Unofficial lowest body fat% at '16 combine
— NBA Draft (@NBADraft) May 11, 2016
1. Gary Payton II - 3.95%
2. Marcus Paige - 4.30%
3. Cat Barber - 4.50%
4. Perry Ellis - 4.60%
Unofficial longest wingspans at combine
— NBA Draft (@NBADraft) May 11, 2016
1. Zhou Qi - 7'.75"
2. Cheick Diallo - 7'4.5"
3. Damian Jones - 7'3.75"
4. Caleb Swanigan - 7'3.5"
KU’s Wayne Selden Jr. is listed as the seventh-best shooting guard in the draft by NBA.com’s David Aldridge. Aldridge has Selden being selected “late first round.”
LJW
The event runs from Wednesday to Saturday in Chicago, but ESPN coverage will occur on Thursday and Friday, the two more exciting days with actual on-court action. Coverage will run from 3 to 7 p.m.
ESPN2 will offer coverage that rotates through 5-on-5 scrimmages, various athletic tests and opinions from broadcasters. Players will be tested in max vertical leap, no-step vertical leap, court sprint, shuttle drill, bench press and shooting drills.
That coverage will include various college basketball commentators like Jay Bilas, Jay Williams, Fran Fraschilla and Andy Katz. It will be hosted by Mark Jones and Caron Butler. If your interest lies primarily in watching the scrimmage portion of the event, those can be watched on ESPN3 and the Watch ESPN app.
The first and last day of the combine are focused on off-court sessions like individual interviews with teams and physicals with doctors.
Link
…the NBA announced recently that 162 early-entry players had declared for this year’s Draft — June 23 in New York — with 117 of them being from the college ranks and 45 being international players.
That’s 162 players, not counting college seniors. And there are only 60 selections in the NBA Draft.
Needless to say, that makes the chances of landing a spot on an NBA roster a long shot for roughly 75 percent of those players hoping they’ll hear their names called in this year’s draft.
OK. So now that we’ve established all of that, let’s get back to Greene. Did he make the right choice in leaving?
The numbers above might suggest no, but the correct answer is yes. Why? Because it was simply time for him to leave.
Greene had three years to earn a regular spot in the rotation and, outside of a stretch here or a stretch there, did not do it. What’s more, he seemed to be in constant conflict with KU coach Bill Self — that’s rarely the way to go about getting more playing time — and, with the arrival of freshman phenom Josh Jackson, likely would have been, at best, the fifth man in KU’s perimeter rotation next season, behind Frank Mason, Devonte’ Graham, Jackson and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk.
Would there have been minutes for Greene next year? Probably. But would they have been consistent? Probably not. And would he have made the most of them? To that, too, you’d have to say probably not.
LJW Tait
Kentucky had cornered the market on one-and-done prospects until Duke and Coach K decided to throw their hat into the mix, and on Tuesday, I wrote a column about the tension that the rivalry has created on the recruiting trail.
But nowhere in there did I mention Kansas, and I’d be willing to wager that there aren’t many hoops pundits or recruitniks that would tell you the Jayhawks are on the same level as Duke and Kentucky when it comes to bringing in elite talent.
There’s a reason for that, and it’s not Bill Self’s ability to put together strong recruiting classes. Kansas is the best in the country at gathering the leftovers once Duke and Kentucky have picked through the kids they want from each class. In the 11 recruiting classes since the one-and-done era went into effect in 2006 — the year Kevin Durant and Greg Oden were freshmen — Self has landed 15 five-star recruits, according to Rivals. (For comparison’s sake, John Calipari has landed 32 five-star recruits since he came to Kentucky in 2009 and Coach K has landed 20 since 2006, with 10 coming in the last three seasons.) Nine of those 15 kids have come in the last four recruiting classes, a stretch that has included six of the eight top ten recruits that Self has brought to Lawrence. Three times in the last seven years and twice in the last four seasons Self has landed the No. 1 recruit in the country.
The natural question to ask, then, is why so many consider Kansas to be a step below Duke and Kentucky in the current recruiting climate, but the more pressing question given the way that the 2016-17 college basketball season is taking shape is this: Can we trust Bill Self to make the most out of landing the nation’s No. 1 prospect, Josh Jackson?
…And to me, the answer is yes.
The player that Jackson is inevitably going to get compared to is Wiggins. They’re both Jayhawks. They were both ranked No. 1 in their class. They’re both big, athletic wings with otherworldly physical tools and a skill-set that is both very-much developing while still being advanced enough to allow them to play as a natural wing.
