Arrested Development

[DrunkoMcGee]

If you honestly consider yourself an early NBA prospect, going to ku has to be one of the worst career decisions you can make.

#1:  You're not gonna develop under Self's staff.  You're just going to maintain or perhaps get worse.
#2:  You're not gonna put up tremendous stats, because there's too much talent around you, also trying to go league early.  In fact, you may not get much playing time at all.
#3:  You're not gonna improve your draft status any, because of #1 and #2.  In fact, it will probably get worse.

This is why Darrell Arthur has realized that perhaps the worst decision of his life was to go to ku instead of Baylor.  At Baylor, we'd be talking about him challenging Durant for Big XII player of the year.  Instead, we're talking about how he's getting some nice minutes.

If you're wanting to go to the NBA early, you wanna be a big fish in a medium pond...not a little fish in a big pond.

Despite what you KSU fans like to think and say, the blue chippers keep right on showing up and Bill Self has won 78% of his games while at Kansas.  This whole thread is sour grapes.  If emoticons weren't so ridiculous and stupid, I would use that popcorn one you like so much.

You guys should get back to talking about how bad a coach you think Rick Barnes is and the cultural benefits of throwing live chickens onto a basketball court. 

Sour grapes? WTF! 
They're not fruit, they're facts.
I'm waiting for your interpretation of the stats above, pay special attention to the red ones.
TIA!

If you don't think Sasha Kaun, Darnell Jackson, and Russel Robinson have gotten better at ku, then I don't know what to tell you.  You also must not have watched Wright and Chalmers the first semester last season.  Same with Collins the first semester this season.

You can make an argument that Rush has stayed the same for two years, but that is about it. 

The stats aren't going to get that much better for guys when you are playing an 8 man rotation where everybody can score.  The stats that matter are winning.

Also, you guys like to talk about how bad Rush is.  Go take a second and compare his numbers to those of Corey Brewer.  Get back to me after you do. 

[ksu_FAN]

1st, I don't see where you're getting that Aldrich will make that big of a jump in the RSCI.  He's 42 now, and he's already dropped in rivals compared to where he was ranked when the RSCI was posted.  Same with Reed.

2nd, thank you for perpetuating the myth of Huggins' recruiting while he was on his year off.  He maybe got help with one guy on that deal and he already had a long standing relationship with him so that is fairly minimal.  Getting Beasley, Sutton, Pullen, and Brown had little or nothing to do with the year he had off.  

[opcat]

Still waiting for MJROD to install a Wooldridge emoticon. 

[WildCatzPhreak]

4 stars does not = blue chip recruit.

Top 10 = blue chip recruit.

You know.  Like Michael Beasley, Bill Walker, etc.

[DrunkoMcGee]

1st, I don't see where you're getting that Aldrich will make that big of a jump in the RSCI.  He's 42 now, and he's already dropped in rivals compared to where he was ranked when the RSCI was posted.  Same with Reed.

2nd, thank you for perpetuating the myth of Huggins' recruiting while he was on his year off.  He maybe got help with one guy on that deal and he already had a long standing relationship with him so that is fairly minimal.  Getting Beasley, Sutton, Pullen, and Brown had little or nothing to do with the year he had off.  

Check out all the latest scouting reports on Aldrich and how good he has been in the last year.  Everybody has pretty much figured out that he was hurt last year and that is why he played poorly and dropped in the ratings.  The fact that he made the Hamburger team is a testament to that as well.

As for Huggins, he never recruited as well as he did this year in all his years at Cincy.  This one is the anomaly.  If he continues it, great.  But history states that he won't.  The NIT this year isn't going to help in 2008.

[michigancat]

1st, I don't see where you're getting that Aldrich will make that big of a jump in the RSCI.  He's 42 now, and he's already dropped in rivals compared to where he was ranked when the RSCI was posted.  Same with Reed.

2nd, thank you for perpetuating the myth of Huggins' recruiting while he was on his year off.  He maybe got help with one guy on that deal and he already had a long standing relationship with him so that is fairly minimal.  Getting Beasley, Sutton, Pullen, and Brown had little or nothing to do with the year he had off. 

Check out all the latest scouting reports on Aldrich and how good he has been in the last year.  Everybody has pretty much figured out that he was hurt last year and that is why he played poorly and dropped in the ratings.  The fact that he made the Hamburger team is a testament to that as well.

As for Huggins, he never recruited as well as he did this year in all his years at Cincy.  This one is the anomaly.  If he continues it, great.  But history states that he won't.  The NIT this year isn't going to help in 2008.

You could say the same with Self.  What did he get...one McDAA at Illinois?

He had the great 05 class at ku - none of the other classes have had more than one McDAA.

Huggins recruited multiple McDAA's at Cincy.  He will likely recruit more in the future.

