KU basketball went through a period of tough recruiting when the NCAA sanctions hung over our heads, then we rolled right into the new portal and NIL world.
Self's system requires players to spend time in the program learning his way. A guy like Mayo has been plug and play, but most transfers have some growing pains figuring it out. Historically, most freshmen have required a year or two to click. But, most kids would give it go because transferring required they had to sit a year when they transferred. Kids will not stick around today if they are not playing. Players not experienced in our current system struggle to be productive early. Not an ideal situation.
The last two seasons have been teams stuck in the past. Self is a hardass coach, "my way or the highway," unfortunately the current college basketball environment makes the highway easy and attractive much of the time. We are stubbornly playing guys established in the program, upperclassmen, partially out of loyalty. We are going to have to adapt to NIL/portal basketball. Self is capable, he is one of the best coaches ever, the question becomes does he want to change and adapt at this point in his career. Watching other games this week, it feels like other teams have better players than us.
Flory looks good, we have some young guys coming in next year that look good. I hope Self figures out the mix, adjusts to the current game, and things start rolling. But, we have seen other coaches hang it up rather than change.
Self's system requires players to spend time in the program learning his way. A guy like Mayo has been plug and play, but most transfers have some growing pains figuring it out. Historically, most freshmen have required a year or two to click. But, most kids would give it go because transferring required they had to sit a year when they transferred. Kids will not stick around today if they are not playing. Players not experienced in our current system struggle to be productive early. Not an ideal situation.
The last two seasons have been teams stuck in the past. Self is a hardass coach, "my way or the highway," unfortunately the current college basketball environment makes the highway easy and attractive much of the time. We are stubbornly playing guys established in the program, upperclassmen, partially out of loyalty. We are going to have to adapt to NIL/portal basketball. Self is capable, he is one of the best coaches ever, the question becomes does he want to change and adapt at this point in his career. Watching other games this week, it feels like other teams have better players than us.
Flory looks good, we have some young guys coming in next year that look good. I hope Self figures out the mix, adjusts to the current game, and things start rolling. But, we have seen other coaches hang it up rather than change.