But here’s the thing that you may not realize: They’ll both play with Frank Mason as their point guard, and it’s Mason that will ultimately be the difference.
The team that Wiggins played on was an example of why relying on a new youth movement every season is risky. That team’s starting lineup included three highly-touted freshmen (Wiggins, Embiid and Selden), a talented-but-promising sophomore in Ellis and a junior point guard named Naadir Tharpe, who was no where near the veteran leader or steadying point guard presence that a roster like that needed in order to succeed. In other words, that Kansas team needed Wiggins to step in and be “The Guy” and, if his career has proven anything to this point, it’s that he’s not exactly wired to be “The Guy”.
Jackson is. He’s competitive as hell, he relishes the big moment, he wants the ball in his hands. He has all of those intangibles that coaches always rave about. There are many that believe that he can be a leader at the college level in his one-and-done season, but the reason we are so bullish on Kansas is that he’s not going to have to be.
NBC Rob Dauster
SI: You transferred and played for Roy Williams at Kansas. Then you transitioned to coaching pretty quickly after college. Was it something that you knew you’d wanted to do even as a player?
JH: I knew I had an interest, but I was never the guy that dreamed since I was 5 years old that I wanted to be a coach. But I knew that it intrigued me. I went overseas and played for a couple months and realized that I no longer had a passion for playing but still loved the game of basketball. And when I was over there I decided I want to give it a try. But I didn’t get my foot in the door for a couple years with coach at Kansas. During those couple years, I tried to be an entrepreneur. I wrote a book and did a couple of videos and got my master’s degree and did lots of fun stuff.
SI: The book is named after a stat, Floor Burns, that was started because of you at Kansas. What did that track?
JH: I think technically it was how many times you hit the ground, like if you took a charge or dove for a loose ball. I think, though I’m not positive, that Kansas still keeps it. I feel pretty proud that a stat was kind of named after me and it stuck all these years. Again, I’m not positive that they keep it, but it would be pretty cool if they did.
SI: Does Roy Williams use it at North Carolina?
JH: I don’t believe so.
SI: Will you keep it at Stanford? Have you done it at UAB?
JH: I didn’t do at UAB, but I’m strongly considering doing it here. As we develop the culture of the program, that’s going to be a necessary thing.
SI: What were some things that you learned from Roy as a player and as a coach?
JH: Well the biggest thing is that he treats everybody so well, and I’ve always had a great relationship with coach. When I transitioned from playing for him to working for him, there wasn’t a lot of difference. I think he’s always been great with the assistant coaches. He doesn’t micromanage. He expects everybody to do their job and to be competent and effective with it.
SI
Join us June 4th for a Celebrity Basketball Game, benefitting former #KUBBALL player, @Aleonjam!!#HoopsforHopeKC pic.twitter.com/MAIRIzzL06
— Hoops For Hope (@Hoops4HopeKC) May 6, 2016
.@CoachBillSelf's Summer Basketball Camps are coming up in June! Info and registration at: https://t.co/lWXHqV8Axz. pic.twitter.com/ywyavvJ7ky
— Kansas Basketball (@KUHoops) May 5, 2016
Tickets are now on sale for the 2016 Rock Chalk Roundball Classic. June 16th at Free State High School. #kubball pic.twitter.com/089flzx6cC
— Rock Chalk Roundball (@RCRClassic) May 9, 2016
Kansas Athletics' Andrea Hudy and the University of Kansas School of Business will team up for "The Business of Sports: Branding Matters" conference on Friday, June 10 in the new Capitol Federal Hall located east of Allen Fieldhouse across Naismith Drive.
With the hopes of drawing a parallel between business and sport, Hudy, the assistant athletics director for sports performance, met with Neeli Bendapudi, the Dean at the KU School of Business, and together they came up with the idea for the conference. The daylong seminar will touch on the ways brands can influence the four main areas of an organization and will also explore the value of organizational branding through the lens of sports.
Kansas men's basketball coach Bill Self will give the opening remarks at the conference. He will be followed by keynote speakers Ted Leland, Director of Athletics at the University of Pacific, Cliff Illig, Vice Chairman of Cerner and Co-Owner of Sporting KC, Phil Wagner, CEO/Founder of Sparta Science and ESPN Sports Journalist, Holly Rowe. Each of the guest speakers will touch on how a brand can influence the four major areas of an organization—people, partnerships, processes and payoffs.
KUAD
“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
@woodymlb4 image
It appears Memphis has quite the pitch for its inclusion in an expanded Big 12.
