3. Josh Jackson, Kansas: How many realize the level of compliment if I say @j_josh11 will be better than Wiggins for @KUHoops? #CBTtop100 pic.twitter.com/sPMWyQlOxZ
— CollegeBasketbllTalk (@CBTonNBC) October 28, 2016
After competing against his own teammates in dozens of pick-up games and practices since arriving on Kansas’ campus in June, Josh Jackson is ready to guard — and be guarded by — players not wearing Crimson and Blue.
“I’m excited for the first game, for us to finally all be on the same team,” said Jackson, KU’s 6-foot-8 freshman guard from Detroit. Like his Jayhawks teammates, he’s eagerly awaiting Tuesday’s 7 p.m. exhibition opener against Washburn in Allen Fieldhouse.
“In practice we are always going at each other playing as hard as we can,” Jackson said. “When we are going up and down scrimmaging against each other, we get real competitive. It gets kind of hard to remember we are all on the same team. I’m really excited to see what it’s going to be like for us all finally to get a chance to play together.”
kuhoops.com
KUAD: KU vs Washburn Pregame Notes
Ten times during his 41-year Washburn University coaching career, Ichabods basketball coach Bob Chipman has stepped onto the Allen Fieldhouse floor as the leader of KU’s opponent.
At 7 p.m. Tuesday, during the 2016-17 exhibition opener for No. 2 Kansas, Chipman's 11th trip will mark his last.
This summer, Chipman announced that the 2016-17 season would be his final go around as the head coach at Washburn. And the veteran coach who has racked up 788 career victories and considers himself as big a KU fan as anybody said he could not think of a better way to tip off his farewell season.
“To start it with KU, in that venue, I mean, Coach (Bill) Self has just been unbelievable to us throughout the years and it’s great to have this experience in my last year,” Chipman told the Journal-World. “It’s something I’m always gonna remember.”
Asked for the memories that pop up most from his days coaching in a place known across college basketball as one of the greatest venues in the game, Chipman said two came to mind.
The best came in 2012, when the Ichabods lost by just 12, 62-50, in a game that was a grind from the start and featured Chipman coaching his son, Bobby.
“Bobby had 7 points, 13 boards and we gave ‘em a pretty good run against (Jeff) Withey and (Ben) McLemore,” Chipman recalled. “I think we turned ’em over 24 times and we were right there in the game most of the way. My kid fought ’em pretty hard inside. It was a great team effort and that was the game, maybe because of my son, that I won’t ever forget.”
And the worst? That might have been even easier for Chipman to recall.
“For some reason, we were playing the game in December and it was Jacque Vaughn’s coming-back party,” Chipman began. “He had broken his wrist and it was Jacque, it was (Paul) Pierce, it was (Raef) LaFrentz, it was (Scot) Pollard, Jerod Haase diving all over the floor, Ryan Robertson. I mean, an incredible group. I know it’s always unbelievably loud, but with Jacque coming back it was crazy.”
LJW
The Ichabods have gladly accepted numerous opportunities to play up.
The first offer came in Chipman’s third season, 1981-82, a December date at Colorado. Three years later, the Ichabods visited Oklahoma State and upset the Cowboys, 67-66.
Bill Self was a senior guard on that OSU squad. Now, as the coach at Kansas, he agrees to give each of the four Division II programs in the state opportunities to play in Allen Fieldhouse every two years.
“That Oklahoma State game was the highlight, no doubt,” Chipman said. “They had a player who had a jumper at the buzzer roll out. There was also a triple-overtime loss in (Bob) Huggins’ first game at K-State. That jumps out.
“From a personal standpoint, my son Bobby had two good games at KU. … Then, another one was a great game in which Will McNeill went nose-to-nose with UNLV’s point guard in a close game. Those are the highlights. Now, there’s a lot of low-lights. …”
…Yet in truth, an experience like going into Allen Fieldhouse and playing before a large sellout is invaluable, especially for Kansas kids on the Washburn roster.
The idea was hatched years ago by longtime Capital-Journal columnist Bob Hentzen, who reasoned that payouts KU provided to visiting D-II teams for exhibitions should benefit in-state schools. Roy Williams was convinced to adopt a rotation involving Washburn, Emporia State, Fort Hays State and Pittsburg State. Self maintained the arrangement.
