College Basketball

[RedEyedGhost]

I hadn't read the Harrison Barnes comments and those are at least somewhat troubling. If there's one recruit on our radar currently that I'd like to nab... it would be him. He's articulate, intelligent, and athletic and I think he will make a great ambassador for whatever school signs him one day.

AKA: Pimp :hat:

He truly is in a class all by himself.

[Rhom]

And that's the key right there.

With the DDM it ran by guards that have the ability to drive into the lane, and either create their own shot or dish it out to an open teammate for a perimeter shot. The interior players get their points primarily from rebounded putbacks. There's not a lot of passing to big men when the guard himself is looking for the interior shot, so all your talented big men will be wasted with the DDM (just as they were in Memphis).

And to keep the DDM running you have to have reliable perimeter shooting, because without it the defense can back off and clog the lane (or go with a tight zone). This will then limit what the guards can do, so they'll start jacking up shots beyond their typical range, and then you have five defenders ready to snatch up those missed shots.

I just don't see the DDM working without at least one three point threat and several other serviceable shooters. With all of the inside talent you have, I think your team would be much better running the high-low or a pick and roll offense.

Interesting that we were talking about this. One of the Courier-Journal's bloggers took a look at this question. He had some interesting observations.

In the wake of Jodie Meeks' decision to stay in the NBA Draft, everybody is wondering who will pick up the 3-point slack for the University of Kentucky. If Calipari's recent past is any indication, the answer is that everybody will.

Not since Rick Pitino has UK seen a system that is so aggressive from three-point range.

Calipari's Memphis team took 681 threes last year, a very low number for a Calipari-coached dribble-drive offense that is functioning well.

Yet that's still more three-pointers than UK has taken in all but three of the 11 seasons since the Wildcats' last national championship. (That year, UK also took 681).

But look inside the numbers. On his Final Four team in 2008, Calipari had five players attempt at least 100 threes. That hasn't happened at UK since the 1991-92 season, when Jamal Mashburn, John Pelphrey, Deron Feldhaus, Richie Farmer and Dale Brown all shot at least 100. (Let's be fair, though. The 1996-97 national runner-up team had four players shoot at least 100 -- Ron Mercer, Scott Padgett, Anthony Epps and Allen Edwads -- plus Derek Anderson shot 94 and Cameron Mills added an incendiary 42 of 79).

So it looks like we can expect a lot more threes to be jacked up from basically every position.

More on the Barnes situation... from what I'm reading in UK camps, apparently Kevin Galloway was Billy Gillispie's main recruiter on Barnes. If you didn't catch the news at the end of last week, Galloway and Matt Pilgrim were just dismissed from the team... Some fans are reading the Galloway dismissal as a factor in the Barnes comment.

:dunno:

And yes... he's a flat out pimp.

I cannot believe that they would consider PJ. He fucking sucks and nobody likes him.

You know what else is scary... PJ was practically offered the UK job in 1989 before Pitino took it. :stunned:

Theus might be a great hire.

I think he would be.

I really hope that Craig Robinson stays at Oregon State for a while. I never thought it was too likely that he'd be the new coach at USC but everyone in the media kept throwing it out there. I'm hoping that it was just Andy Katz throwing out interesting ideas and the rest of the media just repeating what Katz had said and nothing more than that.

He actually has a very good recruiting class coming into Corvalis two years after the worst team from a major conference in memory.

I'd like to see what he can build out there. I see no reason why Oregon State can't be a contender for Pac-10 championships occaisionally.

[Rhom]

Congrats to Darius Miller of Kentucky for making the USA Basketball U-19 team. I love seeing homegrown kids doing well for themselves. It'll be interesting to see if he can beat out all the newcomers for Jodie's vacant spot.

[RedEyedGhost]

Congrats to Darius Miller of Kentucky for making the USA Basketball U-19 team. I love seeing homegrown kids doing well for themselves. It'll be interesting to see if he can beat out all the newcomers for Jodie's vacant spot.

Tyshawn Taylor made the team as well. And apparently it was enough for him to get noticed by draftexpress because they are now listing him at #17 next year; five spots ahead of Xavier Henry and sixteen ahead of Sherron.

:o

:D

:bs:

:huh:

:wideeyed:

:unsure:

:mellow:

:eek:

Yeah, I don't know how I feel about this... :leaving:

[Rhom]

Lets see... stunk up the joint in Tennessee, would've missed the NCAA tourney with a loaded Arizona squad if the selection committee hadn't tried to do Lute Olsen a favor... yeap, Kevin O'Neill is exactly the right guy for USC.