According to documents obtained by ESPN, Memphis-based FedEx is willing to become a “major” sponsor for the conference, provided Memphis joins the fold. On top of that, FedEx chairman Fred Smith wrote in a letter to Memphis president David Rudd that the company would be willing to sponsor a potential Big 12 championship game.
“We strongly support the university’s efforts to become a member of an expanded Big 12 athletic conference,” Smith wrote in the Feb. 23 letter. “In support of (Memphis’) Big 12 aspirations, we have researched college conference sponsorships and are prepared to become a major Big 12 sponsor of football and basketball.”
Link
The Big 12's travails have been well-documented. But at least its fans can watch almost every single game involving a Big 12 team.
"For K-State, the last five years have brought unprecedented coverage through the Big 12's [tier 1 and 2] contracts with Fox and ESPN, both in football and basketball. That incredible distribution has helped us build our brand," Kansas State athletic director John Currie said.
According to USA TODAY, Kansas State produced more revenue last year than Pac-12 members Colorado, Oregon State, Utah and Washington State. The Wildcats also bagged roughly $4 million last year in tier 3 revenue from K-StateHD.TV. That is more than double the relatively paltry $1.4 million in TV revenue the Pac-12 distributed to its members.
ESPN
With Big 12 expansion talks dominating the college football news cycle and BYU considered by many to be a potential candidate, Cougars fan @hobocita took to Twitter for a laugh and got much more than he bargained for when he found out a Utes fan was manning UPS’s customer service desk.
Here’s how it played out.
@UPSHelp will you sponsor a Big 12 championship only if BYU gets into the Big 12?
— hobo the dude (@hobocita) May 10, 2016
@hobocita I can not speak for the company, But you asking a UTE fan here. Best of luck though. ^WS
— UPS Customer Support (@UPSHelp) May 11, 2016
http://gridironnow.com/byu-fan-tweets-big-12-joke-ups-utah-fan-service-rep/
Colorado State University President Tony Frank has been in contact with a member of the Big 12 composition committee, dating back to last summer, according to a report on ESPN.com on Wednesday.
The report states Frank made contact with West Virginia President Gordon Gee — a former president at the University of Colorado — with Gee responding in kind in July.
"Indeed, Colorado State is making a statement and moving swiftly into the forefront of universities, not only in your region but nationally," the report says Gee responded. "Be assured that my colleagues in the Big 12 and I will take careful notice."
Daily Camera
As Big 12 expansion talk heats up, the University of Houston hopes Gordon Gee remembers his visit to campus.
Gee, the West Virginia president and a member of the Big 12's composition committee, took a tour of UH athletic facilities during a trip to Houston last November, UH's top athletics official confirmed Tuesday.
Gee's visit to Houston, however, was part of a regularly scheduled appearance to discuss the university's capital campaign.
"He was not here in regard to expansion. He was here for a development exercise," said Hunter Yurachek, UH's vice president for intercollegiate athletics.
Houston Chronicle
Finding it increasingly hard to attract high-major teams to McKale, Arizona announced that it has landed a home-and-home series with Baylor that will begin in 2018-19.
Baylor will play at McKale Center on Dec. 15, 2018 and host the Wildcats in Waco, Texas, on Dec. 7, 2019.
This comes on top of a still-unfinalized (but likely) series between Arizona and Texas A&M to begin next season. The Wildcats are tentatively scheduled to face the Aggies in Houston next season and then "host" them at Phoenix's Talking Stick Resort Arena in 2018-19.
New Mexico will still be UA's highest-profile opponent at home next season, with both UA coach Sean Miller and operations director Ryan Reynolds noting how the increase of neutral-site games across the country has made it more difficult to schedule true home-and-home series.
Link
Iowa State signee Emmanuel Malou will stay in the NBA draft and hire an agent, according to ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla.
Malou, a 6-foot-9 forward, was one of the top rated junior college prospects in the nation and was expected to immediately step into the starting lineup for a team in need of bigs. He averaged 14.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks at Yuma College (Calif.) in 2014-15. He transferred from Yuma to Des Moines Area Community College for the 2015 spring semester to focus on his academics.
The NCAA had yet to rule on Malou’s eligibility. He is an Australian national who has attended multiple prep schools and junior colleges and the length of time since his high school graduation was also an NCAA eligibility issue.
Ames Tribune
None of the projections for the June 23 draft have Niang or Uthoff going in the first round. Most don’t have Niang being drafted at all.
“I think the best way to analogize this is college basketball at the level these guys played at is the equivalent of Double A baseball,” ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. “The top Euro leagues is Triple A and major college basketball is Double A.