Kansas State also began playing in-state schools for exhibitions.
In addition, the relationship Chipman maintains with his former college teammate at K-State, Lon Kruger, led to games for WU along the coaching trail Kruger followed — at places such as Texas-Pan American, UNLV and Oklahoma.
TCJ
“We have four leaders the way I see it,” Self said. “Landen (Lucas, senior) is a great leader because he coaches the other big guys. He is unbelievable with Udoka (Azubuike, freshman). Landen is six years older than Udoka, so it’s a lot easier for him to be a leader. It’s like he (Azubuike) is his baby brother.
“Frank (Mason, senior guard) is the tough pit bull. He doesn’t talk much, but has presence about him. He’s a good leader, a little bit stubborn. That can be an attractive quality as well. You can’t tell him what he can’t do. Two that will emerge personality-wise as vocal leaders are Devonté (Graham, junior guard) — he’s the most popular kid on campus — and Josh (Jackson, freshman guard). He is way beyond his years from that standpoint,” Self added.
Self said the personality of his teams change year to year.
“This is the best talking team we’ve had, in a while,” Self said. “I’m not going to lie. Would we want everybody to be talkative? Yes, but are we ever not going to recruit a kid if he’s quiet? No. I knew Perry (Ellis) would probably be quiet the first time we recruited him (and he turned out to be KU’s No. 8 scorer of all time).”
kuhoops.com
"It's one thing to say, 'This is the best recruiting class this year,'" Telep, now a scout for the San Antonio Spurs, wrote in 2013. "It's on a completely different level to speak the following phrase: best recruiting class of all time. We're not comparing Kentucky's recruiting class to No. 2 Memphis or No. 3 Kansas anymore. Really what we're talking about here is UK 2013 versus Michigan 1991, the 'Fab Five.'" Maybe you've heard of them.
So, yeah: Long before it began, the 2013-14 season was turned up. One of the most star-studded classes in the one-and-done era was set to storm college sports. Even better? On Nov. 12, 2013, Wiggins and Parker, the top players on every NBA draft board, would meet at the Champions Classic. On the same night, in the same building, No. 1-ranked Kentucky -- whose fans had already started wearing "40-0" T-shirts -- would face No. 2 Michigan State. One's imagination didn't need to run all that wild to Nov. 12 as a basketball Beatles-in-Hamburg, a chance to be there at the start of something special.
On Sept. 27, the first day of official practice, we gave the 2013-14 season an unofficial title: The Year of the Freshmen.
Fair warning: Here we go again.
…While Kentucky's hopes rest almost entirely on the newcomers, the Blue Devils' cut-above status as the 2016-17 favorite rests as much on core returners: preseason national player of the year contender Grayson Allen, fifth-year center Amile Jefferson, stalwart glue guy Matt Jones, sophomore shooting guard Luke Kennard. The depth is almost embarrassing. If Giles' knee doesn't cooperate, for example, Krzyzewski still has sophomore center Chase Jeter, a former blue-chip prospect desperate for more minutes, sitting a few seats down the bench. Or Duke could just put Jefferson at the five, play any one of three or four different small-ball lineups, and still be the best team in the country. No other roster comes close.
"We have the right ingredients to be very good," Krzyzewski told ESPN.com in May. "And that's what we're going to try and do -- be very good."
Translation: We're gonna be awesome.
And then, as always, there's Kansas. The Jayhawks don't have four top-20 players, the slackers, but they do have Josh Jackson -- not only next summer's early leader in the No. 1-overall clubhouse, but perhaps the most immediately impactful newcomer in the country -- joining arguably the sport's best backcourt, playing for inarguably the nation's most consistent coach, Bill Self. In April, 247 Sports' Jerry Mayer announced Jackson was "the top shooting guard I've ever scouted" and the recipient of a "102 overall rating" ... out of 100.
ESPN
from LJW via University Archives, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, KU Phog Allen portrait, 1950s. Photo courtesy of University Archives, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, KU
Most Kansas basketball fans can recall from memory the classic photo of the game’s creator James Naismith standing proudly on the left with the coach Phog Allen to the right.
The two figures of basketball royalty are both wearing fedoras and the only thing stopping them from holding hands is a basketball that they hold together. The image portrays the two as allies and collaborators in lock step, cradling the game in its fledgling years. But a new book on Phog Allen suggests reality wasn't nearly as picturesque.
