playing defense and is more of a Self type team. I hope first impressions are correct.

Yes. I assumed Braun transferred to a school where he (and his brother) could play a higher level of competition and get better coaching than they would get in Burlington.

Fun to have hoops going again, and thanks to ESPN+ for allowing me to see every game in AZ.

None of this matters, especially after one game, but :

1. Size: Hard to see how our size will be our best asset this year. the game has bypassed the big man, and having so many still seems to just clog the lane and not produce much. Our hope has to be that we shoot well and open up the lane. If fort hays state can stifle our inside game, it seems like it won't be plan A against any other team either.

2. Freshmen: Braun is going to be a stud - quickly. I may have to replace my Landon Lucas jersey with a Braun one soon. Enaruna will come along nicely, and will be very good this year, and dominant next year. Wilson has huge energy, and loved his defense. Offense was sporadic and more AAU than college. He'll likely redshirt.

3. Veterans: Ochai is a beast (but looked a little slower, maybe due to his bulk??), Garrett is just solid and his shot looks a LOT more fluid. Garrett will get tons of playing time simply via the Bill Self reliance on seniors, but it looks like he will be more than the defender he was last year. Not sure where Lightfoot fits in, and most talk is him redshirting. Still love the kid and like his toughness on the court.

4. McCormack: He will break someone's face with a rocket pass this year. I was disappointed to see him still erratic to the point of being a turnover machine. Love his defensive energy though.

5. Dotson: All of the erratic play comes into line when the general gets back on the court. Early film of him looks like he's a lot stronger, and a step quicker than last year. I met Chris Beard from T-Tech last week. he raved about Dotson and said hands down player of the year.

Overall it was fun to see KU jerseys running up and down the court. Now I turn my attention to the KU football game tomorrow. Can't believe I'm saying that six games into a season where we're usually 1-5. Lock the new OC up into a head coach in waiting contract - pronto. he'll be highly sought after by many other teams.

Rock Chalk !

Tough to make an assessment vs a team like Fort Hays, but a few things stood out.

First, if we're going to play 2 bigs, the strategy is obvious. I commented to a friend that the Tigers were swarming around Dok like little biplanes buzzing King Kong while he climbed the Empire State Building. I expect that to continue and if Dok's FT shooting doesn't improve, it will be even more effective. I do think Dok's shot technique looks better. The first 3-4 misses were just short and that can be fixed. I'd be much more worried if his form hadn't improved and the misses lacked consistency. He'll never shoot 80% from the line, but I think he can aspire to being average from that spot.

The other side of that strategy, however, is that if you've got 3 or 4 guys trying to stop Silvio and Dok, you have open guys on the perimeter. With the 3 point line a foot further out, they're even further away. FHS obviously opted to stop the guys inside and hope we missed shots. Well, we didn't miss shots, so that was that. The fact that Garret was hitting certainly gives us a boost if it becomes a trend, and 2 of our most important perimeter guys didn't even play.

All in all, it was fun to see the guys play. I'm not worried about our interior offense. Hell, HCBS could have worn a T-shirt saying, "Santa brought me 2 talented bigs a couple years ago and I haven't had much of a chance to play with them, so I can't wait to see what happens." I guarantee you that the FHS staff (and anybody who knows anything about KU hoops) knew that Self was telling the team to get the ball inside. Any coach on the planet would have prepped the same way and assigned the majority of his defense to outnumber and swarm our bigs. Worked for a few minutes, but not for very long.