How the @#%& do these retreads keep getting jobs?

Honestly, collegiate and professional sports have to be the only job market where you can literally fail upwards.

[RedEyedGhost]

How the @#%& do these retreads keep getting jobs?

Honestly, collegiate and professional sports have to be the only job market where you can literally fail upwards.

College is bad, but they've got nothing on the pros. It's fucking ridiculous how many times some of those guys have been given head coaching positions.

Here's a funny and quite awful UK

for you Rhom. I could barely make it through the entire "song".

And here's more love for Tyshawn Taylor from draftexpress

Probably the biggest revelation to come out of these tryouts, and clearly one of the most well-rounded players in attendance, Tyshawn Taylor looks poised to emerge as the leader of the Under-19 World Championship bound team.

Fresh off dissecting this 2009 draft class to the Nth degree, it was hard not to come away seeing a lot Jrue Holiday in Taylor’s game. Although not freakishly long or strong, he has good size for either guard spot to go along with a very nice first step, and is an extremely versatile player on top of that.

Taylor stands out first and foremost for the work he does on the defensive end of the floor, which is not a surprise considering the coach he plays for.:) He is the type of player who is always around the ball, constantly in the mix for loose balls, and he takes a lot of pride in the effort he puts forth shutting down his man.

While clearly not a pure point guard at this point in time, Taylor shows good enough court vision that it wouldn’t be a stretch seeing him develop into a capable playmaker down the road. His feel for the game is excellent, and he’s a highly unselfish player who particularly shines with the patience he shows on the pick and roll. He rarely takes bad shots, is always willing to make the extra pass, and really does a nice job feeding the ball into the post or finding the open man on the drive and dish.

Offensively, Taylor clearly has room to improve on his all-around polish, especially in the half-court. His ball-handling skills are good, but not great, and his shot tends to get streaky from time to time. Despite this, he’s obviously capable of knocking down jumpers, both with his feet set or off the dribble. In transition he is very effective thanks to his excellent smarts and the great burst he shows on his first step.

Already a very effective player, despite having plenty of things he can still work on, Taylor’s upside looks significant. While he may have to take a back seat to Sherron Collins this season at Kansas, scouts will definitely look at him thoroughly as a prospect for 2010 or 2011.

and a little bit more

From our NCAA Freshmen Rankings, we have to scroll all the way down to the 20th and 21st spots to find the first participants in this USA Basketball tryout—Terrico White and Gordon Hayward. We (and the NBA teams in attendance) now know that we need to bump up Tyshawn Taylor significantly after what we’ve learned, but if this team is going to come home with the Gold medal, it certainly isn’t going to be because they are the most talented roster in New Zealand.

This just makes the wait for next season excruciating.

[RedEyedGhost]

Yeah it will be very interesting watching the progression of USC the next few years. They're going to be fucking awful next year, and likely the year after. After that it will depend on how well O'Neill can recruit, but that will depend on if anything comes from the Mayo investigation. Should be some nice drama for the next few years.

[Rhom]

You know... there are days when I get embarassed by the rumors I see pop up on Kentucky message boards. So now that Meeks has been drafted and we are one scholarship under the limit, I have seen multiple posts that say the Henrys have butted heads with Self and that Xavier to Kentucky is a "done deal."

I'm honestly embarassed even to type that out. Its the sort of ridiculousness that gives internet message boards in general a bad name.

[RedEyedGhost]

That's just some idiotic UK fans stirring up shit trying to piss off KU fans. About three weeks ago somebody made up a rumor that circulated all the UK blogs in about three hours, but it was all just b.s..

So if there's anything "new" now that

Meeks has been drafted and we are one scholarship under the limit

I wouldn't put any stock in it because Meeks has been 100% gone since he announced he was staying in the draft over a month ago. So, if there are "new" rumors today then they're just more of the same b.s..

And since the draft has now played out, who made the worst decision by staying in? My top five are:

1. Patty Mills - in such a PG heavy draft he definitely would have benefited by waiting until next year.

2. Chase Buddinger - his problem was that he waited too long. Had he left after his freshman year he probably would have been lottery based on potential, but three coaches in three years isn't going to do anybody any favors and it's no surprise that he didn't want to be stuck under a forth.

3. Jodie Meeks - I can understand why he left (new coach and lots of new talent that would lead to his stats going down), but he was never a lock for that guaranteed money.

4. DeJuan Blair - he could have had a really good career at Pitt, but instead he's a 6'7" PF without a guaranteed contract.