“There’s no question Georges and Jarrod are great players, but it’s like they were hitting .330 in Double A. In the NBA, it’s a different sport. Athleticism is supreme. Teams are going to look at those guys and they’re going to have to show they can compete at the NBA level.”
Their first chance to do that comes today when Niang and Uthoff take part in the NBA combine in Chicago.
As good as they were at the college level, both are going to need to do something big over the next few days if they hope of improve their draft stock.
“This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been doubted in my life,” Niang told the Ames Tribune recently when told that he did not show up in many mock drafts. “Are those guys geniuses in the draft? Probably not. I don’t think there is any one genius at the draft process.
“You’ve just got to go out there and play to the best of your abilities. That’s what it comes down to.”
Link
Give UTEP coach Tim Floyd this: He found himself a sure-fire way to land a national college basketball headline in the middle of May.
Floyd held something of a seemingly random offseason press conference on Tuesday. After watching the video above, you'll see it wasn't so random, though. Floyd's motive for the presser is clear. The six-year UTEP coach is unhappy with some local media coverage of the team, and in particular, after watching the video, it's obvious Floyd wanted a public forum to argue with a specific member of the local media. The target is a radio host named Steve Kaplowitz. Over the course of nearly 30 minutes, Floyd took aim at Kaplowitz, calling him "irresponsible" a number of times.
The impetus for this blow-up is catalyzed by two factors: UTEP has yet to make an NCAA Tournament under Floyd, and now the school is undergoing transfer spate, losing four players, three of them to transfer to other schools, according to ESPN.com's transfer tracker.
CBS
NCAA leaders are facing a potentially historic decision this week that could either lead to the preservation of the organization's idea of athletic amateurism or radically transform college sports into the pay-for-play system that the NCAA has fought for decades.
The decision looming for NCAA president Mark Emmert and his top lawyer, Donald Remy, results from the ongoing court case that first pit former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon against the NCAA in 2014. O'Bannon won the initial court decision when a federal judge ruled that the NCAA violated antitrust laws because it restricted benefits to college athletes beyond providing them scholarships.
Remy and the NCAA appealed, though, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which gave the NCAA a bittersweet victory: Its schools didn't actually have to pay athletes $5,000 each, as the initial court decision required, but the NCAA remained in violation of antitrust laws.
O'Bannon and his lawyers pushed forward and asked the U.S. Supreme Court in March to consider reinstating the cash payments to athletes. That request pushed Emmert, Remy and the NCAA into a dicey position, which will lead to a critical court filing on Friday:
Colorado State University President Tony Frank has been in contact with a member of the Big 12 composition committee, dating back to last summer, according to a report on ESPN.com on Wednesday.
The report states Frank made contact with West Virginia President Gordon Gee — a former president at the University of Colorado — with Gee responding in kind in July.
"Indeed, Colorado State is making a statement and moving swiftly into the forefront of universities, not only in your region but nationally," the report says Gee responded. "Be assured that my colleagues in the Big 12 and I will take careful notice."
Daily Camera
As Big 12 expansion talk heats up, the University of Houston hopes Gordon Gee remembers his visit to campus.
Gee, the West Virginia president and a member of the Big 12's composition committee, took a tour of UH athletic facilities during a trip to Houston last November, UH's top athletics official confirmed Tuesday.
Gee's visit to Houston, however, was part of a regularly scheduled appearance to discuss the university's capital campaign.
"He was not here in regard to expansion. He was here for a development exercise," said Hunter Yurachek, UH's vice president for intercollegiate athletics.
Houston Chronicle
Finding it increasingly hard to attract high-major teams to McKale, Arizona announced that it has landed a home-and-home series with Baylor that will begin in 2018-19.
Baylor will play at McKale Center on Dec. 15, 2018 and host the Wildcats in Waco, Texas, on Dec. 7, 2019.
This comes on top of a still-unfinalized (but likely) series between Arizona and Texas A&M to begin next season. The Wildcats are tentatively scheduled to face the Aggies in Houston next season and then "host" them at Phoenix's Talking Stick Resort Arena in 2018-19.
New Mexico will still be UA's highest-profile opponent at home next season, with both UA coach Sean Miller and operations director Ryan Reynolds noting how the increase of neutral-site games across the country has made it more difficult to schedule true home-and-home series.
Link
Iowa State signee Emmanuel Malou will stay in the NBA draft and hire an agent, according to ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla.