[BullHawkWheel]

their stats have gotten worse because we have gotten more players in our rotation and the scoring has been spread out.  this is our deepest team since 02 and we have no one averaging over 14.5 but are 17th in the nation in scoring offense, and also number 1 defensively.  if you are going to sit here and say that rush is the same defender that he was when he came to ku you are crazy.  he is the best defender on arguably the best defensive team in the nation.  you are telling me sherron is the same player that he was in november?  please.  and wright has gone from a first rounder to a top 5 pick, kaun is night and day since he was a frosh, darnell has improved greatly since last year and arthur is now a more rounded player who can rebound as opposed to him at the beginning where he was somewhat of a liability on d and comitted too many dumb fouls.  rusrob is ten times the scoring threat that he was as a frosh and chalmers is chalmers,  he hasnt really gotten better but he definitely hasn't gotten worse.  and even he was a completely different player at the end of his frosh year.  i think he was averaging like 20 his last ten games frosh year.  also led the big 12 in steals, also doing that this year

[BullHawkWheel]

"• During the Kansas-Oklahoma game, Julian Wright submitted the single best half I've seen from a college player this season -- the first half, when Kansas rolled to a 33-19 lead on the road because Wright was destroying the Sooners in every possible way. If you haven't seen him yet, he's a 6-foot-8 forward who plays the way we always wanted Tim Thomas and Billy Owens to play. In other words, he's a truly gifted passer, breaks a sweat on defense, makes 18-footers, crashes the boards, busts his butt filling the wing on fast breaks and actually seems to give a crap.

His passing separates him from everyone else. During one play last night, he was isolated on the right side, waved one of his post players (I forget which one) over to the same side, then threw him a perfect entry bounce pass that enabled the guy to immediately spin around for an easy layup. I'm putting this sentence in caps to emphasize the significance here: COLLEGE PLAYERS DO NOT NORMALLY MAKE PLAYS LIKE THIS. Assuming he enters the NBA next season (nobody knows if he's coming out), he'd join Boris Diaw, LeBron and Tim Duncan as one of the best passing forwards in the league. He has a real chance to become a significant pro. Anyway, if the Celtics finish last and guarantee themselves a top-four pick, obviously it would be catastrophic to lose out on Oden or Durant … but Joakim Noah and Julian Wright are clearly 3A and 3B in this draft, which means the Celtics would be getting a blue-chipper at any of the top four spots. Small consolation, but still.

(As for Brandan Wright, he bricked the game-tying free throws at Maryland in the final three seconds and looked terrified the entire time. … These are the things I will remember when I'm ranking my top 10 draft prospects in four months. And yes, I have him ranked a distant fifth right now behind Durant, Oden, Noah and Wright.)

• One more thing on Kansas: The Jayhawks have the highest ceiling of any college team (including Florida). They go eight-deep with four legitimate blue-chippers (Wright, Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush and Darrell Arthur, who played only six minutes last night), they have guards who can handle the ball and run fast breaks, they have 3-point shooters, they have low-post guys … and if that's not enough, they enjoy playing with one another."

espn.com page 2 senior writer bill simmons, the best writer at espn.  yup julian is horrible, gosh he is a shell of a player from when he got here.  times are tough for us jayhawks right now.  and i guess rusty thinks that mcdonalds all american are not blue chip recruits.  riiight.  it's also funny because he forgot to include sherron as the fifth blue chipper. he also i guess hasnt seen the numerous reports with quotes from wright about him coming back next season.

"Still not blue chippers.  And as more and more "blue chippers" see their draft stock plummet under Self (Wright, Rush, Arthur), future stars will take note."
well espn and nbadraft.net have julian 6th at worst, and 2nd if he styas, which he will.  when he came here he was considered a first rounder.  rush came here as a projected second rounder and nbadraft.net has him going 23rd in the first round.  ya he plummeted.  arthur said himself he most likely was gonna need 2 years and nbadraft.net has him lottery in 08.  you are right though, recruits will take notice that they will be able to play with nba players the whole time they are at ku. 

[BullHawkWheel]

you guys will never admit it, but you hate watching this ku team and how amazing we are.  and you guys know, you cant be this misinformed about college basketball, that next year we lose at the most arthur, and thats a maybe, so we will be even better next year.  add in #1 monroe and 2 more top 15 players with another top 30 and the number 2 player in 09,  man our future sucks. oh lance stephenson, #1 sg in 09, badass from nyc, we are in on him right now and getting our foot in the door. him and henry will be insane.

[fatty fat fat]

•

 

[cireksu]

i'll never understand how they got it in there heads that Self is some great player developer.  Name one player that he molded into a true star as a coach?

?

[chum1]

Holy crap.  That's waaaay to much &@#%ing reading for me.

[Dan Rydell]

he also i guess hasnt seen the numerous reports with quotes from wright about him coming back next season.

I saw numerous reports with quotes a couple of years ago about Roy Williams "not giving a sh*t about North Carolina."   

[michigancat]

Holy @#%$.  That's waaaay to much &*$@!ing reading for me.

Oh, it's worth it.

[icatmember]

"• espn.com page 2 senior writer bill simmons, the best writer at espn.  yup julian is horrible, gosh he is a shell of a player from when he got here.  times are tough for us jayhawks right now.  and i guess rusty thinks that mcdonalds all american are not blue chip recruits.  riiight.  it's also funny because he forgot to include sherron as the fifth blue chipper. he also i guess hasnt seen the numerous reports with quotes from wright about him coming back next season.

 
Yes Bill Simmons is the best writer on the Page 2 staff, which means he beat out Skip Bayless and Scoop Jackson ... wow give the guy a medal. You forgot to mention that he wrote that in his college basketball blog which he started when he finally started paying attention to college basketball 1 MONTH AGO!!!! He has watched college basketball for an entire month.

[ksuno1stunner]

ROFFLE @ dis thread

[Chet Stedman]

Simmons is without a doubt most ENTERTAINING writer on espn.com....that being said I don't rely on him for his savvy basketball analysis.  Cute that you quoted him as your go-to though.