According to the new book by Scott Morrow Johnson, “Phog: The Most Influential Man in Basketball,” the relationship between the two men was at times contentious, especially when it came to their respective visions for the game and its potential.
…To accurately provide the scope of Allen’s lasting influence, Johnson also highlights other historically important figures who followed the many tributaries of basketball that led to and passed through Allen, forever shaping the game which we know today. Some of them with names like Smith and Rupp, just like their mentor, went on to have basketball cathedrals named for them also.
Another such story includes a chance encounter with a 17-year-old from Indiana by the name of John Wooden, who was passing through Lawrence in search of work and met Allen, who put the young man to work as a laborer in the Memorial Stadium renovation of 1927.
Johnson makes the case that some of the modern institutions of basketball could look quite different without Allen. For example, the first ever NCAA tournament in Evanston, Ill. in 1939 was a financial disaster until Allen convinced organizers to move it to Kansas City the following year in 1940, with the promise of a profit.
“He was such a salesman,” recalls Judy Allen Morris, who also provided the foreword for the book.
“He was responsible for a lot of rules,” says Johnson. “There was a period there where they were trying to take the dribble out of basketball and Phog Allen was responsible for saving [it]. There were so many things that he had his hands in.”
…“Naismith invented the game, but Phog took that little seed and blossomed it into what it became,” he said. “He was hugely influential.”
LJW
LJW Phog Allen Photo Gallery
Joel Embiid DENIES Dwight Howard!#TrustTheProcess pic.twitter.com/celygj36Cv
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) October 29, 2016
With the first of their four selections in Sunday's 2016 NBA Development League Draft, the Delaware 87ers drafted guard/forward Brannen Greene with the seventh overall pick.
Greene, a 6-7, 215-pound junior, turned pro this spring after three years at the University of Kansas. Last season, Greene averaged 5.4 points per game while shooting at an impressive 49.2 percent clip from deep. For his Jayhawks career (93 games), Greene shot better than 42 percent from beyond the arc.
"[Greene] is a young player who I think has NBA upside," said Sevens' GM Brandon Williams moments after selecting the former McDonald's All-American. "I think he's a young stud that didn't see his potential realized and a lot of that happens when there are great players that are constantly recruited in... We see a young, NBA upside floor-spacer who should be able to create his own shot."
Link
Marcus Morris with AUTHORITY on League Pass! #NBAVine https://t.co/dPdSthx4VU
— NBA (@NBA) October 29, 2016
Andrew Wiggins played 37 minutes and scored 29 points on 10-of-19 shots in a loss to the Kings on Saturday evening.
Link
Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee said that the Kings will extend a qualifying offer to Ben McLemore after the season.
Link
NBA.com: Off the court with Pelicans forward Cheick Diallo
The Santa Cruz (Calif.) Warriors of the NBA Development League have traded former KU guard Xavier Henry to the Oklahoma City Blue for Alex Hamilton, the Warriors reported Sunday.
LJW
Former KU forward Perry Ellis on Thursday signed an NBA Development League contract and will play for the Greensboro (N.C.) Swarm, a team affiliated with the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, sources told the Star.
The 6-foot-8 Ellis was not selected in the 2016 NBA Draft. He attended NBA training camp with the Hornets, but played in just one game while recovering from sports hernia surgery.
kuhoops.com
The Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League have included former KU guard Wayne Selden on the team’s list of invitees to training camp, according to Chris Reichert of fansided.com.
kuhoops.com
Transfer guards Jessica Washington and McKenzie Calvert showed the Jayhawk faithful a glimpse of what the season could have in store for the Kansas women’s basketball team.
In their KU debuts, the duo anchored an uptempo style of play on the offensive end. They combined for 33 points in the team’s 98-71 victory in Sunday’s exhibition game against Fort Hays State.
“Offensively, it’s nice to see us get out and run in transition and make some plays,” KU coach Brandon Schneider said. “Felt like our tempo was much different than a year ago on that side of the ball.”
LJW
They’ve filled the bleachers for years now and been treated to nationally-ranked teams competing with the best in the Big 12 and their beloved Jayhawks defeating the Missouri Tigers in postseason play in the cozy confines of Horejsi Family Athletics Center.
But there have not been many nights in that building like Saturday night, when No. 6 Kansas snapped a 25-game losing streak to mighty Texas by knocking off the second-ranked Longhorns in five thrilling sets, 17-25, 25-11, 27-25, 12-25, 15-10.
LJW
KU single game ticket info
Why Allen Fieldhouse is the BEST!
BIG 12/COLLEGE NEWS
SMU and Texas played a closed scrimmage earlier in the week. Told SMU got better of Longhorns -- who were... https://t.co/bQgYLFkzNB
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) October 29, 2016
Kansas State showed its offensive potential during an 85-72 exhibition victory over Pittsburg State on Friday at Bramlage Coliseum.
The Wildcats looked improved with the basketball in their hands, scoring at a rate that often seemed out of reach last season when they averaged 70.7 points and shot 30 percent from three-point range.
Dean Wade set the stage by making four of five shots from beyond the arc and scoring 14 points. It was an efficient night for the sophomore forward. He only saw 16 minutes of action, but he made the most of them, mixing in two assists and a rebound.
Wichita Eagle
WVU’s Tarik Philip on playing in AFH: “It’s not that hard to win there…We gave away the game my first year, my sophomore year, as well as my junior year.”
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy reached out to ESPN to push for support of UConn's bid to gain entrance into the Big 12 Conference before the league decided not to expand.
"The governor is very supportive of UConn, the state's flagship university," Kelly Donnelly, Malloy's chief spokesman, said Thursday. "Likewise, he's very supportive of ESPN, an acclaimed company and major employer in Connecticut.
"The governor did speak with John Skipper, president of ESPN, and just as he did in a letter to Big 12 commissioner [Bob] Bowlsby, explained that UConn's strong academic and athletic program would make it an incredible asset to the Big 12."
Skipper then called Bowlsby, according to a source, and while maintaining the position that ESPN preferred no expansion, told the Big 12 commissioner if the league did add teams, that as corporate citizens in Connecticut, ESPN would appreciate that UConn be given all due consideration.
ESPN
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy reached out to ESPN to push for support of UConn's bid to gain entrance into the Big 12 Conference before the league decided not to expand.
"The governor is very supportive of UConn, the state's flagship university," Kelly Donnelly, Malloy's chief spokesman, said Thursday. "Likewise, he's very supportive of ESPN, an acclaimed company and major employer in Connecticut.
"The governor did speak with John Skipper, president of ESPN, and just as he did in a letter to Big 12 commissioner [Bob] Bowlsby, explained that UConn's strong academic and athletic program would make it an incredible asset to the Big 12."
Skipper then called Bowlsby, according to a source, and while maintaining the position that ESPN preferred no expansion, told the Big 12 commissioner if the league did add teams, that as corporate citizens in Connecticut, ESPN would appreciate that UConn be given all due consideration.
ESPN
New NCAA rule basically will pay schools for committing academic fraud https://t.co/ELrJWKSILe
— Michael DeCourcy (@tsnmike) October 28, 2016
2. Home-court advantage is dwindling
The intensity of the crowd at a college basketball game is one of the best things about the sport. However, home-court advantage isn’t what it used to be. Last season in conference play, home teams won 60.5 percent of their games. That was slightly up from the 2014-15 season when just 59.8 percent of conference games were won by home teams, likely an all-time low. But the long-term trend, while subtle, is clear. Over the past five seasons, home teams have won 60.5 percent of conference games. The five seasons before that, home winning percentage was 61.7 percent, and the five seasons before that, home winning percentage was 62.2 percent.
As for the reason behind this trend, you might start with officiating. One of the best predictors of home-court advantage is home-foul advantage, and that’s been shrinking over time as well. Last season, teams got called for 2.44 fewer fouls at home than they did on the road. That’s the smallest figure in the past 15 seasons. But considering that the home-foul advantage last season was 24 percent less that it was in 2001-02, the earliest season for which we have data, this too may be a historically low figure.
It’s impossible to conclusively determine the root cause of this trend. Is increased oversight of officials causing them to call games more fairly? Are crowds becoming kinder and thus less influential in the officials’ work? Or are road teams actually committing fewer fouls than they used to? The cause of home-court advantage itself isn’t very well understood, so determining the cause of trends in it is even more difficult. Whatever the reason, it’s not quite as difficult for road teams to win as it used to be.
