The Jayhawk players today will move into their new $12 million McCarthy Hall. “It passed inspection today and the guys will be moving in tomorrow. It’s exciting,” Self said. In all, 36 individuals will live in the hall: It breaks down to 16 basketball players and 17 students not affiliated with the hoops program. There’s also beds downstairs for two guests and one for the resident adviser.
…Bill Self wore a tuxedo, not a sports coat, when he last entered The Midland Theater in the Power and Light District in downtown KC.
“Last time I was in this venue it cost me quite a bit of money because my daughter Lauren’s wedding reception was here,” Self, KU’s 13th-year basketball coach, said smiling, Tuesday night at the Coaches Vs. Cancer season tipoff event. “It was a great venue for that (Aug. 16, 2014 event). It’s a great venue for a multitude of events, including tonight’s,” Self added.
…“I don’t know if anybody looks great (at practice). I’d say Perry (Ellis) has looked the best so far,” Self said of the Wichita senior who Tuesday was named third-team All-America by cbssports.com.
“Frank’s (Mason) been fine; Devonté’s (Graham) been fine. Svi (Mykhailiuk) and Brannen (Greene) have each shown flashes. All the bigs have shown flashes at different times, but nobody’s playing great. It’s hard to tell who is playing well when all you are basically doing is drills and halfcourt and not really playing yet,” Self added.
…Self was asked if the fact Diallo did well in summer school and is faring well in his first semester classes at KU would help his cause.
“You would think there would be a lot of stuff that could potentially help his case,” Self said. “I don’t know if coursework already done in college has anything to do with initial eligibility. If that does play a factor that will be one of our mitigating factors that would be very beneficial because he’s done quite well. The problem is obviously with the school (Diallo’s Our Savior New American). We don’t know exactly what those problems are. We’re trying to sift through it, get as much information for them to make a determination. They want us to do exactly what we are doing.”
LJW
Good grief, NCAA...Please just clear Cheick Diallo. http://t.co/X6b0dtSf1M Holding this up waiting for academic info from Mali? Really?!
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) October 7, 2015
KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self said Tuesday that school officials likely will present to the NCAA in the “next couple weeks” the latest maneuver in an eligibility case that could have massive ramifications for the Jayhawks. Diallo, a 6-foot-9 power forward, is a consensus top-five recruit and the crown jewel of Kansas’ 2015 recruiting class. But his freshman season continues to hang in the balance as the NCAA inspects Diallo’s three academic years at Our Savior New American, a private school in Centereach, N.Y., that has been subject to NCAA review.
Self said the upcoming presentation should not be considered part of any appeals process — there has been no ruling as of yet — but it appears that the final decision could come down to information exchanged this month.
“I don’t know all the ways the legislation runs, but this is one in which, based on the information that (the NCAA) had, it probably wouldn’t be a good outcome for us,” Self said. “And it’s our job to pull together more (information). They’ve requested more things, and we’re working on that.”
Self added: “But by no means has there been an answer one way or another. It’s basically: ‘This wouldn’t be a good presentation yet, because we still need to see A, B an C or X, Y and Z.’ It’s our job to get that stuff together, which we will. It just takes a little bit of time.”
Self’s latest clarification on Diallo’s case came as he stopped in downtown Kansas City to attend the annual Coaches vs. Cancer season tipoff at the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland.
“We’re still hopeful,” Self said. “But they’ve requested or want to receive information that it takes a little bit of time to gather.”
KC Star
A capacity crowd, including Kansas City area dignitaries and coaches, packed into historic Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland in downtown Kansas City for the eighth annual Coaches vs. Cancer 2015 Season Tipoff fundraiser Tuesday night.
Long-time Missouri coach Norm Stewart, who played an instrumental role in starting Coaches vs. Cancer, was the host of the evening's festivities. Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas served as emcee for the event, while area men's basketball coaches Bill Self from Kansas, Bruce Weber from Kansas State, Kim Anderson from Missouri and Kareem Richardson from UMKC mingled with the many Coaches vs. Cancer donors throughout the evening before taking the stage.