5. Shawn Taggart - Another one I can understand; nobody wants to be a 24 year old junior in college. Not only was he not a first rounder, he wasn't even drafted. You got to believe that he would have been better off getting another free year of education.

Overall it was a very odd draft, but the strangest thing was that Taylor Griffin got picked. Are you fucking kidding me?? :stunned:

[Rhom]

As a Blazer fan I'm slightly hopeful that Mills can really play but we'll see.

Good call on Budinger. I'm still amazed that he dropped this low. It's amazing that he probably would have gone even higher had he never played one year of college had the rule not been in place. He came in with a ton of hype.

I agree. I'll be honest, I'm somewhat shocked that Jrue Holliday went as high as he did. There was nothing about him at UCLA last year that said he can be an asset to a team.

With Meeks, I think its 50/50 whether he made the right decision or not. As you note, there's a ton of talent coming in next year. This combined with the fact that next years draft is supposed to be deeper at the shooting guard could have hurt Meeks next year even if his stock did rise. Its going to be tough to make the Bucks roster though with the talent they already have at the 2.

I think Blair probably got a blessing in disguise. Getting drafted to play for the Spurs is pretty much the ideal situation for him and I think he'll fit right in.

I was surprised to see Patty Mills drop like he did, everyone was really high on him after the Olympics.

Personally, I'll be shocked if Ricky Rubio pans out. I see him as another Darko Milic. :dunno:

[RedEyedGhost]

WARNING: This is not a substantive post. It is just me venting from the internet b.s. surrounding our program the past three days.

You know... there are days when I get embarassed by the rumors I see pop up on Kentucky message boards. So now that Meeks has been drafted and we are one scholarship under the limit, I have seen multiple posts that say the Henrys have butted heads with Self and that Xavier to Kentucky is a "done deal."

I'm honestly embarassed even to type that out. Its the sort of ridiculousness that gives internet message boards in general a bad name.

Well...

Kansas University basketballl coach Bill Self today commented to the Journal-World on reports that Xavier Henry and C.J. Henry were having second thoughts about attending KU and still might attend Kentucky.

"I'm still looking into this," Self said, acknowledging the Henry family was upset about a weekend story in the Kansas City Star that the Henrys felt portrayed the family in a negative light.

"I am ready for the finality of it (on where Henrys are going to school). I believe that will occur very soon," Self added.

Rivals.com and 610 radio quoted Carl Henry, father of the Henrys, as saying the family would hold a meeting today in Oklahoma City. Rivals said that Self and assistant Danny Manning would be traveling to OKC tonight. Self this afternoon said he was on his way back to his office from a function in KC and did not confirm whether a trip to OKC was in the works.

Self said because of the "article and blogs and people commenting on the article, the family is very upset and concerned about how they'd be treated in Lawrence."

While expressing anger at the article, Carl Henry said in an interview with 610 radio that his son, Xavier, actually has stayed in touch with incoming Kentucky freshmen John Wall and Daniel Orton and recently told Carl he might want to switch his allegiance to UK.

"A couple weeks ago, my youngest son (Xavier) tells me he wanted to go to Kentucky. Said he's thinking about it," Carl told the station. "He keeps in touch with John Wall and Daniel Orton. They are good friends. What happened is those guys get to talking to him, they could probably change his mind. Actually that's what happened. I was talking to Xavier. I'm telling him, 'Hey, man, I know those are your friends, you can't change just like that. You already gave a commitment. You already said you were coming. Now all of a sudden you dont want to come any more? Just because your friends said, "Hey, this (Kentucky) will be a great place?"'"

Self said the Henrys gave their word they were coming to KU and thus he is "past the point of being concerned with (their) recruiting. Either they are coming or not coming. There's no reason for fans or people who support the university to be concerned. They gave us their word they are coming. If an article keeps them from coming, of course it'd be disappointing but it's not anything I can control."

:stunned:

They're upset by an article that included this quote from their dad??

"I don't like stepping on people's toes," Carl says, "but I just know what I know. I watch them play, all the Kansas kids. I like all these kids, (Sherron) Collins, (Tyshawn Taylor), they're good kids, man. But they're not better than C.J."

Are you freaking kidding me?

Of course fans are going to freak out when you say your son that hasn't played basketball for three years is just as good as our all-american senior that was an integral player on a national championship team :rolleyes:

Carl never met a microphone that he didn't like, and he really needs to learn to shut the fuck up.

But it seems that all is good now (for a couple of days I'm sure)...

Xavier and C.J. Henry will remain members of Kansas University's basketball program.

