Jason Gardner apooOnU, you have a friend in Lucid. He also didn't care for Gardner. IIRC, he called him a "foul whore". Poor guy, I read he's playing ball in Slovenia. Ouch.
lol, HE WAS!!!!! He's the basketball equivelent of anyone on the Mexican national soccer team. I understand maybe sometimes taking advantage of an opposing player who is prone to foul, but basing your entire game around whoring yourself out for fouls ain't cool with me. For whatever reason, I never really cared for Luke Walton either, partially because of his dad, and him getting mad preseason hype and never doing much with it. I was a big Eugene Edgerson guy though, that 'fro, sideburns, socks pulled up and all, that was awesome. And my thoughts on Arizona are the same as Narmec mentioned, good team, loads of talent, but young and definately room for them to prove themselves. But I think they'll be there come March.
Lucid, what's the word on Kansas this year? I like your new coach better than ol' what's his name. Has Simien recovered fully? We're not playing each other this year, are we? If not, it's too bad. Great teams, great games.
Lucid, Spartak, and I had a lively discussion about Kansas around the beginning of this page. Maybe before that depending on the # of posts per page you set. Actually we argued Kansas v Syracuse but the information is all there. Basic conclusion was that both squads are stacked and are Final Four contenders
Narmec, Yeah, I wish we could play Arizona again this year, but oh well. Simien is back to 100%, langford just had minor knee surgery and should be 100% in a few weeks. I think the comon theme around this program this year is change, new coach, semi-new jersey (just have a red strip around the collar and down the sides), and when you are watching the games on TV at Allen, you might notice a pretty big change, the court doesn't have the Kansas state logo on it anymore, rather it's a Jayhawk, and I mean a BIG jayhawk. The thing I sense with this team is a lot more attitude. That was something that was typically missing from Roy teams. Gooden brought that his Junior season, then bolted, the Junior trio this year has that along with Giddens who brings a lot of attitude. I kind of liken this to the change that seemed to happen at UNC after Guthridge when Dougherty brought some real ballers in with attitude. I think a lot of you will understand what I mean when I say, typically KU has been too suburban white. Getting Chenowith in here from Orange County, grab a few kids from Iowa in Collison and Hinrich, get Boschee from North Dakota, that just brings no sort of edge to the team at all. It's great with Self now because he is actually recruiting east of the Mississippi. He just bagged a guy from NY city, something that hasn't been at KU for a long time. We've been getting a lot of recruits lately from Oklahoma City which is great! Roy is a fundamentally sound, team oriented coach. That can win you some games, but when you need a superstar to grab the team and put it on his back, it can't happen. Think about what Paul Pierce could have done had he had a coach more prone to letting it be a one-man show. I gaurantee you he wouldn't have let his team lose in the 2nd round in '98.
Langford was in the process of winning the National Championship game all by himself. But the refs bailed out Syracuse by calling a horrendous 5th foul on him. That might have won the game for Cuse right there. Roy might have bailed on Kansas, but I don't think it makes him any worse of a coach. 4 Final Fours is not a fluke. All those All-Americans and NBA players were not just born superstars. If Jimmy Boheim decided to retire tommorow, and Mike Hopkins decided to retire with him, I'd want Roy Willaims up in the Dome. Or Rick Pitino. And there's a thought thats worth thinking about right there. If the Syracuse job ever opened up, I wonder if Pitino would leave Louisville for upstate NY. I think he'd be the first choice of Orange Nation, and plus Rick has a lot of love for Jimmy B. So I wonder how hard it would be for him to say no if Boheim ever asked him to coach there?
If Boehiem ever retires, he has at least 15 more years in him imo, then most likely a SU alum will get the job. Maybe Hopkins or Louis Orr. Or they might go for a former Boehiem assistent, Pitino or Tim Welsh come to mind. There is no chance Roy Williams is leaving UNC under his terms. And I wouldn't want him anyway. I wouldn't even put Roy on my list of ten. I think he is the most overrated coach in the country. He has had the most talent in the country year after year, outside of Duke, yet his teams consistently underachieve.
Roy's biggest knock over the years was that he was too team oriented. I don't think bailing on Kansas makes him any worse of a coach, but the bias towards Roy just isn't there anymore. Four Final Fours is great, I sure loved it, but considering his last 6 seasons he had probably a dozen NBA players and even more Mcdonalds all-americans, he averaged probably somewhere between a loss in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Winning the BIG XII year after year is great, but it hurts when you don't do anything with it. As for Langford, he does have that leadership ability. Him and Miles have this winning attitude that Gooden had. Winning at Kansas was always about "I'm doing it for Roy. I wanna win one for Roy. I'm gonna prove everyone wrong, Roy can win. Yadda yadda yadda." Whatever happened to "*#*#*#*#*#*# man, I'm gonna get myself a ring!" We sat through listening to Chenowith cry on the sidelines because Jayhawk fans were booing him (Mind you, he was 7-1, 270 and refused to go up for a dunk). Roy's teams were all about heart, and damn... that's a great quality to have in a team, but there has to be some sort of Keyshawn "Give me the damn ball!" in them too. Graves has it, Langford has it, Miles, Lee, Simien all have it. So do some of the recruits, especially Giddens who still contends he's a better dunker than Lebron even after he lost in the dunk contest to him. This team will win something big in the next few years, and it will be off of what Roy built, and we're grateful for him bringing these players to Kansas, really are. But Self brings a younger, less-traditional, less-fundamental, more streetball, and more self-worth aspect to the game as a recruiter and as a coach.
I liked the state of Kansas on the court. Made it look a bit historical/traditional. Man, with Washington falling apart in football, college basketball season can't come soon enough. Instead of bitching about Cody Pickett errant passes, I'll be bitching about Chris Duhon's errant passes. Same theme, just different sports and names. Mentioning who could/would take over for Boheim at Syracuse made me think of how lucky I am as a Duke fan. Johnny Dawkins has stayed at Duke as an assistant for seemingly the sole purpose of taking over when Coach K is done. If he declines, then Quinn Snyder and Tommy Amacher have both been relatively successful in their young coaching careers and I don't think either of them would hesitate leaving Mizzou and Michigan, respectively, to go back to Duke. Then if all three of those guys can't/won't take the job, then Chris Collins and Steve Wojciechowski are being groomed into future D-I coaches and could step in (Wojo more than Collins, IMHO).
I gotta believe that is Quin's career goal, to take over at Duke. But from the looks of it now... that won't be for a looooong time. Ammaker is definately the favorite of the two at this point considering Quin is pretty damn close to getting his Tigers put on probation. You don't want Quin taking over at Duke, he's gonna need a decade of running a clean program to get rid of this stain. Besides... at this point Quin can only recruit. He coaches streetball, and when his players don't have the talent for streetball, he coaches slopball. But damn that guy can recruit. All he needs to do is get more fundamentals of the game down in his coaching style and he can be a pretty high prized commodity for whoever gets him after Mizzou (he's definately not gonna stay there his entire career).
I respect Coach K's success at the College level and consider him perhaps the best coach ever. I also consider Duke to be on a different level than anyone else in the Nation. But man I HATE Duke. Perhaps its that 4 corners system that Duke runs, or Dick Vitale's love affair with the school ("JWill and Duhon will be the greatest backcourt in College Basketball history"), the Duke calls (see NC Game vs Arizona), or maybe its thier string of annoying players starting with Christian Laetner and ending up with the immensly overhyped Chris Duhon (loved Wojo though, in an ironic twist he might be my favorite College Baller ever).
Agreed Lucid. Snyder's troubles at Mizzou are the big knock on him right now. As far as his coaching abilities, or lack there of, if he can keep quality assistants at Duke (like Collins, Dawkins, and Wojo right now), they can take care of the fundamentals. Tommy A has done a very good job last year at Michigan. He's got that program back on the up in a very troubling time. But I honestly think that the job will be Dawkins' to turn down if/when the time comes. He's been on the staff for quite a while and has patiently stayed there while guys like Snyder and Tommy have gone out and got big time jobs. Dawkins could have bolted for another big school's head coaching gig if he really wanted to, but he's stayed. And I understand everybody's hatred of Duke. They are on TV far too often (but I won't complain that I get to see about every game) and get way too much hype. As much as I loved the Laettner/Hurley/Hill era, I really fell more in love with Duke in the mid-90's when Coach K was out with a bad hip and the team was struggling. When Coach K came back guys like Wojo, Collins, and Capel played above themselves and started rebuilding Duke back into the top tier of college basketball.
I'm with you, apooOnU, on almost all of this. But, I became a convert to Christian Laettner the second he stomped on that Kentucky guy. You can never, ever have enough guys like this on your team. The supreme example of this is only the best basketball player ever, Michael Jordan. Loved it when all the UK fans were crying about it afterwards!
Shaun Livingston Any of you guys have the scoop on where he's going? I know he's been a Duke guy from day one, but there's some local yokel who claims he's got inside info that it's not a done deal.
Re: Shaun Livingston Digging through the Duke Basketball Report archives, Livingston has not ruled out Arizona and Illinois to go along with Duke, with Duke and Illinois being the most likely. The article was from 9/25/03. http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/recruiting/2244.html
Re: Re: Shaun Livingston Thanks, NNCRed. Lute's trying. He canceled Midnight Madness because Shaun wanted to see a full workout, not some BS dunk contest. Wherever he goes, he's one and done. IMHO, no way in hell Arizona gets him. P.S. I think Swann signed with FSU. Arizona is in big for Davis Nwanko (sp?).
Eugene Edgerson Lucid, the local paper had a story about Gene today. He's now playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. I'm not sure what he's gonna do since he can't dribble or shoot. But, the article mentioned his 'fro and that it could be a marketing tool. LOL Anyway, just thought I'd mention it.
Re: Eugene Edgerson Haha nice.... Makes sense that he'd go with the globetrotters, definately fits the part.
Re: Re: Eugene Edgerson will he be on the squad that plays @ Syracuse on Novemebr 11? It'll be Nationally Televised on ESPN
Re: Re: Re: Eugene Edgerson I believe so. I don't think he's going to get big minutes, though. I doubt he's got the "weave" down yet. P.S. Good to see the Globetrotters playing real (so to speak) games.
Suprised nobody posted anything about their respective school's late night considering they took place on Friday. I was going to go to KU's but we waited too long and the fire marshall locked the doors. How long is too long? 7:30. Shocked the hell out of me. I'd been able to walk in a get a seat (granted a s**tty seat) at 11:00 before, but the place was 16,300 strong by 7:30. Heard it went great though. Can't say the same for the Mizzou late night, heard it was 3,000 reported, but some it it was far less than that. Good job Tiggers.
There's a guy in this picture? cripes, take a look at those abs. I bet their wearing thongs under those hotpants to
bumb cuz I'm already sick to my heart with Football this year. Penn State football is kicking itslef in the nuts, Syracuse football is as expected, and the Buffalo Bills' coaching staff has me completly fed up and disenchanted with the team. So what do you guys make of Mike Montgomery accusing Billy Donovan of cheating? http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=1645672