"It's best because Norm is here," said Self referring to Stewart who founded Coaches vs. Cancer through the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). "Norm deserves the majority of the credit for getting this started. To think whenever you get diagnosed with prostate cancer yourself, like he did, and how do you spin that into a positive and 100 million dollars later we are looking at what has basically occurred because of him."
KUAD
Perry Ellis CBS Sports Third Team All-American
CBS Sports: You coached in the World University Games this past summer and won a gold medal. What did you learn from that trip that you plan on implementing within your own program at Kansas?
Self: I do think there's one thing that I did learn. With the short clock you have to trust your players to make plays. I think as coaches sometimes we run offense and in the players' minds we run offense just because we're doing what coach wants us to do. Your offense may have options to score or pass, but if the coach says let's swing the ball and get it inside the players think let's not look to score let's do what coach wants us to do. I think that's a fine line with coaching, but with the short clock you have trust players to make plays and I think that experience will help us a lot.
CBS Sports: Home court advantage is a huge part of all sports, but how much has Phog Allen Fieldhouse played a role in that streak and how much over time do you appreciate it more and more?
Self: I don't want to jinx us, but we've lost five conference games in 12 years at home. So it's obviously played a huge role and there were some games where we were just awful and the crowd just didn't allow us to lose or brought us back basically. It's huge and I understand that and players understand that too.
But you know probably more so than our home record what's been impressive to me is how our kids have responded on the road. I think since we've been in the league and you can go back when Texas A & M and Missouri were in the league -- I think that up until the league disbanded every team in the league had been to the Sweet 16. Texas A & M did, Texas Tech did. Missouri obviously did as did Kansas State because they went to the Elite Eight. It's been a loaded league without question. That's the thing -- a lot of people don't look at the Big 12 as having that same pop as some of the other leagues because we're not as top heavy as the ACC was last year which was true last year. But the balance has been ridiculously good over the last decade or so.
CBS Sports: All coaches say that they remember the losses more than the wins. How much have you thought about the Wichita State game since the end of last season?
Self: Obviously you think about that a ton, but we weren't very good in that game. Wichita State was better. I'm not making excuses -- they were better than us, but we were a team that was trying to piece it together at the end of last year. We lost Cliff Alexander and Perry (Ellis) was about 50 percent. If we weren't really playing well then there was a good chance that somebody could make us look bad and Wichita State was tougher and they just outplayed us.
CBS Sports Q&A with Coach Bill Self
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10-7-1985- The Harlem Globetrotters announce their 1st female member- KU great Lynette Woodard. pic.twitter.com/x7wqJWwvtG
— KU History (@kuhistorytoday) October 7, 2015
“Pay Heed. The game you love began here. Respect those who came before you. Make their legacy your own. Because destiny favors the dedicated. And rings don’t replace work. In this game you don’t get what you want. You get what you earn. We are Kansas. Together we rise. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!”
Big 12 / College News
Kyle Wiltjer is the CBS Sports Preseason National Player of the Year.
He edged Oklahoma's Buddy Hield, Providence's Kris Dunn, LSU's Ben Simmons and Kentucky's Skal Labissiere for the honor because, collectively here at CBS Sports, we believe the 6-foot-10 forward is the proper choice when trying to identify somebody who will be great individually and on a nationally relevant team. After sitting out the 2013-14 season, Wiltjer averaged 16.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists last season while shooting 54.0 percent from the field, 46.6 percent from 3-point range and 78.9 percent from the free throw line. He led the Zags to a 35-3 record and WCC title. They lost to the eventual national champions, Duke, in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. It was a one-possession game with less than five minutes remaining.
"We really feel like we have unfinished business because we were right there in that game with Duke, and we could've made that Final Four," Wiltjer said. "But we came up short. And we have a bad taste in our mouths. ... It sticks with us. And it's going to drive us."