The brothers who apparently were angered by a Kansas City Star newspaper article that the Henry family felt portrayed it in a negative light on Tuesday were considering dropping their commitment to KU for Kentucky, the brothers' dad, Carl Henry, said.

However, all was smoothed over by late Tuesday night when Xavier Henry sent a text message to Kansas City 610 radio's Cory Anderson indicating he would remain a Jayhawk.

"I'm goin' to Kansas and that's final," Anderson said in reading the message to the Journal-World.

ETA link for the last quote

[Rhom]

I missed all the late night drama of this and just saw it this morning when I got here to work. Truly shocking. To me it really looks like a case of some over meddling parents who are doing their absolute best to mess up their kids' future.

I won't lie... if Henry decided to come to Kentucky, I wouldn't cry. It would take a class that many have already said might be the greatest of all time and elevate it beyond all doubt. However, I won't worry about it if Henry decides to stay put.

If he thinks he is getting disrespect from Kansas fans, I don't know how he thinks it would be different at any other top level school. UNC, KU, and UK fans love their basketball and feel a certain "ownership" of the team that allows them to be the judge, jury, and executioner on these kids when it comes to fan chatter. It would be no different anywhere he goes.

[RedEyedGhost]

Lance Stephenson finally picked a college: Cincinnati. And it only took him a week from the first contact to decide... :stunned: Who knew he could make a decision so quickly.

[Rhom]

Lance Stephenson finally picked a college: Cincinnati. And it only took him a week from the first contact to decide... :stunned: Who knew he could make a decision so quickly.

When its your only offer, I suppose it makes for a quick decision...

I do wonder if Cronin will come to regret this. :unsure:

[Rhom]

Coach K is staying with Team USA for 4 more years. Its a commitment that will take him to the World Championships in 2010 and then the London Olympics in 2012. So I guess this means we can look forward to at least four more years of listening to the media blame Duke's substandard performances on poor recruiting by his assistants.

[Gold Storm]

Coach K is staying with Team USA for 4 more years. Its a commitment that will take him to the World Championships in 2010 and then the London Olympics in 2012. So I guess this means we can look forward to at least four more years of listening to the media blame Duke's substandard performances on poor recruiting by his assistants.

Their gonna use it as more proof that Coach K will go to the NBA.

You would think that coaching the national team would make recruiting easier, "I am such a good coach, that I have been selected to coach the best American players. now, if they want me to coach Kobe and Lebron imagine what I could do for you."

[Rhom]

Had you guys heard the story about Jordan Crawford dunking on LeBron? I heard about the story on The Herd with Colin Cowherd radio show while at lunch today.

During a scrimmage Crawford was matched up against LeBron James...and dunks on him. High School prospect Dwight Powell sets the scene:

They were split into teams, and LeBron had his own team. In all the college player’s eyes, I could see a little fire burning, with all of them itching to show what they have against arguably the best player in the world. One player in particular definitely left their mark in Jordan Crawford of Xavier. On an inbounds play, The King was a step slow, and Crawford put a two-hand dunk on him.

I was shocked, but nothing will change my opinion of King James. Jordan Crawford on the other hand has some bounce!"

However the story of the dunk does not end there. After the dunk, LeBron and Nike executives in attendance decided they rather not have video evidence of the dunk get on the internet. Nike officials approached videographers in attendance and confiscated their tapes. This move could have backfired on Nike as the dunk has grown into a legend and has become a hot topic on various basketball related sites on the net.

I havn't looked around enough to see if any video did leak out on the net or not. From what Cowherd was saying, it sounds like it may be legit. Crawford is the younger brother of former Kentucky player and Detroit high school phenom Joe Crawford. He played one season at IU and then transferred to Xavier amidst the Kelvin Sampson debacle.

[Rhom]

That story does lend itself to the idea that LeBron is very calculating. Image is everything apparently.

That was Cowherd's whole point too. LeBron is very cautious about how he is perceived in public.

[RedEyedGhost]

Coach K is staying with Team USA for 4 more years. Its a commitment that will take him to the World Championships in 2010 and then the London Olympics in 2012. So I guess this means we can look forward to at least four more years of listening to the media blame Duke's substandard performances on poor recruiting by his assistants.

And apparently it's already begun because have you looked at their roster next year? With Henderson bolting for the NBA and Elliot Williams heading to Memphis (to be closer to his ailing mother) they only have two guards on the team. Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer. Two fucking guards! Way to recruit a balanced team there K. They're a single injury away from K's back acting up on him again.

[Rhom]

They're a single injury away from K's back acting up on him again.

Maybe I should put in my application now to be the official team chiropractor for Duke basketball! :rofl: