Offseason Thread: 2015 Edition

[WuShock16]

FIFY

No doubt that game seems like it should have an asterisk. Stupid bogus goaltend! That said, it shouldn't have come to that. We were up 17 in the first half and then seemingly stopped playing until we were behind by 9 with 5 minutes to go. When you give the officials the chance to screw you, they can and seemingly do.

[Play Angry]

New Mexico State checks in at #88 in the Top 144 Countdown.

[kcshocker11]

New Mexico State checks in at #88 in the Top 144 Countdown.

Just saw the mighty KSU wildkitties are 134

[WSUwatcher]

Just saw the mighty KSU wildkitties are 134

If that ends up approximating their RPI rank next season, it may be just as well they aren't on the schedule.

[Play Angry]

UNI lands in the same 7 AM CST time slot for their rematch with Stephen F. Austin in this year's Tip-Off Marathon on Tuesday, November 17.

[_kai_]

UNI lands in the same 7 AM CST time slot for their rematch with Stephen F. Austin in this year's Tip-Off Marathon on Tuesday, November 17.

UNI is also slated to play at 12:30 AM against Hawaii later in the season.

Brutal.

[ShockerFever]

The McLeod is gonna be swamped for this one.

[Bluzrover]

I'm anxious to hear how the next round of practices have gone/are going. Seemed like in years past we would get a few reports from scrimmages and the like which gave us a little taste of how the newcomers are fitting in with the "oldsters" and it always helped to add to the excitement for the upcoming season. The paucity of information regarding this new crop, McDuffie, Shamet, Taylor and Hamilton, other than the work out piece Sully wrote a week or so ago is killing me. I'm dying to know how those four look on the court.

One of the earlier articles by Sully indicated 3G is finding the new group is fitting in better than last year's newcomers and I'm curious if that means we'll see these four on the court earlier and more often than previous freshmen. They've got a lot of talent in front of them so if they do make it on the court early, I'm liking our chances for a deep, deep run come March/April 2016!

[pogo]

Ok. Summer to-do list complete. Kid all moved in at WSU (Still wishing I would've gotten a cellphone video of the KU admissions dude when Nick turned down his full ride offer), had the 7th (and final) kidney surgery this morning, I am ready for some basketball!!!

Thats amazing. Most people I know only have two kidneys except for the ones that sold one on the black market. In all seriousness I am glad that you are done with what you have had to go through. Go Shox

[ShockerPrez]

Just saw the mighty KSU wildkitties are 134

Even with all of our recruits that they stole?

[Aargh]

Even with all of our recruits that they stole?

Thanks to an ESPN writer (cited in the Media Love thread) we know that Marshall will have to leave WSU because he has no hope of recruiting high quality local talent against all those P5 schools surrounding Wichita.

KU has Ellis - S16
KSU has Wade - likely to finish in the top 10 in the B12
WSU has Wessel - F4, S16; Baker - F4, S16, Frankamp, Shamet, Taylor, and Morris from the local area.

I can see why KU gets so many players who leave early for the NBA. Ellis has pretty much demonstrated that leaving early is best. Player development doesn't seem to be something that happens at KU for a player who stays.

[Kel Varnsen]

Thanks to an ESPN writer (cited in the Media Love thread) we know that Marshall will have to leave WSU because he has no hope of recruiting high quality local talent against all those P5 schools surrounding Wichita.

KU has Ellis - S16
KSU has Wade - likely to finish in the top 10 in the B12
WSU has Wessel - F4, S16; Baker - F4, S16, Frankamp, Shamet, Taylor, and Morris from the local area.

I can see why KU gets so many players who leave early for the NBA. Ellis has pretty much demonstrated that leaving early is best. Player development doesn't seem to be something that happens at KU for a player who stays.

Look, I get trashing KU, but seriously? Jeff Withey, Thomas Robinson, the Morris twins, Tyshawn Taylor, Travis Releford, and even Conner Teahan were all much better players than when they arrived (and there are others that I could have mentioned, but didn't). Perry Ellis is limited in his draft stock by the fact that he's only 6'7" and plays post in college. Has nothing to do with Bill Self or KU.

[ShockdaWorld]

Were those guys high level recruits? I seriously don't know. Don't pay enough attention to KU to really know. Just my personal opinion (which is probably somewhat skewed by not caring enough), but it seems to me that Bill Self is a "rich man's" Mark Few. They both seem to recruit well (although the name on the jersey does give Self a huge advantage). They both pull in enough talent to be relatively dominant in up and down/overrated conferences. They both seem to be outcoached pretty consistently at tourney time. I guess my question is, while he (and his staff) obviously help lesser known guys to get better, are the top tier guys getting any better by being there?

[Kel Varnsen]

Were those guys high level recruits? I seriously don't know. Don't pay enough attention to KU to really know. Just my personal opinion (which is probably somewhat skewed by not caring enough), but it seems to me that Bill Self is a "rich man's" Mark Few. They both seem to recruit well (although the name on the jersey does give Self a huge advantage). They both pull in enough talent to be relatively dominant in up and down/overrated conferences. They both seem to be outcoached pretty consistently at tourney time. I guess my question is, while he (and his staff) obviously help lesser known guys to get better, are the top tier guys getting any better by being there?

Are the top tier guys going to get any better by going anywhere though? If you're a 5 star recruit and legitimately are a one-and-done (Ellis is not in this category), it doesn't matter where you go. You're only there for a year (two tops). You're doing a little bit of skill development, but most of it is learning the offense and playing the games. Andrew Wiggins could have gone to Wichita State or even Robert Morris and he would've been a top 5 pick.

Also, it's hilarious how people here think Bill Self is not one of the best coaches in the game. If we didn't have Marshall and we could have anyone we wanted, he's on my top 5 list. The notion of him getting "outcoached pretty consistently come tourney time" is a riot as well. Taking one game and using it to judge a season where they played 30-35 games already is just nonsense.

[ShockdaWorld]

Are the top tier guys going to get any better by going anywhere though? If you're a 5 star recruit and legitimately are a one-and-done (Ellis is not in this category), it doesn't matter where you go. You're only there for a year (two tops). You're doing a little bit of skill development, but most of it is learning the offense and playing the games. Andrew Wiggins could have gone to Wichita State or even Robert Morris and he would've been a top 5 pick.

Also, it's hilarious how people here think Bill Self is not one of the best coaches in the game. If we didn't have Marshall and we could have anyone we wanted, he's on my top 5 list. The notion of him getting "outcoached pretty consistently come tourney time" is a riot as well. Taking one game and using it to judge a season where they played 30-35 games already is just nonsense.

Opinions vary. I don't think Self is even close to being one of the best coaches in the game, and if we didn't have 3G, Self wouldn't be in my top 20. Like I said, opinions vary. Using one game to judge a season (being outcoached at tourney time) seems akin to people thinking he's great because he has a national championship, one game where the opponent couldn't hit a free throw in the last 5 minutes and Mario Chalmers cemented his legacy as a KU legend. I guess that could be considered nonsense as well. If we're leaving out everything that someone somewhere could consider nonsense, I guess there's not much to go off of. Winning the Big12 doesn't impress me much when the conference is pretty much done after the first weekend. Again, opinions vary. That's why they are opinions and not facts.