Malou, a 6-foot-9 forward, was one of the top rated junior college prospects in the nation and was expected to immediately step into the starting lineup for a team in need of bigs. He averaged 14.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks at Yuma College (Calif.) in 2014-15. He transferred from Yuma to Des Moines Area Community College for the 2015 spring semester to focus on his academics.
The NCAA had yet to rule on Malou’s eligibility. He is an Australian national who has attended multiple prep schools and junior colleges and the length of time since his high school graduation was also an NCAA eligibility issue.
Ames Tribune
None of the projections for the June 23 draft have Niang or Uthoff going in the first round. Most don’t have Niang being drafted at all.
“I think the best way to analogize this is college basketball at the level these guys played at is the equivalent of Double A baseball,” ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. “The top Euro leagues is Triple A and major college basketball is Double A.
“There’s no question Georges and Jarrod are great players, but it’s like they were hitting .330 in Double A. In the NBA, it’s a different sport. Athleticism is supreme. Teams are going to look at those guys and they’re going to have to show they can compete at the NBA level.”
Their first chance to do that comes today when Niang and Uthoff take part in the NBA combine in Chicago.
As good as they were at the college level, both are going to need to do something big over the next few days if they hope of improve their draft stock.
“This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been doubted in my life,” Niang told the Ames Tribune recently when told that he did not show up in many mock drafts. “Are those guys geniuses in the draft? Probably not. I don’t think there is any one genius at the draft process.
“You’ve just got to go out there and play to the best of your abilities. That’s what it comes down to.”
Link
Give UTEP coach Tim Floyd this: He found himself a sure-fire way to land a national college basketball headline in the middle of May.
Floyd held something of a seemingly random offseason press conference on Tuesday. After watching the video above, you'll see it wasn't so random, though. Floyd's motive for the presser is clear. The six-year UTEP coach is unhappy with some local media coverage of the team, and in particular, after watching the video, it's obvious Floyd wanted a public forum to argue with a specific member of the local media. The target is a radio host named Steve Kaplowitz. Over the course of nearly 30 minutes, Floyd took aim at Kaplowitz, calling him "irresponsible" a number of times.
The impetus for this blow-up is catalyzed by two factors: UTEP has yet to make an NCAA Tournament under Floyd, and now the school is undergoing transfer spate, losing four players, three of them to transfer to other schools, according to ESPN.com's transfer tracker.
CBS
NCAA leaders are facing a potentially historic decision this week that could either lead to the preservation of the organization's idea of athletic amateurism or radically transform college sports into the pay-for-play system that the NCAA has fought for decades.
The decision looming for NCAA president Mark Emmert and his top lawyer, Donald Remy, results from the ongoing court case that first pit former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon against the NCAA in 2014. O'Bannon won the initial court decision when a federal judge ruled that the NCAA violated antitrust laws because it restricted benefits to college athletes beyond providing them scholarships.
Remy and the NCAA appealed, though, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which gave the NCAA a bittersweet victory: Its schools didn't actually have to pay athletes $5,000 each, as the initial court decision required, but the NCAA remained in violation of antitrust laws.
O'Bannon and his lawyers pushed forward and asked the U.S. Supreme Court in March to consider reinstating the cash payments to athletes. That request pushed Emmert, Remy and the NCAA into a dicey position, which will lead to a critical court filing on Friday:
- Should the NCAA accept the Court of Appeals decision, grateful that its schools will not be paying $5,000 per season to athletes but, in accepting the decision, actually end up acknowledging that its rules violate antitrust laws? If so, the NCAA could be subject to court scrutiny on all rules it enacts that regulate college athletics. If that's the approach the NCAA wants to take, its legal team will file a court brief Friday resisting the O'Bannon request for a Supreme Court review.
- Or should the NCAA fight the Court of Appeals decision and join O'Bannon in seeking a final and conclusive ruling from the Supreme Court but one that makes the organization immune to antitrust attacks from athletes? The risk for the NCAA in this option revolves around the fact that if the Supreme Court were to rule in favor of O'Bannon, the court could decide the NCAA must pay players an unlimited amount of money. If the NCAA lawyers, though, want to roll the dice and seek a final ruling, they would file on Friday a petition asking for the court to take the case.
NBA Draft/Early Entry Guidelines for 2016
Find out the tournament history for specific seeds, teams, coaches or conferences.
NCAA Tournament Brackets and History interactive tool
CBS Interactive Tool: Pick two teams to compare record, RPI and SOS details head to head. By default, the top two teams in RPI are shown.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology/team-comparison
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Big 12 Composite Schedule & Results
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