CBS
Five months ago, Iowa State's Steve Prohm was the coach at mid-major Murray State. Now he's in charge of one of the big favorites in the Big 12.
Prohm officially began his first season in charge of the Cyclones on Tuesday with the team's annual media day.
Iowa State has all the pieces to make a run at the league title and more - provided that Prohm can handle coaching college basketball at the highest level, of course.
In the minds of Prohm's players, the Cyclones have nothing to worry about.
''Coach (Prohm) is in here earning our trust and our respect every day,'' said senior forward Georges Niang. ''Even though he's not trying to cross any of our toes, he puts his foot down when he needs to and lets us know that stuff needs to get done. I think he has a great combination of how to keep us motivated...and still be stern and be able to get the most out of us.''
Fred Hoiberg's departure for the Chicago Bulls after five mostly successful seasons gave Prohm a shot at a national title. The roster Hoiberg left behind for Prohm is loaded.
AP
Twelve members of the 2016 Rivals 150 have already committed to Pac-12 programs. Amazingly enough, not one of those prospects is headed to the school that has dominated West Coast recruiting for the past few seasons.
Arizona has been shut out thus far in its 2016 recruiting efforts, an unfamiliar feeling for a program that has landed 11 Rivals Top 25 prospects in its past five recruiting classes. The lack of early commitments is unusual enough that Sean Miller actually took the time to address the topic without provocation during the news conference that preceded his team's first practice last Friday.
"Whether we have commitments now or not, the hay doesn’t enter the barn until April as far as who’s on your team,” Miller told reporters in Tucson. “Sometimes you may have a good early class but there are a few others you wanted to add but you don’t.
"This year a lot of things are going to happen for us later, not earlier."
Yahoo Sports
Recruiting
Top HS prospect D'Andre Ayton is changing high schools. I wrote this about him over the summer. Pure dysfunction. http://t.co/Y6dBxuRnWo
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) October 7, 2015
Leaf still has two more official visits – Oregon this weekend and UCLA on Oct. 30. His dad told InsideTheVille that they canceled their official visit to Kansas.
Louisville CJ
Jackson said his biggest goal for his senior year is to finally figure out where he wants to go to college -- a route he said he's 100-percent committed to despite the allure of paychecks overseas. Arizona, Michigan State and Kansas seem to be on him the hardest at this point, and he said he plans on making two official visits later this month. He just doesn't know to where yet.
"There was a lot going on this summer," Jackson said. "I didn't really have too much time to sit down and really think about this whole process and where I really wanna go.
"I just want to go to a place where there's a great coaching staff and I'm around people I can trust. People that are gonna push me to make me a great player and to be around some teammates that can also play the game of basketball."
In all likelihood, Jackson's stay in college will be short. He's already drawing comparisons to Andrew Wiggins for his defensive ability and the way he makes teams pay in transition. DraftExpress has him at No. 4 in their initial 2017 NBA mock draft.
"I'm really high on him," said Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, who was in Colorado watching the camp. "He's got great size, he's a freak athlete, he's a tremendous defender. He's still got some work to do in terms of rounding out his game, his ball handling and his shooting. But he shows a lot of flashes in a lot of different areas and he's a really competitive guy, so I think he's a really good prospect."
Link
Trevon Duval is the No. 1 point guard and No. 4 overall player in the ESPN 60. Last summer his peers awarded him Best Handles hardware for his dominance during the AAU season. The Advanced Prep International (Dallas) star has everyone from Duke to Kentucky to Kansas to North Carolina to Arizona, among many others, all applying the full-court recruiting press for his services. Now he’s agreed to give USA TODAY HSS exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a blog.
USA Today
Minnesota assistant Nate Pomeday was at Blair (N.J.) Academy on Monday for 2017s Kodye Pugh and Deng Gak, while Kansas assistant Norm Roberts is expected through later this week. For more on the 6-7 Pugh read this and for more on the 6-11 Gak read this…
Zags Blog
Recruiting Calendar (updated for 2015-16)
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