…5. The 2-for-1 is overrated
Let’s talk more strategy. As the 3-point shot has exploded in popularity, people have realized that 3 is better than 2. At the end of a half people are increasingly realizing that two is better than one, as in possessions. If a team gets the ball with between 45 and 60 seconds remaining, they should get a shot up before the 30-second mark so as to guarantee themselves another possession before the end of the half.
While the idea of gaming the clock and giving yourself an additional possession is a noble one, in practice it doesn’t work out so cleanly. There are a lot of forces working against that perfect scenario. The main problem is that the two-for-one occasionally ends up being something else.
Offensive rebounds can make it a one-for-one. Furthermore, while you’d like to think that a team could take the very last shot in the half when the shot clock is off, the defensive team occasionally ends up with a few seconds left on the clock. Not enough for a quality possession, but enough to get points here and there.
The end result is that teams that attempt to get a two-for-one, shooting with at least 35 seconds on the clock, will result in a team getting an extra possession 55 percent of the time. However, a team that doesn’t try for the two-for-one still gets an extra possession 30 percent of the time. There’s still a benefit to try for the two-for-one, but the gains of doing so are a lot smaller that they would seem on the surface. Once the season begins, we’ll all be second-guessing coaching decisions, but this is one issue where we could save our strongest criticism.
Athlon: Ken Pomeroy’s Five College Basketball Truths for 2016-17
Rupp Arena unveiled a giant video display and booming sound system as part of a $15 million tech upgrade Sunday.
The upgrades were five years in the making and include a Daktronics center-hung video array, an L-Acoustic sound system, and energy efficient LED fixtures for basketball events. Rupp Arena also threw a coat of blue paint on the HVAC ducts and structural support towers which were once red.
These changes coincide with Rupp Arena’s 40 year anniversary. The upgrades were unveiled by Bill Owen, CEO and president of the Lexington Center, who acknowledged the technicians and architects who had to work 14 hour days, seven days a week at heights reaching 110 feet.
Lex HL (Video at the link)
Kentucky pummeled Clarion 108-51 Sunday night in the way you’d expect the No. 4 ranked team (coaches’ poll) to knock out a Division II team picked to finish eighth out of nine teams in its half of the conference.
Lex HL
There is a coffin on the court. And Kim Anderson just emerged from it. You can make your own analogy here.
— Gabe DeArmond (@GabeDeArmond) October 29, 2016
Kim Anderson emerges from a casket on Norm Stewart Court. pic.twitter.com/crQQUZHqW9
— Dave Matter (@Dave_Matter) October 29, 2016
Anderson: “Many others have buried us. We hope to prove them wrong this year."
— Gabe DeArmond (@GabeDeArmond) October 29, 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.
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RECRUITING
Oak Hill's Billy Preston (@nolimitbill) is not in a rush. He is in full control of his game and recruitment.
— Brett Regan (@brettregan) October 29, 2016
WATCH: https://t.co/8Gd0hBE3Mt pic.twitter.com/YZVc2yyGVK
Romeo Langford, the No. 3-rated high school basketball player in the recruiting Class of 2018 according to Rivals.com, arrived on Kansas’ campus Friday morning for an unofficial weekend visit.
Langford, a 6-foot-4 junior shooting guard from New Albany (Ind.) High, averaged 29.3 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists a game last season in helping New Albany claim Indiana’s Class 4A state championship.
KU assistant coach Jerrance Howard reportedly traveled to Indiana to check in on Langford earlier this week. In September, KU coach Bill Self and Howard watched an open gym workout of Langford, who is considering KU, Indiana, Duke, Kentucky, Purdue, Louisville, North Carolina, Ohio State, Texas, Oregon, Vanderbilt and others.
“They (KU coaches) were just saying how people say that they are big on big men, but if you look at it they are big on tall guards like myself — like Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Oubre and guys like that,” Langford told Rivals.com in September.
kuhoops.com
KU has offered a scholarship to Kenny Wooten, a 6-7 senior power forward from Trinity International High School in Las Vegas, according to Rivals.com. An unranked player, Wooten has also received offers from Arizona, UNLV, California, USC, Arizona State, Oregon State, San Diego State and others. He is expected to visit KU in December, according to Rivals.com.
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