Hey all,
I've already posted a few videos and a Q&A from Coach Self, and I'll have more throughout the week and weekend, but wanted to share a few thoughts with you now. Also, and not surprisingly, I'll have coverage of the Ernest Udeh commitment if things go KU's way.
-- Earlier this afternoon, Self was asked about the idea of playing 10 guys and how different that might be for him? During the breakout session, he also said he didn't like having this many guys, because it's a lot harder to make 13 guys happy than it is to make 10 guys happy. Said he didn't envision the roster being what it is today, especially because he and his staff didn't envision having guys like Remy, Ochai, and Jalen all return.
"We played nine a lot. Not so much recently. When we play two bigs, I always played five guards and four bigs. I didn't really care if we got in foul trouble because that forced somebody else to get an opportunity to play," he said. "It's not quite like that now because we're playing four guards. It will be harder to get to 10. I'm talking about 10 guys having a chance to play double-figure minutes. The challenge to me is how do you get from 14 to 10 because 1 through 14, we probably never had a team with as many guys that are pretty similar to the other guys. Trying to determine who's going to actually play will be the challenge.
"There could be redshirts, things like that," he added. "We don't know that yet. But I think it will be a challenge playing 10. If we can play as fast as I'd like to play, I don't think it will be something that will be near as challenging as what maybe some other people think."
-- Again, I'll provide the full quote in the near future, but Self got excited when talking about the idea of playing Remy Martin and Dajuan Harris together in the backcourt. I get the feeling that, at least in listening to Self, that Martin will be at his best when playing alongside Harris. For me, I can't wait to see those two together on the court.
-- I asked David McCormack and Ochai Agbaji about any possible games they've got circled on the schedule, and both mentioned teams like Missouri, Kentucky, Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, and possibly a few others. However, and I've got a great video of this, the duo couldn't stop talking about the Missouri game. I think it was David that talked about the last game between the two in 2012, and simply mentioned it as "The block by Thomas Robinson." Here's where the conversation really got interesting, at least to me. They both said that Christian Braun is fired up about this game and takes this type of stuff seriously. His brother played at Missouri for a few others and his mom and other family members played at Missouri as well. Christian circulated this game a long time ago and his teammates have done the same.
-- To the surprise of nobody, Self can't wait to see Allen Fieldhouse packed to the rafters this season. After limiting the number of fans last season, the expectation is that 16,300 fans will be back inside AFH this season. Self, and I hadn't really thought about this, brought up an interesting point when talking about the attendance last year.
"Unless you're a junior, unless you're Christian Braun's age, nobody has felt what it's like to play at Kansas," said Self. "You end the season, the pandemic year, ranked No. 1. You have momentum going into the next year. The next year obviously didn't play out probably the way we had hoped, nor was it near as much fun. Then you recruit a recruiting class, so we have eight newcomers. None of them have felt what it's like to play at Kansas. None of them visited. So they didn't get a chance to feel the energy. Obviously last year there were no visits during COVID -- or during the pandemic, excuse me.
"Everybody has a home-court advantage, don't get me wrong," he added. "One of the things that makes it special about playing at our place is we feel like ours is unique in many ways. They haven't had a chance to experience any of that uniqueness. I don't even know if 10 of our 14 scholarships know what it's like to play ball at our place."
-- Self, Agbaji, and McCormack all talked about how impressive KJ Adams has been so far in practice. He just continues to stand out and makes big-time plays on both ends of the court. The one thing that all three said is that Adams has the ability to impact the game without scoring the basketball, fights, and battles for all rebounds, and just hustles when he's on the court. He's the type of player that all teams need in order to be successful.
I've already posted a few videos and a Q&A from Coach Self, and I'll have more throughout the week and weekend, but wanted to share a few thoughts with you now. Also, and not surprisingly, I'll have coverage of the Ernest Udeh commitment if things go KU's way.
-- Earlier this afternoon, Self was asked about the idea of playing 10 guys and how different that might be for him? During the breakout session, he also said he didn't like having this many guys, because it's a lot harder to make 13 guys happy than it is to make 10 guys happy. Said he didn't envision the roster being what it is today, especially because he and his staff didn't envision having guys like Remy, Ochai, and Jalen all return.
"We played nine a lot. Not so much recently. When we play two bigs, I always played five guards and four bigs. I didn't really care if we got in foul trouble because that forced somebody else to get an opportunity to play," he said. "It's not quite like that now because we're playing four guards. It will be harder to get to 10. I'm talking about 10 guys having a chance to play double-figure minutes. The challenge to me is how do you get from 14 to 10 because 1 through 14, we probably never had a team with as many guys that are pretty similar to the other guys. Trying to determine who's going to actually play will be the challenge.
"There could be redshirts, things like that," he added. "We don't know that yet. But I think it will be a challenge playing 10. If we can play as fast as I'd like to play, I don't think it will be something that will be near as challenging as what maybe some other people think."
-- Again, I'll provide the full quote in the near future, but Self got excited when talking about the idea of playing Remy Martin and Dajuan Harris together in the backcourt. I get the feeling that, at least in listening to Self, that Martin will be at his best when playing alongside Harris. For me, I can't wait to see those two together on the court.
-- I asked David McCormack and Ochai Agbaji about any possible games they've got circled on the schedule, and both mentioned teams like Missouri, Kentucky, Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, and possibly a few others. However, and I've got a great video of this, the duo couldn't stop talking about the Missouri game. I think it was David that talked about the last game between the two in 2012, and simply mentioned it as "The block by Thomas Robinson." Here's where the conversation really got interesting, at least to me. They both said that Christian Braun is fired up about this game and takes this type of stuff seriously. His brother played at Missouri for a few others and his mom and other family members played at Missouri as well. Christian circulated this game a long time ago and his teammates have done the same.
-- To the surprise of nobody, Self can't wait to see Allen Fieldhouse packed to the rafters this season. After limiting the number of fans last season, the expectation is that 16,300 fans will be back inside AFH this season. Self, and I hadn't really thought about this, brought up an interesting point when talking about the attendance last year.
"Unless you're a junior, unless you're Christian Braun's age, nobody has felt what it's like to play at Kansas," said Self. "You end the season, the pandemic year, ranked No. 1. You have momentum going into the next year. The next year obviously didn't play out probably the way we had hoped, nor was it near as much fun. Then you recruit a recruiting class, so we have eight newcomers. None of them have felt what it's like to play at Kansas. None of them visited. So they didn't get a chance to feel the energy. Obviously last year there were no visits during COVID -- or during the pandemic, excuse me.
"Everybody has a home-court advantage, don't get me wrong," he added. "One of the things that makes it special about playing at our place is we feel like ours is unique in many ways. They haven't had a chance to experience any of that uniqueness. I don't even know if 10 of our 14 scholarships know what it's like to play ball at our place."
-- Self, Agbaji, and McCormack all talked about how impressive KJ Adams has been so far in practice. He just continues to stand out and makes big-time plays on both ends of the court. The one thing that all three said is that Adams has the ability to impact the game without scoring the basketball, fights, and battles for all rebounds, and just hustles when he's on the court. He's the type of player that all teams need in order